Chapter 17: The Carousel Incident (Part 3)

The Spirit Nurturing Art heart method had been idling for more than a day already. Added to his own cultivation, he was still five percent away from reaching the fourth step of Qi Refining.

Sword Manipulation had only reached forty-eight percent in Greater Mastery, so it would not be usable in the short term.

Spirit-Charge Fist had reached Lesser Mastery this morning, but Greater Mastery was only at thirteen percent.

As for Light Technique and Dust-Removal Technique, which he had only set to idle this afternoon, they had only reached the proficient stage.

Running five AFK slots at the same time had reached Chen Yi’s limit.

And it was very unfriendly to spirit stones.

Chen Yi only had fifteen spirit stones in total. Idling had used five, the sect’s grand array had taken five, Technique Transmission had consumed one, and he only had four left in his hands.

Completing the mission and obtaining spirit stones was also an urgent matter.

The mission required thirty disciples. After cooperating with the state, there was a high probability that real soldiers would be dispatched over. However, handing that many people over to Chen Yi’s side was something the state also had to treat with caution.

This mission was both a test and the foundation for cooperation.

Chen Yi not only had to complete it, he had to do it beautifully.

After he finished reading the materials, his thoughts on this side also came to an end. Chen Yi raised his head and handed the file back to Pang Sen, then looked at Tang Qirui and said, “Minister Tang, please arrange for me to meet the Special Action Team members responsible for this uncanny incident. When we go over tonight, will you be coming too?”

Tang Qirui nodded. “Yes.”

Then, as if thinking of something, he said, “Sect Master Chen’s sect is recruiting people. I wonder whether I would have the honor of joining. I heard one can also cultivate a heart method called the Spirit Nurturing Art. This is a cultivation heart method, and I’m very curious about it.”

Chen Yi smiled. “Entering the sect is possible now, but as for cultivating the method, I’m afraid you’ll have to personally make a trip back to the sect.”

He comforted him, and also spoke with confidence. “Don’t worry. Tonight, I’ll keep you all safe.”

“All right.” Tang Qirui smiled. He had been transferred here specifically to be responsible for liaising with Sect Master Chen, so he would definitely go to the sect and would definitely join the sect, personally experiencing the so-called cultivation method and cultivation.

Furthermore, as the “advance force,” he needed to observe and judge Chen Yi up close.

After Chen Yi’s matter appeared, the relevant departments had already urgently studied many things concerning Chen Yi himself, especially this cultivation civilization that existed only in imagination.

If it had been a spatial gate, a spiritual spring space, a myriad-realms trading system, and so on, survival and trading systems would have been fine. Even some sign-in systems, genetic systems, or cultivation systems that made the protagonist stronger would not have made them extremely wary.

But Chen Yi’s was different. What he had obtained was a sect inheritance.

As the name implied, this was an institution.

It possessed quite a high combat value, as well as a requirement for personnel. In some respects, it was even a system with extremely strong cohesion.

Therefore, how they treated this system depended on Chen Yi himself, and on where the upper limit of what he wanted to obtain lay.

For now, Chen Yi’s intention to cooperate was extremely clear. The state also hoped that through cooperation, it could find a method to deal with the future crisis.

For the moment, however, they first needed to possess a method capable of solving aberrations.

…

Just like that, time drifted slowly toward dusk.

After Chen Yi ate dinner, he looked at the Spirit Nurturing Art, which was nearly full, then rode in a dedicated car to Pang Sen’s workplace.

The Provincial Martial Protection Brigade was not far from the provincial government. It did not occupy a large area either. From the outside, it looked like an ordinary military-police unit, but in reality, it was responsible for arranging and dispatching the overall work of the province’s firefighting, border defense, and police protection.

Pang Sen was the brigade captain of the police protection system.

Under the police protection system, of course, were the city guards, martial protection, and criminal protection.

There were also Special Action Teams established for special cases.

In other words, Chen Yi running into Pang Xiaolei and then getting in touch with Brigade Captain Pang was basically a perfect professional match.

One of the things Pang Sen was responsible for was the investigation of urban uncanny cases.

