The vanguard riding the bizarre beasts looked completely at ease. Ever since Gu Yuan had arrived, the human mechs were no longer as frightening as they had once been. Gu Yuan knew their weaknesses, and they had almost never lost a battle.
Besides, they were pursuing a defeated enemy, so there was no reason to stay particularly vigilant.
By the time they heard movement coming from ahead, they still had no idea that trouble was upon them.
Dozens of pitch-black gun barrels emerged from the forest, all aimed directly at the Blue-skin cavalry unit.
“This is bad!” the Blue-skin commander shouted, accompanied by the shrill cry of the beast beneath him.
The armored troops on the other side opened fire without hesitation. The thunderous explosions rang throughout the forest. Many Blue-skins were blown apart into bloody mist in the very first barrage. Freed from their riders’ restraints, the beasts instinctively fled, only to crash into other nearby cavalrymen.
What terrified them even more was that, almost at the same time, more than a hundred small aircraft flew over the treetops and began firing indiscriminately at them. The gunfire was as dense as pounding rain.
“The vanguard has encountered an attack from the human mech forces!”
When the report reached the rear, Gu Yuan—who was riding the same beast as the princess—was stunned.
“How could that be? They should have been retreating!” He remembered clearly that when his family had contacted him, they had said the Ninth Battle Group would withdraw. After that, he would be able to return to the Empire with the princess in his capacity as a peace ambassador.
“No! Their entire mech force has been deployed!”
As he spoke, explosive shells were already detonating nearby.
“Don’t panic! We have the numbers! Organize a counterattack immediately!” Gu Yuan gritted his teeth. Was the commander of the Ninth Battle Group trying to get himself killed? Still, he had nothing to fear. He knew their methods, and he had defeated them many times before!
Gu Yuan still naively believed that those past victories had all been his doing.
Reality soon slapped him hard across the face.
Just as the scout had reported, the Ninth Battle Group appeared to have brought out everything they had. Powered armor advanced through the forest while shells and lasers never stopped flying. The Blue-skins’ proud aerial cavalry was also firmly suppressed by the human drones. A dense curtain of fire formed in the sky, and every Blue-skin who dared to take off was shot full of holes.
In a single exchange, the pent-up emotions of the human soldiers, suppressed for many days, were released. Their morale was even higher than when they had first arrived. Seeing the Blue-skin scum who had killed their comrades, the soldiers’ rifles continuously spewed out bullets filled with fury.
And when they saw the figure charging fearlessly at the very front, they became even more excited. Though that man was the Governor rather than the battle-group commander, everyone had heard the rumors about him. Now they were actually counterattacking under his leadership!
“Holy crap! This is incredible!” Fang Zhiyi was having the time of his life. He drove his mech forward at full speed, even leaving Hu Lie and the others behind.
At last, Gu Yuan realized that something was wrong. The Stellar Region troops were fighting in a way completely different from usual!
The Stellar Region troops had always used mechs to spearhead their advance, supported by light infantry and aerial cover. That rigid style of warfare had never changed. Yet the Stellar Region troops they faced today were… different.
The mechs and accompanying infantry had formed into small squads. After the Blue-skin vanguard collapsed, they did not pursue the fleeing enemy. Instead, they continued advancing in other directions, as though they were carrying out some predetermined objective.
Gu Yuan pondered for a moment. “They aren’t pursuing us? It seems they’re destined to lose!”
He began issuing orders decisively, while the Blue-skin princess Aya gazed at him with admiration.
“Disaster! The human army has blocked the route for the left-wing forces to return and reinforce us!”
“The cavalry unit has been ambushed by a terrifying human squad!”
“What about the troops sent to encircle them?” Gu Yuan shouted anxiously. He could feel that events were gradually slipping beyond his control.
A staggering figure suddenly stumbled forward. “The encircling force discovered the enemy’s supply convoy and pursued it. Then, then they were ambushed!”
Gu Yuan was dumbfounded. He wanted to continue issuing orders, but after raising his hand, he had no idea what to say.
Suddenly, a pillar of fire shooting into the sky in the distance drew everyone’s attention. Aya slowly turned her head toward it, her face filled with terror.
That was their headquarters. It was obvious that it, too, had come under attack.
Gu Yuan was stunned, but he still forced himself to remain calm. “Gather all our forces immediately! We’ll break out first!”
But by then, his orders had already lost their authority. The Blue-skins had witnessed the attack on their home with their own eyes, and they all turned their mounts toward it.
At that moment, the officers of the Ninth Battle Group held the Criminal Governor in the highest regard. Not only had he led them in a counterattack, he had even employed tactics! First, he had used aerial reconnaissance footage to deploy several squads and sever the Blue-skins’ lines of communication. Then, he had sent out bait to lure away the enemy’s outer forces.
What was even more ruthless was that he had withdrawn nearly half of the Destroyer battalion back to the ships, then had them make precision landings near the Blue-skins’ headquarters. Judging from the current situation, the Blue-skins had completely collapsed. Every soldier in the Ninth Battle Group had finally vented the anger they had been holding in.
“I’ve never fought such an easy battle!” Hu Lie exclaimed excitedly, waving one arm. His mech nearly smacked the teammate beside him. “That lunatic… isn’t he afraid of being judged by the Empire?”
The “lunatic” he was referring to was currently piloting a suit of powered armor. Holding a gun in one hand and a sword in the other, he stabbed through a Blue-skin that lunged at him. Then he flung the creature aside in disgust and stomped on it. The Blue-skin’s body twitched once before going still.
“Sir, as the commander, you don’t need to charge into battle personally,” Hu Lie teased over the comms.
Fang Zhiyi laughed. “Being able to charge alongside my brothers is my honor!”
His words were clearly transmitted through every communicator.
Hu Lie paused. He exhaled a puff of smoke, then raised his gun and blew apart a Blue-skin’s head.
“It’s a shame I didn’t get to know you sooner.”
“Uh, sir, some of the men have found the stolen stealth armor. They’re trying to open an escape route for the Blue-skins.”
Fang Zhiyi fell silent for a moment. “What about Gu Yuan?”
“They’re searching for him now!”
The skirmish did not last long. The Blue-skins who had profited by following Gu Yuan had long since grown contemptuous of the humans. Now, faced with the full-scale assault of the Ninth Battle Group, they collapsed instantly and fled in all directions.
What made Hu Lie even happier was that he had captured the traitor.
Gu Yuan.
To help his lover escape, Gu Yuan had actually been willing to stay behind as a decoy. He had calculated that these people would not dare kill him.
Sure enough, after Hu Lie reported the news to Fang Zhiyi, Fang Zhiyi barely had to think before making his decision.
+ Slow Paced + Main Character Thrives Together with His Disciples】 Transmigrated into a cultivation world, Chu Xingchen awakens a discipleship system that reveals the tags of his disciples! Starting from scratch, he builds the strongest sect. Disciple One: Li Yingling 【Gold Tag: Genius Cultivator】【Purple Tag: Extremely Lucky】【Blue Tag: Bewitchingly Beautiful】 Disciple Two: Li Hangtian 【Gold Tag: Reincarnated】【Purple Tag: Ruthless and Decisive】【Blue Tag: Loyal and Noble】 Disciple Three: ??? 【Orange Tag: Alluring Demoness】【???】【???】 Thus, in the cultivation world, an unremarkable little sect appears out of nowhere, but little do others know that each member of this sect is a powerhouse in their own right. The book is also known as: Cultivation? It's Exactly Like This!
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
