Book 4, Chapter 120: Purge
Book 4, Chapter 120: Purge
The scene of Wilheim being beheaded was reflected clearly on the screen projected by the domain monitoring entity in the monitoring room. Everyone in there, including Lenuva, saw it clearly.
Their minds went black from the shocking scene, and all of them froze. They could not react.
This was Blue Blood, one of the top thirty martial artists in the world.
They hadn’t seen the details of their fight, like the exchange of attacks between the two. All they saw was Wilheim being killed at the moment of contact. The shock this brought to them was so great that they couldn’t accept it either emotionally or logically.
They didn’t know who the intruder was. All they could tell was that based on the uniform, he was a lead investigator from the Great Shun Republic’s Resolution Department.
Was there a lead investigator in the Great Shun Republic who was among the top thirty in the world as well?
While they were searching for an answer, they saw the intruder turning around among the churning smoke and dust toward the monitoring room. They couldn’t see his face under the jade-like protective mask, but they felt a chill in their hearts.
The pressure from the intruder was even greater than that from Wilheim. This was unsurprising, because Wilheim, despite being the first to make them feel pressured, had been divided unequally into four parts.
Lenuva forced himself not to give into his instincts to retreat and shouted to those behind him, “Send a telegram to the rear, tell the airship to leave, lock down the tunnel, and gather the combatants around me!”
The campsite was in the undeveloped area, and it was difficult to send messages in the merged space. Hence, even telegrams had a hard time reaching the rear. They mainly relied on airships to send messages, so Lenuva immediately asked the airship to leave to send a message back to the rear.
Aside from sending reports, the main task of the campsite was to provide support to their front liners and to serve as their rear. They could provide endless support and bring the artifact once they got it.
Hence, they couldn’t lose the campsite. No matter how strong the enemy was, they had to persevere.
Fortunately, Lenuva had a trump card.
He looked over at the center of the dumbbell-shaped campsite, where there was an elevated plateau. The metal board at the top moved away slowly with the help of electricity, while the boards on the sides fell to the ground. A piercing hiss tore through the air, and a bioweapon with a sturdy, dark brown shell and in the shape of a man and a scorpion crawled out.
It was the bioweapon the Union had brought to the campsite for protection. It was known as Tarkus, which was a mythological monster in Old Lain.
When Tarkus stood up, it was around four meters tall. It didn’t have a head, while the two large pincers were really eye-catching. Just by looking at them alone, it was clear that they packed a lot of damage. At its ribs and back were small, but sharp hooked limbs, which gave off a metallic shine.
Even though Tarkus was large, it crawled without making a sound. It wasn’t slow either. Once it came out, it instinctively used the buildings and shadows as its cover to swiftly head to Chen Chuan.
Lenuva took out a handkerchief to wipe his sweat before swallowing a pill. At the same time, he comforted himself. Tarkus had great defenses, thick limbs, and incredible strength. It would surely be able to fight against the unidentified Great Shun Republic martial artist.
***
After killing Wilheim, Chen Chuan cast a glance at the spear core. He decided to bring it back with him once he was done here.
Just then, he heard propellers and looked over to see an airship slowly rising into the sky.
The biofields of the people inside were weak, so he decided to ignore it. They weren’t martial artists, and he had come here primarily for the martial artists. As long as he killed those people, no matter how well the campsite was built, it would become useless. It might not even be able to fend against the merged space’s creatures.
The fact that the airship might spread news about his arrival did not matter to him. Airships came to the campsite every day, so there was no way he could hide this from the Union and the Linacrox Union. It could be kept a secret for at most one day.
Once Chen Chuan was done with the martial artists, he planned to burn the campsite, all its resources, and destroy the mooring tower. Then, this place would lose its ability to provide support to the frontliners, and the Union and Linacrox Union wouldn’t be able to rebuild it in a few days either.
Chen Chuan was sure that the Union and Linacrox Union’s main combatants had already entered the merged space a long time ago. Those who stayed in Central City were only in charge of security, and neither the Union nor Linacrox Union would mobilize them readily. So, even if they learned about his actions, they wouldn’t be able to do much about it.
Chen Chuan headed to the place where most of the people were gathered, but soon, he cast his gaze at a place encased in shadow.
Even though Tarkus didn’t make any sound while moving, it stood out like a sore thumb in Chen Chuan’s Realm Pass.
