Chapter 339 - 16: Blockade (Part 2)

Chapter 339: Chapter 16: Blockade (Part 2)

"What do you think you’re doing? Do you realize this is aggravated assault? Even for Extraordinary Beings, you’ll be in a world of trouble if you hurt this many people at once."

The leader’s voice sounded harsh, but it was all bluster. Lin Yu paid him no mind and continued casting his spell.

Seeing this, the man lunged forward, trying to interrupt Lin Yu. At his lead, the crowd surged forward. The two legion members on support duty immediately stepped up to block them, but they were outnumbered and pushed aside by the mob.

At this, the crowd grew even more riotous, running toward Lin Yu to stop him from destroying the vehicles.

"What do you think you’re doing?"

The vines at Lin Yu’s feet flickered with light, but before they could act, Li Hua split the crowd apart with a single sword strike.

The seemingly sharp Sword Qi didn’t harm anyone; it merely pushed them far away.

"I’ll give you three choices. First, you can turn around and go back to Black Salt City."

"Second, you can stay here quietly and wait. Once this is over, you can go about your business."

"Or third, I can break your legs and leave you here to wait for rescue. Though I imagine you wouldn’t be too happy about being rescued and taken back to Black Salt City, would you?"

"And another thing—don’t even think about trying to force your way through. The two of us just got a license to kill, and we haven’t had a chance to use it yet!"

As he spoke, Li Hua brandished his longsword. "Feeling lucky?"

"Tch! I’m going to your superiors! You just wait." The leader was perceptive enough to recognize the difficulty of the move Li Hua had just performed. Realizing he was out of his league, he spat out a final threat before turning around and leading his people away.

Although the troublemakers had retreated, Lin Yu was still casting his spell. He continuously pulled seeds from his personal storage space and tossed them onto the ground. Empowered by the Growth Technique, the seeds sprouted and grew with incredible speed.

Before the horrified eyes of the watching drivers, a small forest sprouted directly from the highway’s asphalt.

In just over ten minutes, the highway leading out of the city was completely cut off. The intersection had been transformed into a green cul-de-sac abutted by a forest of unknowable depth.

Witnessing this, many people gave up on leaving Black Salt City through this exit. One by one, they turned their cars around and headed back into the city to try other routes.

A small minority, hoping to avoid the chaos back in the city, parked their cars and decided to wait for the blockade to end.

An even smaller number of people climbed down from the highway, intending to leave Black Salt City on foot. Lin Yu and Li Hua noticed them but didn’t intervene.

Cuiwei Star was massive, but its population was not particularly large and was mostly concentrated in cities. The distances between cities were vast; the minimum gap between two large urban centers was 600 kilometers. Traveling to another city on foot would take a very long time.

Even if they did manage to walk to another city, the experiment would likely be over by then. As long as they could pass the inspection, they would be fine.

As for whether these people would successfully reach another city, that was not Lin Yu’s or Li Hua’s concern. Presumably, anyone daring enough to try must have been fully prepared.

"If I’d known it would be like this, I would’ve had you seal the road earlier!"

Li Hua lamented as he watched the crowd gradually disperse.

Lin Yu, admiring his masterpiece, replied, "If you ask me, the legion is too soft. If they’d just destroyed these highways from the start, most of the people in Black Salt City would have been trapped inside. There would’ve been no need to deploy so many personnel!"

"They were probably worried about having to pay for the damages later!"

"Hahaha, the legion worried about money? That’s hilarious!" Lin Yu burst into hearty laughter, thoroughly amused by Li Hua’s words.

Next, Lin Yu took out a prototype Artificial Spirit Crystal from his personal storage space and embedded it in a Magic Array he had just inscribed.

This Magic Array was designed to extract and release Spiritual Energy, and it was encased within a corresponding Growth Technique Rune Array.

This way, all plants within the Magic Array’s area of effect would grow rapidly.

’Hmm... I should add a Range Enhancement Array, too. For a control group.’

After testing the Magic Array’s effect, Lin Yu pondered for a moment, then ran to the side of the highway and inscribed a Compound Array combining the Growth Technique and a Range Enhancement Array, again using only a single Spiritual Energy release array.

This comparison immediately revealed a problem to Lin Yu. The amplification effect of the new Range Enhancement Array on the Growth Technique was not meeting expectations, which piqued his interest.

And so, he began to continuously run experiments in the wilderness beside the highway.

...

Night fell. The citizens of Black Salt City stranded near the intersection drifted off into an anxious, helpless sleep. Perhaps only in their dreams could they find a temporary escape from the fear of their flight.

In the darkness, Lin Yu was still engrossed in his experiments. As he created one Growth Technique array after another in the wilderness, each constructed with different combinations of Rune Arrays, a vast forest materialized from nothing around the intersection.

Ultimately, Lin Yu’s experiments revealed the most effective "Growth Technique" + "Range Enhancement" Compound Array—the one with the highest energy utilization rate, the least waste, and the best results. The solution was to nest the Range Enhancement Rune Array within the Growth Technique Rune Array.

However, inscribing such a Magic Array was exceedingly difficult, as it involved advanced techniques like energy resonance, Spiritual Energy channeling, and spatial folding.

If not for the World Tree’s assistance, he might not have been able to inscribe this Magic Array at all.

Still, the effect of such a Magic Array was astounding. The Growth Technique by itself only had a radius of 200 meters, and the Range Enhancement Array on its own only boosted that by 50%.