Chapter 72: Give Me Your Battleship Cruiser!

A chain of explosions from below upward.

The massive spirit tribe spire roared, like a mountain range smashing down at its feet.

The Green Skins and Terrans locked in a bloody battle in the basin were drawn to the huge sound.

They all turned back and saw the still‑relatively clear passage instantly sealed; to leave the basin now would require far more effort.

Seeing the plan finally completed, at the mountaintop beside the spirit tribe spire, Fanluosi finished the major matter in his mind, and his expression relaxed considerably.

The surrounding Astarte and Fan soldiers also showed relief; many even began looking toward their base direction, ready to return at once.

Fanluosi, after confirming that the swarm in the basin wouldn't emerge for a while, focused entirely on the base and evacuation.

He even glanced up at the battleship‑cruiser in the sky, already billowing thick smoke, and anxiety flashed in his eyes.

At this moment, if they didn't leave now, there might truly be no chance.

"Lord, I'll call right away..."

Fanluosi, honored as Judge, at this moment naturally addressed Xisi with a respectful title in public, and none of the surrounding survivors thought anything was amiss.

But before Fanluosi could finish speaking, he saw Xisi discard the empty magazine, reload his weapon, and without looking toward the retreat direction behind him, he aimed at the center of the basin.

Fanluosi was startled; following Xisi's direction, he saw, deep in the basin, a team that had been holding off the Alien Form alone for an unknown length of time.

Fanluosi recalled something, and a more intense strangeness appeared on his face.

He even found it hard to believe, for what Xisi was about to do seemed utterly meaningless to the Empire.

Without waiting for Fanluosi to speak, Xisi, meeting the crowd's astonished gazes, quickly reloaded while saying:

"I will go back to support my team and await your evacuation Yunxuji."

Fan Nuosi and the others were completely stunned.

Putting aside that the group in the basin truly needed no rescue, just seeing the basin completely blocked and the sheer number of alien hordes that made one's scalp tingle, everyone present could only stare at Xisi with incomprehension.

If any gaze differed, it was only the Fan soldiers who had been treated as expendables and discarded countless times.

These soldiers, though not daring to look directly, lowered their heads and cautiously glanced at Xisi, still showing a hint of shock.

After speaking, Xisi stepped back, and just before lifting his foot, he glanced back at Fanluosi.

"You'll send the Yunxuji, right?"

Fanluosi stalled, his face showing speechlessness.

Though he kept nodding in agreement outwardly, inside he was already simmering with sarcasm.

"I'm the one who can't throw you away!"

"If this news spreads, the National Church will know I handed the Emperor's prophesied 'Saint' to the Terrans; those madmen might skin me."

"Even the Divine Emperor himself would probably be so angry he bursts out of Subspace, just to show what the Divine Emperor's wrath looks like!"

"Of course, there might also be a 'Color Sister' who just tasted the sweet side."

Seeing Fanluosi's expression and confirming he hadn't dared to that step, Xisi turned and rushed toward the basin.

Although the Divine Emperor's and Terror's Blessings had already cut down many Terrans, with the slight boost from the Color Devil, Xisi managed to fight back.

But as the people behind watched the abnormal glow emanating from Xisi, after a while they all turned their gaze to Fanluosi.

After all, the Judge hadn't spoken yet; they just felt something was off and kept silent.

Fanluosi, feeling the surrounding stares, after a pause, finally showed some irritation on his face:

"Didn't I say it? Throne's Blessing!"

The people around, rebuked by Fanluosi, shrank back; then a group watched Xisi charge back, their expressions turning extremely strange, and exchanging glances, they all saw the same thought in their comrades' eyes:

"He's practically a deity."

Xisi returned to the basin, while Fanluosi never left the mountaintop.

He summoned almost all his strength, drawing an aerial force from the warship and base, and roared at the Communicator, declaring that before Xisi's evacuation, Fanluosi would never board the ship.

