At the Countermeasures Research Office, the third follow-up discussion meeting regarding the eighth Doomsday Rule was being held.

The meeting was discussing the "Mind Lock" issue.

Unlike the usual meetings attended only by internal research office personnel, this meeting also included three external individuals.

They were precisely the three main lecturers from the Mind Power Development Academy: Ouyang Shanyue, Zheng Kexue, and Shi Jingyi.

Gao Liangwei said, "The purpose of inviting the three lecturer professors from the academy this time is still to discuss solutions regarding the Mind Lock. Please speak, all three of you."

Ouyang Shanyue said, "The Mind Lock restriction is indeed a major problem. The consequences haven't fully manifested yet, but as time passes, just like how Mind Power recovery speed will continuously increase, the natural growth rate of the Mind Power upper limit will also keep increasing...

I was among the earliest group to research the essence of Mind Power and even established the world's first civilian research association. As early as the initial period when the rules first descended, our research association discovered that the Mind Power upper limit would naturally grow. In the beginning, it could only increase by 1-2 points per month, later 3 points, 4 points... and it will continue to accelerate in the future...

It's clear that if the Mind Lock cannot be removed, Ascendants who are currently leading in benefits will all fall into a stagnant predicament in the future."

"Professor Ouyang, this isn't a classroom, and now is not the time for lengthy lectures. What we need right now is a solution." Gao Liangwei said, "You are an expert in researching the essence of Mind Power. I wonder if you have any countermeasures?"

Ouyang Shanyue pondered for a moment, then shook his head: "Unfortunately, I haven't found an effective solution method yet. But I firmly believe that this Mind Lock can definitely be broken through by the Ascendants themselves, because I have always believed that the essence of Mind Power is the individual's spiritual will of the Ascendant. Nothing can forever lock away a person's spiritual will."

"Brother Ouyang might be a bit too optimistic." Another lecturer, Zheng Kexue, said seriously, "Mind Power, after all, was brought and unlocked by the Fire Thief. If this Mind Lock was set by the Fire Thief, how can human power break it by themselves? I believe we must start from items."

Gao Liangwei asked, "Professor Zheng is an expert in Mind Power abilities and items. Do you know of any lock-opening methods?"

Zheng Kexue frowned: "I believe to open the lock, we must 'fight poison with poison'. Only abilities or items obtained from the Fire Thief can unlock the Mind Lock set by the Fire Thief... It's just that currently, after checking the statistical database, there are temporarily no items or abilities directly related to this.

However, there are some peculiar abilities and items that might be worth trying. For example, the database records individuals possessing special abilities like 'Prophesy', 'Concept Modification', 'Personal Time Reversal', etc. Perhaps these special abilities could be effective... If the database coverage could expand to the entire population, there would definitely be more options."

Currently, Beixing Country's ability/item database was most complete for the approximately one hundred million people residing in shelters. Next, preliminary statistics had been made for personnel at various gathering points within cities. Only the data for tens of millions of people living outside cities was largely missing.

As the lecturer for the course 'Research on Mind Power Items', what Zheng Kexue most desired was complete data.

If given the opportunity, forget just the data information of all citizens of Beixing Country, establishing a database covering the abilities/items of all Ascendants worldwide was what he truly wanted.

Of course, that was certainly impossible at this stage. Even with the appearance of the Fire Thief as a common enemy of humanity, countries around the world still couldn't fully unite, nor did they share intelligence resources with each other.

Gao Liangwei said, "A new batch of shelters is still under emergency construction. It's estimated that before the ninth rule is released, over thirty million more people can be accommodated. The data will be further improved by then. However, regarding the special abilities Professor Zheng mentioned, we have already found several individuals to attempt them before."

"Oh? What were the results?"

Gao Liangwei looked at Dr. Zhang Minglu, who spoke up: "Not very good. For example, we found that Ascendant who can 'modify concepts'. Although his ability is strong, he simply cannot exert it at this stage. The concepts he can modify are only those with extremely low public consensus... According to our research, if the total Mind Power of the people who share consensus on a concept exceeds his, he cannot modify it."

