174: Chapter 174 Weaver's Call

In less than five hours, the nine reclamation fleets that had been frantically scouring resources in the forward airspace had all returned, hovering steadily on the periphery.

Inside the central command hall, the newly returned captains and vice-captains gathered together.

Grace stood before the holographic strategic table, having swept away her usual look of worry; her stunningly beautiful face now exuded a cold, sharp aura.

"Since everyone is here, I am announcing two major events that concern the survival of our guild."

"First, to cope with the total war, our fortress's supreme commander, City Lord Zhou An, has allocated a massive amount of war supplies to us. With this foundation, we now have the ability to ignore material shortages and forcibly produce LV5 warships! Those seventeen five-source power cores in the warehouse can immediately be used to churn out seventeen brand-new LV5 warships!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the hall erupted in chaos. The captains looked at each other, their eyes filled with wild joy.

"Quiet!"

Grace raised her hand to suppress the commotion.

"Upgrade slots will be strictly ranked according to guild contribution points; Ivy will announce the list on all channels shortly. Those in the top seventeen, just bring your warships to the factory area—the guild will cover all upgrade materials!"

"The second matter—"

Grace's tone became solemn.

"Miss Luo Ning will personally lead a team to conduct a comprehensive check-up on all our core warships. She will use the fortress's top-tier resources to help everyone replace and upgrade all weapon modules and defense modules to legendary grade."

If the previous news was a bombshell, this statement was a tsunami. The hall became so quiet that a pin drop could be heard, with only the sound of collective gasps rising and falling. legendary grade modules for everyone? Looking across the entire Cangyun Airspace, only the upper echelons of those few super-powers could afford such a configuration.

After a moment of dead silence, cheers erupted.

"Don't just stand there! Since you've taken the best resources, you must show the fiercest combat power!"

Grace ended her speech decisively.

"Ivy, make the arrangements. All frigates are to split into three shifts to establish a rotating defensive formation on the perimeter of the fortress. Everyone else, go to the logistics department immediately to verify your contribution points. Dismissed!"

As the crowd dispersed, Grace rubbed her slightly aching brow and turned to return to her private office. As soon as she sat down, her personal tactical terminal suddenly lit up with a blinding red light—a top-encrypted remote communication request.

Grace glanced at the caller ID displayed on the screen, and her expression instantly darkened.

Caller: Weaver.

Grace took a deep breath and pressed the answer button.

The holographic screen lit up, and Weaver's well-groomed face, wearing a hypocritical smile, appeared.

"What wind has blown the former vice-president here?"

Grace leaned back in her chair, her tone as cold as frost.

"My humble ship cannot accommodate a great Buddha like you."

"Grace, long time no see. Your temper is still as cold and hard as ever."

Weaver straightened his Winged Race Royal Legion uniform, feeling no awkwardness at all. "I am looking for you today under the direct order of the Guild President—oh, my apologies, the President I am referring to is the current Winged King, Lord Dominic."

This display of showing off his new master made Grace feel nauseated.

"If Lord Weaver is just here to show me the new gold-plated collar around your neck, then that is completely unnecessary."

Grace's finger hovered over the button to cut off the communication. "I am very busy and have no time to watch you perform your loyal dog act."

"Wait!"

Seeing that Grace was about to hang up, Weaver quickly put away his leisurely posture. "I am here on behalf of the Royal Legion to discuss serious business. The racial peace talks have broken down, and a total conflict has erupted—you've seen the broadcast. Lord Dominic is magnanimous and lets bygones be bygones; he allows the remaining remnants of your White Feather Guild to join the Royal Legion. As long as you bring your warships over and join the Royal Vanguard Battalion, the King can provide you with protection."

Grace sneered inwardly. This so-called recruitment was nothing more than wanting her to take her elite assets and serve as cannon fodder for the Royal Legion. But she did not lash out—Zhou An had warned her that the situation was unclear, and there was no need to make enemies prematurely. She lowered her eyes, her tone becoming vague:

"Joining the Royal Legion... this is a major matter, and I cannot make the decision alone. I need to consult with someone first."

Weaver was stunned for a moment, then burst into ear-piercing laughter.

"Hahahaha! Grace, you really surprise me! The dignified President of the White Feather Guild, a woman who wasn't even afraid of death back then, now doesn't even have the courage to make her own decisions? You have to go back and consult with someone? Tsk—don't tell me you've found some wild man and turned into a canary in someone else's cage?"

