Carrying the terrifying sound of howling wind, the flame-like {Red Lotus} descended from above the mountain.
Its speed shifted from extremely fast to extremely slow, gradually hovering over the scorched earth.
Li Qianxia's red mecha, once also very mighty, immediately seemed like a toy model worth 1800 yuan when compared to the other party's.
{Judgement} stopped its consecutive ballistic shooting, giving up its playfulness, seemingly communicating with {Red Lotus}.
Li Qianxia and Turquoise Pool took the opportunity to fly away from the mountain, which could absorb some of the shock, but also restricted the mecha's freedom and performance.
As they moved, the cockpit of the red mecha opened to catch Li Changzhou.
"Yo, pretty good technique," mocked Li Changzhou.
"It's crowded," Yang Qinglan retorted, arms pressed tightly to his.
"Only because you're too fat," Li Changzhou continued to tease.
From "Mecha is for toys, cut them all, to you call this a mecha?" his worries about the two gradually increased, especially after engaging with {Red Lotus}, reaching a peak.
Their unexpected encounter, even facing two formidable enemies, filled his heart with indescribable joy, hence his high spirits.
The key was, Yang Qinglan wouldn't get upset over being called fat—those who are prestigious, beautiful, and wealthy usually have a great mindset, the so-called surplus in the granary leads to knowing the proper rites, probably.
"Let's go first," the image of Turquoise Pool popped up on the monitor.
"OK!" replied Li Qianxia.
The two mechas roared and sped away, trailing a red and a white streak close to the ground into the distance.
Yang Qinglan glanced behind through the split screen; {Red Lotus} seemed ready to give chase, its tailfin already ablaze, but {Judgement} reached out to stop it.
The other party did not pursue.
"Seems they're in no rush to kill you," hot air breathed near her ear made her inadvertently twitch, feeling a tickle at the bottom of her heart.
The fragrant strands of hair brushed past Li Changzhou's nose, mesmerizing him while simultaneously making him want to sneeze.
"Looks like {Judgement} showed mercy, did {Red Lotus} want to kill you?" asked Yang Qinglan.
"It was me who wanted to kill it," Li Changzhou corrected her, "Sadly, I can't kill it, and it can't kill me either."
"Captain Wis!" A small screen popped up in the cockpit.
Li Changzhou glanced at her golden hair, gorgeous dress, and roughly guessed her identity.
"Jeri, Lila, where are they?" Beia Triss asked urgently.
Li Qianxia activated the communicator.
"They're all dead," Li Changzhou replied, "I'm the only one from the rear guard who survived."
Ignoring the princess's pale face, sunken into silence, Li Changzhou motioned for Li Qianxia to turn off the communicator.
"What was your mission?" he asked.
"Wow!" Li Qianxia shouted suddenly, overshadowing Yang Qinglan's voice, "We can't tell him, if he learns about our mission, he could complete our mission and intercept our reward—"
Li Changzhou pressed his sister's head down into his chest.
Body driving the consciousness, consciousness driving the mecha, the mecha checked its own chest as though, closely pressing its steel (possibly other materials) chin to the chest.
Fortunately, mechas don't solely rely on sight to navigate.
"Protect the princess?" Li Changzhou asked Yang Qinglan.
"To safely deliver Princess Beia Triss to the Imperial Capital of the Isolde Empire," Yang Qinglan repeated the mission content verbatim.
"Deliver to the capital? Just to the door, or to a specific place in the royal palace or the capital?" Li Changzhou half inquired, half mused to himself.
"The latter is more likely. What about your mission?"
"Sigh," Li Changzhou sighed.
Yang Qinglan, pondering something, smiled more than surprised: "Destroy {Red Lotus}?"
"Am I that low a quality?"
"Including {Judgement}?"
"Plus one {Burning}."
"Go ahead and laugh,"
"Sorry," Yang Qinglan turned away, shoulders shaking as she indeed burst into laughter.
She could still laugh because Li Changzhou was almost certain of failure, yet failure carried no penalties.
"Bro, did you see Xiao Luobo?" asked Li Qianxia.
"No. Don't worry about her, she's safer wandering blind than we are," Li Changzhou replied, then muttered, "What are these assassins thinking."
Why not kill — this was the joint confusion among the five, including Beia Triss.
After catching up, Yang Qinglan asked Li Qianxia to turn on the communicator.
"Princess, to evade the pursuit of the Imperial Mecha, what should we do next?" she asked.
She, Li Qianxia, Turquoise Pool, weren't familiar with the capability of the Imperial Mecha — and Li Changzhou even more so, "born" without a mecha to his name.
"Tell me about the tracking technology of the Imperial Mecha," Yang Qinglan interrupted Beia Triss's resignation, already somewhat understanding the princess's character.
It wasn't just the princess's character, according to the side mission "Defeat the Myth", everyone in this world held no hope against resisting the Imperial Mecha.
It was like trying to catch bullets with bare hands before the Value game started on the prehistoric Earth, an impossibility for anyone.
Except for the Fire Cloud Evil God.
"...The Imperial Mecha, because it hosts a Cangqiong Fragment as the power furnace, doesn't worry about energy shortages thanks to 'the grace,' thus it is equipped with hybrid tracking technology."
"What, exactly, is hybrid tracking technology?" Li Qianxia would never pretend to understand.
"All of them," Beia Triss answered.