Seeing this, Illustrious also retracted her rigging. She slightly opened her right hand, and the silver sword appeared in it. She then gripped it tightly, slashed the sword with force, and held it diagonally in mid-air. A crisp sword hum emanated from the blade, finally spreading out in all directions.
"I am Dorsetshire, a Five-Star Epic Ship Girl under Admiral Lin Zhentian!" Dorsetshire greeted.
"I am the Admiral of the Illustrious Naval Base. I have come this time to rescue my Ship Girl, Unicorn. If you are sensible, hand her over quickly; otherwise, don't blame me for being impolite." Illustrious said in an icy tone.
"I won't! You are so Vicious for sinking my companions; I will not let you off." Dorsetshire refused.
"Oh! Trying to shift the blame? It was clearly you who captured my Ship Girl. If you hadn't captured her, I wouldn't have sunk them." Illustrious sneered.
"That's only because you killed the Admiral's son first. If you hadn't killed the Admiral's son, we wouldn't have captured your Ship Girl." Dorsetshire retorted.
"That Son of Lin Zhentian forcibly abducted young girls; how many girls have been ravished and killed? Someone who has done such evil deserves to be killed." Illustrious said: "As an Epic Ship Girl under Lin Zhentian, you naturally knew what the Son of Lin Zhentian was doing, but not only did you not stop him, you ignored it. Where have you placed justice?"
"..." Dorsetshire was left speechless. The first time she saw the young master forcibly abducting a young girl and bringing her back to the Naval Base, she had stepped in to stop it, but the Admiral, who happened to pass by, stopped her via the soul network. The Admiral said that it was the girl's good fortune that his son had taken a fancy to her, and he would not allow her to interfere with his son's good deeds.
Seeing Dorsetshire silent, Illustrious advised: "Lay down the butcher's knife and become a Buddha on the spot. If you turn back now, it is still not too late."
"C-could I really be wrong?" Dorsetshire swayed a few times and muttered in a low voice.
Illustrious continued to bluff: "The past doesn't matter; what matters is the present. You must now uphold righteousness by exterminating your kin and kill your Admiral with your own hands. Only in this way can those deceased girls find peace."
Illustrious was spouting nonsense. She was persuading the lost Ship Girl before her; if she could kill Lin Zhentian and rescue Unicorn without a fight, she was more than willing to use her tongue.
Perhaps Dorsetshire loved her Admiral very much, for she immediately woke up from Illustrious's bluff.
"I won't! In life, I am the Admiral's person; in death, I am the Admiral's ghost."
Illustrious shook her head. It seemed that saying so much had been a waste of effort; in the end, they still had to fight.
In order to make her side appear more righteous and weaken the enemy's combat effectiveness, Illustrious said with a face full of justice: "Hmph! Obsessed and unrepentant; it seems I cannot spare you. For the sake of world peace, I will surely slay you here today. Justice is bound to prevail."
Illustrious erupted with a powerful aura and struck toward Dorsetshire. This aura was immensely powerful; once unleashed, the entire space began to tremble.
Facing Illustrious's aura, Dorsetshire also erupted with a powerful aura. The two auras collided like meteors, splashing up monstrous shockwaves.
Looking at Illustrious's righteous expression, Dorsetshire became confused again about whether she was doing the right thing. Because of this confusion, her aura was not stronger than Illustrious's.
Illustrious turned into a stream of light and shot violently toward Dorsetshire. After arriving in front of Dorsetshire, she quickly raised the silver sword and slashed down at her.
This sword strike was like a streak of silver lightning. The air beneath the sword was instantly cleared, forming a vacuum zone, and a low sonic boom continuously surged out from it.
The silver sword had already descended halfway. Facing this fatal strike, because her life was threatened, Dorsetshire immediately raised her sword to parry.
Because the time to parry with her sword was too rushed, the force of Dorsetshire's parry was not as strong as the force of Illustrious's full-strength strike.
Consequently, the powerful force of the silver sword directly sent Dorsetshire flying.
Seeing Dorsetshire fly backward for more than ten meters, Illustrious pressed her advantage, intending to take more advantage before Dorsetshire could wake up from her confusion. If she could severely injure Dorsetshire in a short time, that would be for the best.
"Clang, clang, clang...!"
Illustrious swung her sword repeatedly, slashing at Dorsetshire. Under such fierce attacks, Dorsetshire struggled to hold on.
Unexpectedly, Dorsetshire was so resilient; Illustrious couldn't help but be surprised. If only she were her own Ship Girl; what a pity, such a good cabbage had been rooted by that pig, Lin Zhentian.
Illustrious began to use her tongue while fighting to disrupt Dorsetshire. "This sword is slashed for those innocent girls, this sword is slashed for those Ship Girls who died meaninglessly, this sword is slashed for the future of this Naval Base's sea area..."
