The spell's range covers the entire territory of China? Hand it over to the state.

Above the East China Sea, clouds piled up, and the cold wind was like a knife.

Inside the cockpit of the F-22 Raptor fighter jet, ace pilot Jack, codenamed "Falcon," felt like he was going crazy.

As the ace of ace in the Eagle Federation Air Force, what storms hasn't he weathered? He's dodged SAM missiles in a sandstorm in the Middle East, performed blind landings in the polar night in the Arctic, and even single-handedly defeated three third-generation fighters in a simulated battle.

But he had never practiced how to remain a stationary specimen at an altitude of 10,000 meters.

This state, which defies the common sense of physics, has lasted for a full two hours.

Although his body was bound by some mysterious force, and even blinking required all his strength, it didn't mean his metabolism had stopped. On the contrary, extreme fear caused his adrenaline to surge, followed by intense thirst, a stomach cramping with hunger, and... an increasingly unbearable bloating in his bladder.

"Fuck... Is anyone... going to save me...?"

Jack let out a dry sob, tears and snot smearing inside his oxygen mask, making him feel like a salted fish being baked in the scorching sun.

Just when he thought he would suffocate or starve to death in this stillness, the light outside the cockpit suddenly dimmed.

buzzing-

A familiar sound of an electric motor turning came from inside.

Jack struggled to roll his eyes, and his pupils contracted when he finally saw what was coming.

The rescue team that arrived was not the one he had hoped for, nor were they fighter jets from the Dragon Xia Kingdom.

Instead, they were several small civilian multi-rotor drones painted with bright red national flags?

This toy, which can be bought for a few hundred dollars at Walmart, is now slowly hovering beside his cockpit canopy, its four propellers spinning merrily with a mocking hum.

One of the drones adjusted its attitude, the mechanical claw hanging under its belly loosened, and a piece of cardboard was slapped onto the cockpit glass.

A line of text was written above in extremely neat Chinese and English:

[Given your unauthorized trespassing and refusal to leave, in the spirit of humanitarianism of a nation of Eastern etiquette, we hereby offer you a lavish lunch. Please open the cockpit!]

A lavish lunch?

Jack's brain went blank for a moment, and before he could react, another drone approached.

It also extended its robotic arm, but this time it didn't grab cardboard, but something still steaming hot...

Paper bowl?

The familiar red and black color scheme, the eye-catching beef pattern...

If Jack had ever been to the train station or the all-night internet cafe in Longxia Kingdom, he would have recognized it as the legendary dish that countless wanderers dream of – braised beef noodles.

"Slurp..."

Whether it was his imagination or not, Jack even thought he could smell a domineering fragrance through the well-sealed canopy of the cockpit.

At the same time, a third drone slowly took off, its large black camera pointed directly at his face, with red indicator lights flashing.

……

With Longxia's deliberate promotion, the global internet quickly became abuzz.

The server's red light was flashing wildly. Traffic from all platforms, including Twitter, YouTube, and domestic platforms like Douyin and Weibo, was converging on the same live stream, like rivers flowing into the sea.

The live stream title was highly provocative: "High-Level Game: Watch How an American Ace Pilot Eats Elegantly in This Situation."

Countless netizens who were slacking off on night shifts, daydreaming in evening classes, or scrolling through their phones in bed clicked into the live stream out of curiosity.

As soon as the video loaded, the barrage of comments exploded, with dense text completely covering the screen.

Holy crap! Is this real footage? Or is it special effects? Who can keep a plane suspended in the air without moving?

[The village upstairs has internet access? Go check the news next door; the beast tide at Luofengpo has become material for research. These two planes are nothing.]

[Are these the two F-22s that broke in? They look like two flies stuck in a spider web.]

[The key point is the drone! What the hell?! Braised beef noodles! And spicy flavor at that! Who came up with this idea? That's so mean!]

[The person upstairs doesn't understand, does he? This is called killing someone by attacking their spirit! Just think about it, they're flying the most advanced stealth fighters, boasting global strike capabilities, and we're stuck in the air feeding them instant noodles. The contrast is...tsk tsk tsk.]

Is this sponsored by Master Kong? We suggest they immediately call in a penalty fee! This is a hard-sell ad at 10,000 meters altitude!

