The three could only wave their hands.
“It’s all right, Sister Zhaozhao. You don’t need to apologize.”
As Yunyang spoke, she picked up the glass of water from the coffee table and gulped it down. Only then was the bitter taste in her mouth completely washed away.
She was about to say something else when she suddenly sensed a change in her mental power.
The three young women widened their eyes at the same time.
Because they had been eager to come see Si Zhao, after finishing today’s purification, they had only rested in the lounge for a little over ten minutes. None of them had taken their beast husbands along to replenish their mental power.
Yunyang was in a slightly better state. With Fuyuan’s help, her mental power had recovered to around thirty percent.
You Lu and Chu Zhiwei, however, had yet to reach twenty percent.
But after drinking that bitter potion, all three of them clearly felt their mental power beginning to recover at a steady, moderate pace.
The three exchanged a glance, and Chu Zhiwei was the first to speak.
“Sister Zhaozhao, is this… a potion that restores mental power?”
Si Zhao smiled and nodded.
“It’s actually quite a coincidence. The laboratory tried many times before, but they never managed to develop anything that could restore mental power.”
As she spoke, she glanced at Yunyang.
“This time, I originally wanted the laboratory to see whether they could extract a potion that would help females increase the speed at which their mental power advanced.”
“But after failing several times, the laboratory accidentally created a potion that restores mental power.”
Yunyang immediately understood.
It seemed that the unpleasant potion they had just drunk had been extracted from the Spirit Tide Amber.
The appearance of a mental-power restoration potion was undoubtedly good news for both females and the Federation.
With this kind of potion, they would be able to quickly restore their mental power even in situations where it was inconvenient to rely on their beast husbands for help.
And… Fuyuan would no longer have to live in fear of being dragged back to the laboratory for research.
After all, judging from what she had just experienced, the potion restored mental power considerably faster than Fuyuan’s supernatural ability.
You Lu asked the question she cared about most. “Sister Zhaozhao, when will this potion be ready for mass production?”
“Not for the time being.” Si Zhao let out a helpless sigh. “One of the potion’s raw materials comes from a special type of ore, and the Federation hasn’t found a deposit of it yet.”
Without the raw material, large-scale production was impossible.
The piece of Spirit Tide Amber she had sent to the laboratory had been used to its absolute limit, but the extracted material had only been enough to produce fewer than ten potions.
After setting aside the one used during testing and deducting the three she had given the women today, only six remained.
Those six were currently being kept at the laboratory.
The researchers there were trying to find a substitute for the Spirit Tide Amber extract using other materials, but they had made no progress so far.
Hearing this, it was impossible for You Lu not to feel disappointed.
If the potion could be mass-produced, she would have liked to buy more, just in case she ever needed them.
Still, females could restore their mental power through rest, or by using their spiritual forms with their beast husbands, so she wasn’t overly disappointed.
Chu Zhiwei felt the same way. She was more interested in another question.
“Sister Zhaozhao, what is this special ore used as one of the raw materials?”
There was no need to hide this from the three of them, so Si Zhao quickly replied, “Spirit Tide Amber.”
Aside from Yunyang, who had come into contact with it before, neither You Lu nor Chu Zhiwei had even heard of Spirit Tide Amber.
That was only natural.
Without activation by the merfolk’s sonic waves, Spirit Tide Amber was nothing more than an ordinary piece of ore. Even a photobrain could not scan and identify its true purpose.
Even if You Lu and Chu Zhiwei had seen it before, they would never have paid it any attention.
Si Zhao wasn’t surprised by their reaction.
“The Insect Race hasn’t been behaving lately, and the military doesn’t have any manpower to spare. Once things on the Insect Race’s side have settled down, I’ll send people to search the Wasteland Stars.”
The X and S star clusters had both been fully developed, and the Federation had records of all the mineral deposits there.
If they wanted to find more Spirit Tide Amber—or an entire deposit of it—they could only turn their attention to the undeveloped Wasteland Stars.
At the mention of the Insect Race, Chu Zhiwei’s expression grew serious.
“Sister Zhaozhao, I heard that the Federation military is planning to send some troops to the Insect Star?”
“Yes. I received word that the Insect Queen has remained severely wounded ever since her egg-laying site was destroyed.”
Si Zhao’s expression turned solemn as well.
“The military and I have decided to take advantage of the Insect Race’s main forces being here in the Federation and launch a direct assault on the Insect Star.”
It was indeed a good plan. Once the Insect Queen was killed, the Insect Race would inevitably fall into disarray, and it would be unable to harass the Federation again for quite some time.
But it was also an extremely risky decision.
You Lu looked worried. “Sister Zhaozhao, as I recall, the Insect Queen’s mental shockwaves can disrupt our beastmen’s attacks. Won’t this be too dangerous?”
What if the Insect Queen launched a final counterattack and dragged the Federation army down with her?
Moreover, going to the Insect Star meant they would have no access to supply lines. Once the suppressants they brought with them ran out, the beastmen’s contamination levels would soar rapidly.
Once a beastman lost control, they could no longer distinguish friend from foe. They would only attack everything around them blindly.
Si Zhao had considered every concern You Lu had raised.
But this opportunity was simply too rare. If they gave it up and the Insect Queen recovered from her injuries, the Federation might never find another chance like this.
Si Zhao gently shook her head.
“Lulu, the Federation cannot be afraid of taking risks.”
“If this one risk can buy the Federation several years, or even several decades, of peace, then every sacrifice will be worth it.”
That was the principle the Federation military had always followed.
When they destroyed the Insect Queen’s egg-laying site before, hadn’t the Federation forces known that doing so would provoke retaliation from the Insect Race?
But successfully destroying the site would leave the Insect Race without new blood for an entire year. That alone made it worthwhile.
And this time, if they could kill the Insect Queen, it would take at least several years for a new queen to mature and gain the ability to reproduce.
The Federation military had never feared sacrifice.
What they feared was being unable to protect the Federation, forcing even more people to give up the chance to remain with their families and join the ranks fighting the Insect Race.
Chu Zhiwei suddenly rose to her feet.
“Sister Zhaozhao, I want to go to the Insect Star.”
“No!” Si Zhao rejected her outright.
The Insect Star was the Insect Race’s lair. Even if its defenses were weak at present, it was still far too dangerous.
“Zhiwei, you’ve already done more than enough for the Federation. The Federation cannot let you continue putting yourself in danger.”
Before You Lu and Yunyang appeared, Chu Zhiwei had been the Federation’s only S-rank mental-power female. Si Zhao knew better than anyone how much she had sacrificed for the Federation during those years.
Not long ago, she had even been attacked by the Insect Race while returning to the Federation from a frontier star.
No matter what Chu Zhiwei said, Si Zhao could not allow her to risk going to the Insect Star.
“If I go, at least I can prevent those Federation soldiers from losing control after their contamination levels rise too high and accidentally injuring their comrades.”
“This is not up for discussion. It’s an order.”
Chu Zhiwei was about to say something else when Yunyang, who was sitting beside her, suddenly reached out and took her hand.
