Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
From the moment Heiye Ming made the decision, the Black Wind Fleet, which was being unfolded unhurriedly in the most resource-saving way previously, accelerated the pace of the preparation for war.
The space jump itself was a repeated process of being torn apart and regrouped. It would deal a certain amount of damage to the starships. After a hundred years, the starships that had performed countless short-distance space jumps would be like a sheet of foil that had been contorted and restored over and over again. Even if nothing seemed wrong on the surface, tiny fractures were in fact everywhere inside them.
In the past few years, the Black Wind Fleet had been repairing the ‘fractures’ while it was anchored near the brown dwarf. But right now, in order to accelerate the progress of maintenance, they adopted a more radical approach. They simply declared some seriously damaged starships to be total-losses before they dismantled the fuel, plate armor, ammunitions, and magical equipment units on those starships that were still usable and installed them on other starship.
In such a way, they would get a renewed, aggressive fleet in the shortest time possible. The starships were like a series of black diamonds that floated in the orbit of the brown dwarf.
Such an attempt would greatly reduce their zone of activity and the potential of their development, but did it really matter?
Very soon, they would have everything!
Black Swirl, the flagship of the Black Wind Fleet, seemed like a mountain of crystals almost a hundred kilometers long that was made of tens of thousands of translucent black crystals. Elegance and brutality were perfectly melded on the starship. It was completely ‘awakened’, too, and had finished the highest preparation for war.
“Argh!”
Deep inside Black Swirl, the honeycomb-like hibernation cabins, illuminated by the cold brightness, appeared to be silent graves. The covers of the hibernation cabins were lifted one after another. Roars resembling ferocious beasts were echoing from the thick, dirty nutrition liquids.
The last batch of hungry, thirsty experts who had slept for decades woke up from their nightmares and were about to bring everything in their nightmares to the entire world.
Countless slave soldiers, who were ordinary people but also armed with strengthening drugs, artificial bodies, and intrusive armor, crawled up and down like agile ants, helping the Immortal Cultivators get up from the hibernation cabins and reach the common area. They also wiped and massaged the warriors who had just woken up and offered drugs and other Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures to make them recover from the hibernation state sooner.
“Hoo!”
The Immortal Cultivators who had hibernated for decades absorbed the recovery drugs that contained immense spiritual energy into their internal organs through intravenous injection and other ways. As they activated their arts in silence, their slightly withered bodies expanded again. The thick veins and nerves seemed to have turned from earthworms into boas and from boas into dragons that seemed to be breaking their magnificent bodies of flesh and blood and soaring into the sky!
Sensing the explosive strength running in their blood, the Immortal Cultivators roared, venting the lust for destruction that had been restrained for decades.
Boom!
Right then, an Immortal Cultivator who had just recovered suddenly lost control of his spiritual energy. After a casual punch, an ordinary slave soldier who was massaging him was blown away.
The ordinary person, or to quote the Immortal Cultivators, the ‘hominoid soldier’, flew a hundred meters away and smashed into the cabin wall. After cracking explosions, he collapsed like a pile of mud, with blood flowing out all over his body. He was obviously dead.
After a hibernation of decades, the recovery speeds of the soul, brain, nerves, and flesh were often different. It was not rare for one to lose control over their spiritual energy because of the discoordination of the body and the brain. The Immortal Cultivator did not intentionally kill the guy for pleasure.
The Immortal Cultivators were not perverts who had fun murdering. They were quite reasonable. For the experts of the Black Wind Fleet, the hominoid soldiers were like the most loyal, obedient, and helpful military dogs. Would a distinguished warrior kill a military dog just for fun?
Therefore, the Black Wind warrior, who had just accidentally killed a ‘military dog’, put on a regretful expression after a slight daze. He said in a low voice, “How can he be so weak? Blown up after only one punch? He’s too incautious!”
Waving his hand, he called another hominoid soldier. “Check the number of that guy and see if he has any family. Transfer 20,000 credit points from my account to them. Consider it compensation. Right. If he happens to have an adult family member, they will be allowed to join the next ‘Iron Blood Trial’. It’s a chance to upgrade his bloodline. Just say that I recommended him!”
Such a remedy was not very generous, but it was not harsh, either. It was basically how things were done there. Regardless of whether they treated the hominoids as military dogs or military assets, they certainly had to pay for them after they damaged the goods.
The body of the hominoid was soon dragged away. Even the blood stain was cleaned up in the blink of an eye.
From the beginning to the end, not a single Immortal Cultivator or a hominoid soldier ever slightly raised their head to show any concern for the tiny accident.
It was because they were all dwelling in excitement. All their brain cells were occupied by the same thing.
A war was coming!
On the bridge of Black Swirl, Heiye Ming observed everything through the ubiquitous surveillance light beams.
Not only did he pay attention to the recovery speed of the hibernating Immortal Cultivators, he also checked the filling speed and boost efficiency of the main power rune arrays, the maximum level of the spiritual shield and the twisting force field, and the stock of attack magical equipment and ammunition on the main-force warships.
