Around 3 AM, when most people are sound asleep.
If a high-magnitude earthquake occurred at this ti, it would inevitably cause massive casualties. However, the current magnitude 2 quake wouldn't have much impact, and most people wouldn't even be able to perceive it.
But the official personnel responsible for monitoring and receiving reports were on high alert. The mont the instrunts detected data, the earthquake bureau staff imdiately reported the latitude and longitude coordinates.
The Shadow dispatched by Guan Tong was lurking in the shadows of a room corner. After eavesdropping on the key information about the earthquake's epicenter location, it imdiately entered the coordinates into a computer to pinpoint the target location.
"The epicenter is in the suburbs of Fengping City. The nearest shadow line from there is... 1 kiloter. Good luck!"
Guan Tong imdiately found the shadow line closest to the epicenter and manipulated it to head towards the epicenter at the fastest speed. Once he saw the Geomantic Pillar standing on the wasteland in the suburbs under the moonlight, he imdiately activated his Body Swap ability, exchanging positions with the shadow line.
The next mont, he appeared at the scene.
He didn't dare to delay for even a second. Taking advantage of the fact that the official dispatch team hadn't arrived yet, he rushed to the Geomantic Pillar at the first opportunity.
According to information disclosed online, when an Ascendant's body cos into contact with this Geomantic Pillar, their Mind Power Upper Limit begins to decay. However, in tests conducted abroad, this process can be interrupted at any ti.
As long as the person in contact regrets it or intentionally gives up, they can imdiately withdraw their hand to stop it. There's no situation where once the hand is placed, it gets sucked dry until the end.
But Guan Tong himself has an insurance asure: if problems arise, he can activate Body Swap again, forcibly interrupting the connection through physical transfer.
He now took out the [Wordless Book], opened it to the fifth page, infused Mind Power into it, while extending his other hand. Taking a deep breath, he pressed it against the Geomantic Pillar.
Make the Geomantic Pillar crack!
He repeated it in his heart, so the [Wordless Book] could understand his intention and produce the corresponding effect.
The mont his palm touched the Geomantic Pillar, he felt the vibration inside the pillar and clearly sensed the decay of his own Mind Power Upper Limit.
At the sa ti, the character "kai" on the fifth page of the [Wordless Book] detached from the page at the sa mont, transforming into a data stream that struck Guan Tong's body.
Failed?
This was Guan Tong's first reaction.
In his objective, the transford data stream should have struck the Geomantic Pillar, causing its outer shell to crack, not enter his own body.
At this mont, his Mind Power Upper Limit had already decayed by 3 points, from 325 to 322. If failure was confird, he should imdiately abandon the sunk cost and cut his losses in ti.
Guan Tong hesitated for a second. When 322 dropped to 321, he finally decided to give up.
However, just as his palm slightly lifted, his fingers not yet completely detached from the Geomantic Pillar, he felt a surging force suddenly surge through his body. It first flowed to his arm, then from his arm through to his fingers, and finally, via his fingers as the dium, injected into the Geomantic Pillar.
Crack, crack crack...
Clear cracking sounds rang out. Guan Tong looked up and saw large sections of the Geomantic Pillar's outer shell cracking and peeling off!
"Success!"
His face imdiately lit up with joy. Then, more and more of the outer shell rapidly peeled off as energy was injected. During this process, Guan Tong noticed that his Mind Power Upper Limit had stopped decaying.
This undoubtedly indicated that the power of the [Wordless Book] had replaced the original cost that needed to be paid and was accelerating the cracking of the Geomantic Pillar's outer shell, thereby reducing the vibration and the destructive power of the earthquake.
As long as I can continuously supply the Mind Power consumption required by the [Wordless Book], can I persist until the Geomantic Pillar completely disintegrates?
After realizing this, Guan Tong continued calculating the rate of Mind Power loss while observing the peeling speed of the Geomantic Pillar's outer shell.
Just like how the authorities would create a model for the ratio between Mind Power Upper Limit decay and earthquake destructive power reduction, he was now doing sothing similar. He needed to roughly calculate how much Mind Power he needed to supply to the [Wordless Book] to completely neutralize the destructive power of the earthquake disaster.
As a large amount of Mind Power was injected into the book page, the data stream transford from the character "kai" continuously passed through Guan Tong's body as a dium, injecting into the Geomantic Pillar.
The cracking of the Geomantic Pillar's outer shell intensified. In less than half a minute, thirty percent of the outer shell had peeled off. Guan Tong's own Mind Power was now completely depleted. To continue, he would have to use his reserve Mind Power.
He currently had 2,800 reserve Mind Power. According to the previous ratio of Mind Power consumption to outer shell cracking, approximately 100 to 10%, investing a little over 700 more Mind Power would cause all the outer shell of the Geomantic Pillar on the surface to peel off.
Guan Tong steeled his heart and directly mobilized 800 points from his reserve Mind Power, injecting it all into the [Wordless Book].
The character "kai" on the book page shone brightly, transforming into an imnse data stream that injected into his body, then output through his palm into the Geomantic Pillar.
Crack crack! Crack crack crack!
Injecting so much energy at once, the Geomantic Pillar's disintegration speed suddenly accelerated. Large sections of the outer shell peeled off, like a dilapidated brick-and-tile house collapsing completely in one tremor.
After all the black outer shell of the Geomantic Pillar peeled off, the vibration abruptly stopped. The dark brown liquid inside also flowed all over the ground, quickly evaporating.
From Guan Tong's arrival at this place to the Geomantic Pillar's destruction and disappearance, the entire process took less than a minute.
But before he could even express his joy at success on the spot, he heard a "buzz buzz buzz buzz" sound coming from the air not far away.
He looked up. In the distance, an official helicopter flashing red lights was flying closer. There should be a specialized team inside.
From the discovery of the epicenter to dispatching personnel to the epicenter location by helicopter, the authorities took less than two minutes. Their speed and efficiency were already maximized. But compared to Guan Tong, who could use Body Swap to teleport, there was still a full minute ti difference.
Since his objective was already achieved, Guan Tong didn't stay any longer. He didn't really want to make contact with the personnel in the helicopter, feeling explaining would be troubleso, and they probably wouldn't be willing to let him leave.
So, while the helicopter was still so distance away, Guan Tong reluctantly used another portion of his stored Mind Power to activate Body Swap and leave.
A few seconds later, the helicopter hovered over the epicenter, circling for a mont.
The driver, because he didn't see the Geomantic Pillar, suspected he might have flown to the wrong location due to the late-night environnt. But after carefully checking the latitude and longitude coordinates of the position, he confird they matched those transmitted in the order.
He wasn't the only one confused; the squad on the helicopter was too. Seeing this, the captain decided to go down first to investigate. After the squad parachuted down, they quickly discovered a hole in the ground. Everyone gathered around it, looking at each other.
They confird they hadn't co to the wrong place. The existence of this round hole ant the Geomantic Pillar did indeed appear here—but it had appeared. For so reason, the pillar had now disappeared.
The captain imdiately reported the relevant intelligence. The receiving analysts were also utterly perplexed.
Finally, after eliminating all impossibilities, only one conclusion remained, even if it was sowhat alarming: soone had dealt with the Geomantic Pillar before the official personnel arrived.
...
Guan Tong returned to Mingdao Mountain, his face still bearing traces of excitent.
"I didn't expect it to really succeed, although the consumption was a bit high..."
For this experint, he not only lost 4 points of Mind Power Upper Limit but also expended an additional 800
points of reserve Mind Power. This was quite damaging to his accumulated reserves.
But fortunately, the result was good. By leveraging the power of the [Wordless Book] to achieve big results with small input, he reduced or even completely halted the earthquake's destructive power without decaying his Mind Power Upper Limit.
From any perspective, this was worth celebrating. If there was anything for Guan Tong to worry about, it was whether the consumption corresponding to the earthquake magnitude would change.
"I used the power of the [Wordless Book] to offset the earthquake hazard, consuming over 1,100 points of Mind Power in total, but this was only a magnitude 2 earthquake... What if the consumption for higher magnitudes increases?"
Guan Tong clearly understood that with each increase in earthquake magnitude, the destructive energy contained was far from simply doubling or tripling.
After the eleventh Doomsday Rule was announced, survivors worldwide were studying the earthquake situation. Many who previously didn't understand discovered for the first ti a fact that frightened them: as the earthquake magnitude increases, the energy released also increases exponentially.
For every two levels of difference in earthquake magnitude, the energy released differs by a thousandfold. The energy released by a magnitude 6 earthquake is equivalent to over thirty magnitude 5 earthquakes; while a magnitude 7 earthquake is equivalent to a thousand magnitude 5 earthquakes!
Such a huge gap in energy release ant Guan Tong would never beco complacent because of one success.
He had to consider the possibility of increased consumption, even doubling, brought by higher magnitude earthquakes.
If, during a high magnitude earthquake, it required consuming thousands or tens of thousands of Mind Power to halt it, then Guan Tong would be powerless—even combining all his existing and reserve Mind Power, he only had a little over two thousand left. Where would he find the huge difference to supplent?
Unless...
Guan Tong vaguely thought: unless he cooperates with the authorities.
With a population of hundreds of millions in Beixing, and the number of Ascendants also in the hundreds of millions, who could assert that there aren't any special abilities or items among them that can enhance or transfer Mind Power?
The authorities have a vast and comprehensive database, capable of finding the holders of needed abilities in the shortest ti. This way, through cooperation between both sides, perhaps the problem of insufficient Mind Power could be solved.
Previously, due to an unpleasant exchange with the authorities, both sides felt the other wasn't suitable for cooperation, so the communication didn't continue.
But tis are different now. This rule concerns the lives of hundreds of millions of citizens. Guan Tong wouldn't disregard the personal safety of so many compatriots because of so of his own emotions.
"Test again during a magnitude 3 earthquake!"
After pondering, Guan Tong made a decision.
"If it's confird that as the earthquake magnitude increases, the Mind Power I need to reduce its hazards also increases accordingly... then I must contact the authorities to discuss cooperation matters."
Reviews
All reviews (0)