"So it's Family Head Jiang; no ill befallen you since we last met, I trust," Zhao Chen said with a light smile, looking at this old acquaintance before him.
When Jiang Ziwen saw that Zhao Chen had, of all things, taken notice of them, he at once, in delight, pulled at his sister and his father and murmured, "Father, sister! Just now is a rare chance for us; so long as we can show our goodwill to Zhao Chen and get him to grant us the privilege of priority evacuation, our Jiang family can leave this cursed place all the sooner."
Jiang Shasha, after seeing Zhao Chen, kept her eyes, all the while, from daring to land upon him.
Jiang Xiong, the family head, wore a somewhat complicated look. In the end, still for the sake of the Jiang family's interests, he took it upon himself to step forward and bow to Zhao Chen. "Jiang Xiong pays his respects to the lord."
Jiang Shasha was slow to make any move.
Jiang Ziwen, burning with anxiety, pulled his sister forward outright and took it upon himself to call to Zhao Chen, "My lord, over this stretch of time my sister has often been murmuring of you before me. Earlier, on account of some misunderstanding, the fated affinity between you was missed. It's a rare thing to meet now — I think the two of you might well rekindle the old bond."
Rekindle the old bond?
Hearing these words, Jiang Shasha felt so shamed she wished for nothing more than to end her own life then and there.
Zhao Chen smiled and said nothing. That he could greet them at all — that he'd already done all that mercy and duty required. As for other matters?
Heh, heh, heh.
Zhao Chen went on walking forward.
"Father…" Jiang Ziwen, seeing this, urged his father on; this was, after all, the life-saving straw they'd grasped now with such difficulty.
Jiang Xiong steeled his heart and knelt straight down on the ground, knocking his head upon the earth. "My lord — before, it was I, Jiang Xiong, who was muddled and blind. For the sake of our Jiang family having, alongside the Zhao ancestors, wrought achievements and built an enterprise, I beg you — let the descendants of our Jiang family… let us evacuate this planet. Our Jiang family is willing to return to the Owl Dragon System and serve you, and serve the Zhao family, with all diligence and devotion. I, Jiang Xiong, am willing to give up the position of family head!"
For the Jiang family's sake, Jiang Xiong was willing even to be family head no longer.
Zhao Chen halted his steps, and regarded Jiang Xiong coldly. "Once, I gave you a chance. The road was one you chose for yourselves. And since you chose the road you'd walk, then there is no option of turning back. Wait here for the lottery."
Zhao Chen left without a backward glance.
Since they'd chosen to leave the Owl Dragon System at the very moment it was most needed, then they'd forever forfeited the qualification to return to the Owl Dragon System.
Zhao Chen and his party made a tour of a circuit and left for the next evacuation point. The Jiang family, meanwhile, were stricken, their souls as good as fled — Jiang Xiong above all, now smiling foolishly, now sitting blank and dazed. Jiang Shasha sat upon the ground, her eyes lost and vacant.
From the moment their Jiang family had chosen to leave the Owl Dragon System, they'd been in the wrong. His father in the wrong, she, Jiang Shasha, in the wrong, their whole Jiang family in the wrong. Now the one thing they could pray for was to escape this planet smoothly.
……
Having toured the planet, Zhao Chen's showing of his face had, to a certain degree, soothed the emotions of a great many of the common people.
Zhao Chen returned once more to the bridge of T3 Blizzard No.1. He sat in the captain's chair and opened the System mission page.
Task one: Destroy thirty T3 Hive Motherships (19/30).
Task two: Annihilate a total of one billion hive-race units. (50 million)
Task three: Rescue the common people whose lives are threatened by the hive-race plague; upon reaching a certain order of magnitude, a corresponding reward may be claimed (5 million, 10 million, 15 million, 20 million, 25 million, 30 million people…).
Number rescued so far: 130 million people. 13,000 System points may be obtained.
Both Task one and Task two had made some progress toward their goals — Task one above all; Zhao Chen had arranged the Blizzard squads, one after another, to go kill those T3 Hive Motherships. Effort had not betrayed the earnest heart; in this bare span of a few days, they'd hunted and killed 19 of them. Though the goal wasn't yet completed, in all likelihood the rest wouldn't be of any great difficulty. For, after all, in this Sapphire System where he himself was, there were still nine T3 Hive Motherships.
What most delighted Zhao Chen was Task three. Having evacuated 130 million people, it had, of all things, directly displayed a mission reward: 13,000 System points. Reckoning by this, it meant that for every hundred million people Zhao Chen evacuated and dispersed, he could obtain 10,000 System points. This was, quite simply, a task purpose-built for farming System points!
"The people on this Third Planet — I'll save every last one of them!" Zhao Chen was now all the more firm in his resolve. He looked at the planet before him for all the world as though looking at his own bountiful System points.
The fifth day of the Owl Dragon Fleet's control of the Sapphire System.
The Arctic Fox System star gate.
An interstellar fleet, almost all of it in Owl Dragon Fleet paint, was voyaging toward the star gate. The fleet reported its own identity and applied for priority right of gate use. Because the Owl Dragon Fleet had now been granted privilege by the North Wind Governor, it could take priority in using all the star gates within the North Wind Star Region. This greatly shortened the time of the journey.
But no small number of people didn't yet know of this matter. One interstellar fleet was notified that its gate-use time had been pushed back. As for the reason why — looking at the Owl Dragon Fleet that had seized their slot, they understood at once that they'd been "cut in line" on.
"Damn! On what grounds does this Owl Dragon Fleet have priority privilege? We too are lord-fleets arranged to go support the fighting!" the captain said, displeased.
"Captain… quick, look at that crimson giant ship! My heavens… is that a T3 heavy carrier starship… far too magnificent!" the deputy captain beside him noticed a crimson figure, and cried out in astonishment.
In the moment this crimson giant ship appeared, nearly everyone was drawn to this striking, beautiful figure. For it was simply far too beautiful. And what's more, this was a carrier starship, one of the main-force ship-types — and a T3-grade one at that!
"Could that, too, be an Owl Dragon Fleet warship?" someone cried out. They knew the Owl Dragon Fleet's commander had a legendary interstellar warship, the T3 Blizzard, in hand; and if this T3 heavy carrier starship truly were the Owl Dragon Fleet's, then the Owl Dragon Fleet's capabilities were surely far too terrifying.
But after looking closely, they discovered a spot where something wasn't right. That was — upon the hull of this crimson heavy carrier starship, it wasn't the Owl Dragon Fleet's emblem, but a golden "Chu" character!
This was a Chu family warship? At this point a thought surfaced in everyone's mind — perhaps this was a T3 heavy carrier starship the Chu family had developed. The Chu family had, all along, made vigorous moves to develop interstellar warships, and had a great many ship-research institutes under its command! If it were a Chu-family T3 heavy carrier starship, then it wasn't worth wondering at.
As for why it appeared among the Owl Dragon Fleet — everyone had heard something of it: Zhao Chen was the Chu family's grandson-in-law! Given the relationship between the two, a single heavy carrier starship was nothing to wonder at either.
Before long, this crimson T3 heavy carrier starship, along with the other T2 warships of the Owl Dragon Fleet, crossed the star gate and vanished from here. The very next second, they appeared at the Sapphire System's star gate. After leaving the gate, these Owl Dragon Fleet ships naturally hurried at full speed to the Third Planet.
And at the same time, the five Blizzard squads — all 15 T3 Blizzards — had completed each of their respective tasks, and hurried to the Sapphire System's Third Planet here to rendezvous with Zhao Chen's Owl Dragon Fleet.