"Black Shark! Respond if you can hear !"
"Silver Fox, Flying Eagle! Night Owl! Report in!"
Dragon Soul stood amidst a sea of ruins, his voice hoarse as he tried to contact his teammates via radio.
His clothes were tattered and torn, and his forehead was cracked open by so hard object, blood staining half his face, but he paid it no mind.
What made him even more tense was that all four of his teammates had lost contact.
All the preliminary preparations, all the plans, had beco useless the mont they teleported to the epicenter.
No one had anticipated the energy erupting from the epicenter would be so powerful. Within re seconds of arriving, everyone was struck by seismic waves and scattered.
Even Squad Dragon Soul, with their strongest overall combat power, couldn't maintain their formation, losing sight of each other after just five seconds.
As the captain, Dragon Soul had struggled with all his might just to barely protect himself, with no energy left to care for others. He couldn't even help Shadow, because he simply couldn't approach the Geomantic Pillar.
Had Shadow successfully weakened the earthquake? He didn't know.
He only knew these few minutes felt like years, as everything around him seed to be crumbling apart.
Now that the earthquake had stopped, he crawled out from the ruins and tried to contact his teammates, but there was no response.
This weighed heavily on his heart.
He tried searching for others in the surrounding area, but to his despair, he couldn't find a single living soul, not even a single corpse.
He understood clearly that not finding bodies didn't an everyone had survived. It was because people had been "swallowed" by the earthquake.
"Counterasures Office, can you hear ?"
He tried contacting the authorities using his long-range communication earpiece, but only static hissed in his ear.
The massive earthquake must have affected the magnetic field, completely severing communications.
Dragon Soul took a deep breath. He knew he absolutely could not give up. The more critical the situation, the more he needed to stay calm.
"I need to find Shadow first, confirm his survival status."
Shadow was the core of the disaster mitigation plan. If he died in this earthquake, then the level 10 super earthquake three days later would be utterly unsolvable.
So, Dragon Soul, a steadfast soldier, found himself praying silently in his heart.
He prayed Shadow would survive, otherwise all the efforts from start to finish would beco nothing but bubbles.
Perhaps the heavens heard his plea, because he hadn't walked far when he saw Guan Tong.
"Shadow, you're alive!"
"Almost didn't make it," Guan Tong glanced at Dragon Soul, whose clothes were in tatters and face covered in blood. "Looks like you're in a similar state."
"Whether we live or die is secondary. The key is that you survived!"
"...Let's not say things like that. So many people sacrificed themselves."
Dragon Soul fell silent for a mont, then said, "Yes, most people have probably sacrificed themselves. My teammates are also uncontactable."
Just then, the light of a teleportation array flashed, and a support team of over a hundred people arrived.
So were backup personnel from the disaster mitigation team, so were professional dical staff, and several dozen volunteers who had co to protect Guan Tong also followed.
When they teleported in and saw the scene before them, they all froze.
Apart from deep, bottomless cracks of various sizes on the ground, there were only vast stretches of broken walls and ruins. It was almost impossible to tell this place was once the central area of a major tropolis.
"Is this Yunhua?!"
"The entire Yunhua City is... gone??"
"How could this happen..."
Many people had visited Yunhua for tourism before the Doomsday Rules were announced, having witnessed the city's prosperity.
Now, looking at the endless expanse of emptiness, they felt an indescribable, dream-like sensation.
Even a high-intensity war couldn't level a major tropolis to the ground, but the power of nature far exceeded war, accomplishing this feat with ease.
Soon, soone noticed Guan Tong and Dragon Soul and rushed over.
dical personnel treated Dragon Soul and also inquired about Guan Tong's condition. Apart from severe exhaustion, Guan Tong wasn't injured. This was partly because he had been more careful after getting injured last ti, and partly because the volunteers had used their abilities to protect him during the first one or two seconds after teleportation.
Because of this, his mood was now very low.
