Chapter 66: Two Cities Submit

Chapter 66: Two Cities Surrender

Meanwhile.

Following Yan Wanqiu's plan, Xie Chi feigned unconsciousness and was taken straight to the prison in Xiansong City.

Once the footsteps had died away completely, Xie Chi, eyes still closed, shifted his gaze slightly and activated the terminal, which had transformed into an earring on his ear.

He used the terminal's light screen to scan his surroundings. After the AI confirmed "no one around," Xie Chi slowly opened his eyes.

He was in an enclosed silver space.

Xiansong City had clearly taken precautions against him—not only had they injected him with sedatives, but they had also confiscated his neural device. His hands and feet were restrained with electronic shackles, and an electronic collar was placed around his neck. The moment Xie Chi looked at it, the terminal detected a bomb and issued an alert.

But no one expected that Xie Chi had already swished a mouthful of repair fluid in his mouth beforehand, so the sedatives had no effect on him. Moreover, the two earrings hidden under his black hair were advanced tech that this era's instruments couldn't even detect.

Xie Chi stopped mid-movement, suddenly remembering something, and looked down at the ring finger of his right hand.

His face immediately darkened.

They'd even taken the ring his wife gave him.

Xie Chi stared at his empty right hand for a long moment, then let out a cold laugh, his eyes filled with pure murderous rage.

He mentally controlled the terminal's light screen, hacked into Xiansong City's network, and activated the plugin Shi Peijue had given him, overwriting the prison's surveillance feed.

Then, Xie Chi stored the handcuffs, foot shackles, and collar bomb into his storage space.

Free at last, he stood up, stretched his wrists, and then explored his cell.

The cell seemed to have some kind of hidden mechanism—Xie Chi searched around but found no trace of a door.

He thought for a moment, pulled out a quantum gun from his storage space, and fired a shot at random.

The quantum gun's beam hit the wall without a sound, and a large hole silently opened up in the wall.

Xie Chi stepped through the hole, gun in hand.

.

At the border.

"General! Xiansong City has been reinforced again! Twenty thousand more troops—we can't hold!"

The moment Xie Chi was taken away, Xiansong City launched a fierce counterattack.

Countless reinforcements appeared out of nowhere—this was no longer the small-scale skirmishes of a few hundred or thousand troops from the past month. Tens of thousands attacked with full force, and the caught off guard Baoxue City soldiers were pushed back.

"Fall back for now—His Majesty will be here soon!" Yure said with a worried expression. "This is my fault. I failed to notice that Xiansong City had gathered so many troops over the past few days."

Someone immediately spoke up: "General, this isn't your fault. It's clearly Xiansong City cornered and lashing out after Xie Chi was exposed!"

The troops fell back behind the border wall, and what they saw only reinforced their belief in Xie Chi's betrayal.

A slight smile curled Yure's lips.

This was all part of Lord Bai's plan.

With Xie Chi always at Yan Wanqiu's side, quickly managing his disorder flare-ups, capturing Yan Wanqiu would have been nearly impossible.

But by driving a wedge between the two early on, getting Yan Wanqiu to fully believe in Xie Chi's "betrayal," things became much easier.

With Xie Chi now branded a traitor, even if he didn't lose heart, he wouldn't risk his life for Yan Wanqiu anymore. And Yan Wanqiu, in the throes of Pheromone Dysregulation Syndrome, was like a ticking time bomb that couldn't tell friend from enemy.

As long as he stayed by Yan Wanqiu's side, coordinating with Bai Fengyun from within, he could use high-intensity combat to wear Yan Wanqiu down. Without Xie Chi's help, Yan Wanqiu would be no better than a madman.

Over the past few days, Xiansong City had bought more than twice as many weapons as Baoxue City. In a straight-up firefight, they had the absolute advantage.

As Yure pondered, the battle raged outside the city. The ground was blasted open, snow exploding and flying everywhere.

Neither side had deployed mechs or aircraft yet, so frontline casualties were relatively light. In fact, under Yure's orders, they had narrowly avoided several deadly strikes, making it look like a genuine back-and-forth.

Yure's eyes darkened. Following the plan he'd made with Bai Fengyun, he ordered: "Everyone back into the city—preserve our strength!"

They couldn't afford heavy casualties. If Yan Wanqiu thought the frontline was too dire, he might commit all his forces and throw a wrench in the plan.

They also needed to clear space for the mechs Xiansong City had secretly moved to the front lines.

