Shortly thereafter, the Bos Guard dispatched several small warships to intercept the departing fleet, but they achieved nothing and had to return empty-handed.

Kussen was fully prepared, of course. Furthermore, although Yang Ying's yacht was not fast, under the Observer's reconnaissance, it maintained the initiative, allowing it to evade the Bos warships from a distance and slip away through their radar blind spots. Once the yacht plunged into the asteroid belt, even more warships could not locate it.

After the Three Cities Conference was canceled, the cities descended into protracted wrangling. The bald-headed leader from Lehai was kept under house arrest in Kussen, left with no choice but to echo Kussen’s every word. Meanwhile, Bos, having lost two cruisers, lacked confidence but remained stubbornly defiant, showing no inclination to yield. To yield even an inch would mean dissolution; the mercenary groups of the Three Cities fought solely for survival.

At this juncture, any discerning eye could see that war was inevitable, destined to be settled by conflict that would ultimately determine the loser. The Bos Guard had plummeted from being the strongest faction to the weakest. A turnaround seemed next to impossible.

Yang Ying cared little whether the Three Cities continued their squabbling. He chose to stay out of it; the Trane Mercenary Group was an ally of Kussen, not its subordinate, so there was no need to volunteer to be used as a pawn. He simply instructed Callya to keep an eye on intelligence coming from Kussen, then let things drift along as they would.

Returning to the base, Yang Ying slipped back into a simple yet fulfilling routine: managing official business daily, practicing his swordsmanship, honing his psychic abilities, and researching technology.

The affairs of the Trane Mercenary Group had settled onto a steady track. Official duties became progressively simpler, shrinking from five or six hours a day initially to only one or two hours needed to finalize everything later on.

Thanks to his ability to skim a page and retain everything instantly, Yang Ying reviewed documents at lightning speed. A mere glance provided complete understanding, and coupled with his growing familiarity with these tasks, handling them became effortlessly smooth.

The Trane Mercenary Group also gradually started taking on other missions—a necessity for training, allowing soldiers fresh off the production line with zero combat experience to accumulate practical battlefield exposure.

The performance gap between veterans and rookies on the battlefield was stark, especially concerning timing and crisis adaptation. The vast majority of soldiers under Yang Ying’s command had yet to experience a single fight; they were, in essence, still raw recruits.

However, these soldiers emerging from Starship in Palm were significantly better off than typical newcomers. They possessed innate knowledge and skills; what they needed now was the development of awareness—how to apply that knowledge and skill appropriately to forge paths to victory.

In other words, they merely needed a period of synchronization to transform into seasoned veterans.

Among the intelligence reports Yang Ying reviewed daily, data concerning Grey Port occupied a substantial portion. This was due to the dense flow of traffic through Grey Port, one of the primary transportation hubs connecting the asteroid belt to the outside world—a location of immense strategic importance.

For the Trane Mercenary Group, the main source of trouble in Grey Port stemmed from the arrogant pirate agent, Herman. Ever since his humiliating retreat from the Wine Guild gathering, he had engaged in various minor provocations, both overt and covert, such as dispatching spies.

After the Trane Mercenary Group made a name for itself by eliminating a Triceratops, people frequently visited the Grey Port office, asking to sign up for recruitment. These applicants came from all walks of life, with wildly varied backgrounds.

Yet, their origins ultimately mattered little. To preserve the purity of the Trane Mercenary Group, Yang Ying had no intention of recruiting outsiders. Consequently, the Grey Port office turned away everyone who sought them out.

Robin, the person in charge at Grey Port, conducted a clandestine investigation afterward and discovered that many of the applicants were connected to Herman. Furthermore, the Giant Mercenary Group and several other major powers had also sent numerous spies among them.

In the eyes of these factions, the Trane Mercenary Group possessed elite personnel, advanced weaponry, and, most crucially, their personnel and equipment sources were entirely unknown!

The tentacles of various powers could not penetrate the interior of the Trane Mercenary Group, shrouding it in an aura of mystery.

Seeing that his spies could not breach the front door of the Trane Mercenary Group, Herman resorted to another tactic. He dispatched thirty or forty thugs to loiter on the street outside the Grey Port office daily. These men had menacing appearances, were unruly and violent, and specialized in stirring up trouble.

That street was often crowded every night with drunken mercenaries. This group of thugs would provoke anyone they encountered, inevitably escalating into brawls.

Since the thugs were prepared, if ten men couldn't win, twenty would join in; if that wasn't enough, they would all pile on. They would not leave until the mercenaries were beaten black and blue, with broken limbs, boasting afterward that this was merely to teach a certain disrespectful mercenary group a lesson, claiming these brawls were just "killing the chicken to scare the monkey." Yang Ying’s conflict with Herman was public knowledge; everyone in Grey Port understood the implication of those words.

Worse yet, one evening, while causing trouble, this group picked a fight with a large contingent of mercenaries and were soundly beaten even after ganging up. They fled in disgrace after invoking Herman’s name. The very next morning, the leader of that group of mercenaries vanished mysteriously, his body only discovered that evening in a refuse station.

Following this incident, the mercenaries who frequented the taverns every night became fearful, afraid of being targeted by the pirates, causing the business of over a dozen taverns lining the street to plummet.

Fights and brawls in Grey Port were common, and coupled with Herman's vast influence and the mysterious nature of the Trane Mercenary Group, the major powers all waited to see the outcome of the confrontation between the two.

The patrons who drank on that street mostly belonged to small, second or third-rate mercenary groups. They dared not challenge Herman, so they vented their anger upon the Trane Mercenary Group instead.

In their view, if Yang Ying hadn't provoked Herman, how could they—the collateral damage—have suffered?

In recent days, Robin had received numerous complaints from nearby mercenary groups, demanding that the office take action—

"This Herman is truly infuriating, constantly employing such despicable petty tactics. If he can't enrage you, he’ll certainly sicken you." Yang Ying sat at his desk in the command center, before him a cup of fragrant, steaming Longjing tea. In his hand, he held the latest operational data regarding Grey Port. On the side, the holographic communicator was active, displaying a bust portrait of Robin.

"I worry this is Herman trying to lure us out of the heavily fortified office building, so I have been restraining personnel from engaging with those thugs. But if this continues, it will look bad for our mercenary group's reputation," Robin stated with evident concern.

Yang Ying concurred. "Indeed. We must always maintain a vigilant caution; we cannot charge forward recklessly just because our equipment is superior. While the Machine Gunners are equipped with power armor, giving them far greater firepower and defense than ordinary soldiers, Herman, as the primary mouthpiece for the Grey Port pirates, is no easy mark. I suspect his subordinates possess considerable heavy firepower too. A rash sortie could easily result in an ambush designed to cripple our reinforcement efforts."

"Therefore, I need reinforcements—including tank units and mine-laying vehicle units. The more troops I have, the more tactical options I can employ," Robin immediately requested.

Yang Ying paused in thought. "Very well. I will dispatch reinforcements. You prepare to receive them. Once the reinforcements arrive, they will all be under your direct command. Your mission is to deal with Herman. From now on, you can handle matters concerning Herman as you see fit; unless it is of paramount importance, you need not report to me."

With that, he closed the communication link. Grey Port imposed limits on the maximum number of mercenaries and pirates allowed; troop reinforcements required approval from a coordination committee. However, the major factions were all secretly violating this regulation. Yang Ying paid it no mind; defeating Herman was the priority, and everything else would fall into place afterward.

Unexpectedly, just a few minutes later, Robin initiated another transmission, contacting him again.

"Sir, a psionicist named David is here asking for you; he is currently with me."