Tie Zhan stared at the three lines of text for three seconds before suddenly slamming his fist onto the tabletop. The alloy surface let out a heavy THUD, a clear fist-shaped indentation left behind.
"What the hell is this!" he growled. "I just spent a month fighting at Tianshui, and now we’re heading back? The Rift Valley Star Realm is still waiting for us—"
"Tie Zhan," Lu Wenquan said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "This is an order from High Command."
"I know it’s an order!" Tie Zhan glared at Li Zhenguo. "But there has to be a reason, right? Xu Wuyi is a strategic-level combat asset. The situation in the Rift Valley Star Realm is critical. If he’s recalled to Xingjing now, what happens to the front line?"
Li Zhenguo shook his head. "The directive came with no explanation. But according to Federation military regulations, an order of the absolute highest priority must be executed unconditionally. No questions, no delays."
He looked toward Xu Wuyi. "Martial Artist Xu, your thoughts?"
Xu Wuyi fell silent for a moment.
He stared at the three lines of text on the optical screen as possibilities flashed through his mind.
’Have the Feathered People launched an all-out counterattack? Has there been a major incident within the Federation? Or... does the Rift Valley Star Realm no longer need me?’
"We follow the order," he finally said.
"Kid!" Tie Zhan snapped his head toward him.
"Master Tie Zhan," Xu Wuyi said calmly. "If the situation wasn’t serious enough to require my recall, High Command wouldn’t have issued this order. The fact that they did means the situation at the front has exceeded our expectations."
He paused. "Besides, the order specifies ’Return to Xingjing Port in Federation Territory,’ not ’Return to the Tianshui Star Realm.’ This means the incident occurred at a much higher level and could affect the entire direction of the war."
Lu Wenquan nodded. "A sound analysis. If there were just a crisis in one combat sector, we’d be ordered to provide support, not return to Federation Territory. There’s only one possibility: a fundamental change has occurred at the strategic level. We need to reassess the entire state of the war."
Tie Zhan gritted his teeth but finally sat back down.
Li Zhenguo let out a sigh of relief. "I’ll give the order to change course, then. Our ETA at Xingjing Port is four hours. We’ll be making two short-range jumps. Gentlemen, please prepare for the jumps."
He saluted and left, and the hatch slid shut behind him.
Silence fell over the lounge.
Xu Wuyi gazed out the porthole at the inky black water, his sense of unease growing more intense.
...
「Four hours later.」
Xingjing Spaceport, Military Dock 37.
The *Deep Diver* slowly came to a stop in its dedicated submersible berth.
When the hatch opened, Xu Wuyi saw a squad of soldiers in black combat uniforms waiting outside. Their leader was a grim-faced, middle-aged officer with the rank of Colonel—two bars and four stars—on his epaulets.
"Martial Artist Xu, Grandmaster Tie Zhan, Grandmaster Lu Wenquan." The officer stepped forward and gave a standard military salute. "I am Zhou Zheng, Director of the Special Operations Division of the Xingjing Garrison Command. By order of High Command, I am here to escort the three of you to the briefing room."
His tone was stiff and devoid of any emotion.
Xu Wuyi returned the salute. "Director Zhou, can you tell us what’s happened?"
"You will be fully briefed in the briefing room," Zhou Zheng said, gesturing to the side. "Please, follow me."
The three followed Zhou Zheng out of the berth and boarded an unmarked black hover car. The windows were transparent from the inside but completely opaque from the outside, preventing anyone from looking in.
The vehicle activated and entered Xingjing’s subterranean traffic network.
As Xu Wuyi watched the tunnel lights streak past the window, his confusion deepened.
’Xingjing is the Federation Capital, with the highest defense level in all of human territory. Normally, when returning from a combat zone, we should first go through quarantine and debriefing, not be taken directly to High Command.’
’Unless... the situation is so urgent that even standard procedures are being bypassed.’
Twenty minutes later, the hover car stopped at the entrance to a subterranean facility.
Zhou Zheng led the three of them through three security checkpoints that required iris, genetic, and Energy Fluctuation verification, finally arriving in a spacious briefing room.
A dozen or so people were already seated inside.
Xu Wuyi’s gaze was immediately drawn to the man in the head seat: Lin Shuo, the Deputy Chief of the Federation’s General Staff, also known as Grandmaster "Zhenhai."
Flanking Lin Shuo were the Director of Military Intelligence, the Head of the Strategic Research Department, and several other high-ranking military officials Xu Wuyi didn’t recognize.
Everyone wore a grave expression.
"Sit." Lin Shuo’s voice was calm, yet it carried an authority that could not be questioned.
The three of them found empty seats and sat down.
Tie Zhan whispered, "Even Grandmaster Lin Shuo is back. This is huge."
Although they were respectfully addressed as "Grandmaster," they weren’t true Grandmasters. A genuine Grandmaster like Lin Shuo was one of the pillars of the Federation.
Lu Wenquan pushed his glasses up his nose and quickly searched for recent battle reports on his tactical datapad, but all frontline information was marked "Update Delayed."
Lin Shuo wasted no words, directly activating a holographic Star Map.
On the Star Map, the blue territory representing the Human Federation and the gray territory of the Feathered People Civilization were interwoven.
"Six hours ago, there was a major development on the Rift Valley Star Realm Battlefield," Lin Shuo’s voice echoed through the briefing room. "The Feathered People Civilization suddenly deployed reinforcements. Three Feathered King Level experts descended upon the battlefield, engaging in an all-out conflict with the three Grandmasters we had stationed there."
On the Star Map, the location of the Rift Valley Star Realm pulsed with a blinding red light.
"The battle lasted for forty minutes, with a blast radius exceeding three thousand kilometers. All forces below Grandmaster Level on both sides have been completely withdrawn. The Rift Valley Star Realm is now purely a Grandmaster battlefield."
Xu Wuyi’s pupils constricted.
’A Grandmaster battlefield.’
’This means the war for the Rift Valley Star Realm has escalated from a confrontation between armies to a duel of the highest-echelon powers. Ordinary troops, Innate Martial Artists, even near-King Level experts... they would all be nothing but cannon fodder in a fight of that magnitude.’
"Then our mission to the Rift Valley Star Realm...?" Tie Zhan couldn’t help but ask.
"Canceled." Lin Shuo glanced at him. "It’s not just your team. All units and experts originally slated to reinforce the Rift Valley Star Realm have been recalled or rerouted. Combatants below the Grandmaster Level are no longer needed there."
Lu Wenquan looked up. "What about the other combat sectors?"
"A similar situation occurred in the Tianshui Star Realm one hour ago." Lin Shuo pulled up another report. "The Feathered King ’Nutao’ Connor engaged our defending Grandmaster ’Duan Yue.’ The Tianshui Star Realm has now also become a Grandmaster battlefield."
A low gasp went through the briefing room.
For two main fronts to escalate into Grandmaster battlefields simultaneously... it was unprecedented in the century-long war between the Federation and the Feathered People Civilization.
"What about the Quicksand Star Realm?" someone asked.
"It’s stable for now, but the Feathered People have already amassed significant forces on the border. A full-scale assault could erupt at any moment." Lin Shuo deactivated the Star Map and swept his gaze across the room.
"The situation is now clear. The Feathered People Civilization has abandoned conventional warfare and its associated attrition. They intend to settle this with their top-tier combatants."
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