337: Chapter 329 The Man Who Emerged from Firelight and Mushroom Clouds

During the half month Neo was busy preparing for the nuclear experiment, Zhang Mu was also busy as well.

As one of humanity's ultimate killing weapons and highest secrets, the true face of nuclear weapons has always been shrouded in a veil of mystery for ordinary people lacking relevant knowledge, making it impossible to see clearly.

Zhang Mu had already forgotten the time he spent in elementary school while living in the orphanage, but he remembered that in junior high school afterward, his Classmates were still arguing endlessly about "how many times a single nuclear weapon could blow up the Blue Star."

It wasn't until high school that he learned nuclear weapons couldn't destroy the Blue Star; they could only destroy humanity.

Zhang Mu naturally wouldn't look down on their lethality just because "nuclear weapons couldn't blow up the Blue Star," so he had been making preparations for the past half month.

First, he activated his Shadow Technique and ran to a nuclear power plant, heading toward the nuclear reactor while maintaining his Magic Shield to test if he could withstand nuclear radiation.

The results were quite satisfactory; after dispelling the Magic Shield, the radiation could no longer cause any harm to his physical body.

Zhang Mu had expected this, after all, not long ago, he had been exposed to space filled with various types of radiation and remained perfectly fine.

With peace of mind, he concentrated all his energy on his cultivation, practicing Knight Magic and the Meditation Method in "The World," and during breaks, he would go to Lake to inspect the training progress of the legion.

The war was coming; every bit of increased strength meant a bit more certainty of victory.

In this way, half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Zhang Mu placed a "The World" light gate at the location Neo had selected and went to check it every day.

Early this morning, he found that the preliminary work was complete and immediately transformed into Mr. Gao's appearance, heading toward the nuclear bomb drop site.

...

Base main building.

Led by a man in a black suit, Yue Ruo and the girl followed, soon entering the observation room on the top floor.

The room was spacious, with only a few sofas on the left for guests to rest while waiting. The wall directly opposite the door was a huge floor-to-ceiling window, and outside was a vast desert.

Yue Ruo walked to the window and stopped, admiring the scenery she had never seen with her own eyes.

The desert was boundless, with dunes rolling into the distance, where the sky and the sand gradually drew closer until they met at the horizon, forming a single line.

The wind rose, and yellow sand swept across the sky.

"What a strong wind." Even with the glass blocking it, Yue Ruo instinctively stepped back, wanting to avoid the grit that was pitter-pattering against the glass.

"We're lucky; there was no wind at all when we arrived." The girl walked to her side.

"Chloe." Yue Ruo turned to look at her, "Since the Director arranged for you to come, did Xiao Luo complain?"

"Senior Sister?

Don't even mention it. If she weren't worried that Immortal Xu would slap her to death, she would have almost traded her moon bright sword for this opportunity."

"Is it that serious?" Yue Ruo leaned back strategically.

"You know Senior Sister's personality; she can't stand being bored.

Sū City Base didn't have anything interesting to begin with, and the Director strictly ordered that unless a calamity occurs, the five of us are strictly forbidden from going out. Senior Sister is almost complaining herself to death."

"The faces of all five of you are on the front page of the Special Investigation Bureau's official website. The whole country knows you; going out on the street would definitely cause a riot."

"Senior Sister said she could disguise her..."

"You two, we meet again."

A familiar voice suddenly came from behind. The two turned to see the Queen, who had arrived at the base before them but entered the observation room later.

"Queen... Your Highness, hello." They weren't quite used to the somewhat retro title and greeted her awkwardly in English.

The Queen didn't mind their stumbling words and walked closer with a smile: "Ms. Yue Ruo, Ms. Chloe, after the magic competition, I thought we would be apart for a while. I didn't expect to meet again so soon."

They were somewhat surprised that the Queen actually knew their names.

In their impression, Zhao Qi had been responsible for communicating with the Queen throughout the competition, and neither they nor Chloe had much interaction with her, let alone telling her their names.

Clearly, the Queen had heard them from their conversations.

Surprised by the Queen's attentiveness and memory, Yue Ruo said, "Just call me Yue Ruo."

"Me too." Chloe nodded her head repeatedly.

"Then I won't be formal." The Queen said this in Chinese.

Impressive.

Yue Ruo marveled at her language proficiency while asking, "Has Mr. Dumbledore come as well?"

"The Headmaster? He has urgent matters."

"Then..." Chloe trailed off, her meaning clear.

The Queen clearly understood: "I consulted the Headmaster before coming, and he said to go ahead, that nothing would happen."

After saying that, she looked out at the desert through the window: "However, I'm quite surprised. Based on my experience contacting Huaguo, you shouldn't have any interest in these things."

"Since America sent the WJ Department on a visit, we have to give some face."

