Black Rift

However, this⁠‍​‍⁠⁠‍‌⁠‍‌‍‍​⁠‍​​‌⁠‌⁠‍‍ comedic interlude lasted less than three minutes.

At this point, the external energy waves finally began to subside. The Forbidden Abyss activated the anti-gravity device, held the halberd with one hand, and landed with a boom.

In any case, the Forbidden Abyss’s landing posture was always impressively stylish.

Huo Xianfeng looked up. The central temple, once towering into the clouds, had collapsed into ruins. Even the inner city was in shambles, with large areas turned into pools of molten metal by the previous magma ray.

As for the densely packed mecha blockade, it had been shattered. The residual energy from the previous attack still lingered, with countless electrical currents spreading across the night sky like tree roots.

Mechas below A-class had no chance against such a terrifying attack; they exploded into dazzling firelights. Thousands of escape pods burned brightly, falling like fragmented fireworks.

The higher-ranked mechas were in a dismal state, with their exteriors heavily damaged. They had first launched a massive energy-consuming magma ray, then deployed their thickest defensive shields, leaving them almost drained of power.

As for Mandala, it had hidden behind numerous S-class mechas when the thunderstorm struck, so it appeared relatively intact but looked utterly defeated, almost devoid of fighting spirit.

—This was enough.

Bright City’s combat power had been directly halved.

“At last…”

Huo Xianfeng smiled with satisfaction,

“—Clean-up complete.”

Jiang Ci was stunned.

What did he mean?

At this moment, all attention in the cockpit turned to him.

Only the Forbidden Abyss sighed softly,

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

The young man sneered,

“This is just the beginning—”

He raised his head, his golden pupils cold and sharp.

In the next second, four black machines with strange shapes appeared around the Forbidden Abyss.

—These were the instruments that Leinster had used to open the wormhole.

Mandala’s face showed extreme horror. He immediately understood what Huo Xianfeng intended to do. With no time to give orders, he operated his mech, Greedy Wolf, to rush forward.

The dark red mecha opened all its cannons, aiming at the machines and releasing a blinding white light in an instant.

—But it was too late.

Black mechanical arms extended from the Forbidden Abyss’ flanks, connecting to the four strange machines.

“A-Ci, didn’t you ask who would come to pick us up?”

At that moment, Jiang Ci heard the young man softly murmur,

“Soon, you’ll see them with your own eyes.”

Greedy Wolf unleashed a terrifying energy wave, using up almost all its energy and heading straight for the Forbidden Abyss. But just as it was about to hit, it was completely blocked by an instantly deployed energy shield—

But the sound that should have echoed did not appear, like it had been sucked into a black hole.

In the next moment, Mandala felt a sudden darkness behind him, and a fierce wind arose—

He felt as if all the blood in his body had frozen, losing even the courage to glance back.

But Jiang Ci saw it clearly. Far behind Mandala, in the night sky, two massive space rifts, each spanning hundreds of kilometers, appeared. They arranged themselves in an inverted V shape, almost covering the entire visible sky.

Those black rifts expanded to a terrifying size within seconds!

They looked like a demon’s eyes opening.

Huo Xianfeng closed his eyes—

The originally dim and dark Zerg spiritual network suddenly lit up with countless bright spots, like the Milky Way pouring out, forming a brilliant cosmic sea of stars.

This included the adult Zergs hibernating beneath the Earth and the larvae on Winter Day Planet, which had yet to undergo metamorphosis.

Summoned by their King, the monsters tore through space, emerging as if from the abyss at the end of another world. They densely filled the sky, exhaling cold and sinister breaths from their terrifying mouthparts.

“Z…Zerg…”

A human’s voice trembled, so broken and trembling that it was unrecognizable.

“ZERGS!!!”

The absurd and empty despair flooded in like a tide; cold, eerie, and terrifying.

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The Forbidden Abyss sighed, understanding Huo Xianfeng’s purpose.

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—It was Wan Jiang.

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If the Forbidden Abyss’ attack had already crushed 40% of Bright City’s army’s will to resist, the appearance of the Zergs was enough to make 80% of them want to flee in panic.

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Zhou Jiuya never imagined that the most absurd thing in the world would happen like this—that one day, they would stand on the same side as the Zergs.

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What kind of deal had they made?

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Even when he made the decision to sacrifice himself three hundred years ago, he left behind a grand plan. Up until now, everyone had been part of that person’s chess game, unable to see through it, yet unknowingly following his every predicted move.

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Wan Jiang and the Forbidden Abyss both had voices akin to deep-toned middle-aged men, though Wan Jiang’s was colder and more formal, like the authoritative head of a noble family. In contrast, the Forbidden Abyss’ voice had a freer, more unrestrained quality, reminiscent of a carefree wandering hero.

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“—How can it be inconvenient?!”

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Because Wan Jiang and Forbidden Abyss had a private communication channel, Ye Shu squeezed into Wan Jiang’s cockpit to get first-hand information about Huo Chao immediately.

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“New… master?”

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—The alpha youth who had collaborated with him on Winter Day Planet.

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[I will help you escape from here and search for the secrets Huo Chao left behind.]

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[Xiao Ye, please, help him.]

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To Ye Shu, Huo Chao seemed almost omnipotent.

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…Why?

What kind of purpose, what kind of enemy, was worthy enough to make Huo Chao sacrifice his own life, spend hundreds of years, and exhaust such effort to orchestrate such a grand scheme?

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Yet, even so, Ye Shu followed the plan set by that person. He agreed to cooperate with Huo Xianfeng.

[Make peace with Pei Changyun, regain control of Winter Day Planet, and continue hiding the larvae.]

If anyone else had said the first part, Ye Shu would have beaten them on the spot. But hiding the larvae was Huo Chao’s idea from the beginning.

The past him remained silent for a moment and asked Huo Xianfeng—

[What is your relationship with Huo Chao?]

The young man paused, then smiled faintly:

[—That’s also the answer I’m looking for.]

Thus, they formed an alliance.

Later, when Leinster stole the Forbidden Abyss’ wreckage from Winter Day Planet, Huo Xianfeng and Jiang Ci were forced into the wormhole and ended up on the church-controlled Holy Dew planet. That planet blocked all signals but couldn’t sever the connection between the Zergs and their King within the same star system. So, the larvae found Ye Shu and wrote human characters on the ground.

Huo Xianfeng had already planned it out. Since the Church could invade Winter Day Planet through a wormhole, they could reverse the process as long as they found those strange black machines.

—This was the main reason why Ye Shu and Zhou Jiuya were able to arrive in time.

All in all, Zhou Jiuya and Ye Shu had never imagined they could coexist so harmoniously with the Zergs.

Even more, Zhou Jiuya met the Zerg general Ossa, whom he had previously encountered on Earth. The last time they met, it was a life-or-death struggle. Ossa had fought fiercely to drag Wan Jiang down while Zhou Jiuya prepared for a bloody battle, but the Zergs suddenly stopped attacking and burrowed underground, becoming silent.

Meeting again now, Zhou Jiuya found it strange.

In Bright City, the Zergs left about 20% of the area unoccupied for them. When Ossa passed by Wan Jiang, it gestured with its bone wings, clearly indicating they should stay there.

An 80-20 split… These creatures are indeed domineering.

“Zhou Jiuya, look over there—”

The Legion Commander followed Ye Shu’s direction and saw a continuous stream of Zergs gathering, forming a massive spherical entity. The gigantic Zerg sphere kept growing, but instead of rising, it continued sinking underground. Ye Shu had seen something similar before. At the moment of the nuclear explosion, he saw it when he rushed in.

Back then, many Zergs clustered together in this way.

Although it wasn’t as vast as before, many Zergs had indeed survived the nuclear blast. However, in reality, only about one-thousandth of them remained.

Ye Shu stared for a long time before suddenly speaking,

“Zhou Jiuya, do you remember the year when the Marshal saved a drowning colony of ants?”

Actually, on ordinary days, Ye Shu didn’t specifically recall things related to that person. However, once he thought about it, he suddenly realized that everything about Huo Chao, even after three hundred years, was still vivid.

“……Ants?”

Zhou Jiuya remembered.

They were suppressing rebels in a city in the southern alliance. At that time, Zhou Jiuya had just come out of the prisoner camp and was Huo Chao’s personal guard. Ye Shu was with them too.

When the riot suppression was over, they encountered a rare hundred-year rainstorm that caused widespread flooding. Because the city management was almost paralyzed right after suppressing the rebels, Huo Chao personally drove the Forbidden Abyss to help repair dams, clear blocked waterways, and reassure frightened citizens.

This was probably why, even after three hundred years, countless people still remembered that person with nostalgia.

On their way back, they passed by a stream diverted by mountain torrents. Huo Chao seemed to have discovered something and reached out to scoop up a cluster of ants huddling together for survival.

Ye Shu reached out to poke at the wet cluster of ants curiously and asked,

[It’s strange, why are they huddling like this?]

Huo Chao peeled away the outer layer of ants that had already drowned, revealing a densely packed but lively group inside.

[When the flood comes, if they huddle like this, the outer ants will drown, but the ones inside can survive. And in the very center is their queen, whom they protect, ensuring the continuation of the species.]

Ye Shu crouched down to look, marveling at how much the Marshal knew. Zhou Jiuya stood behind, silent and almost invisible, but still casting admiring glances at him.

[You two should read more books.]

Huo Chao smiled and placed the cluster of ants in a safe, dry place. He gently watched over them for a long time before finally standing up,

[—Let’s go.]

That cluster of ants was very similar to how the Zerg were huddling at this moment.

According to the signal sent by the Forbidden Abyss, it was right in the center of that huddle.

Zhou Jiuya understood what Ye Shu meant. At that moment, he was thinking about what Huo Chao might have been thinking when he saw the ants huddling for survival in the floodwaters.

Did that person plan everything from back then, starting with seeing the ants struggling in the water, to today?

—Perhaps only Huo Chao himself would know.

M1zushi: i love how huo chao has such a mysterious charm to his figure and he makes me think so much of himmel

he has that “my dead wife” vibes ;w;

how, even though he’s dead, his shadow still haunts everyone from the past

and it’s so heartbreaking when we get to the part where his grand scheme is revealed ;w;;