Baoxue City's soldiers obeyed, rapidly pulling back their battle line and retreating into the city. Xiansong City matched by easing off their firepower—aside from token siege attempts, they just surrounded the perimeter, as if waiting for something.

After an hour of standoff.

Several aircraft appeared overhead, and ground reinforcements finally arrived, bringing dozens of standard mechs and battle cruisers with them.

The aircraft touched down under artillery fire, and Yan Wanqiu stepped out in his military uniform, expression cold as ice.

"Your Majesty!" Yure, seeing that Yan Wanqiu indeed hadn't brought many mechs, breathed a sigh of relief and immediately stepped forward to report. "Xie Chi has defected, and Xiansong City suddenly brought in a massive wave of reinforcements. We—"

"I know." Yan Wanqiu cut him off tersely. "I'll take over command of the front line from here. You can step back."

Yure was stunned.

This wasn't the plan.

Shouldn't he be stepping into Xie Chi's shoes after the defection?

Now Yan Wanqiu was directly telling him to step back. Without command authority, how was he supposed to play his part with Bai Fengyun?

When Yure didn't answer, Yan Wanqiu shot him a cold look. "Something else?"

His eyes were bloodshot, and Yure flinched under that stare, shaking his head on instinct. "No, nothing at all."

Yan Wanqiu looked away, ignoring him, and gave clipped orders: "Evacuate all wounded from the border to the rear. Everyone, get ready to leave the city and engage the enemy."

The troops moved quickly. As Yure was about to follow suit, he saw a military doctor with fox-like eyes hurrying toward him.

"General Yure, you're injured as well. His Majesty is handling things here—let me take you to the rear to treat your wounds."

Yure did have a few scrapes and bruises from selling the act. Reluctant but not daring to blow his cover in front of Yan Wanqiu, he agreed and followed the doctor to the rear.

At that moment, with thousands surrounding the city, Baoxue City's gates swung open.

Several battle cruisers screamed overhead, dropping bombs furiously, blasting a hole in the encirclement before peeling off. Baoxue City's ground armor took the opportunity to break through.

After days of training, Baoxue City had picked out a number of militia members with a knack for piloting mechs. They were the ones manning the armor, charging forward like a force of nature.

The ground forces launched a swift counterattack as well. Given Baoxue City's limited size, even going all out, Yan Wanqiu had only managed to bring ten thousand troops. But with quantum artillery laying down suppressive fire and the element of surprise, they managed to tear a gap in the encirclement.

Yan Wanqiu stayed in Baoxue City himself, using the terminal to pilot the micro-drones Xie Chi had given him and keep an eye on the battle.

Previously, he used to recklessly jump into mechs because he didn't know he was pregnant, habitually leading from the front. Now that he knew, there was no way he'd risk his own life—or the lives of his two children.

Yure was getting his wounds treated in the rear when he learned that Yan Wanqiu had unexpectedly taken a position in the rear rather than going to the front lines. He paced around in a panic.

He immediately wanted to send a message to Bai Fengyun, but with people coming and going and a doctor still patching him up, he couldn't find an opportunity.

"General, please don't move." You Fuzhu said with a smile, looking good-natured as he firmly held down Yure, who had tried to get up several times. "I'm not done treating your wounds yet."

Yure was stunned, never expecting a military doctor to be able to hold him down.

Before he could even process what was happening, his vision went dark, and he completely lost consciousness.

You Fuzhu immediately released him and wiped his hands.

The sedative mixed into the medicine took thirty extra seconds to kick in—Yure had almost slipped away.

A gentle smile spread across his face as he waved over two nurses: "General Yure is too exhausted and just fainted. Could you help me carry him to the aircraft? I'll take him back to camp first."

Doctor Fu Zhu had built quite a reputation in the camp lately, so the two nurses didn't think twice. They quickly hoisted Yure onto a stretcher, loaded him into the aircraft, and took off.

You Fuzhu climbed into the aircraft after them.

He reached over and yanked off Yure's smart device, then flew the aircraft himself to haul Yure back to camp.

You Fuzhu had only just found out about Yan Wanqiu's plan and couldn't help but click his tongue and shake his head: "You know, with all the things you could've done, you just had to go and pick a fight with Yan Wanqiu."

"...Your Majesty, are you sure you want to throw away the chance for peace talks and fight me to the bitter end?"

At the front, after the Blizzard City soldiers broke out of the encirclement, Bai Fengyun, who'd been lurking behind the main force, finally made his move, sending an invitation for peace talks to Yan Wanqiu. He was now on the holo-screen, putting on his most earnest face to persuade him.

Yan Wanqiu sneered: "City Lord Bai, peace talks need to come with some good faith. I don't see your twenty thousand troops pulling back an inch—that doesn't exactly scream sincerity, does it?"

Bai Fengyun didn't even flinch at being called out and smiled helplessly: "Since Your Majesty doesn't want to talk, I guess I'll just have to keep fighting. That deputy city lord of yours has sold us every last bit of your intel."

Yan Wanqiu kept his face completely blank: "Oh? So how much did you shell out for him?"

Bai Fengyun choked on his words.

He shot back quickly: "Your Majesty, sometimes loyalty isn't something money can buy. Who'd want to serve a tyrant like you?"

Yan Wanqiu raised an eyebrow: "So you didn't even pay up?"

Bai Fengyun: "..."

Bai Fengyun barely kept his smile from cracking: "It seems Your Majesty doesn't want to talk with us. I'm afraid I'll have to get rough."

The moment he finished speaking, a stir rippled through the two armies.

Behind the Xiansong City soldiers, over a hundred mechs slowly emerged onto the battlefield, rolling up to the front lines. Swarms of battle cruisers skimmed low over the ground before climbing into the air with a deep, heavy hum.

The whole ground seemed to shake, and human bodies looked utterly puny next to these war machines.

Yan Wanqiu's face flickered slightly at the sight of the massive mech formation.

Bai Fengyun caught the flicker and grinned: "Your Majesty was way too careless—didn't even notice all these mechs being moved to the border."

Yan Wanqiu immediately ordered his soldiers to shift formation, ready to fall back at any second.

Bai Fengyun's mech cannons locked onto the retreating soldiers: "Don't move, or I can't promise what happens next."

Yan Wanqiu pressed his lips together and shot one more glance toward the back of Bai Fengyun's mech army.

He could totally reveal his mech divisions right now, but his soldiers were still on the field. Flesh and blood caught between mechs and battle cruisers would just get blown to ash.

It had already been two hours—where the hell was Xie Chi?

The mechs inched forward, and the Blizzard City army inched back.

Just as the mech formation was about to strike, Yan Wanqiu opened his mouth to give the order.

Just then, a clear, young voice rang out from behind the battlefield.

"Don't move, or I can't promise what happens next."

Everyone whipped around and froze.

On Bai Fengyun's holo-screen, two figures had appeared in the distance.

It was Xie Chi, holding a young man who looked seventy percent like Bai Fengyun.

Bai Fengyun's pupils shrank to pinpricks: "Bai Yang?!?"

The crowd couldn't help but whisper among themselves.

"Xie Chi? Didn't he defect?"

"Could this be a double agent?"

"What about Yure..."

Xie Chi's black hair was a mess, his breathing a little ragged, his face cold. One wrist was cuffed to Bai Yang's, the other hand pressing a quantum gun to Bai Yang's temple.

The bomb collar that had been around his neck was now on Bai Yang's head, and Bai Yang himself had his eyes tightly shut, seemingly unconscious.

Bai Fengyun snapped into action, frantically ordering all mechs to halt, then glared at Yan Wanqiu in fury: "You despicable—!"

"Likewise. I was just turning your scheme against you—still far behind you, City Lord Bai." Yan Wanqiu's face remained calm, but his gaze stayed fixed on Xie Chi, whose expression seemed off.

At this point, what more did Bai Fengyun need to understand?

Yure had likely been exposed long before they even knew it. Their entire plan had been unfolding right under Yan Wanqiu's nose!

Xie Chi advanced step by step, holding Bai Yang hostage, and the soldiers and mechs parted to make way.

Bai Fengyun gritted his teeth: "What do you want to let my son go?"

Yan Wanqiu said unhurriedly: "That depends on when City Lord Bai is willing to surrender."

Bai Fengyun refused outright: "Impossible!"

Having come this far against Blizzard City, surrender meant submission, and after submission, how could he and Bai Yang possibly have a good outcome?

Yan Wanqiu let out a soft sigh and said: "Then there's nothing to be done."

As he spoke, the ordinary soldiers of Blizzard City had already quickly retreated into the city under the cover of Xie Chi holding the hostage, and even Xie Chi himself had entered the city with Bai Yang.

