Book 4, Chapter 38: Punishment

Two martial arts masters...

Ji Xinming felt his heart sink. Finally, he knew why the person gave up on them. Anyone caught in this situation would know what to do.

The other two men’s minds went blank. When they realized that things had reached the point of no return, they started trembling.

They had never expected things to blow up to such a degree. Based on their experience, such a thing shouldn’t be possible.

Jibei Road’s Central City was under the refined training faction and fusion faction’s control, or rather, it was the refined training faction’s territory. They never had to worry about their actions.

That had been the case for years.

The purity faction had long since faded into obscurity in Jibei Road, and they didn’t have anyone worthy of attention here. Besides, the trio met Chen Chuan because of that person’s orders, so why should they need to worry about consequences? Chen Chuan was just a lead investigator. He couldn’t go up against that person.

The current situation was beyond their comprehension.

Mr. Lin tapped against the table with his sunglasses and told them to hurry up. “I have no time to dilly-dally with you here. Sign the forms. If you don’t want to, I can do it for you.”

Ji Xinming reached for a pen with a trembling hand. At this point, there was no longer any hope for him. In order to avoid a direct confrontation between the two factions, the person had to shirk responsibility. He had no reason to stand up for them. Or rather, it was impossible for him to do so.

They were abandoned.

Sweat beaded on his forehead as he looked at Mr. Lin. “Will my family be taken care of?”

“I recruited you, so I can still get this settled. You’re minor players that had the misfortune of being brought into the spotlight, but after you die, no one will pay attention to you anymore,” Mr. Lin said in a slightly gentler tone.

Ji Xinming bowed his head. Regardless of whether Mr. Lin was comforting him or lying to him, Ji Xinming could only trust him. He did his best to steady his hand and sign his name on the form.

Then, he brought the pen up and positioned the tip at the center of his brow before pressing it against his skin. He then put his palm against the end of the pen, sucked in a deep breath, and pushed down.

Squelch.

The pen sank entirely into his head. Then, with a loud bang, he crashed on the table and stopped moving.

The other two started panting. While Mr. Lin glared at them, one of them picked up a pen with trembling hands. After a few tries, he finally signed his name.

Just like Ji Xinming, he brought the pen to the center of his brow and pushed it, but he used too much force and fell back. His body went limp. When he crashed on the floor, he had stopped breathing.

Mr. Lin shifted his gaze to the last person. Despair appeared on the man’s face. He picked up a pen and tapped the form a few times before bringing the pen up. In the end, he grabbed the form and tore it to shreds.

“I won’t sign it! Why do I have to die?!” he roared as his eyes turned bloodshot.

“How unbecoming. I suppose I’ll have to help you,” Mr. Lin said. He stood up from his chair and rolled his neck.

He crushed the thick interrogation table in front of him and strode over. The last person let out a loud shout and threw a punch at Mr. Lin. While his movements appeared desperate, there was a hint of ruthlessness in his eyes. The pen was in his other hand, and he thrust it right toward Mr. Lin’s heart.

Mr. Lin blocked his punch and twisted his hand with ease. As for the other hand, Mr. Lin grabbed it while it was halfway to his heart. Then, a wave of refined force spread through the person’s body, and he froze.

Mr. Lin quickly switched the positions of his hands and grabbed the man’s neck to drag him over. Then, he seized the pen from his hand and stabbed it into his head. The person twitched violently for a bit before he went limp.

Mr. Lin let go and let the person fall on the floor. He had used just the right amount of force. Nothing more, nothing less. The butt of the pen was the only thing that could be seen at the center of the brow.

He took out a handkerchief and wiped his hands.

While the last one didn’t quite look like he took his own life, this slight flaw wasn’t going to be a problem. No one was going to look into it. He had his lawyer hand him another form, and he forged the signature on the new confession.

Then, he checked the Realm Pass. It was 11:35 a.m..

Immediately, he contacted one of his higher-ups and said, “They’ve admitted to their crimes, and it’s done. They won’t cause any further trouble.”

The news quickly spread to the Department of Administrative Affairs and the municipal government before it was sent to the white airship. Both parties then had another meeting. After around twenty minutes, the airship turned and left Central City.

It was noon.

***

Chen Chuan was checking the time in his house when his Realm Pass let out a chime. The Resolution Department had sent a message telling him that Ji Xinming’s group had confessed to their crimes and taken their own lives. They had signed the confession that they attacked him, tried to harm him through a special item, and even slandered him after getting arrested. With the help of certain people, they had harassed Chen Chuan and his friends.

