"Respected Lord Priest, I am called Er Wind, the current King of Eternal Admiration Star. Please rest assured, they will not harm you again. It was just your sudden intrusion that unsettled them, leading to this unpleasant friction," King Er bowed humbly once more and spoke.

"Sudden intrusion? Don't you know that those warriors risked their lives to come here, for a reason?" Hao Yun furrowed his brow and questioned.

"Of course, I know. But, you also shouldn't have indiscriminately attacked the guards in the palace, causing such massive casualties to our soldiers! And, things are not as you imagine. I... I'm actually fine," King Er replied calmly, a stark contrast to his earlier frantic and painful demeanor in the royal palace.

Having been turned into a puppet by the Mastanians, Hao Yun wasn't surprised by King Er's pro-Mastanian stance. Hearing King Er blame them for the casualties among the Mastanian guards displeased Hao Yun greatly.

At that moment, Hao Yun looked into King Er's eyes and finally saw clearly. Unlike other Eternal Admiration Star beings turned into straw-like forms with flickering deathly green lights, the King's eyes retained their original appearance. This made King Er's face not seem like that of a puppeteer turned into a straw-like villain, but more like someone wearing a horrifying mask woven from dried straw fibers.

Moreover, from King Er's eyes, Hao Yun saw struggle and doubt, leading him to recall King Er's earlier insistence on staying while ordering others to escape. Intuitively, Hao Yun felt there was something peculiar about King Er. Thus, he entertained the idea of getting closer to King Er to find something valuable that could help him escape from the Mastanians.

Thinking this, Hao Yun abandoned his questioning tone and said with a slightly mocking tone, "Alright! Regardless, finding you alive and well is still a very meaningful thing. But I must say, Your Majesty, this dead demeanor of yours doesn't look good at all!"

"Hehehe! Forgive me if I appear so. It's just that I haven't quite adjusted to my current self yet. I hope that with time, I can improve," King Er smiled bitterly in response.

"Ah well! What do we do now?" Hao Yun shrugged, asking. While King Er's sudden appearance and order to halt the Mastanians had temporarily halted the intense battle, the tense standoff between the two sides remained unchanged.

"Black Gate, cease the fight! We've lost many soldiers today. Let's end things here for now!" King Er turned to the Destroyer, who stood expressionless on the giant bird, and advised politely.

"Hmph! You're just the King of Eternal Admiration Star. Don't think too highly of yourself!" The Destroyer responded displeased.

"I understand. But even so, you can't deny that I still have some authority here, right?" King Er replied indifferently, then glanced at the Mastanians around him, scaring them into taking several steps back.

"Hmph!" The Destroyer snorted angrily. Despite his visible anger, he seemed unwilling to continue arguing with King Er. In the end, he merely turned his head away and sulked on the giant griffin.

"Black Gate, listen to me. Let's end it for today! Besides, you must be injured as well, right? You should go back and rest, prepare for the next battle!" King Er continued to persuade.

"Hmph! Today, I'll let you off, punk! Let's go! From now on, strengthen the vigilance around the Eternal Star Palace, especially against the teleportation array and the underground passages of the palace! So as not to allow some people to rely on external forces, collude with the bastards of the Eternal Star body, and launch a large-scale raid against us!" The Destroyer threw down a final harsh remark to Hao Yun before angrily leading the Mastanians away, leaving only Hao Yun, King Er, and a heavily armored guard unit escorting King Er.

Watching the infuriated departure of the Destroyer, King Er could only shake his head helplessly, but he didn't feel any resentment towards being called a waste. However, it was obvious that King Er's relatively restrained behavior couldn't conceal the conflict between him and the Destroyer, which also puzzled Hao Yun, who was standing nearby. After all, the Destroyer was the grand lord of the Mastanians, while King Er was supposed to be a puppet transformed into a straw-like form by the Mastanians!

But why did these two men seem to be at odds in terms of power? What's more, the Destroyer even seems to vaguely obey the commands of King Earl? What kind of magical situation is this? Because of the unusual relationship between King Earl and the Destroyer, Haoyun developed a thought that the situation in Eternal Star might be even more complicated than imagined.

Forget it! Don't think too much about it for now! Regardless of whatever issues exist between King Earl and the Destroyer, at least he has now gained a precious respite. Thinking of this, Haoyun quickly reported his safety to Dao Lao and Dream Jia through the private chat channel of the Mold Spirit Energy Pursuit System, and briefly described his latest encounter.

Then, Haoyun sighed helplessly as he looked at the message that was still sending, indicating that he also needed to hurry and make his next plans. Because, although Haoyun didn't know what exactly King Earl meant by "the next battle," judging from the current situation of Eternal Star and Mu Star, he could guess that this "next battle" definitely meant something extremely bad was going to happen.

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At this moment, not only were the messages Haoyun sent still in the process of being sent, but the messages Dao Lao and Dream Jia sent to Haoyun were also in the same state. This made Dream Jia anxiously pace back and forth in the lounge, saying, "In such a weak position, Haoyun can at least hold on for seven days with the protection shield of his battle armor! This time is neither short nor long. If we can't rush back to Eternal Star to rescue him as soon as possible, things will really be hard to predict!"

"Exactly. However, this teleportation array has entered a cooldown state and cannot be activated again in the short term. So now, we can only wait for the Queen of Eternal Mu Star to see if she can open a teleportation array for us again to quickly send us back to Eternal Star!" Dao Lao also said with a worried expression.

