473: Chapter 473 Selling Grandparents' Land Without Feeling the Pain

It had been less than twelve hours since the Great Xia Cultivation demonstration livestream, and the first to lose their composure was France.

To be precise, it was the President of France, Mathieu Ndiaye.

This first Black president in the history of France was fifty-two years old, had only been in office for three years, and hadn't even managed to establish a firm foothold domestically before encountering such a situation.

In his office at the Élysée Palace, Ndiaye watched the video of the Great Xia demonstration livestream four times over.

With each viewing, his face turned a shade paler.

Of course, he was Black, so strictly speaking, it wasn't pale, but gray.

Sitting opposite him were the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dupont, and the Secretary of Defense, Bruno.

The two old white men sat there—one holding a cup of coffee without a word, the other with his legs crossed, also silent.

The air remained silent for a full two minutes.

Ndiaye spoke first.

"How many nuclear warheads do we have?"

Bruno uncrossed his legs. "Approximately two hundred and ninety."

"What is Great Xia's exchange rate?"

Dupont flipped through the documents on the table. "One super-yield nuclear warhead can be exchanged for five rejuvenation pills or two youth-preserving pills. Additionally, Cultivation Technique authorization and Spirit Stone compensation will be provided based on the total yield."

Ndiaye did the math in his head.

If all two hundred and ninety nuclear warheads were handed over, they could get back over a thousand rejuvenation pills, several hundred youth-preserving pills, plus complete Cultivation Techniques and a batch of Spirit Stones.

"Exchange them."

Ndiaye said only one word.

Bruno's coffee cup froze in mid-air.

"Mr. President, this is France's entire nuclear force."

"I know."

"General de Gaulle spent twenty years building France's independent nuclear deterrent. If we hand it all over, France's status as a major power will..."

"Bruno." Ndiaye interrupted him, "did you watch the video earlier?"

"I did."

"That person was flying in the sky."

Bruno fell silent.

"Can a nuclear bomb shoot him down?"

Bruno thought about it, but still said nothing.

They both knew the answer.

Great Xia has the Black Bird, mechs, and Cultivators.

To Great Xia, France's two hundred and ninety nuclear warheads didn't even count as a deterrent.

Then what was the purpose of these nuclear warheads?

To sit in a warehouse and rust?

Or to spend billions of euros every year maintaining them, just so they could stand tall at United Nations meetings and say, "We, France, are also a nuclear-armed nation"?

Moreover, Ndiaye was not native to France.

His grandfather was Senegalese, his father was an immigrant, and he himself grew up in the slums of Marseille.

To him, the glory of de Gaulle, France's nuclear deterrent, and the seat among the permanent members of the Security Council—he couldn't feel how important these things were.

But he knew very clearly what rejuvenation pills, youth-preserving pills, Cultivation Techniques, and Spirit Stones could bring to France's sixty million citizens.

"Dupont, draft a formal note and send it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Great Xia today."

Ndiaye stood up, his tone very calm.

"State that the French Republic is willing to respond to Great Xia's initiative on global nuclear disarmament and will hand over all nuclear weapons to Great Xia for safekeeping, in exchange for reciprocal payment under the Cultivation cooperation framework."

Almost at the same time.

London. 10 Downing Street.

The newly appointed Prime Minister of the Sun-Set Empire, Amit Patel, sat behind his desk with the same document spread out before him.

Amit Patel was forty-eight years old, of Indian descent, and had just been elected last year.

The fact that the Prime Minister of the Sun-Set Empire was of Indian descent had already caused quite a bit of controversy domestically.

But Amit, relying on his economic reform plan and his immense personal charisma, had managed to suppress all dissenting voices.

Now, another choice lay before him.

The Sun-Set Empire's nuclear arsenal was not large, with about two hundred and twenty-five warheads.

It was similar in size to France's, and completely incomparable to the Eagle and the Bear.

But the significance was different.

The Sun-Set Empire's nuclear weapons were the last fig leaf for this former "Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets."

Without nuclear weapons, the Sun-Set Empire's international standing would plummet directly from one of the Permanent Five to a second-rate nation.

Amit flipped the document to the last page, thought for a while, and dialed the Foreign Secretary.

"Send me a few more copies of Great Xia's cooperation framework."

"Prime Minister, don't you already have them?"

"I need to show them to the people in Parliament."

Amit hung up the phone and took a book out of his drawer.

The book's cover was a bit worn; he had bought it when he was studying at Oxford—a history of the Mongol Empire.

He turned to a certain page.

Genghis Khan.

The Mongol cavalry swept across the Eurasian continent, reaching Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

"Scourge of God."

The nickname Europeans gave Genghis Khan.

Amit looked at that page and suddenly chuckled.

Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire was later annexed by Great Xia.

In other words, in a certain sense, the territory of the Mongol Empire later became a part of Great Xia.

So, couldn't it be said that the places once conquered by the Mongol cavalry—including parts of India, parts of the Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe—also had historical ties to Great Xia?

This logic was, of course, twisted.

But Amit didn't need logical correctness; he needed a reason that didn't sound too bad when spoken aloud.

The next day, Amit delivered a speech in the House of Commons.

The theme of the speech was "The Fusion of Civilizations and the Future of Humanity."

In his speech, he mentioned the Silk Road, mentioned cultural exchanges between the East and West, and mentioned Genghis Khan's historical feat of unifying the Eurasian continent.

Then he said something that caught everyone off guard.

"Looking at the long river of history, Great Xia civilization and European civilization have never been opposites. Seven hundred years ago, the Mongol Empire connected the East and the West. Today, the arrival of the Cultivation era gives us the opportunity to embrace the same civilization once again."

The House of Commons was silent for three seconds.

Then, everyone started clapping.

Amit struck while the iron was hot, announcing that the Sun-Set Empire would respond to the "Global Nuclear Disarmament Initiative" and enter negotiations with Great Xia for the transfer of nuclear weapons.

The leader of the opposition party below the podium was so angry his face turned green. He stood up and shouted, "This is a betrayal of the British Empire's century-old glory!"

Amit glanced at him and replied with one sentence.

"Can the glory of the Empire help you Cultivate?"

The opposition leader was rendered speechless.

He couldn't think of anything to refute Amit.

The entire House of Commons was quiet for over ten seconds, and then the vote began.

The result was a foregone conclusion.

France and the Sun-Set Empire announced their intention to transfer nuclear weapons within the same week.

When the news got out, the whole world was stunned.

Two Permanent Five nations, two former world-class powers, just handed over their nuclear weapons like that?

The internet was filled with condemnation.

Right-wing media in France had the same headline in large print for three consecutive days: "Ndiaye, you are not fit to sit in de Gaulle's chair."

The tabloids of the Sun-Set Empire were even more vicious, placing a photo of Amit side-by-side with a photo of Mahatma Gandhi, with the headline: "Gandhi lost India, Patel lost the nukes."

But cursing aside, the polling data told a different story.

The proportion of public opinion supporting the nuclear weapon transfer in France was sixty-one percent.

The data for the Sun-Set Empire was even higher: sixty-seven percent.

The reason was simple.

If you ask the common people, do you want nuclear bombs or do you want to Cultivate?

What does a nuclear bomb have to do with the common people? That thing can't cure back pain.

Cultivation is real and tangible.

Better health and a longer lifespan are more practical than any nuclear deterrent.

With France and the Sun-Set Empire leading the way, things would be easier for the rest.

Medium-sized nuclear-armed countries began to line up.

But the real big players hadn't made their stance known yet.

The Eagle and the Bear.

Combined, these two countries accounted for over ninety percent of the world's total nuclear weapons.

Their attitude was the decisive factor.