Tianguanzhi

Chapter 148 The Deer-Slaying Knife and the Ambitious Man
To the naked eye, the pale white convection of the character "乂" swept over Jiao En's Heavenly Soldier Formation almost instantly, forming a curved white band of light in mid-air.

The force field weapon in the middle slot propagates in the form of gravitational waves at the speed of light. Once it enters the range, it locks on and hits, making it impossible to dodge.

However, the drawback is that most force field weapons have very low direct lethality. Against steel objects weighing hundreds or thousands of tons, they are almost powerless. But they can greatly reduce the power output of enemy aircraft and even directly paralyze their combat performance.

Seeing the white convection hit the enemy, Gao Liuhun did not relax at all. Instead, his expression became more and more serious, and the distance between the two machines was rapidly closing.

The Sky Soldier Type 5 is an old aircraft that has been in service for decades. Its entire structure is no secret. As long as the core cockpit and engine room are destroyed and the commander piloting the Sky Soldier is killed, the Sky Soldier can be captured intact.

Boom~
The cabin inside the Sky Soldier suddenly shook violently. The servants were inexplicably slammed against the ceiling, then crashed into the walls, and finally tumbled to the ground in a sorry state. All the hatches were locked, red warning lights flashed rapidly, and alarms sounded one after another.

"Don't panic, squat down, everyone squat down!"

Liu Erhu, pale-faced, grabbed one of his brothers. Even a seasoned veteran like him felt his stomach churning and he even started to vomit. It wasn't because of the violent shaking; he knew perfectly well that if they were attacked by the Shenji, the servants in the hangar might be blown to pieces along with their cabins by a missile without them even realizing it. It was the helplessness of witnessing death approaching but being completely powerless to do anything about it.

"You little bastard!"

Although the structure and armor of the Celestial Soldier were completely intact and remained 100% complete, the control interface in front of Jiao En kept displaying blood-red warnings. These were warnings that the energy grid output was insufficient. The Celestial Soldier's energy grid, which had been completely captured by the force field weapon, had now been pushed into the warning zone, reduced from the original sixteen erg to only eight erg.

This means that all weapons and equipment on this Type 5 Sky Soldier with a power output exceeding 8 erg are unusable!
The Heavenly Soldier's configuration slots are 1, 4, and 2. Looking at the four medium-sized weapon icons on the interface that had completely gone dark, Jiao En's pupils contracted for a moment, and a feeling of regret flashed through his mind.

Among the three types of equipment slots for the Divine Machine, high-slot weapons often represent high lethality and high protection, and have a decisive effect on the battlefield. Mid-slot weapons are designed for interference and special operations. As for low-slot weapons, they often play a supporting and enhancing role in the machine's performance. The three types only have different focuses, but there is no superior or inferior distinction. For example, the Phase Escape that Gu Jianqiu is planning, although it is the top-level equipment for the Divine Machine, is only a low-slot weapon.

As a regular combat unit of the Divine Machine Legion, the Heavenly Soldier series has always used the middle slot as its main means of combat. In fact, Jiao En's Heavenly Soldier Type 5 is also equipped with a middle slot force field weapon that can paralyze the performance of enemy aircraft. It is the Heavenly Prison Force Field produced by the Imperial Research Institute, which is among the top in terms of range and output effect of the serial armament.

But now, this expensive Sky Prison Force Field Actuator is no different from scrap metal, because the Type 5 machine captured by the force field can no longer meet the Sky Prison Force Field's power output of up to sixteen erg.

Jiao En could excuse that the speed at which the opponent's force field completed the capture was too fast, comparable to a divine machine of the highest level, but he could not deny that the reason he was now in such a passive situation was because of his momentary wavering!

Mid-slot weapons capable of destroying half of the Heavenly Soldier Type 5's energy grid in one hit are practically priceless on the market, and their installation conditions are extremely demanding. Jiao En has reason to believe that the other party has used all of their mid-slot slots to install this weapon.

This was a premeditated attack.

But how could that be? What is their purpose?
Jiao En suddenly thought of the missing Qian Shaoqing. As a regular soldier, he not only knew the weapon information of the Tianbingji very well, but also knew exactly what kind of goods were loaded on the Tianbingji.

Perhaps from the very beginning, this group's goal was their own Heavenly Soldiers.

The disappearance of Zheng Bing, the chaos in McDonald's, and the riots of the Spiritualists were all just smokescreens.

Who are they? Was this all a conspiracy from the start? Are they really just space pirates? Or are they someone from within the Empire?

Jiao En's thoughts were racing, but his mind remained clear.

Whoever you are, you're underestimating me.

"You went through all this trouble just to capture a Sky Soldier Type 5? And you even provoked the Haitang regular army? What are you thinking?"

Yuan Sengxian continued to chatter on and on.

“There are some pieces of information I’ve never told you before, and that’s certainly my fault, but now that things have come to this, you have no choice but to trust me, right? Relax, Monk Xian. By the way, your memory is a bit bad, which isn’t good.”

"what?"

"Have you forgotten what I just told you?"

Veins bulged on Gao Liuhun's face as the modified Tianbing Lu-type machine accelerated twice under his electrocardiogram output.

