In the hidden chamber behind a bookshelf in Wager's private study at Pangu Base, Wager and Wu Qing-qun sat facing each other. Wager's left hand tightly clutched a palm-sized storage chip, his handlebar mustache trembling with agitation. A beautiful blonde woman standing nearby offered Wager a glass of iced vodka. As Wager took the glass, his hand shook slightly, splashing several drops of the liquor onto his skin.

Wu Qing-qun accepted the drink offered by the blonde, took a delicate sip, and casually pinched the woman’s ample rear. “Lord Borujin is very pleased with your decision. Therefore, he has pre-authorized the core technologies for the Sub-Void Quantum Scanner, the Titan-type Heavy Cannon Engine, the Raging Thunder-type High-Speed Lift Engine, and the Tidal-type Electromagnetic Suppressor.” The blonde woman stood obediently beside Wu Qing-qun, whose icy hand, right in front of Wager, slipped beneath the woman’s short skirt.

Wager smiled, watching Wu Qing-qun, entirely ignoring the blonde woman's pleading eyes.

“The recipes you require for the new generation of superalloys and memory metals, along with the technology for the Aegis of Thor and the Quad-Curve Energy Shield,” Wu Qing-qun frowned, stating coldly, “and the formulas for those bizarre biological agents—these will only be provided after every soldier of the Hell's Angels Mercenary Group is dead and Gu Xiechen’s head is delivered to Lord Borujin.” “No problem!” Wager raised his glass, declaring excitedly, “No problem! Gu Xiechen is doomed. Our Heaven Star Expeditionary Force has deployed an extremely powerful psychic operative this time; ordinary Boundary Masters are defenseless against him. Even though Gu Xiechen escaped Montedidi’s pursuit... he won't live long!” Wu Qing-qun vigorously rubbed the blonde woman’s inner thigh, laughing as he clinked glasses with Wager.

Taking a long swallow of hard liquor, Wu Qing-qun said solemnly, “As for the third portion of technical data you requested, such as core classified technologies like the Sub-Void Communicator, Lord Borujin will only provide it according to your battlefield results after you have inflicted maximum casualties on the armies of the other several Emperor-Elect Families before the Roman Kingdom’s forces arrive.” “The armies of the other Emperor-Elect Families?” Wager understood immediately, draining the vodka in his glass. “I see. Lord Borujin lost too many troops. Since he cannot earn merit, he won't allow others to earn merit either—is that the logic?” “Precisely!” Wu Qing-qun stood up, gently patting the flushed cheek of the blonde woman. “The chip contains the communication frequencies and ciphertexts used by the Romans this time. With this data, General, you can easily monitor every move the Romans on Heaven Star make. If you can annihilate the family armies of the other major Emperor-Elects, your military merit will be substantial!”

Wager laughed with delight, nodding repeatedly in his excitement. If possessing the Romans’ communication frequencies and codes still failed to allow him to strike preemptively and crush the Romans, he, as a general, would truly have no face left. Clutching the chip tightly, Wager seemed to see a golden avenue opening before him, leading to the dazzling, golden throne of the Federation Military Chairman.

Thick, pale smoke rose from the ground, and Wu Qing-qun’s body gradually dissolved within the haze.

“General, I wish you every success! I also detest the Romans, so I hope you can exterminate them completely!” After a few strange chuckles, Wu Qing-qun suddenly grinned cruelly, “By the way, my condolences regarding your nephew’s unfortunate fate. Lieutenant Colonel Walei was a young man with a promising future; his death was truly a waste. You have already lost five Boundary Masters. Can that powerful psychic operative truly handle Gu Xiechen?” As the smoke dissipated, Wu Qing-qun vanished from the secret room. A fresh scar on Wager’s heart was violently ripped open, the bloody wound turning his eyes crimson, as if he had consumed too much of the Ya-Shi spirit dogs. The enraged Wager crushed the glass in his hand and slammed the blonde woman to the floor. His hook-like fingers tore through her clothing, and the furious Wager forced entry into her body without any preparation.

“Wu Qing-qun! Wait until I finish Gu Xiechen, finish the Romans—you’re next!” “What kind of thing are you, daring to be arrogant in front of me? Pitiful failure, rejected by the Asian Dao Alliance, a pathetic worm clinging to the Romans’ wings for scraps! You dare to act presumptuously before me? Wu Zong! Wu Qing-qun! What nonsense are you?” The enraged Wager whipped furiously into the woman beneath him, and the blonde bit down hard, striving to meet Wager’s thrusts.

With a loud boom, Major General Fick smashed through the entrance of Wager’s hidden chamber and rushed in.

Wager sprang up in a rage, naked, roaring and gesticulating wildly at Major General Fick, “Fick! My dear Major General Fick! Can’t you allow an unfortunate, hundred-year-old man whose nephew just died to comfortably enjoy a woman? Do you even know the rules? Even if you are my most trusted…” The chamber door shattered, and the urgent blare of the Pangu Base alarm clearly penetrated inside. Wager’s roar abruptly ceased.

