An Understated Dominance (Dustin Rhys)

“Here’s the problem-even if we know Warrick’s intentions, how do we stop him?

“Austin asked.

Right now, Warrick had already disappeared without a trace. Austin’s team hadn’t even come close enough to get a hold of him, so there was no way to track him down.

West Lucozia’s vast territory and resources made it impossible to seal off every exit route completely. While it might be manageable in the short term, prolonging such an operation would significantly impact West Lucozia’s economy. Wasting resources on a single fugitive wasn’t a wise move.

“Warrick is a wanted man across the entire city. There’s no way he’s leaving through official channels. He’ll have to sneak his way out,” Dustin analyzed.

He continued, “According to the maritime charts, if he’s traveling from West Lucozia to Artea, he’ll have to go through Thaloria. That’s our lead. Get someone on it immediately-find out how many smuggling routes there are from West Lucozia to Thaloria.”

“Got it. I’ll get it done right away,” Austin replied with a nod. He quickly summoned his guards and relayed the orders.

The castle’s intelligence network worked efficiently. In less than half an hour, a special route map was delivered to Austin.

As he spread it out, he saw dozens of winding paths-all leading from West Lucozia’s border to various docks and ports in Thaloria. However, five of these routes were marked in bright red, which stood out sharply.

These routes weren’t found on any standard map, and few knew they existed. In other words, they were the secret channels used by smugglers. Unscrupulous merchants and corrupt officials had long exploited these routes for profit.

aware of them for some time but had chosen not to take action. Cracking down on them would be a massive

was like allowing a dangerous situation to fester, knowing it

Austin said, pointing at the map. “If your guess is right, Warrick

martial artist, and his senses are razor-sharp. If we send too many troops to lay an ambush, it’ll be too obvious, and we’ll alert him before we get a

startled bird, and

large force, it’ll tip him off. But if we only send a handful

escape from the castle.

of them. It was nowhere near enough to cover all possible smuggling routes. Splitting them up would

Hall of

Dustin said coolly. “Just deploy your forces to seal off four

by ‘ lure him out.’

blocking four routes and deliberately leaving one open, they would give Warrick the false hope that he could escape. Dustin would then wait at the exit and capture him the moment he walked into

a clever strategy that wouldn’t raise any suspicion but

it. Even top-ranked martial artists on the Champ-Tier List had fallen

Warrick had only himself to blame for provoking the

search operation in Celestria, the

had to put

door behind a bookshelf