Chapter 66 Finally Got Charged Up

Inside the county government office, An Xin, who was reading a letter from Qin Shiyue, was suddenly overcome by a strange sensation.

He distinctly felt that the volume and speed of the spiritual energy pouring into his body had suddenly surged!

If the spiritual energy infiltrating him previously felt like a hazy mist, it was now a fine, drizzling rain.

This meant that both his cultivation speed and his rate of spiritual power recovery would experience a significant boost.

Turning his gaze inward to his sea of consciousness, he saw that two cyan light clusters had indeed appeared, revolving around the coiled-dragon divine seal.

"It seems my influence over Wuren County has entered a new stage."

With his eyes closed, An Xin's consciousness looked upward at the cyan light clusters hanging in the firmament like three blazing suns.

He reached out and touched one of the cyan clusters.

The cluster burst and shattered, transforming countless characters into a sky full of stars that quickly faded into nothingness.

"The Palm Lightning!"

Under the divine infusion of the seal, An Xin quickly mastered a new spell.

He opened his eyes, formed a thunder seal with his left hand and a sword-finger with his right. Arcs of electricity coursed between his palms, and with a forward push of his left hand, a sharp crack echoed out. A silver arc of lightning shot forth, plunging directly into a bronze basin.

The water in the basin churned violently, water droplets splashing everywhere and soaking the ground around it.

The power was simply too pathetic to look at!

An Xin shook his head and closed his eyes.

Touching the other cyan cluster bestowed upon him a divine ability.

One of the Seventy-two Earthly Fiend Techniques—the Art of Duplication and Amplification.

When he comprehended the true nature of this divine ability, An Xin’s eyes suddenly brightened.

He formed the thunder seal once more, and lightning surged.

A brilliant, blinding white light instantly filled the room as dazzling bolts of lightning wrapped around his palms.

Just as he was about to unleash it, An Xin hurriedly stopped himself. This bolt of Palm Lightning felt radically different from before; if he were to release it, the commotion would undoubtedly be immense. He quickly withdrew the spell.

Yet, his eyes grew even brighter.

"The Art of Duplication and Amplification doubles and enhances the baseline properties of any given object or technique. Although the consumption of spiritual power increases drastically, with the added multiplier of this art, the spell is now clearly powerful enough to inflict harm on living beings!

"Moreover, having practiced the Five Thunder Method every day during this period, coupled with mastering the Palm Lightning technique just now, my control over lightning has undoubtedly become much more stable."

He hurried back to the inner courtyard and retrieved the power strip.

Holding the plug in his fingers, the numbers on the magic cube power strip immediately began to jump.

As he increased his output of spiritual power, the reading stabilized at a power of 7.5W (0.5A) and a voltage of 15V.

When he activated the Art of Duplication and Amplification, the power reading suddenly leaped to 20W. As An Xin pushed more spiritual power into it, the number continued to climb, finally stopping at 35W before holding steady.

"This wattage is still not enough to charge a laptop."

If it were a thin and light ultrabook, 30W would be completely sufficient for charging.

However, An Xin's computer was a high-performance gaming laptop, requiring a minimum charging power of 100W.

Still, it was enough to charge a mobile phone and a tablet.

After a little while, once he had eaten lunch and his spiritual power had fully recovered, An Xin retrieved his phone and charger, preparing to charge the device.

As he held the plug and output the current, he couldn't help but smile bitterly, feeling like a human-shaped power bank.

Other immortals traversed the clouds, transformed into streaks of light, split mountains and severed rivers with a single sword, and took enemies' heads from a thousand miles away—carefree, dashing, and radiating celestial grace.

When it came to him, charging a mobile phone required exhausting an immense amount of effort.

Nevertheless, when he saw the phone flash with a "beep" and display the startup icon, successfully booting up in this world once more, a genuine wave of joy welled up in An Xin's heart.

After lasting about ten minutes and reaching 35% battery, his spiritual power was exhausted, and the charging was interrupted.

"Using the thunder seal to charge a device incurs far too much energy loss in the process."

