After a series of jumps, the fleet finally arrived safely at the Void Serenity Zone. Once it was confirmed that there were no material worlds within a jump’s distance, Sandora transported from the flagship of the Third Legion to the bridge of the Imperial Admiral to join us. With her were Lin Xue and Big Sister. No wonder the timing and location of the reinforcements’ entry were so perfect; it turns out Miss Lin came along too.

An intense battle had finally ended. The Fallen Apostles’ inevitable ambush was painstakingly thwarted by the Imperial Fleet, and everyone couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, even the carefree Qianqian showed a terrified expression. As soon as Big Sister appeared, she dragged me aside, checking me over several times before patting her chest in relief, "You scared Big Sister to death. I’m glad you’re okay..."

"It’s alright," I said with a slightly weary smile. Although I wasn’t hurt, in the later stages of the battle, with the Gravity Trap Generators collapsing one after another, I had to envelop the entire fleet with the Void Domain for several hours and precisely deal with the enemies within. It was quite exhausting. But to avoid worrying Big Sister, I decided not to mention it, "Those two little madmen are the real concern, check out their condition."

As I spoke, my gaze fell on the seating area not far away. Pandora and Visca, the sister duo, were resting side by side on a wide chair, looking utterly disheveled and covered in black ash. The seams of their light armor were continuously sparking, and it was a wonder their armor hadn’t been completely ruined yet. The sisters were both drooping, their components severely overloaded, and their energy furnaces running low, finally quieting the two little madmen. Steam was even rising from their heads, and Xiao Xue, in a mischievous act, was roasting bread over Pandora’s head with impressive efficiency. Noticing mine and Big Sister’s gaze, Visca immediately turned her head, opened her mouth, and gave us a silly smile—blowing out a sooty smoke ring in the process.

Probably towards the end of the battle, there was chaos as helium flashes flew everywhere. The cat-eyed loli couldn’t speak; she raised a sign in her hand with big letters: "Brother, fought happily!"

I guess the only ones with a cheerful mood on the scene were those two war fanatics.

The Tiaozi Five and Dingdang were resting on the other side. Though not part of the Imperial people, they were exceptionally active in the battle just now, making me wonder if, after long-term freeloading, these guys had almost forgotten their own nationality. Yelsen’s glamorous golden armor appeared ripped and torn for the first time; due to his audacious provocation against heavy fire, he was almost taken down by the concentrated fire of the Fallen Apostle’s fleet. Now, he looked like a tribal prince escaping from East Africa, waiting for his armor to auto-repair while using Holy Light to heal Monina’s wounds. As for Dingdang, the team’s original nanny, she had already been nearly spent in the previous battle and was now lying sprawled on the armrest of the chair like a sun-dazed Big Dragonfly, lacking her usual lively energy, even her wings looked crumpled. Uncle Kenser seemed to be in decent shape, busy attracting Lin’s attention with dolls and other little trinkets. The Dragon God Girl had a Jumping Warhead slammed right in her face in the battle’s later stages, causing one of the heads in her Two-headed Dragon form to instantly faint. She’s now in a brain-dead state. Bingdisi was probably the only one among the Divine Clan Tiaozi without any troubles. Being an Advanced Divine Race, she isn’t easily drained in such a fight. Now that female hooligan was tangled with Sandora, apparently bragging about her heroic performance during the battle, while Sandora looked helpless and overwhelmed, continuously casting her gaze towards me, seemingly looking for a chance to escape the current trouble.

The command hall below was still bustling. Now that the ship’s mainframe alerts and damage control department calls were gone, it seemed much quieter. Those Imperial officers were busy assessing battle damage, organizing intelligence gathered during the engagement, and commanding the restoration of damaged areas aboard the Imperial Admiral. Even though the battle was over, many tasks wouldn’t be quickly completed.

"Preliminary battle statistics are out," Sandora finally seemed to have escaped Bingdisi’s entanglement, quickly coming to my side with a data terminal in hand, "Check it yourself; let’s just say we’ve been somewhat fortunate."

I quickly scanned through the statistics, which depicted the best possible outcome after the fleet encountered a large-scale ambush: The enemy was evidently well-prepared and deployed a considerable number of mixed fleets. As soon as the Imperial Fleet entered the material world, it faced a fierce attack and various targeted assaults, for instance, the War Song faced the Assault Fleet and the harassment forces used to divert Revenge Army’s firepower. Consequently, half the Imperial Fleet’s warships nearly lost combat ability in the final phase, and one-third were completely scrapped—if not for the Xyrin Apostles’ soul upload technology, the losses from this battle could have been described as severe. However, thanks to the Prophet’s role, the Imperial Fleet maximally defended against the most dangerous attacks and summoned reinforcements at a speed the enemy did not anticipate. Additionally, the Tiaozi Five’s active engagement and the Revenge Army T2 warships’ peculiar combat prowess were certainly beyond the Fallen Apostles’ expectation, so the enemy, in achieving significant results, also suffered nearly equivalent losses. It can be said that due to the Prophet + elite combo, the Imperial Fleet roughly offset the enemy’s ambush advantage in this battle. However, this offset was ultimately temporary and localized; as the battle progressed, the Imperial Fleet’s power continued to weaken while the enemy’s reinforcements kept following up, escalating our losses. Fortunately, Father God’s timely intervention was likely the key to turning the tide. Given the vast numerical disparity and blocked retreat routes, the Imperial Fleet initially faced possible total defeat, but Father God surprisingly went straight and crushed the Void Interferer heavily protected by the Fallen Apostles... That thing was undoubtedly a kind of strategic facility, crucial for ensuring the ambush went smoothly, yet Father God found and crushed it in less than a minute. I can only say Cynthia’s ultimate move is indeed impressive.

