Book 4, Chapter 149: Intercept And Attack

After smelling the scent, Chen Chuan sank into contemplative silence.

He had heard about the imperial family using birds as scouts in the wilderness, though they were pretty much useless during large-scale battles. They were only mentioned in passing in the records.

Based on what he saw and heard while he was here, once the creatures in the merged space lost the ability to fight or died, their bodies would be gone in no time. However, even after the bird fell down, no insects or creatures came to eat up its carcass.

The insect flood had destroyed much of the surroundings, but the merged space’s ecosystem repaired itself quickly, and it would recover even faster in a forest.

So, the smell had to be repelling the merged space’s creatures.

This also indirectly answered another question: How could this bird fly alone for so long and not be hunted down as prey, even though it was so weak?

It should have been trained to fend against attacks from the ground rather than considering threats from the sky. That was why Dawncall had succeeded.

Wish Dawncall got it. Then, I wouldn’t have to worry about it flying in the sky anymore.

But after some thinking, he came to a conclusion that the imperial army might have fed some unique drugs to the scouting birds, and there was no telling whether having that scent would turn Dawncall into a target for the imperial army. It would be better for Dawncall to stay far away from it, just in case.

Chen Chuan turned around, gathered some dry branches, threw them around the scouting bird, and poured some highly flammable oil on them. They lit up with a single spark.

This destroyed any evidence of Dawncall attacking the scouting bird, so the imperial army wouldn’t be on guard against it. Of course, the imperial army was going to be more cautious after failing once. However, as long as they didn’t know the specific reason behind the scouting bird’s death, they wouldn’t be able to come up with any targeted measures.

Just then, he heard flapping. Dawncall flew down and puffed out its chest while chirping.

Chen Chuan had intentionally not brought Dawncall with him so that it could follow him and attack the scouting bird once it saw a chance. It did its job perfectly. So, he went over, grabbed some nutrient- and calorie-dense beans to feed it as a reward. Then, he patted it so that it would continue scouting in the sky.

Once he destroyed all evidence on the ground, he reoriented himself and continued onward. This time, Dawncall flew ahead of him to give him direction and to warn him about any danger.

Around two hours later, Dawncall chirped a few times above him.

Chen Chuan’s gaze sharpened. This was a signal that Dawncall saw something, but it was flying rather high up, and the mobile domain entity couldn’t reach it, so Chen Chuan couldn’t see anything from its Realm Pass.

However, based on its chirps, it was highly likely that there was a cavalry unit ahead. These were the most commonly deployed units from the imperial army. Cavalrymen could advance quickly, which made it easy for them to move about in the merged space.

Since they were already here, it meant that they were definitely elites.

***

The cavalry unit that had caught Ingram was nearby. It stopped upon seeing the dense forest ahead.

The beastmaster in charge of communicating with the scouting birds checked the birds in the sky and found that one of them was letting out a melancholy wail. He immediately rode to the young assistant general and gave him a fist-and-palm salute before reporting loudly, “Sir, we lost contact with one of the scouting birds.”

“Is it the one keeping an eye on the artifact?” the general asked.

“No.”

“Then, ignore it,” the general replied.

They had come to retrieve the artifact, so the person protecting it was the only one worthy of their attention.

It wasn’t that he was underestimating his enemies, but that based on the information sent from the rear, their enemies were a lead investigator from the Resolution Department and a few squad captains.

Based on their ranks, these people didn’t seem too strong, but they had defeated the Union and the Linacrox Union to get the artifact. This showed that Central City had sent someone strong.

But their cavalry unit wasn’t weak either. Aside from the general himself, he had an aide-de-camp who was about the same strength as he was, along with three royally appointed warriors with noble titles, and ten elite royally appointed warriors. Even if they couldn’t kill the person with the artifact, they could hold him back until more elites arrived.

Of course, as the general of an elite vanguard unit, he would much rather that his unit grabbed the artifact instead of someone else getting the credit.

After the brief conversation, they sent their dragon-nose horses forward. They didn’t go into the forest, but rode around it. In any case, they had the light from the artifact guiding their path. They wouldn’t lose sight of it.

