Ten thousand I am across the heavens

After retiring, Xiao Lu's favorite thing to do is to brag in the first person. There are really not many of the older generation who have survived to this day, which has given him a lot of opportunities to brag in the first person.

"Our era, which you now call the 'Shining Era,' I honestly feel it would be more accurate to call it the 'Iron Head Era.' Back then, we had just lost our homeland, which we had built up over a long period of time. A surge of anger and a pioneering spirit made us all feel like we had an iron shield around our heads. It really showed what it means to have nothing to lose and nothing to fear."

Those were the days…

……

Let's go back to when the underground base had just settled down and started to resume production.

After the personnel losses were tallied, He Cheng, the current supreme commander of the base, immediately convened a meeting of all high-ranking officers and announced that the entire underground base was placed on Level 1 combat readiness.

"The threat posed by the eldest son is far from being resolved. Now, we must not only rebuild our homeland, but also find a way to eliminate him before he fully grows up. Within a month, we need to formally lead an army against the eldest son and formulate a practical plan to eliminate him. What are your opinions on this?"

Upon hearing this, the leaders of various departments and commanders of various legions all began to whisper among themselves. One of them couldn't help but stand up and say, "Even if the eldest son is in great danger, the ones who really need to worry about him are those immortals. What does it have to do with us? We've already done more than enough. Before the eldest son had fully descended, we risked our lives to kill so many of our brothers to destroy his brain core, leaving only a few survivors. If it weren't for an immortal jumping out to stop us, this wouldn't have happened. They created this mess themselves; if they don't want to clean it up, are we supposed to clean up their mess?"

He Cheng shook his head and said, "There are so many immortals in Beiyuan, but have you seen any of them actually come to eliminate the eldest son? So far, only three have come. Everyone says that if the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up. Everyone thinks that way, but has anyone ever thought that the tall ones will squat down after the sky falls?"
We may not be the strongest force on the grasslands right now. But the very foundation of our nation is unity, the ability to fight natural disasters together. Now, an even more terrible natural disaster has struck. If we retreat now, what will become of the moral justification for our gathering here?

Some people nodded after hearing this, but many more still wanted to stand up and refute it.

"Even if many immortals don't intervene, someone will eventually have to clean up the mess. We might as well take this opportunity to develop secretly, sit back and watch the tigers fight, and maybe even gain some advantage in the process. The most sensible approach would be to secretly help the eldest son grow to a level that even the immortals of the Northern Plains would find difficult to deal with, forcing them to come out together and depleting their strength. What benefit would we gain from attacking the eldest son now? It would only be a waste of our strength."

He Cheng nodded: "You're right, this should be the most rational approach. But I ask everyone here, are you all gathered here to maintain this vast country, risking your lives to fight for our survival? Is it really because of rationality? You sitting here, ask yourselves, if you were truly thinking from the most rational perspective, would you still be fighting on the front lines where the death rate is the highest? Would your fellow soldiers still be working tirelessly day and night?"

If we truly think from the most rational perspective, our first Supreme Commander should have retreated when facing the Black Loulan. What is the Black Loulan compared to us now? Nothing at all! But what did the Supreme Commander's wisdom bring us? Was it really worth it to exchange one for one? From a rational point of view, it was not worth it no matter how you look at it, but he still did it, and thus he became our first saint. Only the dead can be saints. The Supreme Commander followed the righteousness he established and proved the way he left us with his life. The righteousness he left behind is the very reason why you all stand with me now.

How many of you have come to this point because you wanted to follow in the footsteps of the former Supreme Commander?

The underground base has now had seven supreme commanders, none of whom retired alive. They either died on the battlefield or were assassinated by the enemy with the highest level of skill. Think back to the days you lived, think back to the tribe you once belonged to. If the tribal chief were really in such danger, would anyone still be willing to take on this responsibility?
Many things are more important than immediate, tangible benefits. Besides, even if we lose, will our tradition truly perish? Even if all of us, hundreds of millions of people, die, will the cause we have fought for disappear?
Everything we've done has been passed down throughout the Northern Plains. Even if we are completely wiped out, thousands or tens of thousands of years will not erase this part of our history. And in the future, someone will surely take up our banner and retrace the path we've walked.

He Chenglian even uttered the words that the entire underground base would be wiped out, causing everyone to fall silent. This force was too young and lacked foundation, but youth was also an advantage—they were daring, fearless, and unafraid of sacrifice. Almost everyone gathered in the underground base had struggled on the brink of death. Few hadn't experienced the loss of their wives and children, the destruction of their families. Even if you grabbed a random person from the street and asked if they dared to undertake a mission with a near-certain death, as long as the mission itself was worth risking their life for, they would be willing to die.

"I know that if we don't do some things now, we may not be able to do them later. If we miss this crucial moment when the whole nation is closely united, we may not dare to work so hard when we are no longer barefoot and have our own businesses."

But Commander… even if it's a desperate fight, you have to give us a glimmer of hope for victory! You can't be unaware of what an Eighth Rank immortal is, can you? We've already clashed with immortals before. Although we defeated the final Sixth Rank immortal, based on the average strength of immortals, a Seventh Rank immortal is at least a hundred times stronger than a Sixth Rank immortal, and an Eighth Rank immortal is a hundred times stronger. Even beings with strength differences of tens of thousands of times compared to us are now fighting a fierce battle with the materialized eldest son. What makes us qualified to enter a war of this scale? Even if we have the resolve to fight against natural disasters, are we just going to throw our lives away like this?”