Stop talking, I'm getting hungry just looking at this. I just ordered a whole box. By the way, can pilots eat this? Aren't they supposed to be unable to move?

[The person upstairs is too young. Since the streamer can keep him still, he can certainly make him talk too.]

Just as the barrage of comments was going crazy, the drone in the live stream seemed to have received some kind of instruction.

After Jack was forced to open the cockpit in response to the implicit threat.

It manipulated the robotic arm with remarkable dexterity, tearing open the instant noodle lid, forking up a roll of noodles coated in rich broth, and then... shoving it into Jack's mouth.

Then Jack was horrified to discover that his jaw was moving uncontrollably!

The force that had been restraining his body seemed to release its control over his jaw muscles and swallowing nerves at this moment.

The noodles were roughly shoved into his mouth.

"Ugh! Ugh!"

Jack instinctively wanted to refuse. How could a rigorously trained officer eat enemy food? It was humiliation! It was a trampling of his dignity! It was a disgrace to the Stars and Stripes!

But the body is really honest.

The spicy and savory flavor exploded on my taste buds, and my stomach, which had been hungry for two hours, roared with longing.

He chewed it.

He swallowed.

He even ate too fast, and a drop of red soup splashed onto his priceless flight helmet goggles, making him look as disheveled as a homeless person who hadn't eaten for three days.

He ate it! He ate it!

[Hahaha! Is this the tough guy from the Eagle Federation? The "it's so good!" warning may be late, but it's here!]

To be fair, the drone operator was quite skilled; he didn't feed it up his nose.

[Where's the tipping channel? Let's send the streamer a rocket! Consider it payment for this guy's meal!]

In an instant, the live stream was filled with gift effects, with various "giant rockets" and "carnivals" completely blocking the screen.

This scene, transmitted without delay through the drone's high-definition camera, spread to every corner of the world, slapping certain people in the face.

On Twitter, the hashtag that had been clamoring for "severe punishment of Long Xia" instantly went silent, replaced by countless questions and anger:

"We pay so much tax every year, and all we get is this kind of spineless coward who can be bought off with a bowl of noodles?"

"God, this is so shameful! Let him crash, at least he'll die like a soldier, not a beggar!"

"This isn't an aerial battle! This is humiliation! The Dragon Xia people have peeled our faces off and are rubbing them on the ground!"

……

The Eagle Federation, the Pentagon.

The air in the Supreme Command Room was no longer just heavy, but felt like a powder keg ready to explode at any moment.

"Snapped!"

A beautiful bone china coffee cup was smashed to the ground, and brown liquid splattered all over the expensive carpet.

"Cut off the signal! Cut off the signal immediately!"

General George was no longer the composed man he once was. This old man, who usually held his cigar like a scepter, was now pointing at Jack on the big screen, who was chewing instant noodles with soup dripping from his mouth and a look of humiliation and satisfaction on his face. His neck veins were bulging, and his roar made the glass of the conference room vibrate.

"That's our ace! The pride of 'Storm' Squadron! Now he's being fed like a monkey in a zoo! And it's being broadcast live worldwide!"

"Where are the tech team members? Are they all incompetent? Why haven't they hacked that livestream yet?!"

The technical director beside him trembled, sweating profusely as he typed furiously, his fingers cramping: "General... it's impossible... the enemy's signal source is very strange; it's not transmitted through a regular satellite link at all. It... it seems to have directly written the signal into the underlying protocol of the global internet. Unless we unplug all the network cables in the entire federation and smash all the mobile phones, we simply can't block it..."

Upon hearing this, George swayed and slumped into the leather seat.

He wouldn't even flinch if a nuclear bomb exploded in front of him.

But this...this is too dirty.

If the plane is shot down, he can hold a press conference to denounce the violence and barbarity of Longxia Kingdom, portray Jack as a martyr who defended freedom, and even use this as an excuse to apply to Congress for more military funding and launch greater sanctions.

But now?

This scene of eating instant noodles at an altitude of 10,000 meters has instantly shattered the image of the Eagle Federation military as "invincible," "aloof and mysterious," and "technologically dominant" that it has built up over the decades.

