Chapter 46

The cold mechanical tide slowly approached, with tens of thousands of war robots hanging from troop transport airships. The massive airships, like behemoths, crushed the landscape as they passed, blocking out the mountains, rivers, sun, and moon. In mid-air, the mechanical soldiers fell like dumplings, scattered from the airships. On the ground, thousands of mechanical troops converged into a flood, advancing steadily.

On the opposite side, Obi-Wan, leading the Naboo Royal Guard, was in a dire situation. They hid beneath the desert, with four subterranean sand skimmers racing at a depth of dozens of meters below the dunes. Obi-Wan led dozens of guards, using every weapon they could think of to hold back the mechanical army. Occasionally, guards in uniform were struck down by laser fire.

Along the way, broken robots and the bodies of Naboo guards littered the ground. For the robots, this was a negligible loss, but the guard corps had suffered heavy casualties.

The tall captain of the guards crouched behind a rock, his blaster rifle firing continuously. Desperately, he turned to Obi-Wan and said, "Knight, please protect the safety of Her Majesty the Queen. She is the only hope for Naboo. As long as the Queen is safe, our sacrifices will be meaningful!"

"Don't think like that. Hold on, reinforcements are on the way!" Obi-Wan, holding his lightsaber, deflected an ion beam aimed at the guards and turned to look at him earnestly, saying firmly.

"There can't be any reinforcements, Sir Knight. You don't need to comfort us. When I joined the guard, I was already prepared to lay down my life for the Queen. Every one of us is determined to die for Naboo." The captain stopped retreating, leading the remaining guards and handmaidens to stay in place.

The Queen's closest handmaiden turned to Obi-Wan and said, "Protect the Queen and retreat! Jedi, we will buy you some time!" The small, frail girl had a peculiar glow on her face. Standing in the sunlight, her hair reflected the sun, and her clear eyes looked at him with devoutness, saying, "May the Force be with you!"

Obi-Wan looked at the unremarkable girl and the many guards who had stopped. He tightly clutched the Jedi creed at his heart and blessed these scarred and weary comrades, "May the Force be with you!"

The incoming particle beams did not make Obi-Wan flinch. His lightsaber danced nimbly, protecting him from the relentless barrage. He moved through the hail of fire, feeling the expectant gazes of his nameless comrades behind him, and charged toward the Queen.

The grayish-white steel war robots surged forward. These cold war machines, with logical reasoning and thinking abilities on par with humans, were remotely controlled by troop transports high in space. The steel tide of destruction, driven by a cold will to kill, advanced inch by inch.

Despite the guards' desperate resistance, their comrades continued to fall one by one. Obi-Wan could feel their despair and struggle, the scorching heat of the particle beams grazing his face.

He suppressed the anger that threatened to tear him apart, trying to tell himself that their sacrifices were meaningful. He tried to forget the silent faces and push forward toward the Queen. But as he neared his goal, he couldn't help but look back.

It was still that nameless handmaiden. Her hair fluttered slightly by her ears, a bead of sweat glistened on her nose. She stood in the center of the battlefield, focused intently on the front. Before her lay an endless sea of mechanical troops.

Crimson laser beams grazed her face several times, but she stood there, unmoving, until precise laser shots came her way, and she closed her eyes calmly.

Obi-Wan trembled, raising his blaster, trying to save her.

He turned away in despair, unable to bear the sight. Sweat streamed down his forehead and cheeks until he saw a familiar figure, like a solid and towering rock, standing in front of everyone.

"From here on, it's up to us!" a voice said.

Obi-Wan looked up and saw Chen Ang standing before him. His master, Qui-Gon Jinn, was blocking most of the threatening attacks with his lightsaber, standing in front of everyone. In the dark night, a faint starlight appeared behind them.

Obi-Wan recognized the starlight. It was a fleet of old shuttles, filled with warriors of all shapes and sizes. These old warriors, whose average age could have been their grandfathers, exuded a fierce aura. Their ragged and peculiar equipment made them look especially fierce and formidable.

