Chapter 2522 Martial Law (Part 2)
In the Jiangnan region, the night sky is bathed in golden light from the port lights.
Zhu Zheng stood by the window, his fingers gripping the windowsill. Lan Xincheng stood behind him, waiting for him to speak.
Zhu Yu leaned back on the sofa, as quiet as a beautiful rag doll.
"To pay or not to pay?" Zhu Zheng asked in a low voice.
Lan Xincheng opened his mouth, but said nothing.
Does it make a difference whether you pay or not?
Zhu Zheng suddenly realized: "It seems that in the Jiangnan region, I can only say a few words in Blizzard City! And that's only because he's giving me face."
……
In the East China Sea region, the sea breeze, carrying the scent of salt, blows through the command corridor.
Li Guangxiao, Xuanwu, Zhuque, and Li Changgong surrounded the sea chart.
Xuanwu said in a deep voice, "I agree with Chaos's proposal. The coastline is long, and we are under too much pressure. Unified command can save us a lot of wrangling. However... our navy doesn't want to be a target anymore."
Zhuque pointed to the sea chart: "Without Chaos' help, we can hardly even set sail, let alone have any command."
Li Guangxiao tapped a thumbtack: "I'll bring this up. Donghai agrees, but an emergency exemption must be attached."
He looked up at the distant sea: "The sea is unfamiliar, and when it's unfamiliar, don't be reckless. Entrusting your life to something stronger is perhaps the safest choice right now."
……
It was late at night. The wind in Tianhai City made the flags on the rooftops flutter wildly.
Only Zhang Yi, Yang Xinxin, and Lu Keran remained in the living room.
Lu Keran crossed her arms, took off her shoes, and put her two small, white feet on the coffee table, facing Zhang Yi.
“Brother Zhang Yi, you’re putting the worst in front of us! By tomorrow morning, I guarantee someone will contact you to offer their allegiance, and someone else will be plotting against you behind your back.”
Zhang Yi laughed: "Let's take it over. As long as we can reach a consensus in the end, I don't care about the process. It would be best if we could reach a consensus, but if we can't, I will still follow the rule of 'whoever expresses their opinion first, I will save first.' Treating everyone equally is the ideal, but distinguishing between priorities is the reality."
Yang Xinxin nodded: "They don't have the power to say no."
Zhang Yi stretched and said, "Thank you for your hard work. Keran, move the maintenance window for the fleet forward. If a few major regions make a decision tomorrow, we need to show them tangible changes within 48 hours—such as the first batch of evacuation list shipments."
Lu Keran waved his hand: "Leave it to me. I've already optimized the cooling cycle of the main guns of the three ships, and the energy stack of the Skysea Fortress can also squeeze out another 8% of its peak value."
Zhang Yi glanced at the sea of city lights: "They'll give us an answer within 24 hours. Whether they do or not, we'll proceed according to plan."
He paused, then softened his voice: "Everyone has worked hard. Get some sleep first. When we wake up tomorrow, the world will still be changing, and we will have to change along with it."
……
In the hazy, gray light before dawn, the lights were still on in the high-level conference rooms of the six major regions.
The fax machine in Shengjing spit out page after page, and Shang Daowen bound the "Wartime Appointment Letter (Draft for Review)" into a booklet;
On the snowy roads of Northeast China, Ji Changhai made the car leave two deep ruts that spelled "agree".
At the National Protection Army's outpost, Chen Xuanba signed his name on the "Three-Stage Firepower Regulations";
Behind the sand dunes in the northwest, Xiao Lie exhaled a breath of stale air towards Chen Xing and pressed the "send" button.
As soon as the temple bell rang in the southwest, Jueguo clasped his hands in prayer, and Luozhuo sent the word "support" to Tianhai.
At the port in Jiangnan, Zhu Zheng smiled at the north wind and was the first to express his loyalty to Zhang Yi.
In the chart room of the East China Sea, Li Guangxiao wrote four words after the "additional clauses": "I wish to maintain a harmonious relationship with Your Majesty Chaos forever."
Meanwhile, at Tianhai's terminal, messages agreeing to hand over supreme wartime command to Zhang Yi were gradually being relayed by high-ranking officials from the six major regions.
The swords of a nation are being drawn into the same hand.
However, Zhang Yi did not see any of this at the moment, because he knew this would be the outcome and did not care much about the form it took.
……
In the underground training room, the lights were dimmed and the walls were made of excellent sound-absorbing material, leaving only the faint sounds of breathing and metal brushing against the air.
Zhang Yi tossed his coat aside, his palm rubbing the knife handle. It felt icy cold, and when he applied force, the small bumps on the handle would dig into his palm, causing a slight pain.
But this allows him to hold the knife more steadily, and the pain gives him a real sense of being alive.
He liked the feel of it—in the fifth year of the apocalypse, he only felt safe and had the confidence to face any threat when he had a weapon firmly in his hand.
"Come on, let's get started." He smiled and beckoned to Liang Yue, who was dressed in a black, form-fitting tracksuit and had a well-proportioned figure.
"I've had too many things on my mind lately, and I can't sleep well without breaking a sweat. This is a good way to warm up; only by staying in a fighting state can I be ready for any potential conflict!"
Zhang Yi rubbed his strong wrist; his physical fitness was now extremely high.
Zhou Ke'er's "Immortal" transformation surgery was a great success.
Liang Yue rolled up her sleeves, her temples damp with sweat, looking as neat and efficient as ever.
She gripped a practice sword: "Let's practice the basic moves three times first!"
The two got into position. Their steps were like writing on the ground, each stroke controlled yet expansive.
Zhang Yi's knife moves from his waist, not his arm; the power seems to be twisting up from the soles of his feet.
Liang Yue's knife was light, as light as the wind, yet the wind could blow the curtains close to the window.
Ten minutes, twenty minutes later, the sweat dripped onto the mat and was quickly evaporated by the heat.
"stop."
Liang Yue raised her hand and carefully guided Zhang Yi's movements.
"Relax your shoulders, sink your hips, and don't use your neck to guide your gaze. If you look too much, your knife will fall apart."
Zhang Yi obediently adjusted, exhaled, and asked with a smile, "When do you think I can be like you, where sincerity can move mountains? I can only exert seven-tenths of my strength now. Can you give me a shortcut to turn those seven-tenths into nine-tenths or even ten-tenths?"
Liang Yue's ability is very simple; it is the purest form of enhancement. In a conventional sense, this ability has a low ceiling and is easy to counter.
However, if one can reach their full potential, it can also have some very surprising effects.
Liang Yue's "Where there is metal and stone, there is hope" is not a superpower, but a martial arts killing move formed by combining swordsmanship with her "qi" and "mind".
Its instantaneous explosive power can far exceed the upper limit of its own superpower index, which Zhang Yi is very envious of.
"Of course you can learn if you want."
Liang Yue sat down against the wall, her back against the cold concrete. "This move, Jiang Jiujing, is about calming his mind and forgetting himself. The knife is there, but his mind is not; the mind is there, but the knife is not. Only when the two are combined can it be called 'arrival'."
She paused, then added, "It took me thirty years to dare say that I can do it occasionally."
Zhang Yi wiped his face with a towel, paused for two seconds, and said, "Thirty years? Forget it. I'll take another route."
Liang Yue chuckled and tossed him a bottle of water: "You're the kind of person who always knows how to take shortcuts. Fine, your path doesn't have to be the same as anyone else's."
