"Someone isn't going to give us that much time." Lin Zhichen shook his head. "Let's proceed with our own plan."
"Understood, big brother."
Three months later, on January 1, 302 of the Federation's new calendar, countless people across the Federation celebrated the arrival of the new year.
The Tengshe, however, was cruising freely through the Dakan System, heading straight for the Dark Boundary—a place they had visited before, a small asteroid on the edge of the system. It looked utterly unremarkable, yet both the pirate faction and the Rebel Army had fought over it.
With nothing else to do, Lin Zhichen thought of the anomaly here and decided to take a look.
"The battle's over." He gazed at the wreckage scattered through space and used a hand of psionic energy to slowly move the fragments aside.
In the distance, several Frigates rushed out from a ruined base on the asteroid.
Without a word, he unleashed Spacetime Shockwave. Surging psionic energy swept up the nearby metal debris along with the Frigates and slammed them hard into the base.
Several explosions lit up the stars for an instant, and the already-ruined base was nearly destroyed completely.
The base had lost all ability to resist. The Tengshe drove straight in, then slowly descended above it.
A figure flew out of the ship's cabin and landed inside the base within moments. With a casual Psionic Shockwave, he destroyed an Automatic Turret, then darted toward the control room like lightning and cleared the entire base in no time.
"There's a Tachyon Crystal deposit here?" Lin Zhichen's eyes lit up at the sight of boxes of orange-yellow crystals in the warehouse.
Tachyon Crystal was a relatively rare mineral, though it was found throughout the New Universe. It was commonly used as an additive in smelting ore