Chapter 402: Shock, Resolve with No Return, A Grand Bloom in the Starry Sky

"What?!"

The sudden voice, and the unbelievable scene, made the young woman sitting in the cockpit abruptly widen her eyes, staring blankly at the unbelievable sight before her.

In the starry sky, a seemingly tiny mysterious creature stood motionless, while above it a Shadow Mantis in a chopping pose remained frozen mid-strike as if paralyzed.

Anyone who saw this scene would think it was an unlucky fool who had unfortunately caught the Shadow Mantis's eye and been scared stiff by its sudden lethal attack.

Yet this mysterious being who appeared to be "scared stiff" had, with nothing but its tiny frame, taken the Shadow Mantis's lethal strike head-on.

The Shadow Mantis's strike, supposedly impossible to take head-on, had actually been taken head-on by this creature!

Not only that, the Shadow Mantis's lethal forelimbs had directly shattered in the attack!

Those were the Shadow Mantis's forelimbs!

One must know that the Shadow Mantis's sharp forelimbs were often used by the Federation as the best main material for battlesuit-grade ship-cutting blades! On the market, they were often priceless.

Not only incomparably sharp, they were terrifyingly hard—without some special skill and fine tools, one couldn't even necessarily process them. Yet now, those forelimbs had shattered!

For a moment, she was so shocked that she even forgot to notice that the other party had spoken aloud in the near-vacuum environment.

But just because she had forgotten in her shock didn't mean others had too. As one of the parties involved in this incident and the squad leader, she had from the very beginning, unable to make up her mind, linked the feed from her "Yueguang Nüshen" mecha to the distant mothership via livestream.

Thus, this complete scene was transmitted without reservation to the mothership of the Xuanbei Xingxi fleet group.

At this moment, the mothership's command room was utterly silent.

Everyone stared in shock at the scene on the screen—even the blue-haired girl who had always maintained an icy expression while sitting in the seat symbolizing the supreme commander was no exception, her small mouth slightly open, her usually frost-like pale-blue eyes seeming to have melted, filled with mist and horror.

"Impossible!"

"The Shadow Mantis's attack actually had no effect?"

"The Shadow Mantis's blade shattered?"

"Wh-what kind of monster is that?"

"Transcendent? No, that's not right! Extraordinary?"

"Or is it... an Earth Immortal, a Sovereign of the Earth on par with the old Emperor?"

Staring at the unbelievable scene, everyone in the room couldn't help but draw a sharp breath, crying out in disbelief.

That was a legendary immortal! A legend standing invincible above planets and the earth, a supreme powerhouse who could easily traverse the starry sky and travel between planets, a great being who would be respected wherever they went.

The vast Federation ruled over countless territories, yet such powerhouses absolutely would not exceed a hundred! And that was including those whose identities were unregistered, hidden within the great powers...

Let alone the Daxuan Empire, merely one component of the Federation, in the Xuanbei Xingxi.

For a moment, countless people cried out in disbelief—no one could have imagined that in some corner of the starry sky, on a minor bug-species battlefield, a legendary Earth Immortal had descended!

Listening to the crowd's exclamations, the girl on the high seat was also lost in thought,

If it were that person, perhaps...

On the other side, the Shadow Mantis that had launched the attack was completely dumbfounded. On its small triangular head, the crimson beast-eyes no longer filled with cunning, viciousness, and cruelty... instead showed a trace of blank cuteness, tilting its small triangular head and staring motionlessly at its once-proud forelimbs that had now shattered.

Its assassination had actually failed...

Failure was normal. Even as the so-called Death Messenger, it still had the possibility of success and failure—only the probability of success was much greater.

But past failures were mostly because its traces were detected by the target the moment it leapt out, allowing the target to evade using various special means. When had there ever been such an absurd failure as this?

The target hadn't even moved, simply standing there and letting it attack, yet it couldn't break through the target's defense.

It was as if it hadn't attacked a creature of flesh and blood, but some unknown substance of extreme hardness—hardness that surpassed common substances like rock and various metals by countless levels.

One must know that its scythe-like forelimbs could cut through even the hardest rock or special metals, yet now they had shattered from the unexpected backlash.

"Are you tickling me?"

In its daze, a voice tinged with faint confusion now reached its sensory organs with perfect clarity.

Danger!

Only now did the startled Shadow Mantis realize it had made a huge mistake—after the assassination, it hadn't continued attacking, nor had it determined whether the opponent could be fought, to decide on advance or retreat.

Startled awake, the slender Shadow Mantis, only as tall as a person, instinctively drove its thin but spear-like legs beneath its body, preparing to leap backward and use the momentum to spread the gauze-like, iridescent black wings on its back and flutter away into the void.

But it was too late!

A sharp Dragon Claw covered in scales suddenly appeared—as if it had always been there, or as if it had pierced through space and materialized out of thin air—in the path of its retreat, and by extreme coincidence, pinched the fragile junction between its triangular head and slender body—one of every creature's vital points: the neck!

"Shwa shwa shwa~~~"

Sparks flew continuously. If this place weren't the near-vacuum of space, a string of metallic clangs would surely have been produced.

It was the sound of the Shadow Mantis's slender but spear-like, sharp and hard legs scraping against the ferocious Dragon Claw as it struggled, its neck pinched.

The Shadow Mantis was a killing breed where every part of its body was a lethal weapon—even its seemingly slender legs could easily pierce into the special metals that made up battleship outer armor.

Yet these sharp legs, when they scraped now, were like soft, insubstantial ribbons, unable to inflict the slightest harm on the claw gripping its neck. Worse, in its struggles, its legs only kept breaking, dripping strange liquid.

"Eh? It's... over?"

At this moment, the battlesuit that had earlier flown over at maximum power to stop the Shadow Mantis's attack had only just arrived. But now, looking at the pinned Shadow Mantis, the young woman piloting the "Yueguang Nüshen" mecha fell silent.

The propulsion pack on her back slowly retracted. It seemed, appeared, that this place fundamentally didn't need her help?

To them, it was an enemy that needed to be taken seriously, but in the eyes of this creature before them, it was like a toy...

Unaware of what the other party was thinking at this moment, Baichuan also raised his head with great interest, examining the extraordinary-looking "Gundam" before him. He had to admit, anything that could appear on this seemingly spectacular battlefield, if not in terms of power, at least in appearance, was very much in line with Baichuan's aesthetics.

On the mirror-bright outer armor, every line and curve was matched just perfectly—not only possessing the coldness of metal creation, but also carrying the softness of a human-shaped being. From afar, it looked like a resolute woman clad in armor, about to rush to the battlefield.

The flickering light gave it an air of mystery.

Being gazed upon by those golden dragon-eyes, like flowing lava or radiant gilt, upon closer observation, the young woman couldn't help but feel her heart skip. Even though she sat inside the cockpit, her keen physical senses told her that the other party had seen through everything and was watching her.

At this moment, not only she felt this way—far away on the mothership, everyone in the entire command room felt their hearts skip at those golden dragon-eyes, involuntarily stopping their discussion, instinctively holding their breath and sitting up straight, as if the other party were making eye contact with them, observing them.

But how could that be?!

One must know they were in the middle-to-rear of the battlefield. Unlike planetary battlefields, where the distance between two armies exchanging fire with technological creations was only a few hundred to a few thousand kilometers at most, already considered far. The engagement distance in starry sky warfare was often measured in tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of kilometers!

And their distance from the very center of the battlefield was at least ten million kilometers at the very least.

This was simply not a distance an ordinary creature could observe with its gaze—even an Earth Immortal was the same!

"Unknown and powerful being, greetings, I represent…"

Setting aside the discussion among those on the flagship behind, after being observed for a while by the mysterious and powerful creature, the young woman who had finally come back to her senses hurriedly transmitted a message of goodwill, attempting to communicate with it so as not to be mistaken for being in league with those dead bugs.

Shhh~~

Yet the moment she opened her mouth, at that very instant she suddenly saw the mysterious creature before her raise a hand, hold up an index finger, and make a gesture that was, for the time being, "universal" among the handed races of the universe — the shushing gesture for silence.

Instinctively, she halted her attempt at communication and followed the gaze of the mysterious creature, who had turned its head to look to one side. After scanning her surroundings, she finally realized —

They had, without noticing, drifted away from the area protected by the fleet of warships. As far as the eye could see in every direction, there was nothing but an endless swarm of bugs!

Moreover, the Blade Queens and Blade Bugs around them had already come attacking. Not only that, but from even farther behind there came a tremendous disturbance, as if some terrifying bug race troop type was about to descend!

And she, because of being repeatedly shocked by those terrifying scenes one after another, had been so startled that for a moment she forgot to observe the situation around her.

They had already been surrounded by the bug swarm!

And such a terrifying bug swarm — even the Earth Immortals in her memory would find it very difficult to face head-on. Once surrounded to the death, escape would be utterly impossible!

Their Daxuan Empire's old sovereign, that great Earth Immortal, had been gravely wounded precisely because of this.

After all, an Earth Immortal is only undefeated upon a planet, upon the earth; there still exists the possibility of being buried by human-wave tactics.

Within the Star Sea Federation, Earth Immortals are more akin to a kind of nuclear warhead deterrent, or else the most elite high-mobility warriors on the battlefield — capable of executing decapitation tactics, cutting off the enemy's head to collapse the war situation, as well as handling internal racial conflicts and disputes.

There was no time for regret. The warrior's keen intuition kicked in. A pair of phoenix eyes tinged with allure, under her calm and swift piloting of the mecha as she turned to observe, swept across the surroundings. After identifying several relatively weak points in the encirclement, and then calculating to figure out the easiest route to link up with the reinforcements rushing from outside, she decisively transmitted her intent.

"Respected sir, the bug swarm runs rampant, we have already fallen into an encirclement with no chance of survival. When I cover you and break open the encirclement in a moment, please leave swiftly and rendezvous with the main force."

As she said this, within her heart she had already taken a resolve of no return.

Under such circumstances, it was absolutely impossible for both of them to survive and break out together — that would be far too difficult.

Therefore, compared to her own value of surviving, an Earth Immortal was undoubtedly more important, even if this Earth Immortal currently had no connection whatsoever with them.

But sharing the enemy of the bug swarm — that alone was enough!

With her staking her life as the price, she figured this Earth Immortal probably would not mind doing them a small favor. At that time, with an Earth Immortal's status, dignity, and connections, perhaps the predicament of their Xuanbei Xingxi could be resolved.

Her younger sister would no longer have to work so hard either…

Thinking of these things, the young woman's gaze grew ever more resolute. From the moment she became a warrior and first piloted a battle armor, she had already prepared herself to die in battle among the Xingkong — it was nothing more than that day arriving a little earlier.

But to die a more meaningful death — she had no regrets!

Thinking thus, she slowly raised the weapon in her hand. The Burst overload device of "Yueguang Nüshen" was also primed and ready at any moment — that was the mecha's overload limit corresponding to the pilot's 【Thought Overclock】. Only when the two combined could the strongest power truly erupt.

Inside the flagship, silence fell once more, the atmosphere growing somewhat oppressive.

Those who could sit there watching the livestream were by no means fools. The moment their respected mecha squad leader made her move, they understood what this respected mecha squad leader of theirs intended to do.

For the greater good! For their Daxuan Empire! She had given up hope of survival.

And they could only watch all of this happen…

This is the most helpless part of being a commander. They, who can only observe the battlefield with their minds and direct everything, no matter how unwilling, have seen this kind of parting by life and death time and again across countless wars. These are the Empire's finest warriors…

"Send the warrior off!"

Suddenly, in the silence, a somewhat elderly commander solemnly stood up, and with the highest hat-salute, slowly removed the spotless, unstained military cap from his head, and bowed.

"Send the warrior off!"

"Send the warrior off!"

……

As this commander began, as if some switch had been triggered, everyone rose to their feet, preparing to salute, to see off their Empire's most respected warrior — for the Empire…

"What are you saying?"

Yet just then, as the solemn, sorrowful atmosphere was about to reach its peak, a voice tinged with puzzled surprise rang out, interrupting everyone's grief.

It was the mysterious creature — Baichuan — who had stepped past the young woman piloting the mecha about to fight with her back to the wall, and walked to the front.

With this voice, sounds that set one's teeth on edge and made one's heart pound rang out one after another — from all directions in the Xingkong, from within the bug swarm!

Like the grandest of fireworks, blooming in the Xingkong at this very moment!

……

(End of chapter)