What will the public think? What will our allies think?

The invisible killer created at the expense of taxpayers' hundreds of billions of dollars can't even stop a bowl of instant noodles that costs a few dollars?

"General... we've got a call from the White House." The adjutant, pale-faced, handed over the secure phone. "The President is asking if we can get those two planes back. If not, he wants us to give the public a reasonable explanation before the situation completely spirals out of control."

Explanation? Explanation my foot!

George's hands were shaking as he took the phone.

He knew that in this game, the Eagle Federation had lost everything.

If they don't rescue him, Jack will be left hanging in the air until he starves or freezes to death, and this live broadcast will become an indelible stain on the Eagle Federation.

If we're going to save them... then we have to bow down. Bow down to the great Eastern power that they once considered a pawn on their chessboard, but which has now suddenly overturned it.

The meeting room was silent; all the generals were watching him, awaiting his decision.

A few minutes later.

George hung up the phone and reluctantly began to speak:

"Pass on my orders."

"Withdraw all patrol vessels from the First Island Chain."

"Also, contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and have them talk to Long Xia. No matter the cost, get those two planes and the people back first. This damn live stream—every second it's on, it's like they're tearing our dignity apart!"

……

If the breach in the US's defenses was expected, then the international community's reaction triggered a cognitive tsunami.

Berlin, Germany.

In the studio of the world-renowned Defense Weekly, the lights are focused on a middle-aged man with a serious face and a slightly high hairline.

Hans Müller, former senior strategic advisor to NATO, is currently the chief analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Known for his meticulousness and rigidity, this German rarely draws conclusions or expresses his emotions in public.

But today, his hands, which were resting on the table, were tightly clenched together, his knuckles pale from the excessive force.

The host asked, "Mr. Muller, what's your opinion on the 'methods' displayed by the Dragon Xia Kingdom this time? Is it some kind of new electromagnetic pulse weapon?"

Müller did not answer immediately.

He stared blankly at the two stationary F-22s on the screen, as well as the hundreds of thousands of monstrous corpses of Luofengpo, which stood like sculptures.

After a long while, he slowly took off his glasses and said in an almost groaning tone, "No... this is definitely not an electromagnetic weapon."

"Electromagnetic weapons can burn out circuits and damage electronic components, but they can never make a fighter jet's kinetic energy disappear out of thin air, let alone freeze the pilot as if time had stopped while keeping the engine running."

"Then what is this?" the host pressed.

Muller took a deep breath, looked at the camera, and his eyes revealed a sense of awe and fear:

"Ladies and gentlemen, we must acknowledge a fact and re-examine our understanding of the world."

"This is not technology. Or rather, this is not technology within our understanding."

"This is a... rule."

The studio was completely silent.

Muller continued, his voice growing increasingly somber: "Within the western border of Dragonshire, the three laws of physics seem to have become drafts that can be modified at will. Someone... or rather, some kind of will, has drawn a circle there."

"In this circle, kinetic energy is no longer conserved, gravity is no longer absolute, and even the flow of time is determined by it."

"I even suspect that if he wanted to, he could make those two planes fly backwards in the sky, or turn them into a pile of scrap metal in an instant."

At this point, Muller paused, then uttered a new term that would later send chills down the spines of countless military experts:

"This is—the Zone of Deity."

"From this day forward, any attempt to intervene militarily in the western border of Dragonxia will no longer be considered a military action, but rather suicide. For humanity cannot wage war against the gods."

This statement caused an uproar worldwide.

……

Moscow, the Kremlin.

Outside the window, snow was falling heavily in Red Square, and the cold wind was howling.

The emperor, known for his iron fist, stood by the window, an unlit cigar between his fingers.

The defense minister behind him had just finished reporting on the global live broadcast of Longxia and the analysis report published by Jane's Defence Weekly.

"The forbidden zone of the gods... Interesting."

The emperor lit a cigar, and as the smoke swirled around him, his eyes became deep and profound.

"It seems that the sleeping Eastern dragon has not only awakened, but has also learned the breath technique that only exists in mythology."

He walked to the table, picked up a draft of a strongly worded bilateral trade negotiation document, and casually tossed it into the shredder.

