In the end, the Xianzhou Alliance's decision reached Hoolay's ears as well.
After all, the Darkflame of Jealousy had spread to far too many people and involved far too many Xianzhou ships for the news to be properly covered up...
And Hoolay's response to that was simply, "Reforging trust, hm? The Xianzhou Alliance really is interesting. To think they'd come up with a move like that."
Hoolay knew they had already found a way to cure the effects of the Darkflame of Jealousy he had unleashed.
So in his eyes, this large-scale event they were preparing was nothing more than a massive purification ritual.
He was genuinely surprised by the Xianzhou Alliance's judgment and efficiency.
For so vast a union as the Xianzhou Alliance to push something like this through so quickly, he had no idea who could possibly possess that kind of coordinating power.
Beside him, the Borisin who had come to deliver the message fidgeted uneasily.
"Lord Hoolay, what are we supposed to do now?"
If the other side successfully erased all the effects caused by the Darkflame of Jealousy, then wouldn't all their previous efforts have been wasted?
By then, the Xianzhou Alliance would once more become a solid iron wall, and those scattered irregulars who had originally agreed to assist them would probably stop cooperating as well.
At that point, all of them would be left to slowly wait for the Xianzhou Alliance's encirclement to wipe them out.
That was not an outcome they wanted to see.
"Hahahaha..."
What that Borisin had not expected was that Hoolay would actually burst out laughing.
This was something that could bury all of their previous planning, yet Hoolay did not seem concerned in the slightest. He actually found it amusing.
"Warhead, why do you laugh?"
The Borisin messenger could not understand how Hoolay could still laugh so freely at a time like this.
No matter how he looked at it, they were already being driven into a dead end.
Those scattered irregulars had only agreed to work with them on the surface. In reality, they had never truly taken them seriously.
It was only because Lord Hoolay's scheme had succeeded that they had finally begun placing some trust in the Borisin.
But now the Xianzhou was already preparing to render Lord Hoolay's scheme meaningless, and when that happened, those irregulars would probably scatter like a flock of birds the moment trouble came.
At that point, they really would have no way to escape the Xianzhou's encirclement.
"I laugh because the Xianzhou is naive. They've personally built a stage for me."
Hoolay snorted, the smile never leaving his face. "Trust is not something you can simply reforge whenever you please."
He picked up the communication device beside him. "The Xianzhou used to be like this device. But now it's like this..."
With a hard squeeze, he crushed it into powder.
Bits of broken components spilled from his hand, and the communicator was reduced to complete scrap on the spot.
"If you glued this back together, do you think it would still work?"
The Borisin before him frowned and thought for a moment, then answered uncertainly, "Maybe."
There was no shortage of brilliant repair technicians in the universe.
Most people would just buy a new one if it broke this badly, but if someone insisted on forcibly repairing it, it was probably still possible.
Then he hurriedly added a qualifier to that answer.
"But even if it worked, it definitely wouldn't work as well as before."
"Exactly. And that is our opportunity."
Hoolay then laid out part of his scheme.
He had to make this Borisin understand it, and he also had to make those scattered irregulars understand it.
Only then could they fight for a sliver of life here.
In truth, Hoolay's goal was very simple.
After smashing the coalition, the Xianzhou's morale had reached its peak. Meeting them head-on at a time like this would be utter foolishness.
And as their suppression of the Abundance coalition continued, that morale was still climbing without pause.
"But everything that rises eventually declines."
A sharp gleam flickered in Hoolay's eyes.
After all, he had once been a Warhead who led his race to victory in many wars across the universe.
When it came to matters of the battlefield, he had seen them more times than he could count.
True, the scale of this war could not compare to the ancient wars he had dominated in ages past.
But some things were always the same.
That was why he had used the Darkflame of Jealousy to forcibly suppress the enemy's rising morale and bring it to a halt.
Then came the news that one group from the remnants of the Abundance Coalition had escaped the encirclement, causing that halted momentum to begin falling instead.
The Darkflame of Jealousy embedded within them was also constantly doing its work, hastening that decline further and further.
And with so many infected, that speed would only continue to increase.
So the other side was bound to do something major at this point to lift morale once more.
