Chapter 1031: Chapter 784 Equilibrium?
The two girls kept bickering, and the silver battleship gradually passed through the spatial rift. Beyond the rift, the sight before them was startling. On this unknown planet, a row of huge docks spread out, with one silver battleship after another being assembled here. Meanwhile, their silver battleship automatically docked at one of the docks. Shortly thereafter, a swarm of automatons flew over and began repairing the battleship.
By this time, Ruosha and Isrile had left the battleship, staring dumbfounded at everything before them.
"There’s air here," said Isrile.
"Maybe there are people," Ruosha suggested.
All around them, countless automatons bustled about, completely ignoring the girls, even when they were in the automatons’ path. The automatons would simply fly around them.
"Now I can see three suns. One above us, two on the horizon. I’ve never seen a star system structured like this," Ruosha said to Isrile.
"Neither have I; I’ve never come across such a star map. Could this be from an upper plane?" Isrile pondered.
"I don’t know."
Ruosha and Isrile continued onward, following the direction from which the automatons had come. There were storage rooms here, filled with spare parts, and some inactive automatons also rested here, where a series of arrays were charging them up.
There was no one around.
"Who built this place? Could it be the Giants?" asked Isrile as she threw out a strand of Spider Silk and pulled an automaton toward her. Quickly, another automaton flew out, taking over the role of the restrained one.
"Probably not. The interior space of those battleships definitely cannot accommodate a Giant," Ruosha countered.
"Then who built this thing, just to go and destroy the Powerhouses every now and then?" asked Isrile, her face full of confusion.
"It can’t be just that, right?" Ruosha truly didn’t believe anyone could be that bored, as it seemed entirely pointless.
"Wait!" Isrile suddenly stopped Ruosha. A spaceship was slowly docking. The spaceship, coming from outer space, was filled with metal used to make battleships.
"This spaceship has no pilot; it must also be controlled by a magic core," Ruosha said.
"No, I don’t believe this can all be done by automatic control; there must be someone hiding somewhere here," Isrile insisted.
"Where could they be hiding?" Ruosha looked around. The space was huge, and hiding anywhere would make them incredibly difficult to find.
"It doesn’t matter where they hide; we’ll find a way to flush them out!"
Ruosha and Isrile returned to their silver battleship, deactivated the magic core, and switched to manual control. They were both quite adept at this, having dealt with spaceships and Nightmare Knights for quite some time.
The battleship’s main cannon charged up, and then a blast tore through, utterly destroying a row of docks. The silver battleships, still under construction within the docks, fell and shattered into pieces.
An alarm sounded, and a large number of golems surged out, immediately beginning repairs on the docks. More golems gathered around the damaged ships, salvaging all the parts that could still be used, while piling up the useless ones to one side.
"It seems that this level of disruption is not enough to create any chaos," Ruosha observed.
"That makes sense; I think we misunderstood something," Isrile said, smiling.
Ruosha and Isrile immediately adjusted the battleship’s close-defense cannons, changing their targets to the automatons.
Instantly, all close-defense cannons opened fire, shattering the automatons that were busy working around them. As these automatons were destroyed, new ones quickly took their place, which were then destroyed in turn. After an unknown period, it seemed no new automatons appeared.
This usually meant one thing: they were running out of automatons.
"Come on, hidden mastermind, what will you do if you’re running out of automatons?" Isrile asked with a smile.
Before long, space was torn apart again, and a small golden spaceship docked. Then several individuals clad in golden robes leapt out of the ship. They first looked around at what was happening, then glanced at some device they took out. Then they headed straight for the battleship.
One of them climbed up, saw the breach in the hull, and shouted to the people below.
"Looks like we should continue to reinforce the battleships. Just look, those people were actually able to damage the armor of our Silver Battleship!" The one who climbed aboard was a young man, staring in astonishment at the wound on the battleship.
"My data shows that there’s a problem with the magic control core of this battleship. Go down and check it; replace it with a new core," said a middle-aged man standing below, who seemed to be of much higher status than the young man.
"Yes, Teacher!"
With that, the young man jumped down and headed to the bridge, only to see the magic core had been tossed aside. He had just picked it up when someone grabbed his head.
"Come on, lad, tell us who you are, where you’re from, and where you’re going!" Isrile asked with a welcoming smile.
Yi Zhuo had never thought it was possible for someone to lift him by the head with one hand. Yet, not only did he feel this very keenly, he even felt his skull was about to explode.
