Shen Yixiu needed to swap out her source energy blocks. Her situation was unique—her very life hung in the balance—so she hardly dared let herself get anywhere near running dry. In her daily routine, she had to keep at least two source energy blocks loaded on her at all times, ideally with one of them at full reserve.
Noticing this, Han Qingyu asked a couple of questions and told her not to use her own, telling her to take one of the seven stored in the leather case to swap in instead.
This made Shen Yixiu, newly rich as she was, feel a bit at a loss, like a starving pauper who happened to help out at a banquet and ended up both gorging himself and taking food home.
Yet the reasoning actually held up.
Coming to help yesterday had been on her personal initiative, using her own source energy blocks, and the battle had consumed a massive amount. It was only right that the team provide her resupply and combat necessities.
"By the way, isn't Iron Chick fair-skinned?" After Shen Yixiu stepped away for a moment, He Tangtang rubbed the back of his head, still puzzled.
"Calling someone fair is a compliment, and it wasn't like I praised her out of nowhere," he said. "It's not like I could just lie through my teeth and say she's pretty—not with all that sheet metal covering her..." As he spoke, he leaned closer. "Hey, what do you guys think Iron Chick actually looks like? Is she pretty?"
Wen Jifei thought about it. "Hell if I know."
Liu Shiheng said, "Well, if we ever get the chance, we could check out photos of her from before she was twelve."
"A girl changes eighteen times between childhood and womanhood, though! Who knows how she turned out? Besides, Iron Chick was raised on source energy inside a sheet of iron..." Wen Jifei turned his head. "Qingzi, what do you think?"
Han Qingyu looked up. "Huh?"
"Huh your head! Can't you be a little normal for once?! We're asking whether you think Iron Chick is pretty. Take a guess."
"Oh. Frankly, the fact that you guys are speculating about whether a cyborg girl is pretty and caring about whether she's fair-skinned—you're the ones who aren't normal."
Amid quiet chuckles,
Shen Yixiu returned. Seeing the atmosphere, she seemed slightly perplexed, but it wasn't her place to pry, so she found something to say on her own: "I slotted in one of Snow Lotus's source energy blocks. I was a bit worried at first, but it feels pretty much the same."
Han Qingyu blinked. "What, is there a difference between ours and Snow Lotus's?"
Shen Yixiu nodded. "There are some differences. If you look closely, you can tell. I just checked earlier—of those eighteen blocks, fifteen are actually our Azure's... My guess is that the major and the lieutenant saved them up over the years and brought them along as a token of sincerity."
"Are they out of their minds?" Wen Jifei said. "If they hand over all their source energy blocks, what do they get out of it?"
"Probably a lot of money, an easy life, living in luxury... maybe even going into hiding for a while. In any case, it's always been clear that Snow Lotus has secret backing and involvement from mega-tycoons; we just usually can't trace the specific individuals."
Shen Yixiu paused, then continued in a speculative tone, "Besides, probably not every Azure soldier is content to fight constantly on the brink of life and death. There are always people who crave that kind of life, willing to take the gamble and trade what they have for a lifetime of pleasure, seeking enjoyment while they can."
The remaining three nodded, then turned their gaze toward the second-generation rich kid, Liu Shiheng.
"My family... I..." Liu Shiheng lowered his head and thought seriously about it, then looked up. "To be frank, if it were before I came to Azure, and they showed me technology beyond common sense like this and told me I had a chance to live for hundreds of years... yeah, I probably would have backed them in secret too."
"Yeah. So this kind of inclination to defect is actually very dangerous and terrifying for Azure, isn't it?" What Han Qingyu meant was that given the opportunity, the number of people who would make such a choice was probably far from small.
"That's right. That's why Azure has a specialized branch for purging traitors, spearheaded by Grade S fighters, sparing no cost and relentless to the death," Shen Yixiu said solemnly. "Over all these years, our overall purge success rate has consistently remained above eighty percent, which is why the deterrent has always endured."
