Book 3, Chapter 125: Internal And External Affairs

While driving back, Chen Chuan took a detour to Black Orchid Co.’s base. Just as Nian Fuli said, Enclosed Shore had claimed the place.

As a firearms manufacturer, Enclosed Shore’s security was top-notch. It had an even more elite security team than Black Orchid Co.. Occasionally, armored patrol cars drove past, and there were personnel transport vehicles and armored cars parked on the square, ready to leave at any moment.

Enclosed Shore was different from Black Orchid Co., though. This was just a base for it. The company didn’t have any businesses or factories near the city nor any communications with the higher-ups of the city.

Their main task was to protect Farsight Port and the building of the railroad in the north. It seemed like they were also getting ready for something.

After leaving the place, Chen Chuan went to the telegraph station and sent a telegram to He Xiaoxing.

He had told Chen Chuan before that there was a martial arts technique for the Furnace Breathing Technique, but only Third Limit martial artists could learn it. Chen Chuan had reached it, so he decided to ask whether he could learn that technique.

With that done, he went back home and saw his cousins sprawled over the sofa while cradling their faces as they played ludo on the board he brought for them.

Dawncall was perched on the sofa and seemed to be watching the board as well. When it saw Chen Chuan, it perked up and chirped at him before flapping its wings and jumping down. It flew to Chen Chuan and climbed up his shoulder.

Chen Chuan went to the phone and saw a note with some words written in childish handwriting.

Ding Jiao called at 3.

Nian Lu had clearly written it, which brought a smile to his face. Nian Mo was smart too, but he was too playful for his own good and didn’t know how to spell quite right just yet.

Chen Chuan called Ding Jiao back, and the moment the call went through, Ding Jiao said that he had gotten the gang together. They were going to gather tomorrow and go kayaking as well as watch a movie.

Chen Chuan agreed to it.

Since he was on a break, he was going to

relax.

He had a feeling that after he went back to Central City, it was going to be a long time before he could rest again.

After hanging up, he was about to leave when the phone rang. He picked it up and asked who was on the other end when he heard a cheerful voice.

“I heard that you’re back, Chen Chuan!”

“Changan? Yeah. I came back yesterday.” Chen Chuan grinned at hearing his voice.

“Why didn’t you tell me ahead of time that you’re coming back? I have to treat you to a meal no matter what, you know? Why are you treating me like a stranger?” Wei Changan complained.

With a chuckle, Chen Chuan said, “I’m not. I was just thinking about calling you and the rest of our group. I want to have a meal with everyone.”

“That’s easy. We’ve been meeting up even after you went to Central City. We sometimes work together on missions too. Let me handle this. Once I’ve got everyone to agree on a date, I’ll call you,” Wei Changan promised.

“Okay. I’ll leave it to you,” Chen Chuan said.

They exchanged a few more words before Chen Chuan hung up and went to his room to take some calming medicine before practicing his breathing technique. Almost immediately, he felt much more energized.

Then, he took out

The Studies of the Unusual

from his luggage and started reading.

Once the intimidating aura around him subsided, he no longer brought terror to people with his presence alone. Instead, he appeared even livelier, and his mind got sharper than before.

Since Chen Chuan didn’t have a Realm Pass to convert the text, he could only read the text in its original, vertical version. After a while, he found himself getting used to it and even decided that reading it this way gave it more nuance.

Most of the text spoke about how to fight against the abnormal sights. Many of the things the people saw in the past were strange and bizarre, and their stories were terrifying. Despite it being summer, goosebumps appeared on his skin just from reading about them.

Some people reacted to the sights in rather interesting ways.

One of them was an amazing person called Liu Cai. Chen Chuan especially loved the articles he wrote. Liu Cai loved sleeping, and he even did his martial arts training in his sleep. Because of this, his body would sometimes move on its own. There were even times when he sleepwalked out of his room. Hence, all the abnormal sights he encountered were when he was half-asleep.

One time, when his mind was still addled by sleep, he heard rustling coming from nearby, as if a robber had broken in, but Liu Cai had been sleeping, so he didn’t want to bother with them.

Suddenly, someone yelled into his ear that the house was on fire, and he saw a fire raging behind him. He could even smell the scent of something burning, but he only grumbled, “If anyone is going to get burnt, it’d be me. It has nothing to do with you.”

Then, he went back to sleep.

When he woke up, he found that the house had never been on fire, but everything in his house had been stolen. Liu Cai laughed at that, completely unbothered.

Another time, soon after Liu Cai went to bed, he felt someone touching his body with cold hands and whispering sweet nothings into his ears, but his wife had passed away a long time ago, and he had never gotten together with anyone else. He had also dismissed all his servants, so how could there possibly be anyone sleeping with him?

When he woke up, he found the door wide open, and a large snake slithering around on the floor. Liu Cai smiled and gave the snake a fist-and-palm salute. “Thanks for not eating me, friend.”

Yet another time, he dreamt that he was floating above the clouds. Ahead of him were wine, food, and beautiful women, all within arm’s reach, but he was so lazy that he didn’t reach out for them. When he woke up, he found himself lying beside a cliff on the top of a mountain. If he had reached out, he would have plunged to his death.

Liu Cai was open-minded and optimistic. When the royal family heard of his reputation, they asked him to write some passages for the book.

