AHDIBCB Chapter 70

At first, the mecha soldiers from the Vajra Division could hardly believe they’d actually survived. Even after boarding the docking ship, they still suspected the meal they were served might be their last. After all, in their minds, Li Heng had never been known as an easygoing man.

But before they could finish digesting the food, someone came to fetch Luo Fan.

They didn’t recognize the person, but they did recognize the gear he wore. It belonged to the Heavenly Wolf Fleet.

The Heavenly Wolf Fleet used mechas too—but theirs were built from lighter, yet tougher materials. Though they looked more compact, the impact force they could unleash during a charge was anything but weak. Unlike the Vajra Division’s heavy mechas that relied on sheer mass to overpower, Heavenly Wolf ‘s mechas leaned on energy-powered output. Their blue gel was extremely refined—when two mechas clashed, the Vajra Division’s heavy armor might seem to hold the upper hand at first, but over time, the real difference in quality would show.

There was, inevitably, a bit of envy.

Night Wolf’s subordinate said calmly, “Our general has ordered all your mechas to be collected, but you won’t be returning to the home planet empty-handed. In a moment, you’ll head to the equipment room—feel free to choose a model you’re skilled at operating, and we’ll customize it accordingly. As for whether you’ll be able to serve in Heavenly Wolf or Zhenyuan fleets going forward… well, that depends on fate.”

Of course, “fate” was just a polite way of saying performance.

The speaker’s tone was measured, respectful—nothing like how one might treat defeated enemies. It could even be called friendly. The “grandson” spoke up at that moment, asking, “Our Chief Guard isn’t coming with us?”

The soldier from Night Wolf’s responded, “Captain Luo has his own business to take care of. But don’t worry—anyone who sincerely wants to serve under our general will always be welcomed aboard the Zhenyuan.”

The rest stayed quiet.

Eight soldiers took Luo Fan away, while two others guided the remaining mecha soldiers toward the equipment design room.

Among them, someone muttered, “Where’s Brother Luo going? He’s not… still thinking about going back to the Vajra Division? Still loyal to Luo Qizheng?”

Luo Fan had always led and shielded them—they did feel something for him. But that bond wasn’t quite the same as whatever they had with Luo Qizheng.

The one who had a classmate in the Heavenly Wolf Fleet said, “Shouldn’t be. Brother Luo’s probably gone to meet with Captain Li. We were all soldiers under the Vajra Division—if this whole group wants to defect, we’ve gotta show some sincerity, right? Why would they accept us otherwise? Brother Luo’s likely gone to work that out with Captain Li.”

No one here was a fool. Naturally, they all recalled what Li Heng had said the first time he appeared on that screen.

He wanted intel—intel on the Mingzhu Fleet. And aside from Luo Qizheng, the one who knew the most about those things… was Luo Fan.

Everyone fell silent.

Thinking about how Luo Qizheng actually turned out to be that kind of person, they really felt uncomfortable inside. Obeying a superior’s orders is a soldier’s duty, and getting to where they were now had taken a lot of hardship. They had all thought they could keep developing within the Vajra Corps, but who could have expected that the person they had always followed would end up giving them an order that was a lie—telling them to wait, just to let them die?

Just then, a subordinate of Night Wolf opened the equipment design room and said, “Gentlemen, don’t be angry. When you were out risking your lives, Commander Luo rarely ever personally joined the action, so it’s understandable that you didn’t really know what kind of person he was. Our General is someone who fought with us side by side through fire and blood—that’s why we especially understand the kind of man he is.”

That “grandson” named Ren Xiao asked, “Was it true that your Vice Commander Li Zhi was really dragged off by a beast?”

“Yes, dragged off by a rock leopard. At that time, no one could catch up except our General—he snatched him back alive. Now he’s recovered very well. If there’s a chance in the future, you can ask him in person.”

“I heard your fleet doesn’t allow casual use of anti-rage suppressants.”

“That’s right. The General says that stuff becomes addictive with long-term use, so our fleet’s super-gene soldiers basically only go into battle when the General goes with us,” the soldier said. “You’ll understand in time. For now, just take a look at the mechas. Each model has a display version. Except for a few special ones reserved only for the General and not open for customization, all others are freely available. Take a look at the type you’re used to, and you can choose a similar one—usually we can get the finished product in about two days.”

“Are these free for us to use?” someone asked, puzzled. These mechas were just too good! So many styles—sharp, refined, fiercely powerful—it felt like shopping for clothes, with endless options.

“What, you used to have to pay for your mechas yourselves?”

“To be honest, yes. They used to deduct part of our wages for that. Especially when changing to new suits or for maintenance upgrades. If repairs were needed because of operating errors, we had to pay out of our own pockets.”

“…That would be absolutely impossible in our Zhenyuan. If anyone dared to do that, the General would definitely flay them alive.”

“No way? Captain Li doesn’t seem like someone that violent.”

“Emmm… Let’s just say you still don’t know him well enough. Mistakes are acceptable—like you said, operational errors that need repairs, or strategic misjudgments—he’s tolerant of all that, and might even patiently teach you what to do. But if it’s a mistake of principle, he can be the number one tyrant under the heavens. Just giving you a heads-up.”

Ren Xiao suddenly asked, “Brother, may I ask how the rest of our fellow soldiers who came out with us are doing?”

The Zhenyuan soldier replied, “All captured. At first they were very angry, even wanted to escape. But later our General showed them a live broadcast of Commander Luo fleeing on his own—now they’re all very quiet.”

When your faith is shattered, it always takes time to process.

Those who finished registration silently went to try on mechas, having completely given up on Luo Qizheng.

Meanwhile, on Luo Qizheng’s side, he was feeling fortunate for having escaped death. He had already spotted the Mingzhu Fleet’s formation. Unfortunately, he hadn’t managed to make contact with his own forces earlier—otherwise, he could have taken the blue gel energy all for himself.

But if he boarded the Mingzhu Ship, then he’d inevitably have to report everything to the Second Prince, and this energy would also have to be handed over.

Foreign ships and vessels are absolutely not allowed into the fleet—this is a rule common to all fleets. The traction module was inspected, and after being confirmed to have no issues, it was left outside in exile, while only the blue gel energy was brought aboard the Mingzhu Ship.

When the Second Prince saw the blue gel energy with such high purity, he didn’t even ask about the casualties from Luo Qizheng’s deployment this time. And Luo Qizheng reported that all those who hadn’t returned were likely dead, putting all the blame on Li Heng—especially those soldiers in the command module whom he claimed were “certain to die.”

The Second Prince, considering the value of the blue gel energy, didn’t immediately reprimand him, but only asked one question: “Did you see Li Heng in person?”

Luo Qizheng said no. The Second Prince looked somewhat disappointed.

“In that case, go back and rest for now. As for the losses this time—find your own way to make up for them.”

He had taken five hundred mecha soldiers out, and not a single one came back—causing the Second Prince to lose face in front of Dru’Adi. Originally, the plan had been for the Jingang Division to take the lead and destroy as many of Zhenyuan Fleet’s mecha energy cells as possible, after which the beastmen would go in. But in the end, the beastmen didn’t even get a chance to enter the field.

Thinking of Dru’Adi’s veiled and open sarcasm, the Second Prince was filled with killing intent. So this punishment was already considered very light.

Luo Qizheng didn’t dare express any objections. He could only swallow this grievance and retreat. But after this battle, his hatred for Li Heng had already reached its peak.

The Second Prince instructed his confidant: “Have someone keep an eye on him. The fact that he came back on his own—this is suspicious.”

The confidant asked: “Do you think he might have been caught by Li Heng holding some kind of leverage?”

The Second Prince said: “Hard to say. Luo Qizheng is a man of extremely poor character. I never expected him to return alive from this mission anyway. I originally sent him out just to fill the pit—once the hole was plugged, the Brute Tribe’s people could go up next and wear Li Heng’s side down. But this idiot ended up plugging the hole with everything he had.”

The confidant frowned as well, thinking about it, and said “Luckily he still brought back some blue gel.”

The Second Prince snorted, clearly dissatisfied: “If not for that bit of blue gel, he wouldn’t have seen tomorrow’s sun. What about the deployment over at Aysdiya?”

“It’s almost done. The poison gas bombs you ordered have already been prepared. As long as Yuan Yi is really in Aysdiya, he absolutely won’t escape our grasp. Right now, we’re just waiting for Gallich’s army to arrive, then we can start the operation.”

“He must be captured alive.”

“Yes.”

·

Three days later, the news of Luo Qizheng’s failed surprise attack on the Zhenyuan ship spread across the internet. However, because he had brought back high-purity blue gel energy, his merits and demerits offset each other, and he was not demoted. He was only ordered to bear the losses within the Vajra Division alone.

The atmosphere within the Vajra Division could be easily imagined. Whether it was those who had lost good brothers, or those disappointed in their superior’s commands, all were inevitably dispirited.

But what they never expected was what came next.

Someone posted a video online under the name of a former Vajra Division member. In the video, a group of mecha soldiers from the Vajra Division were calling for help, while the commanding officer—who clearly had the opportunity to rescue them—chose to deceive them and abandon their lives, opting instead to escape alone to save himself.

With that, Luo Qizheng instantly went viral—in all the worst ways.

The public hurled insults from all directions. Any message thread that contained the name “Luo Qizheng” didn’t have a single clean word in it.

K29 Supply Station Director: “Anyone stuck with such a superior must have had bad luck for eighteen lifetimes. How could such a lowly creature even exist?!”

Blossom Ferry : “He actually watched his own subordinates die with open eyes. He clearly could have saved them—so many people! That’s dozens of lives! May Luo-dog be struck by lightning!”

Flying Bunny: “When will Wolfhead go pick up that bastard’s corpse? I’m willing to donate money and supplies. Please give him a headshot! I’m so furious I’m grinding my teeth, aaaaah!!”

Amidst the waves of cursing, Luo Qizheng’s prestige among his subordinates plummeted again and again.

At the same time, Li Heng’s popularity was rising higher and higher, to the point where some civilians were already proposing online that Li Heng should just take out Qiming’s Marshal Huaman entirely—so that there would no longer be any “Qiming,” only Xingyan!

A commander-in-chief who collaborates with foreign enemies is not worthy of being followed, and a royal prince who allows outsiders to harm his own people is even less worthy of admiration!

The Imperial Court then came out with a statement, saying that the Fourth Prince also supported Xingyan Army’s operations.

As a result, netizens cursed the Fourth Prince too—saying all he knew how to do was speak after the fact, and that he couldn’t provide any meaningful help when it mattered.

Someone said: “Support General Li Heng in taking over the Imperial Court! Our country doesn’t need leaders who are two-faced! Nor do we need cowards directing things from the shadows!”

That one sentence stirred up a lot of hope and vision in people’s hearts, and many echoed it: “Yes! We want peace! We want stability! Whoever destroys these is the greatest villain!”

Expel the Brute Barbarians from the Empire!

Expel the Shadow Tree People from the Empire!

General Li takes over the Imperial Court!

The more severely a city had suffered, the more furiously they cursed, because after their suffering, the greatest help they received had come under Yuan Yi’s direction, and most of the ground-level protection work had been done by Xingyan troops.

Even though the money used probably all came from Li Heng—

Still! It made them realize that they were never truly abandoned!

Throughout this whole process, the Imperial Court had indeed been sending people to cooperate, but the Fourth Prince was always a step too slow, to the point that the public had stopped buying into him altogether.

At this point, none of the princes had any credibility left.

The waves of anger stirred up by the Second Prince only made the already meager prestige of the Crown and Fourth Princes even worse.

It wasn’t long before desertions began to occur within the Qiming Army.

But these deserters weren’t running home—instead, they found all kinds of ways to flee to the Zhenyuan Fleet and defect to Li Heng.

They had heard that if they truly couldn’t find Zhenyuan or Heavenly Wolf, they could just go to the capital and find the civilian protection organization—and that way, they would definitely be recruited into the ranks one day.

So more and more people fled—

At first it was one or two,

Then three or five,

And later, entire groups fled together.

Luo Qizheng issued orders to shoot several people, but it still didn’t work— The more he killed, the more fled.

Such a large mecha division, and soon they couldn’t even gather a full regiment.

Yet right in this moment when reinforcements were still badly needed, the Brute Barbarians actually broke out in civil war themselves.

After Dru’Adi began to go up against Heavenly Wolf, it had already been nearly four months, but they still hadn’t seen any of the promised blue gel energy, and their losses were growing worse and worse.

The Brute were already quite poor to begin with—now they were fighting poorer and poorer, and their population was shrinking fast.

Calls to remove Dru’Adi from power were growing louder and louder, And one of Dru’Adi’s cousins officially took over his position, declaring that and would no longer provide any further support!

Now even the dark tree people of Igtan were beginning to have second thoughts, Because they had suffered from chemical contamination on the capital planet’s surface earlier, Their entire race had fallen into a sluggish state and even with rest, they still couldn’t recover. They would only be able to recover if they returned to their home planet and were placed in a specific soil environment.

Currently, only Gallech still held the resolve to fight Li Heng to the death. Because during the previous battle where Zhenyuan deployed troops to Gallech, they were nearly wiped out.

Not fighting wasn’t even an option anymore— They might as well gamble everything. At least there was still a chance to get their revenge.

The Zerg leader of Gallech was a large male insect over two meters tall, with a body of interwoven iron gray and black, which, when blending into the night, would be very hard to detect unless he actively emitted light.

In his hand was a multi-functional piercing spear, capable of both close combat and ranged attacks, and equipped with different functions for cold and heat-based attacks.

His name was Tudani, and his greatest goal at the moment was to find Yuan Yi and personally capture him.

The Second Prince had waited a long time—what he was waiting for, in fact, were some of this species’ special abilities. The Zerg born on Gallech also had pheromones on their bodies, but their pheromones were different from those of the Owanda people. Owanda alphas and omegas each only produced one kind of pheromone—even if combining the pheromones of both parents, it would only form another single kind. But the Zerg had many kinds of pheromones—some were poisonous, some carried lures, and their smells and functions were all different. They also had eyes different from Owanda humans, often able to detect things that even mechanical detectors might not pick up—such as invisible devices and the like.

If it weren’t for the fact that Li Heng used robotic troops to attack Gallech, it would be hard to say what the outcome would have been.

The Second Prince wanted to use this species’ lure pheromones and vision, as well as their special methods of sound transmission.

On the shimmering sandboard was a topographic map of Aysdiya. The Second Prince pointed to a certain location. “The people I arranged are at this spot. When the time comes, I’ll draw the firepower and focus the attack. As long as he’s in Aysdiya, it’ll be impossible for him not to appear on the sea surface. All you need to do during this time is find a way to locate Yuan Yi—just don’t let him escape. As for the capture, our people can cooperate with that. Once we have him in hand, Li Heng will be put in a very passive position.”

Tudani said, “No problem. But are you that sure he cares so much about his wife and child?”

The Second Prince said, “If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t have allowed the other party to gain so much public trust.”

It was precisely because Li Heng valued Yuan Yi that he allowed Yuan Yi to gain the favor of the people. This was indeed helping himself, but it also indirectly showed that he didn’t just regard Yuan Yi as his partner—he saw Yuan Yi as a very important collaborator. For someone in power, such a partner was far more than just an ordinary spouse.

Tudani’s sharp, long antennae on his head twitched slightly. He said viciously, “It had better be that way. This time, I will take the lives of Li Heng’s entire family—to avenge my people!”

The Second Prince said, “Of course revenge must be taken, but you also need to manage your own people—especially, they must not enter the sea.”

Anyway, there was nothing much on the surface of Aysdiya that could be used. The sea beasts under the sea couldn’t be eaten or used. Once the poison gas bombs were used, then so be it. If the sea beasts died, they just died. This time, no matter what, he was going to force Yuan Yi out of the seabed!

The Mingzhu Ship began heading toward Aysdiya. The Second Prince was certain that this time the situation would turn in their favor. But right at this moment, Li Heng quietly slipped into Immortal Mountain.

Yuan Yi didn’t sleep well that night. Lately, he kept waking up many times, and he felt restless.

Twins are usually born prematurely. And these two of his were growing quite large. Li Heng’s side had also reached a critical moment, and there wasn’t much Yuan Yi could do to help now.

He was lying on his side, unable to fall asleep, and was just thinking whether to get up and take a walk, when he suddenly heard a knock on the door.

He didn’t smell any pheromones from that distance, so he assumed it was a robotic soldier—but then again, it didn’t quite make sense for one to come knocking in the middle of the night. So he asked Li Mian, “Who’s at the door?”

Li Mian said, “It’s someone delivering a package—sent by Master.”

Yuan Yi got up to open the door. But before he could even clearly see who it was, he was pulled into a familiar embrace.

That comforting scent of cedar instantly enveloped him. His heart skipped a beat. Yuan Yi hugged the other person back tightly and exclaimed with delight, “It’s you?”

Li Heng kissed Yuan Yi hard, then immediately picked him up in a bridal carry and carefully placed him back on the bed, his breathing already disordered.

His burning gaze landed on Yuan Yi’s face as he asked gently, “Did you miss me?”