Time passed unknown, and when a swarm of craft, under a sky of artillery fire, broke through the heavens, instinctively trying to pick him up first, Fanluosi frantically grabbed the Communicator and roared:

"Why rescue me? The basin! Lord Sisi won't board, so I'll die here today!"

Seeing the swarm delayed because of picking him up, Fanluosi got so angry he lost control and started swearing profusely.

Although the Empire's populace is illiterate and swearing is commonplace, for someone who became a Judge, Fanluosi, it was an unimaginable act.

Other humans around also cast shocked looks, but after so many shocks today, everyone oddly thought it seemed almost normal.

Until the swarm, while 'cleansing the ground', forced a landing to extract the few remaining troops, and Fanluosi watched Xisi's last figure board the Yunxuji, his tense nerves finally relaxed.

After boarding the Yunxuji with Xisi, he hurriedly ordered the pilot.

"Return to base, now return to base immediately!"

Fanluosi was urgent, but the atmosphere inside the Yunxuji was far from relaxed.

Fanluosi sensed something off; after speaking, he turned to look at the survivors who had just escaped the nightmarish basin, and now all were staring at Xisi ahead.

Xisi looked at the Display inside the Yunxuji, watching the chaotic scene on it.

Fanluosi was startled, carefully standing behind Xisi, not daring to disturb him, and peered through a gap.

The place on the screen was very familiar; Fanluosi recognized at a glance that this was the ground base that should have already begun evacuating.

But the base, which should have been receiving him and leaving the surface via Yunxuji, now erupted with artillery fire far fiercer than when he left.

Not to mention ordinary Fan soldiers, even the Astarte, Battle Nun, and the battle‑hardened rookies from the several groups Xisi brought; their numbers had already been cut by more than half, and the remaining ones were trapped on the mountaintop, roaring as they faced the endless surging swarm beneath their feet.

"How could it... be like this?"

Fanluosi was completely stunned; he had imagined everything, but never that even after the plan succeeded, the final outcome would still be a failure.

Xisi looked at the Green Skin Crown on his hand; the biggest difference from his memory now was that the crown's activation time had been extended a bit too long.

In response, the Green Skins and Terrans rushed here, in numbers exceeding expectations!

The Green Skins and Terrans in the basin hadn't emerged; they continued fighting each other, yet this didn't reduce the number of Alien Forms arriving here.

Even looking at the screen, the Alien Forms besieging the base were more than when they left.

Fanluosi stared blankly for a moment, then, as a Judge, his training forced him to grit his teeth and snap back to awareness.

He immediately entered the cockpit, looked through the glass at the orbit, wondering if he could go straight to space without returning to base, but as far as he could see, instead of the fleet he had brought, there was a solitary Zero, its shields completely failed, engulfed by vast clouds of bombs, the hull continually taking hits from Green Skin cannons—a wrecked battlecruiser.

In this state, even if he went up, it would only be dying somewhere else...

Fanluosi's eyes lost all light, and what was even more desperate than normal development was that Fanluosi would not only die himself, but also kill his allies and drag Xisi down with him!

No matter what, being able to become a Judge, at least in Fanluosi's eyes, the Empire's future was indeed more important than his own life.

So he himself could die, but Xisi had to live!

Fanluosi gritted his teeth, thinking whether there was any other way, and through the display confirmed that the entire planet had been overrun by Green Skins and Tyranids, and Xisi finally withdrew his gaze.

Amid the constantly shaking hull from the sky-full of gunfire, inside the cabin, Xisi looked at Fanluosi's despair-filled face and suddenly patted his shoulder.

Fanluosi raised his head in doubt, Xisi's face remained calm as ever, and without waiting for Fanluosi to admire Xisi's mindset, Xisi spoke first:

"Fanluosi, do you trust me?"

Fanluosi was stunned, took a hard look at Xisi, then stiffly nodded in disbelief.

Before Fanluosi could voice his opinion, Xisi, seeing this, took a deep breath, moved his hand from Fanluosi's shoulder, and pointed it toward the sky.

"Take your battlecruiser."

"Give it to me!"