Book 4, Chapter 164: Destroying The Imperial Army And Changing The Political Situation

Wan Yunshan skipped out of the cabin excitedly before jumping down from the observation deck. The wind gushed in, and the whole place swayed.

The aide-de-camp quickly shut the door, and everything inside the cabin settled down again.

Xue Shou looked at Chen Chuan and asked, “You reached the Fourth Limit, haven’t you?”

Chen Chuan nodded. “It’s all thanks to your guidance.”

Xue Shou simply smiled. “It’s all thanks to your training, you mean. All I did was guide you a bit.”

“That’s not all. When I was in danger, you taught me some things, even some special techniques. It’s only because of them that I was able to reach a breakthrough so smoothly,” Chen Chuan retorted seriously.

Upon hearing this, Xue Shou realized something and nodded.

He had parked a wisp of his mental energy on Chen Chuan to protect him and help him avoid danger, but that mental energy had no connection with his real body. Unless Chen Chuan brought it back, so it could merge with Xue Shou again, he wouldn’t know what had happened.

After Chen Chuan’s words, though, he could guess what happened. His mental energy’s thought processes and actions were completely the same as those of Xue Shou himself. So, if his mental energy had done something in a particular situation, Xue Shou would have done the same thing had he been there.

“You taught well, Mr. Xue,” Yao Zhiyi piped up from the side. “You helped Jibei Road’s Central City get a new martial arts master. Lead Investigator Chen played a huge role in the success of the operation. He’s the one who killed Wei Guochan.”

That caught Xue Shou by surprise. He had taught Chen Chuan, so he knew the young man’s strength. It was almost guaranteed that Chen Chuan could become a martial arts master, but it shouldn’t have been easy for him to immediately go toe-to-toe with Wei Guochan and defeat him right after becoming one.

But the thought of Chen Chuan killing Wei Guochan wasn’t too crazy. Xue Shou had faced off against Wei Guochan before, so he had an idea of his strength. If it weren’t for the fact that it wasn’t a good idea to fight at full strength in Central City, Xue Shou would have been confident in defeating the general. With Chen Chuan’s foundation, he would have had a certain chance of winning after reaching the Fourth Limit.

What was strange about this, though, was that Chen Chuan actually ended up fighting Wei Guochan.

“Did someone interfere?” he asked.

“The one I’ve told you about. Zhao Zhenye, the purity faction’s traitor. He showed, as expected,” Yao Zhiyi said grimly and gave a brief account of what had happened. “If Lead Investigator Chen hadn’t reached the Fourth Limit and stopped Wei Guochan, he would have gotten the artifact and fled.”

Xue Shou laughed. “Even if he had managed to get the artifact, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference.”

Yao Zhiyi nodded at that.

Zhao Zhenye was injured, so he could only put up a fight against Yao Zhiyi and Wan Yunshan for a while. Once Wei Guochan got the artifact, Zhao Zhenye would have definitely left. Since Gai Shuhe had escaped, after Wei Guochan went back, Yao Zhiyi, Wan Yunshan, and Xue Shou would have joined forces to take him down. Wei Guochan was bound to die no matter what.

If Gai Shuhe had chosen to stay... Well, they still wouldn’t have been able to win against the three of them. Both Wei Guochan and Gai Shuhe might have ended up dead.

“Zhao Zhenye is going to continue being a threat as long as he stays in the merged space. He never made a stance in the past, so we chose to ignore him. This time, though, he got in our way, which shows that he has chosen his side. We can’t pretend not to have seen it,” Yao Zhiyi said darkly.

Xue Shou chuckled at that. “Since he’s a traitor of the purity faction, the faction will think of a way to get rid of him.”

“I hope so. He’s no easy target.” Yao Zhiyi’s expression was grim as he said this. Since he had fought against Zhao Zhenye, he could tell that their chances of winning wouldn’t have been high if the man hadn’t been injured.

Chen Chuan’s gaze was calm. As one of the main people in charge of Jibei Road’s branch and someone who had reached the Fourth Limit, he was going to be in charge of the problem called Zhao Zhenye.

Xue Shou took a look outside and said, “I need to leave now. See you both in Central City.”

He vanished from his seat a second later.

Chen Chuan stared at the empty chair and thought, Mr. Xue might be taking the mental path Mr. Yao mentioned.

Once Xue Shou left, Yao Zhiyi drank from his teacup and took something out of his overcoat before tossing it over.

Chen Chuan grabbed it and found that it was something that resembled a grape. It was soft and had some leaf veins and stems on it.

“What is this, Mr. Yao?” he asked.

“You have a Bird Reptile, don’t you? It’s a creature created by the Secret Python Cult with mutated tissue implanted in it, right?” Yao Zhiyi asked.

“You’re very sharp, Mr. Yao.” Chen Chuan nodded.

Yao Zhiyi gestured at it. “The National Biology Research Lab gave this to me. It can make up for the flaws in the modified creatures. I don’t have any decent modified creatures, so it’s useless to me. I might as well give it to you.”

