Morgana wanted to lob a turd at Karl

"Du, tell me what you think."

Ryze spoke, his voice carrying a rare heaviness. "What do you make of those two?"

"That dark-red warrior is very powerful."

Du Kao spoke slowly. "Sno is a veteran third generation divine body under Karl, yet he barely had any room to fight back against that man. If not for that void shield, he might have lost long ago."

Ryze nodded, a self-mocking note underlying his tone. "I'm a third generation divine body too, but if I went up against him, that big red fellow would probably cut me down in less than a minute."

He paused and turned to face Du Kao, his brow furrowing even more deeply.

"This gives me a real headache. The origin of Qin Feng's Galaxy Power gene is unknown, and I want to find out what's going on, but our combat strength simply isn't on the same level. Even if I asked, he might not tell me the truth."

"This really is difficult."

Du Kao fell silent for several seconds, his brow just as tightly furrowed.

He took a deep breath. His voice was much lower than before, but the composure of a decision-maker had not entirely faded. "I think the key to breaking this impasse lies not in confronting Qin Feng directly, but in Ge Xiaolun."

"How so?"

"We don't necessarily have to make an enemy of Qin Feng. All we want are the resources the Angel Civilization can provide."

"Although Qin Feng has already made contact with the angels, I believe Kaisa won't put all her eggs in one basket. As long as we argue our case, we'll definitely be able to secure some resources from the angels!"

"Argue our case? What do we have to argue with?"

A trace of bitterness entered Ryze's voice.

"Look at Qin Feng. He's a third generation super soldier at the very least, has a third generation divine body as his guard, and is equipped with an unknown Celestial Computer himself. That setup is first-rate even in the Known Universe."

"Now look at Ge Xiaolun. He's still getting shelled at the base, spends all day staring at your daughter, and hasn't even activated his wings."

"That woman Kaisa is shrewd. She never makes a losing deal. Do you think she'd leave the good cards on Qin Feng's side unplayed and come invest in an unfinished product like Ge Xiaolun, whose future is still unclear?"

Du Kao pressed his lips into a thin line.

Of course he could see the gap.

But he could not admit defeat!

He had spent over a thousand years laying his plans on Blue Star, all so that one day he could use the power of the chief god, Galaxy Power, to rekindle the flame of the Deno Civilization.

If that path was blocked, then all those thousand years of painstaking effort would have been for nothing.

"Professor Ryze, you can't put it that way."

"You know that a chief god needs time to grow. Xiaolun has only just awakened his gene, and many of his abilities haven't been unlocked yet. Once he's been through certain things and gained enough tempering and experience, he won't be any worse than Qin Feng."

"Time?"

Ryze turned back to face him, a rare hint of impatience in his tone. "I know about time too! I know Ge Xiaolun needs time to grow! But time is precisely what we're shortest on!"

"The Taotie vanguard fleet has already reached the edge of the solar system and could attack at any moment. Karl and Morgana are also deploying their forces in secret. Two Galaxy Powers have appeared on Blue Star at once, and the eyes of all the gods are fixed on this tiny planet. How much time do you think we have to wait for Ge Xiaolun to grow up slowly?"

Du Kao's Adam's apple bobbed, but in the end, he said nothing more.

A long silence settled over the command room.

Ryze let out a long sigh, his voice softening. "Du, I know what you're thinking. I also hope Ge Xiaolun can live up to those expectations, but reality is reality. The only thing we can do now is try our best not to push Qin Feng onto the opposing side."

"As for resources from the angels, we'll take it one step at a time."

"If that really doesn't work out, then divert some from certain people."

At those words, Du Kao's eyes instantly widened.

He abruptly raised his head to look at Ryze, almost thinking he had misheard.

"What did you say? Divert? From whom?"

Ryze did not avoid his gaze.

Those eyes, usually full of mirth, were now deep and cold, and his voice held not a trace of fluctuation.

"Du, you know perfectly well that Galaxy Power is our true hope. To help him grow as quickly as possible, the necessary preferential allocation of resources is unavoidable."

Du Kao's Adam's apple bobbed, and cold sweat kept seeping down his back.

Of course he knew what Ryze was implying.

For some time now, he had already been secretly redirecting some of the Super Soldiers' resources toward Ge Xiaolun.

Take Zhao Xin. He was clearly a De Star Spear meant to charge into battle, yet he still had not been equipped with a decent weapon.

That foolish boy still thought the time simply hadn't come. He cheerfully trained his basic fitness all day, completely unaware that he had been reduced to base fertilizer in a nutrient pool.

It was only because the boy was simple and easy to fool. Anyone else would have raised hell long ago.

But now Ryze wanted him to keep digging, to target Liu Chuang and Cheng Yaowen?

What a joke!

One was the War God of Nox, and the other was the Prince of De.

If he reached for those two, the Deno Remnants he had worked so hard to gather would absolutely fall apart, and a civil war might even break out.

That was something he could never accept.

"Professor Ryze, do you know the consequences of doing that?"

Ryze looked at him in silence for a few seconds, then softened his tone slightly, though he showed no intention of backing down.

"Du, you should understand the priorities better than I do. Galaxy Power is our only bargaining chip against Ultimate Fear. Whether it's the War God of Nox or the Prince of De, they all serve that ultimate goal."

He turned and raised a hand, opening a Space Wormhole beside him.

"Of course, the best outcome would be for you to persuade the angels to keep investing in Ge Xiaolun. They're on their way here now, so there is an opportunity. You decide how to handle it."

With that, Ryze stepped into the wormhole. His figure was swallowed by the flowing light, and the wormhole closed, leaving only a ring of energy ripples gradually dissipating in the air.

The command room fell quiet again.

Only the low hum of operating equipment and Du Kao's heavy, suppressed breathing remained.

His hands gripped the wheelchair's armrests tightly, his knuckles turning a sickly white from the force.

After a moment, he finally forced a low, hoarse curse out of his throat. "You inhuman bastard!"

If the angels were easy to deal with, Divine Kaisa would not have been the King of the Gods!

But at this point, he had no other choice.

"A Jie, go to the training grounds and bring Ge Xiaolun here."

"Yes, General."

A Jie acknowledged the order and withdrew.

At the same moment, above the sea of clouds thirty thousand meters in the air.

An alluring black figure streaked through the clouds at tremendous speed, dark-purple energy ripples gently undulating around her.

"Karl, that bitch!"

Morgana cursed as she flew, her voice broken up by the strong wind. "He actually dared to hang up on me for no damn reason! It's only because I, the queen, am down on my luck right now. Otherwise, I'd damn well send Ato and the others to lob a turd at that brat!"

Her gaze swept across the land below, streams of data cascading over her retinas like a waterfall.

She was scanning the humans on Blue Star's surface, preparing to find a suitable host for Ato.

Just then, she seemed to sense something and hurriedly used the wormhole algorithm to fold her entire body into an interlayer of Void Space.

Before long, three golden figures came into view.