Book 3, Chapter 185: Cave

Liang Guanghai brought his hand up, and the map with the Central Cities of the world showed up on the table. He pointed at a few locations and said grimly, “Last year, a gap appeared in the World Ring, and it affected a few Central Cities. Ours was among them, and we’ve lost a number of defenders because of it. That’s not all. We’ve also ended up with several spots that can’t be monitored, which led to many unpredictable things happening.

“Even now, we haven’t completely closed the gap. We’re sure that some existences have snuck into our world.

“The one that had attached itself to Meng Huang might be one of them. We’ve gotten rid of quite a number of them, but we can’t tell whether we’ve missed any.

“The Resolution Department’s key officers are still looking into this case. We suspect that we have traitors that led to a gap appearing in the World Ring.”

He waved his hand, and a screen appeared behind it with the image of a person.

Chen Chuan took a look. It was a man with a mask covering half his face and wearing a trench coat. His face was thin, and he had deep crow’s feet around his sharp, profound eyes. He appeared to be around forty-five years old.

“Chen Bitong, Third Limit martial artist and someone close to becoming a martial arts master.

“When the gap opened, he was around. He has a squad, and he’s permanently stationed at the forefront of the World Ring. He has a lot of achievements under his belt, and he comes from quite a powerful family.

“The investigation team has looked into him but found no problems. Even so, he’s not completely in the clear. Based on analysis, even if he’s not involved in it, someone around him might be.

“Officer Chen, you have a clean criminal history, a trustworthy background, and great strength. We’re going to temporarily assign you to an area where he often works.

“You don’t need to do anything or contact anyone. If you talk to him, just observe him and record all that you see and hear.”

Chen Chuan took one last look at Chen Bitong and nodded. “Got it.”

“I know that you still have an ongoing operation, so I’ll give you some time to deal with it. Come and report to me before the end of the month,” Liang Guanghai said, then gave an order into his Realm Pass. The woman came into the reception room again with a box.

Once she put it on the table, she opened it and revealed a Realm pass inside.

“The World Ring Defense System made this Realm Pass. It has great anti-interference properties and can repair itself. It can also adapt to various combat environments.

“There’s a lot of data stored inside, including things you need to pay attention to and Chen Bitong’s specific details. Go back and take your time reading it. When you’re participating in the defense, use this Realm Pass.”

Then, he looked into Chen Chuan’s eyes and asked, “Any questions, Officer Chen?”

Chen Chuan thought about it and said, “Not for the time being.”

“If that’s the case, let’s end our discussion today.”

The woman took a step to the side and motioned for Chen Chuan to grab the Realm Pass. Once he did, she brought him out. After seeing Chen Chuan off, she returned to the reception room.

“How was he?” Liang Guanghai asked the woman.

“He’s fine. His body is clear, and his biofield is steady. I’m positive he hasn’t been corrupted or attacked,” she replied.

“That might be the case for now, but change in the future. I hope that he won’t get tempted by the fusion faction when he’s there,” Liang Guanghai remarked gravely.

“If you think so highly of him, wouldn’t it be better to let him gain some experience for a year or two before sending him over to the World Ring?” the woman asked.

Liang Guanghai rejected the idea with a shake of his head. “I want to take time developing the talented officers, but after that incident, we’ve lost too many people, and those treacherous organizations are too active. Even though we’ve pulled away personnel from other organizations to make up some of the numbers, it’s not enough. The situation right now is dire. We have to use everyone we have.”

After some thinking, he ordered, “Send a suggestion to the Resolution Department to make it easier for him to get benefits and move up.”

“Got it,” the woman responded.

***

After leaving the Resolution Department, Chen Chuan returned to his car and received news from Wu Bei.

“I examined the building you mentioned and saw two suspicious people. I wanted to look into them, but someone hid their tracks with a domain lockdown. I was only able to track them to Deep End District before losing them. I tried to trace the domain lockdown signal, but I couldn’t find anything.

“Their resonator is good, but I’ve set up reactionary signals around you. If they show up again, I should be able to detect them,” he promised.

Chen Chuan was moved and said, “Thanks, Wu Bei.”

If Wu Bei can’t track those two down even though he has a resonator nest, they have skills and equipment. This means we’re not dealing with an average group, he thought.

The first thing that came to mind was the warning he received in the lower city district, but he soon dismissed it. He hadn’t told anyone when he was going to return to the upper city district, so it was impossible for this group to have sent someone ahead of time to watch him.

Based on what they said, they wouldn’t bother him after he left, so it was highly likely that his two stalkers were from some organization from the upper city district.

