Volume 3, Chapter 41 – Crushing Suppression (Double-Length)

“Big Sis……” “Shur……” “Big Sis, it’s so dark in here…I’m really scared……” “Don’t be scared, Shur. Remember, no matter what you hallucinate, you must not give up. The will to live is too important for us. Giving up means death. It means you’ll never see me again.” “Mm! I won’t give up!” “Good girl. I’m going to deal with a little nuisance first. Once I’m done killing, I’ll come back to check on you.”

Opening her eyes, Elande came back to herself from the ‘Phantom Spirit’ state. Outwardly, it showed as the blood-red in her eyes fading back to a beautiful blue. Paired with the silver hair tied up behind her head and that exquisitely delicate face, she looked like an elven girl who’d stepped out of a myth.

[Orbital Train No. 131 will arrive in five minutes.]

In the cramped space, there was no sense of jolting at all, when a prompt suddenly sounded above her head. [How are you feeling, Elande?]

It was a slightly hoarse male voice speaking Federal tongue—the common language shared by dozens of federal states.

Elande paused a beat, then replied, “No abnormalities.”

[We just detected that you entered ‘Phantom Spirit’ again. This is already the third time in seventy-two hours. Can you describe what you saw?]

Elande frowned. “…Same as last time.”

[You really do care about your little sister, huh.] The voice finally had a hint of human emotion, a touch of teasing in his tone. [Relax. Either she ends up a vegetable or she grows into a genius seed even tougher than all of you put together. In the first case, as long as you stay active, she’ll be safe. In the second, even if you die, nothing will happen to her.]

The girl in the carriage didn’t respond, but if someone had shared that compartment with her, they would’ve immediately noticed the air grow even colder.

[That wasn’t a threat, don’t get me wrong.] The other side spoke again. [It’s just a routine reminder.]

The girl closed her eyes. “Tell me the mission.”

[You’re to take an Orbital Guardian down into Great Yu… The coordinates are preset; you don’t need to worry about them. Once you arrive, there’ll be a greasy, disgusting Great Yu man waiting for you. All you have to do is take over the silver briefcase in his hands, then kill him on the spot and trigger the return trip.]

“This kind of work doesn’t need me,” the girl opened her eyes at once. “Orbital Guardian tech is already mature. Last time in ‘Feld’, you only sent a regular tactical squad.”

[You’re right—but this time it’s Great Yu.] On the other side, he whistled, light and flippant. [Great Yu people are arrogant, conceited, and look down on science. I’d be shocked if they didn’t lack proper monitoring against orbital weapons. In other words, from the moment we drop you to the moment you leave, they probably won’t make it in time to deploy their military.]

“Then what’s there to worry about?”

[They still have those ‘cultivators’.] The man’s voice sank lower. [You haven’t fought cultivators before, have you? Those guys aren’t easy to deal with.]

Elande’s tone finally rippled. “Instructor said they’re ‘wrong evolvers’.”

[Sometimes the more wrong something is, the more dangerous it gets.] The man reminded her. [You saw plenty of what ‘failed experimental subjects’ can do up there.]

“…Do cultivators ‘go berserk’ too?”

[When you push them to the brink of death, yes.]

Elande was silent for a moment. “Then we kill them all before they go berserk.”

[Ha… In theory, that’s the optimal solution.] The man chuckled softly. [But it’s a bit like the ‘putting an elephant in a fridge’ problem—with current tech, we just can’t do it.]

“Oh?” Elande looked up. “Cultivators can get stronger than an ‘Aogu God’?”

[There are many ranks and types of cultivators. As of now, ‘Knight-class’ doesn’t threaten us anymore. They can’t fly; they just run fast and are a pain to flush out.]

[What really gets troublesome are ‘Decision-class’ and ‘War-class’. Especially War-class. When facing that kind of enemy, we still try to be clever, try to make the most of your ‘Phantom Spirit’ to interfere with them.]

“Even tactical nukes won’t work?”

[We’re not going to war with Great Yu, Elande.] On the other end, he let out a long sigh. [Don’t talk like that… I’m under a lot of pressure here.]

He paused, then continued, [And whether tactical nukes are effective is still unknown. The only nuclear strike ever launched on a War-class was four years ago. I don’t have clearance for the files. You know what that implies.]

