From a dim spot a meter away, a figure was also using a communicator, saying, "Phantom Spec Ops Lieutenant Bins reporting mission results. The target building has been destroyed, and I overheard the Chairman's stance toward us." "Is the intelligence reliable?" the voice on the other end of the comm unit asked. "Reliable. The information came directly from the Chairman’s proxy robot. His stance is that he will fight us to the death," Bins replied. "Although this news doesn't affect our operation, you did well. Return to base as soon as possible," the other voice commanded. "Yes." Bins shut off the communicator and took one last look at the scene. Seeing several fire trucks had arrived, he turned and melted back into the darkness.

The blasting of that high-end salon was just the beginning. On the same day, similar incidents occurred consecutively across the globe. The targets were all members of the Council, and virtually none of them survived.

By evening, the entire operation had concluded.

Time rewound two days prior.

"What? Sir, you plan to launch an offensive against the Council?" Kalia asked in astonishment before Yang Ying's desk. "Yes. We have already confirmed the exact identities of the majority of the Council members. We have a sufficient intelligence foundation to launch a large-scale decapitation strike," Yang Ying stated calmly. "To be precise, we have confirmed the identities of ninety-two percent of the Council members—High Councilors, Councilors, and even Provisional Councilors—as well as their financiers, high-ranking officers in the Earth Military who were bribed by them, heads of key assets, and so on. The General Staff has formulated several plans for their execution; we can act at any moment. However, many core members remain unidentified, such as the Chairman and a portion of the High Councilors. Moving now would fail to eradicate the Council entirely."

Kalia had clearly memorized every piece of intelligence regarding the Council. She could speak eloquently and without hesitation, the information flowing out without needing conscious thought. "Your point is valid," Yang Ying nodded. "Eradicating them entirely would be ideal, but based on our immediate needs, merely crippling their influence and severely wounding the Council is enough for now." "I understand, Sir. I will arrange for the deployment immediately," Kalia said. "Good." In Yang Ying's view, the general election was just over two months away. Once the election passed, the chaos caused by the assassination of the ten Ministers would subside, their positions filled by successors, and a new core would form. This new core would inevitably gather those dissatisfied with the Trane faction in politics, causing significant trouble for them.

At that point, the Council would likely stir up trouble, sowing discord and gathering more opposition against the Trane faction. After all, they were the ones who had cultivated numerous mouthpieces in both the political and military sectors, acting as the Earth Unified Government’s greatest behind-the-scenes manipulator. The new core would inevitably be connected to them.

Facing this potential offensive, Yang Ying decided against lying low and avoiding the conflict; instead, he chose to strike first, directly severing the Council's wings. Although this meant some core members would escape, without the rest of the Council apparatus, those remaining cores would be isolated, unable to achieve anything significant before regaining strength, thereby posing no threat to the Trane faction.

The reason this was possible was that the Trane Mercenary Group operated in the shadows while the Council remained in the open. Through the omnipresent investigations by the Phantom Spec Ops and the far-reaching net cast by Kevin's SkyNet, numerous Council members were traced and exposed. Yang Ying's secret base remained unknown.

Yang Ying was acutely aware of the implications of this operation. The Council was a behemoth organization rooted deeply in human society, based on the military-industrial complex, controlling vast resources. Its core members were major arms dealers. Such a devastating blow would inevitably ripple throughout the entire human world, causing violent fluctuations in both the economy and the military—a shrinking of financial markets and a reduction or even halt in the production of military hardware. It was predictable that the current Earth Military’s plan for mobilizing forces would be severely and profoundly affected.

However, given the current recovery status of the Earth Military, they might not have the capability to attack the Saturnian orbit, but defending the Jovian orbit was still well within their capacity. As for the counterattack against Saturn five months later, the Dreadnought-class battlecruisers under Yang Ying's command would be ready for deployment, allowing the existing warships to retire from the stage.

"Once the Dreadnought-class battlecruisers reach sufficient numbers, what use is the existing human military? It would be better to..." While planning this, Yang Ying was gradually nurturing another grand ambition. The realization of this ambition seemed far off, yet tantalizingly close, as if within arm's reach.

Time moved forward another two days. Counting this, it was Yang Ying’s third visit to the Phantom Spec Ops operations hall, and this large-scale decapitation strike had been launched from this very hall.

As mission completion reports from operative teams across various locations arrived sequentially, they were compiled and handed to Kalia, then delivered to Yang Ying.

"Sir, this operation was an unmitigated success. We have eliminated three thousand three hundred and fifty-eight Council members, accounting for approximately eighty-five percent of the total. It is certain that the entire Council will suffer a protracted paralysis. The expected objectives of the operation have been achieved," Kalia reported.

