Published at 5th of May 2026 7:32 am

Chapter 4097 Active Intelligence Gathering

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The reprimands of the Emperor of Water weighed on the central command committee responsible for planning the Garg operation. Indeed, the moment he broke through to the Transcendent Realm and protected all of Gaia from the destruction that ensued, not a single one of them could stop themselves from subconsciously developing a reliance on him. It couldn't be helped. It was the same psychology that afflicted pathwalkers of lesser ranks when led by pathwalkers of higher ranks. And the power gap between them and Rui was so utterly astronomical that they found it challenging to shed this mindset even after being reprimanded by him.

Regardless, the committee immediately took his advice to heart and began ironing out a plan to take down Garg as more and more intelligence from Pioneer VIII and its reinforcement fleets had begun. The mission of the Pioneer omni-ship had completely changed from exploring, developing, and extracting resources of the Sirius Star System to gathering as much intel on the conscious planet and specimens of the Gargantian Hive. All of their resources were diverted towards learning more about the planet to send home for the Gaian Alliance to scour and incorporate into their strategy to defeat their planet.

Of course, the information they gathered was still relatively sparse. There was only so much that passive observation yielded them. In order to learn more about the gargantian, they would need to take more risks and more active measures to probe the planet and see how it reacted to its stimuli.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Sage Ceeran raised an eyebrow.

In the command room aboard the 72nd fleet of Panamic Space Force, Sage Ceeran found himself standing before the leadership of the ship. A burly man wearing an intricate militaristic uniform with the logo of the Panamic Space Force embroidered on it turned towards Sage Ceeran with a pointed gaze.

Sage Ceeran heaved a deep breath, turning towards the files laid out on the table before him. They documented the mission that they wanted him to undertake.

A second mission to the gargantian in a spacecraft.

But not just any spacecraft.

"One with a world bridge system attached to it?" Sage Ceeran frowned. "What's even the point?"

"The point of the mission, Sage Ceeran, is to test whether the activation of a wormhole in close proximity to the planet will activate its defense mechanism," the admiral remarked with an irreverent tone of voice that Sage Ceeran didn't miss.

He also sensed with his mind sense that the man didn't have too much respect for him, despite being a regular human being.

Even as the man spoke to him with a slightly patronizing tone of voice, the Martial Sage couldn't help but lament once more the changes in the social dynamic of Panamic Civilization in the past decade.

There was a time in the past when an ordinary human being would be groveling on the ground before a Martial Sage like him with fear, awe, and respect. It wasn't even a time that was too long ago; Sage Ceeran himself had lived in such a time not too many years ago.

However, since then, the social status of Martial Artists had reduced while the status of ordinary men had risen. It was possible for normal people to command great respect, authority, and power in a system that enforced that power and authority. A system that not even Martial Artists could defy.

Of course, he still thought they lived in a better world. He would rather live in a more peaceful and prosperous world than one that was ravaged by civil strife, the way that human civilization was before the Beast Incursion. However, it was in moments like these, where he was talked down to by a man with even greater authority than him, that it truly rubbed him the wrong way.

Admiral Drelhic didn't even intend to look down upon him, the Martial Sage could sense, but he inadvertently did. The man commanded multiple powerful war fleets and possessed great authority within the Panamic Space Force, the most important military organization of the Panamic Alliance. In comparison, Sage Ceeran was undoubtedly still important, but he was among a rapidly growing number of Martial Sages in the Panama Continent. His importance was only going to get diluted as time passed.

It was one of the reasons that he had sought to travel to outer space.

"Does this mission even need me?" Sage Ceeran raised an eyebrow. "After all, couldn't you send a remote-controlled bogey or something with the world bridge also controlled remotely?"

"We would like to protect the world bridge in the event that the bogey is attacked," Admiral Drehlic remarked with a calm but authoritative tone of voice. "We need to have a Martial Sage present there to secure the world bridge with their combat power until we teleport both the world bridge and the Martial Sage to safety, in the event that Garg does retaliate. Now, I would rather entrust such a task to lower-ranked Martial Sages, but the younger Martial Sages are, shall we say, unreliable. At least compared to a more established Martial Sage like yourself."

"What about plain old defensive energy shields?"

"We have none on our spacecraft that can withstand powerful attacks."

"Why not get a defensive Martial Sage?"

"They're resting," Admiral Drehlic remarked. "After-effects of their Realms of power.

Sage Ceeran snorted. "Fine. I'll do it."

Admiral Drehlic smiled. "Brilliant. Get prepared, we wish to conduct the experiment right away. I'm told the Emperor of Water wishes to expedite the entire process so that we can capture Garg as soon as possible."

It wasn't long before Sage Ceeran found himself in a remote-controlled spacecraft that was immediately deployed into space from the fleet carrier of the 72nd fleet.

WHOOSH…

Sage Ceeran experienced a powerful thrust as the spacecraft moved towards the gargantian specimen at a high speed. The Milky Way Galaxy outside the window of his spacecraft shone brightly as all of its stars illuminated the canvas of the universe. But what drew his attention was the distant gargantian planet, which had a surface with a wild assortment of sharp colors. Almost as if it were a poisonous creature, warning other lifeforms to come anywhere near it.

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