For someone like Manyuin Hurst, any insults, torture, or even capital punishment would be ineffective.
He firmly believed he was walking on the correct path, sacrificing some people in exchange for the greater interests of humanity as a collective. Regardless of whether he had a conscience, felt guilty, or could experience pain, he would not change his decision.
Therefore, after hearing Manyuin Hurst say Yun Xunlan was in danger, Yu Chen immediately stood up to rush to the space station, no longer staying here to waste words with Manyuin Hurst.
But Yun Xunguang said: “No need to go.”
Yu Chen had always obeyed orders, but this time, he didn’t stop at Yun Xunguang’s command: “Crown Princess, I am the Third Prince’s guard.”
“I know, but it’s rare to have so many 3S mechas for him to test…” Yun Xunguang thought for a few seconds. “You can go, but don’t rashly provide support. Observe first.”
—Test?
Yu Chen noticed this word in Yun Xunguang’s speech. He thought Yun Xunguang meant: 3S mechas were few in number and almost all served on border battlefields. There were no 3S mecha models on mecha combat platforms either. However, since the Corona Empire was going to attack Yaoguang Fifth Space Station this time, there must be quite a few 3S mechas sent along with the repair ships—a rare combat opportunity, which was why she wanted him to observe.
But Yu Chen remembered Yun Xunlan’s condition after his last mecha piloting, so he didn’t understand why Yun Xunguang, who always cared most about Yun Xunlan’s safety, could be so calm now: “His body isn’t suitable for piloting mechas anymore.”
“His way of piloting mechas is different from ours.” Yun Xunguang remained calm and composed. “Yaoguang Fifth Space Station’s protective force field barrier can withstand three main warship-level planet-killer cannon impacts. Even if the Corona Empire’s three transport repair ships use planet-killer cannons, they would need half an hour to break through Yaoguang Fifth Space Station’s protective force field barrier.”
Yun Xunguang felt she had explained clearly enough, but Yu Chen still couldn’t understand: “Even if he pilots mechas with mental power, there are still distance limitations. Could the Third Prince continue piloting mechas even after they leave the space station?”
“Ah? So he hasn’t told you yet.” Yun Xunguang also feigned surprise with an “oh,” then said sarcastically: “It seems you two aren’t very familiar with each other. Then you don’t need to consider marriage for now. Spend more time getting to know each other. Otherwise, if you casually get married and then discover you’re incompatible, what would you do?”
—Yun Xunguang still held a grudge about Yu Chen using her brother.
Yu Chen: “…”
After giving Yu Chen a thorough scolding, the anger in Yun Xunguang’s heart subsided a bit, and she was willing to mercifully explain to Yu Chen: “If they don’t use planet-killer cannons to attack the space station, Lanlan should be willing to play with them for a while.”
“But activating planet-killer cannons means declaring war, so there’s no need to show mercy anymore.”
“Lanlan’s mental power is very high. In this world, no one’s mental power would be higher than his.” Yun Xunguang, far away on the border battlefield, stood up and glanced out the porthole.
Looking at all the cosmic life forms she could see, in this world, probably only the brood mother’s mental power could surpass Yun Xunlan’s.
The brood mother’s mental power could span millions of light-years to control all insects that submitted to Her. Such terrifying influence was why the royal medical team suspected Yun Xunlan’s abnormally vast mental power was a mutation caused by insect venom. After all, when he was fifteen, Yun Xunlan’s mental power could completely cover the entire Imperial Star.
But that still wasn’t his limit.
As for where the limit was, even Yun Xunlan himself didn’t know. He could only try bit by bit.
Unfortunately, the experimental subjects the Corona Empire could provide seemed insufficient.
Currently, only Kos Telo had deployed a 3S mecha. Yun Xunlan couldn’t help but ask: “Do you only have one 3S mecha? We have two here.”
The Fifth Space Station’s escort mecha group had two 3S mechas—one was Yun Xunlan’s, and the other belonged to the space station’s defense fleet captain. Among them, Jian Xing Chen was a sitting duck in the mecha group. Even though there was more than one 3S mecha protecting Yaoguang Fifth Space Station, Jian Xing Chen’s damaged and unrepaired body made it particularly conspicuous.
Yet Yun Xunlan seemed to think it wasn’t eye-catching enough. Wanting to make himself the target of concentrated fire from all mechas, he said to Kos Telo: “You can deploy your other 3S mechas together too. Low resonance rates don’t matter—use them to make up the numbers. At least they can bluff people.”
No alpha could tolerate such provocation. Higher-level alphas with stronger self-control might still be willing to endure humiliation, but even 3S-level Kos Telo was furious and burning with rage. Other alphas of lower levels would rather die than lose face.
Moreover, His Majesty the Emperor had already ordered them to capture Yun Xunlan alive at all costs, so Kos Telo wouldn’t stop.
The reason they only deployed one 3S mecha was simple—if the mecha pilot’s resonance with the mecha couldn’t keep up, it was better to downgrade and use 2S mechas that could achieve perfect resonance.
However, what the Corona Empire couldn’t keep up with wasn’t just the resonance between mecha pilots and mechas, but also the long-range attacks from warship planet-killer cannons that needed to coordinate with simultaneous mecha group strikes. Lydon refused to execute Kos Telo’s orders and wouldn’t obey the emperor’s commands either. While Kos Telo led the mecha group in solo combat at the front, Lydon’s starship in the rear had already begun preparing to retreat—a blatant act of betrayal.
