The gravity field was pale blue and transparent. Suspended helplessly in midair, Han Qingyu was framed by the chaotic spatter of blood all around him—a vast expanse of shattered, congealing red that wrung everyone's heart with helpless agony.
He was still alive, and perhaps even retained a sliver of consciousness.
The source energy gravity field held unbroken and rigid, yet his body and joints still showed faint twitches and barely perceptible movements now and then. He was alive, but he had no strength left to struggle.
The world had witnessed Major Qing wage desperate, do-or-die battles many times before, turning the tide against impossible odds. He had saved—or rather, rescued—two human battlefields that were on the brink of total collapse. With his own strength alone, he had pulled back the scales of mankind's fate just as they were tilting into oblivion.
This seemed to be the very first time the world saw Major Qing helpless, unable to fight back, in need of saving.
"Kill!" On the ground, Azure soldiers bounded across fissures and charged straight through scattered packs of Great Spikes. Like madmen, they rushed the light barrier, hacking at it with their blades... hacking again and again.
Meanwhile, Wu Xu, He Tangtang, Marshal Hua, and the others had all rushed back into the passage. Unleashing their full power, they pounded relentlessly against the passage wall that had re-solidified.
Yet it was useless.
Their strikes could not even pierce the outer barrier, to say nothing of the fact that even if they did break through, who among them could step into that gravity space and bring Major Qing back?
How Rusty Sister yearned to go! She felt that perhaps she could, but the congealed white radiance bound her fast, and the sole passage leading into the gravity field still lay beneath her feet. Standing there, she strained her eyes to look, yet she could not even catch sight of Qingzi's figure.
"Pegament! Come back!" Marshal Hua suddenly roared into his communicator from inside the passage.
As the highest-ranking commander on the scene, issuing this order was tantamount to voluntarily giving up on that one-in-thousands lottery chance to stop the tractor field from activating.
As for whether this choice was right or wrong, no one knew now, and no one had the luxury of thinking about it.
Pegament was the only person left who still had a chance of piercing the passage wall and entering the gravity field.
As for whether he could actually bring Han Qingyu out from inside, no one knew. It was bound to be difficult—impossibly difficult.
"Hurry! Come back! You—" Marshal Hua shouted anxiously while continuing to bombard the passage wall alongside Wu Xu, He Tangtang, and the others.
"I know! But... but I can't find my way back!" Pegament's response was choked with helpless urgency and fury, drowned amidst the thunderous sounds of fierce combat.
He could not return, or rather, there was no time left.
After a brief silence, every gaze drifted instinctively back toward the figure suspended in midair.
His elbow shifted slightly to the side, as if he wanted to brace against the oppressive force of the gravity field and push it open a fraction. He strained to twist his body, as though wanting to turn his head outward just enough to catch one more glimpse of the people he worried about, the people he feared would do something foolish...
Yet he could not finish either motion.
***
"Qingzi, don't move around. It's fine. Everything will be fine in a moment. Your young master is here."
The craft's bridge was equipped with a special apparatus to monitor the surface, so Liu Shiheng had witnessed virtually everything. He could see Rusty Sister, Milla, Plague Chicken, Wu Xu, Tangtang... and Qingzi.
"It's going to be fine."
He muttered under his breath and took deep breaths. His gaze and expression bore an awe-inspiring fearlessness never before seen on his face. Gripping the control levers with all the strength in both arms, his muscles taut, Liu Shiheng gritted his teeth and growled, "Now that this young master has taken the field in person, I refuse to believe I can't save you all."
"Actually, you most likely won't be able to save them." Another voice came from low in the corner of the bridge, completely devoid of any teasing or mockery.
Ye Jian squatted in the shadows. He had claimed he might still have to get by in Snow Lotus later on, but he had accompanied Liu Shiheng here after all. If not for him coming along, Young Master Shiheng would never have made it this far, let alone secured the bridge.
Speculation that Under-Ice City might actually be a gargantuan Great Spike craft had circulated for a long time. But neither Liu Shiheng nor Ye Jian had imagined that this vessel, which had crashed at least two or three centuries ago, had actually been repaired more than three years ago.
The one who repaired it was, of course, "Ne," though some of the replacement devices and technical methods had come from Azure's most classified craft research division.
Alice was the one who had told Liu Shiheng all of this, including where the ship's bridge was and how to pilot the thing; she had taught him through various subtle methods.
Liu Shiheng had realized early on that Ne was eavesdropping on Alice. However, there were always certain peculiar moments when that old bachelor seemed embarrassed to listen.
During those times, Alice would seize the opportunity to say a few cryptic things.
More often, she would wander barefoot through the library, casually tossing books at Liu Shiheng for him to read, or not, as he pleased.
Liu Shiheng was no fool. After a few times, he understood: through those books, Alice had things to teach him and tasks she hoped he would carry out in the future, and he needed to prepare for them.
"I'm sorry, Alice, but I have to go save my brothers first." Young Master Shiheng still didn't know what Alice wanted him to do, but everything she had taught him had come in handy today. "Once I save them, I'll take you away with me."
