Book 3, Chapter 146: Setting Up Defenses

They didn’t run into any other attacks on their way to the manor and got back smoothly. The security guards checked everything and made sure that there was nothing amiss.

Once the area was cleared, the security guards spread out and set up patrol stations around the manor.

Aside from those Meng Shu brought back, the manor itself also had security guards. Added together, Meng Shu had eighty people, which was a pretty impressive armed team.

But the manor was huge and occupied an entire hill, so Meng Shu’s security team wasn’t just made up of people. She also had many bioweapons and three resonators in charge of fighting against and interfering with domain information.

Electric isolation netting and fixed firing positions were also set up in various parts of the manor, making it a rather tight defense system. Without great manpower and fighting strength, no one could dream of breaking into it.

Besides, the manor was on Motie Mountain, the place where the rich and the upper-class lived. The area had many patrols and guards, so no one could send a large force into it.

That was why the manor was relatively safe.

After Chen Chuan walked in, he explored it and used the point of view of a Third Limit martial artist to judge the defenses.

His conclusion was: The defenses were enough to take out average people. Even if a Second Limit martial artist wearing protective gear tried to break in, they would die from the swarm of bioweapons and firepower.

But the defensive measures were full of holes against Third Limit martial artists. There were plenty of places where he could get in, since the average person wouldn’t be able to react in time if a Third Limit martial artist decided to barge in. While they could use medicine to boost their strength, that was only for emergencies. They couldn’t take medicine and remain in that boosted state forever.

Fights for the right of inheritance were to the death, so Meng Huang was not going to stop until Meng Shu died. Chen Chuan believed that he was going to send even stronger martial artists next. He didn’t know who those people were going to be, so he needed to tighten the defenses.

While he didn’t know how to set them up, he had the entire Resolution Department behind him. Even if they couldn’t send any officers over, they could give him professional guidance and suggestions. After being contacted and hearing the request, the department immediately told him that they would soon send a plan to restructure the manor’s defenses.

Chen Chuan also noticed that when he was walking around the manor, the security guards saluted him when they saw him. Pure strength was the thing that won people’s hearts the easiest. The security guards had seen how quickly Chen Chuan had disposed of Feng Yaren, and they had shared it with all their colleagues who hadn’t been at the scene.

Meng Shu saw this from within the manor, and Yan Yi said, “This is the function of a Third Limit martial artist.

“Their purpose in a security team is to ensure the team’s fighting power. They can be used to fend against other powerful martial artists’ ambush while also neutralizing potential traitors within the security team itself.

“With Mr. Chen around, even if he doesn’t do anything, we’ll still be in a much safer state. His presence will intimidate our enemies, be they traitors from within or outside people.”

“But I have a feeling that other Third Limit martial artists would have been unable to do what he did,” Meng Shu pointed out.

Yan Yi agreed with that. “Yes. That’s why we

had to

recruit Mr. Chen. Based on our assessment of his abilities and comparison to other Third Limit martial artists, Mr. Chen was the best candidate for you. We’re fortunate that you’re friends. If you continue working together, it’ll be very beneficial for the company’s development.”

“That’s in the future. It’s too early to talk about such things,” Meng Shu said.

“After what happened today, I’ve become even more confident that we’ve made the right first step. That’s a good beginning,” Yan Yi said confidently.

Just then, Chen Chuan contacted her, and she said, “Mr. Chen is asking for me. He believes that we have holes in our security. I’ll be stepping out for a moment.”

Meng Shu nodded. After Yan Yi left, she turned her attention back to the scenery outside.

***

Yan Yi left the main manor and took an internal electric cart to a stone pavilion. Chen Chuan was waiting for her there. Once she reached him, he gave her the document the Resolution Department had just sent to him.

“You need to set this up as soon as possible. I don’t know when Meng Huang will try to kill Meng Shu again, so the sooner you get this done, the better.”

“Got it. I’ll do it right now,” Yan Yi responded seriously.

She immediately started assigning tasks with her Realm Pass. Aside from the security team, they had an engineering team in charge of maintaining and repairing their security system, so they already had all the materials ready. They could complete restructuring the defense on their own.

Once she was done making arrangements, she turned around and said, “I dug out some additional information about Feng Yaren from other channels. It might be useful to you.

“He was a martial artist from an island nation, and an informant from Ferris Wheel said that he had ties with the company. He entered the Great Shun Republic through Ferris Wheel. Meng Huang might have found him through it as well. If he sends more assassins, it’s likely that they’ll also be foreigners.”

