Roadmap to the Boundless Sky

Book 4, Chapter 117: Blue Blood

A man in his thirties walked out of the airship. His rather thin and tall body was accentuated by a beautiful black suit and a retro silver mechanical watch, while a pair of sunglasses rested on his chiseled face.

He removed his sunglasses outside to reveal a pair of profound blue eyes and high cheekbones.

His short, dark brown hair gave him a professional, no-nonsense look, and he gave off a restrained, solemn demeanor. Anyone who faced him knew they had to walk on eggshells around him.

Under the airship and further beyond were a large number of Linacrox Union martial artists. When they saw him, admiring and excited looks appeared in their eyes.

Once the man walked down the connecting bridge, the liaison officer went up to him and spoke in a polite and respectful manner. “Welcome, Mr. Wilheim.”

The man responded in a gentlemanly manner. He was a baritone, and his voice was full of emotion and charisma. Clearly, he was highly educated.

If no one said anything about him being a martial artist, it would be difficult to believe that this regal man was a Third Limit martial artist among the top thirty.

Talazar Wilheim was from an aristocratic family from the Western Continent. Even though the royal family had been overturned and most of the aristocrats had fled to the merged space, Wilheim did not join them. Instead, he lived in seclusion in the Linacrox Union.

Even so, he was a popular figure in the upper-class society, since he happened to be the legitimate heir of the Vangh faction, one of the martial arts factions in the Western Continent.

Wilheim’s gaze went to the gathered Union members. “Have our Union partners set out?”

“Yes. They left two days ago with Mr. Heros,” the liaison officer answered.

“I hope that I won’t need to clean up any messes. No one likes having to do extra work,” Wilheim said seriously and raised an eyebrow at that.

The people who came with him chuckled, and some of the more carefree security guards laughed.

But that was all they did. They did not comment further. The Union had not only brought a group of powerful martial artists, but also Jesues Heros, another martial artist from among the top thirty Third Limit martial artists in the world. Based on rumors, Heros was incredibly vindictive and petty.

Hence, while Wilheim could say such things, no one else could.

Of course, it was mainly because the Union had built this campsite and had a domain entity monitoring them. Once they entered their own barracks, they wouldn’t have to be so careful.

The liaison officer bowed and politely gestured at Wilheim to follow him. “Mr. Wilheim, we’ve arranged a place for you to stay. Please come with us.”

Wilheim nodded and followed them into the campsite.

***

On the Union’s side of the camp, Lenuva, the security supervisor, and his security guards watched everything closely while listening to their conversation.

Wilheim cast a glance in their direction.

When they saw this through the screens, they thought that Wilheim was staring straight at them, and their hearts jumped to their throats.

Everyone wanted to escape from his gaze, and it took considerable effort for them not to move.

“Blue Blood...” Lenuva watched as Wilheim was escorted by a group of security guards to the Linacrox Union’s barracks.

Once they went inside, their domain interference entity kicked into effect, and the screens turned fuzzy.

Even so, the pressure from Wilheim remained. After a long while, someone grumbled stubbornly, “It’s only because Mr. Heros isn’t here. If he were...”

Lenuva silenced him with a wave of his hand and put on a relaxed expression. “Mr. Heros is working right now, so we shouldn’t bother him. Besides, Mr. Blue Blood is an aristocrat. Let’s hope he gets to take a few photos during the days he spends vacationing here. But we slacked off at our job, you know? We didn’t build him a golf course yet.”

The security guards laughed, and the gloomy atmosphere went away.

Lenuva turned around. With his back to the screen, he said, “We need to monitor his every move, including everything he says outside.”

“Yes, sir!”

***

Wilheim entered a comfortable, spacious room the campsite had provided for him. He poured himself a warm, fragrant drink and went to the window with his cup and saucer.

As he watched the forklifts scoop up the insects, the liaison officer said, “It rained several times yesterday, and these things came along. If we don’t deal with it in time, they will corrupt our campsite.”

“The merged space is full of surprises. Even though the sky here is as gloomy as that in New Lain and the creatures in both places differ greatly, I can’t help but think of the locals here. I heard that they’re very stubborn and are as numerous as weeds,” Wilheim commented.

“When it comes to weeds, we just need to uproot them, and they won’t grow anymore,” the liaison officer said with a smile.

Wilheim hummed and took a sip of his drink. “But we still need them, don’t we?”