Elande nodded. “Either they took a beating, or the result was too shocking.”

“Given the nature of the incident, I’d say both are true.”

[Personally, I think Great Yu still has plenty of trump cards, enough that we’d rather not provoke them…] The man sighed. [In short, now is not the time to go all-out against them. Whatever they’re pinning down in the North Frigid Belt is very troublesome. Humanity still needs them for now.]

“Will I be facing a War-class on this mission?”

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[There’s a chance. Data shows there are currently two War-classes in that area. If the conflict escalates, it may become three. Your mission target is being hunted by one of those War-classes. You’d best get the job done and leave before it arrives.]

“I’ll do my best.” Elande’s tone went cold again.

The capsule suddenly shook, a row of red lights flickering on overhead.

Elande waited until the red lights turned green, then opened the hatch, floated down the passage into the combat prep bay, stripped off all her clothes, and stepped into a cylindrical metal container.

Swish—

The container sealed shut. In the darkness, an icy liquid began to spray out, wrapping around her body.

When the hatch opened again, she was already wearing a skin-tight battlesuit of gleaming silver. Her whole person, hair included, was sealed inside. From the back of her head flowed out a long silver ponytail, swaying with each flick.

[Xinluo Time, AM, 10:03.]

An electronic female voice sounded above her.

[Good morning, Lieutenant Elande. Your Aogu God has been loaded into the Orbital Guardian. Please reach the drop rail within one minute.]

Elande slid along the passage, and when she emerged, the view in front of her suddenly broadened. The emptiness all around felt like seven or eight airport terminals stitched together. On a row of dark metal racks sat a soda-can-shaped drop pod, about twenty meters tall.

She climbed in through a small open hatch, wriggled her way through gaps, and felt her way through the darkness into a cabin even narrower than a rail elevator, fitting her body as closely as possible into the mechanical grooves.

[Drop in thirty seconds.]

[29… 28… 27…]

[Inserting a message.] The same male voice from before came over the channel. [The board has changed your objectives. You are to capture that War-class. Secondary objective: kill. Tertiary objective: extract biological tissue.]

Elande frowned. “Why.”

[A good soldier never asks why.] The man refused to answer. [The difficulty’s gone up. I pushed through an authorization for you. You’re allowed two more active uses of ‘Phantom Spirit’.]

“Five times in seventy-two hours, three times in twenty-four.” Elande paused. “There’s a risk of going berserk.”

[At least the tertiary objective will be easy. Don’t forget, ‘Phantom Spirit’ restrains them by design.]

“I’ll do my best.”

[Good luck, Miss Aogu God.]

When the countdown hit zero, the “soda can” ignited at the back and shot along the rail out of the space station, plunging headfirst into the planet’s atmosphere.

At the same time, Bai Xiang was already in the northern district of Chilong—and she’d made a new discovery.

It was a cramped alley. Behind her, the ground was smeared with crushed blood and flesh. Sword in her right hand, she strode forward. At the end of the alley lay two men with their limbs severed, thrown against the wall so hard they’d left deep dents.

As a Core on the path of qi, Bai Xiang’s fleshly body was without question beyond that of a Divine Fetus. If she didn’t control her strength, a single kick could punch straight through someone’s ribcage, yet these two only had their chests caved in.

“You’re not cultivators, nor are you bio-beastmen.”

She stopped in front of the two human stumps, looking down at them from on high. “…Where is Dr. Evan now?”

She suddenly tried a feint. One of them obviously failed to keep up, eyes widening. “How did you—”

Mid-sentence, he snapped his mouth shut, forcing himself into a look of heroic resolve and refusing to speak again.

Meaningless.

Bai Xiang swung her sword. Qi-sha surged forth, shredding the two into yet another mess of blood and flesh. With a flick of her fingers, she summoned their two lingering souls, refining their memories in an instant.

Dr. Evan was the second project lead in the Prince’s Manor laboratory.

The first had been Hannah, in charge of the “bio-beasts”. Because her research progressed too slowly, Yao Qingyuan had cast her aside.

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Dr. Evan had taken the position, using his research on Bai Nianchan’s remains to formally launch the “bio-human” project, producing a large batch of warriors comparable to those at Condensing the Aspect.

The most obvious feature of these bio-warriors was that their limbs were far more robust than normal, and the swords they used were generally enormous greatswords. So the moment Bai Xiang saw these two, she’d been suspicious.

Standing there, she quietly sorted through the memories. From them, she learned that the two weren’t Evan’s subordinates, and that their goal had been the same as her own—to find Evan and kill him.

Because they’d rejected their fate, they’d anchored their hatred on their “creator”, had they?

Opening her eyes, Bai Xiang shook her head.

Joining the enemy’s side just to get revenge.

Too bad you ran into me. That’s just your bad luck.

Her figure blurred; she flashed out of the alley.

It hadn’t been a total loss. At least both men had been certain that after fleeing the Prince’s Manor, Dr. Evan would definitely head for Chilong Circuit. They’d overheard him talking with his “superiors” and knew a Grade-3 agent called Liandi would soon be arriving in Chilong. Dr. Evan would surely come to meet him.

“Who’d have thought the Clean-Robe Gang had backing like this.” Bai Xiang looked down over the city, turning her head slightly toward the west.

“The Sami Federation… the Union?”

“There’s no intel proving they have power on par with Sword Dao, yet they still dare meddle in Great Yu’s internal affairs over and over again.”

“Do they have no fear of death, or is there some hidden strength we haven’t discovered?”

“Hmm?”

All of a sudden, Bai Xiang snapped her head up to look at the sky, a faint sense of being watched pricking at her.

A gaze from orbital height—satellites?

And that crimson speck… what was it?

[Preparing to land at target location.]

In the cramped cockpit, Elande stared fixedly at the dials, her body trembling lightly with the rapid descent.

Midair, the Orbital Guardian’s drop pod shed its burning outer shell section by section, its profile shrinking by a ring.

The whole process was extremely fast. The pod fell like a meteor, plummeting as planned toward the topmost level of the Baike Tower.

Chchch—

With a huge parachute pack and staged jet bursts further slowing its speed, the pod finally touched down smoothly on the rooftop platform, kicking up a cloud of smoke that hid its frame.

Finally…

Liandi stood by the edge of the platform, carrying a silver briefcase, his long hair whipped back by the howling wind.

To be honest, he had no idea what the thing dropping down was.

It wasn’t quite a plane, nor a ship. Could this thing really get him out?

“Confirming visual on target.”

He couldn’t see Elande, but from her side, she’d already locked onto his position through the cameras.

Creak…

Four mechanical supports extended from the underside of the Orbital Guardian, and its body unfolded a ring of metal tubes, one of which pointed straight at Liandi.

Liandi still didn’t know. Nervously, he walked toward it, the silver briefcase glinting with reflected sunlight.

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“Confirming target item.” Elande had already fitted a targeting scope over her eyes. She squeezed the trigger without hesitation.

Zzap!

A sharp sound.

A red beam lanced from the barrel, dispersing quickly in the air, but more than enough to deal with a human. Liandi’s upper body was pierced and melted through on the spot, half a corpse collapsing along with the briefcase onto the ground.

“Begin retrieval… hm?”

Just as she was about to head down, Elande caught sight of another figure appearing on the platform.

A wide-sleeved robe-dress of dark black, a pair of black high boots, a “toy sword” hanging at her waist, and white hair styled up on the top of her head.

The other mission target—a War-class cultivator of Great Yu?

Elande’s heart clenched at once.

She immediately slammed the emergency release. The Orbital Guardian’s upper hatch blew open, and a three- to four-meter-tall humanoid armor suit was launched out.

Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes and watched everything unfold. She saw the humanoid armor hit the rooftop and drop into a combat stance, facing her like a martial artist ready to brawl.

“Federation people?” she asked. “Whatever the case, this is Great Yu territory. Your actions have already crossed the line.”

There wasn’t a shred of politeness in her tone—she might loathe Great Yu’s rotten bureaucrats more, but she had no goodwill toward these opportunists either.

They’d used orbital drop tech to send someone in directly. Leaving aside how unsettling that technological gap was, as for their purpose … were they here because they’d detected the nearby demon outbreak and come to the rescue?

