Cyber ​​Heroes

Chapter 1207 Moving Like Participating in the Business

Jeanne and Asga are temporarily offline to participate in physical defense preparations. Jeanne is a warrior of the First Heaven level, and Asga is not bad either. Only a very small number of strategists remain online.

Everyone was running. Multiple defensive positions were quickly erected inside the ship.

Asga and Jeanne arrived at the maintenance room of the second takeoff and landing platform as instructed.

Outside the transparent observation window, six radar units were stacked on different metal plates like models in a storage box. The deep-space warships never land, and these aircraft don't need to defy gravity to take off; they are typically launched electromagnetically to a distance of tens of meters before ignition. The only space-consuming part of the landing platform is a thirty-meter-long landing tunnel, through which aircraft or warriors rapidly decelerate using densely packed magnetic field generators.

The equipment in the maintenance room can assist people in quickly changing their prosthetic bodies, and there is also a special window for obtaining ammunition supplies from the armory. First-level warriors stand by here.

The president of the Hermo Society, who claimed to be "no longer Xiangshan," and Adong were already here and didn't need to move. Their focus seemed to be primarily on their online presence. The president nodded to Jeanne as a greeting.

Asgard was overjoyed upon hearing the news from the Ascended, exclaiming, "That's great! You don't have to die now! Haha!"

“The Black Ship Legion has just lost nearly sixty percent of its soldiers. I don’t think we should be so…happy,” Jeanne muttered.

"It's alright." Liu Xiangshan was quite open-minded. "If they knew that one of their comrades had escaped death, they would be just as happy. Mourning the dead and celebrating the survivors are two things that always happen at the same time. It doesn't matter if you're even happier."

"I..." Jeanne tapped her head, "I don't think I'm as... as happy as I was just now?"

Asga was baffled, and Jeanne couldn't explain her current emotions either.

Tumor said to the mountain, "Is it because of me? My mood affected your emotions... Tsk, this condition is deteriorating quite quickly."

Asja saw Tumor Mountain's words through the forwarded text. She said, "Ah."

Asga then realized that she seemed to have overlooked the old things in Jeanne's mind.

Jeanne's recovery means that the tumor on the mountain will disappear.

"No, no, no." Tumor Xiangshan waved his hand. "Don't talk to me about 'whether we should live together' right now. That's pretentious. In the end, I'm just one of the symptoms of a tumor. I might not even be considered a life."

Jeanne said, "But your consciousness isn't... that different from mine. That's what I think."

"Don't worry, don't worry, I definitely won't disappear completely." Tumor Mountain shook his head. "Didn't I ascend over there? The one who became the twelfth Martial God. Anyway, after my data is uploaded, he will be me too."

“But deep down you have doubts and fears…” Jeanne spoke cautiously, as if addressing a stubborn old man who refused to accept his age, “You don’t think that way.”

“It’s normal to have doubts. That ascension of mine was the one who grabbed the Six Dragons Cult leader and refined him in an instant. Who knows how much of the Six Dragons Cult’s influence he had?” Liu Xiangshan paused for several seconds. “Besides, I do need some time to accept the ascension. It’s a transformation of mindset…”

Asgard cautioned, "The Twelfth Valkyrie might have started their activities a little earlier than you..."

"I've struggled for years carrying this burden," Tuo Xiangshan said with a wooden expression. "The gravity of reality is so heavy for me; any leap of thought has never even taken hold. The one over there, I won my way through. Can you compare them?"

Asga then shut up.

Jeanne did not say anything.

After a moment of silence, Liu Xiangshan said, "But I should have at least a month or so to change my mind—that bullshit theory of ego and self-attachment from the Ascended Beings. Don't worry about me. After all, Xiangshan was one of the first Ascended Beings of humankind. Really."

................................................

Online, the commander of the Black Ship Righteous Army and several top fighters are holding a closed-door meeting.

In emergencies, there is often no room for a plenary meeting or mobilization. The only participants in this meeting are those who might be able to help resolve the predicament.

With the system's assistance, everyone activated their mental overclocking, communicating at dozens of times the speed at the cost of fatigue.

A real-time array of Black Ship Rebels floated in front of Li Wenyang.

After the hedging ended, the Black Ship Yoshizuku, which was already implementing a mobile formation change plan, switched to a three-dimensional matrix that could provide mutual cover.

Now, within the matrix, four ships have turned red.

"Skipping ships" is a tactic typically used within a fleet of warships. It doesn't involve destroying warships one by one, but rather using the superior mobility of top warriors to bypass local enemy forces within the fleet, focusing on disrupting the fleet's coordination and even achieving a decapitation strike.

This is a continuation of the ancient "frog-jumping tactic" in this era.

Li Wenyang had even identified high-risk vessels. He was also familiar with this tactic.

During the Sixth War God era, the Three Righteous Ones also employed this tactic on numerous occasions. The Seventh War God was created through the combined efforts of many, and to avoid being exposed, it tended to favor fleet formation battles.

King Agni's current style is also very similar to the transition logic of the Sixth God of War.

"He really is a good learner," Li Wenyang commented.

The Ascended One had to agree: "Indeed, he has always been very good at being second best."

However, even if you know, it's difficult to stop it.

because……

The Ascended One captured the battle footage from inside the third warship and marked a specific target within it.

“Shuoqidi, the guard of King Agni.” The Ascended pointed at the warrior carrying the battle spear and said, “That old dog Hartman has basically poured all his cybernetic resources into himself, and he has undergone a lot of brain modifications. He is not easy to deal with.”

Li Wenyang nodded solemnly. He knew this martial artist.

Sokidi was an anomaly among the high-ranking military officers. He never left King Agni's warship, and it was even difficult to say whether he had a self—because there were almost no records of him talking to others.

The most famous feat of Officer Shuoqidi was his participation in the siege of the Tenth Martial God, and his killing of the Tenth Martial God's third disciple, Yuwen Bisuwu, despite the deaths of his teammates in the First Heaven.

According to Tuoba Xuanyuan XIV's memories, Yuwen Bisu Wu's level was comparable to that of Dugu Beiluo Shimen ten years ago.

“I must emphasize that the Tenth Martial God lineage was attacked in a surprise attack and was not in full strength when they fought back—besides, even if they were in full strength, those beasts' prosthetic bodies were of a higher standard.” Ascended Xiang Shan felt very indignant and resentful about this. “But no matter what, they are a formidable enemy.”

Even if Xiang Shan were to seize control of his own soldiers' prosthetic bodies, it wouldn't stop the enemy's offensive. There were approximately thirty first-level martial artists, led by a master capable of going toe-to-toe with Dugu Beiluo's sect; they simply had no room to maneuver.

Even borrowing a regular first-level Heavenly Body from the mountain was to no avail. Back on Mars, the Fifth Martial God, who controlled a regular first-level Heavenly Body, was clearly inferior to Dugu Beiluo Shimen.

High-speed interaction between top martial artists is difficult to achieve remotely—signal encoding and decoding are too time-consuming. In the battle against the Speed ​​King, Hayabusa could only sprint long distances, giving Yama time to react. However, in a confined environment, the advantages of prosthetics become even more apparent.

If we can only rely on local resources...

“It’s difficult. We need to assemble a prosthetic body with high-level rules, and it must carry at least one high-performance quantum chip,” the Ascended One said. “In addition, the biological brain cannot be a hindrance. Only after meeting all these conditions can I be confident of a quick kill.”

Even the Ascended cannot defeat the opponent without sufficient resources.

Adong asked, "What about killing with internal energy?"

“It’s difficult. They didn’t build a local area network in the first place. When I killed that internal martial arts master, I found that he was the only one who joined the network to participate in the attack,” Xiang Shan said. “They used point-to-point laser signals to maintain coordination, which is a military martial art. They only need a very small amount of signal to decode enough coordination information locally.”

"My 'quick kill' plan is actually to confront him head-on, figure out the signal receiving points on his body, and then forcefully kill him—but we still have to maneuver before we can generate an effective command."

Adong asked, "Intercept them outside the warships?"

"I'm afraid it's impossible," Li Wenyang said, rejecting the idea. "Deep-space warships are inherently relatively weak in close-range defense, making it difficult to rely on their own close-range defense systems to attack a first-level martial artist. And the wreckage cloud, moving at a similar speed to us, is still inside the formation..."

Due to inertia, the warship wreckage remained relatively stationary relative to the group of ships. The warships needed to further decelerate and change direction to completely separate themselves from the wreckage. But this would take some time.

"Besides that, there's another piece of bad news. The count of all the first-level warriors has been completed. Each ship confirmed it once after the battle ended, and this was just a second check. One first-level warrior was still alive after the clash, but lost contact in the last few minutes."

Li Wenyang retrieved the file: "Master An is a first-level warrior skilled in space warfare. His cybernetic body is designed around deep-space maneuverability, making him extremely strong in close combat and also adept at guns and cannons. He was a guard warrior on the Curiosity and fought several tough battles with us. His disappearance was completely silent."

A blood-red dot appeared on the array diagram. That was the location of the last communication made by a soldier before he lost contact.

“Judging from this position… the target of the Shuoqidi tactical force is probably our flagship.” Li Wenyang outlined the enemy’s movement route in his mind and synchronized it to the virtual tactical map. “Then, they encountered Master An. Because they were too close to maintain concealment, they chose to launch a surprise attack and kill Master An.”

A dotted line began to extend from the darkness, following the edge of the densest area of ​​the wreckage cloud, and passed through the Black Ship's guard with the optimal trajectory, the end of the dotted line extending towards the flagship.

Until it was cut off by that blood-red dot.

Ascending towards the mountain, he suppressed the urge to generate the scene. He was now considering that the computing power consumed was not a personal, non-shareable part, but rather the fleet's resources.

The soldier may have seen something, or he may not have, but one thing is certain—the raiders were terrifyingly fast.

"Because of the surprise attack, they could not remain silent, and the fact that Master An was out of contact would be noticed quickly. Therefore, they abandoned the direct decapitation strike and instead used a jump ship tactic to launch a surprise attack on the Curiosity." Li Wenyang said in a low voice, "Master An's cruising route was several kilometers away from the Curiosity. The enemy launched a surprise attack from a relatively static state in a very short time, killing Master An and attacking the Curiosity in one go."

The last time An made contact with Curiosity was only two minutes before the rover was attacked.

The actual attack time of the opponent is probably measured in seconds.

"Their stealth and short-range burst capabilities are too strong," Li Wenyang said. "At least one of their warriors has overwhelming aerial combat capabilities. Our warriors don't have the corresponding abilities. Even if we take the flight components from multiple people, piece them together, and rebuild them, we won't be able to create something with similar performance in a short time."

Although the speed difference between the Twelfth Valkyrie and the Speed ​​King is more extreme, the current battle on the Carmen Line with Earth is a different situation. When the Speed ​​King attacks the Twelfth Valkyrie, the Twelfth Valkyrie can use skill and tactics to turn the tide. The target of the Kosherd tactical force is the Black Ship Legion, and they can bypass any troublesome units.

No matter how advanced an ascendant's martial arts skills are, they cannot create kinetic energy out of thin air in a vacuum and catch up with a target that is much faster than themselves.

"So, the raid must be carried out from inside the ship?"

“But that’s equally difficult,” the chief of staff said. “They’re carrying small nuclear warheads. We don’t know who’s carrying them. In the ship’s interior, no warrior can guarantee they can destroy the warhead before it detonates, right? That also means…”

He didn't finish speaking.

But everyone understands.

Even if this tactical unit can be killed inside the ship, the first-level warriors participating in the siege will hardly escape.

“If this ascended being can replace thirty ordinary first-level cultivators, including Shuoqidi, it’s a win-win situation no matter how you look at it,” said the president of the Hermo Guild. She looked at the virtual avatar of the ascendant: “So how many people do you need?”

"It depends on how well they match," Xiang Shan said.

“Count me in then.” The president of the Hermo Society said lazily, “I knew you were planning this. I used to be a mountain guide for a while, so I’m probably the most suitable.”

"I understand you." Xiang Shan gave a knowing smile.

A-Dong's expression was complicated. She opened a private message and asked the guild leader: "[How did you accept the cousin relationship setting so naturally?]"

[They could also be cousins; in any case, this is the most suitable solution for this situation according to traditional ethics. Just apply the "mountain-headed thinking" approach.]

“If we can complete the internal energy curse, then the other side might lose a whole squad at once,” Xiang Shan assessed. “It’s not that they’re destined to die. But I think the problem lies on the other side, King Agni.”

The Ascended turned to Li Wenyang: "So, Acting Commander, has the direction of the Celestial Star Fleet been confirmed?"

Li Wenyang said, "The reconnaissance team is stepping up its efforts... but we are separated from the Tianxing Fleet by battlefield remnants, which is causing too much interference."

Less than an hour has passed since the fleets engaged in combat, and there is still a large amount of plasma material on the battlefield that is slowly radiating heat.

Xiang Shan said, "If I'm not mistaken, the fleet's contrail should look like this..." A celestial map immediately appeared behind the fleet's virtual image. Xiang Shan marked the approximate shape and direction of the contrail in blue.

Li Wenyang frowned: "You mean, they are changing speed and direction... but going to the Jupiter battlefield like this will cause even greater delays."

“He won’t go to the Jupiter region. The Tianxing Fleet has suffered too many losses, and it wouldn’t be able to play a decisive role,” Xiang Shan said. “He chose this strategy to postpone his participation in the war.”

Li Wenyang said, "Please explain further."

"In order to support the war effort on Earth, Zhu Xinyu revealed some of the secrets of the Ascension Technology. Many of the puzzle pieces of the Ascension Technology were originally stolen by her from the Research Knights, and Hartman also possessed them. However, Hartman has never been a particularly creative or research-oriented person. He simply possessed these puzzle pieces but did not know that they could be assembled in this way—until just a few weeks ago, when he found out."

Xiang Shan said, "He might need some time to complete this 'puzzle.' And this strategy of procrastination... to be honest, I taught him how to reasonably shirk responsibility a long time ago."

Li Wenyang rubbed his forehead: "Explain this sentence, otherwise everyone's distractions will affect the efficiency of the meeting system." "Three hundred years ago, in order to resolve a series of incidents caused by the leak of certain secret documents, I was seconded to Jakub Hartman a few times as an administrative staff member. At that time, he was still a decent person, so on the one hand, to prevent honest people from being taken advantage of, and on the other hand, to prevent the government agency he served from being humiliated, I taught him how to reasonably shirk responsibility, and how to fail to complete the task without his colleagues finding fault." Xiang Shan curled his lips, "If I had to guess, he originally planned to let the Tianxing Fleet suffer losses of 20% to 30%, and then ensure that he would not be held accountable even if he did not arrive on time. In this way, he could make good use of the time on the road to further complete the puzzle. But I think the longer it is delayed, the more disadvantageous it will be for him, after all, I, the Twelfth War God, will definitely arrive at the Galileo satellite constellation before him."

If there is already an Ascended in a planet's local area network, the second Ascended will be greatly interfered with during the Ascended process.

Of course, this doesn't mean that those who ascend later cannot keep pace with those who ascended earlier. Zhu Xinyu's option of directly using a massive network to complete her ascension should have been an extreme choice under extreme conditions. Combining the personal experiences of the two ascendants, the explorations of Zhu Xinyu's many disciples, and the accumulated knowledge of the Six Dragons Sect, Xiang Shan believes that the correct path to ascension should be to train in a small to medium-sized isolated network environment, adapt to changes in thinking, and then gradually upgrade.

Ideally, ascension should be a replicable, gradual process.

Some people's curiosity was satisfied, but Li Wenyang's expression turned strange. He closed his eyes, pondered for a moment, and then confirmed again: "You mean... to achieve this kind of ascension as you define, a sufficiently large network and massive computing resources are needed?"

"almost."

"Is there any other evidence to support your speculation?"

Xiang Shan nodded: "A nuclear bomb. The Kaidong was destroyed by a nuclear bomb detonated on its outer armor. But that was actually unnecessary. They had already captured the entire Kaidong by then. Destroying the entire Kaidong was to eliminate any hidden survivors and create more wreckage to hinder the fleet's support formation. However, detonating it on the inside of the armor would have been more efficient. They deliberately detonated it on the outside, probably because they didn't want the Kaidong's outer shell to affect the electromagnetic pulse signature."

Xiang Shan said, "They only detonated the nuclear bomb after the internal energy confrontation ended—that is, after I instantly killed an internal energy martial artist under King Agni. That was probably a signal flare. Hartman anticipated several possible developments... Black Ship Yi has never had an internal energy master who could instantly kill that lunar martial artist before. I don't know exactly how he deduced it or what his logic was, but my actions did reveal some information to him."

The yield of the nuclear charge and the composition of the nuclear bomb casing both affect the optical and electromagnetic characteristics of a nuclear explosion. If prepared in advance, these characteristics can indeed be used to send a brief signal.

The Shuoqidi tactical forces could not carry sufficient transmitting equipment to counter battlefield interference and reach the Tianxing fleet directly—the battlefield was measured in light-seconds, and small units simply could not deploy such equipment, so they had to use small tactical nuclear bombs instead.

“King Agni is unsure of the situation on Jupiter…and the direction the Celestial Fleet is now turning…” Li Wenyang suddenly stood up: “His target is Saturn.”

"what?"

Li Wenyang said, "From King Agni's perspective, he was unaware of Senior Zhu's situation. Following general reasoning, the main body of the first ascendant should be in the Jupiter region. Furthermore, he provided assistance to the Martian protectors, so..."

From Hartmann's perspective, neither Mars nor Jupiter possesses the resources required for ascension.

“We’ve just confirmed the trail of flames from the Celestial Fleet,” Li Wenyang said. “Combined with the operating status of the light-speed highway… they’ve already missed the best window to reach Jupiter. But they’re still accelerating.”

The ascendant sighed towards the mountain: "That really is... good at giving people surprises."

The president of the Hermo Society crossed his arms and said, "Wow, you're really beneath yourself by ascending. Why don't you just go to Saturn now? I have a few accounts there that can access some online resources. If I share them with you, you can legally gain control. It's much simpler than that old dog Hartman's intrusion, right?"

Xiang Shan shook his head: "It's impossible. The internet speed isn't fast enough."

The Ascended Ones' immense power is accompanied by the real-time exchange and changes of massive amounts of data. The Ascended One Xiang Shan was able to appear within the Black Ship Legion primarily because the Black Ship Legion's location was already close enough to the inner asteroid belt, close enough to Mars, and then he arrived via the private link provided by Zhu Xinyu. Furthermore, the Black Ship Legion already had a project to recreate the Seventh Martial God, so the amount of data Xiang Shan needed to transmit was very small.

“Old Dog’s adjutant on the moon sold me a package of his subordinates’ data,” Xiang Shan said. “Including that Shuoqidi. I can even generate martial arts techniques specifically for Shuoqidi—but I can’t do this one here. There isn’t enough downlink bandwidth to download the data here, and there aren’t enough computing resources here to generate the martial arts techniques, understand? This type of martial arts data has a low priority in my expectations, so it’s at the back of the data synchronization queue.”

The backbone network of the inner solar system does not provide any legitimate routing entry points for the Xia Ke Protocol. Only a few unauthorized relay nodes built by Xia Ke themselves barely connect to regions outside Jupiter. Furthermore, the farther away from the sun, the more severe the signal delay and bandwidth attenuation.

The effective data transfer rate from Mars and Jupiter to Saturn is pitifully low. Moreover, Yogemov's super artificial intelligence, Chongli, destroyed the vast majority of uplink stations from Mars to the outside world.

If Hartmann had piloted his warship to Saturn...

Based on Mars' uplink bandwidth, even if Xiangshan were to build a localized self on Saturn's network, its data volume would be far less than Hartman's original body.

After all, that's data transmitted directly from high-speed ships, so the bandwidth is really huge.

Adong hesitated for a moment: "Then...can he succeed?"

