Chapter 3: The Blade Aimed at the Celestial Edge—Old Love and Present Grudges
"Second Legion! Arrowhead formation! Target: The Tianren! Pierce through them!"
Hefeng’s voice resonated through the private communication channels of every soldier in the Second Legion, sounding like the collision of eons-old cold iron in the absolute zero of the void. It carried a decisive power that severed all hesitation and ignited the last vestiges of their fighting spirit.
This voice pierced the suffocating silence on the bridge of the flagship, the *Bright*, and cut through the silent explosions of death blooming outside the portholes. It struck the hearts of every male angel warrior teetering on the edge of chaos and fear like a thunderclap shattering a shroud of despair.
On the bridge, the officers trembled violently. Those eyes, gray with hopelessness, were instantly ignited, like dying beasts catching the scent of blood.
The jagged scar on Ryan’s face contorted with excitement. He roared as he repeated, broke down, and relayed the orders to every combat unit: "Arrowhead formation! Target the Tianren! Engines to maximum power! Assault fleet in the lead! Battleship squadron, provide fire coverage! For the Legion! For the God of War! For victory!"
"For victory—!!" The thunderous roar in the channel instantly drowned out the harsh, blaring alarms.
The Second Legion, this lone island silent on the edge of a storm of destruction, this beast stimulated to the extreme by the scent of death, had awakened.
Hefeng’s gaze was locked firmly on the core of the holographic star map—a massive golden light representing the Tianren, surrounded by layers of purple thorns and dense red dots representing the female angel ambushers.
Beneath his cold expression, his overtaxed processing core was frantically calculating attack routes, enemy fire points, and potential interception vectors... along with the unavoidable, fated collision with Keisha that lay ahead.
Just as his thoughts reached their zenith, a thousandth of a second before issuing specific attack coordinates, an irresistible tremor originating from the deepest depths of his soul—a torrent spanning ten thousand years of time—suddenly breached his cold mental dam.
Fragments of memory, carrying the crisp, heartbreaking fragrance of grass and trees unique to the planet Xianjian, violently tore through the bloody curtain of the raging sea:
3900 years before the Heavenly Palace Calendar, Hefeng was 100 years old.
Within the Angel Civilization, on the planet Xianjian, at Lovers' Mountain.
At the summit, 68,648 meters above sea level, the gale winds were like blades, yet they could not disperse the burning heat between two young souls.
Beneath their feet lay the boundless sea of stars; the brilliant galaxy, like a river of flowing diamonds, surged from the ends of the universe, spreading out a magnificent, breathtaking tapestry beneath them. The air was thin and pure, each breath carrying the chill of ice crystals and an indescribable sense of freedom.
He, Hefeng, wore a simple academy training uniform, his white wings retracted behind him, casting a soft halo in the starlight. Beside him, Keisha was dressed just as plainly, her long golden hair dancing wildly in the mountain gale. Her deep blue eyes reflected the starlight of the entire universe, pure and without a single impurity. Her cheeks were flushed with a moving rosy glow from excitement and slight oxygen deprivation, like a rose just beginning to bloom.
"Afeng..." Her voice was somewhat ethereal in the wind, but it clearly reached his ears, carrying the characteristic shyness and determination of a young girl. "Look, the entire universe is beneath our feet!"
Hefeng turned his head, looking at the face so close to his own, his heart beating violently and uncontrollably. He reached out and gently brushed aside the hair blown across her cheek by the wind, his fingertips touching skin that was delicate and warm.
"Yes, it's all beneath our feet." His voice was low and hoarse, his gaze burning like fire, locked onto those eyes reflecting the galaxy. "Shasha... I..."
The rest of his words were scattered by the mountain wind, but both understood. Keisha’s face turned even redder, her long eyelashes trembling slightly like the wings of a frightened butterfly, yet she bravely did not look away.
She leaned gently against his shoulder, and the fresh fragrance of her hair instantly enveloped him.
"I love you," she whispered, her voice as light as a dream, yet it struck Hefeng’s heart with the weight of ten thousand tons.
A surge of hot blood rushed to his head; Hefeng could no longer restrain himself. He lowered his head and, with the unique clumsiness and unquestionable resolve of youth, kissed those slightly parted, petal-soft lips. The cold, thin air seemed to ignite instantly, turning scorching hot.
Keisha’s body stiffened slightly at first, then softened like melting ice, responding with awkward but immense fervor.
There was no technique, no impurities of carnal desire, only the purest love and the fierce collision of two souls at the pinnacle of the universe. Their wings unconsciously unfolded slightly, overlapping in the starlight like a sacred vow.
When they parted, both were breathless, their foreheads pressed together, their noses lightly brushing, their breaths tangled. Keisha’s cheeks were as red as the most intense sunset, her deep blue eyes misting with water, too shy to look at him, yet unable to keep from sneaking a glance.
"We must be together forever," Hefeng’s voice was breathless but absolute. "Together, we will see every corner of this universe, until the end of time."
