Book 4, Chapter 167: Rising And Falling Tides

After disembarking from the airship, Chen Chuan met up with Xu Chan’s group. They, too, had rested for an entire night and were readying to hurry back to Central City once the tunnel opened.

Once they finished packing up and went to the train station, they found Advisor Pei already waiting for them. He stepped forward to shake Chen Chuan’s hand and greet him before turning to inspect Xu Chan’s group. “Lead Investigator Chen, squad captains, logisticians, I need a bit of your time.”

“What happened?” Chen Chuan asked.

“Since all of you went to the undeveloped area, where the situation is complicated, and there’s still a gap in the World Ring, we need to perform some checks on all of you before you can go back to Central City in order to make sure that none of you are corrupted. This is a necessary procedure, and it’s better if we do it than if a certain group of people did it. This will prevent unnecessary trouble,” Advisor Pei said meaningfully.

Chen Chuan had gone through such inspections before and knew what he meant. “Do we need to go somewhere for it?”

“We can do it on the train. To make the examination easier, we’ve moved the equipment here. It won’t take too much of your time,” Advisor Pei said with a smile.

“That’s good, then,” Chen Chuan commented.

They got into the train, set down their luggage bags, and went with Advisor Pei to the carriage at the back. It had the examination entity Chen Chuan saw before occupying the entire carriage.

Since they had to be examined one by one, Xu Chan’s group went first. Their examination didn’t take long, and everyone came out in less than a minute. Even Dawncall went in to be examined, but nothing wrong could be detected about it.

Chen Chuan expected this. Disregarding the time when he wasn’t with them, all of them were practically encased in the artifact’s light at all times in the second half of their journey.

The light pushed back all the corruption, and even the parasites that had attached themselves to them vanished.

Right now, their group was cleaner than those stationed long-term in the merged space.

When most of them completed their examination, it was Chen Chuan’s turn, and a problem emerged.

Just as he was about to head in, the examination entity retreated like it had encountered something terrifying. It let out a shrill screech and shrank back. If it weren’t for the fortifications around them, it looked like it would have fled from the carriage.

Advisor Pei was quite puzzled and asked the person-in-charge about it, but the man was completely dumbfounded. Then, he thought of a possibility and stared at Chen Chuan in amazement before sending a message to Advisor Pei’s Realm Pass. Once Advisor Pei read it, he, too, was filled with shock and disbelief.

After some thinking, he turned to Xu Chan’s group. “Please step away, everyone.”

Captain Lu refused to and shouted, “What is it? Tell us right here! Lead Investigator Chen stayed with us the entire time. There’s no way that anything went wrong with him!”

Captain Hu stepped forward as well. Chen Chuan had saved them all. If he needed their help, they weren’t going to hesitate.

Xu Chan, though, seemed to have figured out what was going on and stopped Captain Lu. “That’s enough. Let’s go back first. We’re all on the train, so nothing will happen. We need to trust Lead Investigator Chen.”

He stressed the last sentence, and it worked. Captain Lu exchanged glances with the others before leaving with him.

Advisor Pei watched Chen Chuan but didn’t ask anything. Instead, he sucked in a deep breath and said slowly, “I was told that this examination entity can only examine martial artists at the Third Limit and below. It is incapable of examining a martial arts master.”

He kept his eyes trained on Chen Chuan.

“If that’s the case, this examination entity is indeed useless on me,” Chen Chuan said in a casual manner.

Advisor Pei’s eyes flew wide open, and there was incredible delight mixed with excitement in them. It took him a long moment to calm down his raging emotions. Even so, when he spoke, his voice quivered slightly, “A-Are you saying...”

“I came back with Mr. Yao and had a meal with him,” Chen Chuan replied.

Advisor Pei immediately understood what he meant and nodded. He couldn’t contain his excitement anymore. After a while, he finally said, “I understand!”

He knew just how important martial arts masters were. After getting rid of the imperial army in Jibei Road’s merged space, their next target was going to be the municipal government. If another martial arts master joins their ranks, they would have an absolute advantage in fighting power. Perhaps they might really be able to get rid of this old tumor.

After calming down, he said earnestly, “I’m sorry, Lead Investigator Chen, but this is very important information. I need to report it immediately to the higher ups.”

