Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 226 The Offering of Energy: The Turning Point for Shi Sheng!

Mental pollution, cognitive impairment.

Only now did Cheng Ye truly realize just how incredibly difficult it was to contain a celestial object.

Only ordinary people who have been corrupted can see traces of the divine object, and only then can they approach it and attempt to contain it.

However, completing the containment process requires several times, or even dozens of times, the strength of an ordinary person.

These two things are inherently contradictory.

Therefore, humans have always had to rely on manpower to contain immortal objects, which requires depleting the immortal object's energy and waiting for its mental pollution effects to begin to disappear before they can take action.

Otherwise, things will remain the same as now. Even if we see the true form of the Myriad-Order Earth Conch, there will still be no way to approach or contain it!

Their eyes met, and they saw Cheng Ye's slightly twitching expression.

Rokuk was taken aback at first, then pointed to the conch shell in the middle of the lake and asked in astonishment, "You can't see it, can you?"

"I can see it."

Cheng Ye gritted his teeth, a bitter taste rising in his throat. He finally understood the kind of suffering Huang Liang and his group had endured when they were contaminated.

At this moment, it felt as if countless flying insects were swarming around his ears, whispering countless tiny, meaningless words.

What was once a clear understanding is being forcibly distorted by a force, and the colors before my eyes are in complete chaos.

The red grass and trees turned green, the green moss turned purple, and the brown earth turned azure. In contrast, the lake in the distance, which should have been glowing with fluorescence, turned into an eerie black.

Is this what they call spiritual pollution?
For others, this process may happen slowly and unconsciously.

But for him, being so close to the conch shell right after unloading the heart-protecting fire made the impact of pollution dozens of times more pronounced.

It was as if an invisible hand was forcibly reshaping his perception, repeatedly "telling" him:

The world is just like this. All your previous understandings were wrong. This is how the world is supposed to operate. Your past perceptions were all incorrect.

"That's right, that's exactly it."

Cheng Ye knew perfectly well that resisting this distorted perception would most likely trigger an even more intense wave of pollution.

Silently repeat to yourself for a few seconds, forcing yourself to accept the scene before you by following the "logic" of pollution.

As the chaotic shock gradually subsided, he suddenly opened his eyes. The chaotic colors instantly returned to normal, his swaying vision stabilized, and the dizziness in his head completely disappeared, as if the chaos just now was just an illusion.

"Are you alright? What happened?" Roku asked anxiously.

"It's nothing, just like you, I can see it completely now."

Cheng Ye didn't utter the word "pollution," but instead glanced discreetly behind him.

Fortunately, the purple light gate used for entry and exit is still visible, and no strange changes have occurred in the world.

This mental pollution is probably a screening method used by the conch shell to filter out harmful things and release harmless things into its territory.

"same as me?"

Rokuk's expression changed slightly, then he nodded gently, wisely choosing not to bring up the topic again.

Now that they are inside the Demon Eye Sponge, their most important task is to quickly figure out the state of the Myriad Orders Earth Conch.

As long as the pollution wave is not triggered, the first stage of simple mental pollution is still safe, and even in the second stage, it can be suppressed by one's own beliefs.

“This conch is so big, we definitely can’t just contain it directly. We need to find a way to reduce its energy first. Otherwise, even if we can get close, we won’t be able to put it in the containment box.” Rokuk stared at the conch, which was tens of meters tall in the middle of the lake, his brows furrowed.

The containment box can isolate the source of infection and the influence of the magical artifact on the outside world, but only if it can be contained.

Furthermore, the more powerful the containment container, the smaller the container itself.

The three containment boxes that seemed to have been brought in were only the size of shoeboxes, and compared to the conch shell in front of them, they were really insignificant.

"Reduce energy."

Cheng Ye paused, his gaze sweeping over the densely packed crab-men, and suddenly realized why the Wanling Earth Conch was so enormous.

When the cave crab is captured, it is at most the size of an adult's fist.

The containment box that was brought in could hold it all, but the current size is more than a hundred times larger than what was reported in the intelligence.

Analyzing the variables, it's possible that a new, powerful source of infection emerged afterward, providing energy for the spirochete.

Alternatively, the densely packed infected and fused bodies of the water cave crab become the energy source for the conch.

But with so many infected creatures covering the mountains and fields, how could two people possibly clear them all?

Cheng Ye pondered for a moment, then gestured to Rokuk not to approach.

He then walked to the side, opened his personal panel, and first checked the specific costs of uninstalling the Heart-Protecting Fire.

The extraordinary talent 'Heart Protection Fire' has been successfully uninstalled.

[The extraordinary creature (Fiery Eagle) has been detected to have a significant gap between its growth rate and its talent progress. Uninstalling it will not reduce its growth rate.]

The extraordinary creature (Fiery Eagle) has been temporarily locked down. After re-equipping the 'Heart Protection Flame' skill, the mental connection will be automatically reconstructed.

"Huh, it hasn't decreased?"

The fact that the growth rate did not decrease greatly reduced Cheng Ye's anxiety.

With a shift in consciousness, I sank into the spiritual realm.

Thanks to the nourishment from the previous essence of living water, the giant lizard shrank its size again, now only about two meters long, appearing even more compact. Sensing its gaze, it even released a faint yet intense longing, as if urging it to seek more essence and more life energy.

On the other side of the space, although the area where the flame was located could not be penetrated by consciousness, the little guy could still be seen lying on the ground fast asleep, without any abnormal reaction.

"Extraordinary Seed, Extraordinary Talent"

Cheng Ye muttered to himself, then suddenly realized, "So the Heart-Protecting Flame was just a 'bridge' for me to connect with the Blazing Eagle, and not the Blazing Eagle itself?"

Previously, he had subconsciously thought that the Heart-Protecting Flame was the same as the Blazing Eagle. Only now, after uninstalling the skill, did he fully understand that the Blazing Eagle's seed had already taken root permanently in his body, and the Heart-Protecting Flame was merely a tool to maintain the spiritual connection between the two.

This makes things simple. As long as the progress of the Blazing Eagle doesn't catch up with the Heart-Protecting Fire, this skill can be uninstalled at will without worrying about damaging the extraordinary creature itself.

The only question is whether the distorted perception caused by the conch shell can be restored after the Heart-Protecting Fire is re-equipped.
Having confirmed that there were no issues with the skill, Cheng Ye did not rush to investigate the outside world, but instead re-entered the intelligence space of the "Command Pattern".

It was here that he first collected the aura of the Wanling Earth Conch. When the Netherwater Cave Crab approached the lake, the conch seemed to be conveying some kind of information, but at that time he was not yet corrupted and could not understand its meaning at all.

The intelligence screen flickered a few times before quickly switching to a scene where the Darkwater Cave Crab, bound by the Woven Pattern, arrived at the front of the lake.

The moment the conch shell began to emit purple mist, Cheng Ye held his breath, zoomed in, and stared intently at the conch shell in the image.

An invisible wave emanated from the screen.

The fluctuation had no concrete sound, yet like the previous pollution, it directly etched its meaning into his mind, clearly revealing two complete sentences:
[Bring back more offerings, bring back even stronger offerings!]

[The gods have given you this, bestowed upon you this, and made you powerful!]

"Sacrifice?"

"God?"

Cheng Ye's pupils suddenly contracted, and a terrifying thought instantly formed in his mind.

Could it be that the sources of infection captured by the Magic Eye Sponge and the crab-men created were all sacrifices offered to the Wanling Earth Conch?

And the purple mist released by the conch shell is the reward for the magic eye sponge?
Wait, what about earth-element cotton patterns and water-element cotton patterns?
As he was pondering this, the intelligence footage shattered before his eyes, leaving him with only one last chance to replay it.

Cheng Ye turned to look at the endless crab-men on the lakeshore and suddenly understood why the cave environment was so strangely vibrant.

The Wanling Earth Conch was originally a magical object created by extraordinary beings in Antarctica to modify the environment.

Now, the cave that has been lost in the Baishui River has miraculously developed intelligence and even formed a partnership with the Magic Eye Sponge.

The Magic Eye Sponge is responsible for capturing offerings to provide energy for the Conch Shell, which in turn releases energy to nourish the Magic Eye Sponge and transforms the cave environment, continuing to fulfill its original purpose when it was created.

If this process continues, perhaps the entire Shi province will be gradually transformed into a vibrant place.

But at the same time, will the Demon Eye Sponge, which keeps capturing sacrifices, also continue to grow and eventually break through the Destruction level, becoming a terrifying Destruction-level source of infection?
Cheng Ye was initially surprised by the connection between the source of infection and the magical artifact, but upon further reflection, he felt a sense of dread.

How many years has the Magic Eye Sponge been stationed under the White Water River?
Just how many offerings did the conch shell capture for Wanlingdi?

