The teenage espers being trained inside the base mobilized under the command of their instructors. However, these young espers had only just awakened their powers, and the strongest among them barely possessed Pluto Low-Tier strength. Facing the Roman elites led by Porphyris, their weak resistance was crushed within a mere ten minutes. Some of the base instructors were indeed formidable masters. Seeing the overwhelming Roman forces, they immediately led these espers to engage in guerrilla warfare, utilizing their familiarity with the terrain, which caused quite a bit of trouble for Porphyris.

While Porphyris was arduously clearing out the resistance within the base, Xin Jia brought Gu Xichen to the core location of the facility.

Wuwu Literature Ugly Liao Xin

In front of the heavy alloy main gate, four espers clad in Type-IV Stalker combat suits nervously ushered a group of researchers in white uniforms inside to take cover. Beyond the half-open portal lay a spacious laboratory, cluttered with various electronic instruments. A short, ferocious-looking bald old man was roaring furiously. Amidst his bellowing, several researchers frantically entered confirmation codes into several photon supercomputers, while others hastily gathered assorted storage chips scattered around the lab and tossed them into an unactivated plasma incinerator.

"Xin Jia, Zhao Yi! Full-force attack! I want all the research data inside!"

With a loud shout, Gu Xichen summoned Zhao Yi and the others. He charged ahead of them all toward the four espers guarding the door.

"Enemy attack!" The four espers shrieked wildly. Their first reaction was not to attack Gu Xichen, but to use all their strength against the researchers beside them. All four espers possessed fire-attribute powers. Dozens of fireballs whistled forth, blasting the swiftly fleeing researchers into dust and fragments. In the blink of an eye, more than thirty researchers were killed.

Gu Xichen reached one of the espers. He struck the man's chest with a full-force punch.

Bang! The punch passed through the man as if through thin air, punching a basin-sized hole in his torso. Immediately following, the berserk force contained within the punch erupted fiercely, detonating the man into fragments.

"Huh? My strength has become this great?" Gu Xichen stared at his fist in astonishment. His right leg snapped up like a thunderclap, delivering a savage kick to the other esper's waist.

Another muffled thud echoed, and the waist of this esper exploded. The upper and lower halves of his mangled body were kicked tens of meters away, smashing against the adjacent alloy wall into a spray of gore.

Xin Jia rushed in close behind Gu Xichen. He threw his arms wide with a maniacal laugh and embraced one of the espers. Amidst the dense sound of cracking bones, the unfortunate esper’s entire skeleton shattered, ending his life instantly.

% Corpse Ten Thousand

The last esper was pierced through the heart by a sword thrust from Zhao Yi, who stood dozens of meters away. Zhao Yi wielded a high-grade flying sword from Paradise Star; its light was cyan-purple, its flight silent. The sword was engraved with dozens of overlapping Five-Thunder Talismans, and with every movement, heavenly thunder responded, making its power incomparably great. The esper’s combat suit offered no resistance to the sword’s penetration. The sword light pierced his heart, and three successive bolts of lightning pulverized his body into dust.

Gu Xichen stormed into the laboratory, casually sweeping his arm to send the researchers clustered near the photon supercomputers flying. With a flick of his wrist, the Small Qiankun Pouch spat out a stream of clear energy, sucking in every piece of equipment in the lab, including the plasma incinerator that hadn't been activated in time, leaving not even a scrap of paper behind.

The bald old man shrieked, "Who are you?"

Gu Xichen pointed a finger, and an ice shard, about a foot long, pierced the old man’s brow. Watching the light gradually fade from the man's eyes, Gu Xichen said coldly, "Experimenting on your own kind—you don't deserve to know my name." He raised his right hand toward the ceiling, flipped his palm, and pressed down. Suddenly, a massive white gale whipped up within the cavernous laboratory. A bone-chilling wind howled, and every researcher instantly froze to death.

Looking at the researchers encased in thick blocks of ice, Gu Xichen recalled the records from Uriah’s personal computer.

Under Uriah’s leadership, the Special Operations Bureau had been secretly conducting mental control experiments on espers, striving to grant Uriah the power to control all espers. This ambitious scheme had received immense assistance from the Federation’s most infamous biologist—this bald old man, "Beames." Uriah used his authority to secretly recall Beames from the Federation's Exile Planet back to Earth and established this laboratory for him.

The over a thousand teenage espers in this base were not only reserve forces for Uriah’s bureau but also experimental material for Beames. Every year, more than three hundred teenage espers died at Beames's hands. These bloody experiments, however, had yielded considerable achievements for Beames: a mental wave capable of sniping espers at short to medium range, and a microwave device capable of freezing the powers of all espers below Jupiter-Class within a ten-kilometer radius, which had already entered practical field testing.

As for the methods Uriah used to cultivate these teenage espers, they truly shocked Gu Xichen. The Special Operations agents who emerged from this base could no longer be considered human; they were killing machines completely loyal to Uriah, devoid of desire or emotion.

