"Ha... ha... ha..."
Ye Ying looked with slight panic at the five men lying in pools of blood before her, then tentatively nudged one of their thighs with her rifle butt.
After confirming they were all dead, Ye Ying suddenly bared her teeth and roared in anger, her slender, pale fingers tightening the trigger.
"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang..."
A volley of gunshots echoed across the beach, the sound like a horn of rage piercing the night and stabbing the heart.
The young Ye Ying dropped the gun and rushed to the side of Anaise, whose body was riddled with holes, and hugged her tightly.
"You've grown up..." Anaise trembled, raising her blood-stained hand to gently caress Ye Ying's small face, her eyes filled with affection.
Suddenly, the 10-year-old Ye Ying transformed into her 19-year-old self, a resolute and sorrowful expression appearing on her beautiful face.
"Sister, I've avenged you! I've avenged you!!" Ye Ying cried, weeping.
"I know... thank you... I think I have to go now... Sister is tired..." Anaise said her last words tremblingly, pressing on Ye Ying's chest with a final surge of strength, her eyes gradually losing their luster.
Feeling Anaise in her arms grow heavier, Ye Ying knew that her soul had left this broken body and ascended to an unimaginable place.
When the healing pod once again displayed its original metallic silver sheen, the warm temperature abruptly dropped.
Ye Ying wiped away her tears and slowly stood up, looking down at her fair, calloused hands, her gaze gradually steadying.
The door of the healing pod opened, and Lei Wei entered, holding a holographic screen. Behind his thick-rimmed glasses, his red-swollen eyes were filled with tears.
"I never expected you to have gone through something like this," Lei Wei sighed.
Ye Ying said nothing, feeling the wondrous changes within her body. At this moment, she truly felt that what had once belonged to her had returned.
Lei Wei wiped away his tears and said, "People have ten kinds of emotions and eight kinds of suffering, seven emotions and six desires. Other personalities took away a part of your soul, forming new personalities to help you deal with unresolved matters. How does it feel now that they have returned?"
Ye Ying looked at Lei Wei with composure and said calmly, "I feel whole. Thank you, Doctor Lei."
With that, Ye Ying walked out of the healing pod with steady steps.
"You still need at least three more consolidation treatments to be truly recovered," Lei Wei reminded her.
Ye Ying walked past Lei Wei steadily and said softly, "No, I am sure I have recovered. Too much time has passed. Now, I have things to do."
Leaving the psychological treatment base, Ye Ying returned to the Ao Ying Third Team camp without delay.
She sat alone in the conference room for two hours before her entire team arrived.
A hint of displeasure flickered across Ye Ying's usually calm face. She looked down with cold eyes at Qiao Weiwei, who was nearly an hour late, and said coldly, "Copy the military rules and discipline twenty times. You are not allowed to leave until you finish."
Qiao Weiwei was stunned, and resentment instantly surfaced on her face. She spoke arrogantly and angrily, "On what grounds do you order me? Have you cured your mental illness? You still have the nerve to sit here and lead the Ao Ying Third Team! Hmph, people like you should honestly be subordinates. I really don't know what Gu Ya saw in you..."
"Thirty times. You don't need to attend the meeting; write it here and now, with the entire team watching you!" Ye Ying refused to waste words with Qiao Weiwei.
"You!" Qiao Weiwei was about to make another move.
Liu Feng quickly pulled her aside, thoughtfully handing her paper and pen, conveying with his eyes not to act rashly.
A higher rank always held more authority. Qiao Weiwei's words were tough, but her actions were honest. She took the paper and pen and began to write.
Watching Qiao Weiwei reluctantly start handwriting the military rules and discipline, Ye Ying felt a slight sense of relief. She glanced at Shen Jingming, who was playing a game nearby, and asked softly, "What have you been doing lately?"
Shen Jingming didn't look up and replied lazily, "Broke my own record of 72 days without sleep. As for what I was doing, that's a top-secret matter."
His faint words made everyone present feel that he was even more mentally unstable than Ye Ying.
72 days without sleep was beyond human. Even a bionic person couldn't stay active for that long.
