159: Chapter 159 Resurgence

Luo Ning rushed back to the hall, hurried and wind-swept, holding the vial of [Neuron Jump Fluid] that shimmered with a ghostly blue light, and laid out Dr. Shen's concerns and her own "live test" plan.

"Use us for experiments?"

After hearing this, Ivy and Hila felt not the slightest resistance; instead, their eyes erupted with intense hope.

"Miss Luo Ning, Dr. Shen, let alone testing the serum, even if you needed to drain my blood to awaken the Guild Master right now, I wouldn't even frown!"

Ivy stood up without hesitation, her tone resolute.

"As long as there is a chance it could help the Guild Master wake up sooner, I'll go first!"

Hila nodded in agreement, her eyes filled with determination.

Seeing how cooperative they were, Luo Ning snapped her fingers happily: "Great! Then let's head to the medical room immediately!"

Ten minutes later, Ivy lay flat on the medical bed. Shen Xingyue precisely injected a trace amount of the ghostly blue serum into her vein.

"How do you feel?"

Shen Xingyue kept her eyes fixed on the EEG monitor nearby, where the waveform representing synaptic activity began to show subtle oscillations.

Ivy closed her eyes and felt carefully for a moment, then frowned slightly: "I don't feel any discomfort, it's just... my head feels a little itchy, like tiny electric currents are darting under my scalp, and my thinking seems a bit clearer than usual."

"Let's go, to the training ground to test the specific data!"

Luo Ning impatiently pulled Ivy to the fortress's comprehensive training ground.

In the highest-difficulty irregular laser dodge test, Ivy, clad in battle armor, twisted and turned through the dense web of fire. After a few rounds of testing, Luo Ning looked at the system-generated data panel and rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

"There is indeed an improvement, but on a Tier 5 powerhouse like you, the effect is heavily diluted; the improvement in neural reaction speed is only about one-thousandth."

Luo Ning shared the data with Shen Xingyue.

Subsequently, Hila also volunteered to inject a trace amount of the serum.

After a full day of repeated testing and observation, the conclusion was basically unanimous: the serum could indeed safely stimulate the activity of Winged race brain cells, but because both of them were high-tier combatants, the improvement was only about one-thousandth, and the body's resistance to this serum and its long-term metabolic situation were not yet clear.

"It seems the direct bonus this serum gives to combat power is very limited, but as an 'awakening stimulant', it should be safe enough."

Shen Xingyue recorded the last line of data on her tablet and adjusted her glasses.

"To be safe, let's observe for one more night. If you don't show any rejection reactions by tomorrow morning, and Guild Master Grace still hasn't naturally awakened, we will use the serum on her."

After a night of close monitoring, not only did Ivy and Hila have no discomfort, but they were actually feeling energetic.

Meanwhile, Grace in the therapy pod remained motionless, like Sleeping Beauty.

"No abnormalities confirmed, preparing for injection."

Shen Xingyue did not hesitate any longer; she drew a standard dose of [Neuron Jump Fluid] and slowly pushed the ghostly blue liquid into Grace's body through the external injection port of the therapy pod.

As the serum was injected, the EEG on the monitoring screen finally began to show a hint of vibrant, intense activity, breaking away from the lifeless, flat curve it had before.

"It's working; the cerebral cortex is re-establishing neural connections." Shen Xingyue breathed a sigh of relief.

"Next, we just have to wait for her to break through the shackles of her consciousness on her own."

During the wait, Luo Ning rested her chin on her hands, leaning against the glass cover of the therapy pod, shamelessly observing the sleeping Grace, and couldn't help but let out a heartfelt exclamation.

"Seriously, Xingyue, the Winged race's genes are simply the Creator's favorite; their looks are just too high-tier, aren't they?"

Shen Xingyue stood to the side, her gaze sweeping over the woman inside the glass pod, and she couldn't help but nod slightly.

Putting aside the previous gore, the now fully recovered Grace was stunningly beautiful.