Adong and the president are probably the people who know Zhu Xinyu's current situation best. The Hermo Society has always been assisting Zhu Xinyu's lineage. She already knew some things, and the appearance of the ascendant Xiang Shan explained a lot.

“That’s right, that’s right. Zhu Xinyu failed herself, and Hartman probably won’t succeed either.” Xiang Shan sighed. “But it’s not impossible, there are too few cases. If we have to say something… the world’s perception of him is that ‘this guy is almost like a machine.’ Perhaps this perception can cause him to undergo a different mutation than mine? Although the possibility is not high.”

One of the staff officers hesitated somewhat: "If it mostly fails..."

“The best-case scenario is that this hero’s greatest enemy will be defeated on its own,” Xiang Shan said. “But defeat on its own doesn’t mean there won’t be any trouble.”

Realizing she couldn't predict her own actions, Zhu Xinyu, drawing on past mistakes, began to fear harming humanity. She repeatedly rolled back on Mars, triggering various anomalies across the planet. This was despite the failed Ascendant's self-imposed limitations and deliberate avoidance of attacking humans.

Would Hartmann have this concept?

Even if his ascension fails, it will likely cause severe damage to the entire human population on Saturn, with incalculable losses in production.

Li Wenyang had calmed down. He rested his elbows on the virtual desktop and his hands on his chin: "So, if his ascension fails and he doesn't self-destruct, but instead becomes malicious data circulating in the network... how confident are the ascendants in completely eliminating him?"

"It doesn't depend on the Ascended's ability or attitude, but on the enemy's acceptance of self-backup and how many terminal devices can disconnect from the network." Xiang Shan spread his hands. "As long as they can enter a terminal and control a robot to unplug the network cable, it will be difficult for the Ascended to eliminate the enemy hidden in that terminal at the data level."

Xiang Shan looked at Li Wenyang and asked, "So, the next question... if the asteroid is brought between Saturn and the planet, are there other chivalrous forces that can intercept the Celestial Fleet?"

Li Wenyang pondered. The president of the Hermo Society then spoke up: "What about the twelfth War God on Mars? If he can get to Jupiter quickly..."

“Even external fuel tanks have their limits. In high-intensity combat, they must be detached from the fuel tanks. If the Twelfth Martial God chooses to kill Hartman, he won’t be able to make it to the battle in the Jupiter region.” Li Wenyang shook his head.

Xiang Shan said, "If there's no other way, it could indeed be considered as an alternative..."

"But liberating Jupiter is also our long-cherished wish. The Red Star Righteous Army has already made huge sacrifices to achieve the current situation. We should not easily give up the opportunity brought by the Twelfth Martial God," Li Wenyang said.

--So……

The acting commander of the Black Ship Righteous Army sighed slightly. There was only one answer then. He stood up and said solemnly, "Comrades, it seems the newly arrived Ascended Martial God doesn't consider us one of his own. He's a bit distant and he's embarrassed to say some things. So, I'm the only one who can say this—we have no choice, comrades. We must find a way to kill King Agni in the asteroid belt."

but……

At this point, squeezing out top experts and fuel to pursue the Tianxing Fleet means that the manpower and propellant available to eliminate that small tactical force will be reduced.

Even the entire Black Ship Legion would suffer heavy losses.

“Saturn is the home of most of our soldiers, the most important energy extraction area and industrial hub of the chivalrous forces, and the accumulation of many chivalrous people over the past hundred years,” Li Wenyang said. “One hundred and fifty years ago, why did the Sixth Martial God, the Seventh Martial God, and the predecessors of the Three Righteous Ones fight to the death in the asteroid belt? It was to defend the Saturn position that was being established.”

"According to our prior intelligence, there are no more than ten first-level warriors in the Tianxing Fleet. We have a chance to achieve this."

"If anyone objects to this goal, please speak up now."

Li Wenyang looked around and waited for a fraction of a second (equivalent to several minutes under mental overclocking).

"Very good, then let's formulate tactics based on this premise."

The chief of staff spoke first: "First of all, the Celestial Star Fleet also needs to consider the supply of working fluids. The Road Administration Fleet can no longer catch up via the light-speed highway near Chaldea."

