Roadmap to the Boundless Sky

Once the creature got closer, Chen Chuan’s group saw its true form.

It was a bird unique to the merged space. It had a long, sharp, hooked beak on a head that was covered by a sturdy exoskeleton with eyes hidden deep beneath it.

Its feathers were grayish-white with edges covered in sharp thorns, which made it look like it was covered in a layer of light and thin feathers made of bone.

Chen Chuan’s Realm Pass immediately identified it.

This was a Skeleton Bird. It was an aggressive, vengeful bird commonly seen in the merged space with hundreds of different types of them. At the bottom of its description were its weaknesses and ways to take it down.

Dai Hu didn’t turn around, just cast it a glance through his rearview mirror. He didn’t look nervous at all and just said casually, “Please sit tight. I’m about to speed up. Merged space creatures often come to our fort, but I can assure you of your safety.”

He floored the gas pedal and instantly increased the SUV’s speed. They were about four minutes away from Fort 3. Once they got within shooting distance of the fort, they would be safe.

At that moment, some of the roofs of the train carriages flipped open, and the mounted gatling guns rose up to point at the sky.

The Skeleton Bird seemed to know just how powerful those guns were, since it didn’t approach the train. Instead, it drifted in the sky for a bit before flying to a sentry tower.

It seized a thick tree trunk. When it flew past the sentry tower, it dropped it.

Boom!

The wooden roof was instantly crushed.

The Skeleton Bird screeched shrilly and sped up. By the looks of it, it wanted to escape through the gap in the gunfire between the fort and the train.

Based on the direction of its flight, it was bound to fly over Chen Chuan’s group.

Chen Chuan had been rather worried about Dawncall, but when he saw Dawncall flying high up and how the Skeleton Bird wasn’t at all interested, he forgot about it. The Skeleton Bird’s goal was just to destroy that sentry tower.

In just an instant, the Skeleton Bird was above them, and they could see its intimidating, tough, and sharp claws. Advisor Pei drew his gun, removed the safety, and trained it on the Skeleton Bird.

The creature had wanted to just fly past them, but when it saw Advisor Pei and Dai Hu’s military uniforms, its eyes turned bloodshot, and it suddenly dived down.

Huge wings instantly blocked the sun, but bright light shone from Chen Chuan’s eyes. It flickered for a bit before a wave of mental energy charged forward.

The Mind Shattering Hammer crashed into the Skeleton Bird’s mind, and the bloodshot look in its eyes vanished. The next moment, it lost consciousness.

A small creature plunged down. It was Dawncall diving down. Its sharp claws sliced into the Skeleton Bird’s neck, and with a whoosh, it left a huge gash.

Almost at the same moment, a loud bang came from the military fort, and a large hole appeared where the wing connected to the stomach. Blood and flesh fell out.

Chen Chuan looked over and saw a lieutenant colonel standing on an open-air outdoor platform. On his shoulder was a large-caliber, double-barrelled shotgun. Smoke was rising from the muzzle.

Due to the shock from the injuries, the Skeleton Bird regained consciousness, but it was too late. It could not even struggle to stay up and just plunged from the sky straight into the ground. A cloud of dirt rose up around its landing spot.

Soldiers, who were on standby, got into their vehicles and drove out of the fort. They passed by Chen Chuan’s group on the way to the Skeleton Bird. Then, they got out and started shooting at the bird with large-caliber guns that shook its whole body for a whole half a minute.

They were not to be blamed for being so cautious. All the creatures in the merged space had mutated tissue and stubbornly clung to life. If they were not killed on the spot, they could often recover.

A chirp came from the sky. Dawncall circled above them twice before landing on Chen Chuan’s side of the car.

Chen Chuan caressed its smooth feathers and sensed Dawncall’s excitement. This was the first time it had fought another bird that was much larger than it and successfully injured it.

That was worthy of praise. Dawncall had launched its ambush decisively and fiercely right after Chen Chuan’s mental attack. They had excellent teamwork.

If not for the sturdy exoskeleton protecting its head, that attack would have ripped off the Skeleton Bird’s scalp.

After getting mutated tissue, Dawncall was able to make nimble turns and fly swiftly. Its attacks were sharp and fierce too, which was the advantage of its small body.

But Chen Chuan believed that Dawncall was still growing. The environment back in Central City had limited its physical and mutated tissue’s growth, but after coming to the merged space, it might just get stimulated.

The SUV drove into the fort, and the lieutenant colonel who fired the shot walked down from the platform to salute them.

“I’m Lieutenant Colonel Bao Heheng, and I’m in charge of the security of the tunnel. Welcome, and I’m sorry for the scare.”

“You fired the shot at the perfect moment, Lieutenant Colonel Bao,” Advisor Pei said.

“Don’t worry, Advisor Pei. I will always shoot down any Skeleton Birds before they can attack you,” Bao Heheng said seriously.

Chen Chuan nodded, fully believing in his words, because he had noticed that from the moment the Skeleton Bird showed up, Bao Heheng had trained his shotgun on it and waited for a suitable moment to fire. He had been really focused and determined. This was a trait only confident, talented people had.

Bao Heheng turned to Chen Chuan. “You must be Lead Investigator Chen. Hello. We’ve received the highest orders from the World Ring Defense System and will cooperate with you. We’ve already finished some preliminary preparations.”

He turned to Advisor Pei then. “Do you have any other requests? Please tell us. We’ll do our best to fulfill them.”

“Thank you in advance, then,” Chen Chuan replied.

After exchanging pleasantries, Bao Heheng brought them to the office of the fort’s commanding officer. On the way, Chen Chuan asked about the fort and learned that attacks such as the one just now were a common occurrence, since Fort 3 was built right in front of a large undeveloped area.

Migration happened frequently in the merged space, too, so some creatures would attack them after coming, because they decided to treat the area as their territory.

Usually, once one of such creatures was killed, its group would come right after. The soldiers were already used to it.

Advisor Pei spoke to the commanding officer to transfer the duty of escorting Chen Chuan over before heading to the intelligence division. When he came back, he said, “The intelligence division needs a bit more time to finish the report of the situation ahead. Since it’s already late, let’s go and grab a meal.”

Chen Chuan agreed to it and went to the dining hall.

The food in the merged space was nothing praiseworthy, but since they were high-ranking officers, some consideration was given to taste.

After dinner, Advisor Pei went to the intelligence division again. Those not involved in this operation had already left. Before them was a map with all the important locations as well as routes marked.

“The communications division hasn’t received any messages from Captain Xu, nor any news from other areas,” Advisor Pei said before sighing. “But I suppose no news is good news.”

“Captain Xu is an experienced officer and is great at preserving his strength. We can trust him,” Chen Chuan comforted him.

Advisor Pei nodded. “You’re right. There are some things you need to see.”

He went to the map, picked up a baton, and said as he pointed at a part of the map, “Based on the information we got before this and the analysis, the Union and the Linacrox Union should have set up a camp here.

“After days of observing them, the communications division noticed an airship headed in this direction on an average of once per day. The airship comes from one of the branches of other companies in the merged space, so we’re pretty sure that they’re exploring the unknown area.”

Chen Chuan took a look. The place was at the bottom right corner, and it was shown on the map with the symbol of two intersecting lightning bolts.

If he took a step back to observe the map, the camp was located on a road that led straight to them and was around ten kilometers behind the unexplored area.

It seemed like the Union and the Linacrox Union intended to stay safe and fight steady. They didn’t rush into it.

But that made sense. If they did not prepare an escape route and backup, then even if they got the artifact, they might not be able to leave with it. With a camp, they could provide the frontliners with endless support and supplies.

If Chen Chuan destroyed this camp, he would deal a huge blow to them. Their frontline would be left with no support.

He then shifted his gaze to another side to look at a blue mark. “That’s one of our forts, isn’t it?”

“It was.” Advisor Pei shook his head. “Five days ago, an elite cavalry unit ambushed it, and the fort was damaged badly. Over the past few days, it has been repeatedly attacked. We haven’t given up on the place and are trying to maintain it, but we can’t send any team to support and receive Captain Xu’s group from there, much less intimidate the Union and the Linacrox Union through it.”

His expression turned stern. “The higher-ups suspect that the former royal family has reached some degree of cooperation with the Union and the Linacrox Union in hopes to get rid of us first.”

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