Chapter 227: Investigation

Chen Chuan and his team returned to Yangzhi City at around noon.

Due to the explosions, the city remained on high alert. Patrol cars filled the roads and inspected each vehicle carefully.

Fortunately, Chen Chuan’s team came back with patrol cars leading their way, so they avoided a lot of trouble.

Since it was almost lunchtime, the group decided to go to the southern part of the city to eat at a restaurant famous for its mutton. Then, they parted ways.

After returning to his room, Chen Chuan took off his clothes, took a shower, and turned on the radio.

The news channel was broadcasting about the company representatives’ meeting and asked notable figures to give comments about the situation. Some of them regarded the situation favorably and believed that this would benefit Yangzhi City, while others remained cautious and pointed out that this might lead to another Black Orchid Co. Both sides argued fiercely and kept the back-and-forth going.

Most of the foreign company representatives had died on the train. Even if Bolun Corporation’s representative survived, the conflict had begun, so they could no longer set up their company in Yangzhi City.

The news channel did not seem to have any intention of reporting the train being captured. The government was trying to keep it hidden. Perhaps they hadn’t decided on a time and date to reveal the news just yet.

After listening for a while, Chen Chuan turned off the radio.

Then, he took a pill he received as a reward for serving the country and sat down on a cushion to begin training the Furnace Breathing Technique.

About three months had passed since August. Thanks to his continuous training and fights with powerful enemies, the mutated tissue in his organs had grown by a considerable degree.

The Second Limit was known as the Life Guardian in the old era. He Xiaoxing had told him that the crux of the Second Limit was to shift from guarding the life in the mutated tissue to giving it true life. Simply put, mutated tissue should gain a life of its own.

According to He Xiaoxing’s notes, Second Limit martial artists could rely on the mutated organs to continue on even if their original organs were damaged. The two sets of organs could switch with each other and help each other heal. The two should not aim to replace the other but to complement and strengthen each other by forming a unified whole.

This was also a preparation for the next limit. Just like the First Limit, the stronger the mutated tissue in the Second Limit was and the more evenly distributed its growth was, the more useful it would be on the next step.

Based on what Chen Chuan could sense, he could still get stronger and was a distance away from the complete state he aimed for.

Still, he was improving fast enough.

It had been just a little over a year since he started practicing martial arts, and no matter how much he stimulated his mutated tissue, there was a limit to how much they could grow.

After all, he wasn’t naturally gifted. He could only achieve his current strength because his second self allowed him to ignore the damage from the medicines. He also didn’t need to worry about most injuries caused by overtraining.

While other people were only able to perform high-intensity training for at most four hours every day, Chen Chuan could train nonstop, which meant that he had put in a lot more work than the average person.

Right now, he could already maintain the basic breathing technique for twenty-four hours a day.

This breathing technique was the foundation of all breathing techniques. The ones he learned later, including the Furnace Breathing Technique, were all based on it.

The Furnace Breathing Technique was more complicated, but all of the basic breathing technique’s complexities and changes were contained within it.

The stronger his foundation was, the more building blocks he could stack on top. Because of his mastery over the basic breathing technique, the effects of the Furnace Breathing Technique were more obvious. Hence, even if his basic breathing technique improved only by a bit, it was still good, since his goal was to reach the theoretical peak of the First, Second, and Third Limits and go beyond. He couldn’t ignore any aspect that could help him improve.

His training lasted until midnight. Chen Chuan then emptied his mind and fell into a deep sleep. After midnight, he woke up on his own and overlapped with his second self to begin counting the seconds.

Chen Chuan had gone about the day as usual and hadn’t asked his second self to absorb too much damage during the operation. When he finished counting, he found that the mission had given him more than two extra hours of overlap time. He was just a tiny bit away from twenty-four hours now.

But he expected this. After all, he hadn’t faced anyone particularly strong during the mission. He even believed that most of the satisfaction leading to the increase was from defeating the Lost Maze and overcoming the ritual.

He was just going to go along with the flow until he reached his target.

After all, when his emotions fluctuated or he was under great mental stress, he was facing a dangerous and unpredictable opponent. Right now, he only needed to work hard as usual, and his overlap time would increase to his goal. He didn’t need to take risks. Besides, when he went to Central City, he would meet plenty of strong opponents.

Over the next ten days, he threw himself into martial arts training. In the blink of an eye, it was the middle of October.

That day, Gao Ming called him. “Cuz, I’ve finished taking care of the jointly commissioned mission. The reward will be transferred to your bank account by the end of the month at the latest.”

“Alright. Thanks for all this, Gao Ming,” Chen Chuan said.

Gao Ming continued, “There’s one more thing, Cuz. It’s about Shen Zheng’s murder. The details are out. You’ve killed most of the people involved in the case, but one of them escaped justice. Based on the situation right now, there’s no way to bring him to justice now.”

Upon hearing his words, Chen Chuan knew that Gao Ming was talking about Zhao Qian, the person Wei Jun mentioned.

