Chapter 645 This was a meticulously planned "cleansing" carried out with the power of heaven and earth.
Those who were left behind, a large number of ordinary people, their land, houses, and even themselves accumulated over generations, all needed to make way for the "new order" in Li Shiyue's plan.
They will free up the most precious living space for future Han Chinese immigrants to Da Long and fundamentally undermine any resistance forces that might be based on local identity.
This was a meticulously planned "cleansing" carried out with the power of heaven and earth.
When the power of the formation completely detonated the earth's veins, the disaster swept across every corner of the four islands with a speed and intensity far beyond anyone's imagination.
The first thing to arrive was the relentless and violent earthquakes.
This was no ordinary shaking; it was the entire landmass emitting a painful roar.
The flat ground was as if torn apart by a giant, instantly splitting open into a bottomless chasm. Villages, fields, and even entire forests collapsed and disappeared without a sound.
The mountain collapsed amidst violent tremors, and billions of cubic meters of earth and rocks mixed with trees transformed into a deadly torrent that poured down the valley, completely burying all living things at the foot of the mountain.
Wooden structures remaining in urban ruins (such as Heian-kyo) are easily broken like matchsticks, and then reduced to dust in subsequent tremors and ground subsidence.
Before people could even run, the land beneath their feet had already betrayed them;
They were either swallowed by cracks, crushed by collapsing roof beams, or buried alive by mudslides.
The intense mountain-building activity and energy release on the seabed triggered an unprecedented mega-tsunami.
The water wall, tens of meters high, was like a gray-blue curtain of death connecting heaven and earth, rushing towards all coastal areas with overwhelming force.
Oshima Port and Osaka Port, once bustling hubs, proved as vulnerable as sandcastles in the face of the first giant wave.
Ships were smashed on the dock, and the sturdy fortress was repeatedly washed and eroded by the sea before collapsing.
The seawater, carrying ship debris, building ruins, and countless struggling human bodies, surged wildly inland, submerging plains and flooding river valleys.
The survivors had just escaped the earthquake, only to be caught up with and swept away by the cold, salty seawater.
When the tide receded, what remained was a muddy, desolate world filled with wreckage and corpses.
While the formation forcibly quelled the main volcano, it also triggered a chaotic eruption of subterranean fire energy.
Some previously dormant volcanoes suddenly erupted, with crimson lava flowing down from the mountaintops like the blood of hell, turning everything in its path to charcoal.
More often, it was hot steam and poisonous gas that spewed from the fissures in the ground.
The stench of sulfur permeated the air, and many people who thought they were safe hiding in basements or caves were unknowingly scalded by the high-temperature steam or suffocated to death from inhaling the toxic gas.
The sky was shrouded in volcanic ash, turning day into night, with only the eerie light source provided by the flames on the ground below.
In that day and night, they experienced a true apocalypse.
The parents watched helplessly as their child was swallowed by the crack;
The couple were separated in the flood and eventually sank due to exhaustion.
The high ground where survivors gather could disappear at any moment due to a landslide or a new fissure in the ground.
Food, water, life... everything that sustains civilization instantly becomes ineffective in the face of the power of heaven and earth.
Wailing cries, prayers, and desperate sobs mingled with the roar of the earthquake, the howling of the tsunami, and the fury of the volcano, creating a symphony of despair.
With the social order completely collapsed, survivors may fight endlessly for a sliver of clean water or a dry place, even at the cost of their lives, in order to survive.
The physical existence and cultural memory of clans and villages that had been passed down for hundreds of years were erased in a single day and night.
When the sunlight of the next day struggled to penetrate the still smoky and polluted air and shone on this newly transformed yet deathly silent land, the survivors saw a world that had been thoroughly cleansed.
The once densely populated river valleys and plains are now either covered by new layers of sediment, becoming exceptionally flat and empty, or submerged by overflowing rivers, turning into new swamps and lakes.
In the coastal areas, the old ports and fishing villages have vanished without a trace, leaving only unfamiliar coastlines that have been washed clean yet are littered with debris.
Inland mountains have become much gentler, with large areas of vegetation disappearing, exposing fresh rocks and soil.
The populations of the four islands suffered a devastating blow.
The news brought back by the reconnaissance team that Li Shiyue sent out later was as follows: In the core population areas of western Honshu, Kinki, and Kanto, the death toll is estimated to be over 80% due to the multiple blows of earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, and volcanic activity.
Many counties were completely erased from the original maps, and no one survived.
The coastal areas of Shikoku and Kyushu were almost completely wiped out by the tsunami, while the inland mountainous areas suffered heavy losses due to landslides and mudslides, with the overall population loss exceeding 70%.
Even in the relatively remote Ezo region, the population loss exceeded 60% due to the severe earthquake and the accompanying tsunami.
According to comprehensive estimates, the population of the four major islands has been reduced by seven-tenths, or even more, in this "reshaping of heaven and earth" led by Li Shiyue!
This is not just a decrease in numbers, but a precipitous collapse of social structure and cultural heritage.
The survivors were scattered across a vast, unrecognizable land, lacking food and clothing, suffering from injuries and illnesses, having lost their homes and loved ones, and their civilization had almost regressed to a primitive state.
Like frightened birds, they struggled to survive in the ruins and unfamiliar environment. Their former language, customs, and beliefs seemed so pale and powerless in the face of the instinct for survival.
When the news reached the "Wavebreaker II," which was already anchored outside the newly formed Osaka deep-water port, Li Shiyue heard the shocking casualty figures.
Her face showed no trace of pity, guilt, or wavering.
In her view, this is the price that must be paid to achieve a great goal, an inevitable growing pain in the process of sweeping away the old world and establishing a new order.
Their deaths freed up vast, fertile, and geologically stable land for the Han Chinese immigrants in Dalong, fundamentally eliminating any potential future ethnic conflicts.
It also proclaimed the complete end of the old era to all survivors and those who came after in the bloodiest way.
Li Shiyue stood at the bow of the ship, gazing at the "new land" that had been baptized by blood and disaster, waiting for her to replan and fill it. Her eyes were filled with only the calmness of being in control of everything and the boundless ambition for the future.
The rise and fall of civilizations has always been accompanied by iron and fire.
She simply brought this process forward and completed it in a more thorough and decisive way.
A nearly blank canvas has been laid out.
Next, it will be her, Li Shiyue, who will use the ink and brush of Chinese culture to depict a brand new chapter.
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