After both sides reached the designated battlefield, Wang Dong ordered the War Axe to disperse Mie Particles and obscure the battlefield. Adopting a do-or-die stance, he opened fire at close range.
The two sides' bombardment quickly pushed the disturbances beyond the threshold, breaking the local equilibrium within the strong gravitational turbulence. The turbulence suddenly erupted.
The gravitational turbulence itself was no match for the Kindling Warship's sturdy shields and armor. At most, it could cause some trouble.
But the numerous asteroids seeded in advance with space mines surged into the battlefield under the turbulence's influence.
They were the real trump card.
The space mines, programmed with a simple friend-or-foe identification system, dealt a devastating blow to the Jin Family warship trapped in the ambush.
With its engine module heavily damaged and its mobility crippled, the opposing vessel was at Wang Dong's mercy. He kicked it while it was down and ultimately sank it.
Then he successfully obtained the antidote.
The threat posed by the Yuan Family Secret Medicine in his body was eliminated.
Objectively speaking, Wang Dong had planned this ambush quite well.
The results were the most direct proof.
He had successfully defeated an opponent a whole level stronger than himself.
In a virtual combat game on the Star Domain Network, it would have been a perfect victory.
Unfortunately, reality was still reality.
At the time, Wang Dong had little experience. He had thought that in the complicated airspace of the Asteroid Belt, he could ambush and destroy a warship without anyone noticing, leaving little trace behind.
It had never occurred to him that Kindling Warships had something akin to a "Black Box."
Because he hadn't completely disposed of the wreckage, the Jin Family warships sent afterward followed a special signal and found the "Black Box."
As a result, the Jin Family learned every detail of the ambush.
In the eyes of the commander sent by the Jin Family afterward, Wang Dong had revealed quite a lot during the ambush.
First, the War Axe had a new captain. Yuan Shu was no longer in command.
According to Sima Decao's regular reports, Yuan Shu had suffered a wound severe enough to kill him, and the Jin Family's Heart-Piercing Dagger was the best guarantee of that.
Even if extreme measures were taken, Yuan Shu wouldn't have had more than twenty-four hours to live after being wounded.
So the ambush, which took place several days after the incident, clearly couldn't have been commanded by Yuan Shu.
Moreover, the style of this ambush was clearly different from Yuan Shu's previous tactics.
The conclusion was that, before he died, Yuan Shu had transferred the War Axe's captaincy to someone else.
Second, the War Axe's new captain was obviously very familiar with conditions in the Asteroid Belt Mining Zone. He was even so familiar with them that he knew all about hidden gravitational turbulence that was exceptionally difficult to detect.
That was how he had been able to devise such a well-suited ambush.
Put these two conditions together and consider where the War Axe had been when the incident occurred, and the identity of its new captain was practically obvious.
Who else could it have been but a local miner working in the mining zone at the time?
Thus, Wang Dong's identity had been exposed, at least in part.
Before his rebirth, the few auxiliary modules aboard the War Axe had given Wang Dong every chance to lie low. He could at least have avoided having the Jin Family discover his whereabouts so quickly.
Ultimately, his actions had been forced on him by the Yuan Family Secret Medicine Yuan Shu had injected into him.
To meet the conditions and obtain the antidote within a mere year, Wang Dong had been unable to find a better option at the time. He could only take a dangerous gamble.
The gamble had succeeded, but the consequences were severe.
Not only had he left clues behind, increasing the chance that his identity would be exposed,
he had also made the already badly damaged War Axe's situation even worse.
As a result, until the War Axe was repaired, Wang Dong hadn't dared to use the Auxiliary System's functions to enter Otherworldly Space and obtain Source Points.
There were no factories in the mining zone or nearby star regions capable of repairing Kindling Warships.
Nor could Wang Dong reveal that he was the War Axe's captain.
So a long stretch of time that should have been spent developing his strength was wasted.
This time, though...
Wang Dong smiled knowingly.
Who said a direct descendant of the Jin Family was so hard to kill?
Who said his only choice was to take on the hard bone that was Sima Decao?
And did the restrictions Yuan Shu had set on the War Axe's Shipborne Optical Computer really have to be lifted by fulfilling specific conditions?
"You little Jin Family brats, I'm not playing in the dirt with you this time. We'll meet again someday, far down the road!"
After his rebirth, Wang Dong's vision and experience were no longer confined to this tiny corner of the universe. He had long since gained the means to step outside this little game.
He clearly understood that, at this stage, continuing to tangle with the Jin Family would be extremely dangerous and entirely unnecessary.
So far, thanks to the intelligence advantage his rebirth had given him, Wang Dong had done a good job of staying out of the Jin Family's sight.
As long as the War Axe didn't show up again and Wang Dong didn't give himself away, the Jin Family wouldn't turn its attention to him, at least not in the short term.
With time, Wang Dong would have a chance to grow stronger.
Forget one mere direct descendant of the Jin Family.
Even the entire Jin Family—Wang Dong would dare to flip it over!
Of course, those were just bold words—empty bluster. You'd be a fool to take them seriously.
He could afford to look down on the enemy strategically, but tactically, he still had to take them seriously.
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