"Yes, Chairman, my cooperation with the Udinia School has been extremely fruitful," Gu Xiechen said, puffing smoke from a large cigar as he reclined comfortably inside the Emebole family's battleship, addressing the smiling face on the light screen. "I am very satisfied with my current post. I have already established a friendship with the Uria School through our work, and I believe I will fulfill my duties perfectly by overseeing the Special Operations Bureau's work."

Closing the light screen, Gu Xiechen accepted the rare wine from Roman specialties that Porphyris eagerly handed over and took a long, contented sip.

The pale-gold Divine Nectar of Gold was brewed from Golden Grapes native to Mars. Its flavor was exquisitely delicious, but more importantly, it possessed the miraculous effect of nourishing human brain cells and strengthening mental power. This was a divine product reserved only for core members of the Roman Artificial Layer families. Occasionally, a few bottles smuggled to Earth would fetch astonishing, sky-high auction prices.

The cool, sweet, and fragrant Divine Nectar of Gold slid slowly down his throat, and a surge of potent energy flooded toward his brain, his mental power increasing at a perceptible rate. Just under two hundred milliliters in the small bottle of Divine Nectar of Gold allowed Gu Xiechen's mental power to increase by an amount equivalent to more than five years of cultivation for an ordinary awakened individual.

"What a miracle!" Gu Xiechen stared in amazement at the small, exquisite crystal wine bottle in his hand. "I’ve long heard of the Divine Nectar of Gold, but I never expected such an effect!"

Porphyris looked at the wine bottles in Gu Xiechen and the others' hands, his face moist with longing, and chuckled dryly, "This is a divine product enjoyed only by core members of the top one hundred powerful families in the Roman Kingdom. Our Emebole family ranks tenth in the kingdom, and we are allocated barely one hundred bottles annually. These few bottles of Divine Nectar of Gold are what I painstakingly saved up over several years!"

A powerful family ranking tenth? It truly was an awkward placement, no wonder Porphyris was so eager to stir up trouble and scheme against the Huo'ersuo and other families.

The top tier of powerful families among the Luo Ling people were the Nine Great Elector Families. These nine families controlled fifty percent of the entire Roman Kingdom's output, and all the remaining Roman families and common Roman citizens shared the other fifty percent. The Emebole family was only one step away from entering the high ranks of the Elector Families, leaving them no choice but to strive relentlessly.

Siren sneered, "How pitiful, stuck exactly at tenth place!"

Porphyris’s gaze toward Siren became strained. Golden light flashed in her eyes as she growled in a low voice, "If it weren't for your greed and stupidity..."

"Enough!" Gu Xiechen snapped, extinguishing his cigar in the ashtray.

Porphyris immediately clamped his mouth shut and obsequiously took out a cigar specialty of the Roman people, serving Gu Xiechen like a slave to light it.

Gu Xiechen nodded and said, "It's all in the past; stop dwelling on it!"

Porphyris was now a hundred times more obedient than before. He dared not disobey any word from Gu Xiechen. This was because, two hours earlier, the bearded commander had personally led his most trusted confidants to pilot away two battleships commanded by Porphyris—one large and one small Ghost Battleship.

The Roman people had fought the Earth Federation for hundreds of years and had never had a complete battleship captured by the Earth Federation, which meant Roman warships always maintained an edge in various technical specifications over the Earth Federation. Porphyris, in order to save his life, had handed over the two battleships. Although the family warriors present were all his trusted subordinates, there was no airtight wall in the world; sooner or later, the family elders would learn of this matter. If he couldn't achieve sufficient merit to silence the elders, his end would be predictable.

Gu Xiechen was leading him specifically to earn merit; how could he dare offend Gu Xiechen now?

The two Ghost Battleships proceeded slowly through the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean, moving stealthily like actual ghosts, carefully avoiding the deep-sea patrol submarines and various detectors belonging to the Earth Federation military.

On the huge light screen in the command cabin, a location deep within an underwater canyon took shape. Gu Xiechen tossed his cigar aside and strode toward the main control platform.

Following a string of commands from Gu Xiechen, the battleships released hundreds of small-scale detectors. These spherical probes popped out three small propellers and silently swam toward the perimeter of the base. Several larger light screens descended from the ceiling; each screen was divided into dozens of sections, clearly reflecting the images transmitted back by the detectors.

It was a massive underwater base with a diameter exceeding one kilometer. Its thick outer armor was artificially inlaid with numerous reefs and corals, and dense waterweeds swayed gracefully in the currents. Several small patrol submarines circled the base continuously. Occasionally, circular portals would open, allowing submarines descending directly from the surface to enter the base, or for vessels emerging from the base to ascend toward the surface.

"This is Base Gamma," Gu Xiechen explained while pointing to the base ahead. "The Earth Federation Special Management Committee’s Psychic Control Laboratory, and simultaneously, the training base for the Earth Federation Special Management Committee’s reserve agents. This base regularly houses over a thousand adolescent awakened individuals undergoing rigorous militarized training, and it also concentrates the Earth Federation's strongest research teams in the field of brain control."

"Mr. Porphyris, two battleships exchanged for a devastating blow against the Earth Federation's Special Management Committee, along with the Earth Federation's most advanced bio-chip brain control technology—surely that is worth it!"

Porphyris was already flushed with excitement by Gu Xiechen's description. He certainly knew what kind of organization the Earth Federation Special Management Committee was; it was the only agency in the Earth Federation openly dealing with awakened individuals, and simultaneously, the violent department used by the Earth Federation to control all awakened individuals. If he could destroy this base, which served as both a reserve training hub and a research facility for such an important department, and seize its research findings, his contribution would be immense!

The loss of the two battleships could simply be logged as battle damage—what war was fought without losing any warships? As long as...

Porphyris, his eyes gleaming with ambition, summoned all his subordinates and aggressively surged toward the base ahead.

Dozens of small vessels sped toward the base, and the main cannons of the two battleships fired simultaneously, instantly destroying the patrol submarines surrounding the base. The base's few entry/exit portals were completely demolished, and nearly a thousand Roman warriors from the small vessels poured in.

An ear-piercing alarm sounded within the base. The outer reefs and corals peeled away, and dozens of energy cannons slowly rose from beneath sliding armor plates. The two Roman battleships cautiously evaded the base's defensive fire and precisely used their main cannons to shatter every energy cannon in its emplacement. The largest caliber energy cannon at Base Gamma was only eighty millimeters, offering absolutely no counter to the Roman battleships' smallest, one-hundred-and-fifty-millimeter energy cannons.

Having destroyed the base's defensive power, the two battleships lunged at the base like sharks smelling blood. Docking clamps connected with the base's portals, and masses of Roman warriors flooded into the warships.

Gu Xiechen closely followed these Romans inside. The moment he rushed into the base, he slipped away from the Roman contingent and summoned his Xin Jia to burrow into the ground.

Figures were sprinting everywhere inside the base. This facility was not an armed combat base; it only housed a meager internal security force of two hundred personnel. Porphyris, however, brought the Emebole family's most elite three thousand warriors. The Romans crushed the resistance of the internal security forces with overwhelming superiority and swiftly occupied the base's key sectors.