Book 4, Chapter 156: Absolute Emptiness
Book 4, Chapter 156: Absolute Emptiness
Chen Chuan rode through the dark plains. A ray of light spilled out of his pocket where the artifact was and trailed behind him. It formed a drifting stream of colorful lights that swirled up until it connected with the sky and dyed it the color of sunset.
This was a beautiful sight, but it painted a bright target on his back. As he rode forth, the attacks never stopped. However, since he was moving quickly, all he experienced were scattered shots. Nothing was able to make him slow down for even a brief moment.
This was only to be expected. The imperial army could only station a limited number of soldiers in the vast plains. They couldn’t possibly cover every spot, so they had to focus on important spots.
Those spots were all along the main path Chen Chuan had to take to the military base, so he kept running into them.
After another hour with no effective obstacles, he suddenly heard propellers coming at him from the sides. The machine guns mounted on them started spinning, and they even threw incendiary bombs down to block his path.
When they exploded, a portion of the ground caught fire. Sparks flew everywhere and lit up the grass and trees. A path of fire stretched ahead of Chen Chuan in an instant.
He took one look before spreading his Heartborn Force outward. Then, he spurred his horse forward while moving side to side occasionally to avoid the flames. He bypassed the flames with ease, and his exceptional mental energy let him avoid even the sparks that drifted over.
His horse seemed to be excited by the situation. It neighed, and as sweat flew off its mane, it galloped even faster.
The two airships chasing after him suddenly stopped firing, though it was unlikely that they had given up. They flew up and left into the distance.
The airship crew had received news that a large number of airships and soldiers were being mobilized at the Great Shun Republic’s military base. It seemed like they were going to launch a large-scale attack once the sky turned bright.
They also received news from their informants that a military battalion from Central City had entered the merged space, so the imperial army needed to bring back all the airships sent to the plains in order to make sure they didn’t end up at a disadvantage.
Chen Chuan looked up. He had a guess as to what had happened. Since he was heading back to the military base, it was impossible for the World Ring Defense System to not have noticed that. By now, they should have started doing something to put pressure on the imperial army stationed at the frontlines.
This suited his goal. As he continued onward, there wouldn’t be many chances for the imperial army to intercept him to get the artifact. There wasn’t much of a distance left between him and the military base.
The conqueror general had to be on his way.
While Chen Chuan was thinking about it, he came upon a downward slope. Across from him, he heard the whistling sounds from catapults, and dozens of fireballs came charging toward him.
The burning clay balls exploded upon impact on the ground. Burning oil spilled everywhere. The ground lit up in flames, and the fire spread everywhere.
Before it could reach him, Chen Chuan smelled something pungent from the flames, so he didn’t rush in, but steered the horse away. He rode to the side to avoid the burning region.
It was obvious that this was exactly what the imperial army wanted him to do. There were bound to be ambushers lying in wait there, so Chen Chuan didn’t follow their plan completely. He charged off the path and rode into an undeveloped area.
The imperial army had made a lot of preparations to specifically target Chen Chuan, but once he changed his path, they were caught off guard.
After all, no matter how much danger or what obstacles he encountered, Chen Chuan had never strayed from the main path before.
This was perfectly logical. The undeveloped area was full of dangerous creatures and a horrible environment. If any regular person went there, they would be simply marching to their own deaths. Everyone stayed on the path, so how could they have possibly known that Chen Chuan would do this? All of their meticulous planning went up in flames.
However, they still had the light guiding them, so they knew where Chen Chuan was going. Besides, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. In the undeveloped area, Chen Chuan wouldn’t be able to gallop like on the path he’d taken so far. They would have time to mobilize their forces and surround him.
Chen Chuan was indeed affected, but not because of the creatures. He could chase them away with his mental energy. The main problem was the uneven ground covered by various plants, which made it hard for the horse to move. It was night and day compared to the flat ground before.
But the dragon-nose horse truly lived up to its status as the steed of an elite cavalryman. Even in such conditions, it continued galloping forward, if not at its full speed.
Chen Chuan had been prepared to get off the horse, but by the looks of it now, it wasn’t necessary.
