My Apocalypse Territory

Castle.

Tang Yu received the message from the Pingliang Sanctuary at noon the next day.

"The speed is too slow, if it was urgent intelligence, it wouldn't be delivered in time."

At present, the most convenient method of communication was the connection through the Follower Contract, which was a special feature of the top-level contracts, something the contracts developed by the Territory itself could not accomplish.

The communication between Intelligence Departments from different places wasn't much different from that of other large Sanctuaries, all relying on couriers... The difference being, those Sanctuaries really relied on manual couriers, while the transmission of intelligence between Intelligence Departments, over longer distances, depended on Floating Chariots.

To cross the entire Tiannan Province would only take two or three hours—assuming there were no encounters with danger.

However, the Intelligence Department in Pingliang was not equipped with Floating Chariots. When passing messages, the letters had to be first delivered to another large Sanctuary over a hundred kilometers away. From there, personnel of the Intelligence Department drove the Floating Chariot to transport the intelligence from several large Sanctuaries back to headquarters.

Last night an apprentice group from Pingliang clashed head-on with the Doomsday Cult... This intelligence was not prioritized highly enough for the letter to be sent by a dedicated vehicle; it had to wait until the shared journey by Floating Chariot was done in the forenoon.

Tang Yu felt it was very slow, but at least it was much faster than a courier running on foot day and night from Pingliang to Green Shadow.

"Forget it..."

After reading the intelligence from the Pingliang Sanctuary, he opened the other letters and carefully read through their content.

Most were related to the investigation of the Doomsday Cult.

After reading them, Tang Yu furrowed his brows.

"The cult's stronghold still has no leads, but the strength they're displaying is getting stronger... It seems that the cult is gathering experts, but what does a cult have to compel top Awakeners to sell their lives for it?"

Besides Pingliang, another apprentice group had found clues about the cult.

By joining forces with the local Sanctuary, they directly assailed the cult's lair within the city, achieving greater successes than Sun Yu's group.

Tang Yu kept the performances of these outstanding apprentices in mind... Based on personal performance, these apprentices might someday enter the Corps, the Intelligence Department, or other departments.

"However, many of this batch of quality apprentices might be snatched away by the Intelligence Department."

He had heard from the other departments that the Intelligence Department was taking the opportunity during the apprentices' training period to poach talents.

Whoever thought of this trick was the real talent; using it for intelligence work seemed somewhat underutilized.

Having read over a dozen pieces of intelligence, Tang Yu picked up a Crystal Ball the size of a fist.

The Crystal Ball did not look magnificent; on the contrary, its surface was somewhat rough, resembling a murky glass ball — the kind that even if tossed on the roadside, might not be picked up by anyone.

Had it not been seized from a Cult Leader, and one of the few spoils of war, it would not have caught the attention of the Intelligence Department...

Tang Yu held the Crystal Ball in his hand, staring intently at it, and after a moment, took out a Basic Reconnaissance Crystal and began detecting the murky Crystal Ball.

[??? Crystal Ball]

[Composition: ???]

[Function: ???]

The detection yielded nothing, which didn't surprise Tang Yu; the people in the Intelligence Department had already tried and that only piqued his curiosity more.

With a flip of his wrist,

he took out another, larger Crystal Stone with eight facets.

[Reconnaissance Crystal (Intermediate)]: Can perform deeper detection analysis on items/creatures, a one-time use item.

Market price: 500 Source Crystals.

To him, the price was very cheap; he could purchase as much as he wanted without batting an eyelid.

But some things are not merely about wanting to buy and being able to buy them.

There's never a pattern to market item refreshes; the chances of an "Reconnaissance Crystal (Intermediate)" appearing are slim, and every time they do appear, only three to five are available. Having used some already, Tang Yu only had twenty to thirty Intermediate Reconnaissance Crystals left, and three Advanced Reconnaissance Crystals.

—He couldn't, after all, spend inexhaustibly on Consuming Crystals just for Reconnaissance Crystals.

"If only I could buy the blueprint for Intermediate Reconnaissance Crystals, the basic ones have a market price of fifty, but with a blueprint, the manufacturing cost is only 10 Source Crystals, and the materials are also very common—"

It was evident that the system market was quite a ripoff... Tang Yu instinctively ignored that Basic Reconnaissance Crystals were sold to Awakeners for 100.

