From the life-sign readings relayed by the Observer, that Ape Emissary Shan was guarding the vicinity of the crystal pillars. Of the fifty-man squad dispatched by Military Intelligence, only six remained; the engineers left behind had all been wiped out. Howard recounted what happened when Yang Ying was moving the nuclear material.

It turned out the communicators of those two soldiers had never been switched off. Everyone still alive learned of Merckya’s betrayal and that he was an Ape Emissary. They immediately attempted to evacuate the factory.

Because they knew the Ape Emissary possessed at least the strength of a high-tier Psionic, someone they could not possibly handle.

However, Merckya could track his teammates' locations via the power armor's signal system, allowing him to strike first, hunting down the living soldiers one by one. By the time the soldiers noticed and shut down their signal systems, several had already fallen to Merckya’s guns and blades.

The surviving soldiers had managed to transmit news of the mission failure. Knowing escape was hopeless, they dispersed throughout the factory to hide.

Merckya did not pursue them; instead, he came to the crystal pillars and stood guard, not moving an inch.

“Why is he going to the crystal pillars? Why isn’t he hunting down the surviving soldiers?” Yang Ying asked Howard.

Howard shook his head. “It’s unclear right now. The Crystal Elevator is the factory’s main entrance and exit. If the Officer wishes to leave, he’ll likely have to get past him, and he needs to be quick—the sooner the better. This little bit of time might already be enough for Merckya to do something to the Crystal Elevator.”

“I understand.”

Closing the communication, Yang Ying returned the way he came via the dedicated elevator. Stepping out of the elevator door, he saw the bodies of those two soldiers still lying on the ground.

Yang Ying approached the corpses and whispered, “Rest now; I will avenge you.”

With that, his figure blurred. Employing the Art of Shrinking the Ground, he rushed upward.

The internal layout of the secret factory was incredibly complex, but Yang Ying had already traversed it once on his way in. Now familiar with the route, he reached the first floor within a minute.

However, just as he stepped onto the last stair, his wrist beeped—a signal requesting communication. Yang Ying activated a light-screen, and on it appeared a staff officer. He said, “Officer, Merckya just left the Crystal Elevator via the staircase opposite you!”

This light-screen generated directly within his visual sensor, invisible to others nearby, allowing him to use it freely without fear of discovery.

The staff officer’s words had barely finished when Yang Ying felt a heavy tremor beneath his feet, and a violent explosion roared in his ears. A searing torrent of fire erupted from beneath the crystal pillars, instantly sweeping across the entire first floor and rushing toward him.

“Too late.”

Yang Ying shook his head. He did not evade or dodge, watching the fire flow approach. Suddenly, a plasma shield materialized before him, halting the fiery surge.

“Merckya destroyed the elevator; I’ll need another exit,” Yang Ying stated calmly. He was confident that such a massive factory wouldn't have only one way out.

“Understood, Officer. I will provide you with route guidance. There is also one more matter: the Allied Fleet has reacted to this incident. Another Rapid Response Force is flying toward the secret factory. Perhaps this is why Merckya is destroying the crystal pillars,” the staff officer added.

“I know.” Yang Ying closed the light-screen after speaking.

Although his soul could easily abandon this clone body, a mere Ape Emissary ranked fifteenth was not worthy of him doing so.

Yang Ying stripped off his electronic camouflage uniform, changed into a pair of ordinary athletic pants, leaving his upper body bare. He closed his eyes and sensed for a moment, locating Merckya’s position.

Then, Yang Ying calmed his mind and sensed the Zerg gene contained within his bloodline, coaxing it out.

Without warning, two rows of spikes pierced out from his back, transforming into a pair of bone wings. A layer of bio-armor secreted beneath his skin, covering the majority of his body like plate armor. His fingernails grew extremely long, bone spurs sprouted at his joints, and several pieces of exoskeleton emerged from his ribs, shining with a metallic luster, adorning this body brimming with power and sharp simplicity.

Within seconds, his entire being had become the most efficient killing machine, though tragically, he was cloaked in invisibility, leaving no one to share this transformation with him.

Yang Ying shifted his foot, flashing toward Merckya’s location. This individual had caused him considerable trouble, and moreover, someone originating from the Serpent Worship Sect—how could he be allowed to live?

Merckya, after igniting the crystal pillars, had also used the Art of Shrinking the Ground to quickly retreat, avoiding the blast radius.

Simultaneously, he was searching for his former teammates, intending to cut the roots of the problem.

As Yang Ying pursued, he felt a nagging sense that the matter was not yet concluded.

Merckya should have known he was currently within the Allied Fleet’s encirclement. Even if he annihilated this entire squad, the Fleet could dispatch ten, or even more squads, to reclaim the factory at any moment. Not to mention the Psionics within the Fleet.

