Yunyang recovered her mental power ahead of schedule. By then, Fu Shiyi was piloting the Rose Shadow in its battleship form, activating its stealth ability as he threaded between the various battleships.
The Rose Shadow was capable of more than just turning invisible. It was also surrounded by an ability barrier jointly created by the other beast husbands, as well as an ability shield provided by Cang Zhuonian.
Even if the insectoids managed to detect the Rose Shadow’s trail, they had no way to break through the defenses surrounding it directly.
While Yunyang was busy purifying the Federation soldiers, Si Zhao and Wu Zhengming reviewed the battles of the past three days and drew up their plans for what came next.
Afterward, she used her spatial ability to travel between the battleships just as Yunyang did, purifying the Federation soldiers.
At that moment, in the underground insect nest, the Insect Queen weakly opened its eyes and looked at the drastically reduced insectoid army.
It seemed furious. Its antennae reached out and tapped the female insect beside it once more.
The female insect dutifully relayed the Insect Queen’s urging to the insectoids stationed on the various frontier planets. However, the Federation soldiers on those frontier planets did not give the insectoids even a moment to catch their breath.
Over the past three days, Federation soldiers from the various bases had gradually made their way to the battlefronts and joined the forces surrounding and exterminating the insectoids.
More than a hundred female A-rank mentalists had arrived on the frontier planets alongside the reinforcements.
On the second day of the operation to exterminate the Insect Queen, the military released the news on the StarNet.
By then, the entire Federation was watching the Federation military’s situation, and even the females on the various planets knew what was happening.
Despite the Federation’s attempts to stop them, they followed the Federation troops heading to the frontier planets to provide support.
There were very few S-rank females in the Federation, but the Federation had never had only S-rank females.
Although they could not purify ability users ranked S or higher, anything below S-rank fell well within their capabilities.
With their comrades from the bases reinforcing them and more than a hundred females helping control their contamination levels, the Federation soldiers on the frontier planets fought with ever-growing courage. The insectoids could not find an opportunity to return to their home planet.
It was only with the help of their comrades on the frontier planets, who held the insectoids back, that the Federation soldiers on the insect planet dared to take brief rests.
No matter how strong an ability user’s body was, three consecutive days of high-intensity combat still left them utterly exhausted. The moment they lay down, they fell asleep.
Outside the fleet, seventeen SSS-rank ability users had jointly established an ability barrier, and more than a dozen reconnaissance robots were also on patrol.
The reconnaissance robots were connected to the communication network. If anything happened, they would immediately send an alarm through every Federation soldier’s optical computer, so there was no need to worry about a sneak attack by the insectoids.
As a result, when Yunyang went from one battleship to another to perform purifications, the Federation soldiers were sprawled across the floors in their combat uniforms, which they had not even had time to change out of. They were in complete disarray and had utterly abandoned any concern for their appearance.
She instinctively lightened her steps, silently spreading her mental power over the soldiers.
Yunyang purified all the Federation soldiers aboard each battleship at the same time. After completing one round of purification, she had no choice but to return to the Rose Shadow to restore her mental power.
The Rose Shadow had ample space in its battleship form, including a separate room for resting. That way, Yunyang would not have to worry about her other beast husbands watching her while she recovered her mental power.
Throughout the day, Yunyang and Si Zhao went their separate ways, and the vast majority of the Federation soldiers received purification.
When the sky began to brighten again, Yunyang encountered Si Zhao and her imperial husband in the rearmost battleship. They appeared to be preparing to leave.
Si Zhao seemed exhausted. She was leaning against He Youchuan, her eyes gently closed.
Yunyang glanced at Si Zhao with concern and asked softly, “Is Sister Zhaozhao all right?”
“Her Majesty has been feeling drowsy since the afternoon. She just forced herself to finish the purification, and now she’s so tired she can barely keep her eyes open,” He Youchuan said as he carefully lifted Si Zhao into his arms.
Over the past few days, not only had the Federation soldiers gone without sleep, but the two females had also been reduced to only two or three hours of rest.
After spending the day performing purifications as well, it was perfectly normal for Si Zhao to be unable to hold on and fall asleep.
Still, Yunyang felt that things might not be so simple.
Her ability was only C-rank. Although she was mentally exhausted, she had not reached the point where she would collapse and fall asleep on the spot.
Sister Zhaozhao, on the other hand, was an S-rank ability user.
Yunyang could not help thinking of what had happened the last time—
The night before her mental power rose to SS-rank, she had clearly retained thirty percent of her mental power while purifying Cang Zhuonian. Even so, she had been unbearably sleepy and fallen asleep in Chen Yueli’s arms before she could even return to her room.
Afterward, even when Chen Yueli had helped her bathe and change clothes, he had been unable to wake her.
Si Zhao’s mental power had already been infinitely close to S-rank. Although she had not absorbed the Xiling Amber, it was not impossible for her mental power to have advanced after performing purifications nonstop for the past few days.
Yunyang felt that there was an eighty percent chance Sister Zhaozhao had advanced, but without absolute certainty, she did not dare say so. If it turned out that Si Zhao’s mental power had not advanced, it would only raise everyone’s hopes for nothing.
So, she merely instructed He Youchuan to take good care of Si Zhao.
As Si Zhao’s primary imperial husband, He Youchuan would take good care of her even without Yunyang’s reminder.
He nodded at Yunyang before carrying Si Zhao back to the battleship where they had rested earlier.
The other four imperial husbands followed closely behind.
After watching them leave, Yunyang performed one final group purification before returning to the battleship where Si Zhao was staying.
Darkness gradually descended over the insect planet.
Yunyang lay on the bed in the resting room and fell into a deep sleep while holding one of her beast husbands in his beast form.
The Federation soldiers she had purified, however, gradually began to wake.
Many of them felt an unprecedented lightness the moment they opened their eyes.
They froze, then hurriedly opened their optical computers to check their contamination levels. They discovered that the contamination levels that had risen during the battle had dropped by eighty points!
It must have been the Empress and Lady Yunyang who had purified their contamination!
For the past few days, the Empress and Lady Yunyang had continuously been purifying them. Now that the two of them were resting, they were still busy working.
They absolutely could not let the two ladies’ efforts go to waste!
The Federation soldiers quickly scrambled to their feet, organized their equipment as fast as possible, and checked the drugs they had left. Then they immediately began working to restore their abilities.
They did not waste time bathing. When they were thirsty, they drank water; when they were hungry, they consumed nutrient supplements. Every bit of time they could squeeze out was devoted to preparing for battle.
On the barren land of the insect planet, the fleet stood silently in the darkness.
In the underground insect nest, the Insect Queen once again urged the insectoids outside to return, but not a single one managed to make it back.
The Insect Queen was enraged and began roaring furiously.
Its mental shock could not only interfere with male beastmen—it could also agitate the emotions of the male insects.
Influenced by the Insect Queen’s fury, the insectoid army suddenly began devouring one another.
The higher-ranked insects devoured the lower-ranked ones, then devoured one another in turn, lining up to crawl into the empty eggs laid by the Insect Queen.
In just a few short hours, the number of insectoids lost exceeded the total number that had been killed in battle over the previous several days.
After daylight returned to the surface, the insect eggs in the nest began splitting open one by one.
The insectoids that emerged had all advanced by several ranks. There were no insectoids below rank five anymore, while the number of rank-nine insectoids had multiplied several times over.
A fierce light glimmered in the green eyes of the newborn insectoids. Clearly, they were still under the Insect Queen’s influence.
The male insects were filled with unprecedented excitement and let out a deafening insectoid cheer.
Amid the uproar, the female insect beside the Insect Queen lowered its head, its antennae trembling faintly.
