Book 4, Chapter 177: Hold Fast, And A Clear Path Will Appear

At noon, Chen Chuan closed the gap. Three more existences had crawled out during the night.

They weren’t too strong, so he got rid of them easily, but they were different from the one he encountered the first time and didn’t leave anything of value behind. This meant that the first one he saw was a rare one.

It made sense. After all, his gap was insignificant in terms of size. It was likely that only weak creatures would show up near the World Ring.

Chen Chuan packed up everything, opened the door, and said to the pilot, “Thanks for your hard work.”

Despite working overnight, the pilot remained energetic. “It wasn’t hard at all. I heard from the company about why you did this. It’s only right to take those Linacrox Union dogs down a peg.”

Chen Chuan took a moment to figure out what he meant. Did they think that he came here in response to the Linacrox Union’s martial arts master?

It wasn’t strange for them to think that, since they didn’t know the truth of the situation.

The airship soon returned to the harbor, and Chen Chuan regained signal. Once he got out of the airship, he received a call from Huang Weiyi, an agent he had sent to investigate United Might.

The man had played a rather huge role, and Chen Chuan was pretty satisfied with his work. He was also a sensible man, so if he called Chen Chuan at this point in time...

He answered the call. “How can I help you, Mr. Huang?”

Huang Weiyi sounded flattered. “You still remember me, Lead Investigator Chen? Since I worked with you before, someone asked me to send a message to you.

“I’m just acting as a messenger! I know that I’m not qualified to actually call you. If I’ve offended you in any way, please be merciful and not hold it against me.”

“Maybe we can just cut to the chase,” Chen Chuan said.

“Okay. Someone as important as you asked me to send a message to you. He’d like to see you,” Huang Weiyi said and sent the screenshot of a message to him.

Chen Chuan took a look. The person was from the refined training faction, and he wanted to meet him at the rest stop in White Hall Checkpoint, which was in the western area of the city.

At the end of the written message, there was a personal seal of a martial arts master. Every one of them had a unique one, and it seemed like this man was called... Long Xiang.

A martial arts master from the refined training faction?

It seemed like the municipal government sent him.

Long Xiang was polite, if a little cold and detached. He had also asked Huang Weiyi to contact him instead of sending some stranger and suggested meeting outside the city, perhaps to hint that he wasn’t here to represent the municipal government but as a third party.

After some consideration, Chen Chuan said, “I understand. You won’t have to be involved in this any further, Mr. Huang.”

As if he had been spared from a huge burden, Huang Weiyi happily agreed to it and meekly ended the call.

Once Chen Chuan got into his car, he called the signal provided in the message. The moment it went through, he said, “Mr. Long?”

Long Xiang laughed before saying calmly and steadily, “It’s me, Long Xiang. Good day to you, Lead Investigator Chen.”

His boisterous laughter was immediately followed by him speaking in a cold and aloof manner, which made Long Xiang seem a little off in the head, but Chen Chuan remained calm. Martial arts masters usually gave up on something or embraced some habit to surpass the Third Limit. The more obvious their quirks were, the greater their strength, so Long Xiang’s behavior wasn’t out of the ordinary.

Long Xiang continued, but his tone became more relaxed and wasn’t at all aggressive. “The municipal government asked me to come here. I’m pretty sure that you know why they did it. Honestly, though, I don’t think that it’s a good solution. I support your decision to punish the ones who offended you.

“But I’m part of the refined training faction, and I have to protect the faction’s interests, so I’d like to meet you and tell you what I think about this. If you find my suggestions useful, feel free to adopt them. If not, just ignore them. Just do whatever you need to do. What do you say?”

Chen Chuan considered it. “I’m free now, so I can drop by in a bit.”

“Haha! I’ll wait for you, then.”

Once Chen Chuan ended the call, he took a turn at the junction and headed to the western side of Central City.

Their conversation had been pretty friendly, while practically all the organizations in Central City were waiting for their upcoming meeting with bated breath.

Many politicians from the municipal government stared at the screen, which was showing Chen Chuan’s car heading west. Clearly, he had agreed to the meeting, and they sighed in relief.

“If only we had our own martial arts master.”

