Book 4, Chapter 59: Information

Fang Zhixin fell from above and landed on the floor below, but there were also marksmen aiming at this place, so bullets kept flying in.

Since the enemies had set up firing coordinates ahead of time, there were marksmen in charge of shooting whenever Fang Zhixin went. They may not have been Third Limit martial artists, but it didn’t matter. They didn’t need to see his movements clearly. All they needed to do was listen to the instructions from those who could see him.

Hence, when he landed on the floor, Fang Zhixin got shot a few more times. This time, the bullets didn’t come from a single direction, so multiple parts of his body were shot.

However, since he was a Third Limit martial artist, these were superficial wounds and didn’t affect him much. Fang Zhixin remained agile and quick. The moment he landed, he stomped on the floor and shot out.

Boom!

He crashed through a wall and ran forward.

After knocking down several walls, Fang Zhixin jumped and vanished from sight.

A moment later, footsteps came from all directions to surround the place where Fang Zhixin disappeared. When they drew closer, they pointed their guns downward, only to find an abandoned pothole. Fang Zhixin was no longer anywhere to be found.

Since they didn’t know where it led to, some people immediately jumped down to explore it.

They soon realized that the sewer under the pothole had multiple tunnels leading to different directions, and there was practically no light inside. There were also some homeless people and criminals hiding around. It also seemed to lead to the lower city district, so searching for Fang Zhixin here would be really difficult. There were still some tracks at first, but later on, they found nothing. Hence, once the moon appeared, they left.

***

Fang Zhixin came out of a modified pothole at the perimeter of Oceanway District. He hadn’t picked that apartment at random and had actually thought of his retreat ahead of time.

The sewer led to a safe house he had prepared.

Once he was inside, he took out a tube of hole-ridden nutritional paste from his pocket and swallowed everything while looking around warily. The moment he was sure no one was watching, he went to the streets. Around ten minutes later, he got into a house.

It was only when he was here that he relaxed.

The moment he did, he felt a numbing sensation. When he brought his arms up, he saw red spots where the thorns had sunken in.

Clearly, they were tampered with and laced with poison that made him feel numb. When he tried to pull them out, he noticed that he couldn’t. If he tensed his muscles, they sank further, and if he tried forcing them out, they could break apart in his skin, which made them really difficult to deal with.

The bullets also appeared to be alive and trying to bury deeper into him, so he theorized that they were some kind of bio-bullet.

He couldn’t make heads or tails of who those people were, but if they could use such unique bioweapons, they had to have come from a powerful organization.

After some thinking, he concluded that these people weren’t from the government, but they didn’t seem like they were from the National Ad Hoc Special Operations Committee either. When he took some time to observe them earlier, he had heard words that didn’t sound like the national language of the Great Shun Republic, but something from Norland.

Something was off. He connected this event to what had been happening recently and felt that he was onto something. After a little more thinking, Fang Zhixin made up his mind. He took out the Realm Pass he had hidden here, put it on, took out some weapons and equipment, grabbed some more tubes of nutritional paste, and left.

***

Chen Chuan was continuing the development of his Heartborn Force back in his apartment when he heard a chime from his Realm Pass, only for that sound to disappear before reappearing again.

This happened three times.

Clearly, whoever was contacting him wanted to avoid Safe Shield tracking them down.

Chen Chuan decided to block Safe Shield for the time being and contacted the signal himself. A while later, the call went through, and a hoarse and exhausted voice entered his ears.

“Is that you, Captain Chen?”

Chen Chuan recognized the voice. “Fang Zhixin?”

“It’s me.”

Fang Zhixin started talking faster. “Can we meet? I have something urgent to tell you. Some people are after me, but they’re not from the government. I heard them speak, and I think they’re foreigners.”

Chen Chuan’s gaze turned sharp. “Where are you?”

Fang Zhixin quickly gave him a location.

“Wait for me. I’ll go over right now,” Chen Chuan promised.

“Okay. They’re still looking for me, so I have to end the call now.”

Chen Chuan decided not to call his security team. Instead, he went downstairs and drove his trusty car over.

He did contact Yuan Qiuyuan, Qin Qingque, and Su Wei, though, and gave them a few instructions.

A little over an hour later, he reached the place Fang Zhixin mentioned and headed to a certain building on foot. It was a small, abandoned shop. There were plenty of such places near Roaring Victory District.

