Yang Ying chose to go himself because transporting nuclear fuel was inconvenient. Storing that nuclear fuel deep within the planet Dingzhong was the best method, even bypassing the need for transportation altogether.

He transferred his main consciousness into the clone body, offered a reassurance to Katerina, saying, "Don't worry. I'll be right back," and then hastily opened the door and left.

It was crucial to race against time; that elite squad had been inside the factory for five minutes, and the time left for him was dwindling.

Katerina could read the urgency in Yang Ying's expression. She nodded obediently and smiled, "Rest assured, Commander."

Yang Ying used Boundless Step to arrive at the lower hangar, ignoring the surrounding vacuum, directly stepping into the cockpit of a Ghost fighter, and then sealing the canopy. After activating stealth mode, he flew out of the mothership.

Fortunately, the hangar door had remained open since the transport ships began exiting, saving him considerable trouble.

Yang Ying piloted the invisible Ghost fighter at maximum velocity, taking about ten minutes to reach the small hill directly above the secret factory. He parked the fighter in front of the cliff face, concealed by electronic camouflage equipment, and immediately dispatched the fighter back to the floating continent.

He then activated the cloaking technique, a secret passed down by the Dark Templar, ensuring no person or surveillance system could detect him.

Next, he walked into the mountain face.

Inside, as he had anticipated, was an elevator. That said, it was actually a hollow crystal column allowing occupants to levitate within while ascending or descending.

There were no guards in front of the lift, but it required a password to operate.

Yang Ying raised the wrist computer on his left arm, utilizing its communication function to contact Kevin: "Kevin, do you have the full situation clear?"

"Crystal clear, Commander," Kevin replied.

"Good, I need you to crack a password." Yang Ying pulled a crystal wire from his wrist computer and plugged it into the lift's control panel.

The moment Yang Ying finished speaking, Kevin responded, "It's done."

A row of green lights illuminated on the control panel, and the lift doors slid open.

Yang Ying had used similar lifts before, remembering the sensation of stepping onto something like cotton—nothing beneath his feet, yet he floated up and down, feeling as if he were flying—a truly enjoyable up-and-down experience.

However, this time, as he stepped into the crystal column, he felt only emptiness beneath his feet, dropping straight down.

This startled Yang Ying momentarily, but he quickly realized the lift's sensors had failed to register his entry. The suspension field hadn't activated; the cloaking spell inherited from the Dark Templar had even fooled the machinery.

Still, the mental power of a high-level Psionic was not to be underestimated. Yang Ying had sensed a possibility of the unexpected before taking that step, though the feeling wasn't strong, clearly not life-threatening, so Yang Ying hadn't paid much heed.

It was just a slight gravity effect—Titan's gravity was inherently low, especially when he possessed the inherent power of the Dark Templar!

Yang Ying carelessly allowed gravity to accelerate his descent. He needed to save every second, and the lift failing to activate was actually helping him.

The crystal column pierced through the ice layer and the water layer, plunging two thousand meters underground. Yang Ying descended faster and faster within the column; the wind whipped his cloak, making it snap loudly.

Yang Ying was currently clad in a white cloak. On his way over, he had retrieved a standard blue lightsaber and a blaster pistol from the floating continent, affixing them to his belt just in case.

In less than a minute, Yang Ying neared the bottom of the lift shaft. He gathered a ball of air with his psionic energy, shooting it downward like a rocket thrust.

The descent rate drastically slowed, and by the time he arrived, his body had stopped perfectly—the entire deceleration process took merely one second.

At this moment, Yang Ying could see through the crystal column the two fully armed soldiers standing outside, pointing their uranium blasters at the lift exit, seemingly waiting for someone to emerge.

Clearly, they were posted as lookouts. Seeing the lift activate, they assumed someone was coming to interfere with their mission, thus assuming this defensive posture.

This operation was undoubtedly highly classified and exceptionally important. Yang Ying had no doubt that if he showed himself, they would immediately open fire, eliminating anyone obstructing their mission.

However, two mere ordinary men posed no real challenge for Yang Ying. He effortlessly used an illusion to disorient the two soldiers, then used his psionic power to open the lift doors, stepping across into the secret factory grounds in a single stride.

When the doors closed again, the two soldiers snapped back to awareness. They remembered nothing of the moments of disorientation and assumed the lift doors had remained shut the entire time, continuing to point their guns at the entrance, waiting for someone to descend from above.

Yang Ying paid them no mind and walked straight inside.

