Book 3, Chapter 108: News

In a secluded corner of Central City was a sturdy and spacious underground complex. Several suspended resonator nests were located there, and the thick vines around the nests extended outward in all directions like a net.

At the center of the resonator nests stood resonators with their limbs spread wide open. Their brains and various parts of their bodies were connected to the vines. At that moment, they projected all of Wei Wusheng’s actions on the screen cast from within the nests.

Several men in suits and sunglasses stood before the bright screen and watched as Wei Wusheng killed the priests of the Temple of the Strange God with his hammer.

One of the people said, “He got stronger. It seems like he is becoming stronger by killing his opponents. It’s no wonder why they said that he mastered the Heavenly Pardon Gang’s secret technique. Based on how strong he currently is, he might fulfill our requirements.”

Another person said, “Based on the feedback from his biofield, he is not there yet. Fortunately, he can still grow if we give him time.”

“We’ll give him that time, then.”

“I don’t think the passengers on Rhinoceros’ Horn can satisfy him anymore. Perhaps the bounty hunters will be good targets.”

“Do you know where they are?”

“We’re looking. The results will be out soon.”

“Be quick about it. The tournament will go on until September. This one-month period is the best time for him to go on his hunts.”

While they were talking, one of the resonators suddenly received feedback and reported his findings to one of the men.

Once the man read the report, he said, “Bayonet Zuo is hiding in a park within Deep End District. Should we tell Wei Wusheng his location?”

“Tell him and let him decide what to do,” the man at the center said.

Then, they saw Wei Wusheng stopping in place on the screen. Clearly, he was reading the message they sent to him, but after a while, he suddenly looked up, as if he was staring at them.

One of the resonators said, “Wei Wusheng sent a message to us.”

The leader frowned and asked darkly, “What does he want? Didn’t we tell him not to contact us unless there was an emergency?”

The resonator replied, “He said that he wants to know where a Martial Valor University student called Chen Chuan is.”

“A Martial Valor University student? Was he on the cruise ship back then?” the leader asked.

“Yes.”

“What’s so special about this student?”

“We checked. The student is a backup law enforcer of the Resolution Department and is recorded to have defeated Third Limit martial artist, Tan Wang.”

One of the men next to him said, “If that’s the case, the student is pretty strong. Based on Wei Wusheng’s actions, whenever he kills a target of value, he gets stronger. This is beneficial for us, so we should respect his wishes.”

“Then, send the student’s location to him,” the leader declared.

The resonators immediately began searching. They were following most of the passengers from Rhinoceros’ Horn, so they could easily locate them the moment they retrieved their records.

They couldn’t find any tracks of the student, though, because based on his records, he spent most of his time holed up in the university.

If he kept hiding in his room, it would be difficult to get to him.

Yet they soon noticed that he had taken the university’s bus to the tournament arena. Based on the arena’s registration records, the student was going to go to the arena every day for some time.

This was normal. After all, even the resonators watched Central City’s tournament when they took a break. The matches over the past few days were really exciting, and they were itching to watch more.

While Wei Wusheng’s fights were of a high quality, they couldn’t see many details, so they weren’t worth watching. All they thought about while watching them was to stay far away from Wei Wusheng.

Once they found where Chen Chuan was, the resonators sent the details to Wei Wusheng, and he immediately set off again. He returned the hammer to his waist and walked out of the temple.

The leader then said, “Tell him that we’ll support him, so he’s free to do whatever he wants, but he has to follow our orders at the end.”

Wei Wusheng seemed to have heard it, but also to not have paid attention to a single word that was said, because his footsteps never faltered on the screen.

***

A resonator in charge of inspecting domain signals in a resonator nest located in the headquarters of Central City’s Resolution Department called out to his captain.

“We just received a suspicious signal that seems to have come from Greenpeak Hill.”

“Greenpeak Hill?”

The captain in charge of all tasks related to Wei Wusheng steeled his expression. He knew the names of all the passengers on Rhinoceros’ Horn, and he knew that Du Geng was also one of Wei Wusheng’s targets. “Are you sure?”

“Yes!”

“Can you find the source of the signal?”

The resonator explained that he couldn’t, because the person used an unmonitored domain channel and might have even performed brief relays of information using the transmission points of the biosentient entities outside Central City. No resonator could instantly figure out where the signal came from.

When the captain realized that he wouldn’t be able to get any results, he immediately gave his orders. “The officers stationed around Greenpeak Hill should go up the mountain to check the situation!”

They had proposed sending someone to protect Du Geng, but the Temple of the Strange God had stated that they didn’t need any officers from the Resolution Department to provide protection. Since the land around Greenpeak Hill belonged to the Temple of the Strange God, the Resolution Department could only station a few officers around the place.

In truth, they knew that their officers there couldn’t possibly stop Wei Wusheng. At most, they could only send a message to the Resolution Department if anything happened.

