June 18th, morning, Suroma Empire's Senate.
Yishan Bruce, with a cold expression, arranged the chairs in the meeting room, then stood off to the side, waiting for everyone to arrive for the meeting.
"I can't believe I'm doing this kind of work..."
Even now, she found it hard to accept. Her father, the supreme ruler of this nation, had actually made his only daughter serve as a minor assistant in the Senate.
When she first received the order, she thought her father was just trying to appease the public by making her put on a show for a few days before ending it. But she never expected that from the order in March until today, June, three full months had passed, and her father still hadn't revoked the command.
This infuriated her to no end.
Even if she had misjudged someone and mistakenly trusted a bishop who was a spy sent by the Fire Thief's followers, did she deserve to be punished for this long?
Just then, the meeting room door was pulled open from the outside, and the senators filed in one by one.
They saw Yishan standing by the door as an assistant, and faint smiles hung on their faces. The contempt and mockery in those smiles deeply stung her heart.
But none of that compared to the hurt her father had given her.
After all the senators had taken their seats, King Bruce entered last. He didn't even glance at Yishan, walking straight to the head of the table and sitting down.
This blatant disregard ignited a fierce resentment within Yishan. She wanted to shout and cause a scene, but with so many senators present, she forcibly held back.
"The meeting begins," Bruce said.
One senator spoke up first, smugly: "This time, we can finally weaken Beixing's strength. Based on the population ratio, Beixing will have to send at least ten Ascendants into the array. That's ten high-end combatants with Mind Power Upper Limits exceeding 500! Even with Beixing's foundation, this will be a severe blow."
Another senator nodded in agreement: "That's right. Beixing will have no choice but to suffer a major loss this time. Moreover, their government's domestic reputation will inevitably decline, which benefits us in Suroma even more."
"Everyone, don't forget about the volunteers," a senator chimed in with a reminder.
"Volunteers?" someone snorted dismissively. "Today's the second day. How many volunteers have there been? Not a single one from Suroma. Do you think those high-end combatants are stupid? Every last one of them is a crafty fox; they won't willingly walk to their deaths."
Unlike the majority of pleased senators, one senator expressed concern instead: "I'm worried this will seriously damage our relationship with Beixing. This time, we manipulated the vote through the Human Consortium to screw them over. They're definitely going to want revenge. Could this..."
"So what? Competition is inevitable!"
"Exactly. The Dialoguer made it clear that the clearance spots are limited. Everyone can barely maintain a fa?ade of harmony for now because there's still plenty of time before all the Doomsday Rules end. I think when there are only a few rules left, countries will inevitably tear off their masks. Suroma being prepared early is the smart move."
Bruce spoke up: "Don't get too excited just yet. Within these three days, Beixing will very likely try other methods to challenge the rule. That should be their real goal."
The senators were slightly startled at this and began murmuring among themselves.
Bruce ignored them, simply issuing an order: "Have your people in Lanyang keep a close watch on Beixing's movements."
He finished speaking, stood up, and left the meeting room. Yishan gritted her teeth and followed.
"Dad." She called out to her father in the hallway.
Bruce stopped in his tracks.
"You've been working as an assistant in the Senate for three months, doing nothing but menial chores every day. Haven't you suffered enough? Even if you had to suffer, it should be over by now... You know you made a mistake. Beg him to let you leave. Promise him you won't meddle in any government affairs anymore."
Yishan pleaded, but Shi Jingyi didn't respond, just continued walking.
"Dad! I'm your biological daughter! After my brother died, I'm your only remaining family! Why are you so cruel to me? Don't you see the mocking looks from those senators? Don't you feel like this damages your prestige? Aren't you embarrassed?
"...Stay put and behave. And don't let me hear you mention your brother again."
Bruce left behind only these words without even turning his head, his figure disappearing around the corner.
Yishan let out a scream of frustration, slamming her palm hard against the wall. The resentment in her eyes was almost tangible.
Deep in the mountains of Pinglu, Guan Tong looked at the Shadow before him. With a single thought, Mind Power surged into the Wordless Book.
"Expand!"
The Shadow, originally the size of a ball, rapidly swelled within a few seconds, expanding into a solid, massive shadow sphere—even larger than the Wordless Book shelter house.
Yet, Guan Tong's face showed a hint of disappointment.
"Not fast enough. Not big enough either. I don't know if I'll make it in time."
If he had ample time during actual combat to do this slowly, maybe these issues wouldn't matter.
But Adam's gravity field has a time limit. According to him, using this ability not only consumes Mind Power but also requires the brain to perform constant complex calculations, which places a heavy strain on the body.
