Chapter 951: Chapter 951: The Fugitives (Hey… By the way, did you guys know that the Empire has a base that’s actually a forum, the Xyrin Empire’s forum (official website?): Leaving World Garden, you can find the address from the custom links inside the bar—I kind of forgot the exact address. A friendly reminder: the forum belongs to the veteran zone, registration depends on your luck…) From the start, both sides were in a tense standoff, and not only did it not show any signs of easing up, but it also became even more tense because of the intrusion of another young soldier with an unknown identity. Of course, speaking of the standoff, it seemed like it was one-sided on their part. We didn’t have any intention of attacking, but… the other side clearly didn’t think so. The alien who looked somewhat like an evolved insect was named Tuolulu. Based on his (now I can confirm to use “he”) obviously supersonic and incredibly intense collision from earlier, and the Ghost Energy Blade mounted on his forelimbs, he seems to be a close-combat warrior. And the young soldier holding the gun is clearly using long-range attacks. The two of them might be a kind of combat team. Now they’ve prepared themselves, with faces showing a look of heroism before death. I mean the nameless young soldier’s face; as for Tuolulu’s expression… well, it’s very isosceles triangle. “Hey, could you put down your weapons first? We don’t really like having someone pointing these things at us.” I pointed at the oddly shaped rifle in the young soldier’s hand and said helplessly. However, as soon as I spoke, the other party obviously took my gesture as a signal to start a battle, and he instinctively activated his weapon. A bright blue beam instantly hit my… energy shield in front of me, which didn’t even breach it, then the other party exclaimed in surprise: “Huh?” I looked at the almost imperceptible ripples on the shield and threw a glare at the young soldier: “With skills like yours, you’d be put in detention for seven days each week in my army—use your brain before you shoot!” “What kind of new trick is this,” the young soldier ignored my words and instead looked slightly puzzled at Tuolulu, still gripping the weapon tightly, “Why do they seem different from how Imperial Soldiers were described in school? And also different from those we encountered before.” “They are very brutal. I don’t know; the stuff in school might be outdated. Imperial Soldiers generally don’t say much useless talk, language exchange is really troublesome. I’ve already requested support; don’t let your guard down,” Tuolulu answered with a messy heap of words, continuing to point the Light Saber at us. Sandora and I exchanged a glance and saw the same message in each other’s eyes: they might be two stubborn ones. But even though the other party is stubborn, I still planned to get some information first, so I put on a pretty friendly smile to get familiar with them: “Well, you know who we are, right?” … As soon as I said this, I felt like my intelligence was aligning a bit closer to Dingdang’s. The other side clearly views the Empire with great hostility, yet I brought it up on my own. This attempt to get familiar instantly fell apart… “Hmph, of course,” the young soldier didn’t fire again, but his fingers were clutching the weapon so tightly they turned white. His body was visibly trembling, definitely not out of excitement. Yet even so, the opponent did not show any sign of retreat or submission. With their earlier shot even failing to harm a single hair on the target, anyone could see the vast disparity in power. For him to still grip his weapon in such circumstances was quite impressive. “You are Imperial people, Xyrin Empire… the most dangerous enemies, invaders and Destroyers. Places you’ve passed leave nothing alive, just as the school taught us! You also did it! Are you going to celebrate again today?” Sandora’s face suddenly turned very unpleasant, but it was only for a moment before she returned to her indifferent expression, simply staring coldly at the young soldier and asking: “What exactly did your school teach about the ‘glorious achievements’ of ‘ours’—I’m quite curious.” “Do you even need to ask? You know better than anyone,” the young soldier surprisingly was quite easily drawn out into conversation, possibly because of his age. He seemed still at the phase of sneaking out of the dormitory at midnight to surf the internet—a stage where kids would resolutely spill all their secrets to you. “You destroyed the Tobelu civilization, scorched the Sky Disk Star System, massacred billions of Yunadeans, and the Osar Empire, Human Federation, Star Core 77 World Alliance—all destroyed by you! Then you relentlessly hunted us for so many years, constantly attacking fleets! You killed batch upon batch of people; now you’ve finally set your sights on the last fleet, haven’t you? Pah! Murderers! We’ll die standing, and we’ll take you with us!” “It was the Fallen Apostles who did it…” Sandora’s expression remained as icy as ever, but in the Spiritual Connection, she softly spoke, her voice heavy and filled with nearly undisguised sadness, “I should have thought of this sooner…” “Those nations he mentioned, how many do you recognize?” I didn’t have much hope for an answer to this question; I only brought it up to divert Sandora’s attention. But surprisingly, she actually nodded slightly: “Some of them we’ve interacted with in the Old Empire Era… They were once powerful civilizations against Abyss, and as the Imperial Dominions expanded, they gradually came into close contact with us. They were the last batch of Abyss Resistance in the late Old Empire who hadn’t temporarily aligned with the Empire yet. As for the other few nations, although I don’t have impressions, I suppose it’s a similar situation… After the Old Empire became controlled by the Abyss, they unexpectedly became the first sacrifices…” “Now you can’t do anything about it, it’s irretrievable.” I interrupted Sandora’s memory; these matters could be discussed later. Then I lifted my head to look at the young soldier, “Take us