Chapter 873: Chapter 873

Li Xiaofei’s appearance was an unexpected variable. Or more accurately, the emergence of the Emperor’s Blood-Drinking Sword on this battlefield was the true variable.

He grew fiercer with each battle. If, at the beginning of the battle, the power of the Blood-Drinking Sword was only at the peak of the Six Gods Realm, then in less than three hours, after drinking deeply of blood and continuously absorbing energy, its might had already ascended to the pinnacle of the Seven Transformation Realm.

At such a level of cultivation, every strike carried immense destructive force. Whether he faced high-tier beasts or advanced battleships, even if they were at full operational capacity, neither thick hide nor energy shields could withstand a single strike from Li Xiaofei’s sword.

One by one, the human powerhouses began to gather behind him. It wasn’t out of cowardice or a desire to steal credit. Rather, it was a strategy born from countless battles.

Following behind the strongest was like marching behind the tip of a spear. As long as the spearhead remained unstoppable, they could inflict maximum damage and destruction upon the enemy.

Moreover, morale and formation were of critical importance on any battlefield. The spearhead tactic could strike at enemy morale and break apart their formations. And indeed, it proved highly effective.

Li Xiaofei’s unstoppable advance caused a growing unrest to ripple through the seemingly endless ranks of the Reaper army. To humanity, the Reapers were savage and deadly. They were symbols of cruelty and death.

But they were still living beings, made of flesh and blood. Under the threat of absolute death, aside from the most primitive beasts, even Reapers would feel fear and panic. Thus, the tide of battle gradually began to shift.

“Who is that man?” Inside Stargate Base’s command center, Commander Xiao Shi of the Battle Division couldn’t help but ask aloud, watching as Li Xiaofei swept through the enemy ranks like an invincible god of war.

The combat strategists around her all shook their heads. There was no intelligence on him whatsoever. What they could confirm, however, was that this man did not belong to the military.

“Truly, the heavens bless our people.” Xiao Shi was both surprised and overjoyed.

This sudden, large-scale battle had been nothing short of a catastrophic disaster for the Xiao Shi Battle Division. It had erupted without warning and had far exceeded the region’s mobilization threshold.

Even with all the preparations the Battle Division had made beforehand, they could never have withstood the sheer number and ferocity of the Reaper army on their own. It was important to remember that the Xiao Kuang Star Region was not located deep within the galactic warfront. On the contrary, it was part of humanity’s rear territories.

While the presence of the subspace anchor point on Planet Nock had long been a strategic temptation for the Reapers, who constantly sought to use subspace jumps to establish a battlefield behind enemy lines, the celestial constraints of that anchor meant that its teleportation energy capacity was capped. As a result, the Reaper faction’s top-tier powerhouses, the kind who could destroy entire star systems, were simply unable to pass through.

Only low-level Reapers and their armies could squeeze through, like toothpaste from a tube. They were never in numbers sufficient to pose a fatal threat to the Xiao Shi Battle Division. And so, for countless years, the division had waited in patient defense, holding the line and containing the subspace anchor point with minimal effort.

But this time, the Reapers had launched an invasion on an entirely different scale. It was one that defied all logic. Strategically speaking, it was a short-sighted assault. The most it could accomplish was mutual destruction.

The only thing the Reapers could accomplish through this battle was destroy the Xiao Shi Battle Division. But it would never allow them to fully seize control of Planet Nock’s anchor.

But precisely because this large-scale attack was so unreasonable, it had caught humanity completely off guard. If not for the sudden appearance of Li Xiaofei, the Xiao Shi Battle Division, Stargate Base, and the entire Planet Nock defensive line would have been wiped out.

Even if the Reaper army were to be repelled, the resulting losses would have been catastrophic. It would be too devastating for the human race in the Xiao Kuang Star Region to bear.

There had been a moment, just one, when Xiao Shi, as the commander of the division, had already prepared herself to perish alongside Stargate Base, to go down fighting and take the enemy with her. But to her astonishment, a divine warrior had descended from the heavens.

“Order the Flying Dragon Squadron to join the battle!”

“Deploy all units of the Left Guard Squad!”

“Send in the Guest Dao Mech Division!”

“Summon the Third, Fourth, and Seventh Cruiser Fleets!”

Xiao Shi seized the opportunity and issued her commands in rapid succession.

As the granddaughter of Xiao Binggan, one of humanity’s pillar-level powerhouses, Xiao Shi was only one hundred and seventy-eight years old this year. That was remarkably young for a cosmic-level lifeform, equivalent to a human teenager of about seventeen or eighteen.

She was beautiful, confident, and carried all the refined airs of a third-generation member of a noble and powerful lineage. But when it came to strategy and tactics, Xiao Shi was undoubtedly one of the best commanders in humanity.

She was a graduate of the 267th class of Yunmeng City Academy. She had once received a personal commendation from Principal Wang Zhong, hailed as the greatest headmaster in the history of the human race.

She had also fought on the fiercest frontlines of the Star Battlefield. Xiao Shi’s ascension to the rank of Battle Division Commander had not been the result of family influence, but rather the outcome of her own strength and perseverance. She had earned it one step at a time. Thus, she commanded great respect within her division. Her subordinates obeyed her orders without question.

“My lady, the battlefield has stabilized,” a soft voice pointed out. It came from Mi Youyin, a young red-haired operations officer, who leaned in to quietly add, “The enemy behind this assault appears to be under the command of Delta, the Death God’s Eye. He’s thrown in his entire legion. This is reckless and bordering on madness. I suspect there may be more going on here.”

