Inside the truck cab, Chen Na said worriedly, "Mom, will Brother Guan Tong get hit by the wild boar?"
"I don't know... That kid is practically acting recklessly!"
Wang Yan wore a tense expression. From her angle, because of the high accumulated snow, she couldn't see what was actually happening inside the path near the campsite at all.
She didn't understand why Guan Tong would give up coming to the truck for shelter and instead confront the wild boar head-on. That wasn't so plump, dosticated pig, but a feral boar that foraged in the mountains, with thick, tough hide that could gore a person to death!
Just as the two of them were feeling anxious, before long, they saw Guan Tong climb up from the path, wave over here, and signal that everything was fine.
Seeing this, Wang Yan imdiately got out of the vehicle but told her daughter Chen Na to stay inside, then walked over herself.
"Xiao Guan, you're... Huh?"
As Wang Yan approached and looked into the path, she imdiately saw the dead wild boar with its head smashed in.
She looked at Guan Tong in shock, "Xiao Guan, you killed the wild boar?!"
"Yeah." Guan Tong had rested for a while and recovered so stamina. "Had to do it, otherwise all the food in my bag would have been chewed up by it."
"..."
Wang Yan found it hard to believe. Guan Tong's physique could only be described as well-proportioned, but he was nowhere near "burly." Yet he actually managed to kill a wild boar...
Wang Yan thought of sothing and blurted out, "Xiao Guan, you used one of those Mind Power items, right?"
Guan Tong nodded slightly.
The fight happened in the path by the campsite, while Wang Yan and the others were in the vehicle on the other side, completely unable to see the battle process. Even knowing Guan Tong used a Mind Power item, they didn't know specifically what it was.
Seeing this, Wang Yan didn't press further, knowing their relationship wasn't familiar enough for that level of detail.
However, learning that Guan Tong had the ability to kill a wild boar made her feel much more at ease. Otherwise, if they couldn't deal with this wild boar, she and her daughter would have to stay hiding in the truck, too afraid to co out and move around.
"Thanks to Xiao Na." Guan Tong said. "If she hadn't given an early warning, we might not have seen this wild boar coming down from the mountain. If it suddenly charged us, it could have been a major disaster."
In this remote wilderness, there was no rescue to count on. Minor injuries would be manageable—Guan Tong had a temporary dical kit—but if seriously injured, they'd be completely helpless with nowhere to turn.
"That child Nana..." Wang Yan sighed when ntioning Chen Na's warning. "Her ability seems to work sotis and not others. I don't know what's going on."
"Ability? Not a Mind Power item?"
"Actually, I don't really understand how it works either." Wang Yan said. "Previously, the village conducted a collective survey of Mind Power values, saying the governnt would provide subsidies for those over 80. When I asked my daughter, she said hers was sotis over, sotis under. I was afraid of making a mistake, so I didn't register her."
Hearing this, Guan Tong found it sowhat strange. After thinking, he said, "Xiao Na should be over 80. Since she has tis when she's over 80, it ans her Mind Power Upper Limit exceeds 80. When it's below 80, it should be because she's consud so portion."
Wang Yan listened curiously and asked, "Xiao Guan, are you very knowledgeable about this?"
Guan Tong shook his head, "Everything I know about this can be found in the White Paper."
Wang Yan nodded sowhat understandingly. At this point, Chen Na got out of the vehicle herself and ran over. Seeing the wild boar corpse, she gasped "Ah!" and grabbed her mother's hand.
"It's fine, Nana, this wild boar is already dead."
"Ah? Did Brother Guan Tong kill it?" Chen Na looked at Guan Tong with admiration, "Brother Guan Tong, you're really amazing!"
Guan Tong smiled, "Thanks to you, Xiao Na, for spotting it early."
"Nana, your Brother Guan Tong knows a lot. Ask him about Mind Power." Wang Yan said. "Didn't you say before that your number always goes up and down?"
"Yeah." Chen Na nodded, tilting her head as if organizing her thoughts.
