The Witch's Taste

Chapter 400 Breaking into the palace gate

The Grand Palace is the place with the strictest security measures in the entire empire.

Successive emperors basically would not leave the Grand Palace easily. Although a large number of official documents came in from the cabinet every day, and then instructions from the emperor came out, the two sides usually did not meet face to face.

In other words, the Grand Palace is actually very close to a black box chamber.

If someone secretly invades the Grand Palace and takes control of the emperor, they can easily assume the emperor's orders and quietly control the empire.

However, the reason why the Empire still adopts this method is because the Grand Palace is the most powerful fortress satellite in the entire galaxy and has not been breached by outsiders so far.

That's right, even many citizens of the empire don't know that the Grand Palace is actually a satellite - a satellite that surrounds the planet of the capital of the empire, the moon in the night sky above the people of the capital.

In the previous life, Xia Qingyu was able to enter the Grand Palace smoothly because the old emperor took the initiative to release all security measures in order to let her kill him.In this way, the new emperor Xia Qingyu has only one enemy left, which is the Federation on the other side of the galaxy.

Since Xia Qingyu has "died in battle" in this life, the security measures of the Grand Palace are still "impeccable".

What the old emperor needs is a "Xia Qingyu who hates the Federation."In addition, he will not allow any heir to enter the Grand Palace, so if you want to enter the palace this time, you need to find another way.

Fortunately, Xia Qingyu had been in charge of the Grand Palace in her previous life and knew all the secrets inside, so everyone could only believe her plan.

Shi Qinglian has already sent a "Report to the Grand Palace". This is the right of all citizens of the empire to submit their complaints to Heaven. Of course, whether the Grand Palace will reply will be another matter. It's the same thing.

The review process of "Dengwen Report" is not a secret within the empire's top brass.

If it is a paper letter report, someone will scan it into an electronic version and then hand it over to artificial intelligence for review.

If it is an electronic version of the report, the above-mentioned "entry" step will be skipped and the intelligent review process will be entered directly.

Artificial intelligence will review all reports, determine whether they are "need to be reviewed", and then decide whether to send them to the cabinet or the emperor.

However, artificial intelligence review means that files will be left on the internal network, so some special content that must be avoided - such as the confidential report of the royal spy, will be written with a special cipher text code. It is then delivered as a paper letter.

After the commissioner in charge of the review sees the secret code, he will skip the "artificial intelligence review" step and convey it directly to the emperor.

In this way, the report content will not go through any information network, and there is no risk of being stolen by technical hackers...but the risk of leakage is transferred to the review specialist, so this position is changed every ten days, along with the cipher text and Decryption will also be replaced accordingly.

Such a troublesome encryption method may seem impeccable, but in fact it is not.Xia Qingyu, who was an emperor in his previous life, not only knew the existence of the code book, but also knew the changing rules of changing the code every ten days, so he could easily create a secret letter that met the requirements and disguise it as a report from a royal spy to ensure that it could Go directly to the old emperor.

The result was just as she expected, Shi Qinglian quickly received a reply of "allowed to meet".

This is a very rare thing, because the name of the sender of the paper letter is "Shi Qinglian", and she is the ace investigator of the Ministry of Rites, rather than a royal spy.

An investigator used the secret code of a royal spy to deliver a report, but he was able to get a reply that he was allowed to meet in person, instead of waiting for the royal spy to come to arrest someone, which means that the letter contained content that the old emperor did not allow others to know... even if Even if he is a royal spy.

At the same time, he also had something to clarify to Shi Qinglian, so he would not choose to silence him directly for the time being.

At the entrance of the Grand Palace, Shi Qinglian silently took off all his clothes. After spending almost 10 minutes undergoing a full-body scan by an automatic machine, he passed through the inspection channel and put on the "visitor uniform" over there.

She didn't know what was actually written in the letter, but it was really incredible that the other party was able to arrange for her to enter the Grand Palace.

The security measures at the Grand Palace are truly astonishingly tight.No clothing is allowed to be brought in, and every hair on the body and every cell in the body must undergo extremely strict scanning and inspection until it is confirmed to be absolutely safe.

The temperature in the palace was slightly cold, and the uniforms of those attending the meeting were also very thin.Shi Qinglian was trembling a little, but the will of the ace investigator allowed her to hold on, and she did not start to show off directly.

