Chapter 856: Chapter 856

Central Earth · Satellite Launch Center

"Our current plan is,"

a researcher clad in work attire stood next to ’Hao Yi’ and Li Cheng, looking around at the bustling crowd and slowly explained,

"to launch the lander via rocket into an orbit with a perigee of 600 kilometers and an apogee of 110,000 kilometers, with an orbital period of 48 hours."

"110,000 kilometers?"

He Ao turned to glance at the researcher beside him, "Is that the location of the transparent planet?"

the researcher nodded,

"according to the plan, at the apogee, the lander will separate into two parts, the landing module and the orbit return vehicle,

"then the landing module will attempt to descend to the surface of the transparent planet, allowing the explorers to leave the module to explore, while the orbit return vehicle will continue to operate in orbit,

"if all goes well, after the mission is completed, the explorers can return to the landing module and, after discarding some non-essential equipment, the module will ascend, rejoin the orbit return vehicle, and then return to the ground."

He paused for a moment, glanced at the materials in his hand, "However, this transparent planet is a celestial body we have never seen before, it does not have gravity, and we don’t know if it even has an atmosphere, or if it has any specific shape,

"so we provided the landing module with extra fuel, allowing it to return to orbit in case the landing fails, but as a result, the explorers will have a little less space to operate."

"Um, that shouldn’t be a problem,"

He Ao nodded lightly, he looked up at the huge rocket launch tower under the night sky being given its final check, "How much longer until everything is ready?"

The researcher gave a slight nod.

"How long will we stay in satellite orbit?"

He Ao withdrew his gaze and continued to ask.

"From the perigee to the apogee, we might make some orbital adjustments along the way, at least 24 hours."

The researcher spoke softly.

the researcher shook his head, "You’re the ones taking the most risk in this operation, we are just doing what we can to help."

While he was speaking, a short-haired girl in work attire glanced around at a distance before turning to look this way, holding a document and running over quickly, handing it to the researcher,

"Team leader, this is the summary that was just put together, can you check if there is any issue?"

He Ao’s gaze fell on the girl in the work attire and paused briefly.

He was familiar with this girl; she was the ’fellow traveler’ and Speech Master he first encountered when entering the ruins.

"Mr. Hao Yi, Director Li, hello."

At that moment, the Speech Master also seemed to notice ’Hao Yi’ and Li Cheng next to her and greeted them playfully, smiling.

"This is a researcher from Dongdu, codenamed ’Speech Master’,"

Li Cheng, who had been quiet by the side, said with a smile,

"She previously entered the ruins with He Ao and successfully got promoted to D-Rank. Her talent is ’Convergence Thinker’,

"Her ability seems to quickly grasp the thoughts of those around her. Sometimes when we encounter certain difficult problems, her ability can rapidly facilitate thought convergence among researchers, speeding up the problem-solving process,

"She happened to be nearby these past few days, so I directly pulled her over to help, and she’s been of great assistance in advancing the entire process."

While listening to Li Cheng’s introduction, the Speech Master puffed out her modest chest, revealing two small pearly white canines, "It’s not that impressive, really."

"One of the girl’s great strengths is her fearlessness of strangers,"

Li Cheng laughed upon hearing this, "She gets along well with everyone and acclimates quickly to new environments."

He Ao nodded gently to the Speech Master.

The Speech Master giggled again, puffing out her chest.

"Well then, we’re going to get back to work; just call me if you need anything."

At this time, the researcher had also finished checking the document in hand, nodded to ’Hao Yi’ and Li Cheng, and walked into the crowd.

"Goodbye, Mr. Hao Yi, goodbye, Director Li."

The Speech Master waved at the two and also followed the researcher into the crowd.

It wasn’t until the girl with the dark skin had disappeared into the crowd that Li Cheng looked up at the distant rocket and laughed, "This will be my first time in space."

He Ao asked with a smile.

Li Cheng touched the wooden case on his back, turned his head, and smiled, "I should be ready."

In the wooden case was his Angelic Tier weapon, ’Andaville’s Spear’.