Around twenty paces later, he sensed someone watching him, and he believed it to be Fang Zhixin. Then, the person turned on a flashlight at the window and waved it at him.

Chen Chuan walked over and entered through the doorless entrance. Fang Zhixin was sitting on top of a collapsed cabinet. Upon seeing him, the first thing he said was, “I’ve been away for a long time. How is Xiaojin?”

“Xiaojin is okay.” Chen Chuan nodded.

Fang Zhixin relaxed a little and said, “I went to the platform to check on the situation in Central City, and I think I know who those people are.”

“Who are they?” Chen Chuan asked.

“They’re most likely from the Union. Tearing a gap open in the World Ring will bring about a series of effects, and after some time, it’s highly likely that an artifact will appear. In the past, when such a thing happened, the Union and other countries would head there to fight over it. I saw through my Realm Pass that the Union has come here, and I suspect that they’re here to capture me,” Fang Zhixin said sternly.

“What does this have to do with you?” Chen Chuan asked.

“Because if they want to get the artifact, they need to be familiar with the merged space, and on Jibei Road, Instructor Chen was the one who knew the merged space best.

“They’re probably thinking that I know the place as well, since I’m Instructor Chen’s assistant, so they want to capture me. It’s pretty obvious from the fact that the weapons they used on me weren’t fatal; they were only trying to limit my fighting strength.”

It was a logical hypothesis, but if Fang Zhixin immediately thought of such things, he probably knew the information they were after.

In truth, Fang Zhixin wasn’t the only one who did. Chen Chuan knew a part of it too.

When Chen Bitong sent him that mental mark, he didn’t just give Chen Chuan his refined forces. He also gave him some knowledge about the merged space. Judging by the situation now, Chen Bitong might have guessed that such a day would happen.

“I asked about Xiaojin just now because I’m worried that they’ll look for him if they can’t find me. With you protecting him, I’m not worried anymore,” Fang Zhixin said before looking up.

“I also need to tell you something—”

His expression suddenly changed, because he noticed movement outside and realized that they had tracked him down due to him using his Realm Pass. He knew that this was going to happen, but he did not expect them to be so quick. “They’re here, Captain Chen!”

“I know,” Chen Chuan replied calmly.

It stunned Fang Zhixin, but he also calmed down because of it. He had watched Chen Chuan’s fight against Chen Bitong and knew how strong he was because he won. These people wouldn’t be able to defeat him.

***

At that moment, heavily armed combatants covered in protective gear started surrounding the abandoned shop. They were hundreds of meters away for now, but had people in the highest points nearby. They had set up both machine guns and riflemen.

One of them got out the information he retrieved from his Realm Pass and made some comparisons before saying, “The target should be talking to a lead investigator from the Resolution Department. The target is suspected to be surrendering himself. Should we proceed with the operation?”

A cool voice came through. “Proceed as usual.”

“Roger that.”

Upon getting confirmation, the group moved even faster. When they were around two hundred meters away, they set down boxes, pushed the button that would activate the inbuilt nutrient and calorie-dense nutritional fluid injector, and soon, holes lined up neatly on the boxes.

It was followed by whooshing sounds, and creatures resembling metallic javelins shot out into the abandoned shop. They hit the walls.

Fang Zhixin had suffered from them once, so when he saw them, he felt his heart clench. “Careful, those are—”

He was overcome by shock before he could finish. The creatures had stopped moving after sinking into the wall.

“You’re hurt. Just wait here,” Chen Chuan said.

He took out a custom-made protective mask from his pocket and put it on. After going outside, gunshots welcomed him, but the bullets did nothing, since he was wearing protective gear. They fell on the ground with loud clatters.

His eyes shone, and an invisible shockwave spread outward. All the combatants within five hundred meters collapsed. Those closer to him died, while the ones further away only fainted.

Silence fell in an instant.

Chen Chuan stood still. After a while, he heard rapid footsteps. When he looked over, he saw someone running toward him from the end of the street.

It was a man with a full beard, deep-set eyes, a tall nose, fair skin, and who appeared to have mixed blood. He had thick, long arms, and held a collapsible baton. When he moved, he did so with a unique rhythm.

While running over, he struck the billboards and other obstacles in the way to send them flying toward Chen Chuan. At the same time, he lowered his body and shot forward while swinging the baton at Chen Chuan’s ankles.

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