Gao Jian clung to the side of the EUS upper stage, extending his Divine Sense through the hull to listen to the four people inside communicating with the ground.
Looks like ground control really has noticed me, but they probably haven't identified me... This trip was far too rushed. Counselor Wang and the others are probably looking everywhere for me. Director Dan, Old Li, and the rest must be calling themselves frantic by now, too.
Unfortunately, he had not mastered the External Incarnation technique. Having an incarnation cover for him would have made things much easier.
Forget it. I'll explain when I get back.
The communications signal between the spacecraft and the ground was deteriorating, putting Gao Jian on his guard. Before he could think any further, however, a startled cry of "Carrington-class!" came from the command module, and then contact with the ground cut out completely.
Only white noise remained on the speakers, and the video signal dissolved into static.
Even his Divine Sense began to sting faintly.
Gao Jian lowered his head. Realizing something, he spread his Divine Sense toward Earth with all his strength.
In the darkness at the edge of his perception, something seemed to be surging up from deep beneath the ground. Neither quite light nor quite flame, it resembled an invisible wall.
Without any interference from solar activity, a geomagnetic storm formed deep within Earth's crust and spread at the speed of light. It pierced the crust, the oceans, the atmosphere, and near-Earth space. To his Divine Sense, it felt as though a cauldron of silvery-white lava had been hurled upward from that boundless earth.
Streams of high-energy particles flooded into space from every direction at once.
Across the night hemisphere, clusters of cities went dark in the visible spectrum, one region after another.
The radiation stabbed at his Divine Sense, forcing him to pull it back.
Gao Jian stared numbly at the sight before him.
Then the high-energy particle beams erupting from Earth's core struck the Van Allen Radiation Belt at the speed of light. The entire belt began flashing as though it had come alive, and dazzling, searing, deathly-white auroras surged upward in flames.
The sky above the equator burned. The sky above the poles burned. All of Low Earth Orbit space filled with the secondary glow produced by high-energy particle bombardment, blazing from Earth's surface to hundreds of thousands of kilometers above it.
Compared with this, the heavenly tribulation he had faced when ascending at Deification in his previous life had been no more than a firefly's glow.
This was the true might of heaven and earth.
Gao Jian turned his head toward the Moon with difficulty. That Taiyin Star still hung there quietly, its light as cool and clear as ever, seemingly within reach.
A bitter smile crossed his face.
Behind him, that terrifying wall of heavenly light slammed into him at the speed of light, engulfing the entire SLS rocket in a horrifying dose of radiation.
A few breaths later.
A Boundless Golden Light Formation appeared out of thin air, using his last three spirit stones as its formation anchors and enveloping the entire rocket.
The protons and high-energy electrons in the Van Allen Radiation Belt were microscopic particles. At most, the naked eye could see the secondary optical phenomena caused by a geomagnetic storm, such as auroras blanketing the earth.
In principle, human eyes could not directly see the radiation streams themselves.
But at that moment, a torrent of radiation composed of immense quantities of high-energy protons and electrons punched through the SLS rocket's radiation shielding. Those particles relentlessly bombarded the astronauts' eyeballs, and under that dense bombardment, all four saw thick clusters of white flashes in dots and streaks.
"My eyes..." Navigator Jim cried out as his vision filled with flickering flashes that almost resembled snow.
Watching the spacecraft's electronic systems fail almost instantly, lunar orbit engineer Ron said bitterly, "Don't tell me those flashes I'm seeing are high-energy particle streams."
There was nothing more hellish than being able to see high-energy radiation with the naked eye.
Even covering their eyes with their hands did not stop the flashes. It was as though the light acted directly on their optic nerves, directly on their souls.
Lunar landing astronaut Allen rubbed his eyes and, refusing to accept it, floated over to the window. He leaned forward and looked down. The curved Earth on the night side was already awash in surging auroras, which had spread from the poles all the way to the equator.
Allen's heart went cold.
How could there be a geomagnetic storm this powerful?
Carrington-class?
No. This was a Miyake-class geomagnetic storm.
The estimated Dst of the Carrington geomagnetic storm of 1859 had reached −850 to −1760 nT, two to four times that of an ordinary G5 storm. Yet even then, the auroras had only reached the latitudes around the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. This time, they had burned straight across the equator. It was hard to imagine how stunned people living there would be when they looked up at a sky filled with auroras.
The Miyake Geomagnetic Storm of AD 774 had been twice as powerful as the Carrington event. Only a geomagnetic storm of that magnitude could produce what they were seeing now.
The Miyake event was also the strongest geomagnetic storm known to have struck Earth.
According to historical records, humanity had experienced only six major Miyake events in the past fourteen thousand years.
How had they happened to run straight into one?
