Purge

In the monitoring area at the center of the camp, the scene of Wilhelm being beheaded and dismembered was witnessed with absolute clarity by everyone, including Lenoir. The sheer violence of the sight left their minds blank for a moment, freezing every one of them in place, utterly unable to react. This was "Blue Blood" Wilhelm, ranked among the top thirty in the world! They had been unable to see the precise details of the clash, nor could they discern the back-and-forth interplay in their mutual assault. All they had witnessed was Wilhelm being struck down and killed the instant they came face-to-face. The shock and devastation it inflicted was immense; whether logically or emotionally, it was impossible for them to accept. They did not know the intruder's identity. From Chen Chuan's attire, they could tell only that it was a uniform of the Great Shun Disposal Bureau. Was he... an Investigation Supervisor? Was there any Investigation Supervisor in Great Shun ranked among the top thirty in the world? As their minds raced to find an answer, amidst the churning, dispersing clouds of dust, that figure turned around and looked toward them. The jade-like protective face mask concealed any expression, yet a chill welled up from the bottom of every onlooker's heart. The pressure this exerted was far greater than what Wilhelm had radiated moments ago. This was obvious—because the man who had previously pressured them was now divided into four unequal pieces. Suppressing the urge to flee, Lenoir stood his ground and shouted, "Send a telegram to the rear! Have the airship launch! Also, seal off the passages and have all combat personnel rally here!" They were relatively far from the entrance to the Melded Lands, and transmitting signals through the Melded Lands was notoriously difficult. Standard telegrams rarely reached the rear, leaving airships as the primary means of sending word. Thus, he needed the airship airborne immediately to carry news of what was happening here back to headquarters. Beyond delivering messages, the camp's most critical role was to serve as a foothold and major rear base for the personnel up ahead. Only with this staging ground could those at the front receive an unending stream of support, and only then could retrieved relics be safely transported back. Therefore, the camp could not be lost. No matter how powerful the enemy was, they had to hold out. Fortunately, he was not without a trump card. He looked in a certain direction. Right in the middle section of this dumbbell-shaped camp was a platform slightly elevated above ground level. Driven by electric power, the metal plating on it slid slowly open, and the baffles below parted to both sides. Then, accompanied by a piercing screech, a half-human, half-scorpion creature covered in a tough, dark brown carapace crawled out from within. This was a combat organism deployed here by the Consortium to guard the camp, named "Taks"—a mythical monster from the ancient Rhine region. When standing, the creature was about four meters tall, but possessed no distinct head. Two elongated giant pincers splitting from the sides of its body were strikingly conspicuous, clearly possessing terrifying lethal power. Along the ribs of its back ran clusters of short, sharp legs, their hooked tips gleaming with a cold, metallic luster. Yet despite its immense size, it crawled in utter silence, moving at no sluggish pace. The moment it emerged, it instinctively used the cover of buildings and shadows to scuttle swiftly toward Chen Chuan. Lenoir pulled out a cloth handkerchief to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead and swallowed a pill. At the same time, he reassured himself that Taks possessed formidable biological defenses, robust limbs, and immense physical power—surely it could hold its own against this Great Shun fighter of unknown origin. After cutting down Wilhelm, Chen Chuan glanced at the spear core on the ground, deciding to finish what needed to be done first before returning to gather everything up. At that moment, he heard the drone of propeller blades. Looking over, he saw an airship in the distance slowly ascending into the sky. He withdrew his gaze, paying it no mind. The vital signs of the personnel aboard the airship were exceedingly weak; evidently, none were fighters. The camp's true linchpin lay in its combatants. As long as they were wiped out, no matter how well-fortified the camp was, it would be useless—they wouldn't even be able to fend off the local wildlife. As for the airship returning to report, he did not care. Airships came and went every day, so news could never be kept under wraps anyway; at most, it would be delayed by half a day or a day. Once he burned down this camp and all its supplies, then toppled the mooring tower, this place would lose its ability to function as a support base. Rebuilding it wouldn't be a matter of a day or two. Moreover, he was certain that the primary combat personnel of both the Consortium and the Linakes Federation had entered the Melded Lands long ago. Even if any remained in the rear, they were merely security guards and could not easily be redeployed. Even if word reached them, there was nothing they could do. Thus, he simply stepped forward, advancing in a certain direction through the camp. But after walking only a short distance, he cast a glance toward a patch of deep shadow. Although Taks made virtually no sound as it moved, its presence was glaringly abnormal on his boundary credential. In truth, even without the boundary credential, any living organism—unless of an overwhelmingly superior tier—could not enter the range of his spiritual perception without being detected. Taks was equally perceptive. Seeing Chen Chuan look in its direction, it