Chapter 696: Orbital Bombardment

Yu Sheng was a kind-hearted man who couldn't bear to see others suffer.

He knew that building a star gate wasn't easy, and that losing such a strategic facility would hurt the Hermit Order, who would surely try to take it back.

So he sent the star gate to them.

Now the Hermit Order didn't need to dispatch a fleet to the border—that space megastructure was currently hanging in Sanctum's orbit, at an altitude that nearly exceeded the safety limit, casting its enormous shadow onto the planet's atmosphere.

From the surface, one could clearly see the colossal silhouette, and even the light streams escaping around the star gate—those were the result of large-scale spatial distortion causing starlight to converge. Starlight from distant space formed layer upon layer of ring-shaped fluctuations inside and outside the star gate's force field, making the entire structure look like an eye suspended above the homeworld.

Inside and around the Supreme Sanctum, countless eyes witnessed this bizarre and horrifying sight. Most of them initially had no idea what was happening—after all, you've heard of crashing a car into a toll booth, but a toll booth crashing into you is something a normal person would never imagine. And on top of that, a star gate came with a bunch of ancillary facilities like gravitational anchors and acceleration bridges—that was equivalent to a toll booth ramming into you while dragging along a ring road and two gas stations...

A high-ranking priest in front of the Sanctum cried out in shock, and within two seconds, he realized something even more terrifying than a star gate jumping to the homeworld's orbit—

The fleet!

As if to confirm this nightmare-like thought, the moment the word "fleet" appeared in his mind, the priest noticed countless tiny flashes of light emerging around that space megastructure—faint, but clearly visible.

Those were the light bursts of large warships jumping from hyperspace into realspace.

Overwhelming terror made his voice crack: "Your Holiness! Take shelter immediately!"

"Into the bunker," the Holy See's voice came from beside him, its usual calm tone quickly steadying the priest's shaken heart. "Sound the homeworld alert—prepare for a decisive battle against the heretics invading the mother planet."

The Holy See's voice was like a cold wind, sweeping away the chaos in the priest's heart. Powerful confidence and resolve once again filled his mind—

Yes, the decisive battle against the heretics... The day to give everything for the Holy Path... That day was bound to come. Everyone was ready. Today was that day.

Eerie air raid sirens echoed across the mountains and plains, and moments later, the warning spread across the entire planet—from the Supreme Sanctum atop the peaks to the city factories along river valleys, from the cold polar research rings to the orbital elevator command post at the equator. The news of the impending orbital strike swept through Sanctum like a storm.

All major cities and temples hastily raised thick defensive shields. The massive anti-air cannons and missile silos hidden among the mountains and valleys were activated in haste. Planetary defense radars adjusted their angles, trying to lock onto the targets of the Unified Fleet that had already entered orbit—but before these defensive systems could fully come online, the first wave of orbital bombardment had already struck the ground.

Battle-type fortress torpedoes carved dazzling trails of fire through the atmosphere, slamming into cities and factories with dense energy signatures. Continuous streams of high-energy particles rained down from space, beginning to dismantle the various shield systems across the planet's surface. Then countless armed drones launched from carriers, plunging into Sanctum's thick atmosphere like a swarm of bees and meteors, diving toward the direction of the Sanctum complex.

Hong and Bai Liqing stood on the bridge of the flagship *Mass Effect*, gazing through the massive viewport at the web of fire interweaving in space and the planet with its thick atmosphere and blue-green surface.

Flashes of varying sizes were erupting across the planet's surface.

The planet was teeming with life—so much so that it seemed abnormal.

"This is the data just transmitted from the *Zero Calculus*," an intelligence officer came before Hong and transferred the contents of the data screen to a holographic projection. "Their radar array did a rough scan of the planet and found they could only detect the surface layer. There seems to be some powerful interference source buried deep underground. Also, they analyzed the planet's ecosystem—that part is even more off..."

Bai Liqing's gaze fell on the ever-shifting holographic images. Hong's voice came from beside her: "...A lush shell, draped over an empty grave..."

A sudden commotion from below—someone at the control console was pointing at the viewport and shouting. Bai Liqing snapped out of her thoughts and looked up toward the viewport.

Yu Sheng was standing outside the window, knocking on the glass.

Luna stood beside Yu Sheng, while Eileen was pressed flat against the viewport like an octopus, staring wide-eyed at the bustling scene inside the hall. Meanwhile, a gigantic nine-tailed fox floated in the space behind them, paddling slowly with a doggy-paddle.

Bai Liqing: "..."

"Hey," Hong nudged with her chin, pointing outside. "Your friends."

At that moment, Bai Liqing really wanted to say she didn't know those freaks floating out there, but after a long pause, she sighed. "I'll go get them."

She was starting to miss the days of overtime at the Special Services Bureau.

At least back then, the mess Yu Sheng and his crew caused was still confined within the atmosphere.

A moment later, Bai Liqing personally went outside and escorted Yu Sheng and his entourage onto the *Mass Effect*'s bridge.

"Wow—" The little puppet clung to Yu Sheng's shoulder, eyes wide with excitement. "This is a spaceship bridge? The fleet command center? So many people! Hey, our ship usually has so few people, and when Yu Sheng pilots it, it's like a haunted house... Wow! Yu Sheng, Yu Sheng, look! Sanctum! Didn't we just come from down there? Orbital bombardment! That's orbital bombardment! Blow those bastards to hell... Hey, stop covering my mouth..."

Yu Sheng clumsily tried to quiet the noisy puppet while grinning apologetically at Bai Liqing. "She's a bit overexcited. We had a rough time down there... Ow! Let go! Let go!"

Bai Liqing's eyelid twitched three pixels. She stared expressionlessly at the group before her, and when she spoke, her voice carried exhaustion: "Next time, if you can't find the ship's entrance, just send me a message."

"Sure, sure," Yu Sheng said cheerfully, waving his hand (with the little puppet dangling from it), then turned to glance at the star gate—its curved structure was hanging at one corner of the viewport, its thick armor bathed in sunlight, while ships from the Borderlands continued to jump into the battlefield through transit corridors. "Jumping from the border assembly point directly to the enemy's homeworld orbit—how's that feel?"

Bai Liqing didn't speak. Hong's voice cut in from the side: "Impressive and... astonishing 'tactics.' I think this will go down as an exceptionally unique page in the history of interstellar warfare."

Hong walked over, a faint smile on her face, and continued facing Yu Sheng: "Frankly speaking, it exceeded any commander's wildest imagination, to the point where we don't even have any tactics that could match your actions—but fortunately, when you jump the fleet directly above the enemy's homeworld, you don't really need tactics."

Yu Sheng looked at the unfamiliar young woman before him with curiosity.

Thin and frail, her skin deathly pale, wearing a white dress, black hair almost touching her ankles. For some reason, her eyes were tightly shut, and she wore a friendly, proper smile.

In a deeper "sense," Yu Sheng noticed more—her body temperature was very low, he could barely detect a heartbeat, and there was no sign of a living person.

Hong tilted her head slightly, also observing the famous "Angel Hunter" with curiosity.

The first second after their initial "gaze" contact, she felt her heart begin to beat.

The second second, she felt something stirring in her veins, blood attempting to flow.

The third second, her eyelids began to tremble. An impulse that didn't seem her own issued a terrible urge, making her want to open her eyes.

Her heart pounded like a drum, blood swelled in her vessels, and a noise buzzed in her mind. The "human" standing in her field of vision rapidly collapsed from the inside out into an unobservable, pitch-black void—

Suddenly, a pair of illusory eyes drifted in from the edge of her vision, floating between Hong and Yu Sheng in midair. The eyes disrupted Hong's sight, snapping her awake with a jolt.

"Like what you see? Wanna keep staring? Not enough? Still curious?"

Bai Lixue's eyes drifted through the air, circling Hong's head and chattering from left and right, her tone brimming with inexplicable glee.

For the first time, Hong didn't bother to restrain this little monster that had escaped from Bai Liqing's "hallucinations." She instinctively sucked in a sharp breath, took half a step back, finally stabilized herself, then decisively cut off her spiritual vision.

When she looked at Yu Sheng again, the unobservable void had collapsed back into human form.

Bai Lixue was still drifting around her, as happy as if she'd pulled off a prank.

Yu Sheng raised a hand toward the eyes floating in midair. "Hey, Little Snow. Long time no see."

Bai Lixue swayed in the air. "Long time no see!"

"Are you okay?" Yu Sheng turned to Hong. "Almost fell just now?"

Hong opened her mouth. "Uh, no, I just..."

Before she could finish, Eileen popped up. "Obviously low blood sugar! Look how skinny she is! Look how pale! Hey, Steel Face, your cafeteria must suck—"

"I'm not Steel Face."

Eileen: "So the cafeteria really does suck, right..."

"Stop, stop, what is all this nonsense," Yu Sheng quickly interrupted Eileen's chaotic rambling, then looked the thin young woman up and down. "I remember now—when I contacted Bai Liqing earlier, she mentioned the person in charge of this operation wasn't her, but..."

"Red, councilor of the Borderlands," Hong said, taking a light breath, finally able to introduce herself properly. "Pleasure to meet you, Angel Hunter—and everyone from the 'Hostel.'"