He Cheng shook his head and said, "It's not about sending us to our deaths. If we were to fight an eighth-level immortal head-on, it's indeed unlikely we would win. Even against a seventh-level immortal, we would have a very high chance of being forced into a desperate situation. But that doesn't mean that just because our direct combat strength is inferior to an eighth-level immortal, we are inferior in all other areas."

It sounds like the size of an eighth-level expert is terrifying and beyond our reach, but in reality, if we only consider output power, the output power of a small Dao Yuan reactor is comparable to that of a sixth-level immortal. In terms of power alone, without considering combat effectiveness on the battlefield, one of our warships already exceeds the output power of an ordinary sixth-level immortal.

The large-scale Dao Yuan reactors, while possessing power outputs surpassing even those of ordinary seventh-rank experts, are difficult to move and require disassembly and component transport. However, theoretically, they could be easily constructed on our prepared battlefield. Furthermore, with our vast reserves of conventional power machinery and each individual contributing to the overall power output, the combined output could potentially exceed ten times that of an eighth-rank expert. Although this cannot be calculated solely by numerical superiority, in direct combat, we might not even last an hour against an eighth-rank expert. Nevertheless, this demonstrates our capability to accomplish what many eighth-rank experts cannot, and this is our breakthrough.

I'm merely offering you a direction; the solution lies in our collective effort. If, after rigorous analysis, we find that fighting the eldest son is tantamount to suicide, then I will voluntarily abandon this plan. However, I trust in you all, and in the wisdom of the masses; we can always find a way to reverse the situation.”

If Xiao Lu had known he was about to face a brutal period of overtime with almost no sleep, he certainly wouldn't have chosen to speak up at this moment. But being a young man, he was stirred by the Supreme Commander's words and, without thinking, stepped forward on his own initiative.

"Commander, it's not entirely impossible to win this battle. In previous battles, we cut off a large amount of the eldest son's flesh and even half of his brain. If we study these samples and develop bio-armor with some of the eldest son's abilities, which can be controlled by our soldiers, it should be able to comprehensively enhance the soldiers' abilities."

Under a legion structure centered on spirit, energy, and several linked Gu worms, this can exponentially increase the legion's combat power and greatly enhance the warriors' survivability. While I'm unsure how much this will improve our overall strength, and I can't estimate the risks involved, if it truly comes down to risking everything, our research institute is willing to go all out to develop a usable bio-engineering system as quickly as possible.

Seeing someone speak up, the others also began to consider how to bridge the enormous gap between themselves and the eldest son, facing an enemy of celestial scale. Conventional attack methods had limited effectiveness. Even if bio-engineered armor were successfully developed, the insurmountable size difference between the two sides could not be so easily overcome.

Therefore, we need something more powerful, or a more feasible plan.

In the current atmosphere of collective wisdom, someone quickly offered their opinion: "It might be difficult for us to defeat the Eldest Son in a direct confrontation, but given its large size and relatively slow movement, we could theoretically construct massive wide-area battle formations around the areas occupied by the Eldest Son. This would limit its movement and maximize our numerical and productivity advantages. However, even with a large amount of manpower and resources invested in building these large-scale battle formations, whether they can inflict sufficient damage on a life form of this level is still a question."

"Judging from the current situation, a battle formation of this scale cannot possibly inflict fatal damage on the Eldest Son. At least not without the aid of any external forces. According to the shared memories left behind by our first Supreme Commander, we understand that the Eldest Son is a super life form of the interstellar era. Although we don't fully understand the concept of a planet, the Eldest Son can theoretically grow to the size of a very large planet, and can be considered a top-tier combat force in the vast interstellar environment. It has almost no weaknesses."

"Given our current population size and level of civilization, even if we exhaust all social resources, it would be a drop in the ocean compared to the size of the eldest son," He Cheng stated, outlining the current situation. While the reality was bleak, it didn't mean there was no hope of victory. The crowd's emotions had been stirred; they were now wholeheartedly determined to execute the plan codenamed "Supporting the Sky."

In this brilliant era, shining stars began to emerge among the masses.

"As the commander mentioned before, we are indeed unable to inflict fatal damage on the eldest son without any external assistance. But what if we do use external assistance?"
Winter is approaching, and the biggest external force is the once-in-a-decade blizzard. This year happens to be the year with the strongest storm, and we have gathered here precisely to escape it. But in this situation, could we do the opposite? Could we gather the storm's power and direct it towards our eldest son?

This strategy perfectly complements the aforementioned plan to deploy a wide-area formation. We can deploy a wide-area battlefield attack, gathering the storms across the entire grassland and converging them around the eldest son. At that time, we will be utilizing the favorable weather conditions of the entire Northern Plains. Even if it falls short of planetary-level capabilities, it should still pose a certain threat to the eldest son.

With everyone brainstorming and adding ideas, a constellation of solutions emerged, gradually propelling what was once an impossible undertaking forward. Even though the prospects still seemed slim, the path was no longer without direction.

After more than ten hours of discussion, all departments had done their utmost and presented the limits they could manage, yet they were still just a little short of killing the eldest son, even after taking other factors on the battlefield into account and adding the bargaining chip of securing the intervention of a third party.

As everyone's spirits sank and they considered whether to abandon this impossible plan, one person, who had been sitting there silently and forlornly, stepped forward.

"If we're fighting in the freezing cold... my people and I might be able to help you fill the last gap!"

[To be continued]

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