Seeing the snow accumulation outside had already reached over half a meter, Dong Qi knew this was the best time to head to the parking lot.

  Dong Qi's Fatebound Artifact was a common white model, so all he needed to do was cover the front and rear license plates with snow.

  As for the Sky Eye surveillance cameras along the route, with the heavy snowfall outside, they couldn't capture clear footage of the road conditions anyway.

  If the snow continued through the night, the tire tracks left during the drive would likely be easily concealed too.

  To prevent even more snow from piling up on the roads, Dong Qi immediately sprang into action.

  Although the snow on the roads was already about half a meter deep, because it was freshly fallen, it was still relatively soft and loose, posing minimal obstruction to the vehicle.

  By the time Dong Qi slowly drove the car into the parking lot, just as he had initially suspected, the security booth was completely empty.

  He dug out the keys buried under the snow, entered the parking lot directly, and began the enhancement process.

  Because this round required a significant amount of materials, Dong Qi didn't spare any vehicles—targeting cars in both the old and new sections of the lot.

  What Dong Qi hadn't anticipated was that upgrading the vehicle by consuming materials would also deplete his own spiritual energy.

  The reason it went unnoticed last time was that devouring just a single car consumed a negligible amount of spiritual energy.

  This time, however, because he devoured a massive quantity of materials in a short period, the accumulated drain on his spiritual energy became much more noticeable.

  Fatebound Artifact: Light Passenger Van

  Grade: Mundane Artifact

  Body Frame: Initial Enhancement (20%)

  Powertrain: Initial Enhancement (20%)

  Electrical Systems: Initial Enhancement (20%)

  Other Equipment: Unenhanced (0%)

  Manifestation from the Tide of Thought

  Times Manifested: 1

  Unknown Special Energy Value: 10.1

  (Each manifestation consumes a minimum of one hundred energy points, with no upper limit.)

  Dong Qi had originally thought that devouring the over two hundred vehicles in the parking lot would allow him to enhance his Fatebound Artifact twice.

  He never expected that after the first enhancement, the progress gained from devouring another car would decrease so drastically.

  However, the benefits his Fatebound Artifact gained from a single enhancement far exceeded Dong Qi's imagination.

  First and foremost, after the artifact's upgrade, Dong Qi immediately felt the feedback from the Treasure-Gathering Incantation.

  If Dong Qi was previously in a sub-healthy state, then after this upgrade feedback, his physical condition had improved significantly.

  If peak human physical condition is quantified as 100%, and normal healthy condition as 60%, then Dong Qi's physical condition had now reached over 85%.

  Don't think a twenty percent boost is trivial; the closer you get to the limit, the more you must sacrifice for every tiny breakthrough.

  Yet Dong Qi achieved this in less than half a day, having devoured nearly two hundred vehicles.

  Consider the daily maintenance costs of top athletes; even if each car is valued at an average price of two hundred thousand, the total cost wouldn't even reach four or five million.

  Frankly, this expense isn't excessively high.

  Aside from Dong Qi receiving feedback from the Treasure-Gathering Incantation, the changes in his Fatebound Artifact were equally remarkable.

  The most直观 change was the vehicle's exterior.

  Originally, the body was just thin sheet metal; a simple tossed stone could dent it, let alone a bullet impact.

  After this upgrade, the outer shell was elevated to an initial bullet-resistant level.

  Although it could only stop small-caliber firearms, it was far superior to before.

  Combined with all the vehicle's glass being upgraded to bulletproof glass, its safety saw a tremendous boost.

  Next, the upgrades to the powertrain were also substantial.

  Not only was the engine considerably improved, but the tires, part of the powertrain, were also upgraded to heat-resistant, run-flat tires.

  The electrical systems mainly saw enhancements in functionality, without any particularly dramatic changes.

  Perhaps the data didn't show much difference post-upgrade, but on the return journey, Dong Qi experienced the changes to his Fatebound Artifact in a very tangible way.

  Originally, if the speed exceeded 20 km/h, it felt difficult to control.

  During the return trip, even at speeds around 60 km/h, there was no significant impact.

  At this moment, his Fatebound Artifact felt like a professional snow vehicle; the accumulated snow on the road surface had absolutely no effect on it.

  As Dong Qi had anticipated, the heavy snowfall that night showed no signs of stopping; instead, it intensified.

  For several consecutive days, massive snowstorms battered Pengcheng.

  While the temperature here hadn't continued to plummet, remaining steady at around minus twenty degrees Celsius, the accumulated snow depth had reached nearly one and a half meters.

  Although snowstorms are common in Pengcheng every year, the snow accumulation rarely exceeds twenty or thirty centimeters.

  Let alone the current depth of one and a half meters, they hadn't even experienced half a meter of snow in years.

  An accumulated snow depth of one and a half meters had completely buried the city's entire road network.

  By this point, even ordinary vehicles were struggling, let alone Dong Qi's Fatebound Artifact, which had undergone one enhancement; venturing out would be extremely difficult.

  Fortunately, Dong Qi had acted decisively; otherwise, he might have completely missed that golden opportunity.

  With such heavy snowfall, logically, Pengcheng should have witnessed many casualties.

  Although Pengcheng has centralized heating in winter, living standards have been continuously improving.

  Most urban residents no longer stockpile vegetables for the winter in advance.

  Apart from buying extra supplies a few days before the Spring Festival, they are accustomed to purchasing fresh produce daily.

  Although many people rushed to supermarkets to hoard supplies when the snowstorm first began, most who hadn't experienced a snow disaster could only sustain themselves for about a week with the purchased food.

  But by now, over ten days since the snow disaster first appeared, most households had completely depleted their pre-stored food.

  Even if they could brave the snow to reach supermarkets now, not only were the supermarkets not operating normally, but most of the food inside had also been looted clean during the initial chaos of the snowstorm.

  Just as most people were on the verge of despair, the Pengcheng government began disaster relief efforts.

  The authorities mobilized a large number of loaders and trucks, directly collecting vast amounts of staple food from grain depots and sending it to various residential districts across the city.

  All types of staple foods were packaged according to a standard of fifty kilograms per bag, priced at 200 yuan per bag, with a purchase limit of two bags per household.

  Under normal circumstances, fifty kilograms of rice is more than sufficient for a family of three for a week.

  This two-bag-per-household standard essentially prevented starvation.

  As for the water supply disruptions caused by frozen pipes, with external snow accumulation already about one and a half meters, at this point, if someone died of thirst, they really couldn't blame anyone else.

  Although the government temporarily lacked the capacity to provide relief to the suburban outskirts, the living conditions for most families there were, conversely, much better than those in the urban districts.