In the vast desert, no one could ignore these warriors. Their presence was eye-catching, unhidden and unashamed, their threatening presence openly displayed in the center of the battlefield.

A Katu person with floating steel tentacles led the charge. Two straight gray lines spread through the robot formation. Chen Ang's two lightsabers danced, cutting down everything in his path. The sharp blades effortlessly sliced through the tough alloy armor, splitting them into pieces.

A condensed and calm aura emanated from the lightsabers, as if the world had turned gray and white, with only the lightsabers as the sole highlight. Obi-Wan saw this scene, a hint of confusion flashed in his eyes, then he was alerted by a sense of caution, intensely focusing on Chen Ang's rapidly increasing threat.

A silver glove was attached to Chen Ang's elbows, and two buzzing silver discs floated near him. Blue electric sparks flickered on the lightsabers, and his highly concentrated spirit focused on the two blades, feeling the wildly pulsating energy.

If inner strength is the path of internal cultivation, Chen Ang's development, though not profound, had been pushed to its limits. No matter how inner strength was applied, it always relied on the body's own power, unable to match steel in hardness or bullets in speed, always constrained by the flesh.

It always needed to react through the body to the real world.

Chen Ang suspected that the so-called unity of heaven and man, the primordial energy of the universe, might be the application of inner strength breaking free from the body's limitations and directly interfering with the world. But this realm was far beyond his reach.

Chen Ang had always hoped for a turning point.

This direct interference with reality, not through the body but directly affecting physical forces, Chen Ang once thought would be a superpower, using special abilities as the primary driving force, integrating inner strength into a unique martial path. Unexpectedly, he found a way out in the science of the space age.

Electromagnetism, sound waves, fluids, photons, gravity—these physical forces bound by science share a common source of interference, the origin of all things, the power of life—the Force.

Although unifying the Force was far beyond Chen Ang's reach, the nature of life Force could already be used to interfere with physical forces. Through some high-tech equipment, the path of scientific martial arts sprouted its first bud. The electromagnetic traction rings on his wrists and the anti-gravity engines in the air began to show their potential.

In that moment, Chen Ang was enveloped in lightning, like a ball of lightning. He stepped into the air, his figure flashing like a bolt of lightning. The lightning surrounding him, guided by the silver gloves, roared around his body. Without touching the ground, his figure was wrapped in bright white light, soaring over the mechanical army.

Two lightsabers, enveloped in a massive amount of electromagnetic ions, transformed into giant blades, like wings of lightning. At Chen Ang's superhuman speed, all ions near him were plasmaized, radiating out along the lightsabers, maintaining the fragile stability of the lightning ball.

The intangible particle blades cut through space countless times in an instant, like straight ripples on water. Countless sword lights flashed in the mechanical army, leveraging the unique physical properties of particle weapons. Each time Chen Ang swung his sword, it produced tens of thousands of light frequency vibrations.

In just a moment, hundreds of thousands of particle blades swept across the battlefield, slicing through the mechanical army like a hot knife through butter, leaving a trail of destruction.

Obi-Wan watched the lightning streaks in shock, his hand gripping the lightsaber sweating. He found it hard to believe Chen Ang's miraculous swordsmanship. Without the Force's fluctuations or the surging waves, just a slight interference from the life Force produced such terrifying sword skills.

Obi-Wan felt as if a new door to the Force was slowly opening, a group of sensitive individuals to the life Force rising. In that moment of distraction, his master Qui-Gon Jinn had already escorted the brave guards to his side. Seeing Obi-Wan's distracted state, he frowned and said, "Obi-Wan, don't let the mundane world blind you. You must learn to see the world with your heart."

"Look!"

In the distance, the old veterans staggered on the ground, fearlessly charging toward the mechanical army. A few elderly people, frail and weak, formed a stark contrast to the cold, ruthless mechanical army.

They were like eggs charging at steel, a stark contrast of strength and weakness, iron and flesh.