Amidst the swarming tide of Zao Chi bugs, Lind was driven to a corner where escape was impossible; the skies and the ground were completely laced with the web of cannon fire—there was no dodging, no evading—only a direct, head-on collision was an option!

"Beasts!"

Hardick brought his hands together, and a blinding sphere of lightning violently expanded. The spherical barrier of thunderous light swept outwards, immediately striking the vanguard of the Vicious Swarm. Sparks of electricity erupted all over their bodies, and a stench of scorching filled the air.

The little dogs and the Lurkers had no chance whatsoever; they were instantly charred to coke by the current. Acidic masses evaporated, spore pods were scattered, and the smaller bio-forms dissolved into wisps of smoke. Swarms of self-destructing bats exploded in rapid succession.

Finally, the lightning sphere swelled into a colossal orb with a radius of a full kilometer!

Within the entire lightning sphere domain, only the Vicious Swarm could maintain their footing; every other bug in the horde was utterly annihilated. Even some of the Dragons swooping low in the sky were struck down by the electric current.

"Good. Hardick has finally decided to fight for his life," Yang Ying clenched his fists. He had been waiting for this moment for a very long time.

When the lightning sphere vanished, a massive clearing, spanning a kilometer in radius, opened up around him. Only nearly a hundred members of the Vicious Swarm, relying on their tenacious life force, managed to survive. They raised their colossal blades and slashed towards Hardick.

Hardick swept his arms, a palm left, a palm right. A fierce gale suddenly roared to life. He himself seemed to become the eye of the storm, the violent wind swirling rapidly around him, carving deep, bone-exposing gashes into the bodies of the Vicious Swarm. The wind speed increased relentlessly, quickly forming a tornado.

Inside the tornado, Hardick’s hands moved in ceaseless slashes, hacking the nearly one hundred Vicious Swarm to pieces. Outside the vortex, the rest of the bug horde, attempting to fill the void, were swept up by the storm barrier and shredded by the wind blades.

The tornado grew larger and more ferocious, burrowing into the airborne bug masses. Tens of thousands of Dragons were caught in the tempest and, within seconds, were torn into fragments by the wind blades. Even dozens of massive Sky Guards and Devourers were blown off balance. They tumbled within the gale, great splashes of blood erupting from their forms, before being flung outwards to crash onto the ground several kilometers away, their bones undoubtedly shattered.

However, the Zerg's ability to fly did not rely entirely on wings; they could soar even in a vacuum. Therefore, despite their broken bones, the Sky Guards and Devourers managed to levitate, returning to the high altitudes.

As their potent regenerative abilities kicked in, their fractured bones began knitting themselves back together.

After deploying the thunder and the gale in succession, Hardick brought his hands down heavily upon the ground. A vast wave of psionic energy plunged deep into the earth, causing the land itself to heave like ocean waves.

Instantly, a violent earthquake erupted. The ground fractured into slabs, as if churned by a giant hand, revealing bottomless fissures. A large number of Lurkers were crushed to death. The remaining bugs scrambled desperately from underground to the surface. At least a hundred thousand little dogs were swallowed by the cracks. The fissures snapped shut as quickly as they opened, giving the dogs no chance to escape before they were squeezed into paste.

"Well done, Hardick!" Yang Ying waved his hand, sending all the remaining Vicious Swarm charging forward. "Attack with everything you have!"

Hardick unleashed all his spells, and the destructive power instantly increased geometrically. The sky roared with wind and thunder, the earth shook beneath the quakes, and massive numbers of bugs perished.

Yet, for every hundred thousand Zerg killed, another hundred thousand surged forward; for every two hundred thousand slain, four hundred thousand replaced them. As more and more Zerg were obliterated, Yang Ying summoned several more waves, filling the vacated spaces. The total number of Zerg that had appeared on Pluto now reached ten million! They knew nothing of fear, only obedience to orders, charging relentlessly toward Hardick!

Millions of Zerg died beneath Hardick's spells. Devourers and Sky Guards were disintegrated into gore mid-air; Vicious Swarm were sliced into fragments. Smaller creatures like Hydralisks, little dogs, and Dragons couldn't even leave behind corpses; blood flowed across the ground like a crimson carpet.

However, Hardick's towering form began to shrink, and the brilliance surrounding him grew dimmer. His movements were no longer as crisp and swift as before. Spore pods detonated against him in bursts, and vast amounts of acid drenched his body. Small bio-forms struck him incessantly, exploding violently upon impact. Even a considerable number of suicide bats succeeded in crashing into him.

By this time, this brutal slaughter had raged for a full twelve hours!

Six million Zerg lay slain upon the soil of Pluto!

"Stop!" Hardick roared. He was now only ten meters tall, his light flickering dimly like a firefly, while the Zerg horde remained endless to the eye, their overwhelming assault continuing without respite. He remembered his remaining kin and the vital task he had to accomplish: leading his people away from the fate of becoming weapons. To continue fighting here clearly served no purpose in achieving that goal. "Cease the attack! I swear, I will lead my people away!"

"I destroyed Pluto and Charon, causing the deaths and injuries of over a million Ape-men. Do you have no desire for revenge for this enmity?" Yang Ying questioned.

He was currently mounted atop a Vicious Swarm, while his other five clones sat atop five other Vicious Swarm, lined up behind him.

"I will not seek revenge," Hardick replied.

During the battle, Hardick had managed to close the distance to Yang Ying and his five allies multiple times. His various powerful spells had posed a serious threat to the six, and were it not for their super-speed regeneration, the six would likely still be bearing wounds.

However, faced with Yang Ying's endless summoning abilities and the master-level strength of the six allies themselves, Hardick could never manage to kill them again. Furthermore, the surrounding bug horde had seized several opportunities to unleash their attacks squarely upon him.

