Yun Buci wore a black cloak, standing behind her. She had also grown much thinner, her face cold and pale. She stared at the shell in the Speaker’s hand, pressing down on her hand with calm but undeniable authority, returning the shell to its original position.
The Speaker looked at her, wanting to ask how she had gotten out and how she had followed her here, but ultimately didn’t ask.
Qixing came from the most ancient noble family in Alliance history. This family had been passed down to the present with only her as the direct heir, and only she had inherited the family’s powerful bloodline. She could carry her own system and could tear through space to search for her targets in the tens of millions of years of history even before the Alliance had developed spatial transfer technology. That’s why the task of cultivating Da Qian had been entrusted to her alone.
The Speaker only said gently: “I’ve dealt with them… They’re very xenophobic, we must…”
Yun Buci didn’t answer her, only took the box from her hands and said: “The ‘Drum’—leave it to me.”
The Speaker observed her traveling attire, with the outline of weapons protruding from her back, and understood: “You plan to act personally? You don’t think highly of the General?”
Yun Buci tightened the straps on her shoulders: “I don’t want Da Qian’s rich lands destroyed by the General. I’m going to stop him.”
“So you’re going to help Tie Ci?”
Yun Buci put on her hood and picked up the box: “No, incidentally I’m also going to kill Tie Ci.”
The Speaker looked at her retreating figure. She should have been completely puzzled, but suddenly understood.
She took a few steps forward and pointed at Yun Buci’s back: “You’re going to kill the Da Qian Emperor with that?”
It was a gun that was already too archaic for the Alliance, one whose traces could hardly be found even in the most ancient military magazines.
“Just this thing.” Yun Buci weighed the gun. “Using it against Da Qian people would be called a victory without honor.”
The Speaker smiled: “When it’s already life and death, you’re still thinking of giving her relative fairness?”
“I am a master after all.” Yun Buci sighed deeply. “I have my dignity.”
The Speaker smiled and stepped forward, pointing at the ground: “Be careful not to step on the sensor laser.”
Yun Buci instinctively stepped aside.
Then she stopped moving.
The Speaker smiled.
With slight apology she said: “Sorry, the sensor positions were adjusted earlier and you weren’t notified.”
Yun Buci stood motionless. Without looking, she knew she was now touching the final sensing device, which only activated when the vault suffered maximum attack, mainly for self-destruction.
As soon as she lifted her foot, this place would become nothing.
The Speaker stood opposite her, quickly pressing a button to put on a special protective shield. Through the round helmet glass of the shield, her eyes remained gentle, even slightly apologetic: “I’m sorry, Yun. I was forced to open surveillance for them. They can see everything I do here… I must act against you. May you rest in peace in heaven.”
…
In the Da Qian Academy Dean’s office, a crowd of Da Qian officials stared at the monitor screen with their eyes going in circles.
The image wasn’t very clear. Information transmission between two spaces was inherently unstable in signal. If the other party wasn’t the Speaker with the Alliance era’s highest-grade sensors, ordinary people couldn’t achieve this kind of communication.
But the blurry images and dialogue were already enough to shock the Da Qian officials.
After being shocked for so long, they became numb. When hearing this dialogue, He Zi actually laughed.
So even in that incomparably powerful era, there was still power struggle and mutual deception.
There was nothing new under the sun.
He just wondered what it felt like for Yun Buci to be repeatedly betrayed by everything she was loyal to.
This was what was meant by “retribution never fails.”
…
The Speaker walked toward the door.
Suddenly her vision went dark.
In just an instant, the silver corridor embedded with countless lights before her went completely dark in the near distance.
The distant lights were still going out in succession. Darkness spread inch by inch from her feet, as if the entire world was slowly sinking.
The Speaker’s heart was also sinking.
The ancient family that Qixing belonged to had mysterious traditions spanning a thousand years. No one had ever been able to figure out what those traditions contained.
She slowly turned around.
Behind her was also dark, with only one point of light in the darkness—Yun’s eyes, bright as cold stars in the darkness, looking at her calmly.
Like looking at a clown.
Sensors needed electrical control. With complete power cutoff, the sensors would also fail… but there was backup power…
As this thought flashed through her mind, rumbling sounds came from deep underground—the backup power had started…
The Speaker hadn’t had time to rejoice.
She felt someone appear beside her.
Faint sandalwood fragrance, shallow breathing.
Something cold brushed past her, extremely fast, extremely bright, with bone-piercing coldness.
In this instant, a flash of understanding crossed her mind: “So this is what cold weapons are like…”
Indeed, truly cold…
Before consciousness faded, she heard Qixing beside her ear, still speaking in a light tone:
“May you rest in peace in hell.”
