Book 4, Chapter 5: Examination

Wen Tong acted as if they hadn’t been waiting for a long time and went up to him with a smile. “Mr. Zhuan.”

The tall, thin man nodded at him before turning to Chen Chuan.

“Mr. Zhuan,” Chen Chuan greeted him with a fist-and-palm salute.

Mr. Zhuan cast him a glance before setting down his luggage bag. He opened it swiftly, took out a black mask from within, and put it on his face.

Right away, his entire demeanor changed, as if he had become much friendlier.

He turned to Chen Chuan and said apologetically, “I’m Zhuan Liang. You must be Lead Investigator Chen. Hello. After receiving Wen Tong’s telegram, the faction sent me here to be your recommender and examiner. I’m sorry for making you two wait for so long. I was held back by something. I’m truly sorry.”

Zhuan Liang’s voice was surprisingly pleasant and rather magnetic.

“You didn’t make us wait that long, Mr. Zhuan. Why don’t we head inside? This isn’t a good place to talk,” Wen Tong offered.

“Okay,” Zhuan Liang agreed.

Wen Tong walked over to shut the gate before bringing Chen Chuan and Zhuan Liang into the living room. Once they sat down, Zhuan Liang didn’t seem to want to remove his mask, but Wen Tong still poured a cup of tea for him.

Zhuan Liang gave him a nod as thanks before facing Chen Chuan. His posture became more serious. “Lead Investigator Chen, before you take the exam and join the purity faction, I need to tell you some things.”

“Please do,” Chen Chuan said.

“Wen Tong should have told you that the purity faction prioritizes purity of the self. This is how we affirm ourselves, and it’s also our foundational belief.

“From this, our other stances and goals are created that aren’t limited to martial arts. They concern current political policies and the direction of the world.

“Aside from martial arts training, the purity faction’s foundational mission is to fight against all existences coming to claim our world as their own.

“All the five major factions have different beliefs. Take the fusion faction for example. Since the two worlds have been getting closer since the old era and such change creates paths for martial artists to get stronger, it’s a beneficial situation.

“Because of this, they say that as this era of change keeps continuing, it’s inevitable that the two worlds merge. In the end, they will become like the merged space and form a unified, relative, and balanced world. With this belief as a foundation, they look for a path of coexistence with the other world.

“It’s an idealistic thought that fits the thought patterns of people who don’t want to fight and are okay with making concessions.

“But will this really come to be?

“If they want it to happen, they need power equal to that of the existences from the other world. Right now, our enemies are strong, and we are weak. Unification right now would only be surrendering under a different name.

“It is wishful thinking. If this belief becomes mainstream, it won’t be a good thing for us.

“The paths of martial artists may exist because of the eras of change brought by the two worlds getting closer, but we are only able to grow by fighting against the other world. If we give up on fighting, we won’t be able to exist anymore. Not that the other world would allow us to exist.

“It’s only when we have sufficient power or are stronger than the other world that we can think about such ideas. Otherwise, we’d just be handing over the decision making to the other world. This is no different from us putting down our weapons before negotiations for peace.”

Chen Chuan agreed with him fully. Making continuous concessions was not a good thing. If one wanted to make concessions, they had to have the ability to push forward when necessary. But right now, the other world was the only one who had the ability to invade them, not the other way around.

That was why their world was forced to set up Central Cities and the World Ring as a defensive system. If talks about making the two worlds fuse appeared at this time, they would be no different from asking the other world to absorb them. While it wasn’t surrendering to the other world in the truest sense, it was about the same.

Zhuan Liang continued in a grim tone, “The fusion faction is quite influential, because there are people in the various governments and companies who are already in cahoots with the other world. All of them support such ideas.

“These people are working with the other world for all sorts of reasons. Some fell into despair after seeing the disparity of strength between both sides and believe that our world can’t be saved anymore. That’s why they gave up. Others have decided to just surrender and become worshippers for the existences from the other world. Yet others are working with them just to get power from the other world.

“These people are tumors in our world, and we need to get rid of them. But right now, they don’t dare to blatantly show that they’re working with the other world. They only interfere with our plans from within the governments and companies.

“Getting rid of these people and getting more people who share the same ideals as us to become stronger so that they can fight and defend themselves when the Great Crash happens is our task.