After Gray Shell Office noticed them doing such unjust and disgraceful acts, they attempted to correct their behavior in a timely and appropriate manner. After interrogating and reprimanding them, the trio came to their senses, regretted their actions, and willingly took their own lives as an apology.

They also wrote down their wish to drop all charges against Chen Chuan and hand over all their assets as compensation for hurting him and his friends.

Gray Shell Office was also willing to pay a hefty sum as compensation as an apology.

Over the next few minutes, Chen Chuan received a series of messages.

The first one was from Lu Fang. He said that he received a message saying that the requisition notice for the martial arts school was just a mistake. After going through the records, the department found that they had paid their taxes every year. Due to the mistake and to award them for their honesty, the department was going to exempt them from paying taxes for ten years.

The next one was from Wu Han. Apparently, their agent company was really sorry that such a thing had happened. Not only were they willing to pay them for the mission, but they would also compensate them for all the losses they suffered during it. They also wanted to give them five times the original amount of the reward as further compensation.

The last message came from Gao Ming. He said that some lawyers working for the municipal government and the Department of Administrative Affairs found him through the law firm’s channel and wanted to ask Chen Chuan whether he was dissatisfied with how they handled things.

Upon seeing the messages, Chen Chuan knew that the matter had been settled.

He didn’t know what the purity faction had done, but he had received a message that a huge, white airship had appeared outside Central City.

Clearly, it was connected to this. The purity faction had come in force.

An airship alone wouldn’t have been able to bring about such effects. It must have been carrying something or someone inside.

No matter what it was, it had to hold great power. After all, they had managed to intimidate Central City so thoroughly that they decided to stop bothering Chen Chuan.

He looked up. At the end of the day, all rules in the world were based on power. The one with power had the right to make decisions.

He stood still for a while until his Realm Pass let out a chime again. After checking who it was, he answered. “Advisor Pei?”

“I’m going to reach your place in two minutes. I need to tell you some things about the World Ring Defense System.”

“Alright, see you in a bit,” Chen Chuan said.

Five minutes later, Chen Chuan got into Advisor Pei’s car. Once it started moving, Advisor Pei engaged in some small talk with him before saying, “I have good news and bad news.

“The good news is that we’re about to seal off the gap in the World Ring. If nothing else comes up, it’ll be fully repaired by the end of the year.”

This also means that pure essence won’t be spilling out anymore, Chen Chuan lamented.

“The bad news is that while we were closing up the gap, we noticed that an existence from the other world has snuck in. Safe Shield only detected it for a moment before it disappeared.”

“Is it still in Central City?” Chen Chuan asked.

“We think so, because this place is the most suitable for them. It also has what they want. If they leave the place, their biofields will intersect with the inspection domains and create a huge fluctuation, which will allow us to detect them.”

Advisor Pei handed some papers over. “The higher-ups have ordered us to find it. The Covert Division is already in action. I hope that you can keep an eye out too. If we need you to work with them, we’ll tell you. By the way, we’ve already notified the Resolution Department that you are to prioritize this operation.”

Chen Chuan looked through the papers and raised an eyebrow. The World Ring Defense System suspected that the existence had possessed a high-ranking official.

“Do you have suspects?” he asked.

“We’re still looking into it. If the existence is only possessing someone, that would be the best outcome for us. But if that person is actively working with it, that would make things really bad for us.”

Chen Chuan nodded. After some consideration, he asked, “Am I wrong, or do these existences pay extra attention to active biosentient entities?”

“Some do, but not all. They can come here for other reasons, so we can’t assume anything. The ones who come for other reasons make things more complicated, but we still need to pay attention to them. This is the final stage to sealing the gap in the World Ring, and we don’t want any accidents. Once the gap is sealed, we can’t stop such things from happening again. Of course, if we can find it ahead of time, that’ll be even better.”

“Since the existence might have possessed a political leader, what if I find it and can’t take action immediately but also can’t notify you in time? This might lead to severe consequences. I hope that I can be granted a certain degree of authority to act on my own,” Chen Chuan said.

“That’s worth considering. Once I go back, I’ll think of some way to get authorization for you,” Advisor Pei promised.

Chen Chuan faced Advisor Pei fully and found that the man was watching him too. He nodded and said, “Thank you, Advisor Pei.”

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