As Feng surged forward in his dash, his body began to transform, slick yet tenacious chitin sprouting from beneath his skin. This was complemented by a solid exoskeleton protecting his surface, bone spurs emerging at the joints, and a pair of hideous bone wings sprouting from his back. Even his eyes shifted, becoming pure gold, imbued with the sharpness and agility of a wild beast.

The Zerg represent a biological existence of perfect essence, where every trait is fundamentally pragmatic. Therefore, as the culmination of Zerg and Terran heritage, the Blade Master’s body embodied both power and beauty.

At this moment, every thought flowing through the Blade Master’s mind was subject to instinctive judgment—an instinct that was one external manifestation of the perfect essence buried deep within the Zerg genome. If mental power allowed one to glimpse the trajectories of the future, instinct enabled one to make the most appropriate choice in the present.

The cockpit of the Ghost fighter now deepened, rendering the interior utterly invisible to the outside world. This obscurity extended beyond visible light; even various ray-imaging systems were unable to penetrate the Ghost’s cockpit.

As the two sides drew closer, the Ape Master-class fighter opened fire!

Almost simultaneously, the Blade Master wrenched the control stick, causing his fighter to narrowly evade the beam fired from the opposing ship. He then pulled his own trigger, sending two beams toward his opponent.

That Master-class fighter rolled, dodging the two beams.

"Eh?" a surprised sound escaped the Ape Master piloting the fighter.

The Ghost fighter before him had actually managed to evade the attack from a Master-class fighter, and judging by its acceleration and maneuverability, it was in no way inferior to his own craft.

"Can Terrans build a fighter of this caliber? Could this be the work of the Gsingers? But why does it have the form of a Ghost fighter?" For years, Terran Master-class fighters had been supplied by the Gsingers, making the Ape Master’s confusion understandable.

Having brushed past the Ape Master's attack, the confidence swelling in the Blade Master’s chest doubled. Although the initial exchange had lasted mere moments, he instinctively felt that the gap between himself and the Ape Master was not insurmountable.

The peak strength of a Quasi-Master's psionic power, coupled with the Blade Master's transformation—while the outcome of a close-quarters battle with swords on land remained unknown—in the void of space, fighting toe-to-toe with Master-class fighters, he might not necessarily be at a disadvantage.

The Blade Master banked, observing the Master-class fighter carve an apparently ordinary arc to close the distance. The Blade Master tried launching two beams, which were easily dodged.

"Let's proceed to the second round."

The Blade Master gripped the control stick tightly, executing evasive maneuvers based purely on instinct. Beams fired from the enemy zipped past his fighter with almost no gap, the Ghost dancing as if on a razor’s edge—appearing perilously close to disaster, yet seemingly unshakable as a mountain.

Inside the cockpit, the Blade Master felt the crushing pressure emanating from the enemy’s muzzles, focusing his mind as never before.

He tried to seize the initiative, trading beams with the Master-class fighter. However, the opposing craft executed a series of dazzling maneuvers, evading with far greater composure than the Blade Master. While evading, it retained enough reserve power to launch threats of extreme danger, interrupting the Blade Master’s actions several times. Conversely, the Blade Master could not interrupt the enemy’s maneuvers with his own attacks.

Time seemed to favor the Ape Master-class fighter, systematically suppressing the Blade Master’s movements. Every uranium shot he fired seemed purposeful, steadily converting advantage into victory.

The beams coming from the opponent grew closer than 'with no gap'; the distance that had been the width of a single hair vanished, the beams now almost scraping directly against the Ghost fighter’s hull.

While Yang Ying desperately dodged, he was unaware that the Ape Master was now astonished beyond measure.

With every shot fired, his senses assured him that the advantage had completely translated into victory; the Ghost fighter before him was trapped with nowhere left to flee—this strike would end it.

But this strike had been declared several times over, turning into several strikes. He should have won long ago, yet the target remained lively and bouncing. He clearly saw through the target’s evasive routes, but just couldn't land a hit every single time!

If an outsider were watching, they might assume the two had rehearsed the maneuvers countless times, with the Master-class fighter’s beams consistently grazing the Ghost fighter’s hull by the narrowest margin, akin to a high-tech special effect executed by the most advanced computer.

"The human in the cockpit clearly hasn't reached the Master realm; many of his evasive actions were initiated too late. Even I wouldn't have managed them, yet he did. How can this be?"

The Ape Master meticulously observed the Blade Master’s movements, catching a glimpse of something amiss. He shuddered involuntarily, halted his attack, covered the firing stud with his hand, and the apprehension in his eyes became almost impossible to conceal.

