Book 3, Chapter 67: An Old Acquaintance

As the screech tore through the air, Chen Chuan saw his second self blurring even more intensely. At that moment, he was only able to see a vague shadow of his second self.

His overlap time was still being drained at rapid speed.

Everything around him, including the cement, bricks, and shattered glass was trembling. Chen Chuan could also see the arrays turning faint. The rituals were now engaged in a battle of attrition with the supernatural being.

Fortunately, he had expected the supernatural being to be powerful, so he had used a lot of materials to set up the arrays. Also, Chen Chuan was within the isolation array and could absorb most of the unseen attack from the supernatural being, so he wasn’t worried about it running away.

Ignoring the raccoon’s screeches and hisses, Chen Chuan bent down and picked up a piece of stone that once was the back of the raccoon statue’s neck. It had managed to break off as a perfect square.

While the raccoon continued screeching and attacking, Chen Chuan threw the other shattered stone pieces out before placing the square piece he held at the center of the ritual.

Once he was done, he moved back from the center and drew the last line of the binding ritual. The moment he was done, he heard a whine. The stone trembled a few times and even took a tumble before Chen Chuan saw the unseen attack on his second self start to fade.

Knowing that this meant that the binding ritual had come into effect, he walked in again and picked up the stone.

When he touched it, his second self started blurring out faintly.

Chen Chuan had already made up his mind earlier to bring this stone back to polish and carve it so that he could bring it around with him. Due to the unique nature of this supernatural being, he might not just use it for training. He could use it for other things.

After returning to the truck, he drove back to the warehouse, retrieved his car, and returned to the Arcane Palace. The past day and night had felt like a century. He hadn’t stopped moving for a second ever since Phantom Form attacked him, and he intended to take a good rest now.

***

Just as Chen Chuan was thinking about passing out on his bed, An Cheng walked out of a Resolution Department station, exhausted. He stood still in an empty space for a while trying to contact the other student.

“What is it?” he answered.

“You should know by now that the new student has taken his second assessment. I don’t know the exact number, but I can confirm that his chances of reaching the Third Limit have surpassed ours. One of us is bound to be kicked out of the competition,” An Cheng stressed.

“Didn’t you say that if we share our information, we’d be able to steal his chances? We’ve done plenty of things over the past few days, but it was all useless, wasn’t it?” the person mocked him.

“I did say that, but I wasn’t expecting him to improve so much so quickly. Who could have expected that? The sudden boost shows that he was hiding his true strength. You can’t blame me for misjudging. Besides, the department should have seen our efforts over the past few days,” An Cheng defended himself.

“The department is more concerned about who’s more likely to become a Third Limit martial artist. He has proven himself, so is there any point in us working hard anymore?”

While they were talking, they received an alarm on their Realm Pass. It was a signal that the Resolution Department had a task for them. Just as they expected, the more capable they showed themselves to be, the more tasks the Resolution Department gave them.

Chen Chuan hadn’t received any tasks from the department because An Cheng and the other student were always the first to know about them and snatched all of them up.

But these things couldn’t hold a candle to Chen Chuan’s high chance of entering the Third Limit. As long as his chances were higher than theirs, no matter how many tasks they did, the department would never give up on Chen Chuan.

Feeling resigned, An Cheng said, “Let’s just do our jobs.”

“Do you not remember what you said? If the newbie enters the Third Limit before us, we should just admit defeat.”

“No! I won’t give up! We’re yet to see who reaches the Third Limit first,” An Cheng hissed.

***

A few more days passed, and it was now April.

Chen Chuan walked out of Mr. Zheng’s house but didn’t go back to the university. Instead, he drove to an arts and crafts shop in Glowing Dew District and placed a partially carved stone tablet in front of the shop owner.

With one foot on a piece of rope, the owner immediately secured the stone with it before taking out a chisel from his toolbox. Chen Chuan had requested him not to touch the stone directly and to carve it only with him around. It was a strange request, but the craftsman ran a small shop, and he was glad for any business coming his way. He would do his best to fulfill his client’s requests.

Fortunately, the design wasn’t hard. All he needed to do was carve a simple shape of a raccoon.

He got more than halfway there the last time the client had come on his day off. Today, he just needed to finish with the touch-ups.

As Chen Chuan watched the craftsman chip away at the stone tablet, he waited by the side without bothering him.

He had an idea on how he wanted to utilize this supernatural being. During the last day off, he sent the pictures he took from Phantom Form’s notebook to Lei Guangcheng, which likely contained information about the supernatural being. Once he was sure what it was, he might be able to put it to good use.

After around half an hour, Ni Qianqian contacted Chen Chuan. The moment he answered, she said, “We just received news that Wei Wusheng killed another martial artist.”

“Another one?” Chen Chuan asked with a measured, grim voice. Wei Wusheng didn’t stop after the martial arts school massacre. He continued looking for chances to attack the other passengers in the arena, and this was his third attack.

