Red Hair and Ziye, having split off at the Unity Sector, stole An Junlie's command ship and plunged into the vast star sea, only to encounter the single most infuriating event of her life—a program featuring so-called experts revealing that the Wolf's Den crew were prisoners! The thing Red Hair hated most in her entire life was being a prisoner on Silver Crest.

The moment she stepped off that planet, she vowed that everyone who knew must die! This was because that event carried the weight of her greatest past failure and deepest pain.

During her time on Silver Crest, she had also met so many wonderful friends, and just as they were finally getting back on their feet, these so-called experts had once again crushed her hope.

Red Hair felt completely out of control.

The hot blood in her body was screaming, her muscles were trembling—she wanted to kill! To kill these so-called experts, these hypocrites who preached morality while committing every imaginable evil behind closed doors! Red Hair gripped her gun tightly; only the coldness of the weapon could soothe her agitation.

After a long while, her emotions finally subsided.

Her long-range comm beeped; it was a brother from the Tamma system, calling himself Nine Hands.

He looked utterly disheveled, a thick beard obscuring half his face, but his eyes burned with fanaticism. "Sister, we've tracked an Interstellar Federation fleet heading towards the Tem system.

How about we go rough them up a bit tonight?" Red Hair sneered, "No need for tonight.

Get the munitions ready now, and head over immediately.

The more people, the better." Nine Hands cackled wildly, "Damn, I've waited so many years for a chance to move! Let's capture Bai Lanxue alive." Red Hair nodded, ended the call, put the gun down, leaned back in her chair, pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and exhaled slowly, watching the smoke curl and dissipate.

She had told Lan Li that if he wanted the ship, he should come; she wondered if he would be foolish enough to show up...

but for someone so cunning, acting foolishly would be a real challenge, especially with An Junlie out in the field.

Red Hair gave a bitter little laugh.

When had she become so sentimental? That was truly not her nature! With a sudden surge of resolve, she stubbed out the cigarette, stood up, initiated the command ship's diagnostics, checked the ammunition, opened the drone bays, and prepared for battle.

While a fleet command ship wasn't as efficient as a dedicated battlefield command ship during combat, it possessed an unparalleled advantage: it carried twenty 'Big Wasp' drones.

How powerful the Big Wasp drones were could be understood just from the name itself.

Once locked on, no matter the opponent, there was no escape! Even if they fled, they would end up looking like a hornet's nest.

Red Hair adjusted the ship settings and proceeded forward again, fearless, like a warrior.

Along the way, whether facing opportunistic government-sanctioned pirates or aggressive local Tem system bandits, none stood a chance against her counterattack.

She struck down gods and slaughtered demons, carving a path of raw, untamed aggression! The Angel Legion's intelligence department nearly soiled themselves at the sheer brutality of Red Hair's actions and rushed to report to Lan Li.

Lan Li, however, felt a strange sense of calm wash over him.

As long as Red Hair could fight, she wasn't in true danger.

It was like when he first found her—to survive an injury that severe, just how tough was this woman? Ultimately, Lan Li still worried about Red Hair.

He pondered for a moment. "Keep monitoring everything.

I'll see if I can slip out for a trip." The intelligence officer exclaimed in shock, "Vice Commander, please reconsider!" Lan Li smiled faintly. "Don't be so tense.

I'm just thinking about it." Indeed, he could only think about it.

With An Junlie currently stationed at the Unity Sector, no one in the legion was authorized to make major decisions.

The current situation was volatile, and leaving would be truly risky.

One question nagged him: why was Red Hair so eager to leave the Unity Sector and return to the Wolf's Den? Was something happening at the Unity Sector, or was the danger looming over the Wolf's Den? Lan Li pulled up the star chart, spun his stylus tip, and opened an internal channel, requesting ten fleets be dispatched to the border between the Wolf's Den and the Angel territories.

The Combat Director asked, "Are we preparing to defend against the Wolf's Den?" Lan Li shook his head. "No.

If the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold." Meanwhile, Xiao Xiao had been released by Colleen.

The moment Xiao Xiao breathed the free air, he immediately boarded the cargo ship that had previously delivered robots to the Unity Sector and left, moving non-stop, daring not to contact Ziye or any of the maintenance personnel who had arrived with them.

Colleen watched him in secret.

The more anxious he became, the stranger she found it.

She gathered a few female soldiers and followed him in a Unity Sector battleship.

Xiao Xiao entered space, intending to contact his designated contact person.

However, he had lost his long-range comms and Silver Link, rendering him helpless.

He resorted to a desperate measure: ejecting a cargo container into space and using a short-range launcher to fire it, causing the container to explode in a flare of sparks, like a signal flare in the void.

The route he chose was the same as Ziye's.

The Interstellar Federation fleet spotted the flare and immediately reported it to Bai Lanxue.

Bai Lanxue was currently in a tense standoff with Tang Wen.

Tang Wen’s stance was aggressively firm, and Bai Lanxue wasn't confident she could defeat him.

The fallout from a large-scale fleet engagement would inevitably result in crippling mutual destruction.

Losing a single frigate meant a direct loss of tens of millions, not to mention the battleships.

The hulls were never the most expensive part; the fittings and equipment always were.

The few fleets under her command were top-tier, second only to Commander Karu’s S-Team in the Interstellar Federation, and she had spent a fortune cultivating them; she was loath to use them like this.

However, Tang Wen was pressing her relentlessly, and she refused to simply retreat.

The signal flare conveniently broke the deadlock.

Without a second thought, she turned her fleet and sped towards the flare's location.

Tang Wen saw she wasn't pursuing Ziye's original trajectory and didn't stop her.

It wasn't time to move against Bai Lanxue yet.

He turned back and stated, "We can close the net on the Donada side." All his fleets then set course back to the Tang Clan.

Bai Lanxue meticulously recorded Tang Wen's movements.

Once his signature disappeared from the system's detection range, she finally let out a sigh of relief and casually ordered someone to investigate the nature of the signal flare.

The operative worked with extreme efficiency and soon reported back: "It's an intelligence operative from the Intelligence Bureau, escaped from the Unity Sector.

What should we do?" Bai Lanxue raised an eyebrow, a hint of amusement in her eyes. "The Unity Sector? Bring him to me." Shortly after, Xiao Xiao was brought aboard Bai Lanxue's command ship.

The moment Xiao Xiao saw Bai Lanxue, his already pale face drained completely, and his body trembled uncontrollably, like a dead leaf in the autumn wind.

Bai Lanxue found it strange and snorted, "Raise your head." Xiao Xiao forced himself to look up.

Bai Lanxue smiled then. "So it's you." Xiao Xiao knew escape was impossible.

He closed his eyes and pleaded, "Just kill me!" Bai Lanxue smiled sweetly. "Don't be like that.

I sent you to Silver Crest back then just to gauge the bottom line of those Silver Crest fellows.

Aren't you alive and well now?" —Others didn't know the truth of Silver Crest; she did.

She possessed a complete list of every prisoner exiled to Silver Crest.

Many years ago, she had planned to use that group of exiles, "sending" numerous intelligence operatives to probe their limits sequentially.

Those operatives had unfortunately all disappeared, leaving only Xiao Xiao alive.

When Xiao Xiao reappeared, he hadn't contacted his previous contacts.

If not for that incident at the Sprout Group, Bai Lanxue wouldn't have even known he was out.

After his return, she had people assign him menial work casually, while simultaneously trying to probe the secrets of Silver Crest.

Since he returned without reporting in, he was already harboring ill intentions; if he couldn't uncover anything useful, killing him would be the simplest solution.

-RS