Two Factions
* Whoosh ~ *
The Ladybug-class light cruiser entered space, and Duabi and the others hurried toward the deep-space outpost.
This time, Uti had sent him a rather pitiful number of people. Aside from himself and Laresh, who had lost an arm, there was only Yadan. Even the guards accompanying him numbered no more than twenty. Though Mingjing was High Priest Ryun's disciple and should have a decent cultivation, she was still a human, and she was also very young. Duabi was not at ease with her.
Uti's explanation for this operation was to keep it a secret. The other party might have already infiltrated the insectoid network, and even the military network might not be safe. Thus, the smaller the number of people in the capture team, the less likely it was that information would be leaked.
Uti of course had his reasons for making this judgment. The news of Kerosi's death proved that Xia Fei indeed had a way to obtain information on the insectoids. The deep-space outpost was a secret base, and there were only two possibilities for Xia Fei to find it and successfully infiltrate it.
First, the insectoids had a spy, and this spy was someone of high status and authority, qualified to investigate deep military secrets. Second, Xia Fei had already found a way to infiltrate the military network.
Either possibility was enough to give Duabi a headache. An enemy hiding in the dark and watching him was extremely frightening. His every move was under the enemy's control, and just the thought of it sent a chill down his spine.
Yadan stood at the back of the group, lazily leaning against the wall. He always had a smile on his lips, and his entire being exuded a sinister aura.
Duabi slightly frowned. Of the Seven Champions, the one he could not see through the most was the smiling tiger, Yadan. If not for Uti's instructions, Duabi would not have been willing to go on a mission with such a sinister and terrifying fellow. He was always hiding in a corner, observing the people around him with a faint smile on his lips. No one would ever know what Yadan was thinking.
In short, in Duabi's eyes, this capture team was filled with oddities. Mingjing was a human, and there was Yadan, who always had a fake smile on his face, a light cruiser with almost no combat power, and a group of warriors with their own suspicions.
…
The warship passed through a temporary wormhole. Outside the porthole was a huge and strange structure floating in the dead silence of space. It was brightly lit but lifeless, with several spotlights constantly flashing.
Duabi bowed to Mingjing and sternly asked, "Are we going to land now? Should we scan the interior of the deep-space outpost first? "
Mingjing did not reply. Instead, she closed her eyes. Her slender eyelashes trembled slightly, as if she was releasing some sort of mysterious power.
Moments later, Mingjing opened her eyes, appearing rather tired. She wrote down some words on the electronic notebook and handed it to Duabi.
"I've already scanned the area. There are only 17 half-lifeforms in the outpost, and there are no enemies nearby. Log in."
Duabi was slightly taken aback. Being able to probe the outpost from afar was already an astonishing feat, not to mention that Mingjing had spent much more time searching than a radar system. It appeared that the mental tracking ability was not as simple as just searching, but also had auxiliary abilities like scanning. It appeared that High Priest Ryun's disciple had a high cultivation, but just what was that half-lifeform that Mingjing had mentioned?
Duabi waved his hand, ordering the warship to connect to the deep-space outpost's landing bay and prepare to enter.
From the corner of his eye, he secretly glanced at Mingjing, who had a gloomy expression, and thought, Although this team is incomplete, at least they still have Mingjing. Perhaps my worries are unnecessary?
The sealed door opened, and a thick stench of blood assailed their nostrils!
There were bloodstains everywhere in the corridor, and every few steps, there would be corpses lying in the middle of the path. From the state of the dead, they had all been ambushed while they were completely unprepared. Some of them were holding tools, while others had half-eaten food stuffed into their mouths. They had all died horribly.
Laresh, who had always been loyal and never scheming, walked at the very front. Every time he saw a corpse, he would frown and sigh, as if his heart was aching. Duabi followed closely behind him, and Mingjing followed closely behind. Yadan, however, lagged far behind.
Duabi would often glance behind him, but all he saw was that Mingjing was completely at ease, not even bothering to look at the corpses. She was a mental ability user, so there was no need for her to flip over the corpses to get the information she wanted. It was just that the overly thick stench made Mingjing very unhappy. She used a white handkerchief to lightly cover her mouth and looked straight ahead.
Yadan's behavior was rather suspicious. He intentionally kept his distance from the people in front of him, and when no one was paying attention, he would flip over the corpses while muttering something. His mouth moved, but no sound came out. Whenever someone looked at him, he would nonchalantly look back, a fake smile still on his face.
* Whoosh! *
The sealed door to the command center flew open, and the ten-some surviving soldiers all knelt down. Some were sobbing about their experiences, while others were sobbing, unable to speak.
They were clearly scared out of their wits. Being in the darkness of the universe was already a psychological pressure, and with Xia Fei's torment, almost all the soldiers were on the verge of collapse.
A soldier who had just escaped death was lying on the floor, his two eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. There was a large bloody hole in his body, and though it had been simply bandaged, it was still oozing blood.
"Eh?" Duabi cried out in alarm. This was probably the half-life that Mingjing had mentioned, but Duabi's thoughts were not that simple. This was clearly a mistake! This was the first time that Xia Fei had failed to kill someone!
