Chapter 884: Fallen Zones (2)

She had attended several core meetings at the Xiao Kuang Legion’s central military command. The commander himself had summoned her and repeatedly stressed Li Xiaofei’s importance in private. He had left strict orders that Li Xiaofei should not be allowed to take any risky actions under any circumstances.

If even headquarters was this adamant... Who could possibly overturn the decisions of those old men with a single phone call?

Li Xiaofei raised an eyebrow and said playfully, “But what if?”

“There is no what-if,” Xiao Shi said firmly.

No sooner had the words left her mouth than Liu Shaji swaggered back in, his gait full of arrogance and a distinct don’t-know-you energy.

“Little girl, consider today a lesson: show some respect to your elders,” he said smugly.

Xiao Shi sneered and opened her mouth to retort. But before she could say a word, Mi Youyin let out a sudden gasp. Without explanation, she handed over the encrypted light core communicator she had been holding.

Xiao Shi glanced at it absentmindedly, and then her expression changed dramatically. A moment later, disbelief flooded her sharp, beautiful eyes. She stared at the screen for a long, long time before finally looking up. Her gaze landed onto Liu Shaji, as if she were trying to see through his very soul, her heart brimming with unanswered questions.

Headquarters had just issued new orders. Xiao Shi’s Battle Division was now to fully cooperate with Li Xiaofei’s operation. In other words, those old, unshakable commanders at central command had suddenly done a complete about-face, revoking the previous strict directive and authorizing Li Xiaofei to enter the spatial anchor.

Why the sudden change? There could only be one explanation. This roguish, unkempt man... had actually made a call, and it had worked.

But now, a new question loomed. Who was he? What kind of influence did he hold to make the unmovable move?

Though countless questions swirled in her mind, Xiao Shi didn’t ask any of them.

As an excellent commander of the Battle Division, she understood something very clearly. If headquarters hadn’t mentioned it in the order, then it wasn’t a question she was meant to ask. It was a forbidden secret.

“You win,” Xiao Shi said at last, glancing at Li Xiaofei. “I’ll cooperate fully with your operation. If you have any requests, now’s the time to spell them out clearly.”

Liu Shaji thumped his chest. “Relax, we’ve got a foolproof and flawless plan.”

The plan between Li Xiaofei and Liu Shaji was, in fact, quite simple. They would infiltrate the Reaper faction’s Death God's Eye legion during one of their harassment attacks on Planet Nock via the spatial anchor.

Then, blending in with the retreating Reaper forces, they would follow them through the anchor wormhole. Once they were inside the Fallen Zones... they would act according to the situation.

“Foolproof?”

“A flawless plan?”

𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Xiao Shi and Mi Youyin stared at each other, feeling like their heads had just been split in four.

This was the plan they had so confidently declared?

Seriously, how was this any different from not having a plan at all?

But the orders from military headquarters were clear; they were to comply with Liu Shaji and Li Xiaofei’s instructions. So even though both women had a mountain of complaints on the tip of their tongues, they could only grit their teeth and proceed... according to the plan.

One day later, the Reaper forces surged out of the spatial anchor to harass Planet Nock. As usual, they were met head-on by Xiao Shi’s Battle Division. The battle lasted for half a day. The Reapers didn’t even make it past the first tier of the human race’s firepower matrix.

After leaving behind tens of millions of corpses, they were forced to retreat back through the anchor. The skirmish played out just like every other one that had occurred over the past month, and as a result, no one at Stargate Base thought much of it.

No one except Xiao Shi and Mi Youyin. The two women stood alone in the highest command room, gazing through the massive glass window at the distant, now-quiet spatial anchor. Neither of them spoke, but their hearts were heavy with a whirlwind of emotions.

Worry. Concern. A bit of frustration, perhaps. But more than anything—hope. Hope that those two reckless fools could make it through the Fallen Zones safely and smoothly. They both knew all too well just how great a sacrifice and risk it was for Li Xiaofei and Liu Shaji to enter enemy territory.

This wasn’t just a personal mission. It was a bold new attempt by the human race of the universe to gain an edge in their long, bitter war with the Reapers. Maybe, just maybe, those two could bring back invaluable intelligence. No matter what happened, they were already heroes of the human race.

***

The universe was dark, desolate, like an endless abyss. Stars shimmered faintly in the distance, their light cold and distant.

A swarm of massive dragonfly-like Reapers burst from the boiling spatial anchor, fleeing across the vacuum of space. They passed by countless dead and broken planets, their wings slicing through the blackness like razors.

Defeat was nothing new to them. More of their kind continued to escape from the anchor behind them, with survivors pouring out in waves. After suffering another loss, they were desperate to feed, to replenish the energy burned during subspace travel and brutal battles in human-controlled starfields.

Among them, two mid-sized dragonfly Reapers broke formation and veered toward a relatively intact black planet nearby. It drew no attention from the others.

Whoosh. Whoosh.

Two figures dropped from the sky, landing silently on the surface of the black planet. It was Li Xiaofei and Liu Shaji.

“So this is the Fallen Zones?” said Li Xiaofei as he looked around, his eyes wide with curiosity as he took in the enormous celestial body.

A strange darkness blanketed the surface, and the air was thick with a faint, metallic stench. As he scanned the land, there were no mountains or valleys. The terrain looked as if it had been scraped clean by an enormous blade. It was unnaturally flat, yet far from smooth. There were no plants and no animals.

Li Xiaofei focused his senses. Not only was the planet devoid of life, but even its planetary core had been drained. Its life force had been stripped away by some mysterious, unfathomable method.

This planet was dead. Though its form remained whole, it was nothing more than a planetary corpse. And yet, strangely enough, even without energy to sustain it, the planet had not collapsed or shattered. It still orbited quietly in space, unmoved, following its original path through the cosmos.

“This planet was devoured by a high-tier Reaper.” Liu Shaji spoke with calm familiarity.

He had fought the Reapers countless times in his past life. He understood this enemy all too well.

“Some of the higher-tier Reapers like to devour a planet’s life force to strengthen themselves, especially those planets capable of nurturing life. To them, those are the real delicacies.” Liu Shaji spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.

Li Xiaofei felt a chill seep into his heart,

Feeding on entire planets? And they specifically target worlds that can support life? No wonder Earth had been marked.

He looked down at the barren land beneath his feet, then slowly lifted his head to look at the star-strewn sky above. He had no idea what star system this was, nor how far they were from the Solar System, but he could clearly see planet after planet, massive and shattered, drifting like refuse in a dusty void. They floated aimlessly, fragmented and lonely.

Those planets clearly hadn’t been destroyed by natural means. They had been ravaged by colossal beasts from the Reaper race. But scattered among the planetary debris were frozen corpses of equally gigantic creatures. Their remains drifted like celestial bodies, occasionally colliding in silence, then spinning away in opposite directions. They were mute and indifferent to everything.

Li Xiaofei even spotted a few spatial rifts shimmering faintly with silvery light. The power of laws had tried to mend them but failed. They hung in space like rents in a giant black tapestry, with strange, flickering lights leaking from the other side. These lights defied understanding.

Everything here felt damaged, like a broken universe. Li Xiaofei could clearly sense the faint aura of death flowing through the air, quietly wrapping this fractured domain in a shroud of desolation and tragic finality.