188: Chapter 188: What's the point of talking about physics? This is called being trapped in a maze.
Deep in the earth's core, the originally dark and chaotic space was instantly filled with a soft and heavy white light.
This white light was not spiritual energy, but the Power of Sentient Wills.
The Cult Master of Annihilation looked at this sudden power, fear appearing in his green-flamed eyes for the first time.
"Impossible! This is the Fire of Sentient Beings? How could you possibly mobilize such power?" He waved his arms frantically, trying to block with black mist, but that mist, which could corrode magic treasures, melted away like snow under the scorching sun before the white light.
Jiang Ning's feeling at this moment was very strange. She felt as if she had become a giant hand, and the spiritual veins of the entire Immortal-Mortal Realm were the lines at her fingertips.
"Old man, your theory of destruction is outdated." Jiang Ning's voice overlapped in the void, carrying a majesty that made one want to kneel.
She grabbed at the void, and the broken spirit-suppressing stakes were instantly reorganized under the envelope of the white light, their size expanding more than tenfold. These massive alloy stakes were no longer cold metal, but flowed with golden liquid, like Sea-Quieting Needles, piercing fiercely into the surroundings of the Pillar of the World.
"Thump—"
This loud bang caused the phantom of the Cult Master of Annihilation to shatter by half.
"Step one, set the foundation," Jiang Ning said indifferently.
Then, her hands interlaced, as if weaving something in the void.
"Step two, connect the veins."
Those originally broken runes on the stone pillars, under her command, actually drew golden magma from the depths of the earth's veins. This magma flowed along the cracks, as if performing "vascular suturing" on the stone pillars.
As each crack was filled, the light of the stone pillar grew stronger.
The Cult Master of Annihilation grew anxious; his true body in the depths of the earth let out a shrill scream, and he transformed into a black streak of light, rushing recklessly toward the Pillar of the World.
"Want to fix it? Then this seat will shatter along with it!"
He was going to self-detonate. The self-detonation of a cultivator at the Great Perfection of the Nascent Soul Stage or higher was powerful enough to level the entire Forbidden Zone and might even truly snap the Pillar of the World.
"In your dreams."
Jiang Ning snorted coldly; her current state of consciousness was nearly invincible.
She tapped lightly toward that black streak of light.
"Space, fold."
The Cult Master of Annihilation only felt the space before him suddenly twist, and his route toward the stone pillar inexplicably turned into a circle.
No matter how he rushed, he was spinning in place.
"What sorcery is this!" the Cult Master of Annihilation roared frantically.
"It's called physics, understand? I've changed the curvature of space." Although Jiang Ning spoke in plain terms, the work she was doing was not sloppy at all.
Guiding the Power of Sentient Wills, she began the final sprint.
"Step three, reshape!"
An indescribably thick golden light pierced from the top of the Pillar of the World to the bottom. The stone pillar, which had been covered in ulcers and cracks, seemed to be reborn at this moment; the stone skin on the surface fell off, revealing a crystal-clear, white-jade-like body inside.
The runes flowed again, and the sound they made was no longer harsh noise, but a roar like the Great Dao's Brahma chants.
"Buzz—"
A fresh, pure-to-the-extreme spiritual energy gushed out from the stone pillar.
It wasn't consuming spiritual energy; it was producing it!
The Pillar of the World was repaired, and it restarted its cycle with the energy of heaven and earth.
The Cult Master of Annihilation was spinning in circles until he was dizzy; when he saw the brand-new Pillar of the World, he was completely stunned.
At this moment, his Dao heart completely collapsed.
"Three thousand years... I planned for three thousand years... only to lose to a mortal..."
His phantom began to dissipate, not because he was killed, but because he could no longer maintain it due to his belief collapsing.
"You didn't lose to me." Jiang Ning's consciousness began to return to her body, and her voice became plain, "You lost to the people of this world who want to live."
The white light dissipated.
The earth's core returned to peace.
Jiang Ning snapped her eyes open and found herself still in the Command Center.
The surroundings were deathly silent.
After a few seconds, Company Commander Zhang asked in a trembling voice, "Consultant Jiang... did we win?"
Jiang Ning didn't speak; she turned to look at the screen.
The Pillar of the World stood there quietly, those spirit-suppressing stakes having merged with the rock layers to become the sturdiest base. The stone pillar emitted a faint white light, and all the cracks were gone.
The base's alarm stopped.
The Nirvana Sect cultists outside, seeing the black flag behind the mountain fall, slumped to the ground one by one, looking as if they had lost their souls.
Just then, the system's frantic notification sound rang in Jiang Ning's mind.
"Ding! Task to repair the Pillar of the World completed!"
"Reward: 1,000,000 merit points!"
"Since the host triggered 'Resonance of All Living Beings' during the repair process, an additional reward of 500,000 merit points is granted!"
"Host's current total merit points: 1,560,000!"
"Energy detected reaching the breakthrough threshold, promotion to the Nascent Soul Stage begins!"
Jiang Ning shouted in her mind, "Holy crap, that's fast!"
Before she could react, a terrifying energy descended from the void and poured directly into the crown of her head.
The Qi Sea, which was originally at the Golden Core Stage, instantly expanded a hundredfold, and a round Golden Core cracked with a 'ka-cha' under the washing of the energy.
A little person who looked exactly like Jiang Ning crawled out of the Golden Core and stretched.
Nascent Soul Stage, achieved!
Above the Forbidden Zone, the thunderstorm clouds that had not dissipated for years suddenly split open with a huge hole.
A rainbow-colored auspicious cloud descended from the sky, enveloping the entire base.
In every corner of the Immortal-Mortal Realm, a hundred flowers bloomed, and withered trees met spring.
Boss Wan on the stargazing platform of the Wanbao Pavilion, looking at the distant vision, burst into tears and knelt directly on the ground.
"Heaven has not abandoned my Immortal-Mortal Realm... Heaven has not abandoned me!"
In the base, Jiang Ning felt the earth-shaking changes in her body, but what she thought was:
"With this million merit points, it should be enough for me to upgrade all the toilets in the entire Immortal Realm to fully automatic ones, right?"