Three days ago, Alphonse had brought five generals from four Europa nations to Alliance Headquarters, exerting intense pressure, and the Council convened an extraordinary session to deliberate the matter... That night, the Red-Slaying Saber was placed directly onto the rostrum.
The pilot who had flown through the night to deliver the blade was a decorated war hero, not particularly old and not high-ranking—merely a lieutenant colonel.
Yet he represented Chen Buer.
In the assembly hall, held in silence by the great saber, the lieutenant colonel turned, stood at attention, and did his best to mimic his commander's tone and manner as he relayed two sentences:
"Our Legion Commander says that this is a world of reason. Naturally, you may also call it the rule of law. By the law, Alphonse is currently a suspect who ought to be detained and tried. By the law, the dependents of Azure soldiers are entitled to the highest level of protection, sacred and inviolable. Therefore, anyone who proposed this today deserves death in mind and execution in deed. Anyone who seconds it will face the same saber."
"Of course, this world can also be unreasonable... Yes, completely unreasonable." The lieutenant colonel broke off sharply there, glanced at the Red-Slaying Saber on the rostrum, and swept his eyes over the entire room.
In truth, anyone with even the slightest understanding of Chen Buer could tell right then and there that between the two sentences, likely only the latter had genuinely come from the commander's own mouth. The former was far too cultured; eight Chen Buers combined could never string together such high-minded words. It had surely been added by the old chief of staff.
The outcome of that meeting was that in the end, not a single councilor offered any substantial or directional proposal, and the session ended without resolution.
Three days later, deep in the Hengduan Mountains, Han Qingyu's team suffered heavy blows.
Lieutenant General Zhang Chiyuan of the Huaxia Front's Fourth Army, meeting them for the first time, led the hundred-plus personnel under his command—clerks and logistics staff included—to face over a thousand pursuers and three top combat powers, and declared:
"You can either step over the corpse of a Huaxia Front army commander, or you can get the hell out."
Over a thousand men, three top combat powers, Alliance favor, a freshly minted major general... Zhe Shouzhao had originally thought he could try to intimidate him, or at least possess enough leverage to negotiate with Zhang Chiyuan.
Turns out he couldn't. Not even a little.
Having his words ground into the dirt again and again, Zhe Shouzhao fell silent. The suffocating resentment, anger, and malice pent up inside nearly drove him mad. And just one step before him, Zhang Chiyuan stood poised, ready to strike to kill at any second...
Yet this was an army commander! An army commander of the Sole Witness Legion, Huaxia Front!
Zhe Shouzhao instinctively thought of the tens of thousands of hardened soldiers of the Fourth Army standing behind Zhang Chiyuan—a forest of drawn blades—and a shiver ran down his spine.
He instinctively pictured the scene Zhang Chiyuan had just described: the Red-Slaying Saber resting on the rostrum of the Alliance Council.
His gaze darted once more to the dilapidated village behind Zhang Chiyuan. Bound by fear and resentment, Zhe Shouzhao struggled internally, hesitating for roughly a minute.
*Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack...*
The distant sound of helicopter rotors drifted through the air.
This was the first wave of reinforcements. Only about two helicopters, which couldn't carry many people in total.
The Huaxia Front numbered only a little over a hundred thousand troops, yet the population and territory they had to cover were immense, and the Rejecters' surveillance efforts were focused almost exclusively on Great Spikes. As a result, in most situations, their surveillance and defense against other factions was sorely lacking.
It was only a dozen or so people, and virtually none of them could be super combat powers—all of Huaxia's supers were known cards, and none could possibly be here.
Thus, their arrival would not truly turn the tables in terms of raw strength or tactical advantage. However... it meant Zhe Shouzhao had to make a decision while he still could.
He cast one last look at Zhang Chiyuan... then turned around and said, "Move out."
Saying "move out" probably felt better than "scram."
...
"Whoa, so domineering, so fierce, so cool!" Below an earthen slope off to the side, the armored figure lay prone with blade in hand.
Rusty Sister had been beside herself with worry and tension just a moment ago. Now that she could relax, she tried to recall Zhang Chiyuan's demeanor earlier, then thought back to how Commander Liu Yiwu of the First Army had acted around them, and how Commander Lu Wuzheng of the Ninth Army usually felt quite gentle... Such warm, amusing Huaxia commanders—so this was how they acted in the outside world!
*Was Grandpa this fierce, this imposing, this arrogant and domineering back then too?!*
When Zhang Chiyuan returned to the village, Rusty Sister hopped out from the side and praised him with childish, utterly earnest enthusiasm.
Perhaps infected by her earnestness and childish cheer, and dizzy with pride at being idolized by his old rival's own granddaughter, Zhang Chiyuan laughed heartily and boastfully.
"Right? I won't compare myself to your grandpa—you probably wouldn't believe me if I did—but I'm definitely way better than your Lu Wuzheng, aren't I? Haha!"
Even at a time like this, Commander Zhang didn't forget to take a jab at the Ninth Army. He thumped his chest and continued with a laugh, "It was only a thousand men and three top combat powers anyway. The top fighters under my command can't beat me in sparring either!"
In recent years, the Fourth Army had boasted more top combat powers than any other army in the legion; beating a top-tier fighter was nothing out of the ordinary for him, so Commander Zhang said it without blushing in the least.
"So, Commander Zhang, are you actually above the top-tier?" Rusty Sister asked bluntly.
"...That's not important. Ask your grandpa later and you'll understand. Your grandpa has even beaten supers in a fight," Zhang Chiyuan said.
"Oh, all right," Rusty Sister nodded.
Helicopters were arriving one after another, and safety was at least gradually being secured. Zhang Chiyuan walked along, openly and shamelessly basking in self-satisfaction as he joked with Rusty Sister.
"By the way, aren't you a top-tier yourself?" Remembering something all of a sudden, Zhang Chiyuan halted and looked at Rusty Sister.
"Yeah," Rusty Sister nodded.
"If I recall correctly, aren't you still very young?"
"Eighteen." Rusty Sister's eighteenth birthday had been spent on the run; Han Qingyu and the others had each eaten an extra piece of raw fish for her, wishing her a happy birthday... before shouting at her to run faster.
*Eighteen is still very young,* Zhang Chiyuan reflected inwardly, taking in her iron armor.
"Still, that final step from top-tier to super is terribly hard to take. Terribly hard." The word "hard" came straight from his heart, carrying his boundless yearning for the military's super combat powers, along with a touch of helplessness. He began, "You..."
Having pointed out the difficulty, Zhang Chiyuan intended to offer the young girl some encouragement.
"Mm." Instead, Rusty Sister gave a brisk nod and said with a smile, "I don't know either, but Qingzi can definitely do it. Qingzi isn't normal."
At that point, her smile vanished.
"Wait, where's Qingzi?! We forgot Qingzi! He's badly hurt and only just woke up!" Panic struck Rusty Sister. Without even saying goodbye, she spun around and sprinted off, dashing all the way back to the doorway of the room where Wu Xu and He Tangtang lay unconscious.
"Where's Qingzi?!"
On the threshold sat Zhu Jiaming. Because his neck and head were wrapped tightly in bandages, he couldn't easily tilt his head up, so he had to lean his entire upper body backward to tilt his chin up. "Didn't he say earlier he was going to ask the doctor? He never came back."
Chapter 412