Grace looked at him expressionlessly, her eyes as calm as stagnant water.

Weaver finished laughing, put on a cold, hard face, and said in a threatening tone: "I advise you to think it through carefully. Now, with the chaotic battles and collapsing front lines, your meager remaining strength won't even make a splash in front of a meat grinder of this level. Only by clinging tightly to Lord Dominic's thigh is your only way to survive. Don't be ungrateful."

The screen flashed, and Weaver unilaterally cut off the communication.

The office fell silent again.

Grace leaned back in her chair, staring at the now-dark holographic screen, slowly closing her eyes. Her fingertips tapped lightly on the armrest, and a barely perceptible curve appeared at the corner of her mouth.

"In such a rush to contact me, it seems things aren't going so well on your end..."

...

Inside the pale blue therapy pod, the high-concentration energy fluid was shimmering.

Zhou An, shirtless, was submerged in the therapy pod, eyes closed as he circulated the vital energy within his body. During this period, he had been constantly trying to push the limits of his physical body, attempting to break through the barrier of the fifth tier as quickly as possible and step into the brand-new level of the sixth tier.

Shen Xingyue, wearing a neat white lab coat, stood beside the therapy pod. Her expression was focused as she precisely poured several tubes of concentrated nutritional agents—refined from legendary grade medicinal plants and high-tier exotic beast bone marrow—into the pod's circulation system.

Accompanied by a low hum, those precious agents were greedily and rapidly absorbed by his black hole-like cells almost the instant they touched Zhou An's skin.

"Hoo—"

Zhou An opened his eyes, exhaled a long breath of stale air, and stood up from the therapy pod.

Shen Xingyue picked up a specially prepared sterile towel and naturally wiped the residual medicinal liquid off his broad back muscles.

"The sixth tier should be a very critical watershed."

As she wiped him down, Shen Xingyue looked at the data jumping on the instrument nearby and calmly analyzed: "The rate at which your body's various metrics are improving has clearly slowed down. This indicates that you are about to touch the limit of the fifth-tier hurdle. This is a process of accumulating foundation; once you cross it, your physical strength will definitely undergo a complete qualitative change."

"About how much longer?"

Zhou An put on his loose black combat suit and asked casually.

"According to the current absorption efficiency and agent ratio, conservatively estimated, you will be able to forcibly break through this threshold within three months at most."

Shen Xingyue pushed up her glasses and gave a fairly precise time frame.

Zhou An nodded in satisfaction. Three months sounded a bit long in normal times, but in this racial war destined to be protracted, it was an acceptable period of hibernation.

Just then, EVA's mechanical voice came over the medical room's broadcast:

"White Feather Guild President Grace is waiting in the hall for a visit."

"Understood, I'm heading over now."

Cloud Top Fortress, second-floor central hall.

Zhou An pushed open the hall door and saw Grace sitting on the sofa at a glance. Seeing Zhou An come out, she stood up immediately, her expression carrying a hint of gravity.

"Sit down, we're all our own people, no need to be so restrained."

Zhou An waved his hand, sat down in the main seat, and picked up a cup of hot tea.

"What do you need me for?"

Grace did not hide anything and reported everything in detail, including the communication from former vice-president Weaver just now, as well as Winged King Dominic's intention to recruit their remaining forces.

After hearing this, Zhou An gently rubbed the rim of the warm teacup with his fingers, falling into deep thought.

"The Winged King is recruiting you to join the Royal Legion..."

Zhou An raised his eyelids and glanced at Grace. "What conditions did the other side offer? For example, the ratio of material distribution, or the location of the defensive zone?"

Grace shook her head, a bitter, cold smile appearing at the corner of her mouth: "No conditions at all. Weaver's condescending tone made it seem as if letting us join was already a massive favor to us."

"Heh, trying to get something for nothing, are they."

Zhou An couldn't help but sneer, muttering to himself: "These guys really have pegged you as weak and isolated, thinking that you have no way out under the threat of total war, so they aren't even willing to give the slightest verbal sweetener, just waiting for you to obediently deliver yourselves to be cannon fodder."

"City Lord Zhou An, what do you mean?"

Grace looked at Zhou An.

"My meaning is: don't go. If you go, you're just acting as a human shield for others."

Zhou An shook his head decisively. Then, with a thought, he brought up the system's holographic star map projection and zoomed the image directly into the forward battle zone.