…
In front of the Da Qian Academy monitor, the officials faced the suddenly blackened screen in complete bewilderment.
“What happened? What’s going on? Why did it suddenly disappear?”
Only the Palace Master had been carefully watching the screen and suddenly laughed.
“It didn’t disappear. It got dark, and someone died.”
…
With a light click, the backup power started. Lights relit section by section, spreading from the end of the corridor toward the chamber, silver light like a tide, brilliant and splendid.
In the restored brightness, the Speaker gripped the door frame, seemingly calmly hanging her head.
Her originally wrinkled crimson qipao had now become stiff, its color nearly deep purple.
Because it was soaked with blood.
…
Sunlight had somehow retreated again, temperature dropped, and snow began to fall at Woli Lake.
This place looked no different from anywhere else.
Murong Yi’s flying vehicle was like a black dragon, flashing in layered afterimages as it charged toward Woli Lake.
The lifted front wheel crushed six-sided snowflakes in mid-air.
Ahead were low hills one after another, red and yellow in color, very distinct.
The terrain of the low hills was peculiar—each lower than the last, with nearly thirty zhang difference between the first and final ridges. From a distance, it looked like a sea nestled in a mountain valley, which was why it was called Woli Lake.
In the distance, a figure flashed—Tie Ci appeared.
She had no chance to seize a flying vehicle, so she simply used teleportation, pursuing all the way here.
Standing at the edge of the first ridge of Woli Lake, her expression changed.
This terrain… if flying vehicles entered and lost control, it would mean having to ride the vehicle and fall from height!
They also couldn’t retreat midway. The Alliance soldiers were already very wary of Da Qian. Once they stopped here, they would certainly stop far away too and wouldn’t enter Woli Lake!
Only now did she understand that Murong Yi hiding under the vehicle wasn’t just to save her that once.
He had guessed the secret of Woli Lake and knew its terrain better than she did. Knowing this was deadly work, he had taken it over.
As soon as she figured this out, Tie Ci ran frantically forward.
She had to get the vehicle back!
The roaring suddenly intensified, like thunder exploding across the sky.
The vehicle flying in mid-air showed no hesitation. The front wheel dropped, crossing through swirling snowflakes, crossing the first ridge.
Even faster than before.
Behind, the black tide pursued relentlessly, following in a cascade downward.
Tie Ci suddenly stopped, standing rigidly in the wind and snow.
The next moment.
The foremost flying vehicle suddenly trembled in mid-air, then began shaking violently. After several trembles it lost control and dove headfirst toward the bottom!
After that vehicle, the black tide almost rear-ending it also simultaneously shuddered, swayed, lost control, tracing countless cold black arcs in the air as they screamed toward the bottom of Woli Lake.
Those flying high plunged straight down like Murong Yi’s vehicle.
Those flying low kept crashing into ridge after ridge, bouncing and colliding endlessly between hills, scattering parts and screams all the way.
Like a swarm of bees crashing wildly.
At the same time, Tie Ci running frantically toward the bottom of Woli Lake felt her body suddenly become heavy.
As if weighed down by tremendous force.
She also saw many warriors who had fallen into the bottom of Woli Lake. Some weren’t injured but couldn’t struggle to their feet.
The muscle suits were affected by the magnetic field—not only failing but seemingly producing side effects.
Without hesitation, Tie Ci removed her outer robe then her muscle suit, revealing simple black clothing underneath.
These simple movements, despite her abilities, left her drenched in sweat.
Suddenly someone cried out in alarm.
Tie Ci looked up to see countless birds falling from the clouds above.
Looking more carefully, they weren’t birds but flying machines used to monitor the situation below.
After these machines fell, something disc-shaped was struggling and swaying in the clouds above, stirring the clouds to pieces.
Tie Ci saw that thing try several times to fly higher but couldn’t withstand the magnetic field below. Finally, after violent shaking, it plummeted from the clouds!
Its direction was exactly where Murong Yi’s flying vehicle had crashed.
Tie Ci’s heart and courage shattered as she teleported continuously.
In her peripheral vision she seemed to see something eject from the big disc just before it crashed.
But she couldn’t worry about that now, rushing straight toward the bottom of Woli Lake.
Suddenly loud laughter came from overhead. Tie Ci looked up to see a huge parachute floating in the sky with a person suspended below, holding a silver box and looking down at her with a cold smile.
Ominous premonition and suddenly overwhelming fear made her pupils contract as she instinctively stopped.
With a thunderous crash, the big disc slammed heavily into the bottom of Woli Lake, scattering the flying vehicles that had already crashed everywhere, splashing parts, severed limbs, and rolling black smoke in all directions.
