A solar panel quietly floats in low Earth orbit. It has been here for maybe a hundred years. During this century, helium ions from the solar wind have continuously bombarded the solar panel at 400 kiloters per second, etching the originally smooth gallium arsenide surface into a coral-like structure. Space has inscribed the traces of ti on this human creation in the most brutal way. When this solar panel was first deployed, the Eighth Martial God might still have been active on Earth.
Perhaps after so more ti, it will be re-captured by gravity due to collisions with other space debris and burn up in the atmosphere.
A shadow is cast over this piece of space junk. A battleship gently lowers its altitude. Including that discarded panel, several pieces of space debris are knocked into a descent towards Earth.
The second ship, the third ship...
More vessels enter the area where space junk is denser.
The Svalbard Corps, the Romance King’s Planet Suppression Fleet.
The vessels used by the Planet Suppression Fleet are noticeably different from those of the Deep Space Fleet. If deep space battleships are often like precise scalpels, then the Planet Suppression vessels are akin to armored behemoths. The thick external armor can withstand low-intensity collisions with space debris in low Earth orbit, and their short and stout structure can better resist lateral forces.
To enhance the main gun’s power, deep space fleets extend their hulls continuously to ensure enough acceleration space for high-energy particles. To reduce the probability of being hit, they also reduce the frontal cross-sectional area. With no need for a large number of small fighter escorts, the importance of "volu" is reduced. Thus, deep-space battleships evolved through warfare continually becoming narrower and longer. Eventually, the Deep Space Fleet can even bend due to its weight on a planetary surface.
In contrast, the Planet Suppression vessels can operate within the atmosphere, complete ground suppression, and, if necessary, land vertically. The armor, vertical take-off and landing capability, and ground weapons, which deep space vessels do not need, are, instead, crucial evaluations for the Planet Suppression Fleet.
A formation consisting of two motherships, fourteen escort ships, and nine assault ships slowly presses into the dense area of space debris. More than a dozen spindle-shaped drones detach from the mothership. These magnetic-field-guided drones cooperate with the mothership to create a strong magnetic field, altering the trajectory of space debris to prevent direct hits.
The battleship group approaches the "river" created by space debris.
The turbulent sections of the Yellow River have flow speeds of only a few ters per second, yet that is enough to feel like thousands of armies galloping. However, the "tal river" beneath the battleships will orbit the Earth in hours, with a relative speed of over fifteen kiloters per second. The distance between large satellite remnants is less than thirty ters, and the small fragnts are countless.
It took Earth countless ages to clear its orbit. Humans have created several thin, dirty "star rings" for Earth in less than four hundred years.
Under the influence of the magnetic field, the tal surge avoids the battleships like water. The gradient of the magnetic field makes alloy fragnts cut through the magnetic lines and slide faster, with satellite fra remnants less than a ter in diater suddenly lifting their orbit ten ters from the assault ship like driftwood caught in an invisible turbulent stream. Occasionally, stragglers get near the battleships but are deflected by invisible forces, changing their trajectory as they roll in the void.
A rotating solar panel shatters into hundreds of blades under magnetic field interference, but they are deflected before touching the escort ship, creating two silver parabolic waterfalls on either side of the fleet.
Large remnants are typically diverted early. The battleships themselves have strong magnetic fields that can twist the debris trajectories to avoid weak points. The speed of the debris ensures they escape the magnetic field after twisting their trajectories, avoiding capture.
Dozens of rockets are launched downward. Inside are commands issued in the nas of Zhu Anlei Bin and Hartman. These are communication thods to overco the complex electromagnetic environnt after nuclear explosions and are delivered to the Protector Troops on the ground. Yawgmoth plans to establish the tightest encirclent using the space elevator as the core. By setting up a fire station every few ters and enough troops, they can handle any Hero.
Additionally, there’s another vessel, observing from three kiloters away from the main fleet, firing laser signals into the distance. Several relay stations will transmit them in succession to guide His Highness Godspeed King.
Since Zhu Anlei Bin transferred command to Hartman, he quietly waited on the side. He began to speculate on when the opponent would launch an attack—or if an attack would even happen?
