The battle outside was nothing Yang Qingbai needed to worry about, leaving him free to let his thoughts wander.
With Wu Xu and Rusty Sister teaming up two-on-one, the Daie that had deployed from its craft stood no chance at all; it wouldn't even be able to struggle for long.
All that mattered was that they returned on time and avoided catching Puta'er's eye.
Keeping an eye on his stopwatch, Yang Qingbai warily monitored the movements of Puta'er and the colossal dreadnought in the distant sky. "One minute forty-one seconds... one minute forty-four seconds. Kill confirmed. Excellent."
Outside the ship, Wu Xu and Rusty Sister were already preparing to re-enter.
Inside, with everything well in hand, Yang Qingbai was completely at ease. He began gliding the ship along its pre-planned trajectory, opening only the top ejection hatch so the two could slip back in on their own.
*Boom!*
Without the slightest warning, CA117 was violently rocked as turbulent shockwaves of source energy and bursting fragments of shattered starships slammed against its hull.
In an instant, the ship was shoved sideways more than a hundred meters.
It had not been struck directly, nor had it been the target of the assault.
What had been attacked were the five human source energy ships that Wu Xu and Rusty Sister had just rescued.
In a single blow, all five ships were utterly destroyed, blown to smithereens.
What a terrifying attack!
Fearsome beyond measure!
And after obliterating those five ships, its next target... was Wu Xu.
Yet Puta'er had not moved; Yang Qingbai was absolutely certain of that. Even if it had just spotted Wu Xu and Rusty Sister, it was definitely not within striking range yet. So...
So, Ne had arrived.
A sensuous human female body, clad in peculiar armor resembling that of an alien deity and wielding a simply ornamented, small blue light pillar sword, emerged from the freshly torn space.
Arriving in an instant, inescapable.
Holding the small blue light pillar sword, the entity lunged forward with a fencer's thrust, shooting straight toward Wu Xu's chest.
"Gravity Field!" Wu Xu erupted with the full force of his source energy, erecting a ten-thousand-ton gravity field as an initial buffer while raising the Binggu Spear horizontally with both hands, bracing his arms to block.
*Clang!*
The gravity field was pierced as though it did not even exist, followed by the deafening clash of metal on metal.
A single strike!
The webbing between Wu Xu's thumb and index finger tore open. The black spear was knocked clean from his hands, smashing back heavily into his own chest.
Wu Xu was sent hurtling backward.
Blood gushed from his mouth, drifting slowly through the void.
At the same time, watching Wu Xu tumble helplessly through the air, Ne wore a playful sneer. He slowly raised the blue light pillar sword once more—this time, to slash.
A massive blade projection and a swirling storm of source energy crashed downward.
"Xu'er!" Rusty Sister cried out. Source energy erupted from her as she darted frantically toward Wu Xu.
Yet it was already too late.
Wu Xu was severely wounded, incapable of fighting on.
Just as before, it was inescapable.
Worse still, in the very next heartbeat, another unforeseen disaster struck—Puta'er arrived! Its colossal frame cleaved through the distance, swinging its giant four-edged pillar sword down toward Rusty Sister as she hurtled through the air.
No one could offer them the slightest help.
It all happened far too fast. Down on the lunar surface, Nikola had only just heard Yang Qingbai's cry through the communicator and hadn't even had time to scan the sky. Aboard the command flagship, Alice might have had time to see it, but there was no way she could do anything in time.
In that split second, only Yang Qingbai, situated right on the edge of the battlefield, could still do something.
He began screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Young Master Shiheng! Liu Shiheng! Brother Shiheng, save us! Brother Shiheng, connect to my channel!"
Throwing caution to the wind, Yang Qingbai activated the battlefield-wide broadcast—an emergency configuration reserved strictly for command flagships and key vessels. Amplified by source energy, his desperate plea for help echoed across the entire battlefield.
Yet there was no response. Perhaps Young Master Shiheng was not there at all, or perhaps he was there but powerless to do anything.
There truly was no hope left, not a single trace.
So many years. Through so many years and countless campaigns of every scale, having shared innumerable brushes with death, they had never known despair like this.
