The high-standard two-bedroom, one-living-room layout was exactly the specifications for a single lecturer's dormitory at the academy.

Guan Tong walked around the room. All the necessary furniture was there, and even the refrigerator was already fully stocked with various foods.

Looking out from the living room window, one could see the continuous, unbroken mountain ranges, with an open, expansive view and beautiful scenery.

Living in such a place was indeed very nice, but for Guan Tong, who had long lived alone on a desolate mountain, it wasn't very comfortable.

Moreover, compared to his book page shelter, this dormitory couldn't provide a secure network environment. If he wanted to use the Ascendant Home website, he could only do so within his own shelter.

With the dormitory settled, all that was left was to wait for the start of the semester.

Dean Zhou Qinfeng had previously told him that the academy would probably start around mid-July. It was only mid-June now, still a month away.

The reason for waiting this long was partly because handling all the affairs after the academy's relocation took time.

Another reason was to wait for the arrival of foreign students.

That's right, Zhou Qinfeng told Guan Tong that the new batch of students, including those from abroad, would arrive early this time, and the older batch would also graduate early.

Originally, according to the one-year academic system, new student enrollment and senior student graduation both happened in August. But after this earthquake, they were moved up to mid-July.

The reason was also the immense scale of the disaster caused by this earthquake. As students being cultivated as the backbone pillars of society and the nation, they were all temporarily assigned and distributed to various official departments to start working.

Once this assignment work began, it was unlikely they would return to the academy afterwards. So, this first batch of academy graduates essentially graduated two months early, in June.

This meant Guan Tong, as a substitute lecturer, would directly start teaching the newly enrolled freshmen.

For him, this might actually be better. Because compared to freshmen, the seniors had previously studied under Shi Jingyi. Suddenly changing teachers might cause some resistance.

Especially since Shi Jingyi was so popular among the student body. Suddenly parachuting in a male teacher to replace her would definitely cause a lot of dissatisfaction.

But honestly speaking, freshmen were only slightly better.

Because these so-called "freshmen" had definitely already watched online courses for a long time and had learned a lot from Shi Jingyi online.

Now they arrive and find the teacher has been replaced, feeling the product doesn't match the description, they'd probably also have doubts in their minds.

Of course, Guan Tong himself only needed to fulfill his responsibilities; there was no need to consider the rest too much.

After staying in the dormitory for a while, Guan Tong began to ponder about his [Wordless Book] again.

The previous "overheating" incident had been on his mind. It essentially tested its current maximum output limit, which was one hundred million units of Mind Power.

If a single output exceeded one hundred million, it would enter a kind of overload state, experiencing both internal and external backlash.

The external manifestation was directly in the form of extremely high temperature, while the internal aspect was the chaotic state of Mind Power caused by the tearing pain in the mental realm.

In this chaotic state, Mind Power became extremely unstable.

For example, when Guan Tong dealt with those people who attacked him, the shadows he created using Mind Power were almost all distorted monster forms.

However, this wasn't his original intention. He had only wanted to create some humanoid shadows for combat. The reason they turned into bizarre, monstrous forms was precisely because of the Mind Power chaos.

Including the Shadow Domain he later expanded, to some extent, it also showed signs of being on the verge of losing control.

These discoveries, for Guan Tong, counted as figuring out another hidden mechanism of the [Wordless Book].

Although he probably wouldn't have another opportunity to output over a hundred million units of Mind Power for a long time, knowing its limits was still meaningful.

"Right now, writing on the seventh page of the [Wordless Book] will probably be very difficult in the short term. Better to develop the earlier pages more."

Over the past half month, Guan Tong had tried several times and found that writing on the seventh page required a Mind Power Upper Limit probably exceeding one thousand points. He was still quite far from that number.

So during this period, he planned to delve deeper and refine the "Domain" character written on the sixth page.

He had written that character at the time only because the enemies were scattering and fleeing, and he didn't want to let a single one escape, so he wanted to control a large area.

And the [Wordless Book], based on his state of mind and needs at that time, materialized the Shadow Domain, endowing it with long-range attack capabilities covering the entire Shadow Domain, as well as flawless reconnaissance and perception abilities within the range, capable of rapidly locking onto and tracking the positions and movements of all targets.

Analyzing it afterwards, apart from its use in large-scale combat, the Shadow Domain might not be without uses in ordinary times.

For example, besides being used for offense, it could also be used for defense.

If there was a need to protect someone, enveloping them within the Shadow Domain could form flawless protection, with defensive capabilities far exceeding that of Shadow Armor.

During the protection process, transportation was also possible. Guan Tong had thought that if necessary and with sufficient Mind Power, he could expand the Shadow Domain as much as possible, envelop everyone within it, and transfer them elsewhere.

Furthermore, Guan Tong had another idea.

That was the source channel for energy.

He had actually considered this problem long ago, and it became even more prominent after his initial use of the Shadow Domain—that was the excessive consumption of this ability.

If he wanted to use the Shadow Domain on a large scale, each use would consume Mind Power in units of "ten thousand." If he didn't have reserve Mind Power left, he simply couldn't afford to use it.

So, besides providing it himself, could there be other ways to obtain the Mind Power needed to maintain the Shadow Domain?

During his intermittent contemplation over the past half month, based on the Mind Power Flow theory, Jiang Ming's abilities, and so on, Guan Tong vaguely thought of an idea.

Why couldn't he obtain it from the enemies themselves?

If he needed to expand the Shadow Domain on a large scale, it would definitely be because there were enemies to deal with. The Shadow Domain itself was composed of high-density Mind Power. If combined with the Flow theory, could he absorb the Mind Power of enemies within the domain's range to replenish the domain itself?

If he could achieve this, it would weaken the enemies while strengthening the Shadow Domain itself. Guan Tong felt it was necessary to spend time trying to develop this.

...

"Guan Tong, he's the lecturer replacing Shi Jingyi?"

Inside the Countermeasures Research Office, Gao Liangwei glanced at the document file. The first page was Guan Tong's photo, looking very young.

"Yes," Zhang Minglu said. "He was recommended by Shi Jingyi and has currently passed the dean's approval. A background check has also been done; his identity isn't particularly special. However, he followed the online courses... his talent must be very high."

Gao Liangwei nodded, not particularly surprised.

After entering the era of Doomsday Rules, many previously ordinary people had displayed extraordinary talents, suddenly standing at the forefront of the times.

Gao Liangwei flipped to the next page and was somewhat surprised by the content he saw. "He was almost kidnapped once?"

"Correct. In Yunhua. The person in charge of the case at the time was precisely Li Meng."

Mentioning Li Meng, Gao Liangwei put down the documents and said, "Regarding that major nationwide kidnapping case, I just received news today. The mastermind behind it has currently been identified."

Zhang Minglu was taken aback. "Identified? Is it... one of those people?"

"Yes," Gao Liangwei said solemnly. "It's said the other members were all shocked, unable to believe that person would do such a thing."

"Then... has the person been caught?"

"No. After the attack on Shadow failed, that person knew they would be investigated and hid in advance. There might even be a possibility of defection. It's just that right now, all departments are busy dealing with the secondary disasters brought by the earthquake and can't devote their full strength to catching the person."

Zhang Minglu fell silent for a moment before saying, "Should we tell Shadow about this matter? After all, he is a victim."

"What's your judgment?"

"I think we should. Because we may cooperate with him in the future. It's necessary to let him know that our Countermeasures Research Office is trustworthy."

Hearing this, Gao Liangwei nodded slightly. "I think so too. I've already submitted an application to my superiors."