“Now that I’ve said all these things, if you think that the purity faction doesn’t fit your ideals, you can choose not to join. I have the authority to provide you with some pure essence even if you don’t join us.”

Chen Chuan was quite surprised by that. “Can I know the reason?”

“You’re an outstanding young man, and we’ve checked your records,” Zhuan Liang said sincerely. “You’ve twice fought against the existences from the other world. Anyone who is willing to fight them is on our side, so we’re willing to sponsor and support outstanding young men like you.

“Besides, who can tell what’s going to happen in the future? Even if we can’t stand on the same side right now due to a difference in beliefs, we might end up huddling together in the same trenches. We’d rather have comrades like you than those vermin who only want to betray us.”

He met Chen Chuan’s eyes and said, “Feel free to think about this, Lead Investigator Chen. You don’t need to give me an answer right away. I’ll be staying here for a few days.”

“I don’t have to think about it,” Chen Chuan declared and cast a glance at Wen Tong before turning back to Zhuan Liang. “I want to join the purity faction,” he said seriously.

The purity faction’s beliefs didn’t go against Chen Chuan’s thoughts. Even if he found something wrong later on, nothing in the world was set in stone. Once he was strong enough, he could change it.

While Zhuan Liang was wearing a mask, both Chen Chuan and Wen Tong could tell that he was smiling. He stood up and extended a hand to Chen Chuan. “Welcome to the purity faction, Lead Investigator Chen.”

Chen Chuan stood up and shook his hand. Zhuan Liang squeezed quite hard.

“Since you’ve decided to join, I’ll be examining you based on your strength and your stance.

“This is the procedure. Your strength and stance have been proved by your previous actions, but we still need to go through it. I hope you understand.”

Chen Chuan nodded.

Zhuan Liang opened his luggage bag and searched around before taking out a piece of paper. He handed it to Chen Chuan and gestured at him to look at it.

Chen Chuan took it and found that it was a wanted poster. It had a man with a scar on his face. His exact age was not stated, but he shouldn’t be more than forty years old. He looked incredibly fierce and arrogant.

“This is Kenwa,” Zhuan Liang said sternly. “He is a native Oceanlander whom the Linacrox Union trained into a military officer. After he retired from the military, he pretended to be part of the resistance group and started assassinating politicians in the Great Shun Republic. The government captured him, but in order to save an important person who had been taken hostage, they did an exchange and handed him back.

“We have information that Kenwa recently came to Jibei Road and is active in the peripheral cities. It’s highly likely that he will go to Central City next.

“If he were an ordinary wanted man, we wouldn’t be paying him any attention. The other organizations or the government would deal with him. This is just his status on paper, though. Through inside information and by making various comparisons and analysis, we’ve come to believe that he’s a spokesperson for some existence from the other world. He might even be possessed.

“We must use force to kill such people. We had already assigned a person to do that, but after learning where he is, we decided to use him to test you instead. If you kill him, you’ll become one of us.”

Chen Chuan took another look at the wanted poster. Even though Zhuan Liang did not mention a deadline, it was clear that if he didn’t go after Kenwa right away, the man would leave or come under someone’s protection. Then, things would become troublesome.

Him getting protection wasn’t an impossible thing. If wanted criminals didn’t have a certain degree of support, they would not show their faces, so Chen Chuan had to deal with this quickly.

“I’ll handle it,” he promised.

“I trust you,” Zhuan Liang said.

“ I have a question, though. Are you Mr. Zhuan, or rather, are you the real him?” Chen Chuan asked while staring at him.

With a voice full of praise, “Zhuan Liang” said, “You’re very sharp, Lead Investigator Chen.”

He pointed at his mask. “I’ve used a mental technique to attach my mind to this mask. Anyone who wears it can imitate my personality and talking style.

“Even though Mr. Zhuan is the one talking to you, he’s using my personality. He is also perceiving the world through my awareness. When he removes the mask, my personality and awareness will return to me.

“I’m sorry about it, but Mr. Zhuan isn’t good with words and can’t really talk to people face to face. That’s why he made this mask. Honestly, there’s something about Mr. Zhuan that—”

Halfway through the sentence, Zhuan Liang removed the mask. It revealed his stony face, and the voice faded away.