Chapter 1 The Heavy Atmosphere Before the Battle

On the rumbling military aircraft, Jiang Xiao once again felt the heavy atmosphere before the great battle.

Jiang Xiao had been on a military aircraft more than once, but only once had he been accompanied by all sorts of fierce soldiers.

That was when the Northwest Frontline was in urgent need of reinforcements, and the Snow Mountain Domain frequently emerged. Led by Er Wei, Jiang Xiao boarded the plane heading west.

This experience was very similar to the Snow Mountain Domain crisis last time.

Jiang Xiao knew that the fierce soldiers beside him should also be reinforcements, and quite special ones at that. They all possessed very powerful strength.

This world was a bizarre and motley world. Due to the existence of Star Power, Star Beasts, and Star Warriors, some special situations had arisen. A powerful Star Warrior squad might really have the ability to change the course of a battle.

Jiang Xiao, like them, was the kind of person who hung his head on his belt and rushed to the battlefield.

Here, Jiang Xiao found a sense of belonging.

At least his huge greatsword found a sense of belonging. Whenever Jiang Xiao appeared in public with his greatsword, he would attract strange gazes. But on this military aircraft, the two-meter-long, thick greatsword was not outstanding among a pile of strangely shaped weapons.

On the contrary, Jiang Xiao's clothing was a bit eye-catching: ink-wash style sweater, ink-wash style sneakers, ink-wash style satchel.

Among a group of soldiers wearing military uniforms, camouflage, and desert uniforms, Jiang Xiao became an oddity, like a lost high school student... The existence of the greatsword actually made Jiang Xiao look more like a soldier.

And this flight was also a little different from the last one.

After five hours, the military transport plane showed no sign of descending, but as the announcement sounded in the cabin, two squads quickly stood up, eight people in total.

Jiang Xiao could easily see that they were two squads. Their clothing was different, and although there was no hostility between them, there was a faint sense of competition in their auras.

Jiang Xiao noticed that the surrounding soldiers raised their hands one after another, grabbing the handles on their sides, and some soldiers were neatly fastening their seat belts.

Jiang Xiao immediately realized something. He quickly reached out and passed his arms through the handles on both sides, securing his body.

*Ka ka ka...*

A few seconds later, the tail舱door of the transport plane opened just like that, and a gust of turbulent wind swept in, stirring up the remaining 30-odd soldiers in the transport plane.

The squad leaders of the two teams yielded to each other. One of the teams jumped down directly, and a few seconds later, the other team also jumped down one after another.

Eight people, none of them with parachutes!

This scene left Jiang Xiao a little dazed...

The tail艙door slowly closed, and the cabin returned to silence.

"Jiang Xiaopi, is it?" A middle-aged man beside him said.

Jiang Xiao pulled out his arm fixed on the handle, held the greatsword in his arms, sat in his seat, and turned to look at the soldier.

For a full five hours, it had been eerily quiet here. Even the communication within their squad was very brief. This sudden remark made Jiang Xiao a little uncomfortable.

Jiang Xiao nodded.

The man smiled, very friendly, and said, "I never thought you would be one of us."

Jiang Xiao nodded again and said, "My honor."

"My child admires you very much. If possible..." The man took out a military officer's certificate from the pocket on the left chest of his military uniform. Jiang Xiao saw the red-bottomed, gold-rimmed circular symbol inside the military officer's certificate, with a large character "荒" (Huang) above it.

The man took out a photo from the interlayer of the military officer's certificate, opened it along the fold, and it was a photo of a family of three.

The young couple smiled happily. The boy in the man's arms was about seven or eight years old, but he didn't seem to like taking pictures, so his small mouth was pouting very high.

"Uh..." Jiang Xiao took the photo and understood what the other party meant. He took out his notebook from his backpack, opened it, and took out the carbon pen clipped inside.

The man glanced at the handwriting on the notebook and smiled, "You've done a lot of homework."

Jiang Xiao smiled. The notebook contained the list of the top 32 players in the country, detailed information, characteristics, Star Techniques, and so on.

He still had traces of being a member of the national team, of course. Interestingly, it only took a phone call for Jiang Xiao to transform from a national team member into a soldier.

"What's his name?" Jiang Xiao asked.

"Yao Bowen."

Jiang Xiao wrote a line of small characters on the back of the photo and handed it to the middle-aged man.

The man looked at the line of handwriting, was slightly stunned, but couldn't help shaking his head with a smile: "Thank you."

Saying that, he folded the photo and put it back into the interlayer of the military officer's certificate.