Being one of the authors wasn’t a good thing, since the authors usually saw those very same abnormal sights again while recalling their experiences. Some of the people reading them also saw those abnormal sights.

The abnormal sights seemed to be attracted to each other, which led to the authors usually losing their minds or dying while writing the book. Liu Cai was one of the few who wrote in the book and lived afterwards.

Chen Chuan could tell, based on his actions, that Liu Cai was completely unbothered and ignored all the abnormal sights, which was how he managed to avoid getting affected by these external disturbances.

Chen Chuan reflected on himself. While he had managed to steady his mind, and the frequency at which the abnormal sights appeared had decreased, they would continue to happen as long as he wanted to get stronger.

These things only appeared when his emotions fluctuated a lot, which meant that if he could control his emotions, he could avoid them, but he couldn’t be too deliberate about it. The more attention he paid to this, the more abnormal sights were going to appear.

He also had to maintain absolute calm while fighting. Then, he wouldn’t lose his composure while going up against someone strong.

While reading, the sun set, and Nian Fuli came back from the Constabulary. Yu Wan immediately saw that he was feeling down, so she sent Nian Mo and Nian Lu outside to play before asking worriedly, “What’s wrong?”

Nian Fuli took out a cigarette and took a puff from it. “The new head instructor got into another argument with Chief Guan.”

“That has nothing to do with you, does it?” Yu Wan asked.

“At the end of the day, I work in the Constabulary, and I can’t avoid it. Head Instructor Che approached me twice. He also approached Wei Laohu in private. It’s clear that he wants the constables’ support,” Nian Fuli grumbled.

“But this head instructor has only been here for a few months, hasn’t he? Will anyone support him?” Yu Wan asked in surprise.

Nian Fuli took another drag of the cigarette before exhaling slowly. “This guy has some tricks up his sleeves. The moment he took office, he tested the constables. If you failed once, you got your salary deducted. If you failed twice, you got demerit points. Fail thrice, and you’re fired. Still, he’s not the one who gets to decide who passes the tests or not. Even so, a lot of constables couldn’t handle the pressure and joined his side.”

“Does he even have the right to fire the constables?” Yu Wan was puzzled. The constables were unusually united. If the chief, deputy chief, and the captains didn’t agree to the test, it wouldn’t have passed.

“He cannot fire anyone for now, but he can send people to the county towns. Deputy Chief Shang supports him in this regard.

Chen Chuan walked in at that moment and heard what Nian Fuli said. After giving it some thought, he understood just how effective this method was.

The county towns only had a primitive Security Bureau, and its members were all hoping to become part of Yangzhi City’s Constabulary. If the constables were sent to the county towns, their salaries and statuses would be greatly reduced, and no constable would be able to accept this difference in treatment.

“When Head Instructor Che took office, he brought with him a group of people, and he put his moles into each squad to serve as their instructors. His excuse? To increase the constables’ fighting strength. Even though this is within his right, anyone can tell that he’s trying to make things go his way,” Nian Fuli continued.

“Can’t Chief Guan do anything about this?” Yu Wan asked worriedly.

Nian Fuli shook his head. “Chief Guan is resourceful and shrewd, and he cares about us, but he’s too righteous and can’t bring himself to be cruel to be kind during crucial moments. If the former chief were around, this wouldn’t have happened, and he would have taken care of this mess before it got this bad. No matter how good that head instructor is, he wouldn’t have been able to cause even the slightest splash.”

The former chief might have been ruthless, but he placed a lot of importance on the Constabulary’s interests. He wouldn’t have let any outsiders stick their noses into the Constabulary’s business.

“I think it’s because Chief Guan doesn’t want things to go sour between him and the head instructor. After all, the Constabulary needs the head instructor to protect the important people inside. But if they’ve sent Instructor Wen away and brought this new guy over, it means that the government wants him to do something,” Chen Chuan said after giving it some thought.

“You’re seeing the full picture, alright.” Nian Fuli smacked his thigh. “The government wants to take out the armed forces in the villages and hamlets.

“Did the resistance group ever stay in those villages and hamlets before? Of course they did, but it’s not like this is a recent occurrence. Those villagers have no one protecting them, so what else can they do but work together to protect themselves from the robbers and armed forces? No one wants to fight when they can live stable, peaceful lives.

“Instead of wiping out the robbers and armed groups, the head instructor wants to kill the villagers instead. That’s just not right.” He sucked in a deep breath. “The Constabulary is going to wipe out a hamlet that is under suspicion of housing resistance group members the day after tomorrow. The head instructor wanted me to lead the team.”

“What happened?” Yu Wan asked anxiously.

“For some reason, Che Lie came to me this afternoon and was much more polite than he usually is. He said that he gave the task to someone else. If I had to say it, I’m glad I don’t have to go. I don’t want to take any part in such a monstrous thing.”

While they were talking, someone knocked on their door and that person shouted, “Brigade Commander Nian, someone is here to see you!”

Nian Fuli cursed under his breath. “Who’d come at this hour...”

He went out and exchanged a few words with the person outside before coming back in. He had a strange look on his face as he looked at Chen Chuan. “Che Lie is here, and he said... that he wants to see you, Xiao Chuan.”