Since Wen Jing returned that time, she spent a few days thinking before approaching Blade again, requesting an audience with Eagle.

Blade brought Wen Jing to the secret base. Upon meeting Yang Ying and Katerina, Wen Jing felt a distinct sense of disappointment. Katerina treated her very well, and Wen Jing lacked the confidence or the will to compete with her.

However, she ultimately did not pin her affections on Blade. Instead, she threw herself wholeheartedly into her work, showing no kindness to any man who approached her. As time passed, her reputation for cold elegance spread.

During this half-year period, the Ancient Legion and the Earth Army were both licking their wounds, recovering their strength for the next great war. This time, the Earth Army had no retreat; they had already lost the strategic depth of the outer Solar System. If the Asteroid Belt fell, the most vital core of humanity in the inner Solar System would be exposed before the Ancient Legion.

Moreover, the Asteroid Belt itself was an industrial holy land, where vast amounts of minerals were excavated and sent to various factories to be forged into warships and weapons. Losing the Asteroid Belt would represent a severe blow to humanity's war-making potential.

Therefore, besides expanding the existing Ceres Base, the Earth Army invested heavily in rebuilding and establishing eleven new military bases throughout the Asteroid Belt, bringing the total number of military installations there to an unprecedented twelve!

The newly built and refitted fleets had almost replenished their former designations.

Randolph was no longer the Commander of the Thirteenth Fleet. He had protected the Ceres Base during Hela’s uprising, and for this meritorious service, he was reassigned as the Fleet Commander of the newly formed Third Fleet.

The Third Fleet was a frontline main force fleet. Unlike the Thirteenth Fleet, a second-tier main force, the Third Fleet commanded nearly double the military strength and resources.

This fleet had been almost completely wiped out in the preceding battles, left as little more than an empty shell. Only after several months of replenishing warships and new recruits had it regained combat effectiveness, and it was subsequently assigned to the Ceres Base to take over the Thirteenth Fleet’s defensive sector.

Randolph, familiar with the Ceres Base, and Master Garcia were both transferred to the Third Fleet. Yang Ying’s acquaintances, including Wen Jing and Wen Yang, remained behind with Randolph.

By this time, four frontline main force fleets and six second-tier main force fleets—a total of ten fleets—were assembled in the Asteroid Belt. The campaign to retake Jupiter was imminent.

In this half-year, Yang Ying’s Floating Continent had also seen notable development. With the continuous stream of resources invested by the Tran Corporation, the population of both the Human and Zerg races had exceeded one million each, while the Protoss, though fewer, numbered over two hundred thousand.

Because there were no external enemies constraining development on the Floating Continent, the three races could expand at a geometric rate. Now, aside from the ultimate tier of each race’s units, the ordinary troop types were largely complete and possessed sufficient combat capability.

However, despite the Zerg population exceeding a million, Yang Ying’s mental power remained stuck at the third layer, the ninth lamp, equivalent to a capacity of 90,000.

This was the limit for a mortal, and also the limit for a Quasi-Master. Anything beyond that entered the domain of a true Master. A mortal soul essence could not bear such immense power; it was like trying to force more water into a cup that was already full—it would just spill over.

When Yang Ying discovered that no matter how many Zerg he produced, his psychic growth stalled, he realized that simple accumulation of power could no longer bring him a breakthrough. He needed a catalyst to transform quantity into quality, allowing his psychic power to transcend the mortal realm and become that of a Master—to turn the cup into a water barrel before he could advance further.

Yet, as the Zerg population continued to grow, he found that the excess psychic contribution still served a valuable purpose: transmitting the surplus power via the psychic resonance link to Blade!

Originally, Yang Ying and Blade shared psychic power, like two cups sharing half a cup of water. Psychic energy could flow freely between them, but only one person could actively utilize it. If Yang Ying exerted his full strength, Blade would be reduced to the level of an ordinary person, and vice versa.

Thus, it had always been either Yang Ying or Blade acting alone; the main body and the clone had never appeared on the same battlefield. Of course, Yang Ying and Blade could split their psychic energy equally and fight together, which was feasible, but splitting one high-tier Psychic Adept into two mid-tier Adepts resulted in weaker overall combat power, so Yang Ying had never considered it.

But things were different now. Although Blade’s soul was a clone, it was still a mortal-level soul, capable of bearing 90,000 points of psychic power. Yang Ying’s power, having hit its ceiling, could not increase further, but it could be channeled to Blade, turning one cup of water into two.

Now, Yang Ying and Blade could simultaneously unleash quasi-Master level power—specifically, the peak of quasi-Master strength. Any psychic intensity above 50,000 was termed quasi-Master, at which point the speed of cultivation slowed significantly. Without achieving true Master status, the psychic power of most quasi-Masters could not even reach 70,000.

