Starforce Warriors

Chapter 302: An Aura Of Invincibility

Goddess Ye Liuying! The person who had descended from the sky and intercepted Soumei Tanbano was none other than Ye Liuying, the best warrior of the Liuhe Base City garrison.

Li Xiaofei would not have been surprised at her appearance before. But Tan Zhenwei's identity had changed in the last few minutes. He was no longer the city leader but the leader of the Wilderness Free Sect. He was a member of a terrorist organization that was hunted by the Star Council.

As a military officer, Ye Liuying’s first reaction should have been to apprehend him. Why would she help him instead? Li Xiaofei didn’t believe that Ye Liuying hadn’t noticed Tan Zhenwei’s current affiliation. Yet, not only had she appeared, but she had also stepped in to assist him. There was only one explanation for this. The two were working together.

Could it be that Goddess Ye Liuying is also a member of the Wilderness Free Sect?

This realization left Li Xiaofei deeply shocked.

Meanwhile, Ye Liuying had already engaged Soumei in fierce combat. One was a prodigy of swordsmanship from Great Xia, while the other was a master of the blade from Jiepeng. The master’s sword aura howled, cold as the nine heavens, as it slashed through everything in its path. But the prodigy’s blade light gleamed brightly as it met the sword aura head on.

When they clashed, even the stray shockwaves from their battle could severely wound a typical Five Spirits Realm expert. Ye Liuying had overcome a mental flaw and achieved enlightenment in a single breath to directly advance to the Golden Body Realm. At this point, she no longer required power armor for combat.

She could stand on equal footing with Soumei, one of Jiepeng’s renowned experts, with only the sword in her hand. For Li Xiaofei, this was the first time he had the chance to examine the combat style of a Golden Body Realm warrior.

The Golden Body Realm was not about turning the body into metal. It was a description of the qualitative transformation one’s body went through. A warrior who cultivated to the Five Spirits Realm could unleash innate qi from their five organs. Combined with the energy vortex within the dantian, this generated far greater power than those below the Five Spirits Realm.

Simply put, a warrior below the Five Spirits Realm had only one power source—like a single-cylinder engine. Achieving the Five Spirits Realm was like adding five more cylinders. This made them equivalent to a V6 engine. A car with a V6 engine would naturally outperform a single-cylinder vehicle by a huge margin when it came to power, acceleration, speed, and endurance.

But the Golden Body Realm was an even greater transformation. It made the entire body a source of power. Starforce qi was stored in every single cell of the body and could be summoned with just a thought. A casual strike held immeasurable power. Moreover, their lifespan would increase, their resistance to disease would strengthen, and their body’s recovery capabilities would become far greater.

The pursuit of martial cultivation boiled down to two primary goals: to live longer and to become stronger. The Golden Body Realm was considered the best combination of both these aspirations. Once one reached the Golden Body Realm, one had almost fully tapped into their innate potential. The next major realm, the Dao Union Realm, required seeking external power.

Thus, the path of cultivation in the Great Xia martial lineage was clear. First, cultivate one’s internal self. Then, explore the external world.

Of course, all of this was theory Li Xiaofei had learned from textbooks. It lacked practical experience. The true essence of the Golden Body Realm could only be understood when one actually reached that level and personally explored it.

For Li Xiaofei, witnessing the life-and-death struggle between these Golden Body Realm experts in front of him was a rare and treasured opportunity.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The fierce battle between the two Golden Body Realm warriors raged on as neither side gained an advantage.

"Let’s go."

At that moment, Tan Zhenwei finally decided to take action himself. He dove down, reaching out to deliver a punch in mid air.

Boom!

This punch landed on the energy shield over the base. Inside, the Prism Towers groaned under the strain. Tan Zhenwei started a relentless assault of fist strikes until the towers could no longer hold. They cracked one by one, emitting sparks as they collapsed, and the drilling machinery crumbled.

The energy shield vanished in an instant. The horde of flying star beasts, including Mole Crows, Red Magpies, and Fire Cranes, descended like a tidal wave on the base. In a flash, the entire base was engulfed by the beast tide.

