Though the outside world continued to evolve, Yang Ying never paused his efforts; every day, aside from sleep, he spent at least half his time on the Floating Continent.

Since acquiring his clones, he could delegate various affairs to the Blade faction and the General Staff, significantly easing the burden on his main body. Except for critical matters, he could dedicate his entire focus to the Floating Continent, concentrating wholly on his cultivation.

The Floating Continent knew no sunrise or sunset, yet distinct shifts between light and dark marked the passage of time, completing a cycle every twenty-four hours—a principle Yang Ying didn't fully comprehend.

Days turned into weeks, and Yang Ying’s psychic energy intensity surpassed nineteen thousand, nearing twenty thousand. This placed him at the absolute peak of a Mid-Tier Psionic.

Yet, on the nine-storied, nine-cornered tower at the center of the Floating Continent, the lights still shone only up to the first lamp on the third floor—exactly as it had been when he first reached the Mid-Tier Psionic realm.

The progression from the first lamp to the second on any given floor was always the slowest; once the second lamp was lit, the subsequent lamps, from the third to the ninth, would ignite progressively faster.

After all, the numerical value represented by the second lamp was double that of the first, demanding a significantly greater expenditure.

During his practice, Yang Ying frequently fixed his gaze on the fifth lamp of the third floor.

He knew clearly that the moment that lamp illuminated, it signified his attainment of the Quasi-Master realm. This meant his power had reached the minimum threshold required to challenge the Master realm, but it also signaled the imminent arrival of humanity's own bottleneck. Breakthrough meant transcendence; failure meant remaining forever mortal.

Yang Ying could not predict the outcome if he reached this bottleneck and allowed the Zerg swarm to continue growing. However, even if the Zerg numbers kept rising, the prospect of his own psychic intensity continuing to climb seemed vanishingly slim.

As his understanding of the psychic world deepened, Yang Ying grasped that the soul was like a small container, and psychic energy was like water.

A mortal soul was like a teacup; once filled with the water of psychic energy, any excess would spill over. A single cup could not hold two cups’ worth of water.

A Master-level soul, however, was like a water bucket—vastly larger than a teacup. Even filling a Master-level soul with all the psychic energy of a Quasi-Master would merely dampen the bottom of the bucket.

Masters, compared to ordinary people, were like beings who had ascended to an entirely different tier, achieving a higher state of existence.

Consequently, Yang Ying yearned more desperately for the Master realm.

Ever since his psychic intensity surpassed ten thousand, he had begun practicing spells suitable for the Praetorians, such as the unending lightning favored by the Bright Praetorians, and the three highly practical spells mastered by the Dark Praetorians: Feedback, Void Prison, and Mind Control.

Practicing these spells was not easy. Even with his eidetic memory, it offered little assistance for these particular techniques.

The structure of Praetorian-level spells was exquisitely intricate, requiring incredibly fine control over psychic energy to execute.

Though Praetorians did not possess high psychic intensity initially, their soul essence was nearly comparable to that of Masters. In other words, their souls, like buckets, could easily accumulate psychic energy into the millions through dedicated training!

Yang Ying had asked the Praetorians. According to them, this accumulation process typically required thirty to forty years, though breaking through to one hundred thousand within three to four years was achievable.

Getting sidetracked, the spells Yang Ying was currently trying to master far exceeded his current control capabilities. While he could now unleash the Bright Praetorian’s lightning, its power was negligible, only capable of shocking ordinary humans, perhaps knocking over a Psionic Apprentice, but utterly insufficient against a Psionic combatant.

Feedback required the least mastery among the three Dark Praetorian spells, allowing Yang Ying to make minor headway. However, the psychic energy he expended to cast Feedback often exceeded the energy he burned from his enemy, rendering it utterly unprofitable and useless, showing only room for improvement.

As for Void Prison and Mind Control, he couldn't even achieve the initial stages of mastery.

Yang Ying had decided to shelve those two for the time being, intending to revisit them once he reached the next Psionic tier.

As for the Templar’s Psi Storm and Hallucination, and the Dark Templar’s Cloak, these abilities, corresponding to his growing psychic intensity, were becoming increasingly refined as if by natural progression.

Near a clearing carpeted with green grass lay a lake covering four hundred square kilometers. Its surface rippled gently, occasionally broken by (Qing Fish) leaping out only to splash back down with a peng sound, sending up a spray of silver droplets.

By the lakeshore, amidst the grass, Yang Ying gripped his silver light sword, practicing the foundational sword techniques—now utterly ingrained in his muscle memory—again and again with flawless precision.

The grass barely reached his ankles, and every few steps, he passed clumps of wildflowers bearing coin-sized blossoms with white petals and pale yellow centers. Countless butterflies danced above the lawn, yet they kept a respectful distance from where Yang Ying practiced, seemingly fearful of being caught in the sword’s glow.

