Starforce Warriors

Chapter 1: Moonlight Treasure Box

In the year 2522, in Liuhe Base City, one of the northwest cities of the Great Xia Republic in the Asian region.

"Have I really been transported five hundred years into the future?" muttered Li Xiaofei in surprise, looking around the rusty cage he found himself locked in. He was bewildered by the unfamiliar surroundings. Outside the cage, dozens of headless corpses lay scattered in pools of blood. Several fierce-looking thugs in black uniforms skillfully lifted each headless corpse and tossed it into a grinding machine nearby that reverberated loudly.

The air was thick with the stench of blood. The horrifying scene made Li Xiaofei feel nauseous, almost suffocating him. What startled him even more was that those freshly ground up corpses were wearing white uniforms identical to his own, and seemed to belong to the same organization as himself.

The sounds of explosions and roars continued to echo in the distance. An unfair martial arts contest was fiercely underway.

The combatants were a man and a woman. The woman had a cold and elegant face, with waist-length hair tied into a single ponytail. She wore a black tactical vest, shorts, and a pair of jackboots, with large areas of her snowy white skin exposed. Standing close to 1.8 meters tall, she had a very well-proportioned body.

The man's attire was identical to Li Xiaofei's, and his feet were shackled. His arms were like black iron, exuding explosive visual impact.

As the man and woman moved, their skin lit up with a faint glow. The speed and power they unleashed were like those of legendary martial arts masters.

Boom!

A thunderous explosion echoed through the area. The cold and elegant woman suddenly executed some kind of special martial technique.

Her fist glowed with dazzling white light and radiated a bone-chilling coldness that instantly froze her opponent's arms in place. Her right hand mimicked the shape of a crane’s beak as she delivered a punch that blasted her opponent's head off.

Bones and blood flew in all directions as the headless corpse collapsed with a thud. Witnessing the gory scene made Li Xiaofei's scalp tingle.

Another one was killed...hmm? Wait, another?

He was feeling quite dizzy at that moment.

"She won!"

"The formidable power of Dugu Jue’s Ice Crane Killing Fist is indeed unmatched."

"The renowned Iron Arm Dragon, Fang Sheng, was actually defeated by Dugu Jue within ten moves."

The thirty or so fierce thugs from the Blackblood Gang who were watching nearby cheered and complimented the woman. However, there was no trace of excitement on her face.

"Fang Sheng, at the second stage of the Qi Refining Realm, inheritor of the Great Xia Republic's ancient martial art Iron Arm Fist... You have quite the reputation, but your combat skills are so weak! You've disappointed me greatly."

As the daughter of the leader of the largest gang in the slums, the Blackblood Gang, she had undergone a new martial surgery a month ago. She had the rune bone of a star beast, the Ice Crane, implanted into her body and gained the freezing power of the Ice Crane. Since then, she had been searching for true martial arts masters to challenge.

Unfortunately, all she found were disappointing wastrels. The ancient martial arts of the Great Xia Republic were truly in decline. As she contemplated the rise of the era of new martial arts, Dugu Jue slowly raised her head and looked at Li Xiaofei.

"Li Xiaofei, also known as the Undead True Dragon, the last-ranked Hall Master of the Cloudy Sky Gang at the first stage of the Qi Refining Realm."

Dugu Jue assessed him for a moment and suddenly said, "You're quite handsome. As the number one handsome man in the Cloudy Sky Gang, I can't bear to kill you. How about this, I'll give you a chance to live, but you must become my male slave, assist me in dual cultivation, and practice martial arts together. Are you willing to do that?"

Li Xiaofei's heart skipped a beat.

Dual... cultivation?[1]

He carefully glanced at Dugu Jue. Indeed, she was beautiful, with a voluptuous figure and a cold and elegant demeanor, which ignited his desire to conquer her. But she was too violent, it was too much for him to handle.

Leaving aside everything else, wouldn't a single squeeze of her thighs be enough to crush a boulder? Wouldn’t being a male slave whose work was to assist in dual cultivation ultimately lead to a fate worse than death?

While he hesitated, a sound suddenly rang out.

Ring ring!

The jarring sound of a phone ringing filled the air. Dugu Jue’s brows furrowed as she took the light-core phone from her trusted subordinate.

Her expression changed slightly as she heard the voice on the other end. Her tone was no longer as icy as she replied, "Alright, father, understood... I'll arrange it immediately." Then, she hung up the phone.

"Pretty boy, you can't escape. I'll deal with you when I get back." She looked at Li Xiaofei again, with a cold smile, and added, "I'll chop you up if you don't submit to me."

She then left hurriedly with a few trusted subordinates.

Clang!　