She looked towards the dark corridor ahead and realized that her inspiration had been suppressed.

There must be some kind of extremely domineering sealed object in this grand palace that can suppress the mysterious power without explanation, in order to prevent the attacks of mysterious scholars.

Shi Qinglian continued to move forward and soon met the imperial guard.They are synths with mechanized bodies, and the firepower they carry can easily penetrate most armored units.

She endured the cold and crossed her arms, letting the waiter's red eyes sweep across her face, and then followed the waiter forward.

At the same time, Chen Ziang also started to set off.

He blended into the nearby interstellar dredger and quietly approached the outskirts of the Grand Palace.

The interstellar dredger is responsible for cleaning up space debris around the Grand Palace, such as meteorite fragments or passenger ship waste.These things will not actually cause damage to the Grand Palace. They mainly prevent secret troops from using the garbage cover to reach the outer wall.

Of course, even if someone does reach the outer wall, it is impossible to drill a hole in the wall and enter the Grand Palace - the first layer of solid armor on the outer wall is nearly 300 meters thick, and can even be carried head-on. If you are not worried about the impact of some meteorites, just go ahead and chip it away.

Between the first and second layers of armor, there is a vibration alarm detection matrix.If someone really used a high-power electric chisel to drill holes in it, the interior of the Grand Palace would be immediately alarmed.

Chen Ziang didn't bring any high-power electric drill. He just followed Xia Qingyu's request and locked on one of the outermost armor rivets.

Then he spacecrawled sideways, counting silently in his mind.

1, 2, 3... The 15th rivet was found.

Chen Ziang took off the device from his back and installed it in the center of the rivet.

Turn on the power above.

The device immediately emitted a directional vibration wave of a specific frequency, and its direction was precisely calculated so that it could pass through the gaps in the alarm detection matrix.

The density and thickness of the outer solid armor of the Grand Palace undoubtedly greatly extended the propagation distance of this vibration wave.

Inside the Grand Palace, the mechanical waiter was leading Shi Qinglian along the corridor.These corridors are not spacious, and in many places only one person is allowed to pass through. This is because even if the enemy really breaks through the outer defenses, it will be difficult to expand the size of the troops and make it easier for the guards to guard.

However, this narrow corridor environment means that the movement route of the waiters can be accurately calculated - as long as the calculator knows the size and structure of the entire Grand Palace.

Shi Qinglian soon noticed some kind of buzzing sound... Due to the low frequency of the sound, it was difficult for her ears to distinguish it, so she thought it was white noise produced by the operation of nearby mechanical equipment.

The mechanical waiter paused for a moment, then continued walking forward with Shi Qinglian as if nothing happened.

In this interstellar age, almost any model of synthetic human has the ability to receive, analyze, and understand human speech (essentially, vibrating sound waves of specific frequencies).There is a central control code at the bottom of their information base. As long as a specific "password" is spoken to it, the corresponding control rights can be obtained.

The central control code of the mechanical waiter inside the Grand Palace has always been known only to the emperor, and it has almost impeccable anti-leak and anti-divination measures.The corresponding control authority overrides all other authorities, and the purpose is naturally to ensure that the emperor himself has absolute control over the military forces within the Grand Palace.

The people who designed this system obviously did not consider that at the same time, there would be two "emperors" possessing confidential information...

In short, the mechanical waiter took Shi Qinglian to the emperor's study deep in the Grand Palace, and then left silently through the waiter's passage.

According to usual rules, it should continue to return to its patrol route.

What no one knew was that the mechanical waiter turned a corner at a certain intersection and silently turned to another road.

This abnormal route change quickly attracted the attention of the command center.According to the established procedure, the command center began to send inquiry requests to the abnormal robot, requiring it to respond quickly.

Immediately afterwards, somewhere on the outer wall of the Grand Palace suddenly suffered an unexpected physical impact.

The impact came from a small meteorite, which was thrown by Xia Zili from a position in space extremely far away from the Grand Palace. The speed, distance and timing of the shot were also accurately calculated, and it happened to get stuck shortly after the mechanical waiter deviated from the route - due to The pace of the mechanical waiter is constant. As long as you know its route well, you can naturally calculate when it will deviate from the route.

The meteorite passed through the interception of the space dredger and quickly concentrated on the outer wall of the Grand Palace, causing a large crater of destruction nearly 50 meters deep.

Since it failed to penetrate the first layer of armor, the command center did not immediately call the police to activate the security measures inside the Grand Palace. Instead, it quickly issued a series of orders, including mobilizing surrounding space dredgers and escorts. The automatic machinery in the armor compartment maintenance channel, as well as the activation of data collectors inside the armor, etc., are all in order to confirm the current situation of the outer armor as soon as possible - is it an unexpected meteorite attack, or is there an unknown life trying to penetrate the outer wall?
This series of commands has an extremely high priority and quickly occupied all available threads in the command center. So much so that the low-priority command "Confirm Abnormal Mechanical Waiter" was instantly queued to the back of the queue and had no time to be processed. .

Deep in the palace, Shi Qinglian saw a vague figure standing behind the curtain of the study.She did not hesitate and quickly knelt down on one knee to meet him.

"That letter..." an old voice came from behind the curtain, "was it written by you?"

"Yes." Shi Qinglian replied.

She memorized the plan Xia Qingyu asked her to recite to deal with the old emperor's conversation, and had no intention of making any comments at this time.

But what surprised her even more was that, except for some slight discrepancies in wording, all the old emperor's problems were actually planned.

"Shi Qinglian is a native of the Baijiang Star Area." The old emperor said calmly, "My parents are still alive at home, my grandfather is deceased, my grandparents and grandmother are still alive, and I have a younger brother. We have a very close relationship."

"It's a pity that all of them will die because of your crime of deceiving the emperor."

Shi Qinglian was silent for a moment, then changed his kneeling posture from one knee to both knees, prostrated his upper body to the ground, and said sincerely:

"If your Majesty insists on killing me, I will not dare to resist the order. However, every word of what I said in the letter is true. Your Majesty accuses me of deceiving the emperor, but I do not admit it."

She is from the Ministry of Rites and is a serious civil servant, so she can call herself a "minister".

The old emperor not only knew her position, but also her past experience. He actually suspected that she was not told this lie by someone else.After all, Xia Qingyu is now dead, and forging the news that she is still alive will not be beneficial to any forces within the empire.

However, as the emperor for many years, he no longer trusted his intuitive judgment, but continued to press calmly and said:
"Since you have not pleaded guilty, I will let you know your guilt. Xia Qingyu died eight years ago. She died with the God's Punishment Fleet in order to protect the starship humans from the federal pursuers. Afterwards, it was verified by many parties that it was correct, but your report said that she Still alive, should I believe the investigation report with abundant evidence? Or your baseless one-sided statement?"

Shi Qinglian was secretly trembling in his heart, because Xia Qingyu had also anticipated the old emperor's words.

She followed the plan she had memorized in advance and whispered:
"I don't know. Your Majesty is so wise that I don't dare to speak falsely. It's just that what I saw and heard in the past is only one-sided, but I don't dare to hide it in front of Your Majesty. I just hope that Your Majesty will be kind and listen."

The old emperor was silent for a long time and said calmly:
"Since you have the courage, then tell the truth."

So Shi Qinglian began to recite a short story.A few minutes later, the abnormal mechanical waiter arrived at the door of a secret room inside the palace.

Its steel body trembled for a moment, then suddenly deployed all the weapon arrays it carried, firing violently forward.

The metal gate, which was strong enough to defend against ordinary bullets, was vulnerable to the overwhelming firepower of the mechanical waiter. Together with the mechanical devices and scholars inside that maintained the "no secrets within the entire Grand Palace," they were all torn to pieces in an instant. .

At this moment, there were still not many loopholes in the security of the entire Grand Palace on the physical level, but the defense line on the mysterious level had completely collapsed.

It was naturally impossible for the command center to turn a blind eye to this, and immediately issued the highest level of alarm.

In the inner study room, the old emperor listened silently to Shi Qinglian's explanation and said with a sneer:

"It's a shame you have the courage to tell such half-truths and pretentious stories..."

Before he finished speaking, his expression changed slightly, sensing the alarm signal that resounded throughout the Grand Palace.

But the old emperor could no longer react, because countless long starlight ropes had stretched out from the void, tightly binding his body and limbs.

"Although it's just a mystery." Behind him, Xia Qingyu's calm voice sounded, "But as long as it can play a role, it has value worth talking about."

"Right, Your Majesty?"

(End of this chapter)