Martial World (Web Novel)

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The Hidden Dragon Galaxy, in a dark gray nebula –

A black palace slowly floated. Flying around it were several dozen spirit ships.

This black palace as well as the numerous spirit ships around it were covered in a gray array formation, isolating them from the outside space.

There were countless such nebulas in the Hidden Dragon Galaxy. When combined with various concealing array formations, this was one of the greatest advantages that humanity used to survive for these past years.

However, this so-called advantage was in truth simply delaying for time. In the words of the saints, humanity was merely ‘a feeble existence lingering about’.

When the saints launched their carpet sweep of an area, the hidden areas would slowly be uncovered. What followed was a massacre.

The saints’ searching method was referred to by them as ‘hunting’. From searching for a target, locking onto them, and then hunting them down and kill them, this was just like a hunter searching for prey. And the result was also the same as hunting, without any suspense at all. A hunter was a hunter and would rarely be injured by their prey.

Now, the human forces in the Hidden Dragon Galaxy encountered such ‘hunting’ from the saints; they were already in a precarious situation.

Within the stationed area of this influence, at the central dark palace, in the highest room –

This room was extremely large but the layout was surprisingly simple. There was an octagonal-shaped obsidian table, two heavy and sturdy obsidian chairs, and also a wooden bookshelf nearby. This bookshelf was covered with thick and ancient books, and these ancient books had incredibly archaic languages written on them. Few people would be able to understand the contents of these books. Across the bookshelf was a wide bed with pale gray sheets and beneath the bed was a rug of black velvet.

The room’s walls hadn’t been altered much but retrained the original hue and ruggedness of the metal material used to construct them. Just looking at it made one feel a little constrained and depressed.

After some time, the door to the room opened and a black-clothed woman walked in. She wore a simple black dress and her face was thin and pale.

She was Xiao Moxian, the master of this room.

The room was deathly quiet. The air echoed around her gentle footsteps.

She slowly arrived in front of the obsidian table and sat down. In such a gray and gloomy room, her beautiful and ethereal appearance seemed out of place.

She didn’t light a candle. Rather, in this dark environment she sat alone, meditating for a while. Then she took out a violet sun crystal and placed it on a small array disc, activating it.

In a flash, a vast and beautiful starry sky lit up in front of her.

This was a star chart for the surrounding 10 billion miles.

The truth was that Xiao Moxian had already recorded this star chart in her mind. Every star, every planet, every celestial body including even slightly larger asteroids was imprinted in her mind, and she knew everything there was to know about them. She closed her eyes, reviewing this star chart in her mind. Every day she would come here and spend two hours specifically reviewing this star chart.

She knew that she couldn’t remain hidden in this region for much longer; the Good Fortune Saint Son’s search area had been reduced to a tiny region and it was already no longer possible to move. This was because once their base relocated they would definitely leave behind clues and traces of their past presence. At that time, they would be exposed to even greater risks.

Time became an increasingly pressing matter. Xiao Moxian couldn’t help but start considering the worst result possible. In her mind she began to envision the countless results that could occur from a battle with the Good Fortune Saint Son…

Although it was a battle which she would inevitably lose, Xiao Moxian wouldn’t sit idly by and wait for death to take her. At the final moment, the result she wanted was to allow as many people as possible to escape, to flee far away from this disaster!

Of course, wanting everyone to escape was impossible. There had to be people left behind to stall for time, and these people would be the sacrifices.

How many people to leave behind, how many people to send away, how to arrange battle tactics, these were all things that Xiao Moxian had to consider.

However, no matter what plans she made, as the leader of this human influence and also the strongest individual here, when danger approached she would have to stay.

The band of brave sacrifices needed a leader, and this leader could only be her.

But, if possible, she hoped that her child Lin Huang would be able to escape this star territory and safely leave.

He was the continuance of her and Lin Ming’s lives, and also the future hope of humanity.

As she thought of her own child, Xiao Moxian gently sighed. She couldn’t help but think of Lin Ming once more. A trace of sadness sparkled in her watery eyes. If Lin Ming were still alive, what would he do?

She quietly touched the star chart, the curtain of night gradually falling over the dark palace. This nebula and the sun it revolved around began to slowly sink into thick shadows. Xiao Moxian stood up and prepared a pot of clear fog tea for herself. This type of tea was infused with 10,000 year clear fog flowers and it was fragrant and sweet, with the effect of nourishing the soul. It also helped Xiao Moxian maintain her mental state.

In fact, she hadn’t rested for a long, long time.

She took out two purple crystal cups. She poured one cup of clear fog tea for herself, and then pushed the other cup across from her.

Next, Xiao Moxian began to deliberate once more. There were many matters that she had to consider. For instance their violet sun crystal reserves were falling precipitously low. In order to maintain the concealing array formations that hid away their base, they needed to consume a tremendous number of violet sun crystals. As their sphere of action constantly shrank it became increasingly hard to mine for these crystals.

She needed to figure out a solution to resolve this predicament. Otherwise, the base’s great array formation would last for less than a year. If they couldn’t solve it then they would easily be found by the Good Fortune Saint Son.

Every now and then, Xiao Moxian would bring up the cup of tea and take a sip.

The clear fog tea was slowly finished by her. As for the cup across from her, it remained motionless, as if there were supposed to be someone sitting there, but that person had left, leaving behind only their seat and their cup of tea.

This was one of Xiao Moxian’s habits. For these years she had lived alone, but from an outsider’s perspective it seemed as if two people were living here.

Time slowly passed and the hot tea cooled down. Still, Xiao Moxian remained deep in thought.

Two hours later she turned off the star chart and shook her head. She temporarily laid aside the issue with the violet sun crystals and began to meditate.

In such an environment, Xiao Moxian sat alone, quietly passing the quiet night before the storm.

However, she was destined to not experience a night of peace. Deep in the night as Xiao Moxian was in meditation, a gray sound transmission mark lit up; there was clearly news to be reported to her.

As she looked at the sound transmission jade slip that constantly flashed in the dark of night, Xiao Moxian’s eyebrows pressed together. To her, this sparkling jade slip was like the eye of a demon, haunting her constantly; over these past years, whenever urgent news came it was almost always bad.

For instance, news that the Good Fortune Saint Son was shrinking his encirclement once more, or news that there weren’t any energy stones remaining.

What was even worse was that once, a scout squad of Demon Fairy Palace had been captured by the Good Fortune Saint Son. In order to preserve their secrets and knowing that there was no chance to escape, they decided to take the soul poison pills that they had prepared beforehand to commit suicide.

This was an extremely tyrannical poison. Only a Great World King alchemist was able to refine it, and it was limited to martial artists at the World King level and below.

Once someone took a soul poison pill, the victim would die in a few breaths of time. Not just that, but the poison would destroy their spiritual sea, making it so that the enemy wouldn’t be able to find anything of value from it.

In other words, this type of poison was to have one’s soul disintegrate to ash.

This was a pitiful and miserable way to die. Still, Xiao Moxian had no choice but to prepare such a poison pill for every member of the scouting squads. When the alchemists of Demon Fairy Palace prepared a new batch of these soul poison pills and handed them to her, she felt as if they were as heavy as mountains and rivers in her hands.

In particular, the confident and loyal expressions of the scouts when she handed the poison pills to them were like sabers that cut into her heart.

However, she had nothing else she could do. Without sufficient strength this was the only choice she could make.

She shook her head and put these thoughts aside. She left the room and headed towards the great sound transmission array.

Demon Fairy Palace’s sound transmission array was situated close to Xiao Moxian’s room. At this time, several core figures of Demon Fairy Palace were already surrounding the edges of the sound transmission array.

As Xiao Moxian arrived, a youth moved his lips as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he didn’t.

“What is the matter?”

Xiao Moxian frowned upon seeing the youth’s expression. This youth was named Tao An and he had been born after the great calamity erupted. He had been one of Xiao Moxian’s faithful followers and was now part of the backbone of Demon Fairy Palace.

From his expression that seemed as if he found it difficult to speak, Xiao Moxian realized that the news they just received was likely nothing good.

“Speak, there is no need to hesitate. The worst that could happen is that the Good Fortune Saint Son has already found us.”

Xiao Moxian calmly said. Tao An froze for a moment. He looked at the other core figures from Demon Fairy Palace and said, “Miss… there has been a problem at New Ming Planet…”

Tao An’s few words caused Xiao Moxian’s heart to nearly tear out from her chest!

New Ming Planet was the only planet that Xiao Moxian had established in the Hidden Dragon Galaxy in the past.

Tens of billions of people lived on New Ming Planet. These people had slowly migrated from other star territories in the last 200-300 years and were Xiao Moxian’s loyal subjects.

Xiao Moxian loved her people with all her heart. When the saints invaded the Hidden Dragon Galaxy, Xiao Moxian pledged that she would protect the people of New Ming Planet so that they could live long and prosperous lives filled with children and hope. But as the Good Fortune Saint Son continued to shrink his encirclement, Xiao Moxian was eventually unable to stay with New Ming Planet. She had no choice but to leave.

Otherwise, not only would she be captured by the Good Fortune Saint Son but New Ming Planet would have been destroyed in the flames of war.

Leaving New Ming Planet was a helpless choice and the only choice she could make. In normal circumstances, if New Ming Planet was discovered by the Good Fortune Saint Son then a time of suffering would descend upon them, but the saints wouldn’t carry out a wide-scale genocide. This was because the common mortals of humanity had no meaning to the saints, and it was instead more useful to make them into slaves that helped develop the wild universe.

But today, from the expression of Tao An, this might not be true at all!