Hardick realized that focusing his attack on Yang Ying's six only led to disadvantageous positions for himself, and since he couldn't confirm whether the six would resurrect again even if he managed to kill them, he could only turn back to deal with the boundless Zerg forces.

"What a pity," Yang Ying shook his head. "If only light could resolve all disputes in this world, how wonderful that would be."

Hardick understood Yang Ying was refusing. The Zerg attacks around him remained as dense as ever, forcing him into desperate flight.

"You need to understand this: you fundamentally cannot kill me. I am a Level Four existence. Even though I have only grasped the rudiments, that is enough for me to retreat from the dark side of the spiritual realm. Only an entity of equal power can truly slay me. Although you possess these biological weapons, they are only enough to make me vanish temporarily. When I return, I will come back to hunt you down again. Why waste effort on this futile struggle? It would be better to let me take my people and never meet again. Is that not the best choice for you right now?"

Although clearly at an absolute disadvantage, Hardick's tone showed no weakness whatsoever. He was a Level Four being; he should not show deference to beings of Level Three!

"You think I can't kill you?" Yang Ying smiled. From the moment the fight began, his intention had been to destroy the other party. However, Yang Ying also knew that the attacks from the sea of bugs did not touch the soul; at best, they could exhaust Hardick's psionic energy and banish him to the dark side of the spiritual realm—it was insufficient to truly kill him.

But if the bugs couldn't do it, the Protoss could!

Yang Ying looked at Hardick's ten-meter-tall, dimly glowing giant ape form and mused internally, "Not enough. Weaker still."

Yang Ying did not give the order to halt, and the bug tide continued its overwhelming saturation attack on Hardick. Acid spores, small bio-forms, needle barrages, ground spikes, and dog claws surged forward together. They struck Hardick until he shrank to five meters tall, his aura so dim only a faint white silhouette remained, with sporadic pinpricks of light scattering from his body. Only then did Yang Ying nod subtly, thinking, "That should be enough."

At this moment, in the outer space surrounding Pluto, a Ghost fighter streaked past, and with a flash of golden light, a brand-new Carrier materialized outside the planet.

This was the second Carrier constructed by the Protoss, one of the only two the race possessed. It was the flagship of Consul Kars of the Golden Council. Kars had already fully grasped the Carrier's operation through the Protoss psychic link network, learning from other Protoss. However, the one currently aboard was not Kars, but another of Yang Ying's clones, this one in the form of the Swarm Queen. Since Kars's experience could be shared among all clones, the other avatars could maneuver the Carrier as if it were their own limb.

The Protoss energy matrix technology was a formidable system capable of greatly amplifying psionic power, and the Carrier was the crystallization of this technology. The Templar warriors situated within the Carrier could multiply their mental strength by manipulating the ship's energy network.

The Carrier's control chamber was a long, narrow space, nearly two hundred meters from front to back, with a cross-section roughly triangular. The chamber walls were densely covered with optical circuit boards, emitting a soft blue-white luminescence. In the center of the control chamber stood a pillar about two meters in diameter, supporting a small platform. Yang Ying's avatar stood on this platform, controlling the entire warship with sheer will as it proceeded toward Pluto.

Hardick suddenly felt a powerful unease, as if an extremely dangerous presence was approaching. An image flashed before his eyes—the Carrier closing in on Pluto.

Hardick seemed to realize instinctively that this was a warning issued by Level Four power. Although the warship was exquisitely beautiful and filled with artistic structure, it radiated an infinite sense of peril, far exceeding that of a Colossus-class battlecruiser!

"Could it be that they haven't used their trump card yet?" Hardick wondered in astonishment.

Inside the Carrier's control chamber, Yang Ying's avatar remained silent, beginning to channel all his mental strength into the ship's energy system. After a moment, strands of ghostly blue energy began to wrap around him.

The Carrier's energy system was like a bottomless pit, capable of absorbing any amount of psionic power poured into it.

On the surface of Pluto, Yang Ying raised his hand, and with a flash of golden light, he recalled his five other clones. He needed to concentrate his mental power as much as possible into the Carrier.

The avatar within the Carrier had already injected nearly three million units of its own psionic strength into the ship. The entire control chamber began to glow with ghostly blue light. Then, the psychic energy of the other clones converged and was channeled into the Carrier by the main avatar.

Five million. Seven million. Ten million. Fifteen million!

When the total reached fifteen million, the entire control chamber was saturated with the stream of ghostly blue energy. The Carrier's energy systems operated beyond their maximum threshold, and finally, they erupted!

Yang Ying's avatar disintegrated, rings of pure energy flowing outward from the core, enveloping the Carrier and causing it to shine with brilliant blue light in the sky.

Hardick let out a furious roar, ignoring the surrounding attacks impacting his body, and exerted all his strength to flee into the distance!

"Fifteen million units of psionic power, enhanced by the energy matrix system, can strike not only the material world but the spiritual world as well. It should be enough to utterly destroy the remnant of a Level Four being who has already expended most of his energy. Hardick! Your will is admirable. A pity, such a pity..." Yang Ying thought inwardly.

The energy stream was too immense; the entire Carrier instantly shattered and disintegrated in mid-air. Pure energy burst forth from the wreckage, guided by the will of Yang Ying's avatar, and hurtled toward Hardick!

Hardick was already fleeing at his maximum speed, but Yang Ying's avatar, now in a state of pure energy, had locked onto him and slammed directly into him!

KRAKOOM!!!

A magnificent column of blue light shot skyward, the pure energy stream scattering outwards. And in the spiritual realm, a shockwave like a nuclear detonation spread across the entire solar system!

The presence of the Level Four Hardick suddenly vanished!