ISMW Chapter 121

The warship passed through the interstellar jump gate, heading toward the first border line.

The Galactic Empire’s frontline corps was stationed here. The “dandelions” who had voluntarily participated in the third forced landing plan and were prepared to sacrifice themselves also bloomed here, waiting for a “wind” to blow them toward the starry lands.

After Yun Xunlan and Yu Chen’s group arrived at the first border line and rested briefly for a day, they boarded the combat warship the next morning—at dawn when night broke.

Even though the rocky planet where they were currently docked couldn’t see the sunrise at all, their arrival meant dawn.

From now on, the shadow cast by the Seweier insect race would fade away with the night, disappearing in the light of dawn.

“Baby, did you name your mecha?” Yun Xunlan asked Yu Chen through the communicator as he immersed himself in the cocoon chamber.

Yu Chen turned around and “looked at” his lover through the sealed layer from his pilot seat, answering: “I did.”

He hadn’t been assigned the SSS mecha for very long, but he had thought of the name early on. Yu Chen straightened his body, looked at Yun Xunlan’s mecha “Star Sink” docked in front of him through the viewing window, smiled, and said: “It’s called ‘Second Star.'”

—Willing to be your second star, forever burning for you.

Upon hearing this, Yun Xunlan also smiled.

The warship they were on had very few living people. Besides the captain, vice-captain, and some medical and logistics soldiers responsible for piloting the warship, there weren’t many more military personnel. The mecha bay only had himself, Yu Chen, and five other mecha pilots who could activate 3S-level mechas.

But they didn’t need more mecha pilots either.

Because these five mecha pilots didn’t have high resonance with 3S mechas, barely reaching the resonance values needed to successfully activate mechas. They were on the same warship as Yun Xunlan to help him replenish “ammunition”—when mechas in Yun Xunlan’s mecha group crashed, they would activate other 3S mechas, then Yun Xunlan would override the piloting permissions and control the new mechas to continue fighting.

At this moment, they were starting up mechas one by one in the mecha bay, allowing Yun Xunlan to establish mental connections with other unmanned mechas.

Finally, Yun Xunlan used his mental power to connect with nearly one-fifth of the mechas in the mecha bay. He wanted to simultaneously ignite these mechas’ cores, achieve perfect resonance with them, and emit light like stars to respond to Yu Chen.

But the system spoke at this time: “Only one-fifth.”

“Such a small number.” It no longer pretended now, no longer deliberately disguising its voice with mechanical electronic tones, but directly conversed with Yun Xunlan using his own voice: “Do you think you can survive?”

Actually, if he fully opened his consciousness sea to the Tribulation Transcendence stage, Yun Xunlan was confident he could perfectly resonate with all the vacant mechas on this warship. But even without opening it—Yun Xunlan still spoke with certainty, telling the system: “I can.”

“Little Ju, we should both understand from the beginning.” He spoke gently to the system. “Death was never what I truly feared.”

The system fell silent like the Demon Refining Pot when only Yun Xunlan was inside.

“I won’t rashly open my consciousness sea to the Tribulation Transcendence stage just to control more mechas.” Yun Xunlan continued, directly cutting off the system’s thoughts. “Piloting this one-fifth well is enough.”

“Yu Chen loves you so much, yet you only respond to him with one-fifth of your core light. Tsk tsk tsk… your love for him isn’t deep enough either.”

The system snorted coldly, seeming to despise Yun Xunlan’s behavior of speaking love with his mouth but being unable to take actual action.

Hearing this, Yun Xunlan seemed to feel something and was stunned for a moment. Then, like when he sat on the tea house steps asking the system, he asked again: “Then what should I do?”

Only this time, he asked with a smile.

The system also returned to its mechanical voice and answered him: “Have those five mecha pilots continue activating mechas.”

Yun Xunlan conveyed the system’s request to those five mecha pilots.

They were very confused: “But Third Prince… this will exceed the upper limit of mechas you can simultaneously control!”

“What upper limit?” The system shouted. “This scholar is tired of saying it—with me, you are invincible.”

Yun Xunlan smiled and told them: “Activate them. My upper limit is far beyond this.”

Those five mecha pilots had no choice but to follow Yun Xunlan’s instructions, continuing to activate mechas, from one-fifth, to one-fourth, to one-third… to finally one hundred percent.

Throughout the entire warship, all mechas’ core energy sources simultaneously emitted a faint blue-green glow, like blue supergiants with the most intense internal nuclear reaction rates burning in the universe. Their light passed through the mechas’ viewing windows, reflecting on Yu Chen’s face and on the cocoon chamber.

Yu Chen turned back once more and saw those names that never extinguished in the long river of history, saw his mother’s reserved yet passionate love letters to his parent, and also saw the main star that would never separate from his orbital path—his lover, his omega.

“Sigh…” The system let out a long sigh, imitating Yu Chen’s tone and speaking to Yun Xunlan in that “I really don’t know what to do with you” manner: “I really don’t know what you’d do without me.”

Yun Xunlan raised an eyebrow: “I have Yu Chen now. Without you, it seems like it wouldn’t matter.”

The system was furious: “I hate you!”

The mecha bay doors slowly closed in front of the unnamed mecha pilots. They exited the warship where Yun Xunlan and Yu Chen were located and went to another warship—this warship also had many backup 3S mechas. They would wait here to activate mechas for Yun Xunlan when he needed to replenish “ammunition.”