immediately abandoned all concealment. With a thunderous crash, it smashed through the building obstructing its path and burst onto the open clearing ahead. Letting out a shrill screech, it lowered its body and spread its two elongated giant pincers outward, loosely flanking him on both sides. Through the field monitoring feed, Lenoir watched the scene with nervous tension. As a biological weapon, Taks possessed an exceedingly tough body integrated with massive amounts of mutated tissue. Its defensive strength was staggering, its hard outer shell sufficient to withstand strikes from ordinary mutated weapons. Furthermore, it incorporated a brand-new experimental technology that allowed it to rapidly self-repair and regrow even if limbs or body parts were destroyed. Lenoir didn't expect it to defeat this fighter, but it ought to hold him off for a while. Chen Chuan stood motionless. Then, in a flash, his figure vanished and abruptly materialized directly in front of Taks. Clenching his fingers, he unleashed a shockwave that burst outward, followed by a punch slammed straight into the creature's body. Yet the impact of this punch caused remarkably little disturbance, as if the force behind it had simply vanished. Taks's two glinting eyes rolled downward to fixate on him. Chen Chuan met its gaze, standing beneath the shadow of its towering bulk, his expression entirely placid. Just as Lenoir and the onlookers thought the blow had been blocked by Taks, and before any relief could set in, the creature's massive bulk tilted slowly to one side and crashed down with a booming thud, kicking up a vast cloud of dust. Visible on its body were five distinct sunken hollows, as though the tissue inside those spots had been pulverized into mush. The expressions of Lenoir and the others instantly froze. Chen Chuan cast a passing glance at it. Moments ago, using his field and spiritual perception, he had sensed that while the creature's body was remarkably resilient, several clusters of tissue inside were abnormally dense—likely vital centers. He instinctively felt that if those areas were destroyed, even if it could keep fighting, its combat effectiveness would be drastically degraded. When his punch landed, his jin directly pulverized all of those points simultaneously. He hadn't expected that losing those few clusters of tissue would cause the creature to collapse on the spot. Cold sweat broke out across Lenoir's head once more. Trembling, he brought out the cloth to wipe his bald brow and shouted into his boundary credential, "All personnel gather! Emergency squad, evacuate the camp—" Midway through his sentence, a rustling static crackled through the boundary credential. The communication had abruptly cut out. And not just for him—every person present experienced the same failure. Even the field monitor screens washed out into blinding light, displaying nothing at all. His face drained of color as the reality hit him. The camp's informational field organism had been destroyed. At the very center of the camp, Chen Chuan stood atop a severed metal plate, slowly drawing back the Xuejun Saber after his downward strike. Through the gap into the subterranean space ahead, a field organism lay dead on the floor, copious amounts of interstitial fluid seeping from its carcass. With the death of this field organism, the camp's communications naturally collapsed, stripping everyone inside of unified command and coordination. Now, all that remained was to track down anyone in the camp who still possessed combat capability and cut them down one by one. According to Hongfu's display, he noticed that these people were all gathering in a single location. Were they trying to consolidate their strength to mount a resistance? Though unwise, it aligned well with the behavioral logic of this camp's personnel. With preserving the camp as their paramount duty, they had no alternative other than concentrating their forces to confront him. This development saved him a great deal of trouble. He wondered if the camp possessed any means to recall those who had ventured deep into the unknown region. If they actually did, that would be something he welcomed with open arms. He deliberately waited on the spot for a short while until the personnel had mostly assembled. Only then did he reach up to adjust the brim of his cap and begin walking unhurriedly toward their location. Inside the camp's monitoring area, even though all remaining armed personnel with combat capability were now gathered there, every single heart was gripped by unease. After all, they were about to face someone who had cut down Wilhelm almost at first contact. Had the intruder's display of power not fallen short of the next echelon, they might have believed a true martial artist had broken into the camp. Lenoir stared tensely at the heavy doors outside. Deprived of surveillance feeds, it was difficult to observe what lay outside, leaving them reliant on the spotter stationed outside. Just then, a dull thump sounded in the distance. He glanced out, only to see the spotter collapse to the ground. Right after that, a clerical worker not far in front of him hit the floor with a thud. As if a switch had been tripped, the technicians in the hall began dropping one by one every few moments. Judging by the progression of where people were collapsing, it drew steadily closer, showing that the enemy was advancing on them step by step, drawing ever nearer, driving the oppressive dread in their hearts to its absolute limit. After waiting for what felt like an eternity in this suffocating atmosphere, with a tremendous crash, the metal doors were knocked flat by an immense force. As light from outside poured in, a figure stood silhouetted against the daylight, saber in hand.