*KONG!*
*KONG!*
The ship tilted its bow upward, grinding and scraping against the glaciers on both sides as it continued its mad upward drive.
Ne might arrive very soon, and he might well be capable of blasting open the hatch.
But that didn't matter anymore. As long as Liu Shiheng could pilot this ship and break out before Ne arrived to stop him, even dying would... "Fuck, I really don't want to die, but if it comes to that, I don't have a choice."
Liu Shiheng leaned back, his body rigid, his eyes wide and fixed intently on the massive base of the tractor field above the glacier.
He intended to slam into it and overturn the whole thing.
According to Alice, three hundred years ago, it was the accidental crash of this very Great Spike ship that had drawn the invasion of the Great Spike civilization and brought all subsequent catastrophes upon mankind. Now, Young Master Shiheng was going to use it to smash that tractor field and abort this tractor beam and invasion.
Later, this ship had become the lair of Snow Lotus's Ne.
And now, Young Master Shiheng was piloting Ne's house to ram the tractor field right in the ass.
***
"Didn't you hear what I said?" After waiting a moment with no response, Ye Jian had to raise his voice to remind him.
"Huh?" Liu Shiheng turned his head; he truly hadn't heard just now.
For once, the look exchanged between the two held no playful banter, hostility, or cunning. This time, Ye Jian didn't bring up whether Han Qingyu and the others could still be saved. Instead, he spoke directly and solemnly:
"You won't budge it."
"Why?!" Liu Shiheng asked, stunned.
He had looked into this ship beforehand. While not a mothership, it had once belonged to a high-ranking Great Spike noble used for lone voyages and cosmic exploration. As such, it was hardly small, and its dead iron armor was extraordinarily thick and of the highest grade.
Because it had to carve its own path through cosmic routes, its bow had been specially designed to be exceptionally sturdy, complete with a massive ram.
Its speed was likely even greater than that of a mothership, giving it tremendous ramming force.
"Because," Ye Jian said, gesturing with his chin toward the heights, "since the perimeter of the tractor field is encircled by that super gravity field, do you think its base would be left unprotected?"
"Look at it. Under your continuous impacts, has it shifted or wobbled even a fraction?"
"So, unless that old man comes in person and is ready to throw his life away, I don't believe anyone in this world can pull it off."
Ye Jian had never made physical contact with that gravity field himself, but based on what he could see, combined with his own appraisal of Han Qingyu's and Pegament's combat strength, he could deduce just how terrifyingly solid and mighty that gravity field was. It was the harmonic resonance of thousands of Great Spike craft, including nearly twenty motherships.
*That guy... no, that whole bunch of guys, are all going to die,* Ye Jian thought, feeling a pang of sorrow and reluctance, followed by a faint sense of grief and loneliness.
Among that group was Han Qingyu, whom he had practically watched grow step-by-step until he reached heights that astonished even Ye Jian; there was the silent warrior he admired; there was the only granddaughter of the old commander of the Ninth Army, whom he had known well back then; there was the utterly ordinary He Tangtang, whom he had inadvertently saved twice; there was Wen Jifei, whom he had always liked so much that he once wanted to abduct him... and there was an old friend who, alongside him, had once been hailed as the Twin Stars of the Huaxia Front—the very man later tasked by Azure to hunt him down.
That man was named Hua Bixuan, known to the world as Marshal Hua.
Back then, because both were so young, dashing, and constantly hanging out together, strange rumors had even circulated among the female soldiers of Azure.
*He's going to die too. Coming here despite severe injuries, he probably already made peace with dying on this field. Damn it! The people in this world whom I know and care to share a drink with are growing fewer and fewer after all.*
Ye Jian had taken the risk of accompanying Liu Shiheng here today to pull this stunt not because he believed it would work, but because of Liu Shiheng, and because of those people. They made him feel that he ought to do something for them, at the very least.
*KONG!*
The ship rammed upward once more, and chunks of ice above shattered and cascaded down.
This time, Liu Shiheng heard every single word Ye Jian said clearly. He fell silent for a moment, yet his hands remained clenched tightly around the control levers, his gaze still fixed resolutely on the underside of the tractor field above.
"Oh," Young Master Shiheng finally replied, his voice stifled. After steadying himself, he paused and said, "Let me try fucking it anyway."
*Try fucking it anyway.* There was no other way, was there? If Squad 1777 had any tradition—aside from coughing up blood—it was refusing to accept impossible odds. No matter how absurdly hard a task was, once faced with it, you hit it with everything you had first.
Hearing Young Master Shiheng use a word so crude, yet at this moment strangely fitting, Ye Jian couldn't help but chuckle.
Smiling, he stood up and gripped the hilt of his blade.
"All right. You fuck your way up. I'll swing my sword."
It had been a very, very long time since the world had seen Ye Jian of Snow Lotus fight with all his might. His rank on the Dome Leaderboard had slipped lower and lower, to the point that many had forgotten that this name had once shone like a star, bearing such dazzling hope and expectations.
Chapter 845