Bu Wei San possessed a considerable Xiao Ji, which could be oriented with a compass. Yang Ying and Dao Feng reappeared from invisibility. Stepping out of the cavern, they saw the eastern horizon blazing. It was clearly the light of fire and Uranium energy beams.

“That must be the direction of Fortress One,” Yang Ying murmured, gazing eastward into the distance.

The six Master-class fighters battling in the starry expanse were still locked in intense engagement. Yang Ying and Dao Feng recalled their respective Phantom fighters, settled into the cockpits, and ascended once more.

The entire maneuver was executed while cloaked, entirely undetected and undisturbed.

After ascending, Yang Ying and Dao Feng swiftly located their next target: a Master-class fighter equipped with a Kesa Beam Deflection Cannon. This machine was deep crimson all over, nearly diamond-shaped, culminating in a deep red trident at its tip, capable of emitting light pillars that twisted at will, attacking enemies from any angle.

If the Phantom fighter’s Floating Cannons excelled at suppressing fire, the Beam Deflection Cannon was designed for sniping. The deep crimson Master-class fighter was the battlefield sniper; its curved beams were incredibly accurate. Compared to the direct-fire weapons of ordinary snipers, its curved fire was more agile and significantly harder to evade.

Yet, its opponent, Master Garcia, was no pushover. A standard Psi-Operator fighter would have been taken down in a single volley by this foe.

Yang Ying and Dao Feng piloted their Phantom fighters closer to the crimson target, deploying their Floating Cannons to form a massive configuration, semi-encircling the dark red machine.

However, just as the formation solidified, the enemy fighter seemed to sense it. It rolled and twisted, becoming even more elusive, its silhouette impossible to pin down.

Noticing this, a sharp realization struck Yang Ying. Twenty-one Floating Cannons unleashed nearly three hundred beams in a sudden burst!

The first wave maximized its firepower, leveraging the element of surprise for maximum effect. Although the deployment of the Floating Cannons seemed to have been detected, reducing the impact, it remained a highly potent sneak attack. Yang Ying judged that even if this barrage missed its mark, it would at least force the opponent to divide its attention.

The result of this ambush, however, astonished Yang Ying. It wasn't due to some dazzling evasion maneuver, but because dozens of beams struck the target dead center!

Could a Master-level expert fall to such a seemingly simple attack?

Impossible. Yang Ying knew from Kordemi that even when an opponent was completely unaware, a sudden assault wouldn't be repelled so easily, let alone when the target was already alerted.

Scanning the surroundings, he indeed spotted the deep crimson fighter a hundred meters away. The machine pierced by the beams was merely an afterimage.

Yang Ying’s heart sank. A Master-level expert typically enveloped their fighter in psionic energy for instantaneous teleportation, usually covering no more than fifty meters, and requiring significant charge time. Yet, this one had easily jumped over a hundred meters. The only possibility Yang Ying could conceive was that the fighter was equipped with a psychic weapon that amplified teleportation.

“Using teleportation to create distance, then initiating the sniper sequence. Truly a formidable Master-class fighter,” Yang Ying thought with a sigh.

“Congratulations on eliminating Kordemi. But the enemy before you is not simple; even with you both, retaining them might not be possible. This is merely a secondary battlefield, and it shouldn't drain your combat power. Go reinforce the assault force at Fortress One to the east. We will keep these enemies occupied here!”

Master Garcia’s voice resonated in Yang Ying and Dao Feng’s ears.

Yang Ying conceded the point. With three Masters and two near-Masters here, the chance of holding off the other three Ape Masters was slim. Reinforcing Fortress One was the better course of action.

For the invisible Phantom fighters, disengaging was simple. Yang Ying and Dao Feng spun the controls, and their craft turned east, flying away.

They flew over impact craters, towering mountains, and rolling hills, finally arriving over a stretch of ground that seemed somewhat flatter—though 'flat' here merely meant fewer impact craters.

Yang Ying activated the optical display. Below, the front line, composed of a hundred thousand troops of the Terran Army, was steadily pushing forward. This area had become a massive theater of war.

Armored and infantry units advanced in mixed formations. In several craters behind the main battle line, artillery units had deployed their batteries, firing in staggered volleys with cannons of various calibers and models. In the missile sections, thousands of launchers lifted their nests, sending tens of thousands of missiles toward the opposition.

The resulting clouds of smoke and debris rose one after another, forming walls of haze, which the Ancient Legion returned in kind from the opposite side.

From his fighter, Yang Ying could see a black hemispherical structure about fifty kilometers away, like a colossal, dark eggshell covering the surface. Was that the Moon's Fortress One?

This fortress was not subterranean. Without that outer shell, it would be exposed to the thin atmosphere. However, that shell was frighteningly resilient; short of a nuclear strike, breaching it would require multiple hits from a capital ship's Level Six main cannon.

At this moment, the twenty-meter-wide gate on the western side of the fortress was wide open, and Rhinos and Mammoth Elephants burst forth as if charging in a frenzy.

These ancient colossal beasts were not naturally evolved creatures but synthesized bio-weapons. While they required ample air when left to roam freely, they could sustain combat in the thin atmosphere for half a day. They were proving quite effective on the front lines.

Due to the scarcity of the Ape race, the ground forces of the Ancient Legion were overwhelmingly composed of mechanical units and the ancient behemoths. The behemoths played an even greater role than the mechanized units. Ordinary Apes served as lower-tier commanders, while higher-ranking Apes managed the upper echelons—a strict pyramid structure that maximized the efficiency of the Ancient Legion.

At this point, thousands of White Elephants and White Rhinos had gathered behind the battle line and were charging toward the Terran Army’s position.

Artillery fire reigned across the front line. Terran forces directed cannons and missiles into the ranks of the ancient beasts. Explosions tossed the behemoths aside, and some struck head-on by large-caliber shells were blown into masses of gore.

The beast horde advanced through the barrage of fire, while the Ancient Legion’s rear echelon simultaneously directed their artillery toward the Terran gun emplacements. Both sides engaged in an exchange of firepower, each striving to suppress the other to support their allies.

The Ancient Legion deployed over one hundred thousand combat robots alongside the ancient behemoths in their assault, with various colored beams connecting the two ends of the front line.

On the Terran side, machine guns and autocannons on the combat vehicles swept the opposing robots away in swathes, like scythes cutting down wheat. The ancient behemoths, however, shrugged off these beams. They trampled soldiers and overturned war vehicles as they smashed into the Terran ranks. The White Rhinos used the Uranium-ray cannons on their horns, and the White Elephants fired Sodium-ray machine guns from their tusks, inflicting heavy casualties on the Terrans.

Only high-attack vehicles, such as tanks equipped with large-caliber guns, plasma cannon chariots, and missile launchers, could inflict sufficient damage upon the ancient beasts.

The formation of the ancient beast swarm was exceptionally dense, impacting the Terran line like a solid iron battering ram. The soldiers directly in front were either crushed beneath their massive feet or vaporized by beam fire. Although they suffered immense casualties, the tight formation of the behemoths gave them a local numerical advantage, allowing them to gradually pierce the defensive line of the Terran ground forces and begin flanking maneuvers toward the rear.

The Terran ground commanders acted swiftly to salvage the crisis. A reserve armored division from the rear was committed to the battle, engaging the Ancient Legion’s beast swarm in direct confrontation. Thousands of assorted armored vehicles charged into the horde, the two forces intermingling.

Heavy artillery continued to pound the beast swarm, creating continuous explosions. The beasts fell row by row, starting from the rear ranks. The barrage gradually extended toward the Terran lines before halting just short of the armored division.

The clash between the armored division and the beast swarm occurred at the center of the front line. Flanking them, massive phalanxes of combat robots and mixed units of Terran infantry and armored vehicles launched relentless offensives against their counterparts.

Among the Terran forces, soldiers charging forward fell intermittently, but those behind them continued to shout and attack. When a war vehicle was destroyed, its crew would bail out and join the infantry advance.

The Ancient Legion’s combat robots were even more relentless. Lacking emotion in their programming, they coolly ignored fallen comrades, stepping over the wreckage in perfectly synchronized steps while their Uranium-ray guns continued to fire ahead.

Above them, the star-filled sky was equally a theater of aerial combat. It was night, devoid of sunlight, but Jupiter’s reflection provided sufficient illumination for the ground. Both sides’ fighters engaged in mortal combat beneath Jupiter’s swirling patterns, the intensity matching that on the surface.

Nearly ten thousand fighters from both sides were thoroughly mixed together. Only elite pilots with long-standing coordination could maintain small formations of two or three craft.

At lower altitudes, fighters engaged in melee while occasionally breaking off to fire a few beams at enemy ground forces, taking down infantry or robots, or launching a few missiles onto vehicles or beasts. Naturally, only the highest-skilled pilots could accomplish such feats.

Yang Ying and Dao Feng arrived to witness precisely this scene: forces tangled together, beams flying haphazardly, missiles crisscrossing the air, leaving almost no patch of land untouched by the assault.

Coincidentally, at this very moment, three Thunder Gods had just arrived at this location. After landing at the deployment zone, the three Thunder Gods had marched toward the battlefield while Yang Ying and Dao Feng pursued Kordemi and the Masters engaged in their standoff. However, the landing zone was still a considerable distance from the front line. The Thunder Gods charged toward the battle at maximum speed, arriving at the same time as Yang Ying and Dao Feng.

At that moment, the ground command transmitted orders to the Thunder Gods: proceed to the center of the battlefield and charge the beast swarm alongside the armored division.