Heroes naturally have the option to "avoid battle." Several First Heavenly Layer martial artists, combined with dozens of elites, all possess strong engineering skills. In this environnt filled with scraps, they can fight for a long ti. But if they choose that, it ans abandoning all Heroes fighting on the ground and betraying all bases that have exposed themselves in this battle.
If there is no corresponding force constraint, the Planet Suppression Troops can use the advantage of space to wipe out all resistance forces from above.
That would deal a devastating blow to the morale of the Hero faction.
Even if just a few symbolic shots are fired, a battle will certainly occur.
Moreover, how could "Xiang Shan" possibly make such a choice?
"Assassination," considered in ancient tis as a low-cost, high-efficiency asymtrical thod. Nonetheless, its high returns co with high risks. Precise assassination relies on deeply infiltrated intelligence networks and cross-domain collaboration capabilities, remaining a challenge for the resource-poor weaker parties.
Choosing this thod as an entry point and developing it into a complete tactical and strategic theory, combined with technical ans, entirely overturns humanity’s understanding of "warfare"...
This shows the degree of recklessness and adventurousness of Xiang Shan.
As a grassroots commander of the first Space Army, Zhu Anlei Bin has had several confrontations with Xiang Shan in the secret war. Those old-ti soldiers always thought they were close to defeating this terrorist, but this terrorist would soon step up again, becoming stronger, more ruthless, and more cunning. That Xiang Shan was a "nightmare" itself and the reason for many tough guys’ insomnia.
——Let’s hope this is the last ti...
Zhu Anlei Bin waited silently.
Until the tremor occurred.
The Heroes appeared.
Bai Man was the first Hero to appear on the battlefield. The Heroes curled up among the remnants of space satellites, their alloy armor already stabilized to a thermal radiation frequency similar to that of space debris. They orbited Earth more than twice before finding a suitable trajectory to approach.
The heavy hamr in Bai Man’s hand smashed the magnetic-field-guided drone, transferring much of his kinetic energy over, rapidly slowing himself down. The debris of the drone hit the mothership at thousands of ters per second. The close-in defense gun would promptly shred the remnants, but a piece of the drone’s wreckage inevitably struck the flagship.
Zhu Anlei Bin looked at Hartman.
King Aqini said, "Damage level, minor. It doesn’t impede combat."
Two First Heavenly Layer martial artists in blue-black armor had already circumvented from behind the mothership, and the escort ship imdiately turned directions, pointing its side artillery array at the location where Bai Man destroyed the drone. However, Bai Man, using the debris as cover, had already shifted his position. He destroyed the second magnetic-field-guided drone.
Two more satellite remnants, each five ters in diater, slid through gaps in the drone array to the inner side of the fleet cluster. The escort ship’s artillery formation imdiately shredded these remnants into pieces—nobody dared to guarantee there were no Heroes within.
Zhu Anlei Bin switched his vision to the external cara. With this explosion, another flash appeared above the fleet silently. He ca so abruptly that the escort ship did not react in ti.
Tuoba Xuanyuan Fourteen descended like a thunderbolt—no, this is beyond the Karman line, higher than any thundercloud. He fell like a divine sword, like heavenly punishnt, crashing onto the escort ship. The escort ship’s hull, at two hundred ters in length, is not easily moved by a single prosthetic body. However, under Tuoba Xuanyuan Fourteen’s violent strike, everyone felt that the No. 2 escort ship should tremble—it couldn’t not tremble!
"The Tenth Martial God’s disciple, the one who killed the officer Jangar." Zhu Anlei Bin thought so.
Regulos’s thermal sword was half-embedded in the warship’s external armor. The heroic hero quickly pulled out the sword, then stamped his foot, and the plugin attached to his hind leg instantly injected a high-performance clay bomb into the seam left by the thermal sword. Tuoba Xuanyuan Fourteen swiftly departed. Behind him, the bomb tore through the warship’s external armor.
Xuanyuan Fourteen did not attempt to enter the interior of the No. 2 escort ship but lunged towards another vessel.
Niyaguti subsequently appeared.
More heroes entered the battlefield one by one.
Zhu Anlei Bin was sowhat displeased. This fleet belonged to him, and so officers were carefully trained by him. He looked at King Aqini and said, "His Highness Godspeed King only wants to attempt capturing Martial Gods and a few others, shouldn’t Tuoba Xuanyuan Fourteen and Bai Man be eliminated directly? Why are you so lax?"
