Chapter 40: Seizing the Thunderstorm Cloud

Bai Ge walked to an unmanned street corner and entered the Brain Hole. He planned to live directly in the Brain Hole.

Since he needed to soak in the Magma Pool for a long time, he did not need to stay in a hotel.

Every ten hours, he came out to test it.

After forty-three hours, he finally succeeded, costing him over four million kilowatt-hours of electricity.

“It actually required so much… is it because manipulating the Magnetic Field direction arbitrarily is too idealistic?”

The most crucial aspect of Bai Ge’s trait was that he could autonomously control his body cells to release an electric field and arbitrarily manipulate the direction of the external Magnetic Field.

In an abandoned vehicle lot in Shanghai, there were heaps of sheet metal car bodies and auto parts piled up like mountains.

Combined with its remote location and sparse population, it was perfect for Bai Ge to familiarize himself with his new trait.

The rain poured down heavily. No one would stay in this scrap-heap-like place to get drenched.

Bai Ge arrived there, and his first step was to test the range of his Magnetic Field.

To be safe, he had already changed his appearance.

In the Brain Hole, he had designed multiple appearances for himself: extremely handsome, ordinary, and even bizarrely ugly ones.

There were young and older ones, and even female ones.

Bai Ge casually chose an extremely handsome type and then started to recklessly release the Magnetic Field.

“Upward!”

After adjusting the Magnetic Field direction, many pieces of scrap iron around slowly floated up.

Bai Ge quietly memorized this feeling. He had to get used to how much magnetic force could make how many kilograms of objects overcome Earth’s Core gravity.

Through repeated tests, he gradually got familiar with how to use this ability.

The range of his Magnetic Field could extend to over three hundred meters away. Farther was possible, but Bai Ge did not test it.

After all, the vehicle lot was only this big. Covering too far might disturb others and would not be good.

“Theoretically, as long as my electrical power can support it, I can keep expanding the Magnetic Field range without a limit.”

“However, magnetic force decreases as the Magnetic Field expands. For the same amount of magnetic force, spreading the Magnetic Field too far would weaken it significantly.”

“But I just need to increase my own power to boost the magnetic force.”

After testing it, for a Magnetic Field with a radius of about one hundred meters, freely controlling a one-hundred-kilogram object required a power of one hundred kilowatts.

In other words, maintaining this power continuously for an hour consumed only one hundred kilowatt-hours of electricity.

To increase the magnetic force for heavier objects to control, he needed to add one kilowatt of power for every additional kilogram.

“But what about flying? Earth’s Magnetic Field is too weak. If I want to fly, I must have something to rely on…”

First, it was impossible for Bai Ge to manipulate a piece of iron and then step on it to fly.

Because Bai Ge himself was the Magnetic Field center, this would directly violate the principles of force interactions.

Bai Ge looked at the tall buildings towering in the distance and thought to himself, “In a city full of high-rises, I can just interact directly with the reinforced concrete buildings.”

In modern cities, any place has ferrous elements.

At low altitudes, Bai Ge could fully use the buildings to make himself fly.

However, this method would be useless in open grasslands or on the sea, or even at altitudes of several thousand meters.

“This dark cloud is low, about one thousand meters high.”

“It should be quite simple for me to get up there.”

Bai Ge gazed at the dark cloud above his head and decided to attempt flying once.

Just relying on theory is never as good as experiencing flight personally.

He was seen lying on a pile of scrap car bodies, his whole body relaxed.

Suddenly, he shouted loudly.

“Ha!”

The instantaneous surge of super-strong repulsive force made his body shoot straight into the sky with a whoosh.

This was not a slow ascent; it was a catapult. Bai Ge directly used the instant repulsive force to launch himself into the air via inertia.

It was like forcing two repelling magnets together and then letting go; both would spring apart.

As Bai Ge soared into the sky.

On the ground, with a bang, dozens of car bodies emitted harsh creaking sounds and scattered in disarray.

The torrential rain concealed Bai Ge’s figure. Under the dark cloud cover, it was unusually dim.

But Bai Ge still continuously estimated his height visually.

He shared what he saw with Ling Dang, and the estimation was quick.

“One hundred meters!”

“Two hundred meters!”

“Three hundred meters…”

“About to stop…”

Bai Ge had only extended a hundred-meter Magnetic Field to catapult himself to three hundred meters in the air, using inertia.

Seeing that he was about to fall, he expanded the Magnetic Field again, pressing all the force onto the scrap pile on the ground.

He steadied himself instantly and continued upward.

The scrap car bodies on the ground seemed to suffer an impact and dented downward.

Since he could freely change the direction of his own Magnetic Field, he could shape it into peculiar forms.

The magnetism acted like his limbs, supporting him as he moved at high altitude.

By leveraging the tall buildings below, he soon disappeared into the cloud layer.

“Boom!”

The fierce lightning surged directly into Bai Ge’s body. The charged cloud layer acted like a battery, recharging him.

