114: Chapter 114 The cleanup went smoothly, but Li Yuan seems to have gotten into trouble.

When the setting sun dyed the sky of Planet G-77-3 orange-red, the cleanup legion retreated to the forward base.

The high-intensity advance throughout the day yielded remarkable results. On the sector map, the blue area representing "cleared" had expanded to nearly forty percent, and a "safety corridor" extending westward from the base was clearly visible, flanked by piles of Zerg corpses—those had been simply piled up by the Light Guardians after the battle, and automated engineering vehicles departing from the base were now recovering these corpses.

Chu Xinghe jumped down from the command vehicle and stretched exaggeratedly, his joints cracking with a "pop-pop" sound: "Work's done, work's done! This intensity today was even more exhausting than the training exercises I went through at the military academy back in the day."

"But you actually only piloted your mecha for less than two hours today." Luo Lan adjusted his glasses, mercilessly exposing him, "You spent the rest of the time in the command vehicle eating fruit."

"Mental fatigue! Do you understand mental fatigue? Watching those bugs swarm out over and over again, I'm almost developing trypophobia."

Elia stepped down from another vehicle, her ice-blue eyes still holding a sharpness from the battle, but a faint smile played on her lips.

She had personally killed tens of thousands of Stalkers today, and the feeling of precise hits every time her ice sword fell gave her a new understanding of how to control her talent.

Sai Wei's Thor armor had already been stowed away in the storage box, and he was currently communicating with his cousin Ansevier—the Olympia delegation's progress was slightly slower, but it was also advancing steadily. Judging by Sai Wei's beaming expression, he must have bragged quite a bit about his battle achievements to his fiancée today.

Li Yuan was the last to get off the vehicle.

He stood at the door of the command vehicle, looking at the mountain of Zerg corpses outside the base, his mental abacus clicking away.

Nearly two million—this was the number tallied by the Order of the Light Guardians when they recovered the Zerg corpses to obtain life essence. Although it couldn't compare to the scale of the last space battle, which easily reached the hundreds of millions, that time the entire fleet shared the spoils, whereas this time... hehe, their squad got to keep it all to themselves.

The quality was a bit lacking; in the space battle, the lowest level was at least a Mutalisk, while today they mostly killed basic units like Zerglings and Roaches. But you couldn't beat the sheer quantity! And how big was the forward base anyway? The volume of the Dijiang battleship could fit hundreds of thousands of bases like this one. Calculating it this way, the "energy abundance" per unit of space might actually be higher!

Li Yuan's mood improved the more he thought about it, his lips curling upward uncontrollably. He had even started to imagine the scene of Elia breaking through to the fourth rank after absorbing enough energy.

At that point, the team would have another battlefield-level combatant. This fourth rank, which was so hard to achieve, was probably similar to his fourth-rank Lord of Light. According to Customer Service Miss, the fourth-rank Lord of Light would undergo a qualitative change, capable of summoning a true Angel Legion.

"Master~" Laya snuggled up from behind, wrapping her arms around his waist, and gently rubbed her cheek against his back, "I'm so tired today."

Her voice was soft, with a hint of coquettishness.

Li Yuan turned around and naturally put his arm around her shoulders: "If you're tired, get some rest early. We had a good harvest today, tonight... hmm, let's celebrate properly."

When he said "celebrate," his fingers gently pinched Laya's waist. The angel girl's cheeks instantly flushed with a rosy hue, a layer of moisture welled up in her ice-blue eyes, and she let out a soft "mm," burying her face in his chest.

A few deliberately suppressed coughs came from around them.

Chu Xinghe pretended to look at the sky: "There are so many stars today, even though you can't see any stars at all through this planet's atmosphere."

Luo Lan adjusted his glasses: "According to astronomical data, the star system where Planet G-77-3 is located has three gas giants, which theoretically could reflect enough light to form a satellite effect similar to a moon, but it would require precise orbital calculations..."

"Shut up, you." Chu Xinghe covered his mouth.

Sai Wei finished his communication, turned back, and saw this scene, his mouth twitching: "Can you two be mindful of the impact? There are single people here!"

"You have a fiancée." Li Yuan reminded him.

"That's different! Ansevier isn't here!" Sai Wei said indignantly.

Elia had already walked away silently, her silver hair drifting gently in the evening breeze, her back looking exceptionally calm—if one ignored her slightly reddened ear tips.

Yimoku poked her head out of the research lab, holding a glowing instrument in her hand: "Student Li Yuan, if you encounter any special Zerg variants tomorrow, remember to leave me a complete corpse for samples! I want to study their energy conduction structures!"

