“The Alliance is going to war! The military has decided to make their move on the Death Tri-region!” Xia Fei excitedly said as he clenched his fists.
On screen, Thuram frowned. “I say, Xia Fei, what are you thinking? The Alliance deciding to go to war against the Death Tri-region isn’t entirely a good thing. Though we also don’t hope to see the Alliance splinter, wars will always result in large losses of life.”
Xia Fei lit a cigarette, his expression calm and unperturbed. “Uncle, thank you for telling me this news. This is truly very important to me. The Alliance will go to war against the Death Tri-region at some point. I just came back from there and saw for myself the awful conditions the locals live in. Since war is inevitable, if it starts earlier, it can end faster, and the locals can more quickly return to a normal life.”
Thuram sighed. “You’re right, but this is still a civil war. If it was the Insectoids getting antsy again, I would be more than happy to deal with them.”
Xia Fei chuckled and asked, “Uncle, how did you find out about this, and how many soldiers is the military planning to send?”
Thuram puffed up his chest and proudly said, “Such a minor matter is no problem for me. The president finished his meeting with his cabinet thirty minutes ago. The Ministry of Military Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of the Interior, the Alliance Security Ministry, and twelve speakers of the Upper House all passed this war proposal. Tomorrow, it will be offered up to both houses for discussion, and they will probably take three working days at most to reach a conclusion.
“My sources said that the ones pushing for military pacification of the Death Tri-region this time are the hawks led by six-star General Tai of the military. While the President and the conservatives are somewhat hesitant, they don’t have any objections in particular. After all, everyone wants to recapture the Death Tri-region. No one wants to defy the public’s wishes for order. Everyone is currently focused on the rebuilding effort. Rebuilding three whole star regions will take an enormous amount of wealth. Plus, the journey is long, making transportation difficult. This will be a heavy burden on the Alliance’s finances.”
Xia Fei nodded. Everything was going exactly as he predicted. Compared to the cost of militarily recapturing the Death Tri-region, the rebuilding cost was far greater. The Alliance might not have the finances for it, and when the time came, the warlords of the Black Abyss who favored the Alliance would take the stage.
As long as they agreed to nominally be under the Alliance, willing to give up their military privileges and take up the task of rebuilding war zones, the crafty politicians would silently permit their rule over the Death Tri-region. At most, the Alliance would set up an intimidating garrison in the region.
This was the chance Xia Fei had been waiting for. As long as the Alliance silently recognized the rule of the warlords over the Death Tri-region, Xia Fei could become one of those warlords and take some territory for himself!
Thuram paused a moment before continuing. “The military plans to send forty regular fleets, thirty combined fleets, and thirty logistics and security fleets for this war. From what I know, Tai has already given orders for five vanguard fleets to move out twenty-four hours ago, and only then did he bring up his war proposal with the cabinet.
Xia Fei thought it over and began to clap. “General Tai truly deserves to be the leader of the hawks, striking first and reporting later, announcing to the cabinet that there’s no stopping this war. Even if you don’t agree, you must!”
“Correct!” Thuram sternly said, “Tai is an extremely unyielding person and deserves his title as the leader of the military. Even though he entered the cabinet ten-some years ago, Tai has always remained a soldier. At crucial moments, he has the guts to make a call for action, but he’s truly sending a lot of the military force this time. The Death Tri-region can’t have more than forty fleets, which belong to different factions and are outfitted terribly. Once Tai’s army arrives at the Death Tri-region, it will be unstoppable!”
Xia Fei said, “That’s what makes General Tai so smart. By using a powerful fleet to crush them, the enemy will probably be frightened out of their wits and scatter before the battle actually takes place. I estimate that Tai’s fleet will need six months at most to sweep through the Death Tri-region. This will both raise the prestige of the Alliance army and minimize the length of the war and probable losses incurred in it. This is the most effective and most economical way of fighting. It’s much better than sending small fleets to wrangle with the enemies.”
Thuram was enlightened, and he softly stroked the stubble on his chin with his right hand. “True! This will minimize the losses to both the army and the locals. General Tai is both kindhearted and decisive! By the way, do you know why he’s in such a rush to strike?”
Xia Fei shook his head to indicate that he did not understand. Thuram laughed. “Because of you!”
“Your delivery of ten thousand energy-shield boosters to the Black Abyss directly altered the trends of the battles over the last few days. While those ten thousand ships were on campaign, the armies of Terminus and Evil Gulfstream were ambushed, more than half of the main force lost!