Meanwhile, his Brain Hole continuously drew in mist and condensed droplets.

He continuously released the Magnetic Field to stand firmly amidst the clouds.

Bai Ge and the distant steel on the ground generated an interacting force, repelling each other.

The steel buildings were anchored to the Earth. With the magnetic force he released at this moment, he could never bend a whole building.

Besides, he only directed the Magnetic Field onto the rooftop of the building, not influencing the entire structure.

“The absorption efficiency is too slow.”

The thundercloud was enormous. Bai Ge needed a very long time to send it all into the Brain Hole.

He estimated roughly: about four days…

This was not because he was weak, but because water vapor has low density. Over a hundred kilograms of vapor spread across at least a hundred meters radius.

He could only collect the vapor that reached the Brain Hole, each intake carrying just one or two jin of vapor.

“I need to compress the cloud layer first… this will make it easier to harvest more at once.”

Bai Ge pondered. The Magnetic Field could affect the charged cloud layer, as clouds contain abundant positive and negative charges.

He could envelop a large cloud area with his Magnetic Field and make all the vapor surge toward himself.

He acted on impulse and abruptly expanded his magnetic field.

It followed that the clouds stretching several kilometers around began to deform and churn violently.

If the dark clouds were initially just a chaos of cloud masses, at this moment they transformed into a buttocks-like shape.

With Bai Ge as the magnetic field center, the top of his head and below his feet became the two poles.

All the positively charged cloud vapor was first repelled from beneath his feet, rolling in an arc, looping around in a large circle, and then circling back.

Upon returning, it surged precisely toward the other pole at his head, forming a concave vortex.

Centered on Bai Ge’s head, the cloud vapor divided into two parts, one mass rushing toward his head and the other toward his lower body.

The high-density compressed water vapor turned directly into droplets and ice particles, which Bai Ge collected in batches into his Brain Hole.

The clouds churned more and more violently as alternating charges sparked more lightning, and collisions of ice particles generated more charges.

The thunder roared incessantly, and white light flashed continuously around Bai Ge.

…

At the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau, a group of people were observing that abnormal thunderstorm cloud.

Because the dark clouds were too low, they were monitoring the abnormal thunderstorm cloud at close range via drones overhead for an aerial view.

The entire cloud layer was incompatible with the surrounding climate—it seemed isolated, not interacting with other air currents.

“If this goes on, Shanghai will be ruined,” an observer sighed.

“Nonsense! This is the national economic hub. There must be a way,” a person who looked like a leader said.

After speaking, he did not feel confident.

Because over the past days, they had attempted artificial rain dispersal, launching nearly a thousand small rockets from the upwind.

They had also risked sending planes, employing chemical methods, yet no approach could remove that cloud.

“Today has a level-six gale; our high-altitude beacons are being affected by it, but the cloud layer itself acts like an immovable sieve, letting the wind pass through.”

“This means that cloud is utterly unaffected by air currents or air pressure.”

“Damn it, it’s like a solid nailed here!” someone said despairingly.

Suddenly, the images on the screen changed.

They saw the stubborn cloud layer roll violently, forming a peculiar large vortex.

It looked like a giant doughnut, with all cloud vapor surging toward the depression in the center.

“That scene resembles a magnetic field lines diagram…”,

everyone stared intently at the screen, and someone exclaimed, “The outer cloud layers are compressing inward; the whole dark cloud is shrinking!”

“What? It’s getting smaller? Then what about rainfall volume?”

“The rain is decreasing too,” the observer reported.

“Huh? Compressing toward the center should increase local precipitation, shouldn’t it?”

Everyone was puzzled, but at least it was good news; they quickly sent the drone closer.

“Boom!” White lightning flashed sporadically at the central vortex, illuminating it brilliantly.

“What is that? Why is all the lightning propagating toward that point?”

From the aerial perspective, the vortex center teemed with white spiderweb-like cracks, transient visual effects from lightning exposure.

It appeared as if all the thunderbolts were wildly striking that one spot.

In the flickering light, the approaching drone barely managed to see the scene at the vortex center.

Cloud vapor wasn’t condensing there; instead, it was empty…

The target of those lightning strikes… was hazy and indistinct.

“Send the drone inside.”

“But it’ll be shattered by lightning, and the strong electromagnetic field there will interfere with our signals.”

“Never mind, our drone is custom-made and can at least transmit a brief image.”

“Yes!”

The drone kept moving closer until it plunged into the vortex center, as if something fiercely pulled on it.

A violent bolt of lightning directly struck the drone, instantly destroying it.

But just before the destruction, a blurred image had transmitted back.

Looking at that image, the hall fell silent.

“What is this?”

“Looks like… a person…”

The frame showed a vague human figure, shimmering with electric light; the captured image had numerous electric serpents coiled atop its head.

As if thunderbolts were bombarding it overhead…

A young observer asked in astonishment, “Leader, is someone transcending tribulation?”