Major General Fick, sweating profusely, urgently stated, “General, your secret room isolates all signals; this is the only way I could notify you...” Taking a deep breath, Major General Fick summoned his greatest courage, closed his eyes, and shouted, “Siren and Aredia have escaped the base, Dulu has been killed, and the base guards have suffered over a thousand casualties!” “...!” General Wager’s body rose like a whirlwind, spinning rapidly dozens of times before he finally landed a crushing kick to Major General Fick’s abdomen.

Major General Fick was kicked airborne, slamming straight into the alloy wall of the adjoining study. Blood streamed from all seven orifices of Major General Fick’s head as he collapsed heavily to the ground, unconscious.

“Trash! A pack of useless trash! What enormous sums do I spend maintaining you every year? How much extra expense do you extract from me annually? You worthless lot! First Ingli and the others, and now Dulu! I, I, oh—Great God of War, have you abandoned your faithful follower?” Wager, muttering continuously, strode out of his private study. A series of startled cries immediately arose from the corridor outside. General Wager rushed back into the study, so enraged he forgot his lower body was completely bare, his personal privacy fully exposed to the large contingent of officers waiting outside. “Damn it!” After cursing wildly at every object of his ire, General Wager quickly pulled on his trousers and rushed out of the study like the wind.

Wager’s roar echoed through every unit of the Heaven Star Expeditionary Force via the comms system. The Expeditionary Force’s most elite special operations units were deployed, scattering across the landscape, striving to locate the Hell’s Angels Mercenary Group and Gu Xiechen in the shortest time possible to annihilate the targets. More reconnaissance satellites were launched, and countless scanning waves thoroughly blanketed the dense forests of the entire continent.

The most covert force within the Expeditionary Force was also mobilized under Wager’s personally signed order. The origin of this small formation was identical to that of Ingli and the other five: a weapon of war jointly created by the Federation Military and the Military Secret Research Institute; Dulu was one of its members. This formation currently consisted of thirteen individuals! Military Secret Code name: Xīn Rì (New Sun).

The entire intelligence network of the Heaven Star Expeditionary Force was activated simultaneously. Twelve hours later, the hiding place of the Hell’s Angels Mercenary Group was discovered. The Ao Bu squad immediately descended upon the mercenaries' hideout. Twelve Heaven Star Expeditionary Special Brigades, totaling twelve thousand men, followed closely behind. Three heavy armored divisions and fifteen ground attack squadrons aggressively converged on the Hell’s Angels Mercenary Group. The furious Wager ripped off all pretense; he no longer relied on using others as his knife but wielded the butcher’s blade himself.

The natural environment of Heaven Star offered no fault whatsoever. Undeveloped jungle stretched everywhere, dense vegetation covered the land, and towering giant trees, reaching hundreds, even three hundred meters high, dominated the landscape. Countless python-like vines intertwined around these giants, weaving into impenetrable nets that solidly encased the entire earth. In some places, these vast nets formed by vines covered an area spanning hundreds of square kilometers. As seasons changed, fallen branches and decaying leaves accumulated on the vines, gradually forming a second layer of soil dozens of meters above the ground. New vegetation sprouted in this rich soil, and tangled branches and leaves formed another dense canopy, so thick that not a single drop of rain could reach the earth below. It was in such a perfect hiding spot that Gu Xiechen had concealed himself.

It was a circular valley several kilometers in diameter. The cliffs surrounding the valley were not high. The valley floor was filled with giant trees over three hundred meters tall. Dense vines created three to four layers of interconnected networks between the trees, stretching from above down to the ground. Clumps of small shrubs grew haphazardly over these vine nets, each layer of the net forming its own separate world, with many small insects and beasts even building nests within these structures. When the surviving warriors of the Hell’s Angels Mercenary Group retreated into the valley, high-flying reconnaissance satellites could not detect a single human silhouette.

In the exact center of the valley lay a round, open pool. The water was emerald green and deep, emitting a bone-chilling coldness due to the eternal absence of sunlight. A wrist-thick vine spanned across the pool, and Gu Xiechen sat upon it, quietly listening to Ling Hu’s report.

“Boreno, Mohe, Popov—besides me, all the squadron leaders have been captured. All innate-level fighters were also wounded and taken away. Currently, the only masters left in the corps are you, Commander Ge, and myself.” “There are over twenty-four thousand ordinary soldiers remaining, half of whom have minor to severe injuries. We lack medical equipment; without sufficient medicine within three days, over four thousand seriously wounded men will die from infection.” “All our heavy weaponry has been taken over by the 98th Armored Brigade. Our current armaments include over twenty-two thousand standard assault rifles, over five hundred light machine guns, and over sixty heavy machine guns. We have nothing caliber 20mm or above, no cannon or mortar support. We still have over thirty-seven thousand offensive grenades and one hundred fifty thousand kilograms of high explosives for destroying fortifications.”

Gu Xiechen placed his hands near his Dantian, and wisps of white mist puffed from his fingertips, slowly coiling around his body. The pool water below slowly began to form ice sheets about an inch thick.

Ling Hu looked at Gu Xiechen with admiration, then continued, “The most immediate and critical danger is this: three hours ago, brothers from the Third Squadron went out in separate groups to gather medicinal herbs. Several of them saw large numbers of unmanned reconnaissance drones flying overhead. High-altitude satellites might not have detected them, but these drones fly extremely slowly; it is highly likely our presence has been exposed.”