i can hear your voice

"It was reported on the news." He Hengchuan said.

"...Let me see." Ruopu hurriedly searched for news on the Internet.

After coming out of the rain and mist forest, Ruo Pu hadn't paid attention to the situation in the southern border, and he didn't expect his sister to make new moves so soon after the northern part of the southern border had just been unified.

The latest situation in the southern border is: the "Civil War" broke out in the southern border. The northern army has broken through the Yinhe line of defense and set foot on the southern land. At present, the northern army has captured the military center Zhenping, and the southern forces are in danger.

However, the news did not mention that the mutated animals in the rain and mist forest left the forest. It just said that General Su Lin awakened the ability to manipulate animals. During the war, he put the mutated animals into the battlefield. It is more powerful than fighter planes and tanks. In other words, the strength of the northern army has been greatly improved.

"Those mutated animals should come from the Rain and Mist Forest?" He Hengchuan asked.

Ruopu nodded silently, it should be.

After leaving He Hengchuan's place, Ruo Pu and Shi Yan went to Le Youyuan's laboratory.

On the way, Ruo Pu said to Shi Yan: "I think my sister might really want to unify the southern border."

Shi Yan said: "Maybe."

Ruo Pu sighed: "I hope she won't become addicted to war."

Shi Yan nodded.

Ruopu said again: "She absorbed Hei Jing, I don't know if that thing will affect her—hope it won't make her belligerent."

After a moment of silence, Shi Yan said: "Don't worry, aren't we studying the crystal essence? If necessary, you can persuade her to take it out."

"She won't listen to me."

"Can you consider taking compulsory measures?" Shi Yan suggested.

Ruopu was stunned for a while, then said: "If necessary, I can consider it... However, my sister has been getting stronger, I may not be able to beat her in the future, and I may not be able to beat her now."

"You will also become stronger." Shi Yan said.

Ruo Pu bent his eyes: "I know, the main reason is that I don't want to fight with her."

Shi Yan looked at him, hesitated for a moment, then reached out to hold his hand.

Ruo Pu blinked, and held Shi Yan's hand instead.

When they entered Le Youyuan's laboratory, Le Youyuan's first words were: "Congratulations."

Ruopu was puzzled: "What?"

"Congratulations, you finally caught up with Shi Yan."

Shi Yan looked at Ruo Pu.

"..." Ruopu's cheeks were hot, "Don't invade our privacy!"

Le Youyuan: "I saw it from the public surveillance system, how can this be called an invasion of privacy?"

"Then you should also see no evil."

"You guys didn't do anything. Even if you were doing something, it's your responsibility. If you dare to mess around in public, don't blame others for looking at you."

"..."

Shi Yan changed the subject aloud: "Teacher Le, is there any progress in the experiment?"

He asked about the crystal pith detection experiment that Le Youyuan has been carrying out recently. The ultimate goal of this experiment is to manufacture a crystal pith detector.

Le Youyuan's attention was drawn away immediately. He walked to a machine, opened the shell of the machine, and exposed the parts inside. He said: "I thought of a new plan, which can add star iron to some parts. , can't it restrain the crystal marrow? The crystal marrow should have a certain reaction when it is close to the star iron..."

After he finished explaining his thoughts, Ruopu asked a question: "But star iron is a limited resource, and it will be used less and less. What should we do when it runs out?"

"Just use it first. If you don't use it, it will be dead. Didn't you bring back a batch of Star Iron when you went to the Rain and Mist Forest? Give me some to try."

"The crystal essence is renewable," Shi Yan also had doubts, "but why not the star iron?"

Ruo Pu tilted his head and thought for a while, then said: "Maybe Star Iron can also be regenerated, but we haven't discovered this yet?"

"Let's go to those biochemical experts for this kind of thing." Le Youyuan said again, "Go find a way to approve some star iron first?"

Shi Yan agreed: "Okay, I'll give it a try."

At noon the next day, Song Mingqing came over from Yucheng, and everyone went to see Lin Zirui, only to find that he was not in the ward.

After looking around, I found that he was not in other places, so I could only check the surveillance, but it turned out that he hadn't left the ward at all.

Ruopu said: "It should have entered the space. It seems that we have to install a trigger for the ability in our research institute."

"Yes," Song Mingqing agreed, "it's not to prevent our own people, but to prevent people from outside from sneaking in."

About a quarter of an hour later, Lin Zirui came out from the space. He sat on the hospital bed and happily announced to everyone: "My abilities have increased!"

Ruo Pu was frowning at first, but when he heard what he said, he didn't bother to "blame" him for a moment.

Song Mingqing smiled and asked, "Can you confirm the destination?"

"...No." Lin Zirui's excitement diminished a bit, "It's because the space has expanded, and I can go farther."

Ruopu: "That's why you've been 'missing' for so long?"

Song Mingqing looked at Ruo Pu, and said to Lin Zirui: "We are very worried about you and have been looking for you for a long time."

"Oh... I'm sorry, I just came out just to look around, but I found that the space has changed, so I stayed in it for a long time..." Lin Zirui showed a pitiful expression. Compared with a year ago, he Although the baby fat on his face has faded a little, he still looks the most childish among several people, and now he looks a bit like a wronged puppy.

Shi Yan looked at him, then at Ruopu.

Ruopu: "At least leave a note next time."

"Understood!" Lin Zirui nodded vigorously.

Only then did Ruopu relax his tense face, showing some smiles: "Just now you said that the space has been expanded, but your space is already very large. Is there any benefit after the expansion compared to before?"

"Yes, there are more beams of light!" Lin Zirui said, "In other words, there are more places I can go to, although I still can't determine the destination..."

"That's pretty good." Ruo Pu comforted you, "Since you have been able to improve your abilities, then continue to improve, and you will be able to determine your destination sooner or later."

"Hopefully."

"How did you improve your ability?" Song Mingqing looked at Lin Zirui's feet and teased him, "Could it be because of your injury?"

"One thing," Lin Zirui looked at Ruo Pu, "Didn't you tell me that willpower is very important? I think my ability improvement is related to my willpower."

Song Mingqing: "Willpower?"

According to his cognition, there is a little relationship between the improvement of abilities and willpower, but not very much, because people with poor talent, no matter how strong their willpower is, their abilities still cannot become stronger. The world of abilities is so cruel , independent of human will.

"Well, it's like holding a puff of breath in my heart, and this puff of breath is getting stronger and stronger, and finally broke through the bottleneck." Lin Zirui said to Ruopu, "No wonder your ability is so strong, your willpower is stronger than everyone else's. firm."

Ruopu showed a surprised expression: "Not at all."

"When you were in Yuncheng, you could sit on your seat and do the papers for a day. Isn't your willpower strong?"

Ruo Pu shook his head: "I'm average, but Shi Yan has the strongest willpower."

Everyone looked at Shi Yan.

"..." Shi Yan said expressionlessly, "Except for exams, I have never finished a whole paper at once.

Everyone laughed.

Ruopu said: "That's because you are not interested, and you also have a problem with attention. Willpower and attention are different. I think willpower is a kind of belief, which is a bit similar to self-confidence."

Song Mingqing thought about it, then nodded. Talent is indeed related to self-confidence, which will eventually cause the strong to become stronger and the weak to remain weak. The former is a virtuous circle, and the latter is an endless circle.

When we were alone afterwards, Shi Yan asked Ruo Pu: "Do you think your willpower is not strong enough? Or do you think your supernatural ability is not strong enough?"

"Not strong enough." Ruo Pu said.

Because he has seen another very strong "self" in the video, the other party can escape from the crashed plane, but he must not be able to.

Probably the other party, like Lin Zirui, was suffocated and had a very firm belief in the pursuit of power.

I also pursue power, but because of different experiences, my pursuit of power must not reach the level of the other party.

Shi Yan looked at Ruo Pu for a while, then leaned over and kissed him, when he was about to back away after the kiss, Ruo Pu held his neck, and the two of them stuck together again intimately.

In the afternoon, Song Mingqing went to see the captives captured by Ruo Pu and the others, and told Ruo Pu after the meeting: "These people are soldiers in the army of General Su Lin in the southern border, and the crystal essence in their bodies is provided by the army. They absorb the crystal essence. It's not long."

He suggested: "You can take a crystal essence from them and test it to see if it is consistent with the one in the rain and fog forest."

Ruopu nodded: "Yes."

Song Mingqing: "If it's not the same, you need to compare it with other crystal essences. I hope there won't be a new crystal essence."

These days, he was investigating the crystal essence in Yucheng. After analyzing the memory of the crystal essence owner, he found that most of the crystal essence in Yucheng came from the rain and fog forest, but a small amount came from the inland.

There are two types of inland crystal essence, one is originated from Jingcheng, Ruo Pu guessed that it should come from Xie Weiming's black crystal, of course, it was not spread by Xie Weiming, because the transmission time is relatively early At that time, Xie Weiming hadn't absorbed Hei Jing, and he was still the director of the supernatural power in Longgang; the other source was unknown, it should come from that Mr. different crystals.

Song Mingqing: "They are stationed in the forest because of the order from above. They are asked to guard the 'giant wooden bridge' and to monitor the animals in the forest. Once they find ferocious mutated creatures, they need to report them immediately.

"There are also Taoyuan Villagers who were taken away by their army, but they were not arrested by force. The two sides negotiated the terms. The army will help the Taoyuan Villagers settle down outside, and the Taoyuan Villagers need to work for the army."

"How are those Taoyuan people who came to us before without crystal essence in their bodies?" Shi Yan asked.

"Fortunately, they are all quite peaceful, and their life is relatively smooth, and they haven't encountered too many difficulties." Song Ming went to "visit" them a few days ago when he was investigating the source of the crystal essence. "Compared to the southern border, ordinary people still live happier here."

——The standard of living in Zhongzhou is much better than that in the south, and Zhongzhou is very peaceful, at least for now.

Ruopu is concerned about another question: "Are there other 'giant wooden bridges' in the forest?"

"Yes, there should be more than six more. They don't know the exact number. They are just low-level soldiers who obey orders."

"Well. Those bridges must be destroyed as soon as possible." Ruopu said, "And we also need to set up surveillance points, or outposts, in the forest like them, so that we can easily grasp the situation in the forest."

Song Mingqing nodded and asked, "Should we send awakened mutants in?"

Ruo Pu: "Yes, although most of the ferocious mutated animals in the Rain and Mist Forest have moved away, it is still a very dangerous place, and it is still too dangerous for ordinary people to enter."

"I thought of a problem that might be more serious." Song Mingqing said, "The public opinion environment in Zhongzhou is basically against the crystal essence, and the southern border is in war, so they have not been influenced by our public opinion to form this kind of thinking. On the contrary, they feel that Regardless of whether there are side effects or not, as long as it can promote awakening, then the crystal essence is a good thing, which will cause a problem, our awakened people may be less than those in the southern border."

In fact, it may be much less, because the total population of the central state is about one-third smaller than that of the southern region.

With a small population base and without the help of external forces, the number of awakened mutants will definitely be much smaller, at least in recent years. As for what will happen in the future, it depends on whether the side effects of the crystal essence are obvious.