***

Dawncall chirped a few more times before changing direction and flying swiftly forward. This could only mean that the enemy had changed direction.

But Chen Chuan wasn’t in a hurry to go after them. He called out to Dawncall, and the Bird Reptile immediately flew downward until it was a certain distance from him. Then, through Dawncall’s Realm Pass, he checked the situation ahead. A rolling cloud of sand stretched forward, which proved his theory true.

It was a small cavalry unit with around a hundred soldiers in it. Birds were circling above them.

After some thinking, Chen Chuan came up with a strategy and ran toward the cavalry unit.

He, too, ran alongside the forest, but not too fast. Even so, he managed to overtake the cavalry unit and soon left them behind.

Once he was sure that he could not be seen from their line of sight, he observed his surroundings and found uneven terrain ahead of him. He continued onward until he found a place he quite liked. Chen Chuan ran into the forest, where a flat bed of rock seemed to have fused with the ground. There was a cracked rock in front of it.

This place was perfect. Chen Chuan went to the crack and punched the rock.

Bang!

A large piece fell down and created a pit that could fit a person. It was the perfect hiding place.

Chen Chuan entered it and turned around to make sure that his back was turned to the wall. The “roof” of the pit could hide him. Due to the angle, even when the cavalry unit came over, the birds and the cavalrymen wouldn’t see him.

He motioned for Dawncall to stay far away before drawing the Frost King Saber from its sheath. Then, he sucked in a deep breath and slowly reined in his aura. His biofield was completely hidden, and his mind was completely focused.

The Frost King Saber sensed his mindset, hummed, and became still as well.

At that moment, its mutated tissue was practically part of Chen Chuan. Once he swung it, it would boost the power of his refined force. As the number of enemies he killed increased and as he stimulated it with his mental energy, the mutated tissue in the saber became denser and sustained more mental energy.

Before long, thundering hooves could be heard.

Chen Chuan had never trained how to determine the number of people based on footsteps or hooves, but his invisible mental energy allowed him to sense many things. In just a short breath, he could tell that there were around three hundred horses coming his way and around a hundred cavalrymen.

Despite the large number of people, they moved as one. They were definitely elites among the elite.

Based on how fast they showed up, Chen Chuan was also pretty sure that they were the vanguard of the enemy army chasing after them.

Chen Chuan waited quietly with his saber in hand.

Some time passed, and the thundering hooves drew closer. The sounds melded into one, and the stones on the ground as well as the rock serving as his cover trembled.

The thundering arrived right above him. The cavalrymen right in front of the unit jumped over the rock instead of riding around.

For the time being, Chen Chuan had no intention of attacking them. He leaned against the rock quietly. Then, he sensed a powerful biofield.

Chen Chuan shut his eyes. From the biofield and the tremors around him, the person’s information slowly flowed into him. He learned the horse and the rider’s weight and speed as well as the rider’s height, movement rhythm, and general fighting prowess.

Once the rider got closer, Chen Chuan’s eyes snapped open. He jumped forward and stepped on the other half of the rock, which made it shatter with a loud bang. Then, he charged through the air and the shattered rock straight to his target.

The general’s eyes widened under his metal mask, but he reacted quickly enough. The stimulation from extreme danger let him summon explosive strength. Not only did his mutated tissue all spread to his skin, but his spear also shone with a bright light just as he brought it up to parry the attack that was coming his way.

Chen Chuan was already next to him. He swung his saber in a large diagonal arc.

The spear and saber crashed into each other, and the lights on both weapons immediately melted. But even when the light on the spear disappeared, the light on the saber remained shining brightly.

The general saw a pair of calm eyes.

The next moment, his dragon-nose horse whined mournfully as its bones shattered and it collapsed on the ground. The general’s feet slipped out of the stirrups, and he fell beside the dragon-nose horse.

Even so, he had his spear lifted diagonally as he stared at Chen Chuan landing on his feet. Amid the rolling smoke, he saw a red scarf fluttering, and the cavalrymen around him split into two groups as they charged past him.

A moment later, the helmet and mask shattered with a loud crack before falling on the ground. They revealed a pale, young face. At the center of the youth’s brow was a red line. A breath later, he fell forward and crashed on the sand.

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