It wasn’t as if the Resolution Department didn’t want to protect these people, but they had too many cases to take care of every day, and they couldn’t possibly split their manpower and resources to protect all the martial artists, especially when they were scattered all over the city. These people also didn’t like being under the Resolution Department’s protection and listening to their arrangements, even if they knew that their lives were on the line. They were really opposed to the idea.

Ni Qianqian said sternly, “Wei Wusheng has a highly skilled resonator or resonator team behind him. Our technicians haven’t been able to find him, even though we’ve tried several times. I called you to remind you to be careful.”

“Thanks for the reminder, Officer Ni,” Chen Chuan said.

Even though Wei Wusheng had a team or perhaps an entire company supporting him, he was always the one who killed the martial artists. He never asked anyone to do it in his place.

A few days ago, he had asked Mr. Zheng on how to fight against martial artists specializing in body hardening. Mr. Zheng replied that unless someone was highly skilled, it was practically impossible for them to take down body hardening masters.

The reason for that was simple. Technique was made to create chances to take down enemies, but if they couldn’t kill their enemies even after they got those chances, it was the same as them not having the chance to kill their enemies in the first place.

Most of the body hardening masters were also skilled at running away. Often enough, they would run away at the first sign of things going south for them. They could always escape as long as they had a semblance of a brain no matter the severity of their injuries.

Mr. Zheng’s words made perfect sense. Wei Wusheng was precisely that type of person. When he sensed that things were going badly for him in the arena, he ran away. Hence, if Chen Chuan wanted to defeat and kill him, he would have an extremely short window of time to do so and require power so great that he would be a whole level stronger than Wei Wusheng.

Chen Chuan believed that it would be quite difficult for him to do that with his current strength. If he wanted a 100% chance of killing Wei Wusheng, he had to reach the Third Limit.

“It’s done, Sir.”

Chen Chuan looked up and found that the craftsman had placed the completed stone tablet in front of him. It was half the size of his palm and was in the shape of a raccoon that looked almost alive. There were shapes of clouds and lightning at the edges, and the craftsman had also drilled a hole at the top of the tablet.

The craftsman was really skilled, and Chen Chuan was pleased. Now, he could take the stone tablet everywhere with him.

After paying the craftsman, he put the stone tablet away and left the shop. The craftsman wished him a safe trip home and hoped to see him again.

After leaving Glowing Dew District, Chen Chuan drove back to the Arcane Palace. Just as he was about to reach the square in front of the university, he noticed a familiar person walking by the road. After taking a closer look, he rammed his foot down on the brake and wound down the car window. “Lu Fang?”

Lu Fang, a former member of the Aspiration Club, exclaimed in surprise. “Chen Chuan?” Then, he laughed. “When I came here, I was wondering whether I’d run into you, since it’s not that far away from the main campus. I wasn’t expecting to actually see you.”

“What brings you here?” Chen Chuan asked.

“Yangzhi City is too small, so I decided to come here to get more experience,” Lu Fang answered with a small smile.

Chen Chuan took a look at the secondhand Realm Pass he wore and asked, “Are you here because of Shen Zheng?”

Lu Fang fell silent for a moment before he eventually nodded.

“There’s a shop called Golden River Drinks not far from here. It’s pretty good. Why don’t we go there and have a chat? It’s been a while since we last met,” Chen Chuan proposed.

Lu Fang turned to look and found that the place was on this block itself. The shop was unassuming and didn’t have all of the fancy lights, so he said yes.

Chen Chuan parked his car at the square before walking into the shop with Lu Fang. They sat down at a table.

Once they were inside, Lu Fang relaxed. The gramophone, vintage furniture, and normal lights made him feel like he had returned to Yangzhi City instead of being in Central City, with all its bright colors and lights. Everything here felt surreal to him, as if he was stepping on roads made of cotton. He never felt like he was standing on solid ground.

Chen Chuan ordered two drinks and asked, “How long have you been here?”

“I arrived at the end of March, so I’ve been here for around half a month. I just found a place to stay a few days ago, so since I had some time today, I decided to come here and see how the main campus looked. I wasn’t expecting to run into you here,” Lu Fang answered.

“Are you looking into Zhao Qian’s whereabouts?” Chen Chuan asked.

Lu Fang sucked in a deep breath and took a sip of the hot drink. After putting the cup down, he said, “Since you’ve already figured it out, I won’t keep it from you. Now that the Mutual Aid Group is destroyed, Zhao Qian is the only member left who was involved in Shen Zheng’s murder.”

“Do you know that Zhao Qian is a Third Limit martial artist?” Chen Chuan asked.

“I know, but I’m not here to cause him trouble. I know that I’m not strong enough for that. But he took Shen Zheng’s sister with him, and I want to find her. At the very least, I want to know whether she’s still alive,” Lu Fang said seriously.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep