The wind ahead was no longer dry, carrying faint moist vapor that struck their faces.
To the east, towering snow mountains loomed into view.
At the foot of the snow mountains lay vast plains that would soon be irrigated. They had been gradually turning to desert over the years, but under Qi Yuansi’s supervision these past years, dams and channels had been built near the Turan River by Yong Ping and Xirong, water diverted and soil transported to cover the land, preventing further desertification of the plains.
Qi Yuansi had searched the snow mountains for several relatively easy routes to excavate, laying pipes to channel water downward. Now the most difficult mountain section had been completely laid, the plains section had just had pipes installed, but reinforcement and covering had not yet been done.
This was the most critical moment. If the specially-crafted pipes were damaged now, most of their efforts would be lost.
However, this was also the nearest route to reach Woli Lake. Otherwise, there were only mountains and rivers nearby, and taking a detour would require much time.
A rider on a red horse charged without hesitation toward that place where their life’s work was concentrated.
Behind them, a black shadow came racing wildly, rising and falling over the excavated trenches, massive tires crushing over the ceramic pipes with grinding sounds.
After the black shadow raced past, moments later, black torrents came rolling in. Countless flying vehicles rose into the air, their enormous wheels repeatedly crushing those originally sturdy ceramic pipes. Cracks appeared and grew larger until they shattered with loud crashes.
Naren Aya’s little red horse did not continue forward. She and Qi Yuansi reined in their horses at the end of the trenches, silently watching the vehicles crush past, listening to the constant sounds of pipes collapsing and shattering.
Naren Aya turned to look at Qi Yuansi. Her eyes were bright in the weak winter sunlight as she asked him: “Do you regret it?”
Qi Yuansi looked at those ceramic pipes shattered all over the ground, thinking of all those days and nights of calculation, measurement, firing materials, manufacturing—constantly producing waste due to the enormous dimensions, then starting over again and again, all done by his own hands.
He said: “It’s like my heart has been crushed.”
Naren Aya gently stroked his face, her eyes full of pity.
The once elegant young master who had enjoyed spring breezes for ten li was now dark and thin, even his skin much rougher.
But she felt this Qi Yuansi was the best.
“But I don’t regret it.” Qi Yuansi grasped her hand and turned to look at those towering snow mountains, the Da Qian territory before the mountains, and Woli Lake behind them.
“Compared to home and country, this is merely my personal gain and loss. If His Majesty can sacrifice himself for Da Qian, then I can sacrifice these years of effort for Da Qian.”
“I’ve endured hardship in this desert for five years, ultimately for this world to be at peace, the people happy and content, His Majesty safe, and the realm intact.” He said, “As long as this cherished wish can be realized, let alone shattering these pipes scattered on the ground—my five years of effort, even shattering my bones, I would be willing.”
…
Above the flying saucer, the General couldn’t fire another shot.
The ion light rifle had inexplicably overheated and couldn’t risk firing.
The General’s gaze fell below, watching that mass of black shadows cross the trenches and enter a slightly lower basin.
Further away, Da Qian’s cavalry was blocked by those shattered and destroyed trenches.
The General smiled with satisfaction, his eyes again glancing at the silver-white briefcase fixed to one side.
He said: “Pursue them.”
…
The Alliance Management Bureau headquarters building was surrounded by a large crowd of protesting marchers. Reporters’ cameras were set up everywhere, and Management Bureau security personnel were being pushed back by the crowd, retreating step by step.
The Management Bureau spokesman stood inside the building, sweating profusely despite the climate control system.
He dared not go out, because he dared not say anything.
The General was absent, the Speaker missing. The General’s faction had suffered heavy losses in the battle pursuing the Da Qian Emperor, while many from the Speaker’s faction had been thrown into prison by the military faction taking advantage of this opportunity.
The Management Bureau was now in chaos, and he, a mere puppet, truly dared not take a position lightly.
Moreover, the protesting crowd outside had two different demands. One side cursed the Management Bureau’s incompetence, demanding they quickly take down Da Qian. The planet was becoming increasingly uninhabitable, with thousands dying daily from various causes.
The doomsday countdown clock hanging atop the Management Bureau building had long jumped to red numbers that kept shrinking. A few days ago, to avoid intensifying conflicts, this giant clock had been removed, but this didn’t prevent everyone from having a countdown in their minds. At this moment of life and death, alarms rang loudly, approaching madness.
The other faction believed that under these circumstances, the Alliance could no longer be arrogant. If they couldn’t take down Da Qian, they should lower their stance, send friendly envoys, negotiate peacefully, and request acceptance.
The two factions argued at the Management Bureau entrance, then turned to jointly denounce the Management Bureau.
