Over the dense forest canopy. More than ten thousand special operatives from the twelve task forces of the Heaven Star Expeditionary Army shifted formation, descending upon the valley in waves of five-man squads.

Of these ten thousand-plus special operatives, aside from the certain presence of Xiantian-level fighters, every single soldier had to have practiced internal energy cultivation for over twenty years, coupled with more than five years of actual combat experience, to even qualify for selection into a special task force. They were the sharpest edge of the Heaven Star Expeditionary Army, and these twelve special task forces were originally intended for the elite regiments of the Roman people. But now, that sharp edge was aimed squarely at Gu Xiechen.

“Kids, Uncle is here!” Gu Xiechen laughed heartily. A blast of cold wind swirled around his body, and the clothes on him rapidly transformed, quickly becoming identical to the combat uniforms worn by the ten thousand-plus special operatives flying towards him.

In the blink of an eye, Gu Xiechen melted into the formation of special operatives. With nimble hands, he snatched two large-caliber military handguns from the waists of two passing soldiers. The triggers were squeezed, and in a flash, both magazines were emptied. Twenty-two bullets struck the energy cores of the individual flight packs behind twenty-two special operatives. Twenty-two bursts of fire exploded in the air with a loud roar. The soldiers cried out in alarm. The overly dense formation meant that nearly a hundred nearby soldiers were blown away; trailing black smoke, they crashed into the dense woods.

Dozens of flames erupted in the forest. Gu Xiechen laughed wildly, stamping on the heads of two special operatives to launch himself airborne again.

“Type-Si personal flight pack? This thing’s performance is notoriously unstable! How much bribery did you give, Gu Xiechen, to get the Federal Military Department to procure this piece of junk for you?” The two special operatives fell to the ground, blood streaming from all seven orifices, their sidearms already snatched by Gu Xiechen. Two magazines emptied in mere seconds. Gu Xiechen threw both handguns with all his might; two soldiers in the distance, who had just drawn their assault rifles, cried out as they were smashed to the ground. Dull explosions sounded continuously. Another twenty-odd bursts of fire erupted in the air, and dozens of soldiers who were too close were knocked down, triggering further violent explosions.

“The Type-Si personal flight pack is reliable and stable. Unfortunately, the cost was too high, which is why they developed the Type-Ba-Mu model.” Gu Xiechen shook his head with a serious expression. He rapidly vaulted off one special operative after another, constantly seizing firearms and spraying them around haphazardly. This threw the nearby large groups of special operatives into disarray. These soldiers were already flying quite low, and in their panic, hundreds of them flew downward, slamming headlong into tree trunks. The heavy impact instantly knocked them unconscious.

“As a conscientious arms dealer, as an arms dealer who cares for the lives of soldiers, I suggest you switch back to the old Type-Yi model. That is, assuming you live to make it back this time!” Gu Xiechen knocked out a heavy weapons specialist with an open-handed slap. He seized a five-point-five-six millimeter small-caliber six-barreled machine gun from him. Stamping fiercely on the head of another soldier with his toe, Gu Xiechen leaped straight up over two hundred meters high. The six-barreled machine gun let out a crisp roar, spitting out a whistling tongue of flame nearly a meter long.

“Boom-boom-boom-boom!” Almost every three bullets struck the flight pack energy core behind a soldier. Gu Xiechen swept the field with exhilarating abandon as masses of soldiers cried out and were knocked to the ground.

The three thousand reserve rounds in the six-barreled machine gun’s ammunition box were quickly exhausted. Gu Xiechen put all his strength into hurling the machine gun towards an armed helicopter charging toward him in the distance.

The thick armor-piercing glass of the helicopter’s cockpit shattered under the impact, and the two pilots inside screamed, vomiting blood. One pilot slumped forward heavily, pushing the control stick down. The helicopter plunged almost vertically, nearly ninety degrees, straight into the ground. Dozens of missiles, rockets, and a large volume of fuel detonated simultaneously, sending a ferocious cloud of black-red fire surging up from the dense forest. A squad of soldiers happened to be flying directly over the exploding helicopter; scattered metal fragments struck down a dozen unlucky men from high altitude.

The more than two hundred armed helicopters flying forward paused almost simultaneously, a noticeable hesitation evident in all their movements. The furious curses of their superior officer crackled in every pilot’s communicator. Order after order rained down, and the pilots simultaneously steered their helicopters toward Gu Xiechen’s position.

The vanguard of the twelve special task forces, over a thousand men, had already been shattered. Hundreds were killed, and nearly a thousand more had crashed to the ground, suffering severe injuries if not death. This sudden, heavy blow led the special task force commanders to mistakenly believe they were facing a large, stubborn resistance force. Consequently, they immediately mobilized all available power through the battlefield command system to converge on this location. “Oh, you brutes!” Gu Xiechen exclaimed in surprise, watching the more than two hundred armed helicopters swarm toward him.

“Zhao Yi, it’s up to you!” His legs slammed down like a pair of iron hammers onto two soldiers, propelling Gu Xiechen upwards again. Streaks of purple light constantly flickered around him. Zhao Yi and the other hundred great fellows strode forward within the purple glow. As soon as they appeared, Zhao Yi and the others formed hand seals and pointed them toward the swooping armed helicopters.

