Yukong took a deep breath, gathered her emotions, and slowly began to speak.
"I don't know how to begin telling you this, but since it's come to this, I'll tell you why I never allowed you to become a fighter pilot. Qingni, do you know? You're not my biological daughter…"
Yukong started with a shocking revelation.
She had once been a fighter pilot herself. Her refusal to let Qingni become a fighter pilot was influenced partly by the last wishes of her closest friend and partly by a mother's love.
"I once, like you, had a yearning for the sky. I know exactly what that feeling is—sailing through the cosmos, surrounded by the vast emptiness, distant landscapes that are hard to imagine. Drifting like a lone boat across the starry sea… some people call it loneliness, but we preferred to call it freedom. Your biological mother, Caiyi, was such a person too…"
Yukong began recounting her experiences with her close friend: from being captured, to becoming a fighter pilot for the warships, to facing countless dangers and defeats, escaping from the grasp of relentless pursuers.
She paused when she reached the part about her friend's death. Even after living for two centuries, Yukong could still barely control her emotions, but she continued nonetheless.
"That day, it was the most beautiful sky I had ever seen, but all I felt was unbearable sadness. I could only crawl on the ground like a wretched ant, watching it, while in my dreams, I died on that day."
As Yukong spoke about her own experiences, both Pei Guang and Stelle fell into silence.
Pei Guang, who had expected this to be another typical mother-child family drama about a mother preventing her child from chasing their dreams, was caught off guard. The emotional weight of the situation left him with a strange, uneasy feeling.
Qingni listened to her mother's story, and after a long silence, she finally looked up at Yukong: "This is the first time I've heard you talk about this… but, Mom, I'm no longer an ignorant child. Becoming a fighter pilot is a brutal path, I've been prepared for it.
But I won't back down. I'm not afraid to walk the same road as her. If my sacrifice can bring happiness to the common people aboard the Xianzhou, I'm willing to go to my death without hesitation."
Yukong looked at Qingni gently. It was so, so similar: Qingni looked exactly like Caiyi had when she was young.
"You really are like Caiyi. The more excellent you become, the more afraid I get. I know you're already prepared… but… I haven't prepared myself."
Yukong's voice carried sadness, because she knew that once she said these things, she would no longer be able to stop Qingni from making her choice.
But it was precisely because she couldn't stop her that Yukong felt this deep discomfort.
Any mother would want to prevent their child from embarking on a path that could be life-threatening, but she knew Qingni had already made up her mind.
There was nothing she could do to stop it.
"Do you know? Those cruel things never defeated me. Caiyi, your biological father Guangyuan, and I, when we enlisted, we were mentally prepared. But do you know how we won that battle, the one that took Caiyi and tens of thousands of comrades from us?"
Qingni: "Was it… the Lux Arrow of the Reignbow Arbiter?"
Yukong: "Yes! The Lux Arrow of the Reignbow Arbiter, a great power, with just one shot, it wiped out those enemies! But just to stop them, we paid the price of tens of thousands of lives! If the Reignbow Arbiter's divine power can crush those enemies as easily as breathing, then what does our sacrifice even mean?
Under the power of the Aeon, the sacrifice of mortals is like a joke. It means nothing… it means nothing…"
Yukong's voice had the emotion of one who had given up. Every time she thought about that battle over thirty years ago, her heart could never be at peace.
But as she spoke, Pei Guang, who had remained silent, shook his head: "No! Your sacrifice was worth it. Yes, there are meaningless sacrifices, but coincidentally, I know a bit about that battle from thirty years ago.
As for your family's matters, I'm not going to interfere, but when it comes to whether the sacrifice was worth it, I need to speak for those who fell. I believe their sacrifice was meaningful. They held their ground until the Lux Arrow of the Reignbow Arbiter arrived. Without their fearless sacrifice, the outcome would have been much worse."
Pei Guang understood Yukong's feelings, but he disagreed with the notion that her friend's sacrifice was in vain.
Not to mention the Reignbow Arbiter, even when Pei Guang played real-time strategy games, if a battle was going on and a unit was getting pummeled, sometimes he wouldn't know until the system notification appeared.
Sometimes, the unit that seemed unimportant actually played a crucial role in delaying the enemy, preventing them from stealing the base.
Stelle, surprised by Pei Guang's words, asked: "You know about this too?"
Pei Guang turned to Stelle: "You obviously haven't paid attention to all the documents and records! Plus, Dan Heng has recorded all the key events in the think tank. You can check them out."
Stelle: "Oh? Tell me more! Details, please?"
Pei Guang stroked his chin, thinking back: "If I remember correctly, that battle from thirty years ago was…"
Pei Guang knew all about the battle Yukong had spoken of.
Based on his idle research, he found that the battle was related to the Lux Arrow of the Reignbow Arbiter, which had been shot from the Xianzhou Alliance's Reignbow Arbiter.
From the outcome, it seemed that the mortal troops had almost no chance of survival.
Despite their sacrifice, the enemies they couldn't stop were all wiped out by that one shot, giving the illusion that resistance was useless.
In reality, if it weren't for these people desperately stalling for time, delaying until the Reignbow Arbiter noticed the situation here and fired an arrow, the battle units wouldn't have been wiped out.
Instead, it would have been more like six of the Xianzhou sinking one by one.
Pei Guang shared what he knew and then added, "None of this has been made public. It seems only the general and the various diviners are aware. As for why it hasn't been revealed…"
Yukong looked at Pei Guang in surprise. "So... that's how it is? I guess I've learned something I shouldn't have…"
Yukong understood now why everyone in the Xianzhou Alliance, except for the general, was unaware of this matter. If this information were made public, it would definitely cause turmoil within the alliance.
Seeking the Reignbow Arbiter's help... this would be seen as a violation of the ancestral laws.
If this matter were to be made public, those who survived, or those who didn't participate in the battle, might believe that even without calling upon the Reignbow Arbiter, they could defeat the Abominations of Abundance.
While this might sound far-fetched, in reality, it's entirely possible.