"Thank you, Commander," Sun Weisheng said, visibly relieved. "I'm sure Xia Liling will be of great assistance to you."

Karma recorded the exchange—or whatever the Realization did—while the B-rank returned to the ranks without further ado, leaving Xia Liling behind.

"Welcome to the Seventh Exemplary Brigade, First Lieutenant," Shen told the girl.

She smiled slightly, her eyes shining. His decision made her happy enough, or at least that's what she wanted him to think. Though Shen could find no sign of it being a performance, Long Hei had been right on that: it would be a very long while before he trusted Xia Liling, if ever.

"Thank you, Commander," she replied, cupping her hands before herself and giving him the standard Imperian cultivator greeting.

Hearing her speak for the first time was like lighting the fuse of hormones within him. Her voice was like silk to the ears. It wasn't any more ethereal than most C-ranks could make their voices if they wanted, but it did sound pleasing. The added positive characteristic to everything she already was made him desire her even more.

Her smile also didn't help. It might be small, but it was still beautiful. Even the simple and fundamental fact that she showed gratitude instead of taking his decision for granted made him approve more of her. He had no doubt she had been pampered enough that she might've acted otherwise.

Sure, she had all the apparent signs of knowing how to behave to appeal to potential suitors. However, her Path felt solid. Her every step felt genuine as they affected the Axioms of Space within everything in Reality. Reality accepted her as a whole entity, and she accepted her place in Reality.

She was a True Path Walker.

If her actions were against her core beliefs, she would injure herself by pretending otherwise. Unless, of course, her Path was all about scheming, but that was so unlikely it bordered on the impossible.

"Get in position," he commanded, and she obeyed at once.

Meanwhile, Shen could see most B-ranks furiously exchanging messages but guessed Imperia's leadership would have to have a proper meeting to decide what to do after the recent events. He was safe, at least for now.

The ten minutes passed quickly, and Shen got a welcomed message.

‎ ‎

Deployment Update

The 7th Exemplary Brigade's current mission, Filter and Merge Imperia's Troops, has been completed.

Overall Rating: A+

Personal Rating: A+

Your active mission has reverted to Seek and Capture Fugitives.

‎ ‎

Although the system's rating was subject to change after Shen's superiors checked it—or his single superior, in his case—that rarely happened. A quick check on the mission debrief and analysis parameters revealed he had lost a few points for the Acting General's intervention. The system considered accepting Xia Liling as the optimal path to meet the mission's requirements, especially to avoid bloodshed. It also strengthened the Exemplary Brigade, which was a plus.

An A+ rating was good enough for a mission he hadn't been forewarned about and required him to leave his comfort zone.

Some of his people cheered when they got a similar message. Completing missions was good for their military career, but what excited them was hunting fugitives again. Most, if not all, were bound to have Bounties on their heads, and everyone wanted extra AP.

He shared their excitement. As far as he knew, no one else was hunting fugitives in Samir. That might change soon, but they would have a head start.

Clearing the mobile fortresses would waste time and needlessly create disorder in Imperia's recently arrived ranks. Also, their Guardians were likely already checking every nook and cranny of their mobile fortresses. No one wanted to find unpleasant surprises at home when they least expected.

So, Shen told his Battalion Commanders, "We'll teleport to Samir-18 in thirty seconds, C-rank Voided Subnode. TAB formation."

As any Node, Samir had 33 Subnodes. Seven were already irreversibly lost to the Void, leaving 26 to be fought for. Of those, over half were Voided, meaning the Void was contesting them. Samir-18 was one of those.

Samir-18 was also the most difficult Voided Subnode the Brigade had any chance of surviving. The strongest Void Spawn found there was C-rank, and it had already been at that rank for a while. It might rank up any time now.

Fugitives without connections were more likely to hide in places it was dangerous for the military to check. Moreover, the high-elven Brigades had already combed through the easier Subnodes. So, Shen would head to Subnodes in reverse order of how risky those places were for his Brigade. He would visit the other C-rank Voided Subnodes next, then the D-rank ones, and so on.

