Roadmap to the Boundless Sky

The birds flew over to Chen Chuan in a second, but just as they were about to enter his range of attack, they changed direction with a loud buzz.

Then, they started circling him. Sometimes, they would get closer before retreating further away, as if they were trying to bait him into attacking.

The birds had sharp beaks, ridiculously colorful and bright feathers on their heads and necks, and fierce expressions. Each of them was about the size of a finger and could have been easily mistaken as some kind of insect at first glance.

They were incredibly agile and moved together in a flock. They flew as one. Even when they took swift turns, not a single one broke formation.

Chen Chuan had used his mental energy to attack them, but it wasn’t all that useful. The birds had great resistance against mental energy.

After circling him around a dozen times while occasionally approaching, they tried to get closer again since he was just standing there, but a certain distance away, they retreated once more, as if they had sensed danger.

While they had moved away, they didn’t go far. They were still trying to find a chance to attack him.

Chen Chuan watched them. There were so many of the birds that they had practically turned into a cloud. There were at least ten thousand of them. If he used his refined force and saber against them, he would only take down a few dozen at a time, which was basically useless.

He ordered Dawncall to stay far away while he went to the motorbike, opened one of the backpacks, and grabbed the Thunder Cannon.

The cannon was a semi-bioweapon. Once he put it on his arm, the biological part of the cannon squirmed. It fixed itself to his arm and latched onto his shoulder so that the end was firmly secured.

Chen Chuan’s entire hand was on the trigger. He wouldn’t be able to pull the trigger with just his finger, since he had to hold the thing with his hand and use his entire arm to pull it.

He had already put the propellant bag inside ahead of time, so now, he just stood still after fixing the cannon onto his arm.

After a while, the birds charged at him again, but it was the same as before. They didn’t press forward after they got close. Just like before, they flapped their wings and avoided him.

Chen Chuan had been expecting this and swung the Thunder Cannon in the direction where the birds flew. He pulled the trigger.

Boom!

A large spark came out of the muzzle.

The cannon discharged a cloud of iron pellets, which formed two conical spray fields around sixty meters in front of him. All the birds in this range were blasted to smithereens. Only whatever bits of them were left shot forward due to inertia.

Chen Chuan didn’t stop there. He turned around and fired at the remaining birds again and again. In an instant, he fired four canister shots in four directions and covered everywhere the birds were flying.

Once he stopped, not a single one of the strange birds was left. The area was covered in the smell of gunpowder and smoke. When the smoke from the muzzle and the echoes of the shots faded away, all Chen Chuan could see was shredded flesh and blood. Bits of feathers were on the mangled flesh. They fluttered a bit when the wind blew at them.

At that moment, the ground suddenly became looser. Ant-like creatures crawled out, gathered around the mangled bits, grabbed them with their mandibles, and crawled back down. Even the blood-soaked land wasn’t spared. They collected it as well and took it away.

In just a short while, the evidence of the birds ever existing completely disappeared.

Chen Chuan only spared the ants a brief glance before completely ignoring them. The ants were harmless to living creatures, though he had noticed that these insects didn’t seem worried about mental attacks.

On the way, most of the creatures he encountered were scared of mental attacks, so what made the ones here different? Was it because they were built different, or were there other reasons? This was worthy of in-depth research.

It’s a pity that I don’t have the time for it, Chen Chuan thought as he observed the Thunder Cannon. While it was classified as a gun, it was actually a small cannon, just like the name suggested.

It was really strong at close range, and he had twenty-four propellant bags. He had to put two of them inside at once, so he could fire a total of twelve times.

When timed properly and shot at point-blank range, it could gravely wound anyone without strong defenses. Even Third Limit martial artists without a body hardening-type Heartborn Force were no exception.

But it wouldn’t be easy to maintain balance while fighting with the cannon on the arm, especially against someone at the same level. They wouldn’t give him a chance to get in position and throw him off balance, so even though the cannon was really strong, it wasn’t practical.

Still, it was highly useful in certain situations.

Chen Chuan knocked on his shoulder twice, and the bindings loosened. He did the same to the ones on his arm, then put the cannon back into his backpack.

The Union had to have set this up.

Chen Chuan could tell that the campsite was abandoned for some time, yet for some reason, it hadn’t changed one bit, which was abnormal in the merged space. Even if they had sprayed chemicals and insect repellants, they should have lost effect a long time ago.

Unless, of course, some kind of creature treated this place as their territory. It was the only way for the campsite to remain the same as when it was abandoned.

