Chapter 136: Bone Beads

Liu Zhan had just been polite, but when he heard Chen Chuan asking him for a favor, his expression didn’t stiffen in awkwardness in the slightest. Instead, he continued smiling and asked, “What is it? If we can help you, we won’t say no.”

“Could you not tell the fact that you’re giving me evaluation points to the public? Nor anyone else for that matter,” Chen Chuan requested.

“But that’s...”

“Just for one year,” Chen Chuan added.

Liu Zhan smiled and cast a glance at the silent Lei Guangcheng. “That’s a reasonable request. Don’t worry. As long as I’m the director here, your evaluation points will remain a secret.”

“We’ll do the same,” Lei Guangcheng promised as well.

“Yes. This is our promise to you,” Liu Zhan quickly added.

“Thank you,” Chen Chuan said gratefully.

With this done, Chen Chuan and Lei Guangcheng left the Foreign Affairs Department and got into Lei Guangcheng’s car again.

Once his driver started the armored car, Lei Guangcheng leaned against the soft back seat and said, “I’m going to marry He Nan at the end of the year. You must come to the wedding.”

“Congratulations to you two. I’ll be sure to come,” Chen Chuan said with a smile.

“Once Xiao Ying gets better, I’ll be sure to express my gratitude properly,” Lei Guangcheng said.

“How’s your son, by the way?” Chen Chuan asked.

“He’s still recovering. Since he hasn’t said a single thing to anyone for two years, his speech abilities have regressed a little, and he’s also become a little timid, but Dr. Li—his doctor, that is—said that as long as we are patient with him, he’ll recover in around half a year.”

“Thank goodness.” Chen Chuan sighed in relief.

“Yes. Truly.” Lei Guangcheng sighed too. “Let’s not talk about me anymore. You mentioned wanting to hide everything for a year. What’s this? Are you confident in getting the right to go to Central City this year?”

“That’s what I intend to do,” Chen Chuan declared.

Lei Guangcheng did not ask for the specifics. Instead, he said, “I do hope that a youngster like you can make it into Central City. Central City’s technological prowess is, without a doubt, the best in the country. I’m not just talking about biotech, but everything. If you manage to find your footing there, you’ll be able to say that you’ve learned just how the world truly is. Otherwise, you’ll forever live in this well.”

He then cautioned Chen Chuan, “But you have many enemies standing in your way. They’ll try to stop and push you down.

“If you choose to back down, you might be able to protect yourself, but you’ll spend the rest of your life in mediocrity. It’s only by moving forward that you can live an exciting life. Some people are born with nothing, and they have no right to think about these things, so they can’t say that they want to go to Central City, but you’re naturally gifted. You should fight for that chance.”

“Mr. Lei, I hope I’m not crossing any lines here, but I’d like to ask a question.”

“Ask away. If I can’t answer you, then I won’t,” Lei Guangcheng said with a smile.

“I’d like to know what the secret cult rituals are,” Chen Chuan said.

Lei Guangcheng pondered his question for a moment. “Some of these things are confidential, so I’ll only give you the general gist. All rituals make use of the anomalous substance I mentioned before. They have a standardized name on the global stage—anomalous entanglement. Through certain methods and rituals, people can make these substances move in a set rhythm.”

“Are the supernatural beings the same?” Chen Chuan asked.

Lei Guangcheng shook his head. “Supernatural beings are a whole different matter. They’re incredibly complex creatures, and there are many types of them. You can’t use one phenomenon to generalize them. While you can make use of some of them in the rituals, you can’t use others. This isn’t part of the Cult Investigation Bureau’s jurisdiction.

“Let me put it this way. We manage and investigate the methods that the secret cults have concluded to be effective over the course of history, but you can’t form conclusions about most supernatural beings or identify a pattern among them. Even now, we have different theories about their origins.

“Perhaps the senior government officials know some secrets, but my position isn’t high enough for that. If you’re interested, you can search for them yourself. The answers you seek should lie in Central City.”

Chen Chuan’s desire to go to Central City grew even more. He wanted to become stronger and break free of all shackles, but he was also really interested in the abnormal, mysterious entities.

Lei Guangcheng sent Chen Chuan back to the university. Once Chen Chuan got out of the car, he bade farewell and entered the campus, but he did not go back to his dorm. Instead, he went straight to Cheng Zitong’s office.

Cheng Zitong shut his office door once Chen Chuan came inside. “You’re back! How was it? Did things go smoothly?”

Chen Chuan took a seat and said earnestly, “I got the evaluation points from both the Cult Investigation Bureau and the Foreign Affairs Department. They promised to hide that fact for a year, so my next step is to get the unrestricted defense permit.”

Cheng Zitong stared at him for a moment before opening his drawer and taking out a letter. “Here’s Lao He’s reply. Read it when you go back.

“Since you’ve made up your mind, I’ll support you fully, but I suggest that you wait until your cousin gets that final report. We should study that commoner student’s case before deciding what to do next.”

Chen Chuan took the letter and nodded. “Yes. While I’ve made up my mind, I’m not impatient.”

