Starforce Warriors-Chapter 474: What He Saw

There were countless figures in the grand hall on the first floor. More accurately, they were ice sculptures.

Four to five hundred of Jiepeng’s most elite, fully armed soldiers, along with their commanders, were encased in silver-white frost. Each figure looked as though it were a masterpiece sculpture crafted by a skilled artisan. They were vividly detailed and hauntingly lifelike.

The layer of ice was no thicker than a finger’s width, so their facial expressions were clearly visible. Some showed rage, some were roaring, and some displayed terror. Some held drawn swords, while others gripped firearms. Some were crouched, while others were lunging forward. But without exception, every single one was now a lifeless ice sculpture.

Even the garrison commander, Endō Hōgi , who was a Golden Body Realm expert, stood frozen. His blade was raised commandingly high, but it would remain suspended forevermore. The ice had stolen his life, and frozen his existence in time.

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The waiter’s heartbeat quickened uncontrollably, drumming louder and faster with each passing moment. His throat bobbed as he tried to swallow. But his mouth was so dry that no saliva would form. It felt as though he could see Death itself grinning silently within this forest of ice sculptures as it mocked and taunted the living.

Two minutes and forty-one seconds. The waiter was certain. From the moment he had triggered the alarm, crossed the street, entered the consulate courtyard, and stepped into the building, only two minutes and forty-one seconds had passed.

In such a short span of time, the heavily fortified consulate had been effortlessly breached by the handsome young man in the white suit.

The scene in the first floor hall was almost beyond belief. Though his scalp tingled with fear, the waiter mustered his final shred of courage and stepped through the forest of ice sculptures and headed for the depths of the consulate. There, he stopped before the grand statue of the great Emperor Akihito of Jiepeng.

The statue stood atop a nine-tiered base of white marble steps. The nine meter tall statue symbolized the supreme authority of the Jiepeng Empire. It was an object revered as divine by every Jiepeng warrior and citizen alike. Unassailable. Supreme. But now, before this magnificent statue, which could be called a work of art, lay a bouquet.

A cluster of yellow and white flowers, along with a few bare branches, sat quietly at its feet. They rested there, as if displayed before a tomb. Not in mourning, but in mockery of something... or someone.

In that moment, the waiter suddenly understood why the handsome young man in the white suit had chosen those particular flowers back at the café. He truly had come to pay his respects. But the grave was the Jiepeng consulate. He had come to slaughter every Jiepeng citizen within its walls.

He had come to transform this fortress, the Jiepeng Empire’s stronghold in the heart of Great Xia’s Jiangnan region, into a tomb for the dead.

Who is he? What exactly had Miss Tsukiha Yaiba told him in the private room?

The waiter’s heart churned with shock, fear, and anger. Yet, as he stared at the yellow and white flowers desecrating the feet of the Emperor’s statue, he couldn’t summon the courage to step forward and remove them.

It felt as though taking one step closer would cause a petal to pierce his throat. He stood dazed before the Emperor’s statue.

Finally, gritting his teeth, he gripped his weapon, skirted the statue, and stepped into the elevator. He hoped he could find comrades to fight alongside on the second floor.

“May the Emperor protect me!” He rallied himself, trying to summon every ounce of courage.

The second floor of the building housed the consulate’s general office area. It was where the administrative departments operated. The open-plan layout consisted of rows upon rows of desks, where clerks worked tirelessly, racing against the clock to process business requests from all directions.

For the past fifty years, the Jiepeng Empire had rapidly expanded its reach and established countless overt and covert operations in every corner of the world that they had access to through Cave Beast tunnels. This was especially true of the territory of Great Xia.

As the largest and most authoritative consulate in the southern region of Great Xia, the Haijing Consulate was a massive administrative hub. These tasks were carried out on the second floor. The waiter had visited this place countless times before.

Each time he saw thousands of Jiepeng’s elite employees busily working, the vibrant and bustling scene filled him with a deep sense of pride. It was as if he were witnessing a new dawn as the rising sun of the empire shone brightly on foreign soil. It was as if he were glimpsing the empire’s boundless, radiant future.

But now, the place had transformed into a hauntingly silent ghostly realm. The desks, once crowded with employees and piled with light cores, documents, and office supplies, were devoid of life. Only faint black scorch marks remained where people had once stood.

Over a thousand workstations, and not a single exception. The waiter’s entire body began to tremble violently. He understood with agonizing clarity that his comrades who, just moments ago, had been dedicating their youth and lives to the empire’s rise were now dead.

The faint humanoid black scorch marks on the ground were the only proof of their existence. The final remnants they left in this world. A surge of grief and rage exploded in his heart.

Murderer. Executioner. Revenge!

He gripped his weapon tightly and charged up to the third floor. The third floor housed the executive offices. This was where the consulate's officials worked. Each official was an elite carefully nurtured by the empire through countless resources and years of effort. They wielded immense power and were exceptionally talented.

Each one had their own private office, offering a better environment and greater privacy. But here too, without exception, every Jiepeng official was dead. Some had been transformed into ice sculptures. Others had become blackened scorch marks. But the essence of life no longer lingered here. Death had ruthlessly and mercilessly swept through this floor to layt claim to every soul.

The waiter let out a guttural, anguished roar. Then, consumed by fury and despair, he continued his mad ascent to the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors...

But the officials, guards, and staff on each floor had all been slaughtered. Even many powerful cultivators in the Five Spirits Realm and Golden Body Realm had not been spared.

He didn’t know how much time had passed as he stumbled into the top floor, the ninth floor. This floor was entirely open; it was a vast space spanning over six thousand square meters. It was the exclusive domain of the Consulate General of Jiepeng.

At last, he heard the sound of a living person. Someone was cursing loudly in Jiepeng. A wave of immense relief surged through the waiter’s mind. He rushed forward as fast as he could.

He pushed past the intricately designed landscaping, through the winding shrines, and along the corridors adorned with 3D images of Jiepeng Empire’s historical accomplishments.

Along the way, he saw bodies sprawled across the floor. Blood was everywhere. These were the personal guards of the Consulate General. But they, too, had fallen in battle.

Blood flowed freely. Yet to the young waiter, these lifeless, bloodied corpses brought an odd sense of familiarity and even excitement. Because this meant that, at least on this floor, the murderous devil in the white suit had finally met resistance. He could no longer kill as effortlessly and leisurely as he had before.

“Devil, I’m here...” The waiter, filled with excitement and frenzy, charged forward.

He finally reached the Consul General’s desk. But the scene before him was nothing like what he had imagined.

The young man’s white suit was as pristine as freshly fallen snow on the peak of Mount Fuja.

The waiter saw the Consul General’s personal guard collapsed in pools of blood behind the young man. Severed limbs and shattered weapons were scattered across the floor, forming a grotesque, abstract painting of a hellish battlefield.

He saw the Consul General himself, a man of ultimate authority in the consulate, easily identified by his signature three-pronged mustache, pinned to the wall behind his desk. A Chixia Blade had nailed him to the embossed map of Great Xia’s Three Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains.

He met the Consul General’s lifeless eyes, his pupils dilated in death as blood poured from the freshly killed body, trickling down to stain the once-majestic map with a deep crimson hue.

He saw how the noble figure of Jiepeng’s most powerful man in the consulate had, in death, become pitifully small. His once-proud form twitched like a pinned caterpillar, limbs flailing feebly before going limp.

The waiter’s joy lasted no more than a second before his heart sank into an even deeper abyss. They were all dead. Everyone in the consulate, from top to bottom, was dead.

At that moment, the young man in the white suit slowly turned to look at him. There was no ferocity or exhilaration on his face, no trace of bloodlust after slaughtering his way through the consulate. There was only a serenity, as if everything that had happened was utterly inevitable.

He looked at the waiter and smiled faintly.

“Oh, you’re here too,” Li Xiaofei said.