The intelligence on the planned meeting between the leaders of Eden and Delta had already been submitted to high command. In response, elite special forces had launched sweeping arrest operations within Stargate Base.

Thus far, the results had been overwhelmingly successful. With the capture of Zheng Daoyuan, also known as Thousand Ghosts and a high-ranking member of Eden, the hidden cells within the base had been completely rooted out. The Reaper faction’s spies had likewise been purged.

Given the current state of affairs, the possibility of Eden’s leadership meeting with a Reaper powerhouse had become extremely unlikely. Although it was regrettable that they hadn’t managed to eliminate both groups’ leaders in one fell swoop, securing Stargate Base's safety had been the military’s baseline objective for this operation.

Before the sudden assault began, the military had collectively assessed that Delta, the Death God’s Eye, would not descend in person. Now, with the Reapers’ violent large-scale assault having ended in failure, logic dictated that the probability of Delta’s arrival had dropped even further. Yet, for some reason, Mi Youyin felt a growing unease in her heart.

The situation was taking on a strange quality. But she sensed a hidden variable in that strangeness.

“Little Mi, did you sense something?” Xiao Shi asked, her tone serious.

She valued Mi Youyin’s intuition highly. Only she knew that although Mi Youyin was merely an ordinary operations officer on paper, her background was far from simple, and frankly, rather intimidating.

Mi Youyin was a direct descendant of the Mi Family, one of the Twenty-Four Great Houses of the human race across the galaxy. The matriarch of the Mi Family was none other than Mi Ruyan, one of the wives of Lin Beichen, one of the Five Immortal Emperors.

In other words, Mi Youyin was a descendant of Lin Beichen. Her lineage placed her even above Xiao Shi in terms of status. Due to her family’s bloodline, Mi Youyin was born with a peculiar ability, an innate sense of ‘foresight.’ Her intuition was extraordinarily sharp, allowing her to perceive events before they happened. Although this intuition didn’t always activate, whenever it did, it was unfailingly accurate.

“I sense that the danger hasn’t passed,” she murmured. “In fact, it’s getting much closer.”

She pressed both thumbs against her temples and closed her eyes, a pained expression appearing on her clear, valiant face.

Xiao Shi’s heart tensed, Danger was approaching? But from where?

Countless thoughts raced through her mind in an instant. Possibility after possibility flashed before her, and as she eliminated each of the more likely ones, only the most improbable scenario remained. And that, she realized with a jolt, was the only correct answer.

In the very next second, her expression shifted dramatically. A sudden urgency gripped her voice as she shouted, “Quick! Order the immediate evacuation of the command center. Everyone, ou-!”

But before she finished—

A deafening explosion tore through the air as the command center of Stargate Base was instantly engulfed in a terrifying inferno. The violent blast surged outward in every direction.

Waves of intense energy erupted one after another, layer after layer, expanding madly in concentric rings that lashed out in all directions. The surrounding buildings were flattened in an instant.

Half the battlefield lit up as if day had broken, the explosion casting a blinding brilliance over everything. This sudden and devastating change in the battle immediately drew the attention of both sides.

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Several of the legion commanders from the Xiao Shi Battle Division were utterly stunned at the sight before them, their souls nearly flying from their bodies. The command center was the core of the entire Battle Division. It was the most critical and most tightly guarded location of all.

How can something happen? This is bad. The commander is in danger.

“Fall back! Initiate rescue!”

“Xie Ling, take a squad and support the command center!”

“Don’t panic, continue the fight!”

On the battlefield, one order after another was issued without pause. The Xiao Shi Battle Division truly lived up to its reputation as an elite force tempered through countless trials. Even in a moment of sudden chaos, their collective response was nothing short of exceptional. The frontline commanders quickly reached a mutual understanding.

Some led their forces back to aid in the rescue. Others stayed by Li Xiaofei’s side, continuing to strike down the invading enemies. The division of responsibilities was clear. There was not a trace of disorder.

Though the momentum of their counterattack had slightly weakened, the human forces still maintained firm control of the battlefield. And yet... Everyone’s hearts were with their commander.

If Battle Commander Xiao Shi and her operations officers were to fall in battle, then no matter how successful the war seemed, no matter if the Reapers were ultimately driven back beyond the subspace anchor, it would still be counted as a devastating loss for the human race.

Li Xiaofei, too, had taken notice of the unusual explosion erupting from within Stargate Base. He turned to gaze toward the base. For some reason, in that fleeting moment just now, he had sensed something strange, yet familiar.

A breath of familiarity, faint but distinct, had flashed through the command center before vanishing completely.

Is it my wife and daughter?

Li Xiaofei wasn’t certain. After the prolonged and frenzied slaughter, the Blood-Drinking Sword’s power had already surpassed the peak of the Seven Transformation Realm. It had nearly returned to the level it once reached in Heaven. It was also beginning to show signs of losing control. Moreover, the agitation in Li Xiaofei’s heart had already subsided.

“It’s time to go back,” he murmured.

His gaze swept across the battlefield. The human army had firmly seized the upper hand. Even if he withdrew now, they would still maintain their advantage.

One thing was certain, something within Stargate Base had changed. Based on the information he had previously extracted from Nie Yucheng, this shift likely had something to do with Zero.

Li Xiaofei had to find Zero. He had to locate this ghostlike enemy and rescue his wife and daughter.

A streak of radiant light pierced the skies. The silver and gold wings on Li Xiaofei’s back beat once, and he dove sharply down, reentering Stargate Base in an instant.

He suppressed his aura completely as he entered, and like a single grain of sand falling into the desert, everyone instantly lost track of him.