Of course, most importantly of all, he was supervising the last testing and debugging of the space jump array, which would help them jump to eighty lightyears away instantly and launch an unexpected assault on the heartland of the Star Glory Federation.
Heiye Ming was 2.1 meters tall. He had been a famous general in the Black Wind Sector when he was young. His most glorious feat included charging into the core of a fleet of the Covenant Alliance on a ragged starship on his own and boarding the flagship of the enemy’s fleet, eventually helping his side crush the hostile fleet.
Right now, he was old, and his hair was gray. Interconnected scars were everywhere on his body. He had also been heavily wounded by the bombardment of the Covenant Alliance when he personally covered their retreat in the crushing defeat a hundred years ago, which severely affected the circulation of spiritual energy in his internal organs. Nevertheless, he was still one of the toughest men in the Black Wind Fleet. No one had dared violate his authority in the past hundred years.
He was the living embodiment of the Black Wind Sector. He was a block of black ice, a piece of dark iron, and an obsidian crystal that did not seem dangerous at all but actually boasted destructive power!
Had it not been for his arduous negotiations and compromises with the emperor and the warlords in the capital city a hundred years ago, the Black Wind Fleet would have been carved up. There would not have been a chance for them to make amends in the edge of the cosmos at all.
Right now, Heiye Ming sensed the spiritual waves behind him.
He moved his deep, indifferent eyes from the hundreds of ever-changing surveillance light beams and turned back, staring at the slightly twisted and mysterious shadow that was gradually popping up on the communication light beam.
“Jin Xinyue, we finally meet,” Heiye Ming said coldly. Even if someone analyzed the syllables with the most advanced magical equipment, it would be impossible for them to detect any of his emotions.
“General Ming.”
On the communication light beam, Jin Xinyue bowed to Heiye Ming neither arrogantly nor humbly.
In comparison, her emotions seemed much easier to be captured and analyzed. Excitement mixed with anxiety mixed with disobedience mixed with helplessness. A common emotion when the traitors of a higher level betrayed their old masters.
“We’ve been opponents for ten years,” Heiye Ming said casually. “I’d always been imagining what the ‘Dim Moon Queen’ who captured and killed so many of my elite warriors actually looked like. I even told myself that I would invite the lady to my flagship for a good chitchat after we conquer the Star Glory Federation one day. I didn’t realize that my wish would come true so quickly.”
“That’s because the federation is too idiotic!” There was a smile on Jin Xinyue’s face, but the deepest discontent and hatred were beaming out of her eyes. “Had it not been for the greedy morons who were determined to push me into desperation, you would never have been able to break into the Star Glory Federation if it was under my supervision! Even if the federation was to be destroyed, we would drag the Black Wind Fleet to die with us! Even if we couldn’t, we would destroy all our resources. At least in the next thirty to fifty years, you would not get one ton of crystals from the mines in the federation!”
Heiye Ming was silent for a moment. Instead of arguing back, he simply said, “Thanks to the idiocy of the federation, we now have a chance to perform the ‘decapitation strategy’. Jin Xinyue, we don’t have much time. Do you need more guarantees from me?”
“No,” Jin Xinyue said. “Empty talk does not mean anything even if it is repeated a hundred times. With everything coming to this point, I can only wager on the chances that General Ming is both rational and ambitions enough to march back to the center of the cosmos instead of spending the rest of your life in the desolate world at the edge of the cosmos!
“Enough of the nonsense. I’m going to send over the last batch of defense plans, distribution of armies, and sailing maps of the Heaven’s Origin Sector to you so that you will know every corner of the Heaven’s Origin Sector as clearly as you know your own hand, General Ming!
“With the destructive power of the Black Wind Fleet, as long as you jump to the Heaven’s Origin Sector smoothly, it will be absolutely impossible for the local troops to resist!
“The only problem is the space jump.
“Regarding that, I have snuck a few ‘space gates’ into the Heaven’s Origin Sector on a large scale. Everything is under control!
“Also, right now, the wealthy, powerful, and deeply rooted traditional sects in the Heaven’s Origin Sector have been grasped by me and will cooperate with our plan!
“When the day comes, my men will attack the capital and the few space gates at the same time. We will control the space gates and send the coordinates to the Black Wind Fleet, summoning you to the Heaven’s Origin Sector and launch a critical strike on the capital city!
“All the space gates will be controlled by me. The shocking bombs that we will spray near the Heaven’s Origin Sector will affect the stability of the space and prevent the fleets of the other six Sectors from jumping to the Heaven’s Origin Sector. The heart and brain of the federation will be blocked!
“Even if the Burning Prairie Fleet can break in by force, I still have the Big Bai Fleet under my command. When the Black Wind Fleet secures victory on the ground, the Big Bai Fleet will certainly defect. The Burning Prairie Fleet does not stand any chance of winning if we join hands!
“After the capital world falls and the most powerful fleet of the federation is crushed, it means that we have taken down the Star Glory Federation with the minimal price and time cost!”