Chapter 223.1: Blue Star’s Extreme Weather
Cheng Qisheng was drinking fruit juice in the plantation.
With the arrival of summer, Blue Star had once again begun experiencing scorching heat. Every household had turned on its air conditioning to combat the sweltering temperatures, but the more people relied on air conditioning, the greater the strain on the electricity supply.
As a result, the district where she lived had unfortunately suffered a power outage.
Now a Tier 7 Transcendent, Cheng Qisheng wasn’t as sensitive to heat as she used to be. However, in weather this hot, she would still sweat if she didn’t have air conditioning at all.
And so, the great Creator God of Blue Sea had simply retreated to the planting zone to escape the heat.
Fortunately, she had already expended quite a bit of her mental power. That was the only reason she could now slowly make her way to the planting zone on her own. If she had been in her previous condition, it probably would have taken her an entire day and night just to get inside.
At the moment, Cheng Qisheng was reclining on a beach lounge chair, holding a glass of fruit juice and pretending she was on vacation by the seaside.
The only difference was that this particular “seaside” was actually located at the entrance to the planting zone. This arrangement allowed her to enjoy the pleasant climate inside the planting zone, which was just as comfortable as that of Blue Sea Safe City. At the same time, whenever she wanted to go online, all she had to do was extend her hand outside, and she could browse all kinds of information about Blue Star.
Nowadays, fewer and fewer people on Blue Star were complaining about the extreme weather. After all, humans were remarkably good at adapting to their circumstances.
Previously, people had complained because the weather had suddenly shifted from normal to extreme. But now, as extreme weather gradually became part of everyday life, people had realized that complaining wouldn’t change anything. As a result, posts about how terrible the weather was had become less common online.
People were now more concerned with questions like how to stay warm through increasingly bitter winters, how to keep cool during scorching summers, and how to maintain proper nutrition when fresh vegetables and meat were no longer available.
As extreme weather events became increasingly frequent, people in a particular region might even find themselves cut off from the outside world for an extended period following a single natural disaster.
Under such circumstances, people were no longer willing to put their trust in the market. Instead, they were beginning to stockpile more food and pursue self-sufficiency by growing crops or raising livestock at home.
It was rather strange. They were still living in a civilized society, with an abundance of advanced technology at their disposal. They could even venture a little way into outer space beyond Blue Star. And yet, whenever natural disasters became frequent, the people of Blue Star seemed to be thrown straight back into an agricultural society.
The prices of vegetables and livestock had been climbing steadily.
Even the equipment and facilities needed for growing crops and raising animals at home had become expensive.
When the weather first began showing signs of abnormality, vegetable prices and the cost of fresh meat had only just started to rise. At that point, whether out of a desire to save money or a sense of precaution, households that had started growing their own food and raising small livestock were already living relatively comfortably.
The Anle Residential Community, where Cheng Qisheng lived, was one of the better-managed communities in almost every respect when it came to adapting to the new normal of natural disasters.
Back when Blue Star’s weather had only just begun to turn abnormal, some residents had already started sharing their gardening and animal-raising experiences in the community chat group. During the early days, when fresh produce became difficult to find, the property management office had also gone out of its way to locate suppliers.
A few resourceful homeowners had even started small businesses of their own. Among them was a businessman who drove around collecting meat from various places and delivering it to customers. From time to time, he would share information about developments in different regions that most residents weren’t aware of, while encouraging everyone to make more preparations at home.
As a result, the atmosphere in Anle Residential Community was still one of mutual assistance and cooperation.
Cheng Qisheng could see exactly what they were trying to do.
The situation on Blue Star was deteriorating by the day. Natural disasters were becoming increasingly frequent, people were struggling to get enough to eat, countless companies were shutting down, and more and more people were losing their jobs. All kinds of violent incidents were on the rise.
Yet, under these very conditions, when the police received emergency calls, it was becoming increasingly difficult for them to arrive as promptly as they used to.
Blue Star had returned to an era where a distant relative could never be as helpful as a nearby neighbor.
In times like these, the best way to ensure everyone’s safety and bring together the greatest possible strength was to unite the residents of the community.
Of course, there might be cases like those in post-apocalyptic novels, where the end of the world arrived and natural disasters struck, yet the residents were still fighting viciously in their homeowners’ chat groups, practically tearing each other apart.
But such cases would surely be the exception rather than the rule.
Most people were perfectly sensible. When faced with a crisis, their instinct was to band together, ensuring that they wouldn’t be left without help if danger ever came knocking.
Many residents of Anle Residential Community were doing exactly that. The property management office clearly wanted everyone to become even more united. Whenever news reports appeared about incidents such as “More Than a Dozen People Break Into a Residential Community, Robbing and Killing Residents in Several Homes,” they would share them in the community chat group.
Under the pressure of these external threats, the conversations in the group became more harmonious by the day. Everyone was counting on their neighbors to lend a helping hand if their own household ever became the unlucky target of an attack.
What they didn’t know was that as long as Cheng Qisheng was around, the whole notion of “something goes wrong, and the neighbors come to help” would never have a chance to become reality.
In a dimension invisible to ordinary people, vast amounts of mental power poured outward, enveloping the entire Anle Residential Community like an ancient colossal beast guarding its territory.
She had the Heavenly Dao of Fallen Heaven Star to thank for that.
Now, Cheng Qisheng had an abundance of mental power. She could easily spare some to cover the entire Anle Residential Community.
Although the coverage wasn’t nearly as fine-grained as it had been in Blue Sea Safe City, at the very least, the entire community—including its surroundings and the airspace above it—was blanketed in a layer of mental power.
This was something Cheng Qisheng had wanted to do for a long time.
Just as she had always felt the need to maintain control over her own home, once her strength reached a certain level, that desire for control naturally extended to the residential community where she lived.
After spending billions of years of her existence as a god, she had grown accustomed to keeping everything under her control.
And it wasn’t just the community itself that fell within her domain. Cheng Qisheng naturally considered every resident living there to be under her protection as well.
At this very moment, even if a mosquito flew into Anle Residential Community, Cheng Qisheng would be able to sense it.
Other mental-type ability users clearly couldn’t accomplish something like this. At the very least, the mental-type ability users living in Blue Sea Safe City couldn’t.
Cheng Qisheng was gradually beginning to realize that her ability was most likely that mysterious power known as [Rules].
After all, she could devour genuine [Rules] and use her mental power to carve out an independent domain for herself. If her ability wasn’t [Rules], then what else could it possibly be?
Having thought of this, Cheng Qisheng decided to ask the Truth Stone directly.
“Are there any Rule-related pieces of information I can buy at a really cheap price?”
The Truth Stone was currently enjoying its retirement in Blue Sea Safe City. The people who visited it most frequently were members of the Science and Technology Institute.
Hearing its master summon it after such a long absence, it became rather excited and immediately sent out an emoji:
“Yes, yes, there are!! Watch me work my magic!!”
Numbers soon appeared on its beautiful ruby-red surface.
30,000 Nuclear Crystals
This was an acceptable price. It wasn’t particularly expensive. The information was probably something that would automatically be added to the Central AI’s database once a Safe City reached a certain level.
Cheng Qisheng considered it for a second before deciding that it would be better to find out now.
She had previously developed along the path of mental-type abilities. But since there was now an eighty-percent chance that she was actually a Rule-type Transcendent, she might as well prepare in advance.
“Buy it. How quickly can I get an answer?”
The Truth Stone indicated that answers at this price could be delivered instantly.
Sure enough, it soon returned with the information.
[Rule-type Transcendents can create a new world.]
[Rule-type Transcendents can be manipulated by other, more powerful Rule-type Transcendents (extremely difficult).]
When she read the first statement, Cheng Qisheng had wondered whether developing Dark Star counted as creating a new world.
But when she saw the second statement, all her alarm bells immediately started ringing.
What the hell?
Rule-type Transcendents could manipulate one another?
On the one hand, Cheng Qisheng was relieved. Apparently, no Rule-type Transcendents had ever appeared before—although she herself was probably one.
On the other hand, she couldn’t help but become wary. If she ever encountered someone who might be a Rule-type Transcendent in the future, she would make absolutely sure to flee as far away as possible, taking Blue Sea with her.
“How difficult is ‘extremely difficult,’ exactly? Little Stone, help me check something. If I wanted to ask a more detailed question about the method of controlling other Rule-type Transcendents, approximately how many nuclear crystals would that cost?”
The Truth Stone immediately set to work with great enthusiasm.
Once again, a familiar sight appeared across its ruby-red surface.
Rows upon rows of densely packed zeros appeared, almost covering the entire surface of the Truth Stone.
Cheng Qisheng: “…”
“Forget it.”
Looking on the bright side, if she couldn’t afford to buy the method, then even if there really was a second Rule-type Transcendent somewhere in the vast universe, that person probably couldn’t afford it either.
—Her mind needed to be protected with all due diligence, and naturally, her body deserved proper care as well.
At this very moment, if any modern-day robbers tried to break into Anle Residential Community, Cheng Qisheng’s mental power would immediately crush their brains.
She had even thought of where to dump their bodies: the river in the park outside the residential community. Before making her move, she could also use her mental power to interfere with the nearby surveillance cameras.
It seemed that people’s courage really did grow along with their strength. In the past, she had even gone so far as to fabricate a medical history just to avoid attracting attention. But now, she could calmly sit at home and think about how to kill someone right outside her own residential community.
Cheng Qisheng: I’m really cut out to be an assassin.
But there was no denying that ever since she had confirmed that Anle Residential Community was completely under her control, and that she could stay at home while using her mental power to handle the entire process of killing and disposing of the evidence, she had been sleeping much more soundly.
She didn’t need the residents of the community to know that there was a “god” watching over them from behind the scenes. All she needed was to make sure that everyone within the territory she had claimed remained alive and well.
And so, when she learned that there was still a Heavenly Demon on Fallen Heaven Star, even her fruit juice suddenly didn’t taste quite as good.
