Chapter 568: All Going As Planned, Right?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Ye Chong's huge cannon surprised not only Sha Ya, but also Duan Qian. His parapsychic sense kept him in touch with anything happening around him.
Ye Chong made further calibrations. Five minutes later, he was done.
He inhaled deeply and pushed the button to fire the weapon.
Boom!
A massive photon beam shot out soundlessly from the cannon barrel, a silent beam of dazzling light. Ye Chong narrowed his eyes. Even through the dense mist, the beam was still too bright to see with the naked eye.
The beam vanished soon enough, but Ye Chong had to wait a second for the afterimage from the beam to vanish before he opened his eyes again.
In front of Ye Chong, a 10 meter wide cylindrical passage was formed. In this passage, all the plants were destroyed, leaving only charred marks on the ground. The heat from the photon beam had essentially vaporized everything in its way. Ye Chong could even see a red spot at the end of the cleared passage that was the Red Wasteland, but the mist soon covered the entire passage.
The view reverted back to plain purple.
Ye Chong was happy with the outcome. He did not look back at the ship cannon, which was now just useless. Ye Chong did not use rare materials to construct the cannon, but opted instead for common materials. The ship cannon was too large, making it too costly to use rare materials. Besides, the ship cannon was not too important for Ye Chong. It was only needed for this single shot. Since the ship cannon was made of normal materials, it could not withstand the energy load from the first shot.
However, this was enough for Ye Chong.
Ye Chong went back into his Spider and advanced into the passage. Behind him, the other Spiders followed. Duan Qian caught up as well. He was still shocked by that powerful cannon shot. If it was directed at a person, even the edges would take off any limb or finger in its way.
Nevertheless, Duan Qian quickly focused back on his task. As leader of the army, and given the arrangement of the training vehicles, his duty was important. If he had any missteps, the students him would all be in danger.
All the students were now tensed. They could only know what to do next from the pulling force of the hooks on their training vehicles. Even though they had gone through this training repeatedly, they were still very nervous when it came to the real thing. Some of them were already sweating all over. The pressure on them was immense.
The Spider moved very quickly, but also carefully. A line of Spiders were trailing behind Ye Chong. Ye Chong had chosen a special batch of students to man these Spiders. The Spiders had a control console identical to the ones in the training vehicles. Hence, the maneuvring part was mostly similar.
The only thing the Spiders needed to be careful about here were the swamps. Ye Chong had repeatedly taught these students how to free themselves of obstacles in swampy areas. As for the training vehicles flying at low latitudes, they need not worry about the swamp.
Ye Chong's teachings did not go to waste. The students traversed through the swamps without issues behind him, and did not hamper the army's advance.
In the end, the army crossed the Mist without trouble.
Once they reached the Red Wilderness, Ye Chong heaved a sigh of relief. He had made all the preparations he could think of, but still he felt nervous throughout the entire journey. The students were too vulnerable. If they were normal mech pilots, Ye Chong would not have worried so much.
Ye Chong ordered the army to rest here for one full day.
The Mist did not take them too long to traverse, but it was a test unlike any before it for the students. The mental stress was exhausting for the inexperienced students. Since the Red Wilderness was safe, Ye Chong had ordered the army to stay here and recuperate for an entire day.
The students had never seen so much of the world in their entire lives as they had in these few days. This made a lot of them excited, but got some of them nervous. They had never been in such a dangerous situation before. Nevertheless, the students still gathered and talked eagerly over their meals.
Sha Ya looked at the young and naïve faces of the students, and sighed inside.
"These students, how many of them will survive this?" Sha Ya directed the pointed question at Ye Chong.
Ye Chong replied calmly, "The ones who qualify will survive." Ye Chong did not think he was being cruel. He had been treated more ruthlessly than this before. The way he saw it, those who were not fit enough would be left behind. To survive, one must be strong enough, simple as that. It was a rule of Nature, and of human society.
The rule was fair to all, even to himself. There was no cruelty or kindness to speak of.
Sha Ya went quiet. She could not understand Ye Chong's reasoning. She thought Ye Chong was being contradictary. He can stand being humiliated or told off, but he would kill anyone whom he ascertained to be a threat to his life. There would be no warning before he made his move. A cold and cruel man like him had, however, chosen to spend so much effort on his students, and would even care for their welfare.
Ye Chong was not in this operation alone. He and Sha Ya stood guard. The Red Wilderness did not have any dangerous creatures, but Ye Chong knew that there were other shooters here. Darkniss did not belong to any country. Its borders were connected to multiple countries, so it was possible for them to encounter shooters from other countries.
Any shooter who could reach the Red Wilderness must be quite competent. If they showed up, the inexperienced students would not be a match for them. Hence, Ye Chong and Sha Ya had to babysit the students.
Now that they were here, Ye Chong did not have to be too discreet with his actions.
He withdrew Celest.
When the huge figure that was Celest appeared before everyone, they were all flabbergasted. The entire camp went silent. Everyone was shocked.
