186: Chapter 186: You want to dismantle my stake? Not a chance!

The voice vanished, but Jiang Ning could feel a cold, sinister gaze staring intently at her.

"Consultant Jiang, that just now was..." Company Commander Zhang also sensed something was wrong, his hand already resting on the pistol at his waist.

"A clone of the Cult Master of Annihilation, or some kind of divine sense transmission." Jiang Ning waved her hand dismissively. "Don't worry about him. If he could actually take direct action, he would have torn our base down long ago. He's definitely being pinned down by this spiritual energy storm down there as well."

Jiang Ning sat back in her seat, staring at the real-time monitoring screen.

After the first spirit-suppressing stake was driven in, the flow of surrounding spiritual energy indeed began to change. The spiritual energy that had been running wild started to follow the preset guide grooves of the spirit-suppressing stake, slowly injecting into the earth veins.

"The effect is good. Continue. Deploy spirit-suppressing stakes number two through five simultaneously."

Jiang Ning calmly issued the command.

As the massive alloy stakes were driven into the earth's core, the scenery around the Pillar of the World began to change. The abyss, which had been pitch black and filled with chaotic energy, finally revealed its full appearance under the illumination of the spiritual energy lights and the faint glow emitted by the spirit-suppressing stakes.

That stone pillar was too massive, its diameter likely spanning dozens of kilometers. It wasn't just a pillar; it was covered in countless dense runes. Only now, most of these runes had grown dim and were even severed by cracks.

"Consultant Jiang, look at those cracks." Manager Qian pointed at the screen, his voice trembling slightly. "Something seems to be moving inside them."

Jiang Ning zoomed in the camera lens.

Deep within those massive cracks, a blackish-red viscous substance was actually oozing out. This substance seemed alive, crawling slowly across the surface of the stone pillar. Wherever it passed, the originally solid stone began to soften and crumble.

"That's 'Blood of Annihilation'!" Manager Qian cried out in alarm. "Legend says this is a poison condensed from the resentment generated when a world is destroyed; it can corrode all source power. The people of the Nirvana Sect are indeed up to no good—they're 'poisoning' the Pillar of the World!"

Jiang Ning looked at those blackish-red things, her brows furrowing into a tight knot.

This wasn't a repair project at all; it was practically performing surgery on a patient covered in poisonous ulcers.

"Company Commander Zhang, notify the technical team to prepare 'Spiritual Energy Purifier'. We have to clean up this poisonous pus first, otherwise the patch won't hold at all."

"Yes!"

Just as Jiang Ning was preparing for the next step, the image on the screen suddenly shook violently.

"Warning! High-energy reaction approaching! Coordinates: thirty-two thousand meters into the core!" the operator shouted in terror.

In the void beneath the stone pillar, a massive black hole suddenly tore open. Countless black chains shot out from the black hole, instantly entangling the spirit-suppressing stakes that had just been driven in.

*Creeeeak— Creeeeak—*

The ear-piercing sound of metal twisting was transmitted back to the Command Center via sensors. Those spirit-suppressing stakes, forged from top-tier alloys and strong enough to withstand a full-strength strike from a Nascent Soul cultivator, were actually being crushed by these chains, leaving deep indentations.

"Jiang Ning, destruction is irreversible. Everything you do is but a futile struggle."

The voice of the Cult Master of Annihilation rang out again, this time with a hint of mockery.

"Struggle your head!" Jiang Ning snapped, venting directly into the microphone. "You old fossil, hiding underground all day playing with chains—do you have some kind of special fetish? Want to tear down my stakes? Not a chance!"

"Company Commander Zhang, activate 'High-Frequency Vibrational Cutting'! Saw those damn chains off for me!"

"Yes!"

Countless tiny serrations suddenly emerged from the surface of the spirit-suppressing stakes, vibrating at a high frequency of tens of thousands of times per second. Although those black chains were eerie, they began to emit bursts of black smoke in the face of this high-frequency vibration.

"Snap!" Jiang Ning slammed her hand onto the console.

*Snap! Snap! Snap!*

With several crisp sounds, the black chains snapped one after another.

"Manager Qian, take your people and hold the drilling channel for me. No matter what kind of ghost or monster crawls out from below, beat it back!" Jiang Ning ordered without looking back.

Manager Qian grit his teeth. He could see that it was now a matter of life and death. If Jiang Ning failed, he wouldn't survive either.

"Members of the Wanbao Pavilion, follow me into battle!"

Hundreds of cultivators from the Wanbao Pavilion rushed out of the base, guarding the perimeter of the borehole. The light from various magical treasures lit up, illuminating the wasteland as bright as day.

Meanwhile, Jiang Ning was staring fixedly at the screen.

She discovered that the snapped chains hadn't vanished; instead, they turned into wisps of black smoke and burrowed into the cracks of the stone pillar.

The vibration of the stone pillar grew even more violent.

"He's triggering the stone pillar to self-destruct!" Jiang Ning was startled.

She realized the Cult Master of Annihilation was flipping the table. Since he couldn't stop Jiang Ning from repairing it, he would simply collapse the pillar directly.

"We can't wait anymore." Jiang Ning's gaze became incredibly resolute. "Company Commander Zhang, activate the 'Planet-Scale Spiritual Energy Network'. I'm going to forcibly take control of this pillar!"

"Consultant Jiang, it's not fully deployed yet! Forcing an activation might cause the spiritual energy towers in several surrounding states to overload and burn out!" Company Commander Zhang hurriedly warned.

"I can't worry about that now! If they overload, we can fix them later; if the pillar collapses, everyone's finished!" Jiang Ning shouted. "Connect me to all the completed spiritual energy towers. I'm going to borrow the spiritual energy of the entire Immortal Realm!"

Following Jiang Ning's command, in the Qingyun Sect, the Blood Evil Sect, and countless large and small sects thousands of miles away, those newly erected spiritual energy towers suddenly lit up with dazzling blue light simultaneously.

Countless torrents of spiritual energy followed the underground power grid, crossing mountains and rivers, converging frantically toward the Forbidden Land.

"What is this?"

"Heavens, why has all the spiritual energy in my sect been drained?"

"Look at the sky! Is that a river of spiritual energy?"

Cultivators across the entire Immortal Realm were stunned. They watched the bands of blue light in the sky converging toward the Forbidden Land, feeling an unprecedented sense of shock.

Inside the Forbidden Land base.

Jiang Ning watched the energy readings on the dashboard skyrocket; her entire being was enveloped in blue light.

"Come on, let's see who has more energy!"

She pressed both hands onto the console, channeling that mountain-toppling, sea-overturning spiritual energy through the drilling channel and violently pouring it into the Pillar of the World.

*Hum—*

The previously dim runes on the stone pillar erupted with blinding golden light at this very moment!