Her face possessed the mature charm of a human woman around twenty-eight or twenty-nine, her features deep and three-dimensional, and even in sleep, her brows exuded the Grace and majesty of one long accustomed to high positions. Her skin was as white as jade, and most eye-catching of all were the pure white wings that had regrown on her back.

Those wings were full and broad, every feather as smooth as the finest silk, and soaked in the medical fluid, they even shimmered with a holy luster as delicate as a pearl, setting off her graceful figure—which possessed the charm of a mature young woman—like a goddess.

Luo Ning turned her head, looked at Ivy and Hila waiting at the door, and couldn't help but gossip: "Look, their Guild Master has the temperament of a ripe peach; Sister Ivy, she looks about twenty-four or twenty-five, heroic and spirited, like a cold, icy older sister; as for Hila..."

Luo Ning leaned into Shen Xingyue's ear and whispered: "This girl Hila, she looks like a pure high school student of seventeen or eighteen. But the boss mentioned it to me before; according to our Earth's timescale, this little girl is actually over a hundred years old! Can you imagine? A hundred-year-old maiden!"

Shen Xingyue tidied the medical chart in her hand: "That's normal. The Winged race is a long-lived species, and their cellular division telomeres are much longer than humans'. A long lifespan means their gene expression cycle and development period are significantly extended. In the Winged race's physiological and social system, one hundred years old is just finishing the development period, equivalent to a human's seventeen or eighteen, just barely considered an adult."

"Beep—! Beep—!"

Just as the two were chatting in low voices, the monitoring panel on the therapy pod suddenly emitted two sharp, urgent beeps.

Shen Xingyue's eyes narrowed, and she immediately turned to look at the screen. She saw that after undergoing a violent surge, the peaks of Grace's brainwaves had completely broken through the threshold of self-seclusion!

Inside the glass pod, the Winged race queen, who had been asleep for five days and possessed the face of a stunning young woman, fluttered her long eyelashes like butterfly wings twice, then slowly opened those deep cyan eyes filled with pressure and confusion.

"She's awake! The Guild Master is awake!"

Luo Ning excitedly slapped the glass pod and immediately pressed the communicator: "Boss, Sister Muzi, come quickly, she's awake!"

Accompanied by a burst of hurried footsteps, Zhou An, along with Li Muzi, Hila, and Ivy, rushed into the originally spacious medical room in a swarm.

"Hiss—"

The glass cover of the therapy pod slid open slowly, and the pale cyan medical fluid drained rapidly.

Grace sat up abruptly.

"Get lost!"

A violent wind-attribute spiritual energy belonging to a Tier 5 Peak powerhouse instantly exploded from her body! Even without any weapon, Grace, relying on the combat instincts carved into her bones, delivered a hand-blade strike powerful enough to tear through steel, carrying a shrill whistling sound as it struck directly toward Luo Ning and Shen Xingyue, who were closest to her!

"Watch out!"

Ivy exclaimed.

In that split second, a slender, powerful hand seemed to reach out from the side, steadily grabbing Grace's wrist.

"Bang!"

The moment the violent wind blade touched that palm, it was like a clay ox entering the sea, crushed by an even more terrifying and pure physical force.

Zhou An stood in front of the therapy pod, not even moving his feet an inch, looking calmly at the Winged race queen before him who was in a stress response state: "Starting a fight as soon as you wake up, quite a fiery temper."

Grace's pupils constricted, and just as she was about to forcefully urge her spiritual energy to break free, her peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of two familiar figures standing behind Zhou An.

"Guild Master..."

Hila and Ivy's eyes had already turned red.

The spiritual energy all over Grace's body instantly receded like a tide, and her chaotic memories finally began to piece themselves back together.

She saw the faces of these completely strange alien races before her, then looked at her own intact hands and legs, as well as the wings on her back that were once again full of strength, and instantly understood everything.

"I apologize..."

Grace immediately lowered her guard and decisively bowed her proud head, her tone carrying a hint of the hoarseness of someone who had just awakened.

