Courtyard Houses: Longevity Since the War of Resistance

As dawn broke, the mist still lingered in the forest. Standing atop a ridge in the Lesser Khingan Mountains, looking southeast, the land stretched out in the morning fog at the horizon, dark and heavy, like a giant beast yet to awaken.

Northeast China, Heilongjiang Province, Jilin Province, Liaoning Province.

The combined territory of these three provinces is equivalent to several parts of North China. The Japanese have been operating here for over a decade, starting with their infiltration during Zhang Lin's time, and by now it's deeply entrenched. The 700,000-strong Kwantung Army, known as the flower of the Japanese army, is the best equipped, the most well-trained, and their fortifications are as solid as an iron barrel.

I touched the glass bottle in my pocket. The points of light inside were still glowing faintly, and as if sensing something, they trembled a little more violently than before.

"Don't rush," I said to the bottle, "Today I'll take you on a tour of three provinces, just to see the people, not the goods. We'll use those airplanes, tanks, and railways later."

My first stop was Heilongjiang Province, where I chose Huanggangliang, the highest peak of the Da'anling Mountains. At an altitude of over 2,000 meters, the mountain peak was still covered in snow, and the wind made it difficult to stand.

Standing on the edge of the cliff, a rolling sea of ​​clouds stretched out below. The sun had just peeked out from the east, turning the clouds a golden-red hue.

"The ruler of the earth."

The skill is activated. This time, I won't alter the terrain or make any significant disturbances. What I need is precision, stealth, and targeting only those life forms wearing yellow military uniforms.

I can feel the breath of this earth beneath my feet, the deep-buried rock layers, the veins of groundwater, and the fragile structure of the permafrost.

Then, I began applying pressure to the acupoints.

Centered on Huanggangliang, the power of the land's ruler spread like countless invisible tentacles throughout the entire province of Heilongjiang. Each tentacle locked onto a target, a location where Japanese soldiers were gathered.

In the reinforced concrete fortress complex near Anbei City, a half-meter-diameter, bottomless cavity appeared in the foundation rock layer directly beneath each fortress. The moment the cavity appeared, the floor inside the fortress collapsed, but not the entire fortress; only that section of the floor collapsed.

The Japanese soldiers, who were sleeping, eating, and standing guard inside the fortress, suddenly fell into a deep pit that appeared beneath their feet without warning. The pit was so deep that they fell in without making a sound. Then the hole closed automatically, and the ground returned to normal, except that the soldiers were gone. The fortress itself remained intact.

At Wu Sun's forward positions, the permafrost beneath the positions liquefied in specific locations. Not all of it liquefied, but directly beneath each foxhole, machine gun nest, and command post, small patches of permafrost instantly turned into quicksand.

The Japanese soldiers inside sank in, struggling, but the more they struggled, the faster they sank, disappearing from sight within seconds. Then the frozen ground solidified again, its surface smooth as before, except for the corpse beneath. The trenches and fortifications themselves remained undamaged.

At the military camp on the outskirts of Harbin, the drill ground remained the same, but I created a huge, flat cavity ten meters directly beneath it. Then I caused the soil layer above the cavity to sink five centimeters.

Five centimeters, not much. But this subsidence created countless tiny, spiderweb-like cracks on the surface of the playground. The cracks were fine, but enough for something to pass through. I allowed inert gases from underground, mainly radon, to gush out of the ground in large quantities and rapidly through these cracks.

Radon gas is colorless and odorless, but at high concentrations, it becomes deadly. Thousands of Japanese soldiers who were doing their morning exercises collapsed within minutes, as if choked by an invisible hand, suffocating to death. The drill ground was still the same drill ground, but now it was littered with corpses.

At Qiqihar Airport, beneath the runway, along the edge of the tarmac, a thin crack appears. What emerges from this crack is not gas, but icy groundwater from deep underground, with a temperature close to zero degrees Celsius. The water is scarce, just enough to cover the ankles.

But I added something to the water—a neurotoxin synthesized by a master craftsman. It was colorless and odorless, and could be quickly absorbed through skin contact. The toxin targeted only specific gene sequences. Ground crew stepped into the water while inspecting aircraft, pilots stepped into the water while walking from their dormitories to the hangar, sentries stepped into the water while on patrol, and ten minutes later, the only living things still standing in the airport were birds. The aircraft, fuel tanks, hangar, and control tower were all completely intact.

At the Tiger Head Fortress in Mudanjiang, the Japanese soldiers were all holed up in a tortoise shell dozens of meters underground. I didn't alter the fortress's structure; I simply caused countless extremely fine, invisible whiskers to grow inside all the ventilation ducts at the same instant. These whiskers, specific structures generated by the All-Powerful Hand, would enter the lungs with the airflow, then expand and harden there, causing internal bleeding and suffocation.

Meanwhile, I manipulated the underground watercourses deep within the fortress, slightly diverting the water flow to submerge several main generator sets and backup power supplies. In the darkness, coupled with the deadly air, the Japanese soldiers buried deep underground fell in droves in despair. The fortress itself hadn't collapsed; the cannons and ammunition were still there, only now it was eerily quiet inside.

The entire process lasted approximately twenty minutes. There were no explosions, no fires, and no significant changes in the terrain. Only people vanished silently.

I stood atop Huanggang Ridge, gazing at the sea of ​​clouds below. The sun had fully risen, its golden light dazzling.

Within Heilongjiang Province, over 99% of the organized Japanese garrisons have been eliminated. Airports, fortresses, warehouses, and weapons are all intact.

In Heilongjiang Province, the people are clean, but the goods remain.

I pulled out the bottle and shook it: "Look, this move is called Earth Cleaner. Awesome, right!"