"Brother Guan Tong, sotis I can feel a large area around . I can sense where all the people or small animals inside are moving. But after a short while, I can't feel it anymore. Then after so more ti, I can feel it again. It's really strange."
If Wang Yan and Chen Na hadn't brought it up, Guan Tong wouldn't have asked proactively. After all, things like Mind Power values and items were now considered private matters.
But now that Wang Yan had Chen Na tell him, he was willing to help figure out what was going on.
Listening to Chen Na's description gave Guan Tong a feeling that her perception ability seed to be "automatically activating."
Once activated, she could perceive the movent and positions of living creatures within a certain range. Then when her Mind Power was depleted, this ability would shut down. After her Mind Power recovered, the process would repeat.
Could it be that Chen Na couldn't manually control the activation and deactivation of this perception ability?
Guan Tong thought for a mont and asked, "Xiao Na, after the first rule, what did you search for and buy in the Ascension Store?"
"Well... It was because Mom used to transport goods outside and often didn't know when she'd be back. I wanted to know as soon as Mom returned, and after thinking that, sothing called [Perception Domain] appeared in the store. After I bought it, I could sense it."
"Nana, my good child." Wang Yan was hearing her daughter say these words for the first ti and couldn't help her eyes reddening as she hugged Chen Na tightly. "It's all Mom's fault for often not being ho before. From now on, Mom will definitely always be with you."
Chen Na lowered her head slightly, sowhat shy, while Guan Tong beside them was also sowhat moved. But what concerned him more was Chen Na's ability.
That's right—after passing the first rule, what she purchased wasn't an "item" but an "ability," which was a relatively rare situation.
Like Guan Tong's own [Wordless Book], Xu Xiaotian's [Instant Noodles], and even Shen Zuohu's [brass knuckles], etc., were all Mind Power items.
But Chen Na's was a special ability called [Perception Domain].
Guan Tong asked, "Xiao Na, can't you control this ability? For example, can you try using your will to control the activation and deactivation of this [Perception Domain]?"
Chen Na blinked, "How do I control it with will?"
"Well... For example, you could set up keywords for yourself. Like 'Activate Perception Domain' and 'Deactivate Perception Domain.'
When you silently say 'Activate Perception Domain,' focus your mind and mobilize your Mind Power. When you silently say 'Deactivate Perception Domain,' imdiately cut off the infusion of Mind Power."
Wang Yan said, "Nana, just try it as your Brother Guan Tong says."
"Okay." Chen Na tried according to Guan Tong's instructions, silently saying 'Activate Perception Domain' while trying to sense her Mind Power. She imdiately perceived the presence of living creatures around her, but the next second it automatically shut off again.
Chen Na shook her head, "After I silently said activate, it seed to work, but then it imdiately disappeared."
"Probably your Mind Power is depleted. Open your terminal and check?" Guan Tong suggested.
Hearing this, Chen Na silently called up her Personal Terminal and checked her Mind Power value—sure enough, it was already at 0 points.
"Yeah! It beca 0!"
"It should be because your [Perception Domain] was continuously active when the wild boar appeared earlier... This kind of large-range effective 'domain-type' ability must consu a huge amount of Mind Power. Xiao Na, you should wait until your Mind Power recovers before trying again."
"Understood, thank you, Little Guan Brother!" Chen Na playfully changed how she addressed him.
"What 'Little Guan Brother'." Wang Yan lightly scolded, "Xiao Guan isn't sothing for a little kid like you to call him."
"It's fine." Guan Tong didn't mind. "Xiao Na can call
whatever she likes."
"Hehe, then I'll call you Little Guan Brother from now on." Chen Na made a funny face at her mother Wang Yan, then looked at the wild boar corpse in the path.
"What about this big black pig? I've seen people in movies roast wild boar before. Are we going to roast at too?"
"No." Wang Yan and Guan Tong said almost simultaneously.
Wang Yan explained, "This wild boar at isn't edible—it has lots of bacteria and parasites! Nana, if you want to eat at, there's still so jerky in the vehicle. Eat that instead."
