Under the scorching sunlight, a valiant and imposing army entered everyone’s line of sight. Beneath their feet was not a smooth road, but a patch of grass that wasn’t even particularly lush and green. Yet as the soldiers advanced in their steady march across this land, they astonishingly did not kick up a single speck of dust.
He Fang had never once attended a military parade in the real world. He hadn’t even watched one on TV. Back in school, he focused solely on studying; watching the news was only because the school required it. When he went online, it was purely for games. Once he started living alone, he abandoned the television altogether. It was only because “Ruins Without Restart” needed to hold a military parade that he finally went to watch one from his own country for reference.
Orderly and uniform, brimming with spirit, radiating a lofty aura, everywhere exuding the solemnity and dignity of a true army. He Fang had thought that since this was just a game, and their first parade at that, the NPCs probably wouldn’t make it so grand and overwhelming.
What’s more, in reality, the soldiers chosen for a parade were all one in ten thousand, each one an elite among elites. But his three cities combined didn’t even reach two million people in total. The number of troops he could muster was honestly not that large, and he still had to keep soldiers stationed within the cities for patrol duty. The parade plan that Yuan Zhiran had submitted hadn’t indicated that there would be that many people either.
But He Fang had underestimated just what “numbers” could mean. When he saw the vast, mighty throng descending from Xiao Qing’s[mfn]I mistakenly put Xiao Lu in the previous chapter[/mfn] back shell, he suddenly thought of something.
Though he had never attended a military parade, he had once been a spectator at a school sports meet. A single school could make the entire opening ceremony of a sports meet grand and impressive, so how could his three cities be compared to the size of just a school’s population?
“Right now, what we’re seeing are the soldiers of Angel City,” Yuan Zhiran said with a smile, looking just like a commentator. “The soldiers of Angel City carry lofty ideals and possess an exceptionally pure force of faith. They are pure, and this purity will ultimately grant them a strength that sets them apart from others. And with the help of the main city, Angel City has found its most perfect role. What you are about to witness are the Domain Guardians of Angel City.”
He Fang had originally thought that this name “Domain Guardians” sounded so over-the-top and juvenile. Yet the moment he saw these so-called Domain Guardians, every word he might have spoken got stuck in his throat.
He saw with his own eyes how the soldiers called Domain Guardians stepped onto small flying devices and shot swiftly up into the sky. He Fang was utterly stunned.
“The Domain Guardians of Angel City are the group most closely connected to the Divine Lord who shelters us,” Yuan Zhiran’s voice continued calmly, like a narrator. “They possess absolute faith and are deeply cherished by the Divine Lord. Under the Divine Lord’s protection, they have become perfect, high-speed, flying soldiers.”
In an instant, everyone could only stare wide-eyed as the Domain Guardians of Angel City accelerated faster and faster, so fast they were almost impossible to see, moving at a near-invisible super speed. Soon, they could no longer even make out the shapes of the people. Yet clearly, there were so many of them…
By now, the area surrounded at the center had already become entirely their domain.
“This… this can’t be possible! If they move that fast, a human body wouldn’t be able to handle it. Something would go wrong!” someone suddenly blurted out in alarm.
“After extensive research and adjustments by the main city’s research institute, they successfully developed armor for Angel City’s soldiers. The armor is lightweight and regulates the body’s internal and external environment, allowing an ordinary human body to attain superhuman strength, truly,” Yuan Zhiran said, his tone calm and steady.
But listening to Yuan Zhiran’s explanation, He Fang felt an icy fear creeping up inside him. Good heavens. When did Zhu Yan invent something this terrifying? Armor that could give ordinary people superhuman abilities. Stee… steel hero?
“Because everyone in Angel City holds a deep reverence for flight, the main city will grant the Domain Guardians wings that allow them to fly. To make their dream come true!”
Along with Yuan Zhiran’s words, the soldiers of Angel City, who had been flying at such high speeds they were invisible, suddenly all came to a stop. At that moment, every one of them unfurled enormous wings from their backs. Densely packed, they filled the sky like an overwhelming tide. In that instant, He Fang thought of one phrase, “the descent of angels”.
