NEC Chapter 140: The Starry Continent's First Brilliant Flash

October 12th, clear skies, no wind, high and bright with scattered clouds.

It was a good day. Lord Chen Mo had specifically checked the traditional calendar.

Auspicious for groundbreaking, sacrificial ceremonies, prayers, consecration, fasting and purification rituals...

The lord had a high platform erected over a hundred kilometers west of Vast Sea City, and today brought the territory's civil and military officials and distinguished guests from the temple to the platform early, where everyone took their seats.

The lord and High Priest Farrell sat in the front row, the best viewing positions.

Service staff brought various refreshments, seasonal fruits, and frozen desserts just taken from ice boxes, filling half the table space in front of each guest.

It was truly extravagant.

Farrell discreetly observed this lord, somewhat speechless.

This lord was always so strange. His personal life was quite modest, he was often seen eating with the territory's soldiers, finishing simple meals of rice with a few dishes quickly.

But in hospitality, Vast Sea Territory was famously generous. Fresh fruits and vegetables were transported north from the south with ice protection all the way, then preserved with special equipment upon reaching the territory. Not to mention anything else, ninety-nine point nine percent of people on the continent couldn't enjoy such treatment.

Yet whenever guests came to Vast Sea, even ordinary merchant guild executives, the lord was never stingy.

Farrell slowly put a cold fruit in his mouth, then curiously picked up the thin, long cigarette the lord had placed on the table, examining it from all angles.

Such an exquisite little thing.

Though Lord Chen Mo was currently puffing away, Farrell still didn't dare imitate him.

What if there was something blasphemous inside?

In earlier years, some people had secretly skinned and deboned dwarves, stewed them into meat, and tricked temple personnel into consuming it, those were bloody lessons indeed.

Although this lord's temperament didn't seem like he would deliberately harm anyone, it was better to be careful when away from home. Lords could be deceived by others too.

"Well, not smoking is good! Smoking is harmful to health."

Chen Mo occasionally chatted with Farrell, "I don't usually smoke either, but when something comes up, I can't help it. It's a way to calm my emotions."

"Not like that old fellow, he's already losing control."

Chen Mo was referring to Master Downs.

"Old Blade loves wine, Long Staff loves smoke", these mages indeed loved such things that supposedly helped focus and calm the mind.

Ever since getting filtered cigarettes from Chen Mo, the old man had completely fallen in love with these little things.

To prevent this teacher from dying of lung cancer or related diseases, East Xia had even arranged special technical research to reduce nicotine, tar, and other components in tobacco while maintaining the original taste.

They also created tobacco companions to use with cigarettes, minimizing lung damage as much as possible.

The cost of just one cigarette was over two thousand Xia yuan, completely without brand premium or tax additions. If taxed according to East Xia's industry standards, each cigarette would cost over ten thousand.

Everyone chatted and laughed, and soon it was time for the scheduled "fireworks" viewing.

Participating in this performance was a conventional tactical-level hydrogen bomb with a ten-kiloton yield, right at the upper limit for conventional tactical nuclear weapons.

Although East Xia was fully capable of providing higher-yield weapons, after careful deliberation, the staff departments believed maintaining appropriate scale was very important.

First, this was a performance.

One point East Xia repeatedly emphasized in their correspondence was that even if Lady Frost met with misfortune, nuclear weapons, which could result in destructive divine punishment strikes and mutual destruction, should not be used. Instead, development should continue, expanding strength for the future.

Actually, without family persuasion, Chen Mo understood this. At least so far, Frost's core role was as East Xia's strategic-level pharmaceutical supplier. Moreover, since the little girl had never made demands, this wasn't just trade, significant emotional factors were involved.

Therefore, East Xia took the little girl's safety very seriously, but compared to Chen Mo's safety, they were on completely different levels.

So no matter how many nuclear bombs Chen Mo possessed or what yields they had, without confirming absolutely safe release conditions, they wouldn't be used for retaliatory strikes.

Even on Blue Star it was the same, superweapons were most powerful when not dropped on the enemy's head.

This made the performance particularly important, because you had to make the other side believe you had such things to put them on the negotiating table as bargaining chips.

On Blue Star, such performances mainly involved bombing empty land or oceans. Of course, some dropped them in cities to kill livestock, all with good demonstrative effects.

In the Starry Continent, only empty land could be bombed. To ensure no problems, Chen Mo had even arranged for sand people to sweep this blank area several times in advance, driving out even lizards and sand cats.

An exclusion zone was established with a radius of eleven kilometers based on the theoretical maximum impact range.

To fully demonstrate the effect, this used low-altitude airburst. Of course, missile launches or drone drops wouldn't be used, too wasteful of transport capacity. So Chen Mo arranged for professional teams to erect simple detonation facilities in the desert: earth mounds below, wooden tower structures above.

