Wielding the Thunders Across Two Worlds

Public opinion erupted!

Fifty thousand tons of gold paired with two hundred thousand tons of silver—a literal Mountain of Gold and Sea of Silver!

"Ahh! My eyes!"

"I haven’t even seen it yet, and I know I don’t stand a chance of getting a ticket to visit, but I feel like my eyes have been blinded anyway!"

"I’m begging you, just let me visit once. If I can get a picture with the Mountain of Gold and Sea of Silver, I can die happy."

A single announcement was all it took to cause a sensation throughout the country, filling everyone with anticipation.

Even if they couldn’t visit in person, seeing photos and videos of the scene would be enough to satisfy them.

Furthermore, the announcement dispelled all the online skepticism and conspiracy theories, proving the fifty thousand tons of gold were real and putting the ball squarely in Huaqi’s court, an ocean away.

Celestial Xia dared to put fifty thousand tons of gold on display for the public to visit, yet when Huaqi senators applied to visit Fort Knox, they were rejected. The contrast couldn’t be more stark.

The Fort Knox Bullion Depository stores over four thousand tons of gold and is the core of Huaqi Country’s gold reserves. It’s heavily guarded, with visitors strictly forbidden.

However, conspiracy theories are rampant in Huaqi Country. Rumors have long circulated among the public that this heavily guarded vault, which is never audited, has long been picked clean. The gold inside was supposedly spirited away and divided amongst the powers that be.

In 1974, to dispel the rumors, the depository was opened to the media, but only six percent of its contents were displayed.

After that, the depository was sealed off once more, permitting almost no "outsiders" to enter. Even senators who applied for a tour were denied.

Later, there were public calls to audit the depository, but they all came to nothing.

Now that the country across the ocean was about to put fifty thousand tons of gold reserves on public display, was there really a need for them to keep their own four-thousand-odd tons so hidden away?

"Where on earth did they get all that gold? Do they really possess the Magic of touching stone to gold?"

"Can they really walk along the seabed? Do they not need to breathe? Are they immune to the pressure of the deep sea?"

"Fifty thousand tons of gold! They’re just putting it out for people to visit. Aren’t they afraid someone will try to rob them?"

Across the ocean, in an underground office, everyone was shouting over one another.

"Don’t be ridiculous. Even if everyone in Huaqi Country carries a gun, you don’t see anyone trying to rob Fort Knox," Lawrence said calmly. "If you’re too scared to open it, just say so. No need to make excuses."

"Lawrence, watch your tongue," someone said coldly. "Whether or not Fort Knox is opened is not for us to decide."

"I know." Lawrence smiled. "The Lawrence Clan has no ties to Fort Knox, nor have we ever taken any gold from it, so whether it’s opened or not has nothing to do with us, my dear Adams."

Adams’s mouth twitched. He snorted coldly and said no more.

"Alright, stop arguing." Rockefeller knocked on the table. "The other side just issued an announcement. They didn’t even mention us, and here we are, already fighting amongst ourselves. What does this look like!"

"It’s related to us because those fifty thousand tons of gold were given to them by Extraordinary Beings," Frank grumbled. "Does the Superpower Special Service Bureau have anyone who can deep-dive? Go search the Atlantic and see if you can find a hundred thousand tons of gold ore."

Rockefeller let out an exasperated laugh. "Even if they could find it, they wouldn’t have a treasure capable of holding a hundred thousand tons of gold ore!"

The average person saw only the dazzling, fifty-thousand-ton Golden Mountain. But anyone with a discerning eye focused on the gourds in the hands of the three old Daoists.

The last time, when they collected the rain, they were too far away for anyone to see clearly. This time, however, the three old Daoists only rose a few dozen meters into the air, and the video captured everything with perfect clarity.

Three palm-sized gourds had produced a Golden Mountain!

Spatial equipment!

"We should be thankful this kind of spatial equipment can only be used by their Daoists, and that those Daoists don’t meddle in national affairs. Otherwise, they could deliver the ’East Wind Express’ directly into our territory."

"They... they wouldn’t do that, would they?" someone asked, his voice trembling.

Rockefeller shot him a sideways glance. "Whether they would or not is actually unimportant. What’s important is that they have no need to do so."

’Use spatial equipment to deliver strategic weapons?’

’How crude!’

’It would be so much simpler for one of them to just zap you with a bolt of lightning. No environmental pollution, and it wouldn’t trigger a nuclear war.’

The man gave an embarrassed laugh. He was just so used to thinking of strategic weapons as the most powerful on the planet that seeing spatial equipment capable of transporting them made it easy to connect the two.

’Now that I think about it, it really is unnecessary.’

’They managed to sneak into our conference room last time. If they’d really had a mind to, a completely different group of people would be holding this meeting today.’

’A major purpose of strategic weapons is deterrence via the threat of a decapitation strike. Now that the other side has so many humanoid strategic weapons, if they wanted to act, it would be laughably easy.’

’But this slow, agonizing slicing by a dull knife hurts, too!’

"The other side suddenly has fifty thousand more tons of gold in their reserves. How do we respond?" someone asked.

Although this bureau was established to deal with the Extraordinary Beings from the other side, everyone in it was backed by an interest group, each with vested interests in Huaqi Country’s financial hegemony.

Rockefeller looked at Eric, who was sitting opposite him. "What is the White House planning to do?"

Eric, who had been sitting silently through the argument, finally spoke. "If we question the authenticity of their gold, will it provoke retaliation from those Extraordinary Beings?"

"Our analysis says they won’t. They aren’t so petty as to stoop to the level of scoundrels," Rockefeller said calmly. "But that could easily blow up in our faces. We wouldn’t even need the Extraordinary Beings to get involved; the Celestial Xia System is no longer an entity we can just push around."

Eric nodded. "Then we’ll have to go with option two."

"What option?"

The next day, the Grand Commander of Huaqi Country posted on social media. He congratulated Celestial Xia on acquiring fifty thousand tons of gold reserves and, at the same time, announced to the world that he had just received word: Huaqi Country had been quietly mining and purchasing gold for the past fifty years, and the reserves at Fort Knox had also reached fifty thousand tons.

When combined with the gold reserves held in other locations across the country, Huaqi Country remained the world’s largest holder of gold reserves.

"Huaqi Country is still the greatest and richest country in the world!"

"Thank you all for your attention!"

...

The people of Daluo Palace paid no mind to the reactions from other countries. All that mattered to them was ensuring the fifty thousand tons of gold wouldn’t have any negative repercussions for Celestial Xia.

By this point, Gu Zhao had already returned to Daluo Palace with Taoist Yan Qi and the other two, because Yun Fei’ang of the Mountain State Cloud Heaven Divine Palace had come to pay a visit.

At the entrance to the main hall of Daluo Palace, Gu Zhao’s eyes glowed with Divine Light. He saw Yun Fei’ang was accompanied by a beautiful woman with an enchanting figure. Following behind them were the two large men he had seen before on Rainbow Mountain. The party of four arrived, riding the wind.