While receiving ergency dical treatnt, Dragon Soul also directed the newly arrived supporters to search the surrounding area for possible survivors.
He refused to believe only he and Guan Tong had survived. There must be others, perhaps knocked unconscious by the quake or trapped under so rubble. If found in ti, their lives could still be saved.
anwhile, Shi Jingyi, who was part of another group of volunteers, walked up to Guan Tong.
"How are you?" she asked.
Guan Tong looked at her. Just like their first eting, she was still wearing a white martial arts uniform, a long braid reaching her waist still hanging down her back.
Facing her inquiry now, Guan Tong said, "You saw it, right? The first batch of volunteers probably all sacrificed themselves."
"..."
"I'll suggest to the authorities that next ti, for the final earthquake, no more volunteers should be sent. You should return to the academy."
Shi Jingyi slightly frowned. "Do you think I'm afraid of dying?"
"It's not about being afraid or not," Guan Tong shook his head. "The energy erupting from the epicenter is too imnse. I survived by continuously using the Mind Power countless people transferred to
to generate armor that offset the impact. But what about you? Your Mind Power shield is impressive, but it simply can't withstand wave after wave of endless seismic wave impacts!
"Not to ntion the level 10 earthquake, a magnitude that only exists in theory. No one knows exactly how much energy it will release. You're also from Yunhua City. Look at what our hotown looks like now. Such a massive city, leveled to the ground by a magnitude 9 earthquake. The scale and scope of destruction a magnitude 10 will cause is simply unpredictable."
Guan Tong rarely spoke so much at once, clearly genuinely agitated.
He didn't want Shi Jingyi and others to die in vain.
Shi Jingyi listened carefully to his lengthy speech and nodded slightly. "You make sense, but I only have one question. Did this batch of volunteers help you?"
"They did help, but..."
"But the effect was limited?" Shi Jingyi took over. "Perhaps the help they provided wasn't that significant, but it still had so effect. That ans it was aningful."
Guan Tong took a deep breath. "Shi Jingyi, let's not argue for now. Let's go help search for possible survivors first."
"Alright. But if you think you can change my mind, I won't agree."
"..."
Guan Tong felt helpless and could only set the matter aside for now.
Then, Shi Jingyi keenly sensed his current need.
"Do you need Mind Power?"
"Yes, I do need so."
"Hold out your hand."
"Do you have a transfer item?"
Though puzzled, Guan Tong extended his palm.
The next mont, Shi Jingyi grasped his hand, and imdiately, a large amount of Mind Power was directly channeled into his body through the contact!
"Transferring Mind Power directly without using an item?" Guan Tong was astonished. "How did you do that?"
"Both parties must have mastered the technique of Mind Power Flow to accomplish this," Shi Jingyi explained. "Didn't you notice? I'm not transferring Mind Power to you. I'm just injecting it into your spontaneously flowing Mind Power shield, and then your body absorbs this Mind Power through its own circulation."
Guan Tong carefully sensed it upon hearing this and realized it was indeed true.
"So Mind Power Flow can do this too."
He originally thought his earlier idea of "channeling through the body" was more versatile than Shi Jingyi's thod. But now it seed the latter still had many unique insights and developnts worthy of her status as a main lecturer.
As a continuous stream of Mind Power was injected into the spiritual energy shield, Guan Tong converted this Mind Power into usable, flowing Mind Power through his body's circulation.
Within re seconds, his several-hundred-point Upper Limit was completely filled.
In contrast, Shi Jingyi, who had just transferred so much Mind Power, still looked perfectly at ease.
Guan Tong couldn't help but ask, "Shi Jingyi, what's your current Mind Power Upper Limit?"
This kind of relatively private question was usually not discussed among Ascendants. Facing anyone else, Guan Tong wouldn't be tactless enough to ask directly. But with Shi Jingyi, he didn't overthink it and just asked out of curiosity.
