Time rewound back to over four hours ago.
The chaos in Aslan Star City was still ongoing, with the starship Palm hovering above the twilight clouds. His Highness Ryann personally escorted Colonel Jiang down the gangway.
Halfway through, they stop. Ryann pulled the man beside him and asked how the upcoming fleet battle should be fought.
Colonel Jiang helplessly adjusted his military cap and sighed, “Your Highness, you were once one of the supreme commanders of the First Fortress, weren’t you?”
“In name only,” Ryann replied, “I didn’t really manage things, nor have I commanded a fleet… Give me some advice.”
Colonel Jiang smiled bitterly, thinking to himself, has he ever commanded a fleet?
He’s just an ordinary, disabled human military academy student. The Crown Prince was showing such a meritocratic attitude, discussing the battle situation with him, as if something had been misunderstood.
But now was not the time to refute this. Jiang Jianming thought for a moment and said, “Then I’ll share some of my personal thoughts. They might be subjective, but you can consider them.”
“This Crystal Cult is dangerous, but it shouldn’t be a large-scale, internally complex organization. I guess their high-level members are not many.”
“The ambush in the Far Star, the internal strife during the festival, and this attack on the empire, all these are very important strategic actions for the Crystal Cult. Boldly assuming, these actions are all led by a limited few high-level members, and it might even be the same person.”
Jiang Jianming’s eyes are calm. He spoke unhurriedly, his tone carrying a kind of reassuring power.
“If that’s the case, I can roughly deduce the tactical style of this opponent.”
Ryann looked deeply at him, listening attentively, and signaled him with his eyes to continue speaking.
Jiang Jianming: “This person is cunning and should be very good at meticulous planning. He likes to take into account all factors – timing, location, and people, blocking the opponent’s retreat one by one, laying nets above and snares below.” (TL: A metaphor for extremely strict preventive measures.)
“But such a plan, because the layout is too dense and everything is interconnected, is actually not easy to maneuver. Once that tight net is broken and jumps out of the opponent’s calculation, the opponent will not be able to remedy it in time.”
Ryann understood and said in a low voice, “You mean to say, our opponent is good at planning, but not good at adapting.”
Jiang Jianming smiled gently at him and nodded, “Your Highness is wise.”
“However, now I am in the light and the enemy is in the dark, so the two key points for winning next are ‘seeing the situation’ and ‘breaking the situation’. As long as we can find a breakthrough beyond the enemy’s expectations, we can win.”
They started walking again, and the air vehicle was already parked on the runway ahead.
“…You just have to go into the enemy’s lair,” at this point, Ryann’s face darkened a few degrees, and he said with a gloomy face, “Can’t you stay and help me?”
Jiang Jianming shook his head slightly and gently held Ryann’s wrist, “Your Highness, you will definitely win.”
At that time, the red sunset was hanging in front of the two. The Crown Prince saw from the expression of the disabled human in front of him that his mind was made up.
He just didn’t expect to be kissed afterwards.
The touch on his lips was so soft, and it was a bit cruel when it was withdrawn.
Now, the Crown Prince was sitting alone in the mecha, casually playing with the wrist device left by his lover.
On the opposite side was the communication projection of Old Marshal Chen. Ryann pondered for a long time before he spoke, “Call out another squadron of small starships for me, at least three hundred, equipped with the most powerful cannons and high-attack mechas.”
Old Marshal Chen exclaimed, “Your Highness, you’re making it difficult for this old man. Where can we squeeze out another troop now!”
Ryann: “That’s your problem, teacher. Such a large empire can’t possibly not squeeze out a few hundred starships, hurry up.”
Old Marshal Chen: “What does Your Highness want to use this troop for?”
“To be a killer who kills with one blow,” the Crown Prince stood up, his expression as hard as iron, “Since we still can’t see the enemy’s layout, let’s use Celine’s main force as bait to get the enemy moving.”
Another mantis catching the cicada, with the oriole behind.
The so-called soldiers were cunning, and playing with truth and falsehood was called a battlefield. Now even the main force thought that the Crown Prince was “angry and left”, that’s just right.
These are all…little tricks he learned from that cunning, evil disabled human.
Ryann suddenly lowered his eyelashes, thinking of Jiang Jianming at that moment, a pang of pain passed through his heart, along with an inexplicable panic.
Old Marshal: “Your Highness?”
Ryann’s expression darkened, his palm tightly holding the wrist device, he said in a hoarse voice, “…I’m worried about him.”
Jiang Jianming’s identity was special now, if the Crystal Cult rashly killed him, it would be a waste of resources.
Therefore Jiang Jianming insisted that he would not be in danger of life, even if there were variables, he also had other methods.
But…
His Highness’s pair of emerald eyes darkened, it’s just that there was no danger to life.
According to normal people’s thinking, kidnappers would not deliberately torture hostages before they really exerted threats. However, the shocking conversations that came from the monitor refreshed his cognition, the Crystal Cult was very likely to be a bunch of anti-human madmen.
There is no danger to life, but what if some other misfortune happens?
****
At the other end of this universe.
Inside the starship, there was a faint smell of blood.
Su’s face was cold, and he slowly withdrew his hand. At the place where his fingers leave, a sharp crystal pierced through the soft chest of the disabled human.
“Cough…!”
Jiang Jianming shuddered violently, and almost instantly, the blood foam choking into his throat overflowed from the corner of his lips.
Next to him, Laurent frowned. But obviously, Su’s action had been approved by the Archbishop, so he didn’t say anything.
Thud!
Jiang Jianming swayed a bit, and one of his knees hit the ground first.
But at this moment, the intense pain had completely spread through his nerves, and he couldn’t maintain his balance at all. He then fell heavily onto the cold floor.
Su looked down at him from above, slowly lifted his right foot, and stepped on the sharp object piercing through the chest of the disabled human, “Did you come to join us?”
Jiang Jianming’s pained eyes were scattered, and cold sweat was pouring out. He breathed thinly with his blood-stained lips, unable to say a word.
Pain… He laid horizontally on the cold ground, his teeth chattering, and the real crystal entered his body. This was not just the pain of the wound itself for the disabled human.
“No.” Su shook his head.
As he spoke, he bent down and grabbed the tip of the real crystal, “Your eyes tell me that you are not a person who will accept the ultimate arrival.”
“But you came here, so you must have been mentally prepared.”
The next moment, Su gripped the sharp spike tightly and brutally pulled it out from Jiang Jianming’s chest, and blood splattered instantly!
“Ah…!”
Jiang Jianming was forced to open his eyes wide in pain, and his upper body tensed up.
He was pulled forward by this force, and then fell to the ground again. His fingers convulsed and gripped the clothes on his chest tightly, and blood gushed out from there.
“Chaos,” Su looked back at Laurent, “Go get the beam therapy device and tranquilizers, and also a few shots of wake-up needles. Then you have nothing to do here.”
He turned to Jiang Jianming, his eyes devoid of emotion, “Don’t be confused, I have no other intentions, I just want to torture you to death next.”
“Unfortunately, your life, the Crystal Cult does not care.”
Before starting, Su deliberately turned off the light.
In the darkness, a viscous sound echoed, that was the sound of human flesh being gouged and stirred.
The crystal bone transformed into a shape full of spikes, stabbing into the abdomen of the tortured, then lifting it up, sometimes deeply twisting half a circle, or a circle.
For a long time, only this chilling sound continued.
For disabled humans, the most feared torture in the world was the crystal bone.
When the crystal bone that wildly dispersed violent crystal particles approached, that intense pain was soul-deep.
In the pitch-black darkness where one couldn’t see their fingers, Jiang Jianming could only bend his spine and endure it, his breathing first became disordered, and in less than a minute, the fragmented groans began to leak from his blood-soaked lips and teeth.
But the action of the crystal bone stabbing in and pulling out only became more brutal, each time it brought up a large amount of splashing blood foam, and a few minutes later, the broken bones were also picked out.
Until a certain moment, the person tortured by the cruel punishment finally collapsed and let out an almost mournful scream.
In the darkness, the veins on the struggling pale wrist bulged violently, and soon it was splashed with one patch of blood after another.
Outside the bridge, the followers of the Crystal Cult walked around as usual with expressionless faces. Even if the screamed continue, there was not even one who stopped and looked back.
The torture lasted for more than two hours, that was more than a hundred minutes, but Jiang Jianming had lost the concept of time halfway through.
Even fainting was a luxury.
If the pain shocked him into unconsciousness, he would be awakened with a more intense pain; if that didn’t work, he would be injected with a wake-up needle.
The beam therapy device would quickly seal the wound, he was even transfused once in the middle, and then continued to be tortured; the empire’s stipulated limit for tranquilizers was a maximum of three injections at a time, Jiang Jianming was used five or six injections before and after, maybe more.
He was brutally given too many drugs, the side effects were very serious, he vomited almost to the point of vomiting out his stomach.
When he vomited to the point where he couldn’t even vomit acid water, the disabled human seemed to have completely lost his mind. His eyes were scattered without focus, his dry and cracked lips opened and closed, and he was neurotically muttering nonsense that no one could hear clearly.
“Looks quite like it.”
Su sneered in the darkness, glanced at the life sign data, “Don’t worry, it’s still early.”
