Book 6: Chapter 30: Pursuit
More than two hours later, Qin Lun returned to the ruined building where he had rested the night before. He peered through the broken wall. This abandoned tower had twelve or thirteen floors. About three or four hundred meters straight ahead stood the fortress of the “Celestial Wheel” branch.
Qin Lun had escaped the military fortress over ten minutes ago. He had thought he would need to use his coveted Sixth Tier “Shadow Cloak” scroll, but unexpectedly, less than half an hour after sneaking back into the fortress, the entire situation had undergone a drastic change.
Unlike Qin Lun’s infiltration the previous night, the warehouse fire had pointed the way for the thirty-plus Apostles who entered the military fortress that morning. They quickly found the Apostle Mech, mostly intact. Naturally, they also saw the remains of over a hundred Atlanteans reduced to charcoal in the flames.
Seeing the Apostle Mech worth a million Shattered Crystals, these Apostles instantly understood what those fragmented blueprints in their hands truly were. With the mech present, the scene of slaughter suggesting killing to silence witnesses, and the supporting evidence from Black Rat and Silver Sail, these Apostles almost completely believed in the authenticity of the Treasure Map.
While initially blind to the blueprint fragments’ strangeness, now everyone employed various identification methods to examine their pieces. They finally discovered the fine, silken circuits concealed within the paper.
The one thing Qin Lun failed to predict accurately, however, was what happened after the Apostles uncovered the Treasure Map’s “secret.” Their tense stand-off, held together by fragile alliance, instantly dissolved into nothing. The encirclement against Qin Lun crumbled. Instead, each Apostle grew fearful, afraid others would attack them for possessing a fragment.
Including the swordsman and the sniper, all the Apostles fled the military fortress at top speed. No one wanted to trigger a free-for-all under such circumstances. Everyone preferred to use stealth and surprise over the coming two weeks, targeting other fragment holders.
Whether these Apostles immediately started tailing each other upon leaving remained unknown. But at that moment, every Apostle present realized their initial, cautious patience had utterly failed.
Everyone understood the Treasure Map could never be made whole again. Yet, the more fragments one possessed, the closer one got to the treasure location. Once the treasure was accessed by any single Apostle, it likely wouldn’t reappear for the entire duration of the Domination War.