The Almighty Ring

After retreating from the wounded Fifth Officer, Jiang Fei put away his sword and relaxed. The reason he did that was simple. He did not want to kill despite it being so easy for him, since the enemy were the Valsalrians. Moreover, the Fifth Officer was but a small fry. There was still the top brass, Commander Alexis he would have to face. Jiang Fei was almost certain that he could not defeat Alexis and even if he did, there would definitely be other Commanders ready to barge in.

Why cultivate enmity when he could use this situation to cultivate fear. He could give an impression to the Valsalrians that Earth was not just some random planet in a random galaxy of a random quadrant of space. Earth had fighters, strong fighters such as Jiang Fei to defend it.

If Jiang Fei were to actually kill a Valsalrian, it would only give them the motivation to seek revenge; giving them the excuse to destroy all of Earth. That was the last of his plans before he had to opt for his contingency plan. Even now, he still bore hope, wanting to save Earth. Ten billion people were living on Earth and if Jiang Fei were to choose the wrong path, all ten billion people would die.

“Why didn’t you finish the job?” Alexis asked. Up until now, many had fought the Valsalrians and perished. Some that were stronger that managed to put them to the ground were more than eager to kill them. Another reason to kill them when the opportunity arose was because of their rapid regenerative ability. As long as they were still breathing, recovery would always be possible.

“We are not enemies. Even though you are here on a mission, you have not done anything for me to bear arms against you. Why should I kill him?” Jiang Fei smiled, shutting down his domain ability.

Even though he could technically activate and maintain his domain ability for as long as he wanted, he turned it off anyway to show his enemies that he was the kind that would fight at any given chance. In a more important and less noble manner of speaking, Jiang Fei did not want Alexis to know too much about himself.

“I see,” Alexis smiled back and said. Jiang Fei’s display of sportsmanship had only solidified Alexis’ deduction that Earth had powerful fighters. To be fair, even amongst Valsalrians, there were only a handful of them that could possess combat levels exceeding one million.

“Commander, please forgive my inability,” said the Fifth Officer as he bowed and apologized. The alien’s body was already healed enough to allow him to move around freely. Even though he was not fit to fight Jiang Fei again, he was, by all means, well. That was the first time Jiang Fei had seen someone recover from being stabbed by a Godblade!

“Enough, go back. You’re only embarrassing me in front of the Terran,” Alexis said.

“To be honest, I never expected to witness such a fight coming from a Terran of a savage planet. The reason you’re here, alone, is to protect your home planet, no?”

“I am, yes.”

“Good. We, Valsalrians, admire strength and appreciate the powerful. If you can defeat me and hand over the Core of Time, I promise you, no Valsalrian will ever set foot into your system,” said Alexis.

Jiang Fei was a little confused by his notion. If he were to win the fight, why should he surrender the Core of Time. Even so, his offer to never set their eyes on the Solar System was a generous notion. If the Valsalrians gave their word to not attack the Solar System, half of the intelligent species across the Universe would share the same thought. They wouldn’t want to wrong the entire Valsalrian race and bring doom upon their own.

“Let’s fight first,” said Jiang Fei. Even though he was calm and composed, he was a nervous wreck. He had been able to defeat the Fifth Officer easily but against the Commander, he lacked the confidence.

“Good answer!” said Alexis and in the next fraction of a second, he was already in Jiang Fei’s face, delivering a punch packed with explosive power.

WHAM!

Jiang Fei was completely caught off guard. The punch was so powerful that it felt like being hit by a bullet train!

After spinning and dragging across Ceres, Jiang Fei stood up and spit out a mouthful of blood. The fact that he was still alive after taking the punch without activating Omnisurge was a miracle. The ring had a barrier that was always activated and deployed around him and it had helped Jiang Fei to absorb a portion of the damage. As a consequence, the Energy Crystals in the ring were drained by a notch. Because 0541 was not brought along, Jiang Fei had moved all the Energy Crystals to Braveheart. The remaining Energy Crystals inside the ring’s space was hitting rock bottom. Right now, Jiang Fei was basically by himself.

