Chapter 119: Reward

Gu Mingde walked over to Chen Chuan with an inquiring look in his eyes. The other agents stood still while watching with nervousness and hope on their faces.

Chen Chuan met Gu Mingde’s stare, then turned to all the agents behind him. “Everyone, I got rid of the source of the Flying Heads. This place is safe now.”

Delight appeared on the agents’ faces.

They had gone through hell and back for this mission. Staying outside for a few days was nothing. They could handle it. But the Flying Heads were a true test of their mental strength. They could make the people around the agents snap at any moment, so the agents had to be on guard at all times.

Over the past few days, they had been constantly on edge. Now, finally, they could breathe with ease.

As they relaxed, excitement also rose in their hearts. They had managed to get rid of the source of the Flying Heads, and judging by the swarm that flew over during the final ceremony, practically all the Flying Heads were eliminated. The remaining followers would not be able to put up much of a fight, so the Flying Head Cult was bound to be uprooted. This was a huge achievement, and they were bound to get a lot of evaluation points. Everyone was going to benefit greatly from this.

Gu Mingde then gave an order. The agents waiting behind him immediately rushed into the old temple. When they returned fine, they knew that Chen Chuan was not lying. Gu Mingde went over and clapped Chen Chuan on the shoulder. He could no longer hide the excitement in his voice as he said, “Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Chen!”

Chen Chuan smiled. “I have to thank all of you too.”

“We were really worried about you when you didn’t come out last night. We wanted to go in but were worried that we’d ruin your plans. That’s why we waited outside.”

“Then, I have to thank all of you for that as well. The fact that you waited for me outside shows that you trust my abilities,” Chen Chuan replied.

Gu Mingde clapped his shoulder again and said with a smile, “We will never lack patience when working with someone as capable as you are, Mr. Chen.”

Pan Zhong also chimed in. “We’ll trust only you when it comes to assigned supernatural-related missions from now on.”

The other agents agreed with this wholeheartedly. Over the past few days, they had seen Chen Chuan fighting at the frontline alone as a supernatural-extermination expert. While the agents had to do a lot of things, strictly speaking, they were acting as support. But Chen Chuan did not look down on them. Such a person was an ally everyone liked, since they would not need to worry about being set up by him.

Chen Chuan returned to his tent to have some water and nutritional paste. He rested for a while, then came out again.

He did not need to care about wrapping up the mission. Besides, he had been out here for three days. It was about time for him to go back. After saying goodbye to Gu Mingde and getting a large stack of business cards, Chen Chuan went down the mountain. To his surprise, he found Ren Shu and Xiao Wei waiting for him together.

“What brought you here, Mr. Ren?” he asked.

Ren Shu went up to him and said, “I waited the entire day for you at the company, but there was no reply, so I got worried and drove here. I learned that you were still in the middle of the mission when I got here, so I decided to wait.”

Then, with great excitement, he said, “I heard from the people coming down that you killed the source of the Flying Heads. Is that true?”

Chen Chuan nodded. “I didn’t do it alone. Everyone worked together to get rid of it. They’re wrapping things up on the mountaintop, but we don’t need to worry about it and can go back now.”

“Alright!” Ren Shu was thrilled. He could not help thinking that it had been an amazing decision to recruit Chen Chuan. It was only a pity that he had signed a temporary contract with them.

But that made sense. How could someone as capable as Chen Chuan be willing to be bound to one place? They could only treat him with more sincerity and benefits at this point.

Once Chen Chuan got into the car, Xiao Wei handed him a blanket. “You’ve worked hard over the past few days, Mr. Chen. Why don’t you take a nap? I’ll do my best to drive steadily.”

Chen Chuan did not reject his offer and took the blanket. “Thank you, Mr. Wei.”

“Just call me Xiao Wei, Mr. Chen,” Xiao Wei hurriedly said. He closed the door for Chen Chuan and got into the driver seat. After fastening his seat belt, he started the SUV and headed back to Yangzhi City.

Just as he promised, he drove steadily. Even though he was just a driver and couldn’t say anything meaningful about the mission, it did not stop him from being impressed with Chen Chuan. He had been waiting in the camp for a few days and occasionally heard news the group from the mountaintop sent down. Most of them were about Chen Chuan.

It could be said that Chen Chuan was the main force behind killing the Flying Heads. The drivers and logistics officers even started treating Xiao Wei with respect after learning that he was Chen Chuan’s driver.

Chen Chuan relaxed while leaning against the back seat. Even though he managed to kill the source of the Flying Heads, it had been really dangerous. His second self had nearly been unable to maintain his form.

During the final ceremony, if he hadn’t managed to deal with the other Flying Heads’ interference, the source of the Flying Heads could have made it back to the pile of flesh and blood, and all his hard work would have gone up in smoke.

Although he paid a hefty price, he reaped a handsome reward too.

The First Limit focused on strengthening tendons and structuring bones. After he started forming mutated fascia, it affected the bones, tendons, and muscles it was attached to or enveloped. At the same time, the mutated fascia seeped into and mutated everything.

An average martial artist’s refined force had a specific focus, so they could only choose to strengthen certain mutated tissue first, then let their bodies get used to the changes. If they went slow, the worst thing that could happen is them getting behind the power curve of people their age, but if they lost their patience and sped up, their mutated tissue might grow without any order and rob their bodies of their normal physiological functions.

The medicine the students used didn’t just help stimulate the growth of the mutated tissue. Some of it also helped to maintain physiological functions. When necessary, they could even restrain mutated tissue that was growing too fast.

They needed to make sure they were in control of the growth of their mutated tissue in each stage and guide and adjust at every step.

Cheng Zitong had been worried about Chen Chuan’s mutated tissue growing too quickly, but things were different now. Chen Chuan was walking a completely different path from other people. The All-Encompassing Force meant that he had to pay attention to strengthening every part of his body. He had to send his mutated tissue to every corner of his body to make sure that their growth was relatively balanced. He Xiaoxing had helped a lot with correcting the growth and fixing already existing problems.

Now, no matter how quickly his mutated tissue grew, it was not a problem for Chen Chuan.

This was similar to him creating multiple waterways ahead of time, so when a flood came, the water would not overflow or cause blockages. Instead, it would flow to places where it was needed and reach every far-off corner.

Large modifications were only possible with a solid foundation. If the mutated tissue only grew in one part of his body, there would be devastating effects.

Anyone else in his place would have had to deal with their mutated tissue growing in a deformed manner when faced with such strong stimulation from the source of the Flying Heads. They might even be in danger of dying.

Chen Chuan could not tell just how much he had improved, but he was sure that it was far beyond his expectations. At the very least, more than half of the growth of mutated tissue on his bones, tendons, and muscles had been completed.

He felt that he was near the peak of the First Limit. But as he continued improving, he experienced a fleeting feeling, and some ideas popped up in his head. However, he did not know whether they were the right choices.

After mulling them over, he felt the need to discuss them with He Xiaoxing, so he decided to ask Cheng Zitong to send a letter and see whether he could answer his questions.

Around an hour later, the SUV arrived back at the university. Chen Chuan bade goodbye to Ren Shu and Xiao Wei at the university gate and walked back to the dormitory.

When he arrived at the hall, he went straight to the public phone and called Cheng Zitong, who said, “I received a telegram from your agent company. I’m glad that you managed to take the source down.”

“But I won’t be able to return your jade,” Chen Chuan apologized in advance.

Cheng Zitong was unbothered. “Things like that exist to be used. Putting them to use is better than letting them rot on my shelves. Also, I need to tell you something: I read through the papers you gave me.”

Then, in a graver tone, he said, “The analysis is pretty well done. All that I had read before was from Yangzhi City’s branch campus, but you gave me information from other branch campuses as well. After comparing them, I did see a lot of things I overlooked in the past. It’s a very valuable analysis.”

He sighed with feeling and continued, “Truly, professional matters should be handled by professionals. Anyway, it’s not convenient for us to talk about this on the phone. Let’s find time to discuss it.”

“Okay,” Chen Chuan agreed.

“By the way, the Foreign Affairs Department is organizing an event the day after tomorrow. It’s the goodwill exchange I told you about. It’s best that you go at least once. Anyway, rest for today,” Cheng Zitong said.

Chen Chuan thought over his words and said, “Mr. Cheng, I have some questions I’d like to ask Mr. He in regard to my training.”

“Okay. Write your questions down. If you’re not in a hurry, bring them to me, and I’ll send them to Lao He.”

With the conversation done, Chen Chuan hung up. The dormitory supervisor came over just then and handed him a form. “Fill this up. You haven’t been around over the past few days, and I couldn’t contact you, but you’re an outstanding student who received a scholarship last semester. You need to attend the goodwill exchange with the exchange students and the Foreign Affairs Department the day after tomorrow.”

Chen Chuan knew about this, so he filled up the form and handed it back. “I’ve made up my mind, Sir. I’d like to get a telephone line connected to my room.”

The dormitory supervisor smiled. “Sure. One second.” He went back to his office and handed Chen Chuan an application form. “Write the reason for your application, your mentor, and your name.”

Chen Chuan took the form and filled in all the details before handing it back. The dormitory supervisor checked it. Seeing that there were no missing parts or errors, he said, “Someone will come over and install the telephone line in a day or two. If you’re not around yourself, you can ask someone to keep an eye on them, but be sure to leave a note in advance so things don’t get messy.”

Chen Chuan nodded. “Okay. Thank you, Sir.”

***

The Merkarian students were gathered together in one room on the ninth floor.

“Shanan, we’re going to the Foreign Affairs Department the day after tomorrow. Have you notified Merley and the others?” Nali asked.

“I did. She said that the dormitory supervisor told her about it too.”

Nali then looked at the others. “I asked you to test the students’ strength two days ago. Did you?”

“Don’t worry. I was making sure they did as told. We’ve sparred with practically every student in this dorm over the past two days. I have to say, the standards of Martial Valor University are really high,” Shanan said.

Then, as if he felt that he was not giving enough details, he added, “Let me put it this way. I think only you and I can take them down in a one-on-one fight, but most of them won’t be able to win against us if we gang up on them two-to-one. At most, it’d take three before they would go down. That’s their level.”

Nali’s expression turned stern. That meant that they were strong, much stronger than he had anticipated. He thought about it and asked, “Have you tested everyone?”

Shanan shook his head. “No. We missed some. They were either not on campus over the past two days, or people whom not even their cohort mates had ever met before. Should we find time to test them?”

Nali thought about it and said grimly, “No need. We’re going to the Foreign Affairs Department the day after tomorrow. Don’t cause any fuss. Even if some of them may stand out from the rest, I doubt that they’re that much stronger than the others. Leave it.”