Book 3, Chapter 70: Strategic Planning

Chen Chuan thought about the Secret Python Cult service and decided to give it a try.

He had seen it when he was browsing through their platform before, but he didn’t go for it because it was really expensive. He had also been worried, to a certain degree, about his safety, but since Cao Guiqi was willing to serve as a guarantor, he wasn’t going to miss a chance to get stronger.

After telling Cao Guiqi that he wanted to buy the service from the Secret Python Cult, he stayed around for a little longer and finished his tea.

Once Mr. Ding sent him off, he came back and said, “I gave the Treasure Paste and the information about Green Satchel Pharmacy’s experimental drug to Chen Chuan.”

“Good. Thanks for that, Mr. Ding,” Cao Guiqi said.

Mr. Ding stared at him.

“If you’ve got something to say, go ahead,” Cao Guiqi said.

“If Chen Chuan responds well to the experimental drugs from Green Satchel Pharmacy, he’ll keep your kindness in mind. If it’s of no use to him, that’s fine too. But Chen Chuan is still young. He might not think anything right now, but if his progress slows down in the future and people start whispering into his ears that it’s all because of the experimental drugs, he might hold a grudge against you,” Mr. Ding pointed out.

Cao Guiqi shook his head. He looked into the distance, and his voice gained a forlorn note. “Chen Chuan is a man of strong will. He’s not easily swayed by other people’s opinions, and you need to seize the opportunities before you. That way, you won’t regret them leading you to miss out on even greater opportunities.”

Mr. Ding said nothing and just sighed.

***

Chen Chuan was driving back to the Arcane Palace after leaving Motie Mountain when he received a notification on his Realm Pass. It said that his car ownership application had been approved, and both of the cars he got from Phantom Form were now registered under his name.

He was also told that his temporary driving license was only valid for half a month more, so he was required to get a proper one.

At the end of the last month, Chen Chuan had paid for his application to the Resolution Department and the relevant departments. Now, it was finally approved.

Since the car from Jiade was just a normal car, it wasn’t expensive, so he paid for it out of his own pocket. Lightning Flash was a different matter, and since he wouldn’t be using it on a daily basis, he had discussed the matter with Wu Bei and Qi Gao.

Both of them believed that they had to keep such a good car around, especially since it was clear that Phantom Form had rarely used it before. In the end, they paid for the application fee from the team fund, so whoever needed it could drive it.

Now that Chen Chuan officially owned a car, he had to free up some time to get his driver’s license.

But this was an easy process in Central City. Even if a person sucked at driving, all they needed to do was cough up some money and connect their Realm Pass to a passive biosentient entity to have it show tips and help them while driving. Chen Chuan, though, had already gotten used to driving over the past few days, so it shouldn’t be too hard for him to get it by himself.

Once he returned to the Arcane Palace, he flipped through the information about Green Satchel Pharmacy’s experimental drug.

He hadn’t agreed to it immediately, because while he was okay with the idea of testing out the medicine, observation was a different matter. If Green Satchel Pharmacy wanted to follow him for a long period of time and even test him, it would become problematic.

However, as he read through the information, he found that the conditions were quite lax. This was probably because the company’s target demographic was rather different from the usual ones. Still, the basic requirements were somewhat hard to achieve.

Green Satchel Pharmacy asked for their test subjects to be close to the Third Limit and had to have received an official assessment showing that their chance of reaching the Third Limit was above 65%.

Their experimental drug had been out for a while, though, not just come out recently. It was likely that Cao Guiqi hadn’t mentioned it before because Chen Chuan’s chance of reaching the Third Limit during the first assessment was too low.

However, this requirement created a weird situation. Those who had such a high chance of reaching the Third Limit were practically guaranteed to reach it. It was a question of when rather than if.

There were also too many unknown factors about the experimental drug. It could hurt the martial artists’ bodies and even drain their potential. Anyone thinking about becoming a test subject had to be careful about it. It would be better to reach the Third Limit more slowly than to take such a risk.

Besides, aside from the martial artists trained by the companies, few others were willing to let other companies examine their bodies and let them have their data.

Perhaps it was due to this that Green Satchel Pharmacy had compromised somewhat. They only required the test subjects to fill out a monthly report and answer some questions. If they thought that something was going wrong, they could back out of the experiment at any point. The test subjects could also get a discount for medicine from Green Satchel Pharmacy in the future.

Chen Chuan considered it. If this was all Green Satchel Pharmacy asked for, he could say yes. So, he contacted Mr. Ding via his Realm Pass, and Mr. Ding promised to make the arrangements. Chen Chuan could leave it all to him.

With that done, Chen Chuan went to the training room for his daily training. He placed his focus on his saber technique nowadays, because that was his compulsory test for the semester. If he scored high during the test, his assessment points would increase.

The afternoon passed without him noticing.

In the evening, he received a parcel from Yangzhi City and perked up. Lei Guangcheng must have sent him a reply.

