Official Aslan time, 11 o’clock at night.
The chaos in Star City had been initially rectified. However, the sudden war still easily shattered the psychological defenses of most ordinary people.
Inside the air-raid shelter, patrol officers walked around with lights, comforting everyone’s emotions while distributing blankets and food.
Bundles of orange-yellow light swayed around, illuminating crying children, worried whispering adults, and tired old people… Everywhere was filled with an uneasy atmosphere.
“Mom, I’m so scared!”
“What a sin. That piece of rubble fell from above, and that little girl was flattened in front of me, and her brain was all over the floor.”
“Sorry, has anyone seen my brother!? Sorry, can anyone…”
A middle-aged man grabbed a patrol officer and asked anxiously, “Sir, is there still a war outside Star City?”
The patrol officer also had dark circles under his eyes and looked haggard. He looked at the uncle who had grabbed him and sighed, “…Yes.”
“Can…can we win?”
The patrol officer was silent, and gradually, more people in the shelter focused their eyes on him.
A few seconds later, the patrol officer slowly saluted, his expression was heavy but firm, and he said word by word, “The Empire will win.”
……
There was no distinction between day and night in the universe. Countless stars were hidden in the boundless darkness, like pairs of eyes quietly spying on you at night.
The armed starship of the Crystal Cult was traveling in this vast sea of stars.
In the bottom compartment of a large starship.
The wide and empty compartment was dark, and a miniature surveillance camera was inserted on the ceiling. The young officer who came from the Empire to “throw himself into the net” was now locked in it.
The surroundings were covered with an electric net, the intensity of the current was always high, it was said that even the new humans would be electrocuted into unconsciousness at the moment of touch.
Outside the electric net, there were members of the Crystal Cult dressed in tight combat suits, with new crystal mechanical guns at their waists.
To use such a formation against a disabled human who had just been tortured to the point of gasping for breath, it must be said that it was a bit too exaggerated.
A young member of the Crystal Cult looked into the cabin, and could vaguely see a figure lying there, only able to make out the thin skeleton, black hair scattered and unable to see the face clearly.
The patrol captain patted the young man on the shoulder. “What are you looking at?”
“Poor guy,” the young man indifferently withdrew his gaze, “he’s about to die.”
…Even if he was usually calm, working when he should work, getting on the mecha when he should get on the mecha, he didn’t seem any different from ordinary people.
But in the final analysis, Jiang Jianming was after all a physically weak non crystal human race, and also a chronic crystal disorder patient with mental decay and organ deficiency.
Even if the Crystal Cult immediately took medical measures for him after two hours of torture, but massive blood loss, repeated shocks under severe pain to the devastation of the spirit, overdose of medication, and imbalance of crystal particles in the body… these were all irreversible damages.
Now, the disabled human had a persistent high fever.
In the dim cabin, Jiang Jianming’s pitch-black eyes were unfocused and scattered, lying on the deck shivering from time to time. He was so feverish that his whole body was soft, and in his blur, he only felt cold, his body trembling slightly with occasional gasps.
His throat felt like it had been roasted, massive blood loss and persistent high fever could completely cause severe dehydration.
The feeling of nausea and thirst repeatedly tortured his nerves, his consciousness was dim, and he murmured lowly, “Water…”
The patrolling members of the Crystal Cult outside ignored him, only the captain looked at the small screen hanging on the wall.
That was a life sign data monitoring instrument. The numbers and waveforms on it were weakly jumping, symbolizing the prisoner’s life like a candle in the wind.
The order from above was not to let this person die, but also not to let him “live” for the time being.
So they strictly controlled this standard, and only let this young officer from the Empire maintain this half-dead, hanging by a thread state to feel at ease.
Moreover, it was said that this disabled human was full of tricks, who knew whether this person’s current appearance was real or fake?
Considering the inherently weak physique and fragile spirit of disabled humans, it should be real.
But since there was no 100% guarantee, it was still the most prudent to stare at the life sign data and let the rational numbers speak.
Jiang Jianming coughed hoarsely twice, and closed his eyes in a daze. He raised his trembling fingers and held the small necklace on his chest.
…Not a necklace, a ring.
Time passed by every second and minute, in the cabin, the disabled human with high fever and exhaustion was still constantly losing water. Cold sweat wet his clothes and dried, and then was wet again.
He closed his eyes, and the breath exhaled from his cracked lips gradually weakened.
In the dimness, at some unknown moment, a young boy’s voice suddenly rang out.
“Hey.”
The boy’s voice was laughing, but in the bloody smell permeating the darkness, it seemed very cold. “I see he’s about to die, what’s going on?”
“This person gave me a bullet, I haven’t had a good time with him yet. Your family’s Archbishop promised to leave the person to me to play with, okay, so it turns out that there is only one breath left for me?”
