Chapter 143: Ball Lightning

In reality, had it merely been an ordinary unidentified flying object, Zhang Desen would not have paid it any mind at all. After all, unidentified flying objects frequently entering Earth's atmosphere were a common occurrence. However, these transmitted data sets included speculations that he would very likely capture locals, advising the Saurian Olmec Empire to place them on Level One alert.

Zhang Desen, on the other hand, believed that the Saurians' satellites would not casually suggest such a thing to their headquarters. Yet, he could not discuss this with Li Longfang and the others at the moment. With so many people watching, it would not do to expose these matters.

Just as Zhang Desen was pondering how to handle this situation, a message came through. Upon checking, Zhang Desen saw it was an order issued by the Saurian Olmec Empire to all its national armed forces. The general content was as follows:

Attention all Olmec Empire aviation units. Unidentified flying objects have once again entered our planet's territory. However, as our planet is about to face a far more terrifying alien invasion, members of all aviation units are instructed not to provoke trouble proactively.

Should the opposing party pose no threat to the citizens of our Olmec Empire, do not interfere with their actions. We currently lack the time to deal with such an unconventional alien civilization invasion.

All personnel are required merely to maintain vigilance and surveillance. Furthermore, all citizens are notified not to fire blindly at unidentified flying objects to avoid triggering unnecessary interstellar conflicts.

Once we have thoroughly defeated the Gomarians, we will turn back and conquer the place of origin of these unidentified flying objects.

In addition, all radar units must closely monitor the airspace; absolutely no unidentified flying objects are permitted to enter our planet during this time frame.

Do not forget the threat posed by the West Atlantean Empire, as they may strike our forces at any moment. Therefore, the airspace east of our national borders must also be subjected to focused surveillance.

Special attention must be paid to the fact that while there is no need for us to concern ourselves with how many humans are abducted by these unidentified objects of unknown origin—nor should we court unnecessary trouble prematurely on humanity's behalf—we must still acquire a comprehensive understanding of exactly how many humans they have seized.

Consequently, we have ordered the Director of Intelligence, Lord Caba Dur, to comprehensively gather their trajectories. All military units nationwide, regardless of branch, must fully and actively cooperate.

Yuri Gotnei, Chancellor of the Olmec Empire.

Upon finishing these readings, Zhang Desen immediately thought of the events currently unfolding within Hezhou City. Naturally, this matter was not something Zhang Desen was directly facing at the moment, but rather something he had heard about previously—namely, the frequent disappearance of night travelers after dark.

At this thought, Zhang Desen immediately realized that he might need to meet these unknown individuals after nightfall.

Meanwhile, Zhao Chengming and the others noticed Zhang Desen's expression suddenly shifting between cloudy and clear, unable to figure out what had happened. Suspecting that Zhang Desen must have encountered some problem, they hesitated to ask.

Just as Zhang Desen sank into deep thought, however, a silver-bell-like female voice suddenly rang out nearby. The voice declared:

"Ha! Our great hero has finally run into a difficult problem! I actually thought the great hero had nothing to fear!"

Zhang Desen and the others were startled and immediately turned their heads to look. They saw a remarkably striking young maiden. Judging her appearance, she seemed to be about two or three years younger than Liu Yuqing, roughly twelve or thirteen years old, with a very petite figure, a delicate nose and mouth, and an exquisite face. A pair of exceptionally bright, large eyes gave her a remarkably pure and adorable aura.

At the moment, however, her face bore an expression of utter defiance, which failed to make her unappealing and instead magnified her cuteness to the extreme. She turned out to be Feng Ling'er, the beloved daughter of General Feng Yucai.

Zhang Desen could not help but be slightly startled as he asked:

"Oh, it turns out to be Miss Feng. May I ask what brings you here, Miss?"

At this, Feng Ling'er replied:

"Hmph. I merely wanted to see what kind of skills this person who stole my reputation actually possesses. I never expected to encounter a problem that would give him a headache. Watching you teach that scoundrel a lesson just now made you seem quite imposing, but I never imagined that looking at a piece of wood in your hands could leave you looking so astonished and absent-minded."

Hearing this, Zhang Desen was both exasperated and amused. He said:

"Tell me, Miss Feng, can you guarantee one hundred percent that a brave person truly has nothing they are afraid of? In reality, everyone in this world has things they fear."

Feng Ling'er pouted her little lips and retorted:

"Hmph! Are you just making excuses? Whenever you encounter something you're afraid of, do you just make excuses? I originally thought that anyone capable of overshadowing my father's reputation must be a fearless hero. But you are truly disappointing now."

Helpless, Zhang Desen had no choice but to say:

"Listen to me, Miss Feng, to be honest with you. A true hero is not someone who has nothing to fear, but someone who possesses the courage to face what they fear when they encounter it. If you were to lose the emotion of fear, you would likely also lose your love for your family and truly transform into a killing machine that only knows how to slaughter."