Chen Chuan didn’t and couldn’t reject the gift. The grape would be good for Dawncall. He would simply have to think of a way to repay Yao Zhiyi in the future. “Thank you, Mr. Yao.”

“You’re the second martial arts master to come through Jibei Road’s Martial Valor University over the past few decades. Once I go back, I’ll report your situation to the capital. Someone will come talk to you, and you might get some work adjustments. They’ll also give you new tasks.

“Now that you’ve become a martial arts master, plenty of things will change. You need to be ready for it.” He sighed.

Chen Chuan nodded. He knew this well. Martial arts masters were highly destructive, and the government treated them differently compared to Third Limit martial artists.

“Mr. Yao, how’s the situation at the World Ring?” he asked.

“We told the world that we will seal off the gap at the end of the year, but in truth, we’ll do it by the end of November at the latest. It all goes well, we may even be done by the end of this month. Otherwise, Xiao Wan wouldn’t have been able to come back.”

Chen Chuan hummed at that. The gap in the World Ring had forced Jibei Road’s Central City to send most of its fighting men to it, and a lot of problems cropped up because of it. They turned Jibei Road’s Central City the focus of the Great Shun Republic and even the world stage, but it also provided a lot of opportunities to its people.

Chen Chuan had a feeling that if he hadn’t reached the Fourth Limit and attempted it after the gap closed, it would have been much tougher.

Just then, he heard more propellers. The sound of machine guns and artillery fire also grew clearer. He looked out the porthole and saw imperial army airships trying to run away. Sometimes, one of them burst into flames and fell from the sky.

On the ground, the imperial army was running away in a panic amid the artillery fire. The soldiers were scattered all over the place.

The sky was covered by Great Shun Republic airships firing down with machine guns. The soldiers were sitting ducks before them and few attempted to turn around to fight back.

It seemed like without Wei Guochan, the imperial army’s morale had crumbled, though it would have been useless even if they had tried to fight back. It would have only made it easier for the Great Shun Republic to kill them all. With Wan Yunshan and Xue Shou holding the line, there was simply no chance for the normal soldiers to turn the tide.

After watching for a bit, Yao Zhiyi sighed with emotion. “I’ve been defending the place for years and have seen plenty of deaths. Now, we’ve finally won. If nothing extraordinary happens, we should seldom see such large-scale fights anymore.”

Then, he schooled his face. “But our enemies aren’t limited to those in the merged space. Considering your position in the Resolution Department, I’m sure you know about the municipal government.”

“I know. I’ve nearly fallen victim to their tricks before,” Chen Chuan mentioned.

“The companies in Central City support them, and they also have ties with the former royal family. The two of them have some kind of agreement signed under the table, since the municipal government’s continued existence is a victory for the former royalty,” Yao Zhiyi said darkly.

“That’s why whenever we want to get rid of one side, the other shows up to stand in our way, and we end up held back in all directions. After knocking one side down, the other party shoots up to cause trouble. We finally defeated the imperial army stationed in Jibei Road, though. We can now focus on the municipal government.”

Chen Chuan considered this before asking, “The municipal government doesn’t have martial arts masters, right?”

“They don’t, but they have an active biosentient entity with plenty of biological tech. It’s very high tech and is practically on par with Hongfu. Over the years, they’ve invested all their resources into it. We also suspect that they’ve gotten tech used by the former royal family in their bioweapons and installed it into their active biosentient entity.

“This creature has never shown its face before, so we lack details and can’t gauge its strength. The Department of Administrative Affairs has demanded multiple times to inspect and assess this creature for safety’s sake, but the municipal government has always found ways to reject the request. Not a single inspection has been performed on it until now.

“If word about you becoming a martial arts master gets out, I’m sure that many people will panic, especially those in the municipal government. Even ignoring the fact that they’re in cahoots with the former royal family, your existence alone destroys the balance that they’ve been trying their hardest to maintain.”

“Didn’t Senior Wan also graduate from Martial Valor University?” Chen Chuan asked.

“He’s not the same. Xiao Wan joined the military and only became a martial arts master more than a decade after he graduated. By then, he had already been sent to protect the World Ring. His files have all been made a state secret, and he has never returned to Jibei Road since. That’s why no one noticed the fact that he has been transferred back.

“The municipal government will do its best to chase you out.”

“They’re not the ones who get to decide that,” Chen Chuan retorted calmly.

Yao Zhiyi nodded at that. “Force is the force for everything. If two sides are at war against each other, they will only choose to sit down and negotiate if both are wary of each other. If one side isn’t strong enough, no matter how loud they protest, no one’s going to listen. They know this too. That’s why they’ll try to get external help, and that’s not a probability. It’s certain that they will.”

Chen Chuan agreed with that. He knew that the Union and the Linacrox Union wouldn’t want Jibei Road’s Central City to be under the Great Shun Republic’s control. Aside from this, there was also the existence who had snuck in from the other side of the World Ring and was hiding somewhere.