Ziye had made every preparation for a welcoming reception; she had at least four or five robots attending her, ready to fulfill any request the Redhead might have within a minute.

The Redhead kicked off her stilettos and flopped onto the sofa with deep satisfaction, utterly unwilling to move.

That month spent at the Korai Hotel had been utterly inhumane.

Honestly, there was nothing more comfortable than being in one’s own space.

The Redhead pulled out a cigarette, placing it between her lips, and asked Ziye, "Mind if I smoke?"

Ziye shot her a sidelong glance. "Can I say I mind?"

The Redhead replied, "You absolutely cannot."

Ziye couldn't even be bothered to look contemptuous; she settled onto the sofa beside her, clutching her light-screen, still wrestling with her plans.

The Redhead drawled, "Why are you here?"

Ziye didn't lift her head. "I knew you would end up here."

The Redhead arched an eyebrow. "Why?"

Ziye explained, "Because this is the closest territory of the Wolf's Den to the Korai Hotel. You’ve been inside for a month, and you won't head straight back to the Den until the situation clarifies."

The Redhead, who had been about to light her cigarette, paused, tucked the unlit smoke away, and said, "I'll skip the smoke, just for that statement."

Ziye looked up at her. "That’s more like it."

The Redhead narrowed her eyes, preparing to drift off, but her peripheral vision caught sight of two bottles of Rose Jelly on the coffee table. Her sleepiness vanished instantly—jelly!

She stole a glance, then hatched a scheme. "Little Stink, fetch me a tissue, will you?"

Ziye, acknowledging the small favor of the retracted cigarette, bent down, rummaged under the coffee table for a box of tissues, and presented them to the Redhead.

The Redhead shrugged helplessly, then asked, "How long have you been here? Anything specific going on?"

Ziye sighed. "Didn't you say you were going to hold a warship exhibition? Brother Dog and the others are busy negotiating the merger with the Hope Legion. I can’t help there, so I figured I’d come out here where it's quieter."

There was actually another crucial reason: Tang Wen had said he would visit the Wolf's Den once the Korai Hotel lockdown was lifted. Firstly, Ziye wasn't sure how to face Tang Wen or deal with the revelation of his sister's identity. Secondly, she didn't want the Legion members to know yet. To facilitate this, after emptying An Junlie of more than thirty bottles of Rose Jelly, she had ruthlessly sent him back to the Angelic Domain.

The Redhead smiled and nodded. "That’s good news. Even though the fighting isn't as intense as before, localized turbulence will last a long time. You push hard on preparing the warship exhibition—one, to showcase the military capability of our Wolf's Den, and two, to rake in some war profits along the way."

Ziye: "..." Well, that was essentially what she had been thinking too.

The Redhead continued, "I made quite a bit of money recently by flipping warships and from salvage operations. I’ll transfer some to your account later."

Mentioning money instantly made Ziye’s eyes gleam.

In space, she felt she had accomplished quite a bit, but inexplicably, she could never hold onto money.

It was embarrassing; she was a founder of the Sprout Group, receiving significant dividends every year, yet she hadn't managed to save a single cent.

Ziye thought of the balance in her account, less than six figures—not even enough to buy metal—and brightened. "How much are you planning to transfer?"

The Redhead smiled enigmatically and held up one hand.

Ziye's eyes widened. "Five hundred million?"

The Redhead shook her head.

Ziye guessed again. "Five billion?"

The Redhead still shook her head.

Ziye felt the potential figure was now beyond what she dared to imagine. Patting her racing heart, she whispered, "Fifty billion?"

The Redhead looked at her with utter disdain. "Please, have some ambition! Who dares host a warship exhibition without at least five hundred billion?"

Ziye was instantly stunned speechless by the magnitude of the wealth. After a long moment, she wailed and scrambled over to hug the Redhead’s leg. "Sugar Mommy, take me in!"

The Redhead stuck out a leg. "Hurry up and prepare for the exhibition. There will be rewards if you do well."

With her biggest headache—funding—resolved, Ziye cheerfully ran to the balcony to boot up her light-screen, ready to work. As the screen activated, something struck her, and she turned back. "I will pay your money back, every—"

Before she finished speaking, she leaped up, dashed back into the living room, and snatched the Rose Jelly from the Redhead’s hand, clutching it to her chest. "This was left for me by aliens!"

The Redhead held her spoon and licked it pitifully. "I haven't eaten anything in so long. Spare me a bite?"

Ziye scoffed, turning her face away. "No deal!"

Seeing her plea fail, the Redhead immediately transformed into a fierce demoness. She sat up on the sofa and kicked out at Ziye’s shoulder. Ziye hastily took a step back, just as the Redhead grabbed the other bottle from the coffee table, put her hands on her hips, and burst into laughter. "Hahahaha! This bottle is mine, old girl! Don't you try to steal it!"

Ziye looked down at the Rose Jelly she was holding and saw a dark line spread across her face.

She had completely forgotten she had an unopened bottle and had ended up fighting over one the Redhead had already partially consumed...

She silently walked toward the wall to bang her head.

Ziye bumped against the wall twice, reflecting soberly on her pain, before returning to the balcony to study her warships.

Funding was settled; the next issue was manpower.

After the ceasefire in the Hopes Galaxy, she had given each of the ten youths a reward of 200,000 credits.

