"He hadn't used any abilities yet, either," someone else added.
Silence stretched on for a long time.
The white-haired general closed the file.
"Then build a new rating system."
Eastern Capital.
The emergency meeting at Japan's Ministry of Defense had been going on for three hours. Xiangliu had once ravaged their territory, and bunker-buster missiles had only inflicted superficial wounds. Now, one man had beaten him to death with his fists in nine punches.
A subtle atmosphere hung over the conference room—not fear, but something deeper.
A fundamental questioning of where they stood.
Western Europe.
The Joint Research Center convened an emergency online meeting. Representatives from twenty-three countries attended. There was only one item on the agenda: the future of modern weaponry.
"If an individual human can achieve that level of combat power, what deterrent value do nuclear bombs have?" The representative from the card-checking country posed a pointed question.
No one could answer.
"The more important question is—can this power be replicated? Is Chen Hao an exception, or does he represent the direction of human evolution?" the representative from the taxpaying country pressed.
Still, no one could answer.
But everyone was looking in the same direction—Huaxia.
Because the systematic training program for Flame Spirit Stones was in Huaxia. Chen Hao was in Huaxia. Penglai was in Huaxia.
Within forty-eight hours of the news spreading, the number of applications for exchanges in Huaxia received by the world's top universities had surged sevenfold.
Not from students. From professors.
The leading scholars who had previously hesitated over whether to research Flame Spirit Stones had collectively changed their minds.
A new trending hashtag appeared on North American forums: who needs nuclear weapons anymore?
All over social media, people were discussing the same question.
Was the age of modern weaponry coming to an end?