“So weak?” Alexis gasped after seeing Jiang Fei take such huge damage. He had not expected him to still be at 60,000 combat level when he landed the punch. If he had been without tech, the young Terran would have been vaporized by the punch.

Jiang Fei cleaned himself off and started to take things seriously. With a surge of willpower, Jiang Fei activated his domain and his combat power rose to over a million.

“Now that’s more like it! But, it’s still far from enough!” Alexis chuckled. If Jiang Fei was really only at 60,000 combat power, Alexis would be greatly disappointed and would end the fight there and then.

Jiang Fei quickly got into a fighting stance, channeling his Origin Force to his fist and changed its properties to that of Fire. He placed his palms together and charged it with as much power as he could to create a glowing white flame.

“Prepare yourself!” Alexis bellowed. Before he could kick off the ground, Jiang Fei unleashed the white ball of flame and discharged it toward Alexis at almost light speed.

Even though that attack was supposed to lethal, Alexis stood still and took the hit with only his palm. The ball of white flame gushed away, like powerful tsunami hitting an immovable island, breaking the white projectile into two halves.

“Too weak! This is too weak! I expected more! If you’re only this strong, I’m afraid Earth would not see the light of another day!” Alexis roared.

“Dammit!”

Greatly disgruntled, Jiang Fei stopped discharging energy and before the last bit of flame hit Alexis, Jiang Fei leaped forward, hiding behind the surge of energy, brandishing his sword and ready to slash. His imagination was not as wild as he had expected that white flame attack to be enough to at least injure Alexis. Perhaps, now, the only thing that could hurt him would be the Zhanlu Sword!

When Jiang Fei burst out at the end of the white flame’s tail, Alexis smiled before leaving an afterimage of himself as he flash stepped and appeared behind Jiang Fei.

“Too slow,” Alexis hummed before delivering a simple yet powerful punch to his back.

The punch was powerful but Jiang Fei was now able to take it without sustaining lethal damage. Even then, he was blasted away with supersonic speed. Ceres was now filled with so many craters created from the fight.

“Come now, you’re better than this!” Alexis bellowed.

Cough…

Jiang Fei was not doing too well. After taking only two hits from Alexis, he had already sustained a great amount of internal damage. He now knew where he was and he was nowhere close to Alexis’ power. His strength, his techniques, his speed, were miles ahead.

“This cannot continue! I have to be stronger! I must become stronger!”

He built up his courage and summoned every bit of willpower to make him stand again. When he was practicing with the girls, there was never a session where he could artificially induce a powerful surge of battle spirit. There had been no threat to his life, no hostility toward himself. How could he train in a condition where even if he failed, nothing would go wrong? Now, he was literally playing tag with the god of death. If he took another hit from Alexis, he would surely be rendered unfit to fight! The first piece of domino would fall and the end of Earth would be the last. With such a threat looming over both him and his beloved home, Jiang Fei’s desire for power surged.

Beep.

Alexis was suddenly interrupted by the sudden activation of the measuring disc. Jiang Fei’s combat power was rising and this time, it rose to over two million.

“This is getting interesting. This Terran has the talent and will to be a true fighter!” Alexis said to himself as he took one last gander at Jiang Fei who was constantly pushing himself further and stronger each time he fell.

“RAWRRRRRRR!”

With power flowing in his veins, Jiang Fei now possessed strength that he had never dreamed of owning. He glared at Alexis with intense killing intent before kicking off the ground and zooming across Ceres toward him.

“Good! You’ve got the talent, but you’re still too naive!” Alexis scoffed. Jiang Fei was getting stronger at every defeat but he was still only half of Alexis’ current power. To be honest, Alexis had only been walking around the park since the beginning. He had not even started to take things seriously.