"Stay alert to Xiang Shan," Hartman said calmly, "You’re the one who’s too relaxed. Being overly concerned with battle damage won’t help you kill Xiang Shan. You should try to find Xiang Shan."
Zhu Anlei Bin knew Hartman’s disposition and avoided further argunt. He cut off his ship’s visual feed and processed the increasing data on heroes.
Hartman could sense Zhu Anlei Bin’s emotions. Slightly nervously collected, then shocked, terrified, and confused.
Zhu Anlei Bin marked two "Xiang Shan"s.
........................
At that mont, Xiang Shan felt multiplied pressure.
The arrangent of "officers" and "soldiers" changed in a very short ti. An invisible order transford the whole battlefield. Xiang Shan could clearly see the displayed "weak spots."
——Hartman...
This is the Military Martial Path, the command art bordering on Dao beyond re techniques. Xiang Shan wasn’t overwheld by multiple First Heavenly Layer officers because they had no ans to capture him. Instead, the First Heavenly Layer officers kept a cautious distance, with only hook claw cannon-equipped jets circling around Xiang Shan.
Simultaneously, tracer rounds marked ballistic paths forming several dotted steel "Great Walls" before Xiang Shan.
The suppression of firepower limited Xiang Shan’s maneuverability, and to so extent, the hook claw cannons targeted Xiang Shan’s weak spot——no matter how strong the reactor output, Xiang Shan would ultimately need propellant for short-distance bursts. Should the jets drag him with their hooks, Xiang Shan would have to expend precious propellant to return to the battlefield.
The drifting hooks moved silently, their heads equipped with magnetic traps, making evasion much harder than it appeared. The cables behind them mixed with artificial muscle fibers, giving the hooks a more unpredictable trajectory. If not for regular jets lacking reactors and instant output being insufficient, the diamond-coated carbon alloy could even fracture ordinary external armor.
This is undoubtedly the correct approach. A "warship" can always carry more fuel than a "single aircraft." Once fuel runs out, Xiang Shan can only rely on non-propellant propulsion——and the weak acceleration of the latter would make him a sitting target in high-speed cosmic combat.
Hartman using a hundred liters of fuel to exchange for one liter on Xiang Shan would be a huge gain.
"This ti truly conservative, old dog..."
Xiang Shan could feel Hartman restricting his movents, guiding him to fight back-and-forth within designated sectors. Black hooks occasionally erged from the void, attempting to exile him from the battlefield.
These hawk-like jets annoyed Xiang Shan like flies.
Using the Bodhidharma Gaotian prosthetic body, Xiang Shan reached out to grab a swiftly shot hook. In the mont the hook closed, he skillfully avoided it, wrapping the string around his elbow three tis. The flight power of the jet and the pullback force of the hook provided Xiang Shan with acceleration. Xiang Shan quickly closed in on the jet and kicked with both legs.
In the universe, the jet shattered into pieces, and the flying fuel was ignited by Xiang Shan’s tail fla, blazing brightly for a mont. Xiang Shan used this to forcefully charge at a First Heavenly Layer officer.
In long-term confrontations, heroes short of fuel also developed many techniques for space combat. The hook claw is one of the most important lessons. By securing each other’s relative positions, and even using it to move, it can greatly conserve fuel.
Its essence lies in "taking initiative" and seizing the opportunity for "release."
Xiang Shan aid to strike the toughest, strongest parts! The "weak spots" left by Hartman were re honey pot-like traps. He intended to directly punch through this damned fleet and face that old dog!
The First Heavenly Layer Martial Artist was probably sowhat renowned. But before Xiang Shan, he was weak indeed. He fired his gun, yet Xiang Shan’s few lateral moves dodged all shots, and the laser sweep from Xiang Shan’s shoulder triggered all satellite missiles.
Chaos Star: The secret to swiftly executing lateral evasions while maintaining one’s speed. In the hands of the King of Godspeed, it danced like catastrophically moving stars in the sky, earning this nickna.
Xiang Shan thus punched with this officer.
This officer seemingly nad after so deity or Buddha was struck like thunder. Hundred layers of layered waves fists prompted his counterattacks, generating several intertwining forces, and his wrist and elbow joints issued strange noises, evidently malfunctioning.
