The Emperor's Fleet withdrew, and the Allied Fleet did not pursue; they merely consolidated their positions. The battle outside Jupiter had temporarily concluded, yet everyone understood this was merely the prelude. The coming engagements would be far more arduous, and preparations for the next arrival of the Ancient Legion would be significantly more thorough.

On the bridge of the Face One flagship.

Howard stretched, moving his body, and remarked, "Emperor Gang did not deploy his most elite First Flight Wing. I suspect he is conserving strength, intending to decide the outcome when the Allied Fleet makes its return journey into the inner Solar System."

Yang Ying nodded. "That makes sense. And from this, it appears he has abandoned any attempt to stop the civilian evacuation."

"We now have a period of quiet to ourselves. I'm going to rest and conserve my energy for the next major battle." Howard turned, descending from the command dais, and opened the hatch leading toward the Captain's quarters.

Yang Ying turned to the Executive Officer. "You'll take charge for now. I need to rest as well."

"Yes, Officer. Leave everything to me," the XO assured him, thumping his chest.

Yang Ying reached his private quarters, activated his communicator, and patched through to Bohr, who was stationed back at the base. "Go to the Command Center immediately. There's something I need you to see."

"Understood, Officer." Bohr replied, showing no surprise as to why Yang Ying, currently at Jupiter, was summoning him to the Command Center.

After closing the communicator, Yang Ying glanced between the bed and the medical pod in his room, finally choosing the bed. This will only take a few minutes; no need for the medical pod. He lay down, and his soul instantly traversed the channel of psychic resonance, arriving within the form of Blade.

At that moment, two souls occupied the body of Blade!

Yang Ying said nothing. He merely brought the particle cannon seized from Blade into the Floating Continent. Then, without another word, he departed. Blade and he were one; speaking to Blade was merely speaking to himself.

Blade maintained a perfectly natural demeanor throughout the entire process; no one nearby noticed anything unusual.

Yang Ying did not return to his main body but instead transported himself to the secret base in the Asteroid Belt.

In a small, secret chamber adjacent to the Command Center, there stood a row of ten medical pods. Lying within these pods were Yang Ying's backup bodies.

At this moment, the hatch of one medical pod hissed open. A right hand, bearing the character "" [Tian] branded on the back, gripped the edge of the pod casing. The clone lying within slowly sat up and opened its eyes.

"Even a beam of light shot from Jupiter would take nearly twenty minutes to reach here. Psychic power is truly marvelous." Yang Ying looked at the character on the clone's hand. He retrieved the crown-shaped bracelet—the particle cannon—from the Floating Continent.

"First, I need to find Bohr." Yang Ying summoned a gentle breeze to buoy himself out of the medical pod. He glanced at the thin patient gown he was wearing, a slight smile touching his lips. He took a set of clothes from a nearby wardrobe, dressed himself, and opened the door, stepping out of the secret chamber.

The secret chamber door was situated within the wall of the Command Center. The moment Yang Ying opened it, he saw Bohr.

Bohr was tall, dressed in a white lab coat, exuding the aura of a dedicated researcher. He had been waiting in the Command Center. Seeing the clone emerge from the chamber, he displayed no surprise and smiled faintly. "Officer, how does this particular skin suit feel?"

As the head of the research division, Bohr had been instrumental in Yang Ying's cloning project, contributing significantly.

"Quite excellent. The existence of clones allows for far greater flexibility in my movements." Yang Ying tossed the crown-shaped bracelet in his hand to Bohr. "This is a weapon seized from a higher-ranking Ape-Man of the Ancient Legion—likely some form of particle cannon that can be driven by psionic energy. See if you can fully decipher it."

Bohr caught the bracelet, first observing its exterior, then inquiring about the particle cannon's power output and various characteristics. Yang Ying told him everything he knew.

After listening, Bohr nodded. "That should be manageable. While my research into psionics isn't as thorough as the Protoss, this level should suffice."

"Protoss!" Yang Ying suddenly remembered. When it came to the research of psionic weaponry, the Protoss held the highest authority. The Carriers and Arbiters were ultimate weapons driven entirely by psionic force.

"If necessary, I can find a few Protoss scientists to assist you," Yang Ying offered.

"If you are asking my opinion, I would say it’s unnecessary." When discussing research, Bohr became instantly confident. "Our Terrans also conduct psionic research. Take high-level Ghost operatives; they can awaken and master psychic abilities. And the Terran approach to utilizing psychic energy follows a completely different path than the Protoss way."

Yang Ying nodded. He knew that Ghost operatives possessed innate talents, and becoming a high-ranking Ghost required psychic strength, although no such individuals had materialized yet.

