She recalled that when she first met Qingchen, the Li family wasn't like this, and neither was the Federation.
Now, everything has changed.
...
...
Return countdown 04:00:00.
The war in the north was more brutal than imagined.
Looking at the red occupied area on the holographic sand table, Muto Taka gritted his teeth and said, "Those old bastards let the wolf into the house, and now they've been thoroughly investigated... It only took five minutes, and everything's gone!"
Kumashiro Yunluo sat in the command seat, legs crossed, holding a cup of ice cream in her left hand and a small spoon in her right. She ate while laughing and said, "I'm not surprised at all... Kōyū, any news from City 10?"
This young nobleman still doesn't seem nervous at all, as if he's watching a popcorn movie.
“We’ve received a message from City 10,” Kong Yu, now dressed in military uniform, said while holding an LCD screen. “Zero is asking us to delay for another 24 hours, but… we might not be able to hold out.”
Kong Yu continued, "Only one hidden radar base has detected that the Roosevelt Kingdom's fleet has arrived on the Eastern Continent."
"Movement?" Kamishiro Yunra took a bite of ice cream.
“They didn’t go to occupy our city, but headed straight south,” Kong Yu said, frowning.
Kamishiro Yunluo nodded: "Their mission is to launch a blitzkrieg and crush all military forces that stand in their way... The urgency must be because Qing Chen's actions in unifying the Federation have made them feel a sense of crisis. This vanguard force is going to thwart Qing Chen's plan to rebuild the Federation."
However, Shindai Yunluo's analysis was wrong. The Roosevelt Kingdom was not afraid of Qing Chen's restoration of the country; what they feared was giving the giant time to cultivate.
Qing Chen opened a Pandora's box by passing on his cultivation to the giant, which made all the Fate Masters feel a sense of urgency.
Muto Taka pondered: "So, Qing Chen is the culprit who attracted the Roosevelt Kingdom's fleet this time..."
Kamishiro Yunlu rolled her eyes: "What's wrong with your brain? If Qingchen hadn't done this, and had waited for the other side to be ready before coming over, would you have been able to stop them?"
"So what do we do now?" Kong Yu asked, looking at Shen Dai Yunluo.
“Retreat 200 kilometers to the south first,” said Kamishiro Unra.
"Retreat?" Kong Yu asked, puzzled.
“There’s no way you can win,” Kamishiro Yunra sighed. “Unless you gouge out all your eyes and see if the fully evolved Hyakume-ki can win. Look, you guys together make a total of seven A-ranks, which is pretty good.”
Muto Taka: "Ah, this!"
"Just kidding," said Kamishiro Yunra with a smile. "Don't be nervous, why would I do such a thing?"
Muto Taka breathed a sigh of relief.
Shindai Yunluo then added, "You can't dig up the ones on the empty islands, but you can dig up the ones on other islands."
Muto Taka, Takahashi Ryosuke, and Kamishiro Unshu: "..."
Kamishiro Yunra looked at them and said, "Alright, go and eat something to recharge. As for whether to fight or run, I'll think about it and decide later. Let me have some peace and quiet."
In the command room, only Shindai Yunluo remained. He propped his legs up on the holographic sand table in front of him and ate his ice cream in small bites, just as seriously as Qing Chen when he ate.
Inside the restaurant, Muto Taka ate sushi: "Do you think the boss will fight? If he really wants to, I can give him my eyeballs; they can be replaced with mechanical ones anyway. Was my hesitation just now a little embarrassing?"
“No,” Kong Yu said absentmindedly, “Anyway, you’re the kind of person I am, and everyone’s used to it.”
Muto Taka: "..."
"But why should we help the Kei family buy time?" Takahashi Ryosuke asked seriously. "Is it really worth it? The boss isn't really going to work himself to the bone for that Kei kid, is he?"
Kong Yu thought for a moment and said, "I don't know."
However, at that moment, the airship they were on suddenly changed direction.
