Chapter 379: A One-man War
By the south borders of the Pan-human Alliance, the 105-fleet-strong counterinsurgency army, which had been formed to quell the Death Tri-region, was returning to the Alliance as fast as they could.
Capital s.h.i.+p, The Merry G.o.ddess.
The fleet commander, Admiral Riberio, had his arms folded as he stood on the command deck, looking ahead at a flas.h.i.+ng beacon. This beacon signified that they were entering the Alliance territory.
The red beacon flashed red at a steady rate. Riberio’s weathered face finally revealed a rare smile.
“A report for the admiral; the fleets and their crew have all safely arrived.”
Riberio looked outside through the viewing window and saw many wormholes opening all around. Alliance wars.h.i.+ps were appearing in succession on both flanks of his capital s.h.i.+p, forming a powerful combined fleet.
“Admiral, now that we’re in the Pan-human Alliance territory, we can reestablish connection to the interplanetary internet. We’ve also reconnected with the military’s encrypted network, ready to contact headquarters whenever.”
Riberio called in a booming voice, “Inform the headquarters of our current position. At the same time, pa.s.s down my orders: The insectoids have declared war unconditionally; the survival of the Alliance is at a critical juncture. We must hurry to reconvene with Marshall Tai’s southern fleets, so this is no time for the crew to relax. Let us head out with haste!”
These expeditionary fleets had just returned from the Death Tri-region. It had been a long time since most of the fleets’ crew had rested; plenty of these wars.h.i.+ps did not even take the time to replenish their ammunition as they swiftly set off on their return voyage to save the Alliance. No one had any complaints about this, and everyone did their best to endure. Their fighting spirit was great, each of them looking forward to driving away the evil insectoids from Alliance territory.
The fleets, comprising tens of thousands of wars.h.i.+ps, were stationary in s.p.a.ce. They needed approximately fifty minutes or so after every jump to recover their energy, and there was still some time before they could make the next jump. Everyone was busy using this time to do some small-scale maintenance of their s.h.i.+ps.
Any machinery would always encounter minor or major issues. The most busy during this grueling journey had to be the many machinists...o...b..ard the s.h.i.+ps. This rapid flying did not allow any wars.h.i.+ps to fall out, and if there was any mechanical failure onboard, the fleets were not about to stay and wait. In order to keep up with the fleets’ continued flight, it was necessary for the wars.h.i.+ps to be kept at peak condition.
Plenty of these over tens of thousands of machinists in the fleets had not rested. All of them depended on drugs to keep their wits about, maintaining their respective stations throughout the voyage in order to ensure that the fleet remained perfectly safe.
All of a sudden—
A wormhole opened in front of the fleets, followed by a second and even a third!
“Report! Admiral, a wormhole node has appeared somewhere thirty thousand kilometers in front of us! Their numbers… Their numbers have already reached tens of thousands, showing no signs of slowing down!” The radar operator was at a complete loss on what to do as he made this report.
Like countless rocks that had been thrown into the sea at the same time, ripples began appearing everywhere in the piece of peaceful s.p.a.ce in front of them. These countless wormholes meant there was going to be just as many wars.h.i.+ps appearing before them soon. Riberio knew that these incoming fleets could not possibly be friendly!
Worse was the fact that the wars.h.i.+ps in this expeditionary force were completely unprepared to do individual warp jumps; they could not flee even if they wanted to!
Several minutes later, about five hundred insectoid combined fleets appeared before the Alliance expeditionary fleets, their inky-black cannons all pointing toward that 105 paltry and fatigued Alliance fleets.
…
Supercarrier, Freedom. The temporary command center of the military.
“WHAT? The expeditionary fleets sent to quell the Death Tri-region’s rebellion got surrounded by some insectoid fleets, which had appeared out of nowhere!” Grand Marshall Tai slapped the table hard as he asked, “The expeditionary force is in the southern borders, so when did the insectoid fleets arrive there? Why did we not get any information of such a movement prior?”
His fiery gaze looked as if it would spit flames any minute. No one dared to look at an enraged Tai right in the eyes.
“How many men are there? What are the losses?” Tai asked, doing his best to suppress the anger he was feeling inside.
The command center was dead silent. No one dared to give him an answer or even let out a breath.
“What, are you all dead?” demanded Tai coldly.
Williams handed the latest emergency update to Tai. “Six hundred combined fleets circled from beyond the Alliance territory to our south. Riberio’s expeditionary fleets have all been decimated. Not a single s.h.i.+p escaped.
Tai looked at the doc.u.ments before plopping down in his chair heavily, feeling lost.
Another six hundred combined fleets! Six hundred from the north, six hundred in Alliance territory, and six hundred more from the south. It could be said that the entire Pan-human Alliance had already been surrounded by 1800 insectoid combined fleets. The situation was evident; the total fleets under the Alliance command were a little over a thousand, yet the insectoids actually had 1800 elite combined fleets!
This was a war that the insectoids had carefully prepared for, and everything had already been planned by the Golden Tent, not a single detail left out to chance.
It was as if Tai had suddenly become older at that moment, as a deep stabbing pain, which came from a feeling of sad helplessness, gripped his heart.
That was when the ring of the emergency communications system could be heard, its ear-piercing sound seemingly mocking the military’s failure.
After a good long time, the communications officer in charge of receiving the report finally bit the bullet and stood up. With a deeply somber and heavy tone, he said, “The north fleet commander, Admiral Layton, called. The insectoid fleets on their borders have begun advancing toward the Endaro Star Region.”
Tai was stunned yet again, not saying a word as he ground his teeth.
Williams asked heavy-heartedly, “How many, and do the northern fleets have any confidence in holding the a.s.sault?”
