The Almighty Ring

When Jiang Fei and Ottogackt left the training facility, Ottogackt stopped for a bit. He went over to the operator of the facility structure and told him to turn off the system. It would seem that the facility was drawing a lot of power and since he was leaving for a while, it might as well be turned off.

“We’re done here. Follow me.” Ottogackt turned to Jiang Fei and beckoned him to follow. Jiang Fei nodded and followed along like an obedient dog.

As they walked, Jiang Fei’s curiosity compelled him to ask where they were going but Ottogackt remained silent. Soon the duo had left the academy entirely and headed towards the shipping port. There, Ottogackt simply called out to a random passing operator.

“Ready a small transport ship for me.”

“You got it, sir,” said the operator.

By law, no training officer had the right to take a training cadet out from the academy and leave the planet. Ottogackt however, had no regard for the laws and protocols. Like many others with power and fame, much like on Earth even, Ottogackt could do anything he wanted and get away with it.

After a short wait, the same operator returned to lead them to a small transport vessel. The ship was just being fueled and had over ten crew members ready for a new mission.

“Sir, where are we going?” asked the captain of the vessel.

“Planet Cororan, Zora system,” said Ottogackt.

“Keying in… we are ready,” said the captain. The other crew members initiated the departure procedure, finalizing all other systems in the ship before closing the boarding hatch.

“Sir? Cororan is…?” Jiang Fei probed for more information.

“It’s faster to understand when you see it for yourself,” murmured Ottogackt.

All hatches were closed and when everyone was strapped in, the ship took off from the space port, zooming across the atmosphere and into space. Unlike any other space ship that Jiang Fei had seen and rode on, this ship was shaped like a basic metallic spaceship, with a small multi-purpose cargo space at the rear and two seated pilot cabins in the front.

The ship took off vertically first and after reaching a certain altitude, it zoomed straight with only a small elevation angle before it breached the atmosphere into the vacuum of space.

After four hours of sublight speeds, they arrived at another planetary system. This planetary system had less than 10 celestial objects, planets included, orbiting a yellow dwarf main sequence star. A smaller version of the Sun of the Sol System.

“Sir, we are approaching the orbit distance of Cororan. Do you wish to descend?” asked the captain.

“No need. Approach orbiting distance and teleport him down to a random grounded terrain,” said Ottogackt.

“Yes, sir.”

Jiang Fei arched an eyebrow. Perhaps he was being sent down for a mission or a test. “Sir, am I been given a mission?” he asked.

“Not a mission, technically. All you need to do down there is stay alive,” said Ottogackt, cracking a smile.

Jiang Fei shuddered at the sight of it as he could feel a sinister plot afoot.

“Sir, everyone is ready. We can proceed with the teleportation,” said the captain.

“Boy, in seven days, I will come back and pick you up. If there’s anything left of you…” said Ottogackt, gesturing a ‘go’ sign to the captain.

Before Jiang Fei could react, white particles appeared and swirled around him. In the next second, Jiang Fei reappeared on soft ground on Planet Cororan.

He walked around, feeling the texture of the ground beneath him. The gravity on Cororan was stronger than Earth and only slightly less than Redstone.

“Nice place, this is,” said Jiang Fei.

Although everything on the planet was alien to him, he could still appreciate nature in its many forms. The entire planet, or at least this particular area of it, was covered with flora. Plants that grew as tall as Burg Khalifa could be seen blocking the light from the sky. Grass and moss-like plants that were as all as Jiang Fei covered the lower ground. The atmosphere was pleasant, warm, and peaceful.

“Seven days seems alright,” said Jiang Fei as he started to wander around, looking for a suitable place to set up camp.

As he made his way through the shrubs, he made sure to glance around with the scope actively scanning for lifeforms. Just then, he heard a faint noise coming from a nearby towering tree and spotted a rabbit.

“A rabbit…?” Jiang Fei gasped. The rabbit… looked exactly like a rabbit from Earth! The same size, long fluffy ears, short limbs, and cute little cheeks that wobble as they chew.

Flop… flop…

Not noticing Jiang Fei, the rabbit continued to mind its own business. Jiang Fei himself remained a distance away, staying quiet as he continued to observe the little critter.

