Chapter 1320: Chapter 1320: Encirclent, and Harlan’s Abnormality
Let’s put aside his previous actions for now. Harlan’s recent behavior has always given us an inexplicable feeling, a feeling that started when he brazenly attacked the Imperial Border and nearly suffered a total defeat. To this day, I sense an intense dissonance.
His actions are not like those of soone with clear logic and a defined goal. He attacked at unexpected tis, lay in wait under unlikely circumstances, and just when he theoretically shouldn’t reappear, he suddenly erged to seize the Feiyali rchant Ship used as bait—his series of actions have a “rhythm of dissonance,” as if he were sleepwalking. The bait ship wandered the Far Border for three whole days; logically, its role as bait should have aroused suspicion by then. If Harlan had been lured out in the first two days, it would make sense, but he chose to appear when the trap was already obvious…
When we received the intel from the Far Frontier, Sandora and I imdiately ordered the entire army to strike and block Harlan’s remnants’ movents. However, after issuing the commands, we couldn’t help but have doubts. Sandora was reminded of the strange phenonon of decreased fighting power of the Fallen Apostle during the border battle. I recalled Harlan’s erratic military actions, and we finally ca to a conclusion: this ti, no matter what, we must find a way to capture that madman alive to figure out what part of his brain is malfunctioning…
Sivis had set out to the Far Frontier with the main force a few days ago. She personally commands the intercept operation against Harlan. Now, she’s leading the pre-arranged ambush forces, encircling the target world layer by layer, reporting the situation from the front lines to us—at this ti, Sandora and I are still at ho. Originally, Sandora contemplated giving up on this capture plan, but now it seems we’ll set off in no ti: dealing with a Xyrin Emperor is no easy task. Even Sivis’ elite forces can’t guarantee there won’t be any accidents, so Sandora and I need to go personally to take charge. Moreover, considering we plan to capture Harlan alive, the regular army likely can’t handle this task.
Considering the “distance” between the Far Frontier and the Imperial Capital, Sandora and I will have to set out shortly.
“The bait sent out a distress signal twenty minutes ago,” Sivis said solemnly on the holographic projection in the center of the living room, clad in her crisp military uniform, with the majestic Do of the Imperial Admiral’s command hall behind her, “The attack lasted very briefly, just under two seconds. The equipnt on the bait confird the enemy indeed was Harlan’s remnant. As expected, the enemy did not destroy the ship but tried to capture it—now the bait has been taken by Harlan’s remnant to the Main Material Plane, and we’ve already surrounded this area thoroughly.”
“Are there any signs of a breakthrough?” Sandora asked with a frown. Next to her were all the dolls in our ho lined up: these little guys hadn’t seen us having a strategic eting at ho for a long ti. Knowing there was going to be a war again, they all displayed extre curiosity. However, they were quiet, even trying hard to sit as upright as the Imperial Soldiers they’d seen: these little guys growing up in this special environnt, though often dubbed “naughty kids” by countless tis, displayed unusual maturity and stability in this case. Before the war, they were more sensible than I’d imagined.
“No, that’s what’s perplexing,” Sivis had a puzzled look, “Theoretically, after Harlan dragged that spaceship back to his lair, he should have realized he was tricked, but there’s been no movent from them yet. Our army followed the last tracking signal sent by the bait and found this world, discovering traces of the Abyssalized Fleet passing through the World Barrier, so we’re sure the enemy is entrenched here. However, despite the quality of the enemy’s Royal Fleet, my subordinates believe Harlan has already noticed the pressure of the Imperial forces—but they show no signs of breaking through.”
Sandora wasn’t surprised: “Maybe they know breaking through is hopeless, so they’re preparing for a last-ditch defense or perhaps Harlan’s brain is short-circuiting again. Anyway, keep deploying disruptors on the World Barrier and speed up the establishnt of relay stations in the Void. Once the power from Leaving World Garden is spread over, they’ll truly be trapped.”
“Not initiating a full attack now? Your Majesty?” Sivis asked sowhat incredulously.
“No rush, dealing with that kind of enemy requires ensuring everything is foolproof,” Sandora stood up, “First release probes, then send in scout teams to ascertain the universe’s condition and Harlan’s general status. Wait for us to arrive, then prepare for a full-on assault.”
Finally, before ending the communication, I specially instructed Sivis: “Don’t act rashly. I always felt Harlan’s brain doesn’t seem all that normal. If an Emperor goes berserk, I’m afraid you won’t be able to restrain him. Sandora and I are heading over now.”
“His brain doesn’t seem…” Sivis was astonished for a mont, then silently saluted and ended the communication.
“Travel light and fast. If we use the fastest shuttle, we can set out after lunch and arrive at the front line before dinner,” Sandora looked at the ti, setting a schedule by her style based on al tis.
