Him and their stars.

Chapter 2102 Every old man in the empire wants to die with you
What's with this guy acting like he's seen an old friend? Knight Commander Milerke said that he's over a hundred years old and it's been far too long since he's had this experience.

Of all those alive today, perhaps only His Majesty the Emperor is qualified to speak to me in this manner.
"How rude of you, dragon!" A flash of anger crossed the old knight's face, but then he seemed to realize something and became thoughtful.

However, I have never heard of the dragon being such a frivolous and immoral creature.

So, is this a trap? A psychological tactic? A trick to make me lose my composure and calm?
Yes, that's the only explanation.

The old knight commander realized he had discovered a blind spot and was immediately filled with awe. Indeed, a true warrior must stop at nothing and use every means to strike his enemy!

We psionicists, born into the prestigious Tyrell family, are often preoccupied with our status and rituals, forgetting that we are warriors. A warrior's duty is to kill the enemy.

Earthlings certainly have things we can learn from them!
Yu Lian stared directly at the old warrior's subtle expression, watching as the man respectfully gave him a knightly salute. Out of basic adult courtesy, he naturally returned the salute. At that moment, he also felt the previously pervasive gravitational pull and mental interference recede naturally, like the tide falling.

The space where he and the Knight Commander were located had entered a relatively "silent" state.

Normal sounds have faded away. The flow of energy, the operation of machinery, and even the sounds of his own heartbeat and blood circulation have been covered and replaced by a grander, higher-dimensional rhythm.

The dim psionic runes on the walls, floors, and ceilings, which had been hidden behind the armor plates, began to flicker again. The aggressive, blazing light was replaced by a gentle, constant radiance, like that of stars.

At this moment, Yu Lian seemed to have stepped directly into the universe in his physical form, enveloped by the vast sky with no end in sight and the magnificent starlight.

The old knight commander finally spoke, his calm and aged voice resonating directly in Yu Lian's heart through the omnipresent rhythm, even possessing a hint of spiritual power.

"I never imagined that our first meeting would be in this way."

This was not an illusion. Each of his characters did indeed contain a heavy power of incantation, but even Yu Lian himself could not perceive its exact effect.

And so the confrontation began.

Yu Lian almost laughed: "Yes, you belong to a bygone era. I thought I would see your name in history books or even museums. You should be writing your memoirs, playing cards, fishing, and laughing with your great-grandchildren. You shouldn't be here."

"Glory belongs to the Empire, duty lies in defending the land. The Galactic Empire needs every member of the Knights to fulfill their duties and fight to the death." The old Knight Commander's voice was calm yet firm.

At this point, if you are not firm and composed, you will appear very weak.

"Defend the territory?" Yu Lian scoffed. "So I've become the invader?"

"My duty is merely to guard the gates of the Heavenly Realm."

"Hypocritical," Yu Lian said incisively.

"I dare not deny this. The empire has only achieved its current state through continuous progress, invasion, expansion, slaughter, and conquest. Therefore, we should also accept all the backlash." The old knight commander calmly accepted these understated attacks: "And my duty is simply to guard the gates of the Heavenly Realm."

"Very good. At least you have a deep understanding of your own reactionary nature. A bad person who doesn't apply double standards is at least a decent bad person." Yu Lian nodded approvingly again.

This kind of topic was not something a mere Knight Commander could handle, so the topic was immediately changed.

“You have broken through the Mirror Corridor.” His tone was like a calm narration, or a humble inquiry.

"Your design is ingenious," Yu Lian praised with great emotional intelligence.
"If I forcefully touch the door, the resonant explosion will be triggered. The resonant reaction throughout the cabin will activate the warheads carried by those robots. It's at least equivalent to detonating two or three antimatter bombs right next to me."

Even though he had used his psionic energy to extinguish the detonation mechanisms of the explosives, he couldn't prevent the resonant resonance from occurring. This was an unshakeable physical law governed by psionic energy, a design that could be described as perfect.
"Ha... Are they trying to use me as a dreadnought to bomb?"

“If it could truly bring you to your demise, no one would hesitate to give you a Titan,” the Knight Commander said matter-of-factly.

“Then I should feel honored,” Yu Lian said with a smile. “But these antimatter bombs will be detonated inside the fortress.”