"Yes! Forever together!" Keisha nodded vigorously, her eyes filled with unreserved trust and longing. She held out her little finger. "Pinky promise!"
Their little fingers hooked tightly together, and under the witness of billions of stars, they made the most innocent yet weightless vow.
A moment of tranquility followed, with only the mountain wind howling and the river of stars flowing. They embraced tightly, as if to knead each other into their own bones and blood. The beauty of that moment was as pure as the first ray of light at the birth of the universe—warm, eternal, and unstained by dust.
The beautiful illusion shattered like crystal!
The reality of the raging, silent battlefield, filled with the shrieking of energy weapons and the groaning of twisting metal, struck Hefeng’s consciousness like a cold, giant wave!
The glaring red alarm lights of the bridge replaced the brilliant starlight of Xianjian, and Keisha’s shy, moving face was instantly replaced by the other end of the holographic map.
That cold, indifferent, beautiful face on the throne of the Tianren, carved from ten thousand years of black ice!
Those deep blue eyes that once reflected the galaxy and were filled with love now held only the majesty of looking down upon ants and a bone-deep hatred!
His heart felt as if it were being tightly gripped by an invisible hand, sending a sharp, almost suffocating pang of agony through him!
Ten thousand years of blood and fire, five thousand years of hate and resentment had completely buried that pure beauty, leaving only bone-chilling cold and a desire for destruction.
"Coordinates: Directly in front of the Tianren, Sector S7-Y9! Concentrate fire! Pierce through!" Hefeng’s voice rose sharply, carrying a near-violent murderous intent as he hammered the coordinate command into the communication channel! All tenderness and nostalgia were utterly incinerated in this roar! Only the cold, sharp edge of the God of War drawn from its sheath remained!
The massive hull of the *Bright* shuddered violently, and its engine exhausts erupted with unprecedented white-hot light, like an angry star ignited in a sea of dark red blood!
The gargantuan hull accelerated like an arrow released from a bow! The entire Second Legion, two hundred and fifty thousand elites, were twisted together by an invisible force, transforming into a massive, unimaginably vast "Arrowhead" shimmering with the cold, metallic light of death. They tore through the chaotic energy turbulence and launched a death-defying charge toward the core of the dense purple thorn net—the Tianren, where the light of the female angel ambushers was most blinding!
"For victory! Kill—!!!" Ryan’s roar echoed through the fleet channel.
"Kill—!!!" The sound of nearly two hundred and fifty thousand alloy battle swords being drawn simultaneously merged into a storm of death that tore through the void!
At the tip of the "Arrowhead" were the *Bright* and the heavy assault fleet following close behind. They were no longer cold warships, but siege hammers extended from the will of the God of War!
The heavy rams and energy deflection shields on the bows operated at full power, radiating a heart-stopping aura of destruction as they smashed brutally into the dark energy disruption net that blocked the space!
*Ssh—BOOM!!!*
A harsh tearing sound accompanied the violent energy detonations! The assault fleet cut into the solidified energy like a red-hot blade into grease, tearing a massive, energy-flaming gap in the incredibly resilient purple thorn net!
The shattered thorn energy twisted and disintegrated like a dying viper. The warships' armor deformed and melted under the impact, and some small assault craft were even torn to pieces by the violent energy the moment they broke through!
But the momentum of the charge was unstoppable!
Behind the gap were the female angel ambushers, long since prepared! They were dense, like a swarm of metallic bees shimmering with cold light! Their white wings reflected a cold luster under the light of the warship engines and energy weapons. In their hands, they gripped the Flame Swords that made male angels tremble with fear! The blades flowed with crimson light, radiating terrifying heat!
"Stop them! For the Queen! For freedom!" The sharp cries of the female angel commanders rang out in the chaotic battlefield communications.
Greeting them was a torrent of destruction spewed from within the "Arrowhead"! The main batteries of the Second Legion’s battleship squadron fired in unison!
Thick, condensed beams of energy, like the judgment spears of death, punched fiercely into the dense female angel formations! Wherever they passed, whether small assault craft or elite female angel warriors, they were vaporized in an instant! Only brief, white-hot trails and desolate vacuums remained!
However, the energy fire could not cover all angles. More female angel warriors, relying on astonishing mobility, darted like nimble swifts through the gaps in the fire net, pouncing from all directions—top, bottom, left, and right—at the Second Legion fleet that had just broken through the thorn net and had not yet reached maximum speed! Their goal was clear: board them! Close combat! Use the Flame Swords to tear open these iron coffins!
The true hand-to-hand combat began!
The massive hull of the *Bright* became the primary target. Dozens, hundreds of female angel warriors, like white meteors, precisely struck the armor seams, turret bases, and engine exhausts of the warship!
The Flame Swords in their hands stabbed and slashed fiercely! The scorching heat instantly melted the special alloy, emitting a teeth-aching sizzling sound!
"External guard squad! Attack! Leave none alive!" Ryan’s roar echoed through the internal passages of the ship.
Heavy armored blast doors opened with a boom! Elite warriors of the Second Legion, who had been waiting in the sortie bays, poured out like a torrent of black steel! They also bore white wings, but they wore standard-issue dark silver armor, shimmering with a cold, silvery luster, and gripped alloy battle swords that gleamed with frigid light! Each was a veteran of a hundred battles, a blade tempered by Hefeng in mountains of corpses and seas of blood!
The clashing of metal, the roar of short-range energy weapon fire, the dull thuds of blades cutting into flesh, and the dying screams erupted instantly on the surface of the *Bright* and in the surrounding space!
It was as if countless micro-meat grinders had been activated simultaneously! Silver armor and white figures wrestled and slaughtered each other frantically; sword light fell like a waterfall, blood rained down, and white feathers mixed with shattered armor plates splattered everywhere!
In the center of this chaotic, bloody battlefield, one figure wove through like a phantom. It was Hefeng!
He did not remain in the safety of the bridge to command.
The God of War is never in the rear!
He wore the standard dark silver armor of a Legion Commander, but that majestic, exquisite armor seemed endowed with divinity upon him, flowing with a cold, heart-stopping luster. Every time the wings behind him flapped, they left a trail of afterimages, his speed too fast for the naked eye to track!
The high-density dark silver longsword in his hand, named "Hegemony," had now completely broken its seal. The blade flowed with a dark, profound luster, as if even the surrounding light were swallowed by it!
He charged at the very forefront of the external ship battle! His goal was simple: to tear open a bloody path for the entire arrowhead formation!
Three female angel warriors formed a small triangular formation, attacking at high speed from the flank. The Flame Swords in their hands trailed three hot red lights, stabbing directly at Hefeng’s vital points! Their eyes were sharp, their coordination tacit—they were clearly veterans.
Hefeng did not even change his flight trajectory! The moment the sword light reached his body, he shifted his body in a way that defied the laws of physics, a movement so subtle it was barely perceptible!
*Swish! Swish! Swish!*
Three lethal red lights grazed past his dark silver armor; the scorching heat even caused the armor's surface to glow red, but they failed to leave even a single scratch! That precision was so extreme it was as if he had already predicted the trajectory of every attack!
At the same time, "Hegemony" in Hefeng’s hand moved!
There was no earth-shattering light, no flashy moves.
Only a dark arc, faster than the limits of thought!
It passed through the void as silently as the scythe of death!
*Puff! Puff! Puff!*
Three heads with expressions of astonishment instantly left their necks and flew high into the air! The cuts were as smooth as mirrors; not even a drop of blood had time to spray before the three headless corpses continued to drift forward for several meters due to inertia before falling powerlessly toward the dark void.
One-hit kills! True instant kills!
More female angels were enraged, as if a hornet's nest had been poked!
Five, ten... they pounced from every direction, fearless of death, their Flame Swords weaving a red net of destruction, vowing to strangle this terrifying enemy!
Hefeng’s figure wove through the dense sword net like a storm petrel in a tempest! Every dodge was perfect, every parry was precise!
The sword "Hegemony" became a blurred shadow of darkness in his hand! Every swing was accompanied by the fall of a female angel warrior!
Either a head flew off, or a body was severed at the waist, or an arm holding a sword—along with the Flame Sword itself—was sliced off at the root!
His movements had not a single wasted motion, efficient as the most precise killing machine!
Parry, dodge, counterattack!
Every counterattack targeted a vital point, killing with a single blow!
Scorch marks from the Flame Swords constantly accumulated on his dark silver armor, and there were even a few places where he had been struck, leaving shallow white marks, but no attack could truly penetrate this seemingly ordinary standard armor to hurt him in the slightest!
Invincible dodging, invincible parrying, invincible killing efficiency!
And so, he went—one man, one sword—swimming upstream against the crashing waves of female angel warriors!
Wherever he passed, he left a trail of blood and carnage!
Severed limbs and burning feathers bloomed behind him like fireworks of death!
He had single-handedly torn a path paved with blood and white bones through the dense enemy ranks for the Second Legion’s arrowhead!
"Follow the General! Pierce through them!" Ryan, covered in blood, slashed down a female angel attempting a sneak attack and roared at the top of his lungs!
His voice carried immense fanaticism and worship!
This was their God of War! The undefeated myth!
The soldiers of the Second Legion witnessed the invincible form of their commander with their own eyes, and their morale instantly soared to its peak!
They roared, frantically swinging their battle swords, following that silver figure who was invincible in the enemy ranks. Like a red-hot knife stabbing into butter, they charged forward!
The torrent of silver dark silver armor and the waves of white female angels collided and slaughtered each other fiercely. Led by Hefeng, the sharpest of all swords, the tip of the arrowhead pierced unswervingly toward the Tianren!