At that point, the cabin lights began flickering rapidly. High-energy particles were punching through semiconductor components, causing multiple power distribution controllers to fail. The spacecraft's independent power zones repeatedly triggered local outage protection, extinguishing the cabin lights section by section.
Darkness swallowed everything. Only the white flashes of streaks and dots continued flickering in their eyes.
In that oppressive darkness, Commander Robert's steady voice rang out. "Friends, the flight control system has failed. Leaving audio or video recordings will be difficult now, but I have a notebook and pencil. Does anyone want to leave a few words for family or friends?"
Unwilling to give up, navigator Jim asked, "What about the ground? What have they done?"
Before the commander could answer, lunar orbit engineer Ron explained, "The electromagnetic waves we use to communicate have been twisted into pretzels. There's no way we can contact them again."
Then he added, "Even after the radiation stream ends, it'll be hard to reestablish contact. I'm guessing all the electronic components are fried by now."
As for returning, with the spacecraft's electronics damaged...
Returning was effectively impossible.
Robert shook the notebook in his hand. "I'm serious. While we're all still lucid, does anyone want to write their last words first? Once we're dying, we won't have the strength even if we want to."
High-energy charged particles directly severed DNA's double strands. The DNA inside every astronaut would suffer catastrophic damage, particularly in their hematopoietic stem cells.
But before the destruction of their DNA, they would have to face the ongoing breakdown of protein structures within their bodies. As high-energy protons and electrons passed through the human body, they transferred energy to water molecules inside cells, producing vast quantities of hydroxyl radicals that destroyed protein structures.
That would rapidly cause physical discomfort.
...They were already experiencing dizziness, blurred vision, and loss of hearing. They just did not know whether it was psychological.
Everyone was sunk in despair. When no one responded, Commander Robert tossed aside the notebook, floated toward Jim, and wrapped an arm around the navigator.
"Lieutenant Colonel Robert, I remember you saying you were a brave priest."
"Just a military chaplain, Colonel."
"Same thing. You both serve God. May I confess to you?"
"Of course. I love hearing other people's secrets." Jim gave a bitter laugh and waved the little cross in his hand.
Robert sighed. "I'm not a devout man. Deep down, I might be a materialist. Like Gagarin said, 'I looked around and saw no God.' It was that cool idea that made me want to become an astronaut when I was little... Death certainly isn't pleasant, but for me, this really is the most spectacular way to die. My only regret might be not setting foot on the Moon like Armstrong... I've gone off topic. Sorry, Father. What I want to confess is this: I shouldn't have recommended the three of you to NASA during the Moon Landing Crew selection. If I hadn't recommended you, you wouldn't have had to suffer this disaster."
"This isn't your fault. No one could have predicted any of this."
But Robert shook his head.
"No. I knew this lunar mission would have an accident. I chose you, Ron, and Allen precisely because I wasn't that close to you."
Jim stared at him in shock. "Aren't we best friends?"
"I once thought that bastard Blackwell was a good friend, too. Everyone misjudges people sometimes."
Navigator Jim-or rather, the priest-gave Robert a hard shove, sending him spinning away.
Jim laughed in fury. "Robert, you should go to hell!"
"I'm already in hell!" Robert answered at full volume.
Their argument drew over lunar orbit engineer Ron and lunar landing astronaut Allen. After learning what had happened, both joined in cursing Robert. When asked why he had known beforehand that the lunar landing would fail, he answered:
"Blackwell told me. He's long since fallen under the spell of some Slavic little girl! He doesn't want us landing on the Moon!"
Robert dropped the bombshell that Blackwell was a lolicon-no, a KGB spy-leaving the other three dumbfounded.
"None of this matters anymore." Jim released his grip on the commander's collar and floated into a corner to wait for death in despair.
Trying to ease the atmosphere, Ron said:
"Look on the bright side, friends. At least the people on the International Space Station and the Chinese Space Station will be joining us in death, right?"
Then Ron tugged at the corners of his mouth in a self-mocking smile, seemingly ashamed of his own vile thought.
Robert said quietly, "No. The Chinese Space Station is a new-generation station. You might not believe it, but rumor has it they used lead plates two or three centimeters thick for radiation shielding... As for the International Space Station, their last crew left not long ago. It's temporarily unoccupied."
Jim sank even deeper into despair in his corner.
Ron did not believe a word of it. He could not help protesting, "Lead plates two or three centimeters thick for shielding? Colonel Robert, do you know how heavy that would be? How could they use that for a space station's radiation shielding? Did those Chinese design it to Chernobyl standards? A space station isn't a nuclear power plant!"
Robert shrugged. "Just something I heard. Just a rumor."
Beside them, lunar landing astronaut Allen said, "None of that matters now. What matters is that we don't have long to live. Ow, my arm hurts. Ow, my head hurts. Ow, my stomach hurts. Am I dying...?"
