Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 59 Don Quixote's Sword (Seeking monthly votes)

As the entire naval fleet sank to the bottom of the sea, a junior commander in the outer ring area raised his hand in the command room.

"Report."

At this moment, the entire joint command was still immersed in the shock of the fleet's destruction and the reflections brought about by Luo Qing's impromptu speech, and the voice of this junior commander was temporarily drowned out.

So the Spanish commander had no choice but to raise his voice.

"report!"

"What is it, Captain Garcia?" Before the senior officers on the platform could speak, a Spanish colonel from his own country came over.

Other ship commanders nearby also focused their attention on the captain, which put him under considerable mental pressure. However, when he looked at the warship he controlled on the computer screen and the green icon that still marked 'alive,' he suddenly felt that the pressure from those gazes was nothing.

"The warship I was in charge of, the Elcano, was not sunk!"

Captain Garcia shouted those words out loud.

"what?"

The boiling command room instantly cooled down around the captain, and even the high-ranking generals from various countries who were talking turned to look.

"Are there still warships alive?"

"How is that possible? On the radar, we can't see any of the green dots representing friendly forces in the exercise area."

"A submarine? Didn't they say they wouldn't send any submarines to participate in the exercise?"

"Wait, on the edge of the exercise area, at coordinates X-257, Y-286, I see a white dot, that's a ship!" an intelligence officer shouted, staring intently at the satellite image.

The intelligence officer's voice immediately excited the entire operations command center. Someone urged the war correspondents in the sky to fly in that direction to verify. They quickly photographed the target—a sailing warship built in the early 20th century, which even had the red and yellow flag of the Spanish royal family flying high!
"Who brought a ship from a museum to the battlefield?" shouted an American brigadier general.

"This is the Elcano, named after the successor captain of Magellan's circumnavigation. It was launched in 1928 and has been in service ever since. It's a Spanish national-class active-duty sailing warship. Active-duty! Active-duty! It's an active-duty warship, not some damn museum. Don't talk nonsense," someone retorted.

Intelligence personnel in the operations command quickly verified the information about the Elcano sailing warship, confirming that it was indeed the 2000th participating warship in this [Pacific Coordination-2015] operation!
When the commander-in-chief of the exercise announced that the Spanish warship "Elcano" was the sole survivor of the exercise, the entire Pentagon erupted in jubilant cheers, as if they had won some incredible victory!
One human fleet warship survived!
Although it was just an antique sailing warship used to make up the numbers, its combat power was even less than that of a light speedboat equipped with machine guns.

This ancient sailing warship didn't even have any electric propellers or internal combustion engines; it was propelled entirely by the thrust provided by its four masts and sails!

It can be said that the speed of the Elcano depends entirely on the wind speed. This antique ship does not even have satellite navigation equipment and still relies on compasses, nautical charts and star charts for guidance.

Just how powerful was the Elcano, the only surviving sailing warship? The Spanish colonel explained: the only lethal weapon on this warship was a 'Toledo sword' hanging on the wall of the captain's cabin!
Yes, this longsword is older than the sailing warship itself; it was made in the fifth century AD in the city of Toledo, one of the most important sword-making centers in the Middle Ages.

The sword Toledo is most famous in history for the moment when Don Quixote charged at the windmill giant with it in hand, hence it is also known as the sword of knights.

What? You're saying literary works don't count as history? Well, no, the Toledo Sword's other historical highlight is right now.

The Toledo Sword, as the Elcano's main offensive weapon, endowed this ancient sailing ship with the attributes of a 'warship'. After the entire combined fleet was wiped out, this ship, which was made entirely of wood, miraculously escaped the cultivators' attack range of 500 kilometers thanks to the four sails on its mast, becoming the sole survivor of this exercise!
"You're a hero. You saved the last bit of face for the human navy, Captain Garcia, right? From now on, you're Colonel Garcia. Tell me, how did you do it?"

Facing the U.S. lieutenant general who walked up to him, Colonel Garcia, who had been promoted three ranks, blushed and stammered, "This is not my doing."

Garcia pointed to the computer next to him, which was his main device for remotely controlling the warship.

"At the start of the exercise, my computer lost contact with the Elcano... It was probably too old; the electronic sensors and rudder controllers short-circuited in the damp wood. In any case, I lost control of it, and the Elcano, with its sails hoisted, was blown off course by the strong winds. I wanted to report it, but I was distracted by the battle between the fleet and the Wallfacers. When I came to my senses, the entire fleet had vanished."

“Only it, the Elcano… survived on its own!” Colonel Garcia said, pointing to the Elcano.

"You mean, it was the wind that saved the last warship in this exercise, rather than you taking active control."

"Is that so, sir!" "Very well, I'm revoking your promotion. Your colonel status is gone."

The U.S. lieutenant general turned his head, ignoring Garcia's astonishment, and said in a slightly self-deprecating tone: "Soldiers, it's true that we survived one warship, but it was blown away by the wind. Of course, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, it's just that I'm a little disappointed with the result."

The U.S. lieutenant general patted Garcia on the shoulder: "If this young man foresaw the outcome of the exercise and managed to escape with the 'Elcano,' I wouldn't blame him."

He then said to everyone, "If this were a space war, and we escaped on the only ship—unfortunately, it was unmanned—it's hard to say that this isn't a regret."

At this point, the junior commander of the outer ring ship began to mutter: "You should have said so earlier. If you had said so earlier, I wouldn't have bothered with you to form a formation. You could have let my speedboat get away from the start."

the other side.

When Luo Qing learned that he had actually sunk 1999 human warships instead of 2,000, he was equally surprised.

His divine sense spread out and quickly crossed the 500-kilometer radius exercise area. Finally, at the 507-kilometer mark of his divine sense, Luo Qing discovered the suspected target. After Luo Qing's divine sense completely enveloped the ancient sailing warship, his expression became very colorful.

About ten seconds later, Luo Qing successfully arrived near the Elcano. Fearing that the air shock caused by the excessive speed would tear the canvas of the old ship, Luo Qing deliberately slowed down and landed on the wooden deck of the Elcano like a light swallow.

The tip of the Toledo sword was instantly placed across the cultivator's neck.

However, the wielder of the Toledo sword was clearly not a professional fighter. His strength was even less than that of Don Quixote charging with his sword. He struggled to hold the longsword, which was forged in the fifth century AD, and had to use both hands to wield it.

Luo Qing gently helped her adjust the position of the longsword.

This was a young woman, very thin and fair-skinned, with thin lips, who looked like a poor English girl. She was holding a sword and struggling to aim it at Luo Qing.

"When you first pick up a sword, you should leave your palms empty and never grip it too tightly. As the sword manual says, 'When your palms are empty, the sword will be agile.' Only when there is space in your palms can the sword move freely and nimbly in your hands."

"I don't need to grip the sword tightly, you will die by my sword." The woman in front of me spoke with absolute certainty.

"That's a pity. I thought I could take on a disciple. I recently thought of an interesting way to practice swordsmanship: hold a sword with one hand, place a mobile phone on the tip of the sword, and open sixty different apps on the phone in succession. The person who can keep the phone from redirecting to Taobao is born with a sword body. It's a pity that you don't seem interested."

The swordsman sneered.

This scene was clearly captured by the arriving drones and war correspondents piloting airplanes. The six-member ETO council, including Qin Shi Huang, were also watching this scene together in the Three-Body Problem game.

Caesar, who belonged to the liberal faction, had a rather complicated expression; he almost stopped calling anyone "Your Majesty."

"Qin Shi Huang, must she personally lead this operation?"

Qin Shi Huang said, "Otherwise, why would I kill her? There's no point in her staying in the game."

Pope Gregory said, "We cannot be 100% certain of our comrades' loyalty, so we can only find martyrs to complete this task. And the only credible martyrs are the seven of us. Of course, there will be six left in the future."

Caesar frowned: "Of the seven, why choose her?"

King Wen of Zhou, who had remained silent, offered an explanation on behalf of Qin Shi Huang: "She is a good swimmer and can swim across the exercise area to board the sailboat; others cannot."

It was such a simple reason, so simple that Caesar fell silent.

Luo Qing asked, "What should I call you?"

"Victoria."

(End of this chapter)