Yet this was reality, cruel as it was.
The Norvind Legion Commander had no choice but to accept it. His face dark, he dragged his badly wounded body away from Hot Spring Island as quickly as he could, not daring to remain there any longer.
"The show is over. Time for me to leave too."
Mavren had no fear of chaos getting bigger. Caelum’s strength was beyond imagination, and he was very curious how the situation would develop from here.
How would the Empire respond?
It was enough to make one look forward to it.
Cloudrend slid back into its sheath.
Caelum was completely unharmed. He had not even taken a heavy breath. From a distance, he raised a hand to Tekular and the others in farewell, then left with clean, effortless ease.
A bounty hunter watched Caelum’s back with trembling pupils, still holding his wanted poster.
For a moment, he felt lucky to be alive.
After personally witnessing that terrifying battle, he no longer had the courage to attack Caelum. The thought of that 5 million bounty would never again dare rise in his mind.
"So this is the strength behind a 5 million bounty..."
High above, a news bird passed quietly through the sky and took in everything on Hot Spring Island.
Before long, the Norvind Legion Commander arrived at a nearby military branch with a bloodless face.
His injuries were severe. Holding out until this point had nearly pushed him to his limit.
But the instant he pushed open the branch doors, every hair on his body rose.
His body went stiff.
Inside the branch, every officer lay on the floor, their fates unknown.
Caelum leaned against the wall.
He had clearly been waiting for some time.
"You..."
The Norvind Legion Commander had only just opened his mouth when Caelum kicked him away. He smashed through the branch wall and rolled out into the street, the pain almost dragging him into unconsciousness.
"Cough!"
He spat out blood and struggled to his feet, battered and miserable.
"Owl, what do you want?"
Caelum only smiled pleasantly.
"That battle just now did not quite satisfy me, so I came looking for some side entertainment. As it happened, you had a branch here, so I smashed it on the way."
The Norvind Legion Commander said nothing.
Anger burned through him, but he did not dare let it out. He had not been Caelum’s opponent to begin with, and now he was heavily injured. How could he possibly provoke him?
Through gritted teeth, he said, "Are you going to kill me?"
Caelum’s words struck deeper than a blade, turning the Norvind Legion Commander’s face even more ashen.
"Relax. You do not stir the slightest fighting spirit in me. I am not in the mood to kill you either."
As he spoke, an officer rushed out of the branch, trying to seize the chance to ambush Caelum from behind.
Caelum turned, pressed a hand onto the man’s head, and smashed him into the hard floor.
The ground cracked.
The officer stopped moving at once.
Caelum dusted off his hand.
"All done."
With that, he left under the Norvind Legion Commander’s furious gaze.
Veins stood out across the commander’s forehead. This was not merely a provocation against the Empire. It was a trampling of his dignity.
A humiliation beyond words.
Only then did the Hot Spring Island Incident truly come to an end.
The Executioner Unit had been wiped out. Not a single member survived.
Caelum revealed his strength and struck the Empire hard.
Hot Spring Island, as the battlefield, suffered the worst fate. Caelum had cut it into countless floating pieces, and from that day on, the island ceased to exist as it once had.
Interference Value obtained: 0.1
Interference Value: 0.1
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, had witnessed the battle.
Among them were not only civilians, but also Tekular and the rebels, along with Mavren, one of the Calamity candidates.
Only the Norvind Legion Commander had been heavily wounded.
At the News Gazette headquarters, Sito held the intelligence report on the Hot Spring Island Incident.
Without question, this was enormous news.
He hesitated over whether to publish it in the paper.
If he printed it, the News Gazette’s name would spread at once, and its business could expand rapidly.
But doing so also meant offending the Empire’s upper ranks.
Publishing an incident that damaged the Empire’s authority to such a degree would certainly cause terrible consequences for the Empire.
Sito thought for a long time.
Then he clenched his teeth and made his choice.
"If I offend them, then so be it. They should not be able to do much to me anyway."
After the Saliver family was exterminated, Sito had left News Town and hidden the News Gazette headquarters.
He no longer published newspapers from a fixed location. Instead, he had completely switched to distributing them through news birds.
This way, even if the Empire wanted to trouble him, it would have nowhere to start.
Nor could it forbid the spread of the News Gazette.
In the near future, news birds would carry the paper to every corner of the Empire.
A giant that would monopolize the Empire’s newspaper industry was rising.
Sito personally wrote the report on the Hot Spring Island Incident and placed it on the front page.
Of course, he did not know everything.
Only a very small number of people knew of the Executioner Unit’s existence. Since Sito did not know who they were, he treated them as hidden high level combat strength from the five Legions.
To make the report more eye catching and spark discussion, Sito boldly gave Caelum the title World’s Strongest Sword Master in the article.
He had written it that way to draw attention and increase the News Gazette’s sales, but there was no exaggeration in the article itself.
Owl truly was that strong.
At the very least, Sito had never seen a swordsman so powerful. He felt there was nothing wrong with placing the title of strongest swordsman on Owl.
Once the article was finished, the paper went to print.
Soon, copies of the News Gazette were carried by news birds to different places, spreading this explosive story.
Although the News Gazette could currently cover only part of the south, that was already enough.
This explosive news would sweep through the entire Empire like a hurricane.
"The Empire suffers a crushing defeat. Pursuit force wiped out after battle with Owl?"
"World’s Strongest Sword Master?"
Things unfolded exactly as Sito had predicted.
The moment this issue of the News Gazette was released, it caused an unprecedented sensation throughout the Empire.
Sales rose at a frantic speed.
When commoners saw the front page headline, they were left wide eyed and speechless.
Through the News Gazette’s spread, the Hot Spring Island Incident first caused waves in the south, then quickly spread north, and finally across the entire Empire.
Countless people were shaken.
Facing the powerful Empire, everyone had believed Owl would soon be dragged onto the execution platform.
No one had expected the matter to develop in such an astonishing direction.
It was almost impossible to believe.
"The entire island was shattered in that battle?"
"Is that real? Can it really be that exaggerated? No matter how strong a person is, there should still be a limit!"
The scenes described in the news were difficult for people to imagine.
It was hard to believe one person could possess the terrifying power to destroy an entire island.
In truth, the battle on Hot Spring Island had been even fiercer and more shocking than Sito’s article described.
After all, he had not experienced it personally and naturally could not provide a more detailed account.
Across the entire article, only one fact was absolutely clear.
In that top level battle, even the Norvind Legion Commander had only been qualified to watch.
The combat force sent by the Empire had been terrifyingly powerful, yet Owl had wiped them all out alone.
And Hot Spring Island, the battlefield itself, had been nearly destroyed.