69: Chapter 69 United Nations

Chen Mo left Mount Fuji and flew towards the northeast.

The Kuril Islands swept by beneath him, a chain of volcanic islands scattered across the sea surface.

The color of the seawater transitioned to the dark green of the Bering Sea.

On the sea surface, the density of animals was much higher than it had been a few months ago.

A pod of orcas was cruising on the sea surface, their dorsal fins rising and falling in the waves like black flags.

Not far away, several humpback whales surfaced to breathe, the water spouts they ejected shimmering with rainbows in the sunlight.

Further away in the deep water area, a group of sperm whales was diving, their tail fins flipping out of the water and kicking up white spray.

Chen Mo slowed down and descended.

Fish, whales, and seabirds—every population was growing rapidly under the nourishment of Spiritual Qi.

Their body sizes were also increasing.

He saw a sea eagle with a wingspan of over three meters snatch a salmon longer than its own body from the sea surface and soar away effortlessly.

Then he noticed a hunt taking place near the shore.

A pod of orcas was besieging a group of sea lions. The orcas' tactics were clear: they divided into two groups, one to scatter the sea lions, and the other to intercept the stragglers underwater.

The waves were churned into a frenzy, the cries of the sea lions mixing with the blowhole sounds of the orcas.

Chen Mo felt a stir in his heart and dove down from the air.

He did not use his Force Field to cushion the impact, adjusting his body posture at the moment before hitting the water. He slammed into the sea surface with his whole body.

The spray shot up a hundred meters into the air, a deep crater exploded on the sea surface, and massive circular waves spread outwards.

The shockwave propagated underwater, stunning the orca pod into stillness.

The besieged sea lions took the opportunity to scatter and flee.

The orca pod circled in place for a few moments, and the lead male orca emitted a sharp, rapid whistle, abandoning its prey and preparing to retreat.

Chen Mo surfaced from underwater and locked his gaze on the lead male orca.

Its size far exceeded the normal range; its body length was over twelve meters, and it weighed nearly twenty tons. When its dorsal fin broke the surface, it looked like a moving black spire, nearly twice as high as the dorsal fins of the surrounding common male orcas.

The recorded body length of a normal male orca is between six to eight meters, and the dorsal fin height usually does not exceed one point eight meters.

This orca's dorsal fin was estimated to be nearly three meters high.

Under the nourishment of Spiritual Qi, these marine predators at the top of the food chain were breaking through their own growth limits.

Chen Mo dove underwater and instantly caught up to the underside of the orca.

He expanded his Force Field, supporting the entire belly of the orca from below.

The twenty-ton weight was slowly lifted by the Force Field.

The orca struggled violently, its tail fin slapping the water, emitting low and rapid whistles.

Its companions circled in the distance, not daring to approach.

Chen Mo lifted the orca to a height of a few meters above the water, hovered for a few seconds, and then withdrew his Force Field.

The orca slammed back into the sea, splashing up a massive spray.

As soon as it entered the water, it frantically whipped its tail fin and fled towards the deep water area at a speed far exceeding its normal swimming speed, never looking back.

Chen Mo stopped in the air, watching the direction where the orca pod had disappeared. He did not continue to pursue.

He was just observing.

These animals were completing an evolutionary path of hundreds of thousands of years in just a few months, while humans were still cheering for who could run under nine seconds.

What was happening in the ocean was a silent arms race, and top predators like orcas and sperm whales had already begun their evolution.

The human body was still too weak.

He continued flying towards the northeast.

Two hours later, Yellowstone National Park arrived.

Chen Mo hovered over the park.

The scene on the ground was completely different from the Yellowstone he had seen in videos; the density of the forest was several times what it had been before.

The roads that originally cut through the forest had been completely swallowed by vines and shrubs, the asphalt surface cracked by tree roots and shattered into irregular chunks.

Traces of humanity had been erased, leaving only the boundless primeval forest.

Then he saw those hot spring basins.

Countless blue-green hot spring pools were scattered on the ground, embedded in the middle of the forest like gemstones.

The largest one—the Grand Prismatic Spring—looked like a giant blue-green eye, transitioning from deep blue at the center to emerald green at the edges, and then to golden yellow at the outermost ring.

The thermophilic bacteria floating on the water surface formed gorgeous bands of color, shimmering slightly in the heat waves.

A golden-yellow chasm lay across the forest.

That was the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone; the river had cut through the volcanic rock layers, revealing traces of lava flows from tens of millions of years ago.

To the southeast, a vast blue mirror reflected the sunlight—that was Yellowstone Lake, with an area of over three hundred square kilometers, its surface so calm that there wasn't a single ripple.

Chen Mo descended and spread out his Mental Energy. The scene underground was even more shocking than on the surface.

Magma surged slowly beneath the rock layers, with temperatures reaching thousands of degrees. If this supervolcano System were to erupt completely, it would be enough to cover the entire North American continent and change the global climate.

Under the continuous infiltration of Spiritual Qi, the heat in the magma chamber was slowly increasing.

But there were no signs of an imminent eruption.

Chen Mo hovered in the air for a long time.

Stunning natural scenery and destructive geological forces existed simultaneously in the same place.

He etched this scenery into his memory, then turned and flew south.

The Grand Canyon arrived, just over ten minutes later.

Chen Mo stood on the cliff edge of the canyon's South Rim.

