Roadmap to the Boundless Sky

Book 4, Chapter 67: Path

The pit was deep, and based on the walls, the bioweapon had dug it out. A theory formed in Chen Chuan’s mind: The tunnel might be an escape route during crucial moments.

It was no wonder why these people hadn’t been in a hurry to leave after noticing that they were being watched. They already had an escape route planned, though it could also be that they didn’t run because the tunnel wasn’t ready yet.

Chen Chuan checked the traces on the wall. There were scuff marks at the edges, which showed that the tunnel wasn’t dug out today.

It was highly likely that these people had started digging the moment they arrived, and they did it every day. Where did the path lead to, then?

Chen Chuan had no intention of going down. Instead, he asked Safe Shield for help, and after a long while, several bioweapons flew over. They came inside and crawled straight into the pit.

The bioweapons were connected to Safe Shield and were able to perform domain inspections to a certain degree. Chen Chuan could see what was going on in the tunnel through them.

***

Meanwhile, Chen Chuan’s team had already blocked several exits, brought out proof that they were Resolution Department officers, and started evacuating the residents and passersby.

City Patrol also rushed over. Soon, the entire place was locked down.

Minutes after they began their operation, gunshots rang out within the apartments, and the passersby and residents panicked. They scattered in every direction to hide.

However, the team wasn’t made of amateurs. They could immediately tell that the marksmen were firing in random directions and were intentionally trying to create chaos.

Some people inevitably started running back into the area. One of them arrived in front of Wei Dong, seemingly in a panic, but when he got close, he suddenly brought out a knife from his pocket and sent it straight to Wei Dong’s stomach.

The next second, he got punched so hard in the face that he fell back and fainted on the ground.

Luo Kaiyuan pulled his fist back and nodded at Wei Dong.

Their task was to capture all those who weren’t much of a threat. He was worried that Wei Dong wouldn’t be able to hold back once he started attacking and would kill everyone, so Luo Kaiyuan attacked on his behalf.

***

Wei Changan was standing in a different part of the area. He had his hands in his pockets and was looking back and forth, while Cai Si was inspecting the people and guiding them to leave.

Despite their nervousness, the people walked past them. Among them was a man with his head lowered. When he was about to pass, Wei Changan grabbed his shoulder. The man stopped and started going shifty-eyed. “W-What are you doing?”

Wei Changan shoved him back, causing the man to stagger before falling on his butt. “I only asked those uninvolved to leave. As for you, you’re not going anywhere for now.”

He had carried out plenty of missions and had ample experience in judging people. While the man’s head was lowered, his posture stank of hostility. Regardless of whether he was a gang member or one of the people they were supposed to arrest, Wei Changan simply had to make sure that he didn’t leave.

The man’s expression changed, and he scrambled to his feet before running back. His actions proved that there was indeed something wrong about him, so after just a few steps, a gunshot rang out, and the man fell to the ground while cradling his calf. He started screaming in pain.

Cai Si put his gun away and went forward to grab the man so that he could put him in handcuffs. At that moment, someone in a window in the distance pointed his rifle at him.

Before he could pull the trigger, Ding Liao blasted his head open with a shot from the roof of another building. Immediately after that, he turned his rifle around and aimed it at another sniper. Without giving them any time to react, he fired another shot, and the sniper instantly fell from his spot.

Cai Si went to Wei Changan. “Chen Chuan went in alone. Do you think he can handle the situation?”

Wei Changan remained on guard, but was relaxed otherwise. “Don’t worry. Chen Chuan only fights when he’s confident he can win. Besides, he’s a lead investigator in the Resolution Department now. We don’t need to worry about him. We just need to make sure that we don’t mess up on our end.”

Cai Si nodded in agreement.

Back in the house, Chen Chuan watched the inside of the pit through the bioweapons’ eyes. It was a deep pit. Even after going inside for ten minutes, the bioweapons hadn’t reached the end.

Just then, one of them disappeared. A moment later, the other vanished as well.

Chen Chuan narrowed his eyes.

Based on the order of their disappearance, whatever attacked them was headed his way, and it was fast.

Chen Chuan stood at the edge of the pit and looked down. Even after a long time, he heard nothing.

Boom!

A moment later, the floor several meters behind him was destroyed.

An insect with smooth legs and body rushed out. It had a cone-shaped body, strong, brutal-looking mandibles, and packed legs resembling scythes on its abdomen. It was trying to wrap itself around Chen Chuan.

With a flash of his saber, the insect was cut in half from the middle and fell in two pieces. A large amount of foul-smelling interstitial fluid flowed out of its body.

Chen Chuan turned around. He had heard it clearly just now. There wasn’t just one of these things.

With the Frost King Saber in hand, he went outside. Through Dawncall’s eyes, he noticed that similar insects were crawling out of dozens of places, and some of them even popped up further away.

He had made the right call by evacuating the residents, even if many of them had refused to leave. Chen Chuan wasn’t going to be able to help those who did not listen to warnings.

He used his Realm Pass to contact his team and sent them a video of what he saw. “Be careful of these things. Kill all that you see.”

There were definitely more than what they saw, though. According to Safe Shield’s analysis, these insects were likely the offspring from the original bioweapon.

Chen Chuan went to the street and released his mental energy. In an instant, all the insects within hundreds of meters from where he stood, whether they were underground or on the surface, stopped moving and lay on the ground like they were dead.

There were some he missed further away, but his team should be able to deal with them, so he was going to let them be.

***

Yuan Qiuyuan was watching from the roof of a building nearby when the street bulged up, and an insect shot out. Before it even revealed its full body, Yuan Qiuyuan brought his staff up, jumped down, and smashed it.

Smack!

The insect’s upper body burst like a watermelon. Its shattered shell and bodily fluids spilled everywhere, making the entire place a mess.

***

On the other side, Qin Qingque and Su Wei got rid of the insects they saw without causing a mess like Yuan Qiuyuan. They used their refined forces to destroy the insects’ innards.

This way, it wouldn’t look like a massacre had taken place in the street. It was also because they didn’t know whether the bodily fluids would cause harm to regular people and the surrounding area, so they instinctively chose to avoid the mess.

With the team’s swift actions, soon, no insects were left in the perimeter. After checking everything, they made sure that no one in the team was injured and reported to Chen Chuan.

Upon receiving the report, he notified City Patrol to clean things up before asking his team to come over and take the three heavily injured martial artists to the Resolution Department for interrogation.

***

A few hours later, Yang Ling was in the basement of the branch company with a hand on the ceramic box to communicate with the embryo form of the active biosentient entity. She could hear constant whispering in her ears.

It was the voice of the active biosentient entity. They were transferring some sort of information between each other.

Tubes of crimson liquid were flowing into the holes on the ceramic box to inject nutrition into the active biosentient entity.

A long while later, Yang Ling’s face turned pale, and it was only then that she removed her hand from the ceramic box. After her hurried breathing became calm once more, she took the elevator to the surface.

Once the elevator doors opened, she saw her assistant waiting outside, and she asked, “What happened?”

The assistant bowed. “Miss, the headquarters sent a telegram that the unit we planted at the perimeter has been ambushed by the Resolution Department.”

“How are the losses?” Yang Ling asked without much change in her expression.

“Three have been captured.”

“What about Captain Fan?”

“Captain Fan was cautious and did not stay with his teammates, so he wasn’t involved when the ambush happened.”

“Alright. The headquarters should send people to fill up his team again,” Yang Ling stated.

When she left, the headquarters told her that the person in charge of this operation was Captain Fan, while the other members were replaceable. As long as Captain Fan was around, the operation couldn’t be considered to have failed.

The company was prepared for all possible losses and setbacks during it.

“But his existence might be revealed. Even though the Resolution Department hasn’t found him, they can determine that Captain Fan exists by interrogating the captured members, which will result in them increasing the intensity of the search. The headquarters wants us to attract the Resolution Department’s attention,” the assistant said.

Yang Ling recalled the strategies the active biosentient entity had given her. One of them was to seize part of Ferris Wheel’s maritime logistics business. For that to happen, they would need to travel out of the country for negotiations, and if they went out to sea, they would definitely grab a large part of the Resolution Department’s attention.

“Also, headquarters is asking whether you’ve found a suitable place,” the assistant said.

Yang Ling wrung her fingers together while talking to the assistant. At that moment, she squeezed them and said, “I still need a little more time.”

She could sense places where the barrier between the two worlds was weak enough that they could head to the merged space. That was why even though the active biosentient entity was just an embryo, it could find a secret path with her help.

While the municipal government had allowed United Might to enter the merged space, they had come for the artifact, so they had to look for another path into the merged space.

The assistant watched Yang Ling for a while, as if to determine whether she was telling the truth. Then, she bowed and said, “The headquarters is urging us to take action. Do hurry up.”