Guan Tong could relate to that.
It was like when he could split the Shadow into hundreds of shadow lines, each sharing its five senses with him. In theory, he could "see" hundreds of images simultaneously. In practice, doing that would cause his brain to smoke and crash; he simply couldn't handle it.
The fact that he could now view multiple shared images at the same time was the result of over two years of constant practice and adaptation, combined with his increased Mind Power transforming his brain.
Since the gravity field Adam created had a limited duration, if Guan Tong failed to create a sufficiently large solid shadow sphere within the effective time to destroy the "Bright Moon" core, all their efforts would be in vain.
He had actually considered using Small Space's power to forcibly destroy the sphere. However, this method was extremely costly and required him to physically get close to the "Bright Moon," which was incredibly dangerous.
Last time, his Shadow had only just entered the gravity vortex when even his main body was almost dragged in.
If he had to fight the "Bright Moon" at close quarters and something went wrong with Adam's gravity field—even a momentary lapse—Guan Tong would be instantly torn apart by gravity into a stringy mess, without even having the reaction time to use Body Swap to retreat.
Even if he used the [Hourglass of Time] item, which still had three uses left, to freeze time for a second each, three seconds total was far from enough. So he had to abandon that idea.
"Let's stop here for today."
Guan Tong didn't continue practicing.
The action day was the day after tomorrow. There was hardly any time to get a crash course.
The Countermeasures Research Office wasn't pinning all their hopes on him either; they were preparing other plans.
If Guan Tong failed, they would try other methods.
And if none of the methods worked...
Guan Tong recalled asking Gao Liangwei before leaving the base yesterday: "If all attempts fail, will Beixing really be forced to send that many of our own Ascendants into the array three days from now?"
Gao Liangwei's answer was brief, just two words: "No."
Zhang Minglu then said firmly: "Letting our hard-trained Ascendants go to their deaths? I'd be the first to refuse. If it comes to that, we might as well let the Human Consortium's whole operation collapse!"
That was when Guan Tong understood that Beixing's leadership had already made up their minds.
They would rather defy the Human Consortium's voting regulations, risking the organization's dissolution, than sacrifice a large number of their own high-level Ascendants.
Guan Tong, of course, supported this.
He believed that within a large group, a minority could sacrifice for the majority, but only if they were willing. If they were forced or coerced into sacrificing, that changed everything.
In his eyes, such a large group would no longer be safe. Because if they could force you today, they could force me tomorrow. If everyone lived in a state of insecurity, how could they possibly stay united?
Calming down, he took a solitary stroll in the forest.
Adam needed to use the office's training ground to test the gravity field generation, so the two would meet again on the action day.
After walking for a while, Guan Tong checked the time.
It was noon. Thinking Shi Jingyi should be off class and resting, he reached out to her through the Mind Network.
"Shi Jingyi, are you there?"
Shi Jingyi's response came almost instantly in his mind.
"Yes, what's up?"
"I want to talk."
Whenever Guan Tong felt like sharing something, whether out of habit or because they had known each other the longest, he almost never reached out to anyone else besides Shi Jingyi.
"Sure," she said. "Oh, by the way, I didn't expect you to go to Manchidon during this rule period and take out the 'Prophet.'"
This was, of course, no secret. But when she mentioned it, Guan Tong thought about the spore characteristics and recalled Lu Cheng's confession before he died, and suddenly understood something.
"Speaking of which, do you remember how Lu Cheng said the 'Prophet' told him we were a threat?"
"I remember."
Guan Tong explained the situation with the spore worms, then said: "I'm guessing the perception is mutual. After Ascendants reach the second stage, they can identify parasitized forms through the Mind Network. At the same time, the parasitized forms can also sense second-stage Ascendants."
Shi Jingyi: "So you're saying that back then, a nearby parasitized form sensed our breakthrough and then passed the information to the 'Prophet' controlled by the spore worm?"
"That should be it. But now that the spore worm is dead, the remaining parasitized forms are just a scattered mess. It'll be hard for them to pose any threat to us, or to humanity."
"Mm. Guan Tong, there's something else you wanted to talk about, right?" Shi Jingyi could sense that these past events weren't the real reason he contacted her.
"This... well, yes."
Guan Tong explained the plan to destroy the "Bright Moon" core and also shared his frustration.
"Mainly, the time is too tight. I only have a 30% chance of success. If I could have about a month, I think I'd have a 100% chance."
Shi Jingyi laughed. "This rule only lasts twenty days total. Where would I get you a month?"
"Yeah," Guan Tong sighed helplessly. "The day after tomorrow is the tenth day of the rule. The trouble is, the longer it drags on, the larger the sphere's mass becomes. If I fail this time, I don't know if I'll get another chance."