The Tenth Martial God’s energy release techniques, combined with Xiang Shan’s originally mastered ch-Breaking techniques, were undoubtedly the perfect combination.
After exchanging blows a few tis, the officer fell behind. He dared not linger and released fierce power to push Xiang Shan away. Xiang Shan used this force to charge at another enemy.
The officer breathed a sigh of relief, intending to retreat to repair his prosthetic body damage. But a shadow suddenly ca from the front.
The carbon fiber cable on Xiang Shan’s wrist——just taken from that jet, swiftly wrapped around the officer’s malfunctioning wrist. Being repeatedly strained by ch-Breaking clever force, this arm was already incapacitated and couldn’t shake it off montarily. Xiang Shan at the other end flicked the cable, which wrapped around his neck with a five-centiter diater.
And another hook claw had already shot from Xiang Shan’s side, grabbing another officer.
In the ti Xiang Shan engaged with the second officer, one electromagnetic gun shattered the first officer’s torso.
Using his original prosthetic body, Xiang Shan followed through the line he tore open, using gunfire to point-shoot those disordered enemies.
"Multitasking" was originally the Ninth Martial God’s unique skill. The Ninth Martial God was AI, multithreading was his instinct.
Yawgmoth spent imnse resources to let Hartman design military martial battle formations for the Ninth Martial God, making the Ninth Martial God "think" he was strong.
These resources, along with Hartman’s arguably unparalleled martial wisdom, were absorbed by Xiang Shan as the Ninth Martial God was rewritten.
To avoid Hartman’s powerful inner strength, the prosthetic body driven by AI Xiang Shan shut down most conventional information reception channels, maintaining only a periodically disrupted laser communication with the main body. But "precognition" based on powerful computing power ensured seamless cooperation between the two bodies.
Seven kiloters to Hartman’s flagship left!
Only eight kiloters from the flagship, Romance King Zhu Anlei Bin marked two Xiang Shan, which caused his confusion and shock.
Sixteen enemy and friendly identification signals turned into light in the cosmic electromagnetic environnt background.
The fourth officer was still struggling to resist.
A distance of five thousand ters is already considered an "internal queue" distance for a cosmic battleship combat group.
Hartman is trying to compress Xiang Shan’s tactical options, while Xiang Shan is also compressing Hartman’s tactical options. The closer the battlefield gets to the flagship, the fewer tactics Hartman can choose.
More units, more Martial Artists have to co pressing forward.
Four thousand ters.
As the distance becos closer, Xiang Shan’s maneuvering space surprisingly becos more spacious. The fleet’s interference with each other’s firepower makes it impossible to use high-power main guns on heroes within the fleet, as that would just damage their own vessels. At this distance, the ammunition used for suppression mostly causes severe damage to the prosthetic bodies but not much to the ship armor.
Xiang Shan’s lower half experienced several explosions from reactive armor.
A gigantic debris with a diater exceeding a hundred ters rolls head-on. It seems to be part of a space station wreckage. Bai Man destroyed more than half of the magnetic field guided drones. Although a massive pile of space debris is also an obstacle for heroes, there are only less than thirty individual units in this area. No matter what, the chance of space debris hitting Protectors is much higher than hitting heroes.
Moreover, heroes have far superior individual quality and maneuverability compared to the governnt side.
This large wreck passed through the fleet without hitting any vessels, and the scattered fragnts are even harder to control, so Hartman didn’t order it to be shattered. Xiang Shan’s hook claw captured the fifth officer and collided with the large debris. The officer struggled hard and avoided a direct hit.
And this wreck also shielded Xiang Shan from most of the small-caliber firepower. In the zero point few seconds of passing by the wreck, the debris violently shook, partly because machine cannon tracking Xiang Shan hit upon the wreck, partly because of fights inside the wreck.
The wreck broke into pieces, one of which collided with an escort ship at super high speed.
Xiang Shan kicked the wreck, accelerating towards another escort ship, holding the thermal sword storage rack torn from the fifth officer in his hand.
The next second, Xiang Shan flung the heated thermal sword blade towards the machine cannon. The blade sliced through the machine cannon and bounced, embedding into another cannon.