"My memory is still stuck at the time I was imprisoned by Cormac. Thank you for your tolerance, for not harming me."

Zhou An casually released her wrist and smiled faintly: "It's only natural. Go change your clothes first; we'll wait for you in the hall."

Ten-plus minutes later.

Grace changed into a set of loose, comfortable loungewear prepared by Li Muzi. Although it was just loungewear, as she sat upright on the sofa, that Grace and majesty belonging to one in a high position still made it impossible to look directly at her.

She held a cup of steaming warm tea in both hands, quietly listening to Ivy recount everything that had happened recently.

From the disguise of the Sky Engine trading group, the death of Cormac's only son, the prison break on the Qingfeng Battleship, to Vice President Brandon defecting to the Wind God Guild with half of their assets...

Throughout the entire retelling, Grace remained silent.

"That's about the situation..."

Ivy summarized in a low voice.

The hall fell into a brief silence.

Zhou An gently rubbed the rim of his teacup, breaking the silence and getting straight to the point: "President Grace, since you have woken up, I won't beat around the bush. How do you plan to deal with that Great Elder who usurped power?"

Grace put down her teacup and slowly raised her head. She looked at Zhou An, a chilling murderous intent appearing on her originally stunning face.

"I will execute him personally."

Grace's tone was solemn and unquestionable. Afterward, she stood up and bowed deeply to Zhou An and the others.

"Lord Zhou An, everyone. The kindness you have shown to Grace and the White Feather Guild is akin to a rebirth. If it weren't for you, all the hard work put into White Feather would have been completely destroyed. Grace will definitely repay this debt!"

"We can talk about repayment later."

Zhou An waved his hand, signaling her to sit down.

"The problem now is that Cormac still holds a Tier 6 flagship and fifty Tier 5 battleships. When do you plan to take back what belongs to you?"

"The sooner, the better."

Grace's eyes were sharp.

"If that madman Cormac discovers I've escaped, he might very well destroy the flagship's core data or drag the entire fleet down with him to cover up the truth. We must cut off his control over the fleet before he goes completely insane!"

"Since we're going to act, what is the status of your current equipment and supplies?"

Zhou An pressed.

"Since that flagship is your bound vehicle, you should be able to control it, right?"

"I can control it, but I need to get close."

Grace nodded. As long as she could get close, everything else would be manageable.

Zhou An looked at Luo Ning nearby: "Prepare a set of battle armor for Grace."

"No problem! Leave it to me!"

Luo Ning excitedly pulled out her data pad, "Big Sister President, what type is your talent? I need to adjust the energy conduction modules of the battle armor based on your talent."

"My talent is [Storm Sovereign], which belongs to a pure combat type." Grace did not hide anything. "As a Tier 5 lifeform, this talent has been further sublimated. As long as I am in a combat state, all wind-attribute damage for both myself and the battleships I control will be forcibly increased by 50%."

"A 50% final damage multiplier?!" Luo Ning's eyes widened in surprise. This was a terrifying stat bonus. "This talent is too fierce; it's practically tailor-made for aerial combat and saturation bombardment!"

Luo Ning's fingers tapped rapidly on the data pad, recording the core parameters.

"Don't worry, Big Sister President, I can get it done within a day!"

Luo Ning patted her flat chest, guaranteeing it confidently.

Inside the spacious super-alloy training field, air currents are raging wildly.

"Swish!" A sharp cyan afterimage tore through the air. Grace moved like lightning, her long, powerful legs whipping up a violent spiral of wind blades, hacking fiercely toward the side of Zhou An's neck like a giant mountain-splitting axe.

This was definitely not a general who only knew how to talk on paper while sitting in a command room. Every move Grace made was ruthless and precise, carrying the cruel instincts honed from crawling through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Zhou An stood in place, his figure not even swaying. Facing this strike capable of shattering armor, he simply raised his left arm casually.

"Bang!" A dull sound of physical collision exploded in the training field, and the violent wind pressure instantly blew the surrounding metal targets askew. However, Grace's heavy, powerful whip kick was steadily blocked by Zhou An's forearm, unable to advance even an inch further.