Crack-crack-crack! Hundreds of continuous thunderous sounds echoed, and every single armed helicopter was struck by a bolt of lightning. A blue energy shield, thick as a finger, suddenly materialized on the helicopter’s surface. The lightning flickered on the shield’s surface before scattering into countless fine streams of energy. Gu Xiechen shouted sternly, “Retreat! They have lightning-strike defenses!”

“Unless it’s a high-intensity lightning strike, it won’t hurt them…” Zhao Yi muttered to himself, “High-intensity lightning strike? My Yuan Shen is damaged, and my Dharma power hasn't recovered; a powerful lightning spell can’t be activated! Heh, Wood Element!” The more than twenty fellows landed heavily on large trees. The forest across several li suddenly moved without wind, and bright green streams of energy flowed out from the towering trees, continuously infusing the bodies of these great fellows. Accompanied by low, humming incantations, massive cyan wooden stakes, several feet thick and dozens of feet long, suddenly materialized out of thin air near the rotors of the helicopters, which had already opened their weapon pylons and were preparing to unleash area saturation fire.

A shrill, grating sound of splintering wood filled the air. The helicopter rotors violently struck these cyan wooden stakes, which were as hard as steel. The rotors, composed of high-strength composite fibers, were shredded to pieces, while the wooden stakes were also sliced into segments amidst the massive roaring sound. The two hundred-plus helicopters plummeted to the ground like dumplings. Black-red fire erupted in the forest, sending dense smoke columns hundreds of meters high. The strongest assault element of the twelve special task forces was instantly annihilated.

Thousands of broken cyan wooden stakes, blasted by the immense force of the helicopter rotors, flew everywhere, striking the densely packed special operative soldiers, causing bloodshed and injury.

Immediately afterward, the fractured cyan wooden stakes simultaneously emitted fine electrical sparks, exploding like bombs. A wave of cyan energy swept in all directions, detonating the flight pack energy cores on another two thousand-plus special soldiers. Amidst piercing screams, these soldiers fell to the ground trailing thick smoke.

In space, two high-precision reconnaissance satellites hovered above this section of forest. Their massive infrared lenses constantly adjusted, rendering every movement in the dense woods perfectly visible.

The Heaven Star Expeditionary Army’s Supreme Command relayed the intelligence gathered by the satellites to the commanders of the twelve forward special task forces: the force intercepting them directly consisted of one hundred and one individuals, including Gu Xiechen! Simultaneously transmitted was General Wagley’s hysterical reprimand: ten thousand elite troops were heavily mauled by just over one hundred men—this wasn't just embarrassing, it was shameful! Wagley gave these commanders a final ultimatum: if they could not breach the valley and completely eliminate the Hell Angels Mercenary Group within three hours, they would face military justice.

At the same time, hundreds of ground attack aircraft were swooping toward the valley, and three heavy armored divisions were struggling through the dense forest, striving to encircle the valley within the shortest possible time.

Having resolved the two hundred-plus armed helicopters, which possessed formidable firepower, in a jaw-dropping manner, the special task force commanders suddenly realized they had encountered an exceptionally troublesome adversary. The special warriors in the sky promptly descended to the ground. They quickly shed their individual flight packs and reorganized into tight, elite combat squads, heading directly toward the valley. With nearly nine thousand elite special operatives dispersed across the forest spanning dozens of li, Gu Xiechen was momentarily stunned.

“Of course, I’m not a fool!” Standing atop the crown of a giant tree, watching the special task force soldiers quickly land and scatter, Gu Xiechen reluctantly dropped the firearms he had just seized.

“Zhao Yi, you all… intercept them separately! Wipe out as many of these guys as possible outside the valley!” After a pause, Gu Xiechen instructed Zhao Yi again, “Kill them, and confiscate their equipment, especially all kinds of man-portable missiles… Hmph, do you even know what a man-portable missile is?” Zhao Yi bowed to Gu Xiechen with cupped hands and replied succinctly, “Your subordinate is aware, I have seen them these last few days.” Gu Xiechen nodded, spread his arms, and dove down from the treetop like a large bird.

A five-man squad sprinted past him. Gu Xiechen stomped hard on a tree trunk as he descended, his body arcing in a strange curve through the air, bringing a deliberately generated fierce gale as he lunged toward the five special operatives.

In the heat of battle, there could be no holding back. Gu Xiechen swung the Snow Soul Divine Claws with all his might at the five soldiers.

The violent claw strikes tore through the combat uniforms and ripped through the bodies of the five men. The chilling inner force froze the hot blood within their bodies, and not even a trace of blood scent diffused outward. Casually snatching a man-portable missile launcher and a box of eight missiles from the heavy gunner’s back, Gu Xiechen hurriedly pounced toward another squad a hundred meters away.

“Don’t blame me for being ruthless; if you don’t die… my brothers will die!” A ferocious blue spectral light faintly flickered in Gu Xiechen’s eyes. His heartbeat accelerated continuously, and the True Qi condensed like mercury in his meridians and acupoints surged like ocean tides. Every move, every strike, carried immense crushing power. A single claw strike could easily pierce a small hill. The elite special warriors under Gu Xiechen’s hands were like defenseless infants, easily slain one by one by him.