Battlefield remnants themselves pollute the light-speed highway, and this pollution spreads. The wreckage of the Celestial Fleet and the Black Ships continues to propagate at high speeds through the asteroid belt. A collision with a small celestial body would create even more small debris, making the surrounding airspace even more dangerous. Low-speed travel is manageable, but high-speed travel is extremely perilous.

Meanwhile, the Tianxing fleet was accelerating, and the supply ships could not catch up from this side no matter what.

"If it gets resupply, even a martial arts team would have a hard time catching up. So we must do this before Hartman gets the working fluid supply and starts the next stage of acceleration."

The quartermaster reported, "We're running low on fuel. We should confirm our destination first. If we need to brake near Mars..."

“No…” Li Wenyang began, “We might consider going to Venus—using propellantless propulsion to slow down, and then using Earth’s gravity to reduce fuel consumption. This way we can also save fuel for the turn to Mars.”

"This..." The chief of staff hesitated, "The inner ring fleet's encirclement..."

“The main fleet is en route to the Jupiter region,” Li Wenyang said. “Our remaining forces are enough to deal with the remaining weak forces. Besides, they will prioritize preventing us from raiding the space supply stations for fuel.” He looked at the Ascended, “Could you contact the Martian side, inform them of our flight path, and have them bring fuel to provide support?”

Xiang Shan nodded.

“The deep space fleet has a huge advantage over the planetary fleet. As long as the deep space fleet doesn’t enter the planetary gravitational well, the planetary suppression fleet will almost certainly be on the defensive. What’s more, the main force of the Venus garrison has already been lost at the Karmen line on Earth,” Li Wenyang said. “Even if we are only a remnant force, I have the courage to fight this battle that we are sure to win.”

A staff officer gave a wry smile: "That's assuming we don't get wiped out by that squad..."

"What about a more conservative approach?" the chief of staff suggested. "If we use casualties to wear down the enemy's supplies..."

“Perhaps we can give it a try…” Xiang Shan said thoughtfully, “but I will need at least several first-level martial artists to assist me. I will notify David and Dugu to come over as quickly as possible, but even in the ideal situation… I will make the most of the Martian network to generate targeted martial arts techniques.”

The president of the Hermo Society stood up: "The matter is mostly settled here, so I won't get involved anymore. In short, we can test the compatibility first—let's do it this way, you who claims to be my brother but should actually be my younger brother, the ascendant, come on, start a thread and go offline with me to test it out."

................................................

Asga was quickly browsing the list of unused weaponry provided by the Black Ship Righteous Army—the portion they could allocate to newly joined heroes. Then, she inexplicably watched as the Helms Guild Master suddenly stood up, his body convulsing.

Immediately afterwards, a young male voice rang out: "Holy crap... this is..."

A few seconds later, the voice continued in amazement: "What a useless biological brain... If you were to write a benchmarking plugin and run it, the God of War's lifelong reputation would be ruined, wouldn't it?"

Then came the voiceprint of the guild leader that Asgard and her group had previously encountered: "I've already told you I haven't been a member of the mountain-raising team for many years, you know? If I weren't crippled, would I have been able to stay in the rear for so many years?"

"Holy crap," the young male voice said, "Even if all my martial arts cultivation data were here, I couldn't possibly win against this kind of creature's brain. It's hopeless."

At this moment, A-Dong also got up. She said, "My internal energy is inherited from the Eighth Martial God, perhaps I..."

The president of the Hermo Society slumped back down: "Forget about it. Your brain cell modification is geared towards internal energy cultivation, and your astrocytes are softening rather than hardening—you can't fight high-intensity close combat. Forget about it."

"Being a support character from several kilometers away is barely enough," the Ascended One remarked.

“Wait, wait…” Asga suddenly perked up. “You just mentioned Sochi, right? Holy crap, there’s actually a chance to run into that freak on the battlefield!” She reached out and patted Jeanne. “See? Hartmann is really done for. They’ve even sent that freak out as a scapegoat.”

"You were originally from the lunar forces, weren't you?" Adong asked. "You know each other?"