The torture that lasted for more than two hours began in the darkness and ended in the darkness.
The last ten or so minutes were already silent. There was not even the weakest struggle and whimper, it was dead silent.
Su turned around to turn on the light.
The light flickered, illuminating the starship again.
The disabled human laid on the ground, eyes closed, unconscious, with drops of blood falling unconsciously from the corners of their lips.
Under the brutal torture, several gruesome wounds on Jiang Jianming’s body were stirred into a bloody mess. Su reached out to brush away his black broken hair, his face, soaked in cold sweat, was as pale as snow, and carried a sense of decay and death.
The wake-up needle had lost its effect.
Now, no matter how painful the stimulus, it could not wake him up.
Su looked back at Gaius, and the archbishop nodded.
Thus Su bent down, stretched out his arm, and pinched Jiang Jianming’s throat.
Jiang Jianming, like a puppet whose strings had been cut, was manipulated at will. His expression showed suffocating pain, his pale lips trembled, his throat moved up and down, instinctively wanting to breathe but unable to.
His handsome face quickly turned purple, a pitiful weak cry sounded from his throat, and his body began to twitch slightly.
However, even when his life was held in such a grip, he could not open his eyes, as if he had no strength left to wake up from his coma.
Su shook his head and finally let go of his hand.
Jiang Jianming fell back to the floor weakly. The sudden unblocking of his throat brought a rain-like air, he coughed violently, his body convulsed on the verge of death, and more blood gushed out, which was extremely frightening.
“Your Excellency the Archbishop.”
Su was silent for a few seconds, and then concluded. “He indeed has no ability to resist, I can kill him at any second.”
The man paused for a moment, bowed his head and said, “In that case, perhaps as Chaos said, keeping his life is more valuable.”
Gaius remained calm from beginning to end. “Hmm, let’s do it that way.”
“But…”
Su hesitated for a moment, a cold light flashing in his eyes, his hand on his chest. “I still stand by my opinion, Your Excellency the Archbishop. Chaos is good at manipulating people’s hearts. What he sees is the benefits brought by successfully controlling the ‘light of disabled humans’, ‘Imperial Crown Princess’; while I play with the situation, what I see is Jiang Jianming’s talent in tactical strategy, and his willpower…He is terrifying.”
“Just take the torture just now,” Su said in a low voice, “Ordinary disabled human under my crystal bone, let alone persist for two hours, should have collapsed mentally after supporting for twenty minutes; if it lasts for an hour, it’s not surprising to die of pain; but he has endured it until now.”
“Now he has not really taken control of the military power, but the empire has already begun to pay attention to this person. Once the tiger returns to the mountain, the future hidden danger…”
“Do you think,” Gaius suddenly turned around, his face pale, “he could possibly be Dawn Aslan?”
“!” Su suddenly stopped, a few strands of fear appeared on his face, and he quickly turned his head.
His gaze fell back on the unconscious disabled human on the ground, with a different complex meaning.
“We have already assumed that ‘Garcia’ and ‘Ryann’ are both the great emperor’s base bodies, the former appeared almost at the same time as the latter died. What does this mean?”
Gaius slowly squinted his eyes and turned to look at the starry sky outside the starship.
Su suddenly lowered his head, and cold sweat had already appeared on his forehead. “Yes, this means that the great emperor immediately carried out a second spiritual consciousness projection after the first base body died.”
He swallowed, his voice tense. “This is…almost unimaginable…not only is it difficult to achieve technically, but it also requires the projector himself to have a mental strength that is a hundred times stronger than ordinary people to withstand.”
Gaius. “Commander Aslan died young on the surface, but what if the Black Shark Base retained his body and also carried out a consciousness projection in secret?”
“This Colonel Jiang, whether in terms of talent or temperament, is not like ordinary people, we can have a little doubt.”
“And you just said that this person has a terrifying willpower.”
Gaius turned around, his white robe swaying. He pursed his lips, smiled faintly, and said in a deep voice, “If Aslan can also carry out a second consciousness projection, killing Jiang Jianming…is of no avail.”
Su suddenly realized, and continued, “——It’s better to make the best possible use of this person’s current identity, isn’t it, Your Excellency the Archbishop?”
Gaius curved the corners of his eyes and lips, making an appreciative and affirmative expression.
“Very good, then next, I have another task for you.”
Su bowed his head deeply again, knowing that His Excellency the Archbishop, would not have any joy, and the reason for his smile was just to take care of him, a mortal who could not get rid of the seven emotions and six desires.
“Understood, Your Excellency the Archbishop.”
He closed his eyes and recited devoutly, “For… for our ultimate.”