Everyone knew about gathering intelligence, but Yue Ruo wasn't stupid enough to say it openly, and it was impossible for the Queen to ask so bluntly.

So she changed the subject and talked about this nuclear test: "It's hard to imagine that something humans fear could actually be used by transcendents to heal injuries. Transcendents...

It's truly shocking."

"Yes, we didn't expect before that radiation, which is depicted as the source of disaster in various film and literary works, would have other uses."

The Queen turned to face the two and smiled, "Do you think Immortal Xu and the Headmaster could do it?"

"Uh..." Yue Ruo and Chloe exchanged a glance, and the former answered, "It should be possible. After all, they are both more power... than Mr. Gao."

Halfway through, she glanced at the Soldier on duty by the door and stopped talking.

After all, they were on someone else's territory, and it wasn't appropriate to belittle their transcendent to their face. Even if it was the truth, people wouldn't refrain from getting angry just because it was true.

The Queen understood her concerns and pointed out the floor-to-ceiling window, changing the subject again: "Look over there."

The two looked over, seeing only yellow sand.

"It's a very ordinary desert."

The one who spoke wasn't the Queen, but Neo, who had pushed open the door and walked in, followed by research personnel.

They were America's top nuclear Physics experts. After learning that Mr. Gao had actively requested to take a nuclear bomb, they had jointly applied to observe this "experiment."

This group of experts ignored everyone after coming in, finding a spot with an excellent view in front of the window on their own, instructing their assistants to prepare for recording, and then just stared out the window, waiting for the nuclear bomb to launch.

Neo led the others to sit on the sofa: "I'm very sorry for their rudeness."

"Focused people are always forgiven." A proper smile was always on the Queen's face.

"You two." Neo shifted his gaze to Yue Ruo and Chloe on the left sofa, "Thank you for coming at our invitation."

"You're welcome." Yue Ruo's tone was somewhat stiff.

After interacting with these big figures for a moment, she felt in her heart that it really wasn't easy for the Director to deal with the higher-ups normally.

Reasonably speaking, Neo, who had held a high position for a long time, would be dissatisfied with Yue Ruo's somewhat rude behavior, yet he showed no sign of displeasure.

In this world, strength speaks. Neo understood well what kind of posture people of different statuses should adopt.

Seeing that Yue Ruo didn't want to talk, he didn't force it and turned to chat with the Queen: "Your Majesty, it's been a long time since we last met."

"I have to thank the Headmaster for his potion; otherwise, my body wouldn't have been able to support another long journey."

"I'm truly envious." Neo looked at the Queen's young and beautiful appearance and sighed.

"With Mr. Gao here, the day you desire won't be too far away."

Gentle smiles appeared on both their faces, but Yue Ruo felt it was quite fake; perhaps all "big figures" were like this.

"Mr. Neo." An assistant standing to the side took a call, then quickly ran to Neo's side, leaning over to whisper in his ear.

"I understand. Order them to fire." He nodded and stood up, "It's coming, everyone."

The goal of this trip was about to arrive, and the whole group stood up, walking to the window and looking out along with the researchers.

Just now, the assistant told Neo that Mr. Gao's voice had suddenly appeared in the launch room, saying he was in position.

Although the launch room was downstairs and everyone couldn't hear the countdown for the button press, they still grew tense, focusing their gaze on the boundless desert.

Time passed bit by bit. Half an hour later, a black dot shot straight out of the clouds, falling rapidly toward the ground.

Their attention was highly concentrated, and they immediately spotted the black dot, randomly searching for a human figure.

Because they were too far from the impact point, they ultimately found nothing, but this didn't affect everyone's enthusiasm. They unconsciously moved forward, their gazes piercing through their own reflections on the glass, staring at that black dot getting closer and closer to the ground.

Neo instructed his assistant to distribute goggles to everyone.

"Boom—"

Shortly after they put on their goggles, fire burst forth, accompanied by a rising, massive mushroom cloud that continued to expand.

Witnessing the nuclear explosion, Yue Ruo was incredibly shocked, yet also a bit disappointed: "I can't see anything..."

She spoke a bit vaguely, but Neo understood and raised his hand to clap.

The assistant received the command, pulled out a remote control and pressed it, and the "glass" wall on the side slowly lit up.

Everyone looked over curiously and found it was a satellite top-down view of the nuclear explosion site.

The researchers immediately swarmed over to surround the wall, while the Queen, Yue Ruo, and the others stood behind.

The screen was large enough that they could see clearly even from a distance.

From the top-down perspective, the scale of the mushroom cloud appeared even more magnificent. Before its diameter, which spanned dozens of kilometers, everything in heaven and earth paled in comparison.

Clearly, under these circumstances, even with a satellite zooming in, one shouldn't dream of seeing a person.