Father God’s stunning intervention achieved far greater results than if he had come out to help us fight the spaceship. The Fallen Apostles’ ambush was thus shattered, turning into a conventional encounter battle, and after Sandora’s reinforcements arrived, they finally chose to retreat.

"What a huge loss..." I smiled wryly, shaking my head, "The enemy also lost quite a few, so that’s probably the only good news."

"Honestly, it’s already a thousand times better than expected," Sandora exhaled, "Originally, it was possible that we’d suffer a complete rout, you know. Now it’s turned into a stalemate, and with such results, I couldn’t ask for more. Moreover, the most important thing is that we gathered a lot of intelligence: actual combat data on the Fallen Apostles. This is extremely valuable as it’s the first time the enemy engaged with the Imperial Army at such intensity, revealing their main forces more than ever before. Their combat methods, combat strength, and troop composition are now clear, and more importantly," Sandora’s lips curled upwards at this point, "they exposed two well-hidden troop types: the Space Twins and the Armored Scorpion. These troops had never been used before, almost ignored by us. It now seems they indeed retained much of the Old Empire’s data. Ignoring the Armored Scorpion for a moment, once the existence of the Space Twins is exposed, their strategic significance drops several levels. I think you know why."

Sandora’s insights cleared my mind, and just then, the isolation gate at the rear of the officer platform suddenly opened. A sharp metallic scraping sound came from behind the door. A tall figure covered with the smell of gunpowder appeared before us—it was Scorpion Sister, Vega, returning from the scientific research ship.

"Vega, you should go rest first—look at your injuries." I frowned. Scorpion Sister didn’t look good right now; her mechanical scorpion parts were sparking with bright flames, indicating considerable mechanical damage. Her upper human body had several severe wounds not covered by that scanty piece of light armor, showing eerie blue flashes from scars inflicted by the enemy scorpions. Her brown long hair hung messily over her shoulders, dust, and even solidified molten metal stained her face. Vega looked as though she’d just fought her way out of hell. Although it’s not appropriate to say this in such a situation, seeing a woman appear so battered was genuinely uncomfortable for me—especially since she’s still loyally saluting with all her injuries.

"These wounds can be ignored, the Armored Scorpion’s defense and life force are super strong," Vega said, seemingly indifferent, moving her arm, the blue-glowing wounds devoid of blood, indicating Armored Scorpions also lack blood, "I’m here to report something. The scientists on the research ship said that those two Space Twins took quite a few things before fleeing."

"Took things," I frowned, sensing something amiss, "What things?"

"A bit of everything," Vega’s coarse nature was completely exposed, seemingly unaware of how valuable laboratory items truly are. "The enemy probably intended to steal data initially, but after a group of Black Scorpions rushed in, an engineer who didn’t evacuate in time blew up the lab’s main console, so they started grabbing samples and other equipment. Basically, anything removable from the experiment module was taken away by those two lightning-fast individuals..."

"Including samples of EN-166..." I suddenly realized, gritting my teeth, "Those bastards!"

"EN-166?" Sandora looked at me in confusion, "What is it?"

"The first sample retrieved by the Old Empire from the other side thousands of years ago, the predecessor of the Black Shuttle," I quickly briefed on EN-166, "So it seems the real goal of the Fallen Apostles was that?! They paid such a huge price just to seize some sand?"

"Paying such a huge price wasn’t part of their plan," Sandora thought for a moment, "Also, I don’t think they knew about EN-166. Based on Vega’s report, the Space Twins took everything from the experiment module—except what couldn’t be moved from the whole ship—so the enemy probably wasn’t sure what they could find."

"But they are certain that the Imperial Fleet must have discovered something crucial within the remnants of that world," Big Sister suddenly spoke up, "so they organized this ambush. Was their original goal to seize the sample?"

"If that’s the case, I can only say they have a glory-seeking commander," Sandora’s lips curled up again, "If they just wanted to seize the sample, they didn’t need to escalate to such a battle. It seems they wanted to wipe out the entire Imperial Fleet, yet they ended up with casualties almost as high as those they ambushed."