“Thus, the two sides became somewhat balanced, neither side willing to go on the offensive. Tai didn’t want this stalemate to continue, so he decided to go on the offensive.”
Xia Fei said nothing. His accidental acceleration of the Alliance’s attack on the Death Tri-region was a pleasant surprise, allowing him to receive that large piece of territory in Terminus much earlier than usual.
“Uncle Thuram, when are you going to head off for The Brotherhood Trade Carnival? Is the old man going?” Xia Fei asked.
“That old thing won’t be going. There are people there he doesn’t wanna see. The carnival will last for half a month, and a lot of good things often don’t appear until the very end. Only newcomers like you will go so early. I am going to finish the work on my desk first and will probably head out after a week.
“Before then, you need to be careful and do your best not to provoke any of those old devils. If you do end up causing trouble, Qin Mang and I may be unable to protect you,” Thuram sternly warned.
Xia Fei nodded. “I understand. I’m mostly going to broaden my horizons. I’ll definitely keep a low profile.”
Once the screen was off, Phantom naughtily chuckled. “Don’t cause trouble? Why do I feel that’s not your style?”
…
After sixteen hours of flight, the Impaler arrived at an azure planet peppered with islands. Xia Fei estimated that at least ninety-five percent of this planet’s surface had to be covered by water.
Countless islands were visible on the ocean’s surface like candied fruits dropped into the water. The islands were connected to each other by large bridges. Besides this, there were also ships, passenger planes, and even impressive submarines being used as transportation methods. The variety was truly a feast for the eyes.
After parking the Impaler on an island designated for docking warships, Xia Fei strode out to the shore and took in a deep breath of fresh air.
“The Brotherhood should be an extremely secretive existence in the Alliance, so why would they hold their trade fair in such an obvious place?” Phantom frowned. He was always thinking about things like an assassin, and he believed that for secrets, the more inconspicuous they were, the better. Thus, he could not understand what The Brotherhood was doing.
Xia Fei smiled. “Qin Mang once told me what the Brotherhood represented. It is the Alliance’s oldest fighting organization, and its symbolic meaning is to surpass itself. In terms of strength, The Brotherhood may not be a match for the Adjudicator Union, but the Adjudicator Union was born from The Brotherhood. From a certain perspective, The Brotherhood is the father, while the Adjudicator Union and the Monastic Order are its sons.
“Now that a father with so many sons wants to hold a trade fair, while the sons may not get along with each other, they all have to show some respect to their father. Think about it; if you had several hundred sons like the Adjudicator Union, you would find it hard to be inconspicuous even if you wanted to.”
Phantom understood. “This is what it means for a starving camel to still be larger than a horse. Whenever The Brotherhood wants to hold an event, the Adjudicator Union, the Monastic Order, and the other top organizations in the Alliance will all put out money and effort. For this half month, they’ll put aside their past grudges and temporarily get along. Getting these leviathans of the Alliance to get along in itself is a kind of miracle.”
Xia Fei nodded. “That’s exactly right. Plus, these sons who can’t stand the sight of one another will also compete, in terms of the amount of money they put out and who have the better items on offer. That’s how The Brotherhood’s triennial Trade Carnival turns out like this.”
Xia Fei walked along the shore while exclaiming at the scale of the trade fair and the local scenery. The trade carnival would only officially start the day after tomorrow, but quite a few people had already arrived. Upon observing the crowd, Xia Fei realized that many of these early birds were young people from various fighting organizations. Just like him, they were very curious about The Brotherhood’s Trade Carnival. It appeared that this was also their first time, but there were few real big shots. After all, the trade fair would go on for fifteen days and grow livelier toward the end. The big bosses had a lot of work today in their offices, so they would only show their faces in the last few and critical days.
Loud cursing came from the distance. Some thirty or so young men in two groups were in some sort of stand-off. One side wore the badge of the Adjudicator Union while the other side bore the badge of the Monastic Order.
Xia Fei pursed his lips. The disagreements between the two biggest fighting organizations in the Alliance had not been going on for just one or two days. For this sort of large-scale confrontation to happen right at the start was not a good omen. Who knew what sort of problems would crop up over the next fifteen days?
“Members of the Adjudicator Union, you beat up my brother! How are you going to pay this debt?” A stalwart and stocky young man helped up a fair-faced youth, who was bleeding from his nose, as he loudly barked.