The cage door was locked once again. Li Xiaofei breathed a sigh of relief, his heart still pounding with fear. He had narrowly escaped disaster, for now.

However, it was only a temporary reprieve. Outside the cage, the body of the Iron Arm Dragon, Fang Sheng, was dragged away by the gang members.

A martial artist at the Second Qi Stage of the Qi Refining Realm was crushed by the grinding machine like a dead pig and turned into pulp.

The gory scene sent shivers down Li Xiaofei's spine. He became increasingly aware that he might end up sharing the same fate if he couldn't find a way to escape. His first priority was to figure out what was going on.

Li Xiaofei took a series of deep breaths, forcing himself to stay calm. Then, he closed his eyes and attempted to access his current body’s memories.

A flood of information rushed in like a torrent in the next moment and Li Xiaofei's expression began to change.

It turned out that this was Earth five hundred years into the future. It had long since become a post-apocalyptic world due to the invasion of star beasts.

The law and order of civilization had collapsed amid centuries of war and slaughter between humans and beasts. The fall of cities had caused the population to sharply decline.

The desperate launch of nuclear bombs only led to a nuclear winter instead of completely eradicating the star beasts.

Fortunately, in these darkest and most brutal of years, hundreds of so-called Saints emerged worldwide. These Saints studied the star beasts and developed the Starforce Martial Arts System, spreading it across the world.

Later, they united to establish the highest authority on Earth, the Star Council. In the darkest of times, the Star Council guided humanity to establish base cities, resist the star beasts, and fight for their survival.

Over the centuries, a new order was established from the ashes of the old world. The country where Li Xiaofei found himself was called the Great Xia Republic.

It was one of the six administrative regions in the Asian region under the highest authority of the Star Council.

The country's borders were vast and had a population exceeding one billion. There were a total of ninety-one base cities in the Great Xia Republic. Liuhe City was one of the thirty-seven lower-tier base cities.

In the era of the apocalypse, where personal strength was infinitely magnified, the power of the country itself undoubtedly occupied a dominant position. But the existence of martial arts families and gangs was inevitable.

Liuhe Base City was no exception. Within the city there were five major martial arts families: Du, Qi, Mu, Ye, and Zhou. There were also a total of thirty-six registered big and small gangs and syndicates.

The Cloudy Sky Gang to which Li Xiaofei belonged was one of them. The Cloudy Sky Gang was named after an idiom meaning "virtue as exalted as the clouds in the sky."[2]

The day before, the Cloudy Sky Gang had been the target of a sudden attack from another large slum faction, the Blackblood Gang. Caught off guard, the Cloudy Sky Gang had suffered a devastating defeat. Many of their members had then been captured.

Among them was Li Xiaofei, one of the six Hall Masters of the Cloudy Sky Gang. But, the Li Xiaofei of five hundred years ago had crossed over to this era and inhabited the body of the same name.

As for the reason for the crossover? It was downright ridiculous. Just ten minutes ago, Li Xiaofei was still in August 22, 2022.

At that time, he was the president of the Southern Martial Arts Society and he was practicing kicks with a junior sister in the classroom. At the climax of their sparring, a fat and clumsy husky suddenly appeared out of thin air and, without saying a word, handed him a Moonlight Treasure Box.[3]

"You are the chosen, the only one."

"Young man, the martial legacy of the Great Xia Republic in five hundred years will be entrusted to you."

Surprisingly, the dog spoke Mandarin. Can you imagine Li Xiaofei's expression and feelings at that moment?

But in the next moment, a rainbow-colored spacetime passage emerged from the Moonlight Treasure Box and sucked him in. When he opened his eyes again, he was in a chaotic world five hundred years in the future.

Oh right, what happened to my Moonlight Treasure Box?

Suddenly, the Moonlight Treasure Box appeared out of thin air in his hand.

It... was actually hidden inside my body all along?

Li Xiaofei was greatly surprised. At that moment, a crack opened in the dark clouds, and a beam of moonlight shone down and landed on the box.

Then, an incredible thing happened.

1. it usually refers to cultivating through sex and it’s related to Daoist sexual practices. ☜

2. The original here is 义薄云天, an idiom coined in the “Book of Song: Biography of Xie Lingyun” by Shen Yue, a historian of Southern Song. ☜

3. This is a reference to the Chinese movie A Chinese Odyssey: Part 1—Pandora's Box. The box is something that allows the user to travel in time. The original translation of the term 月光宝盒 in this movie is “Pandora’s Box,” but we have chosen to be more accurate to the original because the term 月光宝盒 here has nothing to do with either the literal or the figurative meaning of the term “Pandora’s Box.” ☜