Chen Chuan combed through his list of suspects and settled on who it could possibly be, but he wasn’t certain.

Even so, he believed that he didn’t need to pay too much attention to them. Even if those two were observing him, they were simply watching where he went so they could find a chance to attack him. All he needed to do was to keep an eye out for them. That was enough.

After getting into his car, Chen Chuan drove to Blue Reed Lake.

Before going to the lower city district, Officer Qiu had told him that Xu Xianwen had a base in a subterranean river. Since he was outside, he was going to check it out.

Originally, Chen Chuan had wanted to visit Cao Guiqi. After all, Motie Mountain was along the way, but when he arrived in front of his manor, he found a lot of high-class cars parked in the courtyard. It seemed like Cao Guiqi had a lot of guests. Chen Chuan had not given him a heads up that he was going to visit, so after taking a look, he left.

He headed north for a while until he passed Motie Mountain and reached Blue Reed Lake. Since Xu Xianwen’s base was somewhere on the other side of the lake, it would take too long walking along the bank. It would be faster to walk across the lake.

Chen Chuan got out of the car and started running so fast that he parted the reeds by the bank as he stepped on the surface of the lake. As waves spread out, he ran forward.

Seven minutes later, he arrived near his destination and sank.

Splash.

He sank to the bottom of the lake, adjusted his body, and started swimming to the base.

With the guidance from the Realm Pass and by comparing the photos he had with the area around him, Chen Chuan only had to search for a little while before he found an underwater cave. The water current before it was incredibly rapid.

This did not affect him much. He let himself flow along with it, so the current would bring him inside. Even though he crashed into quite a lot of things along the way, his sturdy body wasn’t hurt in the slightest.

After drifting about five hundred meters, he swam upward until he saw balls of light. By then, he knew that the base was right around the corner, so he sped up and got out of a small pond.

Once he stepped on solid ground, white steam rose from his body, and his clothes started drying. He looked around and found a cave with an industrial light attached to the ceiling. It was shining with a blinding, hot light. Clearly, the generator was still working, so Xu Xianwen had to have prepared a lot of algae fuel for it before leaving.

Chen Chuan explored the cave. It wasn’t actually big, only around fifty square meters, and it was separated into five spaces: Three big ones, and two small ones. At the back was a small path that seemed to lead to a forest. Perhaps the forest was the reason why Xu Xianwen kept a few lizards to prey on insects.

In the largest space was a closet, a bed, and a bedside table. There was also a wooden item shelf nailed to the wall.

It had a few medicine bottles and a box of nutritional paste. Xu Xianwen even had special medicine here, though only two bottles. Chen Chuan wondered whether it was because he was only given this little to begin with or whether this was all he had left. By the looks of it, this was from Border Fusion, so it was highly likely that Meng Huang had given it to him.

Chen Chuan checked the bedside table and closet. In them, he found some valuables and IDs. There were around three hundred thousand devs, along with a gold certificate from Grand Prosperity Finance and a backup knife and gun.

By the looks of it, this was a rest stop. Then, there shouldn’t be anything too valuable here.

But Chen Chuan discovered something later.

Behind the closet was a removable panel. After taking it off, he found a secret compartment with a thick book wrapped in a waterproof tarp.

After removing the tarp, he found that the book was actually three books, not just one. They were texts from the Secret Python Cult. They appeared quite old, but the corners were smooth, making it clear that Xu Xianwen had taken great care of them.

Chen Chuan flipped through them for a bit and found that each page was made of a special animal skin. The words were carved into the skin and colored over with cinnabar.

The first book was the Secret Python Cult’s teachings. He skipped them. If he wanted to read these relics from the old era, he could do so on the cult’s platform. It wasn’t anything special. Now, even its own cultists wouldn’t read it.

The second book had some substance. It was full of the Secret Python Cult’s ritual arrays. Chen Chuan read through them briefly and found that most of them were within the realms of the stack of information Lei Guangcheng had given him.

As for the third book, it contained martial arts, to none of Chen Chuan’s surprise. It had the introduction to the Secret Python Cult’s secret refined forces and the methods to practice them. There was even a record of the Arcane Snake Force.

Chen Chuan just took a quick look, though, because the book only had superficial information. It did not mention anything about breathing techniques, which mutated tissue to train, and what sort of medicine to take.

Hence, the real secret to mastering these refined forces wasn’t here. Even if these books ended up in someone’s hands, they wouldn’t be able to master anything.

But the book did mention the special characteristics of each limit and what sort of abilities each limit would provide. After reading through the descriptions of the first three limits, Chen Chuan found that there were still quite a number of pages left unread.

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep