In the waiting lounge, the first to be notified for boarding was Wu Bozhong, who planned to head to Kathmandu.
A beautiful ground staff member approached and said respectfully in fluent Chinese, “Mr Wu, your flight is ready for boarding. We have a dedicated vehicle to take you to the stand. Would you like to depart now or in a little while?”
The three great elders of the Wu family were all from the late Qing era. After emerging from a century of seclusion, though they had crammed much knowledge about the modern world, foreign languages were something they could not master quickly. Fortunately, Wu Tony was attentive to these elders and had arranged Chinese-speaking service personnel for them in advance.
Wu Bozhong asked the staff member, “How long is the latest I can wait?”
The staff replied, “Currently, your flight has just started notifying premium cabin passengers to board. Economy class is expected to begin in ten minutes. We depart from the VIP lounge via the premium channel, going directly to the aircraft bridge. So you can stay with your friends for up to twenty minutes more.”
Wu Bozhong nodded. “Then come back for me in twenty minutes.”
“Very well.” The staff said respectfully, “Mr Wu, please relax for now. I will return in twenty minutes.”
After the staff left, Wu Bozhong looked at his boarding pass filled with English and Arabic numerals. He sighed to the other two elders, “The world changes so quickly. In the past, travelling by canal from Suzhou-Hangzhou to the capital: departing from Hangzhou in early March, arriving in Beijing only by late June. Two thousand li by water, taking three or four full months. Now, it is just a two-hour flight.”
Wu Bowen smiled. “Back then, we did not even know the Earth was round. Later, when Tony told me it was a giant sphere, that going south instead of north could loop back from the other side, I thought the brat was mocking me. If it is truly a ball, wouldn’t people on the other side fall off? Only after flying once and seeing it with my own eyes was I convinced.”
He turned to Wu Paulo, grinning. “Great senior brother, on this trip to Antarctica, if you walk past the South Pole, would that bring you back to China?”
Wu Paulo chuckled and nodded. “I fiddled with a globe a few times. Roughly, Earth looks like a hanging red lantern. The South Pole is at the bottom, like the tassels. The North Pole at the top, like the rope knot. No matter which pole you stand at, choose the right direction, and you can reach anywhere.”
Wu Bowen gave a thumbs up. “As expected of great senior brother. Always more studious than us, no matter when.”
“Nah.” Wu Paulo waved humbly. “Nothing about study. Tony just gave me a globe. I toyed with it like a gadget.”
Wu Bozhong said from the side, “Great senior brother, the Antarctica you are heading to this time: though not far, it is said to be the harshest environment on Earth, without equal. You must be extremely careful!”
Wu Paulo smiled. “With our three’s cultivation, out in the world, as long as we avoid the Ten Thousand Great Mountains and do not provoke national armies, danger should be scarce wherever we go.”
Wu Bozhong sighed. “Speaking of armies, today’s artillery is incomparably advanced compared to the Eight-Nation Alliance’s cannons back then. With our cultivation, resisting old red-coated cannons was effortless. But modern firepower is cunning and vicious. They say high-temperature armour-piercing rounds explode at temperatures that melt the finest steel outright. No matter how thick the armour, it burns a hole clean through. Even with three heads and six arms, we could not withstand that. Even the Lord would struggle, right?”
Wu Paulo nodded, cautioning, “You two entering the world this time: be extra careful. Word is a certain earl was blasted to mince by close-in weapon systems. Those things chase you, fast as lightning, predicting your path in advance. Before you arrive, they fire dozens or hundreds of rounds where you are headed. No way to defend against that.”
The two nodded vigorously like pounding garlic.
In truth, the more the three learned about modern society, the greater the gap they felt in their hearts.
Wu Paulo murmured with a soft sigh, “Honestly, before seclusion, I thought upon emerging I could roam unchecked, fear nothing. Who knew that in the past century, our cultivation advanced greatly on the surface, yet the world advanced far more. Think: over a hundred years ago, cannonballs at most sank a small boat or razed a house. Then eighty years back, in 1945, one atomic bomb levelled a city. Another fifteen or sixteen years, a Soviet hydrogen bomb equalled two or three thousand of those 1945 nukes. And reportedly, that was a nerfed version, power capped at thirty percent of original design out of fear…”
Here, Wu Paulo countered, “Tell me: before such world-destroying weapons, what do cultivators count for? Even pre-Dharma-ending Age, gather all sect cultivators: one hydrogen bomb drops, forget survivors. Having one intact corpse would count as heavenly cultivation.”
Wu Bowen chuckled. “Perhaps ascended cultivators could destroy worlds too. We are just born in the wrong era. In this Dharma-ending Age, no chance in a lifetime to reach tribulation and ascension.”
Wu Paulo asked the two, “What do you think pre-Dharma-ending ascension truly was?”
