115: Chapter 115 Directional Explosive Earth-Penetrating Bomb, Specially Designed to Counter All Kinds of Mountain-Protecting Formations

The wind scraped across the cliffs of Taibai Mountain like a knife, whipping up gravel and dead leaves, battering the vermilion window lattices of the Scripture Pavilion with a rhythmic clatter.

Xiao Aotian, like a stray dog, huddled on the top floor of the Scripture Pavilion with the few remaining brainwashed core "Disciple" members. His hair was disheveled, and his once-pristine white robe had long since turned into a rag, covered in mud and bloodstains.

"System! System, say something!" Xiao Aotian gripped an unfinished golden-nanmu railing and roared at the air, "This is the last line of defense! The Scripture Pavilion is connected to the main Spiritual Vein of Taibai Mountain! If this place is gone too, I am truly finished!"

Inside his mind, the System, which usually acted so arrogant and high-and-mighty, was now like a radio with a bad connection, crackling incessantly.

[Warning... Force majeure factors detected... Suggest host... surrender immediately... strive for leniency...]

"Get lost!" Xiao Aotian kicked over the incense burner beside him, "I am the Child of Destiny! Surrender? That will never happen in this lifetime! Since they won't give me a way out, don't blame me for dragging the entire Qinling Mountains down with me!"

At this moment, on the platform outside the Scripture Pavilion, Gu Changan and his men had already closed in.

This time, there was no roar of heavy machinery, only the synchronized footsteps of the Special Task Force members—a death countdown made by military boots striking the rock.

Gu Changan stopped fifty meters away from the Scripture Pavilion. He looked up at the pavilion built against the mountain, hanging in mid-air, and adjusted his glasses.

"Xiao Aotian."

The voice from the loudspeaker echoed through the valley, steady, indifferent, and devoid of any emotion.

"The road ahead is blocked. Do you still intend to offer futile resistance?"

Xiao Aotian rushed to the railing, holding a Jade Slip emitting a dim blue light. It was the core hub controlling the "Spirit Gathering Formation" beneath the entire Scripture Pavilion.

"Gu Changan! Don't come any closer!"

Xiao Aotian's face was hideous, dried blood still hanging from the corner of his mouth, like a gambler at the end of his rope, "Take one more step, and I will crush this Formation eye! Beneath this lies the underground river and the Spiritual Vein nodes of Taibai Mountain! If the Formation self-destructs, the underground water System within a hundred miles will be severed by the turbulence of Spiritual Qi! By then, this entire area of the Qinling Mountains will become a dead zone! Can you bear that responsibility?"

He was betting that Gu Changan wouldn't dare. After all, these were government officials, and they were most afraid of being overly cautious for fear of damaging something valuable, and most afraid of affecting innocent people and the environment.

However, Gu Changan only looked at him indifferently, with the kind of gaze one might use on a brat holding a water gun and threatening to flood the city.

"Chen Xiaobei." Gu Changan turned his head.

Chen Xiaobei immediately handed over a military-grade rugged tablet, the screen displaying a complex 3D geological structure map.

Gu Changan swiped his finger across the screen twice and then turned the screen toward Xiao Aotian.

"Is the Spiritual Vein you mentioned referring to that karst cave underground river three hundred meters below?"

Gu Changan's voice remained without the slightest fluctuation, "Sorry, but ten minutes ago, water conservancy experts already diverted this underground river via upstream sluice gates. The riverbed beneath your feet is now dry."

Xiao Aotian froze for a moment, his hand holding the Jade Slip trembling: "You... you're full of it! That is a Heaven and Earth Spiritual Vein! How could it be stopped by Mortal sluice gates?"

"As for the Spiritual Vein nodes you mentioned..." Gu Changan retracted the tablet, his tone laced with a hint of mockery, "The Geological Bureau has surveyed it; it's nothing more than an abandoned fault zone. Your so-called 'Spirit Gathering' is actually just utilizing the cracks in the fault zone to draw up radon gas from underground."

"In other words, you have been Cultivating by inhaling radioactive waste gas."

Gu Changan sighed, seemingly feeling pity for his intelligence, "I didn't want to use force; after all, this pavilion is quite tall, and demolishing it carries the risk of falling debris. But since you are using public safety as a threat, we have no choice but to handle this as a special case."

He raised his hand and gave a low order into his headset.

"Vulture Squad, target locked. Execute Plan B, surgical demolition."

Hum—

The sky suddenly darkened.

Xiao Aotian looked up abruptly to see several small black drones diving down from the clouds. Mounted on their bellies were not missiles, but several metal rods about a meter long and only as thick as an arm.