Chen Chuan pondered over this. The island nations had helped Ferris Wheel rise to power, so he wasn’t surprised that Feng Yaren was connected to the company. Still, this company had such a strong presence that it felt like it was everywhere.

“Does this company have ties with Border Fusion too?” he asked.

“We never had any business dealings with them because the government has a rule against exporting bioparts and defense materials to the island nations.

“But over the past few years, Meng Huang has been really chummy with them. I believe that he has sold some of the forbidden products to them to get certain benefits and support. I wouldn’t be surprised if he got Ferris Wheel’s indirect support this way.”

After some thinking, Chen Chuan decided that the other assassins were unlikely to be from the island nations. If Yan Yi could figure out this connection, the Resolution Department could too.

He had reason to believe that Meng Huang had intentionally sent Feng Yaren to make the Resolution Department cast their sights on Ferris Wheel. After the fiasco earlier, the department was sure to monitor them even more. Then, they might overlook other things.

“I got it. If you learn anything more, please inform me,” he said instead.

“I will, immediately,” Yan Yi promised seriously.

The conversation ended, and Chen Chuan returned to his living quarters. He had been assigned a villa, while Meng Shu lived further up on the top of the hill.

The villa was huge and fully furnished. It also had its own training room that was modeled after the private training rooms in Martial Valor University.

Third Limit martial artists needed a much bigger space to train, but this training room would suffice for daily training. Besides, Chen Chuan had a spacious field that could be used to train outside.

He set aside the glazed saber, removed his protective gear, and threw himself into his daily training. The afternoon passed, and he took a shower before changing into casual clothes.

Then, he contacted Wu Bei and the resonator team the Resolution Department had assigned to him. After speaking to the department, their communications channel was blocked for a while. He could only reestablish communications with them after receiving a new internal frequency band and the password to access it. So, he used it right now to contact his resonator team, because he had to make sure that communications ran smoothly with the department at all times.

Just then, Yan Yi contacted him. “Mr. Chen, are you free right now? I’ve brought you the medicine we promised you.”

“I have a minute,” Chen Chuan said.

Yan Yi arrived in less than ten minutes. After opening the door, she pushed in a cart filled with metal boxes.

Once she reached the living room, she stopped and said, “This is the medicine Miss Shu promised you. It should last for three months, enough for you to use until the end of the year.”

Chen Chuan cast the cart a cursory glance before asking, “Where did you get this medicine?”

“I don’t know. Mr. Meng still has control over the distribution of medicine, and he’s the one who gave Miss Shu all the medicine she is providing for you.

“Even though Meng Huang has a lot of manpower and authority, both potential successors own the same amount of medicinal resources. Meng Huang doesn’t have more medicine than Miss Shu.

“He’s relying on it to train and recruit a number of martial artists, while Miss Shu intends to give it all to you.

“Miss Shu has also stated that she won’t interfere with how you use the medicine. Whether you use it yourself or give it to other people is up to you.

“But allow me to say something beyond my station: I hope that you will use all the medicine yourself, because it’ll be beneficial for us if you get stronger.”

She then bowed and said, “I won’t be taking your time any longer.”

Yan Yi left after that.

Chen Chuan waited until she was gone before going to the cart and opening one of the boxes. It had tubes with fluorescent liquid.

It was similar to the medicine he got from Phantom Form.

It was just as he expected.

There were some slight differences between the two, though. It might be because they came from different sources or because they were of different quality. They could also have completely different effects. Chen Chuan would only know after using them.

But at present, he didn’t need the medicine. His mutated tissue was still growing rapidly, and he believed that this stage was only going to end after a month or so. After that, he would start using the medicine.

Right now, his focus was on accumulating blood essence and building his mental foundation.

He had been restraining and calming his mind all the time, so by now, it had almost completely stabilized. What he needed to do next was to refine it.

As for accumulating blood essence, he needed to extract it from his mutated tissue after taking medicine, then store it in his heart. It would then be used up while he fought.

Some special techniques could only be used with blood essence. With it, the power of the special techniques would become much stronger. No one with a sane mind would readily use it during normal situations, though, because blood essence was also a necessity to strengthen their foundation. If they got heavily injured, they could also use blood essence to speed up their healing process and keep on fighting.

Part of the reason why Third Limit martial artists were so hard to kill was because of blood essence.

Since no one was bothering him right now and he had plenty of all sorts of medicine, Chen Chuan threw himself into training so that he could get stronger before the next wave of enemies arrived.

Even improving by just a little bit would be good.