Book 3, Chapter 240: Verify Facts

Once they arrived at Across the World, Chen Chuan asked for a room that could let them see the night view of Central City. Then, he ordered on the Realm Pass and hot food was served.

Wu Han happily picked a tender piece of braised pork with a balanced amount of fat and lean meat. It was soft and fragrant. The flesh was a bit sticky but also chewy. Juices instantly filled his mouth, and he praised it to high heavens. “It’s amazing! The taste is on par with Yangzhi City’s meat!”

“I heard that some of the water they use here is shipped from Yangzhi City. This is the only hotel in Central City that does that,” Chen Chuan explained.

Realization struck, and Wu Han said, “It’s no wonder why I found the taste familiar. This hits the spot.”

He grabbed a few more pieces of braised pork to satiate his craving. Then, he set down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth with a napkin before asking Chen Chuan something he hadn’t managed to do in the car. “By the way, Chen Chuan, who were the guys who attacked us today? They even brought guns and mortars, so they can’t be some small player.”

“I don’t have a concrete answer yet, but it’s highly likely that they were from Ferris Wheel. If you run into them in the future, be careful,” Chen Chuan answered.

“Ferris Wheel? Sounds familiar...” Wu Han pondered over this for a while before remembering. “Didn’t we run into this company during one of the missions we did together? When we went to track down Tranquil Fields and Black Orchid?”

“That’s them.” Chen Chuan nodded.

“They sure are an arrogant bunch, huh? Black Orchid was like that too, so I’m sure that Ferris Wheel won’t be enjoying its glory days for much longer.” Wu Han snorted.

“These companies are similar to us martial artists in one aspect: We all get weaker if we don’t improve.

“But they’re stuck in a situation where they aren’t allowed to stop. They need to find ways to expand their territory all the time. They must devour other companies, or other companies will devour them.”

Once Chen Chuan started talking about eating, Wu Han got hungry again, but when he returned his eyes to the table, he found that during their short conversation, Wei Dong had quietly eaten half of the large plate of braised pork.

He grabbed his chopsticks. “Slow down, you jerk. Leave some for me.”

Chen Chuan laughed and tapped his screen a few times to order a few more plates of braised pork for them.

As more food was delivered to the table, Wei Dong and Wu Han let loose and ate to their full.

When they were studying in the branch campus or were out on missions, they took nutritional paste. They were great for curbing hunger, so they seldom went out to restaurants for food. It wasn’t because they didn’t have the money for that. After all, they earned quite a lot doing missions in Yangzhi City. They didn’t do it simply because eating out wasted too much time.

They could have used that extra hour or two spent eating to do another mission or train more. Eating out was simply not as time-saving and hassle-free as nutritional paste. Besides, the nutrients and calories in food catered to normal people weren’t adequate to martial artists. That was why they only ate out to give themselves a treat on the rare occasion they took time off to relax.

After dinner, the two happily sipped their drinks as they admired the night view outside the window and argued about various things.

When Chen Chuan tried to pay for the bill through his Realm Pass, he received a message from the hotel platform that Border Fusion had already paid for his tab.

He checked and found that Border Fusion had a bank account connected to Central City’s public service platform. As the company’s security advisor, if he spent any money at Central City’s entertainment or F&B establishments during the New Year, the company would pay for him as long as he didn’t exceed a certain limit. This was one of the company benefits.

Chen Chuan took a quick look at the company platform and found that everything was normal over the past month. Meng Shu was never attacked when she got out, so Ferris Wheel clearly had no intention of going after her again. Then, the attack on the flyover might truly have been aimed at him.

He checked the news from the past month, especially the news on niche channels. Aside from the daily violent crimes and fights in Central City, there was nothing especially noteworthy.

But as he continued scrolling down, a voice message caught his attention. After the first day of the New Year, it seemed like the number of airships at the harbors of various districts had increased. More foreign ships had stopped at their ports compared to previous years.

Chen Chuan pondered over this. Aside from military use, airships and ships were used for transportation of large amounts of resources and personnel.

This meant that the situation was changing in Central City, unlike what it seemed on the surface. Some sort of preparations were being done. In other words, those in power were getting ready for something, while the common folk were unaware of it either because they were far removed from the situation or because the central government intentionally kept things secret.

Chen Chuan took a sip of his hot tea and left with Wu Han and Wei Dong. Then, he drove them to his house in Martial Order District with the intention of letting Wu Han stay there for the night.

While Across the World had rooms for use, only citizens could stay in them. Hence, it would be better for Wu Han to stay the night at his place. He would also learn the location of his house too.

Once Chen Chuan brought them there, Wu Han gasped in amazement. “You have such a big house in Central City? Do the students in the main campus earn that much money?”

