I changed the world.

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However, those towering pillars of light formed a powerful barrier that effectively blocked any possibility of the appearance of interdimensional passages, thus eliminating the danger of mental impact on the human fleet.

Even so, some crew members still felt uncomfortable and looked away, unable to bear watching any longer.

"Captain Zhu, so... there really are immortals in the Xuanmen sect?"

Captain Huang Haizhong stood in front of the command tower, pressing his temples. As the captain, he could see a clearer image of the detectors on the large screen in front of him. He swallowed hard and then subconsciously asked Zhu Xuting, who was undoubtedly a professional, a question to him.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Xuting licked his somewhat dry lips. In fact, even today, he didn't know how to answer this question. After all, the Fourth Division of the Special Crime Investigation Bureau had been established for far too short a time and had limited resources. Although he knew from some internal documents that the Xuanmen had a profound foundation and many extraordinary individuals within it, and he had even personally encountered some of these extraordinary individuals in previous operations.

Chapter 600 Mandatory Test Completed

However, none of those were as shocking as this one. The power before him, beyond human reach, made him feel unreal. Could it be something a human could do?

Really... there are gods!!!

Having just witnessed the battle, he knew perfectly well how troublesome those monsters were; however, what the fleet was facing was clearly not the real culprit yet…

If they were to truly face the main force… although they were not afraid to sacrifice themselves, no one dared to say… they could win. In fact, he seriously doubted whether their fleet alone could even force the enemy out of their predicament…

If it weren't for that monster that saved the day... the fleet would probably have suffered heavy losses.

The profound depths of the Xuanmen sect... are truly unfathomable...

Fortunately, the Xuanmen sect is on the side of the empire.

Just as he was lost in thought, the monster began to struggle violently, its tentacles vibrating at a high frequency. At that very moment, the detector on the destroyer exploded, and the image on the large screen went black...

Immediately afterwards, the detector monitoring the cosmic background magnetic field also burned out...

A flurry of activity erupted on the ship. Huang Haizhong had no choice but to order the remaining detectors shut down. Meanwhile, seeing that Zhu Xuting remained silent, he guessed that the matter was too highly classified to discuss further, so he understandingly nodded and said, "If it's inconvenient, just pretend I didn't ask..."

"No, it's just that I don't know much about it either..." Zhu Xuting realized he had been somewhat impolite and quickly explained.

"I understand, I understand everything..." Captain Huang Haizhong didn't ask anything more, but just smiled mysteriously at Zhu Xuting, with an expression of complete understanding.

This left Zhu Xuting somewhat bewildered. "What do you know? I didn't say anything..."

But from then on, neither he nor Captain Huang Haizhong had time to discuss these topics anymore.

The next moment, a light shone in everyone's sight!

It was a flash of sword light; everyone who saw it subconsciously thought so…

Sharp, domineering, and indestructible!

It sends a chill down your spine instinctively, and many people, upon seeing the light, experience a complete blank in their minds, gripped by a sense of dread, like a mouse being stared at by a snake…

In that instant, the spiderwebs surrounding the monster seemed to regroup, attempting to protect it. However, what followed was a shrill wail, a distorted and desperate wail that seemed to resonate directly in people's hearts, extremely chilling.

However, right after this wailing, many people felt a sense of relief, as if they had been carrying a heavy burden without realizing it, and now it had finally been lifted off their shoulders.

Immediately afterwards, the enormous monster began to explode, its body torn apart and shattered, its massive form riddled with holes by countless sword energies...

At the same time, on that huge array plate, the lightning chains transformed back into streaks of fire, scorching and burning the monster's last remains and fragments... ultimately burning everything to ashes!

On a level unseen by many, a gigantic phantom emerged from the void, vaguely resembling the monster from before. Now, it was being dragged along, and no matter how much it struggled and twisted, it was still pulled in front of Zhang Jing and finally thrown into the Demon Refining Pot on his chest...

Zhang Jing let out a long sigh of relief, feeling as if his entire body had been completely drained. Although, strictly speaking, he hadn't used his own power to control the Heavenly Punishment Sword's physical body with his Yin Spirit, even so, given his current cultivation level, achieving this level was an immense burden.

Even a fallen god, even one who has fully mastered the Heavenly Punishment Sword, still finds it somewhat difficult to wield that power.

Fortunately, Zhang Taihe gradually laid out, infiltrated, and finally locked the monster's escape route in the void. Otherwise, given the monster's cunning, it would not have been difficult to drive it away, but killing it would have been much harder.

..............................

At this point, the tiger-dragon that had been lingering around the fleet finally left and quickly disappeared from the sight of the fleet members.

After everything calmed down, the huge array began to dissipate, and the clear light that stood like pillars in the sky around it gradually dimmed.

A figure emerged from the clear light, also dressed as a Taoist priest in a wide robe and tall crown. He bowed respectfully to Zhang Jing from afar, and Zhang Jing returned the bow. After the two finished their greetings, the figure disappeared from sight.

The officers and soldiers on the beacon tower were close enough to witness this scene.

"So there were two immortals..." Zhang Chengxi murmured. Suddenly, he remembered something and quickly switched the communication channel to Wang Hanjun. The two discussed for a few words, and then rushed to an open area and began to wave wildly towards the sky!

With the matter settled, Zhang Jing suddenly noticed some soldiers below waving their hands, clearly wanting to say something. After a moment's thought, he had a rough idea of ​​what they were saying.

However, he did not intend to have much contact with the soldiers below. Maintaining a certain distance and a sense of mystery was extremely necessary, and he did not intend to have much interaction with these people anymore.

In particular, he glanced to the other side, where the fleet was accelerating toward the beacon tower; clearly, they also hoped to make contact with the "immortal."

Without responding to the soldiers' actions below, Zhang Jing simply cupped his hands in greeting, then with a flick of his sleeve, disappeared from everyone's sight.

The aftermath of the beacon tower incident was not his concern.

***

承和三十七年西历2016年3月31日09:35临州云山坊张宅

Zhang Jing slowly opened his eyes in the quiet room. After drinking the liquid from the Demon Refining Pot, he gradually recovered. The emptiness he felt after using the Heavenly Punishment Sword had been largely relieved, but the mental fatigue could not be eliminated so quickly. It would probably take a few more days to fully recover.

Zhang Jing took out the wishing book and examined it:

Special Event: The tomb of Song Shouxuan, a famous Taoist master from the Southern Qi Dynasty, was discovered at a road repair site near Banshan Pavilion in Yunhu, the main urban area of ​​Linzhou. You entered the tomb and triggered some strange phenomena.

Your actions led to the escalation of the "Celestial Master's Manifestation Incident"...

A total of 373489 wish points have been added.

Urgent: A mandatory test is about to begin. This test will occur randomly within the next 48 hours. Before the mandatory test is completed, the Wish Book function will be disabled.

The test is now complete.

You have successfully completed the mandatory test, and the wish point growth for this special event has resumed.

Chapter 601 The Pressure Relief Valve of the Human World

Special Event: In order to explore and improve the technology required for interstellar travel, after the successful trial voyage of the "Marwen River" test ship, the human joint scientific exploration agency dispatched three more subspace test ships. Among them, the "Suifenhe" test ship has returned to the Beacon Fort base located in the Kuber planetary debris belt on the frontier of the solar system.

The distant starry sky holds not only wealth, resources, and glory, but also lurking dangers. Humanity was unaware of this deadly peril that had already silently descended upon the "Suifenhe."

A dangerous entity from deep space is attempting to weave the beacon towers into its own lair, thereby coveting Earth's civilization.

You, in your capacity as an "immortal," successfully resolved this disaster at Fengsui Fortress.

The incident resulted in extensive damage to facilities at the Fengsuibao base, as well as loss of personnel and supplies.

The incident resulted in the destruction of some ships in the Zhao Empire's rescue fleet and numerous casualties.

This incident has had a profound impact on the entire human world, and the situation is still developing.

Your actions and this incident have had a disruptive impact on the worldviews of those involved, and will cause multiple countries and supranational entities to reassess their understanding of subspace travel, metaphysics, and religion.

A subtle disturbance has occurred in the world's underlying consciousness, and this disturbance is currently expanding.

A total of 3489 wish points have been added.

Zhang Jing noticed that a new special event had appeared in the wishing book, but this was within his expectations. After all, the incident he had just dealt with had indeed had a far-reaching impact, as could be seen from the wording of this special event.

Located in the Kuber planetary debris belt on the frontier of the solar system, Beacon Tower is the home port of the Earth Defense Force's First Fleet. Although the main force of the First Fleet and many high-ranking officers were not in Beacon Tower at the time of the incident, thus escaping unscathed, Beacon Tower itself is of great significance to the entire human world. After all, it is humanity's most important military base in deep space, designed to defend against invasions from outer space.

In Zhang Jing's view, the casualties and facility damage of that scale could not be covered up silently; there must be an explanation, even if it's just a cover-up. This is undoubtedly not something a single country can decide; it may even require coordination of positions between major powers.

Furthermore, regarding deep space exploration itself, this incident undoubtedly informs the entire human world's leadership that subspace travel carries significant risks, potentially even jeopardizing the very foundation of human survival. This is a significant blow to the ambitious "space exploration" plans of various nations, and until a safer solution is found, these plans will undoubtedly be slowed down.

So, if we think about it more deeply, even someone like Zhang Jing, who isn't exactly a professional in the field, can feel the constant "information bombardment" of various news items surrounding today's "space exploration." In fact, it's fair to say that mainstream financial commentary is currently focused on this. It could be argued that this is the most anticipated technological breakthrough for all of humanity, bar none.

It could even be said that the world economy, which has maintained a relatively long period of prosperity, has undoubtedly benefited from the strong stimulus of "space exploration".

If Zhang Jing's previous world had suddenly acquired similar technological conditions, it would inevitably have brought about a considerable period of economic growth. After all, aerospace-related industries require huge investments and employment, and the expectation of developing a "new world" in the future makes such investments seem justified. Financial institutions are also willing to invest or lend funds for such investments.

However, if this positive cycle is broken, and the "great space voyage" is shelved for some reason, or at least postponed indefinitely, then, regardless of other factors, the resulting impact and even backlash on the global economy will inevitably be significant.

Although Zhang Jing was not a finance professional in his previous life, he was not exactly an economic novice either, and he had basic reasoning abilities for important financial events.

He wasn't sure how the leaders of various countries would act, but that didn't stop him from judging that no matter what they did, they wouldn't be able to solve the problem in the short term. Therefore, from this perspective, Zhang Jing felt he could use this information to gain some financial benefits.

After all, Zhang Jing's current and future plans all require money.

Furthermore, this incident did give Zhang Jing a sense that plans couldn't keep up with changes, and he could even predict that this matter might not be truly over yet.

This is still due to the urgency of the "Great Space Voyage". In Zhang Jing's view, the current world, compared to the world of his previous life, is more united than the previous one, although the countries of mankind still have all kinds of open and covert struggles.

Of course, this is not because the people in this world have a higher level of morality, but because the space technology in this world is more advanced, which has led to the elimination of competition for resources among humans to some extent in a wider world.

At the same time, the fact that extraterrestrial civilizations exist allows humanity to, to some extent, establish an "other" as a hypothetical enemy, which greatly enhances the sense of identity among humans based on the same race and civilization.

Therefore, "interstellar travel" to some extent exists as a pressure relief valve for human civilization. There are vaster resources, lands, markets, and colonies that human nations need. All of these can be resolved through outward expansion rather than inward struggle, thus resolving international conflicts.

However, when this pressure relief valve fails, irreconcilable interests such as markets, land, and the economy will create a zero-sum game, ultimately becoming an increasing pressure on countries.

To some extent, this prospect is not what the nations of humanity want to see, nor is it what Zhang Jing hopes to see, because such a world would most likely lead to a script of conflict between nations.

Zhang Jing's "performance" at Fengsui Fortress not only added a heavy weight to the Xuanmen sect's already precarious position, but will also likely attract various overt and covert requests for help in the future. Of course, this also depends on the level of pressure on the authorities, which will probably become more urgent over time.

When the authorities truly realize that human technology cannot solve this problem in the short term, the Xuanmen (mystical sects) will become their best destination for seeking a possible "correct answer." After all, in the eyes of all those in the know, the Xuanmen is currently the most "professional" force in this field.

Of course, it depends on Zhang Jing's wishes at that time, but in any case, Zhang Jing should indeed consider whether there is a model that can solve this problem.

Chapter 602 A New Wish

After thinking it over, Zhang Jing decided to put that problem aside for now. His most pressing task was to use the information gap he had to increase his cash reserves.