To someone like Fang Senyan, who knew the Zerg inside and out, he understood that even with his current strength, destroying a Hive would be a time-consuming endeavor, given the incredible vitality of Hives. Moreover, a Hive chosen by the Queen of Blades would undoubtedly possess extraordinary capabilities.

Having the Crystal Bombs was undoubtedly the key to buying significant time.

Secondly, the mission item he obtained was a Communicator. Using this item would cost a certain amount of Credits and manifest a holographic 3D image of Old Qiduo, allowing Fang Senyan to conduct transactions face-to-face, thus eliminating the need to come to this very bar to turn in the quest.

This particular mission was a perfect alignment of opportunities, as Fang Senyan had already intended to pay a visit to the Queen's private chambers; completing this task was merely a matter of convenience, especially with the help of the Terrans.

It was already four in the morning. Based on the information he usually received, dawn would break between six and six-thirty. Fang Senyan immediately bolted out of the Protoss base. He spared a glance at the radar screen and noted that the remaining Terran forces were still nearly two kilometers from the base, while the Zerg pursued relentlessly, determined to maximize their gains. Thus, Fang Senyan seized the moment and rapidly sprinted toward the location previously agreed upon with Old Charlie.

The world was still pitch black, illuminated only by faint starlight and scattered bioluminescence. The slate-gray earth seemed endless, stretching out ahead of him forever.

Fang Senyan looked back toward the vicinity of the Protoss base and noticed an area that seemed to have swallowed all light, like an invisible black hole. At this point, Fang Senyan was almost certain that the dense layer of strange darkness enveloping the Protoss base was the Queen's doing. Shielded by this bizarre darkness, the Zerg could remain concealed, executing their unpredictable tactics of flanking and sporadic assaults.

Soon, he spotted clear markings ahead, likely left by Vulture type hovercraft, which could travel at speeds between 200 and 300 miles per hour. Their standard armament was a single grenade launcher.

Following these were the tracks of treads, left by the heavy-duty Assault Tank Model A-5, capable of transforming. Their formidable firepower was almost synonymous with humanity. They were equipped with the immensely powerful Mjolnir coaxial cannon; tanks had to immobilize their firing platform before launching such shells, making them unable to move during firing. These tanks required a driver, a machine gunner, and a commander or navigator to operate.

"Pontan really came through, didn't he?" Fang Senyan couldn't help but mutter to himself. "I only expected support from two or three squads of Marines; it looks like an entire mechanized force has shown up."

Shortly after, Fang Senyan encountered a Vulture patrol unit. After displaying his identification, he successfully hitched a ride and arrived at the Terran temporary encampment, where he met Pontan and Old Charlie.

Through Old Charlie's introduction, Fang Senyan learned that Pontan was indeed a genius. Although the tanks and Vultures produced by the Forge Factory he constructed suffered from a lack of resources preventing factory upgrades, Pontan's exquisite engineering had earned the Forge Factory the "Superior" prefix, meaning the war machines it produced already possessed higher attack and defense stats than normal.

This time, Pontan had committed all his forces: thirty-seven Vultures, twenty-six Goliaths, eleven Siege Tanks, one hundred and thirty Marines, eighteen Medics, and thirty SCVs—a truly all-out effort.

Fang Senyan naturally reciprocated. During the battles, he had acquired a significant amount of Zerg Soul Crystals. He first applied an extreme enhancement to Pontan. However, Pontan was already at Hero level, so the large influx of Soul Crystals could only further increase his strength rather than elevate him to the leader tier like Noos or Red-Striped Cerebrate. Truly breaking through this bottleneck relied on inner enlightenment and contemplation; external power could only assist so much.

Even so, any structure built by the newly enhanced Pontan would carry the "Fine" prefix, meaning not only greater structural resilience but also that the units produced by these buildings would immediately possess near-Elite quality... though this required consuming extra Pandora Crystals.

Next, Fang Senyan used the remaining Zerg Soul Crystals to upgrade Jilgisna to Elite level, and he also selected one of the Medics to elevate to Elite status. This fully mechanized Iron Legion rapidly advanced forward, soon reaching the location of the Queen of Blades' Zerg base.