Tuoba Xuanyuan Fourteen’s speed was also swift. He pounced upon this escort ship that lost two close-in cannons and a part of its defense, replicating Xiang Shan’s thod to blow open its external armor.
Xiang Shan continued rushing towards the flagship.
Three thousand five hundred ters.
Niyaguti sent a warning signal.
A blue-white ominous star appeared in the sky, constantly flickering, like a sign of misfortune, an on of death.
Haya is about to arrive.
Haya’s speed is indeed too fast, with a radar range for an individual soldier of rely tens of thousands of ters, which is fleeting in the high-speed state for Haya, making it impossible to react. And active visual observations have "too large a margin" of error in distance. The hero side is utterly unaware of Haya prosthetic body’s various paraters nor the actual size of Haya prosthetic body’s tail fla at present, relying on optical observations to asure distance and speed, which might cause several seconds of misinterpretation.
And in a battle with a Martial Artist like Haya, any slight error is fatal.
Haya will arrive at the battlefield at any mont.
Heroes still have a chance. If they enter the atmosphere to escape at this mont, they can avoid Haya’s pursuit. Haya’s speed is too fast, he would never enter the atmosphere. Although facing the fleet’s attack that way, the survival rate is still higher than directly facing His Highness Godspeed King.
But Xiang Shan still wants to take a gamble.
Niyaguti planned for so many years, only to walk into a trap. This blow to Earth Heroes is just too heavy.
However, if Xiang Shan could replace Hartman, things would be different.
Hartman is the governnt’s towering white jade pillar, the purple gold beam over the sea. As long as he is killed, heroes’ activities would be much freer. He is a hard-to-replace talent.
As for the death of Martial God...
Xiang Shan feels, the heroes should already be used to it.
Hartman finally left his most familiar fleet, fighting with the people trapped in the trap’s edge. Xiang Shan feels, maybe he should complete this good dog’s wish, giving him a chance.
If even Zhu Anlei Bin was killed, then this thing would be a victory of chivalry.
If a heavy damage is dealt to the Svalbard Corps, Earth’s liberation would be nearly in sight.
If even Haya was killed...
One thousand ters left...
Niyaguti also followed along. She carried a nuclear bomb on her. She didn’t hand this nuclear bomb to Xiang Shan because Xiang Shan is bound to be the primary target of the enemy. Most of the energy from a nuclear explosion in vacuum is released in the form of X-rays, gamma rays, and neutrons. The ship’s strong magnetic field is sufficient to deflect charged particle streams, and the light radiation is quite ineffective against reflective coatings. And ships with reactors have ample space to fill with neutron slowing materials. Thanks to the building of the Dyson Cloud, high-temperature resistant materials are quite inexpensive in alloy form.
Detonation outside the ship, while still enough to disable the ship, cannot guarantee killing the prosthetic body Martial Artists inside.
Close detonation can ensure that nuclear residue and the ship’s own shattered debris mix into waves to kill all enemies involved.
And here, First Heavenly Layer Martial Artists are simply too many, the nuclear bomb will easily be prematurely destroyed in its warhead.
If just one of them reaches, it’s a victory.
Zhu Anlei Bin can no longer sit still. He said: "Is this your plan? Your command artistry? My god... I have to personally..."
"Denied." Hartman remained calm. The closer it gets to the crucial mont, the calr he becos. This is the wisdom he learned from Xiang Shan many years ago. He said: "If you want insurance, just stand closer to ."
"Xiang Shan!" Niyaguti warned Xiang Shan again.
Actually, no need for the warning, Xiang Shan already saw it too.
At a certain mont, the real ammunition attacks used by the Protectors sharply decreased. Simultaneously, the main laser turrets of the escort ships and attack ships turned their direction, focusing on vaporizing the micro-particles in space.
Haya’s distance was already very close.
Hartman was clearing a path for Haya.
And Xiang Shan was still three hundred ters away from Hartman’s flagship.
—Will it make it?
—Will it make it?
Originally, Xiang Shan in his prosthetic body was just a hundred ters away from the flagship. He was almost beneath the flagship.
Xiang Shan raised the Sonicon Blade.
Then, at this mont, a fierce star descended.