The youths were ecstatic. They pooled their money, used 1.5 million to buy various supplies, rented a cargo ship, and had Xiao Qing and Xiao Lü deliver it back to the Junk Star.

For the other eight, Ziye pulled strings with An Junlie to let them train in the Air Force Assembly Workshop, intending for them to become her assistants in two months.

Thus, Ziye remained a lone commander, and Xiao Douya hadn't recovered yet either.

Ziye poked her light-screen, adding the search for wormhole eruptions or void storms to her agenda.

However, before that, she first needed to find the person who designed the space station.

Five hundred billion was enough to acquire a five-star space station.

Her short-term goal: establish the Wolf's Den's space assembly workshop, turning it into the Legion's strategic base!

Ziye finalized the blueprint, then accessed the light-net to check the nearest weather forecasts, looking for any systems experiencing natural disasters. She figured Xiao Douya must be bored out of her mind by now.

Logging onto the light-net, Ziye was nearly blinded by the headlines.

Good heavens, the Redhead was on the front page—and it was positive news, too. Tsk, how rare.

She scanned the article. It discussed the lifting of the lockdown at the Korai Hotel.

The structure of the Korai Hotel was one of the most complex buildings in the galaxy, designed over three years by a Tang Clan architectural scientist fifty years ago. Every guest room and every viewing angle offered a different vista, achieving a realm of a new scene every three steps.

Furthermore, the hotel was riddled with mechanisms.

After the incident at Korai, various legions dispatched architectural scientists, mechanical designers, and mechanism researchers to study its structure, hoping to rescue the hundreds of people trapped inside.

However, they failed.

The Siji Family, the Fia Family, and the Interstellar Federation jointly demanded that Tang Wen send personnel to disarm the mechanisms. Yet, the architect was long dead, and the Tang Clan members had no knowledge of the hotel’s complexities, rendering them completely unhelpful.

Seeing that the Tang Clan couldn't assist, Ziye couldn't help but offer a wry smile.

Tang Wen was indeed the shrewdest of all shrews; he had decisively distanced the entire Tang Clan.

But this was for the best, as the Redhead’s "accidental discovery of the activation button, thereby opening the sealed metal plate" was making people go wild.

In just a few hours, the Redhead’s follower count had skyrocketed from tens of thousands to millions!

However, since the principal figure wasn't showing herself, no matter how skilled the paparazzi were, they couldn't sniff out the Redhead's location.

Consequently, every media outlet ended their reports with the same sentence: "The Wolf's Den Combat Director has yet to appear, possibly having already departed for the Wolf's Den Legion..."

Ziye glanced at the woman sleeping on the sofa armrest, completely unconcerned with appearances, her bare feet propped up. A smile touched Ziye’s lips. What a sight it would be if anyone else saw her sleeping like that.

Of course, Ziye had no intention of secretly photographing her while she slept. Instead, she decided to send a quick message to familiar contacts in the Wolf's Den to let them know not to worry, then quickly gathered herself and headed out.

It was more important to decide where the space station should be located.

The most ideal space station would, naturally, be linked to Korai.

But it couldn't be at Korai.

Korai was prohibitively expensive—an inch of space was an inch of gold; five hundred billion wouldn't make a ripple there. Moreover, she didn't need a high-traffic location for a military base.

Therefore, she considered the peripheral systems of Korai: the Cloud Rise System, the New Bridge System, the Kakala System, and the Itamu System.

The Itamu System belonged to the Fia Family, so it was out of the question.

The other three systems were only two warp jumps away from Korai, offering convenient transport. The Cloud Rise System was an established system with a mature market, currently hosting Mo Ke’s Air Force Assembly Workshop. The New Bridge System was a burgeoning system that had attracted many smaller legions to set up workshops after recent investment drives.

After a moment of thought, she opened the light-net to search for information on the Kakala System.

The Kakala System was under the jurisdiction of...

Ziye froze. It was under the jurisdiction of the Tang Clan.

Well, being under the Tang Clan was certainly better than being under any Siji Family branch.

The Tang Clan’s three Air Force Assembly Workshops were primarily located in the southeast; the distance wasn't too close, but not too far either. This location could leverage Korai's powerful market on one hand, while radiating out to the vast hinterlands on the other.

A spark ignited in Ziye’s mind—she suddenly realized where the Tang Clan’s headquarters must be: right next to Korai!

It was frustrating; she couldn't even pick an Air Force Assembly Workshop location without running into the Tang Clan. Was this fate?

Ziye looked at the star map, feeling slightly vexed, and closed it. Less than two minutes later, she reopened it. Among the systems near Korai, only the Kakala System seemed suitable.

The Tang Clan wasn't a predatory organization; what did she have to fear?

Ziye took several deep breaths and finally made her decision: she would select the Kakala System, specifically positioning the space station in the northwest, avoiding the location of the Tang Clan's Air Force Assembly Workshop. This would require three warp jumps to Korai, but Kakala was already the second-largest market after Korai, so she wasn't worried about raw material shortages.

Coincidentally, a five-star space station was currently under construction in the northwest of Kakala.

Ziye clenched her fist, sharpening her focus. If she could acquire this space station, the Wolf's Den's Air Force Assembly Workshop would be secured!

She packed her things and was just about to leave when her Ultra-Com buzzed.

She opened the message and couldn't help but twitch her eye. Did Tang Wen have mind-reading abilities?

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