The patrol captain spoke stiffly. “Your Excellency the Young Chief, he is an important prisoner of war of the Crystal Cult, we will observe his life signs rigorously…”
The young man interrupted irritably, “Pooh, nonsense, he is a disabled human! Maybe one moment you guys think he’s going to die, the next moment he’s gone, right?”
The argument outside seemed to last for a little while, the numbers on the monitoring instrument continued to silently fall, but the body temperature had already risen to forty-one degrees.
The patrol captain looked at the cabin again, turned off the electric net, and picked up the injection and infusion equipment from the cart next to him.
They turned on the light, picked up the burning body of the prisoner inside, and immediately frowned.
This officer of the Empire was indeed almost done, his eyes tightly closed, unconscious, and he didn’t even seem to be gasping much, his condition seemed to be much worse than what they had inferred from the data.
The captain quickly called his men to give him two injections of some unknown medicine, and also had someone feed him a little glucose water.
The young officer couldn’t swallow, even when his lips were twisted open he just weakly opened his mouth slightly, the last bowl of water almost all flowed down his pale neck, wetting his clothes.
In the end, they still injected the medicine in with a needle.
It should have been well controlled at the level of hanging by a thread, but the patrol captain thought about it, seeing that this disabled human was already on the verge of death, he gave him a little more than hanging by a thread.
There was no more. After twenty minutes of infusion, the members of the Crystal Cult walked out of the cabin, turned off the lights and the door, and restored the electric net.
…After the silence was restored, Jiang Jianming slowly opened his eyes in the dark, his hair messy and lying on the ground, panting lowly.
In the darkness, he heard the hoarse breathing sound coming from his throat, and the burning breath due to the high fever was trembling.
It’s killing me, he laughed bitterly in his heart in a daze, this kind of thing…really can’t do too much in the future…
In fact, from the first time Su used a real crystal to pierce him but bypassed his heart, and used a crystal bone to torture him but didn’t pierce any important organs, Jiang Jianming knew that he hadn’t miscalculated.
The Crystal Cult didn’t plan to take his life.
However, its cruel methods still exceeded his expectations. At the beginning, Jiang Jianming was prepared to tough it out, but the human body had its limits after all.
Two hours, he still couldn’t hold on, and completely lost consciousness in the excruciating pain. He didn’t know how long he had been unconscious, fortunately, he should not have missed anything.
Suddenly, the empty void in front of him flickered, and a projection appeared.
The red-haired boy held a black cat in his arms, looking down at him from a high position, laughing, “Oh, I’m not mistaken, you can actually wake up? Quite spirited.”
“…”
Jiang Jianming struggled to lift his eyelids and then let them droop, choosing to remain silent.
He had actually been awake for a long time, but in this situation, showing weakness was never a bad thing.
He also recognized the red-haired and flamboyant boy in the projection, the young group leader of the Lava Space Pirate Group, Red Dragon, an enemy he had dealt with before at the First Fortress.
Outside, the patrolling members of the Crystal Cult were changing shifts, someone looked inside, seeing that it was their own ally and prisoner talking, they didn’t care much, let them be.
“Hey, disabled human.”
Red Dragon laughed in a way that he didn’t mind making a fuss, “Your Silver Big Dipper is going to be done, do you know?”
He teased the black cat in his arms, and after a few moments, he patted the cat’s butt, and the cat jumped away.
Red Dragon raised his eyebrows and said, “We’re all set. As soon as the main force of the Silver Big Dipper leaves, Lava will immediately go to bomb your fortress, and hang the soldiers of the Silver Big Dipper to dry into jerky. Guess which fortress will be bombed first?”
Jiang Jianming coughed twice, his mouth full of the taste of blood, hoarsely said, “…No.”
He knew that as long as His Highness was still there, he would not let the Silver Big Dipper mobilize troops.
He believed in Ryann’s ability, on the battlefield, the Crown Prince had a different tactical style from him. That would be a sharper, more rebellious power, inherently carrying a contemptuous aggressiveness…
He could see it, even though His Highness would usually gather this dangerous factor very well in front of him.
“Look at this poor little thing,” Red Dragon squinted his eyes, stretched out his boots to step on Jiang Jianming’s face. Of course, the projection couldn’t step on anything, this was just a gesture of insult.
“You’ve had a high fever for almost two hours, right? You’ll soon burn your brain. A disabled human fool as the Imperial Crown Princess, this scene should be interesting.”
“Cough cough…”
Jiang Jianming’s eyebrows painfully furrowed, he closed his eyes, his trembling fingertips pressed heavily on his chest and gasped.
His breathing was disordered again, and the lack of oxygen thinned the already difficult to maintain consciousness by another layer.
In the blur, he gritted his teeth and bit his tongue. He couldn’t sleep, he didn’t know when he could wake up if he fell asleep, and he couldn’t do anything if he lost consciousness.