“This kid slandered our Adjudicator Union. He deserved it!” A young man, who was not that old but was already sporting a thick beard, stood up and firmly declared.
“Third brother, are they telling the truth?” the stocky young man asked.
The fair-faced youth held his nose as he angrily argued. “Senior brother, there was nothing of the sort! I merely stated that it was the Adjudicator Union that chose the location of the carnival this year, and it seemed like they’re worried others do not know how wealthy they are, so they had intentionally chosen an extravagant planet like this to show off. How’s that any different from those ignorant scions?”
Studying the scene from the shadows, Xia Fei discovered that this young man’s words seemed rather reasonable. The young men from the Monastic Order were all wearing ordinary training clothes with few decorations—very simple attires, indeed. Meanwhile, the Adjudicator Union members appeared much more liberal and casual. One youth with a sharp chin was even wearing a gleaming necklace of golden pearls, each one the size of a chicken egg. It was as if they were a bunch of good-for-nothing rich boys.
This was the result of the traditions that these two large organizations observed. The Adjudicator Union had never despised wealth. In fact, it sought every possible method to create wealth, but the Monastic Order maintained a very low profile in the world, gathering capital by silently completing missions issued by their employers.
“You still dare to speak?! I’ll break your jaw! Our Adjudicator Union decided to rent this planet at all costs so that the carnival could go smoothly. It’s one thing for your Monastic Order not to contribute, it’s another for you guys to be so picky!” angrily asked a young man wearing the extravagant uniform of an Adjudicator.
The stocky young man’s brows furrowed as he sternly shot back. “My junior brother spoke the truth, and there’s nothing wrong about it. In addition, he’s a member of our Monastic Order. Even if he really made a mistake, it’d be up to us to deal with, not you Adjudicators!”
Neither side was backing down, and some of them were already rolling up their sleeves and preparing for battle. Xia Fei joined the rest of the crowd as a bystander, making no attempt to stop it. Which of these top fighting organizations of the Alliance did not have quarrels with each other? Many of them saw this as a spectacle, wanting nothing more than for the Adjudicators and Monastics to start fighting.
Xia Fei looked around and found the whole thing very suspicious. There should not have been any skimping on the security of a high-class event like this, and there should be a powerful peacekeeping force policing the place. However, these fellows had been arguing for quite some time, yet no one emerged to mediate. What was the reason for this?
“Brothers, charge!”
Someone shouted in the chaos, and the several dozen of the youths of these two large organizations rushed into a melee. At the start, they were still able to restrain themselves and not use their special abilities, relying on fists and feet, but there would always be wounds when fighting, and those hit could not help lashing out in rage and using their special abilities. Once the wound was torn open, there was no closing back up. Soon, lightning, stone, and icicles were flying around. Someone even let out a rhino-like exotic beast which charged freely about in the crowd.
The spectating crowd moved to dodge. As for Xia Fei, a light tap of his foot and he moved around twenty paces away at once; after which, he folded his arms and evaluated the martial techniques of this group with Phantom.
Anyone who could participate in The Brotherhood Trade Carnival had to be of some status in their respective organization, but this group of youths from the Adjudicator Union were truly too awful. While they talked big, when it came to the actual fight, they had barely any skills.
Xia Fei could not help but frown. “Their combat techniques are far too sloppy and average. How did they even get their entry passes? Look, the three of them are ganging up on one Monastic, but they’re just getting themselves roasted by the flames from that man’s Fire-type ability. Isn’t that just shameful?”
Phantom could barely watch. “Nothing but fancy and impractical techniques. It’s not as if they’re putting on a show, so why all the pizzazz? The worst disciple of the Assassin Sect would overcome these fools easily.”
At this moment, a Monastic youth was punched at the chest and staggered backward in Xia Fei’s direction.
Xia Fei did not think much about it. Using his intuition, he reached out to pull the young man up, for he preferred that the Monastics win over these rich boys from the Adjudicator Union, but this youth had apparently been knocked silly. He took Xia Fei’s outstretched hand as having ill intentions in his daze, so he retaliated by opening his mouth and belching out a ball of green fire.
The fireball struck Xia Fei at the chest and burned the new set of exercise clothes he had just bought. Fortunately, he was wearing the Bloodthirsty Ice God for protection underneath and was not hurt, but his face was blackened like he had just clambered out of a mine shaft.
Xia Fei could not help but be angered, a nameless fire igniting in his chest.
“A dog biting the hand trying to feed it! Looks like you’re tired of living!”
