A month later.
Canghai Bay, Xia Country.
The sea was calm, and an aircraft carrier lay quietly at anchor more than ten kilometers offshore, ostensibly undergoing "maintenance."
A closer look clearly revealed that the carrier's deck guns and missile hatches were all open!
Inside the carrier, the all-weather radar was operating at maximum power!
To outsiders, this fortress of war was merely docked for maintenance.
In reality, it was ready to launch an attack at any moment!
Onshore, countless garrison soldiers patrolled their designated areas in orderly fashion.
Every soldier had disengaged the safety on his firearm!
Two days earlier, the entire Canghai Bay area had come under military control!
It was no exaggeration to say that even a dog passing through Canghai Bay would have gotten slapped twice!
All of this was because the Pangu One Fusion Reactor on the shore of Canghai Bay was scheduled to begin its first ignition test in the coming days!
The main control center of the Pangu One Fusion Demonstration Reactor.
Lü Yongchang stood at the central control console with a grave expression, his eyes fixed on the readings displayed on the large screen before him.
"Prepare for the first ignition!"
Lü Yongchang slowly exhaled, then said in a low voice, "Attention, all departments. Begin checking the operating status of all equipment!"
At Lü Yongchang's command, every researcher in the main control center got to work, their expressions serious!
Over the past few days, every researcher had repeatedly reviewed the Fusion Reactor's ignition procedures, all to ensure that not a single mistake occurred at the moment of ignition!
"Cooling system operating normally!"
"Reactor operating normally!"
"..."
Lü Yongchang drew a deep breath and said firmly, "Begin supplying power!"
As soon as he spoke, a low hum began to rise from outside the main control room!
"Current has reached the critical value! Magnetic field strength confirmed within specifications!"
A researcher stared intently at the computer screen before him and reported at the top of his voice!
"Activate the heating equipment and inject fuel!"
As he issued the command, a trace of emotion flickered in Lü Yongchang's eyes.
Finally, the last step!
His expression solemn, he reached out without hesitation and pressed the red button before him.
"Begin ignition!"
Inside the Reactor, a high-energy laser instantly heated the deuterium-tritium plasma to over a hundred million degrees Celsius!
Lü Yongchang kept his eyes locked on the large screen monitoring the Fusion Reactor's various readings.
The neutron dose rose sharply!
The fusion reaction had been successfully initiated!
A glimmer of excitement flashed deep in his eyes.
In less than half a year, was the light of fusion already about to blaze across Xia Country?!
In a corner of Pangu One's central control room.
Lu Hezheng watched the fluctuating temperature curve before him with a grave expression.
He raised a hand and gently rubbed his right eye.
For some reason, ever since the ignition sequence had begun, his right eyelid had been twitching uncontrollably!
Born and raised in Xia Country, Lu Hezheng could not help recalling an old saying.
A twitch in the left eye foretells wealth; a twitch in the right foretells disaster.
Although Lu Hezheng did not really believe such sayings deep down...
To be honest, his nerves were rattling.
Suddenly, he saw the temperature curve on the screen jerk sharply upward!
It lasted only an instant, but it still made Lu Hezheng's heart lurch.
He hurriedly adjusted the glasses on his nose and examined the temperature curve closely.
The curve was now steady, back within its normal range of fluctuation.
It was as though that terrifying fluctuation had been nothing more than an illusion.
Lu Hezheng swallowed, then picked up a ballpoint pen and some scratch paper with slightly trembling hands.
Line after line of hastily scrawled equations appeared on the paper.
Wrong, wrong, wrong!
Blood vessels began to show in Lu Hezheng's eyes.
That abnormal temperature fluctuation could not possibly have been a fluke!
With instruments this precise, any fluctuation outside the normal range had to be taken seriously!
But where... had something gone wrong?
Lu Hezheng plugged the readings from that brief instant into his equations.
As he looked at the result, his pupils instantly shrank to pinpoints!
This...
"Quick! Stop the fusion reaction! Something's wrong!"
Lu Hezheng shot to his feet and shouted!
His cry was especially jarring in the quiet central control room.
The smile on Lü Yongchang's face vanished instantly!
Without time to think, the moment he heard Lu Hezheng's voice, he reached out and pressed the emergency shutdown button before him!
"Humm..."
A low hum sounded.
The current flowing through the superconducting coils gradually decreased, and the magnetic field inside the Reactor slowly dissipated.
The fusion reaction weakened with it, until it stopped!
As the neutron dose reading on one side of the large screen plummeted, a wave of murmurs swept through the central control room.
"What's going on...?"
"Isn't that Lu Hezheng, the one in charge of the temperature module? What happened?"
"The temperature right now... looks perfectly normal!"
Lü Yongchang stared fixedly at the large screen. Only after confirming that the fusion reaction had stopped completely did he turn and look at Lu Hezheng with a frown.
The moment he saw Lu Hezheng, his heart jolted!
Lu Hezheng's face was deathly pale, his hands trembled slightly, and his pupils had shrunk to pinpoints!
He looked utterly terrified!
"Quiet!"
Lü Yongchang barked in a low voice.
The noisy discussion in the central control room gradually subsided.
"Professor Lu, what exactly happened?" Lü Yongchang asked with a frown.
At Lü Yongchang's question, Lu Hezheng shuddered slightly. Then he frantically gathered the sheets of scratch paper from his desk and hurried over to Lü Yongchang.
"Professor Lü, look!"
As he spoke, Lu Hezheng handed Lü Yongchang the sheets covered in hastily scrawled writing.
"These are the abnormal temperature readings from just now, and these... are the temperature readings I calculated for ten minutes from now."
Lü Yongchang frowned as he looked at the scratch paper before him.
The writing was extremely messy. Clearly, Lu Hezheng had been rushed and panicked while performing his calculations.
He carefully deciphered the figures on the paper.
When he saw the projected readings for ten minutes later, his expression changed abruptly.
"This... how is this possible?!"
Lü Yongchang's startled exclamation made the atmosphere in the central control room even more oppressive.
The researchers exchanged bewildered looks. Even Fang Xu could no longer contain himself. He hurried to Lü Yongchang's side and asked quietly with a frown, "Yongchang, what happened?!"
"Is there a problem with the temperature module?"
His expression grim, Lü Yongchang handed the scratch paper to Fang Xu. "Take a look at these readings."
"Everyone, stop what you're doing and prepare for a full fault inspection!"
Before you continue