The landing craft Yu Lian was on was not the first assault ship to complete boarding, nor was it even the first landing craft to smash through the enemy ship's armor, but it was the one that landed closest to the bridge.

It was predictable that this would also be a key defensive point for the Kaitai.

When the assault passage opened, several assault team members surged towards the exit. The first soldier had just rushed to the passage entrance when he was hit by a fierce hail of bullets. The Hussar's space-use external power skeleton was naturally bulletproof, but there was a limit to it, and it could not withstand concentrated fire for long.

After advancing a few steps, this brave assault team member finally fell.

The second soldier advanced a few more steps, ran to the center of the passage, and threw two high-explosive grenades at the enemies inside. The deafening explosion instantly eliminated an unknown number of enemies. However, he himself was also ignited by the plasma cannon shells fired by the enemy, and was instantly blown to smithereens.

But the third person to rush into the passage was Major Nani—this spiritual energy user, who was a “Vanguard” of the Three Rings and drove an Emblem Machine. He ran quickly, raising an alloy shield as large as a door panel. A transparent light curtain quickly spread out along the edge of the shield, forming a brilliant energy wall of light waves, almost covering the entire passage.

The Kaitai on the opposite side seemed to have discovered something, letting out hysterical screams and firing frantically.

However, neither bullets nor cannon shells could penetrate this moving wall formed by spiritual energy. They hit the light curtain, losing their kinetic energy and deforming as they fell to the ground.

“I’m so handsome! Oh ho ho ho!” Major Nani laughed in the communication channel, continuing to charge with his shield raised. His silver-white armor seemed to be smeared with a touch of fiery crimson, and every step he took on the ground seemed to be stepping into a sea of blood.

He alone blocked all of the enemy's firepower and was still advancing step by step.

Although both had been promoted from “Guardian,” Major Nani’s seasoned “Two Rings” was far more impressive than Kaz Khan’s novice, just based on this one move. This was the fundamental difference brought about by their experience, training, and weapons!

“Charge! Charge! Charge!” Colonel Chaimen Daisuke roared like a charging prehistoric T-Rex, following closely behind Major Nani.

His body also glowed with a bloody light, and faint triangular halos of spiritual energy arrays shimmered beneath his feet.

Invisible spiritual energy transformed into a profound power, flowing into the bodies of all the warriors around him.

That was “Blood Road.” It was a combat skill that a “Vanguard” of the Three Rings was bound to unlock, a type of domain spiritual energy. When an Awakened One unleashed it with their body as the core, it would grant all allies within a range of ten to one hundred meters around them an indomitable courage and fighting spirit, while also strengthening their strength, physique, and focus… If the allies were already wearing power exoskeletons that enhanced themselves, it would be equivalent to a second enhancement.

Although it sounded a bit unscientific, spiritual energy was just such an unscientific thing.

Sure enough, under the red aura, it wasn't just Major Nani who turned into a beast; a large group of assault team members wearing exoskeletons also began to roar. Although they all wore helmets and their faces couldn't be seen, Yu Lian always felt as if sparks were shooting from their nostrils.

“Trample our enemies!” Colonel Chaimen roared again.

“Trample them!” This time, the assault team members seemed to be spitting fire even from their helmet visors, like bulls that had taken drugs and seen a red cloth. Under the cover of Major Nani’s spiritual energy shield, they began their desperate charge.

Although there was a shield like a mobile fortress, stray bullets still pierced through the gaps in the halo, taking the life of some assault team member. However, they were completely oblivious, their minds now only focused on moving forward and completely defeating the enemy. After sacrificing seven or eight lives, they finally surged out of the passage, turning the charge into a brutal close-quarters battle.

Amidst the splashing blood and roars, the clash of steel and flesh, the Kaitai, a warrior race, retreated steadily. This was naturally thanks to the two most dazzling figures on the battlefield—those two Emblem Machines and their operators.

At this point, Colonel Chaimen and Major Nani had discarded their ugly and cumbersome space gliding attachments, revealing the magnificent armor exclusive to spiritual energy users.

They leaped into the formation of Kaitai soldiers, sweeping away all resistance wherever they went.

Colonel Chaimen’s horse-slaying spear was wielded with light, quick, and powerful thrusts, like thunder, and cunning like a venomous snake. Every movement always brought with it a mass of flesh and limb fragments.

Major Nani’s movements were even more brutal; with shield bashes and axe chops, even armored Kaitai couldn't last a single round, let alone the unarmored ones—they would instantly turn into a bloody, furry pancake.

The average individual combat power of humans was certainly no match for the Kaitai, but with power armor, this gap was completely nullified, and with the spiritual energy user's boost, there was an even qualitative difference.

Just three minutes after the fierce battle began, the fighting was already nearing its end. The defending Kaitai left behind four times the number of corpses as the attackers. Even a battle race renowned throughout the galaxy could not withstand such losses and gradually began to falter.

“It seems I won’t need to make an appearance… Also, did you guys get your paths wrong? Why is your fighting style completely opposite?” Yu Lian thought, following behind Colonel Chaimen.

