Chapter 265: The First Handshake

Chapter 265: The First Handshake

On the ground.

When the second aerial bomb fell, only one of the four colossal monsters besieging Han River City remained.

Although Lei Jie no longer pursued a direct hit, the bomb that landed between the two beasts still shattered their innards with an unrivaled super‑pressure, and the scattering shrapnel sliced their flesh and bone as if cutting tofu, rendering them instantly incapacitated.

Seizing the brief respite, the Blood‑sacred and the mechanistic Cult of the Machine’s guardians surged forward, and within moments they put an end to the monster completely.

And what of the lone remaining Blade‑arm Beast?

The blood‑red‑eyed defenders would not let it escape; the few remaining mercenaries even charged forward, hoping to claim this final trophy and barter it for a ticket into the new city of Jinling.

The battle ended within half an hour; on the devastated field, blood‑stained warriors brandished their weapons, scanning all directions, yet found no target worthy of pulling the trigger.

“We… won?”

Someone stammered, asking.

“We won.”

“I suppose… the monsters are gone.”

“Not gone, dead.”

“The Angel of the Holy Trinity has arrived!”

“They dropped the hammer of divine punishment. We are saved.”

“Now then? What should we do now?”

“I don’t know, bishop priest, bishop priest??”

The crowd instinctively searched for Li Xian’s whereabouts, while he, buried beneath a thick layer of earth, was being pulled up by Zhou Qin.

“Ahem.”

“Pah.”

Li Xian spat out the mud from his mouth; amid a deafening ringing, he saw Zhou Qin’s gaping mouth uttering something, yet he heard nothing.

But that mattered not.

He knew that Han River City had surely held.

He had seen the Angel cleave the Yangtze and the monsters within it in two, and watched it dive upon the remaining beasts.

In the final moment of organizing the guardians’ retreat, a massive shockwave hurled him aloft, stunned him, and then he was buried once more by swirling earth.

He could not tell how long he had been unconscious, nor whether he could survive.

A searing pain in his chest made every muscle convulse, yet his spirit surged with an unprecedented fervor.

The Angel truly came to rescue us.

The “rescue” promised by the Huaxia army was not a mere band of mercenaries dispatched gradually.

What they sent was an Angel!

Clearly, this Angel was weaker than the legendary one who once hurled the Sword of Divine Punishment upon Jinling, yet even so, its displayed power surpassed any monster’s.

Han River City was saved.

Humanity was saved.

When the Angel, in the name of the Holy Trinity, once again swept across the land, every heresy would be reduced to ash by the Trinity’s wrath!

Li Xian fell to his knees, praying devoutly toward the heavens.

In that instant, he completely forgot—or rather, completely set aside—the rift with the Huaxia army.

Regardless of their faith, regardless of how they differed from us, the fact that they could command an Angel proved they were not the heretics who opposed humanity.

Perhaps this was merely an alternative form of redemption?

Perhaps they were born to correct twisted doctrines?

Li Xian felt a revelation stir within him.

Though he could not yet grasp its true meaning,

there was no doubt he would no longer be lost.

At that moment, his hearing began to return.

He heard Zhou Qin, hoarse with effort, speak to him:

“All the monsters have been annihilated! We have held!”

“I know!”

Li Xian shouted back, then continued:

“That was an Angel!”

“.That wasn’t an Angel, the Huaxia commanders say…”

“Yes, it was an Angel.”

A hint of pride blossomed on Li Xian’s face; he hadn’t caught Zhou Qin’s words at all, only the word “Angel” that echoed through the latter’s sentences.

“.You say it, so it is.”

Zhou Qin shook his head helplessly, then asked:

“What now? Where shall we go?”

“Gather the civilians! Bring them back to Han River City!”

“The monsters may return; we must be ready!”

“Fear not, the Angel will return again!”

“Very well!”

Zhou Qin replied loudly, then immediately ordered the troops to regroup.

The still‑mobile guardians began clearing the battlefield and tending to the wounded, while those civilians who had not yet fled joined their ranks.

Having witnessed the miracles wrought by the Angel, everyone abandoned thoughts of retreat.

After all, as Li Xian had said, the Angel would come again.