"Huang Riders, Huang Riders." The broadcast sounded again. The man patted Jiang Xiao on the shoulder, stood up, and along with him, three more men and women stood up and walked towards the tail艙.

The four-person group filed down, but the tail艙door did not close. After a short thirty seconds, the broadcast sounded loudly: "Wei Yu, Wei Yu."

Under the gaze of a group of soldiers, Jiang Xiao stood up, put on his ink-wash satchel, picked up his greatsword, and walked towards the tail艙.

Where to go, he didn't know.

What mission, he didn't know.

But when he boarded the plane in China, the soldiers who sent him off gave Jiang Xiao a small black brick phone.

And Jiang Xiao knew where this was. This was the Republic of Kangke Jinde, a small country bordering China's Northwest Xinjiang Province, a typical Central Asian landlocked country, poor and backward, and one of the countries that China has been providing aid to for many years.

In Jiang Xiao's original world, such a country had never appeared, but here, it was real, having declared independence in the 1990s.

Jiang Xiao walked step by step towards the tail艙, his feet stepped into the air, and he fell down.

The cold wind was bone-chilling, making Jiang Xiao's body shiver.

Falling vertically, Jiang Xiao was even a little out of breath. The gust of wind howled in his ears, and the intense feeling of weightlessness made Jiang Xiao extremely uncomfortable.

He didn't know how those soldiers landed. Maybe they had special flying Star Techniques, maybe they had magical flying Star Pets, but for Jiang Xiao, he could rely on the Space-Time Gap, or use Domain Tears, to fly freely in his domain.

Jiang Xiao couldn't help but lie on his back, breathing heavily and rapidly. The sky here was black, without stars or moonlight, a void and empty blackness. Looking at it for a long time would make one feel terrified.

Jiang Xiao couldn't help but flicker his body, flashing downward. His body froze slightly in the air for half a second. In the pitch black, he saw the flashing dark red light.

Jiang Xiao had had enough of the weightlessness of free fall, so he followed the light, and his figure flickered again.

Jiang Xiao finally saw clearly what the so-called light was.

It was a huge space teleportation gate. As for why Jiang Xiao didn't see the creatures pouring out of it, it was because those creatures were pure black. Darkness became their protective umbrella, allowing them to blend into the surrounding environment.

Only the periphery of the dark red teleportation gate could barely be considered to reflect the dark red sky, and their flying figures could be seen.

*Shua!*

Jiang Xiao flashed again and landed steadily on a hilltop.

Jiang Xiao casually opened the Calamity Shadow Territory, carrying his satchel and walking into it. Jiu Wei had already prepared the mask and black camouflage military uniform.

While Jiang Xiao was taking off his ink-wash style sweater and changing clothes, Jiu Wei had already completed the act of suicide.

Jiang Xiao changed into the black camouflage, put on the circle mask, and summoned an decoy Jiang Xiao who was dressed exactly the same. This decoy was the one with the Star River stage physical fitness.

Jiang Xiao picked up the greatsword, turned around and walked out.

Looking up at the huge dark red teleportation gate in the sky, he saw groups of black birds circling and chirping around the teleportation gate.

Their appearance and calls were very much like crows.

Looking up from the bottom, the dark red teleportation gate reflected the sky into a dark red color, accompanied by a "crow vortex" flying and rotating counterclockwise. Such a scene was extremely strange.

"Buzz... Buzz..." The brick phone in his pocket buzzed. Jiang Xiao took it out and pressed the button to answer.

"We've located your position. Stand there and don't move. Don't try to approach the Dark Palace Holy Ruins," Er Wei's hoarse voice came over.

Jiang Xiao: "Roger."

Hanging up the phone, Jiang Xiao looked up at the black vortex and the dark red sky, and muttered softly, "Dark Palace?"

"Caw... caw..." An unpleasant bird call came from behind. Jiang Xiao frowned slightly and turned to look, only to see a group of pitch-black crows flying over. Unlike the crows on Earth, they only had one eye, which was very large, occupying half of their head.

This group of pitch-black crows flew over Jiang Xiao's head, seemingly without any intention of attacking.

Jiang Xiao's eyes were fixed on them, slowly turning around, always looking up to watch.

Finally, they revealed their true colors!

Without warning, the black crow flock suddenly flew down, but did not attack immediately. Instead, they surrounded Jiang Xiao, who was standing on the hilltop, and flew counterclockwise continuously.

Jiang Xiao held the greatsword in his hand, his body tense, vigilantly looking around.