Illustrious became more and more excited as she spoke. Dorsetshire was left unable to retort, because these were all facts, and she had no way to refute them.
"Bang!"
Illustrious delivered a side kick, sending the Dorsetshire before her, who had little will to fight, flying. Dorsetshire flew backward again. Illustrious, who had turned into a stream of light, slashed with her sword, and their swords collided again; Dorsetshire could only struggle to hold on.
While fighting, Dorsetshire recalled the time with her Admiral. Lin Zhentian, who had just graduated from the East Pacific Admiral Academy, was 21 years old back then. At that time, he was destitute, possessing nothing but ambition.
His ambition was to own a Naval Base and live happily with the Ship Girls he built.
To own a Naval Base, you must have large ships, and these large ships are Heavy Cruisers, Battleships, and Aircraft Carriers.
If you only have Light Cruisers and Destroyers, it is impossible to receive a Naval Base distributed by the Governor-Generals Mansion.
The first ship Lin Zhentian built was Dorsetshire; as a starter ship, being able to build a large ship meant he could own a Naval Base.
Dorsetshire was very clear about how happy Lin Zhentian was at the time; back then, Lin Zhentian was jumping around the room, and finally, he grabbed and hugged Dorsetshire.
"Thank you for being built by me. I am so happy! You are the starting step of my dream!"
Lin Zhentian obtained a primary Naval Base; although the Ship Girl he built was a large ship, she was only a purple-tier Heavy Cruiser Ship Girl.
However, Lin Zhentian did not complain too much, because only one-third of Admirals have a Naval Base right after graduation.
As the Admiral's starter ship and Secretary Ship, Dorsetshire constantly worked hard for the Naval Base and the Admiral. As days passed, three years later, the Naval Base finally welcomed nine Ship Girls.
That year, because of her talent and hard work, Dorsetshire continuously leveled up and successfully became a Three-Star Epic Ship Girl.
Life should have been getting better, but unfortunately, one day a Five-Star Nightmare Deep Sea attacked. Dorsetshire was no match for the Five-Star Nightmare Deep Sea, the Naval Base was destroyed, and of the nine Ship Girls, only she remained.
Finally, to save the Admiral's life, Dorsetshire had to take the Admiral and flee to the Baiguru Naval Base, one of the three major Naval Bases in the East Pacific.
Lin Zhentian was desperate at the time; the Naval Base he had worked so hard to build was destroyed just like that. After deep thought for a day, he understood one truth: the weak will be beaten.
To not be beaten, one must become stronger. On the path to becoming stronger, Lin Zhentian set his sights on the Baiguru Naval Base, because this Naval Base had two Five-Star Epic Ship Girls, which was very powerful.
Seeing that the Baiguru Naval Base had such powerful combat strength, Lin Zhentian immediately wanted to occupy it. Baiguru had a daughter named Bai Mo; as long as he conquered his daughter, this Naval Base would be his.
Because Lin Zhentian was quite handsome back then, and because he had dealt with his own Ship Girls a lot over the past three years, he was very skilled at handling women.
In less than a week, he had captured Bai Mo and married her.
Dorsetshire, in order to let the Admiral rebuild the Naval Base, was constantly going out to complete missions distributed by the Governor-Generals Mansion. While struggling to execute missions and fight against the Deep Sea, she received the Admiral's marriage announcement.
Returning to the Baiguru Naval Base, Dorsetshire saw that the Admiral she liked was marrying another woman. Dorsetshire was heartbroken back then because the Admiral had previously said he would marry her.
But seeing Lin Zhentian's happy face while holding the bride's hand during the wedding, Dorsetshire felt relieved. Loving someone doesn't necessarily mean you have to be together; as long as he is happy, she is willing to become the Admiral's shadow.
Baiguru was very satisfied with his son-in-law and promised to hand over this Naval Base to Lin Zhentian in ten years, but Lin Zhentian did not want to wait that long, so he poisoned his father-in-law to death and successfully inherited the Baiguru Naval Base, one of the three major Naval Bases in the East Pacific.
When he saw the nameplate of the Baiguru Naval Base changed to the Lin Zhentian Naval Base, Lin Zhentian laughed heartily.
He had succeeded; he was finally no longer a weak Admiral. Now, he was Admiral Lin Zhentian of one of the three major Naval Bases.
Perhaps Heaven wanted to punish Lin Zhentian for his viciousness, so he didn't have a son until he was 45, and his wife died during childbirth. Having a son in his old age, combined with the death of his wife, made him cherish his child, the Son of Lin Zhentian, very much. No matter how outrageous the things the Son of Lin Zhentian did, he ignored them, only wishing for his son to live a happy life.
Even if the Son of Lin Zhentian abducted and murdered countless young girls, Lin Zhentian did not scold him but instead encouraged him. It was precisely because of his father's constant pampering that the Son of Lin Zhentian eventually became a person with a twisted personality.