If no one notices Dabo Town, and no one discovers the Magic Eye Sponge and this magical artifact, and after many years, the Conch's modification range expands from the cave to the surrounding area, then the cost of containing it will be hundreds or thousands of times more terrifying than it is now.

After all, just by looking around, there are no fewer than 100,000 crab people surrounding the lake, densely packed and stretching as far as the eye can see.

If human lives were used to counteract the energy of the conch shell, even if three to five hundred thousand people were brought in, it would still not be enough to offset the offerings from these crab people, not to mention the enormous magic eye sponge and other sources of infection hidden deep in the cave.

"These guys are still alive! They're just being controlled by the spiritual corruption of the immortal creatures!"

Rococo looked around and walked back, his legs trembling.

With over 100,000 crab people, even if it's only during the winter, it could create a disaster-level infection wave that would cause considerable trouble for Happiness City.

"There's no way out. We must first find a way to reduce the energy level of the conch shell, otherwise we simply cannot contain it."

His face was grim, but then he seemed to suddenly remember something and hurriedly added, "Fortunately, the crab people are not without weaknesses. They are resurrected by the Death Whisper Tentacle. As long as they realize that they are dead, they will collapse on their own without us having to do anything."

"It's not that simple."

Cheng Ye shook his head slightly, his tone grave: "Have you forgotten that we're still under the mental pollution of these immortal beings? I tested it during the battle; did you ever see them speak?"

"Even if they can hear us, they will subconsciously ignore information that is harmful to them. Even if you tell them directly that you are dead, these words will not reach their cognition and will have no effect at all."

The weakness of the Deathrattle Tentacle is cognition, but the current mental pollution acts like a shield, firmly blocking this weakness behind it.

"Then we'll expend energy? Are we supposed to kill all these crab-men one by one?"

"Don't rush, let me think about it."

Cheng Ye took a deep breath, raised his head, and scanned the entire cave environment.

The issue is no longer about how to protect the residents who participated in the assessment; it's that everyone is struggling to protect themselves.

Even if there are thousands or tens of thousands of crabmen, he can still use Starfish Superman to directly kill them.

But with 100,000 crab people swarming out, even a massive sheltered city like Happiness City has to take it seriously.

Only he and Rokuk could survive on their own thanks to the Obsidian Armor; no one else could withstand such a massive attack.

"vitality."

Cheng Ye bent down, ran his fingers across the grass, and then gently sniffed it.

The vitality here is indeed out of step with the outside world, perfectly isolating it from the petrification curse beneath Shi Province.

Is the Myriad-Order Earth Conch capable of resisting the curse?

wrong.

If it had such capabilities, it should have started influencing the outside world long ago, instead of just staying in the cave to grow stronger.

With his eyes closed, Cheng Ye's thoughts began to rapidly connect in his mind.

The cotton chamber can isolate external rules, so it can naturally keep the petrification curse underground out.

Meanwhile, the Wanlingdi Falcon can transform the interior space of the foam, so in a way, this is a win-win situation for Magic Eye Sponge.

Gaining the ability wins you one victory, and transforming your own living space wins you another.

What if we destroy the space of the cotton chamber, causing it to lose its ability to isolate itself from external rules and the petrification curse?
What if "Tan Ming," who has been transformed into an extraordinary curse, discovers the vibrant life within the cavern space?
An incredibly bold idea arose in Cheng Ye's mind, but he stopped himself and began to analyze the feasibility of the entire process.

With its invincible source of infection, the Demon Eye Sponge, protected by the realm of immortal artifacts, doesn't need to be surrounded by people. Even superhumans and elders are helpless against it.

Even if he wore the obsidian armor, even if someone else used the same Shrinking Giant Lice as him.

Once the Magic Eye Sponge releases its purple barrier and shrinks into itself, it will enter an invincible state.

When night falls, countless crab people can come ashore and use sheer numbers to their advantage.

Within the contamination range of the immortal artifact, this is utterly a rogue tactic. Only his equally "rogue" infiltration and analysis can be considered as using their own methods against them.

"Whether it works out or not, we have to make things difficult for him, otherwise the pressure tonight will be too much!"

With a firm resolve, Cheng Ye stood up, his mind clearing once more.

On the difficult first day, they not only found the exact location of the magical artifact, the Myriad Orders Earth Conch, but also figured out the general direction for its containment.

This progress is much faster than expected, far exceeding the expectations of the researchers waiting outside Bigboar.

If we can gain another day, at least tonight we won't be wiped out, and we can find a way to locate the core of the Demon Eye Sponge and contain it.

