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Chapter 117: Kill Half

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Xia Fei used his Breath Control technique to get up quietly, then he returned to the assaulting forces.

The spiral road they were on had many unknown buildings and pipes on both sides; everything was a complete mess. Xia Fei used these as cover and very quickly caught up to them.

Owl’s Sanctuary did not cover too large an area, and with Scar’s men attempting to obstruct the majority of the coalition army from advancing, the raid did not progress too quickly. At present, it had already been more than ten minutes since the army made the landing, and many of them had just pushed past the third level. It would most likely take them another hour or so to reach the command center on the highest level.

As military strategy and tactic stated, ‘the first beating of the drum boosts morale, the second weakens it, and the third sounds defeat’.

Though the coalition army attacked with great ferocity, the morale that they had thirty minutes ago when charging at the base was nowhere to be found at present.

The warriors had a bountiful harvest, and they were all carrying all sorts of spoils on them. Some even grabbed a lot that they were now having trouble carrying them all and could only dump the more worthless weapons to lighten their load.

This was a foolish move on their part, for all they had come across thus far were just the smaller teams among Scar’s men, and they had yet to clash with the main force of Owl’s Sanctuary. It would be a hell of a joke if the coalition army ended up finding themselves in a state where they had no weapons in their hands when the other party finally decided to fight it out with them.

Besides, carrying so many items on them would only end up increasing these warriors’ physical exertion; they might find themselves nearly exhausted just by making the trek up to the command center in this fashion.

What made it even more perplexing was that there were always some valuables that these warriors could chance upon as they continued on their way. Wine, food, and fairly expensive light machinery, they could all be found everywhere. Logically speaking, these were things that would be secreted away in the more hidden warehouses, yet the men of Owl’s Sanctuary had instead randomly stashed them inside conspicuous rooms found along the way, not even locking up the doors to these rooms.

Xia Fei furrowed his brows. He was completely uninterested in the various stupid actions the coalition army was taking. He was more concerned with what tricks were at play in all this and how he was going to kill Ning Baichen and obtain his purple Heart of Spirit.

Pondering on this for a bit, Xia Fei decided that he would make the first move and get into Scar’s lair to find out what was going on. If there was indeed some trickery involved, the command center on the sixteenth level would be the most suspicious.

The Breath Control technique very ingeniously helped Xia Fei blend into the surroundings, and just like a ghost, Xia Fei managed to take the alleys and side paths beside these buildings. Very quickly, he made his way through to his destination. In front of him appeared a three-meter tall metal enclosure. Xia Fei tapped the tip of his toe and flew vertically. Using one hand to grab the top of the wall, he very quickly pulled himself up and over. A fairly large warehouse blocked the road ahead, and Xia Fei became like a gecko as he climbed on the rooftop. He then crouched low, running along while keeping his body bent.

Because there was a lot of building obstructing the way ahead, Xia Fei was unable to advance too quickly. From time to time, he needed to cross over these obstructions, and on average, he could only cover three hundred meters or so every second.

A speed ability user like him would think 300m/s was slow, but the average human would surely see it as an astounding speed.

When Xia Fei was only about one kilometer away from the sixteenth level, the main force was just crossing the fifth level of the base. Xia Fei still had plenty of time to do a proper investigation of the command center and its surroundings.

Hiding behind some old machinery, Xia Fei turned to look at the entrance ahead.

Owl’s Sanctuary’s highest level was a lone platform that covered a large area, occupying the entire dome of the base. He would have to go through the entrance one way or another if he wanted to get in.

This entrance was like an ingress to an underground garage, except that the path went diagonally upward. Due to visual angle impairment, anyone below had no way of telling if there was an ambush waiting on the highest level.

About fifty meters away from where Xia Fei was hiding, he spotted someone hiding behind a corner of the wall, shiftily poking his head out to look at the entrance. This person was short and skinny, looking like a child that was no taller than 1.5 meters. He wore a red armband on his left arm, and based on his fast movement, he appeared to be a speed ability user as well. Very possibly, he was a scout sent by the other contingents.

Xia Fei had his Breath Control technique to keep himself from harm, which was why this person was not alerted of his presence.

‘Better search for other ways into the command center. This path is far too obvious, and I’ll surely be discovered charging in like this,’ Xia Fei thought.

There were several pipes connected to the next layer on the wall to the right. Be they electric pipes, air vents, or water pipes, all possessed different colors. After all, this base was a habitat in itself, and things like water and electricity must be distributed in various locations on the base through these pipelines.

Xia Fei crept over the pipes and found a black metal pipe, which was big enough for him to climb through, so he used Chasing Light to carve out a circular entrance for himself.

His sharp Chasing Light was able to cut 1.5 centimeters of the metal pipe silently and with great ease as if he were using a laser cutter.

The inside of the pipe was empty. Xia Fei lightly placed the metal board he had cut off on the ground and climbed into it, his two arms holding the walls of the pipe for support as he rapidly clambered up.

Xia Fei turned on the light function of his microcomputer, which used a composite high-powered polymer battery; under any normal circumstances, a single battery of such type could last a microcomputer for a thousand years without needing a replacement, making it very convenient.

