CH 117

Xu Zhiheng looked up, and the youth looked at him expressionlessly.

Is it my illusion?, Xu Zhiheng thought, his eyes really look like my Su Zuran.

Even the contemptuous sight fascinated him, making him want to kneel in front of him and ask him, “Will you be my Su Zuran?

But he quickly came to his senses.

No, no one can replace her.

Xu Zhiheng could barely hold himself up, his fingers were bitten to the point of bleeding, not expecting such a small Oddbound creature to have such a strong bite. Sharp pain had been to the heart, he drew a breath of cold air, found himself two hands of the wrists were tied real tight, and he couldn’t move.

The half-asleep thoughts dissipated, and all reason gradually returned to his senses.

After a brief period of confusion, his heart finally rose up with an uncontrollable sense of anger and frustration.

Xu Zhiheng remembered that he had just learned about the resurgence of V Proton’s genes when Qi JiaMu was sent by He YunTing to “protect” his safety. At that time, he read the other party’s mind, while pitying the brother was genuinely worried about himself, while glad that the General knew nothing about it, and felt sorry for him, and was willing to speak for him in this situation.

Unexpectedly, unexpectedly… 

Xu Zhiheng struggled for a while and tried to suppress his anger, “Where are you going now?”

Lin Han glanced at him, “Professor Xu is so smart, there’s no need to ask the obvious.”

He couldn’t say why, even if they knew early on that Xu Zhiheng wasn’t what he appeared to be, but when he really tore away the disguise and faced it, he still had a hatred in his heart that was hard to subside.

So many people would die, and his life would be more peaceful.

The last link was the berth, as long as the war left behind the leap point destroyed, Xu Zhiheng could raise some unformed larvae, and even if those Omegas’s reaction and regeneration speed were superb in the face of mecha, it was impossible to resist the attack of powerful explosives.

Hearing this answer, Xu Zhiheng’s heart was fixed, “Go directly to the mouth of the berth, General really doesn’t care about the safety of the troops.”

Despite his words, he couldn’t help but hiss due to the pain drilling through his fingers. Originally, he thought that the other party would at least respond to his threat, but Xu Zhiheng only heard a light laugh from the youth, “Professor Xu. You don’t really think there’s still a chance to cooperate with us, do you?”

“What do you mean?”

Lu Huai only brought a small group of people, Xu Zhiheng also used his identity to deliberately approach, and Wen Yu himself low-profile, as an idle sub-star wouldn’t have any military deployment, in summary, he was able to use his “children” to subdue them.

Now he heard the words and began to panic.

Wen Yu and Lu Huai should still be within the control of those bugs, and he himself is now heading to the leap point with the two of them, so if he wanted to pull off a comeback here at the end, he could still… 

“Mind reading isn’t that good either.” Lin Han didn’t know what Xu Zhiheng was thinking and opened his mouth to interrupt.

He didn’t bother to explain what he just said, stood up and raised his hand, made the small one let go of his fingers. It shook its fur to avoid getting any blood, and only then jumped back on his shoulders.

Seeing Lin Han quickly turn away, not even willing to give him a look, Xu Zhiheng’s heart suddenly surged with a strong emotion — he was like his Su Zuran, obviously usually looks so gentle and calm, but his face was cold.

That unspeakable anger reared its ugly head. He didn’t like Su Zuran like this, obviously before she was still his good student. Xu Zhiheng violently released a burst of suppression pheromone — yes, Alphas were born to suppress Omegas, only then, Su Zuran would shiver and kneel on the ground, obedient and quiet, no longer having the ability to resist.

He saw Lin Han’s halting steps, the little pleasure that had just risen hadn’t been able to rush to the brain, a stronger oppressive pheromone came straight over, Xu Zhiheng only felt a tearing pain in his brain—

The youth didn’t fall to the ground as he expected, but the other man quickly rushed over to hold the Omega in his arms, his hand tenderly holding the back of his neck to soothe, as he said, “It’s okay.”

He was really missing Su Zuran so much that he forgot there was another Alpha on the scene.

And his pheromone couldn’t overpower him.

Lin Han wasn’t affected by Xu Zhiheng’s pheromone, Alphas were keenly aware of the movements of his kind, and in the moment when the other wanted to release the pheromone, he overwhelmed him with a stronger level one. He held Lin Han very tightly, the two fit and spiritual power level was already very high. In the border area, he had marked him, so Lin Han wasn’t repulsed by his pheromone, only felt the thick warm ebony fragrance wrapped around him.

