Chapter 2918: Three Monks Without Water
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
In terms of overall capability, the fleet of the Heaven’s Origin Sector did not suffer too many losses in the previous battle. Their formation was not messy, their spiritual shields were solid, and they had sufficient fuel and ammunition.
In regard to experts, it was not that the Heaven’s Return Fleet did not have their own Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators, and Giant God Soldiers. In fact, their top combat ability was even higher than that of the ‘barbarians’.
But in terms of fighting will, or rather, their mysterious ‘belief’, they were simply ‘zero’, if not negative, when compared to the crazy outburst of the enemy.
As the last hope of the rightful government of the Imperium of True Human Beings, every noble valued their own life more than anything else. They were not willing to repeat the mistakes of Yun Xuefeng, Song Yushi, and the commander of the royal fleet.
They were merely taking advantage of the conflict between the revolutionaries and the members of the Star Glory Federation. They never intended to perish together with the crazy barbarians!
Judging from the aggressiveness of the enemy and the assault of their entire army, even if they won the battle, it would be a brutal victory at the cost of their own lives. How could they defend the glory of the imperial court and their family, fight against the revolutionary rebels, and… take back the entire imperium and live a comfortable life again?
They could not die in such an inexplicable encounter! The moment such a thought occurred to them, they were tied up and torn apart like crazily growing thorns.
At this moment, the consequences of the lack of unity among the four families, who all had their own schemes, were fully revealed.
If they had only one fleet, they might have been able to survive the desperate situation.
But right now, there were four fleets. If one of them was in front of him, he might have a chance to run away and return to the Yellow Dragon Sector.
It was a different version of ‘three monks without water’.
In the previous charge against Lei Chenghu’s remaining troops, the branch fleet of the Yun family had been the first to respond. They were in the lead and were the first to break through the enemy lines. Right now, they were also the first to face Ding Lingdang and the other Cultivators of the federation.
The other three fleets were gliding toward the end of the trajectory of the ‘gravity slingshot’ at the highest speed. But right now, countless streams of flames were spurting out of most of the starships in the opposite direction and braking them. Their speed was getting lower and lower, but they had exposed the Yun family fleet to the joint fleet of the arsonists and the federal expedition
army.
The four families both lacked effective firepower cooperation and did not intend to cover the Yun family’s vulnerable flank at all.
It seemed that they did not care whether or not Bai Xinghe’s saber would decapitate the branch fleet of the Yun family, and whether or not Ding Lingdang, who was rushing forward, would blow up the branch fleet of the Yun family with her burning iron fists!
“What is the meaning of this? What is the meaning of this? Where is your loyalty to the imperial court? Where is your valiance as Immortal Cultivators? Why is your fleet not moving forward? What do you want? What do you want?”
In the meeting of the supreme coalition army, the leader of the Yun family was so angry that he was about to jump to the meeting table and curse his sanctimonious colleagues. “We have so many main force warships and so many Giant God Soldiers that have not been deployed yet. Do you think that we are doomed so quickly? Where are the Giant God Soldiers? Why are your Giant God Soldiers not deployed? Why?
To be fair, the furious leader of the Yun family was wrong about other people.
The decision not to advance forward because of cold feet was not the command of the leaders of the military, but a tacit understanding between the commanders of their respective fleets.
The so-called Great Dao of Immortal Cultivators was ‘a war between everybody and everybody’. Every Immortal Cultivator knew the importance of preserving their strength and watching the fire from the other side of the lake. Those idiots who were not adept at such arts had been eliminated hundreds of years
ago.
At the end of the day, most of the Immortal Cultivators, at least high-level Immortal Cultivators, would only listen to their own commands and consider the problems in their own interests. The leaders of the families did not have much control over the commanders of the fleet below them, or even the captains of every starship.
Not to mention that the experts who were qualified to command the Giant God Soldiers had all trained hard for one to two hundred years in order to reach the Nascent Soul Stage and the Divinity Transformation Stage. They were all the dominators of their respective territories. Even if anything happened to them, they would have all the money in the world and a way out. There was no need for them to fight against the Giant God Soldiers of so many barbarians for a broken fleet of the Flying Star Sector.
After a hundred years of training, countless plots and schemes had brought him to his current level. Would he be able to afford the compensation if there were any bumps? If there were a lot of battle credits and resources that they could get, the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and the Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators would certainly rush to attack them. But right now, they were really risking their lives. It was hard to say whether or not they could defeat Ding Lingdang. Even if they defeated the Speaker of Parliament, they would be drowned by the storm-like bombardment of the barbarians—what was their purpose?
