Chapter Nine: Mission End

Gu Xiechen stepped onto the left weapon pylon of an attack helicopter, being brought into a battlefield that was raging fiercely.

The Holsom Family was the second elector family of the Roman people. The meaning of an elector family was that the king of the Roman people could only come from the direct descendants of the elector families. The potential power possessed by the Holsom Family was imaginable. Although it was just a routine smuggling operation, there were over two hundred high-ranking Roman warriors accompanying them on the spaceship.

The massive explosion of the spaceship's rear engine cleanly eliminated over seventy of the closest high-ranking Roman warriors. Of the remaining hundred or so, over forty had lost their combat effectiveness, while over eighty were merely blown away and slightly shaken. Protected by their energy armor, they still possessed full combat power.

As the elite soldiers of the Hell Angels Mercenary Group emerged from the dense forest, the high-ranking Roman warriors immediately launched a torrential counterattack.

Streams of high-energy particle beams, as thick as bowls, silently shot out from the pole-ax. The particle beams, shaped like comets, instantly ionized the surrounding air. Each particle beam stirred up a super-strong plasma cloud with a diameter of about a meter, truly like falling meteors charging towards the Hell Angels Mercenary Group soldiers. The mercenary soldiers, who had just charged out of the dense forest fully armed, were heavily struck by the particle beams. Plasma clouds erupted, and bodies were torn apart and flung in all directions. The particle beams detonated the grenades on the mercenaries' bodies and the bullets in their magazines, filling the dense forest with explosions like popping beans.

As several light armored vehicles emerged from the woods, the two large-caliber Gatling cannons on top of the armored vehicles had just fired a dozen shells when dozens of particle beams shot down upon them. The armored vehicle hulls were pierced with holes as thick as bowls, and plasma clouds exploded within the vehicle interiors. The drivers inside could only let out their final screams before turning into wisps of smoke in the flashing blue light. The several-ton vehicles were blown dozens of meters away before exploding, causing more casualties among the nearby mercenary soldiers.

Over eighty Roman warriors, while firing accurately, grouped together. They used the large burning debris on the landing field as cover, managing to halt the charge of several thousand mercenary soldiers. Occasionally, extremely brave mercenary soldiers would charge close, but before they could even fire their machine guns, the Roman warriors unleashed their mental shockwaves, forcing the mercenary soldiers to retreat with blood gushing from their orifices. Even worse, some had their brains turned into a paste, dying on the spot.

A thick metal plate suddenly rose from the center of the landing field, and a new tunnel entrance slowly emerged. Hundreds of mercenaries from the Holy Unicorn Mercenary Group rushed out of the tunnel, pushing heavy mobile tower shields. Each of these specially made tower shields was two meters high, one and a half meters wide, and two feet thick. The material used was a laboratory-grade crystalline metal composite, possessing extreme toughness and hardness. Unless it was a specially made high-speed armor-piercing missile, ordinary heavy artillery shells were useless against it.

The mobile tower shields formed one fortress after another on the landing field, and the Roman warriors slowly moved into them. Relying on these incredibly defensive fortresses, the over eighty Roman warriors, with their pole-ax and the support of hundreds of Holy Unicorn mercenaries, fought with great spirit. Thousands of Hell Angels mercenaries were suppressed in the dense forest, unable to move.

Just then, Gu Xiechen, who had just captured Gilt Holsom, arrived.

Eight heavy attack helicopters opened fire simultaneously about two to three kilometers away from the landing field. The ninety-six high-speed missiles carried on board screamed as they streaked towards the constantly shifting tower shields on the landing field. Dozens of fiery explosions engulfed nearly half of the landing field, and over a dozen tower shields were blown to smithereens, causing heavy casualties among the mercenaries behind them. Dozens of Roman warriors, enveloped in blue flames and covered in smoke, scrambled up from the ground and cursed as they fired wildly at the helicopters.

Hundreds of high-energy particle beams roared closer. Gu Xiechen kicked Gilt Holsom and the strange alloy case out of the cockpit. He plummeted headfirst towards the dense forest below. Just over ten meters above his head, the attack helicopter he was riding exploded into pieces amidst the flames. Countless metal fragments, trailing flames and black smoke, rained down and grazed Gu Xiechen's curled-up body as they shot towards the dense forest. With several "sizzling" sounds, several bloody marks were slashed on Gu Xiechen's buttocks and thighs by the metal fragments.

"Damn it!"

Gu Xiechen's face twitched in pain. He quickly circulated his protective Qi to blast away several fist-sized metal pieces, only to suddenly see a metal spike over two meters long descend cleanly from high above, precisely piercing Gilt Holsom's head. Blood splattered everywhere, and the unconscious Gilt Holsom, in a daze, met the god of his Roman people.

"The battlefield is indeed dangerous!"

The dead were no longer worth pity. Gu Xiechen's right foot pushed off Gilt Holsom's body, and about ten meters above the ground, he sprang up lightly, arcing towards the Roman warriors firing wildly within the landing field. Right behind Gu Xiechen, fighters like Bore from the Hell Angels Mercenary Group also charged in a serpentine trajectory, brandishing various weapons as they rushed towards the Roman warriors in the center of the field.

The grizzled commander frantically shouted into his earpiece, adjusting the mercenary group's troop deployment. Dozens of electromagnetic cannon shells exploded above the Roman people, weakening their energy shields to their lowest point. Shells from grenades and small-caliber cannons continuously exploded on the field, and the shrapnel sweeping everywhere caused heavy casualties among the Holy Unicorn mercenaries behind the Roman people.

Gu Xiechen charged in front of a Roman warrior whose energy shield had been depleted by an electromagnetic bomb. He didn't use any weapons; the Snow Soul Divine Claw was his strongest weapon.

The tips of his claws drew a faint chill in the air. Gu Xiechen, with a brilliant smile, tore open the Roman warrior's armor. His right claw struck the Roman's abdomen with a heavy blow. A muffled sound like bursting leather echoed, and a golden pillar of blood, as thick as a bowl, spurted from the Roman's back. The ferocious Qi blast stirred up hundreds of bullet-sized blood beads. The extreme cold of the Snow Soul True Qi froze the Roman's steaming blood into solid beads as hard as steel. Like a machine gun firing at close range, hundreds of blood beads swept across the Roman warriors in front of Gu Xiechen.

The blood beads unstoppable pierced through the bodies of these Roman warriors. Their energy-depleted armor could no longer protect their fragile bodies. Golden blood sprayed everywhere. The Snow Soul True Qi contained within the blood beads froze the Roman people, and over thirty Roman warriors turned ashen-faced and died on the spot.

Fighters like Bore also charged into the fray. Neither the Roman warriors nor the Holy Unicorn mercenaries could cope with the impact of Innate-level experts. Their weapons were also unable to threaten Bore and the others, who darted around like ghosts. The resisting mercenaries held out for less than a minute before completely collapsing. Large groups of mercenaries fled in all directions but were quickly killed one by one by the Hell Angels mercenaries in the dense forest.

The Hell Angels mercenaries stormed the underground base, clearing out any remaining Holy Unicorn personnel and seizing various spoils of war and important documents.

Once everything was tidied up, three cigar-shaped spacecraft, nearly two hundred meters long, descended from high altitude with piercing shrieks. The all-black spacecraft were covered in a layer of scale-like outer armor, with over a hundred small light spots flashing intermittently on the hull. These were the indicator lights of the external probes of the spacecraft's various detection instruments. Near the rear engines, a shield-shaped emblem nearly ten meters in diameter was painted – a two-headed flying dragon with its claws gripping a shield and a sword, surrounded by black flames. This was the military emblem of the Earth Federation Army.

The spacecraft landed steadily on the landing field. Nearly a thousand fully armed regular soldiers of the Earth Federation Army poured out of the cabins. The well-trained soldiers quickly occupied strategic positions around the landing field.

The mercenaries of the Hell Angels Mercenary Group withdrew from the underground base, each mercenary's hands filled with various items. Federal army soldiers took over the entire base from the mercenaries.

The grizzled commander, along with Gu Xiechen and other senior leaders and expert fighters of the mercenary group, went to meet one of the spacecraft. A middle-aged man wearing the uniform of a Federal Army Major General, with a smiling face, strode down the gangway with several ranking officers.

The grizzled commander and this Federal Army Major General, named Smith, exchanged pleasantries enthusiastically. Gu Xiechen was surprised to find that the grizzled commander and Smith seemed to have a very good relationship. After a few words, the grizzled commander and Smith reached an agreement – all spoils of war would belong to the mercenary group, and Major General Smith would additionally gift a batch of standard military equipment to the Hell Angels Mercenary Group. In return, the credit for this operation would belong to the Federal Army. Annihilating hundreds of Roman warriors, destroying a large number of armed smugglers engaged in private transactions with the Roman people, and even destroying a Roman first-class warship – this credit was substantial, enough to add a glorious page to General Smith's performance record in the military headquarters.

Watching the grizzled commander and Major General Smith, who were intimately linked, Gu Xiechen finally understood why the military satellites of the African Military Region had provided guidance for the mercenary group's missiles.

The exchange of interests took less than an hour for both parties. An hour later, the elite soldiers of the Hell Angels Mercenary Group departed the black forest in transport aircraft.

Gu Xiechen sat on the metal case confiscated from Gilt Holsom, a cigar in his mouth, and entered a state of semi-sleep.

Beside him, Bore was using a laptop to calculate Gu Xiechen's battle merits for this mission. After fiddling with it for a while, Bore nudged Gu Xiechen's shoulder forcefully and placed the laptop in front of him.

"Well done, Evil Dragon. This is your first time on the battlefield, isn't it?"

Thick cigar smoke puffed from Gu Xiechen's nostrils. He thoroughly enjoyed the unique laziness and comfort that followed bloody slaughter.

He nodded gently, leaning comfortably against the transport plane's cabin wall. He asked vaguely, "Yes, what's up?"

"Congratulations, you personally took down thirty-eight Roman people this time." Bore looked at Gu Xiechen with envy. "You have to treat us to a good meal when we get back."

"Thirty-eight Roman people? How much is that worth?" Gu Xiechen's interest was piqued.

"Well, it's clearly priced at fifty thousand each! If captured alive, it's five hundred thousand each!" Bore tapped the laptop's casing with regretful sighs. "It's a shame that leader died unexpectedly. Otherwise, judging by the quality of his armor, if he could have been captured alive, he would have been worth at least tens of millions!"

"Wow! That's valuable!"

Gu Xiechen's spirits soared. He sat up straight and patted the metal case he was sitting on forcefully.

"Hey, then I'm really curious, what kind of treasure could make a Roman expert abandon all his subordinates and flee the moment things went wrong?"

Bore's eyes were shining – that unique green glow of a hungry wolf!

"It looks like a coffin!" Bore nodded seriously. "Could there be a great beauty inside?"

A thick leg stomped heavily on the metal case. The grizzled commander, also with a large cigar in his mouth, exhaling smoke, looked down at the two of them and roared loudly, "Whatever it is! If it's valuable, hand over fifty percent according to the group's rules. The other half belongs to Evil Dragon! If it's a great beauty, then it's entirely Evil Dragon's!"

Tapping the sturdy metal case forcefully, Gu Xiechen's curiosity grew stronger.

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