It was late February, three days remaining until the end of the Ninth Doomsday Rule.
In the morning, after waking up, Guan Tong channeled his fully recovered 309 points of Mind Power into the Wordless Book to make his final attempt.
The mont the data stream, transford from the character "open" on the fifth page, surged into his body, the ntal shackle of the Mind Lock in his mind, which had been on the very brink, was finally shattered!
"Finally succeeded."
A smile appeared on Guan Tong's face. This ant he was back on the right track, no longer needing to worry about the upper limit being locked.
What made him even happier was that he had verified one of his hypotheses.
That was, relying on the power of the [Wordless Book], it was possible to break through the restrictions imposed by the Fire Thief.
This might not seem like much right now, but it opened up a line of thinking.
That is, when encountering other rules in the future, he could try to think of ways to break them from outside the rules' frawork, no longer needing to act like a ga character confined solely within the rules set by the "Fire Thief" programr.
Guan Tong thought for a mont. From the end of the Eighth Rule to the tail end of this Ninth Rule, nearly two months had passed.
Besides himself, he wondered if others who were also restricted by the Mind Lock had found a way to unlock it during this period.
Another point he was curious about was whether his thod only worked for himself, or if it could also be used to help others break through their restrictions.
If it could, that would certainly be a huge business opportunity. However, Guan Tong currently had no opportunity, nor would he go out of his way to verify this.
His current focus remained on collecting all five puzzle fragnts related to the Kimos Star Chronicle.
"Three days left until the rule ends... I've sowhat neglected my Mind Power Flow cultivation during this ti."
Previously, Shi Jingyi had specifically called him to say that practicing this thod to a deep level might have an effect on removing the Mind Lock.
But since Guan Tong had discovered his own thod was effective, he would naturally stick with it. During this period, all recovered Mind Power was invested in materialization, leaving none extra for cultivating Mind Power Flow.
Now that the Mind Lock was removed, he could pick up this cultivation practice again.
Also, he needed to store more reserve Mind Power.
During this period, first there was the operation at the Yongzhou base, then writing on the fifth page of the [Wordless Book], and using Shadow Armor to cover his body for extended periods while exploring the fog... all of these consud a lot of reserve Mind Power.
More going out than coming in, his reserve Mind Power was almost dropping below two thousand. Compared to the peak of nearly four thousand, it had almost halved.
Considering he planned to go abroad soon to search for and obtain puzzle fragnts, a process likely fraught with trouble and unavoidable consumption of reserve Mind Power, he still needed to save up.
...
After his Mind Power recovered to its upper limit, Guan Tong first perford a session of Mind Power Flow cultivation.
Back when his Mind Power upper limit was only a little over a hundred points, each ti he attempted the circulation, he would either lose control and dissipate the Mind Power midway, or exhaust his Mind Power and be unable to continue.
But now, after the improvents following the Eighth Rule, with a maximum upper limit of 309 points, cultivating again suddenly felt effortless.
To be precise, the margin for error was much larger.
Previously, wasting even a little Mind Power during the circulation process would affect the final outco. But this ti, on his very first attempt, he successfully completed the circulation through most of the acupoints in his body, consuming about 200 points of Mind Power.
Then recover, try again. Recover, try again.
On the fourth attempt, he finally succeeded, using 304 points of Mind Power to complete a full circulation through all the body's acupoints for the first ti.
The mont he completed it, he felt exceptionally comfortable, as if all the pores on his body had opened, expelling many turbid, heavy substances, making his entire body feel much lighter.
"This is the feeling of a complete circulation? Really nice."
Guan Tong thought to himself, no wonder Shi Jingyi looked so healthy; it must be the result of long-term circulation expelling impurities from her body.
Moreover, his circulation was still far inferior to Shi Jingyi's. He was only manipulating a tiny bit of Mind Power, while Shi Jingyi had a massive amount of Mind Power covering her entire body, flowing continuously.
Thinking of this, Guan Tong also realized a problem he had never considered before.
"Shi Jingyi... her Mind Power upper limit must be very high."
Even though he had never asked, he was certain. Because with a low Mind Power upper limit, achieving continuous, full-body coverage circulation would be too difficult.
Now that the initial complete circulation was done, aside from feeling physically comfortable, there weren't any other noticeable changes.
Guan Tong knew changes weren't achieved overnight. As long as he persisted in completing one circulation every day from now on, accumulating over a month should yield visible results.
Thus, the final few days of the Ninth Rule ended under Guan Tong's clear allocation.
On the first day of March, at nine in the morning, the voice of the Fire Thief sounded right on ti.
[Rule period has ended]
[Congratulations on passing the test of the Ninth Doomsday Rule]
[Rewards have been sent to your Storage Box]
[The Tenth Doomsday Rule will be announced in thirty days]
...
Guan Tong walked out of the shelter, watching the heavy fog dissipate, his mood feeling considerably more cheerful for a mont.
He always felt very uncomfortable with rules that involved environntal changes because he liked taking daily walks, basking in the sun, and disliked being cooped up in a room all the ti.
Sitting on a wooden stump, he opened his Terminal panel to check. There were changes, but not major ones.
[Na: Guan Tong]
[Nickna: Administrator]
[Title: Victor]
[Mind Power: 310 (310) (2275)]
[Ascension Coins: 685,620]
[Overall Biotric Rating: Excellent]
The biggest change was his Mind Power upper limit breaking through from 309 to 310, which proved two things.
First, he had truly relied on the power of the [Wordless Book] to break through the Mind Lock shackle set by the Fire Thief, verifying for the first ti that this book possessed a certain degree of power to oppose the rules.
Second, the natural growth rate of his Mind Power upper limit had nearly doubled, which was a hidden, massive improvent.
Previously, he naturally gained about one point every 7 or 8 days on average. But from breaking the Mind Lock shackle until today, only four days had passed. Gaining 1 point naturally in four days was indeed nearly double the previous rate.
The reason might be related to the significant increase in his Mind Power upper limit, but Guan Tong also felt it was likely connected to him performing a complete Mind Power Flow circulation every day these past few days.
He planned to ask Shi Jingyi later. If her natural Mind Power growth speed was extrely fast, then it would prove that cultivating Mind Power Flow could indeed increase the natural growth rate of the Mind Power upper limit.
Then the value of this cultivation thod would be even higher than its already high original value.
As for Ascension Coins, aside from spending eighty thousand to buy a set of protective gear, there were no other expenditures.
After checking his panel, Guan Tong opened his Storage Box.
Inside was an additional silver-grade Survival Chest and an erald green invitation card.
He first looked at the invitation card.
[Second Ascendant Challenge Tournant Invitation]: An Ascendant holding this invitation may participate in the Second Ascendant Challenge Tournant, which will open after the conclusion of the Fifteenth Doomsday Rule.
"The second tournant won't open until after the Fifteenth Rule?" Guan Tong hadn't expected such a long interval this ti. The next one is the Tenth Rule; it would be six more rules before the tournant opened.
However, the first invitation card had a black background with a Holy Grail pattern. This second invitation card had an erald green background with a spear pattern.
This might an the tournant content was different, and the rewards would also differ.
For this tournant that wouldn't open until after the Fifteenth Rule, Guan Tong wouldn't think too much about it now. He turned his attention to opening the Survival Chest.
[Obtained Random Item: Life-Saving Pendant]
[Life-Saving Pendant]: When you suffer a fatal attack, the pendant will shatter itself to negate the damage received. This item is a one-ti use item and cannot be traded.
"My luck is pretty good this ti."
Guan Tong was very satisfied seeing the effect of the item obtained from the chest.
He would, of course, try to avoid situations where his life was in danger, but if he truly encountered danger, this thing could genuinely save his life once.
He imdiately put the pendant around his neck, instantly feeling an extra asure of security.
After checking the rewards from this rule, Guan Tong took a rare, long walk.
After circling around the mountain, he walked down to the foot and specifically went to the small camp of Yu Hong and Zhao Yu.
Both had perished during the Ninth Rule. Guan Tong looked at the extinguished, collapsed campfire in the camp that had been empty for a month and sighed.
In the era of Doomsday Rules, human life was just this insignificant. Whether strong or weak, anyone could die at any ti during a rule.
Even Guan Tong himself, seemingly with many thods, an all-purpose Shadow, and a portable shelter, didn't feel a strong sense of security in his heart.
It could be said that in this era, whether king or beggar, no one could attain true peace of mind. They could only endure and persevere until all forty-nine Doomsday Rules ended, perhaps only then would relief co.
But no one knew how far they themselves could persist, nor what the "Doomsday Operations" ntioned by the Fire Thief upon its initial descent, which would begin after the rules ended, actually were.
"Live in the present," Guan Tong said softly.
If you didn't want to be crushed by the harsh future, you could only live in the present. Focus your attention on dealing with the specific rules, using every possible ans to survive.
...
After the Ninth Doomsday Rule ended, the Counterasures Research Office held a discussion eting.
The atmosphere of this eting was less heavy, relatively more relaxed. This was related to the extrely low casualties in this rule and also to humanity's firepower advantage being effectively utilized for the first ti.
The Data Officer reported, "The statistically verifiable casualty count for this rule is approximately ten thousand people. However, it is worth noting that casualties among personnel in the wilderness were extrely high during this rule. Due to lack of registration, they cannot be counted for now."
This was largely within everyone's expectations. Within the cities, modern soldiers provided defense, using superior firepower to eliminate countless Nightmare Beasts, greatly reducing the difficulty of survival for people.
But those in the wilderness had no such protection, forced to find sealed locations to survive on their own, with inevitably much more tragic results.
"It seems after this rule, many of the survivors who left initially will return to the cities."
"When you encounter a storm outside, you realize how reliable a safe roof is. Returning to the city is the right move."
"That's good too. With more people returning, the data we can collect will be more accurate."
At this point, Gao Liangwei suddenly said, "There is another special aspect of this rule that you all might not know yet. In the tropical country of Larkan, the fog has not yet dissipated."
Upon hearing this, everyone in the research room looked at Gao Liangwei in surprise.
"The fog hasn't dispersed? What's going on? The fog should have dissipated after the rule ended!"
"Yes, special phenona that appear during a rule period always disappear after the rule ends. The previous blizzard and virus were like that."
"Is there so special reason this ti?"
Gao Liangwei looked at everyone, pondering before speaking, "The specific reason is unclear to
as well. Currently, there's only one speculation... Dr. Zhang, you explain."
"Alright." Zhang Minglu took over, "According to the report from the First Squad, while exploring the fog, they discovered a fog gate, inside which was a cavern. The 'Shadow' entered first and most likely took sothing from inside before leaving."
"And according to reports from the intelligence departnt, similar fog gates have appeared in the Suroma Empire and the Sakura Prayer Country. However, there is currently no information on what the personnel who entered retrieved from inside."
Zhang Minglu paused before continuing, "We speculate that the reason the fog in Larkan hasn't dissipated is likely because a fog gate appeared there as well. But the item inside wasn't taken by humans, so the fog continues to exist even after the rule ended."
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