The thunder seal was inherently an offensive lightning technique designed for instantaneous, high-burst discharges. Forcing it to output a continuous, relatively stable frequency was simply not what it was meant to do, and the resulting energy loss was naturally substantial.

An Xin picked up his phone and unlocked the home screen with facial recognition.

Without the internet, the vast majority of applications on the phone had lost their utility; only a few utility apps could still shine and serve a purpose.

Before transmigrating, during a decade of daytime work and after-hours writing, he had searched for and accumulated a vast amount of various materials.

He had categorized and organized these materials into different folders, storing most of them on hard drives.

He had also backed up a portion of these files directly on his phone.

Among them was the information regarding the water-powered spinning frame that he had previously intended to use.

Charging was difficult, and An Xin could not bear to waste electricity. He briefly browsed the photos in his album, reminiscing about his past life.

Scarcely half a year had passed, yet looking back, it felt as though he had lived through another lifetime.

He wondered if he would ever achieve immortality, and whether he would ever find his way back to his own world.

"What a pity I didn't bring along a printer when I transmigrated!"

An Xin closed the photo album and found the documents on the water-powered spinning frame. Seeing the technical diagrams on screen, he instantly felt a headache coming on!

His eyes were not a ruler, so he could only grab a wooden ruler and a charcoal pencil to slowly sketch it out on paper.

Before the blueprint was even finished, with two crisp "beeps," the phone died.

Fortunately, An Xin's memory was astonishingly sharp. Relying on his recollection, he completed the rest of the blueprint, folded it neatly, and placed it to one side.

"Master!"

Wan Zewen sought him out in the backyard, calling out from outside the door.

An Xin stepped outside.

"Master, news has just arrived from some refugees—rebels have appeared in Beiwan!"

With a hint of caution, Wan Zewen spoke in a low voice.

Upon hearing this, An Xin’s heartbeat involuntarily quickened. "You don't say?"

Rebels were entirely different from ordinary bandits and outlaws; they were violent groups with distinct political agendas.

"This band of rebels has breached the Mangshan Prefecture office and killed the Prefect of Mangshan."

Wan Zewen said in a hushed tone.

Hearing this, An Xin drew a sharp breath. "Well, whether they were before or not, they certainly are now."

"This is hardly good news for us. We are separated from Mangshan Prefecture only by Tongshan and Yecheng. If the rebels grow strong, it will be very easy for the turmoil to spread to our doorstep."

An Xin's worry was not without reason.

Once outlaws grew powerful enough, there was no way they would overlook a prosperous place like Wuren County without coming to plunder it.

Much like starved hounds catching the scent of meat, they would inevitably leap to attack.

"Let's head to the southern city barracks."

An Xin made his decision on the spot.

Regardless of whether this faction of rebels could truly grow strong, they had to make preparations in advance.

At a time like this, relying on external forces was unreliable; only self-reliance and strength mattered.

A dragon had its reverse scales, and whoever touched them would die.

An Xin's foundation for attaining the Dao lay in Wuren; no matter if they were bandits or rebels, no one would be allowed to destroy it!

The northern wind swept through, fluttering their robes.

A group of five riders emerged from the county office and galloped toward the south of the city.

The moment they left the city and hit the main post road, An Xin immediately noticed the change.

Groups of refugees passed by from time to time, leaning on wooden staves, their backs hunched as they carried bundles, dragging themselves forward step by step. It was not because they were lazy, but because they simply had no strength left in their bodies.

After riding for a short while, An Xin spotted a person who had fallen behind from the group—a dark, emaciated figure as thin as a skeleton, lying sideways by the roadside with their clothes stripped away by others.

Had it not been for a pair of eyes flickering with a lingering desire for survival that met An Xin's gaze, he would have mistaken the person for a corpse.

Clutched tightly in their arms was an infant, wrapped firmly in swaddling clothes.

"Whoa~"

An Xin pulled back on the reins, pointing his riding crop at the person. "Go on, give them some food."