Tang Dynasty: Feeding Chang Le, Emperor Li Er exclaimed that she was a true immortal!

Li Shimin did not sit.

But he did not raise his sword again.

The Emperor's Sword hung at his side, its tip touching the floor, supporting his slightly limp right arm like a cane.

He stared at the young man on the other side of the screen.

Staring at the thin, square board in his hand that emitted a cold light.

"Who exactly are you?"

This time, his tone was no longer a roar.

Rather, it is a kind of extremely dangerous calm that suppresses all emotions.

Lu Ming did not give a direct answer.

He pressed play.

The images on the screen came to life.

At the same time, he bent down and turned the knob on the Bluetooth speaker with a deep bass under the table.

The volume was turned up to 80%.

The screen begins with a countdown.

10.

9.

8.

The numbers were Arabic numerals that Lu Ming could understand but Li Shimin could not.

But anyone can feel that sense of rhythm gradually closing in.

Li Shimin subconsciously tightened his grip on the sword hilt.

Chang Le stood slightly behind him, clutching the cuffs of her hoodie tightly.

7.

6.

5.

In the image, the horizon of the Gobi Desert is completely empty.

A vast, desolate horizon, gray-yellow sand, and an endless expanse of barrenness.

It bears some resemblance to the deserts of the Western Regions during the Tang Dynasty.

4.

3.

2.

1.

0.

White light.

A pure white light exploded from the screen.

Even though it was just a thirteen-inch tablet screen, the brightness of that light was enough to make the entire bedroom turn white for a moment.

Immediately afterwards—

The sound came.

It is a sound that no human voice can simulate.

The subwoofer faithfully reproduced that raw, brutal explosion sound, a sound of annihilation.

Low-frequency sound waves spread throughout the bedroom.

That deep bass, with a frequency so low that it is almost inaudible to the human ear, directly affects the bones and internal organs of every person.

The mahogany floor was shaking.

The bronze mirror on the dressing table was shaking.

The Boshan furnace is shaking.

Even the roof beams overhead creaked slightly.

Li Shimin could clearly feel the tremor in the soles of his feet.

It looked like a giant beast lying on the ground, turning over.

But it's just sound.

The visuals are what truly matter.

After the white light dissipated, a sphere appeared on the screen.

No, it's not a sphere.

It is a ball of fire.

A terrifying fireball that rose from the ground, its diameter constantly expanding, and its temperature so high that it could ignite the air itself.

The surface of the fireball rippled with alternating red, orange, and white light.

It's as if someone pressed the sun down onto the ground.

Then the fireball began to rise.

Extremely fast.

During the ascent, a huge column of dust rose from the bottom.

The dust column and the fireball connected, forming a—

mushroom.

A mushroom that stretches straight to the sky.

Li Shimin's breathing stopped completely.

He had seen fire.

I've seen the biggest fire.

The armory in Chang'an once caught fire, burning half a street and the flames reddened a large part of the sky.

He thought that was the most terrifying fire in the world.

But what's in front of me—

This mushroom cloud, rising from the ground and swallowing the entire skyline—

It's not fire.

It is the end of the world.

The video continues.

The shockwave from the mushroom cloud spread outwards at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Wherever it passed, rocks, sand dunes, and everything tangible on the Gobi Desert were instantly vaporized.

It wasn't burned.

Not destruction.

It is vaporization.

It changed directly from a solid state to a gaseous state.

It was as if someone used a pair of invisible giant hands to wipe the land within a radius of dozens of miles directly from the world.

All that remained was a huge, charred, black crater emitting white smoke.

The video switched to a camera position further away.

The mushroom cloud looks even more spectacular from this angle.

Its top has pierced through the clouds and soared into the sky.

The mushroom-shaped pillars at the base were several miles wide, billowing gray and brown smoke and dust.

Li Shimin's mouth was open.

But no sound came out.

His jaw was trembling.

The teeth were clattering together, making a clicking sound.

He wasn't even aware that he was shaking.

Because his entire attention was drawn to that mushroom cloud.

His brain was frantically calculating.

If this thing falls into Chang'an City—

How high were the city walls of Chang'an? Four zhang (approximately 10 meters).

How many troops were there in Chang'an's city defense forces? One hundred thousand.

How large were the markets and wards of Chang'an? They stretched eighteen li from east to west and fifteen li from north to south.

