Roadmap to the Boundless Sky

Book 4, Chapter 19: Lured Inside

When Urtik saw Talu bolt, he moved sideways to chase after her. Even though he was one step slower, after a beat, he managed to catch up to her. They were almost moving side by side.

His eyes were trained on Talu. He didn’t know where she wanted to go, but he had to stop her.

The others worked with him. Without even the need for Urtik to give any orders, they started running and maintained their encirclement around Talu.

Suddenly, she changed direction.

The moment she saw Urtik’s speed, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to shake him off. If Urtik ran a little further forward, he could block her path, so she decided to break out of the encirclement through another direction.

In that direction was another person, and she could tell from his breathing that he was the weakest. Without a doubt, it would be the easiest to break out of the encirclement through him.

But the squad member didn’t panic when Talu charged at him. He just settled into a defensive stance.

He was indeed the weakest in the squad, but even if Talu was able to defeat him in one shot, she would slow down to attack him, and if he could hold her back for a bit, his other squad members would be able to surround her and trap her in their encirclement. Then, they could gang up on her, and soon, they would be able to capture her alive.

Talu positioned her staff horizontally and thrust forward.

Her movements were swift and fierce, but the squad member refused to retreat. With a loud shout, he grabbed the staff in an attempt to stop it in its tracks, but the power coming from it caught him off guard. It wasn’t charging into him, but going upward.

Talu shoved her staff upward and lifted the squad member from the ground. At the same time, she swung her arms and threw him high into the air.

Because of the brief pause in her movements, the other squad members caught up and were about to completely surround her, but something unexpected happened.

When the squad member rose into the air, he dragged Talu up as well. Or rather, she intended for this to happen. With the help of her two-tier refined force, she jumped into the air as well.

The moment her feet left the ground, a projectile came toward her. Urtik had managed to react the moment she jumped up.

But Talu ignored that. She let the steel marble hit her. It tore apart the area it struck, but she didn’t even bat an eyelid at that.

Since she was a Third Limit martial artist, she didn’t care about this bit of damage. Besides, Single Flow School’s martial arts made its practitioners incredibly durable.

While airborne, she reached out, grabbed a branch in her way, unleashed her refined force, and changed the direction of her flight.

The Surging Tide Squad moved with her. Even the squad member, who had been knocked upward, followed along after he landed and regained his breathing.

Talu rushed through the forest using the branches and vines. Her pursuers weren’t familiar with the place, so all the vegetation held them back, and they slowed down.

Talu moved like a fish in water through the forest. She kept grabbing one branch after another and flinging herself forward. This continued until the area ahead of her became clear. The moment she left the forest, she jumped again, and grabbed something in the air. There was a zipline leading straight to a cliff down below, and she slid down it.

Halfway through, she let go, spread her arms, and jumped into the ocean. At the same time, the zipline was cut off.

The entire sequence happened really quickly without a single pause. From this, it was clear that she had prepared an escape route for herself a long time ago, and she had even practiced using it.

Urtik jumped off the cliff after her without thinking much about it. His eyes were fixed on Talu as she fell into the ocean. She was the key to their entire operation, so they had to capture her alive.

His squad members were stunned for a moment, then jumped off as well.

However, due to being worried about potential reefs under the cliff, they jumped down one after another and only into the areas they were sure were safe. Even after that, they didn’t dare to spread out.

Once Talu plunged into the ocean, she moved like a fish and dived deeper.

The water behind her splashed loudly. It was Urtik. He had followed right after her. With a rhythmic swing of his body, he tore through the water and caught up to her.

Behind him were his squad members. They followed his trail of water.

They were known as the Surging Tide Squad for a reason, and they were active among the island nations, so all of them were great swimmers.

However, it was nighttime, and they had no light. They were also in the ocean, so if they were careless, they might just get shaken off. Urtik released his mental energy and kept his eyes trained toward where he could barely sense his target.

Talu ignored them and just sped up toward the gap.

Her goal was obvious: Get help from Chen Chuan.