I think she was in a good mood now, a bit excited, but more filled with anticipation and joy—I could understand this mood, as I felt the sa. Although Harlan was powerful, he was already a spent force. Since the founding of the New Empire, he has been the most destructive enemy we’ve faced, but now he is cornered, which is obviously a great thing. So, there was a fighting spirit and a positive, vibrant energy between Sandora and .
But the others at ho didn’t seem as vibrant. Since ending the communication earlier, the little doll had been trying to pull my head off: she seed very upset now.
Of course, I knew the reason, and it was an old, difficult situation: my constant campaigns were what she disliked the most. This girl seed eccentric, cold, and distant, but she was actually the kind who, once opened up, would beco very dependent on others. Although she never admitted it, Sandora once told :
“If there’s anything in the world that can make that little girl trust unconditionally, it would be only your words.”
Yes, she was a stiff-necked yet soft-hearted, clingy but pretending to be aloof, troubleso little girl. She hoped I wouldn’t be out running around for three hundred days a year, but she would never say it outright: she would try to bite or do sothing else to make people’s heads spin with her pranks…
With so effort, I detached the little girl from my shoulder. Her slim but surprisingly strong arms wrapped around my neck, and I held her face: “Be good and stay ho. This war will end soon, and Harlan’s remaining forces are dwindling.”
“What about next ti?” the doll girl asked coldly, her face filled with a sulky expression.
“Chen, let give you a suggestion, take her with you.”
As I was figuring out how to make the little girl stay ho obediently as usual, Bingdisi’s voice suddenly ca through the spiritual connection, and her words took by surprise.
“What the hell?” I responded quickly, unchanged in expression but swiftly in the spiritual connection, “This is going to war with a Fallen Emperor, it’s a high-risk war, and this girl isn’t battle-capable…”
“Henceforth, any war needing your personal involvent won’t be low-risk,” Bingdisi wasn’t being capricious; she sincerely explained her thoughts, “You don’t understand what the child thinks… Look at her sisters together with this little girl, and you’ll understand.”
Stunned, I surveyed the surrounding young girls—excluding the Pandora Sisters and Bubbles and Lilina, four elents not classifiable as “children.” I saw no other differences compared to the little doll.
Bingdisi sighed and pointed them out one by one through the spiritual connection: “Little Baobao, she will eventually grow into a mature mainfra, even if her deficiency causes slow developnt; her ultimate form will be like Bubbles; divh, she’s already a powerful Crow God now, and besides so quirks, her intellect and body are almost adult-like, ready to battle with you anyti; Xiao Xue… she has her childish monts, but she will quickly grow into a commander, reportedly serving as a Royal Fleet officer at the front at fifteen. They’re all your children or can be considered as such, who are also sisters to this doll girl, but they’re destined to beco part of your fighting team, having accompanied you on campaigns multiple tis. Your doll daughter has a sense of crisis, but you’ve never realized it?”
I imdiately realized.
“I’m the most useless child” — this thought must have already started to sprout in the little doll’s heart, because the future achievents of her sisters are already evident, while she seems to see no hope of becoming more “useful.”
It seems that in many stories about royal court struggles, royal descendants fight to the death for their individual rits and talents, and the ones lacking strength fall into a huge crisis of insecurity — of course, I don’t think my bunch of cheerful kids at ho would have the ti for such matters, but that doesn’t an they can’t develop related feelings of crisis. Especially for a competitive and sowhat proud personality like the little doll, when she sees her sisters becoming active as Commanders or Gods, while she remains a child playing at ho, she surely can’t accept it.
I had never considered this, not because I didn’t care about this girl, but because I never associated my daughter with the words “brilliant achievents and limitless future.” In my mind, they should be carefree and playful all day; I never thought about leading these precious darlings into battle. Isn’t there a saying that in the eyes of parents, their children are always children? Even if you achieve glorious feats in battle and return ho clad in gold armor on a warhorse, your parents will still talk about your bed-wetting as a child, and you must stand there and listen: because parents never pay attention to how capable their children are, their favorite phrase is always: “The child is still young!”
—Speaking of which, isn’t it a bit sad that I’m having such old-sounding thoughts at this young age?
Just look at Xiao Xue; her military competence and professional knowledge in various high-tech aspects are probably superior to mine, yet 90% of the ti I still see her as an unruly kid, which fully explains the issue.
Thinking about this, I put the little doll back on my shoulder, “This ti, you’ll co along.”
Big Sister imdiately looked at with concern, clearly thinking it wasn’t wise for the little doll to follow us to the dangerous battlefield. However, I waved my hand at her, “Don’t worry, I’m certainly capable of protecting this little one, and she should occasionally see the world — after all, the Empire is all military-based — the last ti she went to the battlefield was two years ago.”
Sandora nodded in strong agreent, “Indeed, royal family mbers can’t evade military duties, though this child is special and hasn’t been counted as a registered citizen of the Empire.”
