Sacrificing Himself to Save Others?

Right then and there, the blue-light craft cut through the wind and hurtled away. "Huh? What did he say? Asking me to help him carry it?" Confirming he hadn't misheard, Lü Moyi was left completely baffled. "Wait, why carry it at all?! Wasn't the whole point for you to ditch it and run?!" Not just God Lü—at that moment, even the swarm of Great Spikes seemed taken aback. The sight made them involuntarily slow down, almost appearing confused. The blue-light craft whizzed through the air... Almost everyone in Azure—or rather, everyone living in this world of source energy—shared a common ingrained belief: Great Spikes and their craft would self-destruct. The moment they were incapacitated, they would inevitably initiate self-destruction. Research from the scientific division held that this self-destruct protocol was built upon a mathematical formula humanity had yet to fathom. Triggered actively, it would self-destruct; losing maintenance power, it would also self-destruct; it seemed capable of self-destructing under virtually any circumstance. Within that formula, there appeared to be a unique, unsolvable equilibrium point. As long as humanity could not locate it, they could not prevent the self-destruction, even if they instantly killed the Great Spike. It was likely a deliberate safeguard designed to avoid revealing too much about themselves during cosmic exploration. This belief had persisted for nearly a century, and the reality had always conformed to it, without a single exception. In the early days, the coalition had exhausted every possible means in attempts to preserve an intact Great Spike or craft for scientific research. Later, they gradually grew despondent and grew accustomed to it, until it turned into common knowledge. Yet the reality unfolding before their eyes was not entirely the same. This time, as the Great Spike invasion descended on a massive scale centered for the first time in history around a battleship-grade dreadnought... Although the Great Spikes that were ultimately slain still self-destructed, certain circumstances differed from humanity's past experience. For instance, mortally wounded Great Spikes in combat no longer immediately triggered self-destruction; instead, they broke through the encirclement to flee back to the dreadnought, rapidly recovering before returning to battle. Another example: the five shuttle craft Han Qingyu had broken open and looted of metal blocks had not self-destructed on the spot—though for the moment, only Han Qingyu himself knew that. Wait, no—suddenly, they began self-destructing. In Han Qingyu's briefly shifted gaze, those five craft he had pried open earlier suddenly began detonating upon sensing that another person had joined the battlefield. A rain of fragments erupted across that area as shards of dead iron hissed and drove into the ground, sending ice and snow splashing in all directions. Meanwhile, the forty-one shuttle craft he had pushed down past the halfway mark of the mountain remained quiet for now, though they were already back under the swarm's control. The moment he threw the blue-light craft, Han Qingyu had swiftly finished swapping his source energy block. And now, seeing this happen... if he had the leisure to stop and think it through, he would have easily spotted several logical discrepancies. Unfortunately, he had no time. The desperate sprint had begun anew! After their brief hesitation, upon hearing a strange sequence of syllables and commands issued from the dreadnought, the Great Spike swarm swiftly split into two streams. One surged toward Lü Moyi and the blue-light craft, while the other continued pursuing Han Qingyu. *Holy shit! The craft isn't even with me anymore! What the hell are you doing?!* On the other side. "I fucking came to bring you back, you little bastard! Help you carry it? Help my ass—" *Bang!* Lü Moyi stood lower on the slope, and the blue-light craft came hurtling down right at him. A super combat power's reflexes: subconsciously raising both hands, he caught the massive thing out of midair as it flew straight toward him. His feet skidded back slightly against the snow before coming to a firm halt. *Huh? This craft seems a bit special... Why is it glowing with blue light?* Even though it was his first time seeing one, it wasn't hard to judge: just like a blue-sheened Great Spike, its tier was likely higher. At the same time, Lü Moyi also noticed the scene higher up where the five damaged craft were self-destructing. "So, some of the craft here don't have an automated emergency self-destruct protocol programmed into them... Whether they self-destruct is controlled by the dreadnought up there?!" "Then why didn't it make this one self-destruct? That kid carried it around for so long—why didn't they detonate it, and instead sent so many Great Spikes chasing after him?" A jolt ran through Lü Moyi's mind. There seemed to be only two possible answers: One, this blue-light craft could not be remotely triggered to self-destruct; two, it was too important to destroy and had to be recovered at all costs. The instant he figured it out, *buzz*, Lü Moyi's mind hummed with shock. Whichever possibility it was, it hardly mattered right now, because at least one thing was crystal clear: what he held in his hands might very well be humanity's hope. He turned his gaze toward Han Qingyu. "So he already figured this out earlier? It must be!" No wonder he had refused to drop it even when pursued by so many Great Spikes, risking his life to keep it! For the sake of humanity, he wanted to bring this craft back. Thinking of this, and seeing the swarm of Great Spikes pouncing toward him, Lü Moyi felt even firmer in his conviction. Turning on his heel, he burst forward with speed, shouldering the craft and taking off running! At the same time, he didn't forget to say in his heart: *Thank you. Leave it to me now.