The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

He turned a page.

"Considering all variables... Chen Hao's predetermined purpose for going to Pluto, the location of the Heavenly Demon's Nest, the timing and intensity of the bright burst, the disappearance of Pluto's gravitational field... are all related to Chen Hao."

He looked up.

"Ninety-eight points and five three percent."

The president's lips twitched.

What's the difference between 98% and 100%?

"What about the debris?" he asked. "Any debris has flown towards Earth?"

The NASA administrator answered the question. "We mobilized all our near-Earth object monitoring networks. Data from New Mexico, Hawaii, and the European Space Agency were also retrieved. Currently... no debris, comets, or high-speed material flows have been detected moving towards the inner solar system."

Where did that planet go?

"Disappeared." The director's wording was very cautious.

"It wasn't shattering. It wasn't an explosion. It was...disappearance. Charon's orbital deviation velocity and direction indicate that Pluto's gravitational field completely zeroed out in an extremely short time...we estimate no more than five seconds. No residual mass."

The meeting room was quiet.

There is no residual mass.

A celestial body with a diameter of 2,300 kilometers. Its mass is approximately 1.3 × 10^22 kilograms.

It's back to zero.

The president placed the pen he was holding on the table. He picked it up, then put it down again.

"That person..." He paused for a moment. "What are the chances of survival?" He no longer dared to call Chen Hao by his full name.

The analyst turned to the last page.

"Based on the known maximum ability of the target, past behavior patterns, and its combat performance in the Taiyin Realm... after comprehensive modeling... survival probability: 83%."

The numbers hang in the air.

Eighty-three percent.

That means... there's a 17 percent chance he'll get himself involved too.

But there is an 83% chance that he is still alive.

The president leaned back in his chair.

A person.

He traveled alone to a planet billions of kilometers away from Earth.

They wiped the entire planet out of the universe.

Then there's an 83 percent chance... he'll come back safe and sound.

No one spoke in the meeting room.

The Secretary of Defense was touching his chin. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's pen was twirling. The CIA Director was expressionless, but the muscles in his jaw were twitching.

The three people without name tags didn't utter a single word from beginning to end.

The president stared at Chen Hao's screenshot on the screen for a long time.

Then he sighed.

The sigh was clearly audible in the quiet conference room.

"Make America Great Again..." He stopped halfway through reciting the slogan.

It wasn't finished.

No need to read it anymore.

In a world where one person can destroy a planet, the phrase "become great again" becomes a joke.

He stood up.

The chair made a dull thud as it scraped against the carpet.

"Send a request for a meeting to China," he told the Secretary-General.

There is no room for negotiation. This is not a discussion; this is a notification.

The secretary-general nodded.

The president walked towards the door. He took two steps, then stopped. He didn't turn back.

"Use the highest standards."

The door opened. Then it closed again.

Beijing. The Joint Conference's underground command center.

The coffee in front of Old Zhao had gone cold. He didn't touch it. He had been sitting in that spot for forty-three minutes since the light appeared.

The atmosphere inside the room was different from that at the White House.

There was no sense of impending doom. But it wasn't relaxing either.

Three sets of data are displayed side by side on the large screen.

Group 1: Event Correlation Analysis. Conclusion... The correlation between the "bright light incident" and Chen Hao is 99.993%.

It is almost one and a half percentage points higher than the calculation by the United States.

It's not that China's model is more advanced. It's that the amount of information is different. The Special Affairs Bureau has all the data on Chen Hao's actions on Earth.

This includes a complete record of the battle at Penglai and the emergence of Guixu, as well as information about the Heavenly Demons dictated by Yun Cangyan.

The United States has not mentioned a single word about these things.

Group 2: Chen Hao's survival probability.

97.32%.

This figure is 14 percentage points lower than the White House's 83%.

The problem lies in the accuracy of the assessment of Chen Hao's strength. The Special Affairs Bureau witnessed Chen Hao personally kill Xiang Liu in the Penglai Dharma Realm.

The data from that scene was completely recorded. The peak value, coverage area, duration, and lethality of the spiritual energy fluctuations... every single element was quantified and modeled.

In this model, the probability that Chen Hao will suffer fatal damage after eliminating the Heavenly Demon on Pluto is 2.68%.

Less than three percentage points.

Old Zhao glanced at the number but didn't linger.

He was interested in the third set of data.

An assessment of the impact of Pluto's disappearance on Earth.

An academician from the Chinese Academy of Sciences adjusted his glasses in the video feed in front of the conference table.

"Gravity effect...zero."

His tone was very even, just like when he was lecturing.

"Pluto's mass is 1.303 x 10^22 kilograms. That sounds huge. But it's only one-sixth the mass of the Moon."

"Its gravitational effect on Blue Star is negligible on an astronomical scale. Blue Star's orbit will not undergo any observable changes. Tides are unaffected. The Earth's magnetic field is unaffected."

"Shockwave," Old Zhao mentioned.

"It doesn't exist. Pluto is more than four billion kilometers away from Earth. Space is an extremely high vacuum. There is no medium for shock waves to propagate."

"As for debris... based on current observational data, Pluto disappeared entirely, with no debris produced."

"Even if debris were to be generated, given Pluto's distance, it would take at least several decades for the debris to reach Earth's orbit. Furthermore, it would be extremely dispersed under the influence of the solar system's gravitational field, posing no threat whatsoever."

"What about radiation?" another voice asked. It was a military person.

"That bright light contained high-energy radiation. But the distance from Pluto to Earth is over five billion kilometers. The intensity of radiation decreases according to the inverse square law. The intensity at the time of arrival on Earth would be..."

The academician wrote a number on a piece of paper: "Far below the radiation level of a typical solar flare. There may be extremely weak ionization effects in the upper atmosphere, but it has no impact on weather, communications, or biosafety."

Old Zhao nodded.

"Comprehensive assessment: The impact of Pluto's disappearance on Earth."

The academician gave the final conclusion.

0.07%.

Old Zhao finally picked up the cup of cold coffee. He took a sip. It was cold.

He put down the cup.

In other words, it has no real impact on Earth.

"No," the academician replied decisively. "Pluto wasn't a planet to begin with. In 2006, it was reclassified as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union. With its disappearance, the solar system lost one dwarf planet. That's all."

Deputy Director Zhao did not respond immediately.

He looked at the numbers in the upper right corner of the big screen: 6.7 million people watching the live stream.

This number is still rising.

The whole world is watching Chen Siyao's live stream. Everyone is waiting for news from Chen Hao.

"Over in America..." His deputy handed him a newly printed communications record.

Old Zhao glanced at it.