What the heck are you babbling about Take my full army command first

He didn't finish his sentence, but the temperature inside the tent seemed to plummet instantly.

The team member swallowed hard and cautiously asked, "Does the captain mean... they might have been compromised?"

Night Owl didn’t answer directly. Instead, he suddenly asked, "Any movement from Squad 123?"

"Nothing for now. They seem to be lingering on the outskirts, not venturing deeper. Almost like they’re waiting for something."

Night Owl snorted coldly. "Their squad prides itself on an elite approach. Naturally, they wouldn’t throw cannon fodder into danger."

After a moment of contemplation, he abruptly ordered, "Send Blood Crow with the Seventh Division to approach the Third Division under the guise of support. But tell them not to act rashly."

"Blood Crow?"

The team member stiffened. "But he’s one of our strongest fighters. If we pull him out, the command center’s defenses—"

Night Owl cut him off. "It’s fine. I’ll hold the fort myself."

"Remember, tell Blood Crow—if he detects even the slightest anomaly in the Third Division—"

He drew a finger across his throat. "Leave no survivors."

The team member straightened and saluted before swiftly exiting.

Alone, Night Owl stood before the sand table, his gaze dark as it fixed on the Third Division’s position. He muttered under his breath, "An S-rank mission from the Heavenly Dao Space... There’s no such thing as ‘good luck’ here."

He knew the rules of the Heavenly Dao Space all too well.

The smoother a mission appeared, the deadlier the hidden dangers lurking beneath.

Members disappearing for half an hour? With his paranoia, he wouldn’t let that slide.

At the first sign of trouble—annihilation.

An hour later.

Another subordinate hurried in with a report.

"Captain! The Seventh Division sent word! The Third Division encountered savage beasts—heavy casualties! They’re requesting medical supplies!"

"Blood Crow also asks if we should recover the beast materials!"

Hearing this, Night Owl finally relaxed. Blood Crow had been his most trusted subordinate since childhood.

If he confirmed it, then there was no issue.

He waved a hand dismissively. "No need to recover the materials. Let the Third Division keep them. Send the medical supplies over."

"Yes, sir!"

Once the subordinate left, Night Owl turned his attention back to the mission at hand.

[Release the sealed Insect Queen from the Primordial Era and retrieve her.]

The Insect Queen...

The objective was straightforward—release her and bring her back, and the mission would be complete.

They already had some leads.

Now, they just needed to locate the pocket dimension where the queen was sealed.

But they had to finish within a hundred days.

Otherwise... the Heavenly Dao Space would erase them all.

......

Meanwhile.

Inside a tent erected in the pocket dimension.

"See? I told you he’s paranoid. Of course he’d send his most trusted man."

The short-haired woman, Cold Crow, smugly patted her chest.

Before her stood the hollow-eyed members of the Seventh Division, who had just walked into a barrage of charm spells.

Qin Luo chuckled thoughtfully. "This guy’s actually quite cautious."

It was rare to encounter someone who reacted rationally—so much so that Qin Luo wasn’t sure what to make of it.

In the past, enemies would just charge in blindly.

But unfortunately for them...

Qin Luo and his group had long since moved past the beginner phase. They’d mastered plenty of countermeasures.

You missed your chance to take us out early.

With that thought, he glanced at Su Muwan, who was yawning lazily nearby.

If Su Muwan had run into Heavenly Dao Space players back in the early days...

With her level of intelligence? Game over.

Su Muwan noticed Qin Luo’s gaze and blinked suspiciously. "?"

Why do I feel like Qin Luo’s insulting me in his head?

Weird...

Qin Luo smiled in response before turning his attention back to Blood Crow and the others.

"As for these guys..."

He reused his old method.

With the Army Commander skill, he cranked their loyalty up to 100%.

Problem solved.

Now, Qin Luo began planning the next step.

The arrival of the Heavenly Dao Space squad had caught him off guard.

But looking at it now, the real threat wasn’t the huddled-together Chosen Ones.

It was... this mysterious Heavenly Dao Space.

Every squad member had survived multiple—some even dozens—of worlds.

Those who made it this far were essentially endgame-tier characters in their own stories.

Their arsenal of abilities had to be vast.

Take Cold Crow from the Black Crow Squad, for example.

She’d exchanged for a god-tier assassination technique in the Heavenly Dao Space, making her one of the deadliest killers in this world.

And their equipment was nothing to scoff at either.

Qin Luo picked up a black firearm from the table.

He aimed it at an empty patch of ground in the distance and pulled the trigger.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

Hummm!!

A crushing gravitational force slammed down onto the ground.

Then—

BOOM!

The flat terrain instantly collapsed into a basin.

Su Muwan tilted her head. "What is that? A gravity gun?"

Cold Crow explained, "It’s a gravitational field weapon exchanged from the Heavenly Dao Space."

"Creates an intense gravity well. The core weight can cause instantaneous matter collapse."

Qin Luo nodded.

This kind of firepower might work against ordinary cultivators.

But for those who wielded the power of laws?

It was practically useless.

Still, decent for clearing out cannon fodder.

With that thought, he tossed it to Li Mingyuan. "See if Xiao Ke can mass-produce these."

"And these black combat suits they’re wearing—figure out if we can improve them further."

Since Qin Luo had been stacking defense stats, his priority now was boosting his faction’s survivability.

If they could mass-produce these suits, they might gain an extra life in battle.

First phase: wear down the enemy’s spiritual energy with high-tech weapons.

Once the enemy shattered their suits—

Then came phase two: a battle of cultivation.

Li Mingyuan nodded. "Got it, Luo-ge!"

After he left, Qin Luo turned to the assimilated Black Crow Squad members.

"Stick to your original mission parameters."

"Yes, sir!"

Once the details were settled, Qin Luo and Su Muwan exited the tent.

From the memories he’d reviewed, Qin Luo learned that the Black Crow Squad’s mission was to release the Insect Queen of this era and retrieve her.

But that... raised a question.

Wasn’t this world just a fragment of time?

What was the point of retrieving a virtual, non-existent Insect Queen?

Unless...

He looked up at the sky, where the clouds drifted with unsettling realism.

"Is this place... really just a time fragment?"