Miss Wang Qi was not the kind of woman who panicked at the sight of blood.
Though a merchant, she had indeed seen her fair share of it.
After Lacroix pushed her through a side door into a residence and avoided the first round of bullets, she immediately stood up, found a window to observe the ongoing battle outside, and was ready to provide support at any moment.
She was by no means defenseless.
Miss Wang Qi had specifically taken time out to undergo two months of professional military training. While it didn’t make her a qualified warrior, it at least taught her how to fire a gun.
Beyond that, she possessed a skill far more powerful than the average warrior: wealth.
Her two earrings, combined with rings on the pinky fingers of each hand, formed a miniature Shield Generator. At full power, it could provide three hours of protection and withstand the direct impact of three 155mm howitzer shells.
Shield Generators were already exceedingly expensive, but the set Mrs. Wang Qi owned was many, many times more expensive than the usual kind.
Typically, a Shield Generator device might be as large as a car; but this set was the epitome of miniaturization. Made of tiny items like earrings and rings, it could be worn with an evening gown to a banquet without looking out of place.
Obviously, such a gadget was not something that could be mass-produced. In fact, it was a fine product crafted by a master forger using extremely high-end equipment over a long period of time. Moreover, a master jeweler had intricately designed it to ensure it remained beautiful, elegant, and high-class without compromising its functionality.
Additionally, this miniaturized Shield Generator had a significant special effect: it would automatically engage when it detected an incoming threat, avoiding the situation where the user couldn’t react swiftly enough to utilize the Shield Generator before being taken out.
From these aspects, one can imagine just how valuable this set of earrings and rings was.
Moreover, from the inside of her evening gown’s thigh slit, she pulled out a weapon that had been strapped there.
It was a flintlock pistol, the ebony emitting a faint scent with openwork carvings filled with gold, showcasing exquisite craftsmanship.
Rather than a weapon, it indeed appeared more like a retro craft. Stay tuned to empire
In actuality, this ancient flintlock could be loaded with four bullets at a time. Regardless of the material of the bullets, the first four bullets fired each day would bear powerful Spiritual Energy and create a violent Spirit Explosion upon striking their targets, with the force of each Spirit Explosive Bullet surpassing even that of heavy bombshells.
However, she was not so arrogant as to believe these devices alone would allow her to survive this crisis.
In reality, her entire set of gadgets was clearly designed with the core objective of defending against assassination.
Mrs. Wang Qi had never placed herself in an absolutely dangerous situation. When the first wave of the assassin’s attack was blocked by the Shield Generator and the Spiritual Energy flintlock gave her a means to counterattack, a brief delay would be enough for the elite bodyguards, who should always be close to her, to swiftly arrive and eliminate the threats.
Under normal circumstances, that would be the case.
But at this moment, it was clearly not a normal situation. What she was facing was not an assassination but a full-scale war.
How mighty was the Shield Generator, anyway? It could stop three 155mm howitzer shells, making it like a Wall of Sighs against assassinations, but in a war, a few machine guns and rifles could shatter it quickly with sustained fire.
Not to mention, like the Void Shield, the Shield Generator was very insensitive to slow-moving objects; it wouldn’t be broken by bullets, but it would be useless against someone approaching with a knife.
In war, there are far too many things more dangerous than assassinations.
And why had the situation on Heijian Star turned into a war?
That story starts a few days ago.
After leaving Rage Owl Star, Miss Wang Qi and her Fleet traveled directly here. Heijian Star was still in the Feudal Era, with a population of four hundred million people spread across dozens of Feudal Kingdoms. Among them, the seven most powerful formed the King’s Council, and every few years, they would elect one among them as the Governor to handle communications with the imperial departments.
From this perspective, the power of Heijian Star’s Governor was quite limited, with the role mainly serving as a liaison. Whether taxes could be fully collected depended on the cooperation of each kingdom—of course, they usually cooperated.
Those who didn’t would be disciplined; even the larger kingdoms didn’t want to face the wrath of the empire and would comply due to the joint questioning of other nations.
Certainly, many conspiracies and deceptions would arise around this mechanism. For example, the Governor scheming against other kingdoms, or other kingdoms scheming against the current Governor…
But these affairs didn’t concern Miss Wang Qi. With countless worlds within the empire, each with different levels of technology, economic foundations, and political ecosystems, who had the time to delve into so many?
Wang Qi’s concern was that most of the kingdoms on Heijian Star had very good relations with the Gu Commercial Firm, relations so strong that the Gu Clan’s family congress had been held on Heijian Star for the past several decades. The local seven major kingdoms were quite welcoming of their arrival and fully supported the array of activities during the Gu Family’s grand meetings.