Roadmap to the Boundless Sky

Book 4, Chapter 123: Encounter

The two newcomers were a man and a woman, who were around twenty-seven years old. Both were muscular and quite similar in terms of appearance and height.

The woman, though, had slightly softer features and short golden hair. Her chin was pointed, and she had foxy eyeliner on that made her gaze appear sharp.

The man on Blood Diamond’s left had shoulder-length hair and a chiseled face. His expression made him appear frivolous.

Both of them wore dark blue protective clothes with silver embroidery that wrapped tightly around their well-defined muscles.

The two didn’t appear to be carrying any weapons, but there was a soft, fin-like appendage behind their arms, which looked like trouble.

Xu Chan immediately recognized them. They were Spiraling Ocean’s Lightning Siblings, Silvia and Siegfried Lundestrum.

His expression turned grim.

All the global mega corporations that had secured their positions in the world had ample resources and great combat prowess.

Some recruited martial artists, while others trained them up on their own. The companies in the Union all trained their own martial artists by pouring vast amounts of resources into them. After that, they screened these martial artists multiple times. Those who managed to make it to the very end were all incredibly powerful.

The Lightning Siblings and Blood Diamond were all such martial artists.

Xu Chan wouldn’t have a problem dealing with one of them, but all three at once was a different matter, and he was sure that they weren’t the only ones here.

Suddenly, Blood Diamond moved. He wasn’t going to let Xu Chan continue observing them and rushed over to throw a punch at his face.

Blood Diamond had a huge upper body, and when he threw the punch, he put all of himself into it, which created a powerful gust of wind. Before he even reached Xu Chan, the wind caused Xu Chan’s uniform to press tightly against his skin.

Almost at the same time, the Lightning Siblings moved. A loud explosive tore through the air, and it was followed by a continuous chain of them. They came at Xu Chan from the sides to encircle him. Perhaps due to their clothes, they left behind a flashing arc of light when they moved.

As Xu Chan watched the fist get closer to him and sensed the great power contained within them, he didn’t choose to avoid it. Instead, his gaze sharpened, and he threw a punch right back, despite knowing that Blood Diamond had some kind of unique refined force that wasn’t scared of Heartborn Forces.

This time, though, his momentum suddenly increased, and his fist started glowing faintly. His clothes also swelled up as determination shone in his eyes.

Based on Xu Chan’s determination and momentum, the Lightning Siblings and Blood Diamond could tell that Xu Chan no longer cared about whether he was going to win or lose. He was ignoring everything else and focusing on taking down as many of them as he could.

When the Lightning Siblings saw this, they thought that he was desperate and subconsciously slowed down a little.

A martial artist with spirit sense fighting with reckless abandon was a terrifying monster, so they decided not to engage Xu Chan immediately. It was better to let Blood Diamond face all the pressure and danger while they went up later for an easy kill. Even if he couldn’t win by himself, they could watch by the side for a while before deciding what to do.

Blood Diamond wasn’t expecting Xu Chan to engage him head-on even after knowing that he could resist Heartborn Forces. He also looked like he was fully prepared to drag him into hell with him, which was an absolutely illogical act.

They were three going up against one, so they had the absolute advantage. In such a situation, Blood Diamond would never fight to the death with his opponent, which meant that he wasn’t mentally prepared for this. He was forced to activate his mental energy, and faint light shone on his fist.

The only way to win against spirit sense was with spirit sense, but compared to Xu Chan’s determination, Blood Diamond’s spirit sense was clearly weaker.

To use spirit sense, a martial artist needed to communicate with the other world with their minds. Aside from focusing and getting ready for it, they also needed a powerful will. Right now, Blood Diamond lacked both, leading to his spirit sense being weaker.

Soon, their fists clashed. Blood Diamond’s spirit sense instantly melted, and Xu Chan’s spirit sense slammed into his fist. Loud, cracking sounds erupted as his fist exploded. Then, Xu Chan’s fist slammed into Blood Diamond’s chest.

Boom!

His chest exploded, and a large hole was left behind as copious amounts of blood, shattered bone, and organs flew out.

Despite supposedly being able to go up against Xu Chan, Blood Diamond was severely injured at the moment the fight started.

That was how things were in fights between martial artists of their caliber. The one attacking always had the advantage over the one defending. Hence, the slightest bit of carelessness and a single misjudgement could determine the victor.

Xu Chan didn’t stop after his successful attack. He grabbed Blood Diamond by the chest cavity and flipped their positions so Blood Diamond faced Siegfried of the Lightning Siblings.