"Stop bothering me!"

Before Yuan Sengxian could react, he cut off the channel and recalled the words that the soldier surnamed Qian had said before he died, begging for mercy.

"The supplies on that Sky Soldier-type aircraft are worth at least tens of thousands of dollars, and there's more..." Here it comes.

Jiao En raised his chin slightly.

This brief exchange of fire took place at an altitude of about 10,000 meters above the ground, which is roughly the limit at which the scanning array can observe the details of the battle between the two sides. Gu Jianqiu licked his lips, and the hairs on the back of his hands stood up on their own.

"A small unit marched a long distance, with soldiers costing five figures, carrying incalculable supplies. They had just fought on the Taibai battlefield, were wounded and awarded medals, and were quickly put into command, yet they had no background whatsoever..."

"Sir, you're definitely not only capable of this much."

The white band of light in the sky grew shorter and shorter, and the two aircraft were only a few hundred meters apart. They were already difficult to distinguish with the naked eye.

Suddenly, a blinding light burst forth between the two machines, like a pale white cross that flashed by in an instant.

The demonic modified machine drew a crooked curve in the air before finally stabilizing its flight path. A section of steel arm fell from its body, spinning continuously as it plummeted from mid-air, its whereabouts unknown.

At the same time, Gu Jianqiu shot into the sky like a rocket, heading straight for the battlefield.

At an altitude of 10,000 meters, the oxygen was thin, but faint sparks still spewed out from the gaps in the fuselage of the Type 55 fighter jet. A giant, white, nearly 100-meter-long blade sliced ​​through the thick smoke, dividing the chaotic sky in two distinct halves.

"The Deer-Slaying Knife? No, it's a replica! This damned chieftain is Lu Rong'an's subordinate! Isn't this the vicinity of our home planet? How could Lu Rong'an's subordinate be here!"

Glancing at the structure on the interface, which was now only half intact, Gao Liuhun's face was filled with shock and anger. He was just a hair's breadth away from being blown apart. If that strike had been a little more accurate and hit the vital part of the machine, he would have been reduced to wreckage in the explosion cloud.

Even so, the modified machine's right arm and connecting parts were also destroyed in one hit, greatly reducing the machine's performance.

There was no time for Gao Liuhun to think further. Wu Shiji was closing in again. Gao Liuhun could almost smell the strong burnt smell on that giant weapon. It was the smell of death.

The Candle Dragon Ring standing on the back of the modified machine began to rotate, and white electric flames surged from the electric nozzles once again. The machine once again narrowly avoided the giant soldier's slash with agile movements, drawing a crooked spiral airflow in mid-air. Although it was a mess, it finally managed to create some distance between the two.

"Lu Rong'an?"

As Gu Jianqiu prepared to head to the battlefield, his expression was unreadable. In his memory, the arrogant face with long eyebrows and sword-like eyes slowly emerged.

"The Azure Rhinoceros of the Sky? Nothing special."

"Ah."

From the defeat in the Battle of Chongdao in 1862 to the liberation of Jushen Star in 1999, the Haitang Revolution, known in the textbooks of the People's Republic of China as the modern history of Haitang, spanned 137 years and involved four generations. The turbulent times and the bloodshed were too numerous to describe. This ancient civilization once faced the crisis of national extinction, so much so that countless brilliant figures perished one after another.

Among them, Lu Rong'an, the ambitious man who launched the "Dragon and Python Incident," deserves special mention. This young man, who was ten years older than Gu Jianqiu but already held the rank of colonel and was a third-rank commander, gradually showed the style of an ancient general in the Shuanghua War. He later influenced the key direction of the Haitang Revolution on several occasions. It is no exaggeration to say that he was the protagonist of a chapter in history.

However, this future legend is probably being hunted down by the Sendai Division of the Golden Chrysanthemum People to the point of having nowhere to run or hide.

It was indeed beyond Gu Jianqiu's expectations that Jiao En was actually Lu Rong'an's subordinate. The fact that he was able to obtain a replica of the "Deer-Slaying Knife" as a high-level weapon meant that he must have been Lu Rong'an's personal guard at least once.

As for Lu Rong'an himself, Gu Jianqiu had a direct confrontation with him during the Great Revolution, and ended up suffering a crushing defeat, almost losing his life. In fact, when Lu Rong'an was alive, none of the Haitang people of his generation could match him. Gu Jianqiu estimated that his current electrocardiogram was at least 80 points or more, which was already in the first echelon of the 20th century, directly catching up with the Red Ribbon King of the Divine Dragon Imperial Guard and Tan Yada, the older generation leader of Yanwuhe. Those two were almost a hundred years old.

But...

Gu Jianqiu's gaze returned to the battlefield.

The original Deer-Slaying Knife was an alien component obtained from archaeological digs of a lost civilization. The Imperial Design Institute redesigned it using the principles of charged weapons. Although it consumes almost no energy grid output, the burden it places on the user is unimaginable.

Jiao En was only a Level II Heavenly Official; he couldn't withstand the pressure for long, even if he was a copy.

(End of this chapter)