Chapter 314: The Heaven-Human Unity Tower
The Spirit Devourer, an insidious thing, continued to spread rapidly through the social circles of cultivators. For similar reasons, almost everyone pretended that nothing was wrong with them, continuing to attend various functions, and it was precisely this pretense that exacerbated its rate of transmission.
Most of them believed their cultivation had gone awry, rather than attributing it to a bacterial infection. The presence of Life Fields had rendered cultivators virtually immune to illness for many years, naturally preventing them from considering such a possibility.
"Still no results?" When Zhao Lin Gang, grief-stricken by the loss of his son, contacted Li Jie again, his tone was considerably heavier.
"Our people have him locked down; he's currently in Tianlin City. We're establishing a cordon and thoroughly checking every suspicious individual," Chief Li replied, full of assurance.
"Dig three feet deep, turn every cabinet inside out, even if you have to search house by house! No matter what method you use, find that little scoundrel for me!"
"Yes, Mayor Zhao," Li Jie hastily agreed.
"He really thinks he can just throw his weight around and do whatever he pleases just because he's powerful and holds a high office," he muttered to himself after hanging up. Anyone who had been working non-stop for a week only to be yelled at would feel uneasy.
Over the past two days, the police's semi-lockdown of Tianlin City had already stirred up considerable public discontent. Were it not for the influence backing Zhao Lin Gang, Li Jie, as Tianning City's Police Chief, would have had no authority to intervene in an affair across provinces, let alone create such widespread inconvenience.
Now, asking him to go door-to-door, house-by-house, for searches? His subordinates likely wouldn't heed his command at all for such a publicly condemned, foolish task.
As the investigation continued, Li Jie gradually realized he might have inadvertently stepped into a vast whirlpool. Hundreds of professional police officers and over twenty detection-type ability users, surprisingly, couldn't unearth a single ordinary person within the city's confines. By all appearances, something was terribly amiss.
However, he now found himself unable to withdraw. If he failed to complete the task Zhao Lin Gang had assigned, he was highly likely to be unceremoniously demoted to the grassroots by the furious mayor, rendering his decade-plus of toil and climbing within the system entirely futile.
Thus, Li Jie was now in a true predicament, caught between a rock and a hard place, and clearly suffering a massive headache.
The matter of Zhao Zhisheng's murder was temporarily contained within the two northern provinces. For the Central Government in Tianqing, it was nothing more than a trivial incident, utterly insignificant. The mere death of a mayor's son couldn't possibly agitate the nerves of most of the powerful figures above.
Furthermore, his tight control over the surrounding media ensured that only those with deep roots in these two provinces would even bother to cast their gaze upon the case.
If the media wanted to create news, they had to approach it from an eye-catching angle. An official's son committing murder could draw the attention of the masses, but news of an official's son being murdered served little purpose when reported, and even carried the high risk of incurring the wrath of the victim's wealthy and influential parents.
In these past few days, Bai Mo had uncovered a rather severe problem: man proposes, God disposes. The Primal Matter, which he had initially believed would continue to proliferate indefinitely until the network's full deployment, had begun to stagnate in its growth, rapidly approaching its accumulation limit.
But at this point, the Spirit Energy Network System had only been deployed across one-third of Huaxia. For the remaining two-thirds of the project, if he wished to perpetuate this deception, he would have to devise another solution to fill the void, otherwise, he would be unable to explain the failure of the energy absorption effect.
Within the Spirit Energy Network System's coverage area, the network's energy absorption effect largely curtailed the destructive capabilities of cultivators within urban districts, ensuring that even minor skirmishes wouldn't result in extensive property damage.
Spirit Arts were progressing day by day. An initial Spirit Art missile, refined and improved by millions of users over eight years, could now unleash twice its original destructive power for the same energy cost. Its attack potency was no less than that of machine gun bullets, and it even came with inherent elemental effects.
Two Second Tier Spirit Art users, when engaging in combat, could casually unleash a barrage of these low-tier Spirit Arts, capable of inflicting considerable damage on ordinary buildings.
After pondering on the sofa for an entire day, Bai Mo finally conceived a method that could, at best, be considered a solution.
"Spirit Energy Network System Phase Two Project, the Heaven-Human Unity Tower? It can lower the difficulty of the Daoization Tribulation?" Yun Jie asked, holding the report in his hand, as he conversed with the other council members at Ziliu Sea.
He was quite invested in this matter because Yue Yu had always been hesitant to gamble her life, remaining at the perfected Unmelting Realm. After all, there was a one-third chance of death involved. The little demoness, who had once been fearless, had learned what true fear was after maturing, so now Yun Jie paid close attention to anything that could increase the success rate of transcending the tribulation.
"According to the principle he described, it can indeed simulate about fifty to sixty percent of the desired effect," Chen Bo concluded after reviewing the entire proposal.
After cultivating their minds to the 'dozens of thoughts' level, they had acquired sufficient multitasking capabilities. One by one, they had begun to absorb a vast amount of knowledge, so even if Chen Bo believed he couldn't have conceived such a design himself, he basically understood its underlying principles.
Everyone present understood clearly that cultivation was, in the end, a personal endeavor. No matter how strong the so-called sharing atmosphere was, truly core knowledge, if one desired it, required an immense price to exchange for, and often, it wasn't even guaranteed to be acquired.
Just like Cheng Mu and Liu Zhen, who, in order to ascend to godhood, paid a considerably valuable favor—a favor that, in all likelihood, could later demand a life in return.
"It's just that our finances have been too strained lately. The Moon colonization war has been incredibly expensive, and there's a tremendous amount of construction work that will require funds afterward. According to the agreement between our four nations, after the complete elimination of the Moon's resistance forces, of the thirty-six million square kilometers of land on the lunar surface, we will acquire ten million square kilometers, which is equivalent to another Huaxia."
"Developing that land will be a bottomless pit, not to mention the Spirit Energy Network System, another money pit..."
"I don't think money is the problem," Wen Jian said, a new thought sparking in his mind, devising a way to get something for nothing. "Ultimately, we can just let those who are willing but lack the courage foot the bill. As for the initial investment, he can cover it himself. The Contribution Points system generates hundreds of billions in surplus every year; this amount of money is nothing. Let's first build a few test versions and see the results."
"If that's the case, then indeed, not a single penny from the treasury needs to be touched..."
After seeing their response document, Bai Mo also began his own preparations.
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