Any other person would have had a hard time dealing with the birds. They wouldn’t have been able to chase them away or kill them. The pestering of the birds itself did not mean much to martial artists, who had plenty of stamina, but what if they continued bothering them even when night arrived and disturbed their camp? It would be a huge issue, and not many people would make it out alive.

To think that the Union thought of a way to use the birds... It was quite an ingenious trick, but there should be quite a lot of limitations to set it up.

Chen Chuan got on the motorbike and continued tracking the Union.

Around evening, he saw the second campsite.

Just like before, its presence meant that the Union had set up some kind of trap for those who found it.

Chen Chuan checked the sky. He needed to find a place to stay before the sky turned dark, and this one was perfect. It was spacious, and there was still some wood and fuel by the bonfires.

Chen Chuan parked his motorbike and asked Dawncall to act as his eyes in the sky while he walked into the campsite with the Frost King Saber in hand.

He wondered what he was going to find this time.

The forest and stream were too quiet. Unlike when he was traveling, he couldn’t hear the chirping of birds or buzzing of insects. Whatever was hiding here was definitely strong.

Chen Chuan turned his gaze to the center of the campsite. There was a rather large tent there. It had collapsed, as if it was covering something up.

As he got closer, he seemed to have startled the thing inside. The tent was pushed up, and it was followed by a roar so loud that the stones on the ground jolted.

Six eyes flashed under the tent, and a thick, bloody scent traveled over into Chen Chuan’s nose, even though he was still a distance away.

Chen Chuan stood still. Based on the sound and shape, this was a large beast. The creature stared at him cautiously instead of charging over immediately, then crouched down and slowly retreated.

However, two of its eyes became unfocused for a moment before turning fierce. The creature roared and charged at Chen Chuan. Its large body caused the wind to howl, but the tent seemed to have been sewn on its body since it didn’t fly off.

Chen Chuan stayed still while holding the Frost King Saber. Once the creature reached him, he lunged forward. Before his feet touched the ground, the sheathed Frost King Saber was brought down at a speed faster than the eye could see.

Boom!

It struck the creature’s head.

Since the creature had been charging forward, the moment Chen Chuan stopped it, it froze for a second. Its mass and its inertia didn’t manage to make the Frost King Saber budge, and after around two breaths, the beast collapsed on the ground with a loud bang.

Chen Chuan’s refined force completely crushed its brain tissue, muscles, and bones, and it fell on the ground like a boneless sack.

Chen Chuan plunged the Frost King Saber into the ground and lifted a corner of the tent. It was covered in ritual arrays.

To increase the effects, the Union had removed the creature’s skin and sewed the tent on it.

This was a completely different tactic compared to what they used in the first campsite.

Chen Chuan observed the ritual arrays. The style was similar to some of the rituals used by native Oceanlanders. Was whoever made it part of the Linacrox Union?

After they massacred and forced the surviving native Oceanlanders to assimilate, their secrets and knowledge ended up in the Linacrox Union’s hands.

It looked like the Union and the Linacrox Union were truly working together.

He should hurry up, but after the day’s travel, Chen Chuan had used up almost all of the motorbike’s fuel. The forest was also only getting denser, so the paths were going to become even more difficult to traverse. It seemed like he would have to start walking on foot tomorrow.

Chen Chuan dragged the creature’s carcass outside the campsite before going back and checking the entire place. Once he was sure that there weren’t any other anomalies, he cleaned up the place a bit and lit up the bonfires with the materials lying around. He also sprayed chemicals around the campsite before choosing a relatively dry place to set up his tent.

When he was done, Chen Chuan decided to start training, even though the sky hadn’t turned dark yet. He called Dawncall back, zipped up his tent, slashed the Frost King Saber up to open a gap, and sat down.

His mental energy got stronger rapidly in the merged space. Part of the reason why this was the case was the gap in the World Ring. Once it was mended, there might be some restrictions placed on new gaps even if he opened them himself.

At that moment, he couldn’t help but remember the continuous spilling of pure essence into their world over the past few months. It had to have caused quite an impact. Many of the martial artists who originally couldn’t get to the Fourth Limit might have been able to make it.

The world was changing, and more talented people were going to show up. This was a good thing to fight against the other world, but the competition over resources was surely going to worsen. The fight over the artifact could be seen as a branch of this competition.

As Chen Chuan stared at the gap in front of him, he stabbed the Frost King Saber into the ground before using his already gathered mental energy to receive the quintessence and all the unknown mysteries from the other world.

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