Chapter 1622: Chapter 611: Journey Home

The hesitation about whether to rescue or not is not due to the Empire Core doubting Ren Zhong’s loyalty, but rather the cost of rescuing the Red Blade Army is too high. Even as Ren Zhong is now the Red Blade Marquis and the newly appointed Chosen One, representing the Empire’s future, it makes people unable to decide immediately.

Perhaps to completely annihilate the Red Blade Army, or perhaps the three parties feel that too much was revealed in the previous battle between the second-tier Mother Empress and the Red Blade Army. The Sublimers, Pilgrims, and Spirit Demon Race are considering that the Mechanical Empire is no fool, and their secret alliance is already exposed, so they chose not to hide. After all, the Mechanical Empire is already in a weak position; even if aware of the alliance, it can’t do much, which is why the three parties revealed their most hidden assets.

Currently, the Sublimers are in charge of the warfare, the Pilgrims oversee the economy, and the Spirit Demon Race handles slave control. After the alliance, they transformed the Jade Plate Star Domain into an unprecedentedly complex occupied zone managed jointly by the three parties in a very short time.

For the current Mechanical Empire, the Jade Plate Star Domain has already become foreign territory.

The Red Blade Army has instead become a lone force trapped behind enemy lines.

In fact, in the latter half of this millennial timeline, the Red Blade Army has gone over a hundred years without receiving supplies from the Mechanical Empire. The main source of energy and materials are fully reliant on the refined dark matter capture technology and the recycling of discarded metals.

If they are to break through the enemy’s blockade and gain a chance for the Red Blade Army to escape, one could only wonder how much military strength the Mechanical Empire needs to invest.

But anyway, the Empire Core hasn’t announced abandoning the Red Blade Marquis and is still trying to find a solution.

In a fierce meeting, Duke Wenle and Ivan Romanov pinpointed the key issue.

He suggested that with the astounding personal strength of the Red Blade Marquis and the capability of the war machine named Starry Sky Red Blade Armor, regardless of how dire the situation of the entire Red Blade Army is, Ren Zhong himself remains completely unharmed.

If Ren Zhong truly wishes to escape, he simply needs to relocate his core kin onto the Starry Sky Red Blade Armor, reserve enough energy, and then have other members of the army cover the retreat, allowing him to leave any time.

But as everyone knows, the personality of the Red Blade Marquis is very peculiar, completely unlike a traditional Empire noble; not only does he love to charge on the battlefield himself, but he also never lightly sacrifices his citizens.

If left to his own choice, he is more likely to perish with his kin than to flee alone.

Therefore, the Empire should now give Ren Zhong a clear evacuation command, ordering him to abandon his citizens and retreat alone.

Duke Ivan’s proposal was widely accepted.

Subsequently, Duke Ivan further stated that based on his study of the Red Blade Marquis, to make him go against his intentions, there must be a reasonable excuse provided – the order should clearly state that if the Red Blade Marquis refuses to comply, he will be charged with treason.

These words may seem intimidating. But since the Red Blade Marquis is so loyal to the Empire, once he is safe, he will surely understand the hardships of the Core.

The Regent King agreed to Duke Ivan’s proposal and entered the solution into the Empire Super Network for simulation analysis.

The evaluation results given by the Super Network showed that the solution is feasible, with a high success rate, making it currently the best option.

In this meeting, only Marquis Zhenjiang Jin Shi, the commander on-site for the Three Domains warfare, slightly expressed a different opinion.

Jin Shi found it utterly ridiculous that those comfortably residing in the Empire Core could think of using treason accusations to coerce frontline generals fighting for the Empire.

Such talent!

But Jin Shi’s voice was ultimately insignificant; she couldn’t change anything, nor could she express her true speculation.

According to the Mechanical Empire Core’s logic, Red Blade Marquis Ren Zhong is blindly loyal to His Majesty. Therefore, Duke Ivan’s proposal wouldn’t be rejected, nor would it put Ren Zhong in a dilemma, but instead serve as a lifeline.

However, deep down, Jin Shi didn’t quite trust Ren Zhong’s psychological evaluation report.

The reason is simple: during her psychological evaluation, her own assessment was categorized as "questionable loyalty."

It was precisely because of this assessment that despite her battle achievements, she remained merely a Marquis without the opportunity to join the Empire Core. Her ability to dictate in the Far Border Star Domain has never relied on royal patronage, but on her own capabilities and the loyal old guard she brought from her homeland.

Ren Zhong’s situation is similar to hers, and even eclipses it.

Hence, Jin Shi has reasons to believe that Ren Zhong and she are actually similar people. Therefore, Ren Zhong’s psychological evaluation report is unreliable.

She just can’t say it aloud.

...

Sitting in the Starry Sky Red Blade Armor control room, Ren Zhong saw the joint command from the Core.

He didn’t take it seriously; he simply chuckled and tossed it into the Wrist watch system’s trash bin.

Sun Ai made a fair comment.

"Ivan Romanov is indeed quite shrewd. Although he has never met you, he managed to see through you. This is truly to place you in a dilemma."

Ren Zhong chuckled, "No big deal. The treason charge is merely a scare tactic. Even if I defy orders, the Mechanical Empire will still steadfastly support me. In reviewing the history, the relationship between the Chosen Ones and the Mechanical Empire is actually not one of dependency. During the peak times of each Chosen One, the two sides were in a cooperative relationship."

"The so-called loyalty and treason are meaningless. What’s truly binding the two parties is merely the shared identity of native humans, this inherent and absolute alliance. The reason past Chosen Ones eventually became imperial vassals ultimately was because they didn’t have eternal life. They would all age and die or have to enter cryogenic sleep, leaving descendants to manifest the significance of their life’s endeavors. But I’m different; I don’t have this concern, I can’t leave descendants, nor will I die."

Ren Zhong pondered and then arranged, "Alright, we’ve circled the Jade Plate Star Domain long enough, our energy reserves are sufficient, it’s about time to leave. Help me pull up the Star Map; let me take a look."

Sun Ai responded with an "mm," and a large-scale Star Map encompassing the Three Major Star Regions emerged before Ren Zhong.

Ren Zhong’s gaze first settled at the edge of the disk-like Jade Plate Star Domain, representing the location of the Red Blade Army.

Then, Ren Zhong’s gaze shifted to another side, slightly zooming out the lens.

His gaze gradually became fervent, and his heart rate slightly increased.

It was a super long arc spanning the entire Far Border Star Domain, a Fold Jump Subspace Channel that shouldn’t exist in the universe.

Within this channel, a Planet Ship is rushing at ten times the speed of light.

Ren Zhong waited in the Jade Plate Star Domain for a thousand years, finally awaiting his true homeland within the Ancient Disk Galaxy.

Source Star.

Now, it’s called the Source Star Ship.

It’s time for the rendezvous.

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