Starforce Warriors-Chapter 989: The Reversed Battlefield

The farewell banquet ended quickly. The Three Pearl King-ranked Tie Ruo led his elite army and set off. The Fifth Extermination Campaign was launched with overwhelming momentum.

In addition to the Ruò Iron Tribe, the Ancestor Court had also dispatched armies from a total of sixteen other King-ranked clans, amassing several billion troops in an effort to completely annihilate the human resistance forces in one decisive strike.

Though the Ruò Iron Tribe had only dispatched a limited number of troops, every soldier was among the elite. They were designated as the assault vanguard. As the commander, the Three Pearl Kings-ranked Tie Ruo held a prominent position within the command structure of the Fifth Extermination Campaign. The fleet departed and headed toward the Southern Third Ring Sector in the Ancestor Court galaxy.

There were six naturally inhabited planets in that sector. Four of them had already been occupied by the human resistance forces. This area had become one of the primary strongholds of humanity.

After leaping through the stargate, the fleet successfully arrived at the Southern Third Ring Sector ten days later. The Ruò Iron Tribe's forces then merged with the main extermination army.

By then, the war had already begun. The command center of the extermination campaign adopted a steady, advancing formation, concentrating over sixty percent of its forces on Crabclaw Planet in the Southern Third Ring Sector.

Crabclaw Planet was the largest of the four natural life planets held by the human resistance, and it also served as the frontmost line of defense. It was rumored that three of the Five Marshals of the resistance were stationed there.

The battle was extraordinarily brutal. The human resistance had set up countless formations and self-destructing asteroid belts around the outer orbit of Crabclaw Planet, preventing the Reaper fleet from approaching directly. The enemy was forced to rely on high-stage beast hordes to break through the defenses at the cost of tremendous casualties.

The overall commander of the extermination army was Huokduo, the youngest elder of the Flywheel Clan and a graduate of the Ancestor Court's Evolution Academy.

He held another significant identity. He was one of the 3,600 disciples of the Ancestor of Wisdom. The Flywheel Clan was a super clan no less powerful than the Ruò Iron Tribe. It had been one of the first King-ranked clans to follow the Ancestor of Wisdom.

As such, even someone as powerful as the Three Pearl King-ranked Tie Ruo maintained a proper level of respect when dealing with Huokduo.

The starmap within the command center shimmered brilliantly. A three-dimensional virtual star chart vividly displayed the positions of both allied and enemy forces. The red zones represented territory occupied by the human resistance.

Meanwhile, the green representing the Reapers had completely surrounded the Southern Third Ring Sector. Supreme Commander Huokduo was in the middle of presenting his battle strategy.

In light of the crushing failures of the previous four extermination campaigns, Huokduo adopted an extremely cautious approach. His plan relied on using overwhelming numerical and strength superiority to advance gradually, devouring the human resistance territory bit by bit, until the entire resistance force was forced onto a single natural planet where they would be completely eradicated.

“Every naturally inhabited planet in the Ancestor Court galaxy belongs solely to the supreme Twin Ancestors. We must never allow the filthy and hideous humans to occupy them. Restoring the Twin Ancestors’ brilliance to the Southern Third Ring Sector is a sacred duty no King-ranked clan can shirk,” Huokduo declared.

His voice echoed through the flagship's meeting hall. Unlike their rampages and planetary destruction elsewhere in the universe, the Reapers held the Ancestor Court galaxy in extremely high regard and never destroyed its planets.

Therefore, even though warriors like Huokduo and Tie Ruo possessed the power to obliterate planets in a single thought, they could not unleash such force on the battlefield against the worlds held by the resistance.

The large screen in the meeting room displayed the ongoing, intense battle to break through the orbital zone of Crabclaw Planet. Tens of millions of Primal Faction's Reaper beast hordes charged in like suicide drones, hurling themselves into the orbital zone. Their fleshy bodies detonated the formations set up there and triggered the self-destructing asteroids embedded in the planetary belt.

Blazes of fire burst through the sky in a constant cascade. It looked like a dazzling and unending fireworks display. Huokduo and the other top-tier warriors had yet to make a move. Warfare in this era had its traditions.

As Reapers who pursued evolution above all else, they viewed every war as a stepping stone in their evolutionary path. Even the highest rulers could not rob the lower-tier soldiers of their right to fight and evolve.

Moreover, the performance of the five marshals of the resistance during the previous four campaigns had left a significant impression on the Reaper leadership. It was rumored that each of the five marshals wielded a powerful treasure, and when joined together, even a level ten expert could not last five seconds against them.

As such, no matter how eager they were to claim merit, none of the high-ranking figures, Huokduo and Tie Ruo included, were willing to take the risk of engaging prematurely. If the sheer weight of numbers could annihilate the human resistance, then the credit would still go to them. So why rush? This mindset was shared across the leadership of the extermination army.

It could be said that under the Anthropomorphization Campaign led by the Ancestor of Wisdom, more and more Wisdom Faction Reaper elites not only began to resemble humans in appearance but were also becoming increasingly human in their psychology as they learned how to cloak their motives in lofty rhetoric.

All for the sake of evolution. Glory belonged to the Twin Ancestors.

***

Three days later.

The artificial formations and self-destructing planetary belt surrounding Crabclaw Planet were finally cleared away.

Countless Sound Whales were released.

Sound Whales were a rather peculiar species of Reaper. They possessed immense bodies, often stretching tens of thousands of meters in length, and bore a striking resemblance to whales. They could travel through the vacuum of space with surprising speed.

As part of the Primal Faction Reapers, their combat power was not particularly strong. An adult Sound Whale was roughly equivalent to a level seven Reaper in strength. However, their innate divine ability was utterly unique.

