On a large sailing ship weighing about five hundred tons, chaos had erupted upon seeing a planetary landing craft flying in the sky.
A knight, taller than average among the people of the Northern Continent, said sternly to the strikingly beautiful woman beside him, "Princess Ailuwei Miryua, I now think your idea was absolutely terrible."
Princess Ailuwei, dressed in a lavish princess gown with lace fringes covering its hem and sleeves blossoming like flowers, wore a hat adorned with a white veil. Yet, her expression surged with fervor and determination: "Indeed, it's as I thought. Infia has been overtaken by an unknown force possessing tremendous power. Agalan, look at those warships flying in the skies!
No wonder the Black Flag Fleet was annihilated. Even ten thousand Black Flag Fleets would be destroyed by such aerial warships!"
The knight Agalan felt at a loss and exclaimed, "If they could wipe out Shangduohan's Black Flag Fleet, they could wipe us out too!"
"Not necessarily; we're flying a flag, they won't do anything to us."
Soon, several mechanized infantry soldiers flew out of the landing craft, holding weapons and shouting through a loudspeaker: "Everyone on the ship below, drop your weapons, stop the vessel, and lie flat on the deck."
Agalan was somewhat angry: "How could such a noble princess of the Miryua royal family perform such a demeaning act?"
But Ailuwei had already laid herself down on the deck, leaving Agalan dumbfounded.
"What dignity is left for a princess of a fallen nation? If I can seek the help of this mysterious force, even if it means rolling in filth like pigs and dogs, I am willing!"
Agalan couldn't help but feel moved and admire Princess Ailuwei's resolve, making him feel utterly insignificant.
After everyone had lain down, the attack soldiers jumped down from the sky and landed on the deck.
Lying on the ground, Ailuwei lifted her head and looked at the agile infantry fully covered in silver armor, saying, "Mighty warrior, I am Princess Ailuwei of the Miryua Empire."
The mechanized infantry asked further, "You are the princess of Miryua? Then why have you come here?"
Ailuwei asked, "May I stand up to speak?"
Princess Ailuwei stood up, gave a courtesy to the assault soldier and said, "I came here from my fief, Elowia, specifically to Infia, to meet the heroes who defeated the dishonorable people of Shangduohan."
Elowia is a colonial city on the Southern Continent, much smaller than Infia, with just a population of two to three thousand. People from the Northern Continent typically name cities by adding a 'YA' sound at the end of a noun, akin to the meaning of 'city' in the Chinese language.
The current situation had been immediately relayed to Xiao Yu and in Ruyi City, Bai Zhongqi had also received such a report.
In the Governor's mansion, Xiao Yu revealed an inscrutable smile and said to the three brothers beside him, "We just wiped out the Black Flag Fleet, and this princess comes rushing to us. Let's not be too naive about her intentions."
Ji You also smiled and said, "Miryua had just been annihilated by the seven kingdoms of the Northern Continent two months ago. This princess is the only survivor of the royal family because her fief is in the Southern Continent, which allowed her to escape disaster. She even managed to gather a group of refugees who had fled from Miryua."
Shi Dingjing said, "So it seems, this princess plans to make an alliance with us and use our power to reclaim her nation, does she?"
The strategically minded Lai Zhicun then said, "It's too early to conclude definitively, but it's probably not far off."
Xiao Yu then said, "Ultimately, this matter still needs to be reported to His Majesty for him to decide."
Normally, if there were other forces present on an Administrative Star, the Governor, once appointed, would have considerable authority to handle them independently, usually by subjugating or annihilating these non-Empire forces. However, Xiao Yu was exceedingly cautious and dared not make any unilateral decisions on this matter.
Naturally, his available military force was also insufficient—most of the bionic human troops were engaged in construction projects on the Legendary Continent at Su'ao, and the forces he could mobilize numbered merely a few hundred, along with four landing crafts.
Before Princess Ailuwei arrived at Infia, Bai Zhongqi had already been preparing for another trip to Emerald Sea Star.
This time the scale of the fleet he was bringing was even larger.
Accompanying him was the flagship of the newly commissioned Cloud Dragon Class Heavy Cruisers, the Cloud Dragon, a cutting-edge warship with combat capabilities surpassing those of the Rampaging Bear Class, capable of serving as a half main battle ship.
It was equipped with two triple-barreled 1600WM Gauss Railguns, which were the most powerful main ship cannons constructed by the people of Iridium Star after the crossing.
The unit of measurement for weapon caliber, WM, represented the output of energy, with every increase in WM being not linear but exponential. The destructive power of these six 1600WM Gauss Railguns was comparable to the explosion of a nuclear weapon with tens of thousands of tons of TNT equivalent.
In actual space warfare, the power of the main cannons of the Cloud Dragon Class was far superior to nuclear weapons, which could not utilize shockwaves. The effects of light radiation and ray damage caused by nuclear weapons could also be easily shielded by the warship's shields. Practically, missiles armed with nuclear warheads were especially easy to intercept.
After all, in space warfare, nuclear weapons were considered conventional weapons, while the development of things like singularity weapons by the people of Iridium Star constituted unconventional weaponry.
The six main cannons of the Cloud Dragon Class could continuously strike a target hundreds of times within a few minutes, possessing considerable destructive power. Together with shield-busting warheads and other weaponry, they matched the average main battle ship firepower encountered by the people of Iridium Star among Universe Civilizations in the First Universe.
The Escort Ship Tai'a, which had participated in the previous fleet, was also following along this time.
Besides warships, this time Bai Zhongqi brought even more resources and construction power. Bai Zhongqi had brought more than a dozen cargo space ships in one go, the smallest freighters among them being the Whale Ships carrying thirty thousand tons.
These cargo space ships carried a large amount of resources and construction equipment. Bai Zhongqi planned to directly develop a cluster of orbital constructions around Emerald Sea Star and further develop the surface facilities of the planet.
As part of his plan, the agricultural development of the Legendary Continent still needed to be pursued, and the power integration in the Southern Continent region also needed to be strengthened.
This time, more people from Country C were accompanying him, given that Bai Zhongqi had allocated five hundred million square kilometers of land to Country C, which hoped to gradually start the development of the Clay Plains and Elephant Trunk Island.
Furthermore, Bai Zhongqi could not possibly allow the several kingdoms of the Northern Continent to continue existing. He had brought along the military forces of Country C, partly with the intention of conscripting soldiers.
Before that, Bai Zhongqi intended to first meet this princess of the fallen nation.