Chapter 148: A New Unidentified Flying Object

That is true, in a way. After all, Feng Ling'er had been doted on by her father since childhood, and influenced by him, she had naturally developed a somewhat indomitable personality that refused to admit defeat.

However, she was now facing a situation she truly could not resolve, a blow to her pride that was by no means insignificant. Meanwhile, Zhang Desen had no desire to waste time; if he could use this opportunity to shake off the trouble, all the better. Therefore, he said to Feng Ling'er:

"Very well, Miss Feng, let us part ways here."

At these words, Feng Ling'er, who had been weeping just moments before, suddenly cried out:

"No way! This lady is sticking with you this time. I am certainly not going to let you go off and win all the glory by yourself. Don't even think about ditching me—stay right where you are!"

By this point, Zhang Desen was growing somewhat irritated. He said:

"Miss Feng, we are genuinely walking into a great deal of trouble. If you are not afraid of going missing tonight, then by all means, follow along."

Suddenly, Feng Ling'er broke into a smile once more. She declared:

"Fine, fine, fine! I am willing to follow you. No matter what difficulties you face, I will face them alongside you. You wouldn't go back on your word again, would you?"

Feeling rather helpless, Zhang Desen had no choice but to tell her:

"Listen, Miss Feng, the enemies we are facing this time are far more formidable than anything you have ever encountered in the past. There are many things you simply do not understand, and coming along will only invite trouble."

Unhappy with this, Feng Ling'er retorted:

"What makes you look down on this young lady? Do you take my swordsmanship to be poor? Let me tell you, within the city of Xidu, my swordsmanship ranks in the top ten!"

Startled, Zhang Desen turned his head to look at Li Longfang and Zhao Chengming, attempting to verify this claim. The two men immediately understood and nodded in unison.

Seeing this, Feng Ling'er chimed in triumphantly:

"Did you see that? Your own subordinates have confirmed it! Taking me with you will definitely help you vanquish the enemy and achieve victory."

Nevertheless, Zhang Desen persisted:

"Miss Feng, I must admit, I hadn't realized your swordsmanship would receive such high praise. But the enemies we must face cannot be handled simply by having good swordsmanship. So please, Miss Feng, let us part ways here!"

Hearing this, Feng Ling'er grew even more anxious. Drawing her sharp treasured sword, she slashed wildly at several tables nearby. It had to be conceded that her blade was indeed a fine weapon. In a flash, Feng Ling'er had thoroughly chopped up the tables. She demanded:

"Well? Do you still look down on me now? Am I qualified to deal with villains or not?"

***

However, Zhang Desen remained unmoved:

"Thank you, Miss Feng. Your swordsmanship is truly formidable. But I repeat: the villains we are about to face can no longer be dealt with merely through superior sword skills. Therefore, I still cannot take you with you. There is no time left now; some matters can be discussed another day!"

At this, Feng Ling'er felt as though she might vomit blood from sheer frustration. She thought to herself:

*Oh, so Zhang Desen, just because you defeated Xiaoliba, the bravest warrior of the Liaogu Kingdom, you think you can be so arrogant! Even if the opponent is a man, my swordsmanship isn't necessarily inferior to his—not to mention my 'Qingyu' sword, which cuts through iron as if it were mud. And yet you still look down on me so thoroughly!*

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. Wielding her sword, Feng Ling'er lunged directly at Zhang Desen, letting out a sharp cry:

"Take this!"

Li Longfang and the others moved to intercept her, but Zhang Desen had already drawn his triangular military bayonet to meet the attack. Knowing that Feng Ling'er did not truly mean to make an enemy of him, but was merely resentful that he refused to let her join the adventure, Zhang Desen decided that simply slicing her sword in two would suffice.

At that split second, Zhang Desen struck precisely at the weakest point within Feng Ling'er's web of sword shadows. With a crisp *clang*, the 'Qingyu' treasured sword was chopped cleanly into two halves by the triangular bayonet.

Staring at the broken weapon in her hands, Feng Ling'er found it utterly impossible to believe her eyes. Her beloved 'Qingyu' sword had been personally selected for her by her father, General Feng Yucai. Forged from the finest iron, it was perfectly balanced and possessed an edge capable of cleaving through iron like clay. Almost any other weapon that crossed its path would invariably be severed.

Even on the battlefield, it could easily pierce the ordinary armor of enemy soldiers. Having accompanied her for so long, the sword was something she deeply cherished.

She never dreamed it would be so effortlessly snapped in two by Zhang Desen today, and a wave of profound sorrow washed over her.

The reason Zhang Desen had been so confident in breaking it lay in his absolute faith in the metallurgy of his own triangular bayonet. Because the humans in this universe were still living in an ancient era, the forging techniques of even their finest swords could not possibly compare to those of Huaxia in his original universe.

Furthermore, this lengthened version of the triangular military bayonet had been custom-forged for him in Huaxia specifically for his multiverse travels. The materials used were the same ones spacecraft employed to withstand asteroid and meteorite impacts in deep space. Naturally, its hardness far exceeded anything ancient weapon-crafting could ever achieve—which was precisely why Zhang Desen had chosen to end the conflict by directly cutting her sword in half.

