Book 3, Chapter 133: A Temporary Goodbye To Yangzhi City

Lei Guangcheng gestured to the notebook again. “Based on the record, they’ve only performed the ritual twice in the Great Shun Republic, but the notebook doesn’t have records of their actions in other countries, so I don’t know how many times they’ve performed the ritual in total.”

“Since they’ve performed the ritual multiple times, why haven’t they been arrested yet?” Chen Chuan asked.

“Because it’s not that easy to find the Sun Cycle Stone. It’s banned in many countries. The fact they got it means that cultists with high positions in society are protecting them.

“Based on previous records, the Sun Worshiping Cult doesn’t ask locals to become offerings. They also perform their ritual in remote places, so it’s difficult for governments to find them. If nothing had gone wrong with their ritual this time, we wouldn’t have found them either.”

Chen Chuan could understand that. The Cult Investigation Bureau had a limited number of personnel, and they only paid attention to rituals in the city. Meanwhile, the Sun Origin Ritual had been held outside its bounds. If it weren’t for the news talking about this and the abnormal situation that occurred, no one would have noticed anything.

“Is their Sun Cycle Stone from another country?” he asked.

“Every country has different ways to process the Sun Cycle Stones, so there are certain differences between them. I checked the one you brought back, and it isn’t from another country. I believe it’s from our country itself,” Lei Guangcheng said gravely.

“Someone here is helping them?” Chen Chuan whipped his head toward Lei Guangcheng.

“Perhaps it’s other Sun Worshiping Cultists, ones with a high status. This isn’t a trivial matter. I need to report this to my superiors and look into it further,” Lei Guangcheng said with a serious expression.

“I’ll report your contribution, but things are going to be complicated from this moment on. Don’t get involved any further,” he added sternly.

“Got it,” Chen Chuan said with a nod.

Lei Guangcheng took a look outside before saying slowly, “I’m going to be transferred next year. Before I leave, I’ll be sure to finish my last case here perfectly.”

Once the Cult Investigation Bureau finished checking the area, they packed up and left. They would submit a report later to the Department of Administrative Affairs to take over the case. As for the onlookers, they were going to give them a perfectly reasonable lie.

Chen Chuan exchanged some words with Ren Shu before parting ways. He got into his car and drove home.

Back in his room, he drew the Frost King Saber and saw that the bloodred line on the back of the blade had become a shade brighter.

Speaking of which, he had never figured out what exactly had seeped into his saber. Judging by the current situation, it seemed to be granting loads of benefits to his saber, so he wasn’t going to look into it. He believed that he would find out the answer sooner or later.

Since it was near the end of the summer holidays and he had to go back to Central City in a few more days, he didn’t go anywhere else. Occasionally, he called his friends and close acquaintances to chat. He also brought Nian Mo and Nian Lu to the new amusement park every day.

On the thirtieth of August, Chen Chuan left the house with his luggage: The travel bag and many other bags of goodies his family and friends had given him. Once he put all of them into the trunk, he turned around and said, “You should head back, Uncle, Aunty. I’ll come back and visit you whenever I’m free.”

“Remember to call, Chan’er.”

“I will,” Chen Chuan promised with a smile. Just then, he looked down and saw his cousins tugging at the hem of his shirt while looking at him with teary eyes.

His cousins were at their most carefree when Chen Chuan was home. He brought them fun toys and good food and even took them out to play every day. Now that he was leaving, they did not want to say goodbye.

Chen Chuan grinned and patted his cousins’ heads. “Whenever I’m back, I’ll take you two out to play again.”

Nian Mo tilted his head up and said while staring at Chen Chuan, “You have to promise to bring Dawncall back too.”

“Sure, I’ll bring it back,” Chen Chuan promised. Dawncall chirped at them from its seat in the car.

Then, Chen Chuan turned to Yu Wan and Nian Fuli again. “I’ll be leaving now, Uncle, Aunty.”

“Be careful on your way back, Chan’er,” Yu Wan reminded him.

Chen Chuan gave her a nod as a promise before getting into his car. Once the door shut, he looked outside and found that aside from his family, a number of neighbors were also watching him. With a smile, he gave them a wave before starting the car.

He drove out of the residential area slowly. On his way out, he could see his family waving him off in his rearview mirror. They only disappeared from his sight after he turned a corner.

Then, Chen Chuan turned to look forward. Once again, he drove down the road Cheng Zitong had taken him at the start of the New Year to head to Central City.

This time, he left at 7 a.m.. When it was 3 p.m., he passed the last checkpoint on the public road and entered Central City’s territory. His Realm Pass let out white noise before connecting to Central City’s platform.

A beat later, a flood of voice messages entered his Realm Pass and started scrolling down his screen.

Chen Chuan listened to them one by one. All of them were from his friends, teachers, and colleagues. They had sent voice messages to him after being unable to contact him for a long time. All of them were fine, though.

Chen Chuan replied to them based on the order of time the voice messages were sent and said that he had returned to Central City.

At the same time, he received some advertisements about the tournament. Since it was going to be held until September, it was still going strong. The finals were right around the corner.