Without the Magic Eye Sponge covering the cotton chamber, and without the cotton weave binding it, these sources of infection, as well as the infected organisms, were contained.
chaos!
The more chaotic, the better! "Let's go, I have an idea, let's go back and try it out."

Cheng Ye let out a breath, turned around and stopped looking at the conch shell in the center of the lake, and hurriedly returned to the entrance they had come from with Rokuk.

More than ten minutes later.

The two finally arrived at the purple light gate. The moment they stepped inside, the feeling of being transported by the biological elevator returned, and their bodies slowly enlarged.

When they returned to the first floor of the cotton room, the two had completely returned to their original physiques.

Surprisingly, the access to the cotton-patterned room seemed to be higher than expected. As soon as we returned to the first floor, a gap automatically opened in the wall of the cotton room, just big enough for two people to pass through, saving us the trouble of finding an exit.

After passing through the gap, the rest of the journey was unimpeded, and we soon surfaced.

"It's six o'clock!"

When we got ashore, the light drizzle had stopped sometime earlier.

Rokuk immediately picked up his defense device, looked at the time on the screen, and said, his whole body trembling.

I don't know if it was the cold river water or my inner resistance to the coming of night.

"I'll go down again. You go back to the camp and organize the men. Tonight will probably be a sleepless night, so we need to prepare in advance."

"Don't worry, you go about your business and don't need to worry about the camp." Knowing that Cheng Ye was about to go down to fight again, Rokuk picked up the purple knife and handed it to him.

Cheng Ye took the purple knife, nodded to Rokuk, and without saying anything more, his body quickly sank down.

Like a nimble fish, it quickly reached the purple barrier used for defense by the Magic Eye Sponge.

The barrier that could block the power of the earth's fire could only open its doors to those who could pass through.

He landed at the bottom of the water, looked at the limp tentacles hanging on the ground, and with a thought, an invisible force of scaling instantly enveloped his entire body.

Once their size shrunk to a mere sixty centimeters, an unreasonable, one-sided massacre began.

Perhaps intimidated by the sheer number of crab-men, Cheng Ye remained remarkably calm as he watched the tentacles snap under the purple blade.

The poor Magic Eye Sponge couldn't find his trace or detect his presence; it could only be a fixed target, allowing him to harvest its tentacles and eyeballs.

In the blink of an eye, hundreds of tentacles shattered into low-level source energy. Cheng Ye stepped back slightly, looked at the 100% charge value that had been replenished on the panel, and immediately began to extract the characteristics.

First, there's the information on "Natural Characteristics," a new rare characteristic that can now be analyzed.

50% of the energy is invested, the selected direction is the analysis rule, and it is temporarily stored in the intelligence space.

The remaining 50% will be invested in "Common Cotton Patterns," focusing on the catastrophic infection sources captured by the Magic Eye Sponge, in order to obtain the bounty of the Ten Thousand Orders Earth Conch for free.

With his energy depleted, Cheng Ye grinned, a rare occurrence, and stepped forward again, gripping the purple blade.

Another hundred tentacles broke off, and the number of tentacles exposed on the Magic Eye Sponge decreased sharply from over a thousand to just over five hundred, a reduction of nearly half.

As before, half of the energy was used to search for information about the source of the internal catastrophic infection.

The other half was saved up, and after the next round of harvesting was completed and 100% energy was collected, it was directly exchanged for physical items related to "Command Pattern".

"Huh, why is it a remote control?"

Looking at the black equipment that had appeared in the pendant space, which resembled an old-fashioned radio with several raised buttons on the front, Cheng Ye was filled with curiosity, but his hands didn't stop moving.

Like a diligent farmer, methodically harvesting in the "field of crops," one tentacle after another breaks off, one eyeball after another bursts open and turns into putrid liquid, and the aura of the Demon Eye Sponge visibly weakens.

"Looks like it's almost done?" Looking at the Demon Eye Sponge, which now only has three hundred tentacles left, it has completely lost the ferocity it had when it was first seen in broad daylight and can only wave its arms in vain.

Cheng Ye stopped what he was doing. While charging with tentacles was fast, there was no guarantee that there wouldn't be a situation where he would need energy tomorrow. He decided to keep the Magic Eye Sponge as a charging station and come back when he needed it later. After all, it wouldn't run away anyway.

With a gentle push of his legs, he arrived above the sponge covering the cavern.

"Tan Ming, Tan Ming, someone's secretly farming here, don't let me down!"