"Tell the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to redo tomorrow's negotiation proposal and lower our stance."

"But Mr. President, that would mean we would lose a lot of benefits..." the Minister of Defense couldn't help but remind him.

"Interests?" The Emperor waved his hand. "Now is not the time to bargain. When the dragon takes flight, what we need to do is not to pluck its scales, but to find a way to stand by its side. Go, what we need are allies, even vassals, are better than enemies."

……

Tokyo, the Prime Minister's official residence.

Compared to the pragmatic approach of Russia, the atmosphere in Japan was one of utter despair.

The cabinet members knelt on the tatami mats, their faces ashen.

The prime minister's hands trembled so much that he couldn't even hold the teacup, and he didn't even feel the scalding tea spilling onto his thigh.

Just two hours earlier, they received the last message from the elite special agents stationed in Longxia: [Mission failed. All equipment malfunctioned. I feel myself being watched by some grand gaze, and karmic fire is burning my soul… Help…]

Then came a deathly silence.

"Withdraw...withdraw everyone quickly!"

The Prime Minister practically shouted, his voice hoarse, "Recall all so-called 'civilian exchange groups' and 'geological exploration teams'! Not a single one!"

"Tell those ships still en route that even if they turn around on the high seas, they are not allowed to approach the Longxia waters!"

"That's the realm of the gods... Baka! We've actually been trying to provoke a living god?!"

……

This night is destined to be sleepless.

The chessboard of the world order was completely overturned and reorganized because of Su Yun's two moves.

Countries that had previously been hostile, probing, and contemptuous of the Dragon Xia Kingdom held emergency meetings overnight to revise their diplomatic strategies.

Meanwhile, in the Kunlun underground command center at the eye of the storm.

The atmosphere here was unusually peaceful, even reminiscent of a cozy tea party.

Su Yun remained seated, holding a thermos, watching the diverse and sometimes arrogant reactions from various countries on the big screen. His expression was as calm as if he were watching a movie whose ending he already knew.

"It seems these people really are like walnuts."

"It won't break unless it's smashed; only when it's smashed will Ren'er be revealed."

Long Yi, standing behind him, shifted his gaze from the screen to the eighteen-year-old young man.

With his own strength, he quelled the beast tide, outmaneuvered the US military, and intimidated the world.

This goes beyond simply being described as "a peerless national hero." He is a pillar of the nation, a stabilizing force, and the backbone that allows this ancient people to stand tall.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs just sent a message."

Long Yi walked to Su Yun's side and said in a gentle tone, "The Eagle Federation has backed down. Not only have they withdrawn their troops, but they have also expressed through secret channels their willingness to exchange two of the latest lithography machines for the two pilots. As for the two planes... maybe they can change their minds and say they'll lend them to us as research material after they return."

"This business is not bad," Su Yun commented after taking a sip of tea.

"This is all thanks to you." Long Yi smiled, then his smile faded and his expression became serious. "Comrade Su Yun, the country will not fail those who have made contributions. No matter how difficult it is for you to upgrade your career, we will do our best to help you complete it."

"but……"

Long Yi paused briefly, then took out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Su Yun.

"I think you'd prefer this reward to any promises of the future."

Su Yun put down the thermos and took the letter.

The moment he unfolded it, he knew how precious this reward was.

This is a pass.

The destination is the core living area of ​​the Kunlun base – "Kunlun Palace".

According to his understanding, Kunlun Palace is a magical place. Even before Earth was digitized, strange phenomena already existed there. After Earth was digitized, it underwent further changes due to the convergence of ley lines.

The Kunlun Palace is now incredibly magical, filled with a high concentration of life energy. Living there can not only significantly slow down aging and double one's lifespan, but it can even repair defects at the genetic level.

It is the most precious place in the country, a sacred place that only a very few, such as super S-level powerhouses, are qualified to enter.

"Ever since you awakened your abilities, we've been considering how to arrange things for your family," Long Yi's voice rang in my ears. "They need to live comfortably and be absolutely safe. There's no better place than Kunlun Palace."

"And, if nothing unexpected happens, your parents have probably moved in by now."

Hearing this, Su Yun couldn't help but smile: "Elder Long, I'm very satisfied with this gift."