Book 3, Chapter 79: Cleaning Up

Chen Chuan waited until Bladed Toad breathed his last before turning around and returning to Zhao Qian. “Have you made up your mind, Mr. Zhao?” he asked calmly.

Zhao Qian stared at Chen Chuan while lying on the trunk.

He had thought that Chen Chuan was bound to lose and die, but the youth had managed to kill a Third Limit martial artist right before his eyes. The gap between his expectations and reality, along with the distress that came from having his hopes crushed and physical discomfort made his facial features twist into something grotesque.

At this moment, he finally realized that Chen Chuan had never taken any medicine. All the rumors about him taking medicine were fake. The Chen Chuan standing before him was a Third Limit martial artist.

Phantom Form must have died because he underestimated him.

And now, it was his turn.

While he met Chen Chuan’s gaze, his chest heaved, and he opened his mouth to let out a few wheezes. It seemed like he wanted to say something, but was unable to do so.

Chen Chuan walked a little closer. Zhao Qian forced himself to raise his head. The moment he saw Chen Chuan standing in front of him, his gaze turned fierce, and a sharp needle shot out of his sleeve to head straight for the youth’s ribs.

Before he could stab Chen Chuan, a hand smacked his forehead, and his head flew back. With a nasty crack, his spine snapped. The needle held off by Chen Chuan’s stab proof trench coat lost all its momentum as Zhao Qian’s hands fell limp and landed on the ground with a clatter.

Chen Chuan stared at Zhao Qian for a moment. Not only had that palm strike snapped his neck, the refined force that came with it reduced Zhao Qian’s brain to mush, killing him in an instant.

Just then, Chen Chuan looked ahead and saw the driver stumbling away. At this point, he was only a small dot on the other side, because he had run away the moment Chen Chuan lifted Zhao Qian on his saber.

But he was running in the wrong direction. The wilderness beyond Central City was not a place where just anyone could wander around.

The driver was only a normal person, so Chen Chuan never intended to kill him. After all, he hadn’t shown his face, and he wore the National General Affairs Bureau’s uniform. There were also no domain records here. If United Might wanted to investigate it, he supposed they could, but they were going to have their plates full because it was tied to the Zhao family and Black Orchid Co.’s collapse.

The real question, though, was whether United Might would even bother to go to such lengths for Zhao Qian.

Chen Chuan doubted it.

If Zhao Qian were still alive, things might be different, but now that he was dead, he was just a non-performing asset, especially since he had repeatedly caught the Resolution Department’s attention.

Chen Chuan grabbed Zhao Qian’s nape and removed the external tissue of his implanted Realm Pass along the embedded line before pulling out the entire implanted Realm Pass. There should be some records inside it. Perhaps he could find some clues about the whereabouts of Shen Zheng’s sister.

He took out a bag and put the implanted Realm Pass inside before going back to retrieve his sheath and returning the Frost King Saber inside it.

He looked up in Central City’s direction. The public road stretched all the way toward it. The sun had already arrived above the city, and its light spilled on the road, making him cast a long shadow.

After standing for a while, he went to Bladed Toad and picked up his body. He put him into the trunk to bury him on the way back. As for Feng Gai’s corpse, Chen Chuan had thrown him out soon after he left the city.

Once he shut the trunk, he pulled out Zhao Qian’s double-handed longsword from his car and went back inside.

Soon, his car roared to life, and he left the place.

Around four minutes after he left, Zhao Qian’s assistant stirred in the car and sat up in confusion before looking around. Soon, his gaze focused. As if he had just remembered something, he turned around, only to find Zhao Qian lying on the trunk.

“Mr. Zhao?” he cried out in surprise and scrambled out toward him. After a quick check, he found that Zhao Qian was no longer breathing, and fear filled his heart.

Zhao Qian had hired him, so he depended on Zhao Qian to remain employed. Now that he was dead, the assistant wouldn’t be able to stay in the company. He had also offended a lot of people on Zhao Qian’s behalf, who could now easily take him out. If he went back to the company, he would be a dead man. If that were the case…

He gritted his teeth and went to the driver seat. The car was still working, so crazed delight filled every part of his body.

He knew that there was a compartment full of emergency cash under the car. Even though it wasn’t a lot of money, it would be enough to cover his travel expenses. He also knew about Zhao Qian’s anonymous bank account.

But that amount of money wouldn’t be enough…

After a brief war in his heart, ruthlessness flashed on his face as he took out a knife from his waist, went to Zhao Qian’s corpse, and cut off his head.

Third Limit martial artists’ brain tissue could be sold for a lot of money in any Central City he went to.

He then pushed Zhao Qian’s body off the trunk and carefully brought his head into the car to put it into the fridge under the seats.

After some thinking, he decided to also take Zhao Qian’s branded watch. He wiped it and put it into his pocket before returning to the driver seat, reversing, and driving away from Central City.

***

Meanwhile, Chi Duan lay sprawled by the road in a pathetic fashion. One of his arms was broken and hung limp. The man before him remained standing and didn’t seem to have moved an inch since the fight started.

With a wry smile, Chi Duan said, “I still can’t win, huh?”

After the fight last time, he had thought of many ways to fight against this man and prepared extensively on the off-chance that they might meet again, only to have reality throw all his hard work back in his face and spit on it.

So, he admitted defeat. “Could you spare me? I’ve already repaid my favor to Mr. Zhao and won’t serve him anymore.”

He was being truthful, and the man didn’t seem to want to kill him, just block his path. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had the chance to speak.

Zhao Qian was most likely also a goner. Even though Chi Duan was willing to serve the Zhao family for helping him become the martial artist he was today, he had done his best and couldn’t be blamed for not being strong enough to win against this man.

The man cast him a look before turning around and leaving.

Once he left, Chi Duan’s strength left him, and he lay limp on the ground while staring at the sky. It seemed like he would no longer be able to stay in Jibei Road’s Central City.

***

Once Chen Chuan was back within Central City’s domain, he contacted Wu Bei and asked him for tech support. He wanted all records of him leaving and returning to Central City wiped out.

This was how he usually operated with Wu Bei. Ever since his fight with Wu Ruo, he asked Wu Bei to delete his records whenever he left his room.

The moment he ended his conversation with Wu Bei, he contacted Gao Ming.

“I’m going to assume that things went well,” Gao Ming said.

“Yes. The plan went off without a hitch,” Chen Chuan confirmed.

“Next, you should get ready for the Resolution Department possibly questioning you,” Gao Ming reminded him.

Chen Chuan grunted at that. After all, Zhao Qian had died right after their conflict was brought to light. Some people in the Resolution Department were bound to suspect him.

It was impossible for Zhao Qian’s murder to have no repercussions. Chen Chuan was sure that some people were going to be displeased with him.

But he didn’t care. Since they had decided to trample all over his interests when Zhao Qian targeted him, he had no care for their interests either. The Resolution Department wasn’t controlled by a single group, so there would also be people who supported him.

Besides, now that Zhao Qian was dead, it was meaningless to keep targeting Chen Chuan. Once he became a Third Limit martial artist, everyone would soon forget that this ever happened.

After returning to the city, he drove to Wu Bei’s apartment. An hour later, they met up, and he put the bag in front of him. “I brought his Realm Pass back. I didn’t wash it, just as you asked.”

“That’s good.”

Wu Bei took it, fully intending to perform a data inspection and extracting all the remaining domain information inside. Perhaps the clues Chen Chuan wanted were inside.

After checking it for a while, he looked up and said, “He used the dormant storage system to store his domain information. It’ll take me some time to find the correct paths and dig through them. If I make even the slightest mistake, I might damage all the information, so I can’t rush it. Still, this sort of storage system means that he had a lot of information.”

“Take your time,” Chen Chuan said.

“Sure thing,” Wu Bei said and rubbed his palms while his eyes sparkled, as if he had run into a difficult problem that sparked his desire to conquer it.

Chen Chuan didn’t bother him any further and left the apartment. Once he got back into his car, he drove to a car wash shop that had caught his eye earlier because it was not registered on the platform and got his car cleaned thoroughly.

Then, he went back to the Arcane Palace and returned to his room, where he found an empty closet to store Zhao Qian’s double-handed sword, Bladed Toad’s bladed arms, and the long staff he had gotten from Phantom Form. Now, he had two more weapons for his future display hall.

When he shut the closet, it was still early, so he went back to his daily training.

He had thought that the Resolution Department and United Might would soon learn about Zhao Qian’s death, but things were peaceful over the next few days. No news about Zhao Qian leaked out.

In truth, Zhao Qian’s corpse had been found a long time ago, but not by patrol guards or cleaners. Instead, it was an armed group from the wilderness who found him.

The driver had thought that he was only half an hour away from Central City, so he could run back, but he had forgotten the complicated situation outside Central City.

Armed groups and smuggling groups of various sizes lurked outside Central City, and a person walking outside was a living target. In less than half an hour, a bandit riding a motorbike caught him.

After getting the driver to spill all the information, the bandit decided to check out the fight scene in case he could find something. To his glee, he found Zhao Qian’s corpse.

Even though Zhao Qian’s head was missing, his corpse was that of a Third Limit martial artist, and he was even part of the middle management of a company. It was sure to sell for good money.

Since Zhao Qian had turned back right at the start of the escort mission, the escort team didn’t care where he went. His assistant and driver had disappeared too, so no one reported him missing. Hence, when Chen Chuan finally heard news about Zhao Qian going missing, it was three days after his fight with him.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep