Hessen clasped his palms together and rubbed them. When he opened his hands, he was already holding a battle saber formed from flames and a long whip gathered from lightning. A nearly transparent halo flowed over his body, quickly forming a layer of bluish-black with a metallic luster on his scales.

This was a rather miraculous and extraordinary scene. If it were peacetime, if the Great Elder showed off like this, the ordinary Sand People would have long since started kneeling in pilgrimage. Even those ill-intentioned lord chiefs could only put away their envy, jealousy, and hatred, and respectfully bow and flatter him. But at this moment, the Sand People, who had completely lost the will to fight, couldn't distinguish whether the flames and lightning in front of them were enemy fire or something the Great Elder had conjured. They only knew to let their survival instincts drive their bodies.

This time, Great Elder Hessen did not try to stop the routed soldiers again. He simply took a step forward and lashed out his lightning whip at the mobile armored soldiers approaching him.

It was already the Space Age, so regular ground combat power armor certainly wouldn't lack anti-electric devices. However, lightning formed by spiritual energy was not naturally occurring lightning. It was truly the rare kind of power that could cause systematic damage to most man-made protective devices.

Great Elder Hessen was also very confident in his power. When he had just activated his third Star Ring, he had once used lightning with all his might to pull down a heavy airship—that was not a transport ship used by Earth's Guard , but a proper low-altitude heavy fire support gunboat weighing hundreds of tons and carrying an arsenal capable of leveling an entire city of a million people—so piercing a mobile infantry's mecha was naturally not a problem.

The lightning whip swept across the low sky, drawing a fierce, claw-like trajectory, but a light screen suddenly unfolded, intercepting the lightning whip. All that was heard was a series of jarring crackles. The light screen dissipated directly, but the lightning was also deflected, striking the ground.

Hessen felt as if he almost lost his Balance and managed to steady himself with great difficulty, only to hear an angry shout from his side: "Don't interfere, he's mine!"

The Great Elder felt his dignity as a Three Rings Awakened being trampled upon and was about to erupt in rage, but then he heard another voice from the opposite side: "Right, right, it's all his. We'll just finish him off after he's beaten to death!"

Then a string of Alliance language curses he didn't understand erupted beside him, and along with his curses, a suddenly glowing blue light beam appeared.

"Lightsaber!" A chill ran down the Great Elder's spine, and he felt as if his entire body had been zapped by lightning, every scale seemingly paralyzed. He instinctively brought his right-hand flame blade across to block the light beam stabbing towards his side.

The moment the light beam touched the blazing flames, an ethereal blue and fiery red merged into one, and the distortion of light and energy at their intersection formed a dazzling ball of light, its original form already indistinguishable. A dull, suppressed "buzzing" sound emanated, as if the buzzing of a mosquito had been magnified dozens of times.

This was a Lightsaber, a weapon crafted with bellen crystal, one of the rare Zero Element, also commonly known as concentrated energy crystal, as its core. The user's spiritual energy excites the concentrated energy crystal to form high-temperature plasma, which is then condensed into an energy beam by a magnetic field formed by mechanical devices.

This plasma light beam, like a blade, possessed the characteristics of being both indestructible and capable of destroying anything. The condensed energy beam, infused with spiritual energy, could cut and even melt the strongest alloy armor, and naturally, it could also neutralize and destroy energy shields. Similarly, since the Lightsaber blade had the attribute of spiritual energy, it could also resist and even suppress spiritual energy spells.

And so, the flame slash, which could easily tear apart the armor of a tank or even a destroyer, was thus stopped in mid-air. The blazing light cluster suddenly raised the surrounding temperature by several degrees, and similarly, it also made the Great Elder's scales feel hot. However, his heart was growing cold.

He truly hadn't expected to encounter an opponent with a Lightsaber here.

One must know that this was originally developed by the Alliance, an exclusive equipment assigned to Guerrillas and Extraordinary Administration Bureau executives, so it was naturally quite precious—although quite a few have flowed out through various channels in recent years, thus becoming one of the reasons for the Empire to mock the Alliance's "egalitarian commoners." However, pot calling the kettle black, the Star Realm Knight Order's Atomic Light Spear can actually be found quite often on the black market.

Why isn't it mine? Such an elegant, cold, and powerful weapon, how perfectly suited it would be for me! The Great Elder wanted to be jealous, but he didn't even have time for such emotions now, because the opponent's sword had already lightly pushed aside the flames and was stabbing towards his side.

Hessen quickly formed a metallic plating of spiritual energy over his body, while also stepping back with the wind, finally avoiding the fatal blow. But he was still grazed by the scorching blade, feeling as if his waist had been dragged by hot tongs, and his scales were turning black.

Hessen was truly enraged. He spread his arms, and the flame blade and lightning whip in his hands disappeared directly, transforming instead into a storm of wind blades centered on himself.

The chaotic gale turned the ten-meter radius around him into a death zone, with rocks and sand being sucked into it, even making the storm appear darker.

Within the storm, several buzzing tremors of field vibration occurred, and then a phantom figure was thrown out. His figure went from ethereal to solid, then landed clumsily on his backside on the ground.

