Zhao Chen's expression went blank again for a moment.
The Dragon Emperor… gone?
Our Hades has not even sailed over yet; how is he gone already?
"What is the situation?" Zhao Chen looked at Charlotte in surprise.
Charlotte at this point mentioned a certain person. "Commander-in-Chief, you remember that Grandfather Deer King I spoke of before?"
"You mean that one of the earliest founding leaders of the Revolutionary Army? The Grandfather Deer King who took away those within the Revolutionary Army who did not support you." Zhao Chen had heard Charlotte's report of that business.
At the time the Revolutionary Army had split.
This Grandfather Deer King had in fact supported Charlotte in his heart; but considering that those opponents had come out with him, he could not leave them to their own devices.
So he had chosen to take those opponents and leave the Revolutionary Army, to make his plans again in time to come.
"I remember you said afterward that that body of the Revolutionary Army went to the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth's north? And because that region is rather out of the way, their whereabouts were uncertain; and with the strife between the Warhammer and ourselves besides, little intelligence has come through. Why speak of him now?" Zhao Chen was puzzled.
"Because the news of the Dragon Emperor's death in battle came from Grandfather Deer King. He contacted me of his own accord," Charlotte said.
This business grew stranger and stranger.
Zhao Chen bade Charlotte go on.
The intelligence on Charlotte's side was a great deal more detailed than what Lilith had said of the Holy Radiance Empire a moment ago.
Because the one who had told them was one of the parties to the event: Grandfather Deer King.
This business must begin some months ago.
The Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth's north had originally been controlled by the Machine Race.
But with the Machine Race's withdrawal, a great many unsurveyed areas had been left empty.
Yet at the time the Dragon Emperor had handed down an order that no tribe was to open up new star regions in that direction.
And because the Dragon-folk tribe's territory covered the whole northern frontier, and the Dragon-folk tribe would not develop it themselves, no other tribe could cross Dragon-folk territory to develop it either.
And the Revolutionary Army Grandfather Deer King led had, by a chance turn of luck, skirted round the Dragon-folk tribe's territory and entered the heavens beyond the Warhammer's north.
There Grandfather Deer King's Revolutionary Army moved with great care; for though the Machine Race had withdrawn, the direction of their advance was precisely toward the Machine Race.
But they discovered to their astonishment that at the boundary near the Machine Race's territorial star regions there appeared a route — and that route was most peculiar.
On one side it lay near Machine Race territory; on the other lay star regions in a state of interstellar disaster, into which even the topmost interstellar warship entering would be broken to powder and dust.
That road was for all the world like a goat-track along the edge of a cliff.
Grandfather Deer King's Revolutionary Army advanced by degrees, and along the way discovered certain rather impoverished star systems, whose resources were insufficient for the Revolutionary Army to live upon long-term, but could barely resupply the fleet's energy.
And so they went on advancing, seeking star systems and star regions fit to inhabit.
At last they discovered a star region with signs of life, and beyond it a broader country still!
But entering it, they found they had been wrong.
It was no region teeming with life at all, but a hell upon earth!
Coming to this, a thread of gravity entered Charlotte's gaze. "By Grandfather Deer King's account, they discovered there the Demon Race recorded in the Galactic Alliance's annals — and discovered great numbers of slave planets besides! And the Demon Race are fitted out with great numbers of T4-grade interstellar warships… but the design conception of these T4-grade interstellar warships…"
Charlotte paused. "Their energy cores rely upon intelligent living beings!"
"What does that mean? Intelligent living beings?" Zhao Chen was startled.
Charlotte explained, "Our starship energy relies for the most part upon what is refined out of ores of various kinds, from mining worlds or other bodies; the commonest of it is the energy block, which is an interstellar warship's fuel. But the starship fuel the Demon Race's T4-grade interstellar warships use is… living beings!"
"What? Living beings can serve as starship fuel too? How can that be!" Lilith covered her mouth in horror.
Zhao Chen, hearing this, was silent a while, and then said slowly, "There is a theoretical basis for such technology. Life is itself an energy body — as with those scientists before who extracted energy from plants; a plant too is a kind of life. And the hive-race's biological starships are in fact upon the same principle: through ceaseless fighting, hunting and feeding they can go on fighting without cease, and can even evolve the individual. Only that such technology is first of all rejected by most races; and, most important of all, its value against its cost is far too low, so no one develops it. And at the same time, once you employ this technology, you set yourself beyond doubt in opposition to every interstellar race, and all will rise and attack you together."
Zhao Chen looked to Charlotte. "And what happened next? How did the Dragon Emperor come to die?"
Charlotte went on with her account.
Grandfather Deer King, having seen this terrible starship technology of the Demon Race's, considered the gap in their own strength and chose to withdraw.
And prepared to send this news back.
For a race that uses living bodies as starship fuel must necessarily be a warlike and murderous interstellar race.
And upon certain planets within that star region he had seen, most were slave planets.
These slave planets were 'slave farms' established by the Demon Race: they enslaved certain weak interstellar races and then had them breed without cease, to furnish 'fuel energy' for the Demon Race's interstellar warships.
Grandfather Deer King had great foresight; he knew that if such a race as the Demon Race learned there was a passage by which one might reach the populous Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth, the result could be imagined.
Besides which, Grandfather Deer King had discovered in that star region several naval ports, with great numbers of Demon Race interstellar fleets assembling, with every appearance of pre-war preparation for an invasion of some target.
Grandfather Deer King had an uneasy presentiment of something, and thereupon took his fleet back, meaning to inform the Warhammer of this news.
Upon returning, entering Dragon-folk territory, he was most unluckily discovered by a Dragon-folk fleet.
But this time Grandfather Deer King did not flee; he chose to surrender outright, and asked to see the Dragon Emperor, saying he had a matter of importance to tell him.
As Grandfather Deer King saw it, the Warhammer's strife and revolution and the rest were internal affairs — to put it plainly, a family matter.
But if the Demon Race had fixed their eyes upon the Warhammer, then combined with the Demon Race's present technological direction, that would be beyond doubt a calamity to overwhelm the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth utterly.
This was a 'neighbor' watching them like a tiger.
"How long ago was this?" Zhao Chen asked.
"Two months ago," Charlotte said.
"Two months ago? We were still over in the Starlight Empire then. Why did we not hear the Dragon-folk tribe announce this news? Can it be that Grandfather Deer King did not see the Dragon Emperor?"
"Grandfather Deer King saw the Dragon Emperor, and told him of it too."
"Then why did this business never get out?"
"Because the Dragon Emperor knew of it long since, and knew clearly of the existence of this terrible Demon Race fleet. But he chose to seal the news away."
Charlotte let fall another astonishing piece of news.