For now, no one knew how powerful Major Qing would become once his skeletal remains were whole, nor what heights other peak and super combatants could ultimately reach once they obtained skeletal remains and completed their fusion.
Yet even taking Han Qingyu—who currently possessed only half a set of skeletal remains—as the benchmark... That is to say, even assuming that most other super combatants, upon obtaining and fusing a full set of skeletal remains, could only reach the level of Major Qing with half a set:
"Can you imagine? In the near future, the human coalition might possess two hundred, three hundred, or even more peak combatants on par with Major Qing today!"
"If that happens, killing ordinary Great Spikes will be like mowing grass. Red Shoulders won't be worth a damn, and even Daies won't be anything to fear..."
"Ptar? With so many Vault-tier peak fighters, even if they're only chipping away at him, it would be enough to whittle Ptar down to death, right?"
"The point is, we wouldn't have to chip away. With such a massive base, how could humanity fail to produce even more powerful, greater beings one or two tiers higher?"
"Yes, I believe that there will eventually be a mighty, vast human source-weapon army capable of confronting the ultimate Great Spike fleet from the depths of space—the fleet that has threatened us for an entire century—and wiping it out beyond the vault of the sky in a single battle."
"And a human God of War will surely emerge, someone capable of contending with Great Spike Miwang."
On the Martian battlefield, the news regarding the skeletal remains was not concealed from anyone. There was no need to hide it at all, and it was made public to every soldier across the army without delay.
In an instant, tens of thousands of humans on Mars erupted.
Countless recalled veterans wept tears of joy on the spot, clenching their fists and roaring toward the heavens, overwhelmed with emotion.
Unlike the new recruits of Azure's public resistance era, the vast majority of these veterans had served in Azure for twenty, thirty years, or even longer. What they had endured and shouldered was an era in which humanity was impossibly frail and beleaguered in the fight.
That period had truly been excruciatingly long.
Back then, a squad of dozens, or even a company of a hundred, had to rely on meticulous tactical coordination and ambushes just to bring down one or two ordinary Great Spikes at the cost of their lives.
Back then, in nearly every operation, comrades and brothers were maimed or killed.
Among those who had survived to this day, very few—or perhaps none at all—of their old comrades-in-arms were still alive.
Now, they could finally bring solace to those old comrades. Among them were their former brothers, instructors, squad leaders, regiment commanders, lovers, or that special someone held close to their hearts...
"I'm back in the ranks, Captain."
"Yeah, the gear is better now. Source energy blocks are plentiful, and I can still swing a blade."
"We came all the way to Mars and fought a massive battle against tens of thousands of Great Spikes."
"Yeah, truth be told, this time we were the ones who took airships and hunted them down."
"We won."
"We hacked them to pieces and sent them scurrying all across Mars."
"There's one more important thing."
"The news about the Yanxiu skeletal remains came from us."
"And it falls to us to find them, too."
This joy mingled with grief, coupled with pride and honor, banished all thoughts of returning home once more. Nearly everyone in the expeditionary force grew impatient, wanting only to evacuate Mars as quickly as possible and join the lunar search—Operation Nostalgia.
At this stage, the mopping-up operations on the Martian battlefield could no longer proceed in an orderly, routine fashion; doing so would have taken at least another half a month.
Wen Jifei conferred with General Yelgena, and they decided to adopt a cruder approach to speed things up.
Aside from the small number of Great Spike craft that could be piloted directly after minor modifications, all repair work and methodical dismantling were completely abandoned.
Instead, they directly had the super combatants smash and pry things apart.
As long as they ensured every Great Spike craft was damaged beyond any hope of taking flight, and stripped all the source energy blocks from their source energy power compartments to load onto the transport ships, that would be enough.
***
Under this crude method of operation, efficiency soared dramatically. In just one day and two nights, the mop-up on the Martian battlefield was essentially finished.
All supplies that could be hauled away had already been loaded into the cargo holds.
Most of the small craft originally used to search for Pegmont had also been recovered, with plans to modify them en route to see if they could aid in locating the skeletal remains.
All that remained was assembling the personnel and assigning them to their respective vessels.
Because some airships had been lost in battle while several others had been seized from the Great Spikes, the total number of ships in the expeditionary fleet was not much different from when they first arrived.
However, there were fewer personnel. Several combat units had been left behind on this distant celestial body forever.
Furthermore, because the subsequent journey to the Moon would be a search mission, the allocation of personnel and equipment aboard each ship across the fleet had to be adjusted.
For instance, Refusers and search-craft operators had to be assigned to every vessel.
Down on the staging grounds, the soldiers found their assigned units according to the latest roster and prepared to board.
Han Qingyu and Pegmont, whose physical conditions had only just improved enough for them to stand and walk with difficulty, had also left the battlefield medical ship. Supported by medical staff, they made ready to return to the space carriers *Doomsday Great Wall* and *Mechanical Cradle*, respectively.
Unlike the two of them, He Tangtang—who had merely passed out from gorging himself after devouring a Daie raw—had awakened not long ago fully recovered and was now bursting with vitality.
Just earlier, when he woke up, a military doctor had rushed over to support him and asked, "How are you feeling?"
He Tangtang had checked himself over and replied, "Nothing wrong, really... just feeling a bit hungry."
And so right now, the great Great-Spike-eating demon was standing atop the *Doomsday Great Wall*, gazing longingly into the far distance, looking to see if any living Daie might appear within sight so he could enjoy one last hearty meal.
"Report!"
A communications soldier hurried over, stopping not far from Wen Jifei and Admiral Yelgena, who were observing the evacuation operations. He glanced hesitantly between the two men.
Admiral Yelgena did not turn around.
Wen Jifei glanced at the soldier and saw that his gaze had ultimately settled on him. Rather than calling Yelgena, he walked over himself. "What is it? Tell me."
"An urgent dispatch from Azure Headquarters..." The soldier looked up and hesitated.
"Out with it."
Lowering his voice, the communications soldier said, "General Headquarters requests that during the fleet's return journey, Second Lieutenant Wen find a suitable opportunity to demand that the ships carrying personnel from the City of Sin depart first, or at least keep them from taking part in the search under the pretext of picket duty."
"..." That meant headquarters did not trust the City of Sin. Wen Jifei pondered it. Given that it involved the skeletal remains, such wariness was not entirely unreasonable. Still, they had joined the expeditionary force knowing full well they might never return, and had fought alongside them to the death on Mars. Was doing this right?
Besides, if they did that, what if the skeletal remains they eventually found happened to correspond to one of the City of Sin's super combatants who had taken part in this expedition? Were they really going to withhold them?
They would have to give them over, wouldn't they?!
"Understood." Unable to formulate a countermeasure for the moment, Wen Jifei nodded vaguely and signaled for the communications soldier to leave.
Turning around, his eyes unconsciously searched the crowd for the City of Sin combatants.
Sure enough, many of those fellows were laden with bags and bundles of personal loot they had scavenged on their own—and that did not even count what they had stashed aboard their own ships.
Suddenly—
*Woooo—*
*Woooo—*
*Woooo—*
In the distance, a small reconnaissance craft that had taken off ahead of the fleet suddenly began wheeling wildly in midair, sounding a piercing alarm.
The people on the ground froze in shock, turning their heads as one to look.
From their vantage point, they could not see anything yet.
However, He Tangtang, gazing out from atop the *Doomsday Great Wall*, saw it... In the distant sky, a dense, black expanse—a colossal Great Spike fleet, having appeared out of nowhere over Mars, was swooping down toward the human expeditionary force at terrifying speed.
Chapter 935