And now, once again, he had waited for exactly the thing they were preparing to arrive.
"So long as we can crush the Xianzhou's momentum during this event, then their current morale and trust will become just like this."
Hoolay opened his palm, and the communicator's components fell from it one by one, striking the floor with crisp, distinct sounds.
When that happened, the Xianzhou Alliance's morale would suffer a blow, and the scattered irregulars being hunted within it would naturally gain a chance to keep surviving.
That was his objective, and the result he had been trying to achieve through all this planning and effort.
Hoolay had forcibly carved out a path to survival from what should have been a dead game under the Xianzhou's encirclement.
"And after I lead them charging out of that dead end, what do you think those coalition remnants—already battered by the Xianzhou—will do?"
A helping hand in hard times meant more than flowers on brocade.
The Abundance Coalition did not want to die. So if Hoolay led them out of this dead end, then naturally they would revere him as their lord.
That was the entirety of Hoolay's plan.
If he succeeded, he would not only lead all the Borisin out of this place, but also secure for himself a batch of loyal subordinates.
After that, even if Hoolay had lost control of the Borisin as a whole during these seven hundred years, he could still use a coalition force that had survived a direct clash with the Xianzhou to bring the entire race back under his control.
One move, many gains.
That was the direction Hoolay had found in this desperate situation to maximize his own benefit.
When the Borisin messenger saw how airtight Hoolay's plan was, he was left stunned.
From Hoolay, he could almost see the rise of a galactic overlord.
"Long live Lord Hoolay! Under your leadership, the Borisin will surely reclaim their former glory!"
The messenger could not help developing a feeling of worship toward Hoolay. To be led by a figure like this was the greatest fortune of his life!
What Hoolay did not tell him, however, was that he actually had a backup plan.
He did not speak that plan aloud. Instead, he simply rested a hand over the heart that continued beating powerfully within his chest.
Phantylia truly had tried to scheme against him before. She had wanted to prop him up as a puppet, and if not for the fact that he had been thrown into the Sui Emperor's engine and thus turned disaster into blessing—then Phantylia might truly have succeeded. That was why Hoolay had granted her the most dignified death possible the last time.
And at the same time, Hoolay was also grateful to her.
Because before she died, she had left him with the two most useful pieces of information.
The Foxian general serving under Feixiao.
And the Heavenly Fox of the Cangyan who stood on the brink of complete corruption.
It could be said that whether this plan succeeded or failed, Hoolay was destined to be the greatest winner on this chessboard.
But before that, one figure still surfaced in his mind.
That man was the only variable in all of Hoolay's plans that he could neither understand, predict, nor grasp.
So if he wanted this plan to proceed smoothly, he had to prepare a fallback.
That was also why Hoolay had chosen to speak all his plans aloud in front of this Borisin messenger.
"Modu, go tell those scattered irregulars that if they want to take part, they are to bring over all the Abundance blessings they collected before."
Hoolay had seen with his own eyes that those irregulars had snatched away many Abundance blessings before Shuhu's defeat.
"Huh? Lord Hoolay, what do we want those things for?"
It was true that if Abundance blessings were gathered together, they would resonate and make the power of Abundance stronger.
But that would also make them the most obvious target in this entire star region.
If the Xianzhou Alliance turned around and wiped them out after everything had been gathered, what then?
"Relax. I have a way to use those blessings to enhance our combat power."
And he had learned that method from the general of the Cangyan.
That stone armor covering their soldiers had not only drawn fear from their hearts, but also enhanced their recovery speed.
Hoolay had taken inspiration from that, and now he needed those blessings as his trump card.
Otherwise, facing that man in his current state felt... unwise.
"Remember this—be quick. If the enemy finishes restoring their morale, then all of us can just sit here and wait to die."
Hoolay remained seated on the bench, that confident smile returning to his face.
"But I trust they will all make the correct choice."
After all, not everyone possessed the courage to face death and live through it. Those scattered remnants of the Abundance Coalition were all cowards by nature—otherwise they never would have survived until now.
And now that he had laid a path to survival before them, Hoolay knew exactly what choice they would make.
And the result turned out exactly as Hoolay had expected.
Though those people cursed loudly when they first heard his conditions, in the end they still obediently handed over the Abundance blessings they had collected.
Because this might also be their final chance.
If the Xianzhou Alliance succeeded this time, they would be hunted down to the last and left with no way to live.
So in the end, they could only trust Hoolay's plan, because it was the only plan left.
"It's fine. In the end, all of you will definitely feel this trust was worth it."
Naturally, Hoolay also thumped his chest and guaranteed it to them.
The final outcome was obvious anyway: either they escaped from here, in which case all of them would fall under Hoolay's command, or they would all be wiped out by the Xianzhou—in which case, there would be no one left to leave a bad review.
Everything remained within Hoolay's calculations.
...
Because of the recent contagion, emotions within the Xianzhou Alliance had remained low and wary.
Among all of them, the one place seemingly untouched was the Cangyan.
As such, it could be called the safest and most peaceful place of all.
Which was why the matter of restoring morale and reforging trust was set to be held there.
The date was fixed, preparations had advanced for some time, and it was now on the verge of officially beginning.
As a result, the Cangyan could be said to be lively and peaceful.
The people there seemed wholly unaffected by the wars outside. They lived in peace and worked in contentment.
And in the streets near the venue, the imminent large-scale event had made the area so crowded it was bursting at the seams.
Inside one of the nearby shops, Feixiao and Ahri stood watching the surging crowd outside and chatting with each other.
One had to rest because of moon-rage, or else her body would collapse beyond repair.
The other had nearly reached her critical point, and though she showed no outward illness, she had still been forcibly sent back to rest.
One combat unit and one medical unit of the Xianzhou Alliance had somehow become the most idle people of all during wartime.
"If word of this got out, who'd believe it?"
Feixiao drained the fruit juice in her cup in one go, then immediately pulled a face. "Sister Ahri, can't I at least get some wine?"
Fruit juice every day, fruit juice every meal—at this rate, if someone squeezed her, fruit juice would come out of her veins. She felt like she was about to turn into a fruit herself.
No matter what, she was still a general. What was wrong with having a little drink while stuck on the sidelines to set the mood?
"Shut it. With your miserable alcohol tolerance, if you had even two mouthfuls, you'd probably get dizzy and tear this whole place apart."
Ahri could only sigh at this junior of hers. They had gone to so much trouble to build this place—if Feixiao wrecked it, all that work would have been for nothing.
"If you don't want your fruit juice, then trade with me."
"Hey, hey, hey, Ahri-jiejie, don't! I'll drink the juice. Juice is great!"
The moment she heard that, Feixiao hurriedly stopped Ahri.
Ahri could drink tea all day, but she absolutely couldn't. She needed at least a little flavor in her mouth.
And just as the two of them bickered as always, passing another ordinary day together, an uninvited guest arrived.
A figure walked up before them.
"Heh heh heh. I wonder—is this seat taken?"
Sitting there was what appeared to be a Foxian with black fur, though the sharp ears made him seem more as though he had wolf ears.
Then again, he really was a wolf.
Looking at the two women seated before him, Hoolay wore a bright, sunny smile.
He was certain that the moment these two saw him, they would understand exactly who he was.
And Feixiao's reaction was exactly as Hoolay had expected.
Every hair on Feixiao's body stood on end in an instant. A spear materialized in her hand at once, its point aimed directly at his throat.
Danger. Threat. Lethal risk.
Every instinct in Feixiao's body was screaming a warning.
And in the end, all those signals condensed into a single conclusion:
This guy is strong.
Feixiao was certain that in all the time since returning to the Xianzhou Alliance, she had never faced anyone this powerful.
This guy was like... some shadow-shrouded giant wolf poised to swallow the sun whole.
And the reason Hoolay dared stroll here so openly was because he had already absorbed all the Abundance blessings given to him by those scattered irregulars.
A man with backing naturally possessed confidence.
That was why he dared come straight to find these two.
And even with Feixiao's spear pointed at his throat, Hoolay showed not the slightest fear.
"That thing of yours can't hurt me."
"That's not for you to decide."
"Then why not test it?"
As he spoke, Hoolay pressed his neck right against the spearhead.
"Let's see—after you fire that shot, am I alive, or am I dead?"
The atmosphere instantly turned grave, and the danger in Feixiao's eyes only deepened.
"You think I wouldn't dare?"
She was the General of the Xianzhou Yaoqing. Did this bastard really think he could bluff her?
Her finger slowly tightened on the trigger.
The next moment, the gun-bolt would snap, and the bullet bearing the power of the HUNT would punch straight through the man's throat.
And then—
"Feixiao, don't rush. Sit down first."
Ahri continued calmly filling her teacup at the side, then lifted a brow at Hoolay.
"A broken-backed cur crawling up to bark in your face—do you really have to answer it?"
That one sentence instantly drove the tension in the room even higher, yet Feixiao's grim face split into a smile.
As expected of Ahri-jiejie. Her mouth really was sharper than a blade.
So she drew back her spear, sat down again, and resumed drinking her fruit juice.
And though Ahri had spoken to him that way, Hoolay showed not the slightest anger.
"In you, I see the shadow of an old acquaintance..."
He sat down across from Ahri as well.
"That man once fought me for the position of Warhead, and what he relied on was that glib tongue of his. His name was—Bolue."
At the mention of that name, Ahri's hand trembled ever so slightly as she poured tea.
Hoolay spoke with a measure of feeling in his voice, because back then Bolue really had been the greatest obstacle in his path to becoming Warhead.
Who would have thought that in the end, that fool would deliver himself straight into ruin?
"He thought that because he had studied tactics, he could use pure reason to control everything. In the end, it was his own confidence and constant micromanaging that destroyed him."
Bolue had proved that the battlefield was never governed by data and rationality alone.
But by the same token, pure irrationality also led to all manner of calamities. Everything that had happened on the Cangyan stood as proof of that.
"So you think you scattered abominations, already defeated once before, can survive this encirclement?"
Ahri drank the tea in her cup in one go, then smiled. "Confidence is a good thing. But yours has gone too far."
"The moment cracks and suspicion appear, even a vast alliance will begin to show flaws because of them."
The fact that Hoolay had been able to appear here was proof enough of that.
"And now those flaws are only continuing to widen."
Black flames burned over Hoolay's body as he declared to the two women before him, "With both effects layered together, my plan is destined to succeed."
Then he set a phone lightly on the table and pushed it toward Ahri and Feixiao.
"These news reports are the proof."
The phone was still connected to the Xianzhou network, and precisely because of that, urgent incidents from every direction were scrolling nonstop across the screen.
There, in the headlines, a string of attacks had broken out all at once.
And each attacker struck, hurt people, and vanished immediately.
How could the Xianzhou Alliance possibly swallow that insult? Naturally, each ship dispatched forces at once, preparing to wipe out those challengers who had come to provoke them.
And in doing so, they also split their forces apart and thinned the defenses around the Cangyan.
After reading it, Ahri was genuinely a little surprised. "Remarkable. Those people actually obey your subordinates."
"And that," Hoolay finally said with open arrogance, "is the difference between us and the Xianzhou!"
"On our side, I lead as their chief. All of them trust me and revere me."
"But look at the Xianzhou. Without the Marshal here, without anyone at the center, all it took was one disease to turn them into loose sand."
That was the difference between the Xianzhou and the scattered irregulars at this moment.
The Marshal was stationed on the Xuling and could not come command the greater field. Under those circumstances, all it took was a little extra seasoning to turn the separate Xianzhou ships into forces acting on their own.
Without a commander who could truly win everyone's confidence, and with cracks of mistrust already present from before, how could they possibly contend with the remnants of the Abundance coalition, all united in their trust toward Hoolay?
That was why Hoolay believed he already stood at the edge of victory.
"Then why come here at all?" Feixiao asked, puzzled. "Just to show off?"
If that was truly the case, why didn't Hoolay just withdraw? Why come here and expose himself?
Hoolay grinned, his sharp canine teeth flashing coldly in the light.
He had come here, of course, to administer one final dose of strong medicine.
"You two are both Foxians. That means it is time for you to return to your true race as well!"
The moment he finished speaking, a crimson radiance burst from his chest.
At the same time, the scene was being broadcast live to every Xianzhou ship.
One was a Foxian who had inherited the Borisin's Moon Rage.
The other was a Foxian who could become a giant fox, yet already stood at the brink of collapse.
These two were effectively the symbols all Foxians within the Xianzhou Alliance looked to.
And if he could drag those very symbols in Foxian hearts beneath the Borisin banner, there was no stronger medicine than that.
Once Ahri and Feixiao both fell under his command, then the ceremony being prepared here on the Cangyan would no longer be able to proceed properly.
With those two doses of shock layered together, the Xianzhou Alliance's morale would crash to the very bottom.
Sending those scattered irregulars out to delay the other Xianzhou ships, casting away his pride and disguising himself to come here personally—every bit of it had been for this goal.
Now, with the Crimson Moon revealed, the moment of climax had finally arrived.
"Now that you have seen your Warhead, why do you still not kneel?!"
Crimson light spread outward from Hoolay's heart.
For a moment, even the sun in the sky seemed dim beside that crimson moon.
Hoolay believed that under the influence of that crimson moon, Feixiao would surely lose herself entirely to Moon Rage, while Ahri would transform into a giant fox and never again return to her human form.
And when that happened, he would gain two terrifying combatants under his command.
The Xianzhou, meanwhile, would be thrown into total uproar.
Only... he very quickly noticed something was wrong.
Because Ahri and Feixiao, seated across from him, did not move in the slightest.
"What the hell?!"
"Nothing much," Feixiao said, smiling without the least attempt to hide it. "We just let Warhead Hoolay put on a nice show."
Ahri remained as calm as ever, taking her time with another sip of tea.
"Hoolay, there's something you should've been told beforehand..."
A sharp light flashed in Ahri's eyes.
"The Cangyan is covered in surveillance cameras."
Which meant that from the very moment Hoolay had arrived here, the two of them had already known everything.
A trap?!
The word flashed through Hoolay's mind at once.
Feixiao then pulled up a projection, and the instant Hoolay saw the scene within it, his expression changed.
It was a view being watched by countless Cloud Knights.
They all seemed to be quarantined somewhere, quietly watching everything happening here.
And under the effects of the performance Hoolay had just put on, the suspicion in their hearts was beginning to recede.
"A sickness of the heart needs medicine for the heart. Many thanks, Lord Hoolay, for dosing us with such strong medicine."
Hoolay had indeed delivered a heavy dose.
Only he had delivered it to the Xianzhou.
"I didn't think there was anyone left in the Xianzhou who could think of something like this. Was it Jing Yuan?!"
At once, Hoolay thought of an old acquaintance. Could a scheme like this really have been Jing Yuan's doing?
"No, no, no. It was someone you had already decided did not exist."
The moment those words were spoken, Hoolay frowned.
Someone he had decided did not exist?
Was there such a person?
Feixiao naturally didn't miss the chance to sneer at him.
"You thought we had no one to lead us, so we'd turn into loose sand and start doubting one another..."
Wait.
Did that mean the Xianzhou Alliance still had someone leading it even without the Marshal present?
"Who?! Who exactly is it that can make all of you generals accept them?!"
Hoolay refused to believe it. In his understanding, the various generals of the Xianzhou Alliance were not the sort to readily bow to others of equal rank.
That had been exactly why he had been able to calculate so many of his wars the way he had.
Could it be that the Marshal—whom none of the generals could truly defy—had secretly come here after all?
Ahri said nothing. She merely shifted her gaze toward the figure behind Hoolay.
Following her line of sight, Hoolay naturally looked over as well.
And there, he saw someone calmly eating and drinking.
Even with Hoolay already revealing his true wolf form, there was still someone sitting there eating as though none of this mattered?
And just as Hoolay was beginning to wonder who the man was, he suddenly realized he could not sense that person's presence at all.
It was as if the one eating there was nothing more than a projection.
"Hm? Never seen a spirit-body eat before?"
Sora's deadpan remark made many people laugh knowingly.
He was still the same guy.
"I've got to say, the plan you came up with was actually pretty fun. When he stood there looking completely dumbfounded, I almost cracked up several times."
