While Eagle and David spoke in the office, Ulysses, standing ramrod straight in front of the distant high-rise building, fixed his gaze upon the office structure. Though he carried no visual sensor equipment, his eyes were piercingly sharp, as if nothing could escape their scrutiny.

Soon, two more figures materialized beside him.

"Third, Tenth, how goes the intelligence gathering?" Ulysses murmured softly.

"Not very well. I've charmed every informant on every street corner—plenty of messy business, but not a single lead on the location of the Tran Mercenary Group's base," said one shorter figure.

"I tracked down 'Whispering Wind,' said to be the top intelligence outfit in that asteroid belt, but the situation is much the same as Tenth's. They don't know where the Tran Mercenary Group's base is either," stated a bald man with an Eastern face.

"It seems we have no choice but to question members of the Tran Mercenary Group directly about their base location. While this might alert Yang Eagle and make him wary, with all other channels exhausted, we can’t afford to worry about that flaw."

Ulysses glanced down, then suddenly pushed off with his feet and leaped towards the ground.

Third and Tenth exchanged a look and followed him down.

In a deserted alley below, two Machine Gunners were passing on patrol when they suddenly heard the sound of wind rushing from above. Looking up, they saw a dark silhouette plummeting toward them!

Before the two could react, Ulysses twisted his body, flipped, and landed behind them. He brushed a hand over the back of each power armor's helmet, and both men instantly collapsed.

Third and Tenth landed at that moment. Before the soles of their feet touched the ground, their bodies paused unnaturally, neutralizing all momentum, before they settled gently onto the pavement.

Third opened the panels of the two power armors. After checking the wiring, he reported, "Good. No surveillance equipment, just a signal emitter for location tracking. If the signal cuts, they’ll know something happened here based on the last flashing point."

"Then don't cut it. Let them think things are still normal here," Tenth said casually.

Unfortunately, they were unaware of the cloned symbiotic brain matrix. The signal in the power armor was merely to prevent theft of the armor itself; the clone warriors were tracked via their neural matrices.

"We'll question them right here," Ulysses declared.

"Understood." Third emitted a pulse of psychic energy, rousing the two Machine Gunners.

In the command center, Yang Eagle's communicator buzzed insistently. He opened it to see Kevin's avatar appear on the screen.

"Found them," Kevin stated.

"Where?" Yang Eagle knew Kevin was referring to the three Ape Emissaries.

A planar map of Fu Grey Harbor was displayed. Two red dots were blinking on a thin line representing an alley. Then, a picture-in-picture window appeared in a corner of the screen, playing live footage. All three Ape Emissaries were visible in the frame.

Back in the office building, Yang Eagle pulled out his communicator. The map and the avatars of the three Ape Emissaries had already been sent to his screen.

"What's happening, Colonel Blade?" David asked.

"Speak of the devil, our trouble has surfaced," Yang Eagle said, showing the image in his hand to David. "Judging by the location on the display, they are about a kilometer behind us."

"How did you get this image?" David asked curiously.

"That's a secret; don't pry." Yang Eagle flatly refused, retrieving his communicator and connecting to the office building's communications center. He commanded, "Dispatch all patrol units to the target location. Evacuate the surrounding populace, send in the ground armored divisions—we’re moving in."

"Yes!" the communications officer on the screen replied.

"Colonel Blade, it would be safer for you to stay here," David advised.

"For the sake of advancing my cultivation, one must fear no hardship; steel is tempered through a hundred trials. So, you don't need to stop me," Yang Eagle said with a smile. Of course, he was confident because the body known as Blade was merely an avatar; if it died, another could be created. What need was there for safety?

"I hope we can at least rescue the two Machine Gunners," Yang Eagle said, donning his combat gear and stepping out of the office.

Minutes later, several sections of the plaza in front of the office building suddenly sank downward, revealing several tunnels. Hundreds of scout motorcycles surged out from the passages, racing toward the three Ape Emissaries.

"Their willpower is truly firm; even the Charm spell couldn't force them to speak," Ulysses remarked to the two Machine Gunners who had been pulled from their power armors. "And both are the same. This Tran Mercenary Group is certainly worth watching."

"I've only heard rumors before—that a few elite soldiers on the front lines possess iron wills capable of resisting the effects of Charm. Now I see it firsthand," Tenth sneered, looking at the two Machine Gunners.

"I'll ask one last time: what are the coordinates of the main base of the Tran Mercenary Group? Speak now!" Third unleashed a pulse of psychic energy, directly stimulating the nerve endings of the two Machine Gunners. This was far more direct and painful than torture.

The two Machine Gunners were covered in sweat, but they gave only one response to Third's inquiry.

Their facial muscles twitched, revealing—

"Bastard!" Third erupted in fury, drawing a red lightsaber and severing one Machine Gunner’s head. He then turned to the other and demanded, "I ask you one last time: where is the main base of the Tran Mercenary Group? If you don't speak, you'll share his fate!"