Siegfried was forced to step to the side to bypass Blood Diamond.

Xu Chan dodged one of the Lightning Siblings, but not the other one. At that moment, his back was completely exposed to Silvia.

A cruel, bloodthirsty look appeared in her originally cold, callous eyes. The fin on her arm glowed faintly as she swung it at Xu Chan’s back.

The fin was a mutated weapon, so her strike could cut Xu Chan in half.

However, when the fin struck, a faint light shone on that exact part of the back. Xu Chan had managed to shift his spirit sense to the spot where he was attacked. Their spirit senses merged, but he had a hard time completely neutralizing Silvia’s Heartborn Force, which led to him suffering a wound so deep that his bone was exposed.

The damage had been minimized enough, though. The wound looked deep, but it didn’t affect Xu Chan’s ability to continue fighting. He could recover pretty fast.

Silvia narrowed her eyes. There was no way a person could shift spirit sense so quickly. Xu Chan had to have set a portion of it aside at the start in preparation of her attack.

He had predicted everything.

Xu Chan’s experience and control over the battlefield surprised her.

After all, if Xu Chan had turned Blood Diamond to face her, Silvia wouldn’t have hesitated to cut into him. Whether he lived or died didn’t matter to her. She wouldn’t have bothered to avoid him. Siegfried, though, wasn’t that aggressive and showed mercy.

He had managed to figure out even their personalities just by looking at them.

At that moment, Silvia realized that they had still placed Xu Chan too low on the global ranking.

Xu Chan was a regular at the frontlines and had plenty of fighting experience. The number of times he was surrounded was as countless as the sand on the beach.

Not only could he quickly figure out his opponents’ mental states, but also find their weaknesses, which most of them had. As long as Xu Chan figured it out, he could make use of it.

Since he had fought Blood Diamond before, he knew that Blood Diamond had great defenses but was a little weaker in terms of speed and reflexes. Xu Chan made use of this fact, and the moment the fight started, he defeated him.

He managed to turn their encirclement into a one-versus-two by just getting slightly hurt in the process.

Xu Chan pulled back his fist slowly and let Blood Diamond fall to the ground. The man was still breathing, though shallowly.

It wasn’t that Xu Chan didn’t want to kill Blood Diamond, but his defenses were just too strong. In order to split his spirit sense into two portions, he couldn’t attack Blood Diamond with all of his power, and now, the Lightning Siblings were watching him closely. The moment he showed any signs of generating power, they were going to launch a pincer attack on him.

He marveled at this. They were indeed strong. Once they realized what was going on, they refused to give him any chance to attack.

Silvia kept her eyes trained on Xu Chan. Even though he had managed to take down Blood Diamond immediately, there wasn’t really that much of a difference in strength between them.

When it came to such moments, adaptability decided everything. Even if they went up against Xu Chan one-on-one, he might be unable to win cleanly, much less against them working together as a perfect team.

Neither of the siblings attacked immediately.

Xu Chan didn’t relax because of this. Instead, his gaze hardened. He could tell that the two were waiting for someone.

But he had just unleashed his full power, so he needed time to recover and adjust his breathing.

The stalemate lasted for around four minutes before Siegfried cast a glance at Blood Diamond before saying, “Silvia?”

Silvia licked her full lips, huffed, and waved her hand. Siegfried took a few steps back, grabbed Blood Diamond, and retreated into the forest.

As for Silvia, she took a few steps back while facing Xu Chan, then turned around. With a loud blast, she jumped into the forest and disappeared like a flash of lightning.

Xu Chan watched them leave before checking his Realm Pass. His vitalization rate was nearly twenty, since he had no time to use his mind to fight against the corruption. It was the reason it had climbed so high within such a short time.

Those two should have been in the same situation, though it was likely that they had taken suppressants beforehand.

Now that the fight was over, he adjusted his breathing, and the number immediately plunged to zero.

Once he was certain that the two wouldn’t come after him, Xu Chan went after his team based on the marks they left behind for him. Half an hour later, he caught up.

Upon seeing him return safely, his teammates were delighted. The medics checked his wound, which had already healed, and gave him some anti-parasitic medicine. After all, they couldn’t dismiss the possibility of something crawling into him and laying eggs in his flesh.

Xu Chan checked his team. Fortunately, they hadn’t lost anyone during the short time he was gone. Just then, someone said into his Realm Pass, “Captain Xu, the scout said there’s a local hub three kilometers away.”

“A hub?”

Xu Chan was quite surprised. “There’s a local hub in this region?”