"Sister Wang is right. Unless there's absolutely nothing else to eat, try not to eat wild animals whenever possible. Not just wild boars, but even wild rabbits are best avoided."
"Ah, bunnies are so cute, why would anyone eat bunnies!" Chen Na shook her head repeatedly.
Guan Tong was montarily stunned, then said, "We can't just leave this wild boar in the path either. Let's get it out, put it aside, and let the snow bury it."
"Alright, I'll lend a hand. Let's work together to get it out."
"Then I'll trouble you, Sister Wang."
Guan Tong and Wang Yan worked together, laboriously carrying the wild boar corpse from the path to the nearby snow layer. Then each grabbing one of the pig's hind legs, they dragged the wild boar corpse to a place far from the campsite and truck, then shoveled snow to bury it.
After all that effort, all three were sowhat tired.
Wang Yan and Chen Na returned to the vehicle to rest, while Guan Tong also returned to his own campsite, organizing his backpack that had been rooted through by the wild boar.
Fortunately, he had dealt with the wild boar promptly enough—only one bag of crackers in his pack had been crushed and one water bottle squeezed and broken; everything else was preserved.
If Guan Tong had hidden in the truck back then and left it alone, before long all the food in his backpack would have been ruined.
After tidying up, Guan Tong unzipped his sleeping bag and lay down to rest, still thinking about Chen Na's [Perception Domain] ability.
He felt this ability had high potential, currently limited only by her low Mind Power Upper Limit. In the future, when Mind Power increases, if the range further expands and the ability further improves, it should have many uses.
Guan Tong thought to himself, "If I write a similar ability na in the [Wordless Book], could I obtain a similar ability? I can try later, but it feels sowhat uncertain..."
Having held the [Wordless Book] for so long, Guan Tong had sowhat figured out its ability situation. Its core was probably "the ability to materialize textual concepts by consuming Mind Power," possessing a certain extrely powerful reality-warping force.
Among these, the more complex, powerful, and abstract the concept, the more Mind Power would be required for materialization.
If forced to transform, one possibility was a scaled-down version appearing. For example, what was written on the first page was clearly "Guan Tong," but after the initial transformation, it was only a shadow with Guan Tong's outline, without physical form.
Including what he wrote on the second page, "Ascension Coins," after materialization, it was also a scaled-down version—this was reflected in the number of coins, only 10 Binding Coins.
But the problem was, he only wrote the three characters "Ascension Coins," without writing quantifiers like "XX number" beforehand. Writing it like that and only getting 10 coins ant that was currently the maximum number he could transform in a single attempt.
The second possibility was transformation failure. For example, Guan Tong once tried to have the illusory Shadow connect with a car's shadow before materializing, but the result was his Mind Power instantly depleted, and materialization failed.
Now his plan was to write "shotgun," wanting to materialize the concept of a gun. The difficulty shouldn't be excessive. But there was a problem—the character strokes were too many, requiring too much ti.
"Would simplifying it to 'scattergun,' or 'scatter gun,' or even just a single character 'gun' work? Would the [Wordless Book] transform it according to my thoughts? Or would it randomly transform into sothing that doesn't et my requirents... I'll try later."
As Guan Tong thought, his mind returned to Chen Na's [Perception Domain] ability.
Knowing about this kind of domain-type ability had opened up his thinking considerably.
"Could I also create a similar ability? Currently, directly opening a new page in the [Wordless Book] to write would consu too much... So could I continue leveraging the shadow, continue deeply developing based on it?"
The previous success of adding the characters "Physical Form" had given Guan Tong the idea to add sothing more, but he hadn't had any good ideas until now.
Now Chen Na's domain ability also made him sowhat tempted.
"When the shadow is in its illusory state, it can rge with other shadows to expand its area. If I make the shadow continuously rge and expand large enough within a short ti... and I have enough Mind Power to transform it into Physical Form, could it form so kind of domain of my own... like a 'Shadow Domain'?"
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