Feixiao's praise also made Hoolay understand exactly who was responsible for the situation he had fallen into now.
"So it was you?"
This man who looked so utterly ordinary—this man who was not even Xianzhou—was the one who had orchestrated all of this?
No matter how hard Hoolay tried, he could not connect the Sora before him with the image of a deeply calculating schemer.
Naturally, Sora had no intention of explaining.
After all, if they still couldn't pull off something like this even with Yao Guang's Deca-Light and the Luofu's Matrix of Prescience Ultima running repeated deductions, that really would've been embarrassing.
He swept away the food in front of him, eating until even the last grain of rice was gone.
"Now I'm full and satisfied. Time to take out the trash."
The aura around Sora turned serious, and Hoolay felt the pressure he brought.
Even so, Hoolay did not panic in the slightest.
"You're certain you want to fight me here?!"
The black flames on Hoolay's body burned ever fiercer, and his form continued to grow larger.
Then several objects that looked utterly insignificant floated out before him.
Stones. Branches. Fruit pits...
Each one looked trivial, yet the power inside them was enough to make one tremble.
All of them were Abundance blessings, and they were the reason Hoolay had dared come here alone.
"If you don't want every person aboard this Xianzhou to fall into Mara, then all of you get back!"
At this moment, he was like a walking bioweapon. He could make those blessings resonate and plunge every Xianzhou native here into Mara.
And when that happened, even if the Xianzhou captured him, the Alliance would still have to weigh the cost.
Was it worth trading everyone aboard a Xianzhou ship just to seize him?
Only, in the face of Hoolay's threat, Sora merely exchanged a glance with Ahri, and both of them laughed.
"Who told you this place was on a Xianzhou ship?"
Hearing that, Hoolay froze.
Dong—clang—
Just then, a tolling bell rang out by his ear.
The orderly streets around him shattered into countless fragments and peeled away.
And the place he stood was suddenly revealed to be nothing more than an open, level expanse.
All around him, countless Denizens of the Abundance watched him with predatory stares, and at their very front, Titania stood with both hands on her hips and a smug expression on her face.
"This is my believers' turf!"
That was right.
This was not the Cangyan at all, but the place where Titania and her believers had been staying.
As for how exactly all of this had been achieved...
The figure of Sora standing beside Ahri suddenly turned faint and translucent.
He rose into the air, then slowly merged with another figure seated cross-legged, holding the buckle in hand.
Everything that had just happened had been a scene he created.
All Sora had done was mold a false Cangyan shell around this place and wrap it over everything.
Now all was laid bare.
Standing below, Hoolay's expression changed again and again as he stared at Sora.
"Damn you—why?!"
He had never imagined that the Xianzhou side would have such a completely unfair monster on their side.
To simply fabricate an entire Xianzhou like this was almost impossible to believe.
'[ENTRY]!'
Without answering him, Sora split the buckle apart and set both halves into the Driver.
'[SET]!'
"[Henshin]."
'[REVOLVE ON]!'
'[DYNAMITE BOOST]!'
A white fox ran through the universe.
It dashed past the scattered irregulars fleeing under the encirclement of the various generals, and past the real Cangyan hidden away elsewhere.
It left streak after streak of white light across the cosmos, each one gleaming like a tail.
Seeing that radiance, Robin smiled faintly.
The wing by her ear unfurled, white light shining above it.
Ah~ Ah~ Ah~
The prelude of her song flowed softly from her lips, driving away the black flames coiling around people's hearts.
Invitation, when it reaches your hands~
Open up the dungeon, what's your desire?~
As the song gradually filled the air, that fox racing through the universe transformed into upper and lower armor, fitting itself onto Sora's body.
The streaks of light in space gathered on Sora one by one, and a vast white fox silhouette flashed across the starry sky behind him.
'[GEATSIX]!'
'[READY]...'
"It's time to bring this farce to an end."
'[FIGHT]!'
---
T/N: THATS RIGHT!!! ITS MOTHAFUCKING GEATS!! i dont know anything about geats actually but it seems its in the same run as tycoon so thats prob why tycoon was making a fuss or something and RX had to step in and was like chill lil bro
man i sound like one of the guys now right right heh
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