He Ao took a deep breath and looked back.

Behind them, on the bench, Jie An was sleeping soundly with his arms crossed, leaning against the chair, while Goya, wearing a hood, bowed her head with her hands together as if she were praying.

"Our team is pretty reasonable,"

He Ao turned back, looked at Li Cheng, and said with a smile.

Li Cheng also turned to glance back and nodded slightly.

They had already roughly discussed their abilities beforehand.

Jie An’s ability seemed to be turning into some kind of lava giant, tough and sturdy, able to serve as a shield.

Li Cheng, wielding Andaville’s Spear, was a high-output Thunder Mage.

And ’Hao Yi’ was like a warrior, with more of an assassin’s tilt.

A tank, a healer, a mage, and a warrior—already a quite reasonable team composition.

Of course, this was just everyone’s strengths. Overall, every member of this team had strong combat abilities, and their weak points were not apparent.

Even the healer Goya, according to Jie An, could put up a good fight.

He Ao lifted his gaze toward the sky.

Though distant from the city, where lights still shone bright, one could make out the myriad stars scattered across the sky.

Yika Republic · Capital, Mote City

Under the darkened eclipse, bright lights illuminated the streets.

"The Blood Day Investigation Team established by the Three Major Organizations,"

In front of a towering statue, a blond middle-aged man with a hoarse voice began, "why would they choose a little brat from the Research Institute to lead? Has Elder Ruodel truly become senile?"

Someone else chimed in, "Our Western Lands’ turf, why should we let a Zhongtu People manage? And we’re supposed to welcome him here?

That old geezer Ruodel is also talking about full authority; the Blood Day shadow covers the lands of the Yika Republic, Rodan is just a small piece, Sett Mister should obviously be the one leading this investigation team."

"Our Mr. Sett has done so much over the years, probably killed more people than that little brat has even seen. What right does he have to command us?"

Discussions erupted continuously among the crowd.

"I checked that kid’s resume, so highly inflated, must have been pushed out for show. Once he meets Mr. Sett, he’ll probably wet his pants in fright."

Another person joined in, "this World Tree is getting worse and worse; we should go independent, start our own organization. We can handle the Blood Day ourselves, I support Mr. Sett as the leader of the organization!"

Echoes of agreement rose non-stop from the crowd.

But amidst the rising clamor, the man with tea-colored curly hair at the very front of the queue slowly raised his hand.

And as his palm lifted, everyone discussing began to quiet down.

Under the bright lights, an exceptional silence prevailed.

The howling of the wind arose from the darkness below the distant sky, the sound of propeller blades cutting through the Firmament.

Under the gaze of everyone present, a black helicopter whirred through the gaps between buildings, arriving in front of the crowd.

The sweeping winds lifted everyone’s hair and clothes.

Some faces showed displeasure.

The black helicopter slowly descended, accompanied by the screeching winds, and eventually hovered around two to three meters above the square, right in front of the crowd.

Under everyone’s watch, a young man wearing a long black coat and carrying a white bone sword on his back leaped from the helicopter.

At the same time, another man with chestnut-colored curls followed the young man down.

The helicopter pulled up and flew backward, and almost at the same time, everyone’s gaze rested on the youth standing ahead.

Meanwhile, He Ao’s eyes also fell on the people in front of him and the brilliantly lit buildings behind them.

This building was the World Tree headquarters in the Yika Republic, constructed with a massive door that rose to five meters, situated atop tiers of steps and looking exceptionally grand.

But at this moment, at the entrance of this giant door, a huge stone lion sculpture had been placed on the flat platform at the top of the stairs, perfectly blocking the entire doorway.

He Ao lowered his head to look at the World Tree’s Transcendents in front of him.

It seemed that the situation within the World Tree was worse than he had expected.

"Is this Mister He Ao?"

It was at this time that the curly-haired man at the forefront approached, smiling at He Ao, "I am Sett, the person in charge of the Yika Republic. I’m glad you could come to our World Tree headquarters in Yika."

Despite the smile, he spoke in Yika’s local language, not the Tia Empire language or Rodanese commonly used in the Rodan Republic.

In theory, He Ao wasn’t supposed to have mastered the Yika language.

Clearly, this was a display of ’throwing one’s weight around,’ hinting that He Ao was an outsider and should not meddle in local affairs.

He Ao glanced at him and calmly replied in Yika, "But I am here to take over this place."

As neighboring countries, the language of Yika and Rodan are not significantly different and are both variants evolved from an even older language of the Western Lands, with similar grammatical structures.

Similar to the different dialects in Zhongtu’s provinces, only the differences are slightly larger.

After mastering Rodanese, learning Yika was not difficult.

On his way here, He Ao had used Super Memory to memorize the entire Yika dictionary. Although his spoken language was not yet fluent, his fundamental communication was already sufficient.

And when Sett heard He Ao’s response, his facial expression visibly stiffened.

He hadn’t expected He Ao to have mastered the Yika language.

This was not included in the information he had gathered.

However, after a brief moment of surprise, Sett quickly adjusted his expression and smiled, "Of course, we will definitely comply with Elder Ruodel’s orders. We are all here to resolve the Blood Day crisis. At this time, we should be working together more than ever."

His words implied one thing inside and out, that he and He Ao were ’equals.’

He Ao kept a calm demeanor and glanced at the smiling face of the man in front of him, choosing not to engage with his words.

Strictly speaking, this guy was his ’subordinate,’ though not under the World Tree but under Daybreak.

This fellow had already been marked by Daybreak; not to pledge allegiance to Daybreak but as a fence-sitter, using Daybreak’s influence to attempt to curb the World Tree’s control over him.

He Ao turned his attention to the statue blocking the doorway.

It seemed this was also a ’display of power’ prepared for him.

"This morning, the base of this statue became loose and rolled in front of the door,"

A middle-aged man standing next to Sett noticed He Ao’s gaze on the statue and smiled, "Shall we use the side entrance for now?"

"Uncle, there’s no need for all this fuss. Why bother talking so much with this Zhongtu kid?"

A youth stepped out of the crowd, with a clang, drew a thin sword from his belt, lifted his head, and looked at He Ao, "Kid, I heard you can fight? Got the guts to spar with me? You want to be our boss without having spent a single day at the World Tree? With that puny body of yours, can you beat me?"

The crowd naturally cleared a space around them.

Standing behind He Ao, Jemis looked at He Ao with some concern; he hadn’t anticipated the World Tree would be in such a state before his arrival.

He slowly started to speak, intending to remind He Ao.

At that moment, the blond middle-aged man standing to the side opened his mouth with a smile, "Mr. He Ao, the youngster doesn’t understand how things work. You can teach him a lesson."

A smattering of laughter rippled through the crowd.

But He Ao did not respond to their words; his gaze did not even linger on the youth who had come to provoke him, but instead moved directly to Sett, his tone even,

"I don’t have much time. Your turn."

Upon hearing this, Sett, still with a smile, tensed up, and then asked, "What do you mean?"

"One move. I won’t use a weapon. If you win, I’ll leave immediately."

He Ao rubbed his temples, "Stop wasting time. Blood Day is about to occur again. If you are in a hurry to die, I’m not interested. Don’t interfere with my work."

Sett’s expression turned utterly rigid. He snorted coldly, and an icy murderous intent spread from him, "Young man has no idea of the immensity of the heavens and the earth."

He slowly walked opposite He Ao, took off his coat, and revealed layers of muscle.

The sword-bearing youth who had been standing opposite He Ao gave him a challenging look and then retreated into the crowd.

"Young man, don’t say I’m bullying you,"

Sett moved his body a bit, and someone handed him a pitch-black military spike which he took hold of, his smile turning fierce, "You can use a weapon too. But weapons have no eyes, and if you die here, it’s on you."

He Ao silently gave him a glance.

Seemingly feeling the helplessness in He Ao’s gaze, Sett raised the military spike in his hand.

Accompanied by a roaring sound, his body suddenly lunged out, shooting toward He Ao like a streak of light.