Standing in a Teleport-Assisted Breach formation was often unnecessary when entering a Voided Subnode because the military kept a stable presence in them all. However, Imperia's Guardians had just replaced the high elves, and they were adapting to their new posts. Their response time would be slow if anything happened and Shen needed assistance.

Above Samir-7's cubic fortress, Shen's Battalion Commanders started giving orders to get everyone in position.

Shen turned to Martino. "Thank you for your assistance, Sergeant."

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"Anytime," she replied with a smile. "You're humanity's Rising Star, after all. We need you to survive."

He took note of how scared she sounded and didn't blame her. Seeing over five hundred B-ranks and a billion troops appear out of nowhere was an anxiety-inducing reality check for a weak ruler. Regardless of how strong Earth's Guardians had grown on the front lines, they had lost too many people.

Earth's humanity was not ready for Alliance geopolitics.

They needed the 100-year protection period the Alliance gave them. Even then, they had to hope the progressive removal of said protections wouldn't cause them to face something they weren't prepared for much sooner than the final deadline. As far as anyone knew, Shen might be their only hope if anything they weren't ready to deal with happened.

He felt a pang of guilt at not preparing them better for his eventual death or escape, but his hands were tied on the former, and he believed running away from certain death wouldn't be an actual betrayal.

Shen waited a few seconds to see if Martino had anything more to say, but if she did, now wasn't the time or place she wanted to speak. So, he nodded and stated, "Dismissed." Martino turned into light and was teleported away by the system back to her cell.

Shen turned to Miavalur next. "Thank you for your assistance, Lieutenant."

Shen's troops had cheered when they completed their mission. Miavalur had relaxed. He didn't hide that he wanted to leave as soon as possible.

"One last thing before you go," Shen said. "System, bring me a B+ force monolith."

The front lines had a few places to train troops. Training dummies were far and few between, as they were considered a waste of time. You'd better hone your skills against warriors fighting back. Yet, sometimes, you had to go all-out to test an ability, which might kill a peer. The Alliance's solution was the force monolith.

A thirty-foot-tall, five-foot-wide obsidian obelisk materialized before Shen. At B+ rank, it could take anything he might throw at it. He had no chance of damaging it in the slightest and wouldn't even be allowed to use it if it wasn't for his special position as an Exemplary Brigade Commander.

"Lieutenant Specialist Taeral Miavalur, I command you to watch me with utmost attention for the next ten seconds. Use all your senses to get the best, most thorough understanding you can get about everything you witness me doing. I deem this critical for my current mission and warn you: disobedience will be considered treason."

His order was a blatant lie. Miavalur seeing him attack the monolith would change nothing for Shen's mission to find fugitives. But Shen was putting Rayna's lesson to good use: he would pay the price if it was ever investigated, leading him to get punished.

Shen hated politics, but SpecOps was messing with him. One day, he would be strong enough not to be affected by that annoying game. Today, he would use it against them.

Miavalur had looked away when Shen killed the drow. Shen didn't know why but doubted it was to his benefit. Thus, he would ensure the high elf saw everything Shen had to show.

He took his spear from his ring and attacked the monolith with everything he had, minus his domain and its related abilities. He started using only his stats and qi-less techniques, then added qi techniques, deployed his Aural Realm, used his Aura-Material Suppression, and so on. He displayed all his best abilities against the obelisk in quick succession. He attacked from all sides, moving as if fighting someone. His spear clanged violently against the black stone nonstop.

The monolith was enchanted for durability and to prevent any weapon—or fists—from breaking when striking it. Shen's abilities didn't even scratch the B+ thing. When his spearhead struck, it felt like hitting solid stone but also soft in a way. The vibrations spreading through the weapon and his arms weren't as violent as they should have been.

