Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 63

Chapter 63 – The Heart of The Rose

Usually after an intense battle, people tended to go through four phases of emotional rollercoaster: first was the phase of disbelief, then celebration for victory, then grief for the loss of their comrades, and finally overcoming their grief.

Unfortunately for the poor souls of the space station’s armed forces, circumstances around them forcefully dragged them out of the celebration phase.

“Everyone…” Lu Bixing finally spoke into the channel, only to have his voice drowned out by the loud chattering.

He scrunched up his eyebrows and sent the energy wave chart he just scanned into the channel, which also got ignored.

Lu Bixing: “Hey!”

He was starting to think that only missiles could quiet down these losers. Yet thankfully Lu Bixing was a man of honor and composure who didn’t make it a habit to pull out a missile towards his comrades when disagreements happened. Under desperation, he finally announced into the channel: “Excuse me, I have a marriage proposal to make!”

A response finally came from this line. From the other side of the channel Monoeyed Hawk yelled back in a louder voice: “Lu Bixing you little shit, how dare you!”

The noises in the channel finally settled with the cooperative effort of the father and son duo.

“Thanks dad,” Lu Bixing presented the energy chart from before and continued in a serious manner. “The ripple effect from the explosion in 001 has already passed, there shouldn’t be such a strong energy signal coming around here. We’re not done yet, everyone, stay alert.”

The crowd was ready for some relationship gossip only to be hit with military news. They remained silent for a few seconds, and then collectively exploded into panic within the channel.

Saturday scolded: “Shut up! Keep quiet for a bit!”

Foucault also added a line to calm her team down: “Professor Lu, what does this mean?”

Weasel asked timidly: “Where’s Commander Lin?”

Lin Jingheng didn’t respond. He had already muted the channel due to the noise and couldn’t hear what was going on. Lin held up an empty glass and ordered Zhanlu with no context: “One ounce.”

Luckily, Zhanlu understood what he meant and poured a shot of hard liquor into his master’s glass.

Despite ordering the fleet to retreat, Lin Jingheng completely disregarded his own command and remained in his position. He didn’t bother forcing the armed forces to carry out the order. The shot of liquor coated his tongue and throat as his gaze remained fixed on the long-distance communication chart; his side profile calm and collected like a quiet beast waiting for bloodshed ahead.

Huang Jingshu noticed his expression: “Com-…”

Lin Jingheng held up a finger and gestured for her to keep quiet.

At the same time, the yappering ducks in the communication channel finally quieted down. Lin Jingheng turned the channel back on to hear a silly lost lamb question: “Why is nobody talking anymore? What happened?”

Nobody answered him.

Because at this point, Lu Bixing no longer needed to give a lecture on how to read the energy wave chart; anyone that wasn’t disconnected from their mental networks could see it already. In the darkness of space, waves and waves of silhouettes began appearing from the shadows like lurking beasts bringing forth despair.

Not too far behind the fleet, a more obnoxious group of dark-colored mechs appeared with the Cayley Pirate’s symbols plastered around. Yet unlike the last time, this fleet was completely made of heavy mechs.

This was a superdimensional fleet of heavy mechs.

A fleet of mechs like the ones that surrounded the Silver Fortress years ago.

A fleet of mechs like the ones that shot down and buried two Commanders of the Interstellar Union in the Heart of the Rose.

A fleet of mechs like the ones that demolished Beijing-ß and Egret.

The battle-worn fleet of the armed forces stared in shock at the pirate fleet before them. They gathered helplessly around the Model 3 like a group of ants waiting for a storm to pass.

Yet their sandcastle- the anti-detection system- was already shattered from the last wave of enemies.

White breathed in a mouthful of cold air and attempted to ask casually: “C-commander, why are you still drinking?”

Lin Jingheng downed the last shot of liquor and gave a quick look at the four students behind him. The students were young and naive, fearless even in the face of a great threat, but Lin Jingheng could feel his limbs grow cold as the alcohol entered his body.

It wasn’t that he was scared of dying or losing, he simply didn’t want to talk to the Prince of Cayley.

The peaceful world was falling apart, yet Lin had been stuck inside this tiny space station for three months. On one hand, he desperately wanted to know what was going on outside during these times of turmoil; on the other, he was also scared to hear the news. Regardless of what his intentions were originally, the Union was now on its last leg right now because of him. If this was the result he wanted, he would be just as mad as Ares Von. If this was unintentional, he would simply be a fool; and neither option was better than the other.

Except he didn’t have the option to ignore the conversation. The useless bunch of the Ninth Squadron were probably getting too comfortable with their unpaid vacation and had forgotten how to run. Commander Lin stood alone on the battlefield while carrying a load of handicaps behind him; he had very limited cards on hand and could only rely on talking to buy some more time.

A communication request was received on the Model 3, and through the internal network, sent into the armed forces’ channel.

Lin Jingheng let out a sigh and accepted the communication request.

At that moment, the chilling and traumatizing face of Ares Von appeared before everyone. Monoeyed Hawk’s cannons almost fired at the screen on instinct.

On the Model 3, the four students clearly remembered the face of the madman that blew up Beijing-β; Mint covered her mouth in horror while Rickhead clenched his fist and growled as he stepped forward, ready to punch the hologram of the man. Lin Jingheng’s hand pressed onto his shoulders and carefully pulled the boy behind him.

If Ares Von’s family left anything valuable in their graves, it would have already been stolen out of spite by graverobbers around the Eighth Galaxy. He ignored all the vengeful stares from the fleet and rested his gaze on Lin Jingheng. His pupils shrunk in shock for a split second before he spoke: “It seems as if I’ve been granted the honor to speak with you now. Greetings, I am the current Ruler of Cayley, Ares Von. May I ask who this familiar gentleman here is?”

Lin Jingheng answered mockingly: “Who do I look like?”

Back when he was still the head of the Silver Fortress, he’d had multiple identities throughout the galaxies. For one, he was a headache for the seven galaxies that had been pushing for military autonomy within the IU. Second, he was a wildcard in the eyes of some political leaders of the Union; and finally, he was also the greatest threat to all space pirates. His photo had been hung up numerous times as a target for shooting practice by his enemies — there was no way Ares Von didn’t recognize this face.

Though of course, he also refused to believe that the man before him was the real Lin Jingheng.

Ares Von’s eyes twitched in frustration: “If I remember correctly, changing your face to someone else-especially a celebrity- was a violation of the IU’s right of portrait.”

Lin Jingheng laughed at his words and responded boldly: “Only fools would talk about legalities in a lawless land, it’s not like Lin Jingheng can crawl out of his grave and sue me. Worst case scenario I can just remind everyone in the eight galaxies that he’s dead. Anyway, Your Highness, I’m just taking some of my brothers out for a walk to feed our families, what have we done to offend you?”

Ares Von didn’t answer his question: “You’re one of the Silver Ten.”

Lin Jingheng gave a vague sneer back at him.

“You can change your face and identity all you want, but you can’t change your nature. Data doesn’t lie; we can analyze your battle preferences.” Ares Von explained quietly, “With your abilities, you must be at least a major general – which squadron are you from?”

Lin Jingheng raised an eyebrow in slight frustration: “Your Highness, the Silver Fortress is in shambles thanks to your missiles, what makes you think the Silver Ten is still around? What do you want from us?”

Perhaps it was because they’d never seen Commander Lin talk so much, but the entire armed forces held their breaths in alarm as they watched the two men taunt each other.

Ares Von answered in a surprisingly cordial demeanor: “I wasn’t the one that brought down the Silver Fortress, nor did the AUS. I only manage the Eighth Galaxy; everything from stars to planets, from corpses to space wastes, all belong to me. I will not allow secret portals and underground tunnels to exist without my knowledge within the Eighth Galaxy.”

Lin Jingheng looked as if he was sold by this reasoning, and only nodded slightly without any trace of annoyance on his face: “So you want the map to our underground tunnels.”

“I do. The Eighth Galaxy is my backyard; I will not tolerate a bunch of rats digging up holes in my yard behind my back.” Ares Von answered. “Not too long ago, a subordinate of mine went out to scout on my orders with a fleet of mechs. They never returned; both my subordinates and the mechs just vanished out of existence in the wasteland of death. I just wanted to know if you had seen them before.”

Lin Jingheng wasn’t the type to announce his feats to the world, so aside from Lu Bixing and Monoeyed Hawk, most people were completely lost on what the pirate meant. Yet from the tone of his voice, they could all feel the air around them drop a few degrees.

Commander Lin looked up at him and questioned back: “So you’re saying that I’m the one that killed your subordinates and you’re here for revenge–where’s your proof?”