Shi Jingyi also answered frankly, "Over nine hundred."
Over nine hundred!
Guan Tong was shocked upon hearing this. That was too outrageous, especially since he clearly knew Shi Jingyi hadn't seized first place from others during the Eighth Rule.
"Actually, it's nothing special. I just had a relatively high initial Upper Limit, and my natural growth efficiency far exceeds most others, so it slowly accumulated to this level over ti."
"...And you say that's nothing special? Those who maxed out their 500-point Upper Limit during the Eighth Rule would still be far behind you."
"I don't know. I don't really pay attention to these things," Shi Jingyi said, then added, "Then I'll go search for survivors."
"Alright, I'll join too."
Guan Tong's search and rescue thod was far more efficient than others'. With sufficient Mind Power, he imdiately released a large number of shadow lines that spread out in all directions, probing under hard-to-explore rubble, searching for any survivors.
After searching like this, they actually found seven or eight people.
Among them were two mbers of Squad Dragon Soul: Silver Fox and Black Shark.
Both were unconscious when rescued from under the rubble, with severe internal organ damage. The teleported dical personnel and related ability users imdiately began treatnt.
Later, others found several more bodies, including one belonging to the Squad Dragon Soul mber called "Flying Eagle." He had been impaled through the skull by a steel reinforcent bar. Dragon Soul remained silent for a long ti upon seeing him.
Not long after, a large number of aircraft arrived, airdropping more rescue personnel.
Despite the prior evacuation of the massive city of Yunhua, so people had chosen to stay. The authorities wouldn't abandon these people. Even though the entire city had been destroyed by the earthquake, they still had to try to rescue every survivor.
The airdropped personnel also brought the latest notification from the research departnt, instructing Guan Tong to imdiately go receive Mind Power transmission.
The ssenger also specifically relayed a ssage from Gao Liangwei: "There is no ti now for grief or pain. Every minute and second must be spent preparing for the final test 72 hours from now, the magnitude 10 earthquake. If there is to be mourning and rembrance, it must wait until after everything is over."
Though these words seed sowhat heartless, Guan Tong knew they were right.
Even though it was his hotown city that was destroyed, he had no ti to grieve. There were more important things waiting for him to do.
After teleporting to the designated location, Zhang Minglu was there. He imdiately organized the Mind Power transmission operation and also briefed Guan Tong on the earthquake situation.
"This magnitude 9 earthquake's seismic source was in the city center of Yunhua City. The earthquake destroyed a large area of the southeastern region, including Yunhua City, and triggered partial tsunamis locally. Fortunately, coastal city residents were evacuated early, so the losses there weren't significant."
Guan Tong listened, thinking that the "large area of the southeastern region" surely included Mingdao Mountain. That little ho he had carved out for himself was now completely destroyed.
After these rules ended, if he survived, where would he go next?
"However, thanks to your successful intervention, the earthquake was effectively weakened after 37 seconds, preventing the disaster from spreading to more areas," Zhang Minglu said with deep emotion. "Without your ability, the entire southeastern and even central regions would probably have been destroyed... The losses that would have caused are simply incalculable."
Guan Tong asked, "According to calculations, how many tis more powerful is the magnitude 10 earthquake estimated to be compared to magnitude 9?"
"...It can't be calculated," Zhang Minglu fell silent for a mont before saying. "Because a magnitude 10 earthquake will definitely trigger a large number of secondary disasters. How destructive it will be, even the AI Large Model can't give an accurate prediction."
"And all our departnt can do now is go all-in on you, placing our hopes on you to weaken the destruction it brings as much as possible."
"...So, other departnts will have other plans too."
"Yes," Zhang Minglu didn't avoid this point. "Though not publicly announced, multiple manned rockets will be launched into space before the magnitude 10 earthquake hits. If Tianshui Star is truly destroyed, the personnel aboard those rockets will beco the seeds of humanity scattered into the universe."
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