Book 4, Chapter 234: This Trip Will Blur The Line Between Friend And Foe

On the twenty-ninth of December, the warm sun of the winter morning shone on the Lake of Stars. Dawncall spread its wings above the lake, and its beautiful feathers were dazzling under the light.

Wei Changan, Wu Han, Feng Xiaoqi, Luo Kaiyuan, and the others from Yangzhi City had all gathered in No. 15, Golden Maple Residences. They had been staying at Chen Chuan’s place over the past two days and using the Fu-Mu Entity’s simulation to train.

The first time they saw it, they were amazed. After trying it, they kept singing praises to it, because even though it was only a hologram, the pain they felt and the feedback from the environment around them were no different from reality. They couldn’t relax for a moment and had to stay on high alert the whole time.

The realistic, life-endangering threats forced them to squeeze out every bit of their potential, and the effects from the training were so good that they wanted to spend every moment in the training hall.

Chen Chuan stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window on the third floor and spoke to Yan Yi of Border Fusion.

“Director Chen, while Miss Shu was at Peaceful Hero Archipelago, she wanted to ask you whether she can hire Mr. Sancheng to be our security supervisor, since he couldn’t give us a clear reply due to working for you.

“You’ve been traveling around a lot recently, so Miss Shu asked me not to disturb you, but after hearing that you’re about to go back to Yangzhi City, I decided to ask you anyway.”

Chen Chuan knew that after he left Border Fusion, the company was missing a proper security supervisor. This was a crucial position. If they didn’t hire someone they had trained on their own, they would have a hard time trusting the person. Then, it was highly likely that something was going to go wrong in the company.

When Chen Chuan sent Sancheng Huang to Meng Shu, Sancheng Huang had carried out his duties faithfully. Border Fusion was likely going to expand their business among the island nations next, so having a disciple from Fierce Wave School was going to be really useful. This might be one of the reasons why Border Fusion wanted to hire him.

When Chen Chuan worked with Border Fusion, it was a mutually beneficial cooperation. He helped stabilize the company, and the company rewarded him. Even though he left, he was willing to help them with such small matters.

“Got it. I’ll get things settled in a minute,” he said.

“Thank you, Director Chen,” Yan Yi said.

At that moment, Meng Shu’s voice came through. “I hope you have a safe trip home, Director Chen.”

Then, after a brief pause, she said, “And Happy New Year, old friend.”

Chen Chuan laughed. “Happy New Year to you too, old friend.”

After the call ended, he stood in front of the window for a bit longer and saw a silver airship slowly fly over. He picked up the Frost King Saber, his personal belongings, and walked out of the villa.

The airship approached from the lake. Its silver, aerodynamically shaped hull sparkled under the sun. Its powerful propellers caused ripples on the water, and the sun created a fogbow above the lake.

Usually, the airship was parked at the airship base near the Department of Administrative Affairs’ office building. There were people maintaining the airships at all times so that he could leave whenever he wanted. It also only took a few minutes for it to fly over.

At that moment, his friends walked out of the villa with their bags. They watched as the large airship arrived above them and cast a huge shadow above their heads.

They looked up, and Gao Ming nudged his glasses up as Wei Changan shouted loudly amid the sound of the propellers, “This airship sure looks cool!”

The others nodded. When would they ever be able to get their hands on such a cool airship?

Chen Chuan walked to them and said, “The Department of Administrative Affairs bought this from the National Martial Artists Council. It’s built with a lot of biomaterials. If it’s damaged in any way, it can repair itself. It doesn’t have any weapons, but it’s sturdy, spacious, and fast.”

Airships for martial arts masters had to be sturdy and spacious so that they would have enough room to move around. Each was marked with the martial arts master’s ID, and if the martial arts master died or went missing, the ID, along with the airship, wouldn’t be used again.

As for weapons? They weren’t necessary. First of all, whenever martial arts masters left on an airship, they had combat airships escorting them to handle all possible attacks.

Second, if another martial arts master attacked, no airship would be able to withstand it. This was why Wei Guochan’s airship was struck down in an instant back then. There were no airships that could come out unscathed after an attack from a martial arts master.

The municipal government’s monster airship could be used against regular armed units and martial artists, but it was useless against martial arts masters. Even if they didn’t attack, the monster airship could never hope to strike down a martial arts master running at full speed.

Once the airship stopped at the mooring tower, Chen Chuan said,

“Let’s go.”

He then brought the group up the metal tower.

Standing before the hatch were two armed guards. They saluted him.

Chen Chuan nodded at them and walked in with the others. The inside of the airship was spacious and beautifully decorated. It had everything and could be treated as a luxurious hotel. It even had cinema equipment that regular hotels didn’t have.

