258: Glory belongs to His Majesty

Your Majesty's video feed was still under wartime lockout; no communications from within the warship could get through.

"You can try the command channel."

Captain Peng suggested to Tu Nan. As the captain of Your Majesty's Imperial Guard, he was equally anxious.

The flagship captain standing beside her stepped forward and pointed at a symbol on the screen, saying, "We are on this channel, but Your Majesty is not online."

Tu Nan looked down at the list of dozens of personnel on that channel, where a familiar name was flashing.

She pressed it without hesitation.

"What is it? Speak quickly." The person who answered the call sounded very impatient.

"Kong Jiamu, how is Your Majesty really doing? Can you contact him?"

"Tu Nan?" His cold, hard tone immediately dropped two octaves, yet he answered her question vaguely.

"It's alright, not bad..."

"Are you with Your Majesty right now?" Tu Nan pressed him.

"No, I'm still on the battlefield."

Tu Nan paused. Only then did she notice the noisy background on Kong Jiamu's end; even with noise-reduction algorithms, the sounds of war were still faintly audible through the communication.

"Sorry... then don't get distracted." She suppressed her unspeakable unease.

She couldn't let the Peacock get distracted on the battlefield.

"Ah, the video of Your Majesty's battle should have been uploaded to the command center already. I haven't had time to watch it yet. Use my access key to decrypt it and take a look."

The Peacock began reciting his astonishingly long access key.

"Kong Jiamu! Shut up!" Tu Nan snapped at him.

"How can you just give your access key to anyone? Where is your brain?"

"...It's not just anyone; it's you. Didn't you want to see it?"

Tu Nan was so angry she wanted to hit someone. She asked the captain, "Your Majesty's battle video was uploaded to the command center. How can I apply to see it legally and compliantly?"

The captain was stunned for a moment, his gaze falling on the power ring on her hand.

"Miss Tu Nan, the highest authority is in your hands. Use it for identity verification, and you can see everything you want."

"It actually has such a function..." she murmured to herself.

Peng Tianyu explained from behind her, "This is Your Majesty's physical access key. It can even directly open the Treasury within the Imperial Palace. We call it the Little State Seal."

He stared at the ground, not saying another word.

Even the Empress of the Empire might not have such authority. He didn't know what Your Majesty was thinking.

But since Your Majesty had given it to Miss Tu Nan, no matter what happened, he would not let anything happen to her.

That was his duty.

Sure enough, after scanning the power ring, the video was decrypted. Tu Nan took Peng Tianyu into a small private room to watch.

Perhaps she needed someone to provide a tactical explanation, Tu Nan thought.

There were Star Worms everywhere, filling the starry sky. They were of various species and looked hideous, automatically clustering into small groups, each with a 'core'.

Higher-Rank Star Worms were protected by cannon fodder Star Worms, while they in turn protected even higher-Rank and larger Star Worms at the core.

Tu Nan could already see that something was wrong.

Star Worms had no brains and no tactics; they were only driven by instinctive desires, constantly moving forward.

This was what The Emperor and Kong Jiamu had told her.

But what were these before her eyes?

Organized, tactical, and commanded—evolved Star Worms?

[System, are there any changes with the Star Worms on your side?] Tu Nan asked.

[The speed at which they gnaw on my protective shield is getting faster and faster. Before, they would gnaw for a bit and then find a way out if they got nothing, but now they are much more persistent.]

[I see, so there are changes on your end too. I'm watching a video; they've evolved.]

Tu Nan made a direct judgment.

[Do you have any hypotheses?]

[Simply put, any organism can undergo a mutation leading to a qualitative change if there's a large enough quantitative change. If I had enough energy, I could perform an analysis, but for now...]

Fine, Tu Nan knew it didn't have any. She silently watched as the video continued to play.

The fleet was clearly fighting while retreating. They were always destroying and weakening the outer low-Rank Star Worms, but if they were even slightly slow, Advanced Star Worms would charge into their fleet formation.

That section of the fleet would then be harvested.

Exploding seas of stars, shattered starships.

In the formation diagram at the bottom right of the video, fleet numbers were going dark one by one.

"Unusually tragic."

Captain Peng commented. He was rarely on the front lines, but as a high-ranking military officer, he had a sufficient understanding of the war against Star Worms.

"Yes," Tu Nan responded softly.

She was separated from this battlefield by both space and time, yet such sacrifice and casualties were enough to move anyone.

But she still skipped through these parts, her fingertips sliding rapidly across the screen, until she finally caught sight of him amidst a burst of white light.

A silver Dragon the size of a medium starship charged into the center of the video frame.

His scales shimmered with a faint, lustrous white light. His posture was elegant and fluid, yet it represented absolute power. Wherever he went, the Star Worms froze in place.

It was The Emperor.

Tu Nan watched as he maneuvered sideways, his massive golden eyes burning with rage.

He let out a long cry. The roar of the Jiao was unexpectedly distant and deep, like morning bells and evening drums echoing from beyond the clouds—indescribable yet soul-piercing.

His voice was like a clarion call for a counterattack. starship fire accurately rained down on the Star Worms following his command, and then small aircraft carrying massive cutters charged into the battlefield, severing the Star Worms' cores.

The situation reversed instantly.

"It's Your Majesty! It's his Domain!"

Peng Tianyu was so excited that he kept punching the air.

The Emperor kept charging toward the core surrounded by Star Worms, and his fleet and soldiers followed him forward without hesitation.

"Follow Your Majesty, charge!"

In the video, voices flooded the live command channel like a scrolling screen, with countless warships flashing their tail lights in response.

When your king charges at the very front of the battlefield, you inevitably follow him.

This was everyone's beacon, the king they followed: Emperor Haoyuan, The Emperor.

Inside the small screening room, Tu Nan looked up, her eyes fixed on the white Dragon charging into the swarm of insects as thick as black mist.

—His Majesty the Emperor, the symbol of the Empire.

Tu Nan was completely absorbed; she couldn't take her eyes off him for a moment. Her gaze was bright, and a smile unconsciously spread across her lips.

Wait, Your Majesty and the others were injured. Where was the Knight? He was... Tu Nan zoomed in on the screen and searched carefully. Finally, she saw a special glint at the tip of Your Majesty's half-closed front claw.

It was him; that was his silver armor.

So the Silver Armored Knight actually didn't use his Beast Form on the battlefield but wore armor instead? She could understand that he, also being a Jiao, found it inconvenient to use his Beast Form, but on an interstellar battlefield, was he, a tiny person, using a sword like a needle to poke the Star Worms' eyes?

But if one looked closely, they could see him jumping out of and back into the Dragon's claw from time to time.

He would randomly leap onto the backs of the worms, his silver armor and sharp sword flashing with cold light amidst the sparks. After every strike, the Star Worms behind him would shatter into pieces.

The Emperor was about to reach the core of the entire swarm, and the area where the worms were intimidated, centered on him, had reached its maximum range.

At the center, that pitch-black sphere suddenly opened countless eyes all over its body.

She had thought the sphere in the center was also just a dense mass of Star Worms, but it wasn't. It was—a giant Star Worm that was nothing but a head.

"What is that?" Peng Tianyu was even more shocked than she was. "I've never seen a worm without any attacking organs before."

"It looks like a brain," Tu Nan blurted out. "Eyes and a brain—it's the central control!"

In an instant, as all those eyes opened.

The Star Worms that had been frozen within Your Majesty's Domain suddenly...

Moved.