Though they had just bid farewell to He Tangtang on Mars, that had not been total despair; with the main force of the Martian Great Spike fleet giving chase, Tangtang actually had a decent chance of surviving out there.
Now, however, without the faintest sliver of luck, they were going to lose both Rusty Sister and Wu Xu at once.
No one made a sound. In the grip of overwhelming sorrow, people could not even summon tears or fury quickly enough.
The same was true for Alice.
As well as Han Qingyu, who was frantically demanding a warship to carry him up into orbit.
Yang Qingbai didn't dare watch any longer; he had completely broken down. Back during the Zenith War, he had possessed the courage to watch Qingzi slay a Daie all on his own, but right now, he couldn't bear to look.
*Rumble! Buzz—*
Source energy churned like an apocalyptic storm, blasting nearby human and Great Spike craft into scrap or throwing them hundreds, even thousands of meters away.
"..." Yang Qingbai was left speechless.
Only after several seconds did he gather his wits, catch his breath, and summon the will to peer through the observation periscope.
In that stretch of airspace, a small blue light pillar sword was braced against Puta'er's giant four-edged pillar sword. "Ne" stood there, head tilted back, looking up to confront Puta'er.
That was Alice's body.
Yet Yang Qingbai quickly realized that regardless of whether Ne's or Alice's consciousness was still present, the one who had just dominated that body had been Nikola—because its expression had been ferocious and feral like a beast.
"Ne!"
"Fly the ship! Qingbai!"
"Fly the ship!" Holding Wu Xu's broken, bleeding body, Rusty Sister suddenly appeared in the rear seat of CA117.
"Don't..." Wu Xu's aura was exceedingly faint, his voice barely a whisper.
Yang Qingbai's mind was an utter blur, but ingrained professional reflex took over. He fired up the ship's thrusters, sealed the ejection hatch, and accelerated madly to flee the sector.
"Nikola!"
"Thank you, Sister-in-law!"
"Thank you, Brother Shiheng!"
"You are my second parents!"
So Ne had indeed come.
That was what Ne's current combat prowess was evaluated at: close to a complete-form Puta'er.
During the tactical analysis and war-gaming phase of this campaign, human high command had indeed viewed Ne as a formidable adversary and a tremendous threat. Yet as the actual fighting unfolded, because he had never once shown himself, he had gradually and unwittingly slipped from their minds.
Of course, even if they hadn't overlooked him, humanity had no means to properly guard against him.
When a compact complete-form Puta'er chose to operate in stealth across such a chaotic battlefield, no one could effectively anticipate its movements.
Moreover, it was undeniable that in the subconscious minds of Han Qingyu, Shen Yixiu, and many senior human leaders, Ne had never seemed quite as terrifying as the Great Spike Puta'er. They always unconsciously assumed that if they were facing Ne, there would always be some strange, inexplicable room to maneuver.
In other words, it seemed like he could be reasoned with.
Or perhaps deceived.
As for certain high-ranking officials in Azure, it might sound laughable, but they had later discovered that Ne truly could be negotiated with and counted upon to some degree. At the very least, a few years back, he had provided all of humanity with the generation of combat devices that brought the greatest leap in performance in history. Perhaps he did not truly desire humanity's extinction; he simply relished the game, craved this species-level gamble for survival, and simply didn't mind if humanity was wiped out in the process.
As for Ne's own consciousness, Azure firmly believed it was still intact. Whether in the Azure era or the Snow Lotus era, he had always been humanity's most brilliant scientist—so clever, powerful, and terrifying.
Her consciousness had to still be there as well. Otherwise, based on Azure's observations and assessments after their previous encounters, the high probability that Young Master Shiheng was aboard the "He-It-She" ship would make no sense.
Perhaps he was trying his best as well.
On that point, that uncouth, ignorant old bastard in Huaxia had perhaps realized it earlier than countless elite leaders in Azure. That was why the rumor existed that he had once tracked down Ne and had the opportunity to kill him, but ultimately stayed his hand.
At the very least, they could still pin their hopes on Young Master Shiheng and Alice... if her consciousness was still there.
Chapter 979