A Sudden War

Lin Tuo put away his sighs, observed a little longer, and confirmed that nothing unusual had happened.

Aether clouds were not physical entities after all, merely clusters of energy. Though they possessed a certain tendency to drift, it was extremely slow, so there was no need to worry about them dissipating in the short term.

However, although quite a few people had tried cultivating, this traditional method of breathing and exhaling was terribly inefficient.

Lin Tuo estimated that the five hundred points of Aether he had injected would be enough to last for quite some time.

Therefore, after collecting Aether from the Creation Mode Sandbox for the second time, Lin Tuo did not continue pouring it into Yang City. Instead, he stored it within himself as a reserve.

Under Time Acceleration, Aether recovered at a considerable rate as well.

Lin Tuo simply made a schedule, set alarms on his phone, and got up every few hours to absorb another batch.

The night passed without incident.

In the blink of an eye, morning arrived the next day.

Inside an office building in Yang City.

As dazzling sunlight shone through the windows and into the empty office.

Li Tai, who had spent the entire night cultivating cross-legged, had his eyelids twitch before finally waking up.

"Phew."

After exhaling and somewhat awkwardly adjusting his breathing rhythm back to normal, Li Tai's mind finally cleared.

"Did I sleep here all night?" Once he recognized his surroundings, Li Tai was plainly stunned.

His memories still lingered on yesterday evening!

After staring blankly for several seconds, he instinctively took out his phone and checked the time. Only then did Li Tai fully awaken, filled with astonishment.

He tried standing up, only to find his body unexpectedly light.

It did not feel at all like he had been sitting there all night.

Logically, after maintaining that posture without moving for so long, his legs should have gone numb enough that he could not stand. Yet in reality, that tingling sensation was barely noticeable!

He twisted his neck. "Crack, crack." As his joints gave a brief, crisp series of pops, Li Tai discovered in astonishment that his cervical vertebrae no longer hurt!

Even his entire body felt unexpectedly weightless!

It was as though his body had turned back several years, returning to his university days.

"This... how could this... could it be..."

Li Tai stared at his own hands in disbelief. After standing there dumbly for a moment, he hurried over to a full-length mirror in the company.

He had assumed that after a whole night, he would certainly look haggard.

Yet when he saw his reflection, this department manager, normally steady in all things, actually cried out in shock.

"Ah!"

In the mirror, not only did he look anything but haggard, but aside from some oil and grime on his skin, his eyes were unexpectedly bright, and he radiated an abundance of vitality from the inside out.

"This... could that Breath Technique really work?!"

At the same time, inside a residential complex in Yang City.

Within a warmly decorated bedroom.

"Purr... purr..."

When Zhou Mo, lying facedown on her bed, was awakened by her cat's purring, she rubbed her eyes and groggily checked the time. Then she jolted so hard she nearly leaped up.

"It's already morning? I... I fell asleep?"

Zhou Mo was somewhat dazed.

She had tried sitting in meditation to cultivate as soon as night fell yesterday, but for some reason, the more she cultivated, the sleepier she became. Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep.

"This is awful... could this cultivation method be a hypnosis technique..." Zhou Mo's pretty face immediately fell. After thinking it over, she picked up her phone and called her best friend.

A moment later, the call connected.

Zhou Mo: "Shan Shan, did you... practice the Breath Technique last night?"

"I did."

"Then... how was it?"

After a brief silence, Zhou Mo heard her friend speak with unprecedented seriousness.

"I meditated all night. When I woke up, not only was I not sleepy at all, I felt more energetic than ever. It even seemed like I had gotten quite a bit stronger...

My skin got better too... This thing might really work.

Momo, you practiced too, right? How did it feel?"

Zhou Mo blinked her big eyes, hesitated, and chose her words carefully.

"I think... it truly works wonders when it comes to improving sleep quality."

Jiang Yishan:??

That morning, similar scenes played out throughout every district of Yangcheng City.

Although most people did not experience any especially obvious effects.

With a sufficiently large population base, however, there would always be people with greater talent.

Coupled with Lin Tuo's help, after just one night, many people could clearly feel the changes in their bodies.

For a few individuals, those changes were especially dramatic.

And this was only the result of cultivating for one night.

At that very same moment.

The "Mysterious Warrior" who had spread the cultivation method, the mastermind behind the Takk Black Box incident, the current master of Lishan Martial Arts School, Chi Kingdom's ambassador for scientific outreach... Lin Tuo had finally finished washing up and arrived beside the Evolution Sandbox.

"Hmm, after one night, the Chi Kingdom has changed this much already?"

Lin Tuo rubbed his eyes and said in surprise.

Before him lay a continent rapidly shifting and transforming.

After a night of development, the Chi Kingdom's appearance had changed enormously from before.

The most obvious changes were the large cities, as well as the massive heavy factories standing in the suburbs.

If, during his last observation, the Chi Kingdom had still been in the period of light industrial development following its agricultural reforms.

Then after one night of acceleration, it had successfully completed its first Industrial Revolution.

It had officially stepped into the age of heavy industry.

Machines replaced manual labor, factories mass-produced goods, and the state regulated a free market... The urbanization process caused by population concentration had also basically been completed.

This could even be seen from the architectural styles.

"Rumble, rumble..."

When Lin Tuo temporarily adjusted the time ratio to 1:1, dispersed the clouds, bent down, and brought his face close to the Sandbox to inspect the details, he heard a faint rumbling sound.

Following the sound.

He saw a pitch-black Steam Train crawling over the plains like a savage bull along a long railway track.

It was a passenger train. The carriages were nearly indistinguishable from one another, brimming with the beauty of industrialization and standardization.

Under Lin Tuo's gaze, it slowly pulled into a station.

Immediately afterward, dense clusters of black dots poured out and rode horse-drawn carriages into the city.

It was nighttime in the Sandbox at the moment, and Lin Tuo was even surprised to spot some light sources resembling electric lamps.

Unfortunately, they were too small for him to make out any details.

"Could the Chi Kingdom have already evolved into the electrical age? Have they learned how to use electricity?"

Startled, Lin Tuo quickly summoned the Virtual Panel and began looking through the Operation Log. After rapidly scanning the records, he slowly exhaled.

"Mm, it seems the second Industrial Revolution has not officially begun yet, but it is not far off. According to the history textbook, this should be the eve of the electrical age..."

Lin Tuo mused as he observed a little longer, then withdrew his gaze and reactivated automatic time adjustment.

Thus, light and shadow began shifting rapidly across the continent once more.

"Mm... Judging by Earth's history, they will probably soon be able to make all kinds of electrical appliances, automobiles, even airplanes."

Lin Tuo looked down at the human society within the Sandbox with a measure of reverence.

Although he could easily destroy this world with a single move.

He had to admit that the "vigorous force" displayed by the entire course of human civilization's development still left him profoundly shaken.

"What a pity. According to the Rules of the Evolution Sandbox, once the civilization within catches up to Earth's level, the time ratio between the two will become 1:1. Otherwise, I really would look forward to seeing them develop to an even higher level of civilization."

Shaking his head, Lin Tuo stopped dwelling on it and prepared to switch to Observation Mode.

However, at that very moment.

Suddenly, in his field of vision, the green arrow beside the Aether concentration on the Virtual Panel abruptly turned into a yellow horizontal bar.

After pausing briefly, it turned into a red downward arrow!

"What happened?" Lin Tuo froze completely.

That symbol meant the Aether within the Sandbox had begun decreasing!

How was that possible?

The Chi Kingdom was supposed to be in an era of flourishing prosperity. Why would it decrease?!

Startled, Lin Tuo hurriedly cast his gaze toward the Sandbox.

Then he saw, to his astonishment, streaks of fire flash briefly across it!

He shut off Time Acceleration at the fastest possible speed, and the scene within the Sandbox became clear.

On a stretch of plains near the center of the Sandbox, dense formations of black dots had gathered.

Tiny flashes of fire appeared from time to time.

Lin Tuo's pupils contracted.

That was a battlefield, smoke and flames, flickering gunfire!

Operation Log:

In the 700,041,048th year of world evolution, the reigning Emperor of the Chi Kingdom passed away. The first-ranked prince ascended the throne. That same year, the Governor of Xizhou launched a mutiny and rebellion, mobilizing the armies of Xizhou. On the Sunset Plains, he dealt the Empire's forces a crushing defeat and marched toward the Capital.

The war had begun.

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