Ares Von laid out his hands in an awkward attempt to give a shrug with his metal shoulders: “The Primal Alien followed me for over a hundred years; he was the one that helped me escape Cayley back in the day. Even though he’s gotten a little bit more whack in the head these past few years, I can’t afford to lose him. There aren’t many people as loyal as him around me, nor was there anyone that’s been around for so long, so it breaks my heart that he died mysteriously in the wasteland like that.”

The armed forces grew more puzzled at the conversation about proof and heartbreak, and started questioning if their signals had gotten disrupted again. Ignoring the lost lambs, Lin Jingheng swiftly sent a visual message into the channel with the move of his finger: “Turn on your shields, prepare to make an emergency warp.”

The anti-detection system may be gone, but there were still portals to be bombed.

Lights on the small mechs lit up one by one as the armed forces began setting up their shields. Those with damaged shields hid behind others in an organized fashion while holding their breath.

Yet the half-baked fleet was still too slow, and before they could finish setting up their shields, Ares Von added: “I don’t have proof, but since I’m so heartbroken and you guys are all here as the most suspicious culprit, why wouldn’t I seize the opportunity to take out my frustration? Missiles don’t require proof to fire.”

The moment he finished, a wave of missiles from the heavy mechs fired towards the armed forces.

Zhanlu had once said that Ares Von was like a pirate version of Lin Jingheng, and now the commander himself could see why it wasn’t an inaccurate statement. Lin Jingheng blew up the portal that Lu Xin left behind and put the blame onto Primal Alien as an excuse to beat him up; the Prince of Cayley was heartbroken from the loss of his beloved subordinate, and therefore came out to put the blame on the next unfortunate soul he ran into.

There were no transfer portals nearby the armed forces, so everyone was forced to make an emergency warp. Normally, a high-level skill like emergency warping was not easy for beginners like them, but under the pressure of a life-and-death situation they somehow managed to successfully make the warp. For many, it was the first time they had a taste of the mech’s air cushion as they crashed into it from their pilot seats after the warp.

The entire armed forces were split up from each other while Lin Jingheng himself warped near portal 0051, which was located not too far away from the blown-up portal 001. For some reason, he didn’t choose to cut off the long-distance communication signal with the space station, and now the exact coordinates and location of the station were completely exposed to Ares Von.

It was almost as if he had exposed the space station on purpose.

Ares Von’s gaze glazed over the station, and chased directly after Lin Jingheng while ignoring the rest of the armed forces.

Lin Jingheng turned and sailed towards the underground tunnel to the space station. The waves of energy signals from the direction of the station flooded through the radar of the pirates as if they were travelling through numerous portals, and almost as menacing as the breath of a dangerous beast.

Ares Von soon realized something was wrong and commanded: “Stop, don’t chase after him!”

Yet it was too late.

The vanguard of the pirate fleet was too fast and had already passed through portal 0051. Lin Jingheng then quickly turned around and forcefully stalled the chaser with a wave of powerful cannons; his eyes quickly ran through the channel and rested on the closest person: “Hawk, set off 0051.”

Monoeyed Hawk gave a small laugh as he turned his mech around. Disregarding the risk of potentially catching Lin Jingheng in the explosion, he fired three rounds of missiles into the portal without hesitation. His small mech then immediately disappeared from the corner into an emergency warp.

Under the violent shower of cannons and missiles from the Model 3, the heavy mechs of the pirate fleets didn’t have time to react when portal 0051 exploded unexpectedly. At the same time, the pilots around portal 0051 all collectively lost consciousness and control of their mechs as Lin Jingheng hacked into their mental networks. After taking over all the mechs, Lin Jingheng turned the cannons of the heavy mechs towards the pirate’s own fleet and fired a few dozen missiles all at once.

The expanding explosion of the portal swallowed the few dozen pirate heavy mechs around it. Before the energy waves could hit Lin Jingheng, the Model 3 once again made an emergency warp directly into the Cayley pirate’s main fleet.

Enraged from falling into the same trick that demolished the AUS’s fleet earlier, Ares Von’s pride was damaged: “Take him down!”

Numerous mental networks expanded their webs toward Zhanlu like a pack of wolves hunting down a prey in an attempt to hijack into the Model 3. The pressure from the layers of mental network could even be felt inside the Model 3; the three students were just released from the air cushion when they saw a sea of cannons and missiles firing towards the Model 3. All the beams and missiles were deflected by Lin Jingheng, but it didn’t stop the alarms inside the mech from ringing.

Lu Bixing: “Follow me!”

The lost armed forces finally reacted to a reliable command and quickly gathered up behind Lu Bixing’s little mech like a group of pond fish swimming upstream. He led the fleet up behind the tail end of the Cayley pirates’ fleet and fired a missile towards a nearby portal before the pirates’ heavy mechs could react.

Traumatized by the reckless trigger-happy armed forces that wouldn’t blink at blowing up transfer portals, the pirates closest to the portal all scattered immediately when they saw the missile. The Model 3 took this opportunity and swiftly escaped the barricade of the pirates.

At that time, Lu Bixing sailed behind the missile he fired into the portal with the rest of the armed forces following behind him.

Weasel laughing: “Professor Lu, was that all a bluff?”

“Unfortunately,” Lu Bixing said. “I don’t have any better ideas, this was the only option I could think of.”

Despite that, Lu Bixing didn’t show any sort of remorse for fooling the pirates. Before they could rest after exiting the portal, they were forced to use the same tactic again to escape. The first time they’d successfully fooled the pirates, the second time was less effective; but by the third time, nobody was dumb enough to fall for the same trick.

The pirate fleet sent out their warping disruption signals and fired a wave of particle beams to physically blockade the armed forces. Lu Bixing could almost hear the shields of the small mech breaking; yet before he could react, the alarm that he had been locked on by a missile rang inside his mech.

At the same time, Zhanlu’s massive mental network reached over like an invisible protection. The pirates before them froze instantly as their mental networks fought internally against Zhanlu.

“Holy…” Someone suddenly forgot about Commander Lin’s golden rule in the communication channel and praised in awe, “I should consider myself lucky that he wasn’t this brutal when he knocked me down my mental network back during the drills.”

“Follow the underground tunnel route back to the base…” Lin Jingheng’s voice came up inside the channel, “Hurry!”

The fleet of small mechs squeezed through the opening that Lin Jingheng created by stalling the pirates and sailed towards the underground tunnel.

Saturday: “But the station…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Lu Bixing interrupted, “Listen to the commander.”

On the other hand, Ares Von sneered back maliciously: “You’ve only stolen his face, and now you really think you’re Lin Jingheng himself?”

Lin Jingheng pulled a relaxant out.

Just then, both Ares Von and Lu Bixing received an alarm at the same time: there was an unknown signal of energy coming from the direction of the space station.

Weasel asked dumbly: “…Professor Lu, is this also part of your tricks?”

Ares Von mocked coldly: “You guys sure love to use the same tricks, is this the only thing you have up your sleeves?”

Yet this abnormal wave of energy almost seemed too cheap for a joke. It was moving at an extremely high speed, almost like a full fleet of superdimensional mechs charging directly towards the battlefield.

But where in the Eighth Galaxy could anyone possibly find that many fleets of mechs?

Lu Bixing didn’t answer the question, and only called out: “Move!”

The armed forces split into two under his command. Within the next second, a bright beam of light passed through everyone’s mental network and shot directly into the Cayley pirate fleet.

Then, a fleet of high-speed heavy mechs descended from the skies.

The Ninth Squadron of the Silver Ten.

Everyone on the battlefield stood dumbfounded for a second as they questioned if they were having a mass hallucination.

Thirty heavy mechs pierced through the core of the Cayley fleet like a deadly bayonet and forcefully cut the fleet in two. The two rows of missiles that split the fleet in half were like the ancient myths of parting the ocean; the gravity systems of Ares Von’s mechs were almost completely destroyed by the attack, but the man himself didn’t seem to mind the warnings and stood up abruptly: “Silver…”

A communication request was received before he could finish, and his subordinates accidentally answered the request at the spur of the moment. Soon after, Lin Jingheng’s target-worthy face appeared on his screen.

A few drops of cold sweat remained on the side of his pale face, the only sign of mentally subduing almost an entire pirate fleet by himself. Lin Jingheng tossed the broken relaxant syringe to the side casually and said: “Maybe I should reintroduce myself now, Mister Von. I’m the real one, not a fake violating rights of portrait. That reminds me, I still haven’t personally thanked you and your pirates for helping me escape the Union from the Heart of the Rose a few years ago.”