Book 3, Chapter 273: Split

Soon, Photon Nest replied that they could satisfy his needs with their current technology.

Photon Nest had already mastered graft implants. With this technology, even creatures that had no hope of getting mutated tissue could possess powerful mutated tissue.

Chen Chuan skimmed through the technology and learned that the company was going to remove some tissue from the creature before implanting it on a mutated creature of the same species or something similar. Once mutated tissue started growing, they would implant this mutated tissue back into the original creature.

There was a problem with this: The technology hurt the creature and could potentially ruin its circulatory system. It would then need to rest for a long time at the company.

Hence, the best method was to have the creature develop mutated tissue on its own before using medicine to restrict and control its growth in order if safety was a concern.

At the end, they also said that Chen Chuan could send Dawncall over, and they would use their equipment to perform a full-body check before giving him a satisfactory offer.

Chen Chuan considered it before deciding to search on the World Ring Defense System as well. He remembered seeing the government conducting similar research before.

Once he read up on it, he would decide what to do.

After he started mental training, his senses toward the things around him had become much sharper, and he had a nagging feeling that Dawncall wouldn’t be able to live long.

But if it had mutated tissue, things would be different. If he could help it restrict the mutated tissue’s growth, it could increase Dawncall’s lifespan while also letting it fight and help him.

If Chen Chuan could save Dawncall, he would be killing two birds with one stone.

After exiting the platform, he retrieved the medicine Xue Shou gave him and started meditating. Just like before, the medicine had an expiry date, so he had to use it as soon as possible.

This time, he only stopped in the afternoon. After getting up to practice his technique, he sat down to try the Mind Shattering Hammer and Hollowed Heart Mark.

Chen Chuan only came out of his meditative state after 6 p.m.. Once he ate a few tubes of nutritional paste, he took a shower and sat down to browse through the niche channel while waiting for a message from Advisor Pei.

Some time passed before an ID with a scroll in hand flashed. It was Fang Zhixin’s ID.

“Mr. Fang?”

“Sorry for bothering you, Captain Chen, but Lieutenant Colonel Yu might join the lesson tomorrow. He’s talented, and he promised that he won’t cause you or anyone else trouble. I hope you don’t mind,” Fang Zhixin said.

“You don’t have to apologize. That’s Instructor Chen’s training center, and he’s the one who decides who gets to join. I have no reason to interfere,” Chen Chuan replied.

He didn’t care at all whether Yu Lie was going to cause trouble or not. He wouldn’t mind if Yu Lie wanted to give him a warm up before class every day. It’d just be better if he improved before challenging him again.

When Fang Zhixin heard that Chen Chuan really didn’t mind, he sighed in relief. “Thank you for your understanding, Captain Chen. I won’t be bothering you anymore. See you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.”

Around 7 p.m., Advisor Pei called.

Chen Chuan took the elevator downstairs. The moment he stepped on the square, he saw Advisor Pei’s car and got into it.

Once he settled down, the driver got on the flyover. Chen Chuan tapped on his Realm Pass and sent a report to Advisor Pei.

It was a record of his interactions with Chen Bitong over the past few days.

Upon reading it, Advisor Pei said, “I’ve also received reports about you from subordinates in the World Ring Defense System. I wasn’t expecting you to improve so quickly and to be the only one left from the first batch of students.”

“That’s because Instructor Chen’s students are mostly martial artists lacking in fighting experience. The ones with experience are at the front lines,” Chen Chuan replied.

“You’re selling yourself short, Captain Chen. No matter how much experience the young officers have, few can compare to Chen Bitong’s twenty years of experience. You’re all learning under him, and anyone with eyes can tell who are the better students. Continue with the mission. Anyway, I called you here today for another reason.” Advisor Pei’s smile faded away and turned into something more serious.

Here it comes,

Chen Chuan thought. “I’m listening.”

“The Central Cities are nodes on the World Ring and are at the forefront of the two worlds clashing. Each Central City is built on top of a mega-sized domain entity. Jibei Road’s Central City is built on top of the Fu-Mu Entity.

“Since it’s a living being, every fifteen years, it splits and propagates. This is followed by an intense domain fluctuation, and the entire Central City is affected. In three months or so, the Fu-Mu Entity will split.”

All the clues connected in Chen Chuan’s mind.

No wonder why everyone in Central City is treating this with so much gravity. It concerns the Fu-Mu Entity.

Central City’s entire domain was built on top of the Fu-Mu Entity. If something went wrong with it, the domain would destabilize, and the connection in Central City might go haywire.

That wasn’t even the biggest problem. There was an even more severe situation to consider.

“While it’s crucial for us to be able to exchange information, the municipal government and companies have their own independent active biosentient entities. Even small governments and governmental departments have their own domain entities. As long as there isn’t severe interference, we will be able to operate independently.

“Over the ninety-five years since the Great Shun Republic was formed, the biosentient entities in our Central Cities have split once every fifteen to twenty years, so we have plenty of experience dealing with this situation.

“But this time, it’s different. There’s a gap in the World Ring, and it’s pointed directly toward our city.

“Not all parts of the World Ring are in perfect condition, and gaps often appear. As long as the Central Cities and biosentient entities forming the nodes remain, we can close the gaps in time, but this gap just had to appear at the time the Fu-Mu Entity is about to split and propagate. This situation is completely different.”

“What’s going to happen?” Chen Chuan asked.

Advisor Pei sighed. “The gap is going to become bigger, no doubt about it. If the situation worsens, the other gaps that we’ve closed might also open and spread, and the other world will get even closer to us.”

Chen Chuan’s expression hardened. This was a dangerous situation. Once more gaps opened and spread, all sorts of things might happen.

Setting aside the channel that had always existed between the two worlds, new anomalies and incidents were bound to affect Central City and all the surrounding cities.

Advisor Pei continued, “The higher-ups are aware of this, and we will send reinforcements to the peripheral cities. We will also do our best to restrict the gap within the city while being ready for all possible accidents.

“But we have an unavoidable problem. In the past, we’ve manipulated and modified the Fu-Mu Entity and other biosentient entities like it so that when they propagate, the parts that split from it aren’t too big. It’s all so that we can minimize the side effects. Because of it, it’s going to split a number of times.

“The propagated parts all contain characteristics of the Fu-Mu Entity, and they can travel back and forth between the two worlds. If we don’t get them under control right away, some of them might end up outside the city.

“Throughout that, we also need to be on guard against the foreign companies in the city.

“There are plenty of Central Cities in the country, but we only have nine biosentient entities at the level of the Fu-Mu Entity. The other biosentient entities are all propagated parts of the original. The Fu-Mu Entity and the other eight biosentient entities are the crystallization of the Great Shun Republic’s most advanced domain entity technology.

“Once the Fu-Mu Entity starts splitting, the foreign companies will definitely do something. They might already be on standby for it.

“If they get their hands on a propagated part of the Fu-Mu Entity, they’ll learn some of our technology and modification methods. That’s why we need to capture all of them.

“This process normally goes off without a hitch, but there’s a gap right before us, which means guaranteed unforeseen circumstances.”

Chen Chuan agreed with that.

There was no way the gap had appeared by accident, not when it appeared at such a time. It also meant that someone or something was ready and waiting to act.

Advisor Pei massaged his temples. “That’s not all. We also aren’t sure how many existences from the other side have snuck in through the gap. Right now, we’ve confirmed two of them. You’ve killed the one at Meng Lai’s manor, and the World Ring Defense System killed another. It doesn’t mean that’s all to them, though.

“If there are more, they’re definitely lurking around. Once the Fu-Mu Entity starts propagating, the two worlds will get closer, and they’ll show up. They’ll come and give us a whole load of new troubles.

“Right now, we’re not sure of what they are and what their strengths are. This means that we have to station a portion of our main fighting force on guard against the possible existences already here.

“So, you should be ready. If anything goes wrong, we’ll need you to fight. The higher-ups still haven’t decided on what to do about Chen Bitong. Pay close attention to his actions over the next few days.”

“Got it,” Chen Chuan said with a nod.

He looked outside. The car was heading toward the towering buildings, and all sorts of colors were flashing and drifting high in the sky and far in the distance. Yet no matter how bright the lights were, they couldn’t chase away the omnipresent darkness.

This endless black beyond the colorful neon lights seemed to have encased Central City in a cage.

“There are a lot of other unstable factors, but I won’t bother you with them.”

Advisor Pei tapped on his Realm Pass. “This is some information about the Fu-Mu Entity and Central City. You can’t share it with anyone, and it’ll delete itself after five hours. Read it once you return.