When I went home for Chinese New Year, I spent a million times more money on my foreign wife.

The data from the underground data center in New York has just been updated.

Our gaze returns to the master bedroom of the Snow Palace.

The indoor temperature is kept constant at 24 degrees Celsius.

The entire silent fresh air system operates within the wall.

Katyusha lay on her side on the large bed. Her breathing was steady, and her long golden hair was spread out on the silk pillowcase.

Chen Yang sat on a soft chair by the bed.

He stood up, walked to the edge of the bed, pulled up the fallen corner of the blanket, and gently covered her shoulders.

Then he extended his right hand.

Her palms, through the thin blanket, were pressed against the top of her swollen belly.

The skin surface received two slight tactile haptic responses.

The impact wasn't strong; it was a localized collision caused by the small life inside.

Chen Yang's palm remained in that position.

When he signed multi-billion dollar acquisition contracts in the business world, his fingers never felt this tangible physical feedback. He spent a fortune building Aurora City and mobilized the Black Kite Legion to guard it day and night, all to keep all external threats out of this defensive line. At times like these, anyone who reaches out will be uprooted.

A system notification popped up deep in my mind.

[Hidden Guardian Achievement Triggered: The First Declaration of Bloodline.]

[Reward awarded: Core code for a deep space exploration satellite.]

[Reward Distribution: All-weather anti-stealth electro-optical network deployment blueprints.]

The system has automatically injected the highest-level privilege code into 57 defunct satellites in near-Earth orbit around the world. A physical interception network covers a radius of 500 kilometers around the Aurora City.

Chen Yang turned and walked to the bedside table, picking up the military-grade miniature communication host.

The screen on the device lit up.

Holographic projection technology projects a three-dimensional map of the defense zone in mid-air.

The highest level of the map is marked as 12,000 meters.

Twelve red dots are falling vertically downwards at freefall speed. The target coordinates point directly to the Snow Palace territory.

The stratosphere at 12,000 meters.

A heavy transport aircraft with a fuselage paint scheme that completely absorbs radar waves opened its rear alloy hatch.

The airflow rushed violently into the cabin.

Twelve figures dressed in black tactical wingsuits stood at the edge of the hatch.

The foreign mercenary in the lead glanced at the altimeter on his wrist. He made a downward gesture.

The twelve people jumped out of the cabin one by one and disappeared into the night sky outside.

This is a top-tier mercenary team that took on a job on the dark web. A five billion dollar bounty requires them to retrieve the core blueprints of that ecological micro-circulation system.

To avoid detection by conventional ground-based air defense radars, they adopted an ultra-high-altitude parachute-free descent mode, preparing to deploy the miniature parachute only at an extremely low altitude.

Inside the master bedroom.

Chen Yang watched the red dot rapidly moving downwards on the holographic projection.

He pressed the communication button on the side of the main unit. Lei Zi's voice came through the speaker.

"Boss."

Chen Yang was holding the communication host.

"Twelve objects are falling from the sky. Activate the highest-level access code that was just transmitted to the security center. Activate the newly loaded defense system in outer space and prevent them from falling to our ground."

Lei Zi replied from the other end of the channel.

"Received. Activate the interception network."

Communication was cut off.

Chen Yang put the communication host back into his shirt pocket and walked back to the bed to sit down.

The Black Kite Security and Defense Command Center is located on the third basement level of the Snow Palace.

Lei Zi stood in front of the circular main control panel.

A red mechanical keyboard rose up from the control panel in front of him.

Lei Zi typed on the keyboard with both hands, entering a maximum security authorization code consisting of 128 random characters.

The progress bar in the center of the large screen was quickly dragged to 100%.

Earth's outer space orbit.

The outer protective shell of an old communications satellite, which was recorded as defunct by the International Space Agency ten years ago, has completely detached and fallen off.

The hidden silver matrix reflector unfolds automatically.

The high-definition detection camera rotates and precisely locks onto the airspace directly above the city of aurora on the ground.

The matrix core gathered an extremely high-intensity energy source. A high-frequency photoelectric beam, invisible to the human eye, pierced the atmosphere and descended vertically.

high in the air.

The twelve mercenaries were still maintaining their gliding posture.

As originally planned, they will deploy their parachutes 500 meters above the ground.

The ambient temperature reading on the helmet display showed garbled characters indicating a sharp increase.

The lead mercenary pressed the communication button on his chest, preparing to issue an early warning command.

The composite material of the gloves began to turn black and curl inward.

The high-frequency photoelectric wave net precisely covered these twelve moving human targets.

Twelve tiny flames lit up one after another in the night sky.

There was no loud explosion, and no scattered metal fragments.

The cold-weather clothing, human skeletal tissue, and the high-precision tactical equipment carried all underwent complete physical carbonization in the ultra-high temperature photoelectric beam.

Two seconds later, the flame went out.

A strong wind swept through from high above, blowing away all the carbonized powder.

The twelve heavily armed mercenaries were completely wiped out at an altitude of 10,000 meters.

Only one titanium alloy helmet communication module, which had undergone extreme high-temperature resistance treatment, escaped complete disintegration because it was located at the very edge of the beam.

The metal block, bearing severe scorch marks, deviated from its trajectory and fell in a direction deviating from the main coordinates.

Two minutes later.

Deep in the windbreak forest, 30 kilometers from the outskirts of the Aurora City, a crater half a meter in diameter was carved into the snow.

Ten minutes later.

Three tracked all-terrain snow armored vehicles were parked beside the deep pit. Their headlights illuminated the surrounding birch tree trunks.

Twelve members of the Black Kite outer patrol team, dressed in pure white snow camouflage suits, jumped out of the vehicle with weapons in hand and spread out to form a defensive formation.

The captain walked to the pit and used his hands to remove the thick layer of snow on the surface.

A piece of titanium alloy module, still warm from use, lay quietly at the bottom of the pit. The signal indicator light at the rear was completely destroyed.

The team leader reported into the microphone on his collar.

"Target recovered. Bagged and sent back to the base's technical department for analysis."

He took out a multi-layered lead-sealed bag coated with a silver anti-radiation layer, put the metal inside, and sealed it tightly.

After daybreak.

In a private study on the third floor of Aurora City.

Chen Yang sat behind a large mahogany desk. Dozens of transfer documents concerning mining rights in South America were piled on the desk. A cup of black coffee without milk or sugar sat on the corner of the desk.

The brass handles on the solid wood double doors of the study turned. Chen Yue pushed open the doors and walked in.

Chen Yue pulled out the high-backed leather chair opposite the desk and sat down. She pushed the report towards Chen Yang.

"We have results regarding the items intercepted from the high altitude last night."

This sheet records the communication core data that the technical department spent four hours reconstructing. Chen Yue pointed to the graphic analysis area at the top of the sheet.

"The internal physical insulation layer has the highest level of NATO military-grade security seal. Mercenary groups can't buy this level of high-temperature resistant material even if they have the money on the black market. There are large conglomerates directly supplying equipment to them."

Chen Yang took the report sheet, which was rather thick.

In the upper right corner of the form, the printer used colored ink to reproduce a high-resolution internal logo pattern.

It was a family crest consisting of golden irises and crossed swords.

This is the exclusive totem of an old money family that has been deeply rooted in the European continent for hundreds of years.

Chen Yang looked at the badge and put the report back on the table.

He picked up the custom-made pen beside him, opened the first document transferring the mining rights in the South American region, and signed his name at the bottom.