After returning to Base Nebula, Ling Lan sectioned off her work to the seven people from Lingtian. That night, she stayed in the medical department and announced to everyone that her old injuries have returned once again. The situation was dire and it required her to stay inside for treatment.
This news made many of the regiment commanders, who wanted to find Ling Lan to resolve the military's underlying issues, frustrated.
"That Ling Lan is so sly!" In the living room of a mansion, a major general who had just received the news about Ling Lan's closed-door meditation, angrily smashed his palm onto the coffee table in front of him. He was so frustrated that he couldn't even restrain his power as he instantly destroyed the coffee table in front of him into pieces.
"We are slower by a tiny bit but we are now stuck in the impasse. If Ling Lan doesn't want to see us, we can't do much about it," another major general beside him said calmly.
"When I get out, I will definitely report all those bastards from Lingtian to the military supreme court," said the angry major general."That definitely won't be possible as they still have General Ling Xiao behind them. Unless General Ling Xiao is to fall… But is that possible?" The third major general smiled coldly and responded.
These three individuals were from the three new first-rank five star ace mecha clans that came to Base Nebula.
The angry-looking individual was the regiment commander of Jade Cloud Ace Mecha Clan, Qin Youqi.
The one who seemed to be relatively mild-mannered was Fantasy City Ace Mecha Clan's regiment commander, Wang Shao.
The one with the cold expression and a smirk on his face was the regiment commander of Nine Alliance Ace Mecha Clan, Zhang Haoxun.
"He's after all only just a general. As long as the three marshals work together, he would fall from grace either way." After hearing the question posed by Zhang Haoxun, Major General Qin Youqi stood up and spoke the truth of the matter.
However, the other two major generals weren't moved by his comments."Am I wrong?" Qin Youqi said annoyedly.
"General Ling Xiao is not only just a general. He's also a god-class operator!" explained Wang Shao. "As long as General Ling Xiao doesn't betray our country, no one would be able to bring him down from his position, even if the three marshals banded together."
"Then what does our higher-ups want us to do here?" Qin Youqi sat down with a defeated expression on his face.
"Perhaps they want us to probe Ling Lan's mecha clan. Of course, causing some trouble for Ling Xiao will be good as well," replied Zhang Haoxun.
"Before I came here, I met our chief to inquire about the situation in Base Nebula. Although he didn't clearly say it, he implied that if we can't get Base Nebula under our control, then Lingtian Mecha Clan will be able to successfully advance and become its own army." Wang Shao thought for a moment before deciding to tell them what he knew.
"Independent army!?" Qin Youqi and Zhang Haoxun instantly stood up from their seats. Although they were also sent by their higher-ups, they knew much less information about the undercurrents of the military when compared to Wang Shao.
"The merits Lingtian Mecha Clan has received from the recent battle is enough for them to become an independent army." Major General Wang Shao was quite indifferent in his tone. However, when he found out, he was just as shocked as the two colleagues in front of him.
"No wonder." Zhang Haoxun finally understood why their higher-ups wanted them to come here to fight for the command of the base. The only thing that could stop Lingtian from advancing was a worthless commander. Perhaps their higher-ups didn't even want to stop Lingtian Mecha Clan from advancing, and was planning to instead switch out the regiment commander.
"However, now it seems that we have belittled Lingtian Mecha Clan." Wang Shao sighed.
They originally thought Major General Yang Mingzhi, who was responsible for Lingtian during Ling Lan's absence, was also working under the First Marshal. Even if their movements were discovered, he would just look the other way. However, they didn't expect that Yang Mingzhi wouldn't even give them any face and actually made a move at the most crucial moment.
While being under the impression that Yang Mingzhi was on their side, they were lured by Yang Mingzhi to come to their current location. After they got in, they could no longer leave.
"Frankly, I'm worried about our mecha clans right now. I'm not sure how our subordinates are doing." Zhang Haoxun frowned. They were already stuck there for two days with no way of contacting the outside.
On the day right before they were incarcerated, the capabilities Lingtian Mecha Clan had shown them made them afraid. They originally thought that being domain realm masters, they could easily escape from a bunch of no-named soldiers. However, they didn't account for more than 10 domain realm masters instantly putting them down. Some of them might even have been titled domain realm formidable warriors.
What was more terrifying was they didn't know where the medicinal agent they had injected them came from. Just one injection caused their physical skills to decrease exponentially. They could currently only retain it at the peak of refinement stage, while… any one of the guards outside the door was at Qi-Jin stage. They didn't even have the strength to escape even if they wanted to.
