Book 3, Chapter 230: Preventative Measures

In the blink of an eye, half of the New Year celebration had passed, but the couplets, banners, and lanterns were still around on the streets. The New Year spirit still lingered in the city.

Chen Chuan drove to his old house and cleaned up the place before bringing a few cans of tea leaves over. Then, he brewed a cup of tea and went to the corridor under the eaves. As he watched the stream and forest outside while basking under the warm sun, he started drinking his tea.

More memories had resurfaced over the past few days. At night, another memory of his mother celebrating the New Year had shown up. In this one, his mother was with Chen Chuan’s two aunts.

His mother’s older sister was more than ten years older than his mother and Yu Wan. Later on, she got married and moved to another country. The old Chen Chuan had seen her a few times, but it had been a long time since she came back. It seemed like her husband was from the military, and her family played a part in Nian Qian being able to get into military school.

All the memories about the New Year were connected to what he knew. Most of them were also from the earlier days of his mother’s life. Only the ones with the woman were from a later stage of her life.

The woman might also be involved in his parents’ whereabouts and why the old Chen Chuan died.

But Chen Chuan wasn’t going to delve much into this. He would learn about it when the time was right.

After all, all of this had happened in the past and didn’t affect his present self.

He did need to pay attention to a few things, though.

One of them was what Ni Qianqian told him before he came back to Yangzhi City. He didn’t know about Ferris Wheel’s real goal, so he couldn’t just assume that they were going to stop attacking him after suffering one failure.

He had thought about it. If they still wanted him dead, they would have a good chance to kill him when he was going back. This time, before returning to Central City, he needed to get ready.

He stayed in his old house until the afternoon before packing up and driving back home. Nian Mo and Nian Lu were playing tag with Dawncall, so Chen Chuan sat down in the living room to read. Suddenly, the phone rang, and he answered. “Chen Chuan speaking.”

Ren Xiaotian’s voice came through. “I found the person you want.”

After asking for the address, Chen Chuan said, “Alright. I’ll come over right now.”

Yu Wan was stitching soles in the courtyard when Chen Chuan stepped out, so he told her that he was going out.

Since he may be in danger, he needed to get his raccoon stone tablet some sacrifices, but it was practically impossible to find criminals in the city anymore, so he had to look outside the city. He asked Ren Xiaotian for help with that. After all, the man knew the situation in the wilderness and outside the city like the back of his hand.

Besides, Ren Xiaotian was reliable and prudent. Chen Chuan didn’t have to worry about anything going wrong.

Even after he was some distance away from the city, Chen Chuan could see patrol cars around, unlike before when the Constabulary never left the city. By the looks of it, Guan Yuming really did step up the inspections and enforcements to increase security.

Guan Yuming was a man with a strong sense of justice, and it looked like he had done a much better job at keeping the city safe than his predecessor, but sometimes, a sense of justice wasn’t what determined whether one could do a job well. External factors also played a role.

If Black Orchid Co., the largest cancerous tumor of Yangzhi City, was still around, no matter what Guan Yuming tried, he wouldn’t have been able to keep the city safe.

The construction of the railway in the north also played a huge role. They had to employ a large number of people to work on it, and many of them were from Smoked Hills. According to Lu Ke, countless villagers went to work there.

In order to make sure nothing went wrong with the railway construction, Enclosed Shore had armored cars patrolling the area, which kept away all the robbers who wanted to cause trouble.

Chen Chuan drove to Smoked Hills. The further he went, the stronger the sandstorm became. The air around him turned gray, and he heard crackling sounds coming from his windows. In no time, his car was covered in sand.

After driving for around an hour, Chen Chuan saw Ren Xiaotian’s SUV, so he slowed down and approached the vehicle. Once he parked beside the SUV, he got out.

Ren Xiaotian got out as well and dragged a person out from his trunk.

“He’s a wanted criminal charged with kidnapping, robbery, human trafficking, and the smuggling of firearms and banned drugs. Every crime an armed group does, he has done.”

The man had been listless, but at that moment, he realized that things were about to go badly for him, so he immediately tried to get himself out of the situation. “Please let me go, sirs. I can give you all of my money, and I know where my boss keeps his drugs. I can take you there. I’m not worth anything, but my boss and colleagues’ bounties are much larger than mine!”

Chen Chuan didn’t waste his breath on him. He took the man from Ren Xiaotian’s hands and dragged him to his own car. With the car blocking him from Ren Xiaotian’s sight, he threw the raccoon stone tablet on the man.

A transparent image of a raccoon showed up and crawled into the man’s body. The man immediately started screaming in pain.

It only lasted for a short while before fading away. After two or so minutes, the man fell completely silent after being reduced to a sack of skin.

Chen Chuan looked over and saw a hole not far away. Ren Xiaotian had even dug a grave, so he walked over and threw the man’s corpse inside. Since the sandstorm was really strong, the hole was filled up in just a short while. They didn’t even have to waste any energy burying the man.

“Thank you, Senior Brother Ren,” Chen Chuan said after walking back to the cars.

“It’s nothing,” Ren Xiaotian replied.

Once Chen Chuan ducked behind the car to stay out of the sandstorm, he asked, “Are you still going to take up missions here?”

Ren Xiaotian hadn’t said much during the gathering, so Chen Chuan didn’t know whether he was planning to go to Central City, like the others.

“I’ll go to Central City as well,” Ren Xiaotian said. Then, after some careful deliberation of his words, he added, “Many of the familiar faces have left this year, and the smuggling business in the wilderness has gone down in number. Because of it, even more people are going to leave. I think it’s best for me to go as well.”

Chen Chuan smiled at that and extended a hand to him. “You have to come find me first thing when you go to Central City.”

Ren Xiaotian stared at his hand for a moment before he extended his hand awkwardly and shook it.

“I will.”

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was the end of January.

Chen Chuan was getting ready to go back to Central City. This time, he was going to go back with Wei Dong and Wu Han. The others still had some things to take care of, so they were going to join them a little later. They were going to come to Central City around February or March.

Lei Guangcheng was also joining them, since he wanted to go to Central City a few days before assuming office, so they were all going to travel together. Of course, he wasn’t going to Central City alone. The Cult Investigation Bureau was going to send an escort.

As for He Nan and Lei Ying, they were going to join him after he settled down.

Lei Guangcheng was pretty cautious about going to Central City to work. He had even asked Chen Chuan to meet up to discuss it.

“Some people might not want to see me going to Central City, so I need to get ready. I’d like to set up some rituals on you as well. Are you alright with it?”

Chen Chuan immediately said yes and asked, “What are you planning, Mr. Lei?”

Lei Guangcheng took out something resembling a membrane. “This is manmade skin from the bureau. The rituals you saw on our bodies were actually carved on these things.”

He rolled up his sleeve and removed a piece from his arm. It looked almost no different from his original skin.

“You can draw ritual arrays on the membrane ahead of time, and once one’s effects run out, you can remove it and put on a new piece. It’s really convenient, so I’ve prepared some for you. Once you put them on, all you need to do is connect them with the other parts of the ritual you’ve prepared to activate it, like this.”

He clenched his fist, and the ritual array immediately shone. “This is how you activate the ritual.

“Of course, you’re free to choose which section of your body you want to use to activate the ritual. You should pick what’s most convenient for you. You don’t need to copy mine.

“Aside from these, there’s your clothes as well.”

He asked He Nan to bring an overcoat, which he handed to Chen Chuan. “It’s custom-made by the bureau and has an inner lining made with special fibers that makes it extra tough. The fibers are also arranged in a ritual array. Even if the external layer of the overcoat is damaged, it won’t affect the ritual much.”

Chen Chuan took it and nodded. During the fight with the Viper Order, he had made use of rituals to win. They were especially useful when used as part of an offensive strategy. They had even played a role in his fight against Xu Xianwen.

Still, Chen Chuan had some questions. The ways to use rituals seemed to be well-developed, but he seldom saw martial artists using them. He wondered whether it was because the government had banned it or whether it was due to other reasons.

Once he voiced his question, Lei Guangcheng answered gravely, “This is mainly due to the government banning it. Even though you can fight more effectively if you combine martial arts with rituals, the end result is much more terrifying. History has plenty of examples of that.

“If it weren’t for the fact that you’re naturally resistant toward anomalous substances, I wouldn’t have let you continue dabbling in rituals.

“Based on what I understand, some rituals can be affected and even suppressed by the biofields of powerful creatures. Strong humans can do it too

“But those are just small-scale rituals. Stronger rituals are different. Usually, they need to be prepared over a few years or more than a decade. They aren’t so easily destroyed.

“These rituals are sealed off, and no one is allowed to learn them. Thousands or even millions of lives would get involved if they were activated.”

Chen Chuan knew what he meant. The royal families of the empires in the old era all had national religions.

While the current world governments never publicly stated why they wanted to destroy the secret religions and cults, Chen Chuan had seen and learned a lot. Whatever the royal families used the rituals for, it was never anything good. They often tried to increase their lifespans and vitality, secure their rule, and gain other benefits like that. The rulers were simply unable to resist using rituals for such things.

Chen Chuan shook his head and cast those thoughts aside. He took the membranes and started drawing the rituals he needed.