Roadmap to the Boundless Sky

Heros’ mental attack effectively stopped the insects’ attack, and the fires started burning brightly again. As more smoke rose into the air, the situation got better. After a while, the place was shrouded in smoke and became nearly impenetrable. The insects were finally unable to make it in.

They continued their rampage outside, so no one was able to go out. All they could do was wait it out. Because of it, their chase was put on pause.

After around five hours, the noise outside faded away.

The fire slowly died down, and the lingering smoke drifted away.

The unconscious members of the team woke up. After doing a headcount, they found that they had lost a lot of people. Most of them had died on the spot, especially the support personnel and technicians. Since they were weak to begin with and the mental attack had happened within close proximity, the protective items didn’t provide enough of a defense.

When Heros activated his mental energy, he didn’t care about them. Besides, it was an emergency. There was no way he could have bypassed them.

While losing the support personnel wouldn’t affect their fighting strength, it made many things more inconvenient, such as setting up camp, communicating via telegram, healing, and maintenance. It would take up a lot of the combatants’ time, and their efficiency would drop to the ground.

This was what Xu Chan had been aiming for.

Once they counted the people they had lost, the operations captain went up to Heros and said in resignation, “Mr. Heros, we lost three-fifths of our technicians. The ones left are suffering from major aftereffects. They can’t move anymore.

“Unless we ignore them, we won’t be able to continue our chase today. I’d like to mention that if we abandon our technicians and support personnel and don’t find those Great Shun Republic soldiers by tomorrow, our efficiency would start dropping every day.”

“Our enemy outsmarted us this time, but they can only stall us for a day. Nothing has changed. Have the medics treat the injured and note the ones who have unfortunately died. I hope their families won’t be too sad.”

“Understood.”

The operations captain gave Heros the Union’s salute.

Heros was undoubtedly the strongest among them, and the mercy as well as leadership qualities he displayed were second to none. Those who survived didn’t have to worry about being abandoned.

“Is our telegraph clerk still alive?” Heros asked.

“He is. He has just finished throwing up and is recovering his strength.”

“Send a telegram to our partners. Tell them that we’ve encountered some trouble and need their help,” Heros declared.

“I’ll tell him,” the operations captain said.

***

After Xu Chan detonated the remote bomb, he hid himself in a tree hole he’d found in advance. It was a trap by a vitalized plant.

Usually, its prey would come into the hole to use it as a nest or a hiding place, but the moment they entered, it would close up, and the plant would digest them.

Xu Chan used the tree to cover him up from the incoming insect swarm.

Any regular person would have melted if they went inside, but Xu Chan was prepared. He covered himself in a thick layer of chemicals to effectively neutralize the digestive liquid.

Besides, he was strong enough that the plant couldn’t crush him.

At that moment, he spread his limbs to fight off the powerful constricting force. If this were any other time, Xu Chan would have to push against the tree for several days and nights until he outlasted the vitalized plant.

Now, though, he didn’t have to worry about it, because once the insect swarm arrived, the plant could no longer put much pressure on him.

Just as he expected, after only three minutes, he felt the pressure on him lighten, and the vitalized plant started swaying violently, as if it was fighting against something.

This lasted several hours. Once it stopped, Xu Chan could no longer feel the constricting force around him. The vitalized plant seemed to have fallen. It was no longer secreting the digestive liquid.

A while later, Xu Chan sensed that there was no longer any movement outside. With a push and loud rip, he tore open a hole in the thick trunk. Light instantly spilled in.

He observed the area outside for a while. Once he was sure that there was no trouble, he grabbed the edges of the hole and pulled them apart. As piercing creaks rose, the hole grew large enough for him to get out, and he shimmied outside.

After taking several steps, he saw that the area outside was heavily damaged. Most of the trees within sight had collapsed, while those that stood only had barren branches. The originally lush and dense forest looked like it had been rampaged by a violent storm. The place was dead.

He patted his body and removed the dried chemicals from his body piece by piece. Then, he activated his refined force, and they shattered to bits.

Xu Chan looked over the campsite. He couldn’t be sure whether the insect swarm had put a dent in the Union’s forces, but it had certainly destroyed all the tracks.

He cast a glance at the sky. It was already 3 p.m.. By now, even if they tried to chase after his team, they wouldn’t be able to make much progress. In an hour or two, they would have to start getting ready to set up camp.

He had successfully stalled them for a day.

Now, he, too, needed to find a place to rest, but he had already thought about it. After leaving the camp, he ran for around ten minutes. Then, he flipped open a board made of vines and crawled into a fortified hole he had dug earlier. After patting the weaved cage above him, the firefly-like insect inside immediately stirred awake to provide him with a faint source of light.

Xu Chan sat down, took a few tubes of nutritional paste, and opened the map from the hub. It was a great help for him. With knowledge of the terrain, he could hold the enemies back for a long time.

Now that he had used the insect nest, his enemies were bound to be on guard and expect a similar trick. So, tomorrow, he could detonate a few small bombs to frighten them into slowing down.

Xu Chan stared at a cave marked on the map. It was the place where Captain Hai’s group was going. If his enemies picked any other direction, Xu Chan wasn’t going to do anything. Otherwise, he was going to activate the trap that was his killer move.

***

Back at the Linacrox Union’s camp, Ingram received a telegram from the Union. After reading it, he said to his aide-de-camp, “The Union needs our help. According to the agreement, we must provide it. I’m going to lead a group to meet up with them. Stay here and complete the set-up.”

His aide-de-camp saluted him and replied with an affirmative.

Ingram gathered all the mercenaries. To him, these people were scum and trash. All of them refused to listen to orders unless they came from him. Trash was trash, so it would be best if he got rid of all of them while providing help to the Union. There was no need for him to bring them back.

Suddenly, he remembered something and asked, “Where is Serafina?”

“Over there.” The aide-de-camp pointed at a corner.

Ingram looked over and saw a tiny, black-haired teenager with pigtails and eyeliner squatting underneath a tree. She grabbed an insect flying by and pulled off its wings, then threw it on the ground to watch it crawl away. After a while, she grabbed another one and pulled off its wings too. There was already a pile of wingless insects by her feet, but she didn’t seem to be getting sick of it.

Ingram watched her for a bit before saying, “Her talent is of utmost importance to us. Whether or not we succeed depends entirely on her. Keep a close eye on her. Don’t let her run away, and make sure nothing happens to her.”

“Understood,” the aide-de-camp responded sternly.

***

Twenty minutes later, Ingram left the campsite with the mercenaries. They reached the Union’s campsite before nightfall. Their main combatants gathered together to talk about the details of tomorrow’s operation.

Soon, the sky turned dark. The entire camp fell into silence as they waited for the fight.

The night passed, and the sky turned bright.

If no accidents occurred, the fight would continue. The end of it was unlikely to be seen until a few days or even later. They knew this, and they had already come up with certain countermeasures and specific ways to target the Great Shun Republic soldiers.

But something unexpected threw their plans into disarray.

After 10 a.m., a beautiful light suddenly shone. It was like the aurora up north. It rose from the ground into the sky like paint thrown up into the air. The colors were dazzling and wonderful.

Heros came to a swift halt and stared at the beautiful light.

He wasn’t the only one. The Lightning Siblings, Gray Whale, and the not-entirely-recovered Blood Diamond all looked in that direction. Their eyes were filled with disbelief and delight.

Was that... the light from an artifact?

Why was it shining again?

Heros stared at the light for a while before turning to Ingram. “Major General Seville, there are people standing in our way to get to the artifact. I hope that as our partner, you will fulfill your promise and cover us.”

Without any expression, Ingram said, “I will fulfill our promise.”

“Good.” Heros looked ahead and patted his chest. “Everyone, cast aside all your bags. Keep only your weapons. We are to head to the light at full speed!”

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