How could he, an Ape Emissary ranked fifteenth, dare to attempt seizing this factory single-handedly? [The text contains corrupted characters here: ，０]

When he located Merckya, he found him on the sixth floor, holding one of the surviving soldiers.

That soldier shouted at Merckya, “Merckya, we’ve endured hardship together for over two years! You even saved my life. The Captain also saved yours! I always thought our team was bound by blood, so why! Why are you a member of the Serpent Worship Sect!”

Merckya sneered, “It was all a disguise. I saved you to maintain the facade of a good person. And allowing the Captain to save me was also for the disguise. As you know, as an Ape Emissary, if I encountered a mortal crisis, how could an ordinary person like the Captain possibly save me?”

The soldier spat, raging, “You cold-blooded bastard!”

Merckya remained unconcerned, still smiling. “In the team, you and I were relatively close. Before you die, talking a bit more with you counts as a small, special courtesy. Are you done speaking? If so, go join the Captain.”

With a sharp zzzt sound—

Both the soldier and Merckya froze in shock. A blue light-saber had pierced straight through Merckya’s left chest and was slowly retracting.

Merckya had been wearing power armor. For someone at the level of a high-tier Psionic, this provided only a slight boost, far inferior to Yang Ying’s clone body, the Blade Emperor physique.

When he possessed only the strength of a mid-tier Psionic, Yang Ying could eliminate Number Ten using the Blade Emperor body. Number Fifteen was significantly weaker than Number Ten and couldn't even perceive Yang Ying closing in while invisible.

No, he did perceive it. The instant Yang Ying activated the blade, he heard the sound and felt the death threat from behind.

But at that exact moment, Yang Ying thrust the sword into his back. The physical capabilities of the Blade Emperor body were simply too formidable; those below the Master level could not compare.

By the time Merckya sensed it, it was already too late. The light-saber tore through his back and out his chest, extinguishing his life.

Yang Ying retracted the light-saber, shifted his footing, and vanished, not lingering for another second.

After a while, the soldier Merckya had been gripping by the neck recovered. Sweating profusely, he knelt down to examine Merckya’s corpse and found that Merckya was indeed dead.

Dead beyond any doubt.

The soldier swallowed hard, breaking out in a cold sweat, and asked the surroundings in a hoarse voice, “Is there a Psionic Master here?”

Silence answered him.

He amplified his voice and asked again, but still received no reply.

After some time, he gave up. He informed the remaining survivors of Merckya’s death. At first, the survivors refused to believe him, but only after he swore by everything he held sacred in an extremely serious tone did one finally believe him and come to the sixth floor to find him and Merckya’s body.

With the testimony of these two, the other four finally gathered, breathing heavily in disbelief. They hadn't expected that besides Merckya in this secret factory, there was another user of the [light-saber/Psionic energy—implied by the context of the weapon], but this one seemed to be on their side.

The six soldiers conferred and decided to continue the mission. After reporting what happened here to their superiors, they returned to the sixteenth floor to complete the small, unfinished task: blowing up the centrifuge.

The reason Yang Ying killed Merckya in front of that soldier was precisely based on this calculation.

He wanted the surviving soldiers to know Merckya was dead, thus prompting them to complete the mission.

The explosion on the sixteenth floor would inevitably affect the seventeenth and even the tenth floors, ensuring that everything that happened here would be covered up.

As for the blue light-saber revealed before the soldier, it was too common; there was no way to trace its origin.

The Blade Emperor physique was currently in Narcissus City, where countless people had witnessed its presence. As for himself, he needed his main body to appear before others as well, establishing an alibi.

Now, the last remaining task was extraction.

After observing the factory layout map, the staff officer discovered a submersible exit on the tenth floor. Moreover, several small submersibles in the docking bay were still operational. The thick layer of ice overhead posed a problem, but the Observer's readings indicated a natural fissure, large enough for a submersible to surface, located a hundred kilometers away.

Yang Ying used the Art of Shrinking the Ground to reach the tenth floor and opened the submersible bay door. Inside, there was a basin where a line of small submersibles was docked.

The gravity on Europa was very low; the bottom of the water, two thousand meters deep, was comparable only to a few hundred meters deep in Earth's oceans. The water pressure was not immense.

Yang Ying stepped into a submersible, and his wrist beeped again.

Opening the light-screen, he saw Howard’s face etched with gravity. “Officer, Admiral Alexander, Commander of the Allied Fleet, wishes to speak with you.”

Admiral Alexander was certainly not looking for the clone but for Yang Ying himself.

“I didn’t expect them to move so fast, already starting to investigate all possible suspects,” Yang Ying mused. He knew the six surviving soldiers must have reported the incident with the blue light-saber.

He told Howard, “Wait there; I’m coming immediately.”