Guan Tong walked from the developnt zone all the way toward the city center, witnessing with his own eyes so of the situations he had previously seen in videos.
The most noticeable was the complete collapse of shops along the streets, but currently he could see so workers engaged in demolition, cleanup, and loading debris onto trucks for removal. This suggested that before long, both sides of the streets would beco very empty.
Witnessing the ongoing changes in the city, Guan Tong also pondered where he should settle down.
He had been in contact with Xu Xiaotian a few tis over the past few days. According to the latter, the Lihua Hotel was currently severely damaged, and the water and electricity issues hadn't been completely resolved yet.
Furthermore, the people living there now were very unwelcoming to outsiders. After the fourth rule was announced, the long-term residents held a eting and decided that permanent residents should be assigned dedicated rooms, and any outsiders wanting to move in must pass a vote of approval by the existing residents.
After learning about this situation, Guan Tong decided not to go there.
"Maybe I should go ho for a bit," he thought to himself.
He hadn't returned ho since moving out after the kidnapping case. Now that the kidnapping gang led by Shen Zuohu in Yunhua had long been captured, there was nothing to worry about by going ho.
If he had to worry about sothing, it should be whether the building where his ho was located had been completely crushed during this rule. If it was completely crushed, then he wouldn't be able to return even if he wanted to.
Guan Tong decided to go check it out first.
And as he walked, he rembered sothing else.
He hadn't exchanged any contact information with Wang Yan and Chen Na, that mother-daughter pair. But thinking about it, it didn't really matter—they had just t by chance and survived one rule together. Even if they had exchanged contacts, the probability of staying in touch afterward wasn't high.
If fate willed it, they might et again soday.
After walking for over three hours, Guan Tong arrived at his residential community.
As expected, the security booth and gatehouse of the community had collapsed into the accumulated water.
The situation inside the community wasn't optimistic either. Back when Guan Tong lived here, there weren't many residents. Now, after the snow disaster rule, it had beco a scene of broken walls and ruins.
He found his building, and sure enough, the roof had been crushed by the accumulated snow. lted snow was flowing out of many windows, making the once-decent building resemble a water curtain cave.
Seeing this situation, Guan Tong knew his ho must have been completely flooded and was uninhabitable. He wandered around the community and surprisingly found one small structure still standing—it was the property managent storage room previously used to store equipnt like lawnmowers.
This small storage room hadn't collapsed because several large tree crowns around it were supporting it from above.
The snow had accumulated on the tree crowns, and the broken branches had significantly relieved the pressure on the storage room's roof, making it the only surviving building in the community.
Guan Tong imdiately decided to settle in this property managent storage room for now.
It wasn't that he didn't want to go to the officially established centralized shelters, but he felt living in such places would be very inconvenient.
Just like the situation at the Lihua Hotel, large numbers of people were gathered sleeping on floors in the main hall. This ant there was almost no privacy between people.
With so many people sharing one space, whatever you did would be visible to others. Without ntioning others, if Guan Tong himself wanted to take out the Wordless Book to do sothing, he would definitely be seen by others and spark curiosity.
So whether for privacy or comfort, Guan Tong preferred to live alone. Even if the living conditions were poorer, it didn't matter much—his requirents in this aspect weren't high.
He cleaned up the storage room and laid his sleeping bag on the floor. This veteran that had accompanied him through the fourth rule was now showing so "battle damage."
"Looks like I'll need to get a replacent at the supply point later... As for food, I can just search around the community."
Guan Tong's bag currently had no food at all. There was still one Basic Food Box in his storage box, but that was for ergency survival situations and definitely wouldn't be wasted casually.
And to obtain food, he didn't need to go to supply points. With so many buildings and households in the community, surely he could find so long-shelf-life food.
Not to ntion other households, Guan Tong's own ho still had plenty of food left. When he hastily left with the police car back then, he hadn't brought any food—everything he had stored previously was still at ho.
Deciding to act imdiately, Guan Tong went to his "dangerous building." To avoid accidentally being hit by falling debris, before entering the building he specifically summoned his Shadow to transform into Shadow Armor and wear it.
The Shadow Armor could only be maintained for a short ti, so Guan Tong quickly went in and out, rapidly ran to his ho, waded through water to reach the kitchen, and opened the high cabinets. Inside were plenty of biscuits, instant noodles, canned food, vitamin tablets, and similar items. He stuffed them all into his bag and left.
Returning to the property managent storage room, Guan Tong took the food out of his bag and placed it in the corner, feeling slightly relieved.
With basic food and shelter secured, he could now focus on developnt with peace of mind.
He took out the Wordless Book and turned to the third page.
In the July plan he had set during his earlier walk, the first goal of shadow transformation had been successfully achieved. The second goal of storing ammunition for the Silver Hunter was progressing daily. The third goal, "writing Mind Power," currently had poor progress.
Guan Tong looked at the single character "Mind" on the third page. Over ten days, he had only managed to write this one character. This was because writing on the third page consud much more Mind Power than the first and second pages.
His current 124-point Mind Power upper limit might seem substantial, but it was still quite strenuous when used for writing on the third page.
Moreover, he had tried to utilize the "fuzzy requirent" characteristic by injecting Mind Power to materialize the single "Mind" character into the "Mind Power" he wanted. However, the injected Mind Power disappeared without a trace, like a clay ox entering the sea, showing no reaction at all.
This left him sowhat discouraged, thinking this attempt might be his first failure. But he still decided to persist until completion. Judging by the current progress, he should be able to finish by late July.
Thus, days passed one after another, and Guan Tong's daily life returned to its previous monotony. Apart from Mind Power developnt, his daily routine involved going out for a few walks around the deserted community, which actually felt quite pleasant.
During this period, Xu Xiaotian called him, saying that transportation had been partially restored and that he had taken a bus to the capital.
Since the Mind Power Developnt Academy had announced it would officially open on August 10th, Xu Xiaotian wanted to go early. This was to avoid potential transportation disruptions if the fifth rule released on August 1st caused any complications, which would cause further delays.
During the call, Xu Xiaotian asked if Guan Tong wanted to go together. After consideration, Guan Tong declined, as he still preferred to develop at his own pace and rhythm.
Besides this matter, Guan Tong also saw two official declarations while browsing online.
One declaration stated that major cities would undergo large-scale survival-oriented reconstruction, involving the demolition of many buildings and construction of nurous new structures to aid human survival. They welcod people with relevant professional knowledge to join, offering generous compensation.
The other was a very stern declaration. Its content was as follows: They would severely crack down on and show zero tolerance for any transactions forcing Ascendants to trade items or Ascension Coins. Those being coerced could imdiately contact the authorities, who would promptly dispatch specialized ard forces to handle the situation.
After the second declaration was issued, many organizations and groups that had been heavily promoting and recruiting Ascendants online beca much quieter and more low-key.
Many Ascendants who saw this felt that aligning with the authorities during such tis could provide protection. Consequently, so originally solo Ascendants proactively approached official departnts to report and register their Mind Power status and other information in exchange for shelter.
Thus, ti arrived at July 24th. While the outside world continued to experience constant turbulence, Guan Tong made steady daily progress, silently completing the three characters for "Mind Power" on the third page of the Wordless Book.
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