Chapter 51: Dual Mastery — The Old Guard's Discontent |
Zhang Hongbo waved his hand, and Fatty Sun scurried over like a jittery lapdog. Only after the last deputy director left and the door clicked shut did Zhang Hongbo smile warmly.
"Pull up Su Chen's file for me."
Fatty Sun grimaced. "Can't you just access it directly? Why go through me?"
"I'm merely overseeing things until Old Yuan returns. Better to go through your internal channels." Zhang Hongbo gestured for Fatty Sun to sit.
Reluctant as he was, Fatty Sun could only perch on the edge of the chair like he was sitting on nails. Moving as though in slow motion, he painfully opened his wristband, pulled up Su Chen's file, and projected it onto the desk.
"Well, well..." Zhang Hongbo feigned surprise. "A collective third-class merit on his very first day of reporting in..."
"And yet Old Yuan just placed him in a regular patrol squad. What an impartial man he is. Let me check attendance."
Zhang Hongbo scrolled down as he spoke, nodding with satisfaction. "Perfect attendance. Excellent, excellent — a true pillar of our Nanfeng City."
Fatty Sun's scalp prickled. He couldn't decipher the meaning behind Zhang Hongbo's words at all.
Fatty Sun fled as though pardoned from a death sentence, his generous flesh quivering with every step.
............
"Big bro, what's the rush?"
Su Chen welcomed a breathless Fatty Sun inside after a flurry of urgent knocking.
"Bro, the City Lord has his eye on you," Fatty Sun whispered.
Su Chen's eyelid twitched. "What happened?"
"Just now..." Fatty Sun steadied himself against a chair, still shaken. "After the meeting, he kept me behind — alone — and asked about you."
He recounted exactly what had transpired, then scratched his head in bewilderment. "I can't figure out what he's after either. If he disapproved of you getting in through the back door, he didn't say so."
"But he wouldn't bring you up for no reason."
Su Chen's brow furrowed. Yuan Chenyang's early rotation had disrupted many things.
Zhang Hongbo wore the mask of a smiling tiger. Even though Old Yuan had confirmed the man wasn't an Evil God cultist, Su Chen still kept his guard up.
"Any advice, big bro?" Su Chen asked, watching Fatty Sun scratch his head.
"I think he's warning you — stop collecting a paycheck without doing the work so blatantly." Fatty Sun speculated. "By all rights, the best move now would be to follow the rules."
"So I should go on patrol?" Su Chen probed.
"No. Absolutely not." Fatty Sun shook his head, his expression darkening. "So what if he's the City Lord? His own son holds an Exploration Guard title and hasn't set foot outside the walls even once."
"Everyone plays along and pretends not to notice. You can't even have that small privilege? If he actually comes after you over this, the rest of us won't just stand by."
Looking at Fatty Sun's defiant stance, Su Chen understood. Old Yuan's former subordinates were probably furious about the premature rotation.
They'd finally had a taste of real authority — and it hadn't been undeserved. Then Zhang Hongbo had outmaneuvered them, and now the other two departments were turning on the Supervision Department while the City Lord played peacemaker.
"Alright, I'll follow your lead, big bro." Su Chen had no objections; he hadn't wanted to patrol in the first place.
Fatty Sun had only come to give him a heads-up. He soon made to leave.
Su Chen asked him for a favor — to find an F-rank body forging method and a meditation method.
"You need a meditation method too?" Fatty Sun looked surprised, but remembering Yuan Chenyang's parting instructions to help out wherever possible, he nodded. He only warned that the meditation method would be trickier and would take a few extra days.
After Fatty Sun left, Su Chen entered the Gravity Room. He hadn't been training long when he heard a knock at the door.
Expecting Old Sun had forgotten to mention something, he went to the door — only to find a yellow envelope that had been slipped through the gap at some point.
Su Chen narrowed his eyes. He opened the door and glanced both ways, but thanks to the City Lord's arrival, the guards Fatty Sun had temporarily posted for patrols had been pulled.
Wrapping his hand in the Shadow Evasion Cloak, he carefully picked up the envelope and returned to his room. Inside was a single line of small text:
"I know you took the Spatial Crystals. If you don't want everyone to find out, provide a detailed account of how Yuan Chenyang found the Evil God Artifact. Leave the explanation along with the Spatial Crystals at your door by this time tomorrow. I can make this all go away."
Zhou Xian?
"Make this all go away?" Su Chen scoffed. Setting aside the fact that the Spatial Crystals were already gone — even if he still had them, he'd never fall for such an obvious bluff.
"Being a target... doesn't feel great." His expression hardened as he murmured, "Is this about investigating how Qi Chuan died, or is it something else..."
He set the envelope ablaze, pulled a Black Flame Potion from his Storage Space, downed it in one gulp, and went back into the Gravity Room to sweat it out.
Checking the surveillance would probably be just as useless as last time.
Su Chen didn't comply with the sender's demands, and no follow-up came. The letter seemed to have been nothing more than a bluff to gauge his reaction.
With Zhang Hongbo at the helm of the Supervision Department, investigative operations were indeed scaled back. All of Nanfeng City seemed to have returned to its former tranquility.
............
Several days later, inside the Gravity Room, Su Chen's movements grew faster and faster. Sweat coated every inch of his skin, and the stinging pain radiating through his body intensified by the second.
It felt as though countless tiny needles were boring through his pores and into his flesh. His muscles rippled like waves beneath the surface.
More than that, his pupils glowed with an eerie purple-crimson light.
Then, in a single instant, every muscle fiber snapped taut — as though compressed a thousandfold in a heartbeat. Invisible muscle fibers swelled and contracted in rapid succession.
["Body Sharpening Forging Method" elevated to Master rank. Ability acquired — Great Strength: moderately increases physical power.]
Su Chen stopped, exhaling a long breath. The surging sensation inside him made him clench his fists involuntarily, his knuckles popping like a string of firecrackers.
"At least a thirty percent boost in raw strength..." Su Chen savored the feeling.
The Hellfire Meditation Method had already reached Master rank five days ago, granting him the Mental Shielding ability — capable of dampening his presence with psychic energy. Combined with the Shadow Evasion Cloak, it was an ideal tool for stealth.
[Void-Rending Warrior: 82%]
[Mystic Artificer: 61%]
The potions Old Yuan had left him were already half depleted, but they'd brought significant progress on all fronts.
'I wonder if Old Sun has those forging and meditation methods ready.'
Su Chen stretched his limbs, gradually adjusting to his strengthened body, changed into clean clothes, and headed off to find Old Sun.
"Su Chen, my man! Come, come in..."
Fatty Sun had been poring over documents at his desk, but the moment he recognized his visitor, he jumped up to greet him.
"You're here for the forging and meditation methods, aren't you?" Fatty Sun understood Su Chen's nature well enough to skip the pleasantries.
He motioned for Su Chen to sit on the couch and poured him a glass of water, then retrieved two documents from a drawer beneath his desk and handed them over, explaining:
"The F-rank Snake Shadow Body Forging Method — focused on speed. And the F-rank Morning Light Meditation Method — emphasizes mental defense."
"They're both photocopies, so take them home and study them at your leisure." Fatty Sun settled in beside him, his hefty frame making the couch sag noticeably. "Just don't go selling them outside. The Snake Shadow Body Forging Method is internal to our Supervision Department, so that's easy enough."
"But the meditation method came from the Exploration Department's side..." he cautioned.
Su Chen nodded solemnly. "I appreciate you going through the trouble, big bro."