It's normal for an airship to change direction in mid-air, but the problem is that there's only Shindai Yunluo in the command room at this moment, and the direction is clearly southwest.
Kong Yu was the first to stand up and ran frantically into the command room.
Upon arriving at the command center, it was completely empty, except for a clean ice cream cup on the table.
Kongyu checked the flight path immediately, only to find that Shendai Yunluo had revoked everyone's operating permissions and then set the airship to automatic cruise, destination: Keishi No. 5 City Airport.
Kamishiro Sora frantically searched the ship's hold, yelling at the top of her lungs, "Kamishiro Unra, where are you? Come out here!"
She ran all the way to the bottom of the airship, only to find that the only life pod was gone.
"The boss is outside!" Muto Taka shouted.
The group arrived at the command room and saw through the glass a huge azure dragon riding alongside the airship. The noble young man in white hunting robes was standing on Bai Rongyi's head with a smile on his face, his hands tucked into his sleeves, looking exceptionally relaxed.
Kong Yu was furiously cursing in the command room: "Shindai Yunluo, you arrogant narcissist, womanizer, scumbag! Do you think the living are happy because of what you've done?!"
This was the first time she had ever cursed Shindai Yunluo.
Through the glass, Shindai Yunluo looked at Shindai Kongyu with a smile, uttered a few unintelligible words, and then controlled Bai Rongyi to turn around and fly towards the northern battlefield.
The young nobleman and the azure dragon looked exceptionally lonely, yet also exceptionally dashing.
Kamishiro Unra stood in the wind, with Hyakume floating beside him, quietly following him.
“Master,” Hyakume asked, “our strength is insufficient to deal with this crisis.”
“Ah,” Kamishiro Unra smiled and touched the white hood on Hyakume-ki’s head: “War isn’t something you have to win to fight.”
Standing in the night sky, Shindai Yunluo suddenly said absentmindedly, "The dorayaki on Nanluo Street, the izakayas in Hanamachi, the rice wine on Chang'an Street, and the osmanthus cake on Guangning Street—those were all my favorite foods when I was a child. After school, I would take Kongyu and Yunxiu there and buy them some with my meager allowance. In the Xishan Ferry Villa in the second district, the third and fourth houses had particularly delicious white loquats. I would sneak over there with them and use long poles to hook the loquats down."
"The owner of the courtyard was an old lady. When she saw us, she would scold us for being thieves. But when we climbed over the wall and escaped, she didn't chase us too closely. Later, we got to know her better, and she said she was worried that we would fall on the ground in our panic, so she couldn't chase us too closely."
“I actually really love this land, and I feel a little sad whenever I think about losing these things. But I know that I can’t protect this place on my own; I don’t have the ability to protect it.”
Hyakume-ki seemed to be deep in thought: "So the master works for the lord, hoping that the lord can be the one who has the ability to protect this place."
"Change your address! You're my shikigami!" Kamishiro Unra complained.
"Yes, Master."
Chapter 947, A Dark Cloud
In the northern night sky, hundreds of airships from Silver City and Storm City were speeding southward.
The signal lights on the hulls of the ships were arranged neatly and in an orderly manner.
A night raid dismantled the Kamishiro Foundation's northern military forces, yet the entire operation remained intact, as if it hadn't just been through a war.
That's too easy.
Inside the Silver City flagship, the newly recruited Black Knights laughed and said, "We originally thought there would be a fierce battle on the Eastern Continent, but we didn't expect it to be so easy."
"It's too easy. One volley was enough to wipe out the entire enemy force."
The Silver Duke coldly stared at the holographic sand table in front of him: "Don't think this battle will be easy and let your guard down. Our intelligence network has not yet penetrated the entire Eastern Continent, and the military deployments in the south and southwest are still unclear. We will have to fight a tough battle then."
The black knights' expressions turned solemn: "Understood."
The second knight asked, "Next, shall we head straight for city number 10 in the south? We'll have to pass through two more cities on the way south. Should we just ignore them?"