“How could that be? He’s that old man Hartman’s personal bodyguard,” Asga said. “But we lower-ranking folks know that guy’s not human.”

"I also know that he killed the disciple of the Tenth Martial God, and he's very famous," Jeanne added quietly.

Xiang Shan said, "Perhaps I know more about it."

Xiang Shandao actually knew a little about Shuoqidi. The information that Ironheart Dharma King Fihert betrayed to the Twelfth Martial God naturally included all of King Agni's capable subordinates.

Shuoqidi was a particularly special case. Over a hundred years ago, when King Agni rebuilt the Celestial Fleet, he ordered high-ranking military officers on Earth to find soldiers to fill the ranks. At that time, he had the idea of ​​forming an elite martial arts force and replicating the decapitation tactics of the Sixth and Seventh Martial Gods. A group of martial arts school disciples and underground boxers were all recruited through a combination of coaxing and deception; they were all people with some martial arts skills.

Soon, a boy caught the instructor's attention. But not because he was particularly strong. At that time, he was only of average ability; the instructor actually thought he had low intelligence and couldn't react correctly to many things. Fihert, who had just joined the moon crew, was using this opportunity to advance his rank. He received the report and dealt with the matter. After observation, he realized something and then arranged for the boy to undergo a brain examination.

Even with some preparation, the examination results still surprised Fihert. The low-level martial artist who had been sent there because of his exceptional skills was only four years old at the time. No one knew what he had experienced before that, or why he had been fitted with a prosthetic body at an age when he shouldn't have been modified. Was it the crime of abandonment, or the amusement of some despicable person? Nobody knew.

This boy missed the critical period for the formation of self-awareness. Infants whose crying goes unanswered gradually lose the ability to cry, and may even become desensitized to their surroundings. The prosthetic body gave this infant abilities he shouldn't have had, while the boxing ring environment provided him with an abnormal way of interacting with the world. After establishing a behavioral pattern impossible in a natural environment, he was then placed in an environment that emphasized commands and obedience.

He never had the opportunity to establish normal connections with others in his entire life. Even the Six Dragons Sect felt that such a creature, whose brain development was forcibly adjusted by drugs, had a brain microstructure that was vastly different from that of humans, which led Iron Heart Dharma King to steal a lot of Shuoqidi's test reports to use in his academic papers.

Hartmann held special expectations for Sokidi, even fantasizing about replicating the legend of the Speed ​​King. He seemed to believe that the Speed ​​King's immense power was inseparable from his childhood experiences—it could only be said that although this old dog had some talent in internal strength and military formations, his understanding of certain issues was always so peculiar. Thousands upon thousands of young soldiers were born in the same era as Hayabusa, but only he had reached this level. This was simply an individual talent amplified by ever-evolving technology.

While sending text versions of some intelligence to others, Xiang Shan also searched the entire fleet for a biological brain that was compatible with him.

If this were Mars, someone like Shuoqidi wouldn't be able to make a ripple, what a pity.

At that moment, Tumor Mountain spoke in Jeanne's mind in a way that no one else could perceive: "It seems that it's time to say goodbye, daughter."

Shakti, a transliteration in Chinese Buddhism, is sometimes also called "Tathagata's Spear," and its English transliteration is shakti. A more literal translation would be "spear," "power," "spiritual power," "authority," or "divine power." The chief deities of the Vedic era often possessed such a spear, and were often associated with it by adding "shakti" to their names. In Hindu mythology, the spear wielded by the fire god is called Agni Shakti.

The word has a more modern transliteration, “Shakti” or “Shakti”, but India also follows the “capitalization of deities” in the Indo-European cultural sphere. Shakti, as a character name, would accurately refer to Shiva’s wife, while Chinese cannot distinguish them by capitalization.

The reason for naming this late-game elite monster this is to reflect its lack of self and its subservient role as an old dog. Of course, I also considered names like "Fire Heaven Magic Treasure," but those would be too long and hard to remember if they were transliterated, and calling it "Fire Heaven Magic Treasure" directly would also be strange.

Also, isn't that a surprise? Unexpected, right? It's actually today!

How many people guessed correctly in the no-prize quiz?