Bai Fengyun watched Bai Yang getting farther and farther away, his eyes nearly splitting with rage: "Yan Wanqiu, if you dare harm him, I will be at war with you for the rest of my life!"

Xie Chi, who had been busy all afternoon, curled his lips at this.

He was overthinking it—there was no way Yan Wanqiu would let a high-quality labor resource like him die so easily.

Strictly speaking, he was the one among those present who most wished for Bai Fengyun's death—pure misdirected anger.

Xie Chi had searched all over Xiansong City earlier and still couldn't find the ring his wife had given him. If it weren't for the mission assigned by Yan Wanqiu, the need to keep the bigger picture in mind, and his intention to personally interrogate Bai Fengyun about the ring's whereabouts, he would never have settled for just taking Bai Yang hostage—he'd have already gone on a killing spree in Xiansong City.

Xie Chi was in a foul mood, his face dark, his movements rough. After returning to the city, he dumped Bai Yang on the ground, tied him up, and stood off to the side sulking.

Yan Wanqiu shot him another glance.

What's wrong with Xie Chi?

Was he upset about being put in a tough spot? Or had someone in Xiansong City messed with him?

For now, the priority was to bring Xiansong City to heel. If Xie Chi had a problem, he'd go smooth things over with him; if Xiansong City was the problem, he'd have Bai Fengyun and his whole family dragged over to kneel and apologize to Xie Chi.

This train of thought flashed through his mind in half a second.

With no ordinary soldiers to restrain him, Yan Wanqiu no longer had any qualms with Bai Fengyun. He sneered, "Since you want a fight, I'll give you one."

The moment he spoke, over a hundred mechs surrounded them from all directions under Bai Fengyun's stunned gaze.

These were mech units that had silently crept up to the rear.

These mechs were the new-generation armor modified by Shi Peijue. Compared to the concept machines shown earlier, they stood a full half-meter taller, with cannon barrels a size bigger, and moved faster across the snow—yet utterly silent.

Appearing on the snowfield, they looked like massive black phantoms, and Bai Fengyun's armored units seemed like toy cars in comparison.

Bai Fengyun was utterly shocked: "Wasn't what you showed back then just a model?!"

Yan Wanqiu said calmly, "It was at the time, but not anymore. I have you and Yure to thank for that little duet you two put on—it bought me a whole month."

As he finished speaking, the muzzles of Blizzard City's new mechs glowed blue, and quantum cannons mercilessly bombarded the enemy armor.

At the same time, over a hundred battle cruisers lifted off from Blizzard City, engaging Xiansong City's cruisers in aerial combat.

Shi Peijue's drones were still in development, and Blizzard City's battle cruisers, like Xiansong City's, had been bought from Shuofeng City. But the ground armored forces were steamrolling everything in their path, even having enough spare firepower to strike at the air, and the previously stalemated battle quickly tilted in Blizzard City's favor.

This was a war of overwhelming superiority.

After dragging on for over a month, it ended completely within a single hour. Half of Xiansong City's armor was destroyed, and spies from other cities watching from the shadows quickly relayed the news, shaking the entire Northern Domain Star once again because of Yan Wanqiu.

After his capture, Bai Fengyun's face was ashen.

He couldn't walk well and was wheeled all the way to Blizzard City's camp by Yan Wanqiu's men. Bai Yang had woken up by then as well, eyes red and eating candy.

—After waking up, he'd been so scared he'd burst into loud sobs. Xie Chi found him annoying and simply shoved a lollipop in his mouth to shut him up.

Bai Fengyun looked at Yan Wanqiu, whose sleeves weren't even dirty, and said calmly, "I'll accept whatever punishment you see fit, but Bai Yang is innocent. His mind has been stuck at age five his whole life. Your Majesty, all of Xiansong City is already yours. I beg you to spare Bai Yang's life."

Yan Wanqiu said indifferently, "Death would be too easy for you. In a while, when you meet up with David and the others, you can all discuss how to surrender."

"What?" Bai Fengyun was startled.

Yan Wanqiu chuckled lightly: "I put up with you all for over a month. This time I mobilized the entire city's forces—you don't think I did it just for Xiansong City, do you? You're not worth that much trouble."

"But Shuofeng City is far away, and lately with the weapon trade..." Bai Fengyun instinctively started to argue, then stopped mid-sentence as realization dawned, staring at Yan Wanqiu like he was some kind of monster.