Kevin had already pulled up the blueprints of the secret factory from the Military Intelligence Agency. The facility was divided into eighteen levels. If the topmost level was designated Level One, then the refined nuclear materials were stored on Level Seventeen, the second to last level. The entrance lift only connected Level One to the surface; one required a specialized elevator to reach Level Seventeen. The headache was that the specialized elevator wasn't on Level One—the route was extremely complex, requiring several transfers to reach Level Seventeen.

This area was already one of the most heavily guarded parts of the factory, second only to Level Eighteen where the nuclear warheads were stored.

Fortunately, with Kevin's guidance, finding the correct route wasn't difficult. Yang Ying avoided backtracking and headed directly toward his objective. To avoid encountering more waiting personnel outside elevators, he abandoned the idea of taking the lifts and opted for the stairs. With his speed from Boundless Step, taking the stairs was actually slightly faster.

Level Fifteen housed the entire factory's control center and mainframe room. The dedicated elevator Yang Ying needed was also here, and the three levels below it had no stairs—elevator access was mandatory.

Kevin had also informed Yang Ying that this specialized elevator utilized stringent identity verification protocols: fingerprints, irises, voice, and facial recognition were all required to ensure that only authorized personnel within the factory could use it.

However, these measures were child's play for Kevin.

On his way to the dedicated elevator, Yang Ying passed the control center and paused slightly to eavesdrop on two men conversing inside.

"The Captain and his team should be almost done; it seems a bit late."

"They should be wrapping up. The large centrifuge on Level Sixteen downstairs is the most critical; it must be completely destroyed. Leaving even one operational for those ape mongrels is unforgivable negligence. But the Captain’s team can handle these matters effortlessly. The few engineers remaining in the factory are assisting too; perhaps they are just being cautious, which is why it’s taking a little longer."

"Exactly. Don't forget who we are—the elite of the Military Intelligence Agency Rapid Reaction Force. Dealing with such trifles is naturally no problem. The bureaucrats upstairs sending us here is truly overkill."

"Actually, we shouldn't even need to be here. This factory has a self-destruct system, but activating it requires approval from one of the two highly classified military bases in Jupiter's orbit. Initially, the brass thought two would suffice—if one was destroyed, there was the other. But during that catastrophe, both military bases were destroyed simultaneously. So, it all falls to us laborers to manually plant the explosives to destroy this place."

"Such classified secrets? Why didn't I know?"

"Idiot, it was in the mission briefing. Have you ever bothered to read it thoroughly?"

"The Captain's team hasn't shown up yet. That seems a bit irregular. Didn't Hank and the others report a mysterious activation of that large crystal column a while ago? Could something be happening?"

"Let's check the monitors then. I'll pull up the feed for Level Sixteen."

Yang Ying had gathered sufficient information by this point and was about to leave when he heard the two men shout in alarm: "Something's wrong!"

Yang Ying immediately stopped again, slipping behind the two soldiers to look at the monitor feed. Level Sixteen was littered with corpses—soldiers in power armor and helpless engineers.

Half the bodies had been killed by uranium blaster fire, while the other half bore traces of lightsaber cuts. Some power armor suits were sliced clean in half, the severed edges melted by intense heat. Others were skewered straight through the chest and back, leaving holes the size of a baby's arm in the armor, with signs of melting around the edges.

"They're all dead. Not a single living soul on Level Sixteen. Was this done by a high-level ape?" one soldier cried out in grief.

They were veterans of many battles; recognizing the unique pattern of a lightsaber cut was not difficult.

"Not only that, the Captain's team had thirty-five members go down, and they couldn't even raise an alarm. It must be a very powerful high-level ape," the other soldier analyzed calmly.

Yang Ying felt a stirring in his mind. Looking at those monitor images just now, he clearly remembered seeing only thirty-four powered armor suits lying there. Where was the thirty-fifth one?

Ding.

At that moment, a sound came from outside the door. The two soldiers immediately raised their weapons and walked out, issuing a warning to the other soldiers still alive.

Yang Ying followed them out, stepping past the threshold. The specialized elevator for Level Sixteen had arrived at Level Fifteen.

The two soldiers aimed their uranium blasters at the elevator door, swallowed hard, and exchanged an encouraging glance.

The elevator door opened, and a soldier in power armor walked out.

"Merkur, you're alive! That's great!" One soldier started to move forward to greet him.

"Hold it," the other soldier stopped him, speaking to the person in the elevator: "Merkur, do you know what happened below? Why did you come up alone without warning anyone else?"

Soldier Merkur shook his head and said, "You two are quite alert. The Captain's team just went down, and you noticed right away, even before I got up here, and warned everyone."

The two soldiers instantly moved to attack, but suddenly found themselves unable to move.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Emissary of the Ape Cult, Number Fifteen, Merkur. Do not give the wrong name when you meet the King of Hell."