Just as things were getting chaotic, suddenly an elegantly streamlined black car approached. The door opened, and remarkably, it was the Speaker who emerged.
Security personnel were overjoyed to see her and immediately fought through the crowd to escort her into the Management Bureau building before people could discover and overwhelm the Speaker.
The spokesman hurried to greet her, about to offer regards to Your Excellency, but discovered that Her Excellency the Speaker looked haggard with dark circles under her eyes, and her clothing was somewhat disheveled.
Though the Speaker was of the Manny race, she most preferred ancient Eastern styles. Her daily qipao dresses usually flowed like water and moonlight without a single wrinkle. Her subordinates had never seen her in such a bedraggled state.
The Speaker looked hurried and raised her hand to stop everyone’s concern and inquiries, saying: “Where is Qixing?”
Qixing was Yun Buci’s real name in the Alliance, meaning “to open the star-cloud new era”—a name she had given herself as a child. Yun was the maternal lineage surname of that ancient noble family she belonged to.
Families like hers with thousand-year inheritances had very long names after generations of mixed bloodlines, which were quite inconvenient to pronounce.
“In the prison.”
The Speaker nodded: “Activate the access key.”
The prison warden hurried over and issued the opening command. Behind him, the spokesman and other officials and officers followed, wanting to say something to the Speaker, but she walked hurriedly, declining anyone to follow, going straight into the depths of the seventh underground level prison.
Standing in the empty underground elevator, the Speaker finally breathed a sigh of relief, then her whole body convulsed.
An expression of unbearable discomfort appeared on her face. She forcibly endured it.
After a while, she convulsed again, this time with greater movement.
After another moment, she really couldn’t bear it anymore and simply reached into her qipao to scratch vigorously.
The smooth-as-water qipao fabric became even more wrinkled from her handling.
The Speaker’s expression was both embarrassed and pained.
She had never imagined that itching was more unbearable than pain.
What was more painful was scratching an itch through one’s boot.
The itching seemed hidden in her bone marrow. No matter how vigorously she scratched, even breaking the skin, she couldn’t get a moment’s relief.
This was poison given to her by those damned Da Qian people.
The Da Qian people had released her with the demand that she eliminate all weapons that could threaten Da Qian and kill Yun Buci.
The antidote was in those people’s hands. If something happened to them, she wouldn’t survive either.
Those Da Qian people had wanted to come with her, which she didn’t mind. After all, due to physical constitution and spatial transformation pressure, if Da Qian people came through space tears, they would only die from body explosion. Unlike their specially conditioned physiques.
But considering that if these people died her antidote would be gone, she still prevented it.
The other party had given her one hour—two hours in their time. Spatial conversion would skip time anyway, and she was already running short on time.
Before entering the prison, she took a detour into another elevator, continuing downward, using her key to pass through metal portal after metal portal, finally stopping before a black door.
She pressed her palm to it, and a small frame flashing green light popped up on the door. She stared at the frame as a blue light silently swept across her entire body.
Moments later, mechanical sounds rang continuously. The giant door with its smooth, traceless surface folded and contracted before her until it became a human-height portal, revealing a silver deep tunnel inside.
Still passing through layer after layer of portals, constantly unlocking, finally opening a silver door. At the end was an almost completely empty room.
Long ago, this heavily guarded room had been filled with rows upon rows of fixed weapons.
World-destroying, planet-level weapons.
Also the killing instruments explicitly forbidden by cosmic treaty.
But human greed knew no bounds. There would always be those who couldn’t resist temptation to open Pandora’s Box, and once opened, it couldn’t be contained.
So in the end, countless planets were destroyed, until there were no places left for refuge, forcing them to reverse time and seek new pure lands.
The Speaker remembered that now probably only cabinets Jia-3, Bing-6, and Ding-7 still contained anything.
She took a fingerprint template and iris membrane from her pocket and attached them to the cabinet door.
This cabinet required both her and the General to open together, but she had made two preparations, having long ago forged the General’s fingerprint and iris data.
After two beeps, the cabinet door opened. The Speaker took out an oval device and carefully placed it in the box she had brought.
Then she went to cabinet Bing-6. After opening it, her expression changed.
The cabinet was empty.
The Speaker stood before the empty cabinet for a long while, knowing that not only had she kept a backup plan, but clearly the General had also kept one, obtaining her fingerprints and iris data and already taking away the “Naughty Egg.”
She was stunned for a moment, then quickly ran to the last cabinet with inventory. Opening the cabinet and seeing several slender shells still in place, she finally breathed a long sigh of relief.
She stared at the black liquid slowly flowing in the shells’ viewing windows, her expression complex.
After a moment, she reached out to take the shells, but her hand was suddenly grasped.
The Speaker turned around in alarm: “…Qixing?”