Book 3, Chapter 178: Duel

With a dark expression, Lao Bian remained seated for a while before asking his disciple, “Have you gotten all his details yet?”

“I did. He’s from the upper city district’s Resolution Department,” his disciple immediately answered.

That shocked Lao Bian, and he scowled. “He’s from the Resolution Department? And you got the information already? Is it reliable?”

While Third Limit martial artists weren’t usually unknown, anyone trying to look into them would need some time to get their information, especially those from the lower city district. It wasn’t as if Third Limit martial artists wrote all their personal information on their faces. Trying to get their information required some effort, and only a short time had passed since he had asked for it. Also, his stupid disciple had never been efficient at

anything.

When the disciple saw that Lao Bian was skeptical, he quickly said, “It’s real! Look at this, Master. I got this from above.”

He tapped his Realm Pass a few times and sent a video and some other information to Lao Bian.

“He’s the one in the video. The other one is the Heavenly Pardon Gang’s Wei Wusheng. You told us about him before.”

“Wei Wusheng? Elder Yu’s disciple?”

Shocked, Lao Bian watched the video. Wei Wusheng was pretty famous, though mainly because of his master, Yu Hongming of the Heavenly Pardon Gang. The people of Yu Hongming’s age, including Lao Bian’s master and even his master’s master, were unable to win against him.

And it was said that Wei Wusheng was Yu Hongming’s greatest student over the past thirty years. That was why Lao Bian paid great attention to him and often used him as an example to admonish his disciples.

Then, he saw Chen Chuan pinning Wei Wusheng on the road and beating him up, so much so that Lao Bian’s eyelids twitched in shock. At the end, when Chen Chuan pierced Wei Wusheng’s chest, Lao Bian imagined himself in that position, and the strength and speed Chen Chuan displayed made his blood pump faster, his breathing quicken, and his body turn rigid.

The disciple didn’t notice his expression and still acted as if he was presenting something precious to Lao Bian. “Master, there’s one more.”

As he spoke, he sent another video over.

This one had recorded Chen Chuan coming out of the water with a head. The person shooting the video was really skilled and perfectly highlighted the scenery, lighting, and people involved. To normal people, this was really striking and impressive, but to Lao Bian, this wasn’t quite as direct a display of Chen Chuan’s strength compared to the first video.

“Who’s the one he’s holding?” he asked coolly.

“I heard that it’s Xu Xianwen.”

“Xu Xianwen...” Lao Bian frowned. He had a feeling that he had heard the name before. Usually, Third Limit martial artists could even remember memories from their childhood, though they rarely bothered to remember irrelevant things.

Before he could recall the person, his disciple, in a great show of consideration, sent him Xu Xianwen’s information. Not only that, he even added the information of all the other Third Limit martial artists in the Viper Order.

Lao Bian fell silent.

“I was really fast this time, wasn’t I? I also got all the information you wanted, didn’t I?” the disciple asked, as if asking for praise.

“Yeah. You were really thorough,” Lao Bian said as his jaw muscles twitched.

With eagerness in his voice, the disciple asked, “When are you going to teach that guy a lesson? I’ll ask my junior brothers to cheer you on.”

“When have I ever said that I’m going to fight him? Even if they betrayed me, I can’t be dishonorable. Have you forgotten what I told you? Fighting alone doesn’t solve problems.”

The disciple was puzzled. His master... wasn’t thinking of fighting despite asking him to find Chen Chuan’s information? But that made sense. Over the past few years, his master had seldom fought. With just his past reputation, he made his opponents retreat, so this refusal to fight also made sense.

“What should we do, Master?” he asked instead.

Lao Bian frowned. When he heard that Chen Chuan was a Third Limit martial artist who wasn’t even twenty years old yet, he had thought that he had a chance of winning.

But after watching Chen Chuan’s fight, he started wavering. Even at his prime, he wouldn’t have been able to hold a candle against Chen Chuan, not when he was this strong.

Right now, Lao Bian was no longer as hot-blooded as he was in the past. Hiding all the time and not fighting had also snuffed out his determination. He just wanted to retire and live peacefully. Squeezing out money from Clear Road Transport was a nice extra, which was why he had used his reputation to intimidate his opponents over the past few years.

Yet he couldn’t accept the current situation. He could leave of his own accord, but he could never be fired.

“Tell Toxic Ants that Clear Road Transport has found a new Third Limit martial artist. I don’t want to be involved in their fight anymore, so they got someone else,” he said grimly.

“Should I send his information to Toxic Ants?”

“No. You worked hard for it. Let them look for it on their own,” Lao Bian said.

“You’re right. They should search for the information on their own.”

Lao Bian sneered. What if Toxic Ants backed off after seeing Chen Chuan’s information? Then, the matter of him getting fired would be unresolved.

It would be better if they fought.

If Chen Chuan lost, Lao Bian was sure that Clear Road Transport would ask him to clean up the mess.

