"I'm not going back," Qing Chen said.
"I don't need to go back," Qing Chen confirmed again.
"I thought you would cry," Yi said calmly.
"No need to cry," Qing Chen spoke softly.
"Crying is a normal human emotion," Yi said, "Many male humans like to think of crying as a sign of weakness, but in reality, shedding tears is a way for the brain to relieve sorrow. Crying when in pain is the best choice. It's about pressure relief when the pressure becomes too great."
"There's nothing to cry about," Qing Chen said stubbornly.
The teenager didn't show any expression of sadness, nor did he cry out to go back and save his master, which completely exceeded Yi's estimates and was illogical.
The young man remained as calm as ever, his fierceness hidden within his bones, flesh, and the depths of his heart.
"This makes me feel a bit strange. Don't you feel sorrow over your master's death? Or did I misinterpret human emotions, and misinterpret you?" Yi asked curiously.
"In your eyes, what kind of person am I?" Qing Chen suddenly asked.
"Rational yet emotional, with emotion hiding fierceness. In my view, you value others' kindness towards you highly, so I don't understand why you aren't sad," Yi said.
"Because I know my master isn't dead," Qing Chen said.
"How is that possible? The Qing Family used the Sky-based Weapon - Scepter of the Gods, a sharp Tungsten Rod that's 2.6 meters long, 30 centimeters in diameter, and weighs 3.55 tons. It ultimately fell from a height of 1000 kilometers at a speed of Mach 9, carrying vast kinetic energy. In the face of such a weapon, even a demigod would not survive," Yi said. "It's not just demigods; it seems any known man-made armor would be easily penetrated by it."
"Hmm, thanks for the reminder," Qing Chen nodded, "At first I didn't understand what that thing was, but now that you've filled in this clue for me, it's even less likely that my master is dead. I was a bit worried before I was knocked out in Prison 18, but now, I am not worried at all." Explore more adventures at My Virtual Library Empire
"This so-called Tungsten Rod, a sky-based kinetic weapon, you might fool others, but not me," Qing Chen said calmly as he began his analysis, "Sky-based kinetic weapons, with a name like Scepter of the Gods, sound intimidating, but they're not as powerful as one might imagine."
At some point, Yi felt slighted.
Qing Chen closed his eyes, silently calculating something, then continued, "If it falls from a height of 1000 kilometers, even with a booster to accelerate it, it will still decelerate once it enters the atmosphere. Even if it truly maintains a speed of Mach 9, or 3111 meters per second as you say, the kinetic energy at its tip would only be E=½mv²=½x1x3111²=4839160.5 joules. The destructive power generated by one kilogram of Tungsten Rod is roughly equivalent to one kilogram of TNT."
Qing Chen added, "Moreover, this is just the hypothetical speed you mentioned. I tend to think its actual speed upon impact was nowhere near Mach 9, and probably much less."
Qing Chen continued, "The blast point of such kinetic weapons is highly concentrated. The fantasy that a single Tungsten Rod could compare to nuclear weapons ultimately exists only in fantasy. Falling at such high speed, it's more likely to just pierce through the ground, creating a hole 30 centimeters in diameter. To kill my master, it would have to hit him directly with great precision, which I think is impossible. So if it's just the shock wave from the kinetic weapon, it might destroy the structure of Prison 18, but my master would definitely have the ability to survive, and even Mother Ye's defensive force field would be enough to shield it."
"In my view, at that moment, the real danger was not the kinetic weapon, but rather the collapsing structure of Prison 18. Considering the thousands of prisoners there, I estimate that 90% of them were crushed or killed by the shock. I saw the aerial fortress in the sky and believed that it should have powerful weapons. In fact, to kill my master, the aerial fortress would have been enough; there was no need to use a sky-based weapon."
In Qing Chen's perspective, the use of a sky-based kinetic weapon to kill Uncle Li Dong seemed like overkill.
Suddenly, Yi said, "It's not fun at all to be with someone like you... You are indeed right on this point. After researching kinetic weapons, the Qing Family realized that sky-based kinetic weapons are not as powerful as imagined, offering at best pollution-free destruction, which can also be achieved with high-energy explosives. Therefore, this was the first Scepter of the Gods, and the last one the Qing Family launched into space."
"Then why did the Qing Family develop such a 'doomed to fail' project?" Qing Chen questioned, "Sending a Tungsten Rod into 1000 kilometers of space must have been costly."
"As a weapon for striking capacity, it indeed isn't considered satisfactory," Yi replied, "But it wasn't designed to strike or destroy enemies to begin with."
This answer puzzled Qing Chen. Could the Scepter of the Gods have another purpose?
"Furthermore," Yi said, "Pure kinetic weapons likely make it more convenient for the Contraindicated Courts to collect transcendent beings after the prisoners' deaths, preventing the city around Prison 18 from turning into ruins decades later."
Yi asked, "Did you come up with all this after seeing the trajectory of the Scepter of the Gods?"
"Actually, I had already guessed as much when I was inside Prison 18," Qing Chen said.