Roadmap to the Boundless Sky

Book 4, Chapter 144: Counter Invasion

Chen Chuan went into his tent and handed the artifact to Xu Chan.

“Captain Xu, while I’m not around, please keep this artifact safe. If anything happens, call the shots. Don’t worry about me.”

Xu Chan took it and said seriously, “I understand, sir.”

Chen Chuan went back to get ready, since he didn’t know what was happening over at the camp. Skin Flayer had mentioned that they were getting some kind of ritual ready, so he needed to have countermeasures against it.

He put some weapons and items into a smaller backpack and picked it up. Then, with the Frost King Saber in hand, he went to the edge of the Sleeping Worm and called out to Dawncall. Once it flew into the sky, he descended in several leaps before running into the insect flood.

It was much thinner than before, but the ground was still covered in insects of different sizes. Some were as small as grain, while others were as big as pails. Once he stepped among them, it was as if he had triggered something, because they started gathering around him and flapping their short wings to try and attach themselves to him.

The most terrifying thing about the insects was their number. Once they surrounded a person, they would keep charging at them in endless waves until they devoured the person.

The moment Chen Chuan set foot on the ground, a loud explosion shot out. A shockwave that blasted apart even the air shoved away all the insects that tried to surround him. He rushed out at a speed faster than the eye could see and opened up a path the insects were unable to close even after a long while passed.

With his explosive speed, Chen Chuan charged toward the campsite.

Skin Flayer had only given them a general location, since he had been moving with the group and didn’t bother to tell them where he was going in the merged space. The only thing he remembered were the landmarks.

But this wasn’t a problem for Chen Chuan. All he needed to know was that the campsite faced the long side of the mountain cliff. Even if he couldn’t find it immediately, it wouldn’t take him long to circle the mountain until he found it.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to go through so much trouble. Soon, he noticed bonfires. A large swarm of insects surrounded the place, but avoided the bonfires, which gave Chen Chuan a clear direction.

In less than two minutes, he reached the campsite and stopped near a bonfire. Rumbling sounds rose behind him from the insects being blasted away by the raging wind he stirred up.

Chen Chuan looked into the campsite. Even though the insects didn’t go in, that didn’t make him feel that the campsite was safe. Instead, it made him wary.

If even the insects didn’t want to go there, something had to be inside.

After observing the place for a while, Chen Chuan stepped inside before the insects could surround him again. Dawncall circled above him to scout the situation for him.

Chen Chuan took about a dozen steps into the campsite, but it was deserted. It seemed to have been abandoned some time ago. Just as Chen Chuan thought that the place was abnormally quiet, he felt a sense of danger.

He stopped walking and took a moment to think. Then, he cast a glance at the mental mark on his hand. A moment later, Xue Shou casually walked past him and stopped half a step in front of Chen Chuan. Once he observed the campsite, he said, “Hmm... this situation...”

He pointed in one direction. “Let’s take a look over there.”

Immediately, he started walking.

Chen Chuan followed him past the scattered, empty tents. A moment later, he saw an area surrounded by wires. Stakes were impaled into the ground in some kind of pattern around it. At the center was a slightly elevated, flat ground. Something was covered with a piece of cloth on top of it, but it seemed to be damaged.

After just a few looks, Chen Chuan came to a conclusion. “This is the ritual.”

“I remember now. You’re familiar with rituals. You’re right, but this isn’t the sort of ritual we did during the old era.” Xue Shou walked over to the cloth. “Lift it up. Let’s take a look.”

Chen Chuan walked forward and lifted the cloth with the Frost King Saber. Underneath was a wooden statue that had been scratched to bits, though he could still somewhat tell its original appearance.

Xue Shou squatted down to observe it. “Looks like something the native Oceanlanders would make. There’s no doubt about it, based on the setup and the statue, this is a ritual from the native Oceanlanders.

“The natives had a lot of rituals that allowed them to communicate and exchange offerings with the existences from the other world. After the Linacrox Union occupied Oceanland, they took a lot of ancient scripts from the natives. Aside from martial arts, the second largest group of scripts were about rituals.

“They suffered a lot from the natives’ rituals, so they snatched them all for their own battles.”

“It sounds like the natives weren’t weak. How did they end up in their current state?” Chen Chuan asked.

