Book 4, Chapter 162: Defend Your True Form and Manifest Your Spirit Form
Book 4, Chapter 162: Defend Your True Form and Manifest Your Spirit Form
Chen Chuan returned to the forest and went to the gap. Some of his things, including the Frost King Saber, were still inside it, so he needed to retrieve them.
The other world was filled with dangers, and there were plenty of strange things inside it. If the light from the artifact wasn’t shining on it, he wouldn’t have left them there while happily going off to fight against Wei Guochan.
Once he went over, he saw Dawncall perched on his backpack. His clever Bird Reptile had brought them all out of the other world after he left the gap. When it saw him, it raised its head proudly and chirped at him.
Chen Chuan laughed. With Dawncall around, many things became easier. He patted its head before picking up the Frost King Saber, which was right next to the backpack.
He hadn’t been sure whether the Frost King Saber would be able to withstand the fight, which was why he hadn’t used it.
Yao Zhiyi, Wan Yunshan, and Wei Guochan all had weapons. Wan Yunshan had also tried to disarm Wei Guochan the moment the fight started, which meant that weapons were still useful at this limit. He should think of ways to upgrade the Frost King Saber once he went back.
Speaking of which, he had something else to do.
Chen Chuan zipped up his backpack and walked out of the forest. Yao Zhiyi was standing by the side while Wan Yunshan was squatting down with Wei Guochan’s head in his hands and chattering away.
Chen Chuan looked around, and Wan Yunshan noticed. “What are you looking for, Chen Chuan?” he asked warmly.
“Wei Guochan’s spear,” Chen Chuan answered.
“You came to the right person, then,” Wan Yunshan pointed at one of the deep lines on the plains. “It’s buried there, way under.”
Chen Chuan took a look and walked over. Most of the spear was buried under loose dirt. Only a bit of its handle was exposed. Chen Chuan grabbed it, flicked it up, wiped off the dirt on it, then blew on the white tassel to return it to its original form.
He could give up on everything else, but this one? He was bringing it back no matter what.
Wan Yunshan blinked a few times, as if he had figured something out.
Was Chen Chuan’s oath related to his opponent’s weapons? Did he have to collect them after defeating them?
That was rare. Could it be that it was just a hobby of his?
He couldn’t quite figure it out, but he didn’t think much about it. This was a private matter. While some people didn’t mind others knowing, others tried all sorts of ways to hide it.
Chen Chuan was strong, so his oath had to be bizarre. Perhaps it had some glaring weakness that could be exploited, so it would be better not to ask about it.
Chen Chuan took out a piece of cloth and wiped the spear. Then, he walked back to Yao Zhiyi and Wan Yunshan.
“You’re done? Why don’t we go back together on my airship?” Yao Zhiyi offered.
“Okay, but Mr. Yao, I came here to liaise with the artifact-retrieval team. The operation is over, but they’re still out here in the wilderness with a lot of imperial army soldiers lurking around. It won’t be easy for them to come back, so can we grab them as well?” Chen Chuan asked.
Yao Zhiyi’s expression became stern. “Of course. If they were sent here to retrieve the artifact, they’re definitely elites of the Great Shun Republic! Do you know where they are right now?”
“We agreed on a place to meet, so they should be somewhere in that area. They’re also carrying a telegraph set, so it shouldn’t be hard to find them,” Chen Chuan answered.
“That’s good, then. I have a telegraph set in my airship. Let’s board it.”
By then, Yao Zhiyi’s airship had already arrived above their heads. After a while, three ropes dropped down. Once they grabbed them, the airship brought them up. With a light tug, they landed on its large observation deck.
The moment they boarded, someone nearby shouted, “Music!”
The marching band waiting on the deck started their performance. Drums and horns played a passionate, fiery tune that sounded like horses racing on a battlefield before the mood changed to a victorious general returning.
Wan Yunshan’s expression became quite strange.
Yao Zhiyi, though, looked positively radiant.
Chen Chuan laughed. “Mr. Yao, this is a very motivating song.”
Yao Zhiyi laughed. “I know, right? The people of our generation need music to bolster their spirits.”
After listening for a while, he became serious again. “Let’s get back to business.”
He brought Chen Chuan to the telegram room. There were several telegraph clerks in charge of communications, so he turned to one of them. “Send word to base that they should act according to plan.”
“Roger!”
Another telegraph clerk came forward to ask Chen Chuan what he needed and sent his telegram. Soon, he received a signal. Once he interpreted it, he became certain that it was a reply from Hai Gao’s team. They had met up with Xu Chan and were all safe. At present, they were trying to come back to base.
Chen Chuan told the telegraph clerk to ask them where they were. After getting the coordinates, he checked them on his map: Xu Chan’s team was only half an hour away from them. He told Yao Zhiyi about it, and the airship changed course immediately.
Once the telegrams were sent, Yao Zhiyi brought Chen Chuan and Wan Yunshan to the main cabin. The moment they sat down, he asked his aide-de-camp to bring his tea leaves.
The aide-de-camp stared at Chen Chuan for a bit. He had seen the entire process of Chen Chuan defeating Wei Guochan from above. Clearly, he was a powerful martial arts master, but he looked so young.
Yao Zhiyi was of equal strength to Wei Guochan, since neither could defeat the other. If Chen Chuan could take down Wei Guochan, didn’t that mean...
He looked down and served the tea respectfully.
“The imperial army only has one martial arts master, Gai Shuhe, in Jibei Road. If we hurry over and kill him, everything will be settled,” Yao Zhiyi said.
The moment Wan Yunshan heard this, his eyes sparkled. “Are we going right now? That’s great!”
It would be far too easy to kill Gai Shuhe for the three of them. News about Wei Guochan’s death had yet to spread, so they would be able to catch the imperial army off guard. If they were to kill Gai Shuhe too, the imperial army’s control over Jibei Road’s merged space would crumble.
Jibei Road’s Central City could then claim this place as their own and build an astonishing number of sturdy military forts. Sieges were the imperial army’s weakness, so there had been no instance of the Great Shun Republic’s territory being reclaimed by the imperial army. If the three succeeded in kicking out the imperial army, this part of the merged space would become a permanent territory of the Great Shun Republic.
“Mr. Yao, should we—” Wan Yunshan began.
“Tea.” Yao Zhiyi quickly picked up a teacup from the table before Wan Yunshan could finish and stuffed it into his hands.
“Oh, okay.”
Since the chancellor served him tea, Wan Yunshan couldn’t just not drink it. He got up from his seat, took the teacup with two hands, and took a few sips.
Chen Chuan’s gaze sharpened. Isn’t Gai Shuhe Chen Bitong’s rival? Chen Bitong left to face him back then and went MIA. There has been no word about what happened to him. If I could meet Gai Shuhe, I could get the answer from the horse’s mouth.
“You’re the main contributor behind why we managed to defeat Wei Guochan, Lead Investigator Chen,” Yao Zhiyi remarked.
“I was just lucky. If Zhao Zhenye hadn’t interfered, you wouldn’t have had a hard time defeating Wei Guochan with Senior Wan, and if both of you hadn’t been holding Zhao Zhenye back, I couldn’t have done it on my own either,” Chen Chuan replied.
Wan Yunshan finished his tea. Upon hearing this, he set his teacup down. “Chen Chuan, I’ve never seen anyone who was able to perform as well as you did right after reaching the Fourth Limit. Seriously, you were amazing. I was supposed to fight against Wei Guochan with Mr. Yao, but you were the one who killed him in the end. You don’t have to feel guilty about stealing our kill. It’s nothing. You should take credit where credit’s due. We won’t steal what’s yours. You have no idea, but back then, I—”
“Tea!” Yao Zhiyi grabbed a filled teacup and shoved it right under Wan Yunshan’s nose. Wan Yunshan quickly got up again and took the teacup.
Yao Zhiyi turned to Chen Chuan. “Wei Guochan took the path of a protector general. Those six arms weren’t for show. Each of them could use a different refined force, but you still managed to defeat him.
“I could tell that the refined force you used was a firm force mixed with a body hardening-type refined force. This simple and unwavering path you took is a perfect counter for Wei Guochan.”
Wan Yunshan drank his tea while nodding.
When Chen Chuan fought against Wei Guochan, Wan Yunshan had seen that Chen Chuan had fought him head-on. Usually, people who adopted such an aggressive, forceful style had explosive spirit flames, because they had steadfast will and heart. This description also matched Chen Chuan’s spirit flames.
In truth, Chen Chuan used the most basic of Sanshou refined forces, but since he had fused with his second self again, his strength had jumped and surpassed the limit of what a perfect human could theoretically reach.
This was an unprecedented foundation, which allowed him to obtain absolute strength and speed the moment he reached the Fourth Limit. Even if he used the most basic of techniques, their effect was astonishing.
As for giving his refined force more variation? He would think about it after going back. “Mr. Yao, you mentioned that Wei Guochan walked down the path of a protector general. What do you mean by that?” Chen Chuan asked.
“That’s an old saying. Everyone in the former royal family used it, and it’s pretty accurate, so I use it too,” Yao Zhiyi said. He finished his tea and set his empty teacup down. “Fill up my cup, Xiao Wan.”
“Sure thing.” Wan Yunshan grabbed the teapot and served him tea.
“The people in the past called the Fourth Limit ‘acquiring arcane truth,’ right? It means that we are to figure out the mysterious underlying principle of something, but what is it? Let’s link it to the most important description of this limit: Defending your true form and manifesting your spirit form.”