The sheer violence of the dual-core totem interlocking device gave Shen Cong a genuine scare. At that rotational speed, an uncontrolled failure could mean an explosion. And the Activity turbulence churning outside Great Vajra far exceeded anything a standard field-force storm produced — by several times over.

Even setting aside the engine research entirely, the storm this device generated was larger than anything the Golden Jiao Totem had ever produced alone. That result alone was worth recording.

After three minutes, he separated the two totems. The disturbance gradually subsided.

He inspected both. The Bull Demon King Totem showed minimal wear. The Wild Boar King Totem's surface had developed hairline fractures.

High-speed operation distorts the resonance field. The Wild Boar's tusk Activity cores couldn't handle the torsional stress. The lower-quality cores were simply insufficient for sustained operation at that intensity.

It also confirmed that the dual-core interlocking device consumed Activity cores at a dramatically higher rate than a standard dual-core resonance field. Understandable — the effect was dramatically more powerful. Two low-grade totems weren't going to produce output exceeding a high-grade totem for free. Thermodynamics didn't make exceptions.

The core degradation was a real constraint. But the result itself was extraordinary.

Cutting a resonance field produced no electrical current — that experiment had been definitive. But two resonance fields could distort each other, generating enormous repulsive force. And repulsive force was kinetic energy waiting to be harvested. Kinetic energy meant generators were possible. Engines were possible.

The most significant point: this device ran on Activity. Its fundamental operating cost was modest. There was something almost perpetual-motion about the concept — the instinct of the self-taught tinkerer recognizing a system that seemed to get more out than it put in.

Of course it wasn't truly costless. Standard totem operation carried two forms of drain: the Activity guidance required to maintain resonance field stability, and the gradual degradation of the Activity cores themselves. The interlocking device multiplied both — maintaining two interacting fields demanded significantly more Activity input, and the core degradation accelerated sharply. The Wild Boar King tusk totems would normally last…