Then, he told Cheng Zitong about their attack on the Rusty Bronze Gang’s base and handed over the implant so that he could help him get rid of it.

Once Chen Chuan returned to his room, he opened He Xiaoxing’s letter. He had asked him about the peak of the First Limit.

As his mutated tissue continued growing and all aspects of his physical strength improved, he could sense that it might be impossible for him to reach the absolute peak of the First Limit.

Since his body needed to maintain its basic functions, if he improved in one aspect, the other parts of his body also got better. While he improved at lightning speed in the beginning, his improvement slowed as he progressed, and the further improvements became less effective.

Even if he continued improving, it would take several years or decades to reach the absolute peak. So, forcing himself to reach it was clearly not worth it and unnecessary to boot.

Chen Chuan believed that the First Limit, Second Limit, and other limits were not a straightforward step-by-step progression. Instead, one might need to mutually enhance and complete these limits together. If that were true, Chen Chuan would be unable to complete the First Limit without progressing to the Second Limit first.

He didn’t know whether his theory was correct, which was why he had asked He Xiaoxing about it. Of course, he didn’t say that he wanted to reach the peak. He just asked some theoretical questions.

He Xiaoxing’s reply affirmed his guesses, and he praised Chen Chuan for his desire for knowledge. He said that before reaching the peak of the First, Second, and even the Third Limit, these three limits balanced each other out and could even be lumped into one unified whole.

He Xiaoxing explained that only a handful of people noticed this problem and brought it up. Those who weren’t naturally gifted did not even consider this question, much less find an answer to it. In the end, he said that he hoped that Chen Chuan would continue with this spirit of learning. While being overwhelmingly strong was important, maintaining a desire for knowledge was the only way to improve.

Once Chen Chuan finished reading the letter, he knew what he had to do.

He did not need to chase after the peak of the First Limit, because it was impossible for him to reach it right now. Once he was in control of the power of a higher limit, he could turn back and reach the peak of the First Limit.

Hence, once he sensed a bottleneck and that his improvement had become miniscule, it would be time for him to enter the Second Limit.

His task was to train hard and wait for that moment to come.

With his plan set, he reached into his shirt pocket and took out the bone bead bracelet he had taken from Qisel.

While carrying it around, he noticed that while it hurt his second self, it also stimulated his mutated tissue.

But that stimulation was barely perceptible. Was it just a unique decoration?

Chen Chuan observed it a little more and held it up against his wrist, only to find that there were not enough bone beads to have encircled Qisel’s thick wrist.

Aside from the spot where Chen Chuan had tugged at to remove the bracelet from Qisel, he also noticed traces of the bone beads being removed often. Did that mean...

He gave it some thought, and an idea formed in his head. He removed one of the bone beads and scrutinized it a little before crushing it. The bone bead’s powder fell on the table, and his second self started blurring out as if he was in close contact with a supernatural being.

His guess had been right.

Chen Chuan’s eyes lit up. He had figured it out. Qisel was using the bone beads in place of medicine to stimulate his mutated tissue to achieve his martial arts training goals.

The stimulation from the bone beads was much stronger than any medicine. It also came with unknown damages to the body. While the beads stimulated a person’s mutated tissue, they also drained their life away.

Though since Qisel was in the Second Limit, he might have been able to withstand it.

It might have also been that Qisel couldn’t get enough medicine due to his long stay in the wilderness, so he brought this along as an occasional contingency plan.

There was another possibility: Merka was too weak as a country and could not provide as much medicine as Martial Valor University, so Qisel had to use this method as a substitute.

Regardless of what was the truth, the bone beads were perfect for Chen Chuan.

He turned to his second self and wondered how long the effects of the stimulation would last. He needed to wait and see.

Just then, he heard knocking. He put the bone bead bracelet down and went over to open the door.

It was Feng Xiaoqi, and he said, “I’ve finished counting, Chen Chuan. There were a total of 5,350 devs and 537 trade coupons.”

5,350 devs?

Chen Chuan marveled inwardly.

That was not a small sum. For comparison, even if Nian Fuli had been promoted to a constable brigade commander, his monthly salary was just a little over two hundred. But then again, that money had to be divided among forty to fifty people, who risked their lives to earn it, so it wasn’t much.

“I’ll make a call. Once Senior Brother Ren and Changan are done on their side, we’ll settle on a date and distribute the money among us,” he said.

“Sure.”

As for the two Grand Prosperity Finance gold certificates, he had asked Cheng Zitong about them and learned that he needed to make a reservation to cash them in. The time it took for them to process things was not set, but it never exceeded sixty days. When it came to the implant, Cheng Zitong asked him to wait while he searched for a suitable buyer. With that being the case, he wanted to distribute the money first.

Over the next three days, Ren Xiaotian and Wei Changan called him and said that they were done selling the cars, selling the guns, and claiming the bounties. They also got the money from the Foreign Affairs Department, who transferred the mission reward to his bank account.

The only logical step next was to distribute it all.

Chen Chuan thought about it and decided to reserve a private dining room in Douyi Hotel. He then called all the members of the mission to meet there during the next break. They could eat together and share the rewards.