It came once; it would surely come a second time!

The Holy Trinity never abandoned its people; now its mercy stood proven by iron.

United, the populace surged with tremendous cohesion; the wounded were swiftly gathered, and the apothecaries and physicians of the Sacred Blood Hall employed every method to preserve their lives.

Bonfires rose everywhere; as night fell, the weather‑worn city had miraculously reclaimed its former order.

——

Yet when one looks upward, the landscape remains scarred.

Perhaps rebirth is always accompanied by pangs of pain.

Li Xian’s hearing had fully recovered; he was fortunate to have survived the aerial bomb’s explosion.

When he used the radio to confirm to the Huaxia troops once more that “the support would continue,” the weight that had been hanging on his heart finally, utterly, eased.

Gazing at the speckled lights flickering within the city, he turned to Zhou Qin, who was tending to the wound on his left arm, and said:

“This city has become different.”

“We have become different.”

“Haven’t you noticed?”

“I have.”

Zhou Qin nodded, winding bandages round after round, then, as if a thought struck him, he halted his motions.

“The doctors on the Huaxia side say that after an injury you don’t always have to bind a wound; it can even cause an anaerobic bacterial infection.”

“In short, that’s the term——we’ve never heard of such a thing before.”

“But perhaps they’re right. The people they’ve saved far outnumber ours.”

“Indeed.”

Li Xian let out a long sigh, then spoke:

“Perhaps this is the first time we truly set aside our prejudices and sit together.”

“I never imagined that one day the Hall of Holy Blood and the Mechanical Cult would cooperate in this manner.”

“In truth, we are not fundamentally that different, are we?”

“—That is my question, too.”

Zhou Qin lifted his head pensively, then said:

“What exactly has erected the barrier between us? I keep wondering—can the aspirations of the Hall of Holy Blood truly be incompatible with those of the Mechanical Cult?”

“Now I understand—it isn’t that the two cannot coexist; it is the scarcity of resources that forces us to choose one or the other.”

“The Huaxia troops seem to be reshaping everything. Though that wasn’t their original aim, it is indeed happening.”

“They have made us more united.”

“Yes.

Li Xian nodded slowly.

“Regardless, we have weathered the first crisis.”

“But the battle is not over.”

“Come, the battlefield lies before us.” As he spoke, Li Xian extended his hand toward Zhou Qin.

Their palms met, the first sincere handshake between a Holy Blood devotee and a Mechanical Cult priest.

Inside Base 011.

The mosquito‑type bomber returned safely and touched down; Lei Jie, crawling out of the cockpit, stretched his limbs while grumbling incessantly:

“This plane is a shoddy piece of junk!”

“The wing ribs are poorly riveted; they shuddered under high‑G maneuvers, though thankfully they didn’t snap.”

“Without an air‑conditioning system it’s unbearable—cold enough to freeze everything, even my damn breath!”

“The engines are out of sync, the flight control isn’t tuned, the four thrust units deliver uneven power, making handling a nightmare.”

“The hydraulic response is sluggish; that needs a full recalibration.”

“The landing gear is too stiff; it can barely cope now, but a heavy landing would probably crush the fuselage.”

“Everything is a problem, everything is a problem.”

“Can the next unit be fixed in time? If we can, do it now.”

“It’s too late.”

Chen Jian stepped toward him and answered:

“We’re already in the production stage; the next one, then.”

“I’m asking whether this contraption can even fly. Is it merely ‘good enough’?”

“That’s cutting it way too close.”

Lei Jie clicked his tongue twice, then said:

“To be fair, from a purely functional standpoint it does meet the basics.”

“All we need is something that can get off the ground and drop a bomb, after all.”

“I’ve tested it; in a maximum‑load state it can still carry, up to three 250‑kilogram class missiles.”

“But it has no maneuverability; it’ll wobble just to stay aloft.”

“That’s an extreme strategy—use it only when absolutely necessary.”

“Understood, that’s sufficient.”

Chen Jian nodded with satisfaction, then asked:

“So, what’s the situation over at Hanshui City?”

“It’s over.”

Saying that, Lei Jie’s irritation over the half‑baked bomber finally eased.