Whether it’s for the Crystal Cult that came to the Empire, or for the Empire that needs to expel the enemy as soon as possible, ending the war as soon as possible was the best choice.
According to his speculation, the probability of a protracted war was very small. The turning point should appear in the short term.
If the Empire was ultimately dominant, he should be pushed to the front line as a hostage. In any case…he couldn’t be dragged in front of His Highness in a coma.
But the torment of pain, high fever, and thirst was too hard to bear. Just now, he almost really lost consciousness several times, and then…
“Kid,” Jiang Jianming gritted his teeth, suddenly looked at Red Dragon. He forced himself to be energetic, propped up his burning and soft body, and smiled palely, “Can you play chess?”
Red Dragon was still immersed in self-satisfaction, suddenly a “kid” made him stunned. “Huh?”
Jiang Jianming said, “Let’s play chess, cough cough…or a simulated battle is fine.”
Red Dragon widened his eyes, and then burst into laughter. “Hey hey hey, you’re already delirious, aren’t you?”
Jiang Jianming took a weak breath, struggled to lean against the wall, and also slowly hooked up the corner of his lips, “What, are you afraid of losing to a patient?”
“…”
Red Dragon’s face quickly darkened, “…Waste disabled human, you’re dead.”
….
A ridiculous scene just appeared.
Deep in the Crystal Cult’s starship, the Imperial Crown Princess and the young group leader of the Lava Space Pirate Group–enemies who were at odds with each other, across several light-years of the universe, actually started a simulated battle.
Red Dragon had once been shot by Jiang Jianming, and he wished he could trample this remnant human under his feet and humiliate him, so he mocked and laughed while swiftly attacking.
Jiang Jianming just wanted to find something to do for himself, naturally he wouldn’t expend too much energy on this, and he didn’t care about losing miserably.
By the time this round was about to end, Jiang Jianming was also nearing his limit, in order to keep himself awake, he could only keep talking.
“Over the years,” he asked weakly in a half-conscious daze, “have you space pirates ever won against the Empire?”
“…”
“Being chased around by the Empire…aren’t you tired…have you considered accepting amnesty?”
“…”
“I’ve always been curious, your name is Red Dragon, your father is called Red Fish… cough cough…what is your grandfather called?”
“…..”
Red Dragon was furious.
But he was now projected over, and even though he was itching with hatred, he couldn’t do anything to Jiang Jianming, even watching as this disabled human was given some more medicine to hang on to life.
Until a certain moment, Red Dragon’s eyes suddenly lit up. He clapped his hands and laughed, suddenly leaning close to Jiang Jianming. “Good news.”
“Celine has fallen, the Empire’s space station won’t last much longer, do you want to see how the Golden Sun Wheel fleet is annihilated?”
The red-haired boy brought out a three-dimensional star map, deliberately placed it in front of Jiang Jianming, and sneered maliciously, “How about it, can your eyes still see things?”
The surroundings were pitch black, and the blue star map was very bright.
Jiang Jianming leaned against the corner, gasping for half a day before raising his head. The side effects of the medicine just administered were very nauseating, he tried to focus his eyes, and after several attempts, he was finally able to see something.
The star map was lit up with the changes of two arrays, the young officer’s pupils slightly contracted, and suddenly, the swirling war in the cosmic sea flowed into his eyes…
****
…In the New Imperial Calendar year 64, at the end of winter and the beginning of spring, the high-dimensional blockade barrier was broken from within, the jump restriction disappeared, and the foreign party “Crystal Cult” launched a large-scale invasion.
Several of the Empire’s star cities were attacked, among which the most difficult defense battle of Aslan Star City lasted about four hours, with the Empire’s army led by the Golden Sun Wheel fighting bravely, and the Emperor personally on the battlefield.
In the end, the Crystal Cult’s starships retreated to the universe. And between the star city and the space station, the Lan Xishi star system, which would later be historically referred to as the “Battle of Lan Xishi”, slowly unfolded.
The Lan Xishi system only had one central star, the celestial body density was low, it was a stable and safe star system.
The then Admiral of the Empire’s Golden Sun Wheel Fleet and the overall commander of the battle, Admiral Celine, led the army to stalemate with the Crystal Cult in this region, steadily advancing the battle line.
However, when the battle progressed to the fifth hour, the Empire’s space station suddenly received an enemy attack warning of approaching alien creatures.
The stationed starships hurriedly went to exterminate, but they just fell into a trap.
The enemy’s alien creatures were just a cover, under the dead angle piled out by the alien creatures, eight hundred small starships of the Crystal Cult equipped with high-damage main cannons joined the battlefield through high-dimensional jumps.
The Empire’s space station’s fleet was ambushed by the enemy’s starships, and with the pressure of the alien creatures, they were caught off guard and their formation was broken, retreating step by step…
The situation of the Battle of Lan Xishi, at one point, took a sharp turn for the worse.
