75: Chapter 75: Country M: This is truly unbelievable!

The total annihilation of the "Ghost" squad didn't even make a splash in the world of ordinary people.

The common folk in Donghai City continued to go to work and return home, living their quiet lives as usual. The only difference was that they felt the city's public security had been surprisingly good lately; petty theft had vanished. Even the air felt much better, making people feel more energetic while walking on the streets.

However, on the other side of the Earth, in Langley, Country M.

Inside the underground conference room of the "Obelisk", the atmosphere felt as if it had frozen solid.

The white-haired old man sitting at the head of the table stared intently at the screen. On it was the last footage transmitted back by the "Ghost" squad before they lost contact: an incomprehensible energy map and a blurry figure leaping a hundred meters from the surface of the sea.

"Who the hell can tell me what the hell this is?!" The old man's voice was trembling, out of anger and fear.

No one in the conference room dared to make a sound.

Everyone sitting here was a bigwig in the intelligence and military circles; there wasn't any black technology they hadn't seen. But what was before their eyes exceeded everyone's scope of understanding.

"We... we have lost 'Ghost'." A general finally managed to squeeze out a sentence, "The last time they sent a signal was at an abandoned shipyard in Donghai City. We asked the Xia Kingdom, and they said... they were conducting an 'anti-terrorism exercise' and accidentally made an arrest."

"Bullshit!" The old man slammed his hand on the table, "Accidentally made an arrest? They captured our top-tier special agent squad as terrorists? This is a slap in our face!"

"We must retaliate! Sanctions! Send an aircraft carrier over!"

"How can we retaliate?" Another intelligence director looked bitter, "We haven't even caught a glimpse of the enemy's shadow. Should we go to war with the Xia Kingdom just because of an 'exercise'?"

No one in the conference room spoke again.

For the first time, they felt that their hegemony, which ran rampant across the globe, was as fragile as paper in the face of a power they couldn't comprehend at all.

"Investigate." The old man finally slumped into his chair, looking completely broken, "Use all resources, spare no cost. I want to find out what exactly happened in the Xia Kingdom, in Donghai City!"

Jiang Ning didn't care at all about how much of a stir was happening outside.

For the past few days, she had been completely immersed in her newly built laboratory.

The laboratory was converted from an old shipyard warehouse, and it was piled high with "spoils of war" stripped from the "Ghost" squad.

Sniper rifles, micro-bombs, memory metal, quantum communicators, camouflage suits...

These black technologies, which were considered top-of-the-line in the eyes of others, were no different from a pile of novel toys to Jiang Ning.

She took these gadgets apart piece by piece, studying their materials, structures, and principles.

With her brain, which was comparable to a supercomputer, and her control, which was precise down to the atom, these complex modern technologies were peeled away layer by layer, revealing what was at the very core.

"Interesting."

Jiang Ning picked up a chip she had disassembled from a camouflage suit.

The circuits inside the chip, which were tens of thousands of times thinner than a human hair, were crystal clear in her mind.

"Using electrical signals to control light refraction... the idea is good, but the energy efficiency is too low, and it's easily interfered with."

She shook her head, casually picked up a piece of ordinary glass nearby, and with wisps of spirit energy emerging from her fingertips, she quickly drew something on the glass.

A few seconds later, a micro "Illusion Array", a hundred times more complex than the chip's circuits, was carved onto the glass.

She injected spirit energy into it.

A magical thing happened. The piece of glass suddenly became like water ripples, and the light distorted as it passed through. Looking through the glass, the things behind it suddenly disappeared.

"That's more like it." Jiang Ning nodded with satisfaction, "Distorting light directly from the rules is simple, saves effort, and doesn't consume energy."

Professor Chen and Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo, along with a group of young researchers nearby, were dumbfounded.

For the past few days, they had been staying in Jiang Ning's laboratory every day, watching such god-like operations, and their worldviews were being reshaped daily.

In their eyes, Jiang Ning wasn't doing scientific research; she was clearly creating a world.

She could take a piece of ordinary steel, burn it with a flame they couldn't understand, and it would turn into "Spirit Steel" that was tougher than all known alloys on Earth.

She could extract high-purity "Spirit Silicon" from a pile of sand, and then directly carve "Array Circuits" on it that were countless times more precise than the best lithography machines, creating "Array Discs" faster than supercomputers.