If Toxic Ants lost, that was fine too. There was no way that Clear Road Transport would get rid of all their problems after winning one fight.

The Moss Gang wasn’t going to let this slide. Even if Chen Chuan was an intimidating force while he was around, once he left, Clear Road Transport was going to cave under the pressure. Once that happened, sooner or later, they’d hire Lao Bian again, but this time, he wasn’t going to accept such low pay anymore.

Of course, he wasn’t a bad guy. He would let Clear Road Transport have something. His heart would bleed for them if they starved to death, after all.

***

Lan Shennan acted quickly. Since a group of Clear Road Transport members had joined Toxic Ants, they had some ways of exchanging information. In less than two hours, Chen Chuan received information about Toxic Ants’ Third Limit martial artist.

His name was Gai Er, and he was a thirty-five-year-old man with a fierce-looking face. In the picture, he wore a martial arts uniform with a thick belt around his waist while standing barefoot. There was a murderous aura about him that couldn’t be put to words. In his hands, he held a metal three-section staff.

According to the information, he was from a martial arts school. Due to his talent, he stood out among his peers, and the martial arts school’s instructor asked him to be his son-in-law.

Soon, the martial arts school’s competitor offered him better conditions, so he abandoned his wife and son. A few years later, with the help of a gang, he made this martial arts school his property. Later on, he did dirty jobs for gangs and worked as an assassin, targeting important government officials and senior executives of various companies.

Due to him committing too many crimes, companies, the government, and gangs put bounties on his head. In the end, he was forced to hide in the lower city district.

Unless they committed crimes, Third Limit martial artists could get a footing no matter where they went. Still, being hated by so many groups was a talent in itself.

On the surface, Gai Er was a pure scumbag and lunatic, but Chen Chuan knew that personality had nothing to do with strength. A stable mind was what mattered for Third Limit martial artists.

Gai Er had been a horrible person right from the start, which showed that he had a stable mind that never changed because of external factors.

It was possible that he wasn’t going to be an easy opponent, and it was made even more likely by the fact that he had a lot of enemies but was still alive.

Then, Chen Chuan checked Lao Bian’s information. The man was already sixty-nine years old, and the papers only had details of his feats from when he was young. Back then, he was known as the Fearsome Bear. The photo showed a well-built man, who was more than two meters tall. While he had shrunk with age, he was still more than 1.9 meters tall.

However, Lao Bian hadn’t had any substantial achievements over the last eight years. It seemed like he hadn’t fought against anyone during this time.

If a martial artist didn’t fight anyone of their own level for a long time, their skills would get rusty, and this would only get worse when it lasted for eight years. Those who lacked talent could not miss even a few days of training without getting out of shape.

But Chen Chuan did not dismiss the possibility of him hiding his achievements, so he was going to be careful.

After reading through everything, he said to Lan Shennan, “I’ve just arrived at the lower city district, so I don’t know how you solve problems here. Do I need to pay attention to anything if I fight against this Gai Er?”

“Whenever we have conflicts, we usually send our Third Limit martial artists to mediate the situation. If negotiations fall through, they aren’t the ones fighting. The members are the ones who fight. I heard from the former leader that this is a silent rule agreed upon by all Third Limit martial artists of the lower city district,” Lan Shennan answered.

“Is that so?”

Chen Chuan thought about it and could understand the logic behind it. Most martial artists trained not to fight against other people but to live a better life. The fighting did not always bring greater rewards. They might actually lose out because of it. That was why this rule was beneficial for Third Limit martial artists.

“If negotiations fall through or if one side refuses to concede, the two groups arrange a time for a fight. Lao Bian used this as an excuse to ask for 40% of the resources,” Lan Shennan explained.

“Since this is the way, please set up an appointment with Gai Er for me,” Chen Chuan said.

“Okay. But if Toxic Ants learn that we’ve switched out Lao Bian and find out about you, they might pretend to agree to a meeting, but drag out the negotiations,” Lan Shennan pointed out.

Chen Chuan wasn’t part of the lower city district, so he couldn’t stay here for long. If Toxic Ants were smart, they wouldn’t even need to fight and just postpone the meeting until Chen Chuan had to go back.

This was her greatest worry.

“That’s fine. I just read that Toxic Ants have a base around here. If they don’t want to see me, then I’ll go to them,” Chen Chuan said calmly.

Lan Shennan nodded at that. Toxic Ants wouldn’t allow an enemy to march into their base.

After all, even if the key decision makers didn’t care about the base, they had to worry about Chen Chuan taking a group with him to attack their subordinates. If that happened, the territories and businesses they seized would fly out of their hands. No group could tolerate that.

“I’ll arrange for a fight with Toxic Ants, then,” she said and went to make arrangements.

Lan Shennan was worried for nothing. Toxic Ants had no intention of avoiding the fight. Half an hour after she sent the signal for a fight, they answered that they were up for it. They set the time for the next morning.