Feng Ling'er stood in silence, staring blankly at her shattered blade. Unwilling to waste another moment, Zhang Desen was just about to leave when the micro-computer on his left wrist began to beep with an alarm.

Pulling back his sleeve once more, Zhang Desen swiftly checked the displayed data. It showed new information transmitted from the massive satellite of the Saurian Orm Empire.

The core message indicated that a mysterious flying object, which had approached Earth from the direction of Mars, had entered a stationary hover just outside Earth's atmosphere—specifically utilizing a geostationary orbit. After a certain period, it had deployed a smaller craft from its own hatch.

Although smaller than the mother ship, this secondary craft still boasted a diameter of one hundred meters. Once detached, it had begun a slow descent into Earth's atmosphere.

Based on its trajectory, its destination was predicted to be Heizhou City in the great human nation of Daxing—a revelation that immediately brought mysterious missing person cases to Zhang Desen's mind.

The so-called geostationary orbit is an orbit for an artificial Earth satellite whose period of revolution equals the Earth's rotational period (23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds) in the direction of the Earth's rotation. Ignoring orbital perturbations, a satellite operating in a geostationary orbit passes over the exact same point on Earth at the exact same time every day.

***

To an observer on the ground, the satellite appears in the same direction at the same time every day. A circular geostationary orbit with an inclination of zero is known as a equatorial geostationary satellite orbit.

A geostationary satellite, also known as a geosynchronous satellite or a synchronous communications satellite, is an artificial satellite operating in a geostationary orbit.

The defining characteristic of a synchronous orbit satellite is that its distance from the Earth is 35,786 kilometers; its direction of revolution matches the Earth's rotation; its orbit is a circular path lying in the plane of the Earth's equator; and its revolution period equals one sidereal rotation of the Earth (a sidereal day, not a solar day)—namely, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds. The satellite's orbital speed is approximately 3.07 kilometers per second, matching the angular velocity of the Earth's rotation. By deploying three communication satellites in geostationary orbit, global communication can be achieved everywhere except the polar regions.

The radio waves radiated by antennas on geostationary satellites provide a relatively stable coverage area on Earth. Within this coverage zone, any two earth stations can achieve uninterrupted 24-hour communication.

Consequently, geostationary satellites are primarily used for fixed terrestrial communications, such as telephony and television broadcasting, as well as maritime mobile communications. However, unlike terrestrial cellular mobile communications which feature numerous base stations, a satellite serves as a single large base station, while the mobile switching center remains land-based (referred to as a coast station). Communication between maritime mobile terminals (i.e., ship-to-ship) requires a double satellite hop to be realized.

For example, if Vessel A needs to contact Vessel B, Vessel A transmits a signal to the satellite; the signal makes its first hop to the mobile switching center at the coast station, from which the coast station transmits it back up to the satellite, making a second hop to reach Vessel B. Inclined-orbit and polar-orbit synchronous satellites appear to move when viewed from Earth, yet they can pass over specific regions daily; hence, they are commonly utilized for scientific research, meteorology, military intelligence gathering, and communications in polar and high-latitude regions.

Geostationary satellites are frequently employed in communications, meteorology, radio and television broadcasting, missile early warning, and data relay to ensure continuous operation over the same region.

In remote sensing applications, aside from meteorological satellites, a prominent use is the high-speed transmission of Earth resources and environmental remote sensing data acquired by low- and medium-orbit Earth observation satellites or space shuttles, facilitated by a system of four tracking and data relay satellites stationed in geostationary orbit.

The world's first geostationary satellite was Syncom 3, launched by the United States on August 19, 1964. China successfully launched three communication and broadcasting geostationary satellites on April 8, 1984, February 1, 1986, and March 7, 1988, respectively.

Reviewing the specific conditions of the two unidentified flying objects shown in the data, Zhang Desen formed a judgment in his mind: if these two UFOs were indeed connected to the missing persons cases, they would likely not depart after staying for just a single day.

It was highly probable that every night, once they captured a certain number of humans, those people would be transported directly up to the massive mother ship. Only when that ship was filled to capacity would it break out of Earth's orbit and head back in the direction from which it came.

Even so, Zhang Desen harbored a lingering concern: could the massive geostationary satellite of the Saurian Orm Empire be providing erroneous data? He felt he needed to verify the situation firsthand. After all, his data collection device had been installed for quite some time now, and he could not be entirely certain whether unforeseen circumstances had occurred in the interim.

With these thoughts, a plan formed in Zhang Desen's mind. He immediately cupped his fists in a salute to Feng Ling'er and said:

"Miss Feng, the situation is urgent; I have no way to explain too much to you right now. Should there be other wondrous events in the future, I will certainly inform you, but this circumstance is truly exceptional. Farewell!"

Just as Zhang Desen turned to leave, however, Feng Ling'er called out:

"Do not leave me behind—please take me with you!"