They could emit strange sound waves through their roars that disrupted spatial functions, rendering all kinds of teleportation formations and spatial jumps ineffective.

In large-scale warfare, Sound Whales were used as planetary sealers. When gathered in herds, they would surround a planet and continuously bellow, forming an impenetrable sonic blockade that cut off all escape by teleportation or space-jumping. It was considered the most effective sealing method available.

At this moment, a pod of forty thousand Sound Whales had been released. Their silent roars rapidly generated sound waves that sealed Crabclaw Planet in its entirety. The escape route for the human resistance was now severed. Everything was in place. The Reaper extermination army began their campaign to kill the dog after shutting the door.

Massive starships entered the outer orbital zone, and wave after wave of combat troops were deployed to the surface like dumplings being dropped into soup.

The first to enter Crabclaw Planet’s atmosphere were the beast-type Reapers. This was a common tactic in Reaper military strategy. Many low-stage, bizarre beasts dove rapidly using their innate flying abilities.

They poured into the atmosphere like swarms of locusts, launching indiscriminate assaults and sweeping attacks across Crabclaw Planet. Although these waves of low-stage flying beasts were incapable of delivering catastrophic damage, their primary tactical role was psychological intimidation and locating the enemy’s key firepower positions.

Only then did the intelligent Reapers make their appearance. Heavily armed high-level Reapers descended to the ground via landing pods and immediately carried out encirclement and suppression tactics, sweeping outward in all directions.

The Reapers showed no mercy toward any planet occupied by human resistance. Whether they were rebel soldiers or ordinary civilians, all humans were slaughtered indiscriminately. Even human-kept dogs would be hacked down with three slashes.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

A streak of firelight flashed within the atmosphere of Crabclaw Planet.

“Everyone, go ahead and send the victory report to the Ancestor Court,” Huokduo said with a booming laugh.

Yes. The outcome was already decided. Once the aerial and ground battles began within the planet’s atmosphere, the defeat of the human resistance was inevitable. However, before Huokduo could finish speaking, the latest battle reports were transmitted into the command center.

“What?”

“The entire vanguard beast army has been wiped out?”

“All landing ships were intercepted?”

A string of shocking updates left everyone in the command center visibly surprised.

The strength of the Ancestral Rebellion Forces lay in the individual combat strength of their Five Marshals, while their army as a whole had always been considered weak. Though their morale was high and their fearlessness commendable, the vast disparity in actual strength was not something that sheer willpower could overcome.

Under normal circumstances, once the outer interception belt around a planet was breached and the forces engaged in aerial and ground combat within, the retreat of the human resistance was all but certain.

But this time, why is the counterattack so sharp? Huokduo and the others were baffled.

Suddenly, Tierou stood up and took the initiative to request deployment. He said, “Marshal, it seems this slave race still wishes to fight like cornered beasts. Why don’t you allow me to lead my clan into battle?”

Huokduo hesitated briefly. Just as he was about to agree—

“Huh? Who is that?”

“Where did that guy come from?”

A wave of astonished cries rang out.

Everyone instinctively turned toward the large display screen. To their shock, they saw a middle-aged man in white robes holding a sword. No one knew when he had arrived, but he now stood directly in front of the flagship.

He floated in the vacuum of space, sword in hand, a wicked smile tugging at his lips as he stared straight at the flagship. Everyone in the command room felt a collective chill run down their spines.

The gaze of that white-robed human seemed to pierce through the screen, as if he were staring directly at each of them. There was something deeply unsettling about his eyes. How would one describe that look? It was like someone gazing into a pigpen, at fat pigs waiting to be slaughtered.

In the next instant—

Boom!

The massive flagship began to tremble violently. Its shields shattered and a fire burst into existence right outside the command chamber. Then came a deafening explosion.

“Not good!” Huokduo, Tie Ruo, and the others shouted in alarm.

All the Reaper elites instinctively activated their personal defenses. But a terrifying wave of fire and explosions engulfed them all as the entire flagship detonated.

The shockwave of a massive fireball swept out in every direction. Hundreds of nearby warships were caught in the blast and dragged into the chain reaction. One after another, they exploded as well, sending shattered ship fragments and volatile energy pulses shooting outward in all directions.

At the same time, a streak of white lotus-shaped sword qi sliced through the vacuum of space. The sword light flickered between life and death.

In a blink, an unknown number of Reaper elites perished beneath the blade. Countless Reapers launched counterattacks the moment the assault began but it was useless.

The strength of that white-robed human far exceeded anyone’s expectations. Wherever the sword light passed, death followed. A massive phantom of a white lotus sword burst open in the void of the Southern Third Ring Sector.

On that day, the supreme commander of the extermination army, Huokduo, fell in battle. The several thousand high-level Reaper elites under his command became lifeless corpses drifting in space.

The extermination army that had launched the assault on the human resistance suffered devastating losses. Over seventy percent of its forces were wiped out, and the survivors scattered in all directions in full retreat.

Only the Three Pearl King-ranked Tie Ruo of the Ruò Iron Tribe and a handful of close guards managed to escape the battlefield alive. Yet they were relentlessly pursued by that terrifying white-robed human.

Tie Ruo fled for his life, too afraid to use teleportation or spatial jumps, fearing that any energy fluctuation would allow that monstrous human to track them down.

Even so, just as the broken remnants barely escaped the Southern Third Ring Sector and had yet to catch their breath, the white-robed man appeared once more, cutting off their path.

“My life is over.” Tie Ruo fell into complete despair.

He never could have imagined that such a terrifying human expert would emerge in this era. This human was no less fearsome than the legendary Sword Immortal, Lin Beichen. They were doomed.