Chapter 218: Maiden Voyage Test, the Shock Brought by Penglai!

Penglai hovered at an altitude of five kilometers, like an inverted mountain.

The morning light gilded the silver-gray hull with a golden edge, and the seventy-two thruster arrays spewed pale blue exhaust, stable as a frozen frame.

At the ground control center, Wang Hao shouted over the comms: "All units, attention! The live broadcast is about to start! Global viewership has already surpassed one billion! Brother Hao, I'm under tremendous pressure!"

Chen Guang's calm voice came through: "According to Torch Dragon monitoring, the Basin Chicken has three reconnaissance satellites already shifted to observation positions, and Eagle Country also has two high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft approaching the edge of the air defense identification zone."

"Let them watch!" Feng Yan sat before the main console, "Today's grand performance is staged for them."

At exactly eight in the morning, the live broadcast signal went live worldwide.

The first shot was a top-down view from the Deep Sea Dragon Palace Space Station; from the orbital perspective, Penglai departed from the Heavenly Craft Shipyard and began a slow descent.

The plasma flame generated by friction between the hull and the atmosphere enveloped the entire bow, like a burning meteor.

"Temperature monitoring, bow surface 3100 degrees, self-growing material performance stable." Li Yang's voice came from the bridge.

As captain responsible for the maiden voyage, Wang Hao is the deputy captain and propulsion system chief, while Chen Guang conducts remote monitoring from the ground.

The plasma flame lasted three minutes, then gradually faded.

Penglai pierced the cloud layer like a sword, appearing above the northwestern desert.

On the ground, the test base perimeter was already packed with people—these are the local herders.

Although the local government had announced in advance that a major spacecraft would be tested today, they did not say what it was.

When the over-three-hundred-meter-long giant ship tore through the clouds and appeared, several elderly herders were so frightened they knelt down, murmuring about immortals descending to the mortal world.

"Engage hover mode." Li Yang ordered.

The seventy-two thrusters simultaneously adjusted nozzle angles, shifting from downward thrust to vector balance.

The eighty-thousand-ton giant ship hovered steadily at five kilometers altitude, so stable that even the water cup on the bridge table did not sway.

"Damn..." On the observation platform, invited foreign officers muttered.

"This control precision... anti-gravity technology?"

"This isn't anti-gravity." The Longguo officer beside him smiled.

"This is thrust control, achieved by fine-tuning seventy-two fusion engines."

The live barrage went wild:

"Is this still an aircraft carrier? This is clearly an alien spaceship!"

"Mom asks why I'm kneeling while watching my phone."

"So from now on, traffic jams can just be flown over?"

"Hey upstairs, wake up—this thing taking off once would earn you a lifetime of traffic fines."

Next came the maneuver demonstration.

"Vertical takeoff and landing test begins." Li Yang said.

Penglai began descending, from five kilometers to touchdown in just three minutes and twenty seconds.

At touchdown, the landing gear hydraulic system absorbed the impact, and the hull barely shook.

"Ground bearing data normal." Chen Guang reported, "The self-growing material's shock absorption exceeds expectations."

Then came the high-speed turning test.

The thruster array nozzles turned, and the giant ship performed a roll maneuver at low altitude.

The three-hundred-meter-long hull tilted, rotated, and changed direction like a fighter jet.

The piercing screech of torn air echoed throughout the test area.

"Maximum load 3.2G, the ship's gravity compensation system is working normally." Li Yang glanced at the instruments, "Crew also feel no discomfort."

Wang Hao grinned beside him: "This is way more thrilling than a roller coaster!"

Most shocking was the silent cruise test.

The main thrusters shut down, relying solely on auxiliary electric propulsion to maintain altitude.

Penglai low-altitude swept the test area at two hundred kilometers per hour, noise actually below sixty decibels, far quieter than a helicopter.

Ground observers measured with a decibel meter, their faces ghostly: "Holy shit, this is impossible… something this big flying past, the sound is just about the same as a normal car driving by?"

"Because it's fusion propulsion, there's no combustion detonation." Chen Guang popularized science in the live commentary.

"And the hull surface has an active noise-reducing coating."

The maneuver demonstration ended; next came the weapons systems.

"Carrier-based aircraft launch test." Li Yang ordered.

The ejection hatch on the middle of Penglai's deck opened, and a Xiba-3S mech was pushed out by the electromagnetic launcher.

From rest to breaking the sound barrier, it took only two seconds.

The mech transformed in midair, shifting from humanoid to flight mode, circling the mother ship.

"Ejection load data normal." Chen Guang said, "Mech structure undamaged."

Next was the laser defense system test.

One hundred drone targets rose from the ground, simulating a missile saturation attack.

The Yue Yue laser array on the hull fired simultaneously, pale blue beams weaving a net in the sky.

Each beam precisely hit a target, exploding into a hundred fireballs in the air.

The whole process lasted three seconds.

"Intercept rate 100%." Chen Guang's voice remained calm.

"Single-intercept quantity breaks records."

The live barrage exploded again:

"This air defense… invincible?"

"From now on, do we need to apply just to set off fireworks?"

I just want to know how effective this laser is at killing mosquitoes.

Upstairs, if you use this thing to hit mosquitoes, the mosquitoes will be vaporized directly.

When the test entered the final stage, an accident occurred.

"Unidentified aerial target detected by radar!" the bridge alarm sounded.

"Position northwest, distance two hundred kilometers, altitude twenty thousand meters, speed Mach 3, it's the Eagle Country SR-72 hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft!"

