480: Chapter 480 After Burning the Heavens

The white screen on the holographic situational map lasted for half an hour.

A dozen minutes later, sporadic data flickers began to appear at the edges of the white screen.

"The decay has begun."

Tao Zhe turned his head and shouted, "Technical team, prepare for a full-spectrum scan."

The few members of the technical team had already been sitting in front of their equipment for quite some time; upon hearing this, they immediately began to operate them.

Data scanned line by line from the bottom of the screen upwards.

About ten minutes later.

On the holographic situational map, the outline of the explosion's central area slowly emerged.

Everyone saw the image, and then the entire Command Center went quiet.

The image showed that the surface within a radius of over three hundred kilometers of the explosion center had been completely leveled.

The ground had turned into a massive depression, shaped like a giant bowl.

The bottom and walls of the bowl were entirely smooth, glassy ground, reflecting the pale light of the Zombie World.

The high temperatures had melted the soil and rock into a liquid state, which then re-solidified; what resulted was exactly like glass.

The Bone Altar was gone.

The Human Bone Pillars were gone.

All surface structures of the Blood Sacrifice Array had completely vanished.

The situation underground was even more severe.

The scan showed that the area several hundred meters below the surface was entirely composed of shattered, hollow structures, the array's foundations and veins torn to shreds by the shockwave.

Tao Zhe stared at the scan data for a full two minutes.

"Full-spectrum confirmation: no energy signals in the target area."

He waited a few more seconds, confirming there was no fluctuation in the data.

"No Qi fluctuations, no life signals, no traces of a Nascent Soul escaping."

"Daoist Wan Shi has been eliminated by us."

Su Mingyuan stood in front of the screen and let out a long breath.

He walked to the communication console and picked up the microphone for the encrypted line.

It rang twice on the other end before being connected.

"Elder Qin, the Burning Heaven Plan has been executed."

There was a second of silence on the other end of the line.

"And the results? How did it go?"

"Full-spectrum scan confirmed, Daoist Wan Shi has been eliminated. The Nascent Soul failed to undergo Soul Emergence and was shattered on the spot; there are no traces of escape."

"Casualties?"

"Zero casualties."

The other end of the line was silent again for a few seconds.

Su Mingyuan could hear the sounds of excitement coming from the microphone.

"Good."

Elder Qin's voice was a bit hoarse.

"Very good, you all did well."

Su Mingyuan hung up the phone and turned to look at Tao Zhe and Li Yunlong.

"Prepare for an on-site inspection."

One hour later.

Three Kunpeng took off from the Panshi Base and pushed forward at full speed towards the northeast.

Zhang Dabiao led the team, with Chen Rong and Lin Wan accompanying him; Tao Zhe, along with twelve members of the scientific research team and a pile of testing equipment, sat in the second Kunpeng.

They slowed down after flying for less than an hour.

Zhang Dabiao leaned his head forward, then froze.

"Damn."

He couldn't think of any other words.

Looking down from high altitude, a huge circular depression had appeared on the ground.

That depression was unimaginably vast.

Over three hundred kilometers in radius, it was entirely smooth, glassy ground, reflecting a dim luster under the gray light of the Zombie World.

Steam was still rising from the edges of the depression; white columns of gas emerged from the cracks, lazily drifting in mid-air.

The entire area looked like a giant glass bowl fresh out of a kiln.

"Prepare to land."

Su Mingyuan's voice came through the communication channel.

The three Kunpeng found a relatively flat spot on the edge of the vitrified area to land.

As the landing gear touched the ground, it emitted a harsh screeching sound; the glassy ground beneath their feet was as hard as a steel plate.

The cabin door opened, and a wave of heat rushed in.

Although nearly two hours had passed since the nuclear explosion, the surface temperature was still frighteningly high.

Zhang Dabiao was the first to jump down; his boots clicked sharply as they stepped onto the glass ground.

He looked down at his feet.

The ground was a translucent dark gray; one could vaguely see air bubbles and patterns beneath, as if something were sealed inside amber, but upon closer inspection, there was nothing there.

It was simply a solid piece of rock that had melted and then re-solidified.

"All clear."

Zhang Dabiao waved his hand.

Signaling the inspection team to begin moving toward the center of the depression.

They walked for about forty minutes.

They didn't find anything.

The entire vitrified area was like an empty, wiped-clean bowl, without even a single speck of debris left.

Tao Zhe walked in the middle of the group, holding a portable scanner in his hand, crouching down to scan every few steps.

After scanning dozens of times, it was all empty.

He stood up and brushed the dust off his knees.

"Nothing left."

Zhang Dabiao walked over.

"Last time we fought Daoist Yuling, we at least managed to pick up a Storage Pouch. This time, there's not even a single hair left."

Tao Zhe nodded. "3.75 billion tons. This yield melted even the Earth's crust; no matter how tough the Restrictions on the Storage Pouch were, it couldn't possibly withstand it."

Su Mingyuan's voice came through the communication channel.

"Continue searching. Go through the entire depressed area; don't miss any corners."

The inspection team continued toward the deepest part of the depression.

They walked for another twenty minutes.

A researcher suddenly stopped.

The detector in his hand began to beep.

It wasn't the usual notification sound; it was that short, continuous alarm sound.

Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.

The researcher looked down at the screen, and the expression on his face changed.

"Dr. Tao!"

Tao Zhe walked over and glanced at the data on the screen.

His brows immediately furrowed.

"The signal source is underground. Depth is about three to four meters. It's covered by a layer of vitrified rock."

Zhang Dabiao had already walked over.

"What is it?"

"Hard to say." Tao Zhe stared at the detector's readings. "The instrument only detects that there is a... thing at this location. What exactly it is, the instrument cannot determine."

Zhang Dabiao looked down at the glass ground beneath his feet.

Three to four meters deep.

The vitrified rock layer was extremely hard, but for a Foundation Establishment Stage Martial Artist, it was nothing.

"Dig?"

Tao Zhe looked at the communicator. "Group Leader Su, an abnormal signal has been detected. Requesting instructions on whether to excavate."

Su Mingyuan did not hesitate and directly issued the order.

"Excavate. Chen Rong and Lin Wan are responsible for security; everyone else move back fifty meters."

Zhang Dabiao loosened his wrists, a layer of pale yellow Qi condensing on his fist, and smashed it into the ground.

The vitrified rock layer shattered in response, cracks spreading outward in all directions.

He smashed it a few more times, and the shattered rock layers were moved away piece by piece.

When they had dug to a depth of about three meters, Zhang Dabiao's fist suddenly paused.

He saw something.

A skull.

Fist-sized, grayish-white, its surface as smooth as if it had been polished by someone.

It lay quietly in the middle of the shattered rock layers; the surrounding rocks had all melted due to the high heat and then re-solidified, but it itself had no traces of being scorched.

It was as if the 3.75 billion-ton nuclear explosion had nothing to do with it at all.

Tao Zhe walked to the edge of the pit and looked down.

Cold sweat poured down.

It took several seconds before he took out his communicator.

"Group Leader Su, we seem to have found the Evil Bone Skeleton."

"If the records on the Jade Slip are correct, this is that evil object sealed in the Danding Heavenly Palace's first Forbidden Ground. The thing that Daoist Wan Shi stole from Danding Heavenly Palace back then."