The conference room erupted with commotion again. However, this time, they all shared the same emotion-anger. Almost all of them wanted to inhibit Ling Lan's rise to the top, but the most they would do to achieve that goal was to just remove some of the merits from the Lingtian Mecha Clan. They had no intention of slandering Ling Lan.
"This is too much! We must punish the offenders severely," an officer sitting in a corner exclaimed angrily.
Everyone nodded their head in agreement to the officer's words. "Yes, we must punish them."
Ling Lan opened her eyes in surprise when she heard someone helping her. She turned her head to look at who was helping her when everyone else ignored her plight.
Her eyes met Mu Chaoran's eyes that were staring directly right into her. He gave an evil smile and moved his lips. He mouthed a sentence silently.'Little Brother Shaoyun, I'll always protect you.' Ling Lan learned to read lips before so she understood what Mu Chaoran was saying.
She frowned slightly in response. She realized that she had made a mistake to retract her aura in front of someone as sensitive as Mu Chaoran.
However, she turned calm quickly. She initially didn't want to continue the relationship with the two of them because the three of them started the relationship with a false identity in the first place. Once the mission ended, everything between them should have ended. There shouldn't be any feelings of camaraderie or friendship because all of them communicated under the disguise of someone. However, she didn't expect that Mu Chaoran and Tang Ningyu would desperately hold onto that fake friendship until now.
Moreover, even if she was recognised now, she would not be burdened as their imaginary relationship with Pei Shaoyun didn't affect her anyway.
After rationalizing everything in her head, Ling Lan turned her gaze away from Mu Chaoran and Tang Ningyu's direction with an ever-unchanging expression.
"It looks like he isn't affected at all," Tang Ningyu commented with pity. He was hoping to see at least a minute reaction from Ling Lan.
"Honestly, if he didn't retract his force of presence just now, I won't believe it even if someone told me that he is the cute and innocent Little Brother Shaoyun. I would have just thought that the guy was making fun of me." Mu Chaoran gave a bitter smile. He couldn't wrap his head around the idea of how an expressionless man such as Ling Lan was able to act as a cute and pure little boy.Shaoyun's smile was bright enough to light up the universe. It was able to invoke happiness within the people around him. His smile was like a special bestowment to the world before him from the angels above. Yet, in actual fact, under that cute and pure persona was a cold and ruthless soldier who could force everyone around him to bow to his will.
These two personalities which were on completely different sides of the spectrum, manifested in the same person. It was inconceivable. Mu Chaoran thought that he was living in a weird world for a second.
Mu Chaoran ignited the rage in everyone's heart. They decided to work together to get rid of the offenders first. No one hoped that while they were fighting for their lives on the battlefield, they still had to guard against their own nation. The act of framing went over their bottomline. Currently, everyone's attention shifted from Ling Lan and the Lingtian Mecha Clan to the person who sent the report and evidence.
Major General Gao mildly coughed out to attract everyone's attention, and the noisy room quickly turned quiet.
"If all of you have no queries about Major General Ling's report, we'll input Major General Ling's report into the mainframe and wait for the mainframe to give him his merit."
To make sure that the merits and rewards were handed out properly and fairly, they were all distributed by the mainframe. This was to prevent innocent people from being snatched of what they deserved.
The officer in the corner shouted again, "I have nothing against it."
"Why would we be against it? Will we frame Major General Ling?" Another voice followed closely.
"Yes, I have nothing against it too."
"Me too."
Not everyone had underlying intentions when attending this conference. There were still some soldiers that maintained their principals in the military. They were triggered when they heard the question so they quickly voiced out their support.
Those people that wanted to stop Ling Lan from climbing up too quickly gave up their initial intention after hearing the questions too.
Were they supposed to frame a man of merits? This was something even they condemned.
When these people gave up making it difficult for Ling Lan, the result was obvious. Even if some people still wanted to suppress her, they had no choice but to follow the majority. They had to follow the crowd and give Ling Lan and her mecha clan the honor they deserved.
Very soon, the mainframe calculated the merits and rewards for each individual in the Lingtian Mecha Clan.
Everyone in the Lingtian Mecha Clan would rise in one rank. Some people who performed outstandingly would rise three ranks (If their initial ranks were not very high to begin with). Some who performed slightly better managed to rise two ranks.
Many veteran mecha operators, who had been stuck as a senior colonel for many years, managed to be promoted to a major general after this battle. Lingtian Mecha Clan couldn't be compared with the other famous legendary mecha clans in many aspects but in terms of the number of major generals, it towered over them.
The military headquarters was dumbfounded when they saw this verdict.
"Is this… alright?" an officer stammered. They knew that the rewards for the battle would be great but they didn't expect it to be so monstrous. The list of more than 40 major generals was enough to shock them.
"Shall we move some major generals out?" Someone suggested.
"But Lingtian is an independent mecha clan. No, it's an independent army now! It will be difficult to move any of them out" Once a mecha clan reached certain criteria, the regiment commander could request for the mecha clan to become an army. There were two requirements to become an independent army. First, there must be more than 15 major generals. Second, the regiment commander must be a lieutenant general.
After the battle, the Lingtian Mecha Clan fulfilled both requirements. Once they finished the registration process, they would be able to become an independent army.
In the history of the Huaxia Federation, no independent mecha clan managed to turn into an independent army within a year.
The independent armies now were formed from the hard work of many generations of soldiers. Of course, most mecha clans would never even fulfill the requirement even after many successive generations of successors. This fact could be further strengthened just by the sheer number of independent mecha clans in the military but with only 26 independent armies on the opposite side.
Lingtian was the only mecha clan in the past 100 years to turn into an independent army. It would be the 27th independent army.
