"No!"

Martha trembled as she ran to the remains of Lin Ye, squatting on the ground and looking despairingly at the half of a corpse.

"Damn it!"

The man turned to look at the sky. That ray just now was a high-energy attack from space. Even he hadn't been able to react in time.

In other words, if the target of that high-energy ray had been him, his fate wouldn't have been any better than Lin Ye's.

At this moment, the man also figured out the Empire's strategy. He was just a target used by the Empire to attract Lin Ye's attention. That attack was the Empire's trump card.

"These treacherous bastards!"

The man said angrily.

"Exactly, these people are way too treacherous. Good thing I guessed what they were planning long ago."

Lin Ye chimed in beside the man.

"...How the hell are you completely unharmed?!"

The man instantly put distance between himself and Lin Ye. He looked at Lin Ye, who was completely intact without even a wrinkle on his clothes, and felt like his whole world was crumbling.

"Who said I'm unharmed?"

"I just had an Alienation body, a Lin Ye ProMax version, blown to pieces."

"I don't have many of such exquisite Alienation bodies either."

"Only about a dozen or twenty."

"There's still a lack of materials. If there were enough materials, they could be produced continuously."

...

Lin Yes of different appearances walked out from every corner of the Holy City. They surrounded the man in the middle, all smiling and speaking simultaneously:

"I already said your spiritual perception was sharp, actually able to detect the real danger. You said you don't have a hobby of surrendering, right? Then I'm going to have to make a move."

"...Actually, I think surrender is also an option. Fighting isn't the only way to solve problems... Why don't we sit down and talk?"

The man forced a stiff smile onto his face.

……………………………………

"So you're saying, to deal with a system Survivor summoned by the natives, we used the high-energy compression mode of a planet-destroying weapon, but only managed to kill one of the opponent's clones, and now we haven't even located the opponent's position?"

Commander Konning of the Empire's Expeditionary Force sat behind the control console, speaking expressionlessly.

"Yes. Moreover, the parasitic Mutation Creatures created by the opponent are spreading across the entire planet, even spreading inside the base. Researchers are studying the parasitic biological samples inside those two survivors, but research progress is slow. I recommend directly abandoning this battlefield and executing the cleansing procedure."

The adjutant's expression was calm, as if discussing tonight's dinner.

"The cleansing procedure must be carried out after the war ends. Otherwise, we won't just lose one planet; other war zones will also be affected... Get that Survivor over to the other side and deal with him as soon as possible."

Konning could understand the adjutant's meaning, but he couldn't accept the price of abandoning this war zone.

"I understand."

The adjutant turned and left the central control room.

…………………………………

"So you're engaged in a multi-Plane war, and this planet is one of the Empire's landing points?"

Under the friendly gazes of the Lin Yes, the man quickly spilled all the information he knew.

"Yeah, the fighting over there is incredibly intense. Even someone with my strength might not survive in the most fiercely contested areas of the war."

The man, not wanting to get dragged into the most dangerous zones of the war, had thought of coming here to rest and recuperate for a while.

He almost ended up recuperating himself into oblivion.

"What's the purpose of the war? It can't just be for fun, right?"

The Empire is willing to expend massive resources in this war, so there must be profit involved. Lin Ye was very interested in the enemy's goal.

"You should know about Controllers, right?"

Surrounded by over a dozen Lin Yes, the man had the illusion that he might be beaten to death by Lin Ye at any moment.

"Hmm, spiritual energy users advance to become Controllers."

Lin Ye didn't know much about Controllers, after all, most of the friends he knew were probably above the Controller level.

"Spiritual energy users need to completely master a Rule Fragment to advance and become a Controller. But Rule Fragments aren't something you can find everywhere. Plus, there's a compatibility issue between spiritual energy users and Rule Fragments. So the vast majority of tenth-order spiritual energy users get stuck at the tenth order for a very long time. To deal with this situation, some major powers developed a grand ritual known as Plane War."

The man looked at Lin Ye. He felt there was no need to continue explaining further.

"Using the ritual to mass-produce war Rule Fragments?"

Lin Ye hadn't expected these powers were fighting over something so boring.

"Not just war Rule Fragments, but also death, destruction, slaughter, and other Rule Fragments. However, these artificial Rule Fragments are of very poor quality, only meeting the minimum requirements for advancement. But for many spiritual energy users, this is already the most accessible method of advancement."

The man didn't plan to advance using this method himself, but Rule Fragments were extremely valuable. Even the most inferior artificial fragments could fetch an exorbitant price.

And due to ritual restrictions, only spiritual energy users could participate in the Plane War. As long as he was careful, he had a chance to snatch a Rule Fragment.

"The Empire slaughtered our people just for that Rule Fragment?"

Martha, who had been standing to the side all along, suddenly asked.

When the man spoke, he conveyed his meaning by transmitting spiritual imprints, so Martha could also understand what he was saying.

"Slaughtered? That's not quite accurate. Your Empire just used you as raw material for manufacturing Rule Fragments and deployed you onto the battlefield. Many factions do this sort of thing. After all, you can't use your own army as raw material; that would be too wasteful."

The man said as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Martha didn't argue. She just lowered her head and looked at the ground.

"You're right, you really can't use your own people as material... You can go back now."

Lin Ye looked at the man, revealing a very amiable smile.

"...Go back?"

The man had a very bad feeling.

"Ah, right. Could you trouble me with a copy of how to use the mixed force field? I'd like to learn the mixed force field technique too."

Lin Ye planned to find time to visit the Civilization Tower later, but before that, he could use Alienation bodies to preview this technique.

"I can give you the method for using Divine Intent. But can I not go back? I think staying here is pretty good too."

The man took out a Crystal containing a spiritual imprint from his item space and handed it to Lin Ye.

"...In a while, I'm going to clean out the Empire's base. If you're willing to stand on our side, you can stay."

Lin Ye took the Crystal and casually received the spiritual imprint inside.

"That's not a problem. But that Empire faction probably has a planet-destroying weapon to blow up this planet. After all, the final step of the ritual is to destroy the landing point. You'd better find a place to relocate these people before the ritual ends. Of course, if you don't care, then it's fine."

The man glanced at Martha and the others.