Speaking of which, Dao Lao and the others' use of the teleportation array in the Queen's harem of Eternal Mu Star Palace successfully caused quite a stir in the Mu Star Palace. Because, only the King and Queen can activate this teleportation array, and the Queen is currently inspecting the front lines of the defense. Therefore, the only person who can activate this teleportation array now is King Earl. However, King Earl is currently trapped by the Mastanians in the Eternal Star Palace. As a result, the guards stationed at the Mu Star Palace naturally speculated that the reason why this teleportation array was suddenly activated was probably because the Mastanians obtained the way to activate the teleportation array from King Earl, and they were preparing to launch a raid on the Mu Star Palace. Fortunately, the first person to come out of the teleportation array was Tie Zhu's father, and it was only through his timely explanation that the guards, who were on high alert, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Dao Lao is right! Moreover, even if this teleportation array can still be used, after what we just went through, the Mastanians will definitely send heavy troops to guard the King's harem. Therefore, if we rush in, it's like walking into a trap and courting death!" General Tie, Tie, who was anxiously persuading Dream Jia.

Oh, by the way. This General Tie is Tie Zhu's father, the personal guardian general beside King Earl. After being rescued by other people from Eternal Mu Star, Dao Lao and Dream Jia learned that this General Tie was highly regarded by King Earl because he had accompanied King Earl on various campaigns for years and had made numerous military achievements in fighting against the Mastanians.

As for Tie Zhu, Dao Lao and Dream Jia only learned after arriving at the Mu Star Palace that he was originally one of the outstanding young talents of the new generation in Eternal Mu Star, and he was highly valued by King Earl. It was precisely because of this that Tie Zhu had the honor of being continuously assigned to serve by the Queen's side, mainly responsible for protecting her personal safety.

It is said that after King Earl and General Tie and others were trapped by the Mastanians in Eternal Star, Tie Zhu had repeatedly applied to join the raid team, hoping to personally go to the Eternal Star Palace to rescue King Earl and his father. However, General Tie had advised the Queen at that time that even if something happened to himself, he could not let Tie Zhu leave his post just to avenge him.

Because General Tie hoped that Tie Zhu could be loyal to his duties under any circumstances, protecting the safety of the Queen. Secondly, General Tie really wanted to avoid as much as possible the possibility of his son encountering accidents in battles fought abroad, which could also be considered as General Tie using his position and status to seek the least glorious benefit for his own family.

It was precisely because of the Queen's promise to General Tie that after King Earl and General Tie and others were captured, she had always refused Tie Zhu's requests to participate in the rescue operation. Therefore, it was later that Tie Zhu first pretended to take sick leave due to illness, and then disguised himself as an ordinary soldier, leading a small team composed of loyal subordinates of General Tie, and quietly joined the raid operation.

"So you've been hiding your identity all this time! You really fooled us!" After listening to Tie Zhu's proactive self-criticism, Dream Jia said with a stern glance at Tie Zhu, scaring Tie Zhu to shrink back repeatedly.

"No wonder you know so much about the secret passages in the Eternal Star Palace. It turns out you've been living as a noble in the palace all along!" Dao Lao also stood beside Dream Jia, pretending to be angry, and stared sharply at Tie Zhu together.

"Please calm down, Your Excellencies. Let me explain. I actually intentionally concealed my identity from you, but I only did so considering the complex situation at the time, to prevent accidents from happening to the three of you. Also, at that time, since you didn't ask me why I knew so much information, I didn't think I needed to explain too much." Tie Zhu explained in a stuttering manner.

The Queen had indeed promised General Tie that she would reject Tie Zhu's requests to participate in the rescue mission after King Earl and his group were captured by the Mastanians. This led to Tie Zhu's subsequent actions where he initially took sick leave citing health reasons, and then disguised himself as an ordinary soldier. He led a small team composed of loyal subordinates of General Tie to secretly join the raid operation.

"So you've been hiding your identity all this time! You really fooled us!" After listening to Tie Zhu's proactive self-criticism, Dream Jia said sternly, glaring at Tie Zhu, who shrank back nervously.

"No wonder you know so much about the secret passages in the Eternal Star Palace. Turns out you've been living as a noble in the palace all along!" Dao Lao also pretended to be angry, standing beside Dream Jia and glaring sharply at Tie Zhu.

"Please calm down, Your Excellencies. Let me explain. I actually intentionally concealed my identity from you, but I only did so considering the complex situation at the time, to prevent accidents from happening to the three of you. Also, at that time, since you didn't ask me why I knew so much information, I didn't think I needed to explain too much." Tie Zhu explained hesitantly.

"Alright! What you say does make some sense. However, you could have just told us that your father was also on the rescue list, couldn't you?" Dream Jia said.

"Because I didn't want you to think that I had personal motives in executing the rescue mission. I'm really not that kind of person! I just wanted to rescue King Earl while ensuring that my father is also rescued. Even if I couldn't save my father, I would at least know about his situation as soon as possible and not hold any grudges." Tie Zhu passionately defended himself as a soldier who separates personal and professional matters. His unauthorized infiltration into Eternal Star was solely aimed at rescuing King Earl.

"But you must know that such a forced infiltration tactic into Eternal Star hardly has any chance of success. Aren't you afraid that you might lose your life before seeing your father?" Dream Jia asked incredulously. If it weren't for the timely arrival of the three of them, the spaceship Tie Zhu was on might have been shot down by the Mastanians long ago.