Chapter 727: Yo, you still get all puffed up?

The movements of Star Sea Hall were faster than anyone imagined.

On the day Weiniya stepped out of the hall, several surrounding star fields simultaneously received the highest-level warning message, with uniform wording and format.

The content is simple: a latent natural disaster has appeared at the coordinates; please prepare all star-field civilizations within a radius of 100 light-years.

A latent natural disaster means a catastrophe that is highly likely to upgrade into a true natural disaster.

It is not equivalent to other minor natural disasters; a latent natural disaster becomes equivalent to entities like Blood Disaster and Insect Disaster—basically just a matter of time.

In an instant, the entire surrounding star field became restless.

Fleets were drawn from various homeports and assembled, planetary outposts raised the highest alert, civilian routes began emergency evacuation, countless civilizational leaders stayed up all night in meetings, staring at the several-thousand-word report, their faces grim enough to wring water.

Some civilizations collapsed outright—just newly merged into the Star Sea, they hadn't even fully mastered rapid interstellar travel when a natural disaster struck at their doorstep.

If it's Blood Disaster, Insect Disaster, and the like, at least they've been dealing with them for years, and most civilizations have some experience countering them.

But to fathom the mechanism of a latent natural disaster will inevitably cost countless lives.

The whole region is preparing for war.

Weiniya stood at the port, watching warship after warship take off and land, huge engine light pillars distorting space, one after another vanishing from sight.

She watched for a while, calculating the time in her mind.

The report is done, the message delivered, everything that needed to be said has been said. How Star Sea Hall arranges its defenses is their business; it's not her place to worry.

And what about her?

Yunxiao is mass-producing troops, the aunt is growing stronger, the teacher is personally going to consume high-dimensional energy—everyone has their own plate of matters.

Only she is idle to the point of anxiety.

"Miss Weiniya, do you need me to arrange a return vessel for you?"

The mechanical intelligence behind her bowed slightly, voice respectful.

"Thank you for the trouble."

Weiniya smiled; she had to return to the Alliance.

She pulled out her communicator, dialed, and the other end picked up almost instantly.

"Sis? You finally got in touch with me!"

Weiniya's little sister was nearly frantic; when she heard Weiniya had met with trouble, she felt the sky collapse, but thankfully it was a scare without actual harm.

"Mm, I've finished handling things on my end."

Weiniya brushed her white hair, suddenly unsure what to say.

She did want to confide her worries to her little sister, but after thinking it over, she gave up the idea.

"How is everyone doing?"

"Pretty good, actually—we've even taken on a few new recruits lately."

Weiniya's lips curled with a faint smile.

"When are you coming back, big sis?"

"Not coming back lately; maybe after a while."

"A latent natural disaster has turned up here; I'm going to deal with it together with Zhang Jie."

"Oh~ I get it, I get it!"

Weiniya:?

"What do you understand?"

"What the hell...."

"Hehehe! Then I wish you early success!"

Deep Space Giant Sword.

"Alright, thanks for your hard work."

Zhang Jie had just hung up the communicator.

First came word from Weiniya's side, saying the report went smoothly and Star Sea Hall had already activated its defense plan, letting him relax.

Then came the formal communication from Star Sea Hall, which began with a bunch of pleasantries praising the Alliance's bravery.

Then came their stance on defense: they had already prepared three "Dawn Judgment" units aimed at those coordinates, ready to strike at any moment.

The Dawn Judgment is basically a "nuclear weapon" mounted on a star; wanting to suppress the sea of flesh at those coordinates is still quite simple.

Zhang Jie gave a bunch of noncommittal utterances, then tossed the communicator onto the table and slumped into his chair.

I'm dead tired.

He had just closed his eyes when the institute's door was shoved open from outside.

Zhang Jie!

Yuan hauled in a cat, bursting in energetically.

To be precise, he was hauling by the nap of the Blue Sapphire Fate.

The catgirl's limbs dangled in midair, flailing, while her mouth still gripped half a black sausage of unknown origin, her cheeks puffed out like two balls.

Waa! Let me down!

First spit out whatever's in your mouth before you speak.

Yuan looked somewhat exasperated—this definitely isn't some mysterious sausage! It's actually the frontline-sent leftover meat!

"Quick, Zhang Jie, make her spit it out!"

Yuan urged, saying that even if the cat got a bad stomach it's no big deal, but this experimental specimen is extremely precious!

They need to study contamination, so they must first have a specimen, and this one is extremely rare and extremely precious.

This little kitten, upon smelling it, declared it some kind of sausage, shoved two pieces into its mouth, and just went 'gab-gab' chewing.

This remaining last piece, however, Yuan had desperately snatched from his grasp, but he was still a step late—this guy had already shoved half of it into his mouth.

And he wouldn't spit out anything no matter what was said; Yuan had no choice, so he brought him before Zhang Jie.

Zhang Jie:....

"Blue Sapphire, behave."

"Sniffle... Knight Sir, this is really delicious...."

Zhang Jie rolled his eyes, reached out and grabbed the base of the other's tail, his fingers kneading it, and Blue Sapphire shuddered all over and spat out the meat intestine in one gulp.

"Meow!!!"

Blue Sapphire darted to the side, and its fur stood on end all over.

"Huh? It can also puff up its fur?"

"Well... that's a weird feeling, meow..."

Regarding that high-dimensional energy, how do you plan to study it?

Zhang Jie withdrew his hand from Blue Sapphire, rubbed his fingertips, and his expression turned serious.

"Let's not study the energy first."

"Let's study people first."

Yuan froze.

"What do you mean?"

"The meaning is simple."

Zhang Jie raised a finger.

"What we lack most right now is a countermeasure."

"We need a measure that can temporarily deal with the current situation."

"As for high-dimensional energy, its biggest effect on people is actually willpower."

Zhang Jie looked toward Yuan.

"So we should first study how to detect a person's willpower."

Yuan furrowed his brows, lost in thought.

"Detect willpower... make it into an instrument?"

"Good idea."

Zhang Jie said, pulled a sheet of paper from the table, wrote a few lines with a swish, and pushed it over.

"Teacher Yuan, two things."

"First, research methods for detecting willpower—whether instruments or other means—as long as we can judge the strength of a person's will."

"We'll split up: you research how to detect willpower, and I will research willpower's resistance to pollution and produce a manual."

"We aim to release the first set of emergency measures against high-dimensional energy within ten hours."

Yuan looked at Zhang Jie, squinting his eyes and smiling.

Hmm, not bad—living up to being my student.

"Alright, let's do that."