Around the detonation point, from far to near, simple city walls, wooden houses, armor mounted on poles, and other reference objects were arranged.

Of course, cameras were essential.

On both sides of the high viewing platform were two large display screens specially transported from Blue Star, connected to dozens of different-angle cameras on site. Additionally, old Downs led a mage group from the former Night Edge, ready to cast Detection Eyes at various distances.

The goal was comprehensive, all-angle viewing for everyone.

Such elaborate preparations built considerable anticipation among the guests.

As time passed minute by minute, Field Army Commander, the centaur Kaga, galloped up and stopped below the platform, straightening his upper body and delivering a perfect military salute, then shouting loudly, "Report to the lord! Weapon 'Burning Stone' is ready. Requesting ignition, release, and execution of attack on target area!"

"Attack approved!"

"Received!" Kaga roared, guards on both sides waved red flags, then distant sand dunes responded with red flag waves. One small centaur, looking like Ma Baoguo, raised a heavy sniper rifle and fired a shot toward the distance.

Of course, this entire sequence was part of the performance.

No release was needed, the nuclear bomb was just sitting there. No ignition was needed, and the gunshot was pure deception.

To ensure detonation safety and stability, the detonation device was simply timed.

Time was up, that's all.

"Burning Stone? Does this name have any significance?"

Facing Farrell's curiosity, Chen Mo calmly stubbed out his cigarette, "I heard there's a particularly hard stone in the stars called zircon. I wanted to see if a more powerful weapon could make it burn."

Farrell didn't want to chat anymore.

Always with the sarcastic remarks...

Just then, a bright light appeared at the corner of the high priest's vision!

The fruit High Priest Farrell had been biting stuck in his mouth. As a third-tier high priest, mid-level divine official, an instinctive, bone-chilling warning instantly seized him!

He immediately activated Holy Light Protection.

But this faint white light was like fireflies under the blazing sun compared to the pure, tyrannically domineering light screen in the distance.

The massive screens on both sides of the high platform suddenly burst with blinding white light. In an immeasurably short billionth of a second, the screens briefly "overexposed" into pure white.

Immediately after, the white light center suddenly contracted, then expanded outward with even more violent force! Colors shifted from white to orange, then deep red. A huge fireball slowly formed on screen.

Its core was blinding platinum, edges churning with hellish lava-like orange-red. The fireball greedily devoured the earth mound and wooden tower below, those fragile structures vanished like paper thrown into a furnace, instantly vaporized and decomposed without leaving even a wisp of smoke!

The mages' Detection Eyes provided clearer perspectives, showing Farrell and the divine officials more details.

Energy boiled and roared. The earth seemed torn open in an instant, revealing a deep crater. Sand grains seemed desperate to flee this damned hell, shooting outward frantically while behind them lay ground surface that had been vitrified and crystallized by high-temperature smelting.

Accompanying light and heat was a surging shockwave.

As that burning sun slowly rose in the center of vision, the ground below was being ruthlessly plowed by a visible, rapidly expanding Ring of Destruction mixed with sand and flames, the shockwave's vanguard!

Simple walls placed along the path were instantly completely flattened and pulverized! Wooden houses directly disintegrated into flying ash. Heavy armor was blown high like paper, deforming, twisting, and tearing in the air.

If there had been a person inside, they certainly wouldn't be comfortable right now.

All non-professionals, like Herlan, had put on dark protective lenses early, so their perception of light wasn't as direct as the professionals present, nor was their sense of this surging impact as profound.

But metal plate armor being easily shredded into fragments was power they could understand.

They couldn't imagine what living being could survive such world-destroying attacks.

Before their brains could process this, sound arrived.

Taking about thirty-eight seconds, sound waves crossed over ten kilometers to finally slam into the viewing platform area.

The tremendous rumbling gave the impression that these sounds were substantial, rushing forward like mountains and seas. Though the shockwave had dissipated and sand couldn't reach this high platform, just hearing the sound generated an instinctive fear urging immediate escape.

This was the majestic heavenly might of a top-tier weapon from another world.

In the distance, the slowly dimming great fireball continued raising sandstorm fog dozens of meters high, spreading continuously in all directions. It seemed to constantly grab everything it could from ground and air, spiraling upward along the powerful central suction, rotating, converging, forming a massive smoke column connecting heaven and earth!

The column's top slowly bloomed into a charming mushroom-shaped cloud.

High Priest Farrell had somehow stood up, his lips trembling slightly.

He had never seen forbidden curses, but he believed this weapon called "Burning Stone" definitely met all forbidden curse conditions.

Farrell personally cast a Mage's Eye.