After all, as Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators, with the help of the Giant God Soldiers, their odds of survival on the battlefield were the highest. Since the situation was so unclear, it was better… to wait and see.
Just like that, the big shots of the Yun family jumped up and down for a long time, but nobody was willing to talk to him. The other big shots all lowered their heads and fell into awkward silence. After a long time, Song Bugui poked his head in through the door again and managed to give an explanation. “Minister Yun, please don’t be impatient. The combat ability of the enemy is not necessarily as weak as they appear to D The so-called loose formation and lackluster flames are very likely to be an illusion of weakness on purpose. They are luring our army to charge forward. Otherwise, how could a dignified Speaker of the Federation charge alone at the front?”
“She is nothing but bait, just like Lei Chenghu’s flagship just now. Therefore, the more arrogant and crazy the enemy is, the more prudent and calm we must be. Why don’t we ask the branch fleet of the Yun family to test the enemy first? If we can see through the enemy’s disguise, we will catch up to them in no time with the support of the waves of firepower!
Song Bugui’s words were like a spring breeze that brought the frozen faces of the big shots to life.
“Yes, yes, yes. What Vice Marshal Song said is right. The enemy must have a trap. There must be a plot. How can a leader of a military nation rush to the front with his fists clenched just because of a disagreement?”
“She is bait, just like Lei Chenghu. We have been fooled just now. We cannot make the same mistake again!” “The Yun family’s valiant generals are like clouds, and their heroes are like rain. They have always been the strongest of the four families. This little brother also admires them to the extreme. The Yun family taking the first credit is a matter of course. No one dares to compete with your brother!”
“That’s very wise of you, General Song. Now that the situation is so bad, the Heaven’s Return Fleet needs to be prudent, prudent, and prudent!”
“Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Doesn’t the Yun family have quite a few Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators who are equipped with Giant God Soldiers? Then, please take action immediately and slay this crazy barbarian in front of the two armies. This will boost the morale of our army and completely tear apart the prestige of these barbarians! As for my family’s Giant God Soldiers, they are undergoing emergency maintenance and are being equipped with ammunition. They will be able to attack immediately and provide an overwhelming cover for our allies!”
All the big shots were flattering Li Yao enthusiastically.
The leader of the Yun family was so angry that he almost collapsed his chair.
Gritting his teeth, he was about to issue a new command to the branch fleet of the Yun family, when the dense light spots that represented the branch fleet of the Yun family in the front of the light beam deviated from their original trajectory and bypassed the coalition fleet of the arsonists and the expedition army!
They were… running away!
To be honest, the branch fleet of the Yun family had reached the end of the ‘gravity slingshot’ at the highest speed and was about to crash into Bai Xingjian and Ding Lingdang.
Under such circumstances, they had to make a 180-degree turn at the risk of the starship being torn apart by the inertia and acceleration. They were determined to run away even though their vulnerable flanks would be exposed to the enemy’s bombardment. It was quite risky. As it turned out, the commander of the branch fleet of the Yun family had calculated the distance between them perfectly. When he completed the turn and accelerated toward the plane of the battlefield in a hurry, he was about seventy thousand kilometers away from the effective attack range of Bai Xingjian and Ding Lingdang. It seemed that, if the enemy did not pursue him, his fleet would have a chance to retreat from the battlefield intact.
Of course, such emergency brakes and super turns were not without cost.
Not only did it consume a lot of fuel, the shell and internal structure of the starship were torn apart by the gravity of the No. 4 planet and its own inertia, too. Its defense ability was greatly undermined.
The previously neat battle formation had been torn apart, too. All the starships no longer cared about where they were and fled desperately in a straight line.
As for the strike to morale… Well, it was impossible to strike something that did not exist in the first place.
As a result, the other three fleets would have to collide with Bai Xingjian and Ding Lingdang in a few minutes at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers.
There was nothing but silence in the meeting of the supreme coalition army. The nobles of the other noble families did not even have the time to berate the big shot of the Yun family for his lack of sense of shame. They sent the most resolute command to their subordinate fleets at the highest speed-Retreat! Retreat at a 180 degree angle!
In front of them was an intimidating army of barbarians.
Behind them were Lei Chenghu’s remaining subordinates, who had just been broken through and were still in a chaotic state.
Even a fool would know which one was easier to deal with. “Hurry up and attack Jade Cauldron. We—we will return to the orbit of Jade Cauldron and meet up with the guards there. Then, we will fight the enemy with the defense system of Jade Cauldron!”
Such high-sounding screams were echoing on the flagship of the fleet..