Book 3, Chapter 168: Get Rid Of Him

Lao Wan and Xiao Lu immediately rushed over to Meng Lai’s manor after receiving orders from the Resolution Department.

Due to the unique nature of the White Bird District and having to avoid the manor to make hiding more convenient, they had been quite far away. Even so, they arrived at the manor in less than fifteen minutes.

When they were going up, Meng Xu’s security guards stopped them. Even though they soon contacted Meng Lai and even showed the law enforcement warrant the Resolution Department had prepared for them, they were held back for a while.

Neither of them had the time nor energy to hold it against Meng Xu, though. When they reached the manor building and were about to head down, they saw light exploding from the underground.

Their expressions froze. “Is that… a gap?”

***

The moment light shot out from Meng Huang’s head, Chen Chuan shut his eyes and used his hands to cover his face.

But he soon noticed that the light was only piercing to the eyes in the beginning. Then, it started flowing past his body like fog.

When he lowered his arms, he noticed that his surroundings had changed.

Some of the places where the light reached could be seen clearly, but some seemed to have been devoured by it. The underground space seemed to have become torn up and incomplete.

Because of it, it looked like he was standing on a floating rock. The walls on both sides of him were fragmented. The parts he could see were similar to the rock he was standing on.

Aunt Yu was standing not too far away, and she said quickly, “Mr. Chen, that thing must have used its remaining energy to open up a gap.”

“A gap, huh?” Chen Chuan nodded at that.

He hadn’t seen one before, but this situation fit the description he had read in the information from the Resolution Department. Some of the existences from the other side could use their remaining energy to form a temporary gap once the bodies they had formed a symbiotic relationship with were destroyed.

What Chen Chuan saw was the result of two worlds connecting. This gap didn’t form a real passage between the two worlds, but it could still cause some physical objects in their world to transform.

The center of Chen Chuan’s brow twitched in search of the existence from the other side, and because of the gap, he could sense it even more clearly through mental perception.

The existence was something whose true form couldn’t be entirely detected. It seemed to be trying to pull itself out through a deep hole. The part that had come out was expanding nonstop toward the door sealed shut by the ritual arrays.

Judging by its actions, there was something inside that the existence really wanted, which was why it was trying so desperately to get in.

What exactly was it?

The existence no longer had a host body, so it couldn’t stay in the physical world for long. This meant that it was either looking for something that it could bring back to the other world, or something that could let it continue staying in the physical world.

No matter what it was, Chen Chuan couldn’t let it succeed.

He lifted his saber and said, “Since it doesn’t want to leave, we should send it on its way.”

He cast a glance at the ground devoured by the light. Those places were the most corrupted by the other world. If he stepped on them, he might actually sink in. Then, the other world would affect him even more.

So, Chen Chuan didn’t try to walk on the ground. Instead, he jumped and stepped on the fragmented wall. After taking two steps forward, he jumped again onto another suspended rock. Then, with a few more lunges, he arrived in front of the door.

Due to the light, he couldn’t see too far ahead. When he looked over, however, he saw small, densely-packed holes that had light shining through them on the door. They seemed to have appeared due to the two worlds contacting each other.

With the help of them, Chen Chuan saw a part of Meng Huang’s large body flowing in like sand.

He punched the door, causing it to tremble violently. Yet even though the door had so many tiny holes punctured through it due to the corruption, it remained sturdy. Just then, he saw something being thrown over to him. Upon grabbing it, he found that it was a disc-shaped turning key.

“Be careful of the ritual inside, Mr. Chen,” Aunt Yu cried out.

Chen Chuan thanked her and turned around. It seemed like there were also rituals behind the door to stop whoever tried to go in, though that was nothing to him.

He found the keyhole and inserted the key. With a turn, the ritual node embedded into the key snapped, and all the rituals on the door and around it lost their function.

With a push, the metal door slid away and allowed passage for a single person. Chen Chuan walked in quickly.

His second self blurred out even worse, since he was getting closer to the existence. He looked up and saw a tunnel with no decorations, but the walls and ground were covered in ritual arrays. The lines appeared to be carved in and filled with fluorescent ritual materials.

Through this and some other things he couldn’t quite put to words, the physical objects in the tunnel stayed securely in their original forms. The light didn’t corrupt them too much.

At that moment, Chen Chuan could “see” through his mental perception that the existence was doing its best to stretch its body further forward.

What he saw with his eyes was a blob made with brain tissue and blood vessels.

This had to be Meng Huang’s tissue, the part the existence had attached itself to. It had fleshy, bud-like legs, and it was slow squirming forward. Perhaps due to the effect of the ritual, the further it went, the slower it got.

Chen Chuan looked past it and saw something similar to a well at the end of the tunnel. It had to be the existence’s target, but Chen Chuan wasn’t going to let it reach it.

He flung his saber and walked over. As he did, his second self started flickering due to the ritual. Even so, it didn’t stop him from moving forward.

The existence seemed to have noticed Chen Chuan getting closer and started moving faster, but it was useless. Due to the ritual, it was just too slow.

Chen Chuan arrived behind it, brought the Frost King Saber high above his head, and made sure the tip was pointed at the existence before bringing it down. The existence started thrashing around violently.

The center of Chen Chuan’s brow twitched, and he could sense the existence turning its attention on him. In an instant, all the rituals on the walls started fading, like they were just powder, and a powerful gust of wind had blown them away. His second self also became so dim that Chen Chuan could no longer see him clearly.

But Chen Chuan remained unperturbed and held the saber firmly in his hand.

Just then, he sensed the Frost King Saber trembling faintly. The thing inside seemed to be trying its hardest to get out, and it was projecting its wish onto Chen Chuan.

The thing had long since merged together with the mutated tissue in the saber, and since it was considered a part of Chen Chuan, the thing inside couldn’t come out unless Chen Chuan allowed it to.

After some thinking, Chen Chuan let go of its restraints.

The next moment, wisps of fog drifted out of the saber and enveloped the blob under it, as if it was sucking something out of it.

In just a few breaths, the blob stopped struggling, and after a while, it was reduced into bits resembling gravel. At the same time, the drifting light disappeared without a trace.

The huge existence instantly shattered, and Chen Chuan felt as if a weight had been removed from his shoulders.

When he looked down, he saw a substance resembling gravel.

The fog slowly returned to his saber. He ran his finger over the blade, and the thing was projecting a sense of satisfaction to him, as if it had eaten to its fill.

Chen Chuan thought about it, but didn’t immediately try to figure out what it was. Instead, he went to the well. There was a metal staircase by the inner side of it that was wide enough to let a single person go down at a time.

Chen Chuan didn’t try to figure out what was underneath, though. He just took a look and left.

When he came out, he found that even though the underground space had returned to normal, the parts that had been devoured by light had gone through some sort of transformation. Crackling bits fell off them.

Aunt Yu was waiting outside. When she saw him walking out calmly and not at all like someone who had just walked through tons of ritual arrays, she was quite impressed.

In order to ensure Meng Lai’s safety, aside from Meng Lai himself, anyone who went inside had to endure the effects of the ritual. Whenever she went in, she had to bear the brunt of the rituals’ effects, and it wasn’t easy. Only martial artists with especially durable bodies like Chen Chuan could move around them easily.

“We need to leave quickly, Mr. Chen. This place might collapse,” she said.

Chen Chuan nodded and walked out. Then, he saw two people in the Resolution Department’s uniform waiting outside. It seemed like the people sent to liaise with him had arrived.

“Are you okay, Officer Chen?”

Lao Wan and Xiao Lu approached him.

When they saw the gap, they felt both relaxed and a little worried. The appearance of the gap meant that the existence had given up on its host body, and the problem was basically settled.

But when this happened, the corruption was also at its worst. If a person didn’t have enough blood essence and a strong enough mental foundation, things could still go wrong.

“I’m okay,” Chen Chuan answered.

Lao Wan and Xiao Lu sized him up. Chen Chuan did seem like he was okay and was still sound of mind. Then, everything could be worked out. Even if there was actually something wrong with Chen Chuan, they had ways to help him.

They had an inkling of what had happened, but for the sake of caution, Lao Wan still asked, “What about that thing, Officer Chen?”

“I took it down,” Chen Chuan answered firmly.

They relaxed.

Meng Huang was killed, and most importantly, the effects from the existence didn’t spread, so things were still under control. They felt regretful but also impressed, because Chen Chuan had solved the problem by himself, while all they did was a bit of running around.

But due to their job responsibilities and the proper procedures, they still needed to go in and make sure that the thing was really dead.

Lao Wan turned to Aunt Yu and said earnestly, “We need to go inside to check.”

“I’ll lead the way,” Aunt Yu answered cautiously.

Chen Chuan turned to her and asked, “Ms. Yu, where’s the safe house?”

By now, their Realm Passes were functioning again, and Aunt Yu sent a location to him before saying apologetically, “It’s right here. I can’t go with you right now, Mr. Chen. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I can go on my own,” Chen Chuan reassured her.

After they parted ways, Chen Chuan left the tunnel and took a look at the golden light from the sun. It was almost noon at this point, so he spread his palm open to sense its warmth. Then, he clenched his fist again.

When he faced that existence earlier, the powerful stimulation had caused his mutated tissue to grow chaotically, like it was in an extreme state of agitation. He had to use the foundation of his mind and blood essence to control it, suppress it, and guide its growth.

He couldn’t say that he got the short end of the stick from this encounter. After all, it was much easier to get medicine to create blood essence and reestablish his mental foundation. If he ever ran out of special medicine in the future, this was a good way to replace it.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep