Resurrection Empire

Chapter 1349 - 510: Playing Dead Plan, Making Steady Progress, Ten-Year Plan (Part 3)

Ren Zhong gladly agreed, personally chose the themes and finalized them, settling on the first designs for the Red Blade Flag and the Source Star Flag.

Standing on the rooftop of one of the buildings, taking a deep breath of the fresh air scented with grass, Ren Zhong pointed at the endless emerald-green plain ahead, whose boundaries were nowhere in sight, and sighed to Zheng Tian beside him, "Zheng Tian, could you ever have imagined in the past that the plants in this world were originally supposed to be green?"

Zheng Tian shook her head. "Forget the past, even now I’m still not really used to it. It feels awkward. Ever since I can remember, I’ve been used to blue grass and blue leaves."

Ren Zhong said, "Back then, people used to say that only Source Star Citizens were qualified to receive higher education, that it wasn’t some God-given privilege, but that wilderness folk were inherently stupid, and learning was wasted on them. Now look—those recruits down there in the drill ground forming up and practicing their punches. Can you tell which are Citizens’ descendants and which are wilderness folk’s descendants? What you see from childhood isn’t necessarily correct common sense. It might just be some methods others used to distort your cognition, things that go against basic human instinct that they force-fed into you. All such anti-common-sense information that violates human genetic instincts, at the root, exists for only one purpose—to suppress the cognitive potential of the colonized."

Hearing this, Zheng Tian nodded again and again. "So that’s how it is."

"On the last expedition, you and Vincent Fanhuoyi both did well. Our campaign won’t stop there. Right now the fleet is still improving its equipment. Two years from now, you’ll secretly set out with a thousand Armed Ships with stronger stealth capabilities and head to the Shattered Star Ring to gather resources for Red Blade Star. Internally we have Wu Moyou, a strategist who knows the Shattered Star Ring Pirates’ forces inside and out. Externally we still have many factions maintaining secret contact with us, and we also have the Viscount Mansion of Wen Yuanbo, who controls the Observatory Space Station and has extremely wide information channels, providing us with intelligence support. Finding those pirates’ lairs won’t be hard. Since Nanxiang Marquis won’t sell to us, all the better—we’ll just take it."

"Chief Ren, you’re not going?"

Ren Zhong shook his head and smiled with narrowed eyes. "No need for me. I’m perfectly at ease leaving it to you. I’ve already seen the scene of you returning in triumph. You’ll become the nightmare of the Pirate Alliance in the Shattered Star Ring. Remember, long ago I once said that your ceiling surpasses your imagination. I still stand by that view now."

Zheng Tian was stunned at first, but a moment later she shook her head, full of regret. "There were others who once received that same evaluation from you. But now they’re all gone."

Ren Zhong knew she was talking about people like Yujin, Chen Hanyu, and Hu Yang.

So much time had passed that Zheng Tian had long since forgiven Ren Zhong in her heart, but that bone-deep sense of loss and regret was something she could not forget.

Ren Zhong only gave a mysterious smile and clapped Zheng Tian heavily on the shoulder. "Not necessarily. You have to believe in miracles."

Zheng Tian froze, staring blankly at Ren Zhong, the light in her pupils gradually burning brighter.

Although the years had left faint traces on her baby face, with her short hair, Zheng Tian still looked like a little girl who would never grow up.

She suddenly took a step forward, lunged, and threw herself at Ren Zhong, hugging him tightly.

"Chief Ren... I..."

"I didn’t say anything at all." Ren Zhong broke free of Zheng Tian’s embrace. "In any case, even when you’re away from home, you still have to cherish your own life, understand?"

"Understood!"

As times change, some things that absolutely could not be spoken of in the past can slowly be revealed a little.

But Ren Zhong did not leave any incriminating evidence.

It was all just Zheng Tian’s ’overthinking,’ with no proof.

After leaving the recruit camp, Ren Zhong returned to the city, called Ma Xiaoling, went to the Armor training ground, and resumed his own day-after-day, year-after-year hard training.

Even at his current status, when personal strength seemed no longer important.

As long as he gave the order, more than a hundred members of the Suicide Squad would always charge forward, absolutely capable of unleashing killing power exceeding his own.

But Ren Zhong still kept up the habit of rigorous training and did not fully immerse himself in power.

After this round of practice, Ma Xiaoling was exhausted. She had originally agreed with Ren Zhong to fight again tomorrow, but instead he slung her over his shoulder and shoved her into a cold sleep pod.

Before she was forcibly put under hypnosis, Ma Xiaoling shouted in anger again and again.

But Ren Zhong then told her that before long, he too would enter frozen slumber.

She stopped making a fuss.

After a few more days, once he had just finished arranging all kinds of matters and had a brief moment of leisure, Ju Qingmeng was subjected to the same treatment by Ren Zhong and forcibly frozen.