Swallowed Star

by Alexander Buchanez

  This #023 city is what was called 'Suzhou city' from before the Grand Nirvana period.

  "This city is big, so there are probably a lot of fighters here. I don't want to attract a lot of attention while I'm here" thought Luo Feng to himself.

  ���

  Night.

  On the highway, blood was splattered onto the bus on the side. The corpses of the four members of the thunderbolt squad were also on the ground.

  Ten seconds after the mixed youth, Li Wei, died.

  "BEEP!" An area near the chest on the battle uniform of Li Wei's headless corpse immediately sent out a signal!

  Jiang-Nan headquarter city, main city area. In a small sector called 'Jiang Nan mountain water' that was ranked #2 out of the six most extravagant sectors in China and ranked #1 in Jiang-Nan city.

  Jiang-Nan mountain water sector.

  In the most extravagant area of the entire main city area were some preserved mountains and rivers. When Jiang-Nan headquarter city was first built, many of the mountains and hills had to be leveled in order to make room for the dense population. The mountains and hills were removed and replaced with many tall residential buildings. Only in this sector, which took up several miles, did these beautiful mountains exist. There were even man-made waterfalls and lakes, making this the place where countless high ranking government officials and rich people wished to live.

  You can't get into this place with just money. You can't get into this place with just power!

  In all of China, there are six headquarter cities!

  In these six headquarter cities, beautiful sectors like these aren't common. And this sector ranks first in Jiang-Nan headquarter city and ranks two in all of China.

  In Jiang-Nan mountain water sector, a villa on the peak of Marvelous Mountain.

  The misty starlight encapsulated the entire peak of the mountain. "HUAHUA~~" the sound of a waterfall carried from far away. On the balcony of the villa on the peak of the mountain was a person wearing a loose, deep blue uniform and sitting with his legs crossed. His cold face looked like a sculpted rock and, even though his eyes were closed, one could feel his cold aura emanating from him.

  His entire body gave off a heart chilling feeling!

  He was one of the strongest fighters on the entire earth, an advanced wargod 'Li Yao' whose nickname was 'Vulture'!

  "BEEP BEEP!" An ear piercing sound suddenly came from a seemingly regular looking watch on his wrist.

  "Hm?" Li Yao suddenly ferociously opened his eyes, which flashed like lightning.

  "Wei!" Li Yao's sculpture-like cold face suddenly let out a face of surprisement and rage.

  "Contact Wei's two bodyguards" Li Yao commanded his watch. His watch was one of the most advanced products of the HR alliance, which is currently not sold on the market.

  "The two bodyguards died too?" a faintly glowing light could be seen in Li Yao's eyes.

  Whoosh!

  Li Yao instantly transformed into a shadow as he directly rushed into the third floor of the villa. This third floor had dozens of rooms, one of which was a large auditorium. The hazy shadow came together and stood in the auditorium.

  "Turn on! Enter fighter search mode!"

  With Li Yao's command, a gigantic apparatus on the side of the auditorium shot out a misty light, which focused in the center of the auditorium and became a 3D hologram.

  "Mr. Li Yao"

  All that could be seen in the 3D hologram was a person, who was an old man wearing a black suit. This black suit wearing old man was looking at Li Yao.

  Actually, right when the 3D hologram was formed, the apparatus projecting the hologram also recorded Li Yao, which was then projected into another target in the auditorium.

  "Confirm the location of my son Li Wei" all that could be seen on Li Yao's face was haste, "Search for the positions of all the wargods in a 100 mile radius of his position.

  "There are no wargods within a 100 mile radius of Li Wei's position" said the black suit wearing old man.

  "How is that possible? Not even half a minute has passed yet" Li Wei's face changed dramatically.

  With the device in his son's battle uniform, it'll send a signal 10 seconds after it detects the heart stops beating. From then until Li Yao began his search, not even 30 seconds has passed. Even if a wargod runs past the speed of sound at a speed of 400 m/s, that isn't even 30 miles yet. So how come nothing could be found?

  To Li Yao, only a wargod level fighter could kill his son's two advanced level warlord bodyguards so quickly that they didn't even have the chance to report.

  "How can this be....."

  Li Yao didn't dare to hesitate and immediately commanded, "Search for all the advanced level warlord fighters within 100 miles!"

  "Searching for wargods is a privilege granted through membership of the Palace of Wargods. Searching for warlords..... needs an S rank member of the underground alliance" said the black suit wearing old man. The HR alliance has a way to find out the positions of all warrior and warlord level fighters. However, the way the HR alliance uses to find them is a bit sneaky!

  The 'tactical communications watch' they sell have a secret to them.

  Since the tactical communications watch is able to perform various functions like transferring money to another person's bank account, it's connected to their respective fighter's fighter card and identification number! Through the tactical communications watch, they can naturally pinpoint anyone's location.

  However, they wouldn't dare to reveal this secret! Once they reveal it, millions of fighters will start to boycott their things. Even though they're the only power that currently sells tactical communication watches, they didn't dare to enrage the public. So...... only an S rank member of the underground alliance is allowed to use this function to search for fighters lower than the wargod level.

  Only the highest of highest ranking members in the underground alliance have the authority to do that.

  And advanced level wargod 'Li Yao' did not have such authority.

  "BOOM!" an explosion carried from far away.

  A shadow instantly charged into the auditorium, a white, blond haired lady. However, her delicate face was a bit twisted and her dress was a bit ruined under her extreme sprinting..... she was previously attending a banquet and, like Li Yao, received news of her son's death.

  "Yao!" this elegant lady's eyes were red.

  "We can search now right" Li Yao stared at the 'black suit wearing old man' in the 3D hologram. However, the black suit wearing old man was looking at the elegant lady.

  This lady was the blood sister of the current director of the Paulinus family, one of the nine core families of the HR alliance. At the same time, she was also the advanced level wargod Venina��Paulinus, nickname 'Scorpion'. As of now, she's the director of HR alliance's Huaxia sector.

  She ranks 3 in the members of the HR alliance in China, so she is an S rank member.

  Chapter 92: Astronomical Bounty

  "Search!" commanded the blond haired lady.

  "Yes"

  A huge holographic map appeared in front of the black suit wearing old man. In the center of the map was a red dot, which represented Li Wei's location.

  Six light dots appeared within a 100 mile radius of Li Wei's location, "There are six advanced level warlord level fighters within a 100 mile radius!"

  "Investigate each of them, and display each of their distances from Li Wei" coldly commanded Li Yao.

  BEEP BEEP~ The hologram slightly vibrated twice, and both holograms started to display a huge amount of information.

  "Six advanced level warlords, other than Wei's two bodyguards, the other four are in #003 city?" Li Yao's face was extremely unhappy. He only has four suspects, since the other two are dead already, "Out of these four, the closest one is 20 miles away. WIth an advanced level warlord's speed, it's pretty much impossible for him to run 20 miles away within a minute".

  "Yao! Just who killed Wei?" the blond haired lady's Chinese had a bit of a
n accent, but it was still quite fluent.

  "Search for all the intermediate warlords! All the beginner warlords!" said Li Yao as he clenched his teeth.

  "How can they be an intermediate or beginner level warlord?" the blond haired lady's face was also full of nervousness, "With Ka Long and the other's strength, how can they die to an intermediate or a beginner level warlord without even having the chance to report?"

  "Shut up!" LI Yao couldn't help but to scold.

  The blond haired lady held in her objections.

  "Within a 100 mile radius, there are 21 intermediate level warlords" answered the black suit wearing old man. On the holographic map, 21 lights that were a bit dimmer than the others appeared, "There are 21 beginner level warlords within a 100 mile radius". Once again, dots representing the low level warlord level fighters appeared on the map.

  Li Yao's words seemed to barely be able to squeeze past his teeth: "Record all the information on these fighters, including their distance to Li Wei! Also, search for all the warrior level fighters and record their information too.

  After that, send it to me and Venina".

  "Yes" the black suit wearing old man bowed respectfully.

  Li Yao glanced at the huge amounts of flashing dots on the map. They were dense and almost uncountable. Clearly, compared to warlord leveled fighters..... there were at least 10 times more warrior level fighters! These hundreds of flashing dots were quite bright.

  And one of these hundreds of flashing dots, was Luo Feng's!

  Even though Luo Feng has the skill of a beginner level warlord, according to his battle record and information on his fighter card, he's still an 'advanced level warrior'.

  "Use their battle records to determine their rank! And activate the satellite to record Li Wei's position!" interrupted Venina.

  "Because of the weather, the recording won't be too good.

  As for the recording, our professionals will enhance it. We'll send it in half an hour" said the black suit wearing old man. Actually, satellite recording isn't as amazing as regular people think it is.

  There are many restrictions.

  One of the major ones is weather, which has an enormous effect on the recording quality.

  "Mr. Li Yao, director Venina, there are 8 advanced level warlords, 21 intermediate level warlords, and hundreds of beginner level warlords and soldier level fighters.

  All the information has been sent." said the black suit wearing old man.

  Li Yao and Venina lowered their heads.

  The photos and information of various fighters flashed across their watches, and one of them was Luo Feng! Of course, as a warrior level fighter, he didn't stand out at all.

  After just three minutes.

  On top of the starlight covered mountain peak, two blue UFO shaped fighter aircraft flew up and soared through the sky.

  "BEEP!"

  "Signal read, pass"

  Only after that were the two blue UFO shaped fighter aircraft able to leave the city's defense system.

  If their signal wasn't read and they tried to fly out, the two fighter aircraft would've been instantly shot through by lasers and engulfed in flames.

  In the cockpit.

  Li Yao and Venina both had their battle uniform sets on.

  Each of them had their own weapons, and their faces were extremely unamused. The pilot of the aircraft and the other six wargod subordinates didn't dare to make a sound.

  They knew...... that something terrible has happened. The only son of the husband-wife duo nicknamed 'Vulture' and 'Scorpion' has been killed! This couple isn't normal at all. Whether in the circle of wargods or in underground alliance's community, both of them have an extraordinary amount of influence and power.

  "Yao, could a monster horde leader have killed them?" said Venina as she frowned.

  "How could a monster horde leader appear on the highway? And even if they did encounter one, how could they not have the chance to send a message?" The muscles on Li Yao's faces started twitching as the cold light in his eyes flashed. As if he just lost everything to him, he's become cold and enraged like a lone wolf, "I've already told Wang Tong at the city to go and check the scene. When he gets there, we'll have a general idea of what happened"

  "Okay" Venina slightly nodded.

  Deep into the winter night, the winter wind was chilling. On the highway, the four corpses have long turned dark red. One tall and one skinny, short shadow was carefully investigating the scene under Li Yao's request. These two were precisely the two great wargods Wang Tong and Li Kan who rushed from the city.

  "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!"

  Two eerie blue lights flew from the faraway horizon and quickly arrived on the highway as they slowly descended. "Hua!" Not waiting for the fighter aircraft to descend, one of the fighter aircraft's hatches was opened and two shadows came jumping down from the air. They were precisely Li Yao and Venina! Vulture, Scorpion, Shadow Blade, and Bear Strength, these four have teamed up quite a few times.

  Wargods helping each other is a very common occurrence.

  "Vulture, I'm sorry" sighed Wang Tong.

  "What's the conclusion?" Li Yao attempted be more polite, but it was clearly filled with rage.

  Wang Tong didn't bother arguing over Li Yao's tone and pointed to the for corpses: "All I can say..... it kind of seems like the work of a spirit reader!"

  "Spirit reader?" Li Yao and Venina both frowned.

  "Of course, the possibility remains that the enemy purposefully made it look that way so he wouldn't be suspected" added Wang Tong.

  At this time, a few figher bodyguards jumped from one of the blue fighter aircraft. And five people wearing dark gray uniforms jumped from the other fighter aircraft, all of them carrying some sort of machine on their backs. There were two females, one Asian and one white man out of these five.

  There was also a pale old man.

  "Nobody else is allowed at the scene" commanded the old man.

  "Begin"

  The other four suddenly opened the things they had on their back and pulled out all sorts of sensors and detectors as they started to investigate the scene as closely as possible.

  Time passed a second at a time.

  Li Yao and Venina could only wait silently. Wang Tong and Li Kan exchanged glances, both of them not knowing what to say.

  The Vulture and the Scorpion are extremely famous throughout the entire world. Other than the existences that have surpassed the wargod level, there's virtually nobody that can suppress this couple.

  And with their already cruel personalities, would they not avenge their only son's death?

  "Mr and Mrs." bowed the pale old man respectfully, "We already have results, please come see them"

  Li Yao and Venina, and even Wang Tong and Li Kan walked over.

  A notebook was there with a simulation already on the screen. The pale old man said, "This old fighter and white fighter probably died in an instant. They died the exact same way: something pierced their heads from behind! This middle aged fighter and young master Li Wei also died at around the same time.

  The white fighter died a little later than the old fighter" as he said that, the old pale man tapped the simulation screen.

  Suddenly, the simulation began.....

  The only thing that could be seen were two lights that seemed to have pierced the heads of the old veteran named Liu and the white brute. After that, two lights shot through Pan Ya and young master Li Wei, cutting off their heads.

  "Yea" nodded Wang Tong, "I've also checked. The old fighter and the white fighter probably haven't been able to respond when they died.

  As for Li Wei and the middle aged man, their eyes were filled with horror...... clearly, they witnessed the scene".

  The pale old man continued, "We have investigated the surroundings and are 100% sure that no horde leaders have passed by".

  "Using the footprints around the surroundings and the position of the victim's legs, this old fighter, white fighter, and middle aged fig
hter were probably charging towards the same point! Which was why they weren't able to respond to an attack from behind" the pale old man tapped the screen and a figure of a man appeared.

  Li Yao and Venina were both squatting beside Li Yao's body. Li Wei's head and body were already connected, and his eyes were clearly still in shock.

  "I've checked! After 30 seconds of Wei's death, no wargod was within 100 miles!"

  "One minute after Wei's death, there were four advanced level warlords, the closest one being 25 miles away!" said Li Yao deeply, "So..... the killer must've hid his strength!"

  A person's strength is determined by their battle record.

  Even though some extremely powerful men have killed extremely powerful monsters, they gave all the credit to their allies. Without a battle record, their skill ranking would naturally be low.

  "That's one possibility! The killer is a regular fighter with an average battle record whose actual strength is that of a wargod's! Second possibility! The killer is a spirit reader who has hid his identity of a spirit reader. A spirit reader is two levels above his fitness level..... so this person could be a beginner or intermediate level warlord.

  Of course, we aren't ignoring the possibility that this person is really good at hiding his skill and only appears as a warrior level fighter! said Li Yao lowly.

  "There's still a third possibility, the killer is one of my enemies, a powerful wargod fighter! He isn't wearing a tactical communications watch, so I can't find him". Wargods usually share their information frequently, so quite a few of them know about the secret behind the tactical communication watches. They're just too lazy to tell anyone else.

  When they're executing top secret missions, they don't wear their tactical communication watches.

  Silence.

  Beside Li Wei's corpse, only Li Yao spoke. Venina's eyes were both wet with tears, and Wang Tong and Li Kan kept their distance.

  "No matter who, I'll never forgive the person who killed my son!!!"

  "Spread the news of Wei's death around the world and let every single fighter know" seethed Venina, "I, Venina��Paulinus, will give all my earnings of this year, a bounty of 100 billion, to anyone who can find out who killed my son with enough proof!"