Those members whose identities were kept secret were not entirely wiped out. This was done so that by monitoring them, they could continue to gather intelligence on the Council's activities. If they had simply killed everyone whose identity they knew—those ninety-two percent—the remaining, still-hidden core members could easily slip out of surveillance.

A short while later, major Earth media outlets published the names of those assassinated—a list numbering in the thousands. Merely reading these names from beginning to end would take dozens of minutes. Those on the list were individuals who could make the ground tremble with a single footfall in their respective fields, possessing either immense wealth or extremely high status in politics and the military.

The news sparked a reaction like an earthquake and tsunami, just as anticipated. The financial markets reacted most violently; almost all indices plummeted straight down, falling as far as they could go. The stock screens were a sea of agonizing green, reflecting the sickly green faces of the investors. This situation persisted for the following weeks, with no sign of hope for a turnaround—it had unequivocally triggered a stock market crash.

Subsequently, dozens of military-industrial corporations linked to the deceased were swept up in the chaos. Their stocks were subjected to panic selling. Banks issued them final notices, demanding immediate recall of loans. Coupled with employee distrust in the companies' futures, even newly appointed management struggled to establish sufficient authority.

The result was reduced production, and a few companies, whose cash flow lines had broken, teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. Unable to find new buyers, they had completely halted production. Some warships, half-built, sat abandoned on the slipways, forcing the government to acquire them to attempt a resumption of production.

During this period, the Trane Corporation seized the opportunity to acquire several arms companies at bargain prices. Although their production lines were vastly inferior to the internal manufacturing lines of the Trane Corporation, they could still be modified to produce some components.

Furthermore, the Trane Corporation acquired a series of companies involved in mineral resource extraction. Some were dragged down by their association with the military-industrial firms, while others had been directly connected to the Council and were impacted by the massive decapitation strike. Regardless of their market value, the various mineral resources they controlled remained highly valuable.

Due to this decapitation strike, the Trane faction indeed faced considerable pressure, but it was mostly noisy threats without substance; not a single faction moved directly against them.

After all, the government was still fragmented, entrusted to the Parliament, where the various parties constantly argued, incapable of making a single decisive resolution.

While the Earth Military expressed reservations, they were unwilling to dispatch forces to the Asteroid Belt to eliminate the Trane Mercenary Group.

Sending too few forces was insufficient, as the Trane Mercenary Group had decisively destroyed the main fleets of several Ancient Legions. Sending too many forces was risky, as it could leave them vulnerable to opportunistic attacks by the Ancient Legions—the Ape-men remained humanity's primary enemy, and diverting forces to fight the Trane Mercenaries instead would be unwise. Moreover, the leader of the Trane Mercenary Group was a peak Master! Viewed from this perspective, confronting the Trane Mercenary Group appeared even less prudent.

As for the Nen Temple, when the action was taken, it was carried out exclusively by the Phantom Spec Ops; Yang Ying himself did not participate. Due to certain historical reasons, the related precepts within the Nen Temple were extremely strict: the Temple could not intervene unless the victim died from an attack using supernatural power. This rule was originally established to prevent the Nen Temple from overly interfering in the affairs of ordinary people, and now, this very clause compelled the Nen Temple to remain on the sidelines.

However, Master Merlin managed to convey a message to Yang Ying through certain channels: the Nen Temple Elder Council believed that although the targets of the decapitation strike were confined to Council members, the resulting negative consequences were too severe. The Council members represented more than just themselves; they represented an order, and their deaths triggered the disintegration of that order, profoundly shaking human society. The Elder Council hoped that operations of this magnitude would cease here. If further similar actions became necessary, they requested that Yang Ying at least inform the Nen Temple beforehand.

Yang Ying's interpretation of this message was: "This admonition sounds soft, suggesting the Nen Temple Elders are not entirely opposed to our actions..."

Following this, the inner solar system passed two months in tranquility. The Earth government held its general election, re-establishing its institutional framework. The new President and twelve Ministers reclaimed governmental power from the Parliament.

After the election concluded, the government returned to normal function. However, they chose to ignore the rumors concerning the Trane Mercenary Group's assassination of the ten Ministers. The new government’s intentions reached Yang Ying through various channels: they wished to achieve reconciliation by agreeing not to pursue the assassination incidents further. In essence, as long as the Trane faction refrained from assassinating government officials in the future, past events could be written off.

Yang Ying agreed to this proposal, and time continued to move forward in peace, swiftly approaching the date when the Protoss Carriers and Dreadnought-class battlecruisers would roll off the assembly lines.

Next chapter, the battlecruisers are finally coming out! Everyone cheer! For future developments, please visit [Link to Platform], where more chapters await, supporting the author and legitimate reading!