According to prior instructions, he had been following behind Chaimen and Nani, using spiritual energy to assist both of them and the entire unit.

As a “Monk” of the First Ring, aside from the basic abilities that sensitive individuals could use, such as spiritual energy impact, materialized will, spiritual energy hand, and spiritual energy telekinesis, he currently had three spiritual energy combat skills fully mastered: “Dance of Steel,” “Field Blink,” and “Spiritual Energy Pulse.”

“Environmental Resonance,” which he used to detonate the pills in the Enlightener Ruins in New Yumen, was an overleveled spell, and the price he paid was being in a state of exhaustion for twelve hours. Of course, that wasn't counted.

Such similar situations will not be included in the future.

It's clear from the names, isn't it? “Dance of Steel” is a skill for Driving weapons; “Field Blink” is a spiritual energy evasion and charge skill that complements footwork; “Spiritual Energy Pulse” is, in essence, an enhanced version of “Spiritual Energy Impact.”

See? One for each martial art. So balanced, so well-rounded, so much like a protagonist, right?

But no matter what, when temporarily partnered with those two pure martial artists, Yu Lian’s Spiritual Energy Pulse was the most potent long-range combat skill in the squad.

He thought for a moment, then condensed the Spiritual Energy Pulse into a blade-like wave, and with a push of his hand, it pierced through the crowd, blowing the head of a Kaitai officer thirty meters away into pieces. Spiritual Energy Impact couldn't be that precise; it could only be released in waves, and one wrong move could send both allies and enemies flying.

That was a major, who should have been the Commander of this defending unit. With his demise, the Kaitai finally couldn't hold on and began to flee.

The first phase of the assault team’s boarding operation was victorious.

“Victory! Woo-gah!” Major Nani raised his axe and cheered, drawing a chorus of agreement from a large group of people. At first glance, it looked like a group of Stone Age barbarians who had just hunted a gigantic beast.

“How lucky! If there were a few spiritual energy users defending here, we would have been in trouble,” Colonel Chaimen said, feeling somewhat relieved.

No, if a large group of combat robots that would self-destruct if they couldn’t win were defending here, then you would truly be miserable. However, from the Empire to the Alliance, it seems that they don’t have much faith in the combat effectiveness of military robots, and their popularity is not very high. Consequently, the automation on space warships is not as complete as imagined, preferring to cram sixty to seventy thousand people onto a single ship.

However, decades later, indeed, a large number of various types of combat robots joined the battlefield. This was probably because the scale of the war was growing larger and larger, and the bigwigs finally realized that leeks still needed some time to mature and couldn't be casually used as cannon fodder.

While pondering this problem that existed in his previous life, Yu Lian explained, “We now have at least seven or eight successful landing points, but how many spiritual energy users are on this ship? Since it’s impossible to defend every single place, they can naturally only defend the bridge. This is the principle that there are only a thousand days to be a thief, but not a thousand days to guard against a thief.”

Colonel Chaimen felt that Yu Lian’s words made a lot of sense, but he also felt it was a bit strange for everyone to be compared to thieves.

Everyone rested in place for a bit, and some soldiers who had charged too fiercely even injected themselves with stimulants. Yu Lian saw this scene, opened his mouth to say something, but then realized it wasn't the right time, and could only sigh silently.

The teams advanced towards the bridge according to the planned route. Along the way, they also destroyed two central control consoles for close-in weapons, silenced at least ten or more turbo laser close-in defense groups, took out a shield generator, and routed a hundred-person unit that came to intercept them. Finally, they rendezvoused with Lieutenant Colonel McMillan’s unit near the designated rallying point, and then, in a pincer movement, annihilated another hundred-person security team.

By this time, more than half an hour had passed since they had breached the Steel Crown Prince. Colonel Chaimen saw that nearly two hundred warriors had gathered around him, then looked at Yu Lian, and seeing the latter nod in agreement, he made up his mind and sternly said, “Then, all troops, charge! Charge! Charge! Ignore all other targets! Our comrades are already supporting us! We must make good use of the opportunity they are creating for us with their lives!”

He actually hadn't made contact with Colonel Rezlov, but he fully trusted his comrades.

And indeed, that was the case.

Yu Lian only found out afterwards. At this point, the assault ship Colonel Rezlov was on had already been sunk, and he was the highest-ranking officer of the Outer Rim fleet to be sacrificed in this battle. However, Lieutenant Colonel Price still led a considerable number of assault team members into the enemy ship, heading directly towards the Steel Crown Prince’s energy core, and indeed attracted a significant amount of enemy attention.

“I only want the enemy’s bridge! The enemy ship’s main command center! Advance! Advance!” Colonel Chaimen loudly encouraged everyone. The “Blood Road” beneath his feet had already transformed into “Eagle Strike,” which was also one of the spiritual energy domain combat skills. Its effect was to enhance the surrounding comrades’ mobility, agility, and perception, perfectly suited for charging while firing.

Today is another handsome beast update.

Also, it seems it couldn't be salvaged, so I'll just have to put it on shelves on June 1st, which is Monday.

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