The Beloved Guide Was Forced in a Love-Rival Shura Field - Chapter 86

When Ning Ning woke up, he felt as if he had been asleep for a century.

His body felt light, and the sharp, draining pain in his mental sea had disappeared, replaced by a sensation of soaking in warm water—comfortable, soothing, and filling every pore with a sense of peace.

His long eyelashes trembled as he struggled to open his eyes.

A handsome, warm face hovered close to him, smiling. It was Gu Qingfeng.

He was sitting on the edge of the bed, his long fingers gently adjusting the blanket with care.

“Awake?” Gu Qingfeng’s voice was melodious, clear and flowing like a spring, “Does anything feel uncomfortable?”

Ning Ning’s mind was still fuzzy. He was about to shake his head, but then a shiver ran down his spine.

A cold, piercing gaze, as if it could stab straight through him, was fixed on him.

Turning his head, he saw Xiao Lin standing like a dark-faced guardian at the door of the infirmary. His uniform was impeccable, his posture like a pine tree, but his dark-golden eyes were bloodshot and glaring at the hand Gu Qingfeng had placed on the blanket.

That gaze was thick with possessiveness and barely contained rage, almost dripping with intensity.

The air in the room froze instantly.

On one side was a smiling, composed Second Prince.

On the other, the Empire’s Marshal, seething with jealousy and on the verge of losing control.

Ning Ning: “…”

Help! He felt like the creamy filling in a sandwich cookie, being squeezed almost to the point of being crushed.

He opened his lips, intending to say something like, “Maybe you two should go fight it out?” to break the awkward tension.

But before a sound came out, a shrill alarm, sharp enough to pierce the eardrums, rang throughout the “Shield” base without warning!

“——Beep! Beep! Beep!——”

The piercing alarm battered their ears, while red warning lights flashed wildly across the walls, painting everyone’s face in shades of blood.

“Marshal!”

The infirmary door was slammed open as a communications soldier scrambled in, face pale as paper, lips trembling.

“It’s… it’s the Delta Recon Squad! They sent their last encrypted report, and then… then we lost all contact with them!”

“Whoosh——”

In an instant, all the shadows of personal anger and jealousy on Xiao Lin’s face vanished, leaving only the Marshal’s absolute coldness and sternness.

He didn’t even glance at Gu Qingfeng, turning sharply and striding out of the infirmary. His voice was deep and resonant, like a mountain: “To the command center!”

The command center was deathly silent.

Everyone seemed to have their throats gripped, staring rigidly at the central star map, which made their scalps tingle.

Countless dense red points, like an endless locust swarm, surged from all corners of the star map toward the “Shield” base.

This was not an ambush, not a chance encounter.

It was a meticulously prepared, slowly tightening net.

And they were the prey trapped at its center, wings clipped.

“…Incalculable… Marshal, the scale is unprecedented… they… they are not ordinary bug swarms… they are new mutated types… created by Los… by Los…”

The last recording of the reconnaissance squad, mixed with sheer terror and electronic interference, echoed repeatedly in the silent command center, like a blunt knife cutting through everyone’s nerves.

“Report, Marshal!” another technical officer suddenly leapt from his seat, voice trembling uncontrollably, “All the outer communication relay stations… have been completely destroyed by unknown high-powered electromagnetic pulses! We… we are completely cut off from the Imperial capital!”

“Boom——”

That sentence was the last straw, crushing the already taut nerves of everyone present.

Despair.

An icy, bone-deep feeling of being abandoned by the world gripped every heart.

They had become an isolated island at the center of a storm.

No, not even an island.

They were like a metal coffin slowly filling with water in the vast, dark ocean of space.

“It’s over…”

“This is a long-planned annihilation campaign…”

“We’re going to die here… Mother…”

Suppressed sobs and whispered despair spread among the people, panic propagating like a plague.

Amid this apocalyptic atmosphere, the crisp sound of Xiao Lin’s heavy military boots echoed sharply on the floor.

He walked onto the command podium, facing a roomful of pale, desperate faces. His voice was calm but struck like a heavy hammer, shattering everyone’s fear:

“All units accounted for.”

His voice was cold as ice, yet carried an undeniable authority that could hold up a collapsing sky.

“Enter the highest combat readiness. Maximize energy shield output. All weapons units, bring yourselves online immediately.”

His gaze swept across the tear-streaked faces, eyes suddenly razor-sharp.

“Hold back your tears!”

“Before I die, no one is allowed to give up!”

The Empire’s Marshal had shed all awkwardness and obsession that appeared before Ning Ning. He was now the sharpest sword of the Empire, the unconquerable soul of all soldiers. His straight posture and dark-golden eyes ablaze with iron-willed determination gave everyone on this desperate ark a fragile but essential support.

The chaotic scene, under his orders, miraculously returned to order. Soldiers wiped away their tears, bloodshot eyes flashing, shouting as they rushed to their battle positions.

Ning Ning stood at the back, staring at that commanding figure in awe.

For the first time, he felt clearly the top-predator strength in Xiao Lin, a power that brought reassurance.

At that moment, a slightly cool hand gently covered his own.

Ning Ning flinched and turned, meeting Gu Qingfeng’s deep, bottomless gaze.

Even in this suffocating atmosphere of despair, the Second Prince remained elegant and composed, as if the apocalypse before him were merely a play he could watch patiently, a script already written.

Looking at Xiao Lin calmly deploying defenses ahead, and feeling Gu Qingfeng’s composed intelligence at his side, Ning Ning’s inner fear was gradually pushed down by these two contrasting forces of strength.

He was no longer just a pretty doll to be protected or fought over.

Here were people he wanted to protect, and people who needed him.

All the past jealous, petty quarrels seemed laughable and insignificant in the face of life-or-death crisis. And precisely because of this, the coexistence of these two completely different forms of protection and dependence around him felt especially precious.

He was no longer an outsider.

“Don’t be afraid.”

Gu Qingfeng’s voice was soft, like a lover’s whisper. He leaned close to Ning Ning’s ear, warm breath brushing against the sensitive earlobe, a playful yet knowing glint in his smiling eyes.

“Ning Ning, look.”

“Your stage… has just been set.”

As his words fell, the metal shell of the base was violently struck by a tremendous impact!

“Boom——!!!”

The entire command center shook violently.

Through the massive observation window, the first wave of the black insect tide surged, like a dam breaking, a tsunami rolling in from the endless darkness of space.

The great battle was about to erupt.

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