* "Wait... why are nearly half the Great Spikes still chasing him?!" "What the hell?! Instead of running for his own life, why is he chasing after me?! Does he have no other escape route?!" Wanting to draw the Great Spikes away as much as possible, Lü Moyi began running in a direction away from Han Qingyu. At this rapid series of twists and turns, the people down the mountain were completely dumbfounded. Wasn't the super combat power sent to support him? To tell that guy he could disengage from battle? Why had he suddenly started shouldering it himself? What in the world was going on? "Could it be... they want to bring the craft back? That craft never self-destructed after being hijacked." The voice spoke with some hesitation, but on the high platform where the command staff stood, someone had finally figured it out. The moment Liu Yiwu spoke, everyone present abruptly broke through their old preconceptions, realizing that possibility. Could it really be done? The commanders stood stunned, then began trembling with excitement. For Azure, for all of humanity, that would be far too precious, far too important! But how would they accomplish it? Would the Great Spikes charge directly into the battle lines to take back the craft? What should they do? Meet them in a head-on clash? Azure Huaxia Front, Council headquarters. It was not a formal meeting. Yet nearly everyone present was a heavyweight figure. From the Huaxia Front Council, Chairman Qu Zhongshi and three vice chairmen were present. From the scientific division, four prominent leaders were present, including Xin Mingzhi. And from the Sole Witness Legion, Legion Commander Chen Buer was present, flanked by several staff officers and generals. Aside from these Huaxia Front personnel, two council members dispatched by the Alliance Council were also present. Their visit to Huaxia was actually to question Chen Buer regarding Legion Commander Chen's personal refusal of Voyage's terms earlier. Between the coalition and Voyage, there had still been no comprehensive communication, no clarity on the truth, and no mutual understanding reached. Certain individuals within the Alliance Council were furious about this. Of course, even so, the word could only be "inquiry," never "interrogation." No one dared use a word like "interrogation" with Chen Buer, Legion Commander of the Sole Witness Legion of the Huaxia Front. This was a man covered in glory, someone who had used his personal martial might to suppress this hidden world for Azure for nearly thirty years. What was more, the man never listened to reason. However, the present gathering had nothing to do with that matter. They had gathered here to receive combat reports from the frontline as they came in. In truth, even without being present on the battlefield, the coalition and the various national fronts remained intensely focused on the frontline developments. The communication equipment had just finished playing an audio recording transmitted from the front. It was the alarm sounded by the dreadnought atop the mountain when the Great Spikes abruptly retreated from the cliff, along with the Great Spike speech mixed within it. Xin Yaoqiao, granted special permission to enter the conference room, sat at one end of the conference table with two assistants. With heads down, they focused on sketching string after string of symbols that only they could comprehend on sheets of paper, constantly rearranging and combining them. "Raid... attack..." "Source energy..." "Base... hub..." "The hub came under attack? Source energy attack?" What did a "source energy attack" mean? Attacking with source energy didn't make sense—humanity had no direct source energy weapons, and neither did they, seemingly. Could it mean the source energy itself was attacked? There was no way to be certain, as everything was inherently speculative. Xin Yaoqiao tried using association to interpret a syllable that had been set aside earlier: "The hub came under attack by a source energy monster... beast?" What? A beast? To eat them? Eating source energy? Finding this interpretation far too ridiculous herself, Xin Yaoqiao picked up her pen and crossed out the words "source energy monster, beast." "In any case, their hub was attacked... Well, that feels like stating the obvious, haha." "Then... recapture? Destroy? Recapture or destroy that craft?" Xin Yaoqiao had made no major breakthroughs or reportable discoveries on her end. Battle reports from the front continued to stream in, and she split her attention to listen along with the others, as any subsequent developments on the ground might aid in interpretation and analysis. "So, a lone hero sacrificed himself to save the others? Someone from our Huaxia Front." "Teacher Lyu went to support him. That's a relief." Just as she was listening and pondering, "Report!" A staff officer responsible for receiving intelligence from other sectors outside the conference room stepped to the door and saluted. Qu Zhongshi turned to look at him and gave a nod. "White Eraser and Mérida have safely descended the mountain along the flank," the staff officer reported. White Eraser was back safe and sound. The heavyweights in the conference room breathed a collective sigh of relief. Huaxia had come dangerously close to losing a super elite squad; they had all been thoroughly spooked, but now the crisis was averted. So who was the warrior who had sacrificed himself to save the others? He deserved to be commended properly. "They brought back word. The person who sacrificed himself to save them on the mountain is from our Ninth Army, Squad 1777—named Han Qingyu." *That brat? Sacrificing himself to save others?* Legion Commander Chen paused in surprise. *But earlier, he looked like he desperately wanted to return the Legion Saber Insignia to me...* "..." Xin Yaoqiao's eyes flashed with panic. She sprang to her feet so abruptly that her chair wobbled and slammed onto the floor with a loud *thud*. Her maternal grandfather and grandfather both turned to look at her. However, most eyes in the room remained locked on the staff officer. "That's all." Not knowing the subsequent developments, the staff officer felt slightly awkward, then added, "Oh, right—the Chairman and Legion Commander of the Venezuela Front expressed their gratitude to our Huaxia Front. They said it was an immense, boundless, monumental thanks. Mérida Squad has their only current S-rank. To protect her growth, that squad practically concentrated over half of Venezuela's top combat power. Just now, they were nearly wiped out—they were practically on the verge of tears from fright." "Understood. You may step out. Report immediately if there are any new developments." Gratitude and the like didn't matter for the moment; what mattered was the person! From the communication equipment, further battlefield intelligence continued to arrive... *What? Now Lieutenant General Lü is the one shouldering that craft? Why is he carrying it too?* *Then what about Han Qingyu? He should be...* *Oh, why are Great Spikes still chasing Han Qingyu?!* *Well, as long as he can run for now, that's good.* "So... Qingzi sacrificed himself to save others?" Having calmed down slightly, Xin Yaoqiao's mind wandered. She looked down at the words she had just crossed out on the paper—*source energy monster, beast*. *This sounds a lot more like something he'd do... Did he go to the Great Spike hub to steal metal blocks?!* *No way, I'm definitely not saying that out loud. Qingzi went to sacrifice himself to save people. Yes, that's exactly how it is.* *Boom!* A sudden roar from ahead startled Xin Yaoqiao out of her thoughts. She looked up. In just that instant, everyone in the conference room had stood up. "They're planning to bring the craft back?!" "And a Red Shoulder... a Red Shoulder has appeared!"