"If it truly means your demise, what's the harm in losing a Sky-Supporting Fortress?" he replied calmly. "It's a pity this fortress is destined for me; I truly cannot bear to see it set ablaze." Yu Lian gazed directly at the aged yet still imposing knight commander, his eyes flashing with admiration.

"However, if I don't go through the gate and instead use force field jumps or cellular etherealization to pass through the obstacles, I'll fall into the Mirror Corridor you designed. It's a special realm of conflict, built between reality and illusion. Compared to Duke Sadoulan's desolate gray plains, your Mirror Corridor isn't as large, but it's easier to get lost in it! If I truly accept the reality there, I'll be trapped in that endless battlefield. No matter where I go, the same cabins, the same passageways, the same four-man Astral Knights will appear, but with different abilities and combat power. They will grow stronger and stronger until they completely destroy me."

The old knight commander wasn't sure if the other party was praising him or simply being naive, so he smiled wryly and said, "But you were only trapped twice."

Actually, I don't need to do it even once, but I need to find the core of the Eternal Array. Yu Lian smiled modestly and said, "Your reputation for bravery has already resounded throughout the entire galaxy for over sixty years, but no one expected that you are also a master of technique. This is the true meaning of dual cultivation of magic and martial arts."

The old knight commander was equally modest: "It's just that we're barely managing to maintain it thanks to the power of the Eternal Array."

"But you are indeed a master of manipulating mirror images and clones... or rather, not a clone?"

At this point, he looked towards the end of the passage. The space there was slightly distorted, vaguely concealing an old man wearing a simple gray robe. He also had white hair and beard, and had the same appearance as Milakah, but his figure was thin and hunched, and his temperament was gloomy.

If Lord Milaka, cloaked in the "Lion of Light," is a majestic and domineering knight commander, then this old man, appearing and disappearing in the distorted space, is a wizard who fits the stereotype perfectly, right? And he's probably the kind who plays with skeletons.

The hunched "old wizard" held a scepter that resembled a lightning rod, but the top of it was inlaid with a miniature model of Chenxiao Fortress, making it look somewhat comical. Although he himself did not wear the emblem machine, his presence was perfectly integrated with the eternal array of the entire fortress through the ever-pulsating spatial ripples.

The heart and brain of the Eternal Array is not "Knight Commander Milokai", but this "Necromancer Milokai".

At least for now, Yu Lian truly felt this way. These two Mr. Milakas gave him a feeling different from all his previous opponents. They were certainly not the most powerful opponents. The peak abilities of the seventh ring were towering mountains that he could only look up to in his past self and his previous self, but against his demigod self, they were no longer truly opponents of the same level.

Yet, from them, I could sense a profound resonance with this ancient fortress. Knight Milakay and Wizard Milakay, through the Eternal Array, had become symbiotic with this Chenxiao Fortress.

This kind of operation is really... extremely interesting.

Yu Lian stared at them, a smile spreading across his face that was both excited and menacing: "You've really surprised me! How did you manage to do that?"

Perhaps the old knight commander felt that he had no way to hide the truth from the dragon whose name could not be mentioned, so he said: "It is a relic from the Enlightener. This is another possibility of the old man, the old man of quantum superposition."

Mr. Milerke, who perfectly embodies the stereotypical image of a medieval knight and tough old man, is dressed in a jeweled heraldic machine, yet he speaks of "quantum superposition state," which doesn't sound out of place at all.

"So, what is the price?" Yu Lian asked.

“It doesn’t matter anymore.” The old knight commander Milerke said the same thing for the third time: “My duty is to protect this place.”

At this moment, the old wizard Milakay tapped his scepter on the ground: "Only now can the Eternal Array reveal its true power! Please take a look!"

In an instant, cracks that could be seen with the naked eye appeared in the space around Yu Lian, as if an invisible force was folding and twisting the air, forming ugly yet terrifying "folds".

Surrounded by them, his figure suddenly became blurred and even distorted.

Hidden in the shadows of the light to his side and rear, ripples of space spread silently like waves. Before a person's physical form appeared within it, his will and perception arrived first.

New recruits are lurking in the shadows, but Yu Lian seems oblivious to it all.

He felt as if every movement he made was sinking into sticky swamp, requiring several times the usual strength to smooth out the folds in the space. Even so, more folds awaited him.

He heard the old knight and the old wizard say in unison: "The price is that every old man in the Galactic Empire is prepared to perish with you!"

Each of their characters still contains the power of words.

(End of this chapter)