𝑜𝑣𝑳xt.𝑪𝒪𝐦
Shi Lang took the people to the study and locked the door from inside. Then, he tapped a seemingly random spot on the floor and initiated a formation to isolate the sound of whatever they were about to discuss. Jenkins asked, “Boss, aren’t you being paranoid? Activating the formation and all.”
Shi Lang gazed at the man and said, “The enemy is a spiritual cultivation expert. For all I know, he can use some technique to monitor us remotely.”
The people fell silent. Unity nodded from the side because, for all they knew, even if the enemy was still hidden, it was better for them to take all sorts of protections to minimalize the risk.
Shi Lang looked at Hayley and said, “Introduce everyone.”
Hayley nodded and said, “Dracx, Amelia, Jenkins, and I are the old members. So, let me skip to the new people. From left to right, Captain Tchal, firearms expert. He belongs to the Arial species, and his unique ability is to hit any target with complete accuracy under seventy kilometers.”
Surprised, Shi Lang asked, “How does that even work?”
Hayley smiled and said, “I will let the man explain himself.”
Tchal stepped forward and greeted Shi Lang with a standard salute and said, “It is a genetic ability that allows me to transfer a part of my consciousness inside any airborne beast or bird. Then I can calculate every parameter needed and fire accurately. Initially, my accuracy range was twenty kilometers, but continuous training has helped me improve significantly.”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “Now that you say it, I can digest it easily, Captain. Be at ease. This mission is not by the book. You can relax. Hayley, continue, please.”
Hayley nodded and said, “Hailing to be the fastest knife of the Vector Planet native Syphons. Captian Marly. She is twenty, but her skills have been tried and tested.”
Shi Lang looked at a young lady who stepped forward. She had a feline figure and was taller than the average girl. Shi Lang cast a gaze to her legs and smiled, “Digitigrade. Welcome to the team, Captain.”
Marly saluted him and said, “It’s an honor to be here, Sir.”
Marly belonged to a species that were digitigrades. They used only their toes to walk and run like dogs or cats. Another thing was their knee joints were reversed. If someone does not pay attention, they will not notice it, but it will become evident once they move.
Hayley said, “This guy will be our tech master. All the custom gear can be left for him to handle. He had spiked through almost every competition in the past year and held thirty military patents. In addition, he is well renowned in the world of scholars, a native of Valga planet, a member of the Valgo species, Seargent Allandale.”
The people found a young man with glasses stepping forward. The person looked weak compared to the rest, but his eyes were sharp. The man saluted Shi Lang and said, “Thank you for having me here, sir.”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “I will rely on you, Sargent Allandale.”
Allandale nodded and stood there silently. He did not have any unique ability other than his brain. The introductions continued, and Hayley bought two guys who would be their pilots and backup assassins, Nile and Eline. They were twins and had telepathic abilities to sense what the other person was about to do.
They have been the best tag team Hayley could find among the enlisted. Shi Lang nodded and said, “So, Allandale, you must be familiar with the Ace Division armors?”
Allandale nodded, and Shi Lang said, “I want you to come up with a better version, and it must incorporate array formations needed in combat. Will you be able to do that?”
The young man stood up and said, “I will do it, Sir.”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “You have a mission, so get on with it. We will be heading for some training to get to know each other. I hope to see a working model by then.”
The young Soldier nodded. Shi Lang looked at the rest of the people and said, “We have no idea what we are going up against. The only clue lies with the leader of a prominent clan. The location of their home base is available to everyone. However, access is almost impossible.
So the plan is to have Darcx go undercover. Try to get as close to the main branch as possible and find us the details.”
Darcx nodded, and Shi Lang said, “You all must have heard how strong this lady beside me is. The enemy is probably on par with her. Capable of destroying planets on a whim. So whatever we do must be short and kill the enemy. We cannot afford to take a risk.”
At this moment, Marly raised her hand and asked, “Sir, if that guy is so strong, then why does he not take action himself?”
Shi Lang was about to reply when Unity cut him short by saying, “He is so strong that if he used his skills, then the rules of this plane will put him under a heavenly tribulation. His chances of being a top-level blood refiner mean he must have sinned a lot. By sin, I mean killing young and innocent girls. His karma will not allow him to get through the tribulation. So, rather than being a small fish in the big pond, he wants to be a big fish in the small pond.”
The people understood that this person’s motive in the shadows was to overtake the entire galaxy. Shi Lang said, “That is not the only clue. The last time I was in the citadel, I came across the divine spirit consciousness left behind by an expert from ancient times. He told me that the demons we dealt with in the citadel served as the rearguard for the demons in the immortal plane.”
This was another bomb. Eline asked, “Sir, if the demons can come to the mortal realm, then why cannot humans come back and fight them?”
Shi Lang shook his head and said, “You do not understand. These people are all under the condemned category of demon beasts. They have been given a mission: to hold back every sort of reinforcement from this place. Humans cannot come back because humans face the toughest of constraints.
Spirit beasts are strong, but they cannot comprehend things. Humans have both physical capabilities and also the ability to understand skills. We were not supposed to try and reach the immortal way, but we did it anyways. If we decided to return to the mortal realm, the heavens would retaliate against us for meddling in its business.”
The people nodded, and Amelia asked, “Why shall we send Darcx inside? Can we not seek help from the Ace Division?”
Shi Lang shook his head and said, “Jill told me the team had been assigned a monitoring duty deep in the cosmos. It will take them two months to return to the strike force headquarters.
Another thing is that the ace division cannot get in touch with the main family of the big four. They have been in the limelight for too long. That is why I need Darcx to go in. Otherwise, I would have gone on my own.”
Unity seconded his voice, “We should not startle the snake. It is not wise to do so.”
The discussions continued, and they lasted for a few hours. Finally, Nile said, “Sir, I would like to apologize. I do not think I can fly through the no blindspot arrangement of guard fleets. Their weapons are loaded with high-tech weaponry, and we, as a small infiltration team, will not be aided by any reinforcement either. I am not scared of dying, but suicide is not a wise option either.”
Shi Lang smiled and said, “I do not need you to fly to death, Soldier. Instead, I need you to take us to the nearest uninhabited planetary body, and then we will zoom in directly.”
Hayley asked, “What do you mean by zoom in?”
Shi Lang tilted his head and wanted to say something when Unity said, “We will have Darcx set up a teleportation formation on the enemy planet. And when we travel to the false post, we will prepare a transmission array and infiltrate directly. This will allow us to bypass the planetary defense systems, and the enemy will not be alerted.”
The people were surprised by this ingenuity. However, Darcx asked, “What do you mean, have me set up the array? I hardly have any knowledge about them.”
Shi Lang pointed his finger toward Darcx and the latter was surprised. He had the knowledge of the teleportation array in his mind. He said, “Fuck you, Boss. How come you always have something up your sleeve?”
Unity clicked her tongue and said, “They are too easily satisfied.”
Shi Lang smiled when the sword spirit said, “For the time before Darcx gets any information from the enemy, I will be teaching you all what it is like to be in hell.”
With that the team meeting concluded.