"Since you are confident, handle this matter yourself. I need to return to Jupiter." Having delegated the task, Yang Ying turned and walked back into the secret chamber.

Bohr bowed slightly and also exited the command room.

Lying back in the medical pod, Yang Ying sealed the hatch and returned to his main body outside Jupiter. Since the Emperor Gang's fleet departed, the evacuation of the ten colonies had continued. Though occasional agitators appeared, overall, the process remained within acceptable limits.

Roughly two hours later, the Ninth transport wave arrived at the Central Park of Narcissus City.

The Green Channel at the North Gate remained open, and women and children continued to funnel toward it from other entrances. Because only the North Gate possessed this dedicated channel among the four entrances to the Central Park, women and children remained a vulnerable group elsewhere, unable to force their way into the crowds. When they heard news of this place, they immediately flocked here, hoping to try their luck, and indeed, they succeeded.

The reputation of this channel quickly spread to the other three entrances of Central Park, even reaching the Central Plaza and several other boarding points.

Blade was quite satisfied with the current situation. In front of the fully armed Marines, the crowd was cooperative, unlike reports from other entrances where some level of disorder and casualties had occurred.

As he surveyed the crowd, his communicator chimed. Blade opened it to see the holographic screen flicker, displaying the Ghost Major stationed at the temporary Command Post. He immediately moved to an obscured location and asked, "What is it?"

"Officer, we have a lead on the person responsible for the poisoning," the Ghost Major reported.

"I'm listening." Blade nodded.

"We discovered a Lieutenant officer within the temporary Command Post who has taken an intense interest in the situation at the North Gate. Our personnel observed him accessing surveillance data for the North Gate, watching continuously for over ten minutes, from the start until now."

"Most suspicious is that he only watches recordings and never the real-time feed. He likely does this to avoid triggering your intuition," the Ghost Major explained.

"Are the monitors still active?" Blade inquired.

"No. Before contacting you, I had our people tamper with the monitoring system, isolating your image, running technical processing, and pasting it back. Only you in the entire frame are fake; the background figures are real. I guarantee no one can tell," the Ghost Major stated with meticulous seriousness.

"Good." Blade nodded. "What about the background of that suspicious Lieutenant?"

The Ghost Major replied, "According to Colonel Kevin's investigation, the Lieutenant's identity is fabricated—or perhaps not fabricated, but created. His identity was engineered by the Intelligence Department, backed by documentation in all civilian agencies, using the most legitimate channels. It is a genuine identity, except that a week ago, this person did not exist. If not for Colonel Kevin's supercomputer capabilities, uncovering this false authenticity would have been nearly impossible."

"The Intelligence Department helped create the fake identity?" Blade asked in a low voice. "It seems..."

"I request your permission to take forceful measures against this Lieutenant to obtain more information," the Ghost Major asked for clearance.

"Granted." Blade nodded.

About half an hour later, the communicator rang again. Blade opened it. The Ghost Major appeared on the screen, his expression severe. "Officer, we have results."

"Speak."

"After incapacitating the Lieutenant, we discovered his face had recently undergone cosmetic surgery. We used certain methods to restore his original face. When we input that face into the database, we found a connection to the Caesar Mercenary Group," the Ghost Major reported.

Blade frowned. "The Caesar Mercenary Group again?"

The Ghost Major continued, "This man is the younger brother of Alva the Thousand-Faced. He was not prominent before. After Alva was eliminated by the Ghost operative unit in Grayport, this brother was expelled from the Caesar Mercenary Group. On the surface, it was a case of 'the guest leaves when the host departs,' but judging by his muscle texture and brain structure development, his strength is in no way inferior to his brother's."

"So, the Caesar Mercenary Group shouldn't have let this man go, then?" Blade asked, his tone flat, as if unconcerned.

"Exactly." The Ghost Major agreed. "According to police records, Alva's brother died in a car accident last week; the body was cremated. However, his bank accounts were emptied long ago. The funds, channeled through a series of transfers and money laundering operations, eventually ended up in a newly opened account. That new account recently received an additional ten million credits."

"Ten million? Who gave it to him?" Blade asked.

"Colonel Kevin also traced the origin of those ten million credits. It belongs to a shell corporation secretly controlled by a subsidiary of the Caesar Group. Of course, before the transfer, that ten million was routed through numerous accounts to obscure its source."

"It's complicated?" Blade shook his head. "After winding through so many detours, it's still just to hide the origin. This Caesar Mercenary Group just refuses to settle down for a single moment."