In the past few ambushes, no one had ever been able to escape from his blade. Had Xia Fei been injured? Was this why he had made a mistake?
With this thought in mind, Duabi hurriedly asked, "What's going on?"
The quartermaster of the deep-space outpost station came up to Duabi. Of the surviving soldiers, he had the highest rank.
"He's the storekeeper in charge of the warehouse. When the enemy came in, he panicked and knocked over the box holding the canned food, but he ended up half-dead."
Duabi frowned, his mood sinking once more. It seemed that Xia Fei's record of killing someone was still going, and no one had been able to escape from his blade.
Turning his head, Duabi suddenly realized that Yadan and Mingjing had both disappeared!
"Where are they?"
"Lady Mingjing is looking for the mental remnants of the enemy, and Yadan went with her," the one-armed Laresh replied.
Duabi thought for a moment before calling Laresh over. "Mingjing is High Priest Ryun's disciple. If anything happens to her, none of us will be able to bear the responsibility. You'd best go and keep an eye on her. I'll be enough here."
Laresh nodded repeatedly, and without another word, he gave chase.
Duabi was not really worried about Mingjing. What he was worried about was the smiling tiger Yadan. For some reason, Duabi was not willing to trust him, always feeling that this man had some hidden agenda.
The head of the outpost station commander, Klose, was cut off and placed neatly on the captain's chair. This was quite in line with Xia Fei's usual style. Duabi ordered his men to put away Klose's head and began to interrogate the surviving soldiers.
…
Around an hour later, the four members of the pursuit team gathered back at the command center.
Laresh asked, "Guildmaster, how did your interrogation go? Are there any traitors among these soldiers?"
The already frightened soldiers trembled in fear when they heard this. More than two thousand people in the outpost were all dead, and they were the only ones still alive. It was very easy for people to make wild guesses. The insectoids were a relatively barbaric society. As long as these important people had any suspicions, killing them was as easy as lifting a finger. There was not even a need to go through a military court.
Duabi shook his head. "These people were working in a relatively hidden corner, so they managed to escape. The enemy snuck in through the ventilation system and then killed his way to the command center to take Klose's head.
"Speaking of suspicions, there's one thing I don't understand. Look."
Duabi pulled up the footage from the surveillance system. "This human warrior immediately entered the control center after breaking in, which means that he already had some understanding of the deep-space outpost. After Klose's death, he immediately slaughtered all the warriors who were still alive, turning the entire outpost into a graveyard in just two minutes."
"But …" Duabi emphasized. "Logically speaking, if he had another minute, he should have found and killed all the soldiers who were still alive, but he suddenly stopped."
The image changed to a long, pitch-black corridor, and a bolt of lightning dashed toward him at incredible speed. Suddenly! Xia Fei stopped and furrowed his eyebrows as if he had heard something calling him. Then, Xia Fei went back the way he came, no longer pursuing those who were still alive.
Everyone found this inconceivable. Xia Fei was a speed ability user, and he had the map of the deep-space outpost. At most, he would have had another minute to complete a perfect massacre, draining this outpost of its last breath of life, so why did he stop at the last moment? Had someone secretly informed him of something, causing him to finally give up on the search?
There was an awkward silence. No one understood the reason.
Duabi sighed and asked Mingjing, "Sir, did you find any mental remnants left behind by the enemy?"
Mingjing nodded and wrote a line of words before handing it to Duabi. "I found some, but it's very weak. This means that he did not use much mental energy in his attack. This isn't enough. I need to collect more before I can search for him."
Duabi was somewhat disappointed, but he also felt lucky. In his mind, Xia Fei was an extremely terrifying existence. Unless absolutely necessary, he did not want to make an enemy out of him.
Suddenly, the communicators on Duabi's, Laresh's, and Yadan's wrists began to ring.
"That person has struck again!"
"He killed the retired Cabinet Elder Hami!"
Laresh's and Duabi's voices rang out one after the other. Only Yadan remained unperturbed.
Duabi sternly said, "Come, let's go to Sir Hami's place of seclusion and take a look. Madam Mingjing still needs more clues, so let the Internal Affairs Department take over."
Walking out of the command center, Yadan was still the last to leave. Duabi inadvertently glanced back and saw that Yadan was using a handkerchief to wipe a dagger, which was covered in blood!
"You killed them all?!" Duabi exclaimed in shock.
Yadan shrugged his shoulders indifferently, the smile on his face never changing.
…
Almost at the same time that Duabi received news of Hami's death, a golden-class frigate not far from the deep-space outpost began to blare with an ear-piercing alarm.
The screen turned on, revealing Consort Qingyan's father, Qingliu.
"The retired Cabinet Elder Hami has been killed, and it was that human warrior who did it. I've already sent you the location. You must find him before Duabi and the others! Understood? "
* Whoosh ~ *
The screen turned off, and the golden-class frigate quietly set off. Duabi's ladybug cruiser followed closely behind, embarking on a search for Xia Fei.
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