205: Chapter 205 A World-Shaking Gale

2:23 AM. The third round of Extraction had been running for nearly an hour.

Li Xin sat in the study, the back of his chair pressing against his lumbar spine. He shifted forward a bit, changing his posture.

The tea on the table had been changed three times. The current cup was black tea, unsweetened, half-drunk; it had gone cold, and he hadn't refilled it.

The System progress bar had reached about one-sixth of the way.

He glanced at the system panel, saw no issues, and withdrew his gaze.

A wind had picked up outside.

It wasn't a cool breeze, but that kind of stuffy, humid wind, wrapping up the heat from the ground and carrying a layer of earthy smell.

The coconut palm leaves began to flip over, rustling, the sound moving from far to near.

Outside the courtyard wall, the tin roof of someone's shed—he didn't know whose—was lifted, making a clanging sound.

［Progress: 18%. Current rate stable. External meteorological disturbances are unrelated to Divine Domain stress; this belongs to natural monsoon weather changes.］

Li Xin stood up and walked to the window, closing it a little.

The wind poured in through the gap, blowing the curtains into the room.

The lights of the temple in the distance swayed twice in the wind before steadying again.

The wind lasted for over ten minutes before stopping.

The coconut trees in the yard hung their leaves motionless, as if catching their breath after a run.

The window of the room where Ravi was staying lit up, then went dark again; he had likely gotten up to take a look and then gone back to sleep.

At 5:30, the System flashed a prompt.

［Progress: 42%. Slight energy condensation detected on the periphery of the Divine Domain barrier, density gradually increasing. The morphological characteristics are preliminarily determined to be the underlying Restriction automatically stress-mobilizing energy to assemble toward the gap area. Currently, there is no significant interference with the Extraction.］

Li Xin sat on the chair, unmoving.

He could feel the existence of that mass of energy in his mind.

A faint, warm sensation floated up from the depths of his consciousness, then sank back down.

It didn't hurt, but it persisted, like someone whispering in the room next to you; you couldn't hear the content clearly, but you knew they were talking the whole time.

After 6:00, the sky began to brighten, a line of gray-white light showing beneath the clouds in the east.

Liu Mo was dozing in the living room downstairs, his headphones hanging around his neck.

Li Xin came out of the study, walked along the corridor to the bedroom at the end, pushed the door open, didn't turn on the light, and lay down.

He slept for less than an hour before being woken up by voices downstairs.

The sound of Ravi talking to someone came up through the floorboards; he couldn't hear the content, but the tone was urgent.

He sat up, rubbed his face, and walked to the top of the stairs to look down.

In the hall stood two people wearing white uniforms with police badges on their caps—local police.

Ravi stood to the side, speaking Hindi at a rapid pace, gesturing constantly with his hands and feet.

Li Xin listened intently and got the gist: these police officers were here for a routine inspection.

Liu Mo stood quietly to the side, saying nothing, holding his mobile phone in his hand.

His expression looked calm, but there was no sign of relaxation; it revealed a touch of tension.

Li Xin went downstairs. When Ravi saw him coming down, he turned his head and said, "Mr. Li, these two officers say they need to do a routine registration; they have to check every household."

Li Xin nodded and walked over.

The older officer looked him up and down, his tone steady and serious: "Are you Chinese?"

"Yes," Li Xin answered indifferently.

The officer's gaze swept over the entire courtyard, and he continued to ask: "Is this courtyard yours?"

"No, I'm renting it."

"Have you heard any strange noises in the evenings over the past few days?"

"No, we all sleep early. Officer, has something happened?"

The officer looked at him for a few seconds, lowered his head to write a few words in his notebook, and then looked around again.

"It's nothing, just a routine check. How long do you plan to stay here?"

"About half a month."

The officer closed his notebook, didn't ask any more questions, and turned to leave.

The younger one followed behind; when he reached the door, he looked back at the courtyard but didn't say anything.

The door closed.

Ravi stood by the door, his face still tense. He glanced at Li Xin and said, "They've been checking strictly lately, asking every household over and over again."

Li Xin said with a calm expression, "It's normal. It'll be fine once they're done checking."

After saying that, he turned and went back to the study.

At 10:00 AM, the third round of Extraction reached 60%.

The wind picked up outside again, stronger than the one in the early morning; the branches were bent and couldn't straighten up.

Outside the window, he could hear people running. Someone in the neighboring yard shouted something, but it was drowned out by the wind.

Liu Mo pushed the door open and entered, the door panel slamming shut behind him due to the wind.

"Boss, the wind outside is too strong. Three billboards by the roadside have been blown down. A branch from that tree at the entrance of the alley just broke and hit the power lines; the lights at the other end of the alley have gone out."

"What's the situation at the temple?"

"The people in the temple are a bit bewildered; they don't know what happened."

Li Xin didn't respond.

He knew that the wind wasn't entirely natural.

The void below was expanding; whether it was air backflowing or energy spilling over, it wasn't entirely the will of the heavens.

［Third round Extraction progress: 72%. Current rate 22 tons/hour. Divine Domain stress index has risen by about 20% compared to the same period in the first round.］

At 12:00 PM.

With two hours left in the third round, it suddenly went quiet outside for a short while; the wind stopped, the sky brightened, and sunlight poked out from behind the clouds.

Li Xin thought this round would end just like that.

But just past 12:30, the System flashed a line of text. He glanced at it, and his brows furrowed.

［Progress: 96%. Abnormal vibration detected in the core layer of the Divine Domain, frequency continuing to climb. Temperature range fluctuations are increasing; it is expected that a relatively large-scale physical anomaly will be triggered during the final stage of Extraction, covering a radius of five kilometers.］

Li Xin stared at that sentence for a few seconds.

"Is there any way to suppress it?"

［It cannot be completely suppressed, but signal spillage can be controlled within a certain range under the current framework. The external manifestation is estimated to be localized subterranean sounds and short-term strong winds; the scope is basically controllable and not easily locked onto as a man-made activity signal by specific detection equipment.］

［Progress: 98%.］

Suddenly, a muffled sound came from deep underground, like someone striking a bell with a wooden mallet in a distant place.

The window glass trembled along with it, the humming echo lasting for three or four seconds before fading away.

Then that wind picked up again, swirling with broken leaves and fine sand, pouring in from the alley entrance, scraping along the ground; even the dust under the table was swept up.

［Third round Extraction complete. 300 tons credited this round. Cumulative loss in Room B is 900 tons. Remaining estimate 1950 tons. Cumulative Gold: 8302.7057 tons.］

［Cooling started. Countdown: 11:59:59.］

The wind outside gradually died down, and the swirled-up fallen leaves slowly settled back to the ground.

The courtyard fell silent, leaving only the sound of a loosely tightened faucet, dripping away from the base of the wall.

Li Xin leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and rested for a while.

His eyelids felt heavy, and his temples throbbed a few times—not from pain, but just from fatigue.

He got up to wash his face and went back to the bedroom to lie down.

When he woke up, it was already dark.

The system panel hung quietly in the depths of his consciousness, with less than three hours left in the cooling countdown.

He went downstairs to eat a bite, then went back upstairs to sit in the study.

Past 1:00 AM, the cooling ended.

When the fourth round started, the System flashed a prompt.

［Fourth round Extraction started. Current Divine Domain intensity has increased by about 5% compared to the first round. Estimated speed: 25 tons/hour. Mental pressure will continue to increase; it is recommended that the host maintain a stable state and avoid long periods of deep, concentrated confrontation.］

The progress bar began to move.

It was slower than the previous two rounds, but it was still moving.

When the fourth round was halfway through, sounds began to appear in his ears.

Not real hearing, but something seeping up from the depths of his consciousness.

Like a snake flicking its tongue and exhaling, a hissing sound, sounding every once in a while.

The sound wasn't near or far, like someone lying behind the wall next to you, blowing air through a layer of bricks.

At the same time the sound appeared, he felt his temples begin to swell, throbbing; the rhythm didn't quite match his heartbeat, it was a half-beat slow.

He blinked his eyes; things in his vision became clear for a moment and then blurred again. He blinked again, and they became a bit clearer.

［Progress: 58%. Mental pressure is rising. It is recommended to slow down sustained focus.］

The wind outside began to blow again, stronger than in the previous two rounds.

The leaves of the old coconut tree in the yard were blown over to reveal their gray-white undersides, the rustling sound drowning out the occasional dog barking from afar.

A few leaves were torn off by the wind, spinning as they flew over the courtyard wall.

He stood up, paced twice, sat back down, and took a sip of tea.

Suddenly, a crisp sound came from outside the window; he turned his head to look.

Another section of that tree with the broken branch at the alley entrance fell, crashing to the ground.

［Progress: 72%. Current rate stable at 25 tons/hour.］

Around 11:00 AM, the fourth round entered its final two hours.

The cup in his hand was already empty, left on the table to air out; he didn't pay it any mind.

The system panel remained lit in his consciousness; the progress bar reached 85, then 90, then 94.

［Progress: 98%.］

He straightened his body a bit, his hand resting on the edge of the table.

The sound of the wind outside gradually quieted, as if the whole world was waiting for something.

［Ding... Fourth round Extraction complete. 300 tons credited this round. Cumulative loss in Room B is 1200 tons. Remaining estimate 1650 tons. Cumulative Gold: 8602.7057 tons.］

［Cooling started. Countdown: 11:59:59.］

Li Xin sat on the chair, unmoving.

The sky outside was turning from deep blue to gray-white, and a bit of warmth was slowly seeping out from beneath the clouds in the east.

He leaned back against the chair and let out a long breath.

The study was very quiet, with only his own steady breathing remaining.

In the kitchen downstairs, Ravi had already started his day's work.

Faint bell sounds came from the distance, muffled, separated by a few blocks.

He stood up and walked to the window, looking at the tower top of the temple in the distance; the orange-red light looked a bit faded in the morning light, like a fire that had burned all night, finally about to go out.

He stood for a while longer, then turned and left the study.