Though the light was small, its brightness was sufficient to illuminate the inside of the pipe, giving him visibility of up to twenty over meters.

This pipe seemed to have been left in disuse for many years, with the smell of mold thick around him and the air feculent. It was a good thing that there was still sufficient oxygen to sustain life, so Xia Fei forcefully endured this oppressive smell and did his best to quickly make it through.

Cramped spaces like this were usually the best places to test one’s flexibility; Xia Fei, who had his arms spread, used his two legs to propel himself up the pipe, his four limbs working in unison to perform light but not too fast or slow movements.

Very quickly, Xia Fei managed to get to the highest level of the base, and the vertical pipe opened to a horizontal ground. A three-way fork was in front of him now, going in three different directions.

Xia Fei poked a small hole on the wall of the pipe with his Chasing Light, then used it to see what was on the other side.

This pipeline was situated near the ceiling, and Xia Fe, who was in it, was somewhere several meters above, and looking down afforded him a view of everything outside at a glance.

The top level of Owl’s Sanctuary was like a sort of plaza, which was about four to five soccer fields big. The entrance to this level was right in the middle of the plaza, and surrounding this plaza were rooms. Xia Fei reckoned that these rooms should be connected to one another, meaning that it would be very easy for anyone to get to the adjacent room once in one of them.

There were four Scar’s underlings waiting in two hidden corners outside the enclosed space. They were prone on the ground, each with a high-powered laser rifle in their hands. If anyone were to enter from the entrance, they would literally receive a very warm welcome from the laser rifles.

One of these gunners licked his lips with his tongue, his eyes peering through the scope as he kept his gaze on that only entrance. He was barely moving, his finger maintaining a 0.5-centimeter distance away from the trigger. He was like a humanoid statue—a living, breathing statue.

It was evident that these four were experienced snipers and had received formal military training.

Actually, Xia Fei needed not to be afraid of these rifles given his speed. After all, it would take time for anyone to aim and pull the trigger. Their reaction time might be unable to keep up with his speed of over 800m/s. It was just that the risk of making a dash for them would most likely result in alerting all the enemies, and the result of such a confrontation was not comparable to sneaking in.

“Oh?” Xia Fei suddenly noticed that the doors to the rooms around the plaza had been sealed with thick metal plates, and there seemed to be several firing holes left on them. These circular firing holes had been blocked by some alloy metal behind, but the moment someone invaded, Scar’s men could very quickly open these firing holes and poke their gun barrels out to fire right at the open plaza.

This clearly meant that Scar was already prepared for the coalition army’s raid; otherwise, there was no way for him to have set up such heavy defenses in such a short time.

Xia Fei could easily picture the coalition troops stepping into the plaza without any knowledge of the ambush awaiting them; they would become no better than lambs being led to the slaughter, letting the men hiding in this room hit them hard.

“Hmm... professional soldiers, snipers... The situation has really become more and more interesting,” muttered Xia Fei quietly to himself as he took his eyes off the hole he made.

“What’s interesting?” asked Phantom, who was sitting with folded legs a short distance away from Xia Fei. As he was a spirit, he did not have a problem with the terrible air quality inside the pipeline.

“I’ll explain it to you later. I still need to further verify my speculations.” Xia Fei chuckled.

“Tsk! What are you acting all mysterious about?” Phantom rolled his eyes at Xia Fei as he scoffed rather unhappily.

Xia Fei spent several seconds thinking before he decided to go along the pipeline forking to the right. It was a direction that would lead him directly to the rooms surrounding the plaza.

Xia Fei changed his stance; now, his two knees were touching the pipe walls as he crawled onward, alternating his two arms in front of him as he moved 0.4 meters every time—no more, no less. There was no way for him to see outside the pipe, so Xia Fei needed to depend on his measurement to determine his approximate location.

After taking thirty-nine measured paces, Xia Fei once more used Chasing Light to poke a small hole on the pipe once more, and just as he calculated, he found himself in the first room to the right.

As expected, this room was around one hundred fifty square meters. It was dimly lit and had six men inside; they were all seated around a sturdy round table to the corner, doing the exact same action: cleaning their rifles.

The six of them each had a black laser rifle, slightly smaller than the ones he had seen in the four snipers outside. Each of them was very carefully running a piece of cloth across every part of their rifle, repeatedly wiping it with utmost care.

There was even a communicator placed on that table, as well as several dozens of cylindrical energy capacitors, each able to last ten full minutes of sustained laser fire. If these capacitors were all used, forget eight thousand men, nothing would be left after eradicating an entire army division.

“These people look like they’re prepared for this assault. It’s highly probable that each of these rooms holds several warriors who are ready to spring an ambush. What do we do now?” Phantom asked gravely.

“Then, we can only do our best to kill off half of them,” Xia Fei said after pondering for a bit.

“Why half?”

Xia Fei smiled as he very sinisterly explained, “Killing them all will lead to an imbalance in the forces on both sides, and what I want to see is a scenario where both parties suffer great losses.”