Taking out the storage chips from the Small Qiankun Pouch, Gu Xichen tossed one onto a nearby structure and left with Xin Jia and the others to secure the next area.

Two young women wearing shorts and short shirts hurried towards them, shouting, "The enemy has broken into the core circle! Destroy all equipment! Kill everyone!"

Startled by the sudden appearance of Gu Xichen, the two girls froze simultaneously. Then, they let out low, bestial roars and charged forward, one shrouded in a whirlwind and the other in a cloud of cold air. The two girls attacked with extreme viciousness, their hands clawing simultaneously toward Gu Xichen's eyes, throat, and groin—vital targets. Their strikes were ruthless and practiced, suggesting how many lives they must have taken to acquire such skill.

Zhao Yi and the others quickly reverted to purple light and withdrew. Gu Xichen forcefully exhaled toward the two young women.

A stream of white vapor enveloped the girls, instantly freezing them into ice blocks. Gu Xichen grabbed Xin Jia’s hand and said softly, "In your next life, be an ordinary person. If you must have powers, be born into a good family—a family that can protect you!"

Xin Jia grasped Gu Xichen’s hand, and the two vanished in a surge of earth energy.

The sound of dense axe-spear fire echoed. Porphyris personally cleaved off the head of the base's last remaining resister. The excited Porphyris, leading a large contingent of subordinates, rushed to the laboratory door, only to be momentarily stunned by the mass of dense ice sculptures before him!

"Who? Who did this? Damn it, who did this?"

Porphyris, a Roman noble who prided himself on elegance and refinement, could no longer contain his rising anger. He cursed and swore hysterically, staggering into the laboratory. He looked helplessly at the empty room like an abandoned woman. The residual, dense coldness lingering in the air seeped into his body, causing him to shiver involuntarily.

Suddenly, a palm-sized storage chip caught Porphyris's eye. He lunged forward in delirious joy, snatching up the chip.

"Hahaha, those damned bastards! It must have been the ice-attribute espers from this base who destroyed the whole lab! But, they did leave something behind! Hey!"

Thirty minutes later, Porphyris happily returned to the battleship with his subordinates, while Gu Xichen had finished an entire bottle of gold-flecked brandy.

Looking at the beaming Porphyris, Gu Xichen asked curiously, "It seems you had quite a haul, Mr. Porphyris? In that case, losing two battleships shouldn't be much of a problem for you, right?"

Porphyris threw back his head and laughed several times, nodding repeatedly. "Of course, absolutely no problem." He leaned excitedly toward Gu Xichen and chuckled softly, "Dear Lord Gu Xichen, I am extremely pleased and happy with our cooperation. In the future..."

Gu Xichen nodded thoughtfully. "If you can keep your mouth shut, we certainly have opportunities for future cooperation. If the Merveloye family can become a Roman Electoral Family, then I would be very happy to establish a long-term cooperative relationship with you."

Porphyris smiled and extended his hand toward Gu Xichen. "Praise the great Supernova God, Lord Lightning!"

Gu Xichen took Porphyris's hand. He pondered for a moment, then smiled reservedly. "May the Three Pure Ones guide us, may our cooperation be pleasant!"

Porphyris brought only his most trusted confidants back to this battleship; he forced the other two thousand-plus Roman warriors onto the other warship. Holding Gu Xichen's hand, he watched as all the Roman warriors boarded their vessel, then immediately leaped to the control console, personally taking over command of the entire ship's operations.

The battleship’s main cannon fired at full power, striking the other warship positioned nearby.

Following this, a purple light shot out from Porphyris's brow, striking the ship's commander who rushed forward to stop him, sending the commander flying toward Gu Xichen.

Gu Xichen instinctively threw a punch. He could not perfectly control the sudden surge of power. The punch, carrying a dense chilling aura, pierced the body of the unfortunate ship commander, instantly freezing him into an ice block. Gu Xichen exclaimed in surprise, "Mr. Porphyris? Why?"

Wuwu Literature Ugly

Porphyris bowed gracefully to Gu Xichen. "I think it's best if as few people as possible know about today's events. Besides, if the casualties are too few, who would believe we achieved such results after a fierce battle?"

Intense artillery fire battered the other warship until it exploded violently, consuming thousands of Roman warriors in a blaze of fire.

Gu Xichen sighed softly. Well, he had been used as a knife this time.

The explosion alerted the early warning system of the Earth Federation’s Pacific Military Region, and numerous vessels rapidly converged on the location.

The Ghost Battleship truly earned its "Ghost" moniker; it transported Gu Xichen and the others to a beach near Shanghai without alerting anyone, and then vanished like a phantom, leaving Earth.

It’s the end of the month; classmates who still have tickets, work hard and smash them down like your pig-headed author! , Ten Thousand Endure. No more nonsense, striving to write words is the right path! (To be continued)