"Look here."

Zhou An's finger swiped across the light screen, precisely locking onto the massive group of cursors representing the Winged King's Royal Legion.

"This is the frontmost twenty percent area of the entire main force, exactly the center of that 'meat grinder' where the competition is most fierce in the first thirty percent. Dominic's troops are stuck right in this most scorching hot position."

Zhou An began to analyze the current war situation:

"Let's think from the perspective of the Beast Race. If the Beast Race wants to win this war and monopolize the Golden Zone, starting an all-out chaotic war from the very beginning is clearly not very rational. That's the strategy of a brute. Any commander with a bit of brains would choose to 'concentrate superior forces and break them one by one'."

"So the question arises: who to hit first?"

Zhou An drew an 'X' over the cursor representing City Lord Zhao Tianyu [Sky City]: "Option one: go directly for City Lord Zhao Tianyu. As long as the human main force is crushed, the remaining Elf Race, although their magic is hard to deal with, cannot stand alone, and the other races are even more vulnerable. But the cost of this plan is too high. City Lord Zhao Tianyu holds 400,000 troops and is definitely no pushover. Trying to gnaw on this hard bone, the Beast Race would break their own teeth, and they might even get stabbed in the back by other forces."

Next, Zhou An's finger moved to the cursors for the Winged Race and the Goblin-Dwarf-Gnome alliance, tapping them heavily twice.

"Option two: pick the soft persimmons to squeeze first. Concentrate firepower to deal with Dominic's Winged Race main force first, while simultaneously scattering that temporarily cobbled-together alliance of Goblins, Dwarves, and Gnomes. In this way, not only can they pull out the coalition's air superiority and resource exploration capabilities, but they can also completely isolate the Elf Race and Sky City."

Zhou An leaned back in his chair and reached the final conclusion:

"The cost of crushing City Lord Zhao Tianyu is too high; the Beast Race will most likely choose the second option—using the Winged King and the Goblin-Dwarf-Gnome alliance as a sacrifice to open the war."

Hearing this, Grace gasped sharply and instantly realized: "You mean that Dominic has also guessed the Beast Race's strategic intent, and knows that he is about to face the first fierce impact of the Beast Race's army?!"

"Exactly." Zhou An sneered, "It is precisely because he knows his defensive zone is about to become a meat grinder of mountains of corpses and seas of blood that he is so impatiently having Weaver recruit you. What he lacks is not kinship, but meat shields who can attract fire for his Royal Legion on the front line and use their lives to fill the trenches!"

After listening to Zhou An's incisive analysis of the situation, the confusion in Grace's eyes completely dissipated.

"I understand. Dominic wants to use our White Feather Guild's lives to fill the first wave of the Beast Race army's fury."

Grace took a deep breath, her tone exceptionally firm, "City Lord Zhou An, I will go back now and cut off Weaver's communication frequency. The White Feather Guild will definitely not go to the front line to wade into these muddy waters, nor will we be cannon fodder for anyone."

"A wise choice."

Zhou An nodded in satisfaction and picked up his teacup to take a light sip.

"Have everyone hurry up and rest, and re-equip. The real storm is about to come."

The two made their final decision, completely dispelling any thought of heading to the Winged Race headquarters, and decided to stick to their own pace.

Three days later.

In just three short days, the situation in the entire Cangyun Airspace became like a wild horse off its leash, sliding completely toward the edge of being out of control.

The aftermath of the failed peace talks turned into substantial war. The major hostile races completely tore off their masks; they didn't even need any negotiation. As long as a signal from a non-allied faction was identified on radar, they were met with a storm of indiscriminate attacks.

The most tragic and bloody meat grinder battles were still concentrated in the front thirty percent 'Golden Reclamation Zone'. There, warships were falling and floating islands were shattering almost every minute and every second.

But as the war situation continued to escalate, everyone realized a cruel fact: if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold. Once the coalition forces on the front line could not withstand the Beast Race's fierce attack, causing the defense line to collapse, then those hiding in the rear would definitely not escape death.

This sense of despair with no way to retreat forced more and more small and medium-sized guilds and lone wolves who had originally wanted to hunker down in the rear to grit their teeth and drive their warships toward the front line. Swept up in this wave, the war, which had originally been limited to the head, was forced to spread backward, extending all the way into the vast airspace of the first fifty percent!

The sky was truly burning.