Chapter 1096: Chapter 598, the Gu Clanâs New Child_2
There are some things Gu Hang could be completely upfront about with Matins.
The Furyflame had been completely annihilated; there was no Furyflame anymore.
It was merely borrowing a shell.
When it was no longer needed in the future, Furyflame could officially and nominally disappear at any time.
âŠ
Handling these matters didnât take up much of Gu Hangâs time.
After setting the overarching ideas and tone, the specific execution details were left to the Battle Group Management Office to handle.
This was a brand-new Alliance institution, established not long ago. It wasnât responsible for decision-making, only for executing Gu Hangâs directives, aiming to meet the needs of all battle groups as efficiently as possible.
It wasnât an independent organization but rather a subsidiary of Gu Hangâs Governorâs Office, dedicated to handling such tasks.
They would coordinate with the Allianceâs biological research institute to receive all genetic seeds, collaborate with the Allianceâs Military Affairs Department to screen the personnel Gu Hang required, arrange surgeries, and assign those individuals to the two new battle groups.
As the Alliance grew larger, Gu Hang had less time to micromanage these tasks personally.
Moreover, he indeed had another very important matter to attend to currently.
He went to the master bedroom shared with Yelisia; a crib was set up beside them.
Taking a bottle from the nanny, Gu Hang personally fed the baby.
Though he lacked extensive experience in this area, he had mastered holding and feeding techniques quite well.
Naturally, the child he was feeding at this moment was his own.
Yelisia watched on, laughing warmly.
âWhatâs making you so happy?â
Yelisia responded, âIn the past, I imagined many futuresâbecoming a General, commanding fleets, annihilating the Empireâs enemies⊠But this scene here, I never foresaw.â
âBecoming a mother?â
âNot just that.â Yelisiaâs laughter grew even gentler. âOf course I had thought about becoming a mother and nurturing offspring. I just never imagined quietly seeing my husband hold our child would make me feel this kind of happiness.â
Gu Hang gently kissed her face while holding the child.
âŠ
Warm and leisurely moments were inevitably fleeting facades. What couldnât be ignored was that this scene took place on the Firebath Nova battleship.
A new life born aboard a battleship wasnât a rare event. Among the more than forty thousand permanent residents aboard the Firebath Nova, many had started families on the ship. After all, sometimes drifting aboard a vessel could last for many years.
Although the Alliance tried to reduce the phenomena of people living their entire livesâfrom birth to deathâon a ship, it was still a fairly common situation. Crew members had employment contracts, wages, and Alliance tiers, and could choose to renew their contracts or retire after their service time expired. However, those opting for retirement were rarer. Only injuries and advancing age resulted in relatively higher retirement rates.
Nevertheless, the long-term nature of space navigation meant that forming families aboard ships was not uncommon. A population of tens of thousands gathered together resembled a city, and most things one would find in a regular city could also be found aboard a Starship.
This included schoolsâkindergarten, elementary, and secondary.
Of course, this was something established by the Alliance; typical Imperial battleships wouldnât feature such infrastructure systems.
Many people started families aboard ships, then, after working for a period of time, took advantage of the ship resting at a location to retire, either individually or one member of the family. Mothers or fathers would leave the ship with their children, settling in the local area or boarding ships to return to their homelands.
This was to avoid the misfortune of future wars wiping out entire families.
These measures were relatively humane initiatives brought about by the Alliance. Frankly, it was hard to say whether efficiency had improved, but Gu Hang believed they were the right course of action.
Before the Alliance, people lived this way. After the Alliance, if lives continued unchanged, then what would be the point of the Alliance?
In this sense, Gu Hang and Yelisia were like any other family formed in similar circumstances. Their child had also been born aboard a starship.
Even the underlying struggles for this decision were the same.
Gu Hang and Yelisia decided to have a child.
Not for reasons such as needing an heir for the Alliance or anything like that.
In fact, there was no such necessity.
