Chapter 243: Wanted Poster
After this incident, Caelum left an indelible impression on Hardaway and everyone present that day.
Hardaway secretly swore that the next time he met Caelum, he would at least possess the strength to remain conscious.
This time, he had not even been qualified to stand on the battlefield.
It was undoubtedly a tremendous blow to him.
Even though he knew Caelum’s strength was beyond imagination, that was no reason for him to tolerate his own weakness.
As a soldier, setbacks would only make him braver.
As long as he had a clear and concrete goal, what came next was to chase after it by any means necessary.
Very soon, the Blackwood City Incident and Caelum’s information were reported together to the imperial capital.
They stirred up quite a commotion among the Empire’s upper ranks.
After all, the defeat of a Legion Commander was no small matter.
Allowing such a dangerous figure to move freely within the Empire was an enormous threat that neither the Empire nor the nobles could ignore.
The imperial capital, Army Headquarters.
A sturdy man with graying temples held Caelum’s portrait in his hand.
He was the supreme Marshal of the Imperial Army, Garran.
The Empire had two Grand Marshals.
One was Garran, Marshal of the Army.
The other was Evran, Marshal of the Navy.
Both of them came from royal bloodlines, and their combat power stood above the five Legion Commanders.
Although Garran was getting on in years, he was not yet old and frail.
Even at sixty, he remained vigorous.
When he stood, he was like an iron tower.
Full of energy and extremely strong.
"This kid is far too young. At around twenty, he already has such terrifying strength. If he continues to grow, that will be something else."
"Yes."
His subordinate said, "This is not a criminal ordinary people can handle. After all, even the First Legion Commander fell at his hands."
"Troublesome."
Garran looked relaxed, but his eyes were extremely grave.
According to the intelligence report, this kid’s Conqueror Haki was very powerful.
As for exactly how powerful, that was still unclear for now.
In any case, of those present at the time, no one aside from Theron had been able to remain conscious.
From this, it could be inferred that without Legion Commander level combat power, one was not even qualified to be his opponent.
Garran sighed in admiration.
"Conqueror Haki can actually be this strong. Young people these days are frightening."
Even if the Empire issued a bounty for someone like this, what of it?
There was no need to expect anyone to truly collect the reward.
Still, they had to make their stance clear.
After reading through all of Caelum’s intelligence, Garran ordered, "Issue the wanted poster. Also, send someone to test this kid’s attitude."
"As long as he is willing to submit to the Empire, money, women, reputation, and status can all be provided to satisfy his demands."
It would be a true waste if such combat power could not be used by the Empire.
"Yes!"
The subordinate immediately went to carry out the order.
The Empire transmitted intelligence very quickly.
Although they had nothing like telephones, they seemed to have used some unknown Imperial Relic to construct a network capable of rapidly transmitting information.
The scale of this intelligence network was not very large.
Even so, it was already enough for the Empire’s upper ranks to use it to communicate with military branches across the nation.
Before officially placing Caelum on the nationwide wanted list, the military followed Marshal Garran’s orders and tried to find Caelum for a conversation.
Unfortunately, Caelum’s whereabouts were unknown.
He was already no longer in Blackwood City.
After failing to find any trace of Caelum for some time, the military’s patience quickly ran out.
They decided not to waste any more time.
With a single order, Caelum became wanted nationwide.
They still did not know Caelum’s real name, so the name field on the wanted poster was left blank.
They could only use his blade, Cloudrend, as an identifying reference.
Once this wanted poster was issued, it was quickly posted on bulletin boards across the country.
As time passed, the spectators who had experienced the Blackwood City Incident that day gradually spread Caelum’s name.
When people heard that Caelum possessed swordsmanship capable of splitting the earth and had defeated the First Legion Commander of the Empire, countless people were shaken.
A Legion Commander was one of the Empire’s core high level fighters.
And this was the First Legion Commander, the strongest among the five Legion Commanders.
He was second only to the Empire’s two Grand Marshals.
Such a rumor was far too difficult to believe.
Many people thought it was only gossip.
But anyone who visited Blackwood City would understand.
This was definitely not a rumor.
Those two enormous slash marks lay right there before their eyes.
They had no choice but to believe the truth.
And so, the rumors intensified.
Caelum’s name gradually resounded throughout the Empire, causing an enormous uproar and drawing heated discussion and admiration from countless people.
Yellow sand rolled across the land.
Fierce wind howled.
Caelum was wrapped tightly in a white robe, with a headscarf around his head to shield against the sun and sand.
In his hand, he held his own wanted poster.
He said with satisfaction, "The drawing is quite good."
A gust of wind mixed with yellow sand swept past, carrying the wanted poster in his hand high into the air.
Beneath the scorching heat, Caelum left a series of footprints across the desert.
They were soon erased by wind and sand.
Hartstead.
Cries of surprise rose one after another in the sword training hall.
On this day, the master obtained a wanted poster from a passing caravan.
After bringing it back to the training hall, he immediately drew a crowd of onlookers.
Cerys held the wanted poster in her hand.
The long string of zeroes beneath the bounty made her head go numb.
More importantly, there were the descriptions on the poster.
Extremely dangerous.
Grand Sword Master.
The disciples cried out in surprise.
"Morven is amazing!"
How was this a wanted poster?
It was clearly a nationwide declaration from the Empire regarding Caelum.
They had acknowledged Caelum’s title as a Grand Sword Master and recognized his immense strength.
Cerys was extremely envious.
"With Morven’s strength, this was only a matter of time."
"Cerys, how much is the bounty?"
"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands... two million!"
"Two million gold coins?"
"Hiss."
To the townspeople of Hartstead, let alone one thousand gold coins, even a dozen gold coins were a tremendous sum.
They could not imagine what kind of number two million gold coins represented.
"Haha!"
The master laughed heartily.
He was especially happy today.
"Morven has become a major figure. Our Cloudrift Style has finally become famous throughout the world!"
At a certain rebel stronghold.
Cedran lay on a sickbed, his entire body wrapped in bandages.
He had been severely injured this time.
The bones throughout his body had nearly been shattered.
Now, only his eyes could basically move.
"Your old friend has really become famous this time."
Selene brought Caelum’s wanted poster over for Cedran to see.
She teased him.
"A bounty of two million. Compared with him, your mere thousand is far too little. It is not even a fraction."
Cedran’s eyes widened.
There was shock in his gaze, and also a trace of something that felt natural.
After all, Caelum’s strength truly was powerful beyond reason.
This bounty matched his strength.
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