Book 4, Chapter 43: Corner

The students in Martial Valor University usually lived between the first to sixtieth floors, while the teachers’ apartments were above the seventieth floor. The university had assigned the apartment on the southeast corner of the seventy-ninth floor to Chen Chuan.

The elevator doors opened, and he walked out. Before him was a corridor with glass walls with beautiful flowers and plants whose presence alone could freshen up the mind behind them.

His apartment was at the end of the corridor. It was a spacious place with a high ceiling, gentle lighting, and furniture with simple, clean lines that gave a surprisingly smooth and natural feel.

The apartment was divided into two floors, and they were connected by two spiraling staircases. It was more than three times larger than a student’s room, with interior spaces divided in a practical, logical way. It had its own independent domain screen, along with a huge private training room. Outside was a fortified, classical, large covered balcony.

After observing his apartment for a bit, Chen Chuan received a notification asking whether he needed lunch now that it was noon.

The lecturers had their own dining area, and all sorts of nutrient and calorie-dense food were provided to them. The lecturers were also provided rare and highly nutritious delicacies from the merged space every day, though the amount was limited. They didn’t need to take the flavorless nutritional paste.

But some lecturers were training addicts and would rather take nutritional paste to save up on time.

Chen Chuan took a look. He had heard about the delicacies of the merged space when he was there, but had only seen them at Chen Bitong’s party. He hadn’t had a chance to taste them.

Since he had access to them now, he decided to order a set.

Due to the rarity of the food, the moment they showed up on the menu, they would be sold out. However, if they made a reservation, they would be given the food in order, so Chen Chuan would get his a few days later.

He went to the armchair at the center of the living room and tapped on his Realm Pass. In an instant, light shone down, and a huge screen appeared in front of him.

He could have everything he usually saw on his Realm Pass projected on the screen. Because of its size, he could see more things in one go, so Chen Chuan took the time to read up on some chats in the niche channels and the news.

Then, he switched to another channel, which showed a top-down map of Jibei Road’s Central City, the huge industrial zone and factories to the south and southwest, along with the bio-experiment labs from various companies in the ocean to the east.

They surrounded Central City. Chen Chuan could also see the inland waterways, roads, railroads, airship ports on land and the sea. They were connected to the various districts like blood vessels and nerves.

After doing a quick examination, Chen Chuan circled United Might and GreenSource Eco-Tech’s branch companies.

He was going to need to pay attention to these two places.

After a while, he tapped on a few other places, and the lower city district, along with the entrances to it, showed up. Their outlines were marked with red so that Chen Chuan could see them clearly.

It wasn’t hard to notice that GreenSource Eco-Tech had chosen a really special location for their branch. It was right above the intersection of the main tunnels in the lower city district. Chen Chuan would even say that it was at the intersection point of a huge net.

After staring at it for a while, he bookmarked the map so he could quickly retrieve it whenever he wanted to refer to it. Then, he turned off the screen and went upstairs. The entire second floor was a spacious training room.

Once he was at the center, Chen Chuan said, “Hongfu.”

Everything before him changed. He stood on a tall, long coral reef in the ocean surrounded by raging waves crashing against it.

Right across from him was a red figure. She was also standing on a coral reef. Her lively eyes, red clothes, and the red tassel on her saber dancing in the air made it clear just who she was.

Chen Chuan reached out. Even though he didn’t bring the Frost King Saber, he felt something firm in his hand. A holographic Frost King Saber manifested.

Hongfu slowly positioned the goose-quill saber before herself, grabbed its hilt, and drew out the blade with a loud whistle. A cold glare flashed.

Chen Chuan gave her a nod before focusing. His eyes flashed, and his mental energy—now much stronger than before—went charging at her.

To none of his surprise, Hongfu blocked it and retaliated with a slightly stronger wave of mental energy.

This was precisely the pressure he wanted.

Hongfu was able to make sure that she was always slightly stronger than he was. This allowed him to keep fighting at full strength, which trained his mind and body with the greatest efficiency.

The moment Chen Chuan blocked her mental energy, Hongfu danced across the air as if she was flying. The red tassel moved about wildly, and she delivered a beautiful slash downward.

Chen Chuan blocked it. Their sabers crashed, and their refined forces rammed into each other. A penetrating force entered his body, but he blocked it with the body hardening-type refined force.

Hongfu twirled her goose-quill saber and followed Chen Chuan closely. With his body hardening, he ignored the slash. Instead, he lifted the saber and attacked Hongfu before she could get a stable footing. Hongfu spun on her feet and dodged it ingeniously. At the same time, she ducked down and swung her saber up.

Clang!

Their weapons connected again. The moment their refined forces met, they took half a step back. Then, they swung their sabers again to begin a long exchange of blows on the narrow coral reef.

The lecturers had much more resources than the students. Based on what the university allocated to him, Chen Chuan could use Hongfu for more than fourteen hours a day. He intended to make full use of it. After half a day of training, he left the training room.

It was already dark outside. The lights turned on. It was only at this moment that he realized that not all the light came from the lights. Some of it came from the plants. The light was bright but gentle. The decorative plants even shone in various colors.

After reading the news for a while, Chen Chuan took a few tubes of nutritional paste before taking out the briefcase with the pure essence to continue absorbing it.

***

While Chen Chuan was training, Ling Jianxing, the vice chancellor’s assistant, was talking in the hanging garden at the very top of the Arcane Palace.

“He’s a lead investigator now. I heard that a large airship came to Central City a few days ago. Based on what happened because of it, it might be related to him. He won even this scuffle.

“This might be related to the fight between factions. I can’t tell. You know that only members of the factions related to the fights have information about it. I can’t get the details.

“But it’s highly likely that he has gotten in touch with some important person or joined a faction. He has found his own path to get stronger, so you might be unable to make him join your plan.”

Ling Jianxing didn’t look disappointed. He continued smiling as he said, “Honestly, he’s the best candidate for it. I seldom see people with as much potential as him. Oh, he’s a lecturer now.

“Given how outstanding he is, it means that I didn’t misjudge him. I still think that we need him to join us. There are certain qualities about him that no one else can match. I value him really highly.”

“But that’s impossible. If he has his own path, there’s no way he’ll agree to it.” There was a brief pause, and Ling Jianxing could imagine the man shaking his head. “It’s absolutely impossible.”

“If this plan doesn’t work, we’ll go for another one,” Ling Jianxing said.

The man was shocked and whispered, “Are you saying...”

Ling Jianxing smiled and said nothing.

Very hesitantly, the man continued, “Don’t you remember the attack he used to cut down Ferris Wheel? He’s strong.”

Ling Jianxing didn’t deny that. “Before that, I’ll talk to him.”

He looked past the glass walls at the distant view outside the Arcane Palace. “He might just agree with our ideals after our conversation.”

***

The next day, after Chen Chuan finished his meditation, he opened the glass door and went to the long balcony to let the morning sun shine on him.

After a while, he heard chirping in the distance. As the sound got closer, a beautiful figure flew over, circled the balcony once, and landed on a horizontal bar. Then, it chirped at Chen Chuan before ducking its head to eat and drink from the bowls he had filled.

Chen Chuan smiled. He had asked the university staff to set up the horizontal bar and the bowls. It looked like Dawncall loved them.

He checked the time. There was a class this morning. It seemed like Jiang Xin was eager to have Chen Chuan teach him, because he had proposed an earlier class instead of what Chen Chuan had suggested.

So, he took a shower, ate the breakfast the kitchen staff delivered, and took the elevator to the training room assigned to him.

He had read up on Jiang Xin. Practically all the lecturers from Yangzhi City’s Martial Valor University had recommended him to come to the main campus. Their comments were all favorable.

This was rare.

But this was also because the original recommendation system was canceled. The quota to come to the main campus had increased, and the conditions had grown lax. In the past, such a student would have been taken in by the Mutual Aid Group, and once that happened, no matter how outstanding they were, they couldn’t stand out.

Chen Chuan watched the sun for a while and thought of Shen Zheng. If he saw how Martial Valor University in Yangzhi City had changed, he should be happy.

When it was almost time for the class, Chen Chuan heard footsteps outside, and a student who looked at most sixteen years old stopped at the entrance.

His face was full of curiosity about the new environment and eagerness to try new things; an expression unique to teenagers.

When he saw Chen Chuan, he fidgeted a little due to shyness and didn’t dare to meet his eyes. After walking in, he bowed to Chen Chuan, and said with nervousness and excitement, “Hello, Mr. Chen. I’m Jiang Xin.”

Chen Chuan watched him for a bit before smiling. “Hello, Jiang Xin. Have we met before?”

Jiang Xin whipped his head up with idolization shining in his eyes. He said passionately, “I saw you once from the distance, Chen Chuan—I mean, Mr. Chen! My coursemates and I have all heard about you! We worship you!”

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