"They won't be in chaos because they've probably been taken down already," said Qin Youqi while biting his lip in frustration. If they dared to use medicinal agents against them, then they probably wouldn't let their team leaders go that easily. If team leaders wouldn't rise up, then the others would also remain calm.
Wang Shao sighed. "I actually admire the person who decided to incarcerate us. That person is quite daring. Once this situation turns into our favour, he would be the first one to be sent out to take responsibility for these actions."
"Isn't that person Yang Mingzhi?" Qin Youqi asked in a confused tone. In his mind, other than Yang Mingzhi, no one else would dare to make a move on them.
"No, with Major General Yang's personality, even if he were to go against us, he would use a moderate means and not such a forceful method," said Wang Shao.
"This person either likes taking risks, or is completely loyal to Ling Lan. He clearly knows he will be the person to take the blame, but is still willing to clear out any obstacles that stand in the way of Ling Lan," Zhang Haoxun spoke his mind.
"I really want to meet this person," Wang Shao said with interest. Compared to Yang Mingzhi, he was more interested in meeting the person that made the decision to put them here. If they wanted to go against Ling Lan, this person would definitely be a huge obstacle for them. Although Wang Shao couldn't do anything about Ling Lan at this current moment, it was still necessary for him to know more about his enemy.
Moving away from the three major generals who were stuck in the villa, their three first-rank five star mecha clans were all being held in their own camping ground. Other than these mecha clans who were under surveillance, most of the other clans were doing what they usually do and weren't affected.
Of course, all the regiment commanders from all the mecha clans were silently waiting to see how Lingtian was going to regain control of the situation.
One week had passed since then. During the past week, more than a dozen spies were cleared out of Base Nebula. This shocked everyone. Piercing Arrow's regiment commander was also among those taken away and a few of the heavenly warriors working under him as well.
After this news was announced, Piercing Arrow Ace Mecha Clan's name became infamous and was looked down by everyone. Zhang Chao also couldn't believe this news. However, the evidence Lingtian had provided could not be disputed. Among the evidence, there was also his little brother, Zhang Han's, testimony.
As for the other spies, although they were all team leaders, they were still not comparable in magnitude like Piercing Arrow Ace Mecha Clan.
While everyone was in shock about Piercing Arrow, Lingtian's seven administrators were having headaches because of one person.
"Ling Yi…" Yang Mingzhi looked at Li Lanfeng with a bitter smile on his face, "You've decided? That's Regiment Commander Ling's… Why don't we wait until Regiment Commander Ling comes out before resolving this issue?"
Qi Long, Han Jijyun, Liu Furong, Lin Zhong-qing and Li Shiyu were all looking at Li Lanfeng. They agreed with Yang Mingzhi's suggestion to wait for Ling Lan to come out before making such a decision.
"If he did something wrong, then he needs to be punished. Our regiment commander wouldn't want us to break the rules just because of his relationship with him," Li Lanfeng said with determination. He didn't want to make it difficult for Ling Lan in dealing with this type of person that would cause headaches for her.
"You're the leader, what you say goes." Yang Mingzhi sighed. Ling Yi was after all a member of Li Lanfeng's team. If a team leader wanted to punish him, no one could stop him anyways.
"However, I suggest you move past Ling Yi and just punish those who hide around him." Yang Mingzhi still gave the suggestion he had in mind. He didn't want Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng to have any grudges between each other because of this issue as that would be detrimental for Lingtian.
It should be known that Ling Yi's father gave his life for Ling Lan (or at least that was what Ling Lan explained as the reason for Ling Hua's death; Ling Yi had been proud of this ever since). Just from this relationship, how could they do anything against Ling Yi? If they were too forceful, it would show that Ling Lan was too harsh towards the son of his loyalist. They wouldn't be able to report it to Ling Lan that easily.
"However, the root of the mistake came from him. If he didn't record that video and give it to our enemies, those people wouldn't have had the chance to make a move." Li Lanfeng narrowed his eyes. He definitely wasn't going to allow someone who was so gullible and easily manipulated to be by Ling Lan's side.
Ever since Ling Lan mentioned that Lingtian would be advancing into an independent army, Li Lanfeng knew that in the future, there will be countless more plots made against Ling Lan. They wouldn't be able to defend against all of them. The more it became like that, the more he couldn't withstand any weaknesses around Ling Lan. Otherwise, if they were not careful, they might get into big trouble.