Cheng Ye suddenly swung his knife, but the sponge at the entrance of the cave was unexpectedly tough.

It was as if the blade had struck cowhide; the purple knife fell, but was actually bounced back.

hum!
An invisible wave flashed by.

Yes, it is the conch shell!
Cheng Ye's eyes widened suddenly, and he retreated rapidly, bracing himself for the impact to his head.

To his surprise, the wave swept past him without lingering at all, continuing to expand into the distance.

"There are benefits to being contaminated?"

Cheng Ye was startled, then looked down and saw the cotton patterns on his body before realizing what had happened.

Could this cotton pattern have even fooled Wanling Difalu, making him think it was one of their own?
It seemed that he had encountered some kind of bug. Cheng Ye was overjoyed and simply went back to the shore to grab the last remaining bomb.

Place the bomb at the entrance of the cave and set it to detonate after ten seconds.

Accelerating his energy to full power, Cheng Ye returned to the water's surface and jumped onto the dock.

boom!
A faint explosion sounded, and the ripples underwater became more pronounced.

After a few seconds, the ripples subsided, and he went back into the water and rushed toward the explosion site.

The cavernous chamber finally broke open, about the size of a palm, and river water was seeping in.

At the same time, a strange, visible red aura was seeping in, as if searching for something.

The sponge was frantically repairing the tear, and the red aura that had just been squeezed into the edge was immediately ejected.

"it works!"

Cheng Ye's eyes lit up. The road has been opened, why not let Lord Tan in?
"I'll chop, chop, chop, chop, chop!"

Following the breach, Cheng Ye used all his strength to continuously slash at the breach.

Although the blade bounced off each time, the sponge's repair speed slowed down, no longer preventing the red aura from seeping inward.

Soon, a terrifying mental fluctuation emanated from the area.

Sensing something was amiss, Cheng Ye immediately sheathed his sword, ignoring how much energy was still seeping into the gap, and fled with all his might.

That's all he can do.

Breaking through the cotton chamber without containing the Magic Eye Sponge would be extremely difficult.

But as long as we can cause some trouble and delay things for a while, getting through tonight will be a great victory.

Cheng Ye muttered to himself as he surfaced.

When we got back to the dock, it was completely dark, with only a last sliver of orange light hanging on the horizon.

But the town of Dabo was brightly lit, with two searchlights already set up. One beam shone on the temporary residential area in the red zone, while the other swept across the defense line in the blue zone. The light was particularly conspicuous in the night.

Cheng Ye put away the obsidian armor and put on ordinary protective armor. He was still a little unaccustomed to his bald head, but when he huddled inside the helmet, there was no sign of anything unusual.

One day passed.

He walked around the town and found that Dabo Town had changed again. Many abandoned houses had been demolished and the streets had become empty and clean.

Behind the granary in the red zone, temporary living units were set up on the leveled open space, which could easily accommodate more than 400 people. In the blue zone, some new defensive facilities and two sentry towers were built on the basis of the parking lot.

One tower faces the Baishui River, and the other faces the town center. The searchlights hanging on the towers can be moved at any time, so any abnormality can be immediately located and observed.

When Cheng Ye reached the entrance of the granary, he saw Luo Kuke leaning against the wall, fast asleep, his breathing so heavy that he looked like he had fainted.

No wonder, he has barely slept since last night, and there might be a fierce battle tonight, so he can only try to recover his strength during this little time.

Seeing him approach, Garcia paused for a moment before speaking up, "Prosecutor Cheng, you should go and rest. I'll be on duty with men tonight, and I'll wake you up if anything comes up."

"It's okay, I can manage."

Despite saying that, Cheng Ye felt weak and uneasy after returning to the camp.

After fighting all day, even with the replenishment of living water essence, my energy was almost completely depleted.

He climbed the watchtower facing the river, leaned against the cold wall, and took out the remote control with the command pattern to study it.

After fumbling around and pressing a few buttons, Cheng Ye roughly figured out the logic behind it. The buttons corresponded to different command frequencies, which might be used to interfere with the Magic Eye Sponge's control over the Crab Man.

Once I figured out the general usage, drowsiness completely overwhelmed me.

Thinking about the fierce battle that night, he didn't even have the energy to check and extract intelligence. He leaned against the wall and fell into a deep sleep.

Outside of Dabo Town.

As the day passed, the research team had raised the level of research capabilities in the surrounding area by several notches.

The research institute moved almost all of its mobile, sophisticated equipment to set up a temporary research base on an open space outside the town.