Not only Yang Ying and Blade, but due to the massive increase in the Zerg population, Heart-Tooth could continue to segment clones to shoulder the excess psychic tribute. At this moment, apart from his main body and Blade, there were ten other clones, each capable of fighting with quasi-Master strength.

Twelve quasi-Masters fighting together might not necessarily be at a disadvantage, even when facing a true Master.

In the research institute within the Human territory of the Floating Continent, a vast, brightly lit factory hall towering over a hundred meters high and covering tens of thousands of square meters, Yang Ying, dressed in a black combat suit and sporting a lightsaber at his hip, stood alongside Lieutenant General Bohr, the head of the research department—commanders for various unit types had been broadly promoted due to the population surge—and several senior researchers from the institute.

“We have asked the Commander here today because an epoch-making weapon is about to be born. Although the blueprints and data have long existed, the delay until now was due to the need to manufacture and upgrade various equipment to the standard required for producing this weapon,” stated a bald senior researcher, his eyes glittering with fanaticism. He was the supervisor of this factory floor.

He pointed toward a massive gray curtain ahead. The curtain was about fifty meters high, indicating that whatever weapon lay behind it must be of colossal size.

“Begin,” Yang Ying nodded.

“Yes, sir.” The bald researcher took a remote control and aimed it at the curtain. A low humming sound arose as the curtain slowly began to retract.

The first things to appear beneath the curtain were two massive, sharply angled, gleaming steel legs.

As the curtain continued to rise, the full form of the giant weapon was revealed.

It was a gargantuan, bipedal war machine, towering twenty stories high and exceptionally stout. Its arms were two massive cannons, at least fifty meters long, and four thick beam cannons extended from its back. Missile silos were also visible, dotted all over the war machine’s chassis.

Holding the remote, the bald man exclaimed excitedly, “Behold, Commander, this is the crystallization of our war intelligence—the Thor Ultimate Heavy Assault Mech! Its arms wield two Level Five ‘Thor’s Hammer’ Particle Beam Cannons, its shoulders carry four Level Four Sodium Beam Cannons, and its entire body is covered in missile launchers and hammer-fire machine guns. We won’t detail the less important armaments here.”

This design differed slightly from the Thor in StarCraft II; this book is not a game, and the Thor couldn't possibly be limited to just anti-ground and anti-air weaponry like in the game.

The bald man turned back to Yang Ying and the others to explain, “With the Thor, ground battlefield assaults are no longer an issue. We hear that on Jupiter’s moons, the Ancient Legion has let loose countless massive, highly adaptable Ancient Beasts—the most troublesome obstacles in ground combat. But I dare say, once the Thor roars, every single Ancient Beast will be nothing more than paper tigers; one blast and any giant beast will be finished!”

Bohr nodded. “I have reviewed the data on your Thor Heavy Mech several times. It is indeed a very fine piece of equipment. What is its production cycle?”

The bald man immediately replied, “Based on the current production line capacity, each line needs only twenty-four days of operation to manufacture one Thor!”

“Twenty-four days?” Yang Ying pondered, then nodded. “Sounds promising. But the Jupiter campaign is slated to start next month. How many Thors can you deliver this month?”

The bald man’s head shone brightly enough to reflect light, and a fine sheen of sweat coated his forehead. He stammered, “Besides this one, there are two more scheduled for completion this month. After all, the demands on the production lines are extremely high...”

Yang Ying waved his hand, stopping him from continuing. “Three Thors, then. Just in time to test their power on the battlefield.”

The bald man let out a sigh of relief and continued describing the Thor’s other features. “The Thor is also equipped with indirect fire weapons—dozens of assault mortars. When they all fire simultaneously, it’s truly overwhelming. Based on our solar system’s war experience, no field fortification can withstand its assault. Even a High-Tier Apex Ape would be in mortal danger under a barrage from these mortars.”

“Excellent!” Yang Ying praised, nodding. Apex Apes are ten times stronger than Psychic Adepts and are incredibly formidable in small units on the main battlefield, especially on the ground. If the mortars can handle an Apex Ape, dealing with small squads of such troops should be no problem.

He calculated that he himself, counting his clones, only had twelve combatants. But once the Thor production scaled up, a hundred or even a thousand units would be a small matter; tens of thousands might even be possible.

The bald man coughed. “Of course, because the recoil from the mortar cluster is so strong, the Thor cannot maintain its walking posture while firing. It will fall over; it must remain stationary to shoot. At that point, it might become a target.”

Yang Ying considered this. “That’s a minor issue. How to leverage strengths and mitigate weaknesses—there will be solutions on the battlefield.”

I apologize for how late this chapter is being posted. To all the readers who have waited, I offer my apologies.