Chapter 109: Wu Neighborhood

After the sixth day of the first lunar month, Chen Chuan and Gao Ming went to the company on Broadfield Street, and Chen Chuan signed a contract with Ren Shu.

When Ren Shu and his group heard that he did not want to be the principal investor and only wanted to sign a temporary contract, they were surprised and also a little worried. Chen Chuan could leave whenever he wanted, so they became even more cautious around him.

Once they signed the contract, Chen Chuan had lunch with them, and Gao Ming managed to figure out everyone’s backgrounds while eating with them.

Ren Shu and his group had a good impression of Chen Chuan.

They had no idea about the agent industry and could not tell whether someone was strong or not, but Chen Chuan was handsome, had lively eyes, a high-spirited, uplifting demeanor they could not put to words, and spoke calmly and in an orderly fashion. All these things coupled with what they heard he had done filled many of the group with respect toward him.

After lunch, they parted ways. When Chen Chuan and Gao Ming walked out of the restaurant, Gao Ming said, “These rich kids are from families with considerable influence, cuz.”

“Since they could pool enough money together to build an agent company, their families have to be pretty well-off. In any case, we’re just business partners,” Chen Chuan stated.

“I know what you’re saying, and I won’t do anything unnecessary, but I remember a senior of mine saying something before. ‘Talk feelings with the rich, and talk business with the poor.’ While it’s not applicable all the time, it’s applicable to most cases,” Gao Ming said with a grin.

“Everyone has their own aspirations, I guess,” Chen Chuan marveled.

Gao Ming looked toward a clear river flowing under a bridge not far away. “Yes, aspirations. They drive a person down a path, whether willingly or not.”

Chen Chuan looked over as well. The river water sparkled dazzlingly under the sun. He watched it for a while before saying, “Let’s go.”

Gao Ming nodded and sent Chen Chuan back to the residential area for the constables’ families. Then, he bade farewell.

“I have to go back to the law firm. I’ll try to get the information as soon as possible. Just wait for me. It should take me only a few days.”

“It’s still the New Year season. You don’t have to be in such a hurry,” Chen Chuan suggested.

“Since I took on this case, I won’t have any rest until I achieve my goals. Bye now. I’ll call you later,” Gao Ming declared with a grin and waved goodbye before getting into the car, waving again, and driving off.

Chen Chuan watched the car leave before heading in. When he stepped into the courtyard, he stopped for a moment, because he noticed that the parts that had blurred out on his second self while he was taking care of the ghost in the movie theater had disappeared.

He pondered over this. It had been about ten days since then. The ghost was much stronger than the child in the well, but the symptoms lasted shorter. This proved his theory. As the time he could overlap with his second self increased, he could also withstand more damage.

Chen Chuan continued to enjoy his holiday over the next few days. He went out to meet with the classmates he had not seen in ages and even went to Ding Jiao’s house with some of his close friends to ride on motorbikes. Then, he went to the Little Green Hill, located in the southwestern part of the city, to ski, then to the lake to do ice fishing. He even watched a few movies.

Even though he had already seen all the movies at Orchid Fragrance Theater, watching them with his friends was a much better experience than watching them with a ghost.

On the tenth, Chen Chuan went with his family to Martial Valor University’s martial arts combat hall to watch the semi-finals and the finals.

The matches were really interesting. The martial artists in the finals were on par in terms of strength, and they traded blows tit-for-tat. No one could tell who would emerge victorious until the very end.

In terms of how they used their mutated tissue to generate strength and their techniques, the two second-class students would not lose to their first-class peers.

But tournaments came with the element of entertainment, so neither side went for the kill. They worked in tandem to draw out the match and even added some performative, cool-looking techniques at appropriate moments. Their opponent never interrupted them, which stirred up the viewers’ spirits. It was what people loved seeing.

The family was caught up in the excitement of the match even after it ended. Nian Mo started imitating the finalists by running and jumping about. He grabbed a tree branch and started hitting random things while shouting.

Meanwhile, Yu Wan carried Nian Lu as she walked slowly. She asked, “Chan’er, the finalists were really good. How were they compared to you?”

Chen Chuan smiled. “I would win.”

The second-class students did not learn how to fight to kill, and some of the techniques they picked up were completely useless in a real fight. If Chen Chuan were to fight in a tournament, he might need some time to get used to the limitations placed on him by the rules, but when it came to a real fight, even if he fought barehanded, the second-class students would have no chance of winning against him.

However, if the second-class students went through targeted training out of some necessity, they would possess some fighting prowess. After all, they had mutated tissue and were much stronger compared to the average martial artists. They could not even be compared to the latter.

Another five days passed, and it was the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. The festive cheer was still around, but it was starting to fade.

Chen Chuan had had a rare moment of relaxation over the past half a month, but the new semester was about to begin, and that marked a new beginning. He collected himself and started recalibrating his mindset.

He started training in the courtyard according to the method He Xiaoxing taught him. He was now completely on the right track, and his mutated tissue had seeped into his bones and muscles.

Based on the analysis in He Xiaoxing’s notes, if Chen Chuan wanted to reach the peak of his First Limit, he would need around three months. This was if there were no interruptions and his mutated tissue could grow steadily the whole time.

Chen Chuan could reach the peak after he overlapped with his second self, but not by himself, so he still needed to train and stimulate his mutated tissue to continue growing.

After performing the first set of moves He Xiaoxing taught him, he heard running outside the courtyard, and a boy of around twelve years old peeked in. “Someone’s asking for you, Xiao Chuan.”

