Chapter 96: Fierce Battle Beyond the Pass I

Though it was only the size of a grain of rice, Le Kai was certain it was rust that had fallen from the scimitar.

At first glance, the rust on the blade seemed utterly ordinary. Yet for all these years, no matter what Le Kai tried, and even after the professor employed some highly advanced chemical techniques, not a single flake had ever been scraped from it. And now, a piece had actually come off. How could such a discovery not be shocking?

What could possibly cause rust to flake from a blade that had defeated even the professor’s every effort?

Le Kai took out the scimitar and examined it carefully. At last, a thoughtful look appeared on his face.

This experiment had not produced any obvious result, but Le Kai had keenly noticed that in the place his psychic scan had swept over most often, there was a single spot that shone with unusual brilliance. Though the area was so tiny it could almost be ignored, under Le Kai’s special ability, even the movement of a speck of dust could not be concealed. Naturally, that grain-sized patch was caught by him at once.

Could psychic power be the key to unlocking the rust?

Overjoyed, Le Kai gathered his mental force into his eyes, just as children once used a convex lens to focus sunlight, staring fixedly at one spot and waiting for a miracle. Yet this time there was no change at all, and instead his mental power was consumed at a terrifying rate. In any case, there would be plenty of time in the future; there was no need to force the issue now. Le Kai was never the type to stubbornly ram his head against a wall. Since it could not be done, he stopped pressing the matter, put away the blade, and opened the door.

For better cultivation results, Le Kai went into seclusion on the eighteenth floor, near the balcony. That area had originally been reserved for guards on duty, with an exceptionally wide field of view. Since Le Kai needed it, it was naturally handed over to him without a word. The rooftop was extremely spacious and was usually used as a parking area. The shuttles they rode when leaving the building were parked there. But when Le Kai opened the door and looked out, he was startled: three extraordinarily luxurious shuttles were parked on the rooftop.

The shark emblem looked fierce yet noble, filled with the swagger and pride of something that stood at the very top of the food chain. The row of three-dimensional fangs gave off an indescribable sense of oppression, as though the colossal beast might devour him in the next second.

Such large luxury shuttles were basically unnecessary within a planet. Not only were they huge in size, but the materials used in them were entirely different from those of ground-based shuttles, and they possessed the ability to travel through space. Just one such craft appearing here would have been remarkable enough; to have three appear at once was enough to astonish Le Kai.

Could some great figure from Li Chen Star have come to Azure Star?

The knowledge Le Kai had learned from the professor made him more familiar than ordinary people with these shark shuttles. The shark shuttle was the emblem of the Shark Fleet in space, and its importance to the Li clan went without saying. In a sense, it was the Li clan’s escort force in the cosmos. Under normal circumstances, such shuttles were strictly forbidden for private use, because their primary purpose was combat, and space combat at that, making them terrifyingly powerful. Though they looked not much different from ordinary shuttles, with the press of a single button they could instantly transform into true tyrants of the starry sea, revealing their savage fangs. Even something as powerful as the city government’s Sky Vault would not be able to withstand an attack from their Shark cruise missiles.

What shocked Le Kai even more was that he actually discovered traces and an aura on the side wing of the blue shark shuttle. As he poured psychic power into his eyes, he was instantly taken aback. The faint marks were clearly left by an attack from some formidable weapon. A careful scan showed that there was more than one such mark. Aside from the shuttle in the middle, the two on either side had both suffered attacks to varying degrees. Clearly, those two were escort craft.

The shark shuttle was not as simple as it looked. It was equipped with a shield far stronger than the one on the Sky Vault, so sturdy that ordinary weapons could not so much as scratch it. This was the fundamental reason the Shark Fleet had become the Li clan’s ace force in space. Just this layer of shielding alone was enough to give anyone a headache, and even across the entire War Wolf Empire, it counted as top-tier technology.

"Who are you to dare scan the shuttle? Seeking death."

At that moment, the shuttle door suddenly opened, and a fully armed soldier appeared. Seeing Le Kai, he instantly tensed.

To be able to sense Le Kai’s psychic scan, this man was clearly no weakling. His reaction was even faster: almost at the same instant he shouted, the standard-issue pistol at his waist was already in his hand, aimed at Le Kai. A tiny red point locked with astonishing precision onto Le Kai’s forehead, and a sharp killing intent nearly burst forth from him.

Le Kai was horrified. Feeling the threat of death, he acted almost without thinking. His body suddenly blurred and vanished, and in a single step he crossed more than ten meters, appearing right beside the soldier.

This was obviously no ordinary soldier. The killing aura around him was so intense that even his uniform could not conceal it. His face was like a sculpture, all powerful lines and cold severity, while his eyes shone with dazzling brilliance. He could have been mistaken for an elite assassin. Most terrifying of all was his movement: what looked like an instinctive action was in fact the most dangerous and fearsome of all, locking onto an enemy almost before aiming at all. Had any martial artist faced him, they would likely not have dared move a muscle.

But he had plainly underestimated Le Kai’s courage and strength. After two months in seclusion, how could Le Kai’s overall power be reduced to something that could be summed up by a simple doubling?

Sensing danger, his first thought was to use the simplest and most effective method to remove it. That was the instinct of a hunter. In an instant, he had moved at full power. His special ability and his rapidly turning awareness made him observe the opponent at several times his actual speed and formulate the best attack plan.

In the end, he found that aside from killing the man in front of him, there was no truly safe option at all.

This was an absolutely terrifying soldier.

Having lost his lock, the soldier was also greatly shocked. With his powerful mental force and his use of firearms, he had almost never made a mistake. In truth, he had no intention of firing at all. He knew very well what place this was. But the killing aura forged by years of battle was impossible to conceal, and sensing that the other man also possessed terrifying mental power naturally stirred a defensive and hostile instinct in him. It had been an entirely subconscious reaction.

Who could have known that the other man would be even fiercer than he was? Even while locked by his mental force, Le Kai still dared to move. In just an instant, not only had he broken free of the lock, but the soldier’s sixth sense had also felt an extreme sense of danger. This made him greatly alarmed. Could it be that enemies had followed them here as well?

So he shouted out the warning, "Enemy attack!"

Feeling the threat that had suddenly appeared beside him, even a man who had spent his life at the edge of death could not help but change expression. He dared not linger. His whole body lunged forward at once, flipping through the air. In the very instant his body turned, he pulled the trigger.

Sizzle.

Two white beams of laser light burst forth, following the lock of his mental force and striking precisely toward their target.

Although laser weapons were not especially powerful within the empire, they were terrifying in close combat, because their speed was astonishing and almost impossible to dodge.