No one responded to the person. Train up their own martial arts master? That was impossible. Once a martial artist became a martial arts master, the politicians would immediately lose power over them.

Martial arts masters couldn’t be controlled and treated as their own power. The politicians would much rather use money and technology to cultivate an obedient active biosentient entity. It was also precisely because they didn’t have a martial arts master that they had gotten the Union’s support so easily.

“Let’s endure this a little longer. The Union has agreed to support us in cultivating our active biosentient entity, so we should just make a concession and get through this period. Then, we’ll be able to return to the negotiating table,” a politician said.

***

While on his way to the rest stop, Chen Chuan noticed traffic getting scarcer. Soon, not a single car could be seen, which made the road look really spacious.

The Department of Administrative Affairs had to have learned that he was going to meet Long Xiang and rerouted all traffic by closing the road.

While looking at the seemingly endless road and tall skyscrapers around him, Chen Chuan felt as if he was the only one left in the city or stepped away from all the hustle and bustle of the city.

To a certain extent, that was true.

He stepped on the gas pedal and sped up. Then, he started thinking. Perhaps he would have more fun in the silver Lightning Flash.

All the lights were green down the road, and in less than an hour, he drove through two districts and got on the western public road.

After a little over ten minutes, he arrived at White Hall Checkpoint.

There was another limousine parked there, and a middle-aged man in sunglasses as well as a cold face was patiently waiting for him.

Chen Chuan parked his car around one hundred meters away, got out, repositioned his hat, and walked over.

The patrol cars and guards near the checkpoint had all left. They were the only two people left on the deserted road.

Once Chen Chuan came over, Long Xiang removed his sunglasses to reveal black eyes and tiny, black scales near his eyes. He pulled his biofield back, extended his hand, laughed, and smiled. “Hello, Lead Investigator Chen. I’m Long Xiang of the refined training faction.”

Chen Chuan pulled his biofield back too and shook his hand. “I’m Chen Chuan of the purity faction.”

Long Xiang continued, “I came here today just as a bridge. Since they offended you, it’s only right for you to fight back. The municipal government has realized their mistake, and they would like you to give them a chance to make it up to you.

“I won’t beat around the bush and will just tell you what they’re willing to offer. To make up for damaging the Resolution Department’s and your reputation, they’re willing to provide you with all the necessary training resources for a time with no conditions attached.”

Chen Chuan watched him for a bit. He wouldn’t have even bothered to acknowledge the municipal government if they didn’t stand in his way. He also wouldn’t have attacked them right away, but would have rather waited for a proper chance if he did want to take them down.

In truth, if the Department of Administrative Affairs really wanted him to fight against the municipal government, they needed to provide him with resources to make up for the amount of energy he would burn up in the process.

Since the Department of Administrative Affairs wasn’t doing that, Chen Chuan had no interest in going beyond his duties. If the municipal government was willing to give him the resources he needed, he wasn’t going to say no.

Yao Zhiyi had told him to hold fast and get all that he could. This was precisely what he meant.

“How long are we talking about?” he asked.

Long Xiang grinned. “That depends on how much of a threat you are. If you aren’t as threatening as they think you are, I don’t think they’ll be willing to offer you much. But if you’re more threatening than they think, they’ll give you a great offer.

“Are you curious as to why I’m telling you all these things?

“It’s simple. While there are quite a number of refined training faction members in the municipal government, no matter what I do, it won’t affect the amount of resources I get from them. In the future, though, I might have to meet you often, and I think it’ll be easier for us to talk to each other if we’re honest. It’ll skip us a lot of unnecessary trouble and conflict.”

Chen Chuan continued watching him. “I have a question. How are they going to evaluate how dangerous I am?”

Long Xiang laughed before sighing. “We’re now in the part I don’t like, but this is a task the faction gave me, so I can’t say no. We can answer that question through a fight. Don’t worry, the municipal government will compensate us with resources for the energy we’ll use up.

“If you win, the municipal government will provide you with training resources for the next three years.

“If you lose, the municipal government will provide you with one year of training resources, but during that period of time, they’d like you to not interfere in anything that they do. Of course, they won’t infringe on your personal interests. What do you think of that?”

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