"Hahaha!" Kan Hua was already laughing so hard he was breathless. He tripped over his own feet, tumbling to the ground, his forehead slamming onto the earth.

"What a harmonious and adorable race, like a flock of little lambs! Honestly, I find it hard to bring myself to oppress you!" Gu Xiechen spread his hands in feigned helplessness.

"You shameless traitors!" Fuya.Ming ignored her knights, who were clearly veterans of honor, and aimed her high-energy assault rifle directly at the slowly advancing rebel soldiers, ready to fire.

But just as her finger tightened on the trigger, a loyal, elite Kingdom soldier whipped around, grabbed the barrel, and violently swung the muzzle skyward.

Chish-chish-chish—dozens of powerful purple beams shot into the heavens, failing to even graze a single rebel hair.

Fuya.Ming shrieked in fury, "Bastards! What are you doing? Have you betrayed me too?"

The loyal, elite Kingdom soldier turned to Fuya.Ming with steely resolve and roared, "Your Highness, please allow your warriors to defeat these despicable traitors with the methods of a warrior!"

Fuya.Ming trembled with rage. She glared fiercely at the soldier before her, then casually used the butt of her rifle to smash the earnest soldier’s face until he was bruised and bleeding, knocking him unconscious onto the ground.

But before Fuya.Ming could pull the trigger again, more than a dozen loyal, elite Kingdom soldiers lunged forward. Working in concert, they wrestled the assault rifle from her grasp. Though Fuya.Ming used her clean, sharp close-quarters combat techniques to batter the brainless soldiers until they were bruised, even a fierce tiger cannot defeat a pack of wolves, and the rifle was ultimately taken.

"Ah—Aaaah!" Fuya.Ming screamed in frustration. She hopped up and down in place a few times, drew a lightsaber, and charged toward the hillside.

Whuum—the lightsaber danced in Fuya.Ming's hand, throwing off shimmering waves of deep, faint blue light.

Parry, thrust, deflect, slice—Fuya.Ming engaged the rebel soldiers in an orderly melee.

The rebel soldiers screamed with delighted surprise: "Princess Fuya.Ming is here! Her Royal Highness is here! Quickly gather reinforcements, quickly gather reinforcements!"

Chish-chish-chish—more than a dozen excited, tense rebel soldiers were struck by Fuya.Ming’s lightsaber. High-pressure current instantly coursed through their bodies, making them shake violently before collapsing. Some of the weaker rebel soldiers even foamed at the mouth, their eyes rolling back as they passed out from the electrical shock.

"A foolish battle!" Dukat cursed in a low voice. "A lightsaber of such high technical grade, and it only manages to stun people?"

Kan Hua, meanwhile, was rolling on the ground clutching his stomach, roaring with laughter. "I love this place, damn it, I love this place! I could conquer this entire country by myself. I love it here!"

Ding-dang-clang, a chaotic clatter erupted as Kingdom soldiers and rebel soldiers clashed. Their lightsabers whirled, and they attacked each other using essentially the same rigid, stiff maneuvers. After more than three minutes of entanglement, Gu Xiechen could only see rebel soldiers continuously falling around Fuya.Ming, while almost no one else was wounded or down! "Thirty-something thousand regular army personnel in the whole nation? Huh? This is their level?"

Gu Xiechen sighed softly. He dissolved into a blur of afterimage and moved to Fuya.Ming's side, flicking his wrist to send two rebel soldiers, who were about to cleave at her back, flying far away. His palm strike was like thunder, and with a massive impact, the two soldiers slammed into over thirty charging rebels, pressing down on them like a collapsing mountain. They were sent staggering backward in retreat.

"Incredible!" Fuya.Ming stared in utter astonishment at Gu Xiechen, who had routed a tenth of the attacking enemy force with a single move. She exclaimed, "I know Bolobolu, and he absolutely does not have anyone this powerful near him! Who exactly are you? You look a lot like someone I know..."

Gu Xiechen smiled and bowed to Fuya.Ming. "Your esteemed Highness, the interstellar mercenary Xiechen.Gu pays his respects! We are a group of warriors wandering the cosmos. We’ve run into a bit of trouble and are currently looking for someone who can help us!"

"Mercenaries? Hired soldiers!" Fuya.Ming's dark eyes lit up. She exclaimed in pleasant surprise, "Are you truly mercenaries? Ha! You aren't afraid of trouble?"

Gu Xiechen shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't see what trouble there could be!" Three rebel soldiers rushed toward them, shouting incoherently and taking short, choppy steps. He kicked them away, sending all three flying. That kick was perhaps a bit too heavy; the rebels' chests made a crisp crackle, and all their ribs were shattered. Great gouts of blood sprayed from their mouths—this was the first time blood had been spilled on this battlefield today! Seeing the blood, Fuya.Ming became even more satisfied. She tucked away her lightsaber, placed her hands on her hips, and studied Gu Xiechen up and down thoughtfully. "Aren't you afraid of Prince Daogen’s backing...? That’s a major power whose civilization level is no less than our Yafike Kingdom! And they prioritize military strength!"

"We are merely..."

"Enough!" Fuya.Ming deftly flipped a stray lock of hair from her forehead and said decisively, "I hire you! How many of you are there? If they all have skills like yours, I can pay you a substantial sum... The most stable hard currency in the Star Alliance: five thousand tons of Starlight Silver. How about that?"

Silver ingots? Gu Wuchen shook his head repeatedly. Back on Earth, people considered this material too cold even to use as a toilet seat liner for fear of frostbite. He said mildly, "Regarding compensation, we can discuss that later, how about it? For now, let's deal with these... good-for-nothings?"

"Good-for-nothings?" Fuya.Ming sighed with a touch of helplessness, then nodded fiercely. "Fine, whatever compensation you want, we can discuss it slowly!"

"Excellent. I like doing business with straightforward people!" Gu Xiechen gave Fuya.Ming a thumbs-up. He suddenly wondered why he was starting to find Fuya.Ming more and more agreeable.

Fuya.Ming looked back at Gu Xiechen. Hmm, this man did have a certain appeal the longer one looked at him. Furthermore, unlike the handsome nobles of the Kingdom like Aodol, Gu Xiechen carried a peculiar aura.

He snapped his fingers sharply and blew a piercing whistle. "Dukat, time to work! Wipe out these guys in black!"

"Your will commands our destruction of all things!"

A deep electronic voice suddenly echoed from high above. One hundred armed robots, standing about four meters tall with savage, terrifying appearances, descended with a deafening roar from a height of several hundred meters. They raised their massive six-barreled high-energy rotary cannons and six-barreled Hellfire heavy machine guns, unleashing a torrent of fire upon the battlefield.

Boom-boom-boom—the rebel forces' ten flimsy, tin-can-like armored vehicles were instantly pulverized into dust.

Three hundred black-clad rebels were swept midsection by 15mm high-velocity machine gun rounds, their bodies severed in two. The armed robots' accuracy was extremely high; in just ten seconds, they killed every rebel, yet not a single hair on the heads of the Kingdom soldiers was harmed.

The ground was strewn with entrails, severed limbs, and pools of blood. The rebel soldiers who hadn't yet fully succumbed to death cried out in agony, scratching uselessly at the dirt.

The thick stench of blood instantly replaced the air's rich fragrance of flowers and grass. Pink mist sprayed from bodies hit by the large-caliber rounds hung suspended a meter above the ground. Combined with the piercing shrieks of the dying rebels, the scene resembled a living hell.

"Gods!"

Accompanying the piercing wails, over a hundred of the Kingdom's warriors instantly fainted dead away.

"Waaah!" The remaining dozens of Kingdom soldiers, who hadn't fainted, simultaneously bent over and began vomiting madly. They retched so violently they soon brought up yellow bile.

"Well, Your Highness, perhaps we can now discuss our employment contract," Gu Xiechen said formally, mimicking the aristocratic mannerisms as he bowed to Fuya.Ming. He smiled brightly, "I possess one hundred thousand powerful warriors and thousands of various powerful war machines. We have the strength to destroy an army legion of a million strong on an open field. How much would you be willing to pay to hire us?"

Fuya.Ming stared dazedly at the elite soldiers under her command and moaned weakly, "Boy Scouts? That's an accurate term... They're just children who haven't grown up."

Sighing, Fuya.Ming's expression momentarily dimmed. She nodded gently toward Gu Xiechen and smiled, "Everything is negotiable, isn't it? Can we go to my command center?" Gu Xiechen took a step back and bowed again gently. "As you wish, Your Highness!" He suddenly felt that indulging Fuya.Ming like this was a highly pleasant pastime! Dukat shook his head grimly behind them, muttering under his breath, "If that were my army... I could slaughter ten billion of them single-handedly! Give me enough Zakkra crystals and time, and I could easily kill ten billion of these useless troops!"

Kan Hua glanced slyly at Gu Wuchen, then at Fuya.Ming. "Ah, spring has arrived... Junior brother, it’s time for things to bloom!" He rummaged around in the hidden storage pouch at his waist, frowning slightly in frustration.

"Where are my private treasures? I remember having a few pills of Golden Spear Never-Fall, and a packet of Young Man’s Spreading Powder?"

Amidst the blood-red light and the sunlight, Gu Xiechen and Fuya.Ming looked at each other and smiled.

It wasn't just Gu Xiechen; Fuya.Ming also suddenly realized that this handsome, tall man before her was becoming more and more appealing the longer she looked. Unlike the noble paragons of the Kingdom like Aodol, Gu Wuchen gave her a profound sense of security.

A warm, powerful sense of security.