Book 4, Chapter 8: Dispose Of
Book 4, Chapter 8: Dispose Of
Chen Chuan stared at the blood under his foot, then at his second self. He was still blurry. The effects hadn’t vanished.
A shocking amount of blood filled the pit of shattered stone slabs. Soon, it began flowing out into the cracks underneath.
Chen Chuan looked around himself. The blood seemed to possess a life of its own. Light snaps came from the cracked edges of the stone slabs. Tiny bits of shattered rock jumped up, and as more cracks spread, something crawled out from underneath the sturdy stone slabs.
Thin, long, dark red tendrils resembling branches grew where blood had reached the soil. They looked like blood-red coral. In just a short while, they covered a twenty meter area.
Once the tendrils grew to the right size, their tips exploded, and clumps of tiny insects spilled out from within them. They rushed toward the unconscious marksmen.
Chen Chuan’s gaze sharpened. He didn’t know whether this was an effect from the corruption from the other world merging with the creatures in the physical world, or whether this was something this thing had always been able to do, but he couldn’t let them spread.
Light flickered in his eyes, and an invisible wave of mental energy spread out. In an instant, all the squirming insects curled up and died. The people on the ground twitched as blood oozed out of their eyes, ears, mouths, and noses. All of them stopped breathing.
They had been attacked twice with mental energy within a short span of time, and it had happened within such a close proximity too. They had no chance to withstand it.
The coral insect pods spasmed under the force of the mental attack before shriveling up. They turned grayish white before being reduced to powder.
Once his second self stopped blurring out, the light in Chen Chuan’s eyes slowly faded.
He looked around. It seemed like using mental energy against these things was really effective, but he had to make sure that he didn’t get affected in return.
When he released mental energy, those things could attack him as well.
If anyone else were sent to deal with this situation, they would have found it a huge problem and would have ended up with underlying problems.
Chen Chuan put his hand on his Realm Pass and contacted his motorcade. Since he was only four kilometers away from them, the domain connection entity in the limousine still reached him. The signal was stupidly weak, but he could pass simple commands.
He ordered his security team to notify the Resolution Department in Yangzhi City via telegram and tell He Fen to send a unit over to deal with the aftermath.
Yangzhi City’s Resolution Department didn’t have any jurisdiction over Farsight Harbor’s safety, because the harbor had its own armed forces and was directly under Jibei Road’s Department of Administrative Affairs.
But the Resolution Department from Central City had the right to interfere, and as a lead investigator in the headquarters, Chen Chuan could mobilize the forces from the branch department to investigate Farsight Harbor.
Soon after, he heard rapid footsteps beyond the container storage area. They belonged to the harbor’s security team. After they rushed over and saw the situation, they became tense. Some of the soldiers even lifted their guns, but their leader quickly stopped them.
Chen Chuan was wearing the Resolution Department’s overcoat, and it wasn’t one of the regular officers. Even though his subordinates couldn’t recognize it, the captain could. Besides, he had come here because he had received orders from his superiors.
Cautiously, he said, “We’re the patrol guards in charge of the harbor’s safety. I’m Section Leader Liao Guang. Please state your identity.”
Before Chen Chuan could say anything, a sedan hurried over and stopped with a loud screech. A meticulously dressed, classy-looking middle-aged man stepped out of it.
The security guards immediately stepped back and saluted him.
With a stern face, the middle-aged man walked over. The moment he saw Chen Chuan’s calm, profound gaze, he felt his heart tense. Even so, he remained calm on the outside. The corpses on the ground did make his expression stiffen, though.
“Lead Investigator Chen, you notified us, but took action on your own. This isn’t right. If we don’t handle this properly, it might have a negative impact on the harbor’s operations,” he said.
As the person-in-charge of the harbor, he had quite a high rank and was only one rank lower than Chen Chuan. They didn’t belong to the same system, however, so he had the confidence to confront him.
Chen Chuan smiled. “Terribly sorry. I wanted to work together with you, but things got urgent. The target attacked us with a rifle. I’m sure that you heard the gunshot. There was no reaction from your side, so I had to take measures based on emergency protocol.
“Besides, you saw the wanted poster yourself. This person was a wanted criminal, and he had plenty of armed combatants with him. If I hadn’t killed him, he would have had an even worse impact on the harbor.”
The middle-aged man sucked in a deep breath before saying, “I just received word that Kenwa’s pardon is on the way. Lead Investigator Chen, you killed someone who has been granted amnesty by the higher-ups. He wasn’t a wanted criminal.”