"Though his evasive actions start late, the process is flawlessly perfect. He commits no errors; even the exact angle of the fighter’s tilt is precise. If it were this Seat, I could initiate the dodge earlier, but I couldn't execute the maneuver with such perfection. Even with the cultivation of the Master Path, there are still minute deviations when engaging. Thinking of this," the Ape Master made a firm decision: he absolutely had to eliminate the Blade Master. Such talent in a mere Quasi-Master—if he were to achieve the Master realm, wouldn't he become a scourge upon the galaxy?"

At this moment, there were no continuous streams of fire surrounding the Blade Master, yet he showed no sign of complacency, continuing his evasive maneuvers with exceptional intensity.

Though the Master-class fighter was not firing, the silence of its muzzles imposed a greater pressure. The killing intent, clinging like maggots to the bone, emanated ceaselessly from that Master-class ship, making it hard for him to breathe.

However, he did not regret challenging a Master-level expert. His focus had reached the highest level since he began studying psionics; it felt as if everything in the world was under his command. His mind had become utterly quiet, devoid of all extraneous noise, allowing him to unleash his full potential.

Through this ordeal, while he still had no clue how to elevate his soul to the Master level, he now had a clear path to follow if he wished to achieve this state again in the future.

Suddenly, the Blade Master sensed the killing intent emanating from behind him multiply severalfold. Instinctively, he deployed an illusion technique, multiplying his single Ghost fighter into over twenty, which instantly dispersed.

In the next moment, hundreds of uranium beam-fire simultaneously appeared, sweeping across the phantoms, leaving only a few behind.

Fortunately, these phantoms absorbed the pressure, allowing the Blade Master to dodge the incoming beams once more with only hair’s breadth margins.

The Blade Master activated an optical image feed, switching the view to the Master-class fighter pursuing him. He saw the conical tip of the enemy fighter’s nose glowing fiercely, appearing to be charging energy.

"Hundres of beams coming at once? A scatter-shot cannon?" A cold sweat beaded on the Blade Master’s forehead; he had nearly perished just now.

Inside the Master-class fighter, the Ape Master frowned as the Blade Master evaded again, though he showed no sign of worry. He murmured to himself, "You escaped this time, but not for long. Your Ghost fighter is exceptional; in terms of maneuverability and conventional weaponry, it’s no worse than a Master-class fighter. But to think this Ghost fighter can compare to a true Master-class vessel—that would be a grave mistake."

A Master-class fighter earned its name, of course, because these craft carried specialized psionically-driven weaponry equipped for Master-level experts. For instance, the stealth technology used by the Ape Master Khordemi of the Gangdi Fleet to launch a nuclear missile required psionic energy to activate.

Psionic power is an exceedingly mysterious force capable of achieving inexplicable, almost magical effects. The Gsingers and the Kustar have mastered some applications of psionics, yet they understand the 'how' without grasping the 'why'.

It sounds hard to believe, but it is the reality.

The Master-class fighter behind the Blade Master could fire hundreds of uranium beams from its conical tip, and these beams could bend freely within a one-meter radius around that tip. The degree of curvature could be manipulated at will by the Master-level pilot inside, who supplied the mental energy.

In essence, this uranium scatter-shot cannon was an omni-directional, full-space offensive weapon. The fired beams could strike anywhere they were aimed, capable of engaging hundreds of targets simultaneously. Moreover, the energy consumed was only the fighter's power; the mental energy was only required for aiming, consuming very little.

The only drawback was that charging the weapon took time. Firing hundreds of uranium shots required about five seconds of charging. The shorter the charge time, the fewer the uranium shots fired.

"The next volley will claim your life!" the Ape Master announced casually, with three seconds remaining.

Suddenly, his eyes sharpened. He saw a change in the bothersome Ghost fighter. Where the missile launch ports should have been, small, spindle-shaped objects emerged, similar in size to missiles but unlike any he had seen. He counted them: exactly twenty.

As soon as the spindles appeared, they began moving at high speed. The Ape Master felt a sudden, intense unease. In an instant, all twenty simultaneously turned around and unleashed a torrent of uranium beams toward him—a number even greater than the beams he had just fired with his scatter-shot cannon!

The Ape Master sensed the danger just in time, managing to pull his fighter into a sparse area of the beam pattern. Only his wing was grazed by a beam. According to the damage report displayed on his control panel, that thin beam carried the destructive power of a Grade Two Hammer Cannon!

The Ape Master’s eyes widened in fury. "That’s psionically-driven weaponry! The damned Ghost fighter prepared this too!"

On the other side, the Blade Master frowned in his cockpit. "He dodged even that. I failed to eliminate him while he was unprepared. Now that he's ready, it will be even harder."

Everyone, be sure to cast your monthly tickets!!!