Though even if he didn’t use his Realm Pass, all living things, as long as they weren’t much stronger than he was, couldn’t escape his detection the moment they entered his biofield.
Tarkus was just as perceptive. The moment it saw Chen Chuan looking over, it stopped hiding. It knocked over all the buildings in its way with a loud blast to open up a wide space. It then let out a shrill screech, ducked down, and opened its pincers like it was trying to hug something.
***
Lenuva watched the fight nervously through the screen.
As a bioweapon, Tarkus had an incredibly tough body and a lot of mutated tissue that gave it such astonishing defenses that its solid shell could fend against all regular attacks from mutated weapons.
They had also used a brand new experimental technology to create it so that even if its limbs and other body parts were destroyed, it could regenerate them. Lenuva didn’t expect Tarkus to win against the intruder, but it should be able to stop him for a while.
The lead investigator stood still for a while before he suddenly shot toward Tarkus. He clenched his fist, and a shockwave blasted out as he punched the bioweapon.
However, the punch didn’t cause too much damage. It was as if its power had vanished.
Tarkus lowered its eyes downward to stare at the man, while the lead investigator, too, met its gaze. At that moment, he was standing in its shadow, but his expression remained calm.
Just as Lenuva and the other combatants thought that Tarkus had managed to block the attack and the tiniest flicker of joy rose in them, they saw Tarkus’ giant body slowly falling to the side. It crashed into the ground with a loud bang, and a dust cloud rose into the air.
Five parts on its body had caved in, as if the mutated tissue there had been shredded.
The expressions of Lenuva and the other combatants stiffened.
***
Chen Chuan looked over. Through his biofield and mind, he had noticed that the bioweapon had an incredibly sturdy body. The density of mutated tissue was abnormally high in some parts of its body, so he figured that they were the bioweapon’s vitals.
His instincts told him that as long as those parts were destroyed, the bioweapon may be able to continue fighting, but its fighting power would be reduced. After the punch, his refined force destroyed those parts, which to his surprise made the creature collapse,
***
Cold sweat formed on Lenuva’s forehead again. With trembling hands, he took out his handkerchief to wipe his bald head as he shouted into his Realm Pass, “All members, to me! Emergency response unit, leave the campsite—”
But halfway through, he heard rustling sounds from his Realm Pass, which was a clear sign that his communication had been interrupted. He wasn’t the only one affected. Everyone’s Realm Passes reacted the same way. Even the screen was only showing white light. They couldn’t see anything.
Lenuva’s face turned pale. He knew what had happened.
The domain communication entity had been destroyed.
***
Chen Chuan stood on a metal board he had just cut apart at the center of the campsite as he slowly returned the Frost King Saber back to its sheath. In the underground space in front of him was a domain entity, which he had just killed. A large amount of interstitial fluid flowed out through a crack leading inside.
The moment the domain entity died, communications were lost. Because of it, there was no longer a centralized command.
Now, all Chen Chuan needed to do was to find all the remaining combatants in the campsite and kill them.
Through what Hongfu showed him, he noticed that these people were all gathering in one place. Were they thinking about fighting him together?
It wasn’t a wise move, but it fitted this group’s logic. They prioritized protecting the campsite, so aside from gathering to fight against him, they had no other choice.
This saved him a lot of time.
Chen Chuan wondered whether the campsite had any way of calling back those who had ventured into the undeveloped area. If they could, he would be happy to see it too.
He waited for a while. Once almost all martial artists were in one place, he righted his hat and calmly walked over to them.
***
Even though all the remaining combatants had gathered in the campsite’s monitoring room, they were trembling with nerves.
After all, they were about to meet the intruder who had killed Wilheim the moment they met. If it weren’t for the fact that the intruder wasn’t showing power fitting for a martial artist at the Fourth Limit, they would have thought that a martial arts master had entered the camp.
Lenuva stared at the door while his heart thundered. Without the help of the domain monitoring entity, they couldn’t see what was going on outside and had to wait for news from the sentry outside. Just then, they heard a loud bang. The sentry had fallen.
Then, the clerk not too far away collapsed with a thud as well. He was like the first domino, because another technician in the room collapsed right after.
The clerk was further away, while the technician was closer to Lenuva. This meant that the intruder was walking toward them while radiating pressure that could crush them.
They stewed in this oppressive feeling until the metal door was pushed down with a powerful force and fell down. Light spilled in, and they saw a masked man standing at the entrance with a saber in hand.