The White Nebula

The moment the Dragon Crystal shattered, Yu Lian released his senses, letting the overflowing, formless energy surge into his body and fill his soul.

Those red, green, yellow, black, and purple things, enough to dye a whole workshop, seemed to reappear. However, instead of surging to his throat, they poured into his head all at once. This time, there was no outlet for them to vent, so they could only follow his nerves deep into his sea of consciousness. They arrived in his soul, which was like a sea of chaos, and began to boil, as if they had found a new world.

"Boom!" Yu Lian vaguely felt an explosion sweeping through all the chaos in his mind. All the fragmented memories in that soul ocean were destroyed and decomposed. The intense light almost deprived him of all his vision, guiding the grayish chaos towards annihilation. Yet, within that annihilation, something new seemed to be taking shape.

Yu Lian's last shred of spiritual sense followed the changes in those "entities," waiting for them to solidify and differentiate bit by bit. After an unknown amount of time, their orbits gradually stabilized, emitting a warm glow and re-condensing the destroyed mental fragments, drawing them into their orbital paths. It was as if a star maintained the existence and stability of its planets with its own gravity.

A brilliant white nebula descended into Yu Lian's sea of consciousness.

That was the legendary Soul Star Ring, abbreviated as "Star Ring" or "Star Disc," and it was the transcendent origin of all intelligent life in the known universe.

The "universe" within his soul began to resonate with the true universe. A power that only Yu Lian could feel surged from his spirit into his body, healing his wounds, stimulating his blood and cells, and strengthening his bones, muscles, and nerves.

He was resurrected at full health and peak condition.

Yu Lian felt as if he had witnessed the birth of a universe, but in reality, it had only taken an instant. He raised his hand, not even having time to marvel at the formless power flowing through him or enjoy his fully recovered body. He directly condensed the unseen Psionics into a beam and fired it.

The Zergling, which had already unfurled its bone blades, was hit as if by an invisible giant hammer. Its head visibly deformed, and it died without a sound. Not only that, but the focused Psionics continued with undiminished force, piercing through a Hydralisk and a Raptor on the spot. Their upper bodies fell to the ground and twitched, while their lower bodies stiffly took a few more steps before convulsing and falling still.

At this point, Ina hadn't even reacted yet.

The brilliant white nebula in his mind flickered, like the halo of a star, a sign of the Psionics' power factors beginning to boil. In this moment, Yu Lian, who had lived three lifetimes, officially stepped into the world of the transcendent once more.

"To hell with the Spirit of the Universe! I don't want white, that pale color sounds like a background character! I want the rust color of a swordsman and the rainbow color of a mage! I'd even accept the effeminate blue of a ranger from my previous life!" Yu Lian roared inwardly, desperately wanting to slash something to vent his frustration. With a swift stride, he charged towards the city gate!

"Bien! Baka!" Sergeant Baka continued to shout his cryptic, weathered battle cry and charged forward with his axe.

"Charge! Only dead bugs are good bugs!" Youyou also howled and joined in, looking like a heavily armored gorilla at first glance.

At this moment, everyone's morale soared. Even Sergeant Major Banks and Nurse Belinda joined the charge, albeit at the very back... Speaking of which, he hadn't seen them earlier. Were they slacking off somewhere?

With just a few strides, Yu Lian leaped into the trench, while the others hadn't even rushed out of the city gate yet. This was the power of Psionics; the evolution of the mind had ultimately affected the physical body, strengthening it and instantly healing his crippling injuries. His previously weak body now flowed with abundant stamina and strength, making Yu Lian feel unprecedented excitement and aggression.

With a flick of his wrist, he threw the crystal sword in his hand like a large shuriken. The sharp edge of the High-Carbon Crystal Sword smoothly sliced through three Zerglings and a Hydralisk before embedding itself in the forehead of a Raptor.

"Dance of Steel... is the ability to telekinetically control weapons with Psionics? Ugh, it's not much use against experts, but it's decent for dealing with rookies." Yu Lian thought, casually picking up his rifle and popping off a few nearby bugs. With his free hand, he reached out and grabbed an ownerless battle axe.

He strode past a stunned Ina, one hand holding a gun and the other an axe, charging into the swarm. By this time, the reinforcements had also arrived, entering the final melee.

Of course, it wasn't exactly a brutal fight. The Xenomorphs had to pass through a barrage of slanted fire, so by the time they reached the hilltop, seven or eight tenths of their forces were already gone. Almost every one of them bore bullet holes and scorch marks—honestly, if that Gravel Dragon, which had been infested by a Puppet Worm, hadn't caused trouble, Yu Lian's slanted fire would have prevented a single one from getting through.

Yu Lian knew very well that now that they were in melee combat, the biggest threat to everyone would be those Raptors. Ordinary people could only go toe-to-toe with such behemoths if they wore Exoskeletons, but even after forcing the Lieutenant to give up all the stock and spares, the entire army's armored rate was less than thirty percent.

"I must take down the big ones first." He decided this, then executed a slide, tilting his body at an angle impossible for ordinary people, dodging the bites and lunges of two Zerglings and charging into the swarm. He directly jammed his rifle into the gap between a Raptor's bone claws, blasted apart its central nervous system with a burst of bullets, and then used his axe to rip off its claw.

Before the sharp claw could hit the ground, it was pulled into the air by an invisible force. With a sudden acceleration, it shot out like a javelin, piercing through two Hydralisks that were just unfurling their dorsal armor to spray needles.

At this moment, Yu Lian had already slid under another Raptor, his bullets tearing through the gap between its relatively weak abdominal carapace and shredding all its organs.

Ina, standing behind him, was already dumbfounded. She could naturally tell that many of Yu Lian's movements now surpassed the limits of a normal person, and he must be a psionics. However, what shocked her even more was Yu Lian's decisive and direct combat style. Every attack, dodge, and advance he made was devoid of any excess or hesitation. At least, as a battle-hardened expert, the Sergeant Major couldn't find any fault with his movements.

She felt as if she were witnessing a magnificent painting, with sword and gun as brushes, and blood and fire as pigments. Every stroke was filled with a sharp, deadly, and efficient rhythm, pushing the aesthetics of refinement and efficiency to the extreme.

An indescribable emotion turned into a hot current, surging in Ina's chest, then flowing down... uh, to her face and forehead. Her face immediately flushed red, as she felt the scene before her was too surreal, too difficult for her to accept.

"...Even for Moonfolk, this is too much! Uh, Moonfolk are even more exaggerated! How can officials be so good at fighting?"

Miss Ina's thinking was simple: "Moonfolk" equaled "elite bureaucratic group," and the elite of the elite; "elite bureaucrats" were naturally the officials, the "big shots" with their bloated bellies who usually just put on a show, collect kickbacks, and throw their weight around in front of their subordinates to get promoted. But these guys, didn't they usually just pretend to be important, spout officialese, take bribes, and flex their authority in front of those below them to get promoted like they were on an express elevator? How could they actually do anything?

Although her thinking was simple and linear, in this regard, the Sergeant Major was far more revolutionary than Lieutenant Mondsen. No wonder she was a future celebrity. If Yu Lian knew, he would surely sigh that in a world where technology and ideology had gone awry, there were still kindred spirits who understood each other.

It wasn't until the Bearman and Old Black, roaring like two beasts, charged past her that the Sergeant Major snapped back to reality. She still lacked empathy for the current situation, feeling as if she were in a third-rate absurd action movie, so she gave up thinking and continued to shoot. Her bullets always precisely covered the areas Yu Lian couldn't reach, killing or repelling any Xenomorphs attempting to flank him from the sides or rear, or at the very least, stunning them and creating opportunities for her teammates to land a killing blow.

Yu Lian smashed his empty C10 rifle onto a Zergling's head, deforming the stock, but still splattering its bodily fluids. He then forcefully threw his chipped and cracked crystal battle axe at the forehead of the last Raptor. The giant bug shrieked reflexively, twitched for at least half a minute, and then finally lay still.

Yu Lian took a deep breath of the hot New Yumeng Star air, his nostrils now filled with the stench of Xenomorphs. He still felt noticeable fatigue, so he stopped in place, letting the morale-boosted soldiers charge forward and finish off the remaining bugs.

...A mere beginner cultivator of the first ring is still too weak! Yu Lian told himself. He had no idea that the battle he had just fought was seen by others as a divine descent, otherwise, why would everyone's morale suddenly explode?

In such a universe, where martial virtue was abundant but everything else was skewed, an officer who could charge into the enemy ranks and go on a rampage was the easiest to gain the trust of ordinary soldiers.

With a rampaging officer and mid-level non-commissioned officers who possessed both combat power and courage, the soldiers finally overcame their fear of the Xenomorphs and fought bravely. Minutes later, when the last Zergling was beaten into a pulp by a few small soldiers, they looked around and saw no more moving enemies within a hundred-mile radius. Everyone cheered.

They had finally achieved a glorious victory!

...Although it was another victory on a melee battlefield.