Feifei's suspicions hadn't been entirely unfounded.
After all, Yu Lian's nephew by marriage had been recruited personally by Brunhild, and he was still a retainer of the Sulcata royal family. It was obvious that the former Pirate King had played a major guiding role in the operation to intercept the Pilgrim, even if he hadn't led it himself.
Gong Ao had even staked his connections in the underworld. That was proof enough.
Yu Lian couldn't help thinking of that dream timeline, either. He could use its history to understand the geography of the Abyss Nebula, and of course Brunhild could do the same. She might not know it as well as he did, but it was more than enough to set an ambush.
Well... even without that hard-to-explain dream timeline, the war had reached this point, and anything was possible.
But what could he do? The Empire's monitoring network along the Cloudtower Trail had forced them into the Abyss Nebula. There was nothing for it but to take their chances there.
Fine. The gamble had failed, so he had to accept reality. A true hero couldn't give up just because things hadn't gone his way.
Even a responsible adult wasn't allowed to give up. He didn't even have the right to.
"Since things have come to this, let's eat... let's get some rest first. Navigator, is the jump channel still open?" Yu Lian issued a tactical order.
The Pilgrim had a proper navigator: an experienced technical officer who wasn't a psionic. As administrator of the jump drive and measurer of spatial parameters, he did his job very well.
"It's already collapsed," he replied at once.
"Then we can relax a little. Captain Nemo, make the arrangements." Under Feifei's gaze, Yu Lian continued issuing tactical orders.
No one could say that