to your leader, to the Supreme Commander of your fleet.” It’s pretty clear now; this young soldier and his alien comrade named Tuolulu are perhaps just ordinary patrolmen, with very limited knowledge, and they are just two stubborn and rigid thinkers. There’s no more to gain from them, so I decided to quickly contact their higher-ups—if I can converse directly with the Ghost Fleet’s Supreme Commander, everything will be much easier to resolve. But just as anticipated, the young soldier resolutely refused without even thinking: “You’ll have to kill me first! Otherwise, don’t even think about getting past this gate!” I really wanted to tell this kid that Lili can get past the gate he guards in at least twenty different ways without him resisting at all, but I figured saying it would seem unserious here, so I refrained. No one was surprised that the other side had no intention of stepping aside. Sandora merely furrowed her brows slightly, then suddenly unleashed her exceedingly powerful spiritual power. This power swept through the metallic barriers around us, extending all the way to the planet’s core. Since we were already at the bottom of the Planet Fortress’s intermediate layer, the starship’s energy interference could be ignored. Sandora’s will instantly filled the entire planet—if she wanted to, controlling this fortress would not have been hard, but she only wanted to say a few words. I didn’t know what Sandora said, but the young soldier in front of us soon looked surprised at the thing on his chest that seemed like a communicator, muttering and communicating with his superior on the other end, then looked at us with a mix of suspicion and uncertainty: “You… you must have pulled some trick just now!” “That’s none of your concern, anyway we can go in now, right?” Specks of golden particles were still floating through Sandora’s hair as she quietly glanced at the young soldier. “You’re going to let us in now, right?” she asked calmly. Under the guidance of the young soldier, everyone passed through the temporarily halted gate. Below the gate was a wide corridor leading downward, and in the vertical shaft, the cold wind that was originally whipping around had also been stopped. I was eager to ask about these constantly stirring winds, but the other side seemed disinterested in conversation with us. In fact, he didn’t even want to keep within ten meters of us, leading us from a good twenty to thirty meters ahead like he was trying to ditch pursuers on his tail. He probably really thought that—for a group of Exiles pursued by the Xyrin Apostle for an unknown number of years, being followed by us must feel utterly dreadful. I asked, and the young soldier nearly fell off his Flying Device when he almost slipped. I hurriedly helped him steady himself and gave some sagely advice with the tone of an elder lecturing a younger, “Kid, speeding is thrilling but dangerous—it harms not only yourself but others too. Don’t you have traffic laws?” The child soldier looked at me with a terrified expression for a few seconds and muttered a single word with his head down: “Jin.” Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs novel·fire·net Then he sped up and ran ahead of me again. It took me quite a while to realize that “Jin” was probably his name. This kid certainly was succinct in speech, and his parents gave him a pretty succinct name too, which would not be favored by novel writers, as it’s not conducive to ensuring full attendance. So names like Sasaki Kojiro are more popular, and at the very least, he should be called Ouyang Qingsong… In no time, we arrived at the end of what looked like an extractor pipe shaft, and the feeling of solid ground was indeed wonderful. Ahead was something that finally didn’t appear as twisted as a lump of flesh: it was an alloy gate with a distinct imperial style, complete with a cross-shaped indentation on it! Clearly, that indentation was once embedded with a set of crystals, but now the crystals, which served as a military emblem, had been removed, and even the remaining grooves had been scratched into a chaotic mess, as if heavy pen strokes had drawn them into a tangled mess. Looking at those forceful scratches, I could almost imagine how the person cutting at them was gritting their teeth when doing so. Noticing our gaze sweeping back and forth on the indentation, the child soldier snorted coldly but said nothing. However, when he took out his identification card to open the gate, he hesitated for a moment. Clearly, leading a group of “ferocious imperial soldiers” into his home seemed too unfathomable to him. But his hesitation didn’t last long, because before he had a chance to use the identification card, the metal gate automatically opened — likely because the controller above had already received direct orders to let us in. Everyone had been very curious about the scene ahead for a long time. In this peculiar planet fortress, there were indeed many fantastical sights, so much so that we were guessing at what else strange might lie ahead, like sprawling nests and such. Hence, without waiting for the gate to fully open, the whole group rushed forward, followed by exclamations of surprise. Qianqian was the first to sprint ahead. With her speed, even if you started in the Jurassic era, you wouldn’t catch up to her. Seeing the vast expanse of lights below, she instantly lost her composure. After passing through the gate, I thought I would encounter the typical scene inside a planet battleship, with large war factories suspended in the air, or enormous interior corridors, or other grand military installations. Yet unexpectedly, what appeared before me was another land and sky. Beneath our feet was a wide alloy platform, suspended in midair, and connected by a metal column with a diameter of several tens of meters to the steel sky above. This metal column was evidently the shaft we’d passed through earlier. Observing from the platform, at a very high altitude above was a gray-black sky curtain, with scattered “stars” flickering uncertainly. Those were the inner walls of the starship “Intermediate