Leaving behind Keisha, who had firmed her resolve under He Xi's comfort, Liang Bing did not head alone for the Koprulu Sector as He Xi had after leaving Heavenly City. Instead, she boarded her own warship, the Apocalypse Wings.
Over a month later, Liang Bing piloted the Apocalypse Wings out of the Great Wormhole Bridge and into an unfamiliar star sector.
"So this is the Koprulu Sector? The mysterious Protoss... now that I think about it, I've never seen any lifeforms beyond the three major forms."
Liang Bing's interest was suddenly piqued, and her unpleasantness with Keisha was instantly cast to the back of her mind.
In a flash of light, the Apocalypse Wings headed toward the Sien Star System...
At that moment, in the wilderness outside the City of Daelaam on Aiur, Shen Jun was practicing Psionic Storm. Only by mastering this skill could he truly meet the standard of the Protoss' high-end combat strength.
Shen Jun slowly floated into the air, drawing upon his psionic energy as arcs of electricity danced between his hands. He was extremely careful throughout the process. Psionic Storm was immensely powerful and highly unstable; one slight mistake could kill him instead.
Once Shen Jun had gathered enough psionic energy, he suddenly thrust both arms forward, his five fingers spread toward the distance. Two thick, lightning-like beams shot from his palms and converged ten thousand meters away, instantly detonating into an energy field. A dazzling dark-blue radiance burst forth, and the immense energy reduced everything within sight to particles.
Centered on the point where the Psionic Storm formed, an area spanning several kilometers had practically become a "vacuum zone." There was no earthshaking blast and no polluting radiation, nor did it affect the environment beyond the storm's range in the slightest. Yet within that range, its power was astonishing. The energy released in an instant rivaled the explosion of a megaton hydrogen bomb. Most terrifying of all, the storm's duration and scale were entirely controlled by its caster. As long as one had sufficient psionic energy, destroying a planet alone was not difficult. Of course, even among High Templars, few could create a planet-destroying Psionic Storm.
The first batch of Templars Shen Jun had warped in back then had all been too young. Even several of the strongest heroes had yet to reach their prime. Otherwise, if just over a hundred High Templars had cast Psionic Storm together, they could easily have wiped out fifty thousand Trigonians.
Why would they have needed to go through so much trouble back then and lose three thousand men? Thinking about it now was simply humiliating, especially when the Known Universe had been shocked by the Protoss' casualty ratio.
The Psionic Storm Shen Jun had created belonged to the smallest scale, and it had lasted only thirty seconds.
Fine beads of sweat seeped from Shen Jun's forehead. He nodded in satisfaction. Achieving this result so soon after beginning his training was already something to be proud of.
"Hierarch, Kaldir is requesting a call with you."
Shen Jun suddenly sensed a Protoss requesting to connect with him. When he opened the request, he discovered it was Kaldir. As the Hierarch, Shen Jun could be contacted directly only by heroes such as Tassadar, Zeratul, Alarak, Vorazun, Selandis, and Talandar. Among non-hero units, only Kerasul and Gaius had that privilege.
Therefore, Kaldir had to submit a request before gaining permission to enter Shen Jun's communication channel.
"Kaldir, did something happen on Mineral Star-1? Or is there a problem with the Sien Civilization?"
Shen Jun asked first.
"No, Hierarch, nothing has happened in the Sien Star System."
Kaldir answered hesitantly. "It's just... an angel named Liang Bing has arrived. She says she came bearing a mission from the Angel King and wishes to meet you."
Liang Bing?
Shen Jun frowned. Wasn't she the future Queen Morgana? The famous yuri queen of the Super God Universe.
Keisha had actually sent her instead of He Xi, who was familiar with this place. What was Keisha thinking?
Forget it. She was only a messenger delivering a letter. It made no difference who came.
"She wants the Time-Space Navigation Route opened, right? Let her through."
Naturally, Shen Jun knew Liang Bing had no way of finding Aiur, because he had told He Xi that there was only one way for other civilizations to enter Aiur: the Protoss had to open a Time-Space Navigation Route for them themselves. However, since He Xi had served as a peace ambassador on Aiur for a hundred years, she already knew Aiur's location.
Shen Jun had already prepared himself for the possibility that the angels would learn Aiur's location.
What he had not expected was that He Xi had not shared the Aiur Star System's location with the Angel Civilization. Otherwise, Liang Bing should have appeared directly outside Aiur's Invisibility Force Field.
About ten minutes later, Liang Bing flew into the wilderness where Shen Jun was, her face brimming with curiosity.
"You're the king of the Protoss, Shen Jun?"
At first sight, Shen Jun had almost thought she was not Keisha's sister, but another angel with the same name. Her temperament and appearance were far too different from Morgana in the original series!
Her figure was not all that different, and Shen Jun knew Liang Bing had brown hair when she was still an angel. The problem was, what was with this girl-next-door aura surrounding her?
Though he wondered whether he had mistaken her for someone else, Shen Jun kept his expression unchanged and replied evenly, "The Protoss have no king. You should call me Hierarch."
"No king?"
Those words seemed to touch some chord in Liang Bing's heart. She appeared to gain a glimmer of insight into what she had been seeking all this time, though it was still unclear. Desperate to understand it, she asked, "Isn't the Hierarch a king?"
"No. I am the Protoss' leader, but I am not their king."
"Not a king, not a king... Does a civilization without a 'king' truly exist in this world?" Liang Bing muttered. It was as if she had suddenly grasped the answer to the problem she had been agonizing over. "If it's possible, then perhaps I can... Heh heh heh, hahahahaha..."
Shen Jun stared at this idiot angel as she inexplicably began laughing foolishly, a dark line forming across his forehead. Still, that foolish laugh did resemble Morgana somewhat, confirming that he had probably not mistaken her identity.
"You're Liang Bing, right? What mission did Keisha send you on? I don't have much time, so I'm not here to listen to you giggle like an idiot!"
Liang Bing's first impression on Shen Jun was... extremely bad. He had no intention of giving her a pleasant expression, and he interrupted her foolish laughter with a cold face.
It was as if Liang Bing had suddenly awakened the soul of a shameless person. She did not feel the slightest embarrassment over how image-destroying her foolish laughter had been. She simply tossed out a sentence: "Since He Xi stayed with you for a hundred years before, Keisha decided that the Protoss should also visit Merlo for an exchange. During that period, the Angel Civilization will remain open to the Protoss for one hundred years. I'm only here to deliver the message."
After saying that, Liang Bing turned and left. A thought had suddenly occurred to her, and she was eager to find somewhere to put it into practice.
Shen Jun ignored Liang Bing's departure and frowned as he considered Keisha's true intentions. An academic exchange?
"Fine. Then we'll have an academic exchange."
Suddenly thinking of someone currently holed up in Angel City, Shen Jun's lips curled into a faint smile.
Before you continue