Book 4, Chapter 191: Observing The Paths To Truly Determine His Own

The woman lit a cigarette and sucked in a breath before propping herself up on an elbow. “What do you plan on doing?”

“The simplest, most direct way is to kill him. Last time, the purity faction imploded when we did that. If we attempt the same thing now, then even if we succeed, the purity faction won’t just stand by and do nothing. The best way would be to fight fairly and have the loser step away. This way, it wouldn’t lead to a war between the two factions,” the middle-aged man said grimly.

“You’re being too idealistic about this. Why should he respond to your challenge? And even if he’s willing to, the purity faction won’t agree to it,” the woman shot back mercilessly.

Just when the middle-aged man was about to reply, the screen swayed, and the woman said, “There’s another interference? Go out and take a look.”

A security guard immediately left the room. A violent gust of wind with sand inside gushed in. It crashed into an invisible wall in the room, and not one thing budged.

There was a mega creature that looked like a lizard under their building. It was carrying them on its back. The building was a large, wooden structure that was three-storeys tall. From a distance, it looked like a red sandstone behind flying sand.

They were in the merged space.

A distance away from them was colorful fog. Wherever it passed, sturdy stones shattered and scattered all over the ground into bits and pieces.

The woman saw the rainbow-colored light reflected on the security guard’s goggles. All four of her eyes widened, and she turned around. “It’s a Rainbow Barrier, Boss! We can’t deal with this!”

The middle-aged man immediately picked up a book from the table in front of him and started reading from it in a sonorous, deep voice full of emotion. “Under the gentle moonlight, Morty arrived under the familiar stone bridge. He looked through the gaps of wild grapevines and branches of a birch tree at the familiar window on the second floor. He could already imagine the ethereal figure behind it and those bewitching green eyes...”

Considering how fierce and bulky he was, him speaking in a sentimental, emotional manner would make goosebumps break out all over any onlooker’s skin, but the security guards and the woman only waited numbly.

After reciting the lines, the middle-aged man stopped talking, set the book down, and walked out. He disappeared in a flash, and a bright light appeared outside. After a short while, he reappeared at the entrance and returned to the sofa to continue the topic from earlier. “I was just proposing the best option. When it comes to ideals, we need to be bold about reaching for them, you know? If that won’t do, we can lure him into the merged space. That will open up plenty of options for us and get rid of a lot of problems.”

“That’d be great, but how are we going to lure him over?” the woman asked.

“How can a martial arts master stay in Central City all the time? He’ll definitely come to the merged space. Once he’s here, it’ll be easy.”

The woman took a puff of smoke and flicked the ash off. “I suppose that will do. I just don’t know how long we’ll have to wait. The municipal government has agreed to provide Lead Investigator Chen with a steady supply of food for three years. If he doesn’t venture out in all that time, are you going to keep waiting?”

The middle-aged man wasn’t concerned. “Don’t worry. Zhao Zhenye is here, and they won’t just ignore him. If they do, we’ll just ask Zhao Zhenye to show his face. The purity faction won’t sit back and do nothing.”

“But Mr. Zhao... might not necessarily listen to us,” the woman said in a meaningful manner.

The black smoke in the middle-aged man’s eyes drifted about. “I’ll talk to him personally.”

The woman became wary and warned him, “I’m not looking down on you, but Mr. Zhao is very strong, and he’s not our subordinate. He might not listen to you.”

“I’m not an idiot. I won’t be going there to make our conflict worse. He already knows what the purity faction is getting ready for. We have a foundation for working together, but for it to happen, time is needed. We can’t rush it. Besides, if we’re really going to attack, I might be unable to stop him myself. I need to think of a more foolproof plan,” the middle-aged man said while staring at the screen.

***

Back at his house, Chen Chuan had ended his night training and was feeding Dawncall. The municipal government’s first batch of food had nutrients, so after just a few bites, Dawncall needed to go to sleep immediately. It could last it for half a year.

Chen Chuan was about to go to his study when he received a call. Safe Shield said, “It’s from the National Delivery Service.”

Anticipation rose in Chen Chuan’s heart. Once he answered, he heard a voice with no distinctive features enter his ears. “Is this Mr. Chen? Hello, we’re from the National Delivery Service. You have an express delivery on your way.”

“Where are you?” he asked.

“We’re at Martial Order District and are on our way to your house. We’ll be there within ten minutes.”

“Alright. I’ll wait,” Chen Chuan said.

He asked his security guards to open the door. A few minutes later, he saw a medium-sized truck drive over. The security guards guided it over, and it stopped in the empty space in front of the house.

Chen Chuan got downstairs and saw two young men with average faces moving a box that was over a meter tall from the container. It looked heavy, and when they set it down, dust flew up.

One of them cast a glance at Chen Chuan, as if comparing something. After verifying his identity, he handed a receipt and saluted him. “This is your delivery, Mr. Chen. Please sign the receipt.”

Chen Chuan took it and found that the official seal of Martial Valor University’s highest central institute was on it. Since this was what he had thought it was, he signed it and handed the receipt back.

The young man took it, checked it, and tore off a corner of the receipt for him to keep as proof that the package was delivered to him. Then, he asked whether Chen Chuan needed any help getting the box upstairs. When Chen Chuan denied his help, the young man saluted him again and returned to the truck.

Chen Chuan cast another glance at the box. It should have the training methods for the path of the human form, though he wasn’t expecting a delivery company to send them over. Considering the way they acted, though, they looked like they belonged to the military.

Chen Chuan grabbed the leather straps on the box and lifted it as if it weighed nothing. Then, he returned to his training room.

Once he set the box down, he removed the buckle on it and tore open three layers of wrapping to find that it contained a domain entity curled up into a ball. It looked like vines twisted into each other and was perfectly still, as if it was in some sort of dormancy.

After taking a look at it, Chen Chuan figured out what was going on. The information should be stored within this domain entity, which had been cultivated in a special way that without a Fourth Limit martial artist’s biofield shocking it awake, it wouldn’t reveal anything.

He pressed down on it, and after a while, the domain entity started trembling. Its branches spread outward while releasing its domain.

It vibrated for a bit before stabilizing. Then, wisps of light spread out from the vines, which contained information in the form of words and pictures.

All of them detailed the training methods for the path of the human form.

Light flickered in Chen Chuan’s eyes, and he absorbed all the information. A few minutes later, the domain entity shriveled up, as if all its life had been drained, and it turned chalk white.

Chen Chuan ignored it and focused on the information he had received.

It had a beginner technique for the path of the human form, descriptions of the items he needed, and detailed information on what he needed to pay attention to.

That wasn’t all. It also contained quite a lot of information about the paths of the mental form and other form. Through their descriptions, Chen Chuan figured that this was because the highest central institute wanted him to have a clear understanding of the three forms, so he wouldn’t make his decision rashly or out of ignorance. After all, once the decision was made, it could never be changed. It was only possible at the very start of the Fourth Limit.

Chen Chuan didn’t jump the gun, but read through everything. The key to the other form’s training was in observing, visualizing, and stabilizing. In general terms, they needed to observe charts of other forms passed down through generations and visualize them or come up with other forms themselves. Then, they needed to guide their mutated tissue to grow in that direction.

Most charts of the other forms were passed down from various religions. The benefit of training in this path was that they already had a fixed path to take and could refer to their predecessors’ experiences. After all, many old dynasties had their own other form training systems and places of worship. Most of them were still around.

Coming up with one’s own other form was hard, because the martial arts master would have to come up with something from nothing, and it was a gargantuan task. After all, the old religions’ other form training systems were created based on experiences accumulated through generations and multiple tests. Someone exceptionally talented would be able to do it by themselves, but such people were few and far in between.

Those practicing the path of the mental form needed to send their mind out of their world. Their minds had to wander through the other world and grow stronger until they could establish a permanent mark there that could exist independently. With the mark, their minds could soak themselves in all the energy of the other world. Then, their next step was to find the master for their external form.

This master might exist, but it also might not. Theoretically, the training of the mental form was trying to reach an epiphany on their perfect mental form. Then, they could draw energy from it bit by bit until they became it.

After reading through them, Chen Chuan found a note stressing how these two paths had their own pros and cons. For the other form, the moment they deviated from the path, it was very difficult to make corrections. Some got so far off their path that they lost their sense of self.

Meanwhile, when it came to the mental form, they had to constantly deal with all the dangerous threats in the other world. If they let down their guard for a moment or were just plain unlucky, the mental energy they parked in the other world would be devoured, and their vital energy would be greatly damaged. This was the best case scenario, though. The worst was that something might end up possessing them.

That was why there was a grim warning stating that if a martial arts master didn’t have any unique traits in regard to their mind or body, they shouldn’t attempt these two paths. They should go with the more stable path of the human form.

Those who picked it simply needed to train according to what was stated in the manual, just like they had done so far in their martial arts journey, so it was really easy to get started on this path.

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