Yan Wanqiu had been laying his plans since before he'd even taken Ice Cold City—what kind of scheming and foresight was that?

Yan Wanqiu gave a slight nod, noncommittal.

Xie Chi, still scowling, couldn't help shooting Yan Wanqiu a curious glance.

Yan Wanqiu had only told him about infiltrating Xiansong City to kidnap Bai Yang—he hadn't mentioned that Shuofeng City would also be taken. When had he planned this?

As the three of them talked, Yan Wanqiu's army had already turned sharply north, heading straight for Shuofeng City at the northernmost tip.

The other cities barely had time to process that Yan Wanqiu truly possessed such terrifying weaponry before they saw Blizzard City's army surging forth in full force, charging straight at Shuofeng City.

Panic erupted in Shuofeng City.

David was utterly shocked, never imagining that the man he'd been watching from the sidelines just two hours ago would become his next target. He immediately ordered: "Blizzard City's army is exhausted from marching, and even at full speed, they'll need five hours to get here. Don't panic—if we prepare to meet them now, we still have a chance to win!"

Steward Silas went pale: "Lord, we do have weapons to fight with, but every industry has been shut down, all diverted to weapon production. Once war breaks out, within three days, the entire city will run out of water, food, and electricity."

David was furious: "How is that possible? All the factories have stopped?!"

A crowd of people knelt trembling below, all with mournful faces, not daring to say a word.

Now the entire Northern Domain Star was buying weapons from them. Shuofeng City had thrown itself fully into weapons production, on a military manufacturing scale unprecedented in its history.

At first, Shuofeng City had kept essential industries running. But as tensions between Blizzard City and Xiansong City escalated over the past month, they'd assumed they could watch the tigers fight from a safe distance, and their grip gradually loosened.

An enormous market, endless orders—as long as they produced, they'd rake in untold wealth. Who could resist that kind of temptation?

Even if they tried to regulate, they couldn't control ordinary citizens who abandoned basic industries to chase profits.

Besides, food could be imported from Xiansong City and Ice Cold City, and energy was supplied through trade with Blizzard City—they'd never run short of food or energy.

But Yan Wanqiu had struck unexpectedly, ending the war in a way no one could have predicted, and without even catching his breath, he was charging straight at them!

Xiansong City had already submitted, and Blizzard City and Ice Cold City would never export food to them again. The two neutral cities naturally wouldn't stick their necks out at a time like this.

By greedily chasing short-term gains, they had cut off their own lifeline.

David looked at the crowd, smashed a cup in a rage, and turned to storm out.

"Are we still fighting?" Silas hurried after him.

"Fight my ass!" David cursed in rage. "No food, only weapons—are we supposed to survive by chewing on mechs? I'm going to go write the surrender letter right now!"

David stormed off in a huff, though he didn't blame any of his subordinates.

By now, he understood that the current situation had been sealed from the very start, when Yan Wanqiu first proposed the ice rock ore trade to him.

It was an unsolvable, transparent scheme.

While their eyes were still fixed on internal squabbles, Yan Wanqiu had already leapt miles ahead.

Through trade, Yan Wanqiu had gradually inflated military prices, used war to plunge the entire Northern Domain Star into an arms-hoarding panic, and turned the star's liquid capital into his weapon to cut Shuofeng City off at the knees.

Even if he'd realized it from the start and cracked down hard, he couldn't have stopped the masses from abandoning basic industries under the flood of orders from across the star.

Human nature chases profit—what Yan Wanqiu had seized was the hearts of the people.

The Northern Domain Star had always been short on basic supplies, especially during the freeze period. Those two months had been more than enough to completely hollow out a city's foundation.

And in the process, Yan Wanqiu had not only obtained the minerals he needed for development but also used the weapon purchases to project an image of weakness, allowing him to capture Bai Fengyun in one fell swoop.

With the two largest cities submitting, only the two neutral cities—Eternal Frost City and Glacier City—remained on the Northern Domain Star.

Glacier City's previous lord had his head chopped off by Xie Chi, and the city's residents, grateful for Xie Chi's opening of the granaries, both feared and favored Blizzard City. Eternal Frost City, a standard weathervane, would likely surrender immediately once it saw which way the wind was blowing.

Looking back now, the entire Northern Domain Star was already within Yan Wanqiu's grasp.

Two wars—one blazing with gunfire, one silent and unseen—and Yan Wanqiu had won both at minimal cost.

A man like this was truly terrifying.