Chapter 410: Slaughter and Pursuit
The Vampire.
Xia Fei threw a bright cane onto the floor. Besides this weapon, there was that pair of green sabers and also the black spikes that Arendaz had used as his weapons. While this insectoid did not have a very high rank, his spikes were Legendary grade weapons.
With each expert he killed, Xia Fei would collect one or two more pieces for his collection. At present, Xia Fei had already collected six Legendary grade weapons, one Eternal grade weapon, three spatial tools, and a pile of miscellaneous goods.
“Haha! That old insectoid’s cane is actually Legendary rank with a Flame Nirvana function which can boost the power of fire special abilities. Not bad! Not bad at all!” Phantom excitedly said.
Xia Fei pursed his lips. “The weapon is good, but it’s of no use to me. This cane can only demonstrate its full potential in the hands of a fire ability user. It can only serve as a decoration with me.”
Phantom replied, “You can’t say that. Once we get back to the Alliance, you can sell it to an expert with the fire ability for something worthwhile. Highly ranked weapons are limited in number, and not every warrior can get one.”
Xia Fei said nothing and returned to the command deck, where he drew a red X on Hami’s name on the Sacred Warrior ranking.
Turning on the computer system, Xia Fei cleverly used a proxy server to infiltrate the insectoid military network and carefully inspected the newest military reports.
“The insectoids don’t seem to be doing anything big. It looks like I haven’t messed around enough!” Xia Fei coldly said.
Phantom asked, “What do we do then? You’ve picked up the pace of your hunt on the high-ranking insectoid warriors. Could Uti have already seen through your intentions and is intentionally ordering his soldiers to do nothing?”
Xia Fei clenched his teeth and coldly replied, “Keeping status quo so as to avoid counter ten thousand potential changes. Since he can be so restrained, I’ll add a bit more oil to the fire. I don’t believe that this most intelligent king can also have supernatural composure!”
*Pa!*
Xia Fei turned off the screen and went up to the navigation system to designate his next location.
The Vampire set off toward its next location!
Furball helplessly sighed. Joining Xia Fei in running around all over the place was very tiring on its lazy self, but he could do nothing about the scope and speed of Xia Fei’s operation. In the short term, it appeared as if it had no chance to rest.
…
“So gruesome!” Duabi said as he muttered to himself.
The former Cabinet elder Hami had once been in charge of the Sacred Guild, so he could be considered as Duabi’s former superior. This old insectoid had no other loved ones except females. After he withdrew from the Cabinet, he built his own fortress in the middle of a lush forest and gathered several thousand female insectoids whom he could enjoy.
This was very normal in the insectoid race. Not only would this not earn any scorn from society, it could be considered a way of flaunting one’s wealth. The mention of former Cabinet elder Hami would have many people drooling, envious over the heavenly life he enjoyed.
The corpses of female insectoids across the ground had Duabi’s heart in great pain. These insectoids were all beauties whom Hami had carefully selected. The fact that all of them had been killed was truly a great pity.
Laresh sobbed. “These ladies were really quite pretty. Former Cabinet elder Hami really was an expert flower-picker. Where did he even manage to find so many young and beautiful ladies? If only he shared a few with me, then there would be no need for them to all be buried with him.”
Duabi replied, “That human warrior is definitely ruthless. Without even a glance, he ma.s.sacred all these beautiful ladies, showing not one bit of mercy! You can see that he’s got a cruel and vicious heart!”
The party inspected the corpses as they continued forward. All of the female insectoids were slain in one blow, their throats sliced open. The knife had left such straight and exact wounds that it almost appeared as if every blow had been pre-calculated before being made.
Fatal wounds like this could only be accomplished through constant practice. Even the toughest being would falter a moment after killing several thousand lifeforms, but Xia Fei did not show any ripples of emotion, not even letting the fairest insectoid off. His had such strong will and his methods were so cruel that they made one break out in a cold sweat.
There was no fear on the faces of any of the deceased. It was clear that they had died completely unprepared. One second, they were giggling away, the next, they were dead. Such was Xia Fei’s speed that he had taken everyone’s lives before they even noticed it.
This was a special trait of speed ability users. Although speed ability users could not engage in the sort of intense large-scale slaughter that other special ability users were capable of, when they really set about killing others, they could acc.u.mulate the greatest tally of deaths in the shortest time possible and would not lose out to any other special ability users.
A head was thrust atop the roof of the fortress. This was the former Cabinet elder, Hami.
Duabi ordered someone to remove the head and place it back on Hami’s plump corpse. The head and torso were a perfect fit as if the cut had been made by a precision machine.
“Look here; the human warrior fought with the Cabinet elder on this spot. It’s clear that the Cabinet elder wasn’t just waiting to be killed. Before dying, he put up a strong resistance,” said the one-armed Laresh, pointing at a scorch mark on the ground.
This mark began from Hami’s corpse and extended for two hundred-some meters into the forest. It was as if an enormous fire dragon had instantly swallowed up the lawn and the forest.
Duabi nodded. “While the Cabinet elder was getting on in years, he was still a top-ranking warrior who used to be ranked thirty on the Sacred Warrior Leaderboard; few foes could take his Flame Azure Dragon head-on. This was probably left behind by the Cabinet elder’s technique.”
Laresh said, “That’s right. The Cabinet elder was still ranked in the top one hundred, meaning that he still had some of his strength from his heyday. If the old man had been a few decades younger, he might have been able to capture that human warrior.”
Yadan still had that fake smile on his face as he kicked the female corpses on the ground. “It’s pointless. Even if Hami was one hundred years younger, he would still be no good.”
This semi-lukewarm tone made both Duabi and Laresh feel upset. Hami was still a former member of the Cabinet and wielded considerable authority, yet Yadan showed him no respect. Not only did he neglect to address Hami with his t.i.tle, he did not even give the latter some respect as a warrior, believing that he had been no match for Xia Fei.
“What do you mean by that?” Laresh frowned and asked.
Yadan laughed and casually pointed at the scorch mark.
“The scorch mark travelled upward, all the way to the sky. From this, we can see that when Hami released his ultimate skill, he was already dead, his body falling backward. That’s why the Flame Azure Dragon didn’t go all the way, instead shooting into the sky after several hundred meters.
Duabi and Laresh followed Yadan’s finger, and sure enough, the trees in the distance rose higher and higher. The ones in front had been severed at the roots, but those at the back had only had their branches and bark burned, the trunk and roots unharmed.
There was only one explanation for this result, and it was that, when Hami unleashed the fire dragon, he had already begun leaning backward, ultimately causing the technique to fly to the heavens.
In other words, Xia Fei had given Hami no time to counterattack. The attack he had unleashed was executed purely out of a force of habit.
In the distance, Mingjing closed her eyes, her face raised toward the sun, her arms placed on her shoulders. She was like a girl who was freezing on a cold winter day, her body constantly s.h.i.+vering and her golden hair drifting in the wind.
Any information in the air that was linked to Xia Fei would slowly converge around Mingjing. Alas, the information was extremely limited. Even after several minutes, Mingjing had clearly not gathered enough, and she creased her brows in confusion at the situation.
“Miss Mingjing, did you gather the information you required?” Duabi walked up and asked.
Mingjing shook her head, swiftly writing her answer on her electronic notepad.
“It is very strange. Our quarry is apparently able to conceal his mental information. I have done all I could, but I was only able to gather so little useful information.”
Mental-type ability users with Mental Trace first needed to gather information on their target of tracking. This included their scent, body structure, emitted mind particles, et cetera. Once all this information was gathered, a model of the target could be constructed.
With this model, the ability user could then transform their psychic energy into tiny lines that would spread through the universe, using the feedback from various lifeforms to find the target’s location.
This ability was very powerful. Almost no one was capable of escaping from a psychic tracker.
Unfortunately, Mingjing did not know about Xia Fei’s Breath Control ability!
Breath Control could create a vacuum membrane around the body, and both a psychic’s energy and odor would find it very hard to escape this membrane. Wherever one went, one would appear like the air, and even if the user was right in front of someone, it would be very easy not to see them.
At a table, the one who ate the most, drank the most, and talked the loudest would be easily remembered, but that person silently sitting at the corner could be forgotten with the turn of the head. Why was this? Everyone was clearly sitting at the same table, but while some people left deep impressions, others were hard to remember.
The reason was actually very simple. Perception was a synthesis of various things. If someone wanted to leave a deep impression on others, besides external appearance, one also had to use one’s odor, voice, and other senses. Vision alone would not leave that deep of an impression, not unless the person had an extremely unsightly appearance.
The same was true for ladies. Viewing a picture did not leave as deep of an impression as seeing the woman herself. This was because seeing a woman in person meant not just viewing her external appearance but also smelling her perfume, hearing her moving voice, seeing the two dimples on her cheeks as she laughed, and so on. This sort of comprehensive perception of a living being naturally left a deeper impression than a simple picture.
Xia Fei’s Breath Control created a misperception, turning a three-dimensional lifeform into the picture of a stranger, a puff of air, impeding the senses of others.
Mingjing appeared very disappointed. This was the first time she had encountered a problem like this. Even though she had inspected two crime scenes, her image of Xia Fei was still a blurry shadow. Searching for a shadow in the sea of stars was impossible, even if her ability was stronger than how it was now.
Duabi sighed and comforted her, “It’s fine. Since he’s set on so viciously getting his revenge, he won’t give up that easily. I’m sure that it won’t be long before he causes another ma.s.sacre. Hopefully, you will be able to gather even more information about him then.”
Everyone fell silent. Continuing to wait meant that they would allow Xia Fei to continue wreaking havoc in their territory. At present, the main force was invading the Pan-human Alliance, and there was not enough manpower in their territory to restrain Xia Fei’s brazen slaughter. When they finally got around to eliminating Xia Fei, there was no telling how many members of their race would have lost their lives.
*Beep! Beep! Beep!*
The microcomputer let out an urgent tone, and Duabi suddenly had an ill foreboding.
Yadan’s lips curved into a smile as he coldly spoke in an ambiguous tone. “Guildmaster, it seems that you’ve got a very powerful foresight. This time, even Sir b.u.ma has suffered a calamity.”