"In any case, we were badly tricked this time," I felt very displeased, "Fleet losses, sample seized, and compared to these losses, even eliminating a Fallen Apostle legion is hard to make up for... tch."

"The sample taken away is only a part," Xiao Xue swayed over and reminded from the side, "Before the scientific research ship was ambushed, the sample had already been divided into several parts and transferred to other ships."

Reminded by Xiao Xue, I recalled that I had indeed issued such an order at the time. I didn’t expect that a hasty command would prove so useful. So most of the EN-166 samples were preserved, but...

Some things I originally planned to keep for ourselves ultimately fell into the hands of the Fallen Apostles.

I shook my head, trying hard to calm my thoughts again. The exhaustion from the previous battle had made my spirit unstable, and now thoughts were constantly restless. In terms of fleet loss, this battle was almost a mutual exchange, and the Imperial Army was at a certain disadvantage. From the intelligence perspective, we collected a lot of battle data on the Fallen Apostles but also leaked EN-166, with part of the sample even in enemy hands... Personally, I desperately want to charge into the Abyss Empire and take down the Fallen Emperor who organized the ambush, but rationally, I have only one choice—

"Withdraw the troops and return, repair what needs repairing, and prepare for battle where needed, and—expand the R&D department proportion; now that the Fallen Apostles have the same sample as us, we must stay ahead of them."

Sandora looked at me silently and suddenly gave a faint smile: "You’ve really grown up now."

"Have I?" I was surprised, feeling I’d just stated the obvious: given the current situation, the only choice was to strengthen the Empire’s influence and suppress the Fallen Apostles’ development, aside from rashly heading back with the fleet for revenge... likely ending up returning defeated.

"It’s not enough yet, but it’s very good," Sandora said quietly, "We must not only be ready for war and accelerate R&D projects; we also need to consider future changes in the situation. Today’s encounter was the largest battle during the standoff, and you probably understand what that means. In the future, the Fallen Apostles might carry out more and larger military actions. The Sixth Legion’s harassment at the border isn’t very effective anymore, and judging by this ambush, the enemy may have increased their border surveillance, putting all Imperial Army activities around here under watch, so we should withdraw the Sixth Legion, leaving only the existing Abyssalized fleet for monitoring. Troops in the Imperial border world should be increased, along with additional military World Gates to counter large-scale attacks at any time. The Mysterious Side data restoration is over halfway, and factories at all levels have started production. Priority should be given to adding Mystical units and equipment, with accelerated training for the First and Sixth Legions. Father God’s involvement means the Divine Race has formally declared war on the Fallen Apostles, which may make the latter very wary and restrained in their military actions, but they know that most of the Divine Race’s strength is engaged in expeditions now, so their restraint is limited, and over time they might take desperate actions. These are issues that need consideration."

I breathed a sigh of relief, feeling my greatest fortune was having Sandora by my side.

And... many others.

Scanning the officer platform, I started looking for Lin Xue and Xiao Xue. Today’s crisis passed with a stroke of luck, thanks largely to the military prophet—Chen Xiaoxue. Although she’s a mischievous kid, I thought she deserved praise. But then I saw this mother-daughter pair in a corner, with Miss Lin seemingly scolding her daughter. Xiao Xue stood with her head down, remaining silent like a scolded child, while Miss Lin was imposing opposite her—what happened?

I quickly walked over, and Miss Lin immediately turned her head sensing me: "Wood."

"Uh, what’s the matter? Did Xiao Xue make a mistake?"

"As a military prophet, leading the fleet into the enemy’s trap and issuing a warning just five minutes before it sprang—isn’t that a grave mistake?" Miss Lin looked exasperated, "I should have told her long ago that if a military prophet goes into battle, they must keep their foreknowledge ability active throughout. Passive predictions can’t react in time in many cases! If she were half as capable as me, this wouldn’t have happened!"

"But I really only have half of mom’s ability..." Xiao Xue grumbled quietly, "And you never said before that a military prophet should always keep their ability on when I was little, so this is the first time I’ve heard it... isn’t that just exhausting me to death..."

"Behave properly!" Miss Lin roared with a He Dong Lion’s shout, and Xiao Xue quickly lowered her head again: this fearless kid still has some respect towards her parents. "Should have known this kid is unreliable. If I had checked more before departure..."

Hearing this, I understood—Miss Lin was actually blaming herself, as she didn’t consider everything in detail, leading to the fleet’s ambush. With Miss Lin’s strong personality, I should have expected such feelings. But... unfortunately for Xiao Xue, the unlucky kid bore the brunt.

Thinking this, Xiao Xue suddenly winked at me, saying through our spiritual connection: "Dad, just go about your business. I know what’s up with mom, she’ll be fine in a bit."

I: "..." This child! (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you’re welcome to recommend or vote for it on Qidian.com. Your support is my biggest motivation.)