Chapter 136: Chapter 136: The Power of a God!
Shen Hao did hesitate for quite a while.
At first, he wanted to choose an ability that would restrain the Undead, but Purple Cloud Divine Thunder already had this function, and moreover, combat-type abilities were not all that necessary for him.
Then he thought about choosing abilities related to heat and light, but at his Second Stage Level, trying to fight natural disasters alone seemed meaningless, and if he was just protecting a few individuals, his current abilities were sufficient.
Thus, he ultimately chose the Elemental King.
“Let’s give it a try,” Shen Hao opened his eyes.
With the enhancement of the Sovereign Talent, mastering this ability was no trouble at all.
It must be said, there was a pleasant surprise.
Because the power of the Sovereign could also enhance this ability!
The Sovereign itself possessed the power to command all things, which could bring the control of the Elemental King to its zenith!
“Gale Force Winds!”
Shen Hao held up his Magic Wand, and in an instant, howling gales began to swirl around him, quickly expanding and spreading outwards, and the most central area was accelerated to the utmost under the power of the Sovereign!
Even the meteorological bureau had taken notice.
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“The wind is picking up so fast!”
“It’s already Level 12!”
“And still rising!”
“Incredible, it’s growing as quickly as a blizzard!”
“…”
All who were watching the numbers revealed expressions of surprise!
They knew Shen Hao was strong and might become even stronger in the future, but no one thought he could now face such a level of natural disaster!
But the force he unleashed at this moment truly felt like standing toe-to-toe against it!
And it wasn’t just the wind!
The sea’s waves were similarly stirred by Shen Hao, a succession of whirlwinds emerged one after another. He didn’t need to directly control such enormous power, just to initiate it, using the powerful force of the Sovereign within the Domain as a fulcrum, the Elemental King as a lever, and with some time to prepare, he could move disaster-level strength!
This astounding scene was now being recorded by the distant monitoring stations amidst the howling winds.
And through the operations of the publicity department, it spread rapidly!
Once again, Shen Hao displayed a god-like power!
However—
“Sixteen hours, that’s the limit,” Shen Hao’s voice appeared on the Global Unified Association’s channel, “Speed up the evacuation, we might be able to move several million more people.”
“Understood!” Everyone responded in unison.
Several million people might seem small compared to the tens of millions at risk, but for those who were saved, it was still a miracle!
It was as if in the face of real despair, Shen Hao could always bring forth new hope!
However, as time passed, the terrifying blizzards finally took full form in various places.
The fierce cold hurricanes rapidly stripped away the warmth of everything they touched; the temperature of the ground plummeted, countless animals and plants were swept up, frozen stiff in mid-air, and then continued to batter everything even more ferociously!
Undoubtedly, the most tense was the Northern Alliance’s Wind Barrier project.
This project was originally meant to be an experimental ghost town, with only a few risking their lives to stay and collect data, yet, over a million people remained here. Some were elderly who couldn’t risk venturing out into the cold winds, and some were construction workers who chose to trust in the structure.
Buschplin Rollins, as the project lead, also decided to stay.
“The wind has reached Level 16! In some areas, the impact strength has reached 40 percent of the maximum theoretical resistance!”
“There’s partial outer wall erosion in the East District!”
“Cracks have been detected! Forty centimeters deep!”
“The temperature of the outer wall has dropped to minus seventy-eight degrees Celsius! Indoor temperature is minus thirteen degrees!”
“…”
One piece of news after another kept coming, making Buschplin’s face turn pale.
The data was worse than the worst-case scenario they had imagined!
After all, Human Civilization had never truly experienced a blizzard of this magnitude, and all predictions were just that—predictions!
“How are the people in the city holding up?” Buschplin asked with a shaky voice.
“The electrical system is at full capacity, but in some places, the indoor temperature has still fallen to minus ten degrees Celsius. We’re trying our best to prioritize the elderly and children, but as you know, if it keeps falling, some won’t be able to hold out, not to mention the damned Undead that wander in, attracted to the elderly!” His colleague’s face also showed helplessness.
The few accomplished Cultivators inside the city were all on edge.
In these conditions, dealing with the absence of Undead was already challenging.
But once a large number of Undead appeared, the danger was just as great.
“We must hold the line!” Buschplin clenched his teeth fiercely and said, “This city was planned for eight million inhabitants! If we can’t hold it with one million, this entire project will be a complete failure!”
The project was his proposal after all.
He desperately hoped it would succeed.
But, just as many people had initially feared,
this project was essentially praying that the severity of the trial would not surpass its limit of endurance.
“I wonder how the Eastern Country’s project is doing…” someone muttered, looking towards the East.
If they failed, then the Eastern Country’s Underground City project would be the only plan left.
At this moment, Ni Hong and his team were also waiting for data results about eight hundred meters underground.
However, they seemed relatively calm.
“The temperature inside the city is stable at fifteen degrees, and the reactor output has reached five percent.”
“Not bad, a healthy ratio.”
“Cracks have appeared in passageway number thirty-two, there’s a risk of collapse.”
“If it collapses, seal off that passage.”
“Ventilation duct number twelve is damaged, and the equipment has malfunctioned.”
“Send someone to repair and replace it.”
“…”
Although there were still some issues arising one after another, the cold wave had not successfully penetrated underground.
Even now, they had moved various production lines and a large amount of building materials underground and were continuing construction, carrying out expansions!
Right now, it’s only a framework.
But even so, the workers were extremely excited, each one of them thrilled!
According to the “Underground City Application Law,” they and their families had priority residency rights!
“When can we finally bring over our families?”
“Little Liu is missing his wife, eh?”
“Screw off, it’s my daughter I’m thinking of.”
“Everyone, good news, Chief Engineer Ni just ordered a collective extra meal for today! A serving of beef brisket for each person! Plus one Qi Refining Pill!”
“My god, long live Chief Engineer Ni!”
“…”
Inside the Underground City now, there was nothing; hundreds of thousands of workers could only sleep in sleeping bags, and the only light came from dim lamps nearby, but happiness is all about contrasts. Imagine the temperature suddenly dropping to minus eighty degrees above ground, then look at this life shelter built through their united efforts, risking life and limb, everyone felt a tremendous sense of bliss!
Once they brought over their families, they’d just need to be cautious of the Undead!
They and their families would surely survive this trial!
And at this moment, information from various disaster-stricken areas was continuously flowing into the Global Unified Association and eventually summarized and reported to Shen Hao.
“From what we can see, the Wind Wall project should be able to hold against the blizzard, but it’s reaching its limits, and the subsequent trials are highly dangerous. The Underground City project is having no issues, very stable and safe. Among other projects, two smaller ones have encountered significant problems, potentially leading to hundreds of thousands of casualties. Moreover, the cold waves triggered by the blizzard will affect over two hundred million people, also expected to result in hundreds of thousands of casualties. Specialized combat personnel have been dispatched to key areas…”
This report summed up that while there were no major problems, there were still quite a few minor ones.
Even so, it provided relief to many people.
To be honest, even with Shen Hao’s earlier warnings, the strength of the blizzard still exceeded many people’s expectations. They could hardly imagine what the casualty count would have been if Shen Hao had not received advanced intel and they had to face all this unprepared.
Merely relying on their current technology and ability, they could not handle it without preparation.
“What about the other planets?” Shen Hao suddenly asked.
“Observations of the surfaces of planets within our range all show the formation of massive blizzards, but the numbers vary,” Dong Gong quickly reviewed the related data, “However, this seems to relate to the size of the planets and doesn’t appear to have much to do with the strength of the civilizations.”
“The Eternal Night Ice River faces all civilizations,” Shen Hao said, “It’s the Undead that differ in intensity.”
These were clearly stated in the data archives.
Because the requirement to pass the trial was merely to survive in the Eternal Night Ice River and to retain the power to continue developing.
Hence, without the presence of Undead, a civilization merely needs to build an Underground City to survive the trial.
Of course, the population of the entire civilization would be drastically reduced to an extremely low level, and just barely surviving in this manner might not bode well for the next trial.
And even so, some civilizations might not manage to survive.
Shen Hao had asked this question because, at this moment, several civilizations in the ranking of civilizations had their performance values rapidly declining.
Clearly, these civilizations had sustained not insignificant losses in this blizzard crisis.
And the one that had been ranked second to last had its value plummet dramatically.
They already had a low performance score, but now it had dropped to negative numbers in a very short span of time.
Yes, negative.
Shen Hao himself had only just discovered that there could be negative scores.
Did this indicate that during the trial, not only had the civilization not shown its strength, but it had actually slid significantly backwards?
At this moment, Dong Gong clearly noticed why Shen Hao was suddenly asking about this and spoke up,
“Regarding the civilization whose performance value dropped to negative numbers, the Analysis Department actually has some speculations.”