Still, the main reason he got the force monolith instead of punching empty air was its secondary function: power estimation. Each of the obelisk's faces displayed a huge golden number as Shen attacked. It was a raw analysis of his strength on the power tier he had learned in elite combat training. It lacked the contextual analysis for a complete result, but that, and moving around the thing, was the best he could do to ensure the high elf saw as much as he could.

The numbers were in Stangue, but translated, his attacks started with a low tier 7 strength, then quickly rose to a mid 8—even before Shen started using qi. Qi pushed it to high 8, then barely crossed into low 9 as he used his most destructive techniques. Finally, utilizing everything he had, except anything domain-related, allowed his attacks to reach mid 9.

Shen had underestimated himself. He had thought he would need his Absolute Horizon to reach peak 9, but even if he kept the domain to his body, he would be able to get at least 10-, maybe a straight 10.

He felt strong.

Ten seconds later, he reined his aura in, ceased all his abilities, and stood still as he turned to Miavalur.

The high elf wasn't restraining the fear in his soul. He did not want to have seen Shen's strength. Evidently, he had to choose between "betraying" the Alliance by disobeying Shen and getting killed as a traitor or whatever punishment he might receive for whatever he saw that he would rather not. He might still erase his memory after Shen dismissed him, but that was partially why Shen gave a direct order. It had been logged by the system. There was no hiding that Miavalur had seen everything Shen had to offer except his domain and Absolute Horizon. There was also no misreporting it because the power monolith had made it clear how heavy Shen's attacks were.

SpecOps was mysterious and had S-rank authority, but it wasn't commanded by an S-rank. At least, not as far as it told everyone. Whatever Miavalur feared should not be legal, and SpecOps still had to follow the rules, even if they could skim many of them. So, Shen hoped they would have to go against the law to mess with him in this recorded and logged instance. Ideally, it would keep them from moving against him, but even if they decided to pay the price, he still sought to make it bite them in the ass later.

All that, of course, assuming he wasn't reading too much into Miavalur's previous actions. Maybe he had just been forbidden from analyzing Shen and would get a wrist slap for disobeying it. Who really knew how SpecOps operated?

"You're dismissed, Lieutenant Specialist," Shen finally said with a slight smile.

Like Martino, the system also teleported him away instantly. That surprised Shen. The man hadn't been in prison like the Human Maiden or requested a teleport. One of his superiors wanted his presence as soon as he was done with the Exemplary Brigade.

Well, Shen hoped they made good use of his fresh memory.

And if he had just pissed them off? That would be almost better than preventing them from plotting against him. They had nearly gotten him killed in the vault. He couldn't care less about angering any SpecOps B-rank that might potentially come to slap him into oblivion for the disrespect. Or an A-rank. Being erased by someone one step away from the peak of existence, S-rank, would make him proud for at least one instant. Maybe.

At the very least, it would be more honorable than all this bullshit they were throwing at him.

Thirty seconds after he informed the Seventh Exemplary Brigade they would invade a Voided Subnode, they had positioned themselves in the TAB formation. It resembled a dome, with C-ranks on the outside protecting everyone inside. Unlike most other formations, there were no further layers inside, like D-ranks protecting E-ranks; everyone but C-ranks was packed together. This wasn't about letting everyone fight. The C-ranks would be teleported first and defend the area. Only after it was safe would Shen worry about fair target distribution for his subordinates. Until then, it would be easier to protect a smaller area.

They were getting to a C-rank Voided Subnode. If the C-ranks couldn't stop something, no D-ranks could, either. Their lives were on their superiors' hands. They would only get in the way if they tried anything.

Shen took his position at the dome's peak and requested of the system, "Teleport me and all my C-ranks to Samir-18, closest to the edge as possible."

He would bring his subordinates later if he didn't die first. Even so, danger might appear only after the Sergeants and Corporals arrived, which was the reason for packing them together. They were literally expensive luggage until a few seconds after their teleportation was completed.

Shen turned into light and teleported away.