pjbooks Chapter 135 The deadline has arrived.
Chapter 135 The deadline has arrived.
In the final month of Kahn's declaration of war, the density and frequency of ice storms worldwide surged to their highest levels in three months.
Every day, at least three cities are attacked simultaneously. The corrosiveness of the black ice flowers has increased several times compared to three months ago, evolving from simple physical corrosion to energy-level erosion—the spiritual energy shields touched by the ice flowers are no longer corroded with holes, but are negated in existence at the level of laws. The casualty rate of the Awakened Defense Line has soared several times in this week, with reports from all over the world of Awakened below S-rank falling in the ice flowers.
But humanity did not collapse. Three months is enough time for a civilization to learn how to survive under the shadow of the apocalypse.
At Qingyun Academy, the coverage area of the Spirit Gathering Array has expanded from 10,000 mu to 30,000 mu. With the dual enhancement of the Primordial Sword Intent and the power of Ice Profound, the concentration of artificial spiritual energy has reached 15% of the lowest-level spiritual veins in the cultivation world. In these three months, the cultivation levels of the 1,100 students have advanced by leaps and bounds, with over 500 breaking through to the fifth level of Qi Refining and over 50 breaking through to the peak of Qi Refining. Wang Kai was the first to break through to Foundation Establishment. His Chaotic Spiritual Root, under the 15% concentration of artificial spiritual energy from the Spirit Gathering Array, displayed a cultivation speed that even Jiang Chen found astonishing.
On the night he broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage, Wang Kai sat cross-legged on the bluestone slab of the factory's open space. The white true essence core deep within his dantian suddenly expanded dozens of times, draining all the artificial spiritual energy in the entire academy within a few breaths. The alarm of the Spirit Gathering Array blared in the control room. The Primordial Sword Intent automatically adjusted its operating parameters, drastically reducing the spiritual energy concentration from 15% to 5% to barely maintain the stability of the array.
Jiang Chen stood on the second floor of the factory, watching the golden light shield outside the window, which had been drained of spiritual energy, slowly recover. His hand holding the coffee cup paused for a moment.
"The true potential of the Chaos Spiritual Root is not in absorbing spiritual energy, but in creating it." Jiang Chen put down his coffee cup, walked to the window, and looked down at Wang Kai, who was enveloped in white light. "He is using the Chaos Origin to transform the chaotic power in the void into spiritual energy. The artificial spiritual energy provided by the Spirit Gathering Array is just a catalyst; the real source of energy is chaos itself."
He turned around and looked at Bing Li and Xuan Ming standing at the door of the dispatch room.
"The icy chaos within you is of the same origin as the Demon Ancestor's chaotic power. Wang Kai's chaotic spiritual root is also of the same origin. The chaotic power of the three of you is essentially the remnant of the Demon Ancestor's primordial spirit scattered throughout this universe." Jiang Chen raised his right hand, and the Primordial Sword emerged from his palm, six stars slowly rotating on the hilt. "But you are different from the Demon Ancestor. Your chaotic power has been purified by the icy chaos power, neutralized by the power of the five elements, and imbued with the essence of human life. Your chaos is not meant to devour everything, but to create everything."
Bing Li remained silent for a moment. Then she walked to the window of the dispatch room, looked down at Wang Kai who was rushing from the early stage of Foundation Establishment to the middle stage, and something was awakening deep in her icy blue pupils.
"Senior brother, are you telling us that our Chaos Spiritual Root is a legacy left to this world by the Demon Ancestor?"
"Inheritance? No." Jiang Chen sheathed the Primordial Sword, picked up the now-cold coffee, took a sip, and said, "It's trash. The trash that the Demon Ancestor didn't want was picked up by Ancestor Bingxuan, who spent 30,000 years polishing it into three rough gems. You are those three rough gems."
Bingli lowered her head, looking at the ball of icy blue light in her palm. The light shone faintly in the dim light of the dispatch room, reflecting the extremely faint, almost imperceptible smile on her face.
"Ancestor Bingxuan spent thirty thousand years refining us, not so that we would be mere decorations at Qingyun Academy." She raised her head, her icy blue pupils looking directly into Jiang Chen's eyes. "Senior brother, how much longer until the three-month deadline?"
"Seven days."
"Enough." Bing Li turned and walked towards the door. After a few steps, she stopped without looking back. "Seven days from now, on the hundredth floor of the First Apostle Hall, I will be standing behind you."
Xuanming stood at the door of the dispatch room, her long black hair fluttering gently in the corridor breeze. She watched Bingli's figure disappear at the top of the stairs, then turned to look at Jiang Chen.
"Senior brother. Before her death, Ancestor Bingxuan said that we are the inheritors of the Bingxuan power, but also prisoners of the Chaos Spiritual Root. For thirty thousand years, the Bingxuan power has been purifying the Chaos power within us, but it can never be completely purified." She raised her right hand, palm up, the ball of ice-blue light slowly rotating in her palm. "Because the Chaos power is not a foreign object; it is a part of us. Ancestor Bingxuan did not separate it from us because if the Chaos power were separated, we would die."
She clenched her fingers, and light exploded in her palm, turning into countless tiny, icy-blue specks that drifted away.
"So Ancestor Bingxuan chose a more difficult path. He used the power of Bingxuan to suppress the chaotic will within us, allowing us to slowly learn to control the power of chaos while we slumbered, instead of being controlled by it. Thirty thousand years, he spent thirty thousand years teaching us one thing."
She looked at Jiang Chen, and the icy blue light deep within her black pupils flickered for a moment.
"The power of chaos is not meant to devour, but to create."
On the last day of Kahn's declaration of war, the global ice storm simultaneously ceased.
Three months had passed. Human civilization had clung to life under the shadow of the black ice flowers for a full three months. During those three months, sixty-three cities had been attacked in turn, the casualty figures of the Awakened Front were updated daily, and the number of names etched on the monuments grew ever larger. But on the last day, the ice flowers stopped.
The protective barrier surrounding Qingyun Academy has remained unbroken for the past three months. A two-colored light membrane, interwoven with Primordial Sword Intent and Ice Profound Power, firmly protects the entire academy's 30,000-acre territory at its center. Outside the barrier, the human world struggles to survive amidst the ice flowers, while inside, the students cultivate day and night, nourished by this artificial spiritual energy, progressing from the first level of Qi Refining to the peak of Qi Refining, from the peak of Qi Refining to the early stage of Foundation Establishment, and from the early stage of Foundation Establishment to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment.
Of the 1,100 students, the number of those who broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage surged to 200 in the final week. More than 20 students broke through to the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage. Wang Kai was the only one to break through to the Golden Core stage.
His golden core was formed on the eve of the end of Kahn's declaration of war. That night, the spirit-gathering array of the entire Qingyun Academy stopped operating.
The pillar of light lasted all night. As the first rays of dawn passed over the factory's still-standing wall, the pillar of light dissipated. Wang Kai sat cross-legged on the bluestone slab. The white true essence core deep within his dantian had completely solidified, transforming into a fist-sized, pure white golden pill with fine golden patterns flowing across its surface.
Golden Core Stage.
He achieved a level of cultivation that would take him hundreds of years in the cultivation world, but on this planet with its sparse spiritual energy, he did it in less than three months.
Jiang Chen stood behind the window of the dispatch room on the second floor of the factory, watching Wang Kai rise from the bluestone slab below, watching the slowly rotating white light in his palm, and watching the primordial chaos faintly visible within the light. A slight smile appeared on his lips.
"Peak Foundation Establishment cultivators are qualified to enter the first ninety levels of the Apostle Hall, and Golden Core cultivators are qualified to enter the hundredth level." He put down his coffee cup, stood up from his chair, walked to the window, and opened it. "Wang Kai, tomorrow, you'll come with me to the First Apostle Hall."
Wang Kai looked up at the seventeen-year-old face in the second-floor window, at the first genuine smile on that face in three months. His lips moved a few times, but in the end he only uttered one word: "Okay."
The long queue outside the main gate of Qingyun Academy, which had never stopped during the ice flower storm, automatically disbanded this afternoon.
"Tomorrow, at 8:00 AM Dragon Kingdom Standard Time, Jiang Chen, Dean of Qingyun Academy, will lead the first batch of students to officially challenge the First Apostle Hall. The event will be broadcast live globally."
Within the first minute of the announcement, Weibo's servers crashed for the third time. Within the third minute, all major global media outlets had updated their headlines. Within the tenth minute, the official website of the Dragon Kingdom's Awakened Ones Administration surpassed 10 billion visits. Within the first hour, the entire world was saying the same thing.
"Three months. That's it."