"A large number of troops are converging here—we’ve been discovered!" Ulysses cocked his ear and heard the sound of approaching mechanized units growing louder. He warned the other two immediately.

"Damn it, we'll have to waste a Mind Control spell!" Third's eyes blazed, shooting a beam of light into the Machine Gunner's eyes.

A few seconds later, the Machine Gunner convulsed, foaming at the mouth, and died.

"What happened? Did the Mind Control fail, causing brain death?" Tenth frowned and asked again.

"No, I don't know either. It should have succeeded. There must be something strange going on."

Third—

The sound of approaching armored vehicles grew louder.

"Since we've been discovered, let's go in with direct assault. Capture their leaders—the one called Blade. Generally, the higher the rank, the weaker the will; they won't want to die," Tenth suggested.

Ulysses nodded, drew his lightsaber, and activated it. A flash of purple light erupted: "Prepare to engage."

Third and Tenth wielded standard red lightsabers, subtly shifting their footing as they moved out into the long street beyond the alley.

Yang Eagle, walking in the middle of the formation, sighed softly. His main body had already learned from Kevin that the two Machine Gunners had been killed.

"David," Yang Eagle removed the lightsaber at his waist and tossed it to David. "Let's swap. The silver sword will allow you to exert more power in your hands."

"Thank you." David tossed his blue lightsaber over as well.

Turning a corner, the sight of the three Ape Emissaries lined up abreast in the middle of the road came into view.

"Grenade launch!" Yang Eagle commanded instantly.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The twenty-plus scout motorcycles rounding the corner immediately launched over twenty grenades from their front mounts.

Child’s play. Go back," Third extended his hand, unleashing a massive wave of psychic power that halted all the grenades mid-air, then swept them back toward Yang Eagle.

David immediately pushed both hands forward, emitting a powerful blast of psychic energy to counter Tenth's force.

"Huh?" Third cried out in surprise. "A High-Tier Psionicist?"

However, the surprise lasted only a moment. The next second, he sneered and continued to increase his psychic pressure. With a series of loud booms, the grenades suspended in the air were compressed and warped by the opposing psychic forces, instantly detonating.

Yang Eagle's eyes seemed to pierce through the exploding firelight, catching sight of the figures of the three Ape Emissaries opposite them. He drew the Gauss pistol from his waist, aimed at Tenth, the shortest of the three, and fired three shots!

"Ouch!" Tenth shrieked, twisting his body repeatedly and narrowly dodging the three shots with somewhat clumsy movements. Even as a High-Tier Psionicist, he was only marginally stronger than the original David (Eleven). Yang Eagle’s current psionic strength, nearing a Mid-Tier level, combined with intense combat instinct, was enough to pose a real threat to Tenth.

Ulysses smiled faintly. "Some skill."

After firing three shots at Tenth, Yang Eagle also tested Ulysses with one shot.

"Good marksmanship." Ulysses tilted his head slightly, easily dodging the bullet.

"Take another one from me." Yang Eagle cranked the Gauss gun's energy to maximum and fired a shot toward Tenth.

The powerful recoil caused Yang Eagle's motorcycle to stutter slightly. A bullet shot out of the barrel, and immediately, ripples formed around the projectile—the sign of a bullet achieving a certain velocity. A shockwave!

Ulysses’s eyes narrowed upon seeing this bullet. Its speed was comparable to the three shards of glass thrown by Kato back then, something even a Quasi-Master could not ignore.

Tenth's eyes widened in anger as he stared at Yang Eagle, falling backward, his knees bent at a ninety-degree angle to let the bullet pass. Then, pushing off with his feet, he executed a backward somersault to regain his footing.

"Are you treating me like a monkey?" Tenth roared, drawing a dart gun from his waist and firing four shots back at Yang Eagle.

Yang Eagle activated his lightsaber, gripping the hilt, and swung it back and forth, deflecting all four projectiles.

Indeed, at my current strength, it is still difficult to fight two tiers above me against High-Tier Psionicists. And David, he is struggling to handle two Quasi-Masters.

Thinking this, Yang Eagle shouted, "Retreat first!" The entire group uniformly turned their vehicles around and fled back the way they came. A direct confrontation would certainly result in heavy casualties.

"Hmph, it's too late to run now!" Ulysses crossed the distance in a single stride, appearing behind Yang Eagle and reaching out to grab him.

But Yang Eagle acted as if he had eyes in the back of his head. He swung his saber backward in return, aiming directly at Ulysses's reaching hand.

With a sharp hiss, Yang Eagle's blue lightsaber collided with Ulysses's purple one.

"A decent strike." Ulysses, seeing his initial move fail, was surprised, though only slightly.

The gap in power remained vast. Ulysses flicked his saber lightly, sending Yang Eagle's weapon flying dozens of meters away, before clapping a hand down and seizing Yang Eagle's back.

"Come with me, Colonel Blade."

"Stop!" a voice boomed down, seemingly encompassing everything.