Book 4, Chapter 108: Revisiting

Chen Chuan drove to Motie Mountain. As he turned his steering wheel, he was once again reminded of the fact that all of Martial Valor University’s students possessed the potential for great growth.

After all, they were elites who had gone through two rounds of screening. If they had the correct platform and plenty of resources, they were definitely going to succeed.

Gao Ming had said that this was a built-in support system for Chen Chuan, and he was right. Compared to the officers in the Resolution Department, those who graduated from Yangzhi City trusted him more and were naturally inclined to side with him.

Besides, aside from his friends, he also considered recruiting Geng Zheng’s group.

But he wasn’t close to those three, so it was kind of impossible for him to treat them the same way as his friends. He intended to recruit them only after his friends improved.

This meant that it would take some time.

He reached the mountain path, which led to Cao Guiqi’s house. In October, the leaves of the maple trees had turned red. As the wind blew, gold and red leaves danced with it before landing on the ground.

When he reached the gate, Mr. Ding was already waiting for him. Once Chen Chuan got out, he greeted him respectfully before bringing him into the manor. “The young master is in the garden.”

Chen Chuan followed him. Before they even reached the garden, he heard the sound of the xun. [1] The sound was gentle and melancholy, and the notes lingered in the air, just like the bleakness of autumn.

He stood still and listened for a while. When the song ended, he walked into the garden.

“Sit.”

Cao Guiqi was dressed in crimson, and he wore a headband with inlaid jades. He was sitting in an exquisite stone pavilion, and a white xun was placed on the table. In the lake not far away were several cranes flapping their wings while playing. They looked like they were dancing.

Once Chen Chuan settled down, Mr. Ding came up and picked up a purple clay pot with black lacquer and gold decorations to serve him a cup of tea.

Chen Chuan nodded as thanks and took a sip before saying, “I’ll be going on a work trip, and it might take quite a bit of time, so I decided to come here and tell you about it.”

Cao Guiqi mulled over what he said for a brief moment before asking, “Is it the merged space?”

Chen Chuan didn’t hide it. “Yes.”

Mr. Ding raised his head and gave Chen Chuan a searching look.

“I’ve heard of the things that have been happening in Central City recently,” Cao Guiqi said. While he did not ask Chen Chuan for the details, he could guess what he was going there for.

Considering Chen Chuan’s current rank, he was bound to be involved in the fight between the government and the companies. Due to his high position, there were certain responsibilities he couldn’t run away from.

“Bring me the plate, Mr. Ding,” he said, and Mr. Ding bowed before leaving.

Soon, he came back and put a plate on the table. “You requested this, Young Master.”

Chen Chuan cast it a glance and found that it was made in the style of the royal family. There were complicated patterns of clouds and lightning on the sides, while at the center was one word: Travel.

“I was gifted this with the hope that I would do certain things, but I will never use it. Times have changed, but some people are still dreaming about the past.” Cao Guiqi scoffed. His tone suggested that he was indifferent toward these people.

“If you’re going to the merged space, take it with you. It might be useful. Of course, it would be much better if you didn’t end up using it.”

Chen Chuan didn’t reject the gift. He could tell that Cao Guiqi really didn’t care about it and wanted it out of his sight. If that were the case, he would help by taking it.

Cao Guiqi picked up his xun again and started playing it. When the cranes heard it, they started flapping their wings and hopping about, which made them look lively and carefree.

Chen Chuan listened quietly.

He didn’t stay for long, only for around an hour before leaving.

Then, he went straight to his house and ignored everything else in favor of simply focusing on doing the final checks and preparations before he left.

At 4 a.m. on the eleventh of October, Chen Chuan got out of his meditative state, took a shower, and started putting on the uniform of a lead investigator while facing the mirror.

This time, aside from this uniform, he also packed multiple sets of clothes. Among them were several overcoats. He was going to be traversing the merged space, and clothes wore out easily, so he had to prepare more of them.

Once he righted his hat, he checked his reflection and grabbed the Frost King Saber and the luggage bag. Then, he left his room.

Since the tram station leading to the tunnel he was going to be using was only around ten minutes away on foot, Chen Chuan didn’t drive but just walked there.

Soon, he entered the tram station and took the elevator to the bottom. It was 4:20 a.m. at this point. When he stepped out of the elevator and stood in front of the stop point, Advisor Pei was already waiting for him, so he went up to him to shake his hand.

Advisor Pei noticed Dawncall. He had always known that Chen Chuan had a pet, but upon seeing it, he could tell that it was no ordinary creature. Chen Chuan would have brought it for a reason, so he didn’t ask any questions.

They only waited for a few minutes before a train entered the station right at 4:30 a.m.. Both of them got on.

After settling down, Advisor Pei took a deck of cards out and smiled. “We’re going to be sitting in the train for an entire day. Fancy a game of cards?”

“Just the two of us?” Chen Chuan asked.

Advisor Pei waved at an assistant, and once he sat down beside them, Advisor Pei handed the deck over for the assistant to shuffle the cards. When he got his cards, Advisor Pei said, “The imperial army, the Union and the Linacrox Union, and the Department of Administrative Affairs. The three of them are fighting each other right now, just like us.”

He checked his cards and found that he had the strongest card. He grinned. “Looks like I have a chance of winning this time.”

Even though the assistant had already dealt a few cards to Chen Chuan, he didn’t take them. Instead, he said, “The one with the strongest card isn’t the one with the highest chance of winning. It’s the person who has the best chance of turning the tides around.”

Advisor Pei froze for a moment, then nodded.

***

At 5 a.m., the train entered the merged space and continued onward. By 4 p.m., it reached the train station near a military fort.

Chen Chuan looked outside. This fort was different from Fort 4. It was at least three times bigger and had a lot more soldiers stationed around it.

Permanent camps were set up around it, and it had a large number of sentry towers. Barricades and barbed wire were everywhere, and he could smell the pungent scent of gunpowder. He could even see some mangled carcasses of merged space creatures that hadn’t been disposed of.

Advisor Pei said, “This is Fort 3, which is closest to the depths of the merged space. If you head further in, you’ll only find small sentry towers that aren’t connected by a road. We’ll be staying here for the night.

“Tomorrow, I’ll send you to a hub where the locals gather via airship. We’ve made contact with the people there before. If you set out from there, you should be able to save up on a lot of travel time.”

Chen Chuan nodded. He didn’t need to rest, but he did need to understand the situation in the merged space, and the military fort was where information was the most centralized. Besides, he also needed to grab some mode of transportation.

Once the train stopped, Advisor Pei put on his hat. “Let’s get off, Lead Investigator Chen.”

Chen Chuan stood up and got out of the VIP cabin. The logistician behind them came forward to grab his luggage bag and smiled at Dawncall. Then, he tried to lift it up, only to find that the luggage bag was too heavy. He couldn’t move it at all.

Dawncall regarded the logistician curiously from its perch on the luggage bag and tilted its head to think for a bit before chirping and jumping off the luggage bag.

The logistician exhaled and tried again, but he still couldn’t make it budge. When he sensed Dawncall staring at him expectantly, his face started burning.

Chen Chuan walked over and said, “I’ll do it.”

He grabbed the backstrap of the luggage bag and lifted it easily off the floor before giving the embarrassed logistician a nod. Once he got off the train, he got the wheels down and put the luggage bag on the ground.

At that moment, he looked up. It had been some time since he entered the merged space, but it hadn’t changed much. The sky was as dreary as he remembered it to be.

The sound of flapping wings came from behind him, and Dawncall flew out of the train to immediately circle above him. It seemed like the environment here suited it well, since it started chirping happily.

Chen Chuan had already put a Vitalization Cable in it, so he checked Dawncall’s vitalization rate. The one had already jumped to three before skipping to five, but as Dawncall began using the breathing technique, the number did not continue rising.

He nodded approvingly. It seemed like the breathing technique was really useful.

Advisor Pei came out with his own luggage bag and looked into the distance. “Our ride is here.”

A convertible SUV came over and stopped near them. Then, a second lieutenant by the name of Dai Hu stepped out and saluted them.

“Sir, I’ve come on orders to welcome you. Please get in.”

Advisor Pei and Chen Chuan saluted him back and got into the SUV.

Once Chen Chuan sat down, he found that he could use his Realm Pass here, so he checked the map the World Ring Defense System had given him. According to the mark on the map, Fort 3 was located in the north, and it was surrounded by smaller forts. There were thousands of soldiers stationed here.

Chen Chuan needed to head further north, and despite Advisor Pei making it sound like he could travel in his preferred way, there was really only an aerial route available. It could also only bring him to the border of the region he had to enter.

While he was reading the map, a sentry tower suddenly sent a signal flare, and he heard the sound of machine guns.

Dawncall also gave him a warning chirp. When he looked up, he saw a large winged creature zipping over from behind them.

1. A Chinese instrument similar to an ocarina, but it has a more mellow, rounder sound. ☜

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