The province’s “Special Action Team” had also more or less been built by him personally, and when faced with hard-to-grasp aberrations, he was right in the middle of a headache.

One phone call from his son had made him personally go out based only on a few scattered words, just to verify whether it was true or false.

Pang Sen found a moment and said to Chen Yi, “Develop it well. Your sect might become a special place. As you wish, its power may be used in the most correct place.”

Chen Yi smiled.

He believed there would be a good result.

Trust could not be achieved in one step. Before he transmigrated into the book, he had already placed extremely high trust in the state. The worldview of the author in this book also aligned with his own, and that was exactly why he had kept reading it. Although it was a power-leveling wish-fulfillment novel with a male protagonist, throughout the entire story, the state appeared positively. It silently fought aberrations for fifteen years, guarded the safety of the people, and later cooperated with the protagonist to jointly attack visitors from another realm.

Take Qianqian’s later betrayal of Blue Star, when he defected to an ancient sect. The protagonist pursued the traitor across a thousand li and killed him before Chen Yi’s grave. As for that act itself, Chen Yi could not refute it, and he could understand it too.

Of course, he was also unwilling to meekly accept death. He would save himself and save others. He also had to raise the children into people who were upright and honorable. Even if they did not become pillars of the state in the future, they absolutely could not betray the country or betray humanity.

Amid their conversation, Pang Sen led Chen Yi through the office building and arrived behind it, before a large factory-like building with blue color-steel tiles.

At first, Chen Yi thought this place was a parking lot. Only after he walked inside and saw the huge indoor training ground, as well as the Special Action Team soldiers already standing in three neat rows, did he understand.

So this trip had happened because he had asked to meet the Special Action Team members.

Chen Yi came before the crowd. His gaze drifted through the formation until he saw Wang Ping’an standing in the back row, his face heroic and handsome. Only then did he faintly let out a breath of relief.

In the original owner’s memories, he had especially admired this third elder brother of the Wang family.

After guessing that Wang Ping’an might have entered the Special Action Team, Chen Yi had constantly worried whether he might have been injured in past operations against aberrations.

Now, he could relax.

Wang Ping’an in the formation also saw Chen Yi.

His eyes widened. He recognized this “scholarly star” who was known to every household in Lishui Village at once.

The village chief’s son, Chen Yi.

How could he appear in this secret base together with the brigade captain?

Pang Sen did not say much. He merely introduced him. “This is Chen Yi, an operations consultant specially invited by the brigade. Tonight’s operation will be under his command. Do you all understand?”

The action team members straightened their chests and stood at attention.

They answered in unison, “Yes, sir!”

Afterward, Pang Sen called two more people out.

One was tall, the other short. One was old, the other young.

The older one looked to be over fifty, with graying hair.

The younger one seemed about thirty, but he had a bald head and no eyebrows. Chen Yi also noticed that three fingernails were missing from his left hand, and one little-finger nail was missing from his right hand.

Chen Yi sensed the existence of spiritual energy on them.

It was very faint, not at the level of entering the sect, and there was also the foul odor that aberrations possessed. This meant they had already eliminated aberrations and had obtained some energy from aberrations.

They were respectively the captain and vice-captain of this action team.

Captain Ye and Vice-Captain Jiang.

The predecessor of the Night Watchers was called the Special Action Team. Its headquarters were established in the capital and named the Mystery Research Institute.

Each province permanently maintained a brigade composed of eight to twenty people, stationed long-term in prosperous urban areas and traveling in rapid-response mobile fashion to carry out missions.

At first, the Special Action Team recruited talent from the military and police, focusing above all on boldness, meticulousness, and fearlessness in the face of death.

Later, as ordinary civilians gradually awakened through accidental contact with aberrations, and as such people grew increasingly numerous, the Special Action Team was renamed the Night Watchers. Its purpose of guarding the darkness never changed.

In other words.

Every soldier here knew what they might be facing, yet they still chose to come here and build a Great Wall with flesh and blood.

When the story in the book began, no one knew how many batches had already been replaced. Whether dead or alive, they were all great heroes.

Chen Yi guessed that fifteen years later, Wang Ping’an was probably gone too.

