At this moment, Reef suddenly exclaimed: “Have you completed your Milestone (Time for a Raise)? The requirement was to kill three male Na'vi.

Why is it only just notifying me now?” Fang Senyan hadn't paid attention to this before, but upon closer inspection, he realized it was true. It must be that the three Na'vi killed before he had his falling out with Lear and the others included females, which is why this Milestone had only just completed now.

The title awarded for this Milestone was: Excellent Employee. The attribute granted was a small additional reward when completing tasks assigned by RD while wearing this title.

And this Milestone had a follow-up; this time the requirement was to kill ten male Na'vi / one Hammerhead Titanothere. Next, Fang Senyan walked over to the wreckage of the Makghee-piloted Mk-VI exoskeleton system.

He carefully searched through the muddy water on the ground for a while, retrieving both the stone sarcophagus containing the skull of the Shadow Stalker Ghost Dragon Head and the skull itself, unceremoniously tossing them into the team's storage space. Then he took another careful look, sizing up the nearby Hometree with a malevolent glint in his eye.

He clapped Mokansha and Reef on the shoulder: “Do me a favor.” Reef was taken aback: “What for?” Fang Senyan replied bluntly: “Demolition.” Then he walked up to the lifeless Hometree and decisively punched one of its massive plank buttress roots! The wood immediately let out a series of groaning cracks under the immense strain.

“I need help, and I need it efficiently, otherwise, it’s hard to guarantee we won’t be blocked by reinforcements of reinforcements when we make our escape.” An hour later, the tranquility surrounding the Hometree was broken once again. It was the sound of "dudu" hooves!

At least twenty Na'vi, riding six-legged horses, charged out of the dark jungle, longbows raised high in imposing fashion! Mud splashed everywhere!

Even the surrounding insect chirps fell silent. A palpable sense of danger radiated from the longbows slung across their backs.

With their night vision, they had taken in the situation clearly: without a doubt, a battle had taken place here. A fierce battle!

Even the sacred Hometree looked as if ten Titanotheres had ravaged it. “Outsiders!” the lead warrior, whose face was adorned with war paint, spat with hatred.

A human skull dangled as a necklace pendant from his jaw, swaying slightly in the cool air. They simultaneously dismounted, for they could see the scattered corpses of their kin around the Hometree.

The causes of death were complex, but most seemed to be from broken bones—this kind of annihilation by sheer brute force was rarely seen among the Na'vi. Suddenly, a Na'vi near the front cried out in profound grief: “Yac’ukli!!!” Their warrior, Yac’ukli, was pinned alive to the tree wall by an arrow, eyes wide open!

Clearly, this was the work of the vengeful Black Guy who had shot him onto the wall. The group immediately rushed forward in sorrow and rage, naturally intending to pull out the cursed arrow and retrieve their kinsman’s body.

Thus, they failed to notice that the fletching of the arrow was connected to a very inconspicuous switch—though in truth, noticing it wouldn't have mattered, as the vast majority of Na’vi had no concept of high-explosive ordnance… Five seconds later, a muffled explosion erupted from the base of the towering tree, a sound so deep it seemed the very earth trembled and wailed in response. An agonizing, desperate scream shot up from the roots to the tips of the leaves!

Leaves then rained down like the memorial shower of autumn. Immediately afterward, the colossal tree, which reached the heavens, began to shake continuously before slowly collapsing amidst a constant chorus of cracking sounds!

The sheer scale of the Hometree’s collapse was immense. The three figures laboring through the dark, damp primeval jungle were not deaf, and they couldn't help but turn to look back.

Mokansha murmured: “Those guys arrived fast. If we had delayed any longer, we might have been ambushed dead in our tracks.” Reef stepped aside to avoid a fallen piece of decaying wood, only to put his foot down on a nearby red fern.

Instantly, he was covered in a foul odor. He frowned, pinching his nose, then muttered sullenly after a moment’s thought: “That explosive had incredible power, and the collapse of the Hometree was so massive.

With all that crushing force, I doubt a single supporter of the Tawkami Clan survived. Should we take advantage of this and wipe out that clan?” Fang Senyan struggled to pull his foot free from the decaying mud beneath him.

He looked up at a bell-shaped flower hanging above, resembling a jellyfish, pondered for a moment, and then said: “We’ll see. Let’s head back first.

