Chapter 680 - 31: Contact

Onboard the ocean liner, Chen Chuan didn’t waste this last stretch of time. Aside from watching some of the ship’s entertainment and occasionally relaxing, he spent the rest of his time pondering Force Techniques.

Currently, Scattering Hand was his main combat style, and the Hard and Soft Power he had previously honed was largely sufficient. As for the forces of Capture and Wrestling Takedown, those could be put on the back burner; for now, they were merely auxiliary.

These things had to be done step by step. He needed to fight different opponents, constantly gain new insights, and elevate his understanding to perfect them.

Nakagami Hiroshi, whom he had encountered before, was actually a good opponent. The man himself wasn’t high-level and had been dominated by the parasitic spirit behind him. His expression of Power was commendable, but since he was limited by his physical body, he couldn’t exert too much strength. This made him an excellent sparring partner.

Too bad there was only one of him.

After he returned, he could practice with Hong Fu. However, Hong Fu had only mastered the Powers from Wuyi Academy. What he needed now was to witness different combat styles and more diverse Force Techniques. That was the only way his own Power could develop more variations, enriching his personal combat style.

With the solid foundation laid by the Circulation Technique, he possessed infinite possibilities. In his vision, he could apply different Powers for different situations.

But this could only be achieved one step at a time. Looking on the bright side, it wasn’t a bad situation. He could witness his own constant progress, forever maintaining a fresh sense of ambition.

It was now nighttime. Beneath a star-dusted sky, the cruise ship sailed across the great sea. The soothing tones of song, dance, and music could be faintly heard from the deck, while below was the sound of the ocean waves.

He stood by the ship’s rail, looking at the starry sky. Even now, Pure Essence was still appearing from time to time, which meant the breach in the World Ring had yet to be sealed.

He had no intention of letting this Pure Essence go to waste. Although the amount the Pure Sect had promised to supply him should have been enough, this stuff was undoubtedly of great benefit to him. Every extra bit he obtained could buy him a little more time.

After lingering on the observation deck for a while, he headed back, preparing to once again spend the entire night in seated meditation.

But the moment he walked into his cabin, he suddenly felt something was amiss. He heard a THUMP, THUMP sound in his mind, as if another heart was beating in here.

He glanced around. Chaoming was asleep, and there was no movement from that direction. His gaze then shifted, landing on the long, rectangular package set to one side.

Inside it was the object that looked like a section of a spinal column.

He walked closer and placed a hand on it. The thumping sound vanished instantly, as if it had just been some sort of hallucination. A thought flickered through his mind, and he tried to probe it with his Spiritual Sensing.

Instantly, he felt as if he had sunk into a stretch of dim, exceptionally viscous seawater. And right there, just a stone’s throw away, seemed to exist a colossal creature.

The creature seemed to have been in a deep slumber, but now, as if sensing something, it appeared to be slowly waking up.

A glint flashed in his eyes. He didn’t continue, because he was unsure if pressing on would affect the others on the cruise ship. He decided it was better to wait until he returned. With that, he withdrew his spirit, and in an instant, the strange sensation around him vanished completely. Everything returned to normal.

He glanced at his Second Self. A faint, illusory image had appeared on it, but as he pulled back, it quickly faded away.

He walked to the edge of his private balcony and reached for the door handle. As his gaze fell, he saw several dead flying insects on the ground, clearly a result of what had just happened. He stared for a moment, then slowly closed the door and returned to the training room for his seated meditation.

On August 28th, after a continuous eight-day voyage, the cruise ship returned to Jibei Dao.

This time, however, it didn’t dock at Yuanwang Port, but at the seaport in the Ji Yang District of Central City.

Chen Chuan stood on his private balcony, looking at the skyscrapers dotting the skyline of Central City ahead. Even though he hadn’t put on his Realm Token yet, he could already use his newly acquired Spiritual Power to sense the numerous Domains emanating from within the city.

The information was simply too messy and chaotic to distinguish clearly, becoming nothing more than noisy interference.

There was also the hole in the sky. Although he couldn’t see it at the moment, he could sense it with his spirit. It was most likely the leak from the damaged World Ring. He always felt as if something was trying to crawl out from within it, to the point that his Second Self was directly showing faint signs of becoming illusory.

This was because his Spiritual Power was too high, which attracted that corruption. But thanks to the protective layer from the Fumu, it didn’t have too great of an effect on him.

Still, looking at it for too long was uncomfortable. It was like a normal person trying to stare directly at the sun—even if they could bear it for a little while, they couldn’t keep looking indefinitely.

In truth, sensing things this way could also be considered a method of spiritual training, but its efficiency was far too low, much worse than ordinary spiritual cultivation methods. Probably only those who lacked cultivation resources but were born with sufficiently high Spiritual Power would ever use it, and even then, they would be extremely likely to develop problems due to the corruption.

After watching for a while, he retracted his spirit and put on his Realm Token, the one for his role as Investigation Chief.

Information connected in an instant.

The voice of An Shield sounded in his ear:

"Hello, Manager Chen. An Shield at your service. The port is currently operating smoothly, and land traffic is clear. Your private car and security personnel are already at the port awaiting your arrival."

Chen Chuan picked up a hot drink and took a sip. "Thanks, An Shield."

"You’re too kind. It’s my pleasure to be of service."

Chen Chuan patted Chaoming, who was beside him. Chaoming immediately spread its wings, took flight, and emerged from the cruise ship, soaring into the sky in moments. Chen Chuan, meanwhile, returned to his room, picked up his already-packed luggage, and walked out.

Because he had booked a first-class cabin, he was among the first group of passengers to disembark. He had just stepped off the gangway when An Shield’s voice sounded once more.

"An unknown communication channel is attempting to contact you. The scan indicates that the other party is from the ’Gray Shell Affairs Hall.’"

Chen Chuan asked, "The ’Gray Shell Affairs Hall’?"

Hearing his question, An Shield immediately displayed information about this affairs hall on his Realm Token.

He looked at the introduction. The hall’s business was quite extensive, with most of it related to political activities, including regulatory protection, lobbying, crisis management, secret negotiations and liaisons, as well as transnational business activities, and so on.

What this firm did was actually similar to some high-end consulting companies, but it was more targeted. It primarily served the disciples of high-ranking government officials or corporate executives, or even the managers themselves.

After reading it, he said, "Check the identity of the sender."

Almost in the next second, An Shield responded:

"Contact name verified: Ji Xinmin, agent of the Gray Shell Affairs Hall, Third Limit Fighter, male, thirty-five years old... Further data inquiry is blocked by protocol and temporarily unavailable. Would you like to request special clearance from the Bureau?"

Chen Chuan said, "No need."

Seeing the name Ji Xinmin, he knew who the other party was. This so-called Gray Shell Affairs Hall was likely an operational arm of the Refinement Sect.

"Manager Chen, shall I connect the communication signal?"

Chen Chuan replied, "Ignore it."

Meanwhile, outside the port, Ji Xinmin noticed that the communication signal he was using had been cut. This meant the other party had rejected his attempt to connect.

He couldn’t help but frown.

Because he had met Chen Chuan in Yangzhi, they hadn’t exchanged contact information via their Realm Tokens.

They hadn’t been too concerned about it at the time. If Chen Chuan didn’t agree, they could simply employ various other methods after he returned. Once he was forced to face reality, he would naturally come looking for them on his own.

But unexpectedly, after returning, they received news that Chen Chuan had already joined the Pure Sect, so they had no choice but to abandon their follow-up plans.

They had thought the matter was over, but now, some big shot from above was demanding they make contact with him again. This left them with no choice but to initiate communication themselves.

He thought for a moment, tapped his Realm Token a few times to highlight a certain road on the map, and said to his two companions, "He’s definitely going back to the Wuding District. He’ll have to pass through this road. We’ll go there and wait for him. Wait a second..."

He thought for another moment, then instructed his two companions, "Here’s what we’ll do..."

After they understood, both nodded, then quickly dashed to their vehicles and drove off at an extremely high speed.

After disembarking from the cruise ship, Chen Chuan rendezvoused with the security motorcade that had come to meet him. Once he was seated in his private car, the vehicle started moving slowly, heading back toward his residence in the Wuding District.

He, in turn, began to process the messages left for him. First was some information from within the Bureau. He glanced through it and saw no urgent tasks assigned to him, so he ignored it for the time being.

He saw a message from Wu Han telling him that Wei Chang’an and the others had already arrived in Central City at the beginning of August.

He thought for a moment and contacted Wu Han. After only a second’s pause, the call connected. Wu Han’s excited voice came through, "Junior Brother, you’re back?"

Chen Chuan said, "I just got off the ship..."

Just then, another communication signal came in. An Shield provided a notification: it was the same person from before, but on a different channel.

It also added, "Manager Chen, the contact is two hundred meters behind you and is approaching rapidly... Safety protocol check passed. The person has no warrants or criminal record. It is not recommended to adopt emergency defensive measures."

Chen Chuan glanced behind him and saw a sedan chasing them. He said, "Block all signals from this person for me."

"Understood... Blocked."

Inside his car, Ji Xinmin’s expression turned ugly. Hearing the signal feedback, he knew he had been blocked. He immediately notified the people up ahead, "Get ready. His motorcade is about to arrive."

On Chen Chuan’s end, not long after he had the signal blocked, he discovered several cars had pulled horizontally across the road ahead, completely blocking the way.

Security Chief Yu Xiao immediately asked, "Chief, there’s a roadblock ahead. Their objective is unclear. Should we reroute?"

Chen Chuan asked, "Have they identified themselves?"

"No."

Chen Chuan said, "Don’t evade. Ram them."

...

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