Watching the two figures, one tall and one short, one black and one white, gradually disappear into the sunset, Chen Fan had three huge question marks pop up over his head.
For some reason, he felt that the Black Robe Priest named Isa was a little slow-witted.
Was it an illusion?
Someone capable of becoming a priest could not possibly be that slow-witted, could she?
Chen Fan shook his head and cast the confusion from his mind.
He took a deep breath and headed toward the low residential building.
As he went upstairs, he quickly glanced through an open window.
Under the dim incandescent lights, believers knelt devoutly before a statue of the Goddess in prayer—at least, they looked devout to Chen Fan.
After only a few steps, Chen Fan arrived at his own door.
The door was shut tight, with faint yellow light seeping through the crack.
He instinctively turned and glanced at Xu Huai's door next door.
Just like his own, it was tightly shut. There was not even any light inside.
He took a deep breath and had just raised his hand to knock when the door opened.
Behind it, his mother looked at him as if nothing were wrong, though her eyes were slightly red and swollen. "Xiao Fan, you're back?"
After returning home, Chen Fan followed his mother through the standard procedure for praying to the Goddess once more.
After spending an entire day at the Main Church, Chen Fan was already intimately familiar with the process.
Dinner came after the prayer.
At the table, his mother calmly chatted with him about everyday matters while asking him about the Third Divine Decree.
Everything seemed just as it had always been.
Chen Fan did not know what his mother was thinking, but...
Her repeated concealment of his identity from the church had already revealed her stance!
Though he felt a little sorry for her, reason told Chen Fan that maintaining this arrangement would only benefit him!
More than that, he should even make use of this delicate relationship to gain a greater advantage!
He steadied himself and spoke as casually as ever. "Mom, there's something I'd like to ask you."
His mother's hands paused slightly, and she looked at her child in confusion.
"It's about Varrela City. Outside the city..."
Before Chen Fan could finish, his mother's expression changed drastically. "Wait!"
Her face turned deathly pale as she glanced at the statue of the Goddess not far away. Only after seeing that it had not reacted did she recover slightly.
Her expression shifted several times. Finally, as if she had made some decision, she stood and walked toward Chen Fan's room.
"Xiao Fan, this isn't a place to talk."
"Come with me."
His mother reached out and shut the bedroom door, completely blocking out the statue in the living room. "If I'm not mistaken, you wanted to ask about what lies outside Varrela City, right?"
When Chen Fan nodded, his mother sighed softly.
After hesitating for a moment, she said, "I don't know what you experienced in your room over the past few days, but I still believe... you're still my child."
Chen Fan's heart trembled.
All right, there was no need to doubt it now.
Yi had been right. His mother had indeed noticed that something was wrong with him!
She did not give Chen Fan a chance to speak and continued on her own.
"Xiao Fan, this is a topic strictly forbidden by the church."
"Remember, never discuss such things in front of the Goddess's statue!"
A trace of terror showed in her somewhat clouded eyes. "Someone in this building was once sent to the church's Execution Platform because of this."
She collected herself and continued.
"As for outside Varrela City..."
"That is where the Sinners live."
Chen Fan was somewhat surprised. "The Sinners?"
"They are not protected by the Goddess. They have been forever cut off outside Varrela City, suffering the torment and erosion of foul qi generation after generation."
His mother sighed. "Of course, that is only a rumor I heard."
"As for what the truth is... I'm afraid no one knows."
"Can't we go out and see?"
"Go out?" His mother shook her head. "The Wailing Wall blocks the way. No one can leave, and no one can enter."
"The Wailing Wall?"
"It was a miracle bestowed by the Goddess in the first year of the Varrela Calendar. It encircled all of Varrela City and completely kept the Turbid Qi outside."
"..."
"Yi, can a wall really block Nuclear Radiation?"
After his mother left the room, Chen Fan asked Yi for confirmation, somewhat puzzled.
That would be rather difficult.
Yi gave an answer at once.
Unless the wall enclosed the entirety of Varrela City.
As the words fell, a brilliant blue holographic image appeared before Chen Fan's eyes.
In the image, a vast city was slowly covered by a massive hemispherical dome.
From a distance, it looked like a small grave mound lying flat upon the ground.
Looking at the simulated scene before him, Chen Fan's mouth twitched. "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
He had personally seen the sun hanging in the sky during the day. Was that sun supposed to be fake?
What a joke!
"But then again."
"Is Nuclear Radiation really that hard to deal with?"
Having lived through peaceful times in his previous life, Chen Fan's understanding of nuclear weapons had been limited to what he had heard about them.
Nuclear Radiation was mainly divided into three types: alpha, beta, and Gamma Rays.
Among them, alpha rays were helium nuclei. Their penetrating power was extremely weak and could basically be ignored.
Beta rays were streams of electrons with limited penetrating power. They would burn human skin after exposure, which did match the description of that disaster.
As for Gamma Rays...
Those things had extremely strong penetrating power. For low-level civilizations, the only way to block them was with natural materials as dense as possible, usually substances such as lead.
"What about advanced civilizations?"
Chen Fan asked curiously.
With Spatial Shields or dimensional shields, one could withstand Gamma Ray radiation on the scale of a Gamma Ray Burst, much less the minor radiation produced by nuclear war.
But this was not something you should be considering right now.
"All right." Chen Fan, who had just been casually shown up, shrugged without caring. "Go on."
Additionally, there was another key piece of information.
This unit carefully analyzed the information in the database and discovered a phenomenon.
For low-level civilizations, Nuclear Radiation was not the greatest danger of large-scale nuclear war.
"Hm?"
This time, Chen Fan was genuinely stunned. "What's the reason for that?"
Under normal circumstances, the nuclear weapons used in large-scale nuclear warfare were Hydrogen Bombs.
Compared with atomic bombs, Hydrogen Bombs did not cause much radiation damage.
Their aftereffects would only last a few years, or even less.
Chen Fan nodded thoughtfully.
He understood what Yi meant.
"You mean... the Wailing Wall is nothing more than a gimmick?"
"It cannot block the Nuclear Radiation outside at all. Its purpose is simply to prevent the believers within Varrela City from leaving?"
"Just like..."
Chen Fan frowned slightly, then inspiration struck. "Like raising the believers in captivity within the city!"
That was highly likely.
Before you continue