Chapter 1348: The Ruined City of the Fiend Race, Britannia
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Xiu Zetian had a grim expression, and his eyes had turned purple from excessive excitement. His fists were tightly clenched, as if he was holding back some pent-up emotions.
Upon seeing Xia Fei, Xiu Zetian nodded at him and said, “There’s no time to get ready. You need to immediately participate in the operation and board the ship. We’re leaving in five minutes!”
Xia Fei straightened up and replied, “Yes!”
Whoosh!
The fastest and most advanced warship of the 29th Place, Gloomharbor, flew into the sea of stars, soon vanishing without a trace.
!!
Xia Fei and his colleagues of the 29th Place remained in the assembly room, waiting for Xiu Zetian to issue them orders. The newcomers had an obvious murderous aura about them, and it was clear at a glance that they spent most of their time on the battlefield. Not only did they have high leveled, but they also had intimidating demeanors. It was still a mystery where Xiu Zetian had managed to find these people.
Xia Fei chatted with the people he knew, Shane and Haolin, in the hopes of finding out what sort of mission they were on. Alas, the mission this time was very sudden and mysterious. Even the two veterans of the 29th Place didn’t know what was going on!
With a bang, the alloy door opened, and Xiu Zetian strode in, wearing a suit of silver armor. All the warriors stood up and bowed.
“Be seated!” Xiu Zetian said grimly. “The matter came up very abruptly and is of utmost importance! That is why all of you still don’t know where our destination is. But let me tell all of you now that our current operation is dangerous, extremely dangerous! If you are not willing to take part in this secret mission, please leave the conference immediately!”
All was quiet. While a few people muttered softly, nobody was willing to leave!
“Good! I will now begin issuing combat orders. All squads of the 29th Place will maintain their current composition. Our new brothers from the Covert Operation Department’s Pursuit Office will form the 6th, 7th, and 8th squads! All eight squads will heed my orders!”
The crowd became turbulent. It turned out that these newcomers were from the Shadow Department’s Pursuit Office!
The Pursuit Office was famed for its ferocity. They only carried out Death Missions, which meant missions where they took lives! They were a pack of butchers! This was nothing like the 29th Place. While they did kill people, they more frequently carried out investigation missions.
Sweeping his gaze through the room, Xiu Zetian continued, “Deserters will be executed! Those who refuse orders will be executed! Those who communicate with the enemy will be executed! The cowardly will be executed!…”
…
An exquisite garden, a newly-built wooden hut…
An old man was playing chess with a yellow-faced middle-aged man.
Xia Fei’s guess was right. Old Ye was Autumn Erudite, one of the Annihilation Universe’s Five Ancient Apexes! The yellow-faced man across from him was none other than Autumn Erudite’s tactician, Liu Shuting!
After making his move, Liu Shuting took a sip from his cup of tea and asked, “Old Ye, Xiu Zetian’s men should have started moving, yes?”It wasn’t just Xia Fei who called him Old Ye. Liu Shuting also did so, for his full name was Autumn Erudite!
Autumn Erudite’s status was such that he no longer was considered part of the Ye Clan, but the backbone of all of Annihilation. Thus, according to custom, Ye Zhiqiu’s surname was hidden, leaving him as Autumn Erudite.
Autumn Erudite nodded. “They’ve started moving. The 29th Place together with the Pursuit Office shouldn’t lose.”
Liu Shuting smiled. “Xiu Zetian is almost ready to go crazy over his desire to learn who killed his wife. As you’ve given him this mission, he will probably devote two hundred percent of his energy on it. I’m just a little worried that if Xiu Zetian actually finds out who that person was, the situation might become disadvantageous to you.”
Autumn Erudite chuckled. “I also want to learn the truth, or else I wouldn’t have placed Xiu Zetian in as important a position as the 29th Place. No matter who it is, I’m not happy that they’re hiding something from me. Let’s investigate the matter first and find out just who is causing trouble in Annihilation.”
Liu Shuting asked calmly, “And if it turns out to be one of those four?”
Autumn Erudite froze, and then he asked grimly, “Are you referring to our old brothers?”
“Mm,” Liu Shuting nodded. “Besides the five venerables, there is only Wang Dingtian’s group. Their group hasn’t had much to do with Annihilation for some time, already forming their own thing. That is why I feel like the investigation has a very high chance of pointing toward your colleagues.”
Liu Shuting spoke without worry. As the strategist, he had a duty to warn Ye Zhiqiu!
The Five Ancient Apexes of Annihilation were the last five living members of the old Heroes Alliance. While Autumn Erudite enjoyed the highest status among the five, it was still awkward to investigate the other four, and even doing so would affect the unity of the upper echelons of the universe.
Liu Shuting was recommending that it was better to look the other way and pretend the whole thing never happened!
Autumn Erudite replied casually, “I’m not someone looking to get into a fight with anyone, but someone who doesn’t like it when people do things behind my back! Take that little Fiend Xia Fei as an example. So long as he’s loyal to me, then it doesn’t really matter that he has Fiend blood. Isn’t he still perfectly fine?”
Liu Shuting nodded, saying in admiration, “Sir naturally possesses extraordinary tolerance. Xia Fei is not only a descendant of the Fiend Race, but also has a relation to the eighth universe’s Yangguang and his family, with the Chu Clan that protects God’s Eden, with the Soul Familiars of the Four Sky Devils, and even with Wang Dingtian’s group. Even so, you continue to tolerate him, such is the broadness of your mind.”