A glimmer of surprise flashed in Grace's deep cyan eyes. Her wings flapped violently, and using the recoil, she nimbly completed a backflip in mid-air, putting some distance between them.

The moment she landed, she exerted force through her feet, leaving two deep indentations in the alloy floor. Grace pressed forward, her hands turning into blades. Pure wind-attribute psionic energy coated her palms, forming two nearly transparent, high-frequency wind blades, and she unleashed a storm-like close-quarters assault on all of Zhou An's vital points.

A faint smile curled on Zhou An's lips as his figure shuttled through the dense web of wind blades like a ghost. He did not use any weapons, relying solely on his Tier 5 Peak physical strength to parry and block.

Fists and palms intersected, and air waves rolled.

In the vast Cangyun Airspace, there actually exists an invisible "racial chasm" between Tier 5 powerhouses.

Generally speaking, the base stats of the Human race are relatively mediocre among the myriad races. Once they reach the watershed of Tier 5, those gifted Beast-kin, or special races like the Winged race with extremely high affinity for high-dimensional energy, often have base physical strength and psionic reserves about 20% higher than humans of the same level.

However, this iron rule was completely shattered by Zhou An.

The more Grace fought, the more shocked she became. She could clearly feel that no matter how much she increased her attack frequency or how strong the psionic energy she unleashed, the man in front of her remained completely at ease.

Inside Zhou An's seemingly not-so-burly human body, it was as if an abyssal behemoth lay dormant. Every recoil force from each collision made her feel a terrifying, absolute suppression on a dimensional level.

"Hoo—" The moment their figures crossed, Zhou An's fingers shot out like an eagle's claw, precisely gripping Grace's wrist. At the same time, his other hand, fingers held together like a blade, stopped steadily one inch in front of Grace's slender neck.

The sharp wind from his fingers snapped a strand of golden hair by Grace's ear.

"Let's stop here."

Zhou An released his hand, and the surging blood and energy around him instantly calmed down.

"I lost."

Grace folded her wings. Instead of feeling discouraged, she let out a heartfelt exclamation.

"Lord Zhou An, your strength is truly unfathomable. I have fought many Beast-kin lords of the same tier, but I have never experienced this kind of all-encompassing sense of suppression."

"You have just recovered from a serious illness; being able to restore your bodily functions to this level within a day is already quite good."

Zhou An casually tossed a towel to Grace.

Grace wiped the fine sweat from her forehead, her eyes becoming cold and firm again: "This body has completely adapted. Lord Zhou An, I've recovered enough; it's time for us to make our move."

After freshening up, the two walked to the hall one after the other. Li Muzi, Shen Xingyue, and others had been waiting for a long time, gathered around the tactical holographic projection.

"What's the situation?"

Zhou An pulled out the chair at the main seat and sat down, his finger pointing at the huge red dot on the holographic screen representing the 'wind chaser'.

"As long as you can regain control of that flagship, Cormac's days are numbered. Are you confident?"

"Of course."

"Good, then prepare to move!"

Zhou An's eyes sharpened.

"Additionally, I have a piece of intelligence to add."

"While lying low these past two days, I used the fortress's encrypted communication channel to secretly contact several former subordinates who were absolutely loyal to me."

Upon hearing this, Ivy and Sheila's eyes immediately lit up.

Grace continued: "After Cormac lost me, his only 'legitimacy chip,' the interior has fallen into complete chaos. To cover up the truth, he has been frantically mobilizing the fleet to hunt us down. This abnormal behavior has already aroused the suspicion of many generals. Now, the White Feather Guild is in a state of panic, and Cormac's control over the grassroots and mid-level officers has plummeted to freezing point."

"That old thing is now just a bare commander sitting on a powder keg."

Zhou An sneered.

Grace nodded.

"Therefore, now is the best time for a counterattack."

"As long as I reappear in front of the fleet and take control of the 'wind chaser', those soldiers who were forced to submit to Cormac will immediately defect!"