The smile vanished from Chu Changhe's face.
Zhao Chen let out a long sigh; there are things that must be said sooner or later, and things that must be faced sooner or later.
"I think you should know that through this stretch of time I have had some contact with the Machine Race, and carried out some cooperation with them besides." Zhao Chen poured Marshal Chu Changhe a cup of tea.
Chu Changhe said nothing.
That Zhao Chen's interstellar industrial ships could build star gates within Machine Race territory had been going forward above half a month now.
A stir so great, Chu Changhe could not but know of.
"All this is fact. To speak exactly, I have met a person of the Machine Race who styles herself their highest leader. She would recruit me," Zhao Chen said outright.
"You agreed?" No expression whatever could be seen upon Chu Changhe's face.
"I did not agree, nor did I refuse," said Zhao Chen.
"Why?"
"Because in the present case we cannot make a choice. The Machine Race is far stronger than we imagine. Marshal, you fought the Machine Race many years. You must surely understand them well," Zhao Chen returned.
Chu Changhe gave a cold snort. "What I have most of is materials upon the Machine Race's fleets."
"Then let me ask: before the great withdrawal, what grade was the most advanced interstellar warship the Machine Race's fleets sent against the former Galactic Alliance here?"
"T4 interstellar warships, of course."
Zhao Chen said, with his face set, "But some while ago I went to the Angel Race. In the stretch of the universe upon the other side of the Machine Race's territory, the interstellar civilization there has borne the Machine Race's invasion too — but the strongest Machine Race interstellar warship that appeared there was not T4-grade! It was T5-grade!"
At hearing this.
Chu Changhe's brows drew together. "Do you mean by this that in that thousand years of fighting us, the Machine Race in fact never used their whole strength."
Zhao Chen nodded, and then said, "Nor do I know what lies behind it. My instinct tells me the Machine Race is very strong — at the least, more than the Owl Dragon Legion as it now stands can stand against. A million demon interstellar warships before cost our Owl Dragon Legion no small casualties. And the Machine Race's strength let them at their height hold down two whole regions and all their several interstellar powers! Who then can say how strong the Machine Race is now, and how many T5 interstellar warships they hold. Or even… whether T5 interstellar warships are their strongest at all."
Chu Changhe's face darkened, and there was a complication in his eyes.
Zhao Chen fixed his eyes on him. "Marshal, I know that because Chu Xuan's parents fell in the campaign against the Machine Race in those early years, you have a blood feud with the Machine Race as deep as the sea. I do not oppose it, nor shall I stop you going to take your revenge. But I cannot let you go to your death. To say nothing of the 30,000 Chu family legion hulls in your hand now, and the 200,000 border imperial fleet hulls you hold privately besides. With these, never mind the Machine Race. You might not even beat the Holy Radiance Empire's whole army. How should you match yourself against the Machine Race! Would you have Chu Xuan watch with her own eyes as her grandfather goes to his death — would that content you?"
Having heard this speech of Zhao Chen's out, Chu Changhe was long silent.
Chu Changhe let out a long sigh. "So, young fellow, with all this roundabout talk of yours — what is it you want to say? Out with it!"
"I shall not stop you taking your revenge. In fact I am wary of the Machine Race myself; in high likelihood the Machine Race will hereafter be our enemy. But we must be clear about our own strength. Until we are wholly certain of beating an enemy, we should not declare war upon him. If one day hereafter my Owl Dragon Legion has strength enough, I may even go with you then upon an expedition against the Machine Race! And then you may take your revenge, and I shall do my own business. So for the present I hope you will not do those foolish things," Zhao Chen said gravely.
The intelligence department within Zhao Chen's Owl Dragon Galactic Interstellar Group had in fact long since found out Marshal Chu Changhe's doings through this stretch of time.
He seemed to have retired; in fact he had all along been preparing an expedition of revenge.
He was waiting until the Owl Dragon Legion's affairs here were steady, and then Old Master Chu Changhe would go and do that thing.
It was only a pity that through this stretch of time one thing after another had sprung up in this little 1/5-acre plot.
The Demon Race, the interstellar hive-race, and the rest.
Which left Chu Changhe with no choice but to shelve his expedition of revenge again and again.
And Zhao Chen knew very well this thorn in Marshal Chu Changhe's heart.
Better to open it up and talk of it now than to keep it hidden, and never know what day it might wound the old master.
"You young fellow, to speak to me so straight to the point of a sudden. I am somewhat unused to it. I remember still that when you first worked with our Chu family, we two had each our own designs in our breasts." Marshal Chu Changhe looked at Zhao Chen with a narrow smile, as though looking at a grandson raised in his own house; there was nothing but satisfaction in his eyes.
Zhao Chen said with a smile, "Then perhaps we had each our own purposes. But now we are people upon one ship. I can give you my guarantee: so long as the Chu family does not cast us off, then for every day the Owl Dragon exists, there shall be a day of prosperity for your Chu family!"
Marshal Chu Changhe said nothing further upon this question; his willingness to help Zhao Chen before had in fact come of watching the young fellow through that stretch of time.
And at the last, of choosing to trust him.
Even to sending his own granddaughter to the Owl Dragon Legion.
All of it, every part, showed that Old Master Chu Changhe had made his choice long since.
"Old I may be, but I am not past reason. I can promise you I shall not do those things for the present. As for your fencing with the Machine Race and the rest of it, I cannot be troubled to meddle — nor could I."
At Marshal Chu Changhe's promise, Zhao Chen might be said to have let out a breath.
"Come to that, you let me do nothing at all. It is very dull for an old man." Marshal Chu Changhe turned his words about of a sudden, and spread both hands.
Then looked at Zhao Chen with a narrow smile. "Or else, young fellow, you had best hurry up and turn me out a great-grandson, so that I may have a little one to dandle."
Several black lines rose upon Zhao Chen's brow; how was it that a talk that went on so should be dragged round to himself.
"Ahem, ahem, ahem… this… this business… is not to be hurried… and besides, Chu Xuan and I… there is not so much as a first stroke of the character yet." Zhao Chen said it with something guilty in him.
Still more when he had two of them already upon his own side.
Chu Changhe narrowed his eyes at this. "This old man of mine is not very steady in his feelings. With no little one beside him his mood may go badly, and there is no telling what day he may take his fleets and do something."
That this old man should threaten a fellow within his words and without them!
Zhao Chen said at once, "Of this business we shall talk again, we shall talk again. Ah yes — you will not have seen your granddaughter in a long while. Then it falls out well: I shall take you across to your granddaughter. Let Chu Xuan show you properly about this Dragon Emperor."
So saying, Zhao Chen gave Lilith her orders at once.
To fold-jump to where Chu Xuan's fleet lay, and transmit Chu Xuan across.
Chu Xuan, who had been busy at her work, was somewhat at a loss to see her grandfather and Zhao Chen appear before her.
"What have you called me here of a sudden for? I am busy over there."
Zhao Chen did not wait for Chu Xuan to finish, but drew her before the old master.
"Your business there I shall charge someone else with. Only think how long it is since you attended upon the old master. Take this while and attend upon him properly, and show him about this Dragon Emperor. So it is settled!"
He could stay no longer before this old master; there was nothing for it but to throw the trouble to Chu Xuan.