He was naturally Ash Stein, who graduated from the Guerrilla training camp but ultimately did not pursue that glorious and righteous profession, thus only becoming a freelance mercenary. He is now participating in this Tulon battle, having been summoned (or rather, threatened) by a certain Commonwealth officer.

If his current situation were known to his classmates from the training camp, he would surely be considered the "shame of the (prospective) Guerrillas."

This "shame of the Guerrillas" rubbed his backside, and then, with lingering fear, looked at his windbreaker, which had been cut with a dozen large gashes. With a fierce resolve, he tore off the completely ruined coat and threw it on the ground, revealing his dark inner armor.

The inner armor already had shocking scratches, dents, and cuts. If it had gone a little deeper, it would have directly harmed his body.

Ash showed a pained expression, as if his newly acquired limited edition collectible had been dismantled like building blocks by a mischievous child visiting from a relative's house.

Yu Lian knew that this was an Alliance-made Iron Rock defensive vest, capable of resisting punctures, bullets, impacts, and energy. Although it couldn't provide power to the wearer, its defensive capabilities were truly excellent, even more resistant than the alloy armor of most power skeletons, and it was light, close-fitting, and easy to conceal. Last year, it was even selected as one of the Milky Way's Top Ten Star Armors by "Freelancer" magazine.

Ash was not someone from a prominent official force, so getting this item must have taken quite some effort.

The freelance mercenary looked at the torn pieces of his coat on the ground and let out a mournful cry that would make one sad to hear and weep to see: "What a tragedy! This is a Malunsa windbreaker! The same model as the male lead's Aslon in 'Wings of Retribution'! I finally got it when they had a promotion, and it cost me 2000 letter star!"

So, you're sad about this?

"How about it, do we still not need to intervene?" Yu Lian asked with a smile.

The mercenary wiped away his tears and said through gritted teeth: "Go, go for it! This guy can condense spiritual energy into natural attributes, he's either a fanatic or a believer. Although his rings are indeed higher than ours, he's exactly my type! You assist, and I'll lead the attack! But, the others shouldn't move."

Yu Lian nodded, holding his chainsword, and slowly approached the storm from another direction.

He knew that, as Ash said, Hessen had activated the Rainbow-colored "Driving" Star Ring, and its first ring was called "Fanatic." As the name suggests, these Awakened fervently pursued the most direct and clear manifestation of spiritual energy's power, dedicating all their mental faculties to shaping the attributes of spiritual energy, somewhat similar to the mages in fantasy worldviews.

And in fact, his current third ring, the title of which is precisely "Wizard."

The culmination of this Star Ring path is called "Sky Mentor"—yes, that's the realm Yu Lian wanted to pursue before. How about it, doesn't it sound like a title perfectly befitting an invincible mage?

Of course, as we all know, mages, especially those in training, are often good at dealing with small soldiers but weak against bosses. Hessen is a "Wizard"; he might have already mastered abilities within the deflection shield. If ordinary soldiers shoot at him from this distance, even if they could really kill him, who knows how many would die from the deflected bullets.

spiritual energy users can only be dealt with by spiritual energy users! Although Yu Lian scoffed at this statement, it really was the common perception of most people. At least, in the current situation, it really could only be the two of them.

"According to the 'Spiritual Energy and Zero Element Transformation Principle' and the 'Awakened Watch Covenant,' the fewer people who participate, the less loot there is to divide! So, just the two of us will do!"

At this point, Stein's cheeks were twitching, and he squinted at Yu Lian, looking as if to say, "I've compromised a lot already, don't push your luck."

So that's why!

The so-called "Spiritual Energy and Zero Element Transformation Principle" states that the bodies of deceased Awakened always produce rare Zero Element. Thus, scholars proposed the "Spiritual Energy and Zero Element Conservation Law," but because the scale of measurement at the galactic or even cosmic level is simply too vast to calculate or statistically analyze, the theory remained just a theory.

As for the "Awakened Watch Covenant," it is an international convention initiated by the "spiritual energy user Mutual Aid Organization"—the Virtual Spirit Temple—which transcends the major polities of the Milky Way and was promoted by the Galactic Civilization Council. Its main idea is that Awakened are the pillars of civilized society, the elites of intelligent beings, and so on. Although they inevitably have to fight each other due to unavoidable reality, they must receive due respect, and so on. Any individual or organization that kills an Awakened has the right to take the Zero Element produced from their remains, but they must never intentionally defile or damage the body, and moreover, they have an obligation to ensure the deceased is buried peacefully, with a tombstone and a funeral, etc.

...But the important part is the first half, not the second half. In short, according to this covenant, the fewer people who participate, the fewer people there are to loot the body, and naturally, the more each person gets in the end.

This was why Ash didn't want anyone else to intervene.

You'll die because of this sooner or later! It was like this in your previous life, and it's like this in this life too! Yu Lian couldn't help but roll his eyes, thinking that he should probably wait until Hessen had beaten this guy half to death before making his move.