He placed the "Reconnaissance Crystal (Intermediate)" next to the murky Crystal Ball and infused Source Power to activate it.

[Mother-child Crystal Ball (Sub-ball)]

[Composition: ???]

[Function: Using the Mother Crystal Ball as the core station, within a range of five hundred kilometers, one can transform the intended message into spiritual power, which is then transmitted to other crystal balls through a Sub-ball, and reconverted into language or written messages... The Sub-ball has a lifespan limit. Once it becomes completely clouded, it will lose its special function and become an ordinary crystal ball.]

While analyzing with the Reconnaissance Crystal, Tang Yu's pupils flickered, as if countless streams of data were passing through his eyes.

He activated the "Insight Eye," and in an instant, he had a profound understanding of the crystal ball capable of transmitting spiritual power.

"What a great item—"

Tang Yu's eyes shone, this was exactly the communication tool he had been wanting!

He channeled Source Power into the Sub-ball and controlled it to rotate in a regulated pattern around the crystal ball—a method derived from the analysis of the Reconnaissance Crystal and the Insight Eye.

Visible to the naked eye, the fist-sized crystal ball emitted a faint light and gradually stabilized—signaling the successful activation of the crystal ball.

Spiritual Power spread out, and the moment it made contact with the Sub-ball, a strange sensation emerged in his mind. At the far end, there was a door waiting for him to push open.

So Tang Yu stepped forward to push it.

...It didn't budge, so he knocked on it.

"The Sub-ball's functions must be limited, including contacting other Sub-balls, which also requires the Mother Ball's consent."

In today's world, where electromagnetic waves are severely disrupted, communication through spiritual wavelengths will undoubtedly become mainstream—provided one has the method and the tools to use this frequency for information transmission.

Originally, it was because someone else had stolen his "chives" that Tang Yu boldly struck out, attacking the Doomsday Cult, but now... with the existence of the Mother-child Crystal Ball, he had a ten-thousand-word reason to find the cult's core stronghold.

The Mother Crystal Ball must be stored within the cult's stronghold!

He would snatch it... no, simply take it!

As he considered flattening the cult's stronghold and gaining a bounty of spoils, Tang Yu's expression suddenly changed.

The crystal ball on the table was still activated, his spiritual power still attached to it, and just a few seconds ago, he had knocked on that door at the distant other end.

At that moment,

The door opened.

Somewhat unexpected.

A cold, overwhelming surge of Spiritual Power emanated from the opened door.

It made contact with his spiritual power in an instant.

Both were momentarily startled.

The owner of the spiritual power on the other side, sensing the unique characteristics of Tang Yu's spiritual power, different from his subordinates, realized there was a problem.

In a flash, the cold spiritual power emanating from the door turned tumultuous, like endless waves, crashing down towards the other end of the Spiritual Bridge.

Tang Yu's expression tensed, not daring to be negligent.

The originally dispersed spiritual power instantly concentrated into a force, like scattered soldiers forming into ranks, leading a charge against the enemy under the command of their general.

The surging waves crashed down, and a sword formed by the momentum of the charge pierced through the waves, shooting forward.

But the waves were relentless, each wave higher than the last, and the sword vibrated with a trembling sound under the constant barrage!

Tang Yu's face reddened, his spiritual power burst forth again, he executed the Concentration Method, and numerous swords of spiritual power formed into a sword formation, battling against the waves.

On the Spiritual Bridge built by the Mother-child Crystal Ball.

A silent clash erupted.

Two or three seconds later, blood seeped from the corner of Tang Yu's mouth, and his spiritual power strategically retreated from the Sub-ball.

"Damn it!"

Just as he thought to retort to Nancy, the crystal ball on the desktop suddenly cracked with a "crack crack crack."

More and more cracks appeared, and after a dozen seconds, the entire crystal ball burst apart, becoming a pile of fragments.

Tang Yu was stunned.

This crystal ball, although unusable, held high research value.

Now...

He had suffered a huge loss.

Why was I so impulsive!