Where some grieve, others rejoice.
"Hahahaha… well fought! Beautifully fought! Fought our prestige out for all to see, straight off. Xuan'er, look at this battle report. Near 31-to-one loss ratio! And that wasn't some ordinary legion-fleet across the way — it was the Sacred Angel Legion! To fight out a record like this. What a joy! What a joy!" Chu Changhe, in high spirits, looked for all the world as though he himself had fought and won this battle.
So much so that Chu Xuan beside him couldn't help rolling her eyes.
"Grandfather, it's been the better part of an hour since you got this message. And you've repeated all this a good few times over. I could very nearly recite it by heart," Chu Xuan said, helpless.
Chu Changhe laughed aloud, not minding in the least: "What — tired of hearing it! Xuan'er, let me tell you. Even if it weren't Zhao Chen — were it anyone at all who could fight out a record like this, I, Chu Changhe, could sing his praises for three days and three nights! With this, our Starlight Empire's civil war can be spared the pain of a two-front squeeze. This lad Zhao Chen — he's got the goods! Well done — a grandson-in-law I chose myself, and no mistake!"
As for her grandfather's high regard for Zhao Chen — he all but claimed him for his own true grandson outright.
To the old man's talk Chu Xuan had grown well used, and didn't gainsay it directly.
And to speak the truth, she too had been worried before about this Sacred-War Duel of Zhao Chen's; she'd never dreamed Zhao Chen would turn in so fine a report card.
Even within, she couldn't help feeling proud for that man.
One might put it thus: after this battle—
—the Owl Dragon Legion could rank among the top three legion-fleets of the Galactic Alliance!
Made its name in a single battle, one might say!
"Still — will the Holy Radiance Empire truly abide by this three-year non-aggression pact?" Chu Xuan said, a touch worried.
"They will, and they won't," Chu Changhe said.
Chu Xuan blinked, and looked at her grandfather, puzzled.
Chu Changhe explained: "To the Holy Radiance Empire, the Sacred-War Duel is a sacred, inviolable rite. Even the Imperial Council of Elders wouldn't dare overturn the result — after all, they govern by religious faith, and the moment they broke a rule of their own making, their whole system would collapse in an instant. So they won't do a thing that lifts a stone only to drop it on their own foot. But neither will they be so simple as to keep their hands wholly out of it."
"But they can't send a legion-fleet into the Starlight Empire — so what else can they do?" No sooner had Chu Xuan said it than a thought flashed through her mind.
She cried out: "Could it be… the Holy Radiance Empire will use other means to meddle in the Starlight Empire?"
"Yes." Chu Changhe nodded.
"Off the top of my head I can think of no fewer than three. For instance — prop up an interstellar power, give it aid in secret, and let it win the Starlight Empire's civil war; failing that, even keeping the Starlight Empire in three years of chaos would suit them very well. Or else — hire a great many interstellar pirates and interstellar mercenary fleets to enter our Starlight Empire's borders and wreak all manner of havoc, dragging out the course of our civil war, stretching it on and on. These two are of poorer value for the cost. Were it me, I'd choose outright to cooperate with the weaker side of the Starlight Empire's civil war, offering warships and the like in aid. And then require them to sign certain treaties — ceding such-and-such a star region, and so forth."
Chu Xuan knit her brows: "You mean… if we gain the upper hand in the Starlight Empire's civil war, the Holy Radiance Empire will contact the Princes' faction and give them aid. And then have the Princes' faction sign certain treaties… But… ceding a star region — that's an act of forfeiting sovereignty and disgracing the nation. Would the Princes' faction truly dare do such a thing? Would that Qin Ming not fear being spat upon by all the Starlight Empire, high and low? Being nailed to the pillory of the Starlight Empire's history books!"
Chu Changhe looked at his granddaughter and laughed: "Xuan'er, you're still too naive. If the Princes' faction truly reached such a pass, they'd be perfectly capable of doing just that. After all, history is written by the victors — and only by surviving can one make oneself the final victor. Truly driven to that step, they'd sell off some of the Starlight Empire's interests without the least scruple, to trade for the Holy Radiance Empire's aid."
Chu Xuan fell silent.
True enough — some people have a bottom line, like her grandfather.
But some have none at all; think — Qin Ming dared even to kill his own father; what is there he'd not dare do?
Truly driven into a corner, there's no telling what mad thing this fellow might do.
"Then what do we do?" Chu Xuan was a touch worried.
Chu Changhe shrugged: "Nothing to be done."
"Eh?" Chu Xuan looked at her grandfather, taken aback.
Chu Changhe laughed: "There truly is nothing to be done — if the two of them really do sign some pact, we have no way at all to stop it. We can only carry on gritting our teeth and fighting the Princes' faction. Unfavorable as this is to us, set against facing the Holy Radiance Empire's interstellar legions head-on, it counts as a very fine situation indeed. If the difficulty we face now was once nightmare-grade, then now at least it's only hard-grade."
Chu Xuan nodded — that was the sense of it, true enough.
"Oh, right — that lad Zhao Chen also proposed to supply us 30 billion star coins' worth of raw-material resources each month going forward. I never thought this lad would truly get those resource-star-regions out there running in such good order — so great a resource output in so short a time. Fine, fine! With this, then, we needn't worry about combat resources for the time being; we can carry on our contest with the Princes' faction!" Chu Changhe said with a cold smile.
He'd been worrying his combat resources would run dry.
But now Zhao Chen had produced a scheme to break the deadlock, shattering outright that half-year limit.
And so he, Chu Changhe, had no worries left at his back.
"Oh, and — I hear too that this time, in the Sacred-War Duel, that lad Zhao Chen brought out some T4-grade heavy interstellar battleship, a Blue-Eyes White Dragon or some such! This lad — he's quietly, on his own, felt his way to building a T4-grade battleship. No wonder he wouldn't use my T4 Boreas in the Sacred-War Duel."
Chu Changhe stroked his stubble and said, narrowing his eyes: "Xuan'er, I reckon this lad — that promise of his to give us the T4 interstellar destroyer's technical blueprint by year's end— —that's flatly stringing us along. At his pace, I'd wager he could hand it over to us right now. You go and press him for me! Don't let him think 30 billion star coins of combat resources a month is enough to fob off this old man. The T4 interstellar destroyer tech — that's what he promised!"
Chu Changhe was still hankering after his T4 interstellar destroyer.
"All right, I'll go contact him." Chu Xuan nodded.
"Contacting won't do. As it happens, the fighting on the frontal battlefield has quieted a touch lately — you go find him in person. If he won't hand you the T4 interstellar destroyer's blueprint face to face, you throw a tantrum and roll about on the floor in front of him," Chu Changhe said with a wicked grin.
Chu Xuan wore a look of speechlessness.
And at this moment Zhao Chen was reviewing the reward from the quarterly task he'd completed.
He'd never thought the "debt-collector" would already be coming to his door.