There were many secrets about this war god that others did not know.
Ye Ying nodded and looked at Tao Na, "How is your recovery going?"
"Captain, I have fully recovered this month and can execute missions," Tao Na said calmly and steadily.
As it stood, this woman in her early twenties seemed to be the only relatively normal person in the team.
Liu Feng gave the same answer, but his arm was still wrapped in bandages, suggesting he was pushing himself. After all, losing an arm meant that even with Xian Xia's most advanced medical technology, it would take more than a month for full recovery.
But since he said so, Ye Ying no longer hesitated and agreed to his request to participate in combat.
Finally, there was Li Fang, who was wrapped in bandages from head to toe and had a neck brace, yet still appeared in the conference room.
Li Fang mumbled, "Reporting to the new Captain! Although Li Fang's bones haven't healed yet, I can still pilot a mecha! We ancient martial arts mecha pilots have special physiques and recovery skills. We must pilot mechas to speed up our recovery. Believe me, I can be with everyone..."
Ye Ying coldly interrupted him, saying, "You talk too much. From now on, you're not allowed to use more than three commas in a single sentence."
"Pfft..." Liu Feng stifled a laugh that nearly escaped him. This Li Fang truly had an unchangeable bad habit.
"Li Fang, recuperate properly at the camp," Ye Ying said calmly. "We can no longer follow the original plan to search for enemy mechs that know Gu Ya's whereabouts. Waiting idly is too slow. We will change our strategy. Release the news that Gu Xingchi is with the Ao Ying Third Team."
Upon hearing this, the team members were slightly taken aback.
"Liu Feng, you will impersonate Gu Xingchi," Ye Ying said, her gaze fixed on Liu Feng.
Liu Feng pursed his lips, frowned, and nodded with an awkward smile.
"Everyone except Li Fang, pack enough water and food for a week. Depart immediately," Ye Ying said in an irrefutable tone. She stood up quickly, the first to head out.
As she reached Qiao Weiwei at the last seat, her eyes slanted slightly. She looked down at her and said, "Stop copying. This is a lesson; remember it next time." With that, she quickly left the conference room.
It wasn't until the "tap, tap" of Ye Ying's boots faded that the others finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Li Fang slightly turned his shoulder and looked at Tao Na and Liu Feng, wondering, "Is our new captain always this domineering? I feel she's even more terrifying than Gu Ya."
"I bet Ye Ying must have suffered some kind of shock during her treatment. She wasn't like this before," Liu Feng said, stretching his arms. "Ooh, ooh, ooh!" Then he gritted his teeth, clutching his broken arm in pain.
Tao Na said nothing, quietly stood up, and left. Shen Jingming followed her out of the conference room, as if having someone lead the way, he could focus solely on the game in the holographic image without needing to watch where he was going.
Qiao Weiwei, her stomach full of anger, muttered, "I want to see if her mental illness is really cured. If I find out she's having an episode again, I'll immediately report it to the superiors and have her captain position revoked!"
Liu Feng gloatingly reminded her, "Save it. If Gu Ya finds out you're treating Ye Ying like this, hmph, you'll have hell to pay."
Two hours later,
Five mechs of the Ao Ying Third Team flew out of the hangar one after another, heading towards the blue sky and the Gobi Desert.
The news that Gu Xingchi was with the Ao Ying Third Team had already been transmitted through the intelligence network active in the shadows to the Black Star Empire.
Mu Ye Xing Chen, thousands of miles away, was the first to receive the news. Following his orders, a formation of many Black Star enemy mechs searched the vast land of Xian Xia for the whereabouts of the Ao Ying Third Team.
Every member of the Ao Ying Third Team understood the difficulty of this mission, but they had to do it to quickly find Gu Ya's whereabouts.
Three days after they flew out of Xian Xia City and began their search across Xian Xia, enemy mechs finally appeared on the Nightingale mech's radar.
"Let's make it quick. Wujiban Zhi Hong will be the vanguard and proactively approach the enemy mechs," Ye Ying said coldly.
"Huh?"
Everyone froze for a moment.