"Furthermore, we conquered the North, shouldn't we be the ones to reap the spoils?" the Fourth Knight asked, puzzled.
You must understand that once a city is conquered, all the gold, jewels, women, and slaves within it become ownerless.
The Black Knights were eyeing the spoils in the six northern cities and weren't really keen on heading south; they wanted to plunder those six cities before leaving.
However, the Silver Duke was the tenth prince, possessed by royal assassins. How could he not distinguish between what was important and what was not? His purpose in living was to squeeze the last drop of value out of Silver City.
The Silver Duke said coldly, "It's not time to share the spoils yet. After this battle, you'll have everything you're entitled to. A month ago, you were just a bunch of ordinary knight apprentices, and now you're all marquises. Aren't you satisfied?"
The Black Knights remained silent.
“Remember,” the Silver Duke said, “our target is only the Joker.”
Just as Kamishiro Unra had guessed, this expedition was indeed rushed, with the two fleets heading south without leaving themselves any way out.
Without supply lines or ground troop coordination, the two fleets ventured deep into enemy territory in isolation: the eighty-odd Class A nuclear-powered airships could support such long-range operations, but the remaining ordinary airships could not.
Reaching city number 10 would essentially be the limit for both fleets.
But from the perspective of the Western Continent, as long as the Joker's power is destroyed, the Empire's expedition will already be half successful.
However, at that moment, a suspicious target was suddenly detected in the airship, and the red dot representing the target actually overlapped with their fleet.
Everyone looked up at the holographic sand table, where a young man dressed in white hunting robes stood atop a blue dragon, gazing at the starry sky!
The howling wind above the sky fluttered the white hem of his clothes, and the young man seemed to overlap with the full moon, as if he were invincible.
Beside him stood a petite woman dressed in a white robe, with a white hood covering her head so that her face was obscured, only her delicate and slender chin was visible.
With his hands tucked into his sleeves, Kamishiro Unra showed no fear, even though he was about to risk his life to stop the fleet.
The Silver Duke's heart suddenly trembled.
During the Battle of Silver City, the newly appointed Silver Duke was not present at the scene, but he watched the entire battle through a satellite-modeled holographic projection.
He Jinqiu once stood in the clouds, looking up at the starry sky, and when he looked down, he instantly pierced through the Silver Sky Fortress!
So when the Silver Duke saw the young man's posture, he almost thought that the sword immortal who had once broken through the Silver Sky Fortress had come again!
He looked back and found that the newly recruited Black Knights were so frightened that their legs went weak... These people had witnessed He Jinqiu's massacre.
“A bunch of useless trash, not even as good as your useless masters,” the Silver Duke sneered. Upon closer inspection, he recognized the person above the Azure Dragon: “It’s not He Jinqiu, it’s Shendai Yunluo. A mere A-rank Yin-Yang Master dares to block our fleet.”
In an instant, a third of the fleet's drones roared out and swarmed toward Kamishiro Unra.
It was at this moment that Hyakume-ki, who was beside Kamishiro Unra, leaped off the back of the Azure Dragon.
She flew faster and faster like a shooting star, her white robe billowing in the howling wind.
The swarm of drones was like mosquitoes swarming in the air on a summer night, but Hyakume-ki completely ignored them and weaved through them!
A deafening roar followed, and the drones she struck exploded, turning into sparks in the night sky!
Before this, there were those who used electromagnetic pulses to destroy drones, such as Qingchen, and those who used force fields to destroy drones, such as Yangyang, and even those who wiped out all drones in an instant, such as Boss He.
But this is the first time that someone has completely disregarded the damage caused by the drone and walked straight through it.
Inside the airship, the Silver Duke watched as the Hyakume-ki, having pierced through the drone swarm, was about to reach the airspace above the fleet.
He calmly commanded, "Open the fire bay and kill it with homing missiles."
However, the next moment, the combat personnel in the command room shouted, "Your Grace, our missiles cannot lock onto it!"