"Damn it! I can't see anything." A researcher clutched his hair in frustration.

"Were recording instruments set up on site?" someone turned back to ask.

Neo shrugged: "Mr. Gao didn't say if it was okay or not, so to be safe, nothing was placed."

Learning that the information they wanted could not be collected, the researchers immediately broke out in a chorus of wails.

"Hey! Look!" their assistant suddenly cried out, raising a hand to point at the screen.

Bright and dazzling, from within the fiery red orb of light, countless tiny blue light beams burst out, sweeping around like stage atmosphere lights.

"This is..." They stared blankly, unconsciously moving closer, wanting to see more clearly.

The fireball, which should have continued to expand outward for several minutes, strangely began to shrink and condense inward until it was the size of a basketball.

Then everyone saw... that world-destroying nuclear explosion fireball was held in a man's palm like a toy, as he tossed it up and down to gauge its weight.

"He..."

Even Neo, who had the most frequent contact with Mr. Gao, was now staring with a blank face.

He had plenty of confidence in Mr. Gao being able to withstand a nuclear explosion with his physical body without injury, but... condensing the nuclear fireball into his hand...

The crowd was like fish out of water, their mouths opening and closing as they tried to comprehend the scene before them. However, the man on the screen holding the fireball suddenly disappeared from the spot.

"What are you all looking at?" Mr. Gao's indifferent tone echoed in the observation room.

Everyone was dazed for a moment, seemingly not reacting to who was speaking. When they snapped out of it and turned back, they realized that the man who was just a hundred kilometers away had actually already stood before them.

The transcendent they had been longing for had appeared, but the researchers didn't have time to examine his face. Instead, they stared intently at his raised right hand.

The five fingers of his right hand were spread open, supporting a glowing red fireball.

This gave them quite a fright.

The fireball wasn't a magic spell released by Dumbledore; it was a genuine fireball produced by a nuclear explosion, the kind with radiation.

Except for the researchers and Neo, everyone else in the room instinctively stepped back, only stopping when their backs hit the wall.

Mr. Gao scanned the room: "It cannot hurt anyone now."

Hearing this, everyone calmed down, their gazes turning curiously toward the fireball.

The existence of transcendents repeatedly broke people's inherent cognitions regarding lifespan, power, and so on.

Immortal Xu flying to outer space had already left experts and leaders of various countries dumbfounded, yet the trick Mr. Gao just showed was even more impressive.

One was on the ground, the other was in space. It seemed the difficulty of the latter crushed the former because humanity has not yet conquered space.

But in reality, it was hard to distinguish which was superior.

At least in Neo's eyes, as long as one's constitution was infinitely improved, exposing one's physical body to space was achievable; this was something humans could and dared to imagine, like gene potions in novels.

But Mr. Gao...

Neo walked up to Mr. Gao, looking at the fireball with an obsessed gaze: "Is this a miracle you created?"

"Just a little trick." Mr. Gao extended his right hand forward so he could see clearly, "Everyone, I have some private matters to discuss with Neo."

Hearing this, Neo came back to his senses and quickly sent the researchers away, then politely asked the Queen, Yue Ruo, and Chloe to wait in the lounge for a moment, saying he would be there shortly.

The three left without delay. The researchers were somewhat unwilling, trying hard to crowd around Mr. Gao, but they were grabbed by both arms and dragged away by the men in black suits called over by the assistant.

"Mr. Gao, please give your orders."

"The healing effect was quite good, but one is not enough. My injuries haven't been completely healed yet. I probably... need about twenty more high-yield ones."

"I will immediately arrange the next launch."

"No need." Mr. Gao waved his left hand lightly in front of him, and the fireball held in his right hand vanished into thin air. "Launching them one by one like this is too slow. Help me prepare them, and I will come to collect them when the time comes."

Neo didn't understand, asking in a daze, "Prepare them refers to..."

"Twenty high-yield ones detonated all at once."

"Uh..." He was a bit dazed, unable to speak.

Mr. Gao said to himself, "Detonating twenty high-yield ones in America all at once would have negative impacts even in an uninhabited area. I didn't care much originally, but... considering whether your reputation in the outside world is good or bad will affect the stability of your rule, I'll go elsewhere to solve it."

Neo knew in his heart that the so-called "elsewhere" likely referred to alternate dimensions similar to Hogwarts or the Mountain Gate.

If he went to other countries on the Blue Star, everyone knew by now that Mr. Gao needed to take nuclear bombs to heal his injuries. Any country that discovered a nuclear explosion would look for America, so then changing the location would be meaningless.

"I will prepare the nuclear bombs you need as quickly as possible."

"Mm." The moment the words left his mouth, Mr. Gao's figure vanished from the spot.