The wooden puppet controlled by the puppet talisman approached the hydrogen bomb inscribed with “20GT,” opened the operation panel’s cover, and pressed directly on the “Immediate Detonation” button.

The movement was crisp and decisive, done in one smooth motion.

In an instant...

Light!

Light that illuminated heaven and earth!

The blinding flash that erupted in that moment was ten thousand times more dazzling than the sun above the sky. The world was filled with this blazing white, and all images and sounds were reduced to nothingness, shattered and obliterated under this radiance.

For everyone at the Frost Sword Sect, time seemed to stop at that instant. In their world, apart from the endless, brilliant light, there was no other color to be seen, no sound to be heard...

It was not just that they could not see or hear.

Within a hundred-mile radius at the very core of the blast, whether they were True Condensation or Golden Core cultivators, there was no difference—all were reduced to nothingness in the annihilating heat of this great sun, turned to ash.

Perhaps not even ash would remain.

The dazzling light lasted only a few breaths, then transformed into a massive fireball over fifty miles in diameter.

It was like...

A great sun!

A sun descending from the heavens, manifesting in the world!

The great sun hung in the sky, radiating incomparable light and heat. The surrounding light seemed utterly suppressed, becoming extremely dim, and heaven and earth were rendered a dark red.

But the light...

Was only the first wave of destruction from the hydrogen bomb’s detonation!

The true annihilation had only just begun!

Chapter 7: Destruction

Two hundred miles away.

The moment Benjamin Foster pressed the “Immediate Detonation” button on the wooden puppet, he instantly lost all sense of the puppet.

Vaguely, he seemed to perceive endless light, in a manner that was...

Fierce and blazing!?

Overwhelming and unstoppable!?

With a force beyond his imagination, the puppet was instantly reduced to flying ash!

Two hundred miles away, even as he hid in a hundred-meter-deep crevice with his eyes closed, he could still clearly sense the sudden, intense brightness outside.

It was as if someone was shining a light directly onto his closed eyelids.

After a few breaths, the light gradually dimmed, but for some reason, a nameless terror suddenly arose in his heart.

Driven by this fear, he couldn’t help but rush out of the crevice!

Bright!

An unparalleled brightness filled the world!

Even though the most dazzling moment had passed, the massive fireball in the direction of the Frost Sword Sect in the Cloud Ridge Mountains still emitted a light too intense to look at directly.

Dark!

The world now seemed eerily dim!

That was because of the stark contrast between extreme brightness and darkness, causing the human eye to automatically adjust for the difference!

Around the slowly rising fireball, the intense heat crazily compressed the air, igniting it and forming a ring of flames visible to the naked eye, rolling outward in waves.

With the relentless exposure to intense light and fire, the temperature of the world soared at an unimaginable rate!

When this rise broke through a certain threshold, terrifying flames erupted throughout the land!

The flames used every combustible material on the ground as fuel... spreading in all directions in a circle, at a speed surpassing any True Condensation, Golden Core, or even Nascent Soul cultivator.

Burning!

Flowers, grass, trees, houses, pavilions, even mountains and rivers...

All were burning!

At the epicenter of the blast, the very center of the nuclear explosion, a force powerful enough to make the entire world tremble was spreading. Longitudinal and transverse shockwaves, mixed with endless thunder, lightning, particles, and radiation, swept across the sky and land, extinguishing and blowing away all life and matter at the center and periphery of the explosion.

Even the highest Dao Comprehension Peak of the Cloud Ridge Mountains, weighing tens of billions of tons, was like a sand sculpture before a tsunami—shattered in an instant by the onrushing wave.

The shattered mountain would be swept into the sky, flying for thousands of miles before crashing to the earth like a meteor!

Benjamin Foster watched all of this unfold before his eyes.

He saw the mushroom-shaped cloud of fire rising at the horizon, soaring into the sky and spreading wantonly, and the rapidly advancing, raging flames about to reach him. His mind went blank, and he was left speechless!

No words could describe what he was witnessing!

This was...

What vast, boundless power!

This was...

What terrifying flames!

And this was...

What pure, absolute destruction!

“Uncle Foster!”

A trembling voice called out.

Grace Foster had somehow followed him out as well.

“The sky... is burning...”

Staring at this terrifying celestial phenomenon—whether it was the ultimate brightness or the ultimate darkness—her delicate body couldn’t help but tremble slightly.

But this cry snapped Benjamin Foster out of his stunned, thoughtless state, shocked by the scene before him.

“Hide! Get down, now!”

Benjamin Foster let out a hoarse roar.

Grabbing Grace Foster, he plunged as fast as he could into the depths of the crevice.

At that moment, he wished the crevice was several times, a dozen times, even dozens of times deeper—thousands of meters deep would be best.

Only then could he feel even a sliver of safety.