The Autumn Erudite laughed. “This is the difference between hiding things from me and not hiding things from me. I naturally have the means of controlling Xia Fei. So long as his family is under my grip, I don’t fear his disobedience. But during these past few years, there have been people interfering with my investigations, and that is something I cannot tolerate.
“No matter what, I must find out who this is and why they are trying to hide their actions from me!”
Liu Shuting nodded. “So you have borrowed the knife that is Xiu Zetian.”
Autumn Erudite’s eyes flashed with smugness as he said coolly, “Up until now, this has been a rather good knife, and this Fiend Xia Fei healed that stubborn problem of mine. What do I have to be unhappy about?”
Liu Shuting and Autumn Erudite both laughed.
…
Gloomharbor swooped down on a brown planet. An ancient city occupied half of the planet.
The forces of the 29th Place and the Pursuit Office gathered in the command deck. Everyone looked curiously out the window, speculating as to what this place was.
“There’s no need to guess. This place is Britannia, an important base of the Fiend Race, and its most secret one!” Xiu Zetian explained.
Everyone gasped, and even the Pursuit Office warriors were surprised. Xia Fei curled his lip. As expected, this operation was connected to the Fiend Race. Otherwise, Xiu Zetian wouldn’t have deliberately waited for Xia Fei to arrive before setting off.
Looking around at this long-abandoned planet and its storied city, Xiu Zetian said, “From what I have learned, Britannia is hiding a force, and these people might be traitors to the Annihilation Universe! Our mission is to weed out these people of Britannia! Even if we have to turn over everything! No cost is too great!
“Right now, Annihilator’s Hyperspace Lock has already locked down Britannia. No one can leave this planet, and no communication device can communicate with anyone beyond this planet. Those enemies already know that we’re coming and have hidden themselves in the ruins.
“The moment we enter Britannia, we will lose contact with headquarters. We will only be able to rely on ourselves! Headquarters has issued a death order! There’s no leaving until we completely clean out the enemy! Thus, there’s no backing out this time!”
Everyone was startled. It turned out that another department from Annihilation had already seized the planet, but in order to capture survivors, someone needed to first venture inside and do battle with the enemy. The 29th Place and the Pursuit Office had been tasked to sweep through Britannia and clear out the enemy!
Of course, this mission was extremely dangerous. After all, charging into enemy lines while keeping as many alive for interrogation added on many uncertainties. If it was just killing, they could simply destroy the planet. It appeared that this force was hiding some sort of secret, perhaps one that was even linked to the death of Xiu Zetian’s wife, which would explain why Xiu Zetian seemed so angry.
—
Once he was done thinking, Xia Fei joined the others in entering the shuttle and landing on the outskirts of Britannia.
The 29th Place had five squads and the Pursuit Office had three. Adding on Xiu Zetian’s command team, there were nine squads in total. They landed at nine different points around the city and entered simultaneously from nine different directions so as to completely clean out the former Fiend city.
Xia Fei was in the command team, along with Xiu Zetian, Shane, and the others.
Britannia was very much a city built in the style of the Fiend Race. It was a place where the Fiends had secretly trained warriors. Just like Annihilation, the Fiend Race had their own covert ops department, and all of its warriors had lived in this place, where they had experienced callous training and trials. Only after they had been through all the training could they enter the most mysterious department of the Fiend Race.
From this point forward, all communication devices would cease working, and everyone had to rely on their own ability to deal with any sudden developments!
—
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Xiu Zetian led the way, leading his small squad along a broad avenue into the ruined city. Each squad had a searcher. As they didn’t have the support of any equipment, they had to rely entirely on the searchers to find the enemy.
The speed they were moving was not an issue for Xia Fei, and they encountered no resistance along the way. After around twenty minutes, eight squads met in the central plaza of the city.
“Where’s the Third squad!?” Xiu Zetian asked in a whisper.
“The Third Squad was led by Haolin, and they were coming from the southwest. They should have met up with us here. Could something have happened to them?” Shane asked in shock.
“Speed types, move out! Go to the southwest to link up with the Third Squad!” Xiu Zetian ordered grimly.
Xia Fei received the order and sprinted off to the southwest in a blur of motion. Surprisingly, there were two other warriors besides him who specialized in speed, both from the Pursuit Office.
But they were much slower than Xia Fei, only able to get up to five million meters per second. Xia Fei had no choice but to drop his speed to run alongside them.
“In front, eleven o’clock! There’s a sniper!” the man on Xia Fei’s right called out.
The two warriors from the Pursuit Office split up, leaving Xia Fei in the middle as a target while they moved into the shadows.
Xia Fei frowned. These two speed warriors were from the same office, so they knew how to work with one another. It seemed the two didn’t take him seriously and had no plans on working with him.
At that moment, a cold light lunged at his face. Xia Fei had been advancing at five million meters per second, and then he suddenly shot off, accelerating in a curved line! He instantly reached a speed of thirty million meters per second!
Dodging and attacking in the same breath!
Bang!
Xia Fei grabbed the sniper’s head and slammed it to the ground, blasting open the gray paving stones! The man’s head was instantly turned into paste!