The wind was strong, blowing his clothes tight against his body.

Beneath his feet was an abyss; the canyon floor was so dark in the shadows that details were almost impossible to see, with the occasional silver glint of the Colorado River flashing in the gloomy crevices.

The canyon was over a dozen kilometers wide, and opposite him were layers upon layers of cliffs, illuminated by the sunset into a reddish-brown hue.

The rock layers on the cliff were arranged horizontally, each layer a measure of time.

The bottommost Cambrian rock layer was deposited on the seabed five hundred million years ago;

Above that was the Devonian red sandstone, eroded into its current landscape by rivers two hundred million years ago;

Further up was the Cenozoic yellow limestone, recording Earth's recovery after the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Chen Mo's Mental Energy penetrated the cliff, extending all the way down to the bedrock.

He let his Force Field support him as he slowly descended.

The cliff face swept past him, the texture of the rocks, the outlines of fossils, and the fractured joints sliding upwards layer by layer.

Upon reaching the valley floor, the Colorado River surged turbulently, the water a murky brownish-red.

He hovered over the river surface at the bottom of the valley and reached out to touch the cliff beside him.

His fingertips touched sedimentary rock from hundreds of millions of years ago, coarse and cold, devoid of any breath of life.

Five hundred million years of time was compressed onto this cliff face, and as he stood there, it was like standing before an open book.

He flew along the canyon for a while, then returned to the South Rim and flew towards the nearby Barringer Crater.

A few minutes later, a perfect giant bowl appeared on the wasteland.

It was one point two kilometers in diameter and one hundred and seventy meters deep; the edge of the bowl rim slightly raised, a trace of the surface being compressed during the impact.

Fifty thousand years ago, an asteroid about fifty meters in diameter struck here at dozens of times the speed of sound, equivalent to twenty trillion tons of force slamming into the ground.

Twenty trillion tons.

But the result was only a crater over one kilometer in diameter.

Earth had smoothed away all other traces within fifty thousand years.

Chen Mo stood on the rim of the crater, looking down at the bottom of this giant bowl.

A single punch of his now could unleash a destructive force of over two hundred tons.

A full-strength strike could easily destroy the load-bearing beams and columns of high-rise buildings, and the shockwave of the punch would shatter the entire frame of the building.

But compared to this meteorite, and compared to the Yellowstone underground magma chamber and the Grand Canyon's five-hundred-million-year-old rock layers he had seen along the way, this destruction was still far too small.

He had to become even stronger.

Chen Mo leaped from the edge of the crater and continued his flight.

These days, he had been maintaining his Force Field flight and full-body basic muscle tension training, not stopping even while observing scenery, teasing orcas, or visiting canyons.

The training had been etched into his body.

His strength was growing every day.

Over an hour later, Chen Mo arrived at the east coast of the United States.

Chen Mo went to Washington D.C. first.

Looking down from the air, the city hadn't changed much since the Spiritual Energy Revival; the streets near the White House remained tidy, and the lawns of the National Mall were neatly trimmed.

But the traces of quarantine zones were equally obvious.

He paused near the White House for a moment, sweeping his Mental Energy through the interior.

In the conference room, several top officials were discussing the impact of the Spiritual Energy Revival on the economy.

Everyone's expression was grave, their speaking speed extremely fast, the topics jumping from military budget to medical insurance, and then to reconstruction appropriations for infrastructure.

In another office nearby, a group of scientists was reporting research progress to officials, their phrasing the same as what Chen Mo had heard in Japan.

No entity could be detected, plant growth rates were still increasing, and it was beneficial to the human body, but the mechanism was unknown.

The United States' research direction had a clear characteristic: most resources were invested in extending life and curing diseases, while research into Spiritual Qi itself was relegated to a secondary position.

The logic was not hard to understand; Spiritual Qi could not be detected, but changes in the human body could be.

Rather than hitting a wall with physical detection, it was better to first pick the fruits that could be grasped.

Chen Mo left the airspace above the White House and flew towards New York City.

Manhattan's skyline was as dense as it had been before the Spiritual Energy Revival; occasionally, plants could be seen growing out of the gaps between high-rises, but the overall control was significantly worse than in the Xia Country.

The streets were crowded with people; some were dressed in finery, entering and leaving Advanced malls, while others were wrapped in sleeping bags, lying in the corners of the sidewalks.

Inside the floor-to-ceiling windows of an Advanced restaurant, a group of people were raising glasses in celebration; he didn't know what they were celebrating, but that posture of revelry was clearly visible from across the street.

On the electronic screen at the street corner, the latest sports records were scrolling.

One hundred meters in eight point nine six seconds. The weightlifting events were breaking world records every time.

Humans were becoming faster and stronger, but this city had not become better or worse because of it.

It had just become more like what it was originally meant to be.

Chen Mo hovered over New York City for a moment.

This was one of the most influential cities in the world, and he was standing above it at this moment, like a tourist flipping through a map.

He had once dreamed of traveling the world, dreamed of coming to see these places.

Now that he was really here, he felt it was quite mundane.

It wasn't because the scenery wasn't good enough; these natural wonders were all very beautiful.

It was because his path did not lie here.

These cities, these countries, these people coming and going—their joys and sorrows, their gains and losses, were not on the same trajectory as his.

Chen Mo turned and left New York City.

The observation of the United States ended here.