Chapter 71 - 63: Rebellion! The Son-in-Law Devours the Master

The Research Department.

In a pristine white corridor that hummed with technology, Zhou Chen was on his way to Jiang Che’s office. He ran into Xiao Yan, who was just emerging from a lab and waved him over.

"Your Soul analysis report is out," Xiao Yan said. "It’s recovered to about 68% integrity. But there’s still a considerable risk if we perform the soul surgery now. It’s best if you recover a bit more. Over eighty percent should be safe."

"Over eighty percent..."

Zhou Chen rubbed his chin, pondering for a moment. "So you’re saying one surgery can restore about twenty percent? In that case, why not just give me a couple of them?"

"Er... that’s not how it works."

Xiao Yan scratched his messy hair. "Soul-grafting surgery has actually been in wide use for a long time. Essentially, we take a sterilized and purified Soul and suture it to the one that needs repair. Once it adapts and fuses, the patient makes a full recovery with no side effects.

But your injury is too severe and your Soul is in a state of Weakness. If we operate rashly, you might not be able to assimilate the donor Soul, which could cause a rejection reaction. If the rejection is severe, it could even lead to total Soul collapse.

The other possibility is that your Soul gets assimilated *by* the donor Soul. If that happens, every aspect of you—your personality, your memories, your very self—will be affected. You’d end up either as a madman with multiple personalities or as a completely different person.

Countless experiments have proven that the safest time for the surgery is when the Soul damage doesn’t exceed twenty percent..."

"Wait..."

After a long, stunned silence, Zhou Chen’s eyes went wide with disbelief. "What do you mean, ’donor Soul’?"

Xiao Yan explained, "It’s like if someone swiped your kidney. You’d need a donor kidney for a transplant, right? The donor Soul is the organ source. It doesn’t even need to be matched; it just needs to be thoroughly disinfected, sterilized, and purified.

But just like in the real world, you can’t achieve one hundred percent sterilization. So, some tiny fragments might remain in the donor Soul, which can cause rejection, backlash, and other phenomena.

Overall, it’s not a huge problem. The technology is very mature. Under normal circumstances, a patient can recover and be discharged in two or three days. Your case is a special exception, of course.

As for the source of these donor Souls... care to guess?"

’Does he even need to ask? Can a human Soul really be grafted onto another species?’

’...Okay, putting Abyssal Power aside for a moment, Zhou Chen had to admit it might actually be possible in some evil experiment by a mad scientist or Alchemist. But in any normal scenario, the donor Souls were undoubtedly human Souls.’

Seeing his complicated expression, Xiao Yan shrugged. "Don’t get creeped out. The Souls used in surgery all come from volunteers who donated them. It’s just like organ donation, really. Nothing to make a big deal about.

The research institute is developing more efficient Purification methods. If we could convert a post-mortem Soul into pure soul-matter, we wouldn’t need surgery anymore. You could just take some pills for a few days and be discharged.

Now you see how precious Canaan Blue and Star Mango are, right? Setting aside their other uses, they are Treasures containing pure Essence and pure soul-matter. That’s why they can repair a Soul with zero side effects...

Ah, I’m out of time. I have to get to a meeting. I’m off."

"Yeah, see ya." Zhou Chen said his goodbye and watched Xiao Yan hurry away, then fell into thought as he continued walking.

He wasn’t opposed to soul surgery; when it came to saving his own skin, he couldn’t afford to be picky. Besides, even if there were side effects, he could use a wish to circumvent them.

’But the question is, how can I plausibly restore my Soul’s integrity to around 80%?’

’Eternal Fire doesn’t have any more Canaan Blue. If I haven’t eaten any Treasures, but my Soul integrity slowly keeps rising, it will definitely arouse suspicion.’

’But if I wait until the mole gets the Star Mango, I won’t need the soul surgery at all.’

’After thinking it over and over, the only safe path for now is to continue my undercover work.’

·

Upon reaching Jiang Che’s office, Zhou Chen subconsciously held his breath.

Jiang Che was typing on her keyboard, her expression the same eternally calm, cold mask as always, betraying no emotion. Yet Zhou Chen could sense her inner displeasure, making the air feel as volatile as a stick of dynamite.

Zhou Chen tiptoed over and poured coffee into her mug, asking in a low voice, "I saw on the news... Qin Zewan is dead?"

Jiang Che tapped her desk, gesturing for him to get the file from the drawer himself.

Zhou Chen pulled open the top drawer, found a bound file inside, closed it, and sat on the sofa to read.

Just as he’d thought. Qin Zewan hadn’t committed suicide; he was "suicided." He died from an Alchemy Bullet to the head and was thrown from the building post-mortem.

The investigation revealed a traitor among Qin Zewan’s bodyguards. The traitor took out the other Ascender bodyguards by surprise, then killed Qin Zewan. He performed a "physical data wipe"—smashing Qin Zewan’s computer and phone—and finally set a massive fire before shooting himself, leaving no one to testify.

The bodyguard’s identity was also discovered. He was a trusted confidant who had been with Qin Zewan for over a decade—loyal and devoted, with no prior signs of betrayal.

The whole affair was riddled with suspicion, yet it was almost too clean. All leads were destroyed, leaving not a shred of useful evidence.

"Fu Qing’s work?" Zhou Chen closed the file. At this critical juncture, it seemed only Fu Qing had the Ability and motive to do something like this.

"Who else could it be?" Jiang Che typed dispassionately. "Once its ambition swells, the pawn starts wanting to become the player. He’s been a dog off his leash for a long time."

After consolidating Jinzhu’s black market Realm, Fu Qing’s next step would likely be to seize complete control of the legitimate shipping lanes through commercial competition. That would bring in such enormous profits it would be enough to transform him from a pawn into a player.

From then on, he could shed his status as a proxy. He’d no longer be used as cannon fodder, no longer be ordered around, no longer have to bow and scrape.

"Fu Qing is a pawn?" Zhou Chen was surprised. ’A top-tier magnate of his caliber could be a pawn?’

"Of course he is. How else do you think he established himself and rose up in Jinzhu?"

Jiang Che let out a rare, cold laugh. "A loyal dog that’s followed its master for over a decade now wants to take over. I wonder what ’he’ thinks about that."

"Rebellion! Rebellion! The kept man is trying to devour his master?"

Zhou Chen said this with dramatic flair, but only earned a look from Jiang Che as if he were a complete idiot.

She sighed. "If only your work ethic was half as strong as your sense of humor.

But since you’re here, you might as well do some work."

"..."

Zhou Chen could only brace himself and agree. But just as he reached her desk, an emergency alert blared from Jiang Che’s computer, and an urgent message flashed onto the screen.

"An Ascender murder?"

Glancing at the message, Zhou Chen was stunned. ’How could such a vicious incident happen?’

"Tsk. One thing after another."

Jiang Che’s brow furrowed in annoyance. She turned her head and asked him, "Do you want to take the field assignment, or..."

"Field assignment, definitely," Zhou Chen answered hurriedly.

’A fight was so much easier than work!’