But Xu Zhiheng wasn’t so well.

He didn’t know how much higher the other’s level was, or if there were other genes in his body, he was pressed into a brain daze, began to restrain shivering, dry vomiting, eyes flushed red, almost like a boundless torture. He shuddered and tried to resist, but the nature of the species prevented him from even standing up, and he was forced to submit to the pheromone of another Alpha.

Only when his clothes were soaked with sweat, his throat was parched and he couldn’t breathe, and he could barely finish his sentence, did the other Alpha withdraw his oppressive pheromone and give him only a contemptuous look, as if he was laughing at his insouciance.

Xu Zhiheng suddenly felt cranky. This grumpiness was even more than when he heard Xiao Meng lie to him. He had never thought about this ring before coming, he knew that the starship’s energy wasn’t enough for all of them to come, so it could only be He YunTing who came. He also considered that He YunTing wouldn’t necessarily agree with him, but he always had the upper hand with his mind-reading skills and those children at hand.

He could never have imagined that things would come to this point. He could only feel the mecha traveling at high speed through the airflow, and the after-effects of being suppressed just now still lingered, making him want to vomit straight away.

Xu Zhiheng stopped talking to the two men and leaned back quietly on the floor again, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth, not knowing what he was doing. Lin Han pressed into He YunTing’s ear, and the two exchanged a few words very briefly.

M2742 traveled through the layers of clouds, time was limited, it didn’t stop when it reached the berth, but directly found a hidden landing site and sank straight down, until it sank into a space that was different from all the previous ones—

This was the leap point of the sub-star.

Compared to the other leap points in the M System, this one was slightly older, and hadn’t been used by a mecha or battleship for a long time.

The large leap point in the center has a faint blue glow, and there were a few mecha that look a bit old, but from the looks of them, they weren’t even a third of the size of M2742. Since the energy present at the leap point was automatically supplied, these small, old mecha didn’t seem to be obsolete.

This leap point could only leap to two places, one was farther away from the Empire in the barren universe, and the other end went straight to the most densely populated central park in the core.

Through the translucent starting point, although the end of the leap couldn’t be seen, the core area at this moment was like a thin neck exposed under a sharp claw, which would be completely fragile and cracked with just one squeeze.

Xu Zhiheng calmed down, his eyes rekindled a bizarre light.

“General, are you guys trying to blow up this place?” He couldn’t easily get over the pressure of the pheromone. He tilted his head, “You brought me here instead of just killing me, I knew there must be hesitation in your heart. So, for the last time, I sincerely invite you to think about this matter.” Xu Zhiheng’s tone carried some imperative excitement, “Lu Huai and Wen Yu… Probably have already been eaten by my children, and now there are only three of us here. The people of the Empire are too arrogant and too noisy, they will never tell the truth.” Xu Zhiheng always had a palpable confusion when talking about it, “But it only takes a small change.” He started to smile at He YunTing, “Isn’t it good that everyone listens to you and won’t lie to you?”

He YunTing didn’t even frown, and suddenly felt some pity for the other man.

Xu Zhiheng saw his expression and finally gave up a tsk, “Then there’s no way.”

He closed his eyes and seemed to be pondering something, a frequency that was difficult for humans to capture spread out — this is his signal to communicate with the “children”.

In the next second, there was a violent tremor above the otherwise quiet leap point, and the Zerg’s voice hissed from far away to close.

“General, you’re just one mecha, I’m still far better than you in terms of numbers.” Xu Zhiheng said, raised his hand violently and made a strange gesture above the leap point, “Children, let’s go together…”

His voice suddenly stopped.

Xu Zhiheng looked incredulously over.

The Zerg were there, but far from the dense swarms Xu Zhiheng had predicted, instead the sound was louder, the roar of the mecha engines. Lu Huai, who he originally thought would be firmly trapped, was leading his formation at the moment, and despite the fact that some of the mechs could see the signs of a rather gruesome battle, they still appeared neatly in front of him, while only a few scattered larvae fled as if running away, looking like they had long been no match for these mechs.

Not to mention those hard-earned Burning Blood, at the moment were buried in the firelight.

“General, it’s a pleasure.” Lu Huai manipulated the mecha to salute the M2742 in front of him and spoke over the communicator.

Xu Zhiheng naturally heard it, and turned his head sideways in disbelief.

“The base has special training, there will be a secret message when the communication encounters an emergency.” He YunTing faintly said.

