Chapter 286: Disappointment
Chen Dong finally found Xia Fei on a hill south of the city. He was sitting on a huge rock and smoking with his back toward the fumes rising from the city.
“The city is in a complete mess. Butcher is leading his men to fight Hook’s men in an intense battle. There are casualties on both sides, but Hook’s men are slowly losing their ground. I’m afraid that they won’t be able to last until the next morning,” Chen Dong said.
Xia Fei nodded indifferently. “There aren’t many good people in this city. Those warriors need a way to vent their frustrations after holding back for so long. No one can stop them now.
Chen Dong sat beside Xia Fei and stared at the night sky with him. The sky was surprisingly clear and densely filled with glowing stars.
“You sound like you don’t really care about Hook? I was thinking of killing that b.a.s.t.a.r.d for your sake, but I decided to come first because I was worried about you. We can make it in time to stab the guy a few times, ensuring that he’s dead, if we go now,” Chen Dong said.
Xia Fei shook his head. “I’m not interested; everything is already set. Whether Hook lives or dies is none of my concern. Besides, he’s not the one who set me up. He’s just a p.a.w.n.”
Chen Dong let out a sigh. “What about the girl? Did you find her?”
“No,” replied Xia Fei in a hoa.r.s.e voice. “Her wars.h.i.+p had just taken off when I reached the city’s South s.p.a.ceport. I only had enough time to catch a glimpse of her.”
“Why didn’t you say it earlier?” Chen Dong slapped his leg. “I just got a Tristan-cla.s.s frigate from my family. We might be able to chase it down.”
“It’s no use; their wars.h.i.+ps have the cloaking system. They turned invisible immediately after taking off,” Xia Fei said.
Chen Dong nodded. It was indeed difficult to track down a wars.h.i.+p with the cloaking system. The only way was to use an electromagnetic shockwave with a huge coverage to force the wars.h.i.+p into showing itself. Otherwise, they could only watch the wars.h.i.+p get away.
Chen Dong’s wars.h.i.+p did not have an EMP sh.e.l.l. Besides, it was already too late now. After all, the radius of an electromagnetic shockwave was limited.
“The cloaking system is very expensive. Only the major organizations or sovereign territories in the Alliance can afford it. Your friend doesn’t sound simple at all,” Chen Dong said.
Xia Fei shook his head. “No, she’s actually very simple.”
Chen Dong did not ask any more questions. He did not like meddling in other people’s business, most likely because of Xia Fei’s influence.
“Madman, how did you end up here again?” Xia Fei asked.
“Huh!” Chen Dong frowned. “Wasn’t it your fault? I didn’t know what I’m supposed to do after hearing your teaching and just kept agreeing with everything people asked from me, so I’ve been busy running errands.”
Xia Fei smiled. “Isn’t that great? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have stumbled onto me here on this planet.”
Chen Dong fell silent. He could not help but agree with Xia Fei. He would not b.u.mp into Xia Fei coincidentally if he did not end up here. Xia Fei was no longer in danger now even though Chen Dong was still worrying about him just a moment ago.
“Speaking of which, how did you manage to escape from that deathtrap? I couldn’t figure it out no matter how hard I looked at it. Those pulse lasers were so deadly that even my ice armor wouldn’t stand a chance. It’s a huge relief that you are safe now. I was worried about you,” Chen Dong said.
Xia Fei said, “Those are concentrated pulse lasers. Their energy is higher than normal pulse lasers. Normal people will have trouble escaping them, but such pulse lasers have a weakness, too. Since their energy is so high, they have to rely on compound energy reactors as their energy source. Those compound energy reactors consist of a primary reactor and several tiny reactors, so they occupy a huge s.p.a.ce.
“I’ve been observing the town carefully since the moment I arrived. None of the buildings here has enough s.p.a.ce for those reactors, so I deduced that the reactors are located underground, and it’s very likely that they’re right under the Blood Matrix.
“Therefore, I convinced Butcher to do me a favor by locating the cl.u.s.ter of reactors and destroying it. The slightest damage to the outer layer containers of the reactors is enough to affect the energy core, bringing the whole system down with it.”
Chen Dong gasped. He was a brilliant warrior with all the important traits and skills, but he knew nothing about technology and wars.h.i.+ps. Xia Fei’s explanation was like an alien language to him.
“Does it mean that Butcher and you were already planning to destroy the reactors? You two left all that mess on the surface on purpose?” asked Chen Dong with a confused look. “I couldn’t even tell; I thought that you two were seriously fighting each other.”
Xia Fei smiled. “That’s exactly what we were trying to achieve. We were actually locating the reactors and destroying them.”
Chen Dong thought for a moment and said, “If you already knew the reactors are at the center of the place, why didn’t you destroy them right away? Why did you bother wasting your time on destroying the whole place?”
Xia Fei explained, “There’s a little nuclear energy detector on my armor, but the t.i.tanium floor was screening the nuclear energy from the reactors, so I had to keep digging holes to observe the change in the radiation level, and the spot with the highest level then was where the reactors were.”
In addition to Xia Fei’s Bloodthirsty Ice G.o.d, almost every armor had a radiation detector to determine if there was any danger in the surroundings. Hook made a big mistake when he did not take away Xia Fei’s armor. He was overly confident in his pulse lasers, which led to this outcome.
The formation of pulse lasers was only protecting the surface, but the underground was still vulnerable to powerful attacks.
Every system had its strengths and weaknesses. No system was perfect. t.i.tan was the closest to being perfect among the wars.h.i.+ps he had seen, yet it was not perfect still.
On top of Hook’s mistake of underestimating his enemy, Xia Fei’s domain knowledge played an important role, too. If a warrior who was clueless about the pulse lasers found himself in the same situation, he would have no chance of escaping even if he was a lot stronger than Xia Fei.
…
Xia Fei was in a bad mood for being unable to locate Xiao Yu. Chen Dong sat on the hill with him throughout the night. The flames and killings in the city lasted the entire night, too.
A thin mist rose into the air at dawn as the sun gradually revealed half its face. The flames in the city went out as sunrays began pouring into it. It was quiet all of a sudden.
Xia Fei rose to his feet and said to Chen Dong, “It’s almost time. Let’s head back to the city to look around.”
They went down the mountain and followed the muddy road into the city. They saw a few warriors who were previously trapped in the Blood Matrix. They were fully covered in blood, but their hands were carrying prizes of war.
Xia Fei had obviously done a great deal for them. If it had not been for him, these people would eventually turn into wandering spirits. The warriors smiled at Xia Fei. Some gave him a hug and expressed their grat.i.tude. They even shoved some of the loot into his pockets.
After several stops along the way, Xia Fei and Chen Dong finally arrived at the place where Hook used to reside.
A few hundred dead bodies were hanging on the trees in the front yard. Their bodies were full of holes like beehives. The grudge that the warriors were holding against Hook’s men was beyond anyone’s imagination, but it was quite expected since most warriors were savage in nature.
“Xia Fei, I’ve been waiting for you!” Butcher was now the leader of the warriors. He was waiting at the entrance with a large group of people.
“Where were you last night?” Butcher asked.
Xia Fei smiled but did not answer the question.
“Either way, I’m glad you’re here. Come with me; I’ve prepared a huge gift for you!” Butcher dragged Xia Fei into the place excitedly.