"Maybe you ate too many tacos."
"Shut up, you mashed-potato maniac."
"Still better than you, Crazy Dave. Go on, eat your tacos!"
"Thank you. I will eat my tacos. Once my stomach rots, I won't be able to." Choking back sobs, lunar landing astronaut Allen tore open a vacuum-packed taco and took a huge bite.
When the golden light formation lit up, everyone on the Moon Landing Crew thought their lives had reached the end.
By then, Gao Jian's spiritual energy was nearly exhausted. He no longer had the strength to maintain the golden light formation's auxiliary concealment array, so he simply stopped hiding it and let the golden light blaze.
I'm out here busting my ass holding back radiation, and the four of you have started eating?
Gao Jian gritted his teeth and held on. He even pulled some talismans he had drawn previously from his Storage Bag and shoved them into his mouth to chew. He extracted the negligible remnants of spiritual energy from that mouthful of paper, slightly easing his depletion.
What kind of miserable existence was this?
He did not want to land on the Moon anymore. He wanted to go home.
Once he got back, he would lie down on his Spirit Stone chalcedony bed and sleep. He was never coming again.
Through the window, a smooth, thin, pale-gold film of light could be seen covering the spacecraft's hull, wrapping the entire rocket tightly. Rings of spiritual-energy patterns flowed across its surface, continuously intercepting the endless torrents of high-energy particles.
Everyone on the Moon Landing Crew stared blankly at the golden film outside the window. The entire universe seemed to have acquired a golden filter. Countless high-energy particles invisible to the naked eye struck the film, producing a magnificent display of fine ripples.
"God..." Jim clutched his cross.
"I confess!" Robert immediately said to Jim.
"What is this layer of light?" Ron squinted through the window at the sight outside.
Allen held his taco, chewing as he watched the scene before him.
The Boundless Golden Light Formation sounded impressive, but in fact, it was just a dime-a-dozen Foundation Establishment spell. Its main purpose was to add a layer of golden special effects to other formations, making them look suitably righteous and very much like Immortal Cultivation.
Its secondary purpose was to intercept impacts from spiritual energy.
The golden light formation had extremely poor resistance to physical attacks. Even a mortal martial artist could throw a stone through it.
Its main function was to resist spiritual-energy impacts. In battles between low-level cultivators, when spells were flying back and forth, spiritual-energy splash from an enemy's or ally's spell could easily disrupt a caster's own spiritual energy.
-Foundation Establishment cultivators were like that. Even a fright could throw their spiritual energy into disarray.
The Immortal Cultivation World even had businesses in its markets for treating people who had been frightened.
But adding a Boundless Golden Light Formation during a magical battle could effectively block those fine splashes of spiritual energy, keeping them from interfering with the caster's own circulation.
It was precisely because of the formation's ability to isolate spiritual energy that Gao Jian had guessed its interception might be exceptionally fine. When most formations could not stop high-energy particle radiation, this one just might.
The facts proved him right. The Boundless Golden Light Formation did indeed filter high-energy particles. The instant a proton passed through the golden light, most of its kinetic energy was stripped away.
Specifically, the protons' speed dropped from 0.31c to 0.245c, while the electrons' speed dropped from 0.98c to 0.94c. Despite the reduction being only a few percentage points, the energy of these high-energy particles fell severalfold.
But the remaining particle streams still left traces in human eyes, and the breakdown of the Moon Landing Crew's bodies had only slowed slightly.
Gao Jian was already pushing the formation's power as far as he possibly could.
These four astronauts were inextricably bound to him by karma. He could not simply stand by. Whatever it took, he had to keep them alive.
If he survived, next time he would pack dozens of cubic meters of solid lead plates and high-density polyethylene, along with thousands of cubic meters of water, into his Storage Bag to guard against this kind of extreme radiation event.
But at that moment, Gao Jian was already close to his limit.
The spiritual glow of his last three low-grade spirit stones was dimming. Any further use would reduce them to powder. Gritting his teeth, Gao Jian retrieved the three stones serving as formation anchors, at least sparing them from being completely pulverized.
To reduce spiritual-energy consumption, he shrank the formation's coverage from the entire SLS rocket to the command module of the Orion spacecraft. Then he shrank it again, forming a spherical light barrier two meters in diameter.
Now every member of the Moon Landing Crew could see the pale-gold curtain of light right before them. It had even drawn inside the window's inner wall. They could all see the faint ripples raised by countless streams of high-energy particles striking it after passing through the hull.
Jim dazedly extended a finger, trying to reach through the curtain of light right in front of him.
"Don't go outside!"
Gao Jian's furious roar came from outside the cabin.
Before you continue