“Yes. Because of the threat from the existences from the other world, we should let the locals live,” the liaison officer agreed.

Wilheim cast a glance at the dense forest in the distance. “I don’t think I’ve heard word of the Great Shun Republic sending any powerful martial artists to retrieve the artifact.”

“Their martial artists have never been keen on the global ranking. It might be because their government asked them to keep their strength hidden, but their strength isn’t obvious. Most of them we will only be able to assess accurately by fighting them.

“Xu Chan is one of them. His ranking is supposed to be between the top one hundred to two hundred, but the Union has adjusted his ranking to be among the top fifty.”

“I don’t know whether I should be jealous of Mr. Heros or not, then. It’s rare to find an opponent like that. For every martial artist who longs to get stronger, this is the greatest reward,” Wilheim remarked.

“The Great Shun Republic is huge. I’m sure that they will send another opponent here who meets your expectations,” the liaison officer comforted him.

“I hope so.”

***

At that moment, Yang Yuncheng had already brought Chen Chuan to the bottom of the slope. They were four kilometers away from the campsite.

He looked over and said, “This is as far as we can go, Lead Investigator Chen. The last time I came here, they discovered me somehow. Even now, I don’t know how they did it.

“Thank goodness I left in time and am familiar with the terrain. That’s the only reason I got out. If I had been a step later, I would have died.”

“It might be a domain monitoring entity,” Chen Chuan said after looking around.

“One that can monitor an area of up to four kilometers?” Yang Yuncheng gasped in surprise and looked at the campsite again. “Can a mobile domain entity do that now? Technology has truly improved. The mobile domain entities in the past could only cover an area of around one kilometer.”

Chen Chuan cast his gaze on the campsite. When he had been looking from above, he hadn’t been able to get a clear idea, but from this place, he found that if he wanted to go to the campsite, aside from firing positions, he would also have to deal with intersecting trenches and metal boards arranged irregularly at the perimeter.

This was to prevent martial artists from barging in. These obstacles couldn’t prevent martial artists from coming in, but it would slow them down, and even a few seconds would be enough for the people inside to react.

But they weren’t much of a problem to Chen Chuan. His task was to kill all the powerful martial artists inside. To achieve that, it would be in his best interests to figure out where all of them were located first.

While he could use mental energy to track down his targets, the campsite was a little too big, and he was pretty sure that many of the people had protective items. Because of it, he wouldn’t be able to get accurate feedback and have to waste energy trying to locate his targets.

After some thinking, he spoke to Hongfu in his mind.

Hongfu, would it use up a lot of your energy to locate the martial artists in the camp?

Hongfu, too, answered in his mind. If I just have to detect powerful life force signals, it wouldn’t require much energy.

Okay. Help me find them, please, he requested.

Got it, Hongfu replied, and the red scarf around Chen Chuan’s neck fluttered. Then, his supposedly offline Realm Pass flickered to life, and he received tons of information, including the layout of the campsite, but most importantly the cluster of dots signifying the people inside.

The biofields of all the people he had to pay attention to were marked specially. Surprisingly, most of them weren’t strong. Only a handful of them warranted caution from him.

This sort of lineup would be enough to handle most situations, but it was definitely not enough to venture deep into the merged space. Perhaps it was because most of the main fighting force had gone into the undeveloped area.

However, as more information about the campsite showed up, Chen Chuan discovered something new. Among the cluster of dots was a biofield shining so bright that it felt scorching hot. It was deep within the campsite, and it was stronger than the biofields of any Third Limit martial artists he had ever met.

After staring at it for a moment, Chen Chuan said, “Mr. Yang, I have some things to deal with here. You should go back first.”

“Are you sure?” Yang Yuncheng was surprised.

“Absolutely,” Chen Chuan stated.

He must have some kind of mission, Yang Yuncheng guessed. He was once part of the development squad and was still a soldier at heart, so he knew that as long as their leaders gave them a task, they had to do whatever it took to complete it. “Alright, I’ll step back first. Be careful, Lead Investigator Chen.”

Chen Chuan nodded.

“I’ll be waiting for you at the cliff. You have to come back before it turns dark,” Yang Yuncheng continued and saluted Chen Chuan before quickly going back.

After Yang Yuncheng left, Chen Chuan turned back to face the camp. “Before it gets dark, huh? I won’t need that long.”