There was no reason for her to feel embarrassed about asking a fellow member of the purity faction for help. Before Chen Chuan came here, she had already sent a letter to the faction requesting for help.

Gan Guo also told her that Zhuan Liang might have sent Chen Chuan here to help them, which was why she had come here without hesitation.

After diving down for hundreds of meters, Urtik sensed Talu disappear, and he was stunned. He instinctively wanted to stop, but he couldn’t just give up, so he continued forward without hesitation.

Then, he felt the water receding around him, and his feet landed on solid ground. A moment later, he appeared in a space that was completely different from the bottom of the ocean.

He tensed up at first and scanned the area with a sharp gaze, but after a second, great delight appeared on his face.

Was this the gap?

He couldn’t believe that Talu had brought them to the place he had been wracking his brains to find before they could even capture and interrogate her. They had found it so easily!

A beat later, he became wary.

There was no way that Talu would have brought them here for no reason. Someone or something here should be able to defeat them.

Urtik stopped and didn’t chase after her, but waited for his squad members to arrive. “Careful. There might be something strange here,” he warned them.

His squad members looked around. They could guess what this place was, and they, too, became ecstatic. A moment later, their combat awareness kicked in, and they instinctively spread out into their usual battle formation. They also drew their weapons.

Talu was standing up ahead. Not far away from her was a person sitting with his back turned toward them. Light was shining through a hole on him and his saber.

Who was that?

Was there another martial artist in Single Flow School?

As long as he wasn’t a martial arts master, they didn’t need to be scared. They had ample experience fighting and taking down martial artists of the same limit.

With a wave of Urtik’s arm, his squad formed two rows with three people in the front and three in the back. Then, they moved slowly forward.

Talu went up to Chen Chuan. “Sorry for interrupting your training, Mr. Chen.”

“No. You did the right thing.”

Chen Chuan opened his eyes and stood up slowly. “It won’t take much time,” he said in a casual tone.

Then, he turned around.

The light was still shining on him, which made him look tall and large, but his face was hidden in shadow.

Urtik narrowed his eyes. He was an experienced martial artist and could tell at first glance that Chen Chuan wasn’t going to be an easy target. He made a gesture.

His squad members understood what he meant and grabbed their projectiles. One of them threw a dagger.

Chen Chuan vanished from sight. The one who threw the dagger saw someone appear in front of him, and a pair of calm eyes met his gaze.

He was shocked, but before he could do anything, he heard the loud snap of a spine breaking, and he felt his entire body curl in. Chen Chuan had punched his stomach. As the power from his fist poured into the squad member’s stomach, the man was lifted off the ground.

Then, there was a flash of a saber. Another squad member swung his blade at Chen Chuan, but the saber only managed to cut into an afterimage.

Before that squad member could figure out where Chen Chuan went, a punch landed on his face, and his facial features sank in from the sudden impact, as if his entire face was going to come out from behind his head. Then, another fist struck the back of his head.

It came from one of his squad members.

Bam!

The two forces crashed into the head so hard that it blasted apart. Chen Chuan’s fist went further forward, and the fist from the third squad member started cracking. The cracks traveled up his arm and reached his body. Before he could scream in pain, his head was cracked open by a kick.

Thud!

Three corpses fell on the ground, and all of them were mangled beyond recognition from heavy blunt impact.

Chen Chuan slowly lowered his foot and looked at the rest sideways.

Urtik stood frozen with his eyes wide-open. At this point, he realized that they had run into someone really powerful.

Hurried and nervous breathing came from behind him, which signaled that his squad members were intimidated by Chen Chuan. Panic had blossomed in their hearts, and their determination to fight was fading away.

“Don’t even think about leaving,” Urtik growled. “They won’t allow anyone to reveal the gap here. Now that we’re here, we can only fight to the very end. If you stay with me, we may still have a chance to make it out alive.”

Savage expressions appeared on the remaining squad members’ faces, just as he expected. They knew that Urtik was right. In front of an opponent like this, they might make it out alive if they fought, but if they didn’t, they would definitely die.