Chapter 576: Requisition
[V6C106 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
Pity?
This feeling of being pitied made Phillips extremely uncomfortable. He pounced toward Qianye with a low growl, aiming for the latter’s chest with his blade. However, he had just taken a step out when he noticed strands of dark golden mist rising up around Qianye.
Philips’ eyes immediately went wide in shock because, in his eyes, this wasn’t a mist at all. It was blood energy—a dark golden blood energy of unknown rank!
Philips’ blood core had more or less stopped beating at this moment. His instincts from the depths of his bloodline told him that the level of this dark golden blood energy was far beyond his imagination.
It looked, on the surface, as though Phillip’s movements had paused only slightly, but this momentary lapse was enough to threaten his life. Phillips did his best to activate the blood energy on his body and fight back against Qianye. However, a nearly-indefensible pressure fell upon his body and made it difficult for him to even move. Soon, East Peak flew over and pierced through his chest with relative ease, effectively destroying his blood core.
With the fall of its two viscounts, this destroyer lost the ability to resist and was slaughtered in the blink of an eye.
The Zhao clan warriors on the corvette hacked off the anchoring cables one by one and set their vessel free. This vampire destroyer was so badly damaged that it would hardly be of any use in the battle to come. Hence, Zhao Yuying had abandoned it decisively. She would decide later— when the battles in the region were over—if it should be left as space junk or if it should be towed back and scavenged.
Qianye returned to the corvette and watched the destroyer drift away. The Zhao clan vessel had also suffered considerable damage and was no longer suitable for combat—even a war-monger like Zhao Yuying understood this. She ordered the ship to turn about and fly toward the floating continent.
At this moment, more and more airships from the Evernight side were coming into view. A fierce battle broke out around the empire’s massive landing fleet with vessels going up in flames every minute. The corvette swung wildly amidst the shockwaves as metallic fragments from unknown locations pounded on their hull, some even piercing through the armor.
But in the end, the corvette—by virtue of its high performance and Zhao Yuying’s skills—managed to evade several waves of opponents looking to take advantage of the situation. After teaching these people a lesson they wouldn’t easily forget, the corvette successfully traversed the firing line and rushed into the floating continent.
The Zhao clan vessel staggered toward an imperial airship port and more or less smashed to the ground. The impact sent pieces of hull-armor flying off in every direction, nearly smashing a maintenance vehicle.
A number of imperial technicians rushed over as Qianye and Zhao Yuying walked out. A brigadier general clicked his tongue while looking at the battered hull. “You guys are quite lucky to have come back alive! How did the battle go?”
“We destroyed a vampire destroyer and some other small fries,” Zhao Yuying said in a carefree manner.
The brigadier general wasn’t all that powerful, but he had served in the army for many years. His expression shifted immediately since he knew the weight of Zhao Yuying’s words. The man then asked while knocking on a piece of the corvette’s nearly-detached armor. “This isn’t easy at all, how did you destroy it?”
Zhao Yuying shrugged. “Easy! They wanted to board our ship, but I finished off the boarding team and Qianye killed the captain. The end.”
The brigadier general couldn’t close his mouth for quite a while. “They actually wanted to board your ship? What a bunch of unlucky fellows.”
But the brigadier general appeared puzzled when his gaze fell upon Qianye. He was very clear that a vampire destroyer captain would be a third-rank viscount at the very least. How had Qianye finished off the captain on his own? It looked like the job was pretty clean, too, judging from his current appearance.
The brigadier general had formed an initial evaluation of Qianye and Zhao Yuying’s strength. Hs attitude immediately became much more respectful as he asked, “What are your plans after this?”
Zhao Yuying looked up at the fierce battles in the sky and asked Qianye, “Interested in harvesting some more contribution points?”
Qianye shrugged. “Why not? But our corvette here looks like it needs serious repairs.”
Zhao Yuying’s eyes fell upon a readied imperial destroyer and said, “We’ll use that one!”
The brigadier general was shocked out of his wits. “That won’t do! That one is the third fleet’s reserve team. It might have to enter the battlefield at a moment’s notice!”
Zhao Yuying produced a set of documents from her pocket and stuffed it into the general’s hands. “I hereby requisition this ship for the Zhao clan. Here’s the order.”
The brigadier general scanned the papers and found that it was indeed a writ of requisition. He smiled wryly and was just about to say something when Zhao Yuying cut him short. “The battle is already in this state. What’s the point of a reserve force?!”
“But… please wait a while.” The brigadier general was anxious upon seeing Zhao Yuying walk toward the destroyer. He followed in a hurry in a bid to block her way.
Qianye happened to pass by the man at this moment. As such, he reached out and patted the man’s shoulder with a smile. “It’s settled, then.”
The brigadier general remained frozen in place without so much as a movement. He could only watch as Qianye and Zhao Yuying walk over with the Zhao clan crew in tow and took control of the destroyer. The brigadier general finally let out a muffled groan as the airship took to the skies. He staggered back with a flushed face and nearly stumbled to the ground.
Shocked out of their wits, the soldiers nearby ran over to help him up. The brigadier general panted deeply for a while before calming down his boiling origin power. He then muttered with overwhelmed emotions, “So powerful!”
His eyes were already full of fear and trepidation when he looked up again at the leaving destroyer.
Qianye’s casual pat just now had sent a wisp of origin power into the man’s body. This sent the latter’s origin power into a boil and tormented him for a fairly long time. It was destroyed by the brigadier general in the very end, but this process cost the latter ten times the origin power.
Just this contrast alone allowed the brigadier general to realize that their strengths were on completely different levels despite having the same military rank. It would be extremely easy for Qianye to kill him if he wanted to.
This brigadier general was from the third imperial fleet. The officers from the airship fleets had eyes on their heads and always viewed the land army corps with disdain. They weren’t interested in the elites of the major clans, either. But in the face of Qianye’s suppressive power, he finally knew what it was to fear and respect.
An officer nearby asked while looking at the vanishing airship, “Now what do we do?”
The brigadier general turned gloomy as he glanced at the requisition order in his hand. “We can only hope that they can earn enough contributions to shut the superiors up. Otherwise, they’re going to have a big problem on their hands.”
The officers looked over at the requisition order with complicated expressions.
There were several types of requisition orders in the empire, and most of them were used by the army to forcefully acquire resources and supplies in urgent situations. But the one Zhao Yuying had handed him was the most special type—it was one which allowed the Zhao clan to requisition resources, equipment, and personnel from the imperial army.
The one in Zhao Yuying’s hands represented medium authority, just enough to conscript a destroyer. Such orders naturally didn’t exist in abundance. Those that did were strictly controlled in the hands of major clans and the top few aristocratic families. In the past, these orders were used by the imperial court to rope in and reward the major clans. After all, the regular army corps were all forces belonging to the imperial court, at least in name.
But the use of these orders would always result in great dissent from the relevant army corps, not to mention that the current requisition target was an airship fleet whose status wasn’t at all inferior to the elite corps.
The destroyer flew into the skies and quickly vanished from everyone’s vision. Many officers on the ground couldn’t help but shake their heads.
But at this moment, a large cruiser arrived in a shaky descent. There were several broken parts on the ship spewing out flames. “Prepare for rescue!” the brigadier general shouted with narrowed eyes, and then rushed toward the cruise with his subordinates in tow.
On the tower of the airship port, a general with an imposing demeanor was standing before the window with an ashen yet cryptic expression. This old lieutenant general was the vice-commander-in-chief of the third fleet, the one in charge of this specific airspace. His expression shifted abruptly as the glanced back and shouted, “Why has No. 36 launched? I don’t recall ordering it into battle!”
His subordinate darted away quickly and soon returned with news. He placed a piece of document in front of the general and said, “No. 36 has been requisitioned by the Zhao clan and forced into the air. Their aim is very likely to take part in the battle.”
Yang Li banged the window with his fist and roared furiously, “Mischief! This is real mischief!”
He grabbed the requisition order and nearly tore it apart in his fury. However, he suppressed his anger after giving it some thought. He looked at the document and suddenly broke out into cold laughter. “These clans are really getting out of hand. They actually dare extend their hands into our third fleet. Someone!”
An aide immediately stepped forward. “What orders do you have sir?”
“Pack this carefully and send it over to General Lu.”
The aide’s expression became serious. “Yes sir, I’ll deliver it without fail.”
Yang Li sent the aide away with a wave of his hand. Then, he stared fixedly toward the void with frosty eyes.
At this moment in the void, Zhao Yuying was standing in the bridge and scanning the vast space for potential targets. Meanwhile, Qianye had entered the turret and was operating it with great familiarity. Imperial destroyers were each outfitted with two ballistae and one high-power origin cannon as the main weapon. There were also a number of auxiliary weapons.
This was a bit troublesome for Qianye since there was simply no way for him to operate two ballistae at the same time. Hence, no matter how accurate he was, the power he could add was rather limited—and this was only a destroyer. This would be even more pronounced on a battleship. The might of a single person was truly minuscule in a true fleet battle.
The destroyer made a sharp turn in the air and locked onto an arachne battleship. Zhao Yuying’s timing was spot on because that arachne battleship couldn’t see their approach. It had just destroyed a transport, and its line of vision was blocked out by the flame.
Qianye naturally wouldn’t miss such an opportunity. He fired three consecutive shots at the greatest speed, two of which found their mark and blasted away the arachne airship’s steering limbs. Zhao Yuying also grasped this opening to lock firmly onto the crippled enemy. At this point, there was no longer a need for great aim as the cannoneers simply poured out their maximum firepower onto the enemy ship. Before long, the arachne destroyer was in flames—it gradually sunk down, and then stopped moving in the void.
Zhao Yuying ordered the ship to stop firing and speed up. Their ship flew past the arachne battleship and sped into the distance.