"Let me go! Please, I beg you!" Yi Zhuo screamed in agony.
"First, tell me who you are," Ruosha asked from the side.
"I am Yi Zhuo, a warship maintenance worker from the Balance Church," Yi Zhuo said, desperately grabbing at Isrile’s wrists to give his neck a moment’s rest.
"The Balance Church? What is that?" Ruosha continued to inquire.
"It is an organization dedicated to maintaining the balance of the plane, preventing any overly powerful forces from threatening the safety of the entire plane," Yi Zhuo explained.
"How many of you are there? Where is your headquarters?"
"We have one hundred and seventy-three members, and the headquarters is on the Golden Battleship," Yi Zhuo felt his vision start to darken.
"So where is this Golden Battleship now?"
"I don’t know; the Golden Battleship never ceases to sail through the spatial rifts, it could be anywhere," Yi Zhuo felt as if his neck was truly about to snap.
"Considering how cooperative you are, I think I should keep you around for the time being,"
Isrile put Yi Zhuo down but tied him up with strands of Spider Silk.
"He has neither magic nor Fighting Aura, quite surprising," Isrile communicated to Ruosha within their contract.
"I’ll go check on that person outside," said Ruosha, about to leave, when she heard someone leap down, demanding loudly, "My repair tools are still with you, hand them over quickly, Yi Zhuo."
Isrile laughed, "It looks like that won’t be necessary; he’s delivered himself to us."
A middle-aged man had just shown his head when a strand of Spider Silk immediately bound him up.
"Who are you people! Why are you detaining me!" the middle-aged man bellowed.
"We’ve fought you several times already; don’t you recognize us?" Ruosha walked over and pointed to her own face.
"Of course, I don’t recognize you! Release me now! Young man! Do not make a mistake!" the middle-aged man commanded authoritatively.
"Whether it’s a mistake is not important; you seem to know much more than this young man, so I invite you to help us solve our puzzles," Isrile lifted the middle-aged man, and after a bolt of lightning, the man in her hands immediately fainted.
"Wow, so faint-hearted?" Isrile was surprised.
"Like that youngster, this fellow also has no magic or Fighting Aura," Ruosha commented, poking the man’s forehead.
"Well, it seems we will have to get our answers from you after all," Ruosha and Isrile turned their attention back to Yi Zhuo.
"This time, please give us a detailed introduction of yourself."
By now, Yi Zhuo had been frightened out of his wits, so he ended up spilling everything he knew in one go.
The Balance Church was an ancient organization, tracing back to the era of the Giants. Initially when the Giants had not yet departed, there were those people who banded together in pursuit of the Giants. But after the Giants had left, these people decided to take on the Giants’ role of maintaining the balance of the plane, thus establishing the Balance Church. And to maintain the balance of the plane, they had adopted the simplest and most brutal method.
Eliminate the plane’s strongest powerhouses.
Due to their close ties with the Giants, the Balance Church had access to a wealth of Giant knowledge, enabling them to construct powerful warships. Like the earlier Black Iron Battleship, the entire plane had nearly no means to withstand its onslaught. And after Ruosha and Isrile had defeated the Black Iron Battleship, an even more formidable Silver Battleship had been dispatched.
The Balance Church might be small in numbers, but they possessed a vast number of Automated Golems to assist them. It was for this reason they could build such large-scale fleets.
"So, where do you all come from?" Ruosha was curious about this. With only over a hundred people in the entire Balance Church, none of whom seemed immortal, how did they maintain their numbers?
"Our lives stem from the Life Replication Machine, whenever one dies, a new person is replicated. Although we can’t inherit memories from before, the soul remains the same,"
Yi Zhuo said.
This behavior was practically akin to the Dragon Clan of the Human Realm.
Ruosha and Isrile exchanged glances, reading between the lines in each other’s eyes.
"You keep eradicating the strongest powers of this plane, but what practical significance does it hold for you? Don’t use ’maintaining balance’ as your excuse, because that sounds like complete nonsense. I bet if the Giants hadn’t left, they would never have permitted you to do such things. And yet, you claim to follow in the Giants’ footsteps; don’t you feel guilty?" Ruosha challenged.
Yi Zhuo looked distressed, helplessly saying, "We know what we’re doing is wrong, but if we don’t do it, it would definitely invite greater trouble!" (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly passes on Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)