Upon hearing this, Feng Ling'er was momentarily left without a single counterargument. Yet, refusing to yield, she grew extremely irritated—though not truly harboring hatred toward Zhang Desen, merely remaining unconvinced, she said:

"Then explain this to me: why did you become so frightened just looking at your wooden board?"

Zhang Desen glanced at the compact computer on his left forearm. Admittedly, as long as one did not look directly at its screen, it did indeed resemble a piece of wood, because Zhang Desen had intentionally painted its exterior the color of wood to avoid drawing unwanted attention.

Glancing at Feng Ling'er, Zhang Desen had no choice but to tell her:

"Because things can be written on a wooden board, there is a lot of information displayed on it for you to read."

Hearing this, Feng Ling'er immediately rushed over, delighted, and said:

"What kind of information? I want to see it."

Believing she had finally caught Zhang Desen in a weakness, Feng Ling'er felt a wave of excitement. At that exact moment, however, a flash of lightning struck down. Feng Ling'er was frightened out of her wits, her radiant face turning pale. Looking up, she saw a spherical ball of light hovering outside the window. Terrified, she screamed:

"What is that? What is that?"

Seeing this, Zhang Desen smiled to reassure her and said:

"That is ball lightning..."

With that, Zhang Desen began to explain what ball lightning was.

The phenomenon known as ball lightning is commonly referred to as rolling thunder. It usually occurs during thunderstorms and appears as a spherical flash of lightning. This is a real physical phenomenon. It is extremely bright, nearly spherical, and ranges from about 15 to 40 centimeters in diameter.

It typically lasts for only a few seconds, though there are records of it lasting for one to two minutes. In addition to the common orange and red, its colors include yellow, purple, blue, bright white, and ghostly green halos, presenting a diverse array of hues.

Ball lightning poses a considerable hazard. It can drift freely in the air close to the ground following air currents or move against the wind. It can enter indoor spaces through open doors and windows, most commonly passing through chimneys to enter buildings. It can even slide along electrical wires, sometimes hovering, sometimes vanishing silently, and other times exploding upon impact with obstacles.

Ball lightning is an electrical driving force formed during thunderstorms, resulting in an air-ion sphere generated when the air is semi-breakdown ionized. It carries energy, and its envelope is relatively stable. When a conductor disrupts its equilibrium, it neutralizes with the surrounding air and releases energy.

Several hypotheses regarding its formation include:

Some suggest that when branched lightning occurs, the extremely high temperature within the lightning channel decomposes water vapor in the air into oxygen and hydrogen. Under special circumstances, the lightning channel splits into several segments.

In this way, the air near the lightning channel is divided into clusters containing hydrogen and oxygen, forming bead lightning. After the branched lightning ceases, the temperature of the ball lightning drops, causing the hydrogen and oxygen to recombine, releasing energy in the process. The release of energy simultaneously generates light.

Sometimes this energy-release phenomenon manifests as an explosion, thus producing ball lightning.

Traditional theories view it as a vortex-like high-temperature plasma, maintaining its stability over a relatively long period by balancing the centripetal force generated by high-speed internal rotation with external atmospheric pressure. Others suggest that it maintains energy stability through chemical reactions among high-temperature gas mixtures.

The microwave-maser soliton theory posits that ball lightning is caused by atmospheric microwave masers with a volume of several cubic meters. Microwave masers are equivalent to lasers of much lower energy; when the volume of air is very large, microwave masers generate localized electric fields, namely solitons, resulting in visible ball lightning.

Researchers António Pavão and Gerson Paiva from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil claimed to have confirmed the vaporized silicon hypothesis: under the impact of lightning, the oxygen in silicon dioxide combines with carbon while the silicon is vaporized into pure silicon, forming a short-lived sphere. The vaporized silicon recombines with oxygen in the air, generating heat and causing the sphere to emit a white glow.

Physicists Joseph Peer and Alexander Kendl from the University of Innsbruck in Austria claimed that frequent lightning strikes might generate magnetic fields strong enough to induce hallucinations in humans, speculating that this might explain the phenomenon of ball lightning.

Others suggest it is generated by free electrons within glass.

Spherical lightning is not actually lightning, as it shares almost no characteristics with true lightning. Therefore, naming this phenomenon "ball lightning" is inaccurate; it should instead be named a "luminous electric fireball," meaning a plasma luminous sphere associated with electromagnetic fields. Natural lightning is also referred to as thunder and lightning. The most common form of lightning is linear lightning, shaped like jagged branches suspended upside down in the sky or resembling a river with numerous tributaries on a map.

Additionally, a rarer form of lightning is bead lightning. The lifespan of a luminous electric fireball is generally a few seconds, though individual instances can last up to several minutes. In contrast, ordinary branched lightning has a lifespan of less than one second.

A luminous electric fireball is a plasma localized in an appropriate magnetic field configuration space and velocity space, acquiring energy from its surroundings. The diameter of the plasma region depends on the frequency of the external field, thereby producing resonance.

Upon hearing this explanation, Feng Ling'er's eyes radiated extraordinary brilliance.