27: Chapter 27: Who's behind this?

Now, real trouble had arrived.

In this place known as the "Sea of Death," a place where every expert claimed water was impossible, a column of water shot up into the sky.

But before everyone could rejoice for even a few minutes, a deadly problem arose.

"Quick! Find a way to suppress the water!" the drilling team captain was the first to react, roaring at his subordinates. "The water pressure is too high! If it keeps spraying like this, the ground will collapse! Our entire camp will sink into it!"

The engineers finally snapped out of it and scrambled to operate the equipment, trying to use whatever they could to plug the borehole, which was growing larger with every second.

But it was completely useless.

The force from underground was terrifyingly powerful; any equipment brought near was instantly blown away or smashed to pieces.

The edges of the borehole began to crack, and the surrounding sandy ground was visibly turning into a quagmire.

"It's over... it's over..." Chief Engineer Sun Hai's face turned pale. "We've punctured a high-pressure underground aquifer! This is absolutely not something we can control!"

Panic spread through the crowd in an instant.

They had just climbed out of despair, only to immediately fall into another pit.

They had found water, only to be drowned by it; there was nothing more unlucky than this.

"Everyone, move aside."

Just as everyone was in a chaotic mess, Jiang Ning's voice, though not loud, was heard clearly by everyone.

She stepped through the muddy water that had already risen above her ankles, walking step by step toward the furiously spraying water column.

"Chief Consultant! It's dangerous!" Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo was startled and reached out to pull her back.

Jiang Ning glanced back at him. With just that one look, Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo's outstretched hand froze in mid-air, and he didn't dare to move again.

Jiang Ning walked up to the strange-looking cement platform that had been constructed.

She called out, "Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo."

"Here!" Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo stood straight instinctively.

"Have your people get ready to activate the 'Water Diversion Array,' from interface number one to thirty-six, insert the energy blocks one by one."

"Yes!" Although Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo didn't understand, he didn't dare to doubt a single word Jiang Ning said. He immediately used his walkie-talkie to issue orders to the people stationed all around the cement platform.

"Interface one, insert!"

"Interface two, insert!"

"..."

As the orders were passed down one by one, the engineers stationed at each interface followed the method they had been taught, inserting energy blocks the size of power banks into the slots left on the cement platform.

These energy blocks were made by Jiang Ning using the spiritual energy collected from the purification towers in the East Sea.

When the last block was inserted, the entire cement platform gave a muffled thud.

Immediately after, the strange patterns on the surface of the platform all lit up, one by one, in a pale blue color!

The light raced quickly along the patterns and finally gathered at the core in the very center of the platform.

A blue shield rose from the platform, like a large inverted bowl, covering the sky-high water column and the surrounding collapsing ground.

"My God..."

"It... it lit up..."

The people outside the platform were once again stunned by the sight before them.

After being covered by the shield, the fierce water column seemed to be gripped by an invisible hand, and the height of the spray began to drop. The water that had been flowing everywhere was also pulled by a force, gathering toward the center of the platform.

"It worked! It really worked!" Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo was so excited that he started shedding tears.

Chief Engineer Wang Heshan and his team of veteran experts were staring so hard their eyes nearly popped out. They had been in engineering their whole lives; where had they ever seen such a thing?

This wasn't engineering; this was simply supernatural power!

But just when everyone thought everything was fine, trouble struck again!

Several large cracks suddenly appeared on the southwest corner of the cement platform!

The interface area that Dr. Li had "supervised the construction of" could not hold up under the immense energy impact!

The blue light in that area dimmed instantly!

"Oh no! There's a problem with interface number 17!" the person in charge of monitoring the data screamed in fear.

As one spot cracked, several neighboring areas also began to split open with a "crack, crack" sound.

The blue shield that had just stabilized began to flicker incessantly, on the verge of extinguishing.

The water column that had been suppressed seemed about to surge up again.

"What's going on?!" Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo felt his heart turn cold. "How could it crack? Is the material strength insufficient?"

He rushed to the cracked area, looking at the spiderweb-like cracks, shocked and unable to understand.

He had personally inspected these materials; there should have been absolutely no problem!

In the crowd, only one person revealed an irrepressible smile when seeing this scene.

Dr. Li!

He clenched his fists tightly, screaming wildly in his heart.

"It cracked! It finally cracked!"

"Ha! What kind of bullshit array! What supernatural power! In the face of science, it's all fake!"

He had already calculated it all.

The spot where he had cut corners was exactly one of the most critical load-bearing points of the entire contraption.

Once that collapsed, the whole thing would be finished!

By then, not only would the water diversion fail, but the underground water would also completely spiral out of control, destroying everything here!

And the person most responsible for this disaster would naturally be that superstitious Jiang Ning, and the foolish Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo who listened to her!

"It's over... this thing is going to collapse!"

"Run! It's going to collapse!"

Everyone was scared out of their wits once again; some of the timid ones had already run far away without looking back.

Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo's face was pale; he couldn't believe that just when it was about to succeed, such a thing would happen.

Chief Engineer Wang Heshan was also dumbfounded; the glimmer of hope he had just raised was shattered by reality once again.

Could it be that what they just saw was only an illusion?

At this critical juncture, the girl who had been standing in the center of the platform finally moved.

Jiang Ning raised her head, her gaze piercing through the flickering shield, landing straight on the face of Dr. Li, who was snickering in the crowd.

Her gaze was very cold.

The smile on Dr. Li's face froze instantly.

He felt as if he had been targeted by something; a chill rose from the soles of his feet, making him feel cold all over.