Shi Jingyi's voice fell silent for a good while, as if she was thinking.
After a moment, she said: "I remember that when we first met, your 'Shadow Domain' ability could be deployed over a large area in an instant, right?"
"The reason Shadow Domain deploys quickly is because it's non-solidified. It only covers the perimeter, with the middle being hollow. If I expanded it as a full solid sphere, it wouldn't be that fast."
"Then why does it have to be a sphere? If you could cut through the core horizontally with a single cross-section, wouldn't that also be a complete destruction?"
Guan Tong was stunned at this. Horizontal cross-section cutting? He had never thought of it from this angle.
Shi Jingyi continued: "You're very skilled with Shadow Domain. I think that kind of shadow that spreads out in a wide horizontal plane could be used as a cutting cross-section."
"...That could actually work!"
Guan Tong suddenly felt a clarity. Shi Jingyi's words had completely opened up his rigid, stuck way of thinking.
Right. Why did he have to force the Shadow to turn into an unfamiliar solid sphere when he could instead use it to form a cross-section, something he was already very good at?
Whether it was an internal explosion or a cross-section cut, both could damage the core, trigger a collapse within the "Bright Moon," disrupt the gravity field, and finally stop its ascension process.
"Thanks for the advice!" Guan Tong said, deeply grateful. "This makes me much more confident!"
"What advice," Shi Jingyi's tone carried a hint of amusement. "I think you've been running around too much, putting too much pressure on yourself. You can't calm down enough to step back and think, so you ended up stuck in a dead end."
"...Probably," Guan Tong sighed.
He didn't want it to be this way, but one thing after another kept pushing him, leaving him no room to stop.
"Alright, how about this?" Shi Jingyi suddenly suggested. "Guan Tong, after this rule is over, if you don't have anything urgent in July, you can come visit the academy and relax. Graduation season is coming up soon. As someone who taught for a few months this semester's opening, you can send the students off. That way, it'll be a proper ending, and besides, a lot of the students really want to see you."
Guan Tong thought about it and realized she was right.
Unknowingly, the end of June was almost here. There was only a little over a month left until the academy's graduation season in August.
He had started substitute teaching in August last year and left in November when Shi Jingyi returned, teaching for a total of just over three months. As Shi Jingyi said, going back to see the students before they graduated would be a fitting end.
"Alright."
Guan Tong agreed. He made up his mind: after the rule ended, he would first go with Adam to the Algan Grasslands, and then visit the academy.
After ending the Mind Network connection with Shi Jingyi, his mood improved significantly. Energized, he immediately made several attempts to deploy the Shadow Domain.
Shi Jingyi's advice was very effective. Shadow Domain itself was used in a large planar fashion, which made Guan Tong very skilled at horizontal extension of the Shadow. After a few tries, he could precisely expand the Shadow Domain horizontally over a large area.
But to be sure it was effective, he should probably run an experiment first.
That evening, Guan Tong plunged deep into the mountains and arrived in front of a towering peak.
He closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths, then opened them.
Shadow Domain, deploy!
Unlike the usual all-around deployment, this time the Shadow Domain expanded in a single direction—directly forward from Guan Tong—in a virtual mode, spreading horizontally.
His high proficiency kicked in, and the horizontally deployed domain cut into the mountain from its midsection in an instant, passing through more than half of the mountain body.
Once the Shadow had completely traversed the mountain, Guan Tong's thoughts coalesced:
Substantial-Ins substantial conversion!
The planar, virtual shadow wedged within the mountain body instantly transformed from virtual to solid. The suddenly appearing solid matter forcefully pushed aside the mountain's material. The stress generated by their mutual compression caused the mountain to let out a thunderous cracking sound!
BOOM! RUMBLE!
A massive spray of rock dust erupted from the mountain's midsection that had been "cut" by the Shadow. The upper half of the peak first abruptly lifted by a small gap, then began to slide and topple. With a thunderous tremor, it crashed down, as if heaven and earth were splitting apart!
Guan Tong was dumbfounded. He never expected his first attempt to have such a dramatic effect. Seeing a portion of the rockslide heading towards him, he hastily retreated into the distance, witnessing the mountain collapse to the ground.
"Such a strong tremor... Pinglu is definitely going to feel that... Will they mistake it for an earthquake?"
Guan Tong felt like he might have overdone it a bit, but a smile was blooming on his face.
Because the most important thing was, his method had worked!
Since the Shadow could slice through a great mountain, there was a very good chance it could slice through the "Bright Moon"!