“Open!” Xia Fei bellowed as he spread his fingers along Xiu Yiyi’s temples, cutting off the imperceptible threads of spirit energy accordingly.

“How is it? Have you succeeded?!” Radix asked anxiously. What Xia Fei had done was the final step of the brain region mending surgery, akin to sealing up the wound after a surgical operation. He had spread his spirit energy over Xiu Yiyi’s brain region without leaving any traces behind. Accidentally doing so would be like dropping a scalpel into the patient’s body, which would be catastrophic.

This step was the hardest portion of doing a brain region mending surgery. In the past, Xia Fei had spent ten minutes each time he treated Xiu Yiyi, but today his session lasted for a whole two hours. Xia Fei was sweating profusely, a clear sign of just how difficult this stage of the surgery had been.

Xia Fei nodded and lit a cigarette. “There shouldn’t be any big problems. Xiu Yiyi had her seventh brain region opened from birth, and was struggling with that Evil Spirit all these years. In terms of determination or the stress her brain region can tolerate, she’s already far better than normal people, so all that’s left is for her to make her recovery.”

A cursory examination of her own brain region however, left Xiu Yiyi surprised. She had made a complete recovery as of today, and she was feeling a lot more relaxed than before.

“Don’t think just because you’ve repaired my brain region, I’ll be letting you off. Die! Die!” Xiu Yiyi hissed hatefully under the covers.

The heart of a young girl was hard to grasp, and Xiu Yiyi felt a complex mix of gratitude and resentment toward Xia Fei, becoming feelings that she had a hard time deciphering. In any case, the moment Xiu Yiyi thought of Xia Fei’s genial smile, an unpleasant feeling would start to overwhelm her heart.

….

Xia Fei was about to go visit Avril after he departed. This had been his habit every day. During this period of time, Xia Fei’s life had been very routine, and he could not even recall the last time he was able to lead such a life.

Xia Guanghai suddenly mysteriously popped out from behind a boulder and whispered, “The Dark Spiritualists have begun their move!”

Xia Fei was stunned. “When did this happen?”

“An hour ago. The news of all the major universes suddenly descended into chaos, with news of Dark Spiritualist assaults coming from everywhere, every minute.” Xia Guanghai said. “The situation is as you had predicted. Those people had not done anything for a very long time, so the moment they struck, it was pervasive and widespread.”

Xia Fei nodded, “Let’s go to where Xia Geng’s at.”

Xia Geng was the Skywing Clan’s search specialist, and as the generational handover continued to take place, Xia Geng had taken over as the head of the clan’s information department at the same time Xia Ke and Xia Lianning had taken over as the Chief Executives of the clan.

The first thing that the two men saw upon entering the information center was a huge screen split into five portions. Every portion represented one of the Lower Five Stars, with Xia Geng and a team of his younger associates busying about, marking out nodes on the starmap with different colors.

Every color represented what was happening at present. Yellow points were small battles, red were large-scale wars, and black were massacres.

Xia Fei stared intently at the map and noticed that there were several yellow indicators on Alpha’s starmap, indicating the various clashes happening, all related to Dark Spiritualists.

“So many?” Xia Fei was surprised.

….

Annihilation. New Heroes Alliance base…

This was the so-called final bastion of the sapient lifeforms. There were only three kinds of people that could reside here: Dragoons and the leaders of the various major clans, as well as the nameless native citizenry.

Roderick let out a long sigh and left the main hall, ready to head back to his clan’s territory.

After a long conference, Roderick was finally able to leave. The waves that had come from the Collapsed Expanse of Founders this time had not only affected the Bluebloods, but also implicated the Devil Shadow Dragoons that Roderick had jurisdiction over, and it had brought the blue-skinned old man quite a lot of hassle.

Perhaps fortunately, the entire Annihilation universe was embroiled in trouble everywhere and the various major figures had no intention of reprimanding Roderick, so he managed to get past everything without actually being in danger. The Devil Shadow Dragoons, a division newly re-formed under the Dragoon banner, still temporarily remained under Roderick’s administration.

Leaving the base, Roderick did not get on board the warship that had long been waiting for him, but paused. He circled around to the back of the warship.

Someone stood by the energy jet exhaust of the ship, facing directly at the sun, showing his frail back to Roderick.

Roderick gave him a courteous bow and greeted the man, “It is all thanks to your efforts that I’ve managed to safeguard my Zadin Clan from extinction. Allow me to extend my thanks to you.”

This person did not turn around, and remarked softly, “Don’t thank me. If you wish to thank someone, thank Xia Fei. You’re the one who sent him to the Xiu Clan, and by his efforts, he managed to treat Yiyi.”

Roderick’s face went pale, but kept silent.

Initially, he had been afraid of being responsible for setting up Xia Fei. Thinking back now, he really regretted his actions. Had he known Xia Fei truly had the means to treat Yiyi, Roderick would have brought Xia Fei straight to the doors himself, and would at least be recognized for his contributions toward the outcome.

A moment passed, and this warrior staring at the sun asked, “There ought to be thirteen Devil Shadow Dragoons now, right?”

Roderick replied, “That’s right. Without including Xia Fei, a neophyte, there are presently thirteen warriors. Of course, this is after we removed Ling Boyu from the ranks.”

Smiling, that person told him, “Sure enough, fourteen is an inauspicious number, but thirteen isn’t any better, either.”

*Whoosh*

Roderick’s expression changed dramatically. This person he was speaking to was no ordinary person. What exactly did he mean by saying that the number of members in the Devil Shadow Dragoons was an inauspicious number?!

When he next looked, he had no idea when that person had departed, but all that was left was the sun shining on Roderick’s face. A visible drop of sweat rolled down his face.

*teng teng teng*

Roderick swiftly boarded the warship as he gave an order with a grim expression on his face, “Let’s go. We need to leave immediately.”

“Are we headed back home?”

“No! Straight to the Devil Shadow Dragoon’s encampment!” Roderick said gravely.

…

Skywing Clan, information center…

“Not right. Something’s very wrong here!” Xia Fei was pacing about the room with his head down.

“What’s wrong? Isn’t this obvious? The Dark Spiritualists finally could not hold themselves back and began their attack on the clans that refused to bow to them?” Xia Geng wondered.

Xia Fei came to a halt, turned his gaze right toward the screen and stated, “They are all yellow. All yellow!”

Xia Geng and Xia Guanghai were stunned. Yellow indicated that these were just small skirmishes, and they had no idea just what it meant when Xia Fei repeated the fact?

“Xia Guanghai, let me ask you. Let’s say you’re Nan Shazi, what would you do?” Xia Fei asked him.

Xia Guanghai waved his arm grandly and answered, “I would of course let those who obey me prosper, and sentence all those who opposed me. Since I have someone above backing me up, and I have enough strength to enforce my will down here, I’d just eliminate all my enemies in one go! Without any more voices of opposition, this entire realm would bow down to me!”

“That’s right!” Xia Fei’s two eyes shone in comprehension. “The crux here is all in one go! In war, all in one go; twice will lead to being weakened, and thrice results in exhaustion. But the situation right now is fights breaking out all over the Alpha Universe, yet what we see are small fights and skirmishes breaking out that would hardly deal anything fatal!”

“Such a situation is definitely not the main assault, but just the Dark Spiritualists rustling the tall grass to frighten the rabbits! They are trying to make everyone weary from keeping their guard up, making it easier for them to strike at their true target.”

With that said, Xia Fei placed his hands on the command console and muttered to himself, “That also means… this wave is just a feint!”