Gu Hang calculated that he might be fifty-seven years old this year. Yet, his physical state and appearance remained indistinguishable from those of the young man he had been years ago. He didnât know whether he counted as an Eternal Life yet, but with the power of Spiritual Energyâs resonance inhering within him, he felt no signs of bodily decay. He estimated that living for another thousand years might not be a problem.
Longevity wasnât an issue for him.
Furthermore, when facing the end of his lifespan, he held one last backup plan: ascending to godhood right where he stood. Embracing Subspace, claiming complete dominion of the Storm God Kingdom that now solely belonged to him, abandoning his humanity to become a Subspace Inferior God, and achieving eternal immortality thereafter.
Of course, he wouldnât take this action until absolutely necessary.
For such a man as Gu Hang, the need for an heir was far from pressing.
Yelisia likewise had little concern over lifespan matters. Though older than Gu Hang by several years and already past sixty in actual years, she had undergone her first life extension surgery early and therefore enjoyed at least two hundred years of life, with youth permanently preserved. Additionally, she had at least three more surgeries available to extend her life span to five hundred years.
For both of them, the desire for offspring was not urgently driven.
The decision to have a child was simply a private one made between them as a couple.
This decision might carry some political significance, but both of them agreed it was not the priority. They were merely completing something mutually decided upon during a stage of their lives, adding another facet to their shared journey.
As for incidental effectsâlike in the coming fifteen or twenty years, having an heir they trusted the most as a participant in Alliance politics; the symbolic completeness of Gu Hangâs family among Alliance society; providing stability to citizensâsuch as ensuring that if Gu Hang were to one day perish, the Alliance still had a successorâŠ
These benefits? Let nature take its course.
And if the child were to be raised poorly⊠that was not impossible.
But the impact would be minimal. After all, Gu Hang didnât truly need an heir. Should the child fail spectacularly, they could live as pampered heirs, resembling affluent but idle second-generation elites, which was Gu Hangâs final act of mercy for his offspring.
Of course, as a father, Gu Hang sincerely hoped this wouldnât be the outcome.
He named the child simply âJing,â a name imbued with his aspirations.
âŠ
While Gu Hang delighted in the arrival of his child, the war situation continued its ceaseless evolution.
The southern front remained relatively stable.
Although battles were happening on many planets, even two battle groups met their final endânot annihilation but surrenderâon Fantasm Moon.
Overall, though, there were no major campaigns.
The Alliance was still adhering to Gu Hangâs directiveâto wait for eighteen months.
Construction of starships, creation of new Interstellar Warriors, seed implantation, and growth of superhuman organs all required time.
All they needed to do was wait.
For this reason, Gu Hang avoided excessively provoking Iron Armor or Alfonso.
The Alliance only secured territories on their side of the passage leading from Proudclaw Cosmos to Thistle Muster Star Field and Alfonso Star Domain. The other side could have been taken, but there was no hurry to seize it.
Meanwhile, Humphrey Paolo didnât redeploy his main forces southward. He merely strengthened defenses in Thistle and Mustard Star Field, leaving Alfonso Star Domain to the Sect of Mechanics. The primary forces of the battle groups remained focused on the western front.
The lords of Holy Terra, wary of their worst fears, found the situation less grim than expected. Despite Iron Armorâs decisive victory in key battles, no attempt was made to push into the Empireâs Central Territory. Instead, they locked down a few key route planets in Skywatch Starfield without penetrating further, redirecting their efforts toward the expansive Magrey Cosmic Domain.
The officials of Holy Terra breathed a massive sigh of relief.
Though Iron Armorâs campaign in Magrey Cosmic Domain surged unstoppably, with countless planets falling swiftly, they could trade space for timeâand this was exactly what they had hoped for.
The Empire lacked much, but ample territory wasnât one of its deficiencies.
Still, Gu Hang found it odd.
Such aggressive invasion, rapid conquests across Magrey Cosmic Domainâwhat was the point?