Under Fang Senyan's command, the highly capable anti-air Goliaths split into two groups to patrol the perimeter, their objective being to clear out the Creep Colonies the Zerg habitually scattered around the base.

These jellyfish-like organisms floated in the air, possessed excellent maneuverability, and had anti-cloaking capabilities. The Goliaths systematically eliminated them one by one. While this carried the risk of alerting the enemy, it effectively blinded the leaderless Zerg base.

The warning and preemptive mobilization that hunting Creep Colonies would normally trigger were utterly insignificant to the Terran army Fang Senyan brought. The Siege Tanks took up positions with a resonant thud, spitting out thick white steam before transforming, slamming their mechanical legs into the ground. Then, their powerful coaxial cannons rotated, locked onto the Zerg base, and roared as they unleashed their payload!

Yes, under the bombardment of the Terran Siege Tanks, the high-powered, long-range explosive splash fire immediately enveloped the Zerg positions. A Spore Colony immediately ruptured with a pala sound, exploding into a spray of ichor. Furthermore, neighboring organic structures were affected, erupting with viscous brown fluid and emitting low, gurgling moans.

And precisely as the Siege Tanks fired their first shot, the nearby SCVs swiftly slid into position, rapidly constructing hexagonal Bunkers, Supply Depots for healing and rest, and Missile Turrets for anti-air and anti-cloak defense.

This was the Terrans' greatest strength in siege warfare—the ability to execute numerous base-assault tactics centered around their Siege Tanks.

Because the Siege Tanks possessed astonishing range, far exceeding the range of Spore Colonies, in the face of these tanks, any number of Spore Colonies were useless decoys. The Zerg were forced to launch ground assaults or rely on air support to attack, meaning that even though the Zerg were nominally the aggressors, they had to throw their flesh and blood against the Terran steel lines!

But was the Terran defense truly that easy to breach? The Bunkers alone, constructed by the SCVs, were a headache. To successfully take down a Terran position in a defensive battle required at least one-and-a-half to two times the military force, or the deployment of specialized counter-units.

Therefore, the fall of the Zerg base needs no further elaboration. After the base's first desperate counter-attack failed utterly, like waves crashing against a reef, the base's collapse became inevitable. Its only remaining fighting force could only hatch temporarily from eggs.

Seizing this opportunity, Fang Senyan stepped forward. He donned the most heavily armored suit he could find—that of a Firebat—and took the lead. Following him were hundreds of Marines, spearheaded by Jilgisna, with twenty Medics trailing behind.

Fang Senyan no longer had time to wait for the Siege Tanks to methodically pound the defenses. After clearing out the few remaining mobile resisting forces within the base, he led his troops directly toward the Hive. From a distance, illuminated by searchlights, they saw the Hive—a colossal, monstrous structure, reddish-pink and mountainous, standing tall. Alongside it, a towering, fleshy red fang-like pillar projected an overwhelming, fierce aura that washed over them.

Fang Senyan took a deep breath, suppressing his rising tension.

Because that fang-like pillar was the Flesh Palace, the residence of the Queen of Blades! Beneath the Flesh Palace, seven or eight Zerg creatures roared in fury. These included Zerglings, Hydralisks, and Ultralisks, all possessing strong potential to evolve into Elite or Heroic organisms, currently drawing power from the Flesh Palace to advance.

These Zerg creatures displayed an intense desire to duel Fang Senyan one-on-one. Regrettably, the latter possessed no sense of chivalry; with a mere wave of his hand, over a hundred Marines, pumped full of stimulants and armed to the teeth, charged forward, riddled the creatures with bullets, and drowned them in the ocean of mass warfare.

Fang Senyan wasted no further time. He charged directly toward the fang-like pillar. A steep, reddish-pink path snaked around the massive flesh pillar like a serpent. Clearly, ascending this fleshy path would allow him to reach the summit on foot and enter the innermost chambers of the Queen of Blades, Morrigan, to uncover her secrets and treasures.

Fang Senyan spent about five minutes on the flesh path. After all, the fang pillar was less than two hundred meters high, and for a monster like Fang Senyan, sprinting to the top without pausing was entirely normal.

Then, Fang Senyan froze dead at the entrance to the Flesh Palace.