“Most of the students in the main campus were recommended students from their respective cities, so they come from pretty good families, but I got my house from another source. I’ll tell you about it in the future. There’s a training room on the fourth floor. If you find yourselves feeling restless, you can go and exercise there later,” Chen Chuan said.

Wei Dong’s attention was immediately drawn over, and he asked eagerly, “Is it the same as the training room in my room?”

“The size is about the same, but it doesn’t have as much equipment. The domain resources in the main campus are second to none. Once you start using them, you’ll understand what I mean,” Chen Chuan replied and gave them a house tour before bringing them to the garage to show them the Evervictor.

Wu Han whistled as he circled the car. “It fits my style a lot. No matter what, I want a car like this in the future. And Evervictor is a good name. Pretty symbolic, too. It suits me.”

Chen Chuan smiled at that. “If you like it, you can try it. I don’t use this car, anyway. As long as you don’t drive it out of the compound, I’m okay with it.”

“Nah. Wei Dong is careless, so I don’t want to break it,” Wu Han said with a shake of his head.

“Why am

I

the one who’d break it?” Wei Dong asked curiously.

“It’s obviously going to be you. Remember the car we confiscated last time? You were the one who drove it, and you made it jolt so many times on the way back that it was practically falling apart when we reached the handover place. The man who took it from us looked over with so much disdain,” Wu Han shot back with a huff.

𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Chen Chuan laughed at that. Just then, he saw his screen flickering. Ni Qianqian was contacting him, so he went to the side.

“Officer Ni?”

“We got your report, Chen Chuan. The higher-ups are treating this with great importance and are looking into it right now. When we went after the other motorcade, we found the cars abandoned. The people inside had left by the time we got there.

“Also, they just stuck United Might’s emblem on their cars, but we had some officers contact United Might about it so that they can prove themselves innocent.”

Chen Chuan hummed at that. United Might was unlikely to be involved in this, but the Resolution Department wasn’t going to let an excuse to tighten their control over the company slip. They could even use this chance to make United Might look into this case as well. After all, all companies

hated

the idea of others impersonating them.

“The people who ambushed you didn’t come from the same place. We’ve looked into them and found that some of them were foreigners. They came from Sheni Peninsula, while others from the Linacrox Union.

“Their combat implants were all foreign products too, but uniformly designed. The two Third Limit martial artists were also not from Jibei Road Central City. They were hired from the mercenary platform, but their sponsorship background was hidden, so it’s pretty certain that they share similar backgrounds.

“We’ve examined the residue of their biofields and found that they should have lived near the ocean for a period of time.

“After connecting all these things together and analyzing them, the Analysis Department has come to the conclusion that the mastermind is highly likely to be Ferris Wheel.”

She scoffed at this. “Honestly, they didn’t even need to analyze it. I could already tell. Who else but Ferris Wheel would do this? They’ve been our greatest troublemaker for a while now.”

“What’s the department going to do about this, Officer Ni?” Chen Chuan asked.

“This isn’t a small matter. After all, they attacked an important government official on the public road. The department has submitted a report to the central government requesting permission to perform an in-depth investigation of Ferris Wheel. I heard that the central government is having a meeting about this. We have to wait now. They won’t make up their minds within a day or two.”

Chen Chuan nodded at that. “Thanks for telling me that, Officer Ni.”

“No need to. It’s only right for the department to give you an explanation. Enjoy your holiday. I’ll keep an eye out on this and tell you if there are any updates,” Ni Qianqian said.

Chen Chuan thanked her again and promised to treat her to a meal at a later date. Then, he ended the call. It was quite late at this point, so he didn’t want to go back to the Arcane Palace. After helping Wei Dong and Wu Han settle down in the guest rooms, he went to the study on the top floor.

While there, he took out the broken saber he took from Jiancheng Sheng. When he held it, he got the same invigorated feeling he had during the day.

With a flip, he brought the hilt to his face. Upon seeing a peg there, he pulled it out and saw something shining in the empty space within. At the same time, he felt his mind clearing up. Obviously, the source of it was inside.

Chen Chuan emptied the hilt and found many crystalline bits. Even though he didn’t know what they were, they were clearly beneficial to him.

After all, the moment they fell out, he felt his mind clearing up and focusing. His instincts told him that this was going to be a great help for him in training his mental foundation.

By the looks of it, Jiancheng Sheng had been able to focus his mind to such a great extent because of these things.

Chen Chuan tried using his Realm Pass to identify them, but he couldn’t find anything related to them, which made it even clearer that they were no ordinary objects. After some thinking, he decided to find time to ask Cao Guiqi about them. He was sure that he would be able to tell what they were.

As for the broken saber...

Chen Chuan cast a glance at the broken weapon. He was going to have to ask the Resolution Department’s Logistics Department to help him repair another weapon so that he could put it into his weapons display room.