Tie Ci’s vision went black.
At this point she didn’t dare go forward, gripping her right hand with her left, taking deep breaths and looking up at the sky.
The General floated in the air. He didn’t know what device he wore, but despite the distance, his voice reached everyone’s eardrums clearly.
“Think you’ve won? Think this place can bury all of the Alliance’s warriors?”
He laughed wildly: “See what I’m holding? It’s called Naughty Egg—truly a naughty thing. Just one, only one, and your entire Da Qian can be buried with us.”
Tie Ci looked at that silver object, her heart sinking deeper.
She instinctively knew this statement was true.
The world-destroying weapon Master had mentioned had appeared.
“Without Da Qian, the Alliance will die. Since you won’t let us live, please die first.” The General smiled. “After a hundred years of improvement, ‘Naughty Egg’ is very powerful. A small launch device is enough to bring disaster. Tie Ci, are you very confident right now? Very proud? The cold weapon era defeating high-tech civilization, leaving so many Alliance elites in Da Qian—you must be fantasizing about ruling for thousands of generations, unifying the realm?”
“Unfortunately, advanced civilization is advanced civilization. You exhaust yourselves fighting desperately, but we can still crush you with a finger.”
He pressed the only red button on the silver-white box.
Softly saying: “Revenge for my son.”
“Revenge for Alliance warriors.”
…
The moment his finger pressed down.
A distant figure flashed—Pingzong appeared with a little girl under her arm.
Sangtang and Duanmu followed behind her.
The General’s words echoed in the sky, and everyone heard them. The soldiers were bewildered; no one believed it.
Pingzong curiously examined this boastful fellow.
But Duanmu and Sangtang’s expressions changed.
Instantly the past came rushing back—electric light crossing streets, giant vehicles crushing trenches, brilliant blooming sparks, white lightning from thin black tubes, and nightmares falling from clouds.
Duanmu’s expression was especially grim. When he had rushed to the capital, he encountered mortal enemies in the wilderness, so that journey to find Sangtang had taken decades to complete.
Back then there were also such dense clouds, with disc-shaped objects extending lines, a black thing falling from height, and the next moment he was plunged into darkness.
“It’s them.” Duanmu’s face was white as snow as he ground out the words through clenched teeth.
Pingzong looked at the hot air balloon floating in the air, at Duanmu and Sangtang’s expressions, remembering Murong Yi’s earlier instructions.
“Use that girl to lure Duanmu and Sangtang to where my fireworks burst. If you see strange people appear, at the most critical moment, I don’t care what method you use… provoke Duanmu and Sangtang to act.”
Pingzong didn’t know what constituted the most critical moment, but grandmasters had keen intuition for danger and sensitivity to heaven and earth.
She sensed that at this moment wind and clouds suddenly stopped, thunder rumbled faintly, the sky like a dome about to overturn. The extreme sense of danger made every hair on her body stand on end.
She had no time to think and charged toward the General in the air with the terrified little girl.
The General laughed coldly, his finger already on the button. A silver light burst forth, screaming out of the silver box at indescribable speed.
Tie Ci suddenly reached out. Lightning snaked down from the horizon, striking directly at the silver light.
But the lightning suddenly disappeared before fully touching the silver light. In the blink of an eye the pointed tip of the silver object was visible, and in another blink it would hit the ground—
The next moment darkness suddenly descended.
Like a whole expanse of black sky suddenly opening before her, instantly losing vision and herself. Her hands were suddenly empty—Sang Ruo had vanished. The faint sound of the girl’s crying also became unclear, seeming far and near.
Sangtang had opened his dark world, enveloping her, Sang Ruo, the General, and that silver light within.
From the crowd’s perspective below, it was as if the sky had suddenly darkened in a large mass, dense as ink, while at the edges of the black mass, the horizon remained bright with clear black and white distinction.
Even with Tie Ci’s sharp eyes, she could see a silver light in the black mass, slightly slowed but still descending.
She had been in that darkness before and knew it was like solid matter inside, binding everything so nothing could escape.
Yet it still couldn’t contain that silver light.
She could see the silver light slowly piercing through the darkness like a shallow wound.
Even because of this tiny silver light, the huge black mass was being forced to slowly approach the ground.
Sangtang had landed on the ground, eyes slightly closed, hands extended flat, his face growing paler.
In the sky, a figure shot out of the black mass—it was the General.
He laughed loudly in mid-air, his voice cold and sharp: “Think this bit of black ink can stop Naughty Egg? It only delays death by a few seconds. Come, let me add a little more for you.”
His finger pressed the button again.
Naughty Egg—there wasn’t just one.