"So that's how it is... It seems this ability is difficult to utilize, but such extremely harsh usage restrictions are also common characteristics of many special abilities."

Zheng Kexue understood Zhang Minglu's meaning.

If this person wanted to modify the concept of "apple", but hundreds of millions of Ascendants worldwide have established consensus on the concept of "apple" in their minds, this person's Mind Power could never exceed the sum total of hundreds of millions of Ascendants, so he simply couldn't modify it.

Gao Liangwei then looked at Shi Jingyi: "I heard that among the three lecturers, only Professor Shi did not seize others' first place and is not restricted by the Mind Lock?"

Everyone's gaze shifted to Shi Jingyi, looking at her with surprise and also admiration.

They clearly understood that with Shi Jingyi's status and abilities, seizing multiple first places wouldn't be difficult. That she didn't seize them meant it wasn't that she couldn't, but that she didn't want to.

"That's correct." Shi Jingyi said, "My school of thought advocates that one's inherent nature is self-sufficient. Therefore, for me, passing the Doomsday Rules is enough; I won't pursue fulfilling some hidden conditions."

"Truly worthy of a cultivation master." Dr. Zhang said with a face full of admiration, "To resist the temptation of hidden rule rewards and remain true to one's original heart, no wonder Professor Shi, despite her young age, has mastered a special usage method of Mind Power like Mind Power Flow."

Zhang Minglu had also studied Shi Jingyi's Mind Power Flow and even practiced it for a while, but he simply couldn't get started and eventually chose to give up.

He believed the reason might be that he couldn't truly calm his mind and enter that state of "forgetting both self and external things". As the person in charge of the Ascendant training project at the Countermeasures Research Office, he had far too many things to attend to every day. His mind was running from morning till night; calming down to cultivate was simply impossible.

"I wonder if Professor Shi has any methods to break through the Mind Lock?" Gao Liangwei asked.

Shi Jingyi thought for a moment and said, "In my view, Mind Power is a type of 'qi' condensed from spirit. As long as the spirit continuously strives, qi should be generated endlessly. I myself haven't felt the restriction of a 'lock', so I don't know what that feeling is like... But just speculating, I believe to break through the restriction, one still needs to achieve a breakthrough at the level of self-spirit."

"You mean, by cultivating your Mind Power Flow, it could help in breaking through the Mind Lock?"

"I think it's possible." Shi Jingyi said, "Because once 'qi' completes a full circulation, it stimulates the generation of more 'qi'."

"Sounds like the Echo Valley effect." An expert interjected, "Initially providing only one sound, but continuously circulating within the echo valley causes the sound to continuously amplify and expand."

Shi Jingyi nodded slightly: "Perhaps, but this is my speculation."

Dr. Zhang then asked, "May I be so bold as to ask, what is Professor Shi's current natural growth rate of the Mind Power upper limit?"

"Me?" Shi Jingyi said calmly, "I currently naturally increase by 1 point on average every two days."

As soon as she said this, everyone present was greatly shocked.

"One point every two days, that's 15 points per month from natural growth alone... That's far too much..."

"Using the hidden intelligence this time could only increase the upper limit by 500 points at most. One point naturally every two days, 500 points would take a thousand days, less than three years... But considering the subsequent natural increase speed will further rise, it would actually take far less than three years; possibly one year, or even less than a year, the increase would exceed five hundred!"

"No wonder Professor Shi doesn't need to snatch first place. What's there to snatch? Just relying on her own natural growth is fast enough!"

Upon hearing this, Gao Liangwei said solemnly, "Professor Shi's method is very worth trying. From now on, we must closely monitor those students at the academy who have been consistently practicing Professor Shi's courses and are restricted by the Mind Lock. If they can successfully break through, it will prove Professor Shi's speculation is correct."

Everyone nodded, then fell silent, still stunned by Shi Jingyi's natural growth rate of the Mind Power upper limit.

After a moment, someone suddenly brought up: "Speaking of that famously renowned 'Shadow', he must have seized quite a few first places in this rule, right? I wonder if he is restricted by the Mind Lock?"

