"Report, Commander-in-Chief. Every warship of the Owl Dragon First Legion has completed the jump. And has entered combat-ready status. Your orders! Lilith, acting commander, Owl Dragon First Legion."
"Report, Commander-in-Chief. Every warship of the Owl Dragon Second Legion has completed the jump. And has entered combat-ready status. Your orders! Chitong, commander, Owl Dragon Second Legion."
The images of Secretary-Officer Lilith and Commander Chitong appeared before Zhao Chen.
Just so!
This was the confidence on which Zhao Chen had dared pursue as far as the Holy Radiance Empire's borders.
Or one might call them the specially invited guests of this 'performance'.
Saint Cana's fine eyes went wide beside him; she had heard the Owl Dragon Legion possessed technology able to carry a whole legion fleet through an interstellar jump, but to see it with her own eyes was a considerable shock all the same!
"Stand ready for battle! And not one Sacred Lancer Legion warship is to be let past!" Zhao Chen said.
"Yes!"
Two Owl Dragon Legions. 6,000 warships.
Lying now across the Sacred Lancer Legion's path like a chasm.
Something broke within that Commander Heller. He had not thought that having fled this far with such labor, with only three Sacred Lancer warships left to him—
with his escape from the tiger's jaws in plain sight, who could have imagined so many Owl Dragon-line warships would appear before him!
It came to hauling a man who had climbed at last to the mouth of the well and pushing him back down into the abyss.
"My lord Consul, save me! Save me!" Commander Heller looked to a video window beside him in entreaty.
"Rest easy. I shall keep you all." A steady man's voice came, and then the window closed.
And a few seconds later—
a comm request came to Zhao Chen's side, marked as being from the supreme commander of the Southern Sacred Fleet-Group.
Seeing the words, Zhao Chen was somewhat surprised.
Because this supreme commander of the Southern Sacred Fleet-Group was in fact the Consul of the Southern Star Region!
"Do you wish to withdraw for this?" Zhao Chen looked round at Saint Cana behind him.
Saint Cana said calmly, "There is no need."
The stubborn girl.
That standing of hers, on his bridge — and he having all but wiped out an entire Sacred Lancer Legion.
Was that not asking for unpleasantness?
In truth… even had Saint Cana kept out of sight, the fact of her having had dealings with Zhao Chen could not have been hidden, given everything that had passed.
Only he had not thought Saint Cana would be so forthright about it.
Since it made no difference to Saint Cana, Zhao Chen minded it no further, and tapped to accept outright.
And then the image of a man seated in a captain's chair wrought of some pure white jade appeared before Zhao Chen.
The two of them looked at one another 10 seconds together, and neither spoke first.
The other saw Saint Cana's presence too, but seemed to take no notice of it whatever.
"Oh yeah! Commander-in-Chief, this old girl's blown another one — straight in through that ship's backside and out at the bow. Magnificent, it was!"
The mood of the thing was broken by one discordant voice from beyond the picture.
And there was plain displeasure in this Consul's eyes. "My lord, might you halt your ships' attacks?"
"You tell me to halt, and I halt. Would that not leave me looking rather foolish?" Zhao Chen said with a light laugh.
The Consul stared at him. "The Sacred-War Duel between the Owl Dragon Legion and the Sacred Angel Legion I know something of as well. For my lord's Owl Dragon Legion I have great respect. I hope that for the sake of friendly relations between our two empires, my lord will stay the fighting for now; whatever misunderstanding there may be, we can sit down and speak of it."
"Then let me first finish off these last two warships, and we can talk it over at leisure. Or else you might talk it over with my fleet instead." There was even something of provocation in Zhao Chen's tone.
The Consul drew a deep breath; by the look of it he had been stung by the other's manner.
His gaze turned cold as ice. "My lord, gathered here on my side are 20 fleet legions of the Southern Sacred Fleet-Group — 60,000 warships. I should not wish anything unfortunate to happen in this place!"
There was overawing in those words already.
"60,000 warships?" Zhao Chen counted it off on his fingers. "A moment ago I annihilated a whole Sacred Lancer Legion with under 100 warships. So tell me: with 6,000 warships in hand now, could I annihilate your 60,000? Shall we try it and see~"
Madman!
Madman!
This fellow was simply a madman.
Saint Cana cried it out inwardly beside him; she had not thought Zhao Chen would take such an attitude into a negotiation — this was pure stoking of the fire!
And yet it had to be said, his threat carried very real weight.
Because the Sacred Lancer Legion had indeed, in point of fact, been annihilated by fewer than 100 Owl Dragon-line warships.
That was a fact!
And weak as the Sacred Lancer Legion was, it was one of the Sacred-Light Legions all the same, and above a regular Sacred Fleet-Group's configuration in quality!
6,000 Owl Dragon warships against 60,000 Holy Radiance warships.
One truly could not guarantee what the outcome would be.
"Wa-ha-ha-ha, another one done for! Now let me see who's left to protect you, turtle-spawn!"
Xue Xiaoxiao's voice came through again.
"My lord, is this a declaration of war upon the Holy Radiance Empire! Is this not pressing us rather too far!" the Consul said in a low voice.
"Pressing you too far? It is the Sacred Lancer Legion who pressed too far! The Sacred Lancer Legion stands charged on four counts! The first: the Sacred Lancer Legion sent assassins to attack me in Stellar City. The second: in league with the Qian family, it went to the Starlight Empire's Chu River Star Region and plundered my subjects, holding them as slaves and oppressing them. The third: when our side organized a fleet to rescue those trapped subjects, the Sacred Lancer Legion sent fleets to obstruct us on purpose! The fourth: I have found that the Sacred Lancer Legion carried on smuggling and military trade with the Starlight Empire's rebel forces! So the Sacred Lancer Legion has brought this upon itself, and I will destroy it! And nothing anyone says will serve!" Zhao Chen ground it out through his teeth, telling over the Sacred Lancer Legion's crimes one by one.
Saint Cana looked at Zhao Chen from beside him with a strange eye. This fellow… what he said sounded to have some reason in it.
Yet listen closely and it was pure sophistry!
The first count: he speaks of being attacked in Stellar City, when the target of that attack was plainly herself, Saint Cana, and Zhao Chen was merely caught in the overflow.
But the trouble was that the other side could never admit to the attack upon Saint Cana — for were that to get out, the assassination of one's own legion commander, and of a Sacred-Light Legion at that, would be a scandal beyond doubt!
The second count did have some reason in it.
The third and fourth were a striking first: fixing upon Qin Xiaotian's party the standing of rebel forces.
And at the same time, all through his words Zhao Chen pressed the Sacred Lancer Legion's responsibility, and never once rebuked the Holy Radiance Empire.
That was where the fineness of it lay.
Zhao Chen appeared to be falling out openly with the other side, and yet had left a line intact.
At this hour there were but two choices set before this Consul.
Either he fell out openly with Zhao Chen and fought — but even a victory would cost no little, and were he not to win…
Or he swallowed the insult and came down the ladder Zhao Chen had left him.
Saint Cana saw that Zhao Chen was gambling!
But what Saint Cana did not understand was on what confidence Zhao Chen gambled that the Southern Sacred Fleet-Group would not dare move against him.
"My lord Consul, for all these things I have said, I hold true proofs and evidence. Would you care to look them over?" Zhao Chen looked at him in mockery.