These rods were pitch black, with stabilizing fins at the tail, and their tips glinted with the cold light unique to tungsten alloy.

"Is this your method?" After seeing what they were, Xiao Aotian couldn't help but laugh wildly, "A few iron rods? Gu Changan, are you here to be a comedian? They aren't even as thick as my wrist! This stuff isn't even enough to scratch the Scripture Pavilion!"

He had expected a sky full of missiles, and this was it?

Gu Changan ignored his mockery and just watched his watch, counting down.

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

Pfft, pfft, pfft.

There was no earth-shattering explosion; the sound was even pitifully small.

Those "iron rods," utilizing gravitational acceleration, sliced through like tofu, inserting themselves with pinpoint precision into specific rock crevices around the Scripture Pavilion. The depth reached the very core of the foundation.

Xiao Aotian blinked: "That's it? Are you planting incense sticks?"

The corners of Gu Changan's mouth curled slightly, and he pressed the detonator in his hand.

"This is called a directional high-frequency oscillation ground-penetrating bomb. It is designed to cure all kinds of fancy foundations."

Zzz—!!!

A teeth-grinding high-frequency sound wave erupted instantly.

This wasn't a regular gunpowder explosion, but the use of high-energy sound waves to create millions of tiny vibrations inside the rock. In that instant, the solid rock layer beneath the Scripture Pavilion, under the tens of thousands of vibrations per second, had its structure completely loosened and disintegrated.

The rock, which had been one solid piece, turned into quicksand.

Xiao Aotian felt the ground beneath him vanish.

That feeling was just like squatting on a toilet, only for the floor to suddenly disappear.

"What the—"

Rumble!

The Scripture Pavilion of the Aotian Sect, which stood on the edge of the cliff and claimed to be "impervious to all Dharma," didn't even have a chance to struggle. Like a man drunk out of his mind, its knees went weak, and it collapsed heavily toward the inside of the cliff.

The wooden structure groaned under the pull of gravity, and the golden-nanmu pillars snapped like matchsticks. Dust billowed everywhere.

A few minutes later.

Gu Changan waved his hand, and the Special Task Force members turned on their high-intensity flashlights, shining them toward the ruins.

In the center of the ruins, several broken wooden planks shifted.

Xiao Aotian crawled out, covered in dirt and grime. His white robe was no longer distinguishable in color, his hair was frizzed out like a bird's nest, and his mouth was stuffed with dirt and wood chips, looking exactly like a groundhog just dug out of the earth.

Before he could even catch his breath, a pair of polished leather shoes appeared in his field of vision.

Gu Changan looked down at him, holding that law enforcement recorder, the lens aimed directly at Xiao Aotian's disheveled face.

"Upon investigation."

Gu Changan's voice remained steady as he spoke, writing in that little notebook of grudges.

"Xiao Aotian, without obtaining a mining license, you privately excavated underground tunnels, damaged geological structures, and seriously threatened the safety of the downstream water System. According to the 'Mineral Resources Law' and Article 343 of the 'Criminal Law,' this constitutes the crime of illegal mining, with particularly serious circumstances."

"Add to that your previous illegal land occupation, illegal logging, and violent resistance to law enforcement..."

Gu Changan closed the notebook with a snap.

"Congratulations, your prison sentence will likely start in the double digits and go up from there."

Xiao Aotian lay on the ground, staring blankly at Gu Changan. He wanted to mobilize his Spiritual Qi to resist, but that familiar sense of powerlessness washed over him again. This was still that damned "Law Enforcement Domain."

He trembled, frantically calling out to the System in his mind.

"System! Save me! Give me power! Even if it means overdrawing my life force!"

This was his last straw.

However, this time, the response given by the System was chillingly desperate.

[Ding! 'National Will' strong suppression detected, current regional rules have been overwritten by 'Real World Laws'.]

[System judgment: Host's behavior has constituted a serious violation of the law, and there is no possibility of a comeback.]

[Suggestion: Host, stop resisting immediately, put your hands on your head, and confess for leniency. This System is about to enter sleep mode to avoid the risk of being purged as 'illegal software'.]

[Goodbye.]

With the fading of the electronic voice, Xiao Aotian felt something inside his body snap completely. The cheat that made him think he was the protagonist of the world had gone offline.

"No... you can't leave... you are my father..."

Xiao Aotian let out a desperate whimper and collapsed into the mud.

Gu Changan bent down, pried the already cracked Jade Slip from Xiao Aotian's hand, and casually tossed it into an evidence bag.

"Take him away. Don't let him die; this is a great teaching material for legal education."