Honestly, though I decided to bring Little Light along, it’s really just to make the little girl happy. I truly don’t believe she’ll be of any help on the battlefield: on the gods’ battlefield, where abnormal presences are everywhere, her combat abilities really won’t stand out, and clearly, she hasn’t learned about military tactics or interstellar strategy; naturally, she’s not a scientist either — she can’t be a super soldier, can’t be a strategist, and doesn’t understand research…
Uh, I suddenly understand the little doll’s usual frustrations.
“One mouthful at a ti…” Bingdisi seed to catch my thoughts, casting a sidelong glance as she spoke, but soon she saw Sandora gazing longingly towards the kitchen and quickly corrected herself, “Uh, one step at a ti, as the Leader of the Empire, you can’t keep your heirs sheltered in a greenhouse forever, right?”
When Bingdisi ntioned “heir,” it startled . I usually don’t pay attention to the fact that I can now refer to my children with that term: it feels like those words belong in the palace dramas where the imperial relatives fight it out, not with my family that haggles over soy milk, fried dough sticks, and discounted eggs. Now that I think about it…it’s truly intriguing!
My mind imdiately wanders to that famous line: “Soday, my rule will end, and you will be crowned…”
Thinking of this, I can’t help but glance around. Little Bubbles is tugging on Jil’s clothes for toys, Xiao Xue is lying on the sofa reading comics — giggling foolishly, the little doll is counting my hair, and if Little Crow counts as one, she’s feeding her palm-sized split lifeforms cabbage leaves, repeatedly squatting on the coffee table despite being told not to.
I think I should strive to live a little longer, as my heirs’ prospects seem even dimr than Terenas…
Thus, the little doll joyfully got permission to depart with the adults: she sees going out to war as a joyous occasion, which makes wonder if sothing’s off with this mindset. Of course, the consequence of this was that all the younger ones also had reasons to co along. I agree with Bingdisi’s view that “heirs need training; eventually, they’ll all go to the battlefield like Xiao Xue,” so I could only agree in full. But along with Sandora and Big Sister, we seriously made clear to the little ones one thing:
War is serious, and dangerous; it’s not a trip or a child’s play, especially this war, which must be approached with a solemn attitude.
Later, I realized this might have been pointless talk: Little Bubbles is inherently a professional military mber of the Xyrin Apostles; she’s crystal clear internally; although Little Crow is still young, she’s quickly maturing in her role as Crow God. Under the guidance of Bingdisi and Lilina, she already understands the aning of responsibility and sacrifice; Xiao Xue is unquestionable, being from a military background; even the little doll has fought battles with us, and her life before coming to this family was far from peaceful…
These kids are remarkable!
This ti, Lin Xue has to stay and look after the house, mainly to be ready to respond to the summons from her parents, as the Miss hasn’t been ho much this year, and likely won’t be able to go out with us for long periods recently. Besides her, this ti nearly everyone, including Big Sister, is going out, and for the first ti, we’re taking all the kids — oh, according to Bingdisi, once on the battlefield, they shouldn’t be called kids, but “heirs undergoing training” — I can’t recall the last ti I took the little ones along to the battlefield.
Since the army is already stationed at the Far Border, we saved ti on troop deploynt. The journey was light and straightforward; it only took a few hours to reach the Far Border. According to Sandora’s schedule, we set off after lunch and t with Sivis an hour before dinner.
Could we not comnt on Sandora’s habit of using al tis as a schedule?
When we arrived, the elite troops led by Sivis were still surrounding the enemy layer by layer at the critical point of world barrier order. Following Sandora’s orders, they remained stationed here and sent out several waves of scouts. Now, this world is tightly locked down, and the world barrier’s transition information is fully encrypted: this operation is akin to moving a small segnt of code into a folder, then placing the folder into a sandbox environnt for isolation. Unless the sandbox is lifted, the code can’t escape — Harlan is the virus program trapped in that folder.
The Engineering Fleet has built a continuous order field generator on the side closer to the Void at the critical point of order; it serves like the Divine Race’s Void Node, providing us with conditions to establish a base in the Void environnt. A relay station is rapidly being constructed, its function is to conduct and amplify signals from the Leaving World Garden. Once operational, the world where Harlan hides will be thoroughly isolated: as if the virus program is safely confined to a different storage device.
“What’s the situation? Hasn’t Harlan attempted a breakthrough?” Sandora imdiately sought details from Sivis as soon as we t, but Sivis’s expression looked very troubled to us:
“Your Majesty, the situation seems a bit off… Harlan hasn’t tried to break through, nor have they set up resistance positions inside the world. They… have hidden in deep space, and we’re searching for them. Moreover, there’s sothing strange about this universe…” (To be continued. If you like this work, welco to Qidian to cast recomndations and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please read at m.qidian.)
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