Chen Chuan shifted some of his attention to it. Huo Yucheng was one of the finalists. Yu Shen had been eliminated, but he had managed to get out of the tournament with all of his limbs attached, which was rare.

After all, the tournament held life-and-death matches. For a contestant to lose while unscathed, they would have to admit defeat on their own, and their opponent would have to accept that they might be unable to win if they continued fighting.

Chen Chuan checked the match. Just like he had believed, Yu Shen was stronger than Huo Yucheng, but he didn’t have the resolve to fight to the bitter end. After Huo Yucheng managed to force him back with a few moves that promised to bring Yu Shen down with him, Yu Shen admitted defeat.

While Yu Shen came from a powerful family, he wasn’t able to bring the organizers many benefits, so it was actually quite impressive that he had made it so far into the tournament.

While watching the match, Chen Chuan entered the city, so he turned off the screen and drove up a flyover. After another hour, he reached the Arcane Palace. When he looked up, he saw a woman in red standing on the eaves. He gave her a nod before driving into the underground parking lot.

Once he parked his car, he walked out with his luggage and took the elevator up. When he arrived on the first floor, the doors slid open, and a boy and girl in casual clothes walked in. They had well-proportioned bodies and were pleasant to the eye.

They pushed the buttons leading to their floor. The boy saw Chen Chuan’s luggage and struck up a conversation with him. “Are you a new student too?”

“I suppose you can say that,” Chen Chuan said.

At that, the boy became even friendlier. He walked up to Chen Chuan and extended his hand while introducing himself. “I’m Fan Cheng, and she’s Kong Yao. We’re both new here.”

Chen Chuan shook his hand and said, “I’m Chen Chuan. Nice to meet you.”

Fan Cheng then turned to regard Dawncall curiously. “Is this your pet? What is it?”

Kong Yao also regarded the Bird Reptile perched on his shoulder. Clearly, she too, was interested.

“It’s Dawncall, a Bird Reptile,” Chen Chuan introduced his companion to them. Dawncall chirped at them in greeting, and its intelligence amazed the two.

Fan Cheng didn’t know what a Bird Reptile was, but he didn’t want to appear ignorant, so he said with an expression of understanding, “A Bird Reptile, huh? I knew it! Haha!”

Chen Chuan just smiled at that.

While they were talking, the elevator reached the twenty-second floor. Fan Cheng and Kong Yao’s rooms were on this floor. The three of them connected to each other and Fan Cheng said, “Since we’re all new students here, let’s hang out together in the future.”

“Sure,” Chen Chuan agreed.

After they walked out, the doors slid shut, and Fan Cheng turned to Kong Yao. “Say, Chen Chuan is staying far above us. He’s living on the forty-ninth floor.”

“I heard that you’re assigned a floor based on the university’s initial assessment of your abilities. The higher your assessment points are, the higher floor you receive, though I heard that no student gets to live past the sixtieth floor.”

“If Chen Chuan is on the forty-ninth floor, it means that his assessment points are much higher than ours. We have to become good friends with him,” Fan Cheng said with a gasp.

“That’s just the initial assessment. The first test is what really counts,” Kong Yao reminded him.

Upon hearing that, Fan Cheng looked troubled. “I thought that I’d become successful the moment I joined the main campus. I wasn’t expecting the possibility of being demoted to an external student if my assessment points got too low. I’ll have to fight in the tournament if that happens, and I won’t even be able to quit. This is horrible.”

“I don’t want to fight in the tournament either, so we have to spend loads of money to buy the lecturers’ courses. If we manage to get a good sparring partner, we should be able to improve by leaps and bounds,” Kong Yao grumbled.

“Other people are working hard too, you know? Ah, forget it. Let’s leave it at that for now.”

***

The doors opened slowly on the forty-ninth floor, and Chen Chuan walked out. After just a few steps, he arrived in front of his room and opened the door with his key. Dawncall spread its wings and glided down from his shoulder into the room. Once Chen Chuan set his luggage down in a corner, he went to the window and pulled the curtains back.

In an instant, sunlight poured in and landed on him. He stood by the window for a while as he stared at the pillar of light from the arena.

He needed to find time to go to the address his parents had left for him to check what exactly was there.

Before that, however, he had to deal with some small chores.

While he was thinking about them, Ni Qianqian’s profile picture flickered, and he answered the call.

“You’re back?”

“Yeah,” Chen Chuan replied.

“If you’re free over the next few days, remember to come to the department. We have certain things to tell you, and it’ll do you good to learn about them as soon as possible,” Ni Qianqian said.

“Got it. Thanks for the reminder,” Chen Chuan said.

Officer Qiu had told him that they had something rather important to tell him once he came back to Central City. Ni Qianqian must be talking about the same thing.

It reminded him of what Cao Guiqi had told him.

He had always thought that there was something hidden beneath Central City’s surface, but he hadn’t been strong enough, so he didn’t have the right to know about it. Now that he was at the Third Limit, those secrets were about to be revealed to him.