“One.. One thousand combined fleets,” replied the communications officer in a very low voice, his head lowering to match.
…
This was not a good day. The Alliance was being forced into a corner facing attacks from three sides, while Xia Fei was lying in his cabin, his eyes staring up at the empty ceiling.
Phantom had already lost count of the cigarette b.u.t.ts on the ground. Xia Fei had been lighting them up, one by one, and flicking them down to the ground after it burned until the filter, yet never once did he take a puff this entire time.
Xia Fei was devastated when he learned of how the capital had fallen, and hundreds of billions of people had all been killed. He did not really care about the losses of life, but he could not ignore the loss of the lady that he cared and loved the most: Avril.
Xia Fei suddenly got up from his bed, arriving at the command deck completely expressionlessly as he keyed in a series of commands in the mainframe. Phantom wanted to speak some words of consolation to Xia Fei, but he never found the right words, so all he could do was keep his mouth shut.
Even the little robot Pod could sense the heavy atmosphere in the room as well as the rage boiling in Xia Fei’s chest. It brought over a gla.s.s of milk, and seeing that Xia Fei did not want to drink this, it swapped it for a cola, and this continued without end.
“We won’t be returning to the Alliance yet,” Xia Fei adjusted the data as he said quietly.
“Why?”
“There are some things I need to do.”
With that said, Xia Fei returned to his cultivation room sans another sound. That night, he only spent it doing just one thing: polis.h.i.+ng his weapon and combat suit over and over again.
…
Between two mountains was a copse of densely packed trees. A single insectoid warrior was sitting amid this forest, his figure fat like an ox. The muscles on his body were strong and st.u.r.dy like steel girdles, his skin green, with a metal helmet on his head.
He was seated on a large boulder with his two eyes closed, as if he was in the middle of deep contemplation. Beside him were hundreds of dead bodies in varying states of dismemberment. They were all insectoid corpses.
Not one of these corpses was completely intact. All of them had been torn into segments by an external force. Their intestines and blood all strewn all over the ground.
If someone were to venture deeper into the forest, they would discover even more corpses and innards, numbering at least upward to five thousand. Killing these low-rank slaves was a routine training he did every three days. During his monthly large-scale training, he needed upward to fifty thousand slaves as his opponents, not allowing any one of them to live.
The caterpillar Shaye was Planet Manti’s most terrifying and bloodthirsty insectoid warrior. That metal helmet on his head was not worn for defense, nor was it for aesthetic purposes, as he did not even have a skull.
Plenty of insectoids were not completely evolved, and Shaye was one such individual.
He adjusted his breathing as he slowly opened his eyes. All he saw was a figure dressed in all black standing fewer than ten meters in front.
“Are you the one called Shaye?” Xia Fei asked frigidly.
“I am, indeed, and who are you?” Shaye harrumphed angrily. He stood up and pointed a b.l.o.o.d.y finger to Xia Fei.
He only had three fingers, and each looked like an iron tong. There were even sharp barbs on his fingertips which were abnormally sharp!
Xia Fei completely ignored his question as he pressed and asked, “Are you the most capable warrior on this planet?”
Shaye bellowed, “Yours truly is a sacred warrior! Of course, I’m the best, and there’s no doubt about it!”
Xia Fei nodded his head in satisfaction as he pulled off his cloak to reveal his true face.
“A human! You’re actually a human!”
Xia Fei dropped the black cloak onto the ground as he limbered up, looking very relaxed.
“I’ve already killed everyone in your tribe. I thank you for helping me kill this last batch.”
Xia Fei glanced at the corpses all around them; his lips then curled into a sinister smirk.
Shaye was shocked. About six hundred kilometers away from this forest was a tribe with at least over a thousand insectoids, and they were all exceptional warriors. Though they could not be compared with his strength, they were capable of killing far more slaves than himself. If what Xia Fei said was true, then this human’s cultivation should not be any worse than his.
Shaye suddenly burst into hysterical laughter. “I’ve long heard of just how shameless humans are, and it seems that the rumors are true. Do you think you’re able to finish off everyone of my tribe single-handedly? Dream on!”
Xia Fei abruptly burst into battle sans another word! With a tap of his toe, Xia Fei appeared in front of Shaye, even as October Flying Snow came cutting away with that bone-chilling coldness, going straight for Shaye’s face!
Shaye did not expect that Xia Fei would possess such lightning-fast speed. As an apex warrior of the insectoids, his reaction time was nothing to be scoffed at, either. He simply crooked his head to the back and extended both his hands at once in an attempt to grab hold of Xia Fei!
Grab onto foe and tear them apart—this was Shaye’s ultimate move!
Unfortunately, he had underestimated just how powerful Xia Fei’s October Flying Snow was. After all, this was an Eternal rank prime dagger. Underneath its exquisite appearance was a captivating killing intent!
*Ping!*
Plenty of ice shards blasted out in every direction!
October Flying Snow’s aura of cold froze Shaye’s brain into ice, and the follow-up attack from Xia Fei shattered the ice into chunks of hail! There was even blood and meat belonging to Shaye within the pieces of ice!
*Cras.h.!.+*
The huge headless corpse crashed onto the ground, mixing with all the other dismembered corpses.
Xia Fei turned around, leaving expressionlessly. It was as if nothing had happened, seemingly colder and more heartless than October Flying Snow.
“That insectoid was a Sacred warrior. Killing him is as good as declaring war against the entire insectoid race. Every insectoid warrior will now view you as an enemy who deserves death,” Phantom said, his lips curled.
“I know.”
“Where are we going now?”
“To find the next Sacred warrior and his tribe,” answered Xia Fei in a low voice.