Chapter 1003: Chapter 759: Big and Heavy
At this point, a Whitestar suddenly appeared in the path of the advancing Black Iron fleet. Almost immediately, all gunfire from the Black Iron fleet bombarded towards it.
"No greetings at all?" Ruosha frowned.
Shields emerged around the planet, blocking all the incoming fleet artillery, while huge ship guns had already been charged. Accompanied by roaring and shaking, the large ship guns on Whitestar also fired in unison, damaging the Black Iron warships at the forefront. However, much to Ruosha’s surprise, not a single Black Iron warship was blasted apart!
These bastards have such strong defenses!
Meanwhile, from the side of Whitestar, thousands of spherical ships formed by the Nightmare Knights also swiftly flew out. These spherical ships, relying on their high speed and maneuverability, continuously darted through space. Some spherical ships were hit and shattered. But they turned into even more Nightmare Knights, these mechanical warriors continuing to push forward relentlessly. In the blink of an eye, these Nightmare Knights had already closed in on the Black Iron warship fleet!
The Nightmare Knights began searching for access points to enter the interior of the Black Iron warships, but what was strange was that there wasn’t a single entrance hatch on the entire warship! So the Nightmare Knights started using handheld ship guns to bombard the armor fiercely until they blasted a hole and forcibly infiltrated inside.
Inside the Black Iron warships, the Nightmare Knights couldn’t find any passageways accessible to people, needing to blast their way through wherever they went. Even the bridge area was filled with various energy devices inside.
Were these Black Iron warships unmanned?
Whether it’s unmanned or not, bring one down first!
Even if they were unmanned, there must be a power core. Soon, a group of Nightmare Knights blazed a path of destruction toward the power core of a Black Iron warship. It was an extremely complex and exquisite device, entirely in dark gold color — it looked like a product of the Giants!
Ruosha, who possessed the knowledge of the Giants, remotely directed the Nightmare Knights to sever the power supply of a warship. Devoid of energy and propulsion, that warship was just floating space junk. The Nightmare Knights then burst out and headed straight for another warship.
In the blink of an eye, the battlefield was left with more than a dozen Black Iron warships!
"Mine! They are all mine!" Ruosha exclaimed excitedly.
It was at this moment that the Black Iron warships, which had been bombarding the Nightmare Knights and Whitestar all along, started to retreat. However, before retreating, they turned all their firepower onto the disabled Black Iron warships, shattering those black warships in an unceasing explosion.
"Waah! You want to leave after ruining my stuff?" Ruosha shouted, as all the Nightmare Knights accelerated in pursuit, and Whitestar launched its fully charged main cannon.
The main cannon swept over several warships, which then turned into fragments immediately.
But at this moment, an incredibly large Array appeared in the space ahead of those black warships, and the warships vanished completely after passing through the Array!
"Damn it, they ran away!"
Ruosha shouted furiously.
In space, Whitestar slowly opened up, beginning to absorb all the fragments of warships in space into itself. Inside Whitestar, the structure of the Black Iron warships would be inspected, keeping whatever was useful. To Ruosha’s surprise, the main material of the opponent’s Black Iron warships actually was Black Iron. Moreover, it was Black Iron that did not have very good smelting technology. The reason they possessed such strong defensive power was simply that the outer layer of armor was extremely thick. As there were no people inside, other than the energy parts, the rest of the ship was all armor, which would become resources for Whitestar after being re-refined.
The weapons of the Black Iron warships also had nothing special about them — they were merely big and brutal. Since their caliber was several times larger than that of a regular warship, the firepower was extremely frightening. These weapons were of no use, either, and were sent back to be reprocessed.
One could say that the only useful part of the entire Black Iron warship was its power core. To give such a cumbersome warship such a fierce firepower, the power core was indispensable. This was a classic Giant artifact, whether it was craftsmanship or technology, it was nothing short of perfect. Although the Black Iron fleet had launched a series of bombardments before fleeing, these power cores were very sturdy and showed no signs of damage.
Ruosha still remembered that initially, Long Yi had told them that many space stations floated in the sky above the Human Realm. The power cores inside those possessed terrifying power, and if they exploded, the force would be infinite, so the Giants always protected these power cores with very special means. If impacted by outside forces, the power cores would immediately self-isolate and stop outputting any energy.
Before Long Yi left, he had passed on much knowledge to them through a contractual method, so now Ruosha could easily reactivate these cores. Upon reconnecting the internal power, Ruosha was astonished to find that the energy output of such a small power core could actually reach half of the energy output of Whitestar’s internal core!
And right now, in Ruosha’s hands, there were more than twenty such cores!
This time it was definitely a huge gain!
Just as Ruosha was excitedly calling Isrile, wanting to show off to her, at this moment, Isrile was also looking for her!
"We’ve hit the jackpot this time!"
Both Ruosha and Isrile said almost simultaneously.
"Power cores?"
They both spoke at the same time again.
It turned out that while Ruosha was fighting, Isrile had also started a fight. Phantom warships had silently approached the Black Iron squadron, and the Black Iron fleet had had no reaction at all, leading Isrile to judge that their observational methods were also very limited.
So, the Giant Beasts surged out of the Phantom warships like mad. Isrile had already installed them with new space combat equipment. The beasts capable of casting Magic now had even fiercer combat capabilities, and the ship guns mounted on them provided supporting fire, allowing them to destroy more than a dozen warships along the way.
Then, Isrile encountered the same situation as Ruosha — the Black Iron warships began to retreat, and while doing so, they destroyed all the motionless warships. Just as Isrile was pursuing them, the Black Iron warships escaped through an immensely huge Teleportation Gate!
Afterward, Isrile carefully analyzed the structure of some Black Iron warships and discovered that there was nothing particularly remarkable about these so-called Black Iron warships. However, what did excite the creature aboard the Phantom battleship was that their power cores were Giant products. After integrating these new cores, the Phantom battleship’s various capabilities had greatly improved, reaching new heights in both speed and stealth abilities.
"These Black Iron warships don’t look particularly special; they’re just big and also dumb," Ruosha said to Isrile.
"That’s pretty much all they need to be," Isrile replied. "An armada with unprecedented firepower and heavy armor—what could be more terrifying than that?"
"But what’s the deal with this so-called Black Iron Empire? What’s the meaning behind their creation of this fleet of automatons?" Ruosha inquired.
"You haven’t figured it out either?" Isrile asked.
"Not at all," Ruosha said. "I haven’t found any parts that are responsible for control. It’s very likely that the control cores of these Black Iron ships destroyed themselves during the explosion."
"Then we’ll just have to wait and see the next time they appear."
When Ruosha’s Whitestar returned to the Azure Sky Empire’s star domain, and Ruosha appeared in the Imperial Palace, the Emperor’s eyes quickly filled with tears: "Miss Ruosha! You’re finally back! How’s the battle situation? Should we relocate immediately?"
Ruosha curled her lips: "I blew up more than twenty Black Iron ships. The rest ran away. They’re simply a bunch of super warships with heavy guns and tough shields, and they’re cowards at that. I thought they’d be stronger."
"You mean, you won?" the Azure Sky Emperor asked, his eyes widening.
"Isn’t that obvious?" Ruosha glanced at the Emperor with disdain.
"My goodness! The great Miss Ruosha! Your heroic deeds will surely be etched on the monuments of history! You are the savior of our Azure Sky Empire!" The Emperor was so excited he could hardly contain himself.
"Don’t get too excited too soon. The Black Iron fleet left abruptly, and I’m not sure if they’ll come back," Ruosha said.
"No problem! Even if they come back, they are definitely no match for you!" The Emperor still had tears on his face, but now he was smiling.
"The issue is, I only agreed to help you deal with the Giant Beast Empress Isrile. Dealing with the Black Iron fleet, that’s extra work, isn’t it?" Ruosha said.
"This..." The Emperor’s face suddenly turned bitter.
"But don’t worry too much. I’m very interested in this strange Black Iron fleet, so I’ll definitely help you deal with them. However, best remember not to take my proactive help for granted, alright?" Ruosha stated.
"Of course! Absolutely!" the Emperor eagerly nodded and agreed immediately.
Jokingly, he thought to himself, let alone such a small request, even if she were to ask me to call her "grandmother" right now, I’d do it.
This is what the Emperor thought.
"However, there’s an even bigger hidden danger now," Ruosha continued.
"What hidden danger?" the Emperor asked, puzzled.
"If you were a fleet commander and your first campaign ended in defeat by the enemy, realizing that your cannons weren’t powerful enough and your armor wasn’t strong enough, what would you do before your second sortie?" Ruosha posed the question.
"I... might switch to larger ship cannons and thicker armor," the Emperor answered.
"So, my concern is, when the Black Iron fleet appears next time, we might be facing an even stronger fleet. I can hold them off once, twice, maybe even three or four times. But how long can I ultimately keep them at bay? If they are truly relentless in their aim to destroy both the Azure Sky Empire and the Hong En Empire, what kind of enemy will they eventually become?"
Ruosha’s words were partly meant to scare the Emperor, but they were also her own concern. What exactly does this mysterious Black Iron Empire want?
"Miss Ruosha! Whatever you decide to do, please tell me straight away. We will fulfill any conditions you have! Please, you must hold them back!" the Emperor said earnestly.
"Don’t worry, if I say I will do it, I will. But relying solely on my strength, I’m afraid it won’t be enough," Ruosha said.
"Then whose help do you need?" the Emperor asked, not understanding.
"The Giant Beast Empress, Isrile," Ruosha said.
"What? Her? Why?" The Emperor was shocked.
"Isrile was created by the Giants as a war being; nobody understands warfare better than she does. Despite our enmity, I know that when it comes to war, she is absolutely the best ally. Her control over hundreds of thousands of Giant Beasts is also a sharp weapon against the Black Iron warships," Ruosha explained.
The Emperor instinctively didn’t want to agree, but he also understood that quibbling at times like these would only lead to an even more tragic outcome.
"Okay! Then let me talk to the Emperor of Hong En!" (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