Attendants came up to take their bags and put them in place. They also asked them whether they needed anything.

Wei Changan tugged at his tie and went to a seat with a porthole to look down before inspecting the airship. With a sigh, he said, “This is a good airship, Chen Chuan.”

Chen Chuan grinned and teased him, “If you work hard, you’ll get one too.”

Wei Changan laughed. “Are you pulling my leg?”

He patted the seat. “Looks like this will be my next goal. I might not be as capable as you are and won’t ever reach your level, but everyone needs to have dreams, right?”

Chen Chuan cackled and repeated himself, “You’ll get one too.”

Wei Changan gave him a look before nodding. Then, he smiled. “That gave me a boost in confidence. Since you’re helping me, I definitely have to step up, don’t I?”

Once everything was ready inside and everyone settled down, the airship left the mooring tower. It was only a little past 7 a.m. at this point. Based on the airship’s speed, they should be able to reach Yangzhi City at noon.

***

After leaving the residential area, the large airship flew past Majestic Light District, where Geng Zheng, Tai Dongwei, and Deng Fu were patrolling.

It suddenly covered a multitude of skyscrapers and the flashing neon lights. They couldn’t help but look up.

“Isn’t that one Director Chen’s?” Tai Dongwei asked.

“Yeah. That’s the one,” Deng Fu agreed.

Other people might not recognize Chen Chuan’s personal airship, but everyone in City Patrol had to know it. They had to memorize its appearance and learn how to identify it, because not only did it belong to a martial arts master of Central City, but also their superior.

Tai Dongwei sighed. “I never would have thought that Director Chen would be able to reach his level so quickly. You know, I always thought that some of my thoughts in the past were wild. But now, I’m starting to think that I lacked imagination.”

“That’s not wrong. We couldn’t ever imagine doing the things Director Chen did. That was the case in Yangzhi City, and it’s the same now. I’m saying it now. He’s going to do something even more shocking in the future, and the jaws of everyone in Central City are going to go slack in shock. Who knows? We might even dislocate our own jaws from the shock,” Deng Fu chimed in.

Tai Dongwei and Geng Zheng nodded before whipping their heads to him. “Why are you two staring at me?”

Tai Dongwei stroked his chin and said airily, “I’m wondering whether I should get an implanted jaw. I don’t want to dislocate it.”

Geng Zheng nodded in agreement.

Deng Fu dismissed the topic with a click of his tongue. “Cut the crap! I’m being serious here. Director Chen came from Yangzhi City, so we need to glue our feet to his coattails.”

Tai Dongwei and Geng Zheng nodded again. They were all from Yangzhi City. Even though they were previously in the Mutual Aid Group, they had long since joined the good side.

***

Back in the municipal government’s office building, Mr. Quan stood behind the glass wall with his cane in hand as he stared at Chen Chuan’s huge airship flying by.

Someone behind him said, “Mr. Quan, Director Chen has asked for too much this time. We checked it and found that it’s enough to provide for around six martial arts masters, and that’s a conservative estimate. If this continues, the price will become too high to pay.”

“If he made the demands and the contract he signed didn’t prevent it, then his demands are reasonable, and we need to do our best to satisfy them.

“Tell the others to think about which is more important: Their lives or their money. If we don’t fulfill our end of the agreement, we’ll be the ones in the wrong, and he’ll have a perfectly reasonable excuse to attack us. The Department of Administrative Affairs will be happy to see it. Besides, it’s not too long. We just need to persevere for around three years.

“We can tell the Union and the Linacrox Union about our situation so that they will help us. I’m sure that they don’t want to see us fall.”

***

Chen Chuan’s airship continued northeast. After it left Majestic Light District, it headed to Deep End District before starting to head north. When it passed by Oceanway District, the people in a large cargo ship anchored at the harbor watched it leave.

The crew members were all from Proto-Being, and the cargo ship carried important items and equipment from the headquarters.

Mr. Chi was on the ship. When he heard the report about the airship, he walked out of his cabin and stared at the silver airship leaving into the distance. Is he going back to Yangzhi City?

He had memorized Chen Chuan’s information back-to-back. He had tried to send people to Yangzhi City to investigate him, only to find that Yangzhi City had long since tightened its protection measures. There were also officers from the National General Affairs Bureau lurking around, so he immediately called for his employees to come back.

As he thought about the mission the company had handed to him, he stared at the airship until it vanished from sight.

After Chen Chuan’s airship left Central City, two combat airships that had been waiting outside met up with it. Then, they started flying to Yangzhi City.