Chen Chuan didn’t mind it. “It’s fine. You should just do your job.”

He knew all too well that a martial arts master’s existence was tied to many things. No one could ignore him, so he never intended to hide this fact. He just wasn’t going to publicise it everywhere.

Advisor Pei relaxed a bit before saying seriously, “Thank you for your understanding, Lead Investigator Chen. I need to step away for now.”

Chen Chuan nodded and watched Advisor Pei leave before heading back to his cabin. By now, the train had entered Central City, and he received a call on his Realm Pass. Once he answered it, he heard a steady voice. “Lead Investigator Chen, it’s me, Wei Huan.”

“Director Wei?”

Chen Chuan recognized him. Wei Huan was the chief director of the Resolution Department, but he was old now and in semi-retirement, so he had handed over most of the matters in the Resolution Department to Wu Quan in the last couple years. After a gap appeared in the World Ring, he brought a group of people there and stationed himself at the frontlines.

He had only come back once when Chen Chuan was promoted to the position of lead investigator.

“Director Wei, how can I help you?”

“Mr. Yao told me about you via a telegram. I’m going to be transferred to the capital soon, so you youngsters will be in charge of Central City in the future. I’m in no place to tell you what to do, but there are certain things that I believe I can help you deal with before I leave,” Wei Huan said politely.

***

During the few hours they were on their way back to Central City, a large number of violent crimes happened in various districts in Central City. Martial artists were involved in many of them.

The Resolution Department had to send their officers out because of that. Due to a lack of manpower and because certain cases were quite serious, even Zou Jinxin, who was supposed to act as a garrison in the department, had to step out with a team.

Around an hour after he left, Wang Weiguang marched into the headquarters with a team.

The Crisis Management Center had detained him after the last examination. On the surface, it was said that he was corrupted, but in truth, the municipal government had detained him because they needed a scapegoat. However, since they didn’t have concrete proof, he had been kept in detention after that. He was never removed from his position, and Han Fu had made sure that he still had all his rights in the Resolution Department.

After Wang Weiguang entered the headquarters, Safe Shield said, “Captain Wang, the Crisis Management Center has removed all their claims against you. Welcome back. Please complete your return procedure.”

Wang Weiguang smiled. “Please help me register the people behind me. These are the people I hired.”

“Identifying personnel. No criminal record. No citizenship. Registered.”

Once registration was completed, Wang Weiguang stepped forward to complete his return procedure. “I received a case while on my way back and found that it’s connected to Han Fu, so I need information from him. Could I meet him?”

“I’m sorry, Captain Wang, but you need higher authority to question Han Fu. Please submit a request to the leaders or wait for the other administrative lead investigators to come back.”

“Alright. I’ll wait, then,” Wang Weiguang said with a spark in his eyes.

***

The train entered the underground station. Once it stopped, Advisor Pei and Chen Chuan’s group got out. They passed through the scanning area and walked up the stairs. An armed force was waiting at the exit. A man in a suit and sunglasses stood at the front of it.

The moment he saw them, he removed his sunglasses and motioned for the armed forces behind him to be still. Then, he stepped forward, showed his ID, and said, “I’m Li Xie, an external relations officer of the Crisis Management Center. I’ve come here on orders from the center. Since all of you have gone to the merged space and entered the undeveloped area, we need to inspect you to make sure that no harm will come to Central City.”

Advisor Pei moved in front of the man and showed him an examination report.

“Mr. Li, the World Ring Defense System has registered and examined these people before coming back. We don’t need to go to the center for the time being.”

Li Xie’s expression changed a bit. After the World Ring Defense System’s inspection, there was truly no need for them to go through another examination. Even though the Crisis Management Center had the right to conduct a follow-up exam, it wasn’t right for them to take these people by force back to the center without a clear reason that something was wrong. If they refused, they couldn’t even be faulted through the procedure.

Just then, he received a voice message. After listening to it, he looked at the group and smiled. “I’m sorry. We trust your examination, but there’s something important that you may not know.

“Recently, we found a new form of parasite, and our examination entities have just received an update. So, we need to examine everyone again. I hope you will understand.”

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