The most dangerous enemy was not some bellowing fellow at one’s side but rather those hiding in dark corners and spying on them with their small and furtive eyes.
Xia Fei fell back two steps, turned around, and placed his hands behind his back.
Rather than a defensive posture, this seemed more like the posture of someone admiring the scenery. In a battle between experts, the outcome was not determined simply by creating some distance. A so-called defensive posture was useless in battles of this sort. This was a contest of reaction speed and in whose attacks were more ferocious.
By drawing back one’s body and tensing, one could swiftly spread out one’s mental energy and search for that person hiding in the shadows. At the same time, this sort of relaxed and casual posture would cause the enemy to let down their guard.
His mental energy spread out over the plains like an invisible spider web. This grass reached up to his knees, and someone trying to hide within it would be easily discovered. Alas, his powerful sensory abilities and his eyes, which had cultivated the Beast Spirit Codex, found nothing out of the ordinary. A cold gust of wind blew past, rustling the grass and causing goosebumps to rise on Xia Fei’s skin.
Phantom scanned the area, but in the end, he helplessly shook his head. It seemed that not even Phantom’s sharp senses had failed to find any clues.
Xia Fei’s expression slowly turned grave. He had relied on his powerful awareness to make his name, and they rarely failed him. Just now, Xia Fei had clearly felt a finger lightly prodding the muscles on his right shoulder. He could not be mistaken.
Unlike the steely muscles of strength ability users, speed ability users wanted to reduce their drag coefficient, and large muscles made movement inconvenient. This was common sense that even elementary school students knew. The higher the rank of a speed ability user, the thinner their body was. Moreover, while the muscles of speed ability users could unleash incredible strength, they remained sensitive, unlike those who pursued strength, whose muscles were as tough as steel, unable to feel anything even if they were punched.
This newcomer existed. It was just that neither Xia Fei nor Phantom could detect him or her. This was the conclusion Xia Fei had arrived at.
This was an enemy who could approach him without being detected. Xia Fei did not know how to describe them beyond ‘powerful’.
“Whoever you are, please come out,” Xia Fei indifferently said.
As Xia Fei spoke, he took out some exercise clothes from his spatial ring and put them on. Xia Fei thought that he was on a deserted planet, so he had walked across the plains naked, but since there was actually someone around, it was no longer very proper to be naked.
He withdrew all of the surrounding safeguards. Since he could not even detect this person, these safeguards were just a waste of energy. It would be better to save this energy for a battle against this foe.
*Whoosh~*
A figure suddenly appeared behind Xia Fei, less than thirty centimeters away. The muscles on Xia Fei’s back could already feel the heat being produced by their breathing.
Xia Fei was surprised, but he continued to put on his exercise clothes as if nothing had happened.
“Eh? Why aren’t you attacking me?” An aged voice came from behind him.
Xia Fei lightly replied, “You don’t have any hostility, so why should I attack you?”
“How do you know that I don’t have any hostility?”
Xia Fei smiled. “Since you could silently appear behind me, if you had any hostility, I would already be dead. Would we even be having this conversation?”
Xia Fei had finished putting on his clothes while speaking, and he now turned around very slowly so as not to make the other wary. The person was right behind him, and Xia Fei would have to be brain-addled if he chose to attack them suddenly. The only option was to delay and buy time; he was going to first determine who the other was and what they wanted.
His eyes saw a rather unremarkable middle-aged man. He was not that old, but he had the hoarse voice of an old man; he was slightly fat and possessed a pair of crafty eyes. Besides that, there was nothing else to write home about. He had such an ordinary appearance that he could be forgotten in the blink of an eye, lost in the sea of people.
“You are correct. I truly don’t plan to do anything to you. I was just passing by and noticed that someone had managed to glimpse at the Law of Space. Curious, I came down to have a look, but I didn’t expect you to be so young.” The middle-aged man sounded rather surprised when he spoke.
‘The Law of Space?’
This fellow spoke with a rather casual tone, but his words exploded like thunder in Xia Fei’s ears!
The universe was composed of space, time, and matter. These were unchangeable laws, and they were called the Laws of Space, Time, and Matter.
Mastering any one of these laws would allow one to glimpse the motives of the universe. This was the ultimate goal of all warriors!
Everyone knew that the truly strong probably stood at the very pinnacle of the universe, looking upon the stars and commanding all under heaven, but only those who were truly strong understood that commanding all under heaven was merely a dream held by new warriors. The true apex warriors considered the grasping of even one of the Three Great Laws as their ultimate goal!
No matter how high a warrior stood in the universe, they would still be bound by the Three Great Laws. The truly strong disdained all constrictions and laws! Their goal was to live free of the restraints of others, to control and decide on their own laws!
In truth, Xia Fei had only the vaguest understanding of Three Great Laws. He had once inadvertently made his way to the Heritage Planet and inherited a special ability there, obtaining a rudimentary understanding of the Three Great Laws while he was there.
Before this, Xia Fei had never thought about questions on this topic. Why was there a universe? Why did everything have gravity? Why did black holes devour? Why did white holes radiate? Let alone Xia Fei, even the best scientists rarely pondered on these questions. They preferred to lazily accept all these laws rather than wonder why they existed.
Xia Fei did not have a very deep understanding of the Three Great Laws. He only knew that the laws existed and that mastering them would give one control over everything. At the start, Xia Fei’s goal was like that of any ordinary warrior: get stronger. However, after one year of cultivation on Heritage Planet, Xia Fei finally understood that the truly strong needed to pursue mastery of the laws. Thus, he had grown indifferent and had begun to feel scorn for the various restrictions of the universe.
Now, this unremarkable middle-aged man had spoken about the Law of Space. How could Xia Fei not be stunned?
“Are you saying that the bizarre state I entered just then was actually an initial glimpse at the Law of Space?” Xia Fei asked in confusion.
The middle-aged man nodded, happily replying, “When breaking into the Legendary rank, you unwittingly felt a bit of the true essence of the Law of Space. Though it’s extremely brief and wouldn’t have much of an effect on your mental state, it’s still an extremely rare and valuable experience. After all, you’ve only just reached the Legendary rank. A chance like that is truly difficult to obtain.”
After saying this, he glanced at the Zephyr combat boots on Xia Fei’s feet. These top-class combat boots specifically designed for speed ability users could boost speed by ten percent. Without them, Xia Fei might have been unable to break through the thirty thousand meter threshold.
In truth, this was irrelevant. Almost all warriors relied on equipment, not just Xia Fei. The higher the rank of a warrior, the more they were willing to spend on high-ranking equipment to strengthen themselves.
Xia Fei fell silent. It turned out that his experience, which had lasted all of 0.2 seconds, was an interaction with the Law of Space. This revelation had truly left him astonished.
He glanced at the middle-aged man. This man sensed his momentary glimpse of the Law of Space and promptly arrived to meet with Xia Fei. This was proof that his cultivation was at a level that Xia Fei simply could not fathom!
Upon realizing this, Xia Fei smiled. “Grandmaster, I presume that you are a human being?”
The middle-aged man frowned, apparently viewing the word ‘human’ with some disdain.
“You could say that. You may call me Yuhua.”
Xia Fei chuckled. “A chance encounter is better than an invitation. Since I have had the chance to encounter this grandmaster in the insectoid territory, why don’t you come aboard my ship and have some tea?”
Opportunities were ever present, but what was key was whether or not one could seize them. Xia Fei had determined two things about this middle-aged man called Yuhua. First, he had a very high cultivation, extremely high. Second, he had no hostility toward Xia Fei.
Xia Fei naturally wanted to become close to a person with incredible cultivation and no intent to become his enemy. Even if he could not pull this man to his side, it would be good enough if he could learn some information on the Three Great Laws from him. Xia Fei was not about to let this chance slip by.
Yuhua looked at Xia Fei then the surrounding plains and smiled. “Sounds good.”
…
This place was not far from the Impaler, not even one hundred kilometers. Normally, it would take only a few seconds for a round trip; alas, Xia Fei did not have a combat suit and was sporting some light wounds. Thus, he needed a few minutes to get back, and even then, his exercise clothes still ended up being torn apart by the wind.
Yuhua was already waiting next to the Impaler. Xia Fei did not know how he had managed to move, but he did not dwell on it. After seeing his seemingly divine performance before, he could accept even the most absurd miracles.
“Please follow me,” Xia Fei politely invited.
On the Impaler, Pod and Furball were already waiting for Xia Fei. Yuhua only glanced at Pod, but when he saw Furball, he could not help but gasp. When Furball jumped into Xia Fei’s embrace and began using all of his techniques to win Xia Fei’s affection, Yuhua was as shocked as he could possibly be.
“Shoo! I have a guest!” Xia Fei casually tossed Furball onto a sofa, leaving Yuhua with his mouth agape, momentarily speechless. He found it impossible to believe that Xia Fei dared to treat Furball so crudely.
Realizing that he had somewhat lost control of himself, Yuhua organized his emotions and sat next to the coffee table. He occasionally glanced at Furball, but he saw that the creature seemed not to care how rough Xia Fei was being. It continued to ingratiate itself to Xia Fei, yet it did not even give a glance to the stranger.
Xia Fei had naturally noticed this. On the plains, Yuhua had appeared like some otherworldly expert, but upon entering the ship and seeing Furball, he had had a complete reversal in attitude. His pride was no more, and was now acting somewhat timid.
Pod came over with some brewed tea, and Xia Fei poured a cup for Yuhua. Feigning a very relaxed attitude, he said, “This is my exclusive beast, Furball, a very cunning fellow. I don’t know what species it is, but it’s got a bellyful of schemes and it’s always causing trouble for me all day.”
As he spoke, Xia Fei carefully examined Yuhua’s face for a reaction.
