Chapter 54: Divine Emperor: If It's Useful, Use It to the Death

Return your gate!

Return your gate!!

Bunoke clenched his fists, which were as soft as sandbags, and punched the Governor's bloated belly one punch after another.

Having undergone a lifespan‑extension surgery and with some cybernetic augmentations, otherwise the Governor should have been hammered into meat mush by Bunoke.

But despite his body being covered in bruised, black‑blue wounds, the Governor only gritted his teeth, glaring with hateful eyes, staring fixedly at Bunoke.

To be precise, it was Xisi, silently waiting behind Bunoke.

Seeing that the Governor still wouldn't budge, Bunoke erupted in fury, about to swing again, when Xisi behind him finally raised his hand to stop him.

Alright, no need to deal with him.

Xisi spoke, and even though Bunoke was still upset with the Governor, he could only retract his hand.

Then he looked at Xisi, but Xisi did not return the Governor's hateful, almost frantic gaze, and walked aside directly.

There was a gate, and as Ana retracted her auxiliary mechanical arm, the gate that the Governor had sealed finally began to open slowly as power was restored.

When sunlight poured in, the spacious, magnificent hall revealed a circular staircase at its center, where a woman whose eyes had been removed floated midair, surrounded by numerous upright hollow stone pillars and a trembling human body wrapped in layers of binding straps.

The hall's serene mystery, contrasted with the bound bodies in the pillars, created a holy yet evil juxtaposition.

Yet this contrasting hall alone sustained the Empire's intergalactic communications.

The eyeless woman in the center is called the Star Speaker, and the terrified living humans in the pillars are psychic batteries.

And this hall is the Star Speech Hall!

I don't know why the Governor locked the Star Speech Hall, but after all he's just Nobility; I easily bypassed the lock using my Mechanical Church permissions.

Ana lifted her head with a hint of pride; perhaps having barely received any instruction from the Mechanical Church Priest, Ana, who always stays by Xisi's side, occasionally shows genuine human emotions.

Xisi nodded, acknowledging Ana, then completely ignored the Governor whose expression had shifted behind him, and walked straight in.

Seeing Xisi's approval, Ana's face brightened further, and she hurried a few steps forward, beginning to calibrate the control panel of the Star Speech Hall:

Give me some time; in a moment I can broadcast the system's communications outward.

Ana busied herself at the console, while Xisi surveyed the hall before him.

Although a Servo Skull is essentially a human skull packed with electronic devices, compared to using live humans as batteries, Xisi felt the Servo Skull was at least somewhat humane.

At this moment, only Xisi and Ana were inside the Star Speech Hall; outside the door were Bunoke and the bound Governor.

Watching Ana's rapid tapping, the Governor's expression didn't turn to fear but gradually showed madness... even anticipation.

Finally, after Xisi circled the hall and returned to the console area, Ana suddenly lifted her head, her face full of surprise, ready to speak.

But the sudden clamor flooding the Star Speech Hall drowned out Ana's surprise.

They're gone! The Governor and the State Church Priest of our planet left already! Not even the army stayed behind!

The Empire abandoned us; they let us face the Terran Insect Tide's slaughter alone!

Help... alien breached... the Empire's troops... where?!

We declare independence; repeat, we officially declare we are independent from the Empire!

Desperate cries from countless worlds poured through the loudspeaker, broadcasting across the entire sector.

And almost every transmission was saturated with despair, hatred, anger, and other emotions.

Even at the end of each transmission, it inevitably turned into despair and resentment toward the entire Empire.

Because even just hearing this brief clamor, whether Xisi inside the hall or others outside, almost everyone instantly understood one truth.

The region they occupied seemed to have been deliberately and comprehensively abandoned by the Empire.

And they abandoned it while a terrifying alien enemy still existed in this sector!

Outside, the spiteful Governor stared at Xisi and the others in shock, then burst into a hearty laugh, even shedding tears as he laughed, as if he had witnessed something utterly absurd.

Didn't expect that? Even aliens never directly abandon an entire sector's people.

But the Empire you speak of actually did it!

The Governor's face turned frantic; even after cursing the Empire, a desperate, devout yearning for redemption resurfaced on his face, his swollen visage brimming with the madness of a collapsing worldview.

