Resonance.
Shen Cong had once built the totem system out of an improbable idea — combining resonance principles with Activity to produce a precise enhancement device. Now he intended to use the same principle to find the meteorite fragment.
Before heading back to the lake, though, he needed to test whether Activity radiation could actually induce resonance in a distant object.
The ideal test subject was already aboard: the coal truck’s primary metal.
The coal truck had been Big-Fly Brother’s vehicle. After Shen Cong killed him, the truck had gone to the Research Institute for analysis, and when Shen Cong departed New Hefei he’d taken the primary metal with him. Great Vajra had never broken its Talent ceiling, so the coal truck’s primary metal had stayed sealed in storage, unused.
Now it had a use.
For safety, he ran the experiment in the vehicle corridor.
He measured the coal truck primary metal’s Activity radiation frequency, then directed Great Vajra to emit radiation at that same frequency while oscillating at increasing amplitude.
When the oscillation reached a certain speed, the previously inert primary metal began to tremble.
Then it started to match Great Vajra’s amplitude — vibrating in sync, rising together. The two radiation fields intertwined and immediately formed a simple resonance-acceleration force field, generating a reaction force back against Great Vajra.
“There it is.”
Shen Cong closed his eyes. He extended his perception along the interwoven resonance field, feeling his way outward — and made contact with the primary metal.
In his perception, the primary metal appeared as a sphere-like presence constantly shifting shape.
He made a quick assessment of its direction, opened his eyes, and cross-referenced against the physical layout of the vehicle. No discrepancy. He had genuinely located the primary metal through resonance alone.
If meteorite fragments also emitted radiation — if they had a detectable frequency — this method could work.
“The problem is I have no idea what frequency a meteorite fragment broadcasts. Passive scanning means cycling through frequencies one at a time, which is tedious. And Great Vajra can’t go up the hillside — I’d have to use the Half-Activated Armor’s frequency instead, and its amplitude is much more limited. The effective range for inducing resonance would be shorter.”
He tested it. The Half-Activated Armor’s frequency oscillation produced reliable results within twenty meters.
“If the fragment is buried more than twenty meters down, this won’t reach it.”
“Which means I need to increase the amplitude. Increasing amplitude requires increasing the Half-Activated Armor’s Activity Value. It’s currently sitting at 1H — pushing beyond that risks destabilizing it.”
“The only way to raise its Activity Value is to feed it more primary metal. And I’ve grown considerably — probably going to reach 189 to 190cm before the Activity Pearls stop working. The Half-Activated Armor needs to be re-alloyed anyway to keep up with the height change.”
He acted on the thought immediately. He melted down a portion of the coal truck primary metal with the welding torch, then guided the Half-Activated Armor to absorb it.
As it absorbed, he felt it again — that brief flicker. The Half-Activated Armor, for just an instant, produced a vivid, living Activity pulse.
The failed metal life-form normally carried “inert” Activity. But in the moment of absorption, something flickered through that was undeniably “vital” — and then, once absorption finished, it faded back to inert.
The distinction between “more vital,” “vital,” and “inert” Activity remained one of the outstanding unsolved questions.
The Half-Activated Armor, now carrying a meaningful fraction of the coal truck primary metal, rapidly climbed to an Activity Value of 1.5H.
Both its defensive performance and its total volume increased substantially.
Shen Cong ran the resonance experiment again. Effective range: thirty-three meters, up from twenty. A significant improvement.
Ready. He slept well and returned to the central barrier lake the next morning with a systematic plan.
He divided the lake bed into a grid of circular search zones, each fifty meters in radius. Within the first zone — centered on the lake’s midpoint — he identified nine scan positions. From each position he would cycle through the full frequency spectrum, lowest to highest, adjusting continuously. Each full frequency sweep took two and a half hours. Two days per circle. Six circles to cover the entire lake bed.
Twelve days total.
If the fragment was buried more than thirty-three meters down, twelve days might still be insufficient. “The timeline is long, but for a meteorite fragment — worth it.”
He started immediately.
Six days passed. December 5th. Eleventh lunar month, twelfth day. The cold was deepening steadily.
No meteorite fragment yet.
During this stretch, rain had fallen for the first time since the apocalypse — genuine rain, light and continuous, lasting two days. The chrysanthemums of Fuxing Township, already wilted and dead, lay flat in the shallow water. The standing water dried once, leaving behind a carpet of fish carcasses. The more drought-tolerant shrimp and crabs had survived the dry spell and were now feasting contentedly on the rotting fish in the drizzle.
The Old Pearl Mussel’s Activity Value had stabilized at its ceiling of 0.614H and climbed no further. But the metallic invasion was advancing steadily — the proportion of flesh-gold was increasing day by day. Eventually, inevitably, it would become a mussel of pure metal. Shen Cong documented its progress every evening.
Aboard Great Vajra, the greenhouse was producing results. The second batch of Life-Saving Yellow Soybeans had flowered. The Activity Sweet Potatoes had yielded their first harvest; a second batch was going in. The Awakening Lotus seedlings had become small lotus plants just beginning to set flower buds. The Activity Peach seedling had reached one meter, and pale red buds were forming — it was nearly ready to bloom and fruit.
The Mechanical Vine was still growing at its characteristic crawl, forty-five centimeters, still murmuring its vague “comfortable” and “uncomfortable” signals.
The beehive showed the most dramatic change. After several rounds of deliberate rationing that had the queen on the edge of starvation, the workers had finally begun producing Royal Treasure Jelly to feed her. Nectar and pollen from the chrysanthemums had filled the entire comb, plus the new cells the Treasure Bees had constructed. Enough to sustain the colony through three or four months of winter with a small daily surplus for Shen Cong — two small vials per day.
In the ant burrow, the Antgod had laid four more eggs, and three of the earlier larvae had hatched. The young were active throughout the burrow; Blackhead tended them daily. The Antgod’s own responsibilities had narrowed to eating, growing, and laying. She had been eating enormously — her abdomen, previously manageable, was becoming distinctly distended. She was barely leaving the burrow anymore. Just eating, sleeping, and producing eggs.
Edging toward the role of pure breeding machine.
Shen Cong himself had changed considerably over the same period. The Activity Pearls had run their course and stopped working — but not before bringing his height to an even 190cm. On the Activity Value front, Great Vajra was sitting around 2.456H, held there by the daily top-ups the Half-Activated Armor required; Shen Cong himself, after large quantities of Activity fruit and the Activity exchanged from Great Vajra, had reached 2.247H.
Across-the-board physical improvement. Eighteen-bull strength achieved.
Everything was progressing smoothly.
Only the meteorite fragment remained unfound.
That afternoon, after lunch and a brief rest, he climbed the hill again and took up position at a new scan point on the lake bed. He initiated the Activity radiation resonance sweep.
Ten minutes of the same quiet nothing that had answered every scan for six days.
Then — faint, unmistakable — a reaction came back.
(End of Chapter 212)