136: Chapter 136 Sky Rift Town (Full Scene)

The expressions of Harris, Graves, and Mark Milley all sank at the very moment Zhang Long refused the handshake.

The President had proactively reached out his hand, but the other party merely lowered his eyes to look at it without taking it.

In any diplomatic setting, such a scene would be enough to constitute a serious protocol incident.

Yet, at this moment, it was happening deep in the Arizona desert, inside the estate of an arms dealer.

The party meting out this slight was not even a diplomatic representative of any nation, but merely an official from a mysterious organization that had never appeared on any government organizational chart.

Harris lowered her arms from her chest and clasped her fingers together in front of her.

Graves switched his military cap from his left hand to his right, then back to his left, his lips pressed into a thin line.

Mark Milley stood where he was, expressionless.

But those thick hands of his, which never easily betrayed emotion during meetings at The Pentagon, were already unconsciously squeezing the tactical gloves behind his belt, producing a faint friction sound.

They had all climbed their way up from the very top of Washington's power structure.

Each of them was accustomed to being treated with the highest protocol in any setting.

Yet at this moment, they didn't even have a decent cup of coffee. Standing in the stone-paved courtyard under the scorching desert sun, they watched their own country's President left with his hand hanging in mid-air by a stranger, denied even the most basic handshake.

Zhang Long shifted his gaze away from Biden's face and slowly swept it over the faces of Harris, Graves, and Mark Milley, each of which could barely conceal their anger.

His gaze as he looked at them held no provocation, nor any contempt.

It was merely a near-indifferent scrutiny, as if he were looking at a few bystanders who had not yet fully understood the position they were in.

"This is the reason you cannot become President."

He clasped his blue-gloved hands behind his back, his tone as flat as if he were stating a fundamental theorem that had been verified countless times.

"When you see your President slighted, your first reaction is to feel that your dignity has been damaged."

"When your President sees himself slighted, his first reaction is to withdraw his hand, put it in his pocket, and continue discussing business."

"Although he bows his head lower than all of you, in this courtyard, he is the only one truly looking at the big picture."

He turned around to face Biden again, ignoring the faces behind him that had darkened even further.

"The Deep State has long been perfectly clear about the purpose of your visit."

"You want to know if the Longevity Faction has the capability to defend Earth against the million-strong fleet of Zeta Star."

"You want to know whether this erroneous space-time of the Solar System can still grow technology sufficient to counter the correct space-time."

He paused, his cold eyes carrying an undiluted certainty.

"I can tell you right now, the answers are all within the scope of what I can provide."

"But to cooperate with the Deep State, you have only one path to choose:"

"Absolute compliance."

"Beyond that, there is no other menu."

Biden pulled his hand out of his trouser pocket, crossed his fingers in front of him, his standing posture remaining that of a relaxed and composed old-school politician.

His tone was unhurried, with no trace of being offended or intimidated on his face, yet every word landed precisely on the turning points of the other party's speech.

"I am very clear on that point."

"But the Lighthouse Country is not something I alone decide."

"Some things require the cooperation of the White House's senior team to be carried through to the end."

"These people around me..."

He turned slightly, tilting his head toward Harris, Graves, Mark Milley, as well as the direction where Chief of Staff Madeleine Rasmussen, Sawyer, and the other accompanying high-ranking officials were standing further away,

"...Although they are not the type of figures you approve of, they do indeed control the actual operation of this country."

"They also need to hear your information."

Zhang Long followed his gaze and swept a glance once more over that group of White House high officials standing before the stone table and at the edge of the courtyard.

His gaze lingered on their faces, sweeping past them one by one:

Harris's face, which was tense from holding back but dared not erupt,

Graves's silence, forced upon him by military orders,

Mark Milley's fists, which were still repeatedly clenching and unclenching at his waist,

and the complex expressions of Chief of Staff Madeleine Rasmussen and Sawyer, who were both unconvinced and yet forced to bow their heads before the Deep State.

"Want to open your eyes? Very well."

He brought his blue-gloved hands back to his front, his fingertips slightly spread.

"Originally, the purpose of my coming today was to demonstrate the true power of the Longevity Faction to you all."

This sentence landed, word by word, in the ears of everyone in the courtyard.

The reaction of Harris and Graves was silence mixed with vigilance.

They understood "true power" as a show of force.

They understood what Zhang Long was about to do as a powerful but ultimately merely displayed deterrent, much like when the Soviet Union paraded missiles through Red Square for inspection.

The composure on Biden's face did not waver in the slightest, but the fingers of the hand he had in his trouser pocket curled ever so slightly.

The surface purpose of his trip was to negotiate, but the deeper core had only one objective:

to see with his own eyes whether the true strength of the Deep State's Longevity Faction was sufficient to defend this planet against the million-strong fleet of Grey Alien.

Diana and Augustus, standing behind the side of the stone table, exchanged a glance when they heard the words "true power."

They had previously heard Zhang Long say at the UFO wreckage research base that he would let the President and them witness the true power of the Longevity Faction together, and at that time, Zhang Long had said:

"That is the power of hope."

Not a deterrent, not a show of force, but hope.

They knew that what was about to happen would be a demonstration far more thorough than mere deterrence.

Zhang Long raised his right hand, which was wearing a blue glove, and waved it casually to the side.

In the air above the stone slab in the center of the courtyard that had been split by lightning, a rift suddenly tore open without any warning.

Space itself seemed to have been gently sliced open from within by an invisible blade. The edges of the rift were smooth and even, and its interior shimmered with a faint, dark blue halo, like a patch of the night sky that had been cut out and pasted onto the surface of the real world.

The rift extended to both sides at an extremely fast speed. From a thin, long cut, it expanded into a vertical, suspended door-shaped outline. The halo at the edges stabilized after expanding to about two people high and two people wide, no longer changing.

The door frame itself had no metal structure, no door panels, and no hinges.

There was only that space opening which had been precisely cut out, quietly suspended in mid-air like the surface of a lake that had been pierced, with light slowly flowing on the other side of the lake.

Harris subconsciously took half a step back.

Graves clenched the military cap he had been repeatedly shuffling in his hands, pressing it against his chest.

Mark Milley's thick hands finally withdrew from behind his belt and hung at his sides, his gaze nailed firmly to that space opening suspended in mid-air.

Conjuring a door out of thin air,

in the dimension of human technology, could at most only be considered a show-off demonstration of some advanced holographic projection technology.

Instinctively, they were still searching for a rational explanation in their minds...

But the next second, Zhang Long reached his hand into that halo and pushed gently, and the door opened.