Book 3, Chapter 96: Bloom

The Resolution Department’s motorcade headed to the martial arts school where Zhe Rong was killed. Chen Chuan’s car followed behind them.

Just then, Sun Rao received a message. After listening to it for a while, he said, “They’re wrapping things up there.”

Chen Chuan guessed that he was talking about the gunfight between the Swordfish Gang and the Elephant Gang. “How was it?”

Sun Rao scoffed. “They’re lucky that their security guard is good and managed to get them to safety unscathed despite the fierce gunfight. That’s not a good thing, though. Them coming out of this without a scratch is just going to encourage them to be even more stupid. They’re going to do something like this again, but that will have nothing to do with us anymore.”

Chen Chuan agreed with it. Based on what Li Fusheng told them, the department had been keeping an eye on Sun Rao and Chen Chuan’s whereabouts so that they could send them all over the Glowing Dew District to create an opportunity for Wei Wusheng.

This was a good plan, and they were partially successful, but they had misjudged Wei Wusheng’s strength, which led to them failing. The two Third Limit martial artists had suffered various injuries, which led to the other Resolution Department members not daring to chase after the target. They were worried that if they ended up alone, Wei Wusheng might just turn around and kill them.

But had the Resolution Department formed their plan according to Wei Wusheng’s previous strength? Chen Chuan did not think so. They had to have made adjustments, so Wei Wusheng had to have improved faster than what they predicted.

Chen Chuan looked outside. After killing the two people, Wei Wusheng was likely to become even stronger.

The motorcade soon arrived at the scene of the crime. The martial arts school was not as bloody and gory as the street. Zhe Rong was the only one who died, and judging by how she had fallen face first on the floor, she had been killed while walking. The people next to her hadn’t even noticed that someone had attacked her. Some of them thought that the opposing martial arts school had ambushed her during the exchange.

It was only when they found that her neck had been broken that they realized someone powerful had killed her.

Li Fusheng went over to inspect her body. After spending a long time comparing domain information and the way the refined force was released, he came to a conclusion that Wei Wusheng had killed her. Even though they had been mentally prepared for it, they still felt frustrated when they got their guesses confirmed.

Once they confirmed the killer, it was time for the City Patrol to take over. Li Fusheng had a brief discussion with the department before casting a few looks at Chen Chuan and Sun Rao. Then, he gave them both a nod before leaving with his team. Meanwhile, the department told Sun Rao to continue their shift. When they finally clocked off work, it was already 6 p.m..

The sky was beginning to turn dark, and the neon lights by the road and on the buildings lit up. The large ferris wheel under the night sky in the distance spun slowly like a fire wheel.

“Our replacements are already coming, and the night shift guys won’t need us around. Why don’t we grab a bite, Chen Chuan? I know a place serving pretty good venison,” Sun Rao offered.

Chen Chuan had no objections to that.

The patrol car changed direction. Ten minutes later, they stopped at a bustling street. It had shops selling various foods from the island nations.

Sun Rao went to a restaurant with an illuminated sign saying “Feng Family’s Venison”. Then, with familiar ease, he ordered scallops, lobsters, crabs, raw fish slices, and its specialty dish—stone-slab roasted venison.

Usually, these dishes were taken with red wine, but they were martial artists and couldn’t take any alcohol, so they only ordered lemonade.

Soon, the food they ordered arrived. Under the bright light, the white flesh of the scallops sprinkled with garlic, the bright red lobsters placed on raw vegetables, and the golden crab with its pincers and legs still attached to the body all looked appetizing.

The signature dish was brought to the table on a heated stone slab. The venison was already cut and came with tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and sauce.

Sun Rao grabbed a thick piece and cooked it on the stone slab for a while. Amid the sizzling sounds, the meat’s color changed. Then, he flipped it over. When that side was also done, he lifted it from the stone slab while it let out a drool-worthy aroma. After dipping it in the sauce, he put it in his mouth.

Chen Chuan had never had food here before, so he copied Sun Rao and picked up his chopsticks to cook both sides of a venison slice before eating it with the sauce. It tasted fresh, tender, juicy, and even had a unique aroma. When he swallowed, he felt a heat in his stomach. It was indeed good food.

They were being observed through Realm Passes and the Realm Nodes all around them. The Resolution Department had asked the resonators to watch over them.

The resonators had been watching them since they were on duty during the day.

After all, aside from Zhe Rong and Tong Daguang, Chen Chuan was also Wei Wusheng’s target. That was why the resonators were keeping a close eye on them.

But even after the sun set, Wei Wusheng didn’t show any signs of wanting to attack Chen Chuan.

“I heard that the two of them have fought before? Why didn’t he attack the kid? Is it because he’s not confident or because he doesn’t dare attack someone from the Resolution Department?”

“Both options are possible. Say, if Chen Chuan had helped during the day, could we have arrested Wei Wusheng? But I heard that he needs to take medicine beforehand...”

“They look like they’re enjoying their food so much... We haven’t even eaten yet!”

“I have a few tubes of nutritional paste with me. You can have them to curb the hunger.”

Then came the sound of paper being torn, along with slurping sounds.

***

After dinner, Chen Chuan and Sun Rao returned to the car. The driver sent Chen Chuan back to the Arcane Palace and watched him walk inside before leaving.

At this point, the resonators in charge of watching him finally relaxed.

Once Chen Chuan returned to his room, he took a shower. Since Wei Wusheng wouldn’t show up again for some time, he didn’t need to go on duty the next morning. Hence, he practiced his breathing technique for a while before sitting down on the sofa to read the news from the niche channel.

The incidents today had caused a huge ruckus, since Wei Wusheng had killed two of his targets despite the Resolution Department having set up a trap for him. He even managed to escape afterward, so it became the talk of the town.

Many people analyzed the situation and believed that Wei Wusheng had a big company cooperating with him. How else would he be able to accurately kill his targets one after another? They also believed that the company in question was Glowing Dew District’s Ferris Wheel.

But some people argued against it, because Tong Daguang was from the Swordfish Gang, and everyone knew that Ferris Wheel supported the Swordfish Gang. Why would they kill one of their own?

Still, plenty believed that this was precisely why Ferris Wheel was suspicious. Tong Daguang was just one of the many leaders of the gang, so he was nothing to Ferris Wheel. Sacrificing him to free themselves of suspicion was worth it.

Chen Chuan thought about it and decided that it was unlikely to be Ferris Wheel. The Gong family was one of their major sponsors, and one of its most important members was Gong Zhanyi. Even so, Wei Wusheng had killed Gong Zhanyi, and they believed that Wei Wusheng had taken something really important from them.

This time, Ferris Wheel didn’t jump in to add chaos to the pile. Instead, they provided help, which showed that they did want to have Wei Wusheng captured.

Then, a thought struck Chen Chuan. While Ferris Wheel might want to capture Wei Wusheng, they might not want the Resolution Department to take him away. While it was impossible for them to throw an obvious wrench into the works, they might have ruined things from behind the shadows.

If that was the case, Wei Wusheng might have run into Ferris Wheel’s ambush after killing his targets.

While thinking about it, Chen Chuan noticed the people in the chat talking about him.

“Did you know that Wei Wusheng actually wanted to kill everyone in the arena that day, but someone stopped him. Someone managed to hold him back until the security guards on Rhinoceros’ Horn rushed in. That’s why most of the people managed to survive. I just don’t know who this person is.”

“If they could fight against Wei Wusheng, they had to be a Third Limit martial artist. No one lower could possibly do it. If there was, that person could only be Du Geng.”

“That’s right! It was most likely Du Geng!”

The others subscribed to that theory as well.

Chen Chuan took a look. Du Geng had the most votes on the list, and he was believed to be the last person Wei Wusheng would kill.

Chen Chuan considered this particular name in his mind, but decided that he wasn’t really that impressive. None of the people had managed to last a single blow against him, so he didn’t have a deep impression of them.

As for Wei Wusheng’s pattern for picking his targets...

Chen Chuan formulated a theory in his mind.

He believed that Wei Wusheng picked his targets in order of how great of a threat they could pose to him in the future and their potential, but their potential wasn’t ranked from high to low, but from low to high.

For example, the first martial arts school owner he killed. Even though he was pretty strong, he was quite old and unlikely to reach the Third Limit. The martial artists killed after him varied in terms of age, but all of them shared one similarity—they had a hard time improving any further and no longer had any motivation to become stronger.

But lately, Wei Wusheng’s targets didn’t have this trait anymore. However, compared to the ones with more votes on the list, these people still lacked potential.

Usually, when people killed their enemies, they picked off the strong ones first before targeting the weaker ones, but Wei Wusheng was leaving the ones who could grow last.

If that were the case, Chen Chuan would be the last person Wei Wusheng would challenge, since he was the one who had fought against him back in the arena.

But that was only Chen Chuan’s theory. He would even say that it was just his gut feeling. He had no proof to support his theory, and there was no way to verify it.

Wei Wusheng was getting stronger, but Chen Chuan was also improving.

Recently, his senses had become much sharper. He also had yet to pick up his portion of the Treasure Paste this month, so he intended to go to Cao Guiqi’s place and tell him about his condition.

With the plan set, he looked through all the discussions with some value in them. When it was time for bed, he went to sleep.

The next morning, he went to Motie Mountain. Once he saw Cao Guiqi, he told him about the strange things that had happened to him. After asking Chen Chuan some questions, Cao Guiqi asked Mr. Ding to bring the Imprisoned Sentient Root again and placed it in front of him.

Just like last time, Chen Chuan focused on the plant. This time, things were different. After some staring, he felt as if he had touched something.

Then, the white branches spread out, and its colorful petals bloomed. White fluff floated up, and the plant started glowing like the light from sacred lamps behind statues in temples. The white fluff kept floating in the air and making Chen Chuan’s eyes chase after it.

After around eight minutes, the faint light vanished, and the white fluff fell down. Only withered branches and petals were left on the table.