“The third‑tier monsters didn’t survive a single hit—just a frontal strike.”

“If we were using proximity fuses, I’d estimate one or two rounds would be needed.”

“Within 150 meters, a single hit can down a fourth‑tier monster; it won’t kill instantly, but it will incapacitate.”

“At that rate, a dozen bombers could blanket the whole world.”

“The only snag is that we’re running low on missiles.”

“That’s not a huge problem.”

Chen Jian walked with Lei Jie toward the main tunnel of the 011 works, replying:

“The first barrel of ammonia is ready; the nitric acid will be produced within a couple of days.”

“With nitric acid in hand, making high‑performance explosives is straightforward.”

“What’s the technical merit of iron bombs? If the Ring Chamber doesn’t have any, we’ll just forge our own.”

“Sure, let’s produce more, maybe even cluster munitions.”

The two moved with a relaxed air; this “effortless” victory bolstered their confidence in the air force’s development, and they even began sketching plans for a more “advanced” ground‑attack aircraft.

They were still not satisfied with their current arsenal, yet, watching Lei Jie emerge from the aircraft with a golden insignia, they were utterly stunned by the incomprehensible scene.

He watched the plane in silence, watched the Huaxia troops and ordinary citizens gathering around the aircraft in Base 011, eyes wide with curiosity.

He wanted to reach out, to touch, to see, but his sense of propriety held him back; his rank would not permit him to display such wonder toward the marvelous contraption.

So he could only stand where he was, gazing from afar.

As Chen Jian and his companion passed before him, Chen Jian’s keen eyes caught the expression on his face.

"What's the matter?"

Chen Jian opened his mouth and asked:

"Do you wish to go and see? Your comrades must also be eager to look, no?"

"No need for formalities—just don't break it."

"I"

Jin Zhong was momentarily at a loss for words.

"No, perhaps it's best to let it be."

"You're not interested?"

Chen Jian halted his steps, curiosity evident as he asked.

"No."

Jin Zhong opened his mouth, then held back, finally sighing before asking:

"Has the crisis at Hanshui City already been resolved?"

"It has been resolved."

Chen Jian nodded, replying:

"There was only one level‑three monster and three level‑four beasts there; we slew three of them, and the remaining one was dealt with by the garrison of Hanshui City."

"In the short term they should not encounter any major trouble, though nothing is certain."

"Nevertheless, we now possess an aircraft capable of long‑range flight."

"That means that, with New Jinling as the centre, every human settlement within a five‑hundred‑kilometre radius is broadly safe."

"Should another monster raid occur, we can respond swiftly and organise rescue."

As the words fell, Jin Zhong's expression shifted from puzzlement to astonishment.

He looked at Chen Jian, incredulous, and asked:

"Just this one—one aircraft?"

"Of course not."

Chen Jian waved his hand and answered:

"We shall forge more aircraft."

"However, pilots are a problem—if any of your men have aspirations, they may join the pilot selection."

"We need many pilots; anyone may take part."

"Us? We can also??"

Jin Zhong stared, dumbfounded.

He could not fathom Chen Jian's "generosity"; after all, within the Mechanical Cult such a terrifying weapon could never be permitted in others' hands.

How can you ensure that those who wield it will not turn the spear toward themselves?

Clearly, these Huaxia troops are either hopelessly foolish or utterly without such concerns.

They could not possibly be foolish; thus the answer is the latter.

In other words, the strength they display is far less simple than it appears.

Jin Zhong let out a long sigh.

At that moment, he felt immense gratitude for having offered the right counsel at that meeting.

If, at this instant, the Mechanical Cult and the Huaxia army remained adversaries.

Then the divine retribution borne by that "aircraft" would surely descend upon Jinling City.

Watching Chen Jian nod, Jin Zhong slowly spoke:

"Understood; I shall convey this to my brothers."

"Very well, no need for restraint."

Chen Jian gave a faint smile.

From Jin Zhong's gaze, he already perceived a deeper tremor.

The wall within his heart was on the verge of breaking.

Yet, a more opportune moment was still lacking.

No one knows when that moment will arrive.

Yet Chen Jian could feel it was not far off.

(End of Chapter)