Book 3, Chapter 17: Restrain

It had been less than half a day since Chen Chuan had last been here. The run-down neighborhood appeared the same, but after learning the lesson, no one dared to go near the mannequin’s area-of-effect, leaving that place completely empty.

Chen Chuan asked Qi Gao to wait outside while he walked to the backyard where the mannequin was restrained. It was still holding onto Xiao Man.

The array on the wall had become much fainter. The materials Qi Gao had bought were pretty good, which meant that he wasn’t scammed. By the looks of it, even if Chen Chuan left the mannequin alone, the array would be able to keep it restrained for another few days.

Chen Chuan returned inside the shack and found a can. Then, he put Lang Teng and Bo Chen’s hair and blood inside. Once he burned them, he mixed them together with the tiny bit of materials he had left before expanding the array.

A new array couldn’t be placed on top of the original one, but it could be expanded. In other words, Chen Chuan was going to draw another array around the original one. Since there was already a foundation built up, he didn’t need to add much this time.

After he drew the last stroke, he threw away the brush and turned to the mannequin. If everything went smoothly, the mannequin should have been greatly weakened.

Chen Chuan waited for a while. Then, he saw the intensity of the blurring-out effect on his second self begin to weaken, just as he expected.

Crack.

With a snap, the mannequin collapsed from its semi-kneeling position. Its arms also loosened around Xiao Man.

Chen Chuan waited quietly. The intensity of the blurring out effect was still going down, but after lowering to a certain degree, it stopped and did not drop any further.

This degree of intensity was much stronger than when he had first come. If there were anyone else around, they would die in a few days.

As Chen Chuan had expected, he couldn’t get rid of the problem entirely.

He had theorized before that Xiao Man’s desperate hope for his brother to return wasn’t the sole reason behind why the supernatural being had appeared. The mannequin itself was also a cause for it.

While Xiao Man’s hope had been the largest cause, so if he had given up on his brother ever coming back, the supernatural being would have faded away and not caused any further harm. However, Xiao Man’s death added fuel to the fire, and things became more complicated.

Chen Chuan walked over and pressed down on the mannequin’s chest. Unsurprisingly, he found a part he could remove, so he did it, and organ models came to light.

This wasn’t a mannequin used to display clothes, but one used for people to practice their skills. Judging by the visible traces of blood, real organs had been placed inside it before.

Chen Chuan immediately figured out where the organs had come from and thought about the organ-trafficking and selling organizations.

The organ models weren’t the only things inside the mannequin. There were also thin membranes and yarn. At first glance, they looked like padding, but in truth, they represented a martial artist’s mutated tissue. They might not be all that were inside the mannequin either.

Chen Chuan opened the mannequin’s head and found it empty, but upon closer inspection, he discovered crystalline, fiber-like objects inside. They were somewhat beautiful.

The fiber-like structures were fragments of brain mutated tissue, which meant that a real brain had been placed inside before. Also, based on the characteristics of the mutated tissue, it was highly likely that the brain had belonged to a Third Limit martial artist.

But how could the brain of a martial artist of that caliber end up in it? The mannequin might have turned into a supernatural being because the Third Limit martial artist’s brain had been stuffed in it.

If Chen Chuan wanted to get rid of the supernatural being, he had to figure out how the organs got inside.

He didn’t have the time for that, which meant that he had no choice but to use another method—completely restraining the supernatural being and keeping it beside him.

Even though he had been planning on doing this, he had never expected that a chance would arrive so soon.

Supernatural beings that could stay around for prolonged periods of time and be restrained could stimulate his mutated tissue in place of medicine. However, Chen Chuan would need materials to cast the binding ritual, which required money.

Of course, the materials would not cost as much as the medicine. Based on how widespread cults were in Central City, the market for ritual materials was large enough. The materials for a binding ritual weren’t expensive either. After all, to cults, it was the most common ritual.

Since ritual materials were considered forbidden items, they weren’t sold on the platform. This meant no trade records, which was great for Chen Chuan.

In any case, he couldn’t let the mannequin stay here. It might break free of its bindings at some point and escape.

Usually, if a person wanted to restrain a supernatural being long-term, they needed special ritual tools. Cults tended to craft unique ones for themselves personally. However, the same effect could be achieved using items left behind by certain supernatural beings. Coincidentally, Chen Chuan had something that fit the bill and could replace those ritual tools, though he had to use it to know whether it really worked.

It seemed like he would have to go back to the university first.

After some thinking, he grabbed the shovel and buried the mannequin back in its pit. He also needed to give Xiao Man’s body a proper burial, so after he was done here, he walked out with the boy’s body.

When he left the run-down neighborhood and returned to the SUV, he found that Qi Gao had already fallen asleep in the driver seat. The man had been working overnight and sent him everywhere he wanted to go. Since he wasn’t a martial artist, he was exhausted.

