Roadmap to the Boundless Sky

Machine gunfire rose around the Linacrox Union’s campsite. They were aimed at the creatures running away from the insect flood into the camp.

Ingram’s aide-de-camp, Zephero, sat outside his tent and read through some documents via the bright light in the sky.

An officer strode over and saluted him. Once he was allowed to get closer, he said, “Sir, an insect flood is approaching. The soldiers are asking when we can leave.”

Without even looking up, Zephero said, “We can’t leave. The major general told us to defend the place.”

“But most of the people in the campsite don’t want to stay here...”

While he was talking, a commotion rose at the perimeter of the campsite. A group of people threw away the shovels they were using to build the ritual and fled.

Gunfire came from behind them, and the two people in the lead were immediately shot in the back. They collapsed on the ground and stopped moving.

Shocked, the other runners froze and turned around. Zephero was standing coolly by his tent with a pistol pointed at them.

He then pointed to the side with his pistol, motioning for them to go back. The runners exchanged glances but didn’t dare to go against his orders. They went back trembling and continued their work.

If anyone managed to flee at this point, everyone would start running, and Zephero wouldn’t be able to stop them. He had to be this harsh to keep everyone under control.

Fortunately, aside from the ones working on the ritual, most of the others were soldiers and had great discipline and compliance to authority. As long as their superior’s order held, they’d follow along. Besides, the Giant Warriors stood guard at the border. These people carried out their duties with absolute loyalty.

Zephero checked his watch and summoned the person-in-charge of setting up the ritual. “How much longer until we can activate the ritual?”

“One more day,” the person-in-charge said timidly.

“Can’t you get it done faster?”

“We’re working as fast as we can. Our original estimate was three days, but the major general asked us to finish within two days. One day is the absolute minimum requirement, but any extra time we get will increase the chances of success,” the person-in-charge said in resignation. He was implying that if Zephero asked him to cut down on more time, then even if they managed to set everything up, their chances of success would be so abysmally low that they might as well not bother with it.

“I’ll give you one more day, then,” Zephero said. With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the person-in-charge and turned to the officer next to him. “Dig out a few trenches around the campsite. Leave two days’ worth of fuel for our usage and place the rest near the trenches. From this moment on, make sure that the smoke stays on at all times.”

The officer immediately understood what he meant. Zephero wanted to use the flames and smoke to create a large isolation zone. Since they couldn’t leave, this was their sole course of action.

The officer whistled. Once he gathered enough soldiers, they rushed out.

This time, he brought martial artists with him, so they got things done fast. In less than half an hour, smoke and fire filled the perimeter.

As thick smoke rose, they put on protective masks and felt a little more at ease. These things gave them a certain degree of comfort and faith in their survival.

They had underestimated the insect flood’s strength, though. An hour later, the swarm of insects surged over. Soon, they filled up the deep trenches and rushed into the bonfires. Some of them spilled over and started gnawing at whoever they saw.

The insects didn’t seem big from the distance, but in truth, they were all about the size of a head. Their mandibles were wide open, and their legs as well as bodies were covered in hooks. They looked savage.

Zephero felt that things were going south, so he summoned the person-in-charge again. “Have you finished setting up the framework?”

The person-in-charge was covered in sweat and gasping for breath after running over. “W-We finished it yesterday.”

“Activate the ritual now,” Zephero ordered.

“B-But we might fail.” The person-in-charge was shocked.

“If you don’t activate it now, you won’t have a chance later. You said we might fail, but there’s also a chance we might succeed, right?” Zephero shot back.

The person-in-charge hesitated a bit. “Shouldn’t we wait for the major general to come back?”

“The major general isn’t here right now, and I’m the one who makes the decisions. Do as I said,” Zephero snapped coldly.

“O-Okay.” The person-in-charge didn’t dare to argue anymore. He gave a poor imitation of a salute and ran away.

Zephero had a sour face. The insect flood was far stronger than he expected, so it was impossible for them to wait another day. Right now, they could only hope that it worked. It was their only chance to escape from danger.

***

After hastily setting up camp, Xu Chan’s group claimed the territory for themselves before the sky turned dark, and they set up bonfires in every corner.