Soon, they didn’t even need to verify the situation. Dozens of photos were uploaded on various platforms showing what had happened within the Temple of the Strange God.

***

Chen Chuan sat in the middle section of the arena. These seats were specifically designated for Martial Valor University students, which was a benefit the university gave to the students. Even if no students were present, the seats would remain empty instead of being given to anyone else.

Chen Chuan had met up with Pan Xiaode and Qi Huixin, though they weren’t sitting together. Instead, they were right across from him. He was sitting quite close to Tan Zhi, though; they were only dozens of seats apart.

According to the university’s rules, everyone had their own designated seat, and they couldn’t change them however they wanted. That was why they couldn’t sit together. However, they could communicate with each other through their Realm Passes, so this arrangement wasn’t too much of a hassle.

Since Chen Chuan had been training over the past few days, coming to watch the tournament was a rare chance for him to relax. After around an hour, he had some remarks about the tournament, though he kept them to himself.

For Second Limit martial artists, these were indeed exciting matches, and unless the organizers set up special domain equipment, this was the limit in regards to what normal people could enjoy of martial arts matches. After all, once a martial artist reached the Third Limit, normal people were no longer able to see their movements clearly, so their fights lost all entertainment value. Second Limit fights were just right.

The arena was full of excitement. Another pair of contestants got on the stage, and Chen Chuan even knew one of them—Cao Rui, one of the external students he had met in the elevator.

He wondered whether this was a coincidence, but the one fighting with Cao Rui was a student who had just been demoted to an external student this semester.

Chen Chuan didn’t know whether they could work together as a team. After all, they should only have just begun building up team chemistry with each other. Meanwhile, their opponents were a pair of criminals released from prison.

Based on their footsteps, the criminals were skilled and level-headed. They didn’t show any obvious emotions, but their eyes held ruthlessness, which made it clear that they had dyed their hands in blood in brutal battles before. They weren’t pushovers.

Only one team or one person could survive the match, or more accurately, the fight to the death.

While Chen Chuan was watching, he suddenly heard rapid beeps from a platform he followed. At the same time, the Resolution Department sent him a message.

The noises attracted his attention. After taking a look, he immediately ignored the ongoing match.

The message stated that an hour ago, Wei Wusheng had killed yet another target. The victim was another passenger from Rhinoceros’ Horn, who could be seen as an important target.

Du Geng? The one the people spoke about so much on the platform?

After seeing him voted as the person Wei Wusheng was most likely to kill last, Chen Chuan had taken a quick look at Du Geng’s background. He had also come to the conclusion that Wei Wusheng might go for his life at the final phases of his plan.

But he had already killed Du Geng.

The discussion platform was full of people talking. After all, they had bet that Du Geng would be the last target Wei Wusheng would go for, but Wei Wusheng had killed him so easily and while there were still so many people left on the list.

Because of this, they had to make a new list and set up a new betting pool.

At the top of the discussion thread were photos of Du Geng’s smashed head, along with the crushed and almost unidentifiable bodies of the temple priests and acolytes.

Most of the people shuddered when they saw this.

Then came another question: Who was Wei Wusheng going to kill next?

The people placed their bets again. Aside from Du Geng, there was another person worthy of attention—Dong Ze. This man was once a security team captain for Ferris Wheel, but he was fired for not being good enough after Wei Wusheng killed Gong Zhanyi.

In terms of strength, Dong Ze was about the same level as Du Geng, but the man had never bothered to hide his tracks. That was why fewer people betted on him compared to Du Geng and placed him higher on the former order of killing. Now, everyone started betting that Dong Ze was going to be Wei Wusheng’s next target.

As for Chen Chuan and the other Martial Valor University students, they were supposed to be lower on the list, but now, their names shifted up, because Wei Wusheng seemed to have changed his modus operandi.

Before this ruckus could die down, something else caught everyone’s attention.

Bayonet Zuo had posted a message on the platform.

Bayonet Zuo: I found him.

Once Chen Chuan saw the message, a flicker of surprise appeared in his eyes. That was all Bayonet Zuo said, though; he didn’t post any other message. Still, Chen Chuan believed that once the Resolution Department saw the message, they were going to take action.

If Wei Wusheng was taken out like this, would it affect his own progress in reaching the Third Limit?

After some thinking, Chen Chuan came to a conclusion: No.

After all, what Chen Chuan wanted was for Wei Wusheng to be gone, not to take him out himself specifically. If Chen Chuan could defeat him on his own, that would, of course, be for the best, but if someone else did it, it wouldn’t be a problem either. Chen Chuan would instead be able to overcome this Wei Wusheng-shaped obstacle in an instant.

All that was left was to wait for the results of the fight between Bayonet Zuo and Wei Wusheng.