lcionline Chapter 1377 Nuclear Explosion!
Chapter 1377 Nuclear Explosion!
Finally, it was Old Zhou's turn. He tightened the strap carrying Little Stone on his back and took one last look at the long line of countless terrified faces winding into the distance behind him.
"Stone, hold on tight to Dad. We... are going in."
After saying that, he took a deep breath, and with his legs feeling like they were filled with lead, he took a step forward, following the footsteps of the person in front of him.
Little Stone seemed to sense the heavy atmosphere, burying his face even deeper, with only a sliver of his dark hair showing.
Just as Lao Zhou was about to step over the heavy threshold and into the shadows of the inner passage—
"Holy shit!!"
Without warning, the crowd in the distance behind them erupted in a short, sharp gasp, filled with disbelief and horror, like a drop of boiling oil being thrown into a pot.
"What is that??"
"Damn it, look at the sky!!"
...
Then came the second sound, the third sound...
The incredulous exclamations, like a lit fuse, spread rapidly, connected, and expanded!
The originally dull and oppressive long queue seemed to be suddenly stirred up by an invisible giant hand, and instantly became boiling!
"Heavens...heavens!!"
"Look! What's that?!"
"Light! Such a bright light!!"
...
Screams, questions, and cries choked with sobs merged into an even more chaotic wave of sound, suddenly sweeping in from the back of the group.
Almost simultaneously, countless people stopped in their tracks, abruptly turned around, and looked up at the southwest sky with all their might.
Pushing and trampling occurred instantly. The soldiers maintaining order shouted sternly, but they were completely overwhelmed by the collective panic caused by this sudden and dramatic change from the sky.
"Don't panic! Crouch down where you are!" The officers of the garrison reacted quickly, shouting at the top of their lungs in an attempt to control the situation.
But their gazes were involuntarily drawn to the direction in which the crowd was looking up.
Old Zhou was pushed off balance by the force coming from behind, almost hitting the door frame. He quickly regained his footing, clutching the small stone on his back with one hand, and turned around in surprise and uncertainty.
In the direction of Gucheng Lake, the sky, which was stained with an ominous dark purple light, was now being torn apart by an unprecedented sight!
A dazzling white streak of light, so brilliant it defies description, was as if a god had used the sky as a canvas and flames as a brush to make a bold stroke!
Almost as fleeting as a shooting star, it slashed down from the highest point in the northwest, cleaving through the thick clouds and carving a straight, dazzling vacuum trail with edges burning with orange-red light on the churning purplish-black sky!
The light was so intense that it momentarily dimmed the morning sky, as if the sun had crashed down!
Everyone was stunned by this unimaginable sight. They forgot about the crowd and the fear, and just stared wide-eyed at the light of judgment that symbolized the ultimate power and will of mankind, as it fell toward the horizon—the direction they were desperately trying to escape!
Time seemed to freeze for a second at the moment the light collided with the earth.
Immediately afterwards—
No sound.
First came the light!
At the horizon, in the direction of Jinling City, a burst of indescribable, extreme light suddenly erupted without warning!
The brightness of that light instantly surpassed the trail of light as it fell, surpassed the sun, and even surpassed the limits that the human eye could withstand!
It was not the light of an explosion, but a pure, destructive "brightness" that turned the sky, the clouds, and everything in sight into a ghastly white!
It was as if a miniature star, in the most violent stage of its life, had suddenly appeared there!
Old Zhou instinctively closed his eyes for a moment. The strong visual residue made his vision blur with black and white flashing spots of light. The little stone on his back let out a terrified whimper and buried its little head tightly.
Almost at the same instant that ultimate flash of light appeared—
The ground beneath my feet trembled.
It wasn't the dull shaking from deep underground like an earthquake, but a clear, crisp "shock" with a distinct sense of direction!
It was as if a giant hammer, piercing through the heavens and earth, had slammed into the Earth's shell from tens of kilometers away!
People standing on the muddy ground could clearly feel the short but powerful tremor under their feet. Many lost their balance and fell down with a cry of surprise.
Until then—
"boom----!!!!!!"
A deafening roar, both deep and powerful, finally came like a belated thunderclap, rolling across the sky, sweeping over the ridge of Qinglong Mountain, and thunderously filling everyone's eardrums!
The sound was not like an ordinary explosion, but more like the mournful cry of heaven and earth, a mixture of shockwaves, as something incredibly huge was torn apart, vaporized, and completely destroyed at the molecular level in an instant!
The sound came from close to the ground, with a tangible quality, making one's chest feel tight and teeth ache.
As people struggled to recover from the shock of the light and sound, enduring the stinging in their eyes and the ringing in their ears, they looked again in the direction of the flash—
They witnessed a sight they would never forget.
Above the already fading, blinding white light, a gigantic, churning "cloud" was growing and expanding upwards at a speed that defied the laws of physics!
At first, it was just a rapidly expanding fireball. Then, it pulled and absorbed endless dust, gravel, steam, and the remains of all destroyed matter from the ground, forming an incredibly thick pillar of dust that connected heaven and earth.
The top of the dust pillar, like the head of a living, angry giant, arched upwards and rolled outwards, unfolding layer upon layer, ultimately forming that iconic shape, symbolizing absolute destruction and the pinnacle of power—
Mushroom cloud!
A giant mushroom cloud, its height immeasurable and its base as wide as a mountain!
Its entire body is a mixture of dark red and blazing white, like a hellish furnace, with terrifying lightning-like chains of light constantly flashing inside.
Thick smoke and dust billowed and spread along the edge of its enormous cap, rapidly polluting a wider area of the sky. Under the influence of high-altitude air currents, it began to form a column of clouds, like an umbrella of death, slowly tilting towards the southeast.
The clouds were so huge, so menacing, so... silently standing on the distant horizon.
It swallowed the sound, swallowed the light, and seemed to swallow everything that had ever existed on that land!
The thousands of people gathered outside the entrance to the "Eagle's Nest" fell into a deathly silence; there were no screams, no cries, and even the sound of breathing was barely audible.
Everyone seemed frozen in place, like clay or wooden sculptures, gazing up at the distant, ever-changing cloud of destruction rising into the sky.
Old Zhou stared blankly, his lips trembling, but he couldn't make a sound. The little stone on his back seemed to be frightened by the terrible silence and dared not move.
A young garrison soldier standing guard on a high point at the entrance gazed at the mushroom cloud, his complex expression eventually solidifying into an almost numb resolve.
He licked his chapped lips and murmured in a voice only he could hear:
"……Hold."