When the drawing ceremony for the third round of the Star Alliance elimination tournament took place, the attention was unprecedented.

Everyone wanted to know which team the "New Bauhinia", which had consecutively defeated two "Sons of the Empire" aces, would face next.

But the results were somewhat disappointing.

The opponent for "New Bauhinia Republic" was: the "Free Star Alliance" representative team.

This is a moderately powerful alliance team with stable performances in the group stage and the first two rounds of elimination, but not a top-tier team like the "Sons of the Empire".

"Finally, they're going to play against an ordinary opponent."

"New Bauhinia has been all about strong teams all the way, I thought the Competition Committee was targeting them…"

"This match might not be anything to watch."

Following the opponent announcement, the match venue and mode were announced:

Special Zone No. 2—Edge Area of "Heart of Melting Core"; match mode: Resource Capture and Escort.

This remains a challenging environment, but it no longer favors one side as obviously as the previous two matches did.

And the lineup announcement for both teams once again stirred a small wave of discussion.

The "Free Star Alliance" sent out their main lineup, and it was clear to anyone with insight that they held nothing back!

Meanwhile, the lineup for New Bauhinia… Captain Bai E, once again, wasn't in the list!

"Bai E is not going up again? It's the quarter-finals and they're not playing it safe?"

"The 'Free Star Alliance' is not weak; although they're not one of the Seven Sons of the Empire, there are no weaklings making it into the quarter-finals." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Is New Bauhinia really using the quarter-finals as a training ground? Or do they think their current lineup is enough?"

"I think Bai E is confident they can win without him. After all... their team members are all extreme warriors, each one is incredibly tough, and you wouldn't know who'll pull off a comeback of one against five at the last moment."

Debate ran rampant online, but after experiencing the shocking reversals in the previous two matches, voices of doubt were far fewer, with more curiosity and anticipation—

This New Bauhinia team, which always seems to create miracles, what kind of performance will they deliver against a relatively "normal" opponent and in an environment?

The reality didn't fall outside most people's expectations.

Facing the "Free Star Alliance" representative team, New Bauhinia displayed more mature and stable team strength in the quarter-finals.

Although Bai E still did not participate personally, the five-member team they sent, thanks to the meticulously planned tactics and their coordination, firmly grasped the initiative in the resource capture battle in the Edge Zone of "Heart of Melting Core".

Although the "Free Star Alliance" showed decent power and steady tactics, they gradually fell into a disadvantage against New Bauhinia's strategy that combined strong individual ability and efficient team collaboration.

Throughout the match, there were no thrilling reversals like the first two rounds; it felt more like a textbook-style advantage accumulation and tactical crushing.

Finally, New Bauhinia seized the key resource points with a substantial advantage and successfully completed the escort task, winning the match to smoothly advance to the semi-finals of the Star Alliance finals.

This victory, though not as shocking as the previous two reversals, appeared more "normal" and "solid" to the outside world.

"Sure enough, if they're not against a top-tier team like the Sons of the Empire, they don't even need to show their trump card."

"In the past two matches, they suffered because of environmental and opponent restrictions; when it comes to normal environments, they're unbelievably steady!"

"Anyway, New Bauhinia has entered the top eight! A new team from the Edge Star Domain, making it to the top eight in their first appearance is simply a miracle!"

"Next is the third stage! It's the first time two teams outside of the Seven Sons have entered the finals together... can this New Bauhinia keep defeating everyone to become the first?"

"Just thinking about it feels great! Let those Seven Sons of the Empire stop acting arrogant all the time!"

When the final match of the elimination round came to a close, the top eight entering the finals were completely locked in.

During the brief interval awaiting the third round's arrangements, "Star City" wasn't completely calm.

Thanks to the massive intelligence network in "Star City", the center of information convergence, and the micro biological sample data potentially leaked during the routine medical check-up of the New Bauhinia team members after the match.

Coupled with the analysis of the extreme exploitation inclination of human potential in the "Dawn's Edge" mecha design, the combined technical analysis team of the "Sons of the Empire" finally pieced together a series of scattered clues pointing to a conclusion that was both familiar and creepy to them.

An analysis report, marked as top secret and circulated only among the highest echelon and core technical leaders of the "Sons of the Empire", was submitted shortly after the semi-finalists were determined.

The core conclusion of the report was shocking:

The physiological data characteristics, physical burst modes, neuro-response curves, and some observable cell activity indicators of the core combat personnel of "New Bauhinia"... show a high degree of conformity with the results of human modification technology from the late "Golden Age" of the Galactic Empire's extreme warriors stored in the database, with similarity assessment exceeding 93%.

The report detailed the comparative data:

Their bodies, under extreme load, showed muscle fiber strength, bone density, metabolism rate, and nerve signal transmission speed far beyond those of unmodified ordinary elite mech pilots, even surpassing the Empire's internally common, relatively "mild" genetic enhancements and Spiritual Energy adaptation training limits.