Based on the map Chen Bitong had given him, there were narrow paths going through the undeveloped area, but they were inaccessible to all those who didn’t have a certain degree of mental energy. So, only a few people knew about them. Out of those, even fewer could use them, because most of them weren’t strong enough.
Chen Chuan intended to make full use of those paths. After another hour passed, he found one of them using the rivers and hills as his landmark. He rested for half an hour on it and fed the dragon-nose horse tubes of nutritional paste.
Then, he got on again and galloped down the path.
A flock of scouting birds was following behind him, and Dawncall was flying behind them.
Three hours later, Chen Chuan got out of the undeveloped area. This time, he didn’t stay for long on the plains. He crossed them without stopping, and in another twenty minutes, he entered another undeveloped area.
When the units saw that they couldn’t slow Chen Chuan down, they sent news that he had entered the undeveloped area at the rear. All the messages went to a large, silver-white airship.
It belonged to Wei Guochan. At that moment, it was flying toward the light.
Wei Guochan was sitting in a chair in the main cabin. His spear was propped against his side, and its white tassel dangled about. Through his helmet, he stared at the bright light in the sky.
At that moment, a military officer approached him and bowed. “Sir, we received news from the rear. Yao Zhiyi of the rebels is approaching.”
Wei Guochan said nothing and just dismissed him with a wave.
The military officer bowed, gave him a fist-and-palm salute, then left.
The other two generals in the room remained calm, because Wei Guochan had fought against Yao Zhiyi multiple times, but neither was stronger than the other. Wei Guochan had taken off earlier than Yao Zhiyi, so by the time Yao Zhiyi caught up, they would have already gotten the artifact.
By then, it would be impossible for Yao Zhiyi to snatch it from Wei Guochan.
When the ground units saw a large airship fly over their heads, they were shocked, then surprise gave way to excitement, and they were filled with morale.
As telegrams were sent to alert the units about the plan, everyone stationed along the plains cheered as loudly as thunder.
Yao Zhiyi’s airship appeared in the sky. His airship wasn’t that much smaller than Wei Guochan’s. While they could see each other, they were a distance away.
Yao Zhiyi stood in the observation deck. He could see the cluster of soldiers underneath and hear their thunderous cheers. It made him raise an eyebrow. Wei Guochan was truly the pillar of Jibei Road’s imperial army. The army idolized him.
That was good, though.
He rubbed his saber’s hilt. If they managed to crush him, they would destroy the imperial army’s soul.
Scouting birds flew up from the ground units and tried to get closer, but the machine guns mounted at the sides of the airship started firing and shot all of them down. There were also some chemicals painted on the hull, so the moment the scouting birds got too close, they collapsed.
Two airships rose into the air, but neither of them dared to get close. They simply followed from far away, as if they were escorting Yao Zhiyi.
***
Chen Chuan once again got out of the undeveloped forest and appeared in the now familiar plains. After this, there was not going to be any forests for a long stretch of road.
He had expected some artillery positions to be set up here, or maybe some traps, but even after some time passed, no attacks came his way. It felt as if the imperial army had given up on trying to stop him.
But he knew that this wasn’t true. It only meant that bigger trouble was coming.
After a while, bright light suddenly shone on the land and took away all darkness.
It was a new day.
Chen Chuan snapped the reins. The dragon-nose horse raised its front hooves, exhaled, and stopped.
Their shadows were cast on the ground of the wide plains that stretched before them. The wind blowing at Chen Chuan made his red scarf flutter.
He looked up. In the distant horizon was a silver-white airship coming his way. Its hull carried the imperial army’s cloud, lightning, and dragon patterns. The light reflecting off of it made it look like a star, and it was a dazzling sight.
The moment he saw the airship, Chen Chuan felt an indescribable pressure descend on him, and his breathing almost froze.
This was his mind alerting him of danger.
He was sure that the imperial army’s martial arts master was in that airship.
While staring at it, he saw something shoot through the airship.
Boom!
A huge hole tore through the hull, and raging flames exploded forth. They swallowed the entire airship. A moment later, the burning airship plunged down from the sky like a fireball.