But the moment Chen Chuan got closer, Qi Gao woke up. He had to have given his Realm Pass an instruction to send him a notification when Chen Chuan came back. He sat up straight and asked, “How are things, Chen Chuan?”

“I need to go back to the university to grab some things to take care of this problem. Could you give him a proper burial?” Chen Chuan asked while putting down Xiao Man’s body.

Qi Gao sighed as he looked at Xiao Man’s corpse. “What a pitiful boy. Anyway, whatever you need to do is more important. Go and do it. I’ll take care of his burial.”

Chen Chuan watched him and said, “You’re exhausted. Once you’re done, go home. I can take care of the rest myself.”

“Okay,” Qi Gao agreed.

Chen Chuan turned around and left.

When he was some distance away, Qi Gao remembered something and slapped his head. “Wait! The money!”

Chen Chuan’s voice came through the Realm Pass. “Keep the money. We can discuss the distribution later.”

“Oh, okay.”

Chen Chuan took a tram outside the run-down neighborhood and soon returned to the university. The moment he stepped into the Arcane Palace, his Realm Pass connected to Hongfu.

“It has been detected that you did not return to your room yesterday. For your safety’s sake, we suggest that you install micro-monitoring implants that won’t affect your movements.

“With the implants, we will be able to observe your body’s physiological data. If you are in danger, the data will be sent back to the university and inform us about your situation.”

Then, Hongfu listed the benefits of the implants, such as recording the data of his fights against other people, getting an understanding of his adrenaline levels in real time, and monitoring the growth of his mutated tissue. With these benefits and the results of his test, Hongfu could give him an even more detailed training plan.

Chen Chuan rejected the offer without giving it a second thought.

First of all, he had no intention of getting any implants. On top of that, if he got those micro-monitoring implants and his data was uploaded on the platform, not only would the university know about his whereabouts, but his data would also be within other people’s grasp.

Training would become easier, but it would also become much easier to target him. Chen Chuan would much rather stay as part of the intuition faction and perhaps even the purity faction.

As he took the elevator back to his room, he received two messages. One of them was from Tan Zhi. He had sent a few pictures over. Judging by the time the pictures were taken, Tan Zhi was still at the ball. The pictures showed him surrounded by scantily-dressed, curvaceous young women.

One of the pictures showed Tan Zhi leaning backward with a hand on his forehead while he did his best to stretch backward with his other hand. His expression was of extreme elation. A group of women surrounded him with their hands held high while their feet were off the floor. Their dresses fluttered, giving a really dynamic feeling to the picture.

Tan Zhi was a great dancer. Chen Chuan marked the pictures as seen and swiped them away.

Then, he checked the other message. A lecturer had sent it to him through the university’s campus portal, stating that he had come to understand what Chen Chuan was lacking in terms of his skills, and he was willing to teach him. If Chen Chuan wanted to have him as his mentor, he could contact him. He even attached the reviews he had received in the past.

Chen Chuan gave it a cursory glance before shifting it to his “to be read” folder. The elevator opened, and he quickly returned to his room. He first took a shower, then changed out of his clothes. Once he took a few tubes of nutritional paste, he dug around his luggage bag for an upper jaw with sharp teeth attached to it.

It was the item left by the Hill Demon after it was vanquished.

Chen Chuan had kept all the items the supernatural beings left behind, and this upper jaw might just be the item that could restrain the mannequin, though he would have to try to know whether it really worked or not. After all, he had never done such a thing before and only read the information Lei Guangcheng had given him.

He wasn’t planning to bind the mannequin and use it. He just wanted to keep it beside him. Because of that, the difficulty of the ritual was greatly reduced. It became the most basic of rituals. It was trying to use the supernatural creature that made the complexity of any ritual increase by leaps and bounds.

This showed just how skilled the cultist who performed the large-scale ritual was. It was no wonder why Black Orchid Co. had invested in him.

With the upper jaw in hand, Chen Chuan grabbed the stack of papers about rituals and put them into a sturdy bag before leaving and returning to the run-down neighborhood via a tram.

Qi Gao’s SUV was no longer around. He had left to bury Xiao Man.

Alone, Chen Chuan returned to Xiao Man’s backyard and placed the upper jaw on the mannequin’s chest.

Then, he placed the stack of papers in front of him and turned to a certain page. Once he found it, he brought out the last bit of ritual materials he had left and started drawing the array.

Since it was more complicated this time, he had to refer to the papers the whole time.

Chen Chuan spent hours working on it. He barely managed to finish it before his materials ran out. Fortunately, nothing went wrong during the process.

He then took a few steps back. Now, he had to wait to see whether he had succeeded.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep