Chapter 291: Chaos in Chang'an

A small branch of the Dragon Vein was overloaded.

The Dragon Vein is a massive energy source in Tang Nation that permeates all its territory, providing energy for The Axis of All Realms and powering all institutions in Chang'an.

When a small branch overloads, it causes a unique phenomenon in Chang'an, something not seen in a hundred years.

That is… a power outage.

In one district of Chang'an, on the very street where the three lives ancient mirror was located, there was a sudden flicker.

Immediately after, the streetlights suddenly went out.

Road signs on the surface, automated navigation, various common public Spiritual Artifacts, including houses, furniture, traffic lights, roadside billboards, and so on, all suddenly went dark.

This could be said to be a scene rarely seen in Chang'an in a hundred years.

In just an instant, a street seven or eight li long went completely dark.

However, the scope of the Dragon Vein branch overload was not limited to just this small area.

Soon, people in this area found that their terminals had no signal.

Because The Axis of All Realms had also shut down in this area!

Alarm bells rang loudly!

Immediately after, the power outage area began to spread!

One street, two streets, three streets!

The great power outage began to spread! This time, it wasn't just streets, but power outages by area.

In less than five minutes, the power outage area had expanded to a radius of two hundred and forty-six li, and within it, all public Spiritual Artifacts ceased operation, and The Axis of All Realms became ineffective!

Chaos ensued!

Chang'an's roads were densely packed like a tangled ball of yarn, with incredibly complex traffic rules, countless one-way streets, not to mention specific aerial routes.

Therefore, whether it was aircraft or vehicles, they heavily relied on The Axis of All Realms and terminals for guidance; automatic navigation Systems were an indispensable part of Chang'an residents' lives.

But in that instant, everything shut down!

Vehicles crashed into each other, aircraft lost guidance, car accidents, plane crashes; aircraft constantly collided with those magnificent buildings.

Originally, these buildings had automatic defense mechanisms that would bounce off anything that crashed into them, ensuring both sides were safe, but now they had no energy, and all public Spiritual Artifacts had failed!

Except for a few private Spiritual Artifacts, this area of Chang'an was in disarray!

About six minutes later, the Officials of the Municipal and Emergency Departments, the six Cao, had already received a large number of notifications and distress signals, and quickly responded.

At the tenth minute of the great power outage, The Axis of All Realms suddenly forcibly Rebooted! A colossal power pierced through space, descending mightily upon this chaotic area.

However, it did not power up this area but rather enabled and maintained the functions of the official rescue personnel's terminals.

Immediately after, countless figures rose from within the inner city.

Like dense raindrops, in an instant, over a thousand Seventh-Grade reserve teams activated, rushing towards the power outage area!

They were allocated a special road by The Axis of All Realms; aerial traffic was temporarily halted to allow them to travel.

People were everywhere, each in their place; countless Seventh-Grade powerhouses surged forth, spreading out like timely rain, landing in the stalled areas of Chang'an in a very short time.

Then, there were the Deities.

Countless lower-level Deities, and even the Great Deities in charge of this area of Chang'an, began to move!

Among the residents, those with abilities also began to help themselves.

In Chang'an, it was not originally permitted to use spells or Divine Abilities freely; official permission was required.

But now, a large number of permissions were granted simultaneously; The Axis of All Realms forcibly Rebooted, prioritizing the activation of terminals in this area.

Just as an aircraft violently crashed into a tall building, though its power was lost, it was still a Spiritual Artifact; the aircraft scraped harshly against the wall, and the family inside looked terrified, constantly shouting.

At this moment, a golden shadow descended, using Divine Ability to quickly stabilize the aircraft, allowing it to descend slowly.

“Thank you, Road God! Thank you, Road God!” The family inside quickly thanked the golden shadow, their hearts somewhat at ease.

The Road God, a Deity responsible for streets, also participated in the rescue at this time.

“Do not move after you land; it is very dangerous here now. I still have to rescue others, so I must take my leave.” The Road God painstakingly lowered the aircraft slowly to the ground, then rushed non-stop to the next one.

He was merely a Ninth-Grade Deity, with limited ability.

Other Eighth-Grade and Seventh-Grade Cultivators were even faster.

A Water God emerged from the river, manipulating water vapor to form water pillars, cooperating with the Emergency Department personnel to quickly extinguish the fire caused by the explosion.

Looking up at the sky, several Seventh-Grade Cultivators were cooperating to set up a large formation, deploying a whirlwind formation in the blink of an eye; those falling from the sky suddenly had wind beneath their feet and were blown upwards, thus saving their lives despite their aircraft falling.

In another direction, two Seventh-Grade Cultivators worked together; one marked, and the other used his proficient teleportation method along the mark to gather everyone to his side.

A radius of over two hundred li is quite a large distance; given Chang'an's population density, it is likely that hundreds of thousands of people were affected.

However, the current rescue efforts kept the casualties in the triple digits, with only a few hundred people dying or being injured due to untimely rescue.

From the beginning of life, people are selfish, and people are self-interested; there are public benefits in the world, but no one promotes them, and there are public harms, but no one removes them, so the world is harmed. If the human Dao Orthodoxy governs all things, and everyone is selfless, then public matters will be publicly promoted, and public harms will be publicly removed, then private interests will be fully satisfied, and private harms will be fully removed.

Since the beginning of this world, people have been selfish and self-serving; things that benefit everyone in society are not promoted, and things that harm everyone are not resolved, which is why this world has become increasingly worse.

A simple prisoner's dilemma, yet it became an unsolvable problem; magnified to the entire society, how many things sacrifice public good for private gain? Even more, not a few push a country's destiny towards death for personal gain.

As long as the human Dao Orthodoxy reshapes this world, then as long as everyone is selfless, everyone's private interests will be fully satisfied.

As for 'non-human' existences, they are not within the consideration of the human Dao Orthodoxy; those things are merely resources.

The human Dao Orthodoxy does not consider the thoughts of pigs, dogs, cattle, or sheep; what they pursue is a world of great harmony for all those with a public spirit.

Now, this is the manifestation of all that in the outside world.

Furthermore, in addition to these grassroots rescue personnel, more advanced personnel have already delved deep into the underground of Chang'an.

The Directors of the Municipal and Emergency Departments, two fifth-grade Officials, have already led the way into the underground to investigate the source of the Dragon Vein fluctuations and the shutdown of The Axis of All Realms.

The Director of the Municipal Department, while traversing the underground of Chang'an, said, “This matter is strange; a Dragon Vein branch can supply two Third-Grade Spiritual Artifacts, so it's impossible for it to overload. There must be an external force at play. What could have infiltrated the branch without so many Officials noticing?”

“There is probably an internal spy in Chang'an, and their position is not low. But to expose such a high-ranking spy for such an insignificant matter, there might be something unknown within this,” said the Director of the Emergency Department.

They had discussed it many times on their way and both felt that there was something wrong with this matter.

For a Dragon Vein branch to overload, it would require several Third-Grade Spiritual Artifacts to exert their full power, only then would it be possible.

A person capable of manipulating several Third-Grade Spiritual Artifacts would not be of a low grade themselves, and naturally, would not hold a low position in Tang Nation.

Would such a spy expose themselves just for this bit of chaos?

It's not worth it.

Although this disturbance was significant, so much so that a Second-Grade senior official might personally inquire about it, and this was the first large-scale disturbance since Chang'an's reconstruction, it would undoubtedly be broadcast nationwide and used as a typical example for rectification.

Their official positions were probably at their end; checking now was merely their final duty.

However, this 'significant' refers to its symbolic meaning.

If one were to speak of the actual damage caused, it was indeed not much: several hundred Seventh-Grade Cultivators were mobilized, some Spiritual Artifacts below Seventh-Grade were lost, some building eaves were damaged, and only a few hundred were killed or injured.

The greatest loss was not even these, but rather The Axis of All Realms forcibly Rebooting here, restoring communication for all terminals without Dragon Vein power supply. The cost of this matter was actually greater than all the previously mentioned losses combined.

Why would anyone do such a thing?

With these questions in mind, the two communicated and explored.

However, they soon discovered something useful.

After some investigation, they found the source of all the fluctuations beneath the city.

“The three lives ancient mirror is drawing from the Dragon Vein branch, and it's still continuing,” the Director of the Municipal Department frowned.

The three lives ancient mirror is just an ordinary Third-Grade Spiritual Artifact; it usually activates once a month to help people observe weaknesses. How could it cause the Dragon Vein branch to overload?

“The three lives ancient mirror? Wait, let me check the data,” the Director of the Emergency Department immediately said.

In critical moments, the Emergency Department has the authority to view some confidential files, and now was clearly a very critical moment.

Files concerning the three lives ancient mirror were quickly retrieved and then carefully read by him.

“The three lives ancient mirror was just applied for use by the Imperial Academy for an exam. Its previous use was twenty-five days ago, when Youqi General Zhang Neisi used it to observe his own weaknesses. The time before that was three months ago,” the Director of the Emergency Department immediately told the Director of the Municipal Department beside him.

Such things as allocating it for Imperial Academy exams are very common; there's nothing special about it. Spiritual Artifacts are meant to be used. What's the point of leaving them idle? To give birth?

Every major exam, the Imperial Academy applies for a bunch of miscellaneous items to set up appropriate examination halls for students, ensuring everyone can exert their true strength.

“What about now? Is the exam still ongoing? How is that student?” the Director of the Municipal Department immediately asked.

“I don't know, but the Origin has been found. Let's go up and see if we can interrupt the pathway and forcibly stop the three lives ancient mirror,” the Director of the Emergency Department said.

As they spoke, the two quickly rushed upwards.

They didn't dare to directly cut off the energy, fearing that the three lives ancient mirror might undergo some unexpected change as a result.

After all, it is a Third-Grade Spiritual Artifact. Although for some reason it has not developed sentience and remains merely a tool, even as just a tool, if this thing goes wrong, it's a large-scale destructive level event, and one cannot be too careful.

Then, they followed the trail upwards, arriving at the temple.

The people in the temple had already evacuated; this was the first place where the Dragon Vein overloaded, and trouble arose quickest, so the Cultivators inside had already evacuated everyone.

Only an old monk stood outside the door, waiting anxiously.

The two Directors took less than ten seconds to rush from underground to the entrance of the room where the three lives ancient mirror was placed, just in time to see an old monk standing at the courtyard gate, sweating anxiously, seemingly waiting for something.

“Monk, what's going on here? Why aren't you taking shelter?” the Director of the Emergency Department immediately stepped forward and asked.

Seeing that someone had finally arrived, the old monk breathed a sigh of relief and quickly said, “Someone has finally come! There are still two people inside this room who haven't come out. This humble monk truly didn't dare to leave them, so I've been guarding here, waiting for the rescue personnel to arrive!”

The Director of the Municipal Department immediately said, “Don't worry, speak slowly. What happened? Tell us in detail?”

As they spoke, both of them noticed something.

The door to the room where the three lives ancient mirror was placed seemed to be suppressed by some strange object.

A special power, twisted into a ball, mixed space and time together, firmly sealing off this room!

This sealing power seemed extremely strong, but it did not overflow, so they could not discern its grade.

Seeing this, the old monk quickly spilled the beans.

It turned out that just ten minutes after Li Qi entered for the exam, suddenly, the space here became stagnant, and soon even time was compressed into a ball!

After that, the old monk originally wanted to report, but as soon as he took out his terminal, the surrounding Dragon Vein immediately overloaded, the terminal signal was directly cut off, followed by a series of large power outages and public Spiritual Artifact failures, with chaos frequently appearing.

He organized the temple visitors to quickly leave for shelter, but thinking that there was still a Imperial Academy student and examiner inside the room who hadn't come out, he didn't dare to leave and stayed guarding the door, waiting for people to come for rescue.

After hearing the old monk's description, the two Directors looked at each other, then quickly reported the matter and asked the old monk to leave and evacuate the surrounding people.

Soon, only the two of them were left in the courtyard.

The two Fifth-Grade Cultivators, without much need for words or communication, each unleashed their Divine Abilities and spells!

First, they sealed off a five-li radius, forbidding anyone from entering!

Then, they set up a Restriction, locking everything from the inside out, allowing nothing to pass through, not even the wind.

Next, the two prepared their defenses, brought out their own Spiritual Artifacts to protect their lives, and then carefully touched the chaotic power that had condensed into a ball and sealed off the outside world.

Upon contact, they immediately discovered that this thing seemed to prevent anything from approaching!

Upon further study, both were instantly horrified!

The Director of the Emergency Department exclaimed, “This… this is at least Third-Grade power! The two of us can't handle it! Call for backup!”

This ball of chaotic power seemed to be the three lives ancient mirror's Origin being released!

This thing was out of control, but it was still continuously drawing external power, seemingly desperately trying to Breakthrough some Restriction, but it couldn't, only constantly cycling, leading to overload.

This indicated that this Third-Grade Spiritual Artifact was about to explode!

They needed to quickly call the Officials to deal with it!