In fact, before convening this meeting.
The internal personnel of the Great Xia nation's authorities had already held one meeting after another regarding the meteorite impact on Blue Star, discussing it for months on end. Numerous countermeasures and mobilization plans were formulated during this period.
They also summoned all the nation's top scientists and leading experts across various fields to participate in the discussions.
To devise strategies.
As for intercepting the meteorites, representatives and top professionals from various countries gathered together for over a year to analyze and debate, yet they couldn't come up with an effective solution.
Because every nation knew this was an extremely unrealistic endeavor.
Simply impossible to achieve.
Too difficult.
If it were just one meteorite, it might have been manageable.
But there were a total of five meteorites from the Outer Universe.
Five. The smallest among them had a diameter of four kilometers.
While the largest had a diameter of twelve kilometers—not "nearly ten kilometers" as Li Tiang had claimed.
This discrepancy was deliberately concealed by the authorities to prevent greater societal panic.
At first glance, the difference between nearly ten kilometers and twelve kilometers might seem insignificant.
But in reality, the gap was enormous.
The scale of disaster they would cause was not even comparable.
Yet, any one of these meteorites striking would bring an unavoidable prehistoric catastrophe upon Blue Star's human civilization.
Perhaps even leading to the extinction of the human race on Blue Star.
Of course, if luck prevailed, tens of millions of years later, another intelligent civilization might emerge on Blue Star and accidentally unearth your fossil.
"Director Li, do you know why the Pengcheng authorities called us here for this meeting? Any insider information you could share?"
Just as Li Dong had taken his seat, someone next to him inquired.
Li Dong glanced at the nameplate on the man's desk—this person's surname was Chen, primarily engaged in mid-to-high-end CNC machine tools.
"Director Chen, hello. To be honest, I don't know either. I wish I had some insider information."
Li Dong shook his head.
Even if he did know, he couldn't say.
As more and more people entered the conference hall, the number of official personnel gradually increased.
"This is really grand. I've never seen such a setup before. Even in previous official meetings I attended, nothing like this ever happened."
Director Chen beside him muttered under his breath.
He wasn't the only one whispering; everyone present was doing the same.
Prominent business figures from Pengcheng and its surrounding cities had all been summoned.
And stationed at both sides of the conference hall, as well as at the entrance and exit doors, were numerous uniformed soldiers—though unarmed.
Li Dong sat waiting for a full half-hour.
During this time, he exchanged business discussions with the surrounding directors and executives, even swapping business cards.
The Pengcheng authorities hosting this meeting didn't keep them waiting too long.
"Isn't that Academician Feng? Why is a figure of his stature presiding over this meeting?"
"This is insane! Academician Feng is a top authority in aerospace science. Why would he be here?"
"No way, I must be seeing things!"
"How fortunate am I to attend a meeting hosted by someone of this caliber!"
"Have you recognized the others?"
"My god, isn't that Academician Zhang? And Academician Liu, Academician Chen, Academician Tan..."
"All of them are big shots."
In the conference hall, an elderly man with silver hair and a vigorous spirit, dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt and black trousers, walked up to the podium.
Following him were various big names from the scientific community, experts, scholars, high-ranking officials from Pengcheng, and senior officials from surrounding cities.
The CEOs, executives, and state-owned enterprise leaders seated around Li Dong couldn't help but whisper among themselves upon seeing Academician Feng standing on the podium.
This man was a towering figure in the aerospace field, an academician of both academies, a nationally renowned scientist whose name was known to everyone from eighty-year-olds to three-year-old children.
Ordinary people didn't even have the privilege of meeting them—they could only catch glimpses of them on TV or in reports.
Those who entered afterward were no less impressive, each with increasingly exaggerated titles.
Of course, there were also some unrecognizable faces.
The Far Star Union had protected its top scientists so well that few in the outside world knew them.
The chair of the meeting, Academician Feng, full name Feng Jinxue, was already ninety-three years old and had long retired from public life.
A meeting of this level wouldn't usually require his presence.
Moreover, chairing a meeting wasn't good for the health of such a venerable old scientist.
At his age, he needed ample time to recuperate. Exaggerating slightly, even a minor stumble could lead to hundreds of people being reprimanded or even fired.
Yet Pengcheng had managed to bring him out—this alone spoke volumes about the gravity of the meeting.
"Esteemed members of the business community, hello. I am Academician Feng Jinxue, whom you all know. Today, I welcome you to this conference."
Academician Feng's tone carried a hint of humor.
He didn't sound like a ninety-three-year-old man at all.
The moment he began speaking, the entire conference hall fell silent.
After all, who would dare to whisper or show any disrespect in the presence of such a distinguished figure?
"This time, I have accepted a heavy responsibility from the state to announce something to you—a matter of life and death for everyone in our Far Star Union."
"Whether our civilization and our people can survive this catastrophe depends on how united all of you here are."
Academician Feng didn't beat around the bush but got straight to the point.
Yet as soon as his words fell, they sent shockwaves through everyone present.
The previously quiet conference hall immediately erupted into murmurs.
What kind of catastrophe could make Academician Feng speak like this?
Was the Far Star Union launching an attack?
Impossible!
If the two superpowers were to engage in nuclear war, it would only result in mutual destruction—neither side would gain anything. So nuclear war was out of the question.
Or was it an alien invasion?
A Zombie crisis?
Don't be ridiculous—those things couldn't possibly threaten human civilization.
This left many of the CEOs, executives, and state-owned enterprise leaders in the room utterly baffled. What kind of catastrophe could it be?
At the same time, it made many of them uneasy.
"Esteemed members of the business community, all you leaders, please quiet down."
The next moment.
Hum!
The lights in the conference hall dimmed abruptly.
Then, a massive Holographic Projection appeared in the air above the hall.
The holographic projection first displayed a blue planet, then the perspective zoomed out, revealing several meteorites in the distant darkness of space.
The trajectories of those meteorites were also simulated.
Their destination was none other than Blue Star.
"This is the civilization-ending catastrophe I mentioned, esteemed business leaders. It's real."
"Astronomers from various countries, including our own, who have made significant achievements in the field of astronomy, have observed and analyzed the meteorites' trajectories. They unanimously concluded that these meteorites will collide with Blue Star in less than eight months."