Ling Lan was the most important person in Li Lanfeng's life. Despite Li Lanfeng being afraid to take the last step forward and drag Ling Lan down into the depths of hell together, he still wouldn't allow anything that could pose as a threat to Ling Lan's body or existence to survive or to at least stay near her. Ling Yi met both of these requirements so he was a troubling individual that Li Lanfeng felt he definitely needed to get rid of.
Thus, even though he knew doing this might cause Ling Lan to be discontent with him, Li Lanfeng would still not care about the consequences and do the dirty work to keep Ling Lan safe from harm's reach.
"You… Why can't you just loosen a bit on this matter?" Li Lanfeng always had many plots against people and never played out everything logically. Yang Mingzhi could not understand why he was so determined on the matter regarding Ling Yi.
"It's called morals," said Li Lanfeng without hesitation.
He won't be explaining his motives for doing this. In truth, waiting for Ling Lan to deal with this matter personally would be a problem. However, he also believed that with Ling Lan's personality, he wouldn't tolerate Ling Yi's actions.
Then, why was he in such a hurry to resolve this matter? There was actually a reason he couldn't tell anyone.
Him telling the others that he was trying to make it easier for Ling Lan was only just what he thought on the surface. In reality, he just didn't want Ling Lan's feeling to get hurt. Giving punishment to the son of his loyalist personally would also hurt Ling Lan's feelings (Li Lanfeng was thinking too much) so he would rather do it for Ling Lan. Ling Lan being angry at him would be better than having her feelings hurt.
All of them saw that Li Lanfeng had made his decision. They could only just helplessly agree with him.
Just like Yang Mingzhi had said, Ling Yi was Li Lanfeng's team member. If the team leader wanted to punish Ling Yi, they wouldn't be able to stop him. The only person who could stop him, Ling Lan, who was already in closed-door meditation.
In order to prove that her meditation was real, Ling Lan didn't meet with anyone this whole time. It was only just that she wasn't meditating for medical treatment, but rather to train her domain concept.
In the next morning, Ling Yi received a notification from the JMCs, telling him to report to his team leader's office because there was a new mission for him.
Ling Yi couldn't understand why he was summoned. It should be known that Li Lanfeng never liked him and would never look for him for anything. Of course, he also didn't like Li Lanfeng too. In his mind, Li Lanfeng's actions were cruel and ruthless. He was a poisonous leech that was in Lingtian Mecha Clan.
Unfortunately, he didn't have power to say otherwise. Li Lanfeng also was quite guarded against him and he couldn't get close to Young Master Lan. Otherwise, he would definitely remind Ling Lan to be careful of Li Lanfeng. He was definitely someone who couldn't be trusted.
However, Ling Yi wasn't afraid. He always did everything to the letter. Even if Li Lanfeng wanted to go against him, he would still have to find a reason first.
In Lingtian, punishing team members didn't just happen with a word from the team leader. There needed to be real evidence. At the same time, there must be five team leaders acting as jury members. Otherwise, the team member could report his team leader instead.
Ling Yi was very grateful towards Young Master Lan for creating this rule at the beginning as this rule stopped Li Lanfeng from making a move on him easily.
Right as he walked into the command center, he met with a first lieutenant who was on guard duty.
"Hello! Are you Senior Captain Ling?" The first lieutenant saluted him and asked him a question.
"Yes!" Ling Yi nodded.
"Colonel Li is currently in the conference room. Please head straight to the conference room." Seeing Ling Yi arrival, the first lieutenant instantly let out a sigh of relief. He had been straining his eyes to look around this area, in fear that he was going to miss Senior Captain Ling.
"I know." Ling Yi frowned, but still replied politely.
He didn't know what Li Lanfeng was planning, but he still turned around and walked towards the conference room according to the directions of the first lieutenant.
The conference room's door opened automatically as he stepped in front of it. The circular conference table had many people sitting around it.
Ling Yi was shocked. Just from one look, he was able to see Major General Yang Mingzhi, Team Leaders Luo Lang, Zhao Jun, Xie Yi and Gu Dongyang.
Li Lanfeng was sitting in the main seat. After hearing the door opening, he turned around. When he saw Ling Yi, his expression remained indifferent as he just pointed at a random seat on the side and said, "Sit, Senior Captain Ling."
"Thank you, team leader!" Ling Yi saluted and then saluted towards the other team leaders. Then, he sat down with his back straight and took off his military cap.
Li Lanfeng continued to speak quietly with the other team leaders while not minding Ling Yi's presence. Despite his curiosity, Ling Yi could still hold it in and didn't move from his seat.
Bam! The door opened once again and a familiar face was brought in while being dragged by soldiers.
Seeing this, Ling Yi's expression changed instantly as he stood up.
"Little Tao, why are you here?"
Tao Xiaotao's face had a hint of panic. After he saw Ling Yi, he began to struggle and shout loudly, "Big brother Yi, save me."
Seeing this, the soldiers holding him down picked up their beam gun and aimed Tao Xiaotao, "Silence."
Ling Yi's eyes had fiery anger in his eyes and shouted angrily, "What are you doing?"
"Silence!" Suddenly, a cold and sharp voice rang in Ling Yi's ears.
Ling Yi turned around and saw Li Lanfeng facing him with a cold expression on his face.
He took two deep breaths and kept in the anger he had. Ling Yi then coldly asked, "What does this mean? What did Tao Xiaotao do? Why is he being treated like this?"
Despite Tao Xiaotao being naughty, lazy and ignorant, he was still a scaredy- cat who wouldn't do anything bad.
Li Lanfeng glanced at Ling Yi and then turned around to speak with the other team leaders, "Since everyone's here, let's begin."
"No problem." Nodded the other team leaders.
The soldiers holding down Tao Xiaotao took him to an empty seat on the side and forced him to sit.
Li Lanfeng flipped open a document that was placed in front of him and then said, "Tao Xiaotao, did you send out a document on X month, X day and X time?"
Tao Xiaotao had tears in his eyes, but still nodded, "I remember I sent one out, but it was just a simple letter to home. I just wanted to let my family know that I was fine after the battle."
"Let's watch the video first." Li Lanfeng pushed down on the optical supercomputer in the conference room table. A virtual screen appeared in the conference room. The screen showed the video of Ling Lan being reported for killing prisoners at the military headquarters.
Ling Yi saw the video and had a huge change in expression. Then, he saw that the order to kill prisoners was being blamed on Ling Lan. While he was shocked, his face also turned extremely pale.
Tao Xiaotao was still in the clouds. Although he turned pale after watching the video, it still seemed like it was his first time seeing the video.
Li Lanfeng then turned towards Ling Yi and asked calmly, "Ling Yi, do you have anything to say?"
Ling Yi raised his head and didn't hesitate. He instantly answered, "This video was recorded by me, but the stuff afterwards isn't supposed to be like that. This is fake."
"The last part was my order to kill prisoners, right?" Li Lanfeng knew Ling Yi recorded this video to go against him.
"Yes!" Ling Yi responded with an unruly expression. "According to the Intergalactic United Nations' Humanitarian Act, mecha clans that surrender are not allowed to be killed. You had broken the rules, so I must report it to the higher-ups.
"That's why you blindly reported it to the Disciplinary and Investigation Committee without thinking that you would fall into someone's trap, causing the person who you idolized to be reported…" Li Lanfeng had a hint of coldness in his voice and spoke one word at a time, "You really are ignorant."
"No, I didn't report it to the Disciplinary and Investigation Committee." Ling Yi stood up angrily. "I kept this video and was waiting for a chance to speak to Young Master Lan."
"Was that what you were thinking when you recorded this video?" said Li Lanfeng with a half-smile.
It was as though Ling Yi was being insulted. He angrily said, "Of course!"
"Ling Yi, who are you trying to fool?" shouted Li Lanfeng. "Others don't know, but wouldn't those from Lingtian know how our regiment commander was like on the battlefield? As for my order to kill the prisoners, our regiment commander had already silently consented to the matter. If it was someone smart, they would have known where our regiment commander stands on the matter."
"If you're not dumb than who is?" Li Lanfeng snorted coldly. "In reality, the video you recorded was only just to satisfy your sense of justice. You wanted to acquire everyone's acknowledgment and praise. However, you didn't think about how much trouble your actions will bring to Lingtian and our regiment commander."
"I didn't do anything! I didn't do anything!" shouted Ling Yi uncontrollably. "I didn't report to anyone. I also didn't share this video with anyone. Why would I need acknowledgement and praise? I just want our regiment commander to stay away from dishonorable people like you…"
"Then I have a question, if you didn't report it and didn't share the video with anyone, how could this video have been leaked out and be taken in by the Disciplinary and Investigation Committee? How could it have been changed as well?" Li Lanfeng cut Ling Yi short and got straight to the point.
Ling Yi was shocked. He calmed down and thought carefully for a moment. Then, his face turned pale as he looked at Tao Xiaotao with an expression of disbelief.
"I-I-I… I only showed it to my companions," Ling Yi squeezed out these words with a pained expression on his face. He was feeling the pain of being betrayed.
