A long time ago, I seemed to have said that even if I were hit by a nuclear bomb, I wouldn’t die, but actually, I wasn’t that certain in my heart. And in the instant facing the nuclear explosion, I also instinctively wanted to avoid it. Nuclear weapons represent the pinnacle of human civilization’s destructive power, and even though I felt I probably wouldn’t be killed by one, I had never truly considered taking a hit.
Who would have thought that I would actually face a nuclear explosion today? What’s more, the one using the nuclear explosion against me wasn’t even human, but a ghost possessing a friend’s body, a ghost who had even been a demon during its life.
I hadn’t researched the yield and destructive scale of nuclear weapons, so I didn’t know how many times the nuclear explosion unleashed by Yinyue equated to a typical nuclear weapon. At least from my observation, the blast had a reach of at least several kilometers. I hadn’t bothered to look further than that.
The moment the explosion happened, it was as if the sun had descended to the ground; a massive fireball formed, instantly evaporating the forests both inside and around it, and the mushroom cloud shot up into the sky, while the heat radiation and shock wave swept everything away. Positioned at the center of the explosion, I couldn’t maintain my Fire Element body at all, not leaving behind even the slightest bit of tissue.
Speaking purely of physical destruction, I’m afraid the combined might of fifty Chen Long and fifty Divine Spears couldn’t compare to this single strike by Yinyue. Even I, known for large-scale destruction, could only look on in wonder. This power didn’t seem appropriate for someone of the Great Success Rank. Although I had never witnessed Great Impermanence in action, I suspected that even the might of Great Impermanence couldn’t exceed this.
Naturally, the old base of the Human Bureau, located just over a kilometer away from the site of the nuclear explosion, was within the radius of destruction. Divine Spear and Dream Chen Long perishing was one thing, but Mazao and Zhu Shi were still over there. I have to admit, when I realized this, I truly broke out in a cold sweat. Of course, this was just a figure of speech; any actual sweat I might have produced would have been evaporated by the heat radiation from the nuclear blast. Fortunately, everyone there turned out to be lucky and was unharmed.
The reason was quite simple. Just before the heat radiation and shock wave reached the place, massive amounts of shadow matter rose up like a huge curtain and transformed into an overturned bowl shape, enveloping the whole Human Bureau base within it.
Beneath the brightness that could have easily blinded a human, the shadow barrier stood unyielding, unaffected by the heat radiation and shock wave. That must have been the "Teleportation Barrier" deployed by Dream Chen Long, undoubtedly intended to protect the surviving researchers within the base.
This was a defense that went beyond the concept of "sturdy"—a complete protection. The heat and shock produced by the nuclear explosion, no matter how powerful, were ultimately just physical forms of energy that would be transported to the Shadow World by the "Teleportation Barrier."
However, considering that Shadow Teleportation Gates could potentially be forcefully breached by exceedingly strong forces, the barrier holding up could possibly be attributed to it not being at the epicenter of the explosion. After all, the force of a nuclear explosion dissipates in all directions; by the time it reaches a kilometer away, it can still easily spell death for ordinary people, but it may no longer be enough to penetrate the defenses of someone at the Great Success Rank.
There might still be fatal threats like nuclear radiation lingering in the area, but they shouldn’t pose a problem for demon hunters wielding mana. Even if Mazao and Zhu Shi were affected, they could recover using the Power of Return.
Yinyue, who summoned the nuclear explosion, was ridiculously extreme, but Dream Chen Long, capable of sparing the entire base from nuclear disaster, was also beyond common understanding, and yet they were both only at the Great Success Rank.
I couldn’t help but recall the words the girl Lu Chan once said to Dr. Silver Mask. As long as the members of the Human Bureau stand united, even if all its members are weak mortals, they can unleash a force so potent that it could render Luo Mountain restless—really? Although I would like to believe that a united human populace can surmount any adversity, when it comes to defeating such terrifying monsters, not to mention a one in ten thousand chance, not even one in a billion exists, right?
With this line of thought, I reconstituted my Fire Element body in the air.
The nuclear explosion orchestrated by Yinyue failed to inflict any significant damage on me. While the impact’s "cratering" effect was quite severe, the threat it posed to my soul was even less than the White Light Explosion Fist and a casual strike from the Divine Spear, previously exhibited by Chen Long, and Yinyue’s earlier "Death Decree" was much stronger. I could even mentally intrude into the heat generated by the nuclear blast and absorb it, thereby restoring my condition and increasing my subsequent attack power.
After this, I was utterly convinced that nuclear weapons were ineffective against me. Even if Yinyue were to summon the legendary Tsar Bomb next, the outcome would be the same. Physical means cannot kill me.
The moment the nuclear explosion descended, Yinyue vanished, and now her figure reemerged opposite me. With a casual wave of her hand, a gust of wind arose and the vast cloud of dust surrounding us was swept away.
She looked at me thoughtfully.
"...It’s truly astonishing that you emerged completely unscathed."
"What’s so surprising about that? You knew from the start that physical attacks are useless against me," I said.
"Nuclear explosions, no matter how devastating, are still just physical phenomena, incapable of harming the soul, much less someone who has become the Fire Element like you—you must be thinking along these lines, right?" she said, "However, everything should be taken into consideration when discussing extremes. Once anything exceeds its utmost limit, it takes on different properties. The same is true for the recent nuclear explosion, any normal soul caught in the blast would have been dispersed long ago. Not even a soul of the Great Success Rank should have come away unharmed. You should not have been an exception...
"...Could it be that you are a Great Impermanence Qualifier, capable of ’Fatian Xiangdi’? Or is your Elementalization not a mimicry but true Elementalization? Could your soul merge into the natural concept of heat?
"Does this world truly possess ’Innate Manifestation of the Spirit’? If Shan Liangyi knew that such a genius could actually exist, he would probably be so jealous he wouldn’t be able to sleep."
She seemed to make many connections, even mentioning names I had never heard before. Shan Liangyi—who was that?
It was said that Yinyue, a Great Evil, had lived for at least several hundred years. Throughout her long life, she must have encountered numerous formidable demon hunters; perhaps this "Shan Liangyi" was one of them.
It seemed that my survival had exceeded her expectations. Although I wasn’t harmed, having witnessed such an outrageous move, I no longer dared to claim with certainty that I could defeat her with "overwhelming power."
However, my goal remained unchanged. To take her down, to reclaim Changan. In the span of a few words, my spirit had already gathered the heat generated by the nuclear blast around me, then merged it with my own fire, transforming into a train-like, ferocious Flame Spear, launching a high-speed assault on her.
And at the same moment, she extended her hand towards me as well.
"—If that’s the case, then I have even more reason to not let you go."