238: Chapter 238 Is the King Returning?

Hoarse roars echoed back and forth within the Oval Office, refusing to dissipate for a long time.

Several senior aides stood with their heads bowed, three paces away from the desk; no one dared to make a sound.

Intelligence materials were scattered all over the carpet like shredded dignity, laid out layer after layer.

The old man supported himself with both hands on the edge of the desk, his chest heaving violently. Heavy gasps escaped from between his teeth like an old beast trapped in a cage.

"I knew it..."

He gritted his teeth, forcing out each word one by one.

"Xia Country... such wolfish ambitions!"

No one dared to respond.

The office was terrifyingly quiet, the atmosphere oppressive to the extreme.

After venting those words, the old man released his grip on the desk.

He walked out from behind the desk and began to pace back and forth irritably within the Oval Office.

Beneath the facade of rage, a panic he was unwilling to admit even to himself was hidden in the depths of his eyes.

Ever since he took charge of this office, Xia Country had always been the thickest, deepest thorn in his heart.

To pull out this thorn, he had employed many methods.

Technological blockades, financial sanctions, media encirclement, geopolitical pressure, supply chain decoupling...

Any of those methods, if applied to any other country on the Blue Planet, would have been enough to cause economic collapse and political instability long ago.

But what about Xia Country?

Why is it that the more that country is suppressed, the more fiercely it rebounds?!

Those barriers sufficient to lock down a nation's technological lifeblood—such as Photolithography Machines, high-end chips, communication technology, operating systems...

Once upon a time, these were the scythes that those The Other Side of the Ocean were proud of, used to harvest the entire world.

Yet in front of Xia Country, they turned out to be like mere paper, pierced through layer by layer, crushed, and trampled underfoot!

The old man's pacing grew more hurried, his breathing heavier.

He stopped abruptly.

The sound of footsteps ceased suddenly.

"Lin Yuan."

The two words were squeezed out from between his teeth, hoarse, gloomy, and carrying a bone-deep hatred.

All the changes.

All those shackles that should have trapped Xia Country to death were easily smashed to pieces.

Everything stemmed from the sudden emergence of this young man.

One person.

Just one single person.

He had torn an unbridgeable gap in the technological hegemony system they had managed for half a century.

And now, this gap was expanding at a terrifying speed visible to the naked eye, large enough to swallow their entire empire!

The old man turned around sharply, his gaze sweeping over the several senior aides before him.

"Speak!"

His voice was hoarse and dark, carrying an undeniable sense of pressure.

"Who can tell me exactly what we should do next!"

The aides exchanged glances, their Adam's apples bobbing; no one wanted to be the first unlucky soul to speak.

Finally, a grey-haired senior aide wearing gold-rimmed glasses swallowed hard and braced himself to take half a step forward.

"Chi... Chief."

He tried his best to make his voice sound calm and professional, attempting to use logic to soothe the old man's anger.

"Regarding Xia Country's large-scale selection of Large Mecha Pilots, we believe... there is no need for excessive panic."

He weighed his words, increasing his speaking speed.

"Think about it, for large manned mecha, the larger the size, the worse the mobility, making them easier to become sitting ducks in modern informationized warfare!"

"From a purely military perspective, the combat effectiveness of Large Mecha might not necessarily be stronger than that of the previous Chengying Mecha."

"Therefore, our side has absolutely no need to..."

"Enough! Stop talking!"

The old man waved his hand violently, directly interrupting the aide's words.

He turned around, his eyes bloodshot, staring fixedly at the aide who had spoken.

"Don't give me any more of this foolish talk meant to deceive people!"

The aide's body stiffened involuntarily.

"Do you think what I'm afraid of is whether that mecha is useful or not?!"

The old man approached step by step, his voice becoming sharp and piercing.

"The combat significance of Large Mecha doesn't matter at all!"

"What matters is—"

He stopped abruptly in front of the aide, lowering his voice to the minimum.

"What kind of confidence does Xia Country have to dare to carry out such a massive, blatant nationwide selection right under the eyes of the whole world?!"

The aide's face turned pale instantly, his lips trembling, but he couldn't utter a single word.

The old man turned back and slammed both hands heavily onto the desk.

"And this move of theirs has directly set the blood of 1.4 billion people completely on fire!"

The old man's voice began to tremble due to extreme wariness.

"You don't understand the people of Xia Country..."

"You don't understand them at all!"

His gaze passed through the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the grey sky outside as his voice grew low.

"The people of that country might usually be reserved and silent, but once they are united by a certain belief..."

"Once all 1.4 billion of them exert effort in the same direction..."

"The power of that national machine in motion is a terror you could never imagine!"

In the office, cold sweat broke out on the backs of all the aides simultaneously.

Silence spread for a long time.

The old man slowly straightened up, his gaze finally falling on the remaining intelligence document on the desk.

On the cover of the document, three large characters were strikingly visible.

south heaven gate.

His lips moved, unconsciously uttering these three words.

"south heaven gate... south heaven gate..."

Each time he spoke them, his brow tightened a bit more.

Xia Country must never be allowed to continue developing at this speed.

The old man's gaze slowly lifted.

In those eyes, reason and decency were being swallowed by something more primal and frenzied.

Like a beast driven into a corner, baring its final fangs.

"Lin Yuan."

He spoke the name.

This time, his voice was surprisingly calm.

So calm that a chill simultaneously ran up the spines of all the aides present.

"The source of everything... is that Lin Yuan."

The old man slowly turned around, scanning the group of the empire's core think tank before him.

"Activate all our sleeper agents lurking in Xia Country."

"As long as there is an opportunity."

"At any cost."

He paused for a beat, and the final words were ground out from between his teeth one by one.

"Eliminate him."

Hearing this, the faces of several aides were full of absurdity.

Eliminate Lin Yuan?!

Under Xia Country's airtight ultimate defense network, to assassinate a Chief Scholar who was protected without any blind spots?

But looking at the old man's eyes, which had completely fallen into madness, no one dared to utter a single word of refusal.

...

Meanwhile.

This storm of nationwide mecha selection, personally pushed by the Xia Country authorities, also caused the decision-makers of other countries around the world to collectively fall into unprecedentedly violent shock and bewilderment.

The leaders of various countries looked at the news briefings urgently submitted by their intelligence departments.

Amidst complex emotions interwoven with shock, panic, and awe.

Coincidentally, a scalp-tingling thought surfaced simultaneously in the hearts of all the high-level officials on the Blue Planet.

That Eastern Power, which once dominated the world for thousands of years, causing ten thousand nations to pay court and all directions to offer congratulations...

Is the King returning?