“These are not just wings,” Yuan Zhiran continued. “They are also a form of attack. The soldiers can control every feather on their wings to launch attacks. Each feather is a razor-sharp blade, finely forged from an extremely rare metal, giving them absolute suppression over their opponents. Tests have already proven that these blades can easily slice through every known metal in the current world.”
At that moment, one of the Domain Guardians stepped forward to the very front. The razor-sharp feathers of his outstretched wings spread wide, glinting with a breathtaking brilliance. Right then, Yuan Zhiran raised a diamond apple in his hand and, under everyone’s gaze, tossed it lightly into the air. All they saw was the flash of feathers cutting at blinding speed, until that diamond apple was shredded midair into fragments that drifted down like glittering dust. The pieces were caught below and handed out to the high-ranking officials seated in the viewing stands for close inspection.
He Fang’s mind was filled with shock. This design…
“The idea came when I saw Rainbow Squad Xiao Lu,” Zhu Yan, standing beside He Fang, said with a strange, cold smile. “And since there was a precedent, it was that much easier to make it real. I have to say, this design is very interesting. Whether for close combat or long-range, it works well. The only problem is that right now, the soldiers of Angel City have to undergo countless rounds of extremely harsh training to be able to control these wings.”
He Fang tried his best to keep a straight face, lowering his head to drink some water to hide his awkwardness.
So basically, the thing had indeed been developed, but the people of Angel City couldn’t use it yet. Right now, they were just forcing it to work, scraping together at least one person who could put on a show to intimidate others?
He Fang nervously glanced at the crowd watching. He felt a bit guilty. At least… at least the weapon wasn’t fake, it was just that the people of Angel City hadn’t yet learned how to wield it properly, ahaha… ahahaha…
“Next, please enjoy the performance by Angel City’s Chanting Choir,” Yuan Zhiran continued his narration. “As a city that holds absolute faith, Angel City’s people have beautiful voices to sing the most splendid hymns to the Divine Lord. In return, they receive the Divine Lord’s favor.”
And next, He Fang saw a scene that even left him utterly shocked.
If he had to put it into words, it looked like a choir formed by the whole of Angel City. But as they chanted, they summoned the Divine Lord!
When the enormous statue of the Divine Lord appeared floating in the sky, it blocked out the sun and covered the sky entirely, so vast it was unimaginable. At first, everyone thought it might just be a special effect. Some people were already starting to frown slightly, as if they couldn’t understand why anyone would play such a joke in such a solemn setting.
However, what came next was no joke at all.
The enormous Divine Lord reached toward the sky, and that single hand actually blocked out the sun!
Blocked out the sun, literally. It was just a single hand, yet it felt as if that hand had grasped hold of the sunlight itself, plunging everything around into darkness.
At this moment, some people were already trembling: “Impossible, impossible, there must be something wrong with the mech we’re in right now. That’s the sun. Could a god really affect the sun? Impossible!”
He Fang’s eyes were wide open, too. Impossible! This was absolutely impossible! Usually, the Divine Lord could only be activated by inputting a command, but he hadn’t entered any command at all. So why was the Divine Lord acting on its own?
Excuse me, Divine Lord, but have you glitched?
Zhu Yan saw He Fang’s eyes bulging so much his expression was nearly falling apart, and quickly leaned over to explain in his ear, “Absolute faith can, to a certain extent, receive the Divine Lord’s miracle. This is an order you once issued yourself.”
He Fang had no recollection of when he had ever given such an order.
Right now, He Fang made exaggerated faces at Zhu Yan: “Is this magic?”
Zhu Yan’s expression was a bit strange too: “Perhaps it is. At the very least, up to now, I still haven’t been able to analyze exactly what’s inside the Divine Lord’s faith, nor what power the Divine Lord’s statue is relying on to operate.”
He Fang felt that someone like Zhu Yan, who could even control his Rainbow Squad, actually couldn’t figure out the Divine Lord.
Is this an issue with the official settings of “Ruins Without Restart”, or is it a problem with the algorithm? People have also said that some city lords, when creating their cities, designed them as magical cities, so having magic inside a magical city is perfectly normal. But since his setting was for a normal city, did a bug appear as a result?
“Impossible, it’s fake!” Someone finally couldn’t hold back and spoke up. If they admitted this, wouldn’t that be the same as admitting that gods truly exist in this world? If gods really existed, then all these years, all these generations of people painstakingly guarding this land—what were the gods doing? Watching them struggle for amusement?