The "caw... caw..." calls pouring in from all directions made Jiang Xiao feel annoyed and confused. Jiang Xiao flickered, directly retreating 20 meters away, and casually launched a Silence!

*Peng!*

Silence landed!

Not a sound.

These four words were too suitable to describe the current scene.

And in the next moment, Jiang Xiao behind the mask widened his eyes in surprise.

He saw that the crow flock flying counterclockwise in the range of Silence suddenly emitted white light, turning into spots of Star Power, gathering towards one of the crows.

Yes, a full 20-odd crows, all turned into Star Power.

Only one inconspicuous crow received all the Star Power, and its body quickly grew larger, turning into a giant pitch-black crow with a body length of 3 meters and a wingspan of at least 5 meters!

From beginning to end, it was pitch-black, without a single stray feather, only that one lonely eye, emitting a faint dark red luster.

Jiang Xiao was slightly stunned. This group of crows... was actually just one?

The giant black crow was obviously severely injured by the Silence during the casting process.

For normal creatures, perhaps the damage from Silence wouldn't be so great, but the giant black crow, which was divided into a flock of crows, seemed to be severely injured due to the special nature of using Star Techniques.

In the next moment, a Blessing fell, becoming the most dazzling light on this pitch-black hilltop.

A Reverse Current Light was thrown out, Jiang Xiao rushed forward quickly, the greatsword in his hand had been waiting for a long time, raise! fall!

Jiang Xiao at the Star River stage, relying on his powerful strength, directly cut off the head of the giant black crow. The huge head fell to the ground, rolling to the side, and the lonely eye also lost its dim color.

"Caw... caw... caw..."

"Caw... caw... caw..."

"Caw... caw... caw..." In an instant, the black crow flock that had been flying around the dark red teleportation gate, overwhelmingly dense like pitch-black clouds, swept in from the distant horizon.

Jiang Xiao knew that his light pillar of Blessing had exposed everything, but since I've come, I've already put my head on my belt.

Jiang Xiao slammed the greatsword into the ground, looked up, his eyes red.

*Kacha!*

The pitch-black night could not see the rapidly gathering dark clouds, but that bright lightning bolt cut through the night sky!

All the teams who came to destroy the Holy Ruins stopped their actions one after another.

How long had it been since they had seen such a bright light?

In the next moment, a strong wind rose, and fine rain drizzled down.

*Rumble...*

The huge thunder rumbled through the sky, deafening.

After the Star River stage, Jiang Xiao had more Star Power to activate Injury Tears, allowing this drizzle to quickly turn into a torrential downpour.

In people's sight, a strange heavy rain suddenly fell. The black crow flock that had been flying in an orderly manner suddenly flew around in a chaotic mess, crowding into a ball, and wailing miserably...

"Retreat! Retreat! It's not heavy rain, it's a Star Technique!"

"Retreat! Retreat quickly!"

"If there are any Star Techniques that raise emotions, use them quickly!"

"Guard your minds! Retreat! Don't panic! This must be the reinforcements that just arrived!"

Jiang Xiao pulled out the greatsword with one hand, stepped on a boulder with one foot, looked up at the crows in the sky that were wailing in pain and falling one after another, watching them combine and piece together one by one, eventually turning into huge pitch-black crows.

Jiang Xiao's feet were surrounded by the Adoration Halo. Along with the heavy rain, his life force decreased rapidly, but also increased rapidly, and his Star Power surged.

*Ling~ Ling~ Ling~*

The clock bell rang in his chest, Jiang Xiao's mind cleared, his figure flickered rapidly, suddenly appearing in the high sky, appearing on the head of a giant black crow, and then, the greatsword flashing with blue light slashed down fiercely.

*Kacha! Kacha!*

Lightning bolts struck down one after another, illuminating the night sky again and again.

The rapidly activated Injury Tears completely changed this dark sky.

Down the mountain, the military vehicle sped along the muddy dirt road. Tian Gou, who was driving, couldn't help but lean forward, looking up through the front car window.

The rapidly flashing figure in the sky was so strange,

Under the light of each lightning bolt, he would appear in a different direction,

The greatsword in his hand was wielded repeatedly, accompanied by the fall of giant crows one after another,

Like an ancient black and white silent film...

Tian Gou exclaimed in shock: "Jiu Wei!?"

In the passenger seat, Er Wei's cold face rarely showed a hint of a smile.

Her voice was hoarse, nodding slightly: "Yes, Jiu Wei."