PM.
Yang Fan felt a bit hungry and started to eat dinner.
He touched the mark on his left wrist with his right hand, extending his consciousness into the Space Pearl, locking onto a stack of packaged boxes, and with a slight thought.
Five packaged boxes appeared out of thin air on the table.
He opened them.
It was three dishes and a soup, plus a large box of rice.
This was actually the al packed up yesterday.
Since the Space Pearl has powerful insulation capabilities, a whole day had passed, yet the al was still steaming hot, just as if it was freshly cooked.
Yang Fan swallowed his saliva and started eating voraciously.
Lately, his physical condition had improved a lot, his appetite visibly increased, and his hunger beca much better.
He placed his phone on the stand, happily browsing through videos.
After a while.
More than half of the al had been eaten.
A new video appeared on the phone screen.
Yang Fan glanced at it, and his chopsticks stopped in mid-air.
"Pa! Pa!"
A dense sound emitted from the speaker.
Large hailstones appeared, crashing down like raindrops, and the ground had accumulated a thick layer of crushed ice.
"It’s over, our family’s rice was just transplanted not long ago, with this hailstorm, the seedlings must be all frozen to death."
The voice of the person recording was visibly trembling.
Below the video, there was a location labeled as Dongliao Province.
A thought instantly popped into Yang Fan’s mind: "If the hailstorm is a widespread phenonon, then food prices will certainly rise again!"
The Sanliao Region where Dongliao Province is located, which includes Dongliao, Western Liao, and Liao River three major provinces, is one of the major rice production areas in Great Xia.
The climate in the Sanliao Region is relatively cold, allowing only one rice crop per year, usually sown in May and harvested in October.
If all the seedlings are frozen to death, even re-seeding and transplanting imdiately, it’s almost impossible for the rice to mature with grains before the temperature drops in October.
So.
This is a very bad thing!
Yang Fan put down his chopsticks, unable to continue eating, and picked up his phone to start searching.
Nowadays, short video platforms are rampant, and anyone with a cell phone can capture videos anyti, anywhere, making video searches an effective way to gather information.
The more he searched, the more he was shocked.
Not only Dongliao, but the other two "Liaos" also suffered hail attacks.
Sanliao was not spared!
Yang Fan shook his head and sighed: "A massive crop reduction is a foregone conclusion, everyone will have to tighten their belts and live frugally."
Of course.
This "everyone" does not include him.
The supply relationship determines the price, the consequences brought by the hailstorm are not hard to predict, for many people, life will only get tougher.
Yang Fan mumbled again: "Tomorrow Central Agriculture stocks will soar!"
Central Agriculture not only controls vast farms but also has huge reserves of materials, now with the disaster looming, prices are bound to skyrocket.
Although this ans his wealth will soar with it, he didn’t feel happy at all.
The world is about to descend into chaos, who can be happy?
Yang Fan sighed a few tis, sat down to finish his al, and threw the al boxes into the trash can.
He glanced at the phone ti—it was 7:25.
Yang Fan’s face was solemn: "Eighteen minutes left."
Last night’s dream predicted sothing would happen in Linjiang City tonight.
He walked to the breaker box in the living room, and with a "snap," he pulled down the main switch.
The room instantly went dark.
Yang Fan pulled up a chair, sat on the balcony, quietly watching the myriad of lights.
He scanned around, and his gaze locked onto a living room in the residential building across.
Amidst the brightly lit scene, a little girl was dancing, and her young parents were clapping their hands on the sofa, looking delighted and harmonious.
Yang Fan was deeply moved: "Such scenes will be fewer day by day."
People tend not to cherish things they have, and only miss them after they are gone.
It seems to be a common human frailty.
After a while.
Yang Fan looked at his phone again—7:42 PM.
Countdown: one minute.
He quickly turned off the phone and slipped it into the Space Pearl.
Yang Fan counted tens of seconds calmly, slowly stood up, and whispered: "Everyone should wash up early and go to bed tonight!"
Just as he finished saying "bed."
An astonishing sight appeared.
Hundreds of lightning bolts, in a bizarre scarlet color, rapidly descended into all corners of the city.
Yang Fan witnessed the television in the little girl’s house across suddenly burst into a large plu of sparks.
Then.
The girl’s ho went dark.
At the sa ti.
The myriad of lights vanished.
"Boom!"
A thunderclap finally arrived late.
Yang Fan’s heart jumped heavily in surprise.
Last night’s dream foretold the arrival of the red lightning.