He opened it, and he was right. There was a sealed, thick notebook inside. He opened it and found tons of notes, opinions, and tips in regards to the pictures. Everything was done in great detail, and the notebook was filled to the brim. Some of the handwriting looked quite delicate, and Chen Chuan could tell that it was from He Nan.

Lei Guangcheng also wrote that it was something really valuable that he received. Through the pictures, he could confirm that the active cults were all closely connected to a certain cult. He would report it to his higher-ups, and if it was proven to be true, he would credit Chen Chuan for it.

He also thanked him for the toys he sent Lei Ying, saying that his son loved them. Lei Guangcheng was, of course, talking about the toys Chen Chuan had bought in Central City. Aside from getting some for his cousins, he also sent some to Lei Ying.

After organizing the notes, Chen Chuan returned to the sofa and started reading through the notebook. By comparing Phantom Form’s notebook to Lei Guangcheng’s notes, he immediately understood many of the things that stumped him in the past.

Aside from the notes, Lei Guangcheng had also given him the background information for many of the things in the notebook, along with why Phantom Form would choose to do those things. This was no different from providing Chen Chuan with personal guidance. After reading through the entire thing, his knowledge about cults increased by another degree.

That wasn’t all. After Lei Guangcheng saw the pictures, he seemed to have guessed what Chen Chuan wanted to do, so he gave him some suggestions on a few rituals.

Once Chen Chuan finished reading, he felt that he could give it a try.

This time, he wanted to complete a contract ritual. He wished to modify the preexisting contract so that the raccoon could be of use to him.

He didn’t intend to form a completely new contract with it, because whoever made the first contract with the raccoon had to have paid a huge price for it, perhaps a lot of people had even died for it.

The people who died couldn’t be normal people. They had to be cultists who were willing to give up their lives for it.

If Chen Chuan wanted to form a completely new contract, he wouldn’t be able to skip that part. Otherwise, the supernatural being would just ignore him.

However, just changing the preexisting contract and extending it was much easier, because the price had already been paid. Chen Chuan would not need to pay any additional price.

Also, creating a new contract would require great malice and a resolute mental state to draw the array. This wasn’t something an average person would be able to do, and Chen Chuan didn’t think that he could do it. The preexisting contract, however, wouldn’t need either of the two.

Lei Guangcheng had also removed the traps in the notebook. Phantom Form’s notebook could only be read by the cultists of his particular cult. In order to prevent others from learning their secrets, they had set up traps to kill them.

But times were different. The Cult Investigation Bureau had figured out many of the cults’ secrets and knowledge. A lot of their information was no longer solely in the hands of the cults, and the bureau could easily remove the traps and fix the arrays.

Still, this was considered hidden knowledge that was only known to a handful of people. Unless they were experts like Lei Guangcheng, they wouldn’t be able to deal with the traps. Normal Cult Investigation Bureau members were in the latter category.

The ritual had to be cast at a set time if Chen Chuan wanted to get the desired effect. According to Phantom Form’s notebook, the first ritual had been cast in the middle of the month, so Chen Chuan decided it would be for the best if he cast his at the same time. It was only a few days away, which would be perfect for him to get ready.

Over the next few days, aside from training during the day, he pondered over how to cast the ritual. He wanted to have a complete grasp of the ritual and not make any mistakes when he cast it.

On the fourteenth, he told Gao Ming about what he was going to do, then grabbed the ritual materials and drove to Wu Ruo’s resting place. He used the debris and remaining cement walls to set up a large array.

In order to not be bothered or interrupted while he was busy with the ritual, he asked Wu Bei to hide his tracks.

When he was done with the preliminary setup, he took out the notebook and started drawing according to the diagram.

This time, he had to draw three arrays. One to release the raccoon, another one to bind it, and the last to form a contract with it. The first two were quite easy, especially the binding ritual. He had already used it twice, so he managed to draw them without any problems. The last one, however, was quite tough.

Since its goal was different, the array for it was different as well. The array was meant to communicate with the supernatural being, so Chen Chuan had to remove what he didn’t need and replace those parts with the new, necessary ones.

The task was complicated, but Lei Guangcheng had given pointers on the general outline. All Chen Chuan needed to do was set up the array.

Chen Chuan’s request for the raccoon would be for it to attack people upon request. He would offer a necessary sacrifice in exchange, but it would not be his mutated tissue.

Because of this, the raccoon may not be as fierce as before. Before, the raccoon had been bound to a stone statue that was isolated from the world, so it wasn’t allowed to eat anyone outside. When necessary, the caster would offer a small bait, and the partially starving raccoon would tear through their target.

The raccoon treated the caster’s target as a necessity to survive, which was why it always attacked with its full power. But if Chen Chuan made an offering before asking the raccoon to do his bidding, the raccoon would not bring out its full power.

It would become much easier to control, though, and Chen Chuan would be in control of what he would sacrifice.

In any case, finding heinous criminals in Central City was as easy as breathing.

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