148: Chapter 148: You've crossed the line.

"Authority transfer complete."

"City Spiritual Energy Network, connection successful."

"'Tianshu' central processing unit, awaiting instructions."

A cold electronic voice rang out in Jiang Ning's mind.

At the moment Director Zhao Lixin gave the order, the entire Donghai City's Spiritual Energy Network—this vast and sophisticated system she had personally designed and built—connected with her divine sense like an extension of her own body.

She could feel the endless torrent of energy surging through the web-like spiritual energy conduits beneath the city.

She could feel the tens of thousands of defensive nodes throughout the city, all of which had already aimed their muzzles at the sky.

She could feel the "Tianshu" supercomputer inside the towering central spire at the city center, analyzing every piece of data on the battlefield at a terrifying speed of billions of operations per second.

In this moment, she was no longer alone.

She was the city.

The city was her weapon.

"Analyze the characteristics of the enemy units," Jiang Ning issued her first command.

"Analysis beginning... Target units are highly absorbent of pure energy attacks. Preliminary assessment indicates that the absorption threshold is proportional to the target's volume."

"Target units have unstable physical structures, belonging to a fluid or semi-gelatinous lifeform category."

"Deduce countermeasures."

"Countermeasures being deduced... Option one: ultra-high frequency physical oscillation attack. Option two: ultra-low temperature freezing attack. Option three: law-level annihilation attack."

"Option three: insufficient authority, unable to execute."

"Lock options one and two." Jiang Ning's gaze swept across the thousands of black monsters still pouring into the sky.

"'Tianjian' system, switch attack modes."

"All defensive units, switch energy output mode from 'High-Energy Beam' to 'Infrasonic Resonance' and 'Liquid Nitrogen Flash-Freeze'."

"Target: full battlefield coverage."

"Fire."

As Jiang Ning issued her final command.

The entire city seemed to come alive.

The defensive turrets scattered throughout the city corners lit up once again. But this time, they did not fire blue energy beams.

Some turrets emitted invisible ripples that were imperceptible to the naked eye.

These were infrasonic waves with frequencies as high as hundreds of thousands of hertz.

When these infrasonic waves swept over the black monsters.

The monsters' bodies began to tremble violently at high frequencies. Their unstable fluid structures were torn apart and disintegrated from the inside under the resonance of the infrasonic waves.

One by one, the monsters silently turned into a sky full of black mist.

Meanwhile, other turrets spewed out plumes of white mist carrying extreme, deep cold.

It was liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees Celsius, vaporized instantly.

When this freezing mist came into contact with the black monsters.

The monsters' flowing bodies were instantly frozen into grotesque black ice sculptures.

Then, pulled by gravity, they plummeted from a height of ten thousand meters.

"Crack! Crack! Crack!"

The "ice sculptures" smashed against the city's energy shield, shattering into pieces.

The two distinct attack methods—one disintegrating from within and the other freezing from without—produced immediate results.

The black "raindrops" in the sky were cleared away at a visible speed.

A thunderous cheer erupted within the Command Center.

"It's working! The attacks are working!"

"Incredible! This is Chief Engineer Jiang's command!"

"We're saved!"

Joy from surviving a disaster appeared on everyone's faces.

However, there wasn't the slightest hint of relief on Jiang Ning's face.

Her gaze pierced through the clouds, looking toward the black spatial rifts that were still continuously expanding.

Clearing out these small fry wouldn't solve the problem at all.

As long as those rifts remained, monsters would continue to pour out in an endless stream.

The problem had to be solved at its source.

"'Tianshu', calculate the coordinates of all spatial rifts and analyze their spatial curvature and energy fluctuations."

"Calculating... Coordinates locked. Spatial curvature... abnormal. Energy fluctuations... extremely chaotic."

"Is there any way to close them?"

"...Theoretically, a possibility exists." Tianshu's reply held a hint of hesitation. "By creating an ultra-high-energy singularity at the center point of all rifts with an energy level far exceeding their stability threshold, a chain-reaction spatial collapse can be triggered, thereby forcibly 'smoothing out' these rifts."

"Speak plainly."

"Detonate a sufficiently powerful bomb at the right time and the right place."

"How much power is required?"

"According to calculations, at least... a pure energy explosion equivalent to one hundred million tons of TNT."

One hundred million tons.

This number caused Jiang Ning's pupils to contract.

This was equivalent to thousands of the highest-yield nuclear bombs detonating simultaneously.

With Earth's current technological level, it was impossible to manufacture a weapon of such power.

"Wait..." Jiang Ning suddenly thought of something. "What about the main cannon on 'Peace No. 1'?"

"The 'Peace No. 1' Orbital Railgun has a single-shot yield of approximately thirty million tons of TNT in standard mode. In overload mode at maximum power, it can reach... ninety-eight million tons of TNT."

Just a bit short.

Just that little bit.

"What if you add me?" A flash of determination crossed Jiang Ning's eyes.

"What if all my spiritual power from the Golden Core Stage is used as the energy source and injected into the main cannon's core for amplification?"

"...Calculating."

This time, Tianshu's calculation lasted for a full ten seconds.

"Calculation results... Success rate: ninety-nine percent. However, at the moment of firing, the main cannon's core and you, as the energy source, will endure unimaginable energy backlash."

"The consequences."

"The main cannon will be one hundred percent scrapped. And you... have an eighty percent probability of your Golden Core shattering and your cultivation being completely lost. A fifteen percent probability of your physical body collapsing and dying on the spot."

"And the remaining five percent?"

"A five percent probability that you will survive, but you will fall into a prolonged state of extreme weakness."

Hearing this result, Jiang Ning fell silent.

This was not an easy choice.

But she looked up at the rifts in the sky that looked like scars on the Earth, watching the monsters still poking their hideous bodies out from them.

She knew she had no choice.

"Connect to 'Peace No. 1'."

"Minister Zhao, give me maximum authority."