By the time Ling Lan and the others arrived at the dormitory district, the entire battlefield had already entered the end stages of clean-up. Ling Xiao, hovering in the air, was like a large mountain to the invaders, pressing down on them till they could not even breathe. On top of that, if anyone tried anything, a beam from Ling Xiao would strike them down mercilessly, killing them instantly.
This type of combat power had sapped away all the fight in the intruders. The only reason why they had not put down their weapons and surrendered yet was that they still held on to that last thread of hope in their hearts. They were praying that their fleet in space would descend on planet Newline to shoot Ling Xiao down and rescue them.
Of course, they were disappointed in the end, because the ground forces sent them the images captured by their satellite after their signal communications were restored. These images showed them that their last hope was currently under attack on all sides, surrounded by the four Federation fleets which had come to provide reinforcements, unable to even protect itself. Thus, they stopped hoping for a miracle, put down their weapons, and surrendered to become prisoners of the Huaxia Federation.
Without the help of a starship, mecha of imperial level and below had no way of breaking free of gravity by themselves to return to space. 1 Therefore, if they did not surrender, their final outcome would be to die here on the battlefield. Not everyone could view death with equanimity. Thus, when the first person laid down his weapon, everyone else followed suit, which finally marked the end of this battle sparked by an air invasion.
The ground forces very quickly took the prisoners who had surrendered into custody, and then they began clearing up the battlefield as they searched for any survivors. Meanwhile, after a brief period of panic and chaos, the dormitory district also began their own rescue efforts under the lead of the instructors. That shot by the imperial operator had caused a great number of casualties among the cadets. For a time, the entire military academy was plunged into a sad and depressing atmosphere.The fighting on the ground had come to an end, but the fighting in space was still in full swing. The four fleets had arrived so quickly at planet Newline all because of Ling Xiao.
As Ling Xiao had piloted to rush towards planet Newline, he had also sent out a request for assistance to the four large fleets. Although Ling Xiao had not known for sure back then what exactly was going on on planet Newline, with how Ling Lan had notified him, Ling Xiao believed that the situation on planet Newline must already be very bad. At first, Ling Xiao had suspected that the horrifying demon beasts around planet Newline had begun to rampage, so he had wanted to let the four large fleets help evacuate the cadets from the planet to ensure their safety.
This was truly a stroke of luck — as soon as Ling Xiao arrived in the space of planet Newline, he noticed countless unidentified starships and immediately knew that this must be an invasion. Ling Xiao thought of the four fleets on their way, and since he was also very worried about his daughter's safety, he decided to ignore these starships, sneaking by right under their noses to fly into planet Newline. It had to be said that god-class mecha were indeed truly frightening. They were able to completely conceal their own signals and images, preventing them from being picked up by the radars of many starships; thus, he was able to sneak into planet Newline completely undetected.
The final outcome was that the enemy starship fleet was totally annihilated under the combined attack of the four Federation fleets. Even though some of the starships managed to escape from the blockade to run from the planet Newline sector, they were chased down in a frenzy by the four large fleets.
It had to be said that the invasion of planet Newline, which was an attempt to kill off the Federation's future seeds of hope, had utterly crossed the line of all of the upper echelons of the Federation. Whether it be the government or the military, no matter which faction they were from, they all issued the kill order. Even though the factions harboured all sorts of conflicts of interests, they still shared the common goal of protecting the future of the Federation. Therefore, everyone chose the same way of handling things, and that was to use bloody means to keep the surrounding countries in line via fear, telling them that the Huaxia Federation was not as easy to provoke as they thought.
In the end, this invasion ended with the complete annihilation of the intruders. However, the casualties of planet Newline were severe enough to shock the Federation government and the military. Over half of the ground forces were sacrificed in the battle, and almost all of the various mecha squads were crippled by their losses as well. What saddened them even more was that out of a hundred thousand cadets, eight thousand had died in this battle. These cadets had all been excellent seedlings for the various military positions in the future, but before they could even debut on the battlefield, they had already lost their wings here in the military academy. This was their fault as the older generation.
For such a large fleet to have infiltrated the Federation deep enough to seek out and come to planet Newline, there was no doubt that something must have gone wrong with some departments within the Federation. The price paid in blood spurred the government and the military to no longer take things easy — the president and the three grand marshals of the military signed a joint order to clean out the spies and secret agents hiding within the ranks. Even some parasites who had disregarded national interests for their own personal gain were also cleared out in the process.This operation was called Operation Bloodstain. The severity of the methods employed left those spies and secret agents fortunate enough to escape discovery frightened and jumping at shadows, not daring to act any further in the interim. This allowed the Federation to have unusual smooth-sailing in the subsequent battles for revenge, and the Federation quickly harvested the fruits of triumph in battle.
Of course, regarding Ling Xiao's appearance at planet Newline, military headquarters had many questions. After all, Ling Xiao should have been busy establishing the 23rd Division several thousand light-years away — why had he appeared at planet Newline at that time? However, Ling Xiao's appearance had been extremely timely, and his command to gather the four large fleets had also been extremely accurate. This had salvaged the situation, preventing the Federation from a loss of at least five generations of potential talent.
This result was a great relief and comfort to the president and the three grand marshals of the Federation; as such, the feat certainly qualified as extraordinary merit. However, they still summoned Ling Xiao back for an inquiry. When they found out that Ling Xiao had snuck into the military academy undercover out of worry for how his son was getting along in the school, they all burst out into laughter.
They laughed at Ling Xiao for being overly attached to his son, but were also very glad that Ling Xiao had rushed over to planet Newline because of that. The president and the three great marshals were well aware that if Ling Xiao had not been there, this invasion would definitely have ended up in favour of the enemy. At that time, what they would have received would have been news of the complete annihilation of the First Men's Military Academy. And the result of this outcome would inevitably have been their resignation, for only that would be able to extinguish the rage of the people.
Still, even with Ling Xiao's involvement, the casualties among the cadets had reached as high as eight thousand ... Luckily, the government's crisis unit was very efficient, adeptly turning the public's focus onto the enemy, with especial emphasis on the several thousand prisoners they had captured. When they found out that many nations had participated in this air invasion, there was an immediate public outcry. The voices of anti-war sentiment instantly vanished without a trace, and the public enlistment rate which had been steadily declining by the year increased by leaps and bounds within that month.
The president and the military were instantly relieved. Subsequently, in order to pacify the angry public, the president and the three great marshals finally came to a consensus — they gave the order to launch a full offensive on the Duolan Alliance, which was the weakest nation among the members of the invading enemy alliance the Federation had been able to identify through their investigation.
Perhaps afraid that the Federation would expose their doings and affect their grand image of being a supreme nation, the Dosa Empire 2
unexpectedly kept their silence in the face of the Huaxia Federation's attack on Duolan. Meanwhile, though the Huaxia Federation clearly knew that the primary culprit was the Dosa Empire, out of fear that the entire human world would be once again dragged into a world war as soon as their two nations clashed, the Huaxia Federation chose once more to endure this slight, determined to extract their pound of flesh from Dosa's accomplices instead.
Just when the Federation retaliated against Duolan, "Tranquil Night", a requiem for the innocent cadets who had died in the battle, spread rapidly from within the virtual world. Perhaps because the lyrics resonated with the sorrow in the hearts of the cadets and those family members who had lost someone in the battle, and also due to its sad melody which carried undertones of strength and resilience, the singer of said song instantly became the favourite singer of the academy cadets ...
Without support from the Dosa Empire, and without internal spies to leak the military tactics of the Federation, the Federation's attack on Duolan proceeded smoothly. One month later, the Duolan Alliance was utterly razed and Duolan was officially claimed as Federation territory. This victory caused the Federation to descend into wild celebration, and the lingering grief from the air invasion was significantly eased.
In the meantime, after a month's time, not only was the rage of the military and the public slowly subsiding, within the restored First Men's Military Academy, the initial grief and rage suffusing the campus were slowly fading back to calm. The anger, fright, and worry in every students' eyes were also gradually settling into calm as well, and smiles began to appear on the cadets' faces again.
"Boss, great news! Great news!" Early in the morning, Xie Yi flew down the stairs with a face full of excitement. He should have just gotten up and must not have taken the time to wash up, for his entire appearance was extremely dishevelled. Xie Yi did not notice Ling Lan scrunch up her brow slightly at his appearance as he shouted at her loudly in excitement over the breakfast table.
Ling Lan was unimpressed by his fervour. She lifted the white napkin by her side to dab at her lips before setting it down on the table. Only then did she look up to glance sharply at him.
At his boss's cold and fierce gaze and expression, Xie Yi instantly woke up from his buzzing excitement. He swiftly lowered his head, no longer daring to make such a fuss.
Witnessing Xie Yi being shut down, Qi Long, who was sitting at one side, began to snicker. Han Jijyun wordlessly nudged him, reminding him to leave Xie Yi some face, while Luo Lang threw a cold glance over at Xie Yi like Ling Lan had — whatever Boss disliked, he disliked as well.
As for Lin Zhong-qing, he did not raise his head but continued to focus on his breakfast. It had nothing to do with him after all; Xie Yi had brought this all on himself. Fine, when it was just them on their own, Ling Lan's team was not as united and loving as they appeared outside. Whenever there was a chance, the members would absolutely step on each other while they were down.
"Tell me then, what exactly is this great news that has gotten you so excited," said Ling Lan calmly when she saw that Xie Yi had been sufficiently cowed.
Hearing this, Xie Yi knew that his boss was not truly angry, and his interrupted enthusiasm reared up once again. "Boss, Li Yinfei is coming to our school!"
"Li Yinfei?" Ling Lan's brow furrowed. Who was this again 3 ?
"What?! Li Yinfei is coming? Is that for real?" Before Ling Lan could recall who this person was, Qi Long had already exclaimed in excitement, "Xie Yi, how did you find out about this?"
"Just now I went onto the academy forums, and the moment I logged on, I saw this news. Everyone is excited by it right now." Sensing a fellow fan, Xie Yi's excitement was further amplified.
Han Jijyun and Luo Lang shared a look, also unable to recall at that moment who this Li Yinfei was that had Qi Long and Xie Yi so excited.
Beside them, Lin Zhong-qing set down his chopsticks and said softly, "Tranquil Night!"
"Ah, it's her?!" Luo Lang cried out instantly. Just recently, he had also been very obsessed with this song.
