1111 - 1120

Chapter 1111 Refusal?

Qi Long's round of ruthless attacks were ineffective and were easily blocked by Lin Yang.

However, this exchange also allowed Qi Long to understand most of Lin Yang's domain concept.

"Troublesome." Qi Long excitedly licked his bottom lip. Fighting with different types of domain realm masters was his favourite pastime.

"Now it is my turn, take this." Lin Yang suddenly clenched his right hand. Qi Long then felt he was confined and couldn't move.

"That is probably dimensional confinement." After analyzing the attack, Yang Mingzhi's eyes brightened. This technique was considered to be the most well-known dimensional element attack. Back in the day, dimension element domain realm masters used this technique to conquer the world with no equals.

"However, this technique is useless against Qi Long." Li Lanfeng and Qi Long fought many times before. He knew very well about the uniqueness of Qi Long's domain concept.

After he said that, they saw Qi Long escaping out of his opponent's confinement.

This scene stunned Lin Yang. Lin Yang, of course, wasn't arrogant enough to think that there wasn't anyone who could escape from his dimensional confinement, but those people would use overwhelming amounts of domain energy to break apart the dimensional confinement and escape. However, Qi Long didn't do that and Lin Yang didn't feel that his dimensional confine was destroyed. It still existed, but it was as though his dimension was disgusted by his opponent and voluntarily spat him out.

This was the first time he had seen something like this. How did his opponent do that?

Could it be his opponent's domain concept possessed this specialty to make other domain concepts be disgusted by him? Lin Yang seemed to have realized something and his expression became even more hardened.

If his dimension element was a known special domain that had the strongest offenses, then Qi Long's unknown domain concept would be considered an extremely special domain concept.

"Actually, I never understood Qi Long's domain concept." Yang Mingzhi sighed. That was why up until now, Qi Long's domain still didn't have a category assigned to it.

"However, his concept is really hated by all other domain concepts. Can we call it the concept of disgust?" Luo Lang said earnestly.

"Doesn't sound like a good name," Li Yingjie pouted and said. If someone dared to give such a bad name to his domain concept, he would definitely get angry.

"Regiment commander, you and Leader Qi had fought many times, have you not discovered anything about his domain concept?" Liu Furong didn't believe that Ling Lan knew nothing about it.

Everyone looked towards Ling Lan. They wanted to get the answer from their all-knowing Boss.

Ling Lan gave a half-smile as she looked at everyone. Then, she slowly said, "The concept of Qi Long's domain, of course, isn't like what is shown on the surface as disgust. If you guys were to think in that direction, then you would be walking down the wrong path and never find out the truth."

Everyone looked at their Boss with burning desire in their eyes, hoping that Boss could be more specific.

"I still haven't studied it thoroughly, but it mostly related to the concept of language." Ling Lan tossed out an answer that everyone never imagined

"The concept of language?" Everyone was dumbfounded.

"Simply put, if Qi Long didn't want something to happen, it wouldn't happen. It can be simply known as the concept of refusal." Ling Lan's answer enlightened everybody. It was no wonder they couldn't do anything to Qi Long. That was because Qi Long always refused the outcome of losing.

"Then, why wouldn't Qi Long refuse Boss?" Luo Lang asked with many questions in his mind.

"You idiot. Boss is just too strong for his concept to work. Just using his strength from his domain would destroy Qi Long. Even if he could refuse anything, he would still have an upper limit." Li Yingjie had a look full of disdain. Between all leaders in Lingtian, he only looked down on this Luo Lang. Of course, that was before Luo Lang's other personalities took over

–

Ling Lan glanced at the two of them with a slight smirk on her face. "Yingjie's right, but… one session of month training for you. Luo Lang, add another month to your punishment as well."

"Holy sh*t!" Li Yingjie suddenly realized he got dragged down with Luo Lang.

Seeing Luo Lang smile at him with a huge grin on his face, he finally realized that honest-looking people were more evil than anyone else in the world.

While everyone was watching Qi Long and Lin Yang's battle in excitement, Little Four, who was in Ling Lan's mindscape, had an expression of confusion on his face.

"Boss, didn't you say the concept of refusal derived from the concept of language that I told you wasn't necessarily correct? Why did you tell them that?" Wasn't this purposely misleading?

"A trump card can only be a trump card when those around you don't know what it is," Ling Lan replied nonchalantly.

"…" Little Four seemed to understand, but also seemed to not understand. Did not telling those people meant that his Boss didn't actually trust them?

Feeling Little Four's concerns, Ling Lan reached out with her hand and patted his little head. She then continued, "This isn't something about trusting or not trusting, I'm just afraid that it would all be for nothing if I told them. If that was the case, I might as well let them be wrong at the very beginning."

"Then, what is Qi Long's actual domain concept? Boss, please tell me." Little Four looked at Ling Lan with puppy eyes, hoping Ling Lan could give him the answer. As an intelligent entity that knew everything in the world, if he couldn't find out the truth, he wouldn't be able to eat or sleep for quite a while.

"You want to know?" Ling Lan smirked. Ever since she broke through to the imperial realm, her ego had been set free. The heavy pressure she originally had on her shoulders decreased with her capabilities increasing.

Little Four nodded his head furiously. Ling Lan flicked her finger at his forehead and said, "Don't want to tell you."

"Boss!" When Little Four discovered that he got played by Boss, his little face instantly puffed up. His reddened face looked like he had been deeply wronged which made Ling Lan feel a slight itch, so she quickly reached out her right hand and softly rubbed his face.

"Boss, you're bullying me!" Little Four's little face was sad.

"I like you, so that's why I need to bully you. Dumby Little Four." Ling Lan flicked her finger at his forehead again. This Little Four didn't know that even if others wanted her to bully them, they wouldn't be qualified for it.

Seeing Little Four with tears in his eyes while looking so pitiful and sad, Ling Lan could only give up on her love of bullying him. She comforted him and said, "Alright, I'll stop teasing you. As compensation, I'll give you a hint."

The warm tears in Little Four's eyes were immediately sucked back in. He was full of energy as he looked at his Boss, waiting for her to explain to him. He didn't even look like he was sad at all. After following Ling Lan for so long, Little Four was no longer the simple and naive Little Four. Pretending to be simple-minded or naive was easy for him. The student had finally surpassed the master.

"If there's a result, then there must be a reason," Ling Lan said one sentence. Little Four didn't understand it at all. However, Ling Lan didn't continue to say anything else so Little Four knew that the hint was only just that.

'What does it actually mean?' Little Four was in deep thought.

Outside the mindscape, Lin Yang didn't retreat when he saw his dimensional confinement was completely ineffective. He put his two hands together. Right as he did that, the space around Qi Long began to crack open. One crack, two cracks, three cracks… countless cracks.

"Dimensional Tear."

The area of effect techniques of dimension elements were determined by the research institute as a sure-kill and unblockable technique. Everyone from Lingtian knew that with Boss around them, Qi Long wouldn't get hurt, but they still worried for Qi Long's safety.

Chapter 1112 Actual Rank: Major General!

The area Qi Long stood was completely torn up by the dimensional tear.

Everyone from Lingtian immediately had worried expressions on their face. They all turned to look at Ling Lan unconsciously, and they saw Ling Lan standing there calmly, without moving one bit.

'Qi Long is fine!' This was what everyone deduced by Ling Lan's action or rather inaction.

Everyone was quickly relieved of their worries for Qi Long. If Boss didn't act, it meant Qi Long definitely wasn't in any life-threatening danger.

Bang!

The sound of flesh hitting directly on flesh resounded in the air.

A silhouette was sent into the air and then smashed onto the ground. After it rolled on the ground a few times, it leaped back on his head.

Lin Yang stood firmly. His right hand wiped the drip of blood from his lips as he glared at his previous location with a look of surprise.

At that location, Qi Long was calmly standing there with no injuries. He showed an honest smile on his face with a hint of an apologetic look as he cupped his fist and said, "Pleasure, Regiment Commander Lin."

The dimension element sure-kill area of effect technique he used was actually useless against Qi Long. Rather than helping him, it instead gave Qi Long a chance to get close to him and hit him. He lost in a strange way, and he was speechless from it. What made Lin Yang feel even more annoyed was that he still didn't know what Qi Long's domain concept was.

"Leader Qi is indeed quite amazing. I've experienced it first hand." The leader of Team 03 was indeed very strong. Then, were the team leaders of Team 01 and 02, the two major generals, even stronger?

The way everyone looked towards Lingtian was no longer like how they looked down on Lingtian at the very beginning. Instead, it was the look of fear. They didn't think that such an inconspicuous and newly advanced titled super mecha clan was actually such a terrifying existence. With just their physical skills, Lingtian Mecha Clan was already on a similar tier with the legendary mecha clans. However, mecha clans were called mecha clans because mecha piloting was much more important than just physical skills. Now these other clans only hoped that the mecha piloting of the mecha operators from Lingtian Mecha Clan were not as strong as their physical skills.

"It was I who took advantage of you, Regiment Commander Lin. The information from the Military Research Institute helped me quite a lot with regards to your dimension element. Plus, Regiment Commander Lin held back as well and didn't use any technique outside of the information available in the database," Qi Long said apologetically. The honest looking face he had quickly wiped the dissatisfaction from the faces of many leaders from Slaughter Mecha Clan.

"In the end, it's still Leader Qi's domain concept that's extraordinary…" Lin Yang knew well that even if he had used techniques outside of the information available in the database, he probably still wouldn't have been able to do anything to Qi Long. His domain concept was too strange and abnormal to fight against.

Thinking about strange and abnormal, his gaze moved towards the side of Lingtian. Li Lanfeng was as abnormal and strange as Leader Qi Long. Although Qi Long didn't seem to be too abnormal… Lin Yang still felt that the domains he had seen were actually not the real manifestation of their domain concepts.

Suddenly, his gaze narrowed because he saw a young man who wasn't there before appear beside Li Lanfeng.

The difference when compared to other people beside Li Lanfeng was that this person had a white and blue cloak draped over his body. He was clearly different from all the others but looking at him now, he could easily be neglected by sight. However, once someone were to see him, they would definitely no longer be able to neglect this person's existence.

Lin Yang suddenly stopped moving. When the people behind him noticed that he was looking in a specific direction, everyone's gaze followed in the direction he was looking at.

Qi Long saw their Boss appear and instantly excitedly shouted, "Boss!"

Ling Lan's eye twitched. She had already punished them so many times for calling her that, so how could these guys still not remember it?

"One month of training!" Ling Lan said coldly.

"Yes, regiment commander!" Qi Long accepted the punishment with a big smile on his face.

It seemed like she needed to increase the difficulty of the month-long training session, in case these guys take it as a fun activity and not punishment.

Qi Long and Ling Lan's conversation proved the identity of this young man.

Lin Yang and the others would never have guessed that such an underwhelming individual was the regiment commander of such a strong clan like Lingtian. Their regiment commander wasn't a veteran mecha operator like they had thought previously. He also wasn't a well-known individual who was at their prime. Instead, their regiment commander was just someone who didn't catch anyone's eye. He was just an unknown and average young man.

"Regiment Commander Ling!" As the second seat commanding officer of Base Nebula, Lin Yang had managed to find out that the regiment commander of Lingtian had the surname Ling.

Ling Lan nodded. "Regiment Commander Lin."

Afterwards, she looked towards Yu Wei and the other regiment commanders and greeted them all.

As expected, Lingtian had already gotten hold of the information on the mecha clans in the Base Nebula or at least they were familiar with the mecha clans that came to visit.

Li Lanfeng was quite smart at times like this. He walked up and took off Ling Lan's cloak which showed the insignias on Ling Lan's chest and shoulders.

"Major General!" Everyone's eyes narrowed.

Yang Mingzhi and Liu Furong were major generals. Although this information stunned them, they could still accept it. After all, these two individuals were already in their 40s to 50s. Plus, they were famous figures for quite a long time. With their military merits and achievements, advancing to the rank of major general was the natural course of their career. However, Ling Lan was different. Ling Lan was too young to be a major general. He was at most 25 years old. In the history of the Federation's military, other than General Ling Xiao who had advanced to major general at that age 20 years ago, there wasn't a second person in existence who could be on par with him.

Even those people who had god-like backgrounds and vast connections still needed to wait until they were at least 35 years old to have a chance of advancing to the rank of major general, and that rank would also just be a pseudo rank.

This Regiment Commander Ling was however a real major general! Was the Federation going to have another General Ling Xiao appear?

The bright looks on everyone's faces had a hint of speechlessness. They were stunned by the fact that Ling Lan was able to advance to the rank of major general at such a young age.

"Major General Ling, please forgive our rudeness." Lin Yang definitely didn't believe that the military would play around with a real military rank. Especially if there were these many powerful individuals gathered here all at once.

Perhaps this super clan was created by the military in secret in order to take over for Proud Wind Mecha Clan. They were probably coming into the spotlight now because this clan had reached a point of maturity. Lin Yang and the other individuals thought about this in unplanned unison.

"No matter. I welcome it," Ling Lan replied plainly. "The friendship between soldiers are all formed through battle."

These words relieved everyone on the scene. The way Lin Yang, Yu Wei and the other regiment commanders also looked at Ling Lan with more acknowledgment. It seemed that Regiment Commander Ling wasn't a lucky individual who rose to the top in one step. Only those who had experienced the brutality of war knew the real meaning of brothers-in-arms.

In reality, they were only in admiration of Lingtian Mecha Clan's power, not the individuals from Lingtian Mecha Clan. Before this, Lingtian could be considered to be allied forces, but not their brothers-in-arms.

The seemingly two similar words actually had very different meanings. Allies were people who would help out when they have extra manpower. However, once the situation went out of the scope of their abilities, they would only just watch from the side. Only acknowledged brothers-in-arms would put their lives on the line and fight with each other side by side.

Without a doubt, Ling Lan's words allowed these regiment commanders to have a good impression of Lingtian. They were no longer refusing the fact that Lingtian was here which would allow Lingtian to quickly meld in the base.

Of course, if Lingtian wanted to have real camaraderie with the mecha clans in Base Nebula, there was still a long road ahead of themselves. Lingtian needed to at least experience a bloody battle with the clans for that to happen. It was just as Ling Lan had said, the friendship between soldiers was created through battle.

Chapter 1113 Knight!

Four months had passed since Lin Yang, Yu Wei and the other mecha clans visited Lingtian. In these four months, the entire Base Nebula knew that Lingtian Mecha Clan, the clan that was taking the place of Proud Wind Mecha Clan, was very powerful.

There was even gossip that Lin Yang, Yu Wei and the other regiment commanders had returned after losing all of their fights. However, because Lingtian, Slaughter, Piercing Arrow and the other clans didn't officially announce the results of the challenges, most people believed it to be just a rumor. Lingtian was probably very strong, but definitely wasn't strong enough to that extent.

However, what couldn't be denied was that Lin Yang, Yu Wei and the other regiment commanders all silently accepted the reality that they had lost the challenges which proved Lingtian's strength. This silent acceptance also made most of the people in Base Nebula temporarily put off the idea that Lingtian didn't have the qualifications to substitute Proud Wind Mecha Clan in terms of defending the base.

After all, it was a world of mechas. Although physical skills were the basic fundamentals for a mecha operator, what showed the real power of a mecha clan was still based on the piloting capabilities of the mecha operators. Thus, if Lingtian wanted to be accepted by all the mecha clans with the Base Nebula, their mecha operators must prove that their mecha piloting were strong enough.

It was because Lingtian was taking over for the Base Nebula's first ranked mecha clan, Proud Wind Mecha Clan, so the launching port that originally belonged to Proud Wind Mecha Clan would naturally be given to Lingtian. Yu Huan was also kind enough to provide Lingtian more launching ports and logistics personnel, such as JMCs and mecha hold logistics. However, Ling Lan kindly refused his offer.

Ling Lan needed a fully functional and coherent mecha clan and her own mecha clan didn't lack these resources. Thus, she didn't want to waste time to develop new recruits from outside sources. Furthermore, Ling Lan wanted to completely organize her large mecha clan before working with outside sources.

Although Caesar and the Federation's relationship wasn't as tense as it was during the twilight era, they still weren't in good relations. Once the two nations had any arguments or debates during the Intergalactic United Nations, the two military forces in the Nebula Boundary would have small battles. If either of the nations couldn't make the other agree to their opinions, they would beat them down until they agree.

After a peaceful few months in Base Nebula, Lingtian finally encountered their first intergalactic war.

Brrrang! A DEFCON 1 alarm rang through Base Nebula.

The mecha clans that were on duty had already gotten to the launching ports, formed their formations and prepared to launch.

The Caesar Empire attacked once again, and Base Nebula was ready for it.

All the members from different mecha clans who were on vacation quickly returned to their own base camps, put on their combat uniforms and got on the hover cars that were prepared long ago. They went to their designated mecha hold and prepared to get into a mecha for battle.

When Ling Lan heard the alarm, she arrived at the command center.

Seeing it was the base's commanding officer, Yu Huan, calling her, Ling Lan picked up.

"Regiment Commander Ling, from the new intel we had gathered, Caesar has sent their top ace mecha clan, Knight Ace Mecha Clan. They are this battle's main opponent. Please intercept them at all cost," Yu Huan said with a serious expression on his face.

The battle between the top ace mecha clans would decide the victor of the entire battle. If Lingtian couldn't intercept Knight Ace Mecha Clan, then those at Base Nebula would have to think of how to escape.

"Understood," Ling Lan said calmly.

Yu Huan looked at Ling Lan with worry. He still wanted to say more to Ling Lan. However, Ling Lan's cold and uncaring expression made him not know whether he should say it or not.

He struggled for a moment and then said in a slightly polite manner, "Knight Ace Mecha Clan is ranked 18th among the ace mecha clans from Caesar. According to the way we ranked mecha clans, although they aren't considered to be legendary tier, they are still considered as a first-rank with 5 stars mecha clan. It's clear that Caesar isn't planning on playing around anymore and they clearly want to give us a beating…"

Ling Lan didn't say anything and only just stared at him.

Yu Huan gulped and finally spoke out what his words meant, "Regiment Commander Ling, even if Proud Wind Mecha Clan is here, they would still lose against Knight Ace Mecha Clan." In harsher words, they didn't have any chance to win. "If your clan can't hold on, it is okay. We will just escape first. Although we will lose the Nebula Boundary, we can still fight back and retake it when the Federation sends a legendary rank mecha clan as backup."

Back then, this had happened once before. When the enemy's military strength was higher than theirs, escaping wasn't considered embarrassing. Instead, it was considered to be a smart move. Only by preserving their strength, would they be able to be victorious in the future.

Ling Lan nodded and replied, "I understand."

'Understand? What did he understand?' Yu Huan almost smashed the virtual screen in front of him. 'Couldn't he just admit that they won't be able fend off the enemy? That is a legendary ace mecha clan from Caesar. How could a newly advanced titled super mecha clan be so confident in a battle against such an enemy?

"Regiment Commander Ling, are you not thinking about your men? You clearly understand the danger but you still want to throw away their lives?" Yu Huan asked angrily.

"Then what?" Ling Lan raised her eyebrows and asked coldly, "Give up on those mecha clans that had already joined the battle? Or perhaps send out a few mecha clans to throw away their lives to provide us some time to retreat?"

If they wanted to escape successfully, they must leave enough people behind to hinder the movement of the enemy's mecha clans. Those mecha clans who stay behind would only have one outcome, and that was death!

This was war. Either choice would require sacrifices to execute.

"Regiment Commander Ling, your clan is here to substitute Proud Wind Mecha Clan as the main clan in Base Nebula. Despite it being a short while, you still haven't received acknowledgment from all the mecha clans on the base to become the commander-in-chief of this battle, but I still trust you. That's why I'm discussing this matter with you seriously." Yu Huan's expression had a slight hint of anger. If it wasn't for the fact that retreating required the main clan's regiment commander's acknowledgment, he wouldn't be wasting his time with this dumb brat who knew nothing of the world.

"According to our information, Knight Ace Mecha Clan has a total of 2000 mecha operators. Half of them have reached peak-level ace operators. The other half are all elite aces," Yu Huan sneered coldly. "Please tell me how Lingtian plans to fight that?"

No matter how strong Proud Wind Mecha Clan was, it still only had at most 400 peak-level ace operators and at most 800 elite aces. The rest were all standard ace operators.

Hearing this, Ling Lan narrowed her eyes. "Indeed, they are quite strong. However, surrendering before battling isn't something Lingtian does."

"Heh, do you think your Lingtian could fend off Knight?" Yu Huan was so angry he laughed out of spite. It was clear he was too young and hotheaded. He was clearly delusional to think they could fend off Knight. He would only understand war wasn't won by courage and saying big words after paying severe costs.

However, he didn't think that his mocking attitude actually made Ling Lan nodded and responded, "Indeed, as you say!"

If it was one or two months earlier, Ling Lan might have considered Yu Huan's suggestion. However now, it was possible for Lingtian to fight this battle.

Of course, Ling Lan knew that her decision might have already killed a portion of the mecha operators in her clan. However, all of those who became soldiers were already prepared to die in battle.

The calmness and indifference in Ling Lan's eyes made Yu Huan calm down.

"I'll give you one chance." Yu Huan was silent for a few seconds and then said, "However, if I were to discover that Lingtian can't fend off the enemy, then don't blame me if we give up on you." This wasn't a warning but rather reality. Yu Huan wouldn't endanger Base Nebula because of Lingtian.

Chapter 1114 Dark Phoenix!

"If Lingtian cannot fend off the enemy, then you can command the base to escape on your accord," Ling Lan replied indifferently.

If they weren't able to fend off Knight Ace Mecha Clan, even if they wanted to escape, Knight wouldn't give them that chance to escape. Therefore, the luxury of thinking about whether to give up or not was completely pointless.

Seeing Ling Lan had made a decision to battle Knight Ace Mecha Clan, Yu Huan felt conflicted. Ling Lan's fearlessness and courage made him admire her, but Yu Huan still believed that Lingtian wasn't Knight Ace Mecha Clan's equal. Her decision was basically throwing the lives of her men away. Thus, Yu Huan was very frustrated at Ling Lan's seemingly blind decision.

However, no matter what, Ling Lan was Lingtian's highest ranked commanding officer and she ultimately had the power to decide how to deploy her clan. Yu Huan's only hope was the two other major generals was rational enough to stop Ling Lan's idiotic decision.

The reason why Yu Huan cared about Lingtian this much was because of the results from Slaughter and Piercing Arrow challenging Lingtian. Yu Huan was the only one high ranked officer who didn't visit them, and yet he knew the true result of the challenge. Lingtian's younger members were very talented and would definitely become the Federation's monstrous individuals in the future. Yu Huan placed them in very high regard. That was why he didn't want them to die in vain.

After ending the call with Yu Huan, Ling Lan went into deep thought for a moment. Then, she opened the communications channel to the leaders who were on standby in the mecha hold and said, "This time, our opponent is Knight Ace Mecha Clan."

"Knight Ace Mecha Clan?"

"Knight Ace Mecha Clan!"

The confused and stunned voices of the leaders filled the communication channel. Of course, those who were stunned were the veteran mecha operators, while those who were confused were the younger bunch, such as Qi Long and the others.

"Knight Ace Mecha Clan is a top ranking ace mecha clan from Caesar with a rank of 18th. However, according to our own nation's ranking system, they are of similar strength to first-rank five-star clans, and they are in the tier of legendary." Yang Mingzhi heard the confused youngsters and explained to them.

"Sh*t, they're that strong?" Qi Long began to excitedly rub his hands together.

"This will be a difficult and bloody battle!" Ling Lan said coldly. "Thus, I've decided that all the ace operators in the clan will be going into the battle!"

"Yes, sir!" All the leaders shouted in unison.

"Zhong-qing, you will be in charge of the base," Ling Lan contacted Lin Zhong-qing.

"Department Head Li, your medical department will be completely activated."

"Department Head Luo, have your rescue teams on standby."

Ling Lan sent out a list of orders and all hands in Lingtian began to move about.

"Regiment Commander, you're going into the battle?" After Ling Lan gave the last order, Li Lanfeng instantly asked.

"I'm scared everyone would be reckless if I don't stay there to watch over everyone." Ling Lan's answer quelled Li Lanfeng's curiosity.

Ling Lan said it very nonchalantly, but all the leaders knew that this was because Ling Lan was afraid they would be in danger. The main reason she decided to go into the battlefield was to protect them.

At Lingtian's dedicated launching port's JMC room:

"Has everyone reached their positions?" Han Xuya frowned as she asked about the situation of each team.

"Team One here!"

"Team Two here!"

"Team Three…" Other than the JMCs on duty, all of the other JMCs from Lingtian had all moved out.

They received their regiment commander's order that all ace mecha operators in the clan were joining the battle. A rough estimate put the numbers at more than 2000 people.

Somehow, Lingtian was no longer a crippled clan that only had a few hundred people to show for them. Its number had increased to the standard number of mecha operators in a mecha clan.

What was even more insane was that other than 1000 plus mecha operators who were official operators, the other half were mecha operators who were still waiting for assessment. They were currently in the logistics department as reserve mecha operators.

Although Lingtian's JMCs had done many training sessions for emergency battle situations, it was still their first time facing a real battle. Many JMCs were panicking and had no idea what they needed to do.

Seeing the situation, Lady Mei quickly asked, "Department head, how many launching ports are we activating?"

"We are activating all of them. Launch out our mecha operators as quickly as possible," said Han Xuya.

"Understood. We will be responsible for launching ports 1 to 5," replied Lady Mei calmly.

"Alright, Team Two will be responsible for ports 6 to 10, Team Three for ports 11 to 15, Team Four…" Han Xuya immediately understood what she needed to arrange.

Just like that, with Lady Mei's reminder, Han Xuya managed to reorganize the JMC room. Every team had been given their tasks and every JMC knew which mechas they needed to contact and what they needed to do.

After finishing all of this, Han Xuya breathed a slight sigh of relief. Even the fearless Han Xuya was a bit panicked in preparing for such a large scale battle for the first time. Luckily, she had a great subordinate beside her. Thinking up to this point, Han Xuya looked towards Lady Mei. Coincidently, Lady Mei also looked towards her. Their gaze met one another and they smiled at each other without saying a word.

Soon, all of the mecha operators were launched out of the base in an orderly fashion and arrived in outer space, forming formations one after the other.

The entire area above the Base Nebula was filled with countless mechas. They were all mechas from mecha clans who came out of the Base Nebula's launching ports. There were at least 20 thousand mechas.

This number was only enough to act as the vanguard. If the entire Base Nebula were to move out, then the numbers would be in the millions.

This was how battles in outer space were fought. Any random battles would have numbers like these. If it wasn't for the fact that the Federation had vast amounts of planets under their rule with population in the billions, just losses from the wars they fought each year was enough for a small nation to crumble apart

"Our regiment commander has said that our target is the Knight Ace Mecha Clan. This is the insignia of the Knight Ace Mecha Clan. Don't get it wrong." All the leaders were passing Ling Lan's orders to their team members. At the same time, they showed the insignia of Knight Ace Mecha Clan that Ling Lan had sent them, to their team members. This was in case they fought the wrong opponents.

"Understood, leader!" All the members were tightly gripping their control sticks as the leaders didn't hide the fact of how strong Knight Ace Mecha Clan was. These people knew the enemy they were about to go against was ranked 18th in Caesar. Other than a few veteran mecha operators, some new members were although somewhat frightened, they were still more excited than frightened.

"Leader, that mecha clan behind us with the black phoenix emblem, which mecha clan are they? I don't think I've seen them before." On the front lines of the battlefield, a mecha clan, who was waiting for the battle to commence, unintentionally saw a new clan gathering together. They had never seen their emblem and thus asked with curiosity.

"Not sure…" Their leader glanced at it and frowned slightly.

"I know. I've seen that emblem before," a team member suddenly shouted out in surprise.

"Who is it? Tell us," asked his comrades.

"It's Lingtian Mecha Clan. On the first day when their mechas entered the mecha hold, I passed by and saw this dark phoenix emblem."

"They're so shameless. They actually copied General Ling Xiao's fire phoenix emblem! How did they pass the military application with that emblem?" The leader already didn't have a good impression of Lingtian. Now after seeing that they had copied the emblem of General Ling Xiao, the idol he admired, he was now even more discontent about Lingtian.

"Oh, Lingtian's regiment commander has a surname of Ling. Does he have any connections with General Ling Xiao?" One person began to make wild guesses.

Chapter 1115 Punishment!

"I would probably believe that Lingtian had something to do with General Ling Xiao if Prince Ling wasn't injured from the backlash of piloting a god-class mecha. However now…" The leader smiled coldly.

These words saddened many people. In reality, they had once discussed this matter in private. If Prince Ling didn't go through the battle on Planet Haijiao, the Federation might already have their 13th god-class operator.

However, this thought only flashed by their minds for a moment. They quickly focused their attention on the formation of Caesar's forces.

The battle was about to begin and they couldn't afford to lose concentration.

"Attention, please prepare for battle." The leader saw both sides sending out signal flares and immediately gave an order.

In the area around them, all of the vanguard front-line mechas from both sides were like two swarms of bugs, ruthlessly charging towards their opponents.

"Lingtian No. Zero request to launch." Ling Lan pushed down on the button to connect to the JMCs to tell them her request for launch.

"U-U-Understood!" A trembling female voice responded from the JMC channel. She was instantly made dizzy by the luck she had in discovering their regiment commander. She was so excited that she was stuttering when she spoke.

"What's wrong?" Lady Mei frowned as she asked the stuttering JMC.

"It's our regiment commander." The JMC was already blushing. She excitedly stood up and jumped up with all her might a few times just to exhaust her excited mood.

In the minds of these JMCs, Lingtian's leaders were all handsome men they admired who they potentially had a chance with. Only their regiment commander was considered to be unreachable. Other than looking up at him, they could do nothing else.

However, they usually didn't dare to even take a single look at this god of gods who they had respected, and he suddenly was the mecha operator that she was responsible for. This new recruit who had joined not so long ago couldn't hold back her emotions any longer and was actually too excited that she had forgotten her actual job.

Right at that moment, Han Xuya who had already discovered the commotion, walked up and tossed that JMC away.

Bang! The young JMC was thrown off the ground. She looked at Han Xuya with fear in her eyes. "Department head?".

"Go to the disciplinary team for not doing your duties during war times." Han Xuya didn't even look at her and turned to Lady Mei. "You will be responsible for our regiment commander's mecha."

"Yes, department head." Lady Mei immediately put on the headphones and began to compare all the data of No. Zero to make sure it was up to standards of launch.

The young JMC who was thrown off the ground had a pale expression on her face. After awakening from the shock, she understood what mistake she had made. With a look of regret, she bit her lip, endured the pain, stood up, and saluted Han Xuya. "Yes, department head."

After that, she turned around, left the JMC room, and went to report to the law enforcement department to accept her punishment.

After entering Lingtian Mecha Clan for almost 5 months, she already knew that Lingtian had a clear line between rewards and punishments. Once someone made a mistake, they would definitely be punished. No matter if the mistake was on purpose or not, a mistake was a mistake.

The departure of that JMC made the other JMCs become cautious, in case they became the next one to leave. After all, they could also suddenly become the JMCs for the handsome leaders.

"No. Zero assessment complete. All systems are normal. Launch permission granted." After comparing all the data, Lady Mei didn't find any problems and made the decision to allow No. Zero to launch.

After hearing an unfamiliar yet calm voice coming from the JMC channel, Ling Lan nodded with satisfaction. The JMC from before was indeed behaving badly. If it was a JMC from Base Nebula, Ling Lan would be more sympathetic and pretend nothing ever happened. However, it was Lingtian's own JMC, so Ling Lan couldn't overlook this mistake.

However, the JMC room reacted quickly and immediately controlled the situation themselves. It seemed Han Xuya was a good department head and was decisive enough when necessary. Ling Lan discovered that the two younger sisters, who she had cradled in the past, had slowly matured enough to hold their own.

"They're all improving. It seems I can't slow down either." Ling Lan smirked as the countdown timer for launch rang in her ears.

Vroom! The sound of the engine revving. The regiment commander mecha Ling Lan was piloting launched out of the base and entered the vast and endless space.

It was the first time Ling Lan had piloted a mecha into outer space. She suddenly felt she was tiny compared to it. She suddenly understood why the academy instructor had said that the real battlefield for mecha operators was in outer space.

"Regiment commander, I don't see Knight Ace Mecha Clan." Qi Long, who was already in formation with his team members, had been looking for their opponent all this time. Unfortunately, he didn't find them.

"They will definitely appear when they are supposed to appear. Pay attention to the movement of small groups of mechas." Ling Lan looked at the hundreds of thousands of mechas fighting at the front-lines. She didn't think that Knight Ace Mecha Clan would attack them head on.

"You mean Knight Ace Mecha Clan will be ambushing from another direction?" Yang Mingzhi frowned. If that was the case, then they would be at a disadvantage. After all, the base was too large and they were only situated in one area near the base. If the opponent were to sneak attack the base from a position opposite of theirs, they wouldn't be able to reach them even if they wanted to.

"Don't worry, other than the launching ports on this side, the other locations all have the Base Nebula's forces standing by. If Knight Ace Mecha Clan is really going to ambush the Base Nebula, other than here, everywhere else will be a wasted effort." With Little Four's help, Ling Lan had already received the data from all parts of the Base Nebula and knew the strengths and weaknesses of it.

Ling Lan, of course, believed that Caesar also had the capabilities and means to acquire the data on these strengths and weaknesses. They probably had as much information as her already. Perhaps, they were sending Knight Ace Mecha Clan here to check whether there was actually a weakness here or not.

Ling Lan didn't know whether she should consider it as Lingtian��s bad luck or Caesar's bad luck.

If it was 6 months ago, with Proud Wind Mecha Clan's overall strength, they definitely wouldn't have been able to hold off against Knight Ace Mecha Clan's forces. Perhaps back then, the opposition might actually get what they want.

However now, Lingtian was the main mecha clan for the Base Nebula. Despite Lingtian only having 1000 or so official mecha operators, these 1000 or so mecha operators were very adequate for such a battle… Plus, she still 1000 more reserve mecha operators. Despite their capabilities being lower than official members, they were still around the same level as other mecha operators from titled super mecha clans.

Four months of hellish training turned these already capable mecha operators into monstrous individuals who could go past their limits. They now only lacked a battle that could prove their real capabilities.

"Haha, I see! We just need to stay here and wait for them to throw themselves at us." Luo Lang excitedly licked his lips.

"Although they will come to our direction, this place is still very large. We still need to be cautious and make sure they don't get past us from under our noses," Yang Mingzhi immediately reminded everyone.

Yang Mingzhi's words were agreed by everyone. They all activated the different types of radars on their mechas. They were afraid the opposition would use an inconspicuous signal and get past them.

"Coordinates: 3278X6827Y. Unidentified flying objects have appeared," one leader suddenly shouted out.

"Analyze it." Ling Lan ordered.

"Yes, sir!" Li Lanfeng and Han Jijyun's voices echoed through the commlink channel.

Chapter 1116 Broadcast!

After a few seconds, almost simultaneously, two voices echoed in the commlink channel, "The results are in."

"Jijyun go first. Lanfeng add to it if necessary," Ling Lan said calmly.

"According to the thermal radar, that area's temperature is abnormally high. The data from the light wave refraction radar can eliminate the possibility of the source being starships. If my analysis isn't wrong, it should be a group of mechas." Han Jijyun immediately told Ling Lan his analysis.

"When comparing the multi-frame light map, the opposition's target destination will be towards our location," added Li Lanfeng.

"Looks like they should be Knight Ace Mecha Clan." Luo Lang began to rub his fists together.

"We still have to be cautious, in case the group of mechas that are going towards us is just a distraction, while they sent another group of mecha to our opposite direction" Liu Furong reminded. Back then, he had once lost to this method.

"No matter. If their target destination is towards our location, we will just wait until they get close to us," Ling Lan said calmly.

Her gaze fell upon the front-lines, the mecha operators who were fighting for their lives made her feel bitter in her heart.

In order to hide the real goal of Knight Ace Mecha Clan, Caesar tossed out hundreds of thousands of mecha operators to battle on the front-lines. Base Nebula on the other hand, if they wanted to withhold their authority in the Nebula Boundary, also had to equally send out hundreds of thousands of mechas. Both sides were fighting with their lives on the line with seemingly no real goal in mind.

However, these hundreds of thousands of mecha operators didn't know that it was just a move played by the higher-ups to make them fight a pointless war.

"People who are less capable will most definitely become cannon fodder." Ling Lan felt the brutality of war once again.

If she wanted to take control of her destiny, she must become strong, so strong that no one could have any say in her decision. Ling Lan tightly clenched her fists. As her rank rose higher and higher, her capabilities also became stronger and stronger. It was more clear to her now that if she hadn't gained her position of power, she would most likely become one of those poor cannon fodder who were fighting with their lives on the line.

Not only did she understand this, her father, Ling Xiao, had long understood this too. Now that she thought more deeply about her father's minute moves, she believed that he was probably doing that to propel himself to a higher position of power.

Ling Lan suddenly remembered the time when she and her father realized that their actions portrayed themselves as the antagonists of a novel. Ling Lan snickered when she remembered that she had once been afraid that she might accidentally become the enemy of the whole world.

However, if her dad truly wished to go down this path of being the antagonist of the world, then as his 'son', could only follow her father to the ends of the world.

However before that, she needed to become stronger. She must acquire more strength to be able to help her father. She couldn't let him fight all by himself.

"Regiment commander, we've decrypted the jamming sequence. Images are showing successfully." Suddenly, Li Lanfeng's voice echoed in her ears.

All of the leaders' mechas had the decrypted image successfully show up on their screens. Countless Caesar mechas appeared in the image. Every mecha had Knight Ace Mecha Clan's emblem on them.

"That's it. It's Knight Ace Mecha Clan!" Qi Long excitedly shouted, "They're finally here."

Ling Lan calmly looked at the incoming group of mechas and asked softly, "Is everyone ready?"

"Yes, sir!" Lingtian's 2000 or so mecha operators all shouted.

Shinng! Ling Lan took out Firmament, pointed it towards the direction of Knight Ace Mecha Clan and coldly ordered, "The first 10 mecha teams will be our arrowheads and we will attack them with all we have!"

"Yes, sir!"

The first 10 mecha teams formed the first group and immediately went towards Knight Ace Mecha Clan. The 11 other mecha teams followed closely behind them. Reserve mecha operators were following their team leaders closely too.

"Regiment commander, there's a mecha clan intercepting us." The vanguard from Knight Ace Mecha Clan saw countless mechas flying towards them, and he immediately contacted their regiment commander, who was in the back of the army.

The regiment commander of Knight Ace Mecha Clan snorted coldly. "Get rid of them."

How could normal mecha operators be able to go against Knight Ace Mecha Clan. He had already expected that his movements would be discovered sooner or later. Which was why he placed the strongest mecha team under his command as the vanguard.

"Yes, regiment commander." After receiving their regiment commander's kill order, Knight Ace Mecha Clan's vanguard team excitedly rushed towards the incoming Federation's mechas.

Yu Huan, who was sitting all alone in the command tower, felt a bit anxious. Back then, there was always Ke Yufeng, the regiment commander from Proud Wind Mecha Clan, in the tower alongside him who would always discuss battle plans with him. However, it was now only him who was responsible for the war that determined the survival of Base Nebula.

"That dumbass regiment commander from Lingtian. Does he not know commanders shouldn't go into battle like that?" Yu Huan was livid. Ling Lan's reckless actions caused him to not even have anyone to discuss the next course of the battle with.

"Commander, traces of Knight Ace Mecha Clan have been discovered," the mainframe suddenly spoke.

"Where?" Yu Huan instantly awakened from the cursing session he had in his head about Ling Lan. Although he knew Knight Ace Mecha Clan was going to appear in this battle, the spy from Caesar still didn't tell him the plans they had. He didn't know whether the spy wasn't informed of the plan or was it because his interrogation method was too soft.

"They are less than 30 kilometers away from our base's launching area." replied the mainframe after comparing coordinates.

"Wouldn't they arrive in just a few minutes?" Yu Huan jumped up in fright. If given that little amount of time, even if he were to immediately activate Base Nebula's engine and try to escape, he wouldn��t have enough time.

"Lingtian, where are they?" Yu Huan suddenly remembered that Ling Lan had said that Lingtian would be responsible for intercepting Knight Ace Mecha Clan, so he immediately asked the mainframe for their location.

"Lingtian and Knight Ace Mecha Clan have already encountered each other. Knight Ace Mecha Clan's coordinates were sent by Lingtian," replied the mainframe.

"Can you pull up the live feed of Lingtian and Knight Ace's battle?" asked Yu Huan. He hoped Lingtian could hold for a short while so that it would give him enough time to activate the engine of Base Nebula.

"Of course," replied the mainframe.

"Pull up the live feed of the battle and activate the base's engine simultaneously!" Yu Huan quickly gave two orders.

"Understood." The mainframe activated the base's engine while showing the live feed of the battle between Lingtian and Knight Ace Mecha Clan. The mainframe thought Yu Huan wanted it to play the live feed of the battle to the entire base because Yu Huan didn't specify in his orders. Thus, on every screen in Base Nebula, the same video feed showed up.

"Hey look, it's the battle in the space above us!" The video feed on the large screen instantly drew the attention of many soldiers in the base.

"Ah, it's here as well." A soldier from another direction shouted out.

"It's showing here as well."

"And here."

"All the videos are the same." Everyone discovered this.

Everyone was shocked. They were curious about the reason why they were shown this video feed. Other than those who couldn't stop what they were doing, all the other soldiers dropped what they were doing and watched the battle.

It should be known that during past wars, bases only had very few screens that had live feeds of the battle in the space above them. Most of the screens were used to send orders from the command tower. This time however, it was completely different, and that was why it drew everyone's attention.

Everyone wanted to know which of their mecha clan and Caesar's mecha clan were they going to watch.

Suddenly, a Caesar mecha showed up on the large screen. The knight emblem was clearly shown to everyone.

"It's Knight Ace Mecha Clan!" All the mecha operators who knew about Knight Ace Mecha Clan all instantly shouted out in surprise.

Chapter 1117 Leader's Mecha!

"Knight Ace Mecha Clan? Is it the one that ranks 18th in Caesar?" Those who didn't recognize the emblem at the beginning heard others calling it out and they also began to realize it.

"Other than them, who else could it be?" One mecha operator had a pale look on his face, "We're in deep trouble. We don't have any mecha clans in our base that could fight on par with Knight Ace Mecha Clan."

After hearing these words, everyone felt their hearts sink.

"Which mecha clan did we send out to intercept them? How is their situation right now?" One mecha operator asked anxiously. The mecha clan that was intercepting them was undoubtedly using their lives to fill the void to give them a chance to escape.

At that moment, a Federation ace mecha ruthlessly smashed into an ace mecha from Knight Ace. The two mechas were sent flying backwards by the force from each other. The position of the Federation ace mecha was just right for everyone to see the emblem on the mecha. A dark phoenix screeching with its wings spread out as if it was going fly off the mecha was shown on the screen.

"Dark phoenix? Which mecha clan is that?" There was no doubt that Lingtian's emblem wasn't well-known by the soldiers in the base. Thus, many soldiers were confused when they saw the emblem show up on their screen.

"That's Lingtian Mecha Clan's emblem." However, there were still some people who knew and not long after, they all shouted out these similar words.

"Is it the mecha clan that substituted Proud Wind Mecha Clan as the Base Nebula's main mecha clan?" Everyone was shocked. They didn't expect that the mecha clan that was only used in emergencies actually appeared on the battlefield first.

"Look, it's all Lingtian's mechas." The video feed zoomed out to show the whole battlefield. Everyone in the base saw that the area was filled with Lingtian and Knight Ace Mecha Clan's members. They had already begun a full battle and were at each other's throats.

Despite many normal soldiers being discontent and even resentful with the fact that Lingtian had substituted Proud Wind Mecha Clan as the main mecha clan for the Base Nebula, these feelings instantly disappeared when they saw Lingtian fighting on the front lines against Knight Ace Mecha Clan. Instead, a feeling of admiration began to rise in their hearts.

"But, how long can Lingtian Mecha Clan last?" One soldier had an expression of agony in his face. The feeling of watching allies giving up their lives wasn't a good feeling.

No one could answer his question and the entire area turned silent.

Those who were smart knew that they could only rely on Base Nebula to escape. However, their comrades who were fighting would not be able to survive if they were to do that.

"Did Lingtian know Knight Ace Mecha Clan was coming?" Finally, someone asked the question that everyone wanted to ask.

This was the only possible reason for the main clan of the base, Lingtian, to appear on the battlefield so early in the battle.

However, that was only a possibility, but it still made everyone feel terrible. This meant that Lingtian had gone out to battle knowing that they were giving up their lives, yet they still did it without hesitation. Even these veterans who had been in Base Nebula for many years couldn't be certain that when faced with a situation like this, they could be able to calmly and peacefully accept this task.

"Just looking at their determination, we are already inferior to them." One ace mecha clan's mecha operator had an embarrassed look on his face.

What right did they have to look down on Lingtian back then?

Just as everyone were feeling sorry for themselves, they suddenly heard some shout out excitedly, "So f*cking amazing. Quick, everyone! Watch the screen!"

Everyone quickly turned their attention to the screen they gathered around. The video feed became zoomed in on one of the battles that was going on. It showed one Federation mecha and one Caesar mecha moving towards each other at top speeds.

Most of them didn't see that just before they focused their attention on the screen, the Federation mecha made a clean cut with his sword on his opponent. This smooth action made the soldier who saw the moment become so excited that he shouted out loud.

They quickly clashed against each other. A sword reflection was showed in an instant as the two mechas moved beside each other instantly before moving to two different sides.

After the two mechas held an attack pose for a few seconds, one of the mechas suddenly exploded. At that moment, the other mecha slowly turned around and slashed the large sword to the side, showing the dark phoenix emblem on its chest. Under the emblem, the number 04-001 was clearly shown to everyone who was watching.

The soldiers in the base who knew about the meaning of the serial numbers in the Federation figured out the identity of this mecha operator in an instant.

"It's Lingtian Team 04's leader's mecha. He's so strong." His strength was definitely above the enemy to be able to kill his opponent that easily.

"It was probably just an average team member." Most of them were still pessimistic about the situation. After all, Knight Ace Mecha Clan's name was too well-known. Everyone that didn't know Lingtian's real strength, would still think negatively of Lingtian.

However, their guess wasn't wrong. A leader of Knight Ace Mecha Clan became livid after seeing his team member be so easily killed. He instantly left the opponent who he was fighting with, turned around and pounced towards this Federation's leader who had Knight Ace Mecha Clan's blood on his hands.

"That's… Knight Ace Mecha Clan Team 09's leader." The spectators shouted out instantly when they were finally able to clearly see the emblem, the letters and numbers of the mecha.

"That's one of Knight Ace Mecha Clan's top ten leaders. Can Lingtian Team 04's leader go against him?" Everyone was worried. Their hearts felt heavy as if someone was clenching them, so heavy that they couldn't breathe.

Seeing the opposition coming towards him, Lingtian Team 04's leader decisively held up the large sword in his hand and piloted his mecha towards the opponent without any fear or hesitation.

He chose to fight!

Even though the large screen was only a video without sound, the audience still could feel the immense force created from two mechas smashing into each other. Similarly, the rebound force created by mechas was also extremely terrifying. Normal mecha operators wouldn't be able to handle it.

The two mechas pushed against each other for a few seconds before sending each other away. The distance the two of them flew back were similar. They simultaneously took back control of their mechas, took out their long range beam guns while flying back and shot towards one another.

"Their strength is on par!"

"Neither of them are letting up!"

"Lingtian's leader isn't any weaker than Knight Ace Mecha Clan's leader."

"Amazing."

"Lingtian's leaders are so strong!"

The amazing battle between the two mechas excited everyone. They originally thought that the fight was going to heavily favour one side. They didn't expect that Lingtian's leader to be so strong to the point of not being in a disadvantage when facing one of the top 10 leaders from Knight Ace Mecha Clan.

The two mechas aimed at each other for a few seconds and almost simultaneously pulled on their triggers.

Two white beams of light cut through the space in between them. Right as the light was about to hit them, the two mechas suddenly moved oddly which caused the beams to just miss their mechas.

"Is that the Irregular Flicker?"

"No, that's Shadow Step! The final form of Irregular Flicker." One ace operator shouted out loudly. Being able to do Shadow Step was a condition for advancing into an imperial operator. Most peak-level ace operators would try to perform Shadow Step. However unfortunately, Shadow Step was very difficult. Only a few people would be successful even if they were peak-level ace operators.

Chapter 1118 They Were No Match for Them?

The appearance of Shadow Step proved that these two leaders from different nations had both reached the highest point of an ace operator.

Everyone wanted to continue to watch the battle between the two leaders. However, the video feed suddenly changed to a different scene.

At this scene, they were able to see one Federation mecha standing behind Lingtian Mecha Clan, just quietly observing the fierce mecha battle coldly from the sidelines.

"Why isn't he joining the fight?" His allies on the front-lines were fighting a hard-fought fight while he just stood there watching without even offering to help. This odd scene gave many of those watching the battle an uncomfortable feeling.

Coincidentally, mecha operators from Knight Ace Mecha Clan also saw him at the same time.

One Knight Ace Mecha Clan mecha suddenly rushed out from the battlefield. He saw the Federation mecha at the very back and rushed towards it without giving a second thought.

However, before he could get closer, a beam of light suddenly came towards him from a tricky angle.

This beam came to him so silently that when he noticed it, it was already a few meters away from him. However, the mecha operator was the cream of the crop of mecha operators in Caesar, and he was fully adept in such dangerous situations, so when faced with such a dangerous situation, he just calmly piloted his mecha and used Shadow Step to dodge the incoming beam.

He originally thought the beam was just a lucky shot, but the next attack came right after. The mecha operator then knew that he was definitely in the sights of another mecha operator.

He piloted his mecha and dodged the beam once again. After that, the mecha operator made a difficult decision to ignore the lone observing mecha operator and turn his attention towards the person who was sniping him.

From afar, a Federation mecha was holding a beam gun aimed towards him.

The distance between them was clearly quite far. Moreover, there were many mechas in between them, but this sniping mecha operator still had perfect aim on him. This made the mecha operator from Knight Ace Mecha Clan feel that he was quite unlucky.

However, with the opposition being able to shoot out two precise and perfect shots through many obstacles, it was enough to prove the capabilities of this mecha master operator. His opponent was definitely a top-class long range mecha operator, and he probably had a high position within his mecha clan.

He originally wanted to take down that annoying lone Federation mecha. However, before he could even get close to him, he discovered a capable opponent which excited him, so he quickly turned his mecha around and jumped right back into the raging battlefield.

The Knight Ace mecha immediately started to move oddly past one mecha after the other. In the blink of an eye, he had arrived around the area near the long range mecha operator from the Federation.

During time he was moving past the battlefield, he could feel that the long range mecha operator had aimed at him three times. Oddly enough, he didn't pull the trigger. It wasn't because he wouldn't but rather he couldn't pull the trigger. It was because the Knight Ace mecha had cleverly used mechas from the Federation as cover on his way towards him. If he were to shoot him, then he would have a high chance of accidentally injuring his allied mechas.

However, it wasn't like there was no opportunity to shoot, but rather taking the shot required a lot of confidence and ruthlessness from the mecha operator.

However, in the end, he lost to the feelings between brother-in-arms. Other than just that, he was also not confident enough to bet on himself.

"I've found his weakness. That guy is irresolute and hesitant." The Knight Ace mecha operator smiled coldly. He gave his opponent those slight windows of opportunity to shoot him just to see what decision he would make and then from it, he would be able to determine his opponent's personality. That way he would be able to gauge the optimal way to fight him.

Finally, after not having anymore Federation mechas as cover, his opponent shot many beams decisively. Countless beams of light covered all of the possible routes the Knight Ace mecha operator could evade towards.

The technique of shooting continuous beams showed him that his opponent had already reached the highest tier of long range attacker. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to shoot out more than 20 shots in an instant.

Although his opponent's shooting techniques were impressive, the mecha operator from Knight Ace Mecha Clan wasn't afraid. He laughed coldly and his finger speed suddenly increased exponentially. He then shouted loudly, "Get through."

A strange occurrence suddenly happened after he said that. The Knight Ace mecha suddenly disappeared and then reappeared behind the beams of light in the next second. He had evaded successfully.

"How could that happen?" Seeing the strange occurrence, everyone who was spectating the battle from the base instantly shouted out loud.

"The mecha broke through the speed of light in an instant which allowed him to be faster than the speed of the beams, dodging them perfectly. Because of how fast his speed was, it had already gotten past the camera's capabilities to record it. That was why it seemed like the mecha had disappeared and reappeared at a different location." Little Four knew very well of the weaknesses and strengths of the equipment in this era. Seeing the people from the base having expressions of confusion on their faces, he was nice enough to let the mainframe of the base explain the truth to the audience.

The long range mecha operator was surprised when he saw that his undodgeable attack was evaded. He quickly piloted his mecha and flew backwards to create more distance between the two of them.

However, how could the mecha operator from Knight Ace Mecha Clan give him the opportunity to? In the blink of an eye, he arrived before his opponent and slashed his blade towards him.

The long range mecha operator could only helplessly put up his beam gun to block the attack.

The beam gun exploded into pieces as the blade had slashed the power source of the beam gun.

When the gun exploded, the Knight Ace mecha operator could only see a burst of white light covering his vision. The screens in the mecha were also blanketed with a bright flash of white which inhibited the mecha operator to see what was going on outside.

However, the sudden situation didn't interfere with his attack, as he had already raised his sword for another attack.

He expected to feel his blade slicing through tough sheets of metal, but that feeling never came.

'How could this be?' He thought with surprise.

He didn't know what was happening, but the audience saw it. It turns out, in the instant the beam gun exploded, the long range mecha operator was blown away by the explosive force. In an effort to gain control of his mecha, he laid down on all fours which somehow allowed him to evade the sword that was coming towards his waist.

"So f*cking lucky." Everyone couldn't help but wipe away the cold sweat off their foreheads. They were all under the impression that Lingtian's long range mecha operator was going to be cut in half by his opponent.

Right at that moment, a glaring white light suddenly shined down on everything. It was as though it was cutting through the fabric of space.

Before anyone could notice, the long range mecha operator, who had lost control of his mecha from the force of the explosion, actually had a long, black and narrow sword in his mecha's right hand.

After his mecha was sent flying for a few meters, he finally managed to stop his mecha and stand up. However, what he did next confused everyone.

He actually turned his back towards his opponent and attacked another Knight Ace mecha operator who was fighting with a Federation mecha not far from him. The narrow sword in his hand ruthlessly sliced towards the new Knight Ace mecha operator.

Although the Knight Ace mecha operator was surprised by his attack, he still calmly put up the large sword in his hand to block.

In reality, narrow swords were often much weaker than the large sword. However, when the two swords clashed, the narrow sword actually wasn't being pushed back. The two of them confronted each other for a few seconds and then moved away from each other.

"Is he changing opponents with his comrade?" The audience, who didn't understand why the long range mecha operator had done that, could only come up with this reason for the switch.

"Look, that Knight Ace mecha."

"Why isn't he moving?"

"Look closely at the mecha's abdomen," prompted those with sharp eyes.

The mainframe seemed to understand everyone's wishes and zoomed in on the abdomen. Everyone in the entire base finally saw why Lingtian's mecha operator had ignored that opponent and went to attack someone else.

A large opening suddenly cracked open around the cockpit area of the mecha, and countless blood-red solids were pouring through it endlessly.

Chapter 1119 Scheming!

The Knight Ace mecha operator in the cockpit could only feel immense pain wrecking through his entire body. He used great effort to tilt his head down and saw that on his chest area, a long line of red blood had already painted his protective vest red. He felt the oxygen in the cockpit was slowly running out, but he couldn't remember when his cockpit was sliced open.

"I lost? How is that possible?" With a face full of confusion, he no longer had any chance to find out the answer. In the next second, he breathed his last breath.

"Ah, that was a leader's mecha from Knight Ace Mecha Clan ," one person excitedly shouted out loud.

The image was zoomed in. The audience watching from the base could clearly see the serial numbers as 37-001 on the broken mecha.

37 was the number of the team, and 001 was the standard number for leaders.

Despite 37 being on the lower-end of the rankings in Knight Ace Mecha Clan, he was still a real leader.

Everyone watching from the base was stunned. A leader from the well-known Knight Ace Mecha Clan was killed by their comrade in front of their eyes just like that?

"Oh my god, who is that long range mecha operator?" someone shouted out in excitement. Everyone fixed their gaze on the Lingtian's long range mecha that was now confronting another mecha operator from Knight Ace Mecha Clan .

"Thank you, leader." The mecha operator, who was the original opponent of the mecha operator from Knight Ace Mecha Clan, breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his own leader intercepting his opponent successfully. He then gratefully thanked him.

If his leader was late just by a bit, he might have said goodbye to this world. Plus, his luck was terrible since the first opponent he had encountered was very strong and terrifying.

"Leave this to me." His leader waved the narrow sword in his hand, gesturing to his team member to leave.

After receiving his leader's orders, the Lingtian mecha operator decisively rushed towards another Knight Ace mecha operator fighting not too far away from him.

Their leader had constantly reminded them that in the battlefield, they must use any means to win and do what gave them the most chances to win. If they could fight as a group, they shouldn't fight alone. If they could ambush, they shouldn't fight face to face. If they could plot and scheme, they shouldn't fight head on. If anyone broke these rules, they definitely would be grabbed by the neck by their leader to relearn everything he had thought. When that happens, they would have to figuratively get smacked in the bottom before they could come out again.

The new mecha operator from Knight Ace Mecha Clan did see his comrade's life being ended by this leader's mecha in front of him. His eyes filled with killing intent. He quickly raised the large sword in his hand and piloted his mecha in a crazed fashion, cutting towards his opponent.

Anyone who dared to kill their comrades must use their lives to pay for it!

The two of them clashed for a few rounds. The speed of the clash was so fast that some of the audience did not manage to keep up with their eyes.

In the end, the two of them attacked each other with great force and rebounded away from each other.

In the instant they rebounded back, the emblems and serial numbers on their chests were shown clear as day.

The serial number on the Knight Ace Mecha Clan mecha was 007-001. The audience didn't expect that after seeing the 37th leader be taken out, another leader actually appeared in his place. Most importantly, he was ranked 7th in Knight Ace Mecha Clan.

The serial number on the Lingtian mecha was 006-001.

"He is also a leader. Team 06's leader." Seeing this scene, those in the base instantly shouted out in excitement with their arms high in the air.

"No wonder he could kill Knight Ace Mecha Clan's 37th leader. Our Team 06's leader is stronger than him!" The fighting spirit of these worry warts, that was pushed down by fear they had in their hearts, now increased to a new height because of Lingtian's two fights with two leader level opponents.

"But Team 06's leader is a long range mecha operator, while that 7th leader from Knight Ace Mecha Clan is piloting a close combat mecha. Would he be in trouble now that they're fighting each other?" Despite everyone's excitement, they were still able to see the situation clearly. They still couldn't help but be worried for Team 06's leader's safety.

"That Li Lanfeng, why is he getting in your way?" Little Four, who had nothing to do up until now, finally saw a stray looking to cause Boss trouble. Just as he felt he was given something to do, that annoying Li Lanfeng intercepted that person and took the prey away from his clutches. His dumb actions annoyed Little Four quite a lot.

Ling Lan glanced at Little Four speechlessly. She didn't know why Little Four was angry. In fact, Li Lanfeng was just being nice. He was afraid Ling Lan's injuries hadn't healed yet and would reopen if she were to pilot her mecha to fight.

In reality, after the rest she had recently, her body didn't have anymore big issues. As long as she didn't stupidly pilot a mecha above her capabilities, she would be able to endure battles even if it was for three days and nights.

However, it seemed odd because for a while now, Little Four seemed to complain about Li Lanfeng a lot. As long as he got the chance to, he would tattle on Li Lanfeng to Ling Lan. If it wasn't the fact that Ling Lan knew Little Four definitely didn't have any connections with Li Lanfeng, Ling Lan might have misunderstood and thought that maybe Li Lanfeng had bullied Little Four when she wasn't paying attention.

"Am I wrong? Boss, you just need to casually slash Firmament for such individuals to take care of them instantly. Unlike him, who is so useless and who almost lost his life before somehow managing to take care of his opponent," Little Four mumbled.

"That's why you're an intelligent entity and he is a mecha operator." Ling Lan couldn't help but stop Little Four from thinking as a layman.

"Huh?" Little Four was completely confused.

"Little Four, if you were to meet Li Lanfeng in the future, remember to stay as far away from him as possible." Sighed Ling Lan.

"Why?" Little Four was unwilling to give in. "In the virtual world, I can beat him to a pulp even if he has virtual powers."

Ling Lan patted Little Four's spiky hair and said helplessly, "That's not what I meant. I'm just afraid you'll fall into one of Li Lanfeng's traps."

"Huh?" Little Four couldn't understand the meaning of Ling Lan's words again.

"In fact, when he had taken shots to intercept that Knight Ace mecha operator, he had already begun to scheme," said Ling Lan slowly. "He purposely gave his opponent the impression that he was a long range mecha operator."

"Isn't he though? Isn't he piloting a long range mecha?" asked Little Four.

"Can you really tell what type of mecha he's piloting with the modifications made by Chang Xinyuan?" Ling Lan shook her head. She didn't have any special requirements for members of the teams within her clan, but leaders must not have clear weaknesses in their mechas. Out of the leaders, Li Lanfeng was the best at not showing his weaknesses.

"As a matter of fact, Li Lanfeng's close combat skills is actually stronger than his long range skills. Other than those close to him, no one else knows about this," Ling Lan said this and then realized that other than her, there wasn't anyone else who was close to him.

It had to be said that if she also didn't know Li Lanfeng, she definitely wouldn't like Li Lanfeng either. Even Li Shiyu, who was nice to him no matter what, was not trusted by Li Lanfeng. When he schemes against him, he wouldn't hesitate… However, as luck would have it, that guy trusted her with his life. The more heartless and merciless he was towards others, the more nice he seemed towards her.

What great deed did she do in her previous life or did she commit a great sin, for her to meet an oddball like Li Lanfeng in this life. His selfless action made her feel like she wasn't nice to him, she would feel as though she had sinned… Ling Lan felt slightly annoyed by that feeling, but she couldn't push away such a pure friendship just because of tha.

Whatever. She'll endure it since she could bear the burden anyways.

Chapter 1120 Wallflower?

"So, he was faking it?" Little Four frowned and still couldn't understand.

"You probably saw that when the opponent closed in on him, he actually had three windows of opportunity to shoot him," hinted Ling Lan.

"Yeah, but wasn't it because Li Lanfeng was afraid to take the shot? That guy is like that, irresolute and hesitant. When he must make decisions, he doesn't. He is so annoying when he does that." Little Four seemed to have found why he hated Li Lanfeng and why he always had an annoyed expression on his face when he looked at Li Lanfeng.

"Irresolute and hesitant? Heh," Ling Lan laughed softly. "If you described any other person, I might have believed you."

Little Four wasn't going to let up. "Isn't he though? He wasn't confident with himself and was afraid to take his shot. In the end, he allowed his opponent to close in on him successfully, and he was almost sliced in half because of that."

Ling Lan sighed. "Little Four, when you have your own body in the future, please for the love of god, don't mess with Li Lanfeng."

"Boss, are you looking down on me, right now?" Little Four became angry. Why was he not capable as Li Lanfeng in Boss's mind?

"I'm just afraid you'll suffer in his hands." Ling Lan shook her head and continued, "Li Lanfeng isn't a person who would put himself in danger because he was afraid of hurting his comrades."

"Then, why did he give up on the three windows of opportunity?" Little Four was slowly believing in Ling Lan's words. If she said Li Lanfeng wouldn't do that, then Li Lanfeng would never do that.

"Didn't I say it already? Li Lanfeng already had a plan from the very beginning. He created a weak and irresolute image of himself in his opponent's mind…" explained Ling Lan. "And to do that, Li Lanfeng purposely gave up those three windows of opportunity."

"Huh?" Little Four was dumbfounded, "Why?"

"Even if he hit the opponent through those windows of opportunity, it would only be a severe injury and not a sure kill." Ling Lan smirked. Li Lanfeng was a very ambitious person. He wanted a sure-kill, not just a severe injury on his opponent. To obtain that sure-kill, he purposely set up the plan and let his opponent fall into his trap.

Little Four was after all Little Four, although he didn't understand at the beginning, he still managed to understand after Ling Lan's explanation. It was clear that the entire situation wasn't a coincidence.

"Then, using his beam gun to block was also part of Li Lanfeng's calculations? Including the fall caused by the explosion of the energy storage unit?" Little Four asked after realizing something.

"But, isn't he afraid that he would accidentally injure himself with the explosion?" Little Four was very surprised with Li Lanfeng's daringness. The calculations and plans may severely injure himself if it was off by even a bit and wouldn't do anything to his opponent.

"That's why I'm telling you to stay away from Li Lanfeng. That guy is ruthless. Not only is he ruthless to others, but to himself as well."

ISe

From the very beginning, when he was plotting against others, he would always use himself as bait in his schemes. Luckily, Li Lanfeng was her confidant, otherwise Ling Lan would definitely have taken him out before he had matured in order to make sure he didn't become troublesome for her in the future.

"What now? Hasn't Li Lanfeng already exposed the fact that he's strong in terms of close combat?" Little Four looked Li Lanfeng, who was piloting his mecha fighting fiercely against his opponent. He then said with schadenfreude, "His calculations and schemes are all useless in the end."

"That might not be the case." Ling Lan smirked with hidden intention behind it. Every clash made it seem that both sides were at the same level, but in reality, the positions they moved towards, including the rebound distance, were off by a little bit compared to his opponent. Anyone could see such a minuscule difference, but did that mean Li Lanfeng wasn't as capable as his opponent?

When fighting with Li Lanfeng, his opponents must always be on guard. Otherwise, just one slip up would make him fall into Li Lanfeng's traps.

However, how could his opponent's first impression of him, created by Li Lanfeng through manipulation, be so easily changed?

Right as Ling Lan was about to watch Li Lanfeng's next move, she suddenly frowned as she turned her gaze towards the area of space furthest away from them.

"Boss, there seems to be movement from that direction." Little Four, who had already taken control of all the satellites within the area, discovered the odd occurrence.

"It seems someone can't sit still anymore." Ling Lan smiled, "I've been a wallflower for so long. I should move around a bit now."

After saying that, Ling Lan's mecha flashed through space and arrived at the area of space in front of her.

"Come out!" The Firmament in Ling Lan's hand sliced towards the vast space in front of her.

A strong shapeless ripple appeared in the direction she had sliced towards and a mecha slowly appeared in that area of space.

The mecha twirled in the air and dodged the sword attack.

"I didn't expect that you would actually discover me." In the public voice channel, a deep male voice spoke Caesar's language. A mecha finally completely appeared in front of Ling Lan.

The knight emblem on the mecha's chest, the English word 'Knight' and the serial number of 000-000… It was the mecha of their regiment commander.

"Your men have been stopped by my men and they cannot move even an inch further, so it makes sense that you can't sit still anymore," Ling Lan said nonchalantly.

"Phoenix emblem. You're Lingtian Mecha Clan's regiment commander then. I still haven't gotten any useful information about your clan. I originally thought that even if you were strong, you would only be similar to Proud Wind Mecha Clan. I didn't expect you to actually give me such a surprise and successfully intercept us. Not bad, not bad."

The Knight Ace Mecha Clan's regiment commander also saw the serial number on Ling Lan's mecha along with the phoenix emblem. After piecing it with the information he had received, he knew that this mecha operator, who saw through his movements, was the regiment commander of Lingtian. He was somewhat excited. Normally, he would stay put when his mecha clan was in battle. But, he finally found an opponent who was on par with him. This made him feel the fighting spirit within him that had already hibernated become fired up.

"I've been waiting for you for quite a while now," Ling Lan said calmly.

"Alright, since you're looking to die, I'll help you fulfill your wish." Killing intent filled the regiment commander from Knight Ace Mecha Clan. When his 37th leader was killed, he had already decided to make sure not one person from Lingtian could escape here alive.

It should be known that in the decade he had been a regiment commander, this was the first time one of his leaders was killed. This humiliation must be repaid through blood.

Inside the base, the scene on the large screen changed once again. It showed two mechas far from the center of the battle confronting each other in the silent yet vast space.

"That's odd. Why did the scene change to this?" The soldiers in the base were all annoyed at the mainframe's odd scene changes.

Couldn't it let them watch a battle between leaders from the beginning to the end? It was always changing the scene when the most exciting and thrilling parts were about to come up.

"It's regiment commander mechas! Two of them are both regiment commander mechas!" Finally someone had sharp eyes and managed to see the regiment commander's serial numbers from the side.

"That's right, they're regiment commander mechas."

"What? It's the battle between Lingtian's regiment commander and Knight Ace Mecha Clan's regiment commander. Mr. Mainframe, I f*cking love you." They were just hating the mainframe for changing the scene but now, they were all chanting that the mainframe understood what they wanted.

The mainframe felt wronged. When the video feed started playing in the base, he didn't have any power in choosing what to show to people.

Little Four smiled proudly. He was going to let these dumb soldiers admire his heroic, brave, and omnipotent Boss!