Chapter 414: Blinding Radiance
"It's as bright as the old sun!" After his elder brother discovered the "meteor shower," the younger brother behind him eagerly blurted out his own discovery, trying to gain more of his mother's attention.
Those in the vast southern regions of the Land of White, if they happened to glance up at that very moment, could clearly observe dozens of dazzling white lights rapidly streaking across the high heavens.
The white lights, like meteors, flew towards their destination along a beautiful arc.
The reason for mentioning "the old sun" was because, ever since the establishment of the Land of White, those living on this land had never seen the true sun again.
It had vanished from the sight of most people; only by flying to high altitudes and then crossing the invisible nanobug swarm layer would one be able to see that blinding fiery orb again.
In its place was a bright white canopy.
This canopy provided every inch of land within the Land of White with nearly uniform light and heat, creating a world where it was hard to distinguish reality from illusion.
The canopy was like a layer of skin wrapping around the outside, completely sealing off the Land of White, making it increasingly resemble a truly living organism.
The principle behind the system's temperature control in human residential areas was actually to absorb the vast majority of sunlight at high altitudes, and then redistribute a portion of that sunlight across time and space.
In an era where controlled nuclear fusion had yet to be industrialized, within the more than ten million square kilometers of the Land of White, thirty percent of the solar energy output was roughly equivalent in power to two hundred and fifty medium-sized nuclear fission power plants.
Constructing over two hundred nuclear power plants, the site selection alone would be extremely difficult. Each would require massive amounts of water for cooling, and with the coastlines still serving as the front lines against the Sea Race today, there were simply no suitable locations to accommodate so many.
If not for concerns that excessive absorption of geothermal heat would cause the Earth's core to cool and contract, eventually leading to the hollowing out of the Earth's center, and bringing about destructive effects to the Earth's internal structure, Bai Mo would have even set his sights on the Earth's core.
He had once calculated that he could completely cool the Earth's core to a normal temperature of twenty-five degrees Celsius in just thirty to fifty years.
This was a destructive form of development, and Bai Mo suspected that his counterpart from the parallel world might have done something similar before leaving Earth.
Because humanity there had almost been exterminated by him, he could act without any reservations.
But after choosing a different path in this world, he could only use more peaceful methods to extract sufficient energy for his further research into Elementization.
Of course, if he were to fly directly to the Sun, energy would no longer be an issue; even the thousands of degrees Celsius on the Sun's surface could not cause him any harm.
However, if he were to distance himself from human civilization, everything he had meticulously arranged would be for naught. What Bai Mo needed was not just energy, but also the intellectual wealth from other people.
That was why he set his sights on Earth's solar energy, devising the "Southern Light to Northern Transfer" and "Summer Light to Winter Transfer" methods of sunlight regulation, which, after optimally distributing the light and heat from the Sun, saved a substantial amount of surplus energy for his own use.
In human residential areas that didn't require intense sunlight, the sunlight was regulated to a slightly warm level, and all remaining light and heat were taken away.
Meanwhile, the northern farmlands, which originally yielded one harvest per year, received sunlight intensity comparable to tropical regions, transforming them into high-quality agricultural zones with two or even three harvests a year, preparing for the explosive population growth in the next phase.
"That's... a meteorite?! No, a meteorite definitely couldn't pass through that energy field." Min Tianci, feeling a disturbance in the sky, instinctively looked up and was immediately captivated by the dozens of streaks of light in the distance falling deep into the forest.
At first, he thought it must be meteorites from outer space crashing into the forest.
But then he reconsidered: the protective energy field of the Secret Realm Forest could even block nuclear bomb attacks, so ordinary meteorites absolutely couldn't have a chance to fall directly into the forest sea.
"Let's keep going, we don't have much time left." Yue Die tugged at Min Tianci's sleeve, urging him not to stand there in a daze.
This sudden turn of events made Min Tianci even more curious: what exactly was happening at the center of the secret realm...
"Impossible!!! This can't be happening!" When over a dozen Bai Mos descended from the sky and approached the Four Holy Beasts from all directions, they were as shocked as if they had seen a ghost.
It had cost them the burning away of the southern secret realm's energy field, and simultaneously drained all their strength, just to seal away one Bai Mo.
Now, in the blink of an eye, more than a dozen had appeared, a situation completely beyond the Four Holy Beasts' calculations.
"What exactly are you, human or ghost?!"
"Perhaps a mixture of human and ghost?" A voice echoed in the air, sounding as if many people were speaking a single sentence in unison.
The "human" Bai Mo referred to actually meant a creature formed by the combination of spirit and material particles, while the "ghost" he referred to was primarily an existence combining spirit and waves.
Being in a balanced state of wave-particle duality, he rarely, and seriously, answered their question this time.
However, from the bewildered expressions of the mutated creatures, it was clear that they likely couldn't grasp what Bai Mo was trying to convey.
"I'll give you another chance to choose." The four Bai Mos at the very front each walked towards one of the Four Holy Beasts.
"And you lot." The one standing at the very back of the group of Bai Mos punched the surrounding air.
Instantly, a furious gust of air was stirred up. The turbulent air, under precise control, channeled the force of this punch proportionately to the numerous Five-Tier mutated creatures hidden in the distance, ready at any moment to support their main force.
Such a punch didn't cause any substantial damage, but it was just enough to force them out of their invisible state and plunge them into a half-second state of paralysis.
Half a second of immobility, for them, was already enough time to kill themselves once over.
Thus, dozens of powerful mutated creatures who had once reigned supreme in their respective territories, after merely experiencing this silent, violent warning, all lowered their heads, like schoolchildren caught cheating by their teacher, each completely losing the courage to look directly at the existence before them.
For them, obeying the will of the stronger was ingrained common sense, an essential skill for survival. Mutated animals with weak moral concepts wouldn't have any philosophical qualms about merely surviving; to be alive was everything.
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