Not long after it was simply hopping around, the tall grass nearby began to move, as if something was slithering towards its direction. The scope began to use different kinds of sight filters until it detected a long snake-like lifeform through its infrared filter.

It was as wide as a tree trunk and measured at least eight meters long. The snake came forward, wrapping itself around the rabbit to prevent the poor little critter from escaping.

“Well, that’s the circle of life,” said Jiang Fei.

Although he was more compassionate than Ottogackt and anyone else on Redstone, he was not kind enough to save the rabbit. He recognized that by stopping the snake from eating the rabbit, he would be disrupting the ecosystem.

Just when the snake was curling itself in preparation to strike, the rabbit let out a deafening squeak. In the next second, countless other rabbits of many different shapes, sizes, and colors appeared from other parts of the biome.

At that moment, Jiang Fei finally recognized the one difference between the rabbits of Earth and the rabbits of Cororan ⁠— their carnivorous nature!

The rabbit that was being cornered made its first move against the snake by jumping towards its head and biting it off with its sharp, vampire-like fangs. All the other rabbits joined in to feast on the snake and not two seconds later, the large snake was gone, leaving nothing but a trail of long, white colored bones.

Jiang Fei took a while to digest what he saw and instinctively took a step back. These cute little critters were vicious as f*ck! As he slowly withdrew from the mass of carnivorous rabbits, he unfortunately did not look at where he stepped.

Kree!

Jiang Fei quickly looked down and saw that he had just stepped on a rabbit the size of his fist. It died instantly when Jiang Fei stepped on it but that was not the end. Its dying scream alerted the others and in no time, a horde of fang-baring rabbits was coming towards him! The phrase ‘like hungry wolves’ would not be enough to describe them, these rabbits were worse than hungry wolves!

Poppy

Combat Level: 3,300

A smaller than average lifeform. Indigenous to Planet Cororan. Due to their small appearance and size, they move, hunt, and live in large groups. They possess very little intellectual capability. They know no fear of death. If threatened, they band together to kill any other lifeform, no matter their size. Caution, never approach a large group of Poppies.

Without relying on Omnisurge, Jiang Fei slapped the incoming poppies with his bare hands. These poppies only had 3,300 combat level. At most, they would be the same level as the strongest Level 4 fighter on Earth. For Jiang Fei, they were just as they are, rabbits.

As soon as Jiang Fei killed the second one, the thousands of other rabbits squeaked at the same time, summoning other rabbits from faraway to surround Jiang Fei.

As warned by the scope, one is never to approach a large group of Poppies. That usually just meant a group of more than ten but Jiang Fei was facing off against at least tens of thousands! The cries of a fallen rabbit was deemed as a cry for reinforcement. Unless one were to kill all the Poppies on Cororan, one would not be able to catch a break until either side perishes.

The first thing Jiang Fei did was leap towards high ground and draw the Chengying Sword as a precaution. As Jiang Fei jumped on branches to escape, the crowd of rabbits leaped up too, chasing Jiang Fei all the way up into the trees.

“F*ck!”

Several rabbits leaped in front of Jiang Fei, wanting to have a bite of his head. Jiang Fei cut them down swiftly but it did not make things easier. The more he killed, the more vicious the rabbits became. He eventually gave up on running and decided to face them all at once.

He blasted an area, blowing and flattening tall grass to create a breathing area for himself to prepare for a mass slaughter.

WOOSH!

With a sword swing charged with a massive amount of energy, Jiang Fei cut down several hundreds of them. But the alien rabbits were still not showing any signs of retreating!

“When is this going to end…” Jiang Fei grunted as he continued to kill and kill.

Individually, these rabbits would not stand a chance against Jiang Fei but as a whole, they might actually defeat him. By the time he had killed several thousands of then, tens of thousands more came to take their place.

Ottogackt had placed Jiang Fei on Cororan, not to train his combat skills or strength, but to cultivate the mentality of a cold-hearted killer. Ottogackt recognized that Jiang Fei was a talented fighter. To train one’s combat skill only took time and effort.

But to train one’s mental state, to mold one’s personality to kill without hesitation, takes more than that. Jiang Fei needed to go through a special baptism, a baptism by blood, by slaughter.