Although the imperial operator had managed to pull a distance away from Ling Xiao and evaded Ling Xiao"s sure-kill hit, he was still so nervous that his head was covered in sweat. Earlier, he had thought he was going to die for sure — Ling Xiao"s speed had just been too fast; he could not keep up with the other"s pace at all. But right at that border of life-or-death, his anch.o.r.ed spiritual power had miraculously loosened and he had undergone a breakthrough. At the moment when the sword would hit him, he had managed to increase his mecha"s speed by several times, dodging that sure-kill hit with the barest of margins.

However, he was still a little too late. Even though he had avoided his vital points from being hit, he was unable to avoid the attack completely. In the end, he lost the left arm of his mecha, but the imperial operator was already very satisfied with this outcome. After all, he had still managed to survive the attack of a G.o.d-cla.s.s operator.

Still, the imperial operator was not foolish enough to believe that he could fight toe-to-toe with a G.o.d-cla.s.s operator just because he had achieved a breakthrough in his spiritual power. Even though this breakthrough had elevated his mecha control skills by another level, making it so that he could wield all aspects of his imperial mecha even better than before, at the heart of it, he was still just an imperial operator. He had not advanced to G.o.d-cla.s.s, and no matter how strong an imperial operator became, he would still be no match for a G.o.d-cla.s.s operator ...

Thus, there was only one word in his mind — "RUN"! Only by successfully escaping from this G.o.d-cla.s.s operator"s hands would he have any future to speak of. This unforeseen improvement in his abilities made him even more eager to find a way to save himself ...

Of course, these notions merely pa.s.sed through the imperial operator"s mind in a split second. In the eyes of the spectators, as soon as the imperial mecha"s arm had been efficiently chopped off by Ling Xiao, the imperial mecha had instantly chosen to turn and run, flying off at top speed in an attempt to escape. The imperial mecha seemed to be desperate to run away — he pulled out all the stops on his engines, and his mecha actually shot away like a beam of light, instantly escaping over a kilometre away.

The imperial mecha"s fl.u.s.tered demeanour as he escaped shocked Ling Lan"s and Qiao Ting"s teams greatly. Just think — not too long ago, before Ling Xiao had arrived, how arrogant and haughty the imperial operator had been towards them, treating them as if they were merely a group of ants whose lives were his to snuff out as he wished. Unexpectedly, the imperial mecha who had frightened them so much was actually so pathetic once he was up against General Ling Xiao, only managing to resist for one round before turning tail to run.

Everyone stared fervently at the grand and mighty mecha of Ling Xiao"s hovering in the air. When would they be able to reach the level of General Ling Xiao, able to scare the wits out of the enemy just by showing his face?

Qiao Ting"s emotions were running high — he could not help but clench his fists. Having been called the second Ling Xiao all this while, would he be as great as General Ling Xiao in the future and become the thirteenth G.o.d-cla.s.s operator of the Federation?

"I will definitely succeed!" Qiao Ting vowed to himself in silence, a glimmer of ambition pa.s.sing through his eyes.

Seeing the imperial mecha choose to run away in the end, Ling Xiao could not help but snort, his eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with cold intention. If anyone could see Ling Xiao"s expression now, they would certainly be shocked that the always gentle and mild-mannered General Ling Xiao could have such fearsome killing intent. Ling Xiao was not a saint — the moment the opponent"s butcher knife had ever threatened the life of his darling daughter, Ling Xiao had never even considered letting him leave with his life.

The air beside Ling Xiao"s mecha twisted once more and the ma.s.sive mecha actually disappeared mysteriously right before the crowd"s eyes. In the midst of everyone"s bewilderment, Ling Xiao"s mecha had already appeared a kilometre or so away to block off the imperial mecha"s escape route.

With all of its engines engaged at maximum power, the imperial mecha"s speed was already at the limits of an imperial mecha. Three seconds later, the mecha had already gotten several kilometres away from where Ling Xiao was. On his mecha"s screens, there was no sign of Ling Xiao"s ma.s.sive mecha in pursuit. The imperial operator"s anxious heart finally settled somewhat. Did this mean that he had already managed to escape?

However, before he left planet Newline for good, the imperial operator would not believe he was truly safe yet. The Divine Wind system of G.o.d-cla.s.s mecha was a heaven-defying existence — if he did not run far enough, he would be easily caught up to by the G.o.d-cla.s.s mecha using its Divine Wind system.

The imperial operator did not slow down his speed, instead pushing his mecha"s engines desperately to continue powering forwards. At the same time, he did not forget to send an emergency alert to his companion, the other imperial operator remaining at the dormitory district, to tell him that Ling Xiao was here and to retreat quickly and stop bothering with those Federation troops. The imperial operator knew well that the appearance of a G.o.d-cla.s.s operator meant that they had no chance of winning this battle anymore. He believed that the Empire"s commander-in-chief would also agree with their decision; several thousand ace operators were not as important as one imperial operator.

Right then, this imperial operator did not know that his companion had already died by Ling Xiao"s hand, that this alert he just sent would never ever be received by the other.

Just then, directly ahead of the imperial mecha, the air suddenly warped to suddenly reveal a large mecha in his path. The other"s appearance was too sudden, and the imperial mecha was travelling at its top speed — the ten or so metres between them was not enough for the imperial operator to make any adjustments to his controls to alter his flight path. He could only watch helplessly as his mecha barrelled straight towards Ling Xiao"s mecha.

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" The imperial mecha knew that a collision was inevitable. A ruthless light appeared in his eyes, and he quickly turned his mecha"s beam shield up to its maximum defence setting. Instead of decreasing the power of his engines, he revved them even higher, pushing his mecha"s speed another notch higher to send his mecha hurtling towards Ling Xiao like a terrible metal missile.

At the last moment, the dire situation made the imperial mecha decide on an internecine outcome — even if he died, he would bring Ling Xiao along with him!

The opponent"s decision merely caused a trace of derision to appear in Ling Xiao"s eyes. He did not dodge, only stating calmly, "Divine Shield system!"

received his command and instantly activated the Divine Shield system. The already radiant and beautiful mecha was suddenly covered by a pale blue light all over its body, instantly illuminating the darkness of the night even further ...

A tremendous "boom" rang out as the two mecha collided head on! The intense shockwaves caused by the collision could even be felt by Ling Lan and the other cadets several kilometres away. On the screens of their mecha, the image of the two mecha colliding was played faithfully. Even though their speed was incomparable to that of a G.o.d-cla.s.s mecha, the capture function of their cameras was still extremely powerful, recording this thrilling scene with great precision.

This scene caused everyone"s expression to change drastically. Despite knowing in their hearts that General Ling Xiao was sure to be fine, they could not help but worry whether General Ling Xiao would sustain some injuries due to this devastating collision.

Perhaps the heavens wanted to test the hearts of these cadets even further, for before their initial worry could subside, the imperial mecha abruptly exploded. Boom boom boom! Consecutive explosions rang out and the entire night sky was instantly a blanket of smoke. Ling Lan and the rest could only see several fireb.a.l.l.s continuing to burn within the thick smoke, which then swiftly plummeted from the skies to crash heavily into the ground.

Some of the fireb.a.l.l.s crashed on dry gra.s.s, and very soon, the ground was aflame. From a tiny ember, the flames grew till it was a roaring blaze wreathed in thick smoke, where it then finally began to spread rapidly across the ground ...

However, right then, no one was paying any attention to the situation on the ground. Ling Lan and the rest were staring anxiously out into the air, waiting for the smoke of that imperial mecha"s self-destruction to dissipate. Finally, General Ling Xiao"s once again emerged before the group. The mecha hovered in the air, steady and immovable. The bright blue glow surrounding its outer sh.e.l.l was completely unchanged, and the twelve wings behind it were just as radiant and eye-catching as they were at the start.

All this proved that the impact of an imperial mecha"s intentional collision and the force from its self-destruction was not enough to cause any damage to a G.o.d-cla.s.s mecha! Everyone present could not help but be astounded at the sight — as expected of the acknowledged strongest ultimate weapon of the human world. Imperial mecha one level lower than it was nothing before it.

"So this is G.o.d-cla.s.s mecha!" They all looked at the G.o.d-cla.s.s mecha with impa.s.sioned eyes. All their awe and exclamations were finally condensed into this one sentence. "s monstrous power had been deeply reflected in their hearts; it became their lifelong goal from this point onwards.

Very soon, Ling Xiao operated his mecha to return to Ling Lan. He slowly descended to the ground, looking down at the mecha his daughter was piloting as he did so, and his heart twinged in pain.

The outer sh.e.l.l of the ace mecha Ling Lan was piloting was currently covered in scars. These battle scars proved that his baby daughter had experienced several battles already within this period of time. His precious daughter who should have grown up wilfully beneath his wings, had to act like a man because of him and rely on her own skills to seek survival on the cruel battlefield ...

This was all because of his incompetence as a father! If only he had not fallen for that trap 16 years ago, then his precious daughter would not have had to live such a hard life. For the first time, Ling Xiao registered deeply that he had done something wrong. He even imagined what if he had rushed here only to find that his daughter had already met some great misfortune ... Ling Xiao could not help but shudder. He absolutely could not allow such a thing to happen, or else he would never be able to forgive himself for the rest of his life.

"General Ling Xiao, so glad to meet you!" Ling Xiao"s silence made Ling Lan feel rather awkward, and she also did not want to have an emotional father-daughter reunion right here on this brutal battlefield, so she took the initiative to set the scene.

"General Ling Xiao?!" The way Ling Lan had addressed him caused all of the self-remonstration deep in Ling Xiao"s heart to scatter. He felt his teeth and gums aching, wishing dearly that he could grind them against something ... was he only going to hear his daughter call him "General Ling Xiao" after rushing here over several hundred thousand li? This unfilial daughter!

Is it so difficult to call me "daddy" just once? Ling Xiao forcibly suppressed the urge to blurt out this question with much effort, stiffly turning it into a different question. "Hn, can you still continue to fight?" He could not bear to push his daughter; after all, he was the one who owed his daughter, having been absent for 16 years of her life. The time before them was still long — one day, he would have his baby daughter willingly call him "daddy"! Ling Xiao vowed silently to himself.

"Of course!" Ling Xiao"s question made Ling Lan sigh in relief. She had really been worried that Ling Xiao would be displeased with her form of address and expose their relationship ... alright, Ling Lan was still somewhat unaccustomed to having such an awesome and impressive dad. Sometimes, when a father was too outstanding, it was a lot of pressure on the child.