Li Xiaofei followed closely behind Tan Zhenwei as they landed inside the base. The sounds of roaring beasts and agonized screams filled the air. Jiepeng warriors were being torn apart and devoured by the star beasts.

In the distance, power armor soldiers and mechs were organizing a desperate last stand in order to hold the line and stem the tide of beasts.

Tan Zhenwei strode forward. With just a flick of his fingers, one of the power mechs abruptly turned its guns and cannons on its allies, unleashing a sudden barrage. This was Kuramaki Kazuki’s humanoid power mech. Inside the cockpit, Kuramaki’s face was filled with despair.

He had only just realized that he had already been contaminated by the silken threads of the Heaven’s Mandate Silkworms. He had completely lost control of his body, his fingers wildly pressing the mech’s buttons, causing it to fire relentlessly at his teammates.

"Ahhhh..."

With one final scream, he bellowed, “Long live the Jiepeng Empire!”

Boom!

His head suddenly swelled and exploded, turning into a mass of blood and gore. But the Heaven’s Mandate Silkworms continued to control his corpse, manipulating the humanoid power mech to slaughter his comrades.

“Kuramaki, what are you doing?”

“Stop this now!”

“He’s a traitor!”

“Damn it, I’ve been hit in the power core...” n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The communications channel was filled with the furious shouts and cries of Jiepeng’s mech pilots. In an instant, dozens of power-armored soldiers were reduced to fiery wrecks.

A hundred meters away, another power mech of the same model was blasted into a powerless heap, its body engulfed in flames. Sparks shot out from its frame, leaving it immobile and crippled.

In front of Tan Zhenwei, whether it was power armor comparable to the Meridian Expanding Realm or the power mechs equivalent to the Five Spirits Realm, they were all no match.

The infiltration ability of the Heaven's Mandate Silkworms' silk was simply too terrifying as the Jiepeng defensive line was quickly breached. Yet, they continued to resist with all their might.

One had to admit that, after the brainwashing and indoctrination of the Bushido[1] spirit, the Jiepeng warriors possessed a fearlessness and madness that bordered on suicidal.

"They seem to be stalling for time, trying to protect something," Li Xiaofei remarked.

Tan Zhenwei responded, "There is quite a lot of experimental data and samples here. They’ve been using our Great Xia people to conduct experiments that violate international conventions."

Boom!

He shattered a specially reinforced steel door with a single punch. Beyond it, a sloping corridor led into an underground facility. Jiepeng warriors surged out like a tidal wave, immediately launching suicidal attacks. But with just a slight wave of Tan Zhenwei’s fingers, the warriors immediately began slaughtering each other.

The two continued deeper into the facility until they came upon a massive underground laboratory. Huge glass containers held the submerged corpses of Great Xia warriors and various star beasts. Among them were grotesque creatures created through grafting experiments.

The dissection tables held cruelly mutilated human remains. Some were adults, but others were just children. There was no need to guess where these innocent victims had been captured from. At the far end of the lab, a mountain of dismembered corpses was piled high. Ten enormous incinerators, controlled by a light core, ran without pause as they continued to cremate bodies.

"Goddamn Jiepeng bastards," Li Xiaofei seethed in fury.

This inhumane, anti-human race has no right to exist in the world.

Boom!

Tan Zhenwei pressed forward like a vengeful god of destruction. No Jiepeng warrior could stand in his path. Wherever he passed, rivers of blood flowed.

Finally, they reached a vast, brightly lit underground chamber where they found thousands of people. It wasn’t just Jiepeng soldiers but also several hundred people dressed in Great Xia attire. They were the representatives of the Great Xia noble families who were conspiring with the Jiepeng.

"Found you," Tan Zhenwei said, a cold smile twisting his lips. "You pathetic fools, consumed by your own stupidity."

The murderous intent within him was like a raging inferno. These traitors were more despicable than any foreign enemy.

1. Bushidō is a moral code concerning samurai attitudes, behavior and lifestyle, formalized in the Edo period. There are multiple types of bushido which evolved significantly through history. Contemporary forms of bushido are still used in the social and economic organization of Japan. ☜