And that fireball—

The shockwave of that fireball was many times larger than the entire city of Chang'an.

An army of 100,000.

Four zhang (approximately 10 meters) of city wall.

One million people.

In front of that mushroom cloud.

It is nothing.

Not even a crumb was left.

The video switched to the next segment.

A slender metal column with a flame-spitting tail was ejected from a circular well in the ground.

The speed is so fast that it is almost impossible to detect with the naked eye.

It trailed a long white plume of smoke, piercing the sky and disappearing at the maximum height that the camera could capture.

Then the scene switched to another location.

It's also the Gobi Desert.

A small black dot appeared in the sky.

The black dot plummeted rapidly.

The instant of contact with the ground—

Another mushroom cloud.

It's bigger than the first one.

Brighter.

Even more terrifying.

When the shockwave swept across the lens, the image shook violently for a moment before going black.

The entire video has finished playing.

The bedchamber fell silent once more.

The last trace of low-frequency hum from the subwoofer gradually dissipated.

A strange, deathly silence filled the air.

It wasn't the kind of complete silence.

It is a vacuum filled with extreme fear, where even breathing is forgotten.

Li Shimin stood still.

To be precise, he was half-standing.

He still held the Emperor's Sword in his right hand.

But the sword tip had already reached the ground, and the weight of the sword was pressing down on the floor, leaving a white mark on the mahogany.

His left hand gripped the screen beside him tightly.

Fingertips sank into the silk, tearing five folds into the landscape-painted screen.

His knees were bending.

It's not kneeling.

They couldn't hold on any longer.

That feeling didn't come from physical fatigue.

Rather, it stems from the collapse of cognition.

Everything he was so proud of in his life—the 100,000 Xuanjia soldiers, his undefeated record, and the impregnable defenses of Chang'an—became a joke in the face of that less than three-minute scene.

Child's play.

Sandcastle.

Ant nest.

His Adam's apple bobbed up and down many times.

I want to swallow.

But my mouth felt as dry as if it were stuffed with cotton.

Chang Le shrank back three steps away.

She covered her ears tightly with both hands, closed her eyes, and curled up into a ball.

She didn't watch the whole video.

But she heard those voices.

That kind of dull, low-frequency rumble that could make your internal organs tremble.

That sound of pure destruction, devoid of any warmth, emanating from the pinnacle of human technology.

The hairs on her body stood on end.

It's not cold.

It's that kind of instinctive reaction when faced with absolute power.

Like ants facing a flood.

Like a fallen leaf facing a wildfire.

Meaningless.

It was beyond our control.

On the other side of the light screen—

Lu Ming reached out and pressed the lock screen button on the tablet.

The screen went black.

The sleeping quarters were once again bathed in the soft white light of LED lamps.

He turned down the volume knob on the speaker.

The movements were neither hurried nor slow.

It's as if what was just played wasn't a live recording of a nuclear explosion, but rather a piece of white noise to help you fall asleep.

Then he leaned back in his chair.

Cross your hands and support yourself on the front edge of the table, leaning your body slightly forward.

Their gazes pierced through the light screen and landed on the Tang Dynasty emperor, who was leaning against the screen with his legs trembling.

"This is what you see."

Lu Ming spoke up.

The sound wasn't loud, but it was extremely clear in the deathly silent space.

"Where I'm from, we call it a nuclear bomb."

Li Shimin's pupils trembled slightly.

"One pill could wipe your entire city of Chang'an off the ground. Not even a speck of dust would remain."

Li Shimin remained silent.

Because he found his throat was completely dry.

His tongue was stiffly pressed against his palate, and he couldn't utter a single syllable.

"In my world, there are tens of thousands of these things, scattered among different countries. Each one could destroy a city like Chang'an."

Lu Ming's speech was so steady it was almost cold.

There was no boasting.

A non-threatening posture.

It's just stating the facts.

A stark truth that is more suffocating than any threat.

"The iron cavalry of the Tang Dynasty could conquer the world."

He paused for a moment.

"But what I have in my hands can erase the world from the blueprints."

Quiet.

Absolute silence.

Chang Le huddled in the corner, not daring to breathe.

Li Shimin's fingers, which were gripping the screen, twitched slightly.

Lu Ming looked at him and asked one last question.

"Did you understand?"