NOVPUBOn the second day after expelling the representatives of the "Holy Blood Guild," harmful rumors about Chen Fei quickly spread through every corner of Sun Domain City, densely populated with mercenaries. Accusations such as Blue Star spy, deliberately leading mercenaries into traps, and unclear hiring purposes spun into various conspiracy theories, which were essentially baseless, irresponsible, unproven, and irrational gossip, displaying the full destructive power of mob slander. The aim was not only to interfere with Chen Fei's commission but even to blacklist him and expel him from the southern continent.
After a confrontation with the unscrupulous local snakes, the emergence of such incidents didn't surprise Chen Fei at all.
But, with a counter move of "copying homework," he spent hundreds of thousands of Star Yuan and dug up a pile of dirt on the "Holy Blood Guild," returning blow for blow. His response was not just through word of mouth but also involved distributing flyers and placing newspaper ads, inciting mass to fight against mass, a slick move skillfully executed.
The intense battle of public opinion that ensued and the mutual damage were unexpectedly overwhelming for the local snakes of the "Holy Blood Guild."
Being new to the area, Chen Fei hardly had any vulnerabilities to exploit; all rumors about him were unfounded. In contrast, the "Holy Blood Guild" had been entrenched for many years, inevitably accumulating scandals. When people and documented cases proved those scandals, they swiftly collapsed under the weight of evidence. Several Mercenary Guilds, acting under certain motives, also covertly fueled the fire.
This time, by lifting the heavy stone named "Chen Fei," the "Holy Blood Guild" had brutally smashed its own foot. The guild quickly became desperate under the turning tide of public opinion, struggling with internal chaos to the point of seeing a decline in its operations with many mercenaries turning to other guilds. Chen Fei, one of the main subjects of the rumors, was still active within Sun Domain City, leaving the frustrated upper echelons on the verge of exploding from humiliation, doubting whether they had picked the wrong script for their slander campaign against an adversary who seemed unfazed, countering their aggressive efforts with a mere flick of a hand and leaving them bloody-faced.
Nevertheless, the rumors against Chen Fei were not entirely ineffective; some smaller mercenary squads, confused about the truth, chose to keep their distance from Chen Fei to avoid trouble, but this didn't significantly impact his situation.
Fortunately, before officially announcing his commission, Chen Fei had met with the leaders of some capable mercenary squads, successfully establishing a circle of influence and relationships that protected him from being harmed by false accusations.
After issuing the second commission, the "Sunset Guild," again responsible for mediation, quickly recruited enough combat personnel, and the fully loaded Transport Airships took off again.
Among these personnel, Chen Fei discovered several hosts of the Mutated Parasitic Spawn.
He immediately contacted Bartona, the Commander-in-Chief of the southern war zone of the Tessa Empire Restoration Army, and confirmed through the parasitic species "Taga" that another Royal Breed stood with it, both agreeing on peaceful coexistence with other life forms.
Though this newly confirmed Royal Breed had chosen an evolutionary path of the Ninth Rank, it wasn't the main body of the Mutated Parasitic Spawn around Nandu City.
Its parasitic offspring primarily targeted the dead or fatally wounded Human Race as hosts, never actively killing humans. After parasitism, the spawns voluntarily entered a dormant state without erasing the host's consciousness. Many hosts retained their original consciousness, not even aware that they had been parasitized.
If what "Taga" said was true, it meant that on the Zilu Continent, the unique Royal Breeds spreading the Mutated Parasitic Spawn were not singular; determining exactly how many were benevolent and how many were hostile was the real headache.
Considering the potential to obtain the latest intelligence from within the parasitic species, Chen Fei didn't opt to eliminate them all, regardless of their intentions, good or evil.
Otherwise, forcing "Taga" and similar entities back to the original stance of their species would be like seeking trouble without reason, and creating difficulties for himself unnecessarily.
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The second sortie of the Airship Battle Group was bound for a location on the border between the southern and eastern parts of the continent.
Chen Fei had passed by there on his initial trip to Sun Domain City, and this mission marked a return to that vicinity. 𝖓𝔬𝖛𝔭𝔲𝖇.𝔠𝔬𝖒
This time, two additional 100-meter long multi-functional Auxiliary Ships were added to the fleet, loaded with various equipment.
"Confirm the terrain again, have all units completed their memorization?"
The female leader of the "Furious Witch" Mercenary Corps, Ballerina, took command of the 1200 mercenaries once again.
Since Ballerina was willing to establish a long-term partnership, Chen Fei didn't mind continuing to entrust this familiar and competent female commander.
"The First Squadron's 'Demon Hunters,' 'Blood-eyed Hounds,' 'Crazy Bicycle,' and 'Malicious Code' teams have all completed their memorization."
"The Second Squadron's 'Nine-eyed Beast' team has completed their memorization."
"The Third Squadron…"
"The Fourth Squadron…"
"The Fifth Squadron…"
The 1200 people were divided into five squadrons, composed of variously sized mercenary squads, kept as integrated as possible to maintain cohesion and understanding within each team.
With its many smaller teams, the Fifth Squadron was kept in reserve while the other four squadrons were the main combat force deployed this time.
"1209 combat personnel, 419 logistics personnel, all preparations complete."
Ballerina reported on the situation of the mercenary corps this time.
"Check the individual communication devices, and connect to the reconnaissance data."
Chen Fei's visual interface was displaying a complex mountain terrain map, along with supplementary footage transmitted by the reconnaissance drones ahead.
The combat area was a karst-like, porous rock terrain with an average mountain altitude of about two thousand meters. It was not only full of caves and rock cavities but also had extremely lush vegetation with untouched primitive forests. Some towering trees even reached heights of three to four hundred meters with main trunk diameters exceeding sixty meters. The tree crowns spread in all directions, obscuring the sky, where the treetops basked in bright sunlight, creating a paradise, while the roots lay in complete darkness, comparable to the Nine Serenities Hell.
To address this particular environment, Chen Fei had set specific instructions and requirements when posting the commission through the Mercenary Guild. Mercenaries lacking relevant combat experience and capabilities would not be able to take the commission, and it would be overseen by the Sunset Guild to prevent greedy mercenaries from flocking in huge numbers and dying in vain.
Consequently, the mercenaries successfully recruited barely reached 1,200 people, with a few extras not worth counting, all integrated into the team.
In addition, over 400 logistics support personnel also followed, with a nearly one to four ratio to combat personnel, and with the auxiliary machinery provided by Chen Fei, it was basically sufficient.
The insertion of just over 1,200 mercenaries into the terrain of the destination was hardly noticeable; it was like trying to extinguish a car fire with a cup of water, and multiplying their number by ten would still not make any noticeable improvement.
Thus, what Chen Fei needed these mercenaries to do was to remain vigilant, act as sentinels, and wait to clean up after the battles—charges and breakthroughs weren't just unnecessary; they were inconsequential.
"Begin deploying the mercenaries now!"
After retrieving the information from the drone reconnaissance, Chen Fei ordered the AI "Adam" to execute the command to release the landing crafts, cooperating with two transport ships to deploy 1,000 mercenaries in battalions to the ground, spreading out a large net to prevent any escapes.
Several colorful spells fell from the sky, silently turning some trees into dust, and the landing crafts carrying the mercenaries landed in the newly cleared spaces in the forest.
Along with them, four hundred combat mechs and countless mechanical scorpions equipped with hydraulic pincers and eight legs surged into the forest. Their tails not only had lights but also cameras, flooding into the forest like a tide, continuously searching every inch of the ground, leaving no suspicious crack or cave unchecked.
The mechanical bodies controlled by the AI "Adam" were the main force in Chen Fei's search for the target.
Luckily, "Adam's" multiplicative form featured a ring topology structure with strong relative independence among its copies. If it were a derivative of "Cybertrom", most of the computing pressure would be on the server side, and it would probably require one or more high-performance professional computing servers for preparation.
Thus, hovering in low Earth orbit, the "Cybertrom" body was immensely huge, easily accommodating the "Halo" Dimensional Gate on the Blue Star side.
"Nothing at all!"
The "Yellow Sparrow" squad, responsible for flagship security, still assembled on the bridge, guarding their employer Chen Fei while continuing to stand by.
A large number of mercenaries, combat mechs, and meter-long mechanical scorpions scattered into the forest, then vanished without a trace, swallowed by the mountains and forests below.
Boom!~
Unexpectedly, a cooperative ship positioned at the four o'clock direction suddenly opened fire, its side railgun firing four 152mm Demolition Bombs consecutively, creating bursts of fire in the forest.
The pale white impact wave halo instantly swept over a kilometer radius, and countless sparks flew out from the dense forest; although the detonation points were invisible, the firepower of the artillery was by no means diminished, the effectiveness of the heavy artillery lied in concussion, not fragmentation.
Many birds flew frantically from the treetops, beasts fled, and cries of ghosts and howls of wolves echoed through the forest.
"What's happening?"
The mercenary commander, Ballerina, sent an inquiry. She was still on one of the transport ships, where a backup command center was located.
But the real command center was on the flagship's bridge, displayed on Chen Fei's visual interface and superimposed in AR, making full use of the limited field of vision.
"Found a ferocious magical beast. Eliminating it ahead of time."
Chen Fei replied calmly, the impact zone was less than 800 meters from the Second Squadron, and it was highly likely that the two sides would encounter each other.
A small drone carrying the biological samples just collected from the impact zone returned.
If the footage transmitted back by a certain mechanical scorpion was correct, the so-called "ferocious magical beast" should be the mutant XR-0079, which had only appeared on Blue Star fifteen years ago.