As darkness fell completely, bright lights shone from the prefabricated steel buildings in the base, and the beeping of instruments echoed throughout the ground.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded urgently from a monitoring device in one of the laboratories.

The researchers stared at the plummeting curve on the screen, their eyes lighting up instantly. They quickly printed out an energy intensity report, grabbed the paper, and rushed to the innermost prefabricated steel building.

Boom boom boom!
There was a rapid knock on the door.

"Come in." Shi Xu's steady voice came from inside the room.

The researchers burst through the door, eagerly reporting with their report in hand: "Team Leader Shi! Just now, the energy intensity of that devastating infection source inside Dabo Town suddenly decreased, and by more than half!"

Shi Xu's hands continued to tap rapidly on the keyboard, his eyes fixed on the scrolling data stream on the screen. Without looking up, he asked, "Have you analyzed its basic model yet?"

“We have a general idea; it should be a sponge-like organism,” the researchers quickly replied. “But there is no matching existing model. Its size is too large; monitoring data shows that it occupies almost several kilometers of the riverbed.”

"What about the energy reaction of the celestial object?" Shi Xu's fingers finally paused.

At this point, the researchers' expressions instantly turned grim: "The creature's reaction hardly changed. The current data cannot determine whether its energy supply is directly related to that sponge organism, since the creature's energy intensity has always been very stable and has not been affected by the sponge's weakening at all."

"The predicted result?" Shi Xu finally raised his head, looking at him sharply.

The researchers, beads of cold sweat forming on their foreheads, gripped their reports tightly: "The preliminary conclusion is that a stable energy source exists within the space where the immortal creature resides. This, combined with the information previously relayed by Inspector Cheng, and our tracing of the source of the Netherwater Cave Crab infection..."

He paused, lowering his voice, "There was a previous outbreak of infection in the upstream Yueye Shelter City, compounded by a natural disaster—a flash flood. More than 200,000 people went missing and their whereabouts remain unknown. We have already sent letters urging Yueye Shelter City to provide detailed information, but..."

"So you mean that these 200,000 people might all be in the space where the immortal object resides, becoming its energy offerings?" Shi Xu's expression changed instantly.

This is the worst-case scenario. With the life force of 200,000 people as a continuous replenishment, the energy released by this massive conch shell will definitely not be less than its original design target, which is the average power estimated when the Antarctic superhumans created it.

"We cannot determine the exact state of these life forms at present, but the probability is extremely high." The researchers shook their heads with difficulty.

"In addition, we also found other anomalies in the monitoring data." The researchers were about to continue their report when Shi Xu interrupted them.

“I’ve already seen it.” Shi Xu turned his gaze back to the screen, swiping his finger across the touchscreen to bring up a three-dimensional energy distribution map.

In the image, the area at the bottom of the White Water River is covered by a lush green, and the energy level curve representing vitality is astonishingly high, even exceeding the life density of the greenhouse area within the inner city of Happiness City.

"Is this its core function?" Shi Xu stared at the screen, a strange sense of shock flashing in his eyes.

In the barren Stone Province, which has been eroded by the petrification curse for so many years, it has been far too long since we have seen such vigorous plant vitality.

It is indeed hard to imagine that the power of the Ten Thousand Rings Earth Conch could overcome the extraordinary curse and directly affect the land, restoring life.

If we can seize this opportunity, wouldn't it become a turning point for Shijiazhuang?

"Alright, you can go out now. Have everyone else keep an eye on the monitoring data and report any fluctuations to me immediately," Shi Xu said, snapping out of his reverie.

"Yes!" The researcher nodded quickly, turned around and left the room.

However, just a few minutes later, the sounds of the instruments outside started blaring wildly again, as if they were exploding.

The researchers who had left rushed back in a panic, only to find Shi Xu already standing in front of the screen, staring at the image with the same incredulous expression.

It's still that same three-dimensional energy distribution map of the bottom of the Baishui River.

But at this moment, a faint red hue suddenly seeped into the originally lush green area.

At first, this red aura was only a thin wisp, similar to the scattered curse auras in other areas of Shi Province, and not particularly noticeable.

But just a few seconds later, the red aura suddenly spread and thickened, as if drawn by an invisible force, turning into a funnel-shaped stream of air that was frantically sucked into the karst cave at the bottom of the White Water River.

At the same time, a striking red warning pops up on the right side of the screen:

[An abnormal increase in the petrification curse energy response was detected]

Current energy multiplier: 15.8x (continuously increasing)

(End of this chapter)