Book 4, Chapter 219: Going To Another Country
Book 4, Chapter 219: Going To Another Country
On the third of December, Chen Chuan took his limousine out of the downtown area and went to the industrial area in the south. The airship the National Martial Artists Council had prepared for him was already waiting.
This airship was around two hundred meters in length. Just like the one he took to the island nations, it had various entertainment facilities. There was also a place for simple training.
Once again, he brought Dawncall with him. It had grown bigger from when it had come with him to the island nations and could no longer stand on his shoulder. It now had to hobble along beside him.
The airship captain, who had been waiting for him, bowed. “Mr. Chen, we’re the airship crew brought here by the National Martial Artists Council. We’ll be in charge of taking you to Veshahan and bringing you back. If you have any requests, please tell me.”
“I’ll be in your care,” Chen Chuan said with a nod.
“I hope you’ll enjoy your trip.”
Chen Chuan entered the main cabin and put his luggage down. Once he took his seat, he watched the airship raise slowly and head west. Behind him, Central City drifted further away and slowly faded from view.
His sudden departure caught the municipal government by surprise. They were puzzled. Then, they came to the conclusion that Chen Chuan might be off on some kind of mission. After all, martial arts masters seldom stayed in Central Cities for a long time. Their sudden comings and goings were normal. This action only served to prove Mr. Quan’s theory.
The politicians became much more relaxed.
***
At the place where the Union representatives stayed, Mr. Chi was speaking on his Realm Pass. “Please tell the master that the man has suddenly left Central City. We don’t know where he’s going. The central government might have gotten the airship for him, because its security clearance level is very high. I can’t figure out where it’s going.
“Yes. He might be off to carry out some mission from the state.
“I had gotten someone from within the Defense Bureau to put that thing next to him, but it didn’t work out.
“He won’t learn that it’s from us. The people we hired were all from other countries and have no direct ties with the company. None of them knew who they were working for either.
“Alright. We won’t do anything for now. I’ll tell the master once he comes back.”
***
The airship continued heading west through the aerial route cutting across the central part of the Great Shun Republic. The airship did make a stop, though. On the morning of the fourth day, it stopped at a checkpoint in Longyou Road for maintenance and to replenish supplies. After staying there for half a day, they continued on with their journey.
After another two days, Chen Chuan looked out the porthole. The spacious plains underneath had been replaced by glaciers. Sometimes, he could see ash-blue or dark brown mountains underneath all the ice and snow.
When he looked ahead, the rivers flowing down from the icy plains divided the place into a broken and uneven terrain. The rivers eventually gathered into one, and a majestic valley was formed in the Mountain of the Celestial Gate, a famous location in the west of the Great Shun Republic. It also had the famous Celestial Sun Pool.
Once they passed it, they would reach Locked Boundary Mountain. Back in the old era, it separated the capital from the rest of the country. The mountain range was more than a thousand kilometers long and split the entire region into the west and east. Now, though, the government had opened up roads and tunnels through it.
Before leaving, Chen Chuan had read up on the area. In order to pass the mountain range, the government had made use of some mega creatures from the merged space to create the roads.
After the airship flew past the mountain, Chen Chuan saw a spacious plain. Winding rivers flowed through green grass, and horses galloped through the area.
His Realm Pass flickered, and one of the airship crew introduced the place to him. “Mr. Chen, Veshahan is ahead of us. We need to rest at the Lakhash checkpoint for a bit. After two hours, we’ll head to Vakrahn Central City. Is there anything you need?”
“No,” Chen Chuan stated. He brewed a cup of tea and tapped his Realm Pass to play some soothing music. While listening to it, he admired the beautiful scenery outside.
A little over ten minutes later, the airship stopped at the mooring point of the checkpoint and exchanged telegrams with the guards. Two hours later, the airship took to the air again and headed straight to Vakrahn Central City.
Veshahan’s name meant mountain water, and Vakrahn Central City was Veshahan’s only Central City. More than half of the country’s population was gathered there.
This Central City was built during the days of the mega alliance. The entire city could be divided into two rings—the inner ring and outer ring. The inner ring was located at Talkur Highlands, which meant majestic mountains. Only the aristocrats, religious leaders, elites, and foreigners were allowed there. The outer ring was where the shepherds and regular citizens lived. These people had no status.
Chen Chuan could see a large city towering over the plains. All of its skyscrapers were located within the inner ring. Meanwhile, the buildings in the outskirts were small and low. They were also positioned in a very complicated, almost nonsensical way, even though they were part of Vakrahn Central City. At first, they were built based on the original urban layout designed when the city was set up, but the further away they were from the inner ring, the more the buildings strayed from the initial layout.
Since Fang Zhuoying wasn’t in the inner ring, the airship stopped at the mooring point at the edge of the city. Chen Chuan could see airships rising into the sky or descending. A number of them were quite luxurious.
While Chen Chuan’s airship was huge, it didn’t have any emblem on it. The specifications from the outside didn’t make it stand out, so when it landed among the other airships, it did not catch any attention.
This was necessary. After all, aside from looking for Fang Zhuoying, Chen Chuan had another mission. It wouldn’t be good for him to reveal himself ahead of time.
Once he got out, he found the security team hired by the National Martial Artists Council already waiting for him. This was something necessary for foreigners in Veshahan. Even those from the Great Shun Republic weren’t an exception. Aside from protecting the foreigners, the security team would also help them skip a lot of trouble.
Chen Chuan was pleased with this arrangement. He didn’t think that just because he was a martial arts master, he could handle everything. If there was a more convenient way for him to solve a problem at a lower cost, he would definitely pick it.
Chen Chuan got into an SUV and put on a pair of reality enhancing glasses. This was a weaker version of the Realm Pass. Aside from creating simulations, it could only send simple communications and provide live visual feed. While Chen Chuan’s mental energy could help him capture all external information, why should he waste his energy on it? He would rather use the glasses.
Of course, this was only limited to the outer ring. In the inner ring, he could use the Great Shun Republic’s Realm Pass without any problem.
When he entered the city, the first thing he saw was a densely populated market. Neon holograms filled the buildings by the road. The loud clamor from the streets was mixed with rhythmic music, so the place was really noisy.
Almost everyone walking down the streets had implants. Even the livestock had implants or were modified. Chen Chuan saw a cat the size of an adult man with fur that glowed with all sorts of colors. In comparison to it, Dawncall looked normal.
The market had all sorts of wares. Chen Chuan took a look and found traditional handmade pieces, beautiful carpets, exquisitely carved wood pieces, traditional jewelry, implants, simple bioprosthetics, and even flesh that seemed to be from merged space creatures. The place gave him a feeling of a mix of both the old and new eras.
As he went further into the city, the buildings started growing taller, and the number of cars increased, but most of them were modified SUVs. Practically all of them had guns installed on their roofs, and combatants with plenty of implants stood beside them. Once they saw Chen Chuan’s motorcade, they avoided it, but he could hear gunshots further away. Sometimes, there were even explosions.
Fang Zhuoying’s martial arts school was located in the largest tent outside the downtown area. It was really famous in Vakrahn Central City, so the SUVs headed there without needing any guidance.
After around fifty minutes of travel, the airship captain, who had accompanied him all the way here, said, “Mr. Chen, Chi Yun Camp is right ahead. We’ll stop here and wait for you to come back. The mercenaries we hired will wait for your orders 24/7 in batches. If you need anything else, please come find us whenever.”
Chen Chuan nodded and looked ahead. Chi Yun Camp was an oval-shaped tent. It had such a smooth surface that it looked like a goose’s egg. Four corners made of canvas stretched from the top of the tent to the ground like the four corners of a square. Their lines were smooth and aesthetically pleasing.
He asked Dawncall to stay outside. Once he got out of the SUV, he smoothed out his scarf, grabbed his luggage bag, and went to the tent flap.
Before visiting the place, he had sent a telegram about his trip, so the guards were expecting him. After hearing the purpose of his visit, they became really friendly and immediately asked him to go in.
The first things Chen Chuan saw were isolated fighting rings of various sizes. The place was really spacious. Not too far away were dozens of built women sparring with each other on thick carpets. They let out thunderous shouts. Occasionally, there were dull thuds of people being thrown down.
With just one glance, Chen Chuan knew that they were doing resistance training to improve their mutated tissue, muscles, and bones. They used similar stances to those from the Great Shun Republic.
Stances required rhythmic breathing and movement to activate the mutated tissue, but here, throws and resistance training replaced that process. It allowed the martial artists to figure out a breathing pattern suitable for themselves. Neither method was better than the other, since they achieved the same result in the end.
All of the martial artists’ faces were flushed red, and their breathing was ragged. Heat radiated from their bodies, and sweat covered the carpets. After a while, they needed to replenish their strength with nutritional paste and water. Then, someone would strike their bodies to help them relax. After resting for a while, they would continue.
This was a highly intense training regime, and many people would fail to make the cut. Only those who were truly suited for this martial art would be able to stay to the end.
Even though Chen Chuan left after giving the group a cursory glance and even pulled his biofield back, the invisible pressure he gave off made the women’s hair stand on end. Goosebumps broke out on their skin, and they stopped subconsciously to watch him leave.