Zhao Qian was actually the mastermind behind the entire accident. He had been in the same year as Shen Zheng, while Wei Jun and the others were their juniors.

This person had gone to Central City three years ago. Hence, even after Black Orchid Co.’s collapse, he was still at large. After all, Yangzhi City’s Constabulary couldn’t just go to Central City to arrest him.

Gao Ming then cautioned him, “You have to be careful of him. The Zhao family in Yangzhi City has been uprooted, and their business confiscated, but their businesses in Central City won’t fall that easily. I’ve looked into them. Not only did they have business deals with Black Orchid, but also deep ties with other big companies.

“As the key instigator and participant in this incident, you have to be on guard against him once you go to Central City.”

“Are you sure we can’t do anything to him through legal procedures?” Chen Chuan asked.

“Zhao Qian is working in a company with a legal team. He also has connections with the upper-class in Central City. Even if you had ample proof, he could mobilize enough societal and governmental resources to get himself out of being incriminated.

“Even if he somehow failed to avoid incrimination and the judge gave him a sentence, due to the unique nature of Central City, his punishment might not be carried out. His sentence would be as good as useless.”

“Then, if I want him to be punished, I need to have more societal resources and power than they do, am I understanding this correctly?” Chen Chuan asked.

“That’s right. You also have to convince the bodies holding your power to fight against Zhao Qian’s team. Usually, organizations with that sort of power don’t waste their energy on such ‘small matters,’ unless they are tied to bigger things. But based on what I know, there’s another way to solve this matter in Central City,” Gao Ming said.

“I think I know what that is,” Chen Chuan said with a nod.

If he couldn’t get the results he wanted through the law, he could use other means behind the scenes, like hiring mercenaries or other organizations via money or something else.

“Yes. It’s exactly as you think it is. When authority isn’t sufficiently centralized, many gaps appear, and where there are gaps, various groups and organizations move in to fill them.

“We’re lucky that it’s the case. Even normal people can hire mercenaries to solve certain problems in Central City. Of course, that’s on the premise that they can afford it and that their target isn’t some important person.”

Chen Chuan hummed at that. If he went to Central City, he would need to be wary of Zhao Qian. He had a company and powerful people supporting him.

“There’s another matter. It’s about the car you asked me to check. After looking around, I found three types of cars with that sort of vivid, blue color in the Great Shun Republic.

“There’s Blue Phantom, which is a car tailored for women and is popular among female white-collar workers; Compass’ Skyview, which is a luxury car line; and Azure Lake, which is a car made for the general masses. Skyview is rare, but you can find the other two everywhere. I’ve sent you the details.”

“Thanks, Gao Ming,” Chen Chuan said.

After he set the phone receiver down, he instinctively cast a glance at the sky outside. He remembered seeing a blue car before the old Chen Chuan died, but it had been dark, so there was a possibility that the color might be off. Still, he was going to treat this as a clue and look around.

***

The senior members and former members of the Aspiration Club had gathered together to read the recently revealed details of Shen Zheng’s case.

“That’s how Shen Zheng died?”

The members only knew that the Mutual Aid Group had gotten Shen Zheng killed through some shameful method, but they had not known the details. After reading the method they used, they shuddered but also burned with hate for Zhao Qian’s group.

They couldn’t win against Shen Zheng head-on, so they used such a method to kill him. It was obvious that even if they had failed, they would have used more dirty tricks to take him down. Sooner or later, they would have found a way to kill Shen Zheng.

“Thank goodness for Chen Chuan. He did well getting rid of the entire Mutual Aid Group!”

The club members nodded, and their hearts thrummed with excitement. They might be unable to take down those in power, but there was bound to be someone in the world who even those in power couldn’t kill.

“Shen Zheng had a sister. I wonder where she is. The butler from the Wei family said that the Zhao family took her to Central City…”

The club members fell silent. The Mutual Aid Group had killed Shen Zheng, so they couldn’t begin to imagine what sort of hellish life his sister was subjected to.

Lu Fang stood up silently and went outside. As he stood still, he seemed to be mulling over something. Some time passed before Shu Han and Shen Shao came out as well.

They exchanged glances, then Shu Han went over and asked, “Lu Fang, are you thinking about finding his sister?”

Lu Fang turned around and admitted to it frankly. “Yeah. I intend to try. She might be the last person Shen Zheng truly cared about. If we don’t take care of her, who else will?”

“But she might be in Central City, and you don’t have official clearance to go there. Without it, it’ll be hard for you to find your footing there, much less locate someone,” Shu Han said.

“We’re not being heartless here. It’s just that it’s been three years, and we don’t know anything about her. She might already be… you know…” Shen Shao added.

“I have to try,” Lu Fang said. He went to them and patted their shoulders. “I feel at ease handing over the Aspiration Club to you. Don’t worry. I won’t push myself. I know that I only have limited strength. I just want to go there to find some answers. If she’s still alive, I’ll tell you, and we’ll figure out how to bring her back together.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep