The delivery driver

"Still no luck..."

Gao Jian opened his eyes. Beside him, the three spirit stones that had been suffused with spiritual energy had once again turned a dull, ashen white, like hardened lime.

A month had passed, yet he was still at the peak of early Foundation Establishment.

His dantian's capacity and his meridians' limits remained at early Foundation Establishment standards. His spiritual power had grown denser, but he had not broken through the bottleneck. If an early Foundation Establishment cultivator's combat strength was 1, then someone at its peak was 1.9, while a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator was 5.

In smaller sects, mid-Foundation Establishment cultivators could already lead teams into secret realms.

Ultimately, there was only one reason Gao Jian could not break through: his cultivation was far too intermittent.

Cultivation was like rowing upstream-if you did not advance, you fell behind. Three spirit stones could sustain at most one night of cultivation. Gao Jian would finally start getting a feel for it as his spiritual power circulated through his body, only for the session to end.

Normally, breaking through a minor realm required three to seven days of uninterrupted secluded cultivation... Yet he could only cultivate for one night at a time, then had to pocket the spirit stones the next day to recharge them. It felt as frustrating as trying to follow a show without a streaming subscription and only getting to watch the trailers.

"Why couldn't I have transmigrated straight onto the moon?"

At four in the morning, Gao Jian gazed through his room's floor-to-ceiling windows at the bright moon hanging in the sky and sighed.

Whenever he thought of that immensely powerful beam from the moon, his heart could not help trembling.

An ultra-long-range strike across 380,000 kilometers, hitting its target precisely and even triggering a nuclear detonation... It was terrifying.

These days, most countries' nuclear arsenals consisted primarily of low-yield hydrogen bombs. Hydrogen bombs were not atomic bombs; their detonation conditions were extremely demanding. The detonation sequence of the currently prevalent three-stage hydrogen bombs was more complicated still.

The first step required detonating specially shaped high explosives in the outer casing to form an explosive lens, focusing the shock waves inward to compress the plutonium-239 at the center and trigger a nuclear fission explosion.

The second step used the enormous quantity of X-rays released by that fission explosion to penetrate the inner casing, subjecting lithium-6 deuteride to high-energy neutron bombardment and producing tritium. Finally, under high temperature and pressure, deuterium-tritium fusion occurred, resulting in a fusion explosion.

The high-energy neutrons produced by that deuterium-tritium fusion could, in turn, bombard the outermost uranium-238 casing, creating a third release of energy and completing the "three-stage" explosion.

This meant that detonating a hydrogen bomb through an external attack was virtually impossible. At most, it could be smashed apart.

Yet that beam, like divine punishment, had pierced straight through the hydrogen bomb, bypassed its safety mechanisms, and detonated it.

Gao Jian knew he could not do that. Even a Golden Core cultivator would struggle.

An old monster at the Nascent Soul stage might manage it, but he had never heard of any Nascent Soul cultivator whose attacks could span 380,000 kilometers... Even with formation support and every favorable condition on their side, an old Nascent Soul monster could, at the absolute most, deliver an ultra-long-range strike over a hundred kilometers or so.

Then the lower-level cultivators would help brag about it, and that became the legend of "an old Nascent Soul monster slaying enemies a thousand li away."

What did 380,000 kilometers actually mean?

Three hundred and eighty lots of "a thousand li away"... No, wait. Back home, one li was 500 meters, so that was seven hundred and sixty lots of "a thousand li away."

The thought left Gao Jian feeling utterly powerless.

Was there a Deification cultivator on the moon? He had long heard that Deification cultivators could command the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and possessed the power to overturn the world, but he had never seen one. His sect's patriarch, its strongest member, had only been at the peak of Nascent Soul, ranking third among Qingzhou's cultivators with a chance of reaching second. Even Perfected Yongguang, supposedly the strongest cultivator in Qingzhou, was only said to be half a step into Deification...

Historically, all mid-Deification cultivators had ascended. Early Deification already represented the pinnacle of an entire world, and none had appeared in Qingzhou's Immortal Cultivation World for ten thousand years. Gao Jian had no idea what the legendary Deification cultivators were actually like.

Perhaps a Deification cultivator could launch an attack across 380,000 kilometers?

Then I have even more reason to find a way to the moon and see for myself.

Of course, Gao Jian also understood that a vacuum, an atmosphere, and an atmosphere containing spiritual energy could not be treated as equivalent, so he was considering other possibilities as well.

Such as the moon having been occupied by aliens.

Gao Jian had analyzed the incident using modern scientific reasoning. In his view, for that beam to pierce a nuclear warhead and cause it to explode, it would have needed to contain a large quantity of X-rays.

The X-rays would trigger deuterium-tritium fusion, skipping the atomic detonation stage.

That analysis was plausible.

X-rays were high-frequency electromagnetic waves-essentially high-energy photons-with extremely strong penetrating power. They underwent almost no attenuation in a vacuum, so in theory, they could indeed cross 380,000 kilometers. Besides, Gao Jian had been in a "Falsehood Recognition state" at the time, and the beam had indeed exhibited wave-particle duality to his eyes.

To him, it had been a mass combining particles and waves, moving at high speed to pierce the Intercontinental Missile launched by Russia and trigger deuterium-tritium fusion.

It had truly been a spectacular sight.

Whether explained through immortal cultivation or science, it pointed to one fact:

There really was someone on the moon.

If they could be called "people."

The moon's interception of the intercontinental nuclear missile had been an act of self-defense, but it had also carried a clear warning. Besides, the Russians' diplomatic statement after the Intercontinental Missile Incident had been very interesting. A great deal of information could be gleaned from it.

Two hours after the nuclear explosion, the female spokesperson known for her sharp tongue had spoken with a blustering tone that betrayed her unease:

"...The Federation believes that we should inform the international community of certain developments. Early this morning, Moscow time, the Federation's armed forces conducted a nuclear test in near-Earth space in accordance with current national defense requirements. This was a defensive test. The Federation wishes to emphasize that this launch was intended to verify the technical stability of a nuclear device under extreme high-altitude conditions, as well as the suitability of related systems for future space defense missions..."

"...The test warhead was a standard high-yield thermonuclear device. After the launch vehicle entered the final section of its designated trajectory, the telemetry system issued a command in accordance with the test protocol, initiating deliberate self-detonation. Flight telemetry remained normal throughout, and detonation proceeded normally. The test achieved its intended objectives and was a complete success..."

Testing the moon's missile defense system? Well, that certainly was a complete success.

They had even claimed it was fully compliant with international law.

Compliant, my ass. The UN was so frightened it convened an emergency General Assembly session.

Statements of condemnation from various countries had come pouring in.

Internet users had also dubbed August the most exciting month. Three intercontinental missiles alone had exploded, one of them carrying a nuclear warhead. There had been a geomagnetic storm, a lunar mission turning back... In an ordinary year, where would anyone have found so many spectacular events?

Ordinary people had enjoyed the show, but Gao Jian had only grown more worried.

The more this happens, the harder it gets to land on the moon.

The radiation belt, the gravitational field, and that inexplicable Russian intercontinental nuclear missile...

CNSA's senior officials, such as Director Dan and Deputy Director Bian, clearly did not know why Russia had conducted the nuclear test, much less that the Intercontinental Missile had been destroyed by an attack rather than deliberately detonated. But there was no shortage of mental-realm cultivators higher up, and they would certainly have been able to see that interception beam.

Although those mental-realm cultivators could not enhance their vision by channeling Divine Sense over their eyes as he could, they could still use astronomical telescopes to aid their observations.

"The major powers must know what's really going on with the moon... Maybe I should find someone to ask?"

Who?

Someone who knows, obviously.

President Vance, for instance, or President Medvedev.

A host of dangerous ideas arose in Gao Jian's mind.

But he soon shook his head, banishing those dangerous thoughts.

He was not sure whether a Delusion Breaking Realm cultivator could see through his identity as a cultivator.

Falsehood Recognition Realm cultivators could already discern the "true nature of matter," so it would hardly be surprising if Delusion Breaking Realm cultivators could see through his identity.

He was not yet arrogant enough to challenge a modern military. Never mind anything else-a massed missile bombardment alone would be more than he could withstand. At most, he could rely on his stealth and mobility to wage guerrilla warfare... But what would be the point?

He was still too busy enjoying a life where he could lie on the sofa and order delivery.

With that thought, Gao Jian opened his food delivery app.

I've just finished cultivating, and I'm a little hungry. What should I order at four thirty in the morning...?

Half an hour later.

The sky was just beginning to brighten when the delivery driver called Gao Jian. He hung up with practiced ease, got ready to collect his order, and opened the door.

He saw a slender delivery driver, his yellow uniform wrapped around his petite frame and a kangaroo helmet sitting crookedly on his head. Yet an air of lucid, delicate grace shone through the uniform. His smooth, pale arms hung at his sides as he struggled to carry Gao Jian's thunderous mountain of takeout.

"Song Yaozu!!"

Gao Jian cried out involuntarily, "What are you doing here?!"

"I'm here to bring ya your food." Song Yaozu looked around, grinning guilelessly with two enormous dark circles under his eyes.