The atmosphere at the ground control center tightened.

"The intruder has entered the edge of our test airspace." Chen Guang called up the air situation map, "They are probing."

Feng Yan stared at the screen, thought for three seconds, then patched through to the bridge: "Li Yang, lock onto it with the laser, don't attack yet, just keep locking, let them know we've detected them."

"Understood."

The long-range laser indicator on Penglai's bow turned, an invisible low-power laser beam crossed two hundred kilometers and precisely struck the SR-72's fuselage.

Inside the reconnaissance aircraft's cockpit, the alarm suddenly blared: "Locked by fire-control radar! The aircraft is being laser-illuminated!"

The pilot broke out in a cold sweat instantly.

He knew this was just a warning; otherwise he'd be dead now, but the warning's meaning was also clear—I could shoot you down anytime, and if you don't leave, you won't be able to leave.

The reconnaissance aircraft made an emergency turn, leaving the airspace.

The whole process took less than a minute; the live broadcast didn't even cut away, viewers only saw a device on Penglai's bow turn once, then testing continued.

But in the monitoring rooms of militaries worldwide, those who understood fell silent.

Two hundred kilometers away, using a laser to stably lock onto a Mach 3 target—this technical level is already a generation ahead.

The test ended at eleven in the morning.

Penglai finally descended slowly onto the newly built dedicated airfield.

Ground crew drove various support vehicles over and surrounded it, but everyone kept a safe distance.

This is an eighty-thousand-ton behemoth parked right in front of you; that sense of oppression can't be conveyed by photos.

A young ground crew member stared up at the hull and muttered, "This thing... how many years before we can refuel it again?"

The old technician beside him chuckled: "This isn't about refueling; it runs entirely on fusion energy—one fueling will last you until retirement."

When the live broadcast ended, at the Longguo Ministry of Foreign Affairs' regular press conference, the spokesperson was besieged by foreign media reporters:

"Is Longguo displaying ambitions to militarize space?"

"Does Penglai's weapons system violate international treaties?"

"Is this display of force aimed at a specific country?"

The spokesperson smiled after hearing all the questions, then replied: "Penglai is a platform for scientific research and exploration; this test was merely routine technical verification."

"Longguo has always advocated the peaceful use of space and opposes any form of space militarization."

"As for certain countries sending reconnaissance aircraft to loiter nearby... we suggest curiosity is fine, but please keep a safe distance."

The press conference video was edited into clips and went viral on short-video platforms.

The top one had a caption: "Translation: I just showed off, what's it to you? If you're not happy, go build your own."

That evening, at the Yanjing night market.

Lao Wu's barbecue stall was packed, because during today's test, sharp-eyed netizens spotted a small paint job on Penglai's bow.

On it was a simple sketch of a grill, and below it a line of small characters reading "Lao Wu Special."

That was Wang Hao secretly having Zhao Gong engrave.

"Lao Wu! You're something—this ad's reached space!" regular customers shouted.

Lao Wu flipped meat skewers with a mechanical arm while grinning: "That's right! Our craftsmanship is so good even immortals would praise it."

In the corner, Zhou Ming and a few rider friends were also there.

They pooled money to buy a projector, using the night market wall as a screen to replay the test footage.

"Brother Zhou, do you think we'll ever get a chance to board that ship?" a young rider asked.

Zhou Ming took a sip of beer: "Director Li Yang asked me if I wanted to join the reserve team."

"Did you accept?"

"Not yet." Zhou Ming gazed at the mechs soaring in the projection: "But I want... to give it a try."

At the same time, Longyin Research Institute.

Feng Yan looked at the Torch Dragon-compiled global public opinion report:

#Penglai Maiden Voyage# topic views exceeded thirty billion, with positive feedback at 78%.

Official reactions from various countries were subtle, but public discussion heated up.

Chen Guang pushed the door open: "The Confluence Organization has made a move—they tried to access Penglai's propulsion control system via a backdoor in the Crystal Core, but got caught by our preset honeypot program."

"Did you catch anything?"

"An intrusion toolkit, plus their partial technical demands for the Eightfold Serpent prototype." Chen Guang pulled up the data.

"Over at the Rooster Basin, they lack key thermal protection materials and are urgently asking the Confluence Organization to find alternatives."

Feng Yan's eyes shifted: "Send the flawed formulation we prepared through Zhang Mingyuan's channel again, this time attaching experimental verification data."

"Do you want it to be more realistic?"

"I want them to be eager to use it."

A few minutes later, a simplified formula and process parameters for Dragon Scale–space material were packaged, encrypted, wrapped in layers of disguise, and sent to the Confluence Organization.

The formula is genuine, but it lacks three key additives.

Without them, the material will brittle under vibration at a specific frequency and shatter on touch.

Meanwhile, in an underground factory somewhere in the Rooster Basin, the Eightfold Serpent prototype was undergoing final assembly.

Upon receiving the good news from the Confluence Organization, the person in charge was so excited his hands trembled.

"Quick! Follow this formula and rush production! We need to finish the first flight before Longguo's Penglai is officially commissioned."

They didn't know they were building a flying coffin.

Late at night, Feng Yan had just stepped out of the research institute when the phone buzzed; it was a message from Li Yang sent from the Penglai's bridge:

"All system checks are complete, performance exceeds expectations by 20%, and it can undertake the official mission at any time."

Feng Yan replied, "Got it. Rest well; next week will be even busier."