Chapter 244

Mei Da Xilin

The Lord of Radiance nearly jumped up on the spot.

"Trash! They're just a bunch of trash!"

Six against one is pointless; those so-called Navar mages and De Rui Tan's son are just trash. It seems the legendary mage's decapitation strike won't work, so we'll have to settle the outcome on the battlefield.

(note missing 【6】) 【7】... Actually after 【5】 there is a line break then 【7】... Let's capture.

Also "Son of De Rui Tan" is a phrase referencing De Rui Tan's son; the named entity is De Rui Tan (already), and the phrase itself is not a separate entity.

They immediately summoned his granddaughter Zhuo Ya.

"Send the Radiant First Fleet into Lujin Strait to cut off Aaron and Weilan's trade routes; if we encounter the Weilan Fleet, we'll give them a sound thrashing."

The named entities are Radiant First Fleet, Lujin Strait, Aaron, Weilan, and Weilan Fleet.

This time, Zhuo Ya did not fully comply.

She carefully advised, "Grandfather, intelligence indicates the Weilan Fleet possesses some extremely sharp new weapons, but we don't know their capabilities."

I suggest we first send out the vanguard to scout the Weilan Fleet's strength; after gathering that intelligence, we can then plan the next move.

The Lord of Radiance also felt he had acted impulsively, agreed his granddaughter had a point, but he still felt an inner fire that needed to be released.

We pour so much money into weapons R&D each year, yet our fleet's new arms are only slightly better than Weilan's; shouldn't Weilan be afraid of us?

Zhuo Ya thought, "What nonsense? We're the invaders; we have to fight regardless of whether they're scared—should we just surrender?"

One is out seeking trouble far from home, the other is defending the homeland; the troops' morale is worlds apart.

But she certainly couldn't say that, or her grandfather would surely take out his anger on her.

So she carefully explained, "Grandfather, we just want to minimize losses as much as possible, since the new warships and weapons are extremely expensive and slow to build."

The Lord of Radiance waved his hand impatiently.

"Alright, alright, you must stop Duke Weilan from taking over Aaron, no matter what."

Zhuo Ya also wanted to engage the Weilan Fleet to learn what new developments they had, so she began preparing in earnest.

She was very cautious, since Weilan held an absolute advantage in legendary power.

Although legendary power isn't invincible against armies, it must not be underestimated.

Any slight misjudgment could let the enemy seize the opportunity and deal a heavy blow to the Radiant Fleet.

While preparing, she also secretly contacted Duke Weilan via a secret channel with Ailin.

Whether we can fight or not, we still must fight.

Whether it's grandfather's will or the Radiant Empire's strategy, we must do everything we can to prevent the Natural Alliance from unifying.

But we absolutely must not fight haphazardly like country peasants brawling wildly.

So she needed to contact the other side and keep the situation under control.

Otherwise we'd get stuck in a quagmire with no way out, leaving an opening for the Holy Elf Empire to exploit.

Upon receiving the news from Empress Zhuo Ya, Duke Luosen immediately relayed the information through the faith channel to his main self far away in Aaron.

Luosen read the message and secretly felt relieved.

"Fortunately, the empress acts as a buffer; otherwise we'd truly have to go to war with the Radiant Empire."

Once war begins, you can't simply say stop and expect it to end.

But given the huge disparity in national strength, Luosen had no confidence of certain victory.

Perhaps his weapons are more advanced than the Radiant Empire's, but his weapon production capacity falls far short of the opponent's.

Even if they achieve a 1-to-5 kill ratio on the battlefield and win tactically, they still lose strategically.

Whether judged by the strategic height of all humanity or that of the Natural Alliance, it's a failure.

For humanity, the two countries' fierce internal consumption benefits the elves and demons.

For the Natural Alliance, the battlefield lies within the alliance itself, so no matter how they fight, the alliance ends up losing.

So at this point, if we can avoid fighting, we should not fight.

After careful consideration, he sent back a message.

"Weilan recently came up with something fun; I'll show you a trick from afar."

"If you can handle it, then fight; if you think my thing is a bit formidable and you're not confident you can handle it, then withdraw the Radiant Fleet and let me take over Aaron."

"How about that?"

Soon they received the empress's reply: "Show me the trick."

Then let's show it.

Duke Luosen wrote a new weapon test plan named Sword Operation; after it was disseminated down the chain, it reached the Weilan Navy that same afternoon.

The navy currently has three main fleets, each with 35 warships.

The commander of the First Fleet is Yue Pu from Shire County, currently holding the rank of lieutenant general.

He looked over the test plan and grinned: "That sword, hidden for so long, is finally about to be drawn."

But it's still a bit regrettable.

Because this time drawing the sword is just a distant gesture, not actually striking the opponent.

He then dispatched a warship and a target ship to the designated area of Lujin Strait.

Lujin Strait isn't very wide; around 9 a. m. the next day, the warship and target ship arrived at their destination.

The warship was in the rear, in a state of complete invisibility.

The target ship was up front, also in a high degree of invisibility, but deliberately showing some traces for observation.

Anyone could tell at a glance that they were simulating a Radiant warship.

At the same time, an observation ship from the Radiant Fleet also arrived in the target ship's sea area.

The observation ship's mages launched reconnaissance drones early and locked onto the distant target ship.

That day the weather was superb, with light winds and clear skies, giving excellent visibility over the sea.

But oddly, aside from the target ship, the Radiant mages saw no hostile warship on the sea surface.

The observation ship captain guessed that Weilan's attack warship must have entered complete stealth mode, but he still had some doubts, because this stealth was simply too perfect, even more perfect than their radiant warship.

"Continue searching, we must find the Weilan warship!"

"This is very important, even the most important, because it concerns the initiative on the battlefield."

"The Light mages continued searching."

"They not only increased search density, but also expanded the search area."

"As a result, they still found no trace of the Weilan warship."

"If this happened on an actual battlefield, it would be a nightmare."

"The observation ship captain immediately reported the situation to the fleet admiral of the Light's First Fleet."

'"Admiral, we didn't see the Weilan warship on the sea; we've scanned the nearby 30‑kilometer sea area and found nothing—could the intelligence be wrong?"'

"One minute later, the admiral's staff sent back a message: 'No mistake, wait another half hour.'"

"The Light fleet's hierarchy was extremely strict; since the superior said so, the captain could only wait."

"Time ticked by; after about half an hour, the Light mages finally made a discovery."

'"Report, General: an abnormal light appeared on the sea, confirmed as the Weilan warship, bearing east‑northeast 30 degrees, distance 80 kilometers from the target ship."'

"Just after the report, another new discovery followed."

'"We've lost the Weilan warship's trail again, and there's no sea ripple; we highly suspect the warship is moving slowly or even stopped."'

"When a Black Stone warship moves on the sea, it inevitably creates waves; the faster it goes, the bigger the waves, and currently there is almost no way to completely suppress the waves."

"This is the latest maritime common knowledge."

"Immediately after, the observation mage reported again."

'"A high‑speed flying object was spotted in the sky; estimated speed 300 meters per second, almost twice our fastest aircraft."'

'"The target is invisible; we can't see its exact shape, estimated volume less than one‑fifth of our fighter, no magical fluctuations detected—likely an unmanned aircraft."'

'"It is flying low over the sea, altitude under 100 meters, sea spray obscuring most of its power fluctuations."'

'"It's so fast!"'

"The observation ship captain immediately issued the order: 'Judgment Array, conduct a mock attack!'"

"This is the latest Judgment Array; it not only fixes the backlash strike issue but also greatly increases power and locking ability. 'Hiss hiss hiss hiss~~~'"

"One after another, weak probing beams continuously shot toward the high‑speed flying object over the sea, conducting a mock strike."

"The Light mage immediately reported the interception effect."

'"The target's speed unchanged, but its flight trajectory mutated from straight to helical."'

'"The trajectory is too complex for the Judgment Array to lock on; effective attack time is severely insufficient, making it hard to inflict a devastating blow."'

"Hearing this, the observation ship captain's heart raced: 'Flying that fast and still able to spiral forward—doesn't it fear breaking apart?'"

"If it were a manned aircraft, spiraling forward at such a small angle would surely make the pilot in the cockpit black out instantly."

"The Light mages gave no reply, continuing to report the situation at high speed."

'"It headed for the target ship—and it exploded!"'

'"Its power is terrifying!"'

'"The target ship's cloaking failed; it's 50 meters long, its hull specially reinforced, much sturdier than an ordinary warship."'

'"The hull was blown open with a huge hole; we can see the plating is extremely thick—twice as thick as our warships—so its defense absolutely exceeds ours."'

'"Uh-oh, the target ship is going to sink!"'

"Observation reports kept coming in, making the observation ship captain's forehead faintly sweat."

"He put himself in the target ship's position and then drew a preliminary conclusion."

"'If the enemy equips large numbers of high‑speed explosive aircraft, it would deal a devastating blow to our fleet.'"

"After careful analysis, he drew a second conclusion."

"'Once more than three high‑speed aircraft attack our warship simultaneously, they can break through our air defenses and threaten hull safety.'"

"'If the number exceeds six, the warship will almost certainly be sunk.'"

"Taking into account the enemy warship's near‑perfect stealth capability, it is all but certain they will get the first‑strike opportunity."

"Currently, the Light's First Fleet has 150 new Black Stone warships; if the enemy equips 900 of these unmanned explosive aircraft, they could sink all our warships."

"If the enemy lies in wait carefully, our side hardly has any chance to retaliate!"

"The more he thought, the faster the captain's heart beat and the more cold sweat appeared on his forehead."

"He immediately reported the observed intelligence to the fleet admiral, who then promptly reported it to the empress."

"Shortly afterward, the empress received this military report."

"She was also greatly startled, immediately summoning the imperial weapon research mages from all major weapon bureaus to begin discussing countermeasures."

"These mages are all top talents of the empire."

"Upon seeing the report's content, their eyes lit up, yet their brows furrowed tightly."

"After a full half‑day of discussion, they reached a preliminary conclusion."

"Finally, a calm old mage reported the conclusion to Empress Zhuo Ya."

'"Your Majesty, the new weapon displayed by Duke Weilan is not difficult to achieve in terms of sorcery; give us one year and we should be able to produce a similar weapon."'

'"But for now, we have no similar weapon nor any reliable countermeasure."'

'"I advise not to lightly open hostilities, otherwise our fleet would suffer huge losses."'

"If Weilan were the only enemy, we'd fight even at great loss, but behind them lies a vast Elves Empire."

"Zhuo Ya asked: 'What do you think the approximate cost of such unmanned explosive aircraft is?'"

'"It's definitely much cheaper than our fighter aircraft. Three reasons.'"

'"First, it's small enough. Second, being unmanned omits the cockpit. Third, it's disposable, so cheap disposable materials can be used.'"

'"We estimate its manufacturing cost should be one‑tenth of our current mainstay Liuguang fighter, possibly even less."'

Considering Weilan's current magical industrial capability, they may have already built over 1,000 of these, and this is certainly not their strongest unmanned blaze warplane.

In other words, in this entirely new weapons field, we have already fallen far behind the Natural Alliance.

Zhuo Ya frowned slightly: "Do you have any countermeasures?"

Of course there are countermeasures.

The old mage immediately gave advice.

First, we also need to get this kind of unmanned blaze aircraft; we must build it quickly.

Second, we must greatly strengthen the anti-air magical devices of warships and land, not only strengthening attack devices but also developing stronger detection devices to counter Weilan's stealth capability.

Third, I believe this kind of unmanned blaze aircraft will become the main strike on future battlefields; the current blaze cannons are already outdated and not worth mass-producing.

Zhuo Ya felt her heart bleed, because the blaze cannons had just been equipped, and she had even expanded many cannon factories, spending her a large sum of money; they hadn't even been used much yet, and now they face the risk of being phased out.

She was somewhat unwilling: "This unmanned blaze aircraft might be strong, but there must be a mage remotely controlling it behind the scenes. If we unleash a targeted force storm on the battlefield, that should be enough to disable it, right?"

The old mage nodded: "Indeed possible, but judging from its remote-control distance, it is at least greater than 80 kilometers."

This indicates that the other side is likely not using spiritual remote control, but some unknown remote-control method, and we currently do not know how to interfere with it.

Furthermore, there is even a possibility that these unmanned blaze aircraft are actually semi-independent attack puppets, behind which there may be no mage performing real-time remote control.

Attack puppets?

Yes. The old mage nodded.

There is evidence showing that Duke Weilan's ancestor was a fallen steel dragon clan; the steel dragon they forged is a powerful combat puppet.

Likewise, much evidence shows that Duke Weilan is highly proficient in Puppet Art; thus, it is highly likely that he created flying puppets.

And if it is a semi-independent flying puppet, then with proper magical shielding it would possess strong interference capability.

Zhuo Ya immediately felt the situation was very thorny.

The situation is obvious: not only can we not fight Weilan's naval battle, but we must also quickly devise countermeasures.

Considering the limited range of aircraft, especially unmanned blaze aircraft, they definitely cannot fly far, so for now we need not worry about them threatening the Empire's homeland security.

But this is only temporary, because Duke Weilan will surely vigorously improve the new weapons.

Therefore, corresponding anti-air weapons must be vigorously developed; otherwise, even sleeping would be uneasy.

And the emergence of this entirely new battlefield weapon also brings a direct impact: the Empire is temporarily unable to intervene on the battlefield against the Natural Alliance.

Duke Weilan taking over Aaron has become a settled matter.

Zhuo Ya's mood is very complicated.

Unwillingness, admiration, and a hint of fear.

Because Duke Weilan just defeated six legendary mages single-handedly, and even casually killed a rank‑4 demon lurking in the void! She is now also a legendary mage, yet she still finds it hard to comprehend his methods.

She just can't figure out how he managed it.

Of course, it's not completely incomprehensible.

She speculates that he may have found a way to synthesize large‑capacity legendary crystals.

But this speculation is not pleasant either, because the uses of legendary crystals are enormous, and the Empire has been almost completely overwhelmed by the Natural Alliance in this field.

Amidst these mixed emotions, she reported the news she had received to her grandfather.

"Grandfather, we can't fight right now."

"Trash!" the grandfather bellowed in a loss of composure.

I don't know who he was scolding, but it made Zhuo Ya feel uneasy inside, and she couldn't help thinking: 'Grandfather, you may speak freely, but we're the ones running ourselves ragged for this.'

Of course she didn't say it out loud, still standing with a respectful demeanor.

After a long while, the Lord of Radiance finally came to his senses: 'It seems we must deepen our cooperation with the Holy Elven Empire to jointly deal with the Natural Alliance.'

Zhuo Ya remained respectful: 'Yes, grandfather.'

But in her heart she thought: 'Grandfather, doing this will cause us to sever ourselves from humanity.'

I will never obey you on this, and I will do everything to stop you!

She does not yet fully control the Empire's situation, so she will not cause trouble now, but once the opportunity arises, she will have no hesitation.

(End of chapter)