Go over and watch.
This was Empress Li’s wish. The words were fairly simple, but it forced Song Zining to ponder repeatedly. What did she want to see? Thinking deeper, what must he show her and what must he not?
What kind of role did the Empress and the Li family play in this war? The Empress’ family and the powerful ministers were archenemies in certain areas. There had been very little news of Marshal Lin since the Great Maelstrom—was he well and safe? The Imperial Guard had mobilized a large part of its forces, which meant that the Longevity Monarch had to have approved, and greater numbers from the Imperial clan were also joining the fight. The Minister of the Right was indeed quite skilled to be able to coordinate all these powers and keep them in balance, so much so that it seemed rather strange.
If Qianye and Song Zining had refused to take charge of this route, the next candidate would’ve been Gaoyi. Why was it her? Qianye had commented that the military was trying to target the Zhao clan, but after careful thought, the deputy commander was the Emperor’s adult son. And Lan Xincheng’s supply of military arms was all too generous… on whose side was he on?
Thinking on, Song Zining gradually became distracted and lost in complicated thoughts. During his contemplation, he felt a sudden pain from his forehead, almost as though he had been pierced by a needle. It was so intense that his vision went blank and he reflexively covered his forehead with his palm.
Only then did he realize that he had subconsciously utilized his divination powers. This could be considered a shortcoming of divination specialists, a careless reaction.
The mysteries of heaven were surely in chaos during the war. There were also countless soldiers, generals, and powerful characters paying attention to the fight. In addition, various powers were playing a tug o’war in the dark, their divination masters and prophets disrupting one another from time to time. It was never a good idea to activate divination powers without proper skill and preparation.
Song Zining was dazed from the backlash, and he still had no idea which party he had bumped into. He suddenly recalled an old saying as he retracted his divination powers.
Those who divine much, die young.
On the surface, these words seemed to explain the dangers of divination, but on the other hand, it was hinting that the art itself was playing with fire. Those who were accomplished in the field would always want to take part in every major event. These people were smart, to begin with—how could they be willing to be left out after grasping a powerful ability?
With the world in a constantly changing state, Song Zining felt that the war on the void continent was just the tip of the iceberg. There was no way the Li family would sit out on such a grand event. Even if they didn’t have any designs of their own, there would be countless powers knocking on their door and asking them to do things.
Now that was playing with fire.
When Song Zining looked up again, there were no longer any ripples in his eyes or any emotions on his face. He gazed at the man dressed like an attendant and asked, “Where do you plan to watch? You want to be here with me or with Qianye?”
The attendant said with a smile, “I have a choice? Of course, I pick Qianye.”
Song Zining nodded. “That’s true, anyone would want to have a look at the Martyr’s Palace. This airship might be a rare sight, but it’s not one of a kind.”
The attendant said, “It’s mainly because I heard that Qianye is very handsome!”
Frowning, Song Zining’s mouth fell open as he glanced at the attendant. Doubtlessly, this person had disguised himself so well that ordinary experts would never see through him. Song Zining had been feigning ignorance—his plan was to avoid alerting the proverbial snake and observe their intentions.
“Who exactly are you?”
“Now you remember to ask. It seems the seventh young master isn’t as smart as they say!” With that, the attendant reached out to wipe his face. His body structure started to change, and his hair grew a bit longer until it reached his ears. In the blink of an eye, a beautiful and petite girl with short hair appeared before Song Zining.
Song Zining’s expression was already strange when he saw the fantastic disguise-art. He was even more shocked when he saw the other party’s face. “Nineteenth Princess!?”
The girl revealed a charming smile. “You still remember me?”
Song Zining put away his frivolity and said, “I had the honor of meeting you in the Imperial gardens seven years ago. I wouldn’t dare forget.”
“You actually recognize me? I was only ten seven years ago, and I looked very different back then. But then again, you study those divination arts. Who knows how many tricks you have up your sleeve? Just looking at you annoys me.”
Song Zining said, “The Empress and the Li family are big in the divination field. You should be careful when talking to outsiders.”
Princess Nineteen yawned. “You speak as if we’re so close!”
“What I mean is, I’m also an outsider.”
Princess Nineteen waved her hand. “Enough of that, I’m heading to the Martyr’s Palace anyway. Also, arrange a position close to Qianye for me. I’ve long since heard that he’s even more good looking than Zhao Jundu. This is a rare opportunity for me to observe him to my heart’s content!”
This nineteenth princess became more and more excited. She was like a little girl about to get her favorite toy, wanting nothing more than to go immediately.
Song Zining’s brows knitted together slightly. He didn’t give this princess too much face and stared at her for a good while. Not to mention seventeen, there weren’t any innocent seven-year-olds in the palace. His actions were so exaggerated that it actually became difficult to pick a quarrel.
He went through everything he knew about the palace but couldn’t recall much information related to this nineteenth princess. From what he remembered, this princess’ maternal family wasn’t very prominent, and her mother wasn’t well known among the Imperial concubines. She was an open follower of Empress Li from a young age, but recently, it became known that she possessed great talent in cultivation. Reportedly, she had been gaining status even before the Emperor.
Who would’ve thought Empress Li would actually send her here for such an important war? It was a clear law that the rear palace could not participate in politics. Even princes who hadn’t been conferred a title wouldn’t be assigned to a formal combat unit in battle. What was the meaning of a princess running over to the front lines?
Each of Empress Li’s actions and words involved deep meaning and should be analyzed carefully.
The more Song Zining thought about it, the more of a headache he felt. The current Emperor of the Great Qin stayed within the Unending Palace most of the time and rarely made public appearances. He was never known for doting on his children, so the princes and princesses didn’t enjoy that much of a presence. Without a prominent maternal family, they would hardly be recognized. And Song Zining couldn’t quite divine the Nineteenth Princess since she was still of royal blood.
Since there was no point in too much thought, Song Zining simply decided to let things be. He summoned his attendants and ordered them to arrange a shuttle, on which the two of them headed toward the Martyr’s Palace.
The small shuttle soon arrived safely at the palace. The Nineteenth Princess was like a kid who had entered a park; everything seemed like a new experience for her.
Since the Martyr’s Palace had already entered public eyes, Qianye and Song Zining picked out a group of reliable and loyal crew members to man the various sentry posts. At this point, there were technicians, cannoneers, sailors, and warriors—over a thousand people in total on the airship. However, the Martyr’s Palace was so big that the interior looked fairly spacious and empty.
Song Zining arrived at the command center, which was located in the dragon’s head. This place was so much bigger than the command center on the battlecruiser. The dragonship was no longer the crude construct it was before. Now, there was a separate staff officer room, command room, war room, etc., and there was a group of officers hard at work within. Some of these officers came from the Empire, and a part of them was from Ningyuan Heavy Industries.
Battles in outer space required staff officers of a certain level. Dark Flame’s officers weren’t well-trained enough for the job.
Within a specialized war room, Qianye was observing a map that was covered in dense markings. The map was split into two halves, with the first being the initial battle plan, and the other was Song Zining’s version. Qianye was comparing the two and studying everything in detail.
Qianye and Song Zining were experts with powerful instincts. Yet they were clueless despite feeling that something was off—that wasn’t a good sign.
Song Zining knocked on the door and, after hearing a response from within, entered with the Nineteenth Princess. Qianye turned around, his incisive gaze pausing slightly on the princess.
The Nineteenth Princess felt an indescribable cold come over her and couldn’t help but tremble.
Song Zining said, “Qianye, this is the nineteenth daughter of the current Emperor, here to observe the battle under Empress Li’s orders. She’s on our side, don’t be rude.”
He gave a slight nod after exchanging glances with Song Zining and bowed slightly toward the princess. A token expression of his respect. Song Zining was going to take up an Imperial title, so he had to maintain a degree of respect toward the Imperial clan. That wasn’t the case for Qianye; he didn’t need to be too polite.
The Nineteenth Princess didn’t blame Qianye for his lack of etiquette. Instead, her eyes lit up as she stared at Qianye constantly, almost as though she wanted to pounce forward and bite him. As for what Song Zining was saying, it didn’t look like she had heard anything.
Qianye hadn’t imagined that an Imperial descendant would be like this. He questioned Song Zining with his eyes, to which the latter replied with a frown, asking him to ignore her.
Then, Song Zining got down to business. He put the box onto the table and opened the locks according to the determined sequence. He fished out a couple of documents from within and went through them one by one, categorizing and passing them to Qianye. He then walked over to the map and started marking things on it.
These documents were the newest versions of the battle plan. There was little change in the primary framework, but there were some minor details that had been modified. These papers explained the detailed attack routes and the time of landing. At the same time, they mentioned other battle plans in the relevant direction, including the arrival times of the main route and eastern route.
After Qianye had finished reading the papers in detail, Song Zining had already completed the markings.
He pointed at a small town on the other side of the void continent. “This is our new target. It’s closer to the central route and a bit farther from the Eastern route. In terms of difficulty, it’s harder than our original target, but it should be easier to defend once we capture it. This location is less than a hundred kilometers from the target. Seizing the place might not completely cut off the Evernight army’s retreat-path, but considering our fleet’s advantage in the void, we can deal a heavy blow to their forces.
“Oh, so many of the dark races will still be able to retreat?” Qianye frowned.
“Don’t tell me you want to destroy all of the dark races on the continent? If you do that, the Evernight Council will throw everything they have at you.”
Qianye said, “So this plan is feasible if we don’t consider wiping them out?”
Song Zining nodded. “Of course, especially since we have the Martyr’s Palace. When the time comes, the dark races will not dig in for a fight to the death and only try to pull back as many troops as they can. Otherwise, their losses would be too severe if they lose another two duke-grade flagships.”
Qianye discussed the details with Song Zining for a while longer. All in all, their new target was more practical and involved less risk overall, but their contributions wouldn’t decrease. The retreating Evernight fleet would be like a pack of migrating bison that could be attacked at will. It was hard to say how much fighting spirit these retreating forces would have left.
The Imperial command had probably modified the battle plan after accounting for the Martyr’s Palace. The one who had formulated this plan might not be as bold and imaginative as Lin Xitang, but the plan was pragmatic and airtight. If he hadn’t guessed wrong, it was probably the Minister of the Right.
Qianye still couldn’t find any traps after looking through the plans repeatedly, yet he couldn’t wash away that uneasy feeling in his heart.
Song Zining was also in deep thought. Only after a long while did he say, “This plan, how should I put it, might have some problems in execution. The situation in battle is changing constantly. There’s simply no way one can formulate a completely fixed plan when multiple routes are involved. Not even Lin Xitang can do that. I’ve gotten a good idea of the commander candidates for each route, and for now, at least, I can’t find any problems.”
Qianye nodded. “Then let’s go according to plan.”
Song Zining said after some thought, “After we land, I’ll take the ground while you guard the skies with the Martyr’s Palace!”
“No, you stay at the Martyr’s Palace.”
Song Zining, of course, disagreed, so the two began to argue.
The princess who had been forgotten all this time suddenly spoke up. “Isn’t the ground defense more dangerous?”
Song Zining rolled his eyes at her. Was there a need to ask? How could there be any danger at the Martyr’s Palace?
The Nineteenth Princess glanced at Qianye, then at Song Zining. “You two are fighting over who gets the ground. Wow, you share such a good relationship!”
Song Zining didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. “This is a problem of who’s more suited for the role.”
“Suited?” The Nineteenth Princess looked confused.
Only then did Song Zining realize that she wasn’t listening to their conversation at all and only staring at Qianye. He was a bit surprised—could it be that she came here just for a stroll?