The two of them basically guessed when the communication was restored and they received Lu Huai’s connection again, in the small sound that the other party made with a slight movement of fondling. Especially for generals of Lu Huai and He Yunting’s level, some orders didn’t even need much reminding, the other side quickly understood his meaning in He Yunting’s response that sounded nothing strange.

If necessary, the firepower originally used to blow up the leap point could be activated to deal directly with the Zerg.

With He Yunting’s permission, Lu Huai naturally let go of the weapon, the hardest shell of the insects could hardly resist the energy of the weapon that was enough to destroy a leap point, not to mention that although there was an increase in battle power, due to the advent of the Queen Zerg, Xu Zhiheng had to come to the sub-star himself, so these insects didn’t have the ability of adult insects yet. Originally they could still suppress each other through numbers, but now they didn’t even have this bargaining chip.

He YunTing briefly responded to Lu Huai, and then also opened his arsenal, and mercilessly blasted the few remaining larvae that complied with Xu Zhiheng’s summons, precisely in front of Xu Zhiheng, allowing him to scream “no” behind him, and then blasting them to pieces.

Xu Zhiheng watched his own “children” one by one in the fire, wanting to rush up and tear the other apart, but because of the pheromone and the natural differences in physiology, he didn’t even have the strength to free his hands.

When the scattered larvae at the leap point all turned into cosmic trash of the sub-star, He YunTing began to check the battle damage with Lu Huai.

The firepower they had carried to blow up the leap point was almost exhausted when Lu Huai attacked Xu Zhiheng’s Zerg formation — after all, if they hadn’t used this, they would probably still be circling the farthest reaches of the sub-star.

Xu Zhiheng, who was already exhausted on the side, suddenly opened his mouth again.

“The leap point should exist or not, I don’t care, but it can lead directly to the core,” Xu Zhiheng’s tone no longer has the original anger, more a point of wanting to die together with the pleasure, “I originally didn’t think the experiment succeeded, but now it doesn’t matter. The virus that infected V Proton Star should also be passed through this place, so the main planet can try it out too.”

Anyway, he lost the last “child”, there was nothing left to lose.

He just wanted to see the main planet in a state of panic and anxiety, and then lose its life in a panic—

None of it had anything to do with him.

Xu Zhiheng in fact, had long been off, covered with sweat and sludge, had long lost the once bookish and elegant taste, and looked wretched.

He laughed even more wildly, in the original somewhat weak face, this laugh became more and more hideous, “General is not low on energy? Those missiles were used against my children, right?”

Xu Zhiheng gestured to him to look at the light blue leap point.

On the translucent leap point, there was a huge black device hanging.

At that time, he confidently believed that He YunTing would be on the same front as him, and because this leap point could directly lead to the core area, Xu Zhiheng took the liberty to use the sub-star as his new stronghold, and embedded this device near the leap point to provide convenience for future deployment.

And to destroy it, the leap point could only be destroyed together.

Seeing He YunTing’s silence, Xu Zhiheng finally got a burst of revengeful pleasure, a pleasure that made him become excited, “It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t have the energy to blow up, anyway — its self-destruct mechanism is already activated.”

If it wasn’t extinguished by the high temperature fire, and this device dismantled itself, then the genes inside would still leak out, and although it wouldn’t threaten the core, the sub-star they were now on would be the next hell.

Xu Zhiheng had nothing left to worry about, while talking, he started to laugh in despair and excitement. In the absence of energy, even if his long-cherished wish could never be fulfilled, to see He YunTing in a desperate situation, Xu Zhiheng felt this feeling even more vivid and pleasant.

So what if the General was smart?

In the end, it will only end up in a lose-lose situation.

“Major General Lu.” He YunTing but suddenly opened the communicator, “Borrow a mecha from the formation for me.”

Lu Huai was unsure and immediately answered.

“And…” He YunTing coldly looked aside, while speaking, he re-released the oppression pheromone, looking at Xu Zhiheng’s expression gradually becoming twisted, “Bring Xu Zhiheng back to the Empire.”

Xu Zhiheng just wanted to say something, but the suffocating feeling of being strongly pressed made him unable to speak at all, this time He YunTing didn’t show any mercy, his throat began to emit a “ho ho” ear-piercing sound, and his consciousness gradually lapsed.

“Kill… Kill me…” This pain worse than death made him faint, Xu Zhiheng gritted his teeth and said these words.

“What does Professor Xu think, why did I keep your life until now?” The pheromone belonging to the top Alpha seemed to destroy him, and Xu Zhiheng felt as if his eardrums were torn and bleeding. “Because if I didn’t, you will die too easily. You will surely be judged.”