The choir’s hymn hadn’t yet ended, but at this moment, the Divine Lord turned His head, looked straight at that person, then reached a hand out toward them.
He Fang’s heart jumped. He instinctively wanted to speak up to tell the Divine Lord not to go too far.
But Zhu Yan stopped him.
The Divine Lord didn’t do anything to that person; instead, He used His massive fingertip to tap lightly on the tabletop. Something quickly formed at His fingertip. When He Fang looked closely, he seemed to see a string of code, and then a small toy appeared.
That toy was very old and worn, looking for all the world like some piece of trash dug up from who knows where, but when that person saw the little toy, they suddenly froze, staring at it blankly, unable to utter a single word.
“What’s wrong?” He Fang was puzzled by the person’s sudden silence. This scene was exactly like what he had once seen when the Divine Lord used code to repair Shen Houyun’s body. He Fang watched the other reach out a trembling hand, unable to restrain themselves from touching the toy.
“It’s something from deep within their memory. The Divine Lord read their memory,” Yuan Zhiran said loudly at this moment. “In front of the Divine Lord, none of us has any privacy. God can see everything!”
In that instant, everyone’s faces changed. Even though they felt it sounded a bit exaggerated, when they looked at that person, who was already staring blankly in a daze, one by one, they began to feel that something was very wrong.
At this moment, the choir stopped singing. The giant stone statue of the Divine Lord vanished from everyone’s sight. Sunlight returned in an instant, so bright that it stabbed painfully into everyone’s eyes. Some people noticed that the man clutching the little toy no longer had any trace of his earlier frenzy. He looked so fragile now, as if he would shatter at a single touch.
“Next, everyone, please turn your eyes to the soldiers of our Hope City…”
He Fang keenly sensed that after the choir had summoned the Divine Lord, everyone’s mood and attitude had become a bit strange.
Compared to the dazzling Angel City in the sky, Hope City’s soldiers were much plainer and simpler. They had a very strong fondness for the land, and astonishingly, they were truly manipulating the earth itself. What everyone saw next were explosions.
Countless explosions. There was barely any sound, utterly silent, yet everyone could see that the land itself seemed to be exploding from within. After that, Yuan Zhiran casually handed a small wooden ball to one of the high-ranking officials from a mobile city, telling him to throw the ball into the soil.
Everyone could see that the wooden ball in the official’s hand looked so light, as if it posed no threat at all. But the moment it landed on the soil, it slowly sank in.
He Fang: “…”
Everyone: “…”
He Fang couldn’t help but secretly give Zhu Yan a look: “This… what principle is this? How did it just sink in like that?”
“We’re up high, so the ground looks like normal ground to us, but in reality, it’s completely disrupted. They changed the soil’s composition,” Zhu Yan explained.
“Is that even possible?” He Fang almost couldn’t keep his voice down.
“It is.” Zhu Yan, however, sounded perfectly calm, as if he didn’t care at all. “It’s just the effect of a weapon, really. It’s a chance for Hope City to show itself. Hope City’s combat power is too low, and it doesn’t have any particular traits. Plus, Bei Ji’s management was terrible before. And before Arrival City arrived, they mostly managed women, so they usually didn’t have any proper training. Even though they want to make some achievements, unfortunately, their talent doesn’t lie in this.”
He Fang thought about it carefully and felt that Zhu Yan’s idea was right. Hope City’s true talent lies in construction.
This vast city had all been built by Hope City itself. Even the remodeling of Angel City had all been carried out by Hope City’s skilled workers.
“So I gave them these,” Zhu Yan said casually, glancing at the people around them. “At the very least, it’s enough to fool people.”
He Fang blinked, suddenly realizing something. He looked at Zhu Yan in surprise.
Zhu Yan’s nature was such that he would never help anyone lightly. Yet now he was helping Hope City and Angel City.
All of a sudden, He Fang’s heart softened a lot.
Maybe his main city’s NPCs each looked cold and unfeeling on the surface, but in truth, that wasn’t the case at all.
His NPCs were also, in their own ways, trying hard to blend into the big family he had built and cared for.
Maybe this military parade was their way of wanting him to see how much they had improved.
His main city’s NPCs, his wild NPCs—they were all becoming more and more considerate.
He Fang’s lips curved into a small smile.
Parades were wonderful. He would definitely hold more in the future.
“Because Hope City hasn’t had any contact with mobile cities from the outside world for years, we really hoped to have a chance to see the strength of other nations. This is just a small demonstration, so we’re not sure if our capabilities will make people underestimate us.” At this moment, Yuan Zhiran’s words made everyone around them fall silent.
Up to now, what they had already seen was enough to leave them shocked. Angel City, with its airborne soldiers, clearly had formidable offensive power. And Hope City’s display of being able to alter the soil’s properties made them deeply wary as well.
After all, for a massive mobile city to keep moving, it ultimately has to rely on the ground beneath it. If the ground were to change to the point that even a wooden ball would sink, then the entire mobile city could unknowingly be buried right where it stood. Just thinking about that was terrifying.
Moreover, the current peace treaty clearly states that aerial weapons are not allowed. Due to the unique nature of Nightmare Beast Seeds, any aerial weapons could give those seeds an opening. But for Hope City, known as the city that “cannot be parasitized by Nightmare Beast Seeds and turned into Nightmare Beasts”, they could even ignore the peace treaty altogether.
At least Hope City and Angel City had signed the peace treaty. But that Mirage, which had emerged out of nowhere, had no connection whatsoever with any mobile city in this world. They had never signed any agreements. So why should Mirage be obligated to restrain itself?
However, right now, there was still one thing that was hard to define: the mechs.
Ao City’s mechs were powerful, and it was said that Mirage had destroyed them easily. But no one had ever actually witnessed a real mech being destroyed.
So, if all the mobile cities joined forces and fought together using mechs, putting full pressure on Mirage from all sides, could there still be a chance?
Zhu Yan looked at the crowd, each person wearing a different expression, his cool and aloof face full of undisguised disdain for them all. His eyes seemed to pierce straight into everyone’s hearts, though he narrowed them slightly to hide it. He showed no dissatisfaction. Perhaps because he could already foresee exactly what would happen next.
“Dear leaders of our mobile cities,” Yuan Zhiran said, his voice full of persuasion, “I believe this parade might not have fully satisfied everyone. So our main city—that is, the city everyone calls Mirage—will present to you all a flawless parade feast.”
Yuan Zhiran’s stirring words made everyone turn to look at him. Dressed in a black military uniform, his devastatingly flawless face drew every gaze to him, yet his smile alone was enough to make chills run down people’s spines.
He Fang blinked slightly, too. He was also a bit curious, because the final main city parade program hadn’t gone through his own hands at all.
Yuan Zhiran had already talked with him in advance, saying that since He Fang’s understanding of combat capability wasn’t as thorough as Chong Xiao’s and Chong Ying’s, it would be better to just hand everything over to them. Although they called it a parade, in reality, it was a show of the main city’s power. So in the truest sense, all they needed to do was be strong enough.
“Then, the main city—Mirage’s parade—starts now.”
He Fang blinked. He saw the two people beside him move, Chong Xiao and Chong Ying.
What’s happening? He Fang felt a bit lost. Were they really about to unleash his two strongest soldiers right here?
In that moment, He Fang suddenly understood why Xiao Qing had been specifically brought here. It really wasn’t just for show, but for defense. If Chong Xiao and Chong Ying really started fighting, then that was already on a level no ordinary person could withstand. He Fang still remembered that back then, Chong Xiao alone could easily fight his Xiao Hong one-on-one.
Those two shadows slowly moved away from the tortoise-shaped mech. In everyone’s view, they could see two black silhouettes. Probably to make them stand out more, their military uniforms looked especially ornate today.
“Are they going to brawl with each other?” He Fang thought of this pair of brothers’ nature and felt that the possibility was very likely. But if Chong Xiao and Chong Ying fought each other, it felt like Chong Xiao would win, since they were so close to each other right now.
“Of course not,” Zhu Yan laughed beside him. “Actually, I’ve always wanted to see—just where exactly is Chong Ying, as a weapons researcher, stronger than me?”
![The Way of the Empress [Interstellar]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-04-at-8.01.00-PM.png "The Way of the Empress [Interstellar]")