Upon completing the sword forms, Yang Ying retracted the blade. The hilt hung from his belt, and he sat cross-legged by the lake, gazing at the inverted image of the sky reflected in the calm water. He mentally reviewed the sensations from his recent practice, revisiting every gain and insight from the session.

It had been precisely one hour. An hour later, Yang Ying took a deep breath and stood up.

Suddenly, a screen materialized beside him, displaying the holographic projection of a bald head atop a half-sized mechanical device. It was Murphy, the Terran Elder and commander of the first main base—a supercomputer.

“The Research Institute has matters to report to you. They are waiting for you in front of the main building, Commander!” Murphy announced in a booming mechanical voice.

“Understood.” Yang Ying ascended into the air, flying toward the core area of the Terran territory.

En route, Yang Ying observed the Protoss Stargate, the structure capable of spanning space. This edifice had originally been established to connect with the outside world and transport various ores to the Floating Continent.

There was an identical Stargate in the Zerg territory used for hauling organic materials like lumber.

Logically, after the asteroid belt was thrown into chaos by the disruption caused by Heras, material supplies should have ceased.

However, the Stargate remained bustling; transport ships continuously entered and exited, seemingly untouched by any disruption.

This was because Yang Ying had tasked the Tran Corporation with scouting covert locations within the inner solar system and installing Stargates there. Ores, lumber, and other materials from the inner system could still be delivered to the Floating Continent via these hidden points.

The inner solar system was vast enough, and the orbital planes of Mars, Venus, Earth, and Mercury were largely aligned. By moving far off this plane, ample empty space existed everywhere.

This region of space remained unused for years, monitored only by probes guarding against sneak attacks from the ancient legions. By dealing with the probes, establishing a modest space station there was entirely feasible.

Although moving beyond the asteroid belt increased the cost of mineral resources, compared to the sheer abundance available on the Floating Continent, the cost in currency was inconsequential.

The Research Institute had now expanded to cover ten square kilometers, encompassing dozens of research buildings and even more testing grounds where various new equipment trials occurred daily.

Yang Ying descended before the main building and walked straight inside.

Several researchers in white coats emerging from the building nodded to Yang Ying. The lead researcher bowed slightly and stated, “Commander, following a series of tests, two new unit types have entered the trial phase, and we request your assessment.”

“New unit types?”

Yang Ying knew the Research Institute never acted without reason, and he immediately felt a spark of interest in these so-called new units.

“Please follow me to Test Field One.”

The lead researcher turned, guiding Yang Ying. The group walked down a clean avenue lined with lush trees. Light, sourced from an unknown origin, filtered through the gaps in the canopy, creating an atmosphere where nature and artificiality blended harmoniously—one would never guess this was a weapons research facility.

Yang Ying followed the researchers into a large yard enclosed by an iron fence and stepped inside.

About a hundred meters away, two towering mechanized suits stood solidly in place.

The lead researcher explained to Yang Ying, “Through recent combat analysis, we found the role of the Flamethrower unit was limited on the battlefield; its effective range is simply too low. Therefore, we aim to upgrade the Flamethrower infantry to better adapt to current combat conditions.”

He pointed to one suit of power armor, characterized by a broad, red backpack, and continued, “We have modified the flamethrower into a jetpack system. While retaining its flame capability, this significantly enhances the soldier's mobility. They can rapidly ascend high ground, such as the rooftops of buildings in Sky Cities, to secure advantageous positions. As for armament, besides the flamethrower, we have equipped them with two Gauss pistols.”

“Sounds promising,” Yang Ying nodded. “What is this new unit designated?”

The Chief Researcher smiled. “For now, we've named them Reapers. The existing Flamethrower troops only need a few more days of specialized training to master this new role.”

The group approached the Reapers. These suits stood over two meters tall, with broad shoulder pauldrons spanning over a meter and a half collectively. Two vents were visible behind the shoulders—presumably the source of their enhanced mobility.

Yang Ying then turned his attention to the second suit of power armor.

This suit was entirely gray, roughly the same height as the Reaper, and enveloped in thick plating. Its arms and legs were equally thick and elongated, clearly signaling immense strength.

“This is the Marauder,” the Chief Researcher patted the gray armor affectionately. “This beauty launches concussion grenades via a grenade launcher. While damaging enemies, it assaults their inner ears, destroying balance and slowing their movement. Of course, if necessary, it can also carry Gauss rifles into battle.”

Yang Ying circled the two power armors twice, listening intently as the Chief Researcher detailed their various performance metrics. He then summoned two test operators to run the Reaper and Marauder, demonstrating their combat functions.

Finally managed to feature the unit types from StarCraft II. Other unit types will be introduced in succession in the future, so please support this endeavor! Also, tomorrow is the beginning of the new month, so I request monthly tickets!