The insects at the front of the insect flood had already reached the bottom of the Sleeping Worm. Wherever they passed, all the creatures who hadn’t been able to escape were surrounded and instantly vanished.

Once they reached the Sleeping Worm, they started climbing up, and Xu Chan’s group could see a carpet of black crawling up the Sleeping Worm’s thick limbs.

Something changed then. The Sleeping Worm secreted a layer of liquid that glued the insects climbing on it into clumps, and they started falling off.

The Sleeping Worm’s limbs and wrinkled folds connecting the limbs to the stomach were covered by moth-like parasites with wings as thin as gray tree leaves. They rose up and flew off to hunt the insects. In an instant, the air was filled with the gray moths.

The ground beneath them also started rumbling. The Sleeping Worm was getting up. It extended a feeler from its head, and with a sweep, pull, and a tilt of its head, it brought countless insects into its gigantic mouth.

In an instant, a large portion of the insect flood went missing, as if something had scooped up the carpet of black.

When Captain Hu saw this astonishing sight, he gasped. “There really always is a bigger fish.”

Upon seeing this, everyone relaxed. Just as Chen Chuan mentioned, the Sleeping Worm was a natural barrier against the insect flood.

Chen Chuan turned his gaze to the sky and said, “It’s almost dark. We shouldn’t stay outside any longer. Let’s go to our tents. Captain Xu, could you stay for a moment?”

“Understood!”

After what had happened today, everyone admired and respected him from the bottom of their hearts, so they followed his orders without hesitation. Once they saluted him, they went to their tents.

When Xu Chan was the only one left, Chen Chuan said, “We’ll need to stay here for a while. Based on the list of resources I just got, we should be fine on that front.

“We don’t need to worry about the ground, but I can’t say the same for attacks from the sky. Tomorrow, we’ll need to dig deeper. It’d be best if we could hide underground.”

“I’ll make the arrangements tomorrow, Lead Investigator Chen,” Xu Chan promised.

“Okay. If the artifact’s light doesn’t fade away, everyone in Jibei Road’s merged space will know about it. Even though we don’t need to worry about the Union and the Linacrox Union for now, our greatest enemy here is still the former royal family.

“When I left, they were readying to attack our rear. I don’t know what happened after.

“Regardless of whether they managed to destroy our rear, they’ll look for us to get the artifact, especially since there has been no sight of it until now. I’m sure that they’ll show up soon.

“They’re also more familiar with the merged space than we are. The insect flood might be unable to stop them, so we need to get ready for them.”

Xu Chan nodded seriously.

Some time later, Chen Chuan saw that it was almost 6 p.m., so he called a halt to their discussion, and they went to their tents.

Chen Chuan’s tent was from the Linacrox Union. It was large enough to fit more than ten people inside. He lit up the fluorescent lamps inside before sitting down on the carpet to examine himself.

He had killed multiple powerful enemies today, and his greatest reward from it was that his second self had grown so much that he almost matched Chen Chuan’s strength.

Chen Chuan had a feeling that once they were completely the same and the time was right, he could perform the second fusion.

Then, he should have a foundation strong enough to reach the Fourth Limit.

The sky turned dark. Night had arrived in the merged space.

Chen Chuan lifted the Frost King Saber and cut open a long, narrow gap to begin his nightly training.

A few hours into his training, he noticed something strange: Nothing was trying to come over. That wasn’t all. There weren’t even any signs of anything on the other side.

This was absolutely abnormal in the merged space. It would be unusual even in Central City.

The campsite was also quiet. On any other day, the night would be full of noise.

After some thinking, Chen Chuan stood up to go to the entrance. Once he put his hands on the flap, he took a moment to feel for any presence outside, then opened it.

It was a strange sight outside. The sky in the distance was dark, but the area around him was bright, almost like it was daytime.

No. There’s something different.

The light from the artifact was hanging in the sky, and every part encased in its light was free of all abnormalities.

After observing it for a little longer, Chen Chuan walked further out to confirm his theory. He was right. Various creatures as well as insects were still trying to climb up the Sleeping Worm.

After standing around for a while, Chen Chuan went back to his tent.

He didn’t have to care about the reason behind this. All that mattered to him was that the existences from the other world and the abnormal sights at night were gone, which meant that he could focus solely on his training tonight. He had to make full use of it.

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