Until the afternoon, Cui Jinqi had not contacted him.
As an experienced dreamwalker, Cheng Jinyang had learned valuable lessons from his previous four failures where he accidentally exposed himself.
In this particular dream entry, he had hidden himself well from start to finish, without being discovered by Cui Jinqi.
By this time, the Taiyuan Wang clan and the Qinghe Cui clan had already evacuated Jiankang entirely. The phone, quietly placed on the table without a barrage of notifications, served as strong evidence of this fact.
Of course, it was also related to him having turned on flight mode.
In the nearly deserted office building near the front line, Cheng Jinyang was sitting in an empty room, flanked by two seasoned Tianluo guards protecting him.
On the command terminal screen, a large number of enemy light dots were decreasing, while the friendly Shenwu Army's forces were also rapidly suffering heavy losses.
The casualty exchange ratio was accelerating.
As Miss Wang had mentioned, it wasn't just the Cheng clan members who had been brainwashed by Wang Chuzhong; the entire Longxiang Army had been thoroughly brainwashed, launching all-out attacks against the Shenwu Army.
The city shield overhead still flashed with a brightness like staring at the sun every ten minutes or so. The Jingwei mothership maintained high-intensity pressure on the shield, coordinating with the Longxiang Army to continually send troops through the gaps created by the main cannon.
This high-tech warfare between the "strongest spear" and the "strongest shield" left Cheng Jinyang feeling deeply powerless. However, he also knew that dealing with the mixed rebel forces was not his true objective.
Rather, it was to establish the fact that the Shendu Cheng clan was participating in the rebellion, providing the Emperor with a legitimate reason to persuade his brother-in-law, the Zhongshu, to allow the Cheng clan to leave the city.
Thus, Cheng Jinyang instructed the remaining Tianluo to act as snipers, ambushing in various hidden corners behind the front lines and shooting deadly bullets at the front lines.
The law of universal gravitation could negate the effect of gravity on the bullets, so the Tianluo snipers didn't need to consider much—just apply the calibrated Iron Shooting algorithm to the bullets, then simply aim and fire, reaping lives from a kilometer away while ensuring their own survival.
Of course, the enemy's battlefield commander would eventually notice this, so Cheng Jinyang had corresponding contingencies in place.
"Patriarch!" Suddenly, a Tianluo transmitted from the front line, "We've captured Cheng Qingxin!"
They caught Uncle? Cheng Jinyang immediately inquired about the details.
Cheng Qingxin had been shot down by a high-caliber shell from the Shenwu Army on the battlefield, which shattered half of his body. A slight deviation and they might have only retrieved a corpse.
Even so, his body was already like a candle in the wind, unable to move long distances, so the Tianluo had only given him basic treatment on-site and quickly reported to the Patriarch.
"Connect me to the front line," Cheng Jinyang said. "I want to speak with him."
"Understood."
The communication was quickly established, and the screen showed a nearly charred body. On that remaining half of a face, Uncle's vague features could be barely discerned.
However, Cheng Jinyang felt no pleasure at this moment. He merely stared solemnly at the screen, while Uncle's dying eyes also turned towards the camera.
"Uncle," Cheng Jinyang said softly, "your choice was wrong."
"Including those who followed you, you've all paid the price."
The dying Cheng Qingxin opened and closed his lips slightly, seemingly trying to say something, but no sound came out.
From the lip movements, it looked like "Yi Zhou."
Cheng Jinyang paused and then said:
"He's fine; we saved him."
Cheng Qingxin slowly closed his mouth, and his eyelids fell shut.
"Patriarch," said the Tianluo beside him, "he's dead. Should we bring his body back?"
"No need, bury him on the spot. Ensure your own safety first," Cheng Jinyang replied, suppressing the melancholy in his heart.
"Patriarch!" Another communication came into the command center, "We have a drone squad approaching the sniper positions!"
So they chose a drone strike… Cheng Jinyang then commanded:
"Switch to the surveillance feed."
"Everyone, proceed as planned."
"Number 13, they're heading your way, prepare to be exposed."
"Expecting contact in 10 seconds, all squads be ready."
"EMP!"
[T/N: Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) refers to a burst of electromagnetic radiation that can disrupt or damage electronic equipment and communication networks.]
As the command to execute the electromagnetic pulse attack was carried out, the drone fleet pursuing Tianluo and being led into the trap zone quickly became paralyzed by the power of the dispersive electromagnetic explosion, plummeting to the ground like rain.
Based on the battlefield intelligence from the last encounter in the Wujiang Industrial Zone, the Longxiang Army had removed the heavy electromagnetic shielding from their drones to allow their warships to carry more of these drone fleets, making these killing machines particularly vulnerable to electromagnetic attacks.
Of course, the increased number of drones in the fleet could entirely offset the negative impact of this vulnerability. However, Cheng Jinyang had no intention of winning; he only needed this one assault.
"Send a message to the Shenwu Army commander: Tianluo's sniper positions are under air assault by Longxiang Army drone swarms. We must retreat to avoid annihilation." He quickly stood up.
"Understood!"
Since the Longxiang Army had already deployed their drone fleet, it indicated that their commander had noticed the presence of the sniper positions. Even if the first wave of drones was taken down, the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth waves would soon follow, continuously attacking.
Therefore, there was no need for the sniper positions to remain on the battlefield any longer, and Tianluo could justifiably retreat.
The battle merits earned from killing the enemies earlier would suffice to give the Emperor and the Zhongshu a satisfactory report.
The Tianluo scattered across the battlefield quickly withdrew from the Jiangning District and regrouped in the northern depth zone.
It was then that Cheng Jinyang noticed that one of the Tianluo teams had brought along a three or four-year-old girl...
"Who is this child?"
"Patriarch, we picked her up from the street," said the team leader. "Her guardian seemed to have been killed by gunfire. She was just sitting by the roadside, not crying or making a fuss, just guarding the guardian's body."
"We thought she didn't seem like an ordinary civilian's daughter, so we brought her back for you to see."
"She is not my guardian," the little girl suddenly said from the team leader's arms. "She is my kidnapper."
"Oh?" Cheng Jinyang saw that she was exquisitely beautiful, articulate, and clear-minded. He took her from the team leader's arms and asked patiently, "What's your name?"
"Xie Lingjiang," the little girl replied.
"Hmm, little sister Lingjiang, are you a member of the Fufeng Xie clan?"
The little girl nodded.
"Do you have any proof of your identity?" Cheng Jinyang asked gently.
He meant that she could just mention the name of an uncle or elder, and he would check if they were indeed from the Fufeng Xie clan.
The little girl blinked and said, "Xi Cheng Shen Bo, yuan chu Luo Yi."
Cheng Jinyang: ?
Seeing his confusion, the little girl couldn't help but add, "Not inferior to Donghai, how could one recognize Yan Hui?"
"Wait," Cheng Jinyang raised his hand, indicating she should stop, "let brother make a phone call first, and then we'll talk, okay?"