"As you wish, but I should warn you—staying by my side is no good thing."

This was a war. No matter where Lin Ye stayed, that place would become the front line of the conflict.

"Understood."

Martha had already thought of a suitable candidate.

Lin Ye leaned back in the comfortable seat. A city that could be described as magnificent appeared at the end of the road. However, most of this city had been destroyed, with only a few buildings retaining their former glory.

"This is the Holy City. The vast majority of survivors are hiding underground here. Do you need me to call them up?"

Martha hadn't forgotten what Lin Ye had said earlier.

"No need. If there's something, I'll have you notify them. I need to spend some time establishing a base here in the Holy City. It's best if you all don't wander around randomly."

The sports car entered the Holy City and eventually stopped at its center. Lin Ye put away the Luxury Sports Car Card and began establishing a base within the Holy City.

The Holy City ruins contained many excellent spiritual energy materials. Lin Ye used these materials to lay the foundation for the entire base.

Parasitic Butterflies appeared throughout the Holy City. Utilizing the mental network, Lin Ye could perform various operations within the city without even needing to move.

Less than half an hour later, a combat squad composed of four high-level spiritual energy users openly entered the interior of the Holy City. They walked straight toward the city center. Clearly, they knew where Lin Ye was.

"I really shouldn't give you the chance to speak, because it's a waste of time. But as a normal person, directly attacking you isn't great either. So, you'd better not spout any meaningless nonsense."

Lin Ye sat calmly at the city center. Beneath him was a chair, surrounded by endless ruins.

"Are you refusing the Empire's conscription?"

The squad leader took out his credentials, demanding that Lin Ye accept the Empire's wartime conscription, as if the previous attack had nothing to do with the Empire at all.

"You want to conscript me? What kind of treatment can the Empire offer? Who are the Empire's enemies? What capacity would I be joining the war in?"

Lin Ye didn't outright refuse. Instead, he tried to gather information.

"You can only choose to agree or refuse the Empire's conscription. You have no right to ask questions."

The captain's tone was cold and hard. He didn't seem afraid of Lin Ye attacking them at all.

"Sigh, what a waste of time."

Lin Ye didn't know where their confidence came from. Few people dared to speak to him like this on his turf. Could it really be that they thought he wouldn't dare to touch the Empire's conscription personnel?

"Why aren't they moving?"

Xiao Mei was Martha's younger sister and also the driver candidate Martha had recommended to Lin Ye.

"Humans rely on consciousness to drive their bodies. When consciousness is affected to a certain degree, they lose control over their bodily actions."

Since the effect of the previous attack wasn't ideal, Lin Ye decided to use these enemies to practice information flow attacks.

Now, the entire Holy City was within the range of his mental network. Here, he could accomplish many things.

"Do you need me to get rid of them?"

Xiao Mei really disliked the Empire's conscription personnel.

"No need. I still have a use for them. Besides, I feel these people came here to achieve some purpose. Before figuring out their goal, it's better to let them stand here a while longer."

Lin Ye felt these people's behavior was somewhat strange.

The Empire should be well aware that he wouldn't accept conscription.

"Okay!"

Unlike the steady Martha, Xiao Mei was the type of very spirited young person.

Lin Ye continued establishing the base while occasionally observing the combat squad affected by the information flow. He wanted to understand the effects of information attacks at different intensities through them.

Another period of time passed. Suddenly, Lin Ye discovered that the combat squad had vanished into thin air.

Right within his perception range, inside his base, they disappeared without any warning, as if they had never existed.

'What is this? Some kind of magic trick?'

Lin Ye felt this phenomenon was likely related to the purpose of these people coming to find him.

'If I hadn't responded correctly, would I have disappeared like them?'

Lin Ye's wariness toward the Empire increased by a few more degrees. Such a major power definitely had some dangerous methods at its disposal.

Just as Lin Ye was pondering the reason for the combat squad's disappearance, a second combat squad from the Empire appeared outside the Holy City.

This combat squad was almost indistinguishable from the previous one. Their mode of action showed no change either, as if they were replicating a certain behavior.

Lin Ye still dealt with this team using the previous method. However, this time he carefully perceived the squad members standing not far away. He wanted to figure out the issue here before the next combat squad arrived.

Yet, this combat squad quickly disappeared, vanishing even faster than the previous squad.

Lin Ye didn't perceive anything abnormal during this process, even though he had been carefully monitoring that area the entire time.

Soon, a third combat squad approached the Holy City. This time, Lin Ye didn't let them enter the Holy City freely. He directly used information flow attacks to immobilize these people outside the Holy City.

But this action had no effect. The third combat squad still disappeared, even faster than the second one.

The moment the third combat squad vanished, a fourth combat squad approached the Holy City. This time, Lin Ye didn't prevent the fourth squad from entering the Holy City. As a result, this squad disappeared the moment it entered the city.

"Where did those people go?"

Xiao Mei felt a creeping dread, as if there was an invisible monster nearby, continuously devouring those combat squads.

"I'm not sure either. This is really..."

Lin Ye couldn't see through the principle behind the Empire's method. Those combat squads composed of high-level spiritual energy users weren't an army that could be mass-produced casually. For them to just disappear like this was too wasteful.

'Unless those people didn't disappear, but were teleported to another relatively safe place... I hope they won't regret making this trip.'

A somewhat pleased smile suddenly appeared on Lin Ye's face. He sincerely hoped those people could return alive to the Empire's base.

'I wonder when the fifth combat squad will come.'

Lin Ye thought with some anticipation.

But in the end, he never did get to wait for a fifth combat squad. It seemed the Empire's high-level spiritual energy users weren't resources to be expended casually either.

Lin Ye guessed those combat squads hadn't disappeared, but had returned to the Empire's base through some process. Therefore, he used the not-yet-fully-mastered Spiritual Energy Core Modification Technology on the bodies of those squad members.

To be precise, he had used this technology on the first combat squad. However, at that time, he was simply unwilling to waste experimental materials.

He wouldn't take direct action against these combat squads, as that might trigger some unknown rule power. But the Spiritual Energy Core Modification Technology wouldn't harm these squad members; it would only turn them into timed bombs set to explode after a period.

As long as these combat squads exploded inside the Empire's base, the person who implemented this plan would have to consider how much it would cost to deal with Lin Ye.

Clearly, the Empire's base couldn't afford the price of resolving Lin Ye in this manner.