Celest's 10-metre tall figure was intimidating. Black armor covered its entire body, leaving only the face exposed. The giant had sharp angles on its face and half lidded eyes. On its helmet was a red feather that shot up toward the sky like a flame. There were eerie decorations of red flowers on its wrists, elbows, knees and waist. The giant carried a black box on its back, which also had a large and splendid red flower on it.
"The giant!" Shu Mo'er cried out, looking very pale. She and her group had gone to Yedda City because of the giant that Duo Ka spoke of. That was also how they came to know Ye Chong and got into a conflict with him. Shu Mo'er felt like her brain was about to explode.
Ye Chong threw a cold glance at Shu Mo'er. Celest's pilot cabin opened up just then.
Under the close attention of his large audience, Ye Chong entered the pilot cabin. He would not have time to enter Celest if any shooter were to appear suddenly. Ye Chong did not have watch his actions too much here. Besides, there should not be any fighter aircrafts here. Even if there were, Ye Chong was not afraid of them. The upgraded Celest was so powerful that not even its pilot, Ye Chong, knew exactly what it was capable of.
It would not hurt to be too careful. Ye Chong always chose the option that guaranteed the best results, even if it might be a lot of work.
The rest of the army watched with surprise, awe and disbelief as Celest finally moved!
Celest opened its half lidded eyes that shone brightly with life. Its eyes were devoid of emotion, just like Ye Chong's eyes.
Celest stepped forward slowly, its heavy footsteps hammering into the hearts of its audience.
In the pilot cabin, Ye Chong tapped on the control console with familiar strokes and activated its holographic scanning system. Celest's holographic scanning system was far more advanced than its primitive counterpart in the training vehicles. In fact, its holographic scanning system was top of the line.
There was no one around them. Ye Chong had given an order for Celest to expand its holographic scanning range to its maximum.
After this precautionary step, Ye Chong did not stop to relax. To the inexperienced students, the past few days had been very stressful, but Ye Chong considered them to be all part of his normal life. His mind was much tougher than normal people.
Time should never be wasted. This was one of Ye Chong's core principles.
Now, what should he be doing? Training, of course!
Training had been a huge part of Ye Chong's life. Whenever he had the time, he would dedicate himself to practicing. No matter how dry or basic the routine, he would repeatedly practice them. At his level, he might only be able to perform a basic move one millisecond faster after a million repetitions, but still he never faltered. This was why he could become so strong, and continue to become stronger and stronger.
Despite the audience, his training routine was not disrupted.
Ye Chong began his training as usual. First was the basics. Ye Chong never gave up on fundamentals. This was because Mu had once told him that all combat moves were made up of the basic moves. He never forgot this lesson, and held onto it as one of his training principles.
When Duan Xian saw the giant in black armor began to practice basic moves, he was stunned.
He never imagined that he would get to see a 10-metre giant in black armor performing basic combat moves like a combat expert.
It was mind-bending, to say the least!
He was a combat expert himself, and could see that Celest's every move was actually designed for battle!
More surprising was the fact that the giant could move deftly and quickly despite its size. Duan Qian found himself shaken by this observation. If a massive fist was able to strike out so quickly, it must be very powerful.
Compared to Duan Qian's more informed observations, the other students only saw the giant moving about. Nevertheless, it left quite an impression for them. The giant was huge, like a small hill. It was so heavy that every step shook the ground beneath them. The students who were sitting on the ground felt this more acutely than others. They could feel the weight and power behind the tremors that radiated through their bodies.
When a small hill in front of you was moving faster than a fighter, and more agile than a leopard, that feeling was simply …
It was simply too exciting!
Ye Chong completely ignored his surprised audience as he immersed himself completely into his training. After the basic moves, he moved on to more complicated battle moves.
When had the students ever seen such a dazzling display of mech combat? Every punch and kick was powerful and imposing. They could even hear the air whistling whenever the giant struck out quickly.
Duan Qian watched with his mouth gaping. The combat moves that the giant was performing were already more complicated than what he had learned so far. His biggest question now was, just what in the world was this giant?
Ye Chong did not know that his training demonstration had completely convinced his students of a mech's strength. When the students were offered the chance to use mechs as their weapons, there would be no objections. This was because they had seen Ye Chong train in one. Unlike shooters, they did not have so-called shooter's pride, and could accept mechs faster.
When Ye Chong was finished, he finally noticed the worshipping stares from his students.
He was not pleased because of this. In fact, he felt nothing at all. He rarely cared about how others saw him.
He only stayed true to himself.
Ye Chong did not exhaust himself from his training, since he must be prepared for enemies. Even so, he was already drenched in sweat by now. Ye Chong panted slightly, and focused on recovering.
Waiting and guarding his students were both tasks that required patience, but that was always a quality of Ye Chong's. Perhaps what he was doing now seemed dry and uninteresting, but Ye Chong could always find the energy to continue and persist in doing them.
There were no surprises so far, and this comforted Sha Ya. By now, the students had gotten used to having the giant moving among them.
The army soon reached the entrance to Darkniss, with Ye Chong and Sha Ya leading the students.