As if to validate Gu Xiechen's words, the transport shuttle carrying Miao Hua and the others flew into the hangar. Miao Hua, radiating murderous intent, stepped out with a grim face, tossing hundreds of frozen soldier corpses from the shuttle. These soldiers, who had accompanied Gu Xiechen and the others on the Pluto hunt, had participated in the rebellion and were swiftly executed by the Lion Venerable and others who had laid an ambush for the Black Bamboo Witch King.

The stiff bodies hit the alloy floor with dull thuds. Each corpse, frozen solid, bore a look of agonizing death, their contorted features making the members of the Hall Sharma family tremble.

The Roman man who had raised the objection swallowed hard in alarm. He growled irritably, "Of course, this is your internal affair! But we were knocked unconscious by your rebellious soldiers for over three hours. We have no idea what transpired during that time. If—"

Gu Xiechen looked at the Roman man solemnly and uttered in a low voice, "I am a devout believer. I swear in the name of God that if we have hunted even one more Christo-Jing person this time, may the great Heavenly Father bring down punishment upon me, and may the angels who reward good and punish evil strike me down!"

Miao Hua and Daoist Zhang, standing nearby, chuckled, bumping each other affectionately with their elbows. Indeed, if they had hunted even one extra Jing person, let the punishment descend. But how many had they hunted this time? Nearly a thousand Jing people, and they were high-grade ones: colorless, black, purple, and blue! That oath could never be fulfilled. Especially since Gu Xiechen was no believer in God; perhaps the only thing he truly worshipped was his "Way of the Merchant."

The Roman man fell silent. They were a god-fearing race, and oaths sworn in the name of their deity were sacred and inviolable to the Romans.

The Roman man glanced sourly at Gu Xiechen and stated angrily, "Very well, we accept your explanation. Hmm, you intend to judge the rebellion? You certainly don't have the strength to hunt many Christo-Jing people, do you? Even the finest of the young generation of the Hall Sharma family, Polpot, hasn't completed his mission yet. How could you, suffering from internal rebellion, be more capable than Polpot?"

A squad of soldiers pushed a cart loaded with the bodies of the mutinous soldiers past them; they were taking the corpses to the cryo-storage of the hunting vessels. The disciples of the Nine Nether Path had been ruthlessly efficient; only three or four out of every ten soldiers who joined the rebellion survived. The soldiers of the Hadwood Corporation were short-handed and still hadn't finished clearing all the bodies.

The Roman man watched the corpses and felt a surge of satisfaction. After murmuring for a while, they finally accepted Gu Xiechen's account.

Sighing, Gu Xiechen kicked open the lid of an alloy container beside him, revealing a small, white Jing person inside. He pointed to the small Jing person and sighed, "You see, we suffered misfortune and truly lack the strength to hunt more Jing people. That's why most of the Jing people we captured were these low-level, white ones... Are you satisfied now?" The Romans were reassured. Seeing that an arbitrarily selected alloy box chosen by Gu Xiechen was filled only with white Jing people, it was clear their haul truly wasn't substantial. Since Gu Xiechen had shown his sincerity, they, as noble Roman aristocrats, couldn't be overly demanding. Upon learning that Gu Xiechen planned to return to Earth to punish his rebellious subordinates, the Romans courteously took their leave and returned to the Roman hunting fleet.

Leaving ten hunting vessels behind for the special investigation bureau supervisors within the Roman hunting fleet, Gu Xiechen commanded nineteen hunting vessels to fire a coordinated volley, obliterating the damaged ship, before heading straight back.

The harvest from this hunt was extraordinarily rich. Besides the thousand Jing people they had to split with the Federation, they had swept dozens of altars and sacred lakes among the Christo-Jing, acquiring nearly a thousand crystal orbs containing high-grade Jing people. Coupled with the Five Elements Great Transformation Array deployed by the five Xin Jia brothers, Gu Xiechen would soon possess a reliable army of Realm Soldiers. Furthermore, with Elder Laojun Valley helping to refine spiritual elixirs primarily using Flame Orchid fruit, these Realm Soldiers would rapidly bring their strength to its peak.

An army of over a thousand Realm Soldiers, each operating at peak strength—surely this force would be enough to destroy the entire Roman Royal Guard?

Standing in the command cabin of the flagship, Gu Xiechen excitedly tapped the main console, grinning at Miao Hua, "Senior Brother, do you know which kind of merchant has the brightest future?"

Miao Hua frowned in thought for a moment, confused, "What is it? Are there classifications of merchants?"

Gu Xiechen chuckled happily, "It's the official merchant! The official merchant is the one with the most potential for development! Heh heh heh. Once I return to Earth... if I spend two years cultivating this army of Realm Soldiers who are absolutely loyal to me, the power I wield will be enough to control the entire Federation! Hmph hmph, I will aim to run for the next Chairman of the Federation!"

He confidently placed his hands behind his back, raised onto his toes, and declared proudly, "By then, all the Federation's military procurement will have to come from the Hadwood Corporation. All resources will flow from my left hand into my right. To command the winds and call the rain, to do as I please—that is the highest realm of a merchant!"

Just as he finished proclaiming his grand ambitions, Miao Hua, Daoist Zhang, and the other mischief-loving comrades were excitedly throwing out various suggestions on how Gu Xiechen could win the chairmanship of the Federation when the main console suddenly flashed with urgent red lights. An emergency communication request was being routed through a top-secret line.

Gu Xiechen rushed to the console and accepted the connection.

The screen lowered, revealing D'Artois with a face ashen with rage. The moment Siren saw D'Artois on the screen, she, who had been leaning close to Miao Hua plotting how to help Gu Xiechen deal with his future rivals, instinctively felt her legs go weak and quickly turned away.

Looking at the furious D'Artois on the screen, Gu Xiechen asked in confusion, "Lieutenant General... what happened? Have you learned about the situation with the hunting fleet?" To maintain secrecy about the Corpse Emperor's involvement in this special hunt, Gu Xiechen had not allowed the Bearded Commander to relay news of the rebellion back to Earth. His plan was to use all his strength immediately upon returning to Earth to charge every member of the Special Investigation Bureau who held disloyal thoughts or might hold them with treason and exile them to the most environmentally harsh exile planets, thus avoiding any move that might alert the enemy.

D'Artois was momentarily stunned. He roared gruffly, "What could possibly be happening on your end? A special hunter-class warship—the pinnacle of technological fusion between the Federation Academy of Sciences and the Roman Academy of Sciences! Are you telling me something could go wrong while bullying those unevolved rock-men with such a vessel?"

Slamming his fist onto the table before him in exasperation, D'Artois snarled, "Stop wasting time. Are the people around you trustworthy?"

The people around him? Gu Xiechen glanced around. Besides Miao Hua and Siren, there were only the trusted veterans of the Hadwood Defense Corporation who had served the Bearded Commander for over a decade. They were all reliable. He nodded repeatedly, "They are all my confidants. Please speak plainly." D'Artois let out a low hiss, stood up, leaned forward, and roared almost hysterically, "Good. Help me eliminate a person! It is inconvenient for me to act, and my family and the people behind me will not allow me to act. I can only rely on you! We are friends, aren't we?"

Cautiously scratching his nose, Gu Xiechen glanced sideways at Siren, who was shrinking back into the crowd, and gave a nervous laugh, "Of course, we are friends, hehe... we are friends!"

D'Artois burst into wild laughter, "Then... help me kill Lieutenant General Alexander! Kill that damned pretty boy! Help me take him down! Kill him or ruin his reputation. If you can do that, I will be your best ally from now on!"

Gu Xiechen stared at D'Artois on the screen in surprise and asked, "Lieutenant General Alexander? Who is he?" There were over a hundred Federation Admirals and over a thousand Lieutenant Generals; Gu Xiechen had no idea who Lieutenant General Alexander was. However, someone who could clash with a high-ranking military official like D'Artois couldn't be ordinary.

D'Artois's face darkened, and he tore open his uniform. On his pale, smooth chest was a sword wound nearly two inches long. The skin around the scar had burst with countless tiny cracks, making the mark look like a stiff centipede burrowed beneath his skin, an appearance both monstrous and terrifying.

"Lieutenant General Alexander is the Deputy Commander of the Darkwood Knights! A damned nouveau riche... the son of a bankrupt wastrel!" D'Artois cursed viciously.

Gu Xiechen quickly pieced together the cause and effect from D'Artois's frantic curses and disjointed narration.

Lieutenant General Alexander's birthplace was the free apartment sector, more than a thousand meters beneath the Federation surface.

These subterranean free apartment buildings were provided by the Federation for the dwellings of the unemployed poor or unfortunate bankrupts. The population density in the underground apartments was almost equivalent to an ant colony, and the living conditions were extremely harsh. Yet, Alexander, the son of a bankrupt small business owner, was born intelligent and possessed an unyielding character. He entered the Federal Military Academy at fourteen via the Federation's free internet tutorials, rose to Colonel by twenty-eight, and then the Paradise Star War broke out. He led a light infantry brigade into combat.

Alexander, who had joined the radical Federation organization, the Darkwood Knights, while still in the Military Academy, received strong support and cooperation from his comrades during the Paradise Star War. Although he commanded only a single light infantry brigade, the largest force he ever commanded reached fifty thousand troops. He also possessed a peculiar talent for grasping the flow of the battlefield. Within two months, he had annihilated over ten thousand enemy soldiers, earning a promotion to Major General for his merits.

Subsequently, the first generation of Hercules Single-Soldier Combat Armor was equipped on a small scale. Major General Alexander immediately received the supply of this new gear and launched a surprise attack on the Romans using all the forces under his command. After three days of intense assault, the Roman ground forces were thrown into disarray by the Earth Army, whose combat power had been drastically increased. Alexander annihilated over twenty-four thousand elite Roman warriors in one engagement, instantly earning a promotion to Lieutenant General.

As the first Federal General to achieve major success using the Hercules Model I Single-Soldier Combat Armor on a large scale, Alexander returned to the Federation to report on his achievements while his troops rested in the rear. He was tasked with relaying his experience and insights on using the combat armor to rear-echelon officers.

This is where the story takes a turn: the pure-hearted Lieutenant General Alexander fell instantly in love with Madam Eulis and launched a landslide-like offensive against her. A hardened soldier fresh from the battlefield undoubtedly possessed irresistible charm, and the story of the hero and the beauty was highly attractive to all the Federation's gossip and entertainment reporters. During the very period Gu Xiechen led the hunting fleet to Pluto, the rumors surrounding Alexander and Eulis dominated the headlines.