After Lin Zhentian learned that Illustrious had killed the Son of Lin Zhentian, he washed his face with tears every day. Seeing the Admiral like this every day, Dorsetshire felt endless heartache.
Dorsetshire believed that all of this was because she was too weak. If she hadn't been defeated in the battle against the Five-Star Nightmare Deep Sea at the original Naval Base, but instead continued to build the Naval Base with the Admiral, she would definitely have been able to marry the Admiral and live together.
"Weakness is the original sin; I must become stronger!" Dorsetshire realized. She was no longer confused; she wanted to become stronger!
"Ha! Thinking of becoming stronger now? It's too late. Just wait to go to hell to become stronger!" Illustrious raised her sword and slashed again.
"Boom!"
Dorsetshire emitted a powerful aura, and countless Ship Qi erupted from her body in the form of Ship Qi energy waves.
The power contained in that Ship Qi energy wave was extremely strong, directly blasting Illustrious away.
Dorsetshire had already started meditating, and the color of the Ship Qi began to transition from purple to purplish-red.
Illustrious, who had been blown back thirty meters, stabilized her figure. Looking at the purplish-red Ship Qi in front of Dorsetshire, Illustrious looked shocked. "You actually want to evolve into a Legendary Ship Girl!"
"Hmph! Do you think I'm so stupid that I'll wait for you to break through and hit me? I will take your life while you are breaking through." As someone who had broken through to become a Legendary Ship Girl before, Illustrious was very clear about the strength of a Legendary Ship Girl. A Three-Star Legendary Ship Girl could easily kill one hundred Five-Star Epic Ship Girls.
If Dorsetshire were allowed to evolve successfully, Illustrious would be in trouble then.
Illustrious flashed in front of Dorsetshire, raised her sword, and hacked down at the meditating Dorsetshire, who had her eyes closed. Just as the sword was about to hit Dorsetshire's head by a foot, a purplish-red Eastern dragon phantom with a diameter of five centimeters appeared, blocked the sword, and knocked Illustrious away.
The flying-back Illustrious stabilized her figure in mid-air, looking with a solemn gaze at the purplish-red Eastern dragon that had appeared and was constantly circling Dorsetshire. "Tsk! How unlucky! It's actually a Guardian Heavenly Dragon."
A Guardian Heavenly Dragon only appears when one-tenth of Epic Ship Girls break through to Legendary. Once it appears, its defensive strength reaches the defense level of a Three-Star Legendary barrier. If attacked, the Guardian Heavenly Dragon's defense will increase. To make it disappear, one must wait for its master to evolve into a Legendary Ship Girl, or it will dissipate if its master fails to evolve.
"Hmph! Breaking through to Legendary is incomparably difficult. I want to see how you fail. When you fail, you will surely be reduced to ashes."
Illustrious stood in mid-air holding her sword, waiting for Dorsetshire's evolution to fail; she did not believe that Dorsetshire could break through successfully.
How arduous the road to Legendary is; even though she was gifted, she almost was reduced to ashes when she broke through back then.
In the world, there are only ten recorded Legendary Ship Girls, and including those not recorded, there are at most no more than twenty in total. From this, it can be seen that evolving into a Legendary Ship Girl is hellishly difficult.
Evolving into a Legendary Ship Girl requires a Legendary assessment, and the content of the assessment is to experience a lifetime. The Epic core will cast your soul into another world, and only by reaching the position of the strongest can you succeed in the assessment.
Once the experience of a lifetime is completed and the soul returns, the purple Epic core will undergo a transformation, turning into a red legendary core, and the purple Ship Qi will transform into red Ship Qi, increasing its power by one hundred times.
The world Illustrious experienced during her Legendary assessment was a world called the Tianyuan Continent. That continent was mainly about immortal cultivation, and the highest realm of immortal cultivation there was the Great Ability Realm.
At that time, Illustrious was born in a small town called Caoguang Town. Caoguang Town had three major families, and Illustrious's family was ranked third, called the Sikong family.
In ancient times, this Sikong family was one of the very impressive top ten ancient families. It's just that back then, the head of the Sikong family married a beautiful woman who had lost her memory. This woman was the beloved of a Great Ability Realm powerhouse, so the Sikong family head offended this Great Ability Realm powerhouse. Finally, after a thousand years, they fell to this small town.
Illustrious, who was born into the Sikong family, was named Sikong Qing Xue, and she was the eldest daughter of the head of the Sikong family.
After Qing Xue grew up to be 17 years old, she became a great beauty with looks like a celestial being, and she was quite famous in the small town. As long as Qing Xue went out on the street, a large crowd of young men would appear on the street following her.
Although Qing Xue was very popular among young men, she was a Five-Spirit Root, which is to say, a waste with no talent for cultivation.
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