Such internal discord was extremely fatal in warfare. Yet Yaoguang Fifth Space Station also seemed to have internal disagreements. Apart from activating defensive force fields and deploying mecha groups, they took no counterattack measures. At first glance, both sides looked like they were conducting simulated mecha group battles on a combat platform.
The result was that the Corona Empire fleet’s deployed mecha group was exactly twice the size of Yaoguang Fifth Space Station’s, with more 2S mecha groups as well. Despite such a power disparity, both sides fought evenly matched, with only Yun Xunlan at a disadvantage.
Kos Telo originally thought that no matter how rich his combat experience, piloting a 3S mecha would always have delays. Fighting against Yun Xunlan’s perfect resonance, he couldn’t gain the upper hand. Therefore, he never intended to fight Yun Xunlan one-on-one, instead gathering ten 2S mechas to cooperate in besieging Jian Xing Chen.
Unexpectedly, Kos Telo overestimated Yun Xunlan. This prince who grew up pampered in the royal family had no real combat experience. He failed to dodge many attacks and took them head-on. If not for the 3S mecha’s strong defensive armor and Kos Telo showing mercy due to the emperor’s capture order, Yun Xunlan would have been destroyed along with Jian Xing Chen long ago.
Kos Telo snorted derisively and sent a communication request to Jian Xing Chen.
Once connected, he sneered: “Third Prince, 3S mechas have no escape devices. For your safety, stop making futile struggles. I don’t want to accidentally kill you.”
“Indeed, 3S mechas have no escape devices.” The young man’s slightly hoarse voice was also tinged with laughter, his tone mocking: “Kos Telo, I don’t want to kill you either. Captain Lydon made the right choice. Why don’t you listen to him and follow him?”
“Him, a beta! I should listen to him?! I’m the captain!”
Usually, Lydon spoke softly and submissively, coaxing Kos Telo before he would listen. Now that they had fallen out, and Lydon had actually commanded a starship to retreat in front of the Galactic Empire, it was like throwing Kos Telo to the ground and stepping on him. It would be merciful if Kos Telo didn’t kill Lydon—how could he retreat with him?
To save face and prove his authority in the fleet, Kos Telo immediately ordered the remaining two warships to activate their planet-killer cannons and attack Yaoguang Fifth Space Station’s defensive shield.
Although Yun Xunlan couldn’t hear Kos Telo’s orders, he could see the Corona Empire warships’ planet-killer cannons gathering and charging their beams.
Seeing this, Yun Xunlan sighed. He lowered his lashes, tilted his head, and bent slightly to ask the brown-haired omega sitting in the space station’s command chair beside his right hand: “Captain Xia, do you have cigarettes?”
“No… no… Third Prince, I don’t smoke.” The omega Yun Xunlan addressed looked up at him and shook his head.
“Your Highness, I have some! I have some!”
Vice Captain Han Xing pulled out a cigarette pack from his pocket, handed it to Yun Xunlan, and lit one for him.
The handsome alpha held the cigarette between his fingers with one hand while using the other to brush his fallen silver hair behind his ear, curving his eyes in a gentle smile at Han Xing: “Thanks, Vice Captain Han.”
“I also want to smoke one to clear my head.” Gui Yan glanced at the Third Prince’s face hidden in wisps of smoke, then at Jian Xing Chen confronting Kos Telo outside the porthole, and couldn’t help whispering to Fu Yanxi.
Fu Yanxi stared straight ahead, but if you looked closely, you could see his gaze was unfocused and not very alert. Yet he said to Gui Yan: “Then slap yourself. It’s more effective for clearing your head.”
But Gui Yan didn’t slap himself. Instead, Ji Bai patted Fu Yanxi’s shoulder and, taking advantage of Yu Chen’s absence, secretly badmouthed him: “Brother Fu, no wonder you’re always jealous of Yu Dog.”
“Who wouldn’t be jealous? He really had dog shit luck to be with the Third Prince.” Song Tingqiao also came over, saying wistfully: “We agreed that whoever among us dated someone would be a dog. If I’d known it was dating the Third Prince, I’d be willing to be a dog too.”
His brother Song Tingyan poured cold water on him: “There are so many people wanting to be the Third Prince’s dog. Do you even rank?”
Song Tingqiao looked pained: “Stop talking, or your dear brother is going to cry.”
“The one who should cry most is probably Kos Telo, right?” Lu You raised an eyebrow. “He still thinks the Third Prince is piloting the mecha inside Jian Xing Chen.”
Gui Yan wiped his eyes: “Actually, now that you mention it, I want to cry too—crying from my own incompetence…”
—How could an alpha’s mental power be so terrifying that while staying in the space station’s tower instead of the mecha cockpit, he could still pilot mechas normally?
Yun Xunlan wasn’t just piloting one 3S mecha either. The other 3S mecha belonging to the defense fleet captain was also being piloted by Yun Xunlan. Moreover, the piloting authority for this mecha wasn’t opened by the defense fleet captain to Yun Xunlan—the young man had used mental power to forcibly override the piloting authority and seize control.
Both mechas maintained 100% perfect resonance.
But was this Yun Xunlan’s limit?
**
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
