One day after the standard gestational period. The first batch of envoys hurried to Yafei Capital Star.

The day passed agonizingly for Gu Yechen. Jin clung to him as if she had staked a claim, first relentlessly questioning his strength, then prying into his background and lineage, and finally demanding to know if he had any sexual experience. When she finally ran out of inquiries, she adopted an overtly solicitous manner, asking where the recently healed Holm and Linghu had gone.

Looking at Jin, whose eyes sparkled like an inquisitive baby, Gu Yechen could only throw his head back and sigh, "Of all things, difficult to manage are women and petty men!"

The first envoys to arrive at Yafeike Star came from nearly a hundred four-star and three-star civilizations bordering the Yafeike Kingdom. Their national power was significantly inferior to Yafeike's. Upon meeting Gu Yechen, these envoys immediately expressed their nations' goodwill. They merely sought vengeance for the wrongfully killed previous minister; they held no interest in vying for the spoils left by the fallen Doke Federation.

Gu Yechen accepted their goodwill on behalf of the Yafeike Kingdom and cordially assured them that the Kingdom was willing to provide necessary supplies for their fleets.

Since these nations were not powerful, the fleets brought by their envoys were quite orderly, stationed at several spaceports on the outskirts of the Yafeike Kingdom. Not a single warship dared to stray about. Every civilization in the Star Alliance knew that while the military strength of the Yafeike Kingdom might be lacking, its planetary defense system was a monstrous entity. No one wanted to risk their warships testing those grotesquely powerful ground-based anti-air behemoths and the array of bizarre defensive weaponry.

However, the next wave of envoys, led by the Lei Wu Kingdom, proved much harder to handle.

Gu Yechen, seated on the dueling platform, had thoroughly humiliated the Lei Wu Kingdom and the other twelve kingdoms, causing them a monumental loss of face. They had just resorted to clandestine measures, attempting to use the Bloodfang Adept Group to "rationally and justifiably" reclaim three thousand warships, only to be brutally beaten down again by a furious Gu Yechen. Not only did not a single one of the three thousand warships or their ten thousand auxiliary vessels escape, but the entire Bloodfang Adept Group was annihilated as well. Consequently, the fleets from this batch of one hundred seventy-two civilizations arrived with an incredibly arrogant and overbearing aura.

The Lei Wu Kingdom and the other twelve kingdoms each deployed three reinforced space fleets—a massive contingent of over two thousand Tier-One warships and nearly ten thousand auxiliary vessels, arrayed in the void in a vast formation nearly a thousand kilometers wide and long. The remaining one hundred fifty-nine civilizations each sent at least one standard fleet, amounting to over seven thousand, nearly eight thousand Tier-One warships, plus various support vessels, totaling at least thirty thousand large ships. These vessels formed a formation dozens of times larger, positioned behind the main formation of the thirteen kingdoms.

The colossal fleet did not settle quietly in the outer regions of the Yafeike Kingdom’s space. Instead, it advanced directly toward the second defensive perimeter of the Yafeike Planetary Defense System, hovering precisely at the edge of the system’s automated counter-attack alert line. If a single warship moved even a few kilometers further, the Yafeike Planetary Defense System would immediately initiate fire autonomously.

On the newest interstellar communicator assigned to him by Fuya Ming, a bright screen displayed a joint request from thirteen distinguished elders, who smiled as they asked permission for this gigantic fleet to dock at the spaceports orbiting Yafeike Star. They claimed to be allies coming to help the Yafeike Kingdom punish the demented Doke Federation.

Yafeike Star possessed two natural satellites, which were critical support points for the Planetary Defense System. Massive planetary defense firing positions were constructed upon them, alongside extraordinarily large spaceport facilities. These spaceports were reserved exclusively for the Yafeike Kingdom's own space fleets, large transport vessels belonging to domestic commercial guilds, and the private fleets of domestic nobles and powerful figures. These ports were strictly closed to foreign fleets!

Comfortably settled in a plush armchair, Gu Yechen leisurely spat out a tiny fruit pit. He addressed the thirteen elders, all bearing the title of Duke, on the screen with utter indifference: "You have fifteen minutes. Either dock quietly in the outer space, or I will beat you down!"

Raising a delicate control device in his hand, Gu Yechen sneered, "Her Majesty has granted me sufficient authorization. I can mobilize the Yafeike Planetary Defense System to launch preemptive strikes against any party harboring ill intent."

The eldest Duke from the Lei Wu Kingdom seemed to leap up as if he’d been kicked in the rear, waving his hands and shouting loudly, "Is this how Yafeike treats its friends?"

"Get lost!" Gu Yechen suddenly sat upright, barking in a sharp voice, "Stop this nonsense! What you intend to do, you know, and I know! Aren't you just trying to save face for your thirteen useless princes? The Bloodfang Adept Group was completely wiped out by me. Do you wish to be eliminated by me as well?"

Pointing a finger at the thirteen grim-faced elders on the screen, Gu Yechen sneered, "Let me tell you frankly: your rules of the game are useless against me! I was not born into your Star Alliance noble class, so I pay no heed to your hypocritical, tedious, and utterly idiotic rules of the game!"

He firmly pointed down toward the surface beneath him, lecturing them in the tone an elder uses for a grandchild: "This is my territory, and you will abide by the rules I set! You thirteen old fossils can each bring no more than three attendants to Yafeike, and I will treat you to a grand meal. If you harbor any other crooked ideas, you can dream on!"

Without allowing the elders to retort, Gu Yechen stated bluntly, frankly, and with blunt directness, "Let me tell you plainly: we have already received the formal communiqué from the Star Alliance. Because this incident occurred within the Yafeike Kingdom, Yafeike will automatically become the facilitator of the operation to dismember the Doke Federation. Be obedient to me, and you might still get a piece of the meat. Disobey me, and you won't even qualify to participate in this operation! If you are willing to suffer the massive losses incurred by deploying your fleets, I have no objection either!"

This barrage of intimidating, brutally direct words completely tore away the last shred of veneer from the faces of the elder Dukes and veteran politicians. Gu Yechen’s unconventional move had brought everything into the open. The elders of the thirteen kingdoms wanted to salvage some prestige and put the Yafeike Kingdom in an awkward spot. Had Fuya Ming been negotiating with them, she might well have been cornered. But facing someone like Gu Yechen, the efforts of the thirteen kingdoms to save face were declared an absolute failure.