"Praise the Savior..."

Bang!

The Governor's frantic shout was abruptly halted by the blast; everyone turned to the gun‑wielding Xisi, whose face was utterly impassive as he walked toward the Star Speech Hall's console.

Accompanied by a constant hiss of spite and despair in his ears, Xisi calmly shut down the Communicator.

The sound vanished, and the Tower Top seemed to return to calm, sunny weather.

But facing the gaze of the Black Watch beneath him, Xisi felt his heart sink to the bottom.

The Alert Star was indeed tragic, but humanity's 42nd millennium lacks nothing in endless wars.

No need to ask the Governor; Xisi already knows where he stands now.

Oumia No. 3 is obscure, yet the sector it occupies is thunderously renowned!

Because this is 'Octa Lius', a region spanning an entire sector with hundreds to thousands of star systems, no longer a tribe, junk city, or Luchao, but a Green Skin nation bearing the Empire's name.

It is also a place where, under human meddling, the Green Skin and the Terran Insect Tide mutually nurture each other.

Why call it nurturing? Because the Green Skin multiply the more they're attacked, and the Terran likewise, and now both, as ever‑growing enemies, have been brawling in Octa Lius for countless years.

Facing either of these terrifying foes, the Empire's ultimate choice was not to eliminate or contain them, but to abandon the entire region, leaving the Imperial world here to fend for itself!

They themselves retreated to an interstellar defense line that would shatter with a single thrust, yet they stubbornly called it the 'Unbreakable Frontline'.

And the Oumia No. 3 where Xisi now stands lies within the Empire‑abandoned zone...

That means in the near future, if Xisi doesn't find a way to leave quickly, he will face hundreds of billions of foes whose killing speed far lags behind the rate at which Green Skin sprout from the ground or insects hatch from breeding pools!

Know that the mass of Green Skin and insects in Octa Lius dwarfs what a single planet like Alert Star can compare to.

Because when Terran bio‑warships that can fill almost every void of a star system arrive here, the Terran will make every confident enemy experience what endless despair feels like!

Especially since both Green Skin and Terran share the trait of growing stronger by destroying the other.

Both sides' grinding meat not only failed to decrease in amount, but, like breeding poisonous insects, kept wildly developing from the opponent.

And when the day comes that they finally decide the outcome and break out of Octarius, this will no longer be a matter concerning a single planet, or even a single star sector.

Even Kiriman can only put down everything in his hands, lead all the forces he can gather, and recklessly smash into this terrifying alien form that humans themselves have bred like poisonous insects.

Xisi finally understood why the Governor, despite frantically praying to the evil god, received no response from any A-space Demon.

Because when facing Tairen's endless biological weapons, Chaos confronts a war that is a blood loss no matter how much is poured in, even Terror shows extreme indifference.

After all, all of Chaos's actions ultimately amount to tormenting souls, but the Tairen swarm… has no souls!

Now that Xisi has figured all this out, just thinking that the Divine Emperor's front foot watched his decent performance while his back foot kicked him here leaves him with boundless speechlessness.

So even the distant booming artillery of the Nest City can hardly draw his attention back.

Until Youwa, panicked, ran up, trying to warn Xisi that the heavy firepower troops the Governor sent out have returned; Xisi finally ended the "gratitude" he felt toward the Divine Emperor, took a deep breath, turned and walked out of the Dadian.

"Enemy......"

Youwa was anxious, but Xisi simply raised his hand, too lazy to even bother with this group of petty Rebel Forces.

He stared directly at the crashed escort ship on the other side, and, seeing Youwa's helpless, resigned expression, spoke up:

"Regardless of propulsion, regardless of firepower, regardless of protection, the only requirement is to seal and repair this warship so that its engines, cannons and all systems are functional. Relying solely on this Nest City, can you accomplish it?"

Youwa was stunned, listening blankly to Xisi's strange request; if none of those matter, what's the point of bringing them?

But seeing Xisi, who led two thousand people through the entire Nest City in a day without injury, Youwa showed no doubt and actually thought it over seriously; after a while, she nodded heavily:

"We can!"