From the look of things now, if we can’t seize the initiative in this war against the Na’vi, these kinds of skirmishes are likely to be nothing but guaranteed losses!” “Oh, God! I hate these tangled aerial roots!

Damn it, I think I just stepped in some animal’s excrement—this smells awful!” Black Guy suddenly shouted. Fang Senyan said coldly: “Shut up.

Watch the path ahead. Without these bioluminescent plants, we might not get back to the transport ship until morning.” After dispatching eleven Viperwolves, twenty-one mutated insects, and fifty-nine carnivorous plants, the exhausted Fang Senyan and his companions finally saw the massive silhouette of the transport ship.

By this time, a rosy glow was beginning to appear on the horizon. The spent Aces team returned to the second deck of the transport ship.

Ignoring the contemptuous looks from the Solar Clan members, they walked through the corridor and collapsed into sleep. Fang Senyan wasn't so lucky; he still had to recover his severed limbs in the auto-regeneration tank aboard the crashed vessel before he could sleep—of course, limb repair wasn't free and cost a considerable amount of Universal Points.

For the safety of the rest of the team, that deceased scoundrel’s metal access card came in handy again. The Aces team unceremoniously commandeered his cabin: Fang Senyan took his cot, Black Guy took his sleeping blanket, and Reef, being a step too slow, only managed to claim his pillow and the floor space.

Of course, for Contractors, breaking down that sliding steel cabin door wouldn't be a great effort, but the door’s function was an alarm, not protection. If any uninvited guests decided to show up uninvited, Fang Senyan and the others would have a few seconds of buffer time to deliver the fiercest possible blow to any malicious intruder harboring ill intent.

Four to six hours of sleep might only be a brief rest for ordinary people, but for powerful Contractors like Fang Senyan and his comrades, it was enough to substantially restore their vigorous energy. Their nerves had been sufficiently taxed during the preceding events.

Like clockwork, their biological rhythms awakened them with perfect precision. The three of them, having endured the previous battle and trek, were ravenous.

They hastily stuffed sandwiches into their mouths, chugged down Gatorade, and finally sucked down three tubes of semi-solid nutrient paste resembling toothpaste. They had purchased this from the dead RD members; it was rumored to effectively restore stamina and enhance abilities!

It also seemed to contain steroids and hormonal stimulants. Just then, a chill that made even Fang Senyan’s skin crawl suddenly swept in from outside, as if a sharp blade had just grazed his cheek.

Though unharmed, he jumped up instantly and spun around to look outside. “This feeling…” In that instant, Reef and Mokansha felt it too.

They both turned simultaneously. Reef’s pupils contracted instantly: “This… this is a Coloniant.

The aura of a formal Coloniant, like Makghee!” All three burst out of the cabin only to see the Solar Clan members guarding the area as if facing a major threat. When they saw them appear, they looked over with extreme caution, but upon spotting Reef and Fang Senyan, they inexplicably showed a flicker of joy.

Looking through the viewport now, they saw two groups of people facing off in the open space. The Contractors closer to the crashed transport ship were more numerous, mostly familiar faces—Contractors who had previously defended the Valkyrie transport together during the beast tide.

Standing further away were thirteen individuals. These thirteen people were unfamiliar, yet they appeared very familiar with each other, chatting amongst themselves with an air of profound arrogance, seemingly paying almost no heed to the Contractors opposite them.

The illusory red Nightmare Imprints on their chests were clearly visible, likely the insignia of the Coloniants. Notably, Aldaris, who looked quite familiar with Reef, was among the thirteen!

On the nearby open ground, one Contractor was slowly walking away, a katana resting across his body, a dazzling red light flashing from his chest—the mark of a Coloniant! Not far away, a woman was kneeling helplessly on the ground, her face a mask of fury; it was Yaomeng, a core member of the Solar Clan, who had clearly been struck down into a near-death state, though for some reason, the enemy had not delivered the finishing blow.

This Contractor carrying the katana took a few steps forward, then turned around, pointing his katana, which shimmered with silver light, at the Contractors blocking the transport ship, and coldly stated: “Next.” It was only then that Fang Senyan learned the whole story from a nearby Contractor. Apparently, around eight o'clock that morning, this group of Contractors had arrived at the transport ship, intending to head directly to the second deck to seize the core engine of the Valkyrie.

The Solar Clan members naturally refused, and conflict ensued.