No. Everyone knew that was impossible.

Single-unit drop, fixed coordinates, and they’d killed to silence someone the moment they arrived.

No doubt about it—they were here to retrieve something that had fallen in Chilong. Most likely, it was that silver briefcase lying next to Liandi’s corpse.

[—Ksssh… Elande, can you hear me?]

Inside the armor, the familiar male voice crackled through the channel.

Elande tensed. “Yes!”

She couldn’t help it. No matter how cold and aloof she looked on the surface, no matter how calm she acted, it didn’t change the fact that the enemy was a genuine War-class while she herself was only rated Decision-class.

They said Phantom Spirit restrained Great Yu cultivators—but when it came to using it on a War-class, wasn’t she the first test case?

[Good. That means we’ve got signal. Listen, the file will come through in a second. Just read it out, and see if you can establish communication.]

Text started flashing across her screen. Elande’s pupils reflected the scrolling words as she followed the script to speak.

[Miss Bai…]

The humanoid armor emitted a processed mechanical voice. [If your goal is to overturn certain things in this country, then we can absolutely cooperate.]

“Cooperate?”

Bai Xiang lifted her gaze. The face on the monitor seemed faintly curious.

But very quickly, her eyes turned icy, and her figure vanished without warning.

Not good!

Elande’s expression changed drastically. She immediately drove the armor with her mind.

Speed… Deploy the Phantom-Spirit field!

Hum—

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A mysterious power poured into the armor through the conduit of her will. The sleek silver frame flared with a skin of red particles, forming a spherical barrier that wrapped it completely.

The moment the barrier appeared, Bai Xiang’s sword edge pierced through.

The red particles did nothing at all to block ‘Feixiang Heaven’. In the next instant, she passed through the barrier, ripped open the armor’s plating with a single stroke, seized a dumbstruck Elande by the neck, and yanked her out.

Wh-what the hell?

The Phantom-Spirit field didn’t work?

Dangling from Bai Xiang’s grip, Elande was so stunned she even forgot to struggle.

That silver ponytail at the back of her head was still threaded with several thin cables, their rear ends still connected to the armor. Bai Xiang’s violent motion had torn quite a few of them, blue arcs of electricity jumping along the severed lengths.

She couldn’t understand it—wasn’t the Phantom-Spirit field developed specifically to deal with Great Yu cultivators and those monsters?

In the experiments, the results had been excellent. Once deployed, it could drive away that purple-red mist, even inflict severe mental shocks on the source body. In extreme cases, it could even induce a berserk state… So why was it completely useless on this person?

Completely—utterly useless!

She hadn’t felt even the slightest resistance. It was like walking through air.

“You people seem to have researched something that targets demonic power?”

Sensing the red particles rapidly dissipating around them, Bai Xiang frowned. Their nature really did feel similar to demonic power, just in a different form.

Of course. There was no way those federal states would ignore demon beasts and Demon Pools.

The reason Great Yu had never noticed was likely because the research site was hidden up in space.

“Die—!”

A deadly sense of crisis washed over her. Elande clamped down on Bai Xiang’s wrist, and her eyes turned blood-red in an instant!

At the same time, Bai Xiang felt an invasive will surge in through their locked gazes, trying to flood into her inner body-scape and disrupt the flow of her mind.

“Die!!!”

Elande unleashed her power a second time. Blood trickled from all seven apertures on her face; she had nothing left to push with.

And yet Bai Xiang remained unaffected.

“You want to kill me…?”

Her eyes grew even colder. Elande panted, staring back at her, shock and despair filling her gaze.

A deep, abyssal fear rose up in Elande. In a haze, she seemed to see another golden-haired girl reaching out to her, as if longing for the familiar warmth of her arms.

“Wa—”

Squelch!

Qi-sha roared like a tornado, swallowing her up. In just an instant, the girl became a smear of blood and pulp.

“What a pity. I don’t cultivate that system.”

Scooping up the lingering soul, Bai Xiang followed with another stroke, slicing the humanoid armor in half. She searched through the wreckage but found nothing else of value.

Liandi was dead. Next…

Bai Xiang turned her head, her gaze falling onto the briefcase.