“Because the natives weren’t united. They had hundreds of kingdoms and thousands of tribes that had fought against each other for millennia. When the settlers from the Western Continent arrived, some of them offered to help in the fight with the other natives. In their eyes, the other natives weren’t part of their people. They were generational enemies.

“Instead of saying that they perished under the hands of the Linacrox Union, it’s more accurate to say that they perished under the hands of their own people working together with outsiders.

“In this world, it’s hard for any outside force to take down a sizable country. If one perishes, it's due to something happening within it that their enemies could use to take the country down.

“Anyway, we’ve gone off on a tangent. Let’s take a look at this.” Xue Shou observed the setup for a bit. “This ritual should allow them to store something in an existence and reclaim it later. The Linacrox Union has given this a lot of thought. They wanted to get some kind of power from the existence.

“They set things up according to the original ritual, but they made some modifications. They used metal plates and wire to replace corn flowers and Varo Tree leaves and branches. Metal plates and wires are good replacement materials. They don’t cause any problems, and the ritual can still be carried out.

“The ritual reaffirms the contract they have formed with the existence. After all, the existence from the other world would do whatever it takes to withhold the power they want to reclaim. They had to prepare the ritual in a way that ensured that the existence couldn’t cheat them. This means that they needed to create an incredibly thorough version of it, with as many details crammed into it as they could.

“A comprehensive and elaborate preparation is the prerequisite to making the existence fulfill its contract. If they weren’t well-prepared, not only would the existence not fulfill the contract, but it would even find loopholes to exploit. After all, every clause formed in the contract is made with lives and blood. Not one of them can be skipped.

“What we’re seeing now makes it clear that the ritual was hastily prepared and cast. The insect flood was at their doorstep, so they were likely forced to do this. But casting the ritual in this sort of situation would create them even more problems. I wonder if the person-in-charge of the ritual genuinely didn’t know, didn’t care, or had other plans.”

Xue Shou sounded like a true professional, so Chen Chuan commented, “I’m surprised that you know so much about rituals.”

Xue Shou laughed. “How should I put this? My ancestors were leaders of the former national religion, so everyone in my family has read up on rituals. While I didn’t amount to much in this area because I chose another path, I grew up hearing about rituals almost every minute of my life, so I do know some things about them.”

Chen Chuan nodded and looked around. “So the ritual was cast to communicate with an existence from the other world and transfer over some kind of power?”

Xue Shou observed the claw marks on the destroyed statue. “I think the ritual failed, and something crawled out due to the loopholes created by hastiness.”

Suddenly, ripples formed on Xue Shou’s body. Chen Chuan’s second self also turned fainter.

Chen Chuan looked up and saw that the scenery around him had changed. He was no longer standing in the campsite, but in a wide meadow.

Ahead of him was a large leather tent made in the style of the native Oceanlanders. Not too far away was a burning bonfire. Strange sounds were coming from the tent. Something was tearing flesh and gnawing on bone inside it.

At the entrance was a pile of bones with blood and flesh attached to them. By the looks of it, all of them belonged to humans. There were torn clothes, mangled implants, and ruined guns scattered around the area.

Chen Chuan took a step forward to see into the tent, but that was enough to startle whatever was feasting, and the gnawing sound came to a screeching halt.

A second later, the flap lifted up, and a two-meter-tall girl with eyeliner walked out.

She had pigtails and thin limbs. Her nails were sharp, and her exposed limbs were covered in black scales. Her face was covered in some sort of bone tissue resembling an exoskeleton, and her body had multiple wounds that seemed to have been torn open from within.

Chen Chuan’s gaze sharpened. Faint light was gushing out of the tears. It was spirit sense, but the power wasn’t being used to repair her wounds. Instead, the tears formed because she had so much spirit sense that her body couldn’t endure all of it.

When the girl saw him, her eyes shone with a crazed hunger, as if Chen Chuan was some kind of food, but she also appeared to be wary, which was why she didn’t lunge instantly. Instead, she crouched down and grabbed a thick staff from the ground.

Xue Shou watched her for a bit before warning Chen Chuan. “I see signs of a high-level mental energy injected into her. Some other kind of power was also used to modify her body. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to endure that mental energy. There’s not much of that other power, though. The existence is clearly the stingy type. It’s only concerned about keeping her alive and won’t give a drop more.

“Even so, the power she has right now surpasses the limits of regular martial artists. Be careful.”