Chen Chuan straightened up and thanked the boy before walking to the entrance of the alley. He saw an SUV parked there and Ren Shu waiting next to it while rubbing his hands together.

“What brought you here, Mr. Ren?” Chen Chuan asked.

“Mr. Chen, I didn’t want to bother you during the holiday, but…” Ren Shu said awkwardly before his voice faded.

“Since I’ve signed the contract, I’ll carry out my duties. You coming to me during the holidays can only mean that there’s a mission. Let’s get straight to business.”

Ren Shu looked around and whispered, “Alright. We just received a mission from the Department of Administrative Affairs. It’s related to the Flying Head Cult I told you about. They want us to take care of it as soon as possible.”

“Is it in the city?” Chen Chuan stared at him intently.

Ren Shu tensed up, but nodded vigorously. “Yes. While it’s not in the downtown area, it’s not far from it. A Flying Head might be there, so the department called to ask you to take care of it.”

“One moment. Let me grab some stuff,” Chen Chuan said and went back in to get his Frost King Saber and the Halberd Pistol.

“Please lead the way, Mr. Ren. We can talk about the details in the car,” he said after returning.

“Okay,” Ren Shu quickly said and opened the door for Chen Chuan. Once he got in, Ren Shu got into the front passenger seat and said to his driver, “To Wu Neighborhood, north of the city.”

North of the city again? Chen Chuan thought.

It made sense. The downtown area was densely populated. While that made it easy to hide one’s tracks, they would also be immediately discovered if they did anything suspicious, and the Constabulary would be dispatched at a moment’s notice. Meanwhile, the north of the city was large in size, and the citizens there were averse to outsiders. The area was also home to a lot of gangs, so it was a great place to cause trouble.

That was not all. The north of the city was right in front of the mountain range. If anything happened, the criminals could just head there and hide. No matter how many people went after them, they would not be caught.

Ren Shu searched through his bag and brought out a mission form along with some information about the mission, which he carefully handed to Chen Chuan. “The department received word about a Flying Head in Wu Neighborhood’s temple. Quite a number of residents were worshipping in the temple when it appeared, so a lot of them fell under the Flying Head’s influence. While the neighborhood has a security team, only a handful of people remained sane and managed to flee.

“A lot of agents from other agent companies are rushing over as well, but no one is confident that they can kill the Flying Head. Since we stated that we have a supernatural-extermination expert in the document we submitted, the Department of Administrative Affairs decided to assign the mission to us.”

Chen Chuan looked through the information and got a general understanding of the situation.

Cheng Zitong had said that the Flying Heads could be taken out with brute force, but the main problem was that they could fly and do so stupidly fast. When they became agitated, they could also drain a person’s sanity. That was why if he got into a fight with one of these things, he could not drag out the fight, or someone might go insane.

Cheng Zitong had also warned him that when he fought against the Flying Heads, he had to maintain his breathing technique to regulate the flow of his qi and blood. He was also to not get agitated. If he could not take them out, he was to leave and think of another solution or take a medicine that could help him calm down.

Chen Chuan listened to it, but did not bring anything. His second self could absorb external negative effects and damages, so the prolonged negative impact to his sanity was not going to be effective on him. Based on that alone, he was the perfect counter to supernatural entities like the Flying Heads.

Around half an hour later, the SUV stopped in a neighborhood near the suburbs. Most of the houses were low, brick-and-tile buildings. They still had snow accumulated on the eaves. Chen Chuan could tell that some of the houses were remodelled from sentry bases and warehouses left behind from the Great Expansion. They stood out like sore thumbs.

Since the neighborhood was close to the downtown area, the roads here were smooth and wide. They even had streetlights on both sides. When he looked down the street, he saw quite a number of overturned trishaws on the streets, with their cargo spilled all over the pavement. A lot of the shops were also closed for business.

More than twenty cars were parked at the entrance to the neighborhood. They likely belonged to agents from other agent companies. A group of people who looked like they might be Wu Neighborhood residents were talking with them.

Standing further away were people who had clearly come over just to get some entertainment. They stood clustered in groups and made snide comments about the neighborhood. Their gall was unrivaled.

Once the SUV arrived at the entrance, a well-built middle-aged resident of Wu Neighborhood ran over. “Mr. Ren, is that you? Has your expert arrived?”

Ren Shu rolled down the car window, and a cold gust of wind gushed in. He coughed a few times before saying, “Yeah, he’s here!”

The middle-aged man was delighted. “Yes! You’re finally here!”

The agents from the other agent companies perked up and put out their cigarettes. Once the Flying Head had set up base in the neighborhood, no one dared to do anything about it. They were worried that they would end up going insane like the residents. An expert was a great help at such a time.

Once the SUV came to a stop, Chen Chuan opened the door and got out with the Frost King Saber. The middle-aged man was taken aback by how young Chen Chuan was, but after he saw the long saber and met his calm gaze, his heart skipped a beat.

He immediately came forward to shake hands with Chen Chuan. “Hello, you must be Agent Chen. I’m Wu Dajin, captain of Wu Neighborhood’s security team.”

The agents regarded Chen Chuan with serious expressions. He may be young, but he was walking around with a weapon, which made it clear that he possessed extraordinary abilities. More importantly, the Department of Administrative Affairs had marked him as someone who could take down supernatural creatures. They had no choice but to take him seriously.

Chen Chuan took the offered hand and cast a glance at the people behind him. “Hello, Captain Wu. What’s the situation?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep