After the typhoon rains passed, temperatures in Guangnan Province began to rise again.
It was both humid and scorching.
Going to the bathroom felt no different from sitting in a sauna.
Without air conditioning, the discomfort was unbearable—like being soaked in water.
In the areas of Minnan Province where the typhoon made landfall, the devastation was widespread.
Vehicles on the roads were either tossed about or completely overturned.
Billboards and streetlights were scattered everywhere by the typhoon's force, while many of the ornamental trees lining the roads were knocked down, some even uprooted, lying haphazardly in all directions.
Broken branches and leaves, torn loose by the typhoon, were strewn chaotically across the ground.
In some areas, the metal roofing of houses had been ripped away, carried off to who-knows-where by the storm.
Low-rise rural homes were outright destroyed.
This single typhoon caused tens of billions in damages across several cities in Minnan Province.
Yet life had to go on—cleaning up the mess and moving forward.
After all, the people of Minnan were accustomed to it. Every year brought several major typhoons; where they made landfall hardly mattered.
Across the Northern Hemisphere, nations continued to endure extreme heat.
Cases of heatstroke and heat-related deaths kept appearing on social media and video platforms.
Many openly declared that the High-temperature apocalypse had arrived.
This spurred panic buying of water supplies, leading to plenty of absurd incidents along the way.
Of course, few truly believed in any "High-temperature apocalypse."
Most citizens in foreign countries already distrusted their governments, and official heatwave relief efforts were practically nonexistent.
People had to rely entirely on themselves—this wasn't like flood disasters, after all.
In many countries, even disaster relief teams had to carry firearms for safety.
Not every nation could be like Great Xia.
The Far Star Union remained unaffected by natural disasters, though it did experience a massive wave of Zero-dollar purchases—well, they had a dozen or so such incidents every year anyway. The world was used to it, and so were their own citizens.
This gave netizens worldwide another spectacle to enjoy.
The reason? Some individuals, under the banner of certain politically correct slogans, simply stormed into stores and looted them.
Far Star Union police dared not intervene, fearing another wave of online backlash.
Internal racial tensions ran deep in the Far Star Union, with class conflicts even more severe. The smarter observers recognized this as deliberate policy by the Union's elites—keeping the populace divided to maintain control.
Compounding this was the Far Star Union's quadrennial presidential election cycle. As the race entered its final stages, the political theater grew increasingly chaotic.
As for the heatwave? It might as well not exist in the Far Star Union.
Perhaps their geographic location was simply too favorable—like the Chosen land itself.
Suggesting to Far Star Union congressmen that they should provide heatstroke subsidies would mean asking them to part with their money.
Once money entered a congressman's pockets, expecting it to come back out?
What kind of nonsense was that?
It would only slow down their money-making schemes.
Besides, theirs was the Lighthouse of human civilization, the Chosen land—how could something like a heatwave possibly affect them?
As for the Polar Bear Federation, it was even more ridiculous. They were still busy beating up their own little brothers and others' little brothers while posting various frontline combat videos on international media platforms, boasting about capturing territories and annihilating enemies.
Then, they were instantly debunked with evidence, making it seem like they weren't even connected to the internet—completely out of sync with the rest of the world.
This turned them into a laughingstock for netizens worldwide.
Though after six or seven years of this spectacle, people were starting to get bored.
As time passed, coastal nations in the Northern Hemisphere began experiencing disasters like typhoons, torrential rains, and floods.
Typhoons kept forming over the ocean, but instead of making landfall in Great Xia, they struck other countries.
The Great Xia Meteorological Bureau predicted that several more typhoons would make consecutive landfalls in October and November.
In early October, a super typhoon was expected to hit directly from the southern metropolis, affecting an even wider area.
Then, in mid-October, another typhoon would make landfall on several large southern islands from the South Asian seas, also impacting neighboring coastal nations.
In early November, yet another super typhoon was forecasted to strike the central region of Guangnan Province. No one knew when the typhoons would finally subside.
Frankly, it was exhausting.
Many coastal and island nations were now being battered by typhoons, floods, and mudslides, suffering immensely.
It was estimated that over ten million people in these regions would be directly or indirectly affected.
Casualties were certain to exceed hundreds, with thousands more missing.
By September 24th,
In the Southern Hemisphere, the southern-central region of South Americana, in the copper-rich nation of Saintalica,
At precisely 3:27:51 PM local time,
A massive earthquake exceeding magnitude 9.0 struck the southern part of the country.
The exact magnitude was still unknown, but it was confirmed to be at least a 9.0.
International relief organizations estimated that the disaster would affect hundreds of thousands, with tens of thousands dead or missing, and millions left homeless.
This was just a preliminary assessment—such a major earthquake would inevitably be followed by aftershocks, possibly even exceeding magnitude 8.0.
Aftershocks could persist for over a month.
The quake also triggered the eruption of nine dead volcanoes and the emergence of five new active volcanoes.
It also caused a massive tsunami, affecting the world's largest ocean.
With waves over 30 meters high, the tsunami surged at speeds of 600–700 km/h, devastating the nearest coastal cities.
Countless locals captured footage of the disaster and shared it across social media platforms.
The videos showed scenes of apocalyptic devastation the moment the earthquake struck.
People across Blue Star learned of the disaster almost instantly through media reports and videos.
For the first time, the world witnessed the terrifying power of nature on such a scale.
Even Great Xia, whose news outlets typically avoided covering foreign events, made an exception during prime time to report on the earthquake, detailing the casualties in Saintalica and its far-reaching consequences.
"The Sacred Landica Kingdom actually experienced an earthquake above magnitude 9, this..."
Watching the news report, Xu Yajun, who had never been one to believe in theology or metaphysics, was utterly shaken.
Previously, when Li Dong had confided in her about the apocalypse, Xu Yajun hadn't fully believed him. She even thought her two sons were out of their minds for believing in so-called doomsday prophecies.
At one point, she had even considered dragging both her sons to a psychiatrist.
But the occurrence of this massive earthquake completely unsettled Xu Yajun.
Because this major earthquake in the Sacred Landica Kingdom had been precisely predicted by Li Dong.
Back then, Li Dong had shared a prophecy with her—that a massive earthquake would strike in a few days, specifically on September 24.
Now, it appeared the prophecy was frighteningly accurate.
It was impossible not to believe. The sheer power of nature was beyond the control of current human technology, let alone something that could be matched.
Predicting earthquakes of this magnitude with such precision was incredibly difficult.
And the energy released by this earthquake far surpassed the technological weapons possessed by the three superpowers.