She could even use ordinary seeds, add some soil and water, and within minutes, force the growth of "spirit plants" with all sorts of magical effects.

"This... this is new physics, new chemistry, new biology..." Professor Chen muttered to himself, his eyes full of fanaticism, "No, this is... 'Immortal Science'!"

He decided on the spot to apply to the state to establish a new discipline called "Spirit Particle Physics" to specifically study everything Jiang Ning had demonstrated.

As for Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo, he had completely become Jiang Ning's number one fan.

He now looked at Jiang Ning with more affection than he would his own father. He followed behind Jiang Ning every day, asking, "Engineer Jiang, do you think this works?" or "Engineer Jiang, what are your next instructions?", having long forgotten his status as a chief engineer.

Jiang Ning didn't really care about any of this.

She simply enjoyed the joy of this kind of "research" and "creation".

Through dismantling these Earth technologies, she had gained a deeper understanding of the rules of this world, making it easier for her to modify things in the future.

Just when she was having a blast, the long-lost system notification sound rang in her mind.

[Ding! Detected that the host has successfully protected the "Pearl of the East Sea" project, crushed the conspiracies of foreign forces, and won a peaceful environment for engineering construction.]

[Comprehensive assessment: Perfect.]

[merit points reward: 20,000 points.]

[Special reward: Unlocked advanced permissions for the system store, obtained "Mountain Protection Array Detailed Explanation (Introductory Chapter)"].

Twenty thousand merit points!

Jiang Ning's eyes lit up.

This was a huge sum of money. Added to what she had left before, she now had over thirty thousand merit points, enough to exchange for several treasures for the Foundation Establishment Stage.

But what surprised her even more was that book, "Mountain Protection Array Detailed Explanation".

The "Spirit Induction Array" she had currently set up mainly functioned to gather spirit energy and alter the environment; although it had some defensive effects, it wasn't professional after all.

And the "Mountain Protection Array" was a war fortress used by Cultivator sects to defend their mountain gates!

Once set up, let alone mortal weapons, even if a Golden Core Stage Cultivator came, they wouldn't be able to break it easily.

This thing came just in time!

Jiang Ning immediately calmed her mind and began to study this secret manual.

She didn't notice that at the exact same time she received the reward.

In another cosmic dimension so far away that it couldn't be measured in light-years.

Inside an immortal sect called "Tianyan Sect".

On the "Star Observation Platform" at the highest point of the sect, a white-haired elder was frowning at a huge crystal ball.

Just a moment ago, on the crystal ball, a coordinate point representing an "Unknown Newborn Realm" suddenly erupted with intense energy fluctuations.

That fluctuation flashed by, but the power within it made this Tribulation Transcendence Stage bigwig, who had lived for thousands of years, feel his heart skip a beat.

"Senior Brother, what's wrong?" Another elder walked over.

"Come look." The white-haired elder pointed at the light spot that had already dimmed, "Just now, 'Mortal Realm Coordinate - 735', which is the 'Age of Dharma Decline Realm' we discovered last month, erupted with energy no less than a full-strength strike from a low-grade immortal artifact."

"What?!" The elder who arrived later was shocked, "Isn't that world almost out of spirit energy? How is that possible?"

"I don't know either." The white-haired elder's expression was grave, "I calculated many times, but I couldn't see through that world. It seems to be covered by a higher-level mist."

"An anomaly must have a demon. A world in the Age of Dharma Decline having issues one after another... there must be a great secret behind it, or even... a massive opportunity!"

"Then what does Senior Brother mean?"

The white-haired elder was silent for a moment, then made up his mind.

"We can't wait any longer. Our Tianyan Sect hasn't had anyone ascend for thousands of years. This opportunity must be seized!"

"Pass on my decree: activate the 'World-Breaking Flying Ship'! Even if it exhausts the sect's savings of a hundred years, we must open a stable channel to 'Mortal Realm - 735'!"

"Also, from the inner sect disciples, pick one with the best aptitude and the steadiest character, and prepare to descend into that world!"

"Yes!"

A genuine Cultivator from "home" was about to cross the endless void and descend upon Earth.

A true collision of different civilizations was about to begin.

And Jiang Ning, the culprit behind all of this, was still completely unaware of it.

She was still enthusiastically researching how to perfectly integrate her "Mountain Protection Array" with the subway system of Donghai City.