A thirty-ter-long combat spear with a sharp tip and a hefty end brushed past the hull of the Svalbard Corps’ flagship, striking the original prosthetic Xiang Shan, tearing off one of Xiang Shan’s left hands and half of his shoulder.
Haya thus threw the combat spear in a high-speed state, trying his best to transfer the kinetic energy from himself to the spear. Nurous external fuel tanks tumbled.
Like a butterfly, the forward jet stream brushed past the right side of Niyaguti’s body.
Haya, like riding an uncontrollable mad horse, crashed into a stationary bullet. The jet stream exerted a lateral force on him. Haya dodged a piece of debris and then fired at Tuoba Xuanyuan Fourteen. Even the fastest electromagnetic weapon could only fire a single round at this mont.
Haya was completely incapable of controlling the specific landing point of the bullet. He hoped the opponent wouldn’t die.
Then, he rushed out of the battlefield.
Haya and the combat spear separated in this way. The combat spear drew a straight blank area among the wreckage, colliding with an abandoned spaceport tens of kiloters away.
Xiang Shan saw the rapidly expanding crack on the flagship, witnessing the warship armor twisting like rolling asphalt.
The scattered fuel barrels even beca a deadly throwing tool. Many participants, including the Hero Faction’s Tolstoy, were repelled by the scattered fuel barrels.
But this round of attack was not all.
At the instant the combat spear hit the abandoned spaceport, the entire spaceport exploded apart. Haya’s speed had already endowed this kinetic weapon with energy comparable to a small nuclear weapon. At the core of the combat spear, a massive energy storage structure absorbed large amounts of energy and instantly released it, as blades at three-thousandths the speed of light reversed into the battlefield.
The blade split into two, two into four, four into eight.
Bai Man was pierced through the lower abdon by one of these blades. A hero seed to react, raising his weapon to resist. The blade severed his limb along with the weapon, then changed direction, shooting diagonally upward.
The hero was heavily wounded at that mont!
Xiang Shan—with the Bodhi Dharma Gao Tian prosthetic body—said, "Get ready! He’s coming again!"
—Lucky...
In just ten seconds, the azure fierce star reappeared at the earlier position, but this ti it looked even larger.
Haya had circled around the Earth to decelerate.
Earth’s gravity, at this speed level, had a negligible effect. But Haya, still in the habit of precisely calculating every unit of fuel, utilized Earth’s gravity well to assist in deceleration.
And now, the speed had decreased to a level he could manage.
Several induced missiles were ejected from behind Xiang Shan. The external attachnts on both sides of his waist popped out, spraying several shapes of mory alloy tal foil. Under the temperature of the universe, these tal foils quickly folded into distorted shapes, making themselves appear larger than they actually were on radar.
A semi-transparent mirror surface made of tallic dust appeared in front of Xiang Shan. Xiang Shan instantly canceled the magnetic field, simultaneously moving with the hook claw, then creating another tallic dust reflection mirror.
—Fortunately, most of Haya’s armant against him was on this side’s prosthetic body...
With a thought, Haya once again traversed the battlefield. He avoided his own blades, raised his auxiliary weapons—two alloy blades—and slashed towards Xiang Shan and Tuoba Xuanyuan Fourteen. But before hitting, he let go directly.
If he had slashed with the sword, his wrist would have shattered in the collision.
The slashes destroyed the mirror surface, shattering countless tal foils.
Xiang Shan and Tuoba Xuanyuan Fourteen narrowly evaded Haya’s second strike.
However, a hero had three propulsion units on their right side sheared off by a flying dart thrown by Haya.
After crossing the battlefield, Haya continued to decelerate and turned twenty kiloters away.
Afterward, he passed over the battlefield in reverse.
A dart pierced through the armory behind Niyaguti. This left Niyaguti in despair. Haya’s attack might have already penetrated the warhead of the nuclear bomb, but amid this violent attack, she didn’t even have the ti to confirm the status of the nuclear bomb.
Haya caught up with two blades, gripped them in his hands, then turned as gently as possible.
Tuoba Xuanyuan Fourteen recalled a legend his master had once told him. It was said, before the Great Extinction of Ichigo, there existed small creatures with a language akin to body language. They would dance with their bodies to form the symbol ∞, conveying information to their comrades about "where the sugar is."
The King of Godspeed in the air drew a similar trajectory to display death.
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