Layer” and the lights on those walls. While several kilometers below us was a land illuminated by lights, where dense buildings and orderly streets could be seen, and various vehicles flowed ceaselessly among these buildings. Looking far into the distance, every so often on the land, one could see towering alloy pillars, seemingly resembling mythological pillars used to support the sky, connecting the ground and the “sky.” Bright spots of light flowed along those gray-black alloy pillars; each light point was an oddly shaped flying device, appearing to be maintaining these colossal pillars supporting the starship’s outer shell. All of this was enveloped in a gloomy light, as if the whole world was caught in an unending polar night. This was a Twilight World, encased by a steel sky! The sight before us was astonishing. If not present, you might never imagine what a planet enclosed by thousands of kilometers thick of a metal shell would actually look like. Such a majestic scene, yet also such a desolate scene, I don’t know how long the people of this world have lived in such an environment, but the intense oppression and melancholy emanating from the entirety of it is indeed moving. I was silent for a moment and slightly turned my head to look at the child soldier who was nervously vigilant of our group: “Jin.” “What now?” he replied irritably. “…Nothing. Take us to your leader.” “The ship ahead is here to pick you up, but Tuolulu and I do need to follow.” Jin checked his weapon and, with his insect companion, moved to the edge of the platform. A short, stubby little spaceship landed in front of him. I noticed this remarkably important ship did not have escort ships accompanying it. At first, I found it strange, but soon I understood why: given that it was intended to pick us up, what kind of escort ships could be justified for such a task…? The small transport ship did not appear large, yet inside it was quite spacious, seemingly utilizing some form of space-extension technology, though differing somewhat from the Empire’s space expansion, as there was a slight feeling of discord inside. Apart from us, there were some soldiers in the transport—a mix of humans and insect-like alien life forms similar to Tuolulu, and several others of unfamiliar races. Clearly, this exiled group was composed even more complexly than we had imagined. It’s hard to know just how many nations or races were broken and displaced to form it, but based on what we’ve seen so far, this ghost fleet might impose moral pressures on us as heavy as those from a thousand races of the Civilization Community — each person with a burdensome history of suffering, which the Empire undoubtedly has to account for. Throughout the transport ship’s journey toward its destination, it was evident that every soldier surrounding us cast highly vigilant and fearful gazes toward us. Certainly, mixed within that were also bone-deep hatred, enveloping the area and making it undoubtedly uncomfortable. But fortunately, everyone remained calm, saving us a lot of trouble. I once again felt grateful for Lin Xue’s prediction; otherwise, it’s hard to say if a violent conflict would have erupted by now… The spaceship flew silently through the dim twilight for over ten minutes, finally landing at a… well, somewhere unfamiliar to us. A remarkably tall and slender female officer awaited us at the landing platform. The child soldier and Tuolulu were ordered to stand by near the platform, while a few of us followed this female officer into a building crafted from alloy. This building retained that grotesque “bulge” design reminiscent of lumped flesh. The only information I obtained along the way was that this design style was created by the Tobelu clan—the people of Tuolulu, who wield impressive super technologies, being the backbone of the Ghost Fleet. We followed the female officer through this massive metal fortress, winding through a maze of paths reminiscent of an ant nest, leaving us dazed and confused. Eventually, we arrived at a vast hexagonal hall, where the female officer stiffly nodded to us: “This is the council, you will wait here.” And with that, she abruptly turned and left, almost fleeing. “Looks like we’re not very welcome here, huh.” Lilina rubbed her cheeks with a dry chuckle. I thought to myself, isn’t this obvious? Based on the sparse information revealed by the child soldier, after the collapse of the Old Empire, those mad Apostles wreaked havoc on these refugees incessantly, continuing to pursue them even now. Generally speaking, those unaware would surely mix up the New Empire and the Fallen Apostles. Had we not refrained from firing first, and had the Ghost Fleet not opted to flee instead of fighting to the death, who knows, perhaps by now the conflict might already be fully erupted. In such circumstances, how could you expect a warm welcome? In fact, when Sandora and I entered, I anticipated matters to be worse than they are now… “Where’s the council that person mentioned?” Big Sister glanced around curiously as she spoke. This hall was quite large, comparable to an indoor sports stadium, and its walls weren’t the usual gray-black alloy seen outside but a simple white, making the space notably bright. I felt much more comfortable in such an environment, yet besides being bright, there were no signs of anyone else in the hall, nor were there any communication devices—entirely an empty room. It naturally aroused curiosity about what sort of council the female officer mentioned was supposed to be. After waiting for quite a few minutes, we began speculating whether they intended to starve us, their enemies, in here — although that was unlikely, Sandora undoubtedly had the ability and courage to create a path out of this place. Yet, just as our patience was waning, the lights in the hall suddenly dimmed, and then many floating light dots appeared in the air, quickly gathering in the center of the hall, gradually forming into a humanoid shape… (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, welcome to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)