Everyone here, as well as the two captains.

All gone.

Therefore, even though their bodies emitted the foul stench of aberrations, both Pang Sen, who could now already smell the difference in scents, and Chen Yi looked perfectly normal. There was even hidden respect in their gazes as they looked at them.

After introducing the two captains and reminding them that tonight’s operation had to follow Chen Yi’s words, Pang Sen selected troops and set out.

The team members whose names were called knew very clearly what they would face tonight. They did not even furrow their brows before stepping out of formation and coming before Chen Yi.

When he reached the third person, Pang Sen thought for a moment. For the fourth name, he called, “Wang Ping’an.”

“Here!” Wang Ping’an answered, walking out of the formation.

Captain Ye, who had remained silent all this time, frowned, the wrinkles on his face deepening. He could not help saying, “Wang Ping’an only just joined the team. The carousel aberration’s level has already risen to B-rank this time.”

He did not finish his words. Since he was worried that Wang Ping’an’s ability was insufficient, naturally, he was also trying to protect Wang Ping’an’s life.

“I know.” Pang Sen turned to look at Chen Yi. “I’ll leave him to you.”

Chen Yi nodded. Although he did not know what level B-rank was, it probably could not beat him at the fourth step of Qi Refining, right?

He glanced at the Spirit Nurturing Art, which had already risen to ninety-eight percent, and nodded without pressure.

Even the human-head balloon aberration, which had the potential to become an “urban legend,” had been destroyed by his own self when he had only just entered the path, as easily as chopping melons and slicing vegetables. Even if a B-rank ghost was stronger than the human-head balloon aberration, there should be a limit.

Chen Yi’s nod made the two captains look at him a few more times, but they did not question him.

At this current stage, everything was actually still a process of constant trial and error. Who knew how many experts had already been sent from above? Some had produced remarkable results, while others had fallen into the same predicament as them.

Everyone had gathered together to solve the problem. Their goal was the same.

The named team members went to organize their equipment, while the others followed them to the changing room.

At this moment, Pang Sen took a long black box from Zhao Gang, the guard beside him, and handed it to Chen Yi.

“?” Chen Yi accepted the box.

“It’s a sword case I searched for a long time before finding.” Pang Sen’s gaze fell on the greatsword on Chen Yi’s back, wrapped in a piece of black cloth. “I thought about custom-making a scabbard, but there wasn’t enough time. And this sword case is a genuine handicraft. A carpenter spent nearly a month building it by hand. It suits you perfectly.”

Chen Yi lowered his head to look at the sword case.

It was made of pure wood in a walnut color, 170 centimeters long and about 30 centimeters wide. It was simple and unadorned, yet full of texture. Just from the weight in his hands and the polish of its details, one could tell it was indeed a handicraft made with care.

The sword case also had mechanisms. It seemed as if the entire sword could be placed inside, but not only could the area around the hilt at the top open and close, when carried on his back, the sword could also be drawn directly from the side.

The inside was not lined with velvet as one might imagine. Instead, it had special slots. When Chen Yi carried the sword case on his back, the case was a head taller than him, while the bottom reached the joints of his legs. The height was unexpectedly extremely suitable.

When he drew out the greatsword, there was a rubbing sensation, as if it were being polished.

A muffled clang sounded.

If it had been replaced with a steel greatsword, the moment it was drawn, there would definitely have been a long ringing cry of the sword.

Setting everything else aside, the details were perfect.

Chen Yi liked it very much.

What boy had never dreamed of being a great wandering hero?

Pang Sen smiled as he looked at Chen Yi and said, “Do you know why, even though only six people are going on this mission, all of them left?”

Chen Yi’s motion of drawing the sword paused, and he looked at Pang Sen.

Pang Sen said, “They’re saying goodbye. Every time they go on a mission, no one knows whether they’ll come back. They’re all so young, and they’re all afraid, but some things have to be done by someone…”

Chen Yi had actually already guessed. He nodded. “I’ll definitely bring them back.”

“I know.” Pang Sen smiled and looked deeply at Chen Yi. “You are our hope. Your existence makes the present, and the future, visible.”

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