The towering giant fireball continued rising, colors shifting from blinding platinum to local orange-red and dark red. Below the fireball, the completely destroyed and melted earth formed a huge crater that seemed bottomlessly deep.

Behind Farrell, several young divine officials had unconsciously knelt, murmuring prayers. Chen Mo wasn't familiar with Divine Court funeral rites and didn't know what they were saying to their gods.

As for the territory's civil and military officials, they already knew their lord's greatness. Now, beyond greatness, another layer was added: power.

Grace inspires gratitude, power commands awe!

This is our lord!

This is the Wrath of Vast Sea that can reduce all enemies to ash!

The most shocked person present was the old mage Downs.

He had personally witnessed forbidden curses, small-scale forbidden curses that could move mountains and fill lakes, levels he once thought he could never even aspire to in his lifetime.

Then yesterday, Mage Downs had personally lifted that big thing into place with Mage Hand.

This mage who had wasted half his life tremblingly tried to construct a new Detection Eye spell model with his hands, but it was already chaotic beyond recognition.

Old Downs looked at his lord somewhat dazedly.

That young man was the most composed person on site at this moment, the cigarette in his hand emitting a wisp of blue smoke, wreathing his calm expression and slightly narrowed eyes.

He seemed... somewhat unsatisfied!

Indeed, Chen Mo was unsatisfied. For safety, they were too far away, he hadn't felt even a trace of shockwave aftereffects.

If there had been some ground shaking, cups clinking, all these miscellaneous things on the table swept to the ground in disorder, breaking a few items.

A strong wind hitting his face on site, billowing his robes loudly, that would match Chen Mo's perfect imagination.

Unfortunately, now he was a precious son who shouldn't sit where tiles might fall. Such impressive scenes could probably never be staged again.

For this performance, Chen Mo consumed a quarter of October's transport capacity. The entire performance process was planned by East Xia's technical departments working tirelessly for days. Even the rehearsal troops had created a 1:1 replica of the simulated Guli Desert test zone at East Xia's firing range, specifically experimenting with same-yield nuclear bombs several times.

Because the airburst position wasn't high, test data showed the absolute safe distance was 9.2 kilometers, the kind where even light fallout couldn't reach them.

But that still wasn't enough. What if there was wind?

What if radiation locally exceeded standards?

What if splashing burning materials flew far?

Retreat further!

With one retreat after another, they ended up thirteen kilometers away. Of course, headquarters wouldn't tell Chen Mo these details, the given safety boundary was thirteen kilometers.

This gave Chen Mo the regret of having set it off but not feeling much.

But the demonstrative effect was sufficient!

Although Chen Mo repeatedly hinted that the forbidden curse area might have residual effects like "Breath of Death," divine officials still attempted to send sacred white deer toward the explosion site over an hour later.

The white deer indeed refused to enter.

Though it was a clean nuclear bomb with rapid airburst attenuation, there were still limits to how fast it could decay.

White deer, creatures used by the Divine Court for "Evil Detection," obviously sensed radiation, stopping about seven kilometers away and beginning to circle the perimeter.

The next day, they only advanced to the three-kilometer position before absolutely refusing to go further.

The Divine Court could only use Detection Eyes to examine the scene thoroughly from every angle.

Farrell provided the final assessment: within 500 to 700 meters from the center of this quasi-forbidden curse item attack, professionals below third-tier were considered unable to survive.

Within 1.2 to 1.5 kilometers, high-level warriors and Sacred Shield Guardians might survive but could be severely injured.

Within 3.2 kilometers, unprotected ordinary people would have difficulty surviving.

Within five kilometers, personnel might suffer varying degrees of harm.

Within seven kilometers, continuous damage effects similar to "Cursed Land" would form, with specific damage mechanisms and degrees yet undeterminable.

At the end of this assessment, Farrell specifically noted:

"The Lord of Vast Sea indicated that invoking such transcendent weapons from another world cost him tremendously."

"His willingness to demonstrate to the Divine Court stems from good personal relations with local high priests and bishops, as well as ongoing cooperation, hoping to seek peaceful resolution to the Cloudmist Domain incident."

"However, the Lord of Vast Sea simultaneously expressed that if the situation further deteriorates, he can bear greater costs to obtain more powerful super-forbidden curse-level weapons capable of erasing large cities."

"Based on subordinate observations, this claim has high probability of truth."

"Therefore, if our Divine Court doesn't intervene, Vast Sea's targets are only Greenspine Kingdom, particularly hostile forces like Greenspine Zircon Family."

"If the Divine Court insists on intervening, it may attract the Vast Sea lord's hatred as a target. Subordinate believes this would absolutely not be wise!"

"Please consider carefully, Bishop and High Priest superiors."

[NEXT CHAPTER]