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The sheer intensity of the sound was unimaginable. The sound waves clumped together like a boxing champion's heavy punch, smashing viciously into his ears, or like a Ferocious Beast pressing its gaping maw against his cheek and roaring in fury.

Xie Junping swore that he had never heard such a terrifying sound in his life. The shockwave tore through his entire body, squeezing his eyeballs outward and sending his Five Viscera and Six Bowels churning and jolting. In his daze, his flesh seemed like nothing more than a ruptured water bag, ready to burst apart at any moment.

An unprecedented terror swept through his heart like a storm, presenting him, with incomparable clarity, every detail of his body's total collapse from the inside out.

Xie Junping had no idea where this feeling came from, but his psychological defenses had already crumbled. He could not help screaming again, and this time, no one stopped him.

He did not know how long he screamed. Only after Xie Junping had exhausted all his emotions and strength did he realize that he was still hanging in midair, neither better nor worse off.

The violent shock had come suddenly and vanished just as suddenly. A cool breeze now blew over him, but Xie Junping was utterly spent. His fingers barely rested on Ronan's wrist; even the sensation of touch had blurred amid his trembling. He felt as though he were living inside a nightmare.

Worst of all, Ronan, who held his fate in his hands, was slumped there with an awful expression. Those eyes, always so calm and resolute, could not even focus. His palms were damp, and he seemed to be trembling too.

Xie Junping was truly about to cry. "Hey, hey, are you okay?"

Ronan did not answer. Instead, he closed his eyes as sweat slid out from deep within his hairline and dripped down.

Xie Junping finally confirmed that Ronan was in an extremely, extremely bad condition and could hardly move anymore.

If they fell like this, he would not rest in peace even in death!

It was all because of that damned... uh, what was it? An explosion? Xie Junping could not make sense of what the powerful impact earlier had been, nor did he have time to think. He forced his voice louder.

"Hold steady, hold steady. I'll call the police right away..."

Ronan's eyelids twitched, then he opened them with difficulty. His gaze swept over Xie Junping's face as he forced a few words through clenched teeth. "Look at your car!"

"Uh, don't worry about that yet..."

"Look down!"

Xie Junping hesitated, then finally forced himself to suppress his dizziness and fear as his Eyeballs lowered. Then he saw the Phantom's supremely cool outline less than ten meters below and to the side of him.

The Phantom flying car, worth five hundred million, naturally had extraordinary features. Besides racing along magnetic tracks and superconducting roads like an ordinary flying car, it also possessed an airborne braking function for emergencies.

Thus, after falling from the elevated bridge, the flying car had not smashed directly into the ground. Instead, it had automatically activated its hovering function, slowly rising as it searched for a magnetic track connection. Other than a few dents from falling rubble, it had suffered no further damage.

That was their salvation!

Xie Junping was completely jolted awake. He hurriedly issued a command, ordering the flying car to move over and provide him with somewhere to land.

A minute later, the danger was over.

After escaping death, Xie Junping no longer had the strength to speak. He dealt with his wounds simply, then sat in the driver's seat, limp all over.

Ronan did not get back into the car until a while later. To free his hands for the rescue, he had thrown his loose-leaf notebook onto the ground earlier. Naturally, he had to retrieve it.

As soon as he returned to his seat, Ronan closed his eyes. Sweat poured from his body. He had expended too much physical and mental energy earlier; only after recovering his notebook and relaxing both body and mind did it all catch up with him.

Xie Junping stared blankly for a while before finally remembering what he ought to do. The matter had ended rather anticlimactically, but if Ronan had not remained clear-headed throughout and pulled him back at the most critical moment, Xie Junping might have become the most humiliatingly dead member of the Honorary Association at Zhi Xing Institute.

Without a doubt, this was a life-saving favor.

Xie Junping turned his head, about to express his thanks, when a crackling sound rang in his ear first. The miniature earpiece embedded in his ear resumed working, and Yingying called out.

"Hello, hello, Yang Gu, are you all right?"

Xie Junping's mouth twitched. Driven by some intense emotion, he disregarded what Ronan might think upon hearing it and roared, "Yang your sister, Gu your mother!"

The Other Side fell silent for a moment. Then the voice returned, no longer flamboyant but without any anger. "Fine, Young Master Xie. I don't care what state you're in right now, but you must leave that location immediately. According to observations, a powerful impact occurred two minutes ago roughly two kilometers northwest of you and one kilometer underground. The energy was equivalent to a low-yield nuclear bomb explosion, and it formed an electromagnetic storm. As for whether ionizing radiation is currently above safe levels, that is really hard to say."

"A nuclear bomb?" Xie Junping's emotions were instantly crushed. At last, he understood why all his portable electronic devices had malfunctioned earlier.

He hurriedly checked whether the doors and windows were tightly sealed, then activated the detection equipment. Yet several seconds passed without anything happening.

"No, nothing's showing up here."

"You still need to leave quickly. Are you planning to stay there and give a statement to the police?" As she spoke, Yingying sent over a new set of coordinates.

Cursing as he activated the flying car, Xie Junping said, "Wasn't it an earthquake? Wasn't it an earthquake?"

"Regrettably, we cannot find any example of an 'earthquake' that affected only Twelve Square Kilometers while exceeding intensity 9. Therefore, I would rather believe this was an accident... and a disaster-level one at that."

While analyzing the situation, Yingying also made a suggestion. "Also, you should return to Mangzhong immediately. Another earthquake occurred there one minute ago, magnitude 4.5, the genuine article. Your colleagues are probably looking for people everywhere."

"..."

Xie Junping no longer had the strength even to curse.

Yingying continued, "I have taken the liberty of requesting a high-altitude shuttle from your father's company. It will arrive in ninety seconds and should ensure that you return to Mangzhong within twenty minutes."

The facts proved that Yingying's calculations were extremely accurate. Their conversation had barely ended when the Phantom flying car reached the coordinates she had given. It was a landing platform midway up a connected high-rise building. Since it lay outside the Twelve Square Kilometers area, it was relatively calm here. Only some glass had shattered, and cleaning robots were clearing it away.

A Hummingbird shuttle arrived just then. Amid a roar, it descended onto the platform.

Xie Junping stared at the shuttle, somewhat dazed. He slapped his face, forced himself to rally, and got out of the car. After taking a few steps, he suddenly turned back.

"A great favor needs no words of thanks, junior. I'll remember this debt. You don't seem to be in great shape either. Keep this car for transportation and go see a doctor. I'll contact you later."

As he spoke, he transferred control authority over the Phantom flying car to Ronan. With Ronan's own wristband, he could now perform basic operations.

Ronan knew that Xie Junping had just walked through death's door and was in a state of emotional turmoil. It was already rare enough that he had considered this. Ronan said no more and nodded in acceptance.

Xie Junping bowed once more, then jogged aboard. Soon, the shuttle rose into the air and shot deep into the clouds.

The landing platform returned to calm. Ronan took several deep breaths, straightened his back, and extended an arm to grab the functional drink on the Central Control Console. Yet even that simple movement exhausted nearly all his strength, and he fell heavily back into his seat.

He drew in a breath and said softly, "Close the doors."

The Phantom's elegant butterfly doors shut, sealing the interior.

He did not even need to sit in the driver's seat. As long as Ronan set a route to school, the highly intelligent Phantom flying car could naturally deliver him there.

However, Ronan's command had nothing to do with school.

"Return route!"

The flying car turned around and merged onto an automated lane. Still using voice control, Ronan opened the onboard vanity mirror.

The Smart Brain humanely sprayed out a fine mist. Lukewarm vapor washed over his face. It should have felt comfortable, yet it was like countless tiny blades scraping across his skin, making Ronan's entire body convulse.

Looking into the vanity mirror, he saw that his face was gray and lifeless. He looked like a terminally ill patient at death's door.

Ronan bared his teeth and tried to twist open the drink bottle. However, his fingers had no strength, aching and sore. He failed five or six times before finally succeeding.

He pulled out a military energy bar from his pocket, tore open the wrapper, and swallowed it all in one go with the drink. His whole body shuddered several times, but a warmth spread from his abdomen into all four limbs and throughout his body.

As external nutrients entered his body, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves interacted while the digestive and circulatory systems counterbalanced and coordinated with one another, rapidly transmitting energy to every organ and muscle tissue throughout his body.

This was the fundamental mechanism of the human body, built upon the physical foundation of Xing Hai and inherited and evolved through countless generations into its present form.

Yet compared with ordinary people, Ronan's operating mechanism was similar, while his Absorption and Digestion efficiency was five or even ten times greater. In the vanity mirror, color rapidly returned to his face. Within only a few seconds, he looked no different from usual.

Such efficiency was the result of five years of arduous research, comparing his grandfather's notes against relevant theories.

The core concept of his grandfather's theory was called "Format."

In an almost primitive philosophical manner, this theoretical system roughly divided heaven and earth, the universe, and all things in the world into three levels:

Self, society, heaven and earth.

Each level possessed its own unique "Format," expressing the core essence of its existence, operation, birth, and destruction. Between the various levels, complex influences and connections occurred constantly as well.

For Ronan, his grandfather's profound and weighty theory was far beyond what someone his age could understand and comprehend through a single experimental notebook.

For now, he could only focus on the basics, on adjusting and shaping his "Self Format."

In his grandfather's theory, the "Self Format" was the core of everything, a foundation that had to "evolve permanently" in order to bear the crushing weight of the Formats of heaven and earth and society.

Awakening the potential of the human body and possessing "Extraordinary Power" were the basic prerequisites for evolution.

For this reason, over the past five years, Ronan had followed the experimental records in his grandfather's notes, using drug stimulation to gradually modify his own nervous system. Taking it as the central axis, he influenced every organ throughout his body and adjusted his operating mechanisms in hopes of producing a qualitative transformation.

At present, Ronan's Self Format was still only in its early stage, referred to in his grandfather's notes as the "Container." Its primary function was to coordinate the body's organs and systems, digest nutrients from food, contain and store energy, and even nurture the mind—allowing human instincts to gradually adapt to new environments and react appropriately.

As the structure of the "Container" basically took shape, Ronan gradually acquired certain abilities. One was Big Eater, which enhanced digestion, absorption, and recovery. Another was Hypnotist, similar to mental communication. He had previously used it to command crows, and it had worked quite well on Xie Junping today too.

Of course, abilities were merely bonuses. The truly valuable thing lay in the transformation of the Self Format itself.

Accordingly, no factor that affected the Self Format or damaged the existing "Container" structure could be taken lightly.

Ronan stared through the window at the rapidly passing buildings and pedestrians, his brow tightly furrowed. Finally, the onboard Smart Brain displayed a notice. "Magnetic track ahead damaged. Switching route."

The flying car had now reached the beginning of the broken elevated bridge. It was still some distance from where Ronan and Xie Junping had nearly died, but the road ahead had already been sealed off. A crowd of hurriedly arrived media reporters had gathered there as well, making it difficult to get any closer.

The area affected by the "earthquake" was roughly bounded by the elevated bridge.

Looking west from the bridge, whether with the naked eye or through the onboard Smart Brain's scan images, all he could see was a heart-pounding scene of devastation. Near the "epicenter," two hundred-story buildings had collapsed. Rubble piled up like graves, and dust filled the air. Flames flickered within the thick, murky haze. It was practically a recreation of missiles leveling the ground in a World War III documentary.

Yet looking east across the elevated bridge, the metropolis still displayed its prosperity to the fullest.

An ultra-powerful impact, a limited range... If this was called an earthquake, Ronan could only sneer.

He straightened his upper body and looked through the car window toward the distant ruins. Combining the scene before him with the surrounding environment, images from the moment of the incident replayed in sequence through his mind.

He issued another command, bringing up footage automatically recorded by the onboard Smart Brain. The Phantom flying car's high-end features truly deserved praise. Its full-angle high-definition recording had preserved the details to the greatest possible extent.

Ronan selected the period when he and Xie Junping had been hanging at the broken end of the bridge. At that time, they had just caught their breath after escaping the danger of the collapsed bridge when the explosive sonic impact came roaring in, nearly dooming them beyond salvation.

To gain a more vivid grasp of the situation then, Ronan activated the virtual function. The windows immediately blocked all outside light, while projection equipment released layer upon layer of light and shadow that filled the cabin.

Once the angle was adjusted, Ronan seemed to return to the instant the danger arrived.

At the time, he had been holding Xie Junping and facing the direction of the "epicenter," positioned at a perfect angle. When the explosive sonic impact rang out, fire burst forth between the buildings, and the air rippled like water... Then, that was all.

The corner of Ronan's eye twitched. He wanted to issue a command, but held back and let the footage continue playing. Every frame was richly colored and seamlessly connected, forming a complete chain without a single flaw to be found.

At the point where Xie Junping stepped onto the hood, Ronan restarted the footage from the beginning. The result was no different.

He stopped wasting time. Opening his notebook, he thought briefly before the tip of his Electronic Pen touched the Imitation Paper Soft Screen, sketching delicate lines in varying shades.

The lines layered over one another, and a shape quickly emerged.

It was a blurry shadow, vaguely humanoid yet bearing many inhuman traits. Its limbs stretched and bent without restraint. Combined with the shadowed background, even though its head was still only a dozen or so intersecting thin lines, with no face visible, it radiated a violent and evil air.

Ronan paused his pen. After thinking for a moment, he made a few adjustments. Under the slightly exaggerated strokes, the outer region of the shadow twisted more violently, as though it were burning.

With that, it looked exactly like a Demon from hell, wrapped in poisonous Yin Fire as it returned to the world.

Beneath the faint glow of the screen, Ronan stared directly at it and felt a slight chill in his heart, as though the burning demonic shadow would leap out of the Imitation Paper Soft Screen the very next moment.