Hearing someone mention Shadow, Shi Jingyi's heart stirred.

She also wanted to know if Guan Tong was restricted by the Mind Lock. Since the eighth rule began, she hadn't contacted Guan Tong yet.

"Who knows... Now it's not even certain whether Shadow is a single individual or some organization. The intelligence about this person is too chaotic."

"At least from the ranking results at Holy Grail Island, Shadow is one person. But even if this person is formidable, he's just a stronger Ascendant and would similarly be restricted by the rules."

"Now I'm more suspicious of that Administrator of the Ascendant Home website. That guy might have known about this consequence long ago and only sold part of the information."

"This... can't be proven. And even if there was concealment, the intelligence he sold was correct. Just based on that, if he sells again next time, we'd still have to buy."

Everyone's faces showed helplessness.

That's right. Regardless of whether that Administrator concealed the cost of using the intelligence, the part he sold has been verified as correct. Next time he sells, they'd still have to buy.

After the meeting ended, the three main lecturers took a dedicated car back to the academy. Since the underground base of the Countermeasures Research Office wasn't far from the capital, in less than an hour, all three returned to the academy.

After Shi Jingyi returned to her lecturer dormitory, she took out her phone and sent a message to Guan Tong.

"Got time to chat?"

Guan Tong was sitting on his bed. He had just exhausted today's recovered Mind Power writing in the [Wordless Book] when he saw the message from Shi Jingyi.

He replied, "Sure."

The latter immediately called.

As soon as Guan Tong answered, Shi Jingyi's clear voice came from the receiver: "Long time no contact. How have you been lately?"

"Alright. You doing okay there too?"

"Not bad. After the eighth rule, are you restricted by the Mind Lock?"

Hearing this, Guan Tong wasn't surprised. Since Shi Jingyi knew he was Shadow, she must have guessed he definitely seized more first places.

"I am. Currently looking for a way to solve it. What about you? You probably aren't, right?"

Although Guan Tong hadn't interacted much with Shi Jingyi, he just felt she probably wouldn't snatch others' first places.

"I'm not." Shi Jingyi said.

"Just as I thought."

"Just as you thought?" Shi Jingyi's tone held a hint of curiosity, "You guessed I didn't seize more first places?"

"Mm, that's not your style."

"Haha." Shi Jingyi laughed once, "Indeed. So, have you found any unlocking methods?"

"Not sure yet, trying some things."

"Is that so. If your method doesn't work, you can continue focusing on cultivating Mind Power Flow. Perhaps there's a chance to break through the restriction by yourself."

Guan Tong's heart stirred. He asked, "Really? Are there any successful examples yet?"

"None at present. But your cultivation progress is faster than other students. Maybe you'll be the first?"

"...Alright, I'll give it a try."

After hanging up, Guan Tong thought about what Shi Jingyi had said.

Since cultivating Mind Power Flow, he indeed felt himself becoming increasingly proficient with Mind Power. Perhaps reaching a high level of mastery could truly break through the restriction, but when would that be?

Guan Tong looked down at his [Wordless Book]. The two horizontal strokes of the character for "open" were already written, still missing one left-falling stroke and one vertical stroke.

In the following short three or four days, Guan Tong didn't do anything else, just repeated the cycle of consuming Mind Power to write, recovering, then writing again.

While waiting for his Mind Power to recover, he also kept browsing information online, seeing if anyone in the world had unlocked the Mind Lock restriction.

But he didn't find the content he wanted to see. What he saw were many people criticizing, condemning the Mind Lock, even hating the house along with its crow, attacking the Beixing Country officials who publicly released the intelligence, and attacking Guan Tong, the Administrator who sold the intelligence.

He ignored the posts with less intense wording, only deleting some posts with personal attacks and insults.

However, these posts weren't very high in popularity. The truly high-heat posts were mostly related to the current situation abroad.

Guan Tong skimmed through them; the content was all related to those Ascendants who obtained multiple first places and greatly increased their Mind Power upper limits. It seemed these people had begun demanding more power, triggering a series of chaotic conflicts.