Fu Yingxuan watched as the five of them also entered the warship and reached their combat positions, then reported to Yun Qihe, who like himself was still standing outside: “Your Majesty, everything is ready. We can begin using the honey cocoon…”

Yun Qihe didn’t turn back and raised his hand to interrupt him: “Give me the insect venom.”

—They were only one step away from having the “honey cocoon” that was infected with king insect toxin but still alive attract the king insects and summon the insect race’s Leviathan biological starships.

So after hearing Yun Qihe’s words, Fu Yingxuan immediately knelt down: “Your Majesty, please let me do it!”

“There’s no need to argue about who’s more suitable for this.” Yun Qihe turned back, looking down at him and saying, “If we fail, we’ll all die anyway; and if we succeed…”

Yun Qihe slowly raised his eyes, his gaze moving back to fall on the warship where Yun Xunlan was, suddenly curving his lips: “I will no longer have to wait.”

His mecha was named “Wait,” meaning to wait.

But…

Yun Qihe directly snatched the high-concentration king insect venom injection from Fu Yingxuan’s hand, slightly tilted his head, pointing the needle at his carotid artery. His red-rimmed eyes looked toward the vast and brilliant universe as he murmured hoarsely: “…I hate every day of waiting.”

The moment his words fell, Yun Qihe also emptied the injection.

His hair also turned silver from the roots in that instant, and even his nails began to show silver-white iridescence.

In this cold and sharp light, the rocky ground beneath their feet suddenly transmitted violent tremors. Yun Qihe turned and sat in his mecha, and in He Chubai’s recording expressing longing, he also spoke his unrequited yearning: “I only thirst for that ticket to reunite with you…”

This was a ticket to death, and also a ticket to the Seweier insect race’s home planet.

Yun Qihe’s brothers and sisters had exchanged their sacrifices for valuable data in the first two forced landing operations. This data supported humanity’s third forced landing plan, descending on the Seweier insect race’s home planet in the most magnificent way, like dandelions.

The war was more brutal than their training and imagination, but the night before dawn is often the longest, and no matter how long the night, dawn eventually comes.

Half an hour later, the forced landing army successfully withstood the counterattack from the king insects of the insect home planet, allowing the warships to establish an interstellar gate in the jump channel opened by the Leviathan biological starship.

Once one interstellar gate was built and reinforcements arrived, a second interstellar gate would follow. They were built on the bones and flesh of pioneers, bringing the dawn of life to survivors.

The Brood Mother was finally beheaded under Yun Qihe’s giant sword. Fu Yingxuan immediately followed and wrapped Her body in a sealed chamber. That corpse was very soft and fragile—without the protection of king insects, She couldn’t survive in the universe at all. The king insects, disconnected from the Brood Mother due to Her death, instantly lost their will to fight and let out crying-like mournful wails. This sadness enveloped the entire insect home planet.

The planet also seemed to have life, using explosions as its crying wails, splitting into small spheres that were blood-red and seemed to be condensed from chunks of flesh.

They were only palm-sized but contained the last power of the entire insect planet. They opened small jump channels that could accommodate their passage, wanting to escape to find a new Brood Mother.

“Fire pursuit cannons! Don’t let the spore eggs escape—!”

Fu Yingxuan’s hoarse orders rang in all mecha pilots’ earpieces, and no one failed to comply.

Yun Xunlan also controlled Star Sink to fire tracking heavy artillery at the last insect spore egg. When that artillery followed the insect spore egg into the jump channel, the system’s voice appeared in Yun Xunlan’s mind once more, saying: “I’m leaving.”

“…What?” Yun Xunlan, who was searching for any remaining spore eggs that hadn’t been eliminated, was stunned for a moment.

“You said you wouldn’t rashly open your consciousness sea to the Tribulation Transcendence stage just to control more mechas.” It asked Yun Xunlan, “Then would you come here to see me, just to meet me once?”

“Come see me once, Yun Xunlan.” It said again, its voice gentle. “I’m about to leave.”

“I will.” So Yun Xunlan replied, “I will come see you.”

He didn’t need to open his consciousness sea to the Tribulation Transcendence stage. When he could connect with all mechas in the mecha bay, his consciousness sea had already opened to the Tribulation Transcendence stage.

Yun Xunlan closed his eyes, feeling the resonance between that consciousness sea and himself. Finally, when a gentle breeze brushed across his face, Yun Xunlan opened his eyes.

Before him were mountains with mist cleared away, and a blue clear sky without white clouds—this was Reflection Cliff.

Yun Xunlan sat cross-legged on Reflection Cliff. Looking up, he could see the sky, but looking down, he still couldn’t see the ground, because at the bottom of the cliff was a lake reflecting the sky. The lake surface was like a mirror, without waves or ripples, yet it couldn’t reflect his image.

His reflection sat beside him—only the reflection’s figure appeared in the lake.

It was a silver-haired, red-eyed Yun Xunlan. Like Yun Xunlan, it also looked at this mirror lake, speaking to him in a mechanical voice: “The scenery here is nice, isn’t it? Just a bit monotonous. You’re happy and carefree outside, while I can only forever gaze at your face.”

**

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