A second before he passed out, he heard the man’s cold voice, “You will never be able to get your way.”

He YunTing threw the passed out man onto the mecha of some soldier under Lu Huai.

“He will not be allowed to stay awake, nor will he be allowed to commit suicide.” There was no emotion in He YunTing’s voice. He took a sergeant’s mecha key and continued, “Major General Lu, now take everyone you came with back to the Empire first.”

Lu Huai looked up at the black genetic device that was counting down at the top.

Wasn’t there not enough energy? The most crucial thing was that there was no large transport like a starship, and even if the people of the sub-star were to evacuate now, it would be completely too late. The time passed minute by minute, so Lu Huai didn’t dare to delay for a moment, “Okay. But…”

“Who says there’s not enough energy?” A young man came out of the cockpit of M2742 and took the key of the small mecha handed over by He YunTing, “Isn’t the energy right in front of us?”

Lu Huai suddenly understood, “This is—”

They wanted to use the M2742 as an explosive to blow up the mecha and the device together, completely destroying the leap point!

Lu Huai sucked in a breath of cold air. He knew how important this mecha was to He YunTing, but in this scenario, he couldn’t think of a better way to do both. The mecha was undoubtedly the most important thing for the base’s soldiers, not to mention that it was the Imperial General’s mecha, and in every way, the significance spoke for itself.

What kind of decision was it that made He YunTing willing to give up the mecha that had been with him for so many years the first time after he understood the situation? Even Lu Huai himself couldn’t guarantee that he would be able to be so decisive in the same situation. He saluted the two deeply, and then quickly left with his formation.

— 

He YunTing sat in the first cockpit of M2742 and opened communication with Lin Han.

The other was driving the small mecha, which looked a bit pocket-sized when standing with He YunTing’s.

“It’s been dark for a long time.” Lin Han suddenly said in the communicator.

“Are you nervous?” He YunTing thought he was afraid of the dark and asked.

The two of them manned their respective mecha, He YunTing needed to open all the weapons arsenal and slowly press the mecha against the huge device, forcing the fuselage to overheat until it reached a point where even the M2742 couldn’t be loaded, then eject the emergency cabin a split second before it exploded, and then Lin Han would catch it.

The operation sounded very difficult, let alone the practice.

“Not nervous.” Lin Han voice with a smile, “I was just thinking, on the way back, if the sky is about to light up, will we see stars?”

“The brightest one in the polar night.” He said.

All the engines of M2742 began to run at high speed, not only the lightsaber, the arsenal of weapons opened up as much as possible, the laser cannon and the magnetic rail gun began to charge up, but the target wasn’t the enemy, but himself.

“Artificial induction is on. Maelstrom magneto cannon recharge complete. Long-range particle cannon recharge complete. Warning! Wrong target detected, is it corrected? Warning! All weapon target retrieval complete, no further recharge recommended. Warning! The fuselage is overheating, please make sure the pilot checks the information in the cabin. Warning—”

Lin Han heard a succession of alarm tones coming from the other comms, but the man sitting inside remained calm and composed as he saw the M2742 begin to vibrate and glow, and all weapons flashed with intense light.

“Lin Han,” He YunTing’s voice stood out distinctly over the sound of sirens, “it’s the star of enlightenment, isn’t it?”

It was the star that pierced the darkness before the dawn broke, right?

Lin Han smiled over the communicator.

“Warning! Emergency module about to disengage—”

“Mn, my star of enlightenment.” Lin Han took control of the joystick and jerked it as high as it would go when he heard the phrase! He aimed at the pod that ejected from the M2742 at that instant, and the entire mecha lifted off to press the speed to the same level as both, then extended the mecha arm.

He said, “I’ll catch you.”

The overpowering impact jolted the mecha backwards, but Lin Han didn’t hesitate for a moment, gritting his teeth and pulling his speed to the max, fleeing away before the explosion came—

BOOOOOM!

The dark night was completely illuminated, and the huge mecha released its last energy, using itself as fuel and throwing itself into this one light blue leap point.

The high heat from the violent explosion mixed with the destroyed leap point, mixed with the completely shattered device, burst out in the universe, and the energy wave layered and dispersed, like the final winging of a star at its death, staying forever, forever fresh in the galaxy, like a nebula that never fails to bloom, a unique and magnificent spectacle.

—

The fall of the national hero to the most fearsome conspirator was undoubtedly the most shocking reversal of the Empire’s century. The real heroes returned to the Empire only three days later.

It was only at this moment that the people of the Empire realized how many times they had brushed against danger from the fortress to the sub-star, and how much effort the soldiers had used to make it all work out. The small mecha had just arrived at the core and was received by His Majesty in the palace.

Surprisingly, when the two arrived, they realized that there were only two people in the palace.

One was Wen Zhao, and the other was Xu Zhiheng. The other person had rapidly lost weight in the past few days — because he finally learned that it turned out that A’Ze had no contact with him at all.

Wen Zhao was still holding the chess piece in his hand, but after listening to He YunTing’s report, his face turned cold.

Now, there were some things that no longer needed to be hidden, while there were other things that must be answered.

Lin Han walked up to Xu Zhiheng step by step. He looked at him from above and spoke word by word, “Professor Xu, do you know… In fact, I also have the ability to read minds.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he ignored the other’s eyes that opened wide in shock and took his hand.

At the same time, the chess piece in Wen Zhao’s hand fell to the ground after hearing these words.

—

“Lin Han. Lin Han…” Wen Zhao whispered his name twice, then laughed bitterly to himself, “I’m really old. I can’t believe I forgot about this layer.”

Many years ago, there was a person who left without saying goodbye.

Wen Zhao didn’t know why she suddenly disappeared, he had given her a lot of things, girls liked to play chess, he gave her a precious chess set. The girl would crouch in his ear and whisper, I have the art of reading minds, you can’t cheat me.

She said, The night is too dark, but there’s always a light to be found.

The word Han meant “the sky will be bright”.

“Lin Han,” Wen Zhaoge’s voice trembled a bit as he called the other person’s name, “What is your mother’s name, can you tell me?”

Lin Han was stunned to turn his face sideways and subconsciously said a name. A name that sounded very gentle and carried infinite beauty.

Wen Zhao’s always carefree expression finally changed. He stood up and approached the man on the ground step by step.

Xu Zhiheng also seemed to be unwell, two mind readers collided together, all suspense was revealed. It turned out that he didn’t have any children, and his beloved Su Zuran turned out to be driven to suicide by him.

Wen Zhao looked at Xu Zhiheng indifferently. He reached out and cupped the other man’s chin, “Professor Xu. Don’t you know how to read minds? Then otherwise listen to my heart and listen well… How I want you to die.”

—

What happened next was logical.

Lin Han’s mother was once a student of Xu Zhiheng’s and had an accident when she was about to get married to Wen Zhao.

Fortunately, she still left behind a child as gentle as she was.

Although today’s Emperor wasn’t an overly formal person, to show his guilt, he still made up for his long-lost child’s enrolment ceremony.

Many of the cumbersome rituals left over from history were brushed aside, and Wen Zhao did not even ask his child to change his surname, but simply insisted on making amends for the youth he hadn’t seen in years—

He wanted to tell him that the people of the Empire would accept him, love him, and embrace him, while at the same time he didn’t need to be trapped by this yoke, he could still do what he wanted to do, as before.

Nonetheless, all eyes would only gather here at this moment.

Lin Han later thought that this was just an ordinary day in so many bright days of the rest of his life.

He saw the magnificent dome of the palace, the walls painted with oil paintings, heard beautiful hymns, and smelled the fragrant scent coming from the wind.

Lin Han was dressed in a fancy dress, his waist outlined by delicate cut lines, a trailing cloak over his shoulders, an intricate lace lapel peeking out from a meticulous collar, bound by an emerald green gemstone brooch, pendant with emblems symbolizing the Empire’s royalty and glory set on a draped ribbon.

He noticed that someone was walking towards him.

The steps were long and endless, and He Yunting walked up one step at a time, and all eyes coalesced on him.

His general was standing at the beginning of everything, walking towards him step by step, walking through the extended time after the smoke had cleared, walking through the deep feelings that had been forgotten but couldn’t be erased.

Lin Han bent the tip of his eyes and extended his hand to He Yunting.

His knight approached and faithfully gave him the most standard imperial salute, then knelt down on one knee and reverently kissed the back of his hand with his eyes closed.

When he raised his head again, Lin Han saw the blue, romantic nebula in his eyes that had crossed billions of light years to come before him.

He Yunting gazed at him and smiled at the reflection in his eyes.

There was the hotness of a star after it burned out, and the gentleness of the smoke and dust after the reincarnation.

Then he heard him say—

“I’m grateful for your love, Your Royal Highness.”