The sharp military spike stabbed at He Ao’s throat.

This was a killer move; he intended to take the opportunity to leave He Ao here forever.

He was well aware of He Ao’s talent. The information about the evacuation of Enke City had been clearly sent to his phone. Precisely because of this, he wanted to get rid of He Ao.

A person with such talent, who controlled the southern part of the Yika Republic and had a good relationship with Rudel, was likely to be the starting point for Rudel. Taking advantage of the Blood Day incident, they would step by step, pressure him into giving up the Yika Republic and take away his power.

This he could not accept.

He could just go out and hide for a few days. Right now, it seemed that only ordinary people and low-level Transcendents had received the call. As long as his rule over the Yika Republic remained intact, with Daybreak’s B-level support, Rudel was likely not to lay a hand on him.

Getting rid of He Ao, causing chaos in the south of Rodan, he might even take the opportunity to encroach on Rodan’s territory.

After all, he had the backing of Daybreak and the World Tree. As long as he didn’t leave the Western Lands, he was not likely to be killed by the Research Institute’s B-level forces. Rudel, though he despised him, wouldn’t let him fall to the Research Institute either.

This was ultimately a matter among C-level beings.

Vaguely, he already saw the days when he ruled both Rodan and Yika.

With the resources of both nations, he might even have the chance for promotion to B-level.

Accompanied by the crisp sound of bones shattering,

All the beautiful fantasies came to an abrupt end.

The young man’s lifted leg struck Sett’s chest precisely.

Accompanied by a severe sonic boom, Sett’s body flew back at a faster speed than when he came, crashing into the huge statue, causing numerous fine cracks to spread across it.

Sett’s eyes bulged, his mouth opening and closing, but no sound came out.

His chest was a bloody mess, his entire body twitched unnaturally, and in the end, his eyes wide open, he completely ceased to breathe.

Silence, an eerie silence spread among the crowd under the lights.

"Anyone want to avenge him, or have a problem with me?"

He Ao drew back his leg, his gaze calmly sweeping over the surrounding crowd.

The eerie silence enveloped the crowd, everyone bowing their heads, not a single person speaking out.

And just at that moment, a figure stealthily burst out from the crowd, wielding a sword and slashing toward He Ao’s neck.

He was going to take advantage of He Ao’s distraction, watching the crowd to completely finish off He Ao.

He Ao stretched out his hand, directly grabbed the shadow’s sword-wielding hand, flicked the longsword away, then made a forward slicing motion.

With the bright splash of fresh blood, the entire figure was cut in two, scattering to the ground.

The surrounding crowd unconsciously took a half step back, even Jemis standing behind He Ao swallowed hard.

Blood flowed out across the level ground.

He Ao glanced at the upper half of the corpse on the ground; it was the young man who had just challenged him, "A brave warrior, cremate him, bury him with respects."

Then he raised his head, looking at the people, "Anyone else have objections?"

The people looked at each other.

Beside them, the middle-aged man who had just echoed Sett’s words trembled and fell to the ground, his pants dampened with moist breath.

"If not, then it’s my turn to raise an objection."

He Ao stepped across the blood on the ground, proceeding forward, past the square, step by step, up the steps in front of the giant gate, then he stood in front of the statue embedded with Sett’s corpse, turned around, and looked down from the high vantage at the crowd below,

"I came here because of Blood Day. How you were before, what you’ll be later on, I don’t care."

His gaze swept calmly and coldly over the trembling crowd below,

"But during the Blood Day incident, anyone who obstructs the investigation, hinders the evacuation of personnel, or treats human lives like grass,"

The flickering light reflected in the depths of his dark pupils, "Will find death, not life."

The huge statue behind the young man suddenly collapsed, breaking into countless fragments and stirring up a massive cloud of dust.

In the silent stillness, He Ao turned around, stepped over Sett’s corpse that had fallen with the fragments of the statue, and entered into the grand building.

The crowd then came to their senses, shaking as they crawled up the stairs, following closely behind him.