“Is that so? What a pity. He doesn’t need his pardon anymore,” Chen Chuan stated coolly.
When the middle-aged man saw that Chen Chuan didn’t care about any possible pressure from the higher-ups, he fell silent.
More cars drove over. This time, it was Chen Chuan’s motorcade, and his security team ran over under Yu Xiao’s lead.
Yu Xiao saluted Chen Chuan and said sternly, “We’re all here, Lead Investigator.”
“Keep close watch over the scene of the crime. Before Director He arrives, don’t let anyone get close to the place,” Chen Chuan ordered.
“Understood!”
Liao Guang saluted Chen Chuan. “Sir, we will cooperate with the lockdown.”
He had actually wanted to arrest Kenwa, but his higher-ups had stopped him. Besides, he wasn’t strong enough to do it himself, so he could only watch as Kenwa and his goons occupied part of the harbor. Once Chen Chuan killed him, he felt great satisfaction.
Chen Chuan turned to him. Upon seeing Liao Guang’s serious and stern expression, he nodded. “Section Leader Liao, please lock down the place.”
“Understood, sir!”
He ignored the sour look on the face of the harbor’s person-in-charge and gave his subordinates a few more instructions, and they started moving.
Chen Chuan walked back to his limousine. He needed to send a telegram to Mr. Cao that the deed was done.
Before he could do so, a telegram arrived. The telegraph clerk immediately translated it and handed it to him.
Chen Chuan accepted it.
Situation noted. Do not send any further telegrams.
He raised an eyebrow at that. It seemed like the National General Affairs Bureau had informants in the harbor itself.
“Send a telegram to the Resolution Department’s headquarters to tell them about the situation here. Also, add that I’ve confirmed corruption from the other world. I will send the creatures’ fragments back to the headquarters. Please tell them to get ready to receive them,” Chen Chuan instructed the telegraph clerk.
He immediately returned to the telegraph set and did as told.
Chen Chuan stayed at the harbor until night. When it was past 10 p.m., He Fen finally arrived with officers from the Resolution Department. After he got out of his car, he immediately came over.
After giving him a run-down of the situation, Chen Chuan said, “Director He, please have someone capable to gather the creatures’ fragments and send them back to the headquarters. I will state in the report that the branch department helped me complete this task.”
He Fen immediately perked up. As a Third Limit martial artist, he knew that his abilities were limited, and he had already reached his peak. That was why he was willing to become the branch director of the Resolution Department in Yangzhi City.
However, if he couldn’t continue down the path of a martial artist, he could climb up the career ladder in terms of administration. After all, many Resolution Department officers didn’t get promoted due to brute strength. They were in charge of administrative affairs, not fighting in the front lines, so to get promoted, they needed a lot of achievements under their belt.
Chen Chuan was giving him a leg up by sharing credit with him.
Of course, he had to do this task properly.
“I’ll make sure the fragments are properly delivered, Lead Investigator Chen,” He Fen immediately answered.
Chen Chuan nodded and gave a few more instructions before letting him take over the crime scene. Then, he returned to his limousine and started the return journey to Yangzhi City.
Once the motorcade started moving, he took a warm drink from a logistician. While sipping at it, he thought about what was going to happen next.
He had killed Kenwa, which completed Zhuan Liang’s exam. In truth, this exam wasn’t all that hard. It was just as Zhuan Liang had said: They were just going through the procedure.
But after some consideration, Chen Chuan realized that it wasn’t actually that simple.
The most important part of the exam was acting decisively and swiftly locating the target. While killing Kenwa, he also couldn’t miss killing what he really needed to take out.
The thing inside Kenwa was different from the existences he had met before. It should be something that had only borrowed power from the other world, since Kenwa hadn’t actually been possessed. Strictly speaking, it was similar to Chen Bitong using the power of an Image Imprinter.
This made sense. Kenwa was far from qualified to be the spokesperson for the existences in the other world. Someone had to have been giving him orders.
According to Zhuan Liang, many members in the central government were trying to get power from the existences in the other world. Since Kenwa was from the Linacrox Union, this guaranteed that there was such a group of people there.
But was this phenomenon limited to the Linacrox Union?
What about the Great Shun Republic?
Also, was the pardon issued to Kenwa without any ulterior motives?
Whatever it was, Chen Chuan couldn’t continue investigating this matter with his current power. Not that he needed to do it now.
Getting strong was his top priority. Once he was strong enough, he would have the right to look into all these things.
After he joined the purity faction, he wouldn’t have to face them alone either. He would have a whole faction supporting him.