Not far away from the bridge of Burning Prairie, in a temporary office, Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao sat on a chair in a daze. The artificial limbs all over his body seemed to have rusted and were not moving at all.
Holding a chain and an iron badge in his hands, he stared at a 3D light beam in a daze.
On the light beam, hundreds of thousands of people were moving. Flags were waving in the wind. Banners of mystic rays were dancing in the sky. Everybody was shouting a name in the sonorous national anthem.
"Li Yao! Li Yao! Li Yao! Li Yao! "
It was the picture where Li Yao broke the blockade of the Patriots Partnership in the capital city and marched toward the parliament building of the Federation. It had been shot by dozens of media outlets, edited carefully, and connected.
The changing light and shadow hit Zhou Hengdao's face. The seasoned general, who had been through countless battles without changing his expression even in the storm of bullets and venomous fog, found it difficult to resist and slightly narrowed his eyes.
There were complicated feelings deep inside his eyes, with a hint of guilt flowing out.
When Li Yao's face under the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars flag appeared on the picture, Zhou Hengdao would slightly tilt his head, as if he did not dare look at Li Yao in the eyes.
His iron hands that were holding the iron badges were shivering slightly, with clanking noises echoing.
Someone was knocking on the door.
"Come in."
Zhou Hengdao said, not very interested.
A vigorous, middle-aged soldier with a shiny head strode into the cabin. Hearing the voice from the crystal processor, he was greatly shocked and hurried to close the door. Sweat immediately popping up on his forehead, he asked in a hurry, "Iron Commander, what — what are you doing? What if the space residents hear you? "
The news that Li Yao had wreaked havoc in the capital city was naturally kept a secret in the Dark Desolate Domain.
The bald soldier's name was Zhou Tieyi. He was Zhou Hengdao's nephew from the same clan and the colonel of the guards who had fought bloody battles with him for decades. He was Zhou Hengdao's absolute trusted subordinate.
Naturally, he was a member of the Patriots Partnership, too.
"Ah Tie, come and listen. Listen to the cheers. So many people are shouting 'Li Yao'."
In a trance, Zhou Hengdao's eyes were hollow. His thoughts seemed to have drifted back to a long, long time ago. He mumbled, "Do you still remember the Battle of Dingling thirty-five years ago? In that battle, we annihilated the largest Beast Tide invasion in decades and killed five Demon Kings. Just the corpses of the demon cubs were piled up and burned for three days and three nights, but they still couldn't be completely burned! "
"At that time, the army returned to the capital city in triumph with the bodies of the five demon kings. The millions of people in the capital city welcomed us in the same way. Everybody was waving the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars flag on every street and alley, shouting our name and the name of the Union Army!
"Union Army! Union Army! Union Army! "
"Even today, sometimes in the dead of night, when I can't sleep, I still seem to hear such shouts."
"The scene would've been much more lively, exciting, and passionate than when they were shouting Li Yao's name today!"
"Do you remember? Ah Tie, do you still remember? "
Colonel Zhou Tieyi was silent for a moment. Then he clenched his fists and said, "Rest assured, Iron Commander. After we completely conquer the Blood Demon Sector and return in triumph, we will certainly be cheered a hundred times louder than 'Li Yao'! By then, not just the capital city, every citizen of the entire Federation will cheer for us and the Union Army from the bottom of their heart! "
"Is that so?"
Zhou Hengdao smiled. "Including the thirty thousand innocent people who were killed miserably in the explosion in the square of the Federation, will their families cheer for us, too?
"Even if they cheer for us, are you and I qualified to face their cheers frankly?
"And them."
He raised the iron badges in his hands and waved them softly. "What about their families? Will they cheer for us? Can we bear their cheers? "
Zhou Tieyi frowned. "Iron Commander, what are these?"
"They are military badges."
Zhou Hengdao separated the eight military badges carefully. On one side of the badges was the raging Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars emblem, and on the other side was the basic information such as name, blood type, and level.
Zhou Hengdao touched the uneven names as gently as he could, as if he were touching the head of his great grandson.
"They are the military badges of the eight communicators who fought to the end dutifully and were killed by us in the end.
"Chen Gaoyi, Song Zuguang, Jing Guoyuan, Dong Rui, Liu Hao, Dan Shengjie, Deng Junhao, Xia Lesheng … Those are their names.
"Dong Rui, the youngest of them, was only nineteen years old. He was a recruit who joined the army last year. Song Zuguang, the oldest of them, was sixty-six years old. He devoted almost half of his life to the Union Army. He was a veteran who had participated in dozens of fierce battles!
"Hehe. He survived dozens of fierce battles without being killed by the demons. How lucky he was. An old man in his family is like a treasure. That's exactly what the old veterans said. When we were in the army, such old guys were always sought after by every company!
"It's a pity that he was not killed by the claws of the demon beasts but by the guns of his brothers. He was killed … by my order!"
"It was an accident!"
Zhou Tieyi's eyes were somewhat red, too. He stepped forward and held Zhou Hengdao, who was shivering slightly, before he bellowed, "Iron Commander, it was an accident. Don't blame yourself! Now that Director Lu has been killed, you are the backbone of all the 'patriots'. To save the Federation, Iron Commander, you must not fall at this moment! "
"Accident. Hehe. Accident!"
With a miserable face, Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao buried his face in the eight military tags.
The eight military tags were like red-hot soldering irons, making hissing sounds on his face!
His shivering voice leaked out from the gaps of his fingers. "I don't know. I really don't know. How did things end up like this?
"In the beginning, didn't we all plan it well and flawlessly?"
"As long as we blew up Jiang Hailiu in the square of the Federation and pushed the blame to Li Yao, all the possibilities of peace talks would be cut off and a war would be declared!
"The Blood Demon Sector suffered heavy losses in the destruction of the Eye of Blood Demon. Faced with the threat of the plague, its capability has hit the lowest point in the past thousand years.
"But not only do we have the Demon God Virus, we also have almost a hundred Children of the Nether World who are familiar with the inside information of the Blood Demon Sector. We also have Burning Prairie, a super warship, and two hundred thousand Grand Illusionary Soldiers!
"It should be an unstoppable victory. As long as we pay the smallest price, we will reap the greatest benefits!
"Those who will be sacrificed will be Jiang Hailiu and Li Yao!
"Jiang Hailiu is a spineless capitulator, and Li Yao is a treacherous traitor who intends to lure the fiends into the Federation! Whatever ends they end up in, they have only themselves to blame!
"This … should've been the case. Those who are killed will be the ones who deserve it. Not a single innocent person will be involved! Then, we will be able to usher in the greatest victory and bring the sacred Federation on a path of incomparable brilliance! "
"Why? The plan was so perfect, but once it was put into action, everything changed? One 'accident' after another popped up!
"So many innocent people were killed in the square of the Federation, but Li Yao failed to capture them! In order to kill him, Ye Changkong and Diwu Jian, the heroes who made great contributions to the Federation and the Yuanying experts who defended mankind, were heavily wounded. Their lives were worse than death! In the end, Lu Zui's crystal warship developed to the point that it was about to open fire on the people of the Federation in public!
"If Li Yao hadn't stood in front of us, perhaps hundreds or thousands of wronged souls would've been destroyed by our plan!"
"Hehe. Even so, we failed to stop Li Yao and were driven to desperate measures!
"In our desperation, we deceived and manipulated everybody. We even killed our own comrades and brothers!
"We abandoned everything and walked to this step. As long as we made the last jump, our plan would've succeeded! But at such a critical moment, another 'accident' happened! Even the rats of the Heaven's Origin Sector are going against us and trying to delay us for three to four hours!
"Iron Commander!"
Zhou Tieyi roared. "The space jump array will be repaired very soon. The other legions involved in the drill are still in the dark. It will only be a few hours. There will be absolutely no problem. There will be no more accidents!"
"Is that so?"
Zhou Hengdao smiled. Looking at the fluttering flags on the light beam, he said, "Ah Tie, I'm thinking right now. Are so many accidents still accidents when they are superimposed? Or rather … is it the will of the heavens? Is there a certain force that is stopping us? "
"Iron Commander!"
Zhou Tieyi was anxious. He raised his voice again and shook Zhou Hengdao's body hard without caring about the propriety. "We are all soldiers! Soldiers only believe in their own weapons. What is the will of the heavens? Our weapons are the will of the heavens. Our guns are the will of the heavens!
"Everything we did was to save the Federation. Even if a few people were sacrificed in the process, it was still a price that had to be paid! Who doesn't die in a war? In the past hundred years of wars, have we not lost enough comrades for the final victory?
"There will be no more accidents, Iron Commander. We will certainly succeed because we stand for justice! Since ancient times, evil has never triumphed over good! Even if the will of the heavens does exist, it will definitely be on our side!
"Evil has never triumphed over good! Evil has never triumphed over good! We are right. Our path … is the only right path! "
The dim brilliance in Zhou Hengdao's eyes intensified again, but it was interrupted by hasty knocks on the door after only a few seconds.
It was a tall, thin, gloomy major who walked in. On the surface, he was a member of the communication department of the military, but in fact, he was a liaison that Lu Zui sent to Zhou Hengdao.
He had brought a new accident.
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