"Got it, got it." Li Yuan waved his hand, put his arm around Laya, and walked toward the living quarters, "Everyone get some rest early, we continue working tomorrow!"

...

The moment the bedroom door closed, Laya jumped onto Li Yuan.

She literally jumped—the angel girl wrapped her legs around his waist, hugged his neck with her arms, and hung on him like a koala. Li Yuan quickly supported her, stumbling a bit before steadying himself.

"In such a rush?" He laughed.

"Master said we were going to celebrate tonight." Laya blinked, leaned close to his ear, her warm breath spraying against his auricle, "Laya wants to start celebrating early."

Li Yuan didn't say any more nonsense and carried her toward the bed.

The so-called "celebration," of course, wasn't actually throwing a party—for Li Yuan and Laya, there was only one form of celebration.

Energy transfer.

After all, the two had already taken that step, so the process of transferring life essence had become a more intimate and also more... intense ritual between them.

Li Yuan placed Laya on the bed and leaned down to kiss her.

Clothes were shed layer by layer.

Laya lay on the dark bedsheets, her long silver hair spread out, her skin glowing with a pearlescent sheen in the dim lighting. Her ice-blue eyes were now veiled with a mist, her lips were kissed to a deep crimson, and her chest rose and fell gently with her breathing.

The moment they became one, the true energy transfer began.

Li Yuan could clearly feel it—the life essence stored in Laya's body, collected throughout the entire day, began to surge toward him like a burst dam.

Surging.

Roaring.

Unstoppable.

That was the concentrated essence of millions of Zerg lives, the purest divine life force in the universe. It turned into a golden torrent, surging from Laya's lips into Li Yuan's body, rushing along his meridians, and flowing into the bei ming core in his Energy Center. Finally, it formed bei ming true energy and returned to Laya's body.

The two's bei ming cores began to spin crazily.

With every rotation, a large amount of essence was devoured, refined, and absorbed. Li Yuan's body trembled slightly; it was a kind of pleasure that transcended the limits of the senses.

Every cell was cheering, every nerve was trembling; that sense of fullness, of being saturated, of life force that seemed ready to overflow, made him almost want to moan.

And Laya...

She had already been lost in the torrent.

The angel girl tilted her head back, her neck forming a beautiful arc, her lips slightly parted but unable to utter a complete sound, only able to emit some intermittent breathy sounds. Her ice-blue eyes were completely unfocused, her pupils dilated, and she was like a small boat in a storm, able only to hold tightly onto Li Yuan—that was her only anchor.

Her body trembled, tensed, and relaxed uncontrollably. A holy halo overflowed from her body uncontrollably, circulating in the bedroom, gilding everything in a faint gold. Phantom images of wings appeared and disappeared behind her back; that was the manifestation of her angel origin being triggered.

The energy transfer process lasted for a long time.

Long enough that the sky outside the window had turned completely black, long enough that the base's night lighting system had automatically activated, long enough that Chu Xinghe in the next room had finished a round of cultivation and was preparing to sleep.

When the last torrent of essence flowed into the bei ming core, Li Yuan exhaled a long breath.

That breath carried a faint golden light, lingering in the air for a few seconds before slowly dissipating. He felt an unprecedented sense of fulfillment.

And Laya...

She lay limp on the bed, covered in fine beads of sweat, her silver hair sticking damply to her cheeks and the sides of her neck. Her ice-blue eyes were half-closed, her pupils still not fully focused, and she looked as if she had just been fished out of water, without even the strength to move a finger.

Li Yuan lay on his side next to her, pulling her into his arms. Laya naturally snuggled into his chest, letting out a satisfied sigh.

"Mmm." Li Yuan kissed her forehead lightly, "You've worked hard."

"It's not hard..." Laya closed her eyes, but the corners of her mouth curled up, "Laya likes it this way... likes helping Master..."

Her voice grew quieter and quieter, eventually turning into steady breathing—she had fallen asleep.

Li Yuan held her and also closed his eyes, preparing to enjoy this tranquility after the storm.

Then, a thought smashed into his mind without warning.

Wait.

The bug corpses were all collected by the Light Guardians. The Light Guardians would absorb the life essence and then transfer it to me through Laya. Then those corpses... wouldn't they become "corpses without energy"?

If they're corpses without energy, how can they increase the energy abundance?

And how can I help Elia break through?!

Cold sweat instantly soaked his back.