"...I see." Han Qingyu nodded without pressing further. It was obvious that Azure had undercover agents inside the Cleansing Faction as well, and not just one or two.
In the end, such were humans: creatures far too clever and burdened with far too many desires, with chaotic values, making true unity the hardest thing of all to achieve.
"Then what's the deal with the Cleansing Faction's own source energy blocks? Setting aside what they steal and plunder from us, where do they get the rest of their own supply?" He Tangtang asked, his face full of perplexity.
Shen Yixiu seemed to let out a small chuckle. "What you're asking happens to be one of the questions our Azure wants answered the most. But the only person who can answer it is nowhere to be found."
"Ne?" Han Qingyu asked.
"Yes," Shen Yixiu said. "I've only heard rumors, but Ne apparently defected and vanished out of nowhere after the failure of a massive scientific research project he had championed and spearheaded... He almost certainly holds knowledge that even Azure doesn't know."
This was already the fourth time Han Qingyu had heard this codename. Ne—a traitor footnoted with the word "greatness."
"What exactly did he do for Azure?"
Shen Yixiu thought for a moment. "Put it this way: he changed the history of Azure... It was Ne who made the historic leap in how the three-dimensional apparatus infuses source energy into the human body, shifting from internal connections to surface-level connections. That drastically reduced soldiers' pain and mortality rates, and indirectly made it possible for Azure to expand and grow strong."
Facing their blank stares, Shen Yixiu continued, "Didn't you know? For the generation of Azure soldiers like the Legion Commander and my grandfather, their three-dimensional apparatuses had to be surgically connected directly inside their bodies using metal straps... Even today, they still have surgical scars on them."
"Hiss... that sounds terrifying," Liu Shiheng said after imagining it.
Shen Yixiu nodded in silence without saying more... Because she was connected in that very manner, and to a degree countless times more severe and complex than those soldiers back then.
"Is Ne dead?" Wen Jifei asked.
"No... I don't know, but probably not," Shen Yixiu replied.
"Then shouldn't Azure's biggest objective right now be to capture him at all costs?" Wen Jifei pressed on.
"Yes... if he could be captured."
"He can't be?"
"No. We have no idea where he is, or even whether he's still alive," Shen Yixiu said.
"Then what about Snow Lotus? Does he not run it? If not him, who's in charge?"
"Many people. Every faction has its own leaders. The one with the greatest martial strength is probably..." Shen Yixiu stopped. She realized she had said too much. Although much of it was hearsay, had it not been for having a grandfather who was an army commander, and had it not been for her mechanization causing people to frequently overlook her presence, an ordinary person could never have heard so much.
"It's fine. We won't spread it," Wen Jifei said with a smile, picking up on her hesitation.
"Well then, when you get back, whatever you do, don't mention this name," Shen Yixiu paused, then said. "His name is Ye Jian... Over twenty years ago, he was once the greatest pride of our Eraser Ninth Army. Later, he became our greatest shame and taboo."
This was probably the name Milla had hesitated to speak.
"Grade S Ye Jian. His recruit days..." Shen Yixiu turned to Han Qingyu. "were actually far, far more glorious than yours. And one year after leaving recruit camp, he did something that to this day is considered one of the most formidable individual feats in Azure's history."
"What did he do?"
"In that era when the Cleansing Faction was rife with top experts and posed the greatest assassination threat to Azure's leadership and elites, he chose to carry ten source energy blocks and cross the Sahara Desert entirely alone... And before setting out, he personally sought out several Cleansing Faction and Self-Preservation Faction strongholds, leaving behind a message: 'Personal trial. Interception and slaughter earnestly requested.'"
"And in the end...?"
"He nearly died. But the Cleansing Faction's assassination operations went dead silent for three whole years."
"..."
"Three years later, Ye Jian suddenly defected to the Cleansing Faction."
"..."
"Azure's counter-assassination campaign began. The first to fail and die in battle was his best friend in the Coalition."
Chapter 91