The destructive power of the lightning was beyond imagination, causing severe damage to many power stations and transforrs, thus triggering a massive blackout in Linjiang City.
Aside from that.
Nurous household appliances were damaged, many people’s phones broke, and so cars also encountered malfunctions.
To avoid such tragedy, Yang Fan had preemptively cut off electricity at ho and placed his phone into the Space Pearl.
According to experts, the lightning caused abnormal voltage surges in the chip’s micro-circuits, thereby breaking down transistors and damaging the chips.
Yang Fan didn’t know if others believed it or not, but he certainly didn’t believe a word of it.
He took his phone out of the space, booted it up smoothly, and successfully connected to the internet.
The base station didn’t collapse.
Because there is a backup power source.
But the network speed beca extrely slow.
Yang Fan sighed, "The blackout is so boring."
He turned on the phone’s flashlight, preparing to take a shower in the bathroom.
Just then.
Yang Fan suddenly felt a slight chill on his chest.
He was stunned for a mont, then quickly dashed to the bathroom, standing in front of the mirror, and directly pulled up his shirt.
What t his eyes.
Was a faint gray mark, resembling a tree branch, erging on the skin surface of his chest.
Yang Fan’s face lit up with delight, "This thing has so movent?"
This was another mystery artifact he had acquired, with origins similar to the Space Pearl.
Half a year ago he dread of a thunderbolt descending from the sky, striking a withered tree.
A branch from the withered tree emitted a faint glow, floating autonomously in mid-air, and after a few seconds, fell down.
Yang Fan decisively flew from Hedong Province to Xiling Province, traversing over a thousand kiloters, and wandered in the wilderness for nearly ten days, finally finding the branch.
In any case.
It was quite a breeze.
Completely picked up from nothing.
Yang Fan nad it — Thunder Branch.
After he dripped blood, the branch vanished into his chest, leaving no trace behind and completely unperceivable, seemingly fallen into slumber.
He never expected the branch to manifest itself today as a mark.
Yang Fan blurted out, "I understand now, it must be related to the red lightning!"
The red lightning that burst recently, although it caused a massive blackout in Linjiang City, unexpectedly activated the slumbering curiosity.
He stroked the mark with his finger, instantly sensing the presence of the Thunder Branch.
Yang Fan moved his finger, a red glow erged from his chest.
It was indeed the branch.
Previously, it was a dry branch, with a black-brown surface, but now it turned into a noticeable bright red.
"Zizz, zizz"
Nurous electric arcs flowed across the surface of the branch, continuously making faint sounds.
Yang Fan suddenly realized, "The Thunder Branch isn’t sleeping; it’s lacking energy, just like a phone automatically shutting down when its battery is dead."
"The red lightning burst in Linjiang City, and the Thunder Branch quietly absorbed enough energy to awaken."
He touched the Thunder Branch with his finger, a stream of information instantly appeared in his mind, naturally understanding how to use the branch.
Yang Fan was thrilled, "This is handy!"
He fiddled with the Thunder Branch repeatedly and suddenly said, "Eh? Why do I feel like the branch has grown a bit?"
Yang Fan recalled the transformation of the Space Pearl, pondering, "The curiosities would automatically grow; did the Thunder Branch absorb the red lightning and thus grow a bit?"
He speculated, "If this thing keeps growing, will it eventually beco a tree?"
Seems possible!
*
Shangjing City.
Inside the underground base.
rmaid Jana lazily lay within her underwater nest.
The nest’s construction thod was quite interesting; she spat a kind of milky white liquid, reacting with water to form a gel that shaped the nest.
The ceiling of the nest featured a large round disc, nearly two ters in diater.
On it appeared a blurred human figure.
A large patch of red blotches stood behind the figure, sowhat shaped like a short tree, with large red streaks spiraling around the figure.
The rmaid gazed at the short tree, softly saying, "A red tree?"
She then looked at the figure, her pretty face full of confusion, "Why did the Holy Grand Chief Priest prophesize that the savior of our i Jia Civilization would appear on Canglan Star?"
Initially, Jana had absolute faith in the Holy Grand Chief Priest.
Yet since arriving on Canglan Star and understanding the various situations of the Canglan People, she developed deep skepticism.
"The i Jia Civilization is so powerful, the Canglan Civilization so weak; how could our savior be born here?"
It’s like a massive elephant searching among a swarm of tiny ants for a "savior to rescue the elephant herd."
That sounds incredibly absurd!
The rmaid sighed, "The Holy Grand Chief Priest’s will cannot be disobeyed; hopefully, we can find it."
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