# 520
**Chapter 520: The Guardian of the Virtual World**
Huaihai City Transportation Hub.
An Qingyu hung up the phone and turned to the white-dressed girl floating beside him, surprise flickering in his eyes.
“That’s it?”
Jiang Er nodded. “Mm.”
“Isn’t your range only one kilometer? How did you interfere with Shen Qingzhu’s phone from here? That’s at least four or five kilometers away.”
“One kilometer is the radius my brain’s magnetic field can cover—my movement range, not my ability’s effective range,” Jiang Er explained. “I didn’t go over and tamper with the phone itself. I just used the magnetic field to alter the signals covering this area.
Modern mobile communication is essentially information exchange between terminals via signals. Signals propagate through base stations scattered everywhere, forming a giant net over the city. I can enter through any node of that net and directly affect the electromagnetic waves themselves.
So, in the modern era, my ability can reach any place with signal coverage.”
An Qingyu pondered. “Meaning, if you wanted, you could affect any phone in the country at any time?”
“Also radios, TVs, computers—any electronic device that uses wave signals to transmit information… provided I know that device’s signal code,” Jiang Er added. “This ability only appeared after I became a ghost. Before, I could only influence electronics within one kilometer through magnetism.”
“No wonder you had Shen Qingzhu knock them out first, then call you,” An Qingyu said, then asked, “But if an electronic device is completely cut off from external information exchange, can you still hack it?”
“If it has zero interaction with the outside, I’d have to bring my real body within one kilometer and control it through the magnetic field directly.”
After Jiang Er finished, An Qingyu fell silent, staring into her eyes…
“W-why are you looking at me?”
Flustered, Jiang Er turned her head away.
“I just realized—strictly speaking, you’re the most terrifying person on this team,” An Qingyu said slowly. “Even if Qiye, Jialan, and Shen Qingzhu go all-out, they can at most destroy a region.
But you—one thought from you and every modern electronic device collapses… even catastrophically.
Wrong traffic lights, wrong navigation, wrong commands… you could easily cause car crashes, divert aircraft, manipulate the stock market, drain every online bank, collapse the economy, even control the launch of weapons of mass destruction.
In five minutes you could roll modern society back a century.”
He held her gaze, enunciating every word: “The Psychic Field’s sequence is absolutely underrated. In the modern world, its destructive power rivals the seven King Ruins.”
Jiang Er stared blankly, lips pressed together. “But why would I do that? I’m Night Watch; I’d never… and if I tried, I’d probably be erased within a minute.”
An Qingyu blinked. “Why?”
“You think I’m the only one whose Forbidden Ruins can affect networks and signals?” Jiang Er gave a bitter smile, lifting her eyes to the wall of monitors. “Even in the virtual world, this country has its guardian…
In that unseen realm he shines like the sun, standing at the end of every signal and network.
I can feel it—he’s strong. Extremely strong.”
“How strong?”
“Only a little weaker than Sword Saint senior.”
“…Got it.” An Qingyu nodded. “End of chat, then. Time to work.”
He stepped aside and spoke briefly with the staff. Moments later, every one of the hundred surveillance screens rewound to footage from hours earlier.
“So many screens—can you actually watch them all?” the technician asked skeptically.
An Qingyu stood before the array; his lenses reflected every frame. After a few seconds he frowned.
“Highest playback speed?”
“Sixty-four times.”
“Set it to sixty-four.”
“Which feed?”
“All of them.”
The technician froze, muttered something, and quietly set every screen to sixty-four-speed. A hundred monitors flickered dizzyingly fast.
In front of them stood the boy with the coffin on his back, calm, a faint gray glint in his eyes behind the lenses.
……
Huaihai City center.
On a modern street lined with skyscrapers, dense traffic crawled. No one noticed the flash of a crimson Flame-Vein Earth Dragon beneath the asphalt.
“‘Seer’?”
Seated on the dragon’s back, Lin Qiye frowned at his phone.
Behind him sat Jialan; farther back, Cao Yuan.
“Got it. I’ve swept the entire east district with mental power—no trace. It must’ve gone elsewhere. Rendezvous in the north district in two minutes.”
He hung up and lowered his head, thinking.
A mystery that peers into the future through an object…
Twelve years ago?
That was before Cangnan was erased by the Shiva Grudge…
Cangnan City, Team 136…
Coincidence?
Tangled thoughts wove through his mind; he felt he’d grasped something, yet nothing—
Suddenly, his lower back ached.
Lin Qiye looked back helplessly. “Jialan, could you ease up? My waist is about to snap…”
Behind him, Jialan yelped and jerked her hands from his waist, cheeks reddening.
“I… I get airsick on dragons. I was afraid I’d fall.”
Cao Yuan, behind her, said earnestly:
“Actually, if you fell, I could catch—”
Jialan whipped around and glared daggers.
Cao Yuan’s mouth twitched; he hugged his scabbard tighter, the picture of meekness.
Lin Qiye was about to speak when his phone rang again.
This time, it was An Qingyu.