CHAPTER 200: RETREAT

After Chen Chuan left the war room, he found himself assigned a temporary room in the Constabulary’s headquarters, since he still had another operation later on.

As for the equipment Lao Feng had given him, after signing a form, he was allowed to keep it even after the operation. If it was destroyed, he could declare it a write-off, but he wasn’t allowed to sell it, or he would be held accountable.

Chen Chuan wondered whether this was pure coincidence or whether the Constabulary was doing it on purpose, but he was staying in the same room he had occupied while waiting for his trial.

After taking a shower, he changed into a new set of clothes and sat down.

Based on Mr. Cao’s words, it was possible that they would go up against Black Orchid Co.’s defense forces in a day or two. Until then, he had to find a way to cut through their protective gear.

The simplest way was to switch to another weapon. Smashing them with a heavy weapon would be more effective than slashing them, but that would slow him down, and he would have to change his fighting style. It would also be impossible for him to use a heavy weapon as smoothly as he did with the Frost King Saber. Besides, developing genuine combat effectiveness with a heavy weapon in a day or two was unlikely to happen.

Changing the Frost King Saber to something else was out of the question too. After all, he was already used to it. The standard-issue weapons were not as good as the Frost King Saber, anyway.

With that being the case, he would have to think of how to break the protective gear through refined force. During the fight with Tan Wang, the Heavy Slash Force had proved to be effective.

But there was another problem. When he activated the Heavy Slash Force, he needed a short while to gather power. If he used it once, he would be okay, but if he had to use it repeatedly, he would end up with a barely perceptible pause in his chain of attacks. This might lead to a lag in his attack rhythm.

And that was if he overlapped with his second self. If he didn’t, he would need an even longer time to gather power. That was why he usually didn’t use the Heavy Slash Force. Besides, a normal, horizontal slash was already enough against average-level enemies.

Now, he had to think of a way to adjust his fighting style.

The Heavy Slash Force manual was written by another person based on their experience and understanding. Chen Chuan had to take into account the strength and amount of the author’s mutated tissue and make adjustments.

Setting aside everything else, Chen Chuan was pretty certain that when compared to the writer, he had more mutated tissue, and his was more complex.

When he practiced the saber force, he had followed the saber manual’s instructions to a T in the beginning. Later on, however, he made some logical adjustments of his own.

Now, as his ability to mobilize his mutated tissue and the way he could use it became more comprehensive, he felt that he could take a step further in changing the way he used his refined force. With his current self, he had all the conditions and abilities to solve his problem.

Chen Chuan already had some ideas on how to change the way he used his refined force, but he never had the time to experiment. At present, he could focus on just that. Even though he was going to use a lot of medicine during the process, since the country was willing to pay for it, he wasn’t going to hold back.

He closed his eyes to meditate and compose himself, then used his breathing to slowly activate his mutated tissue. A long while passed before he lifted the Frost King Saber and delivered a slash. After a moment, he performed another slash, and then another. With every slash, he used more mutated tissue, starting from the tissue under his skin and then recruiting tissue deeper within his body. Slowly, more and more mutated tissue joined in performing the slash.

Chen Chuan could sense improvements in the chaining of slashes.

But after a while, he felt that something was missing. After all, when he performed the Heavy Slash Force, he had to first activate the mutated tissue before channeling the energy in them into the Frost King Saber. This step-by-step process caused a bit of a lag in his attacks.

Perhaps he could...

He flipped the Frost King Saber around and slowly guided his breathing. Some time passed. When his saber began to buzz, the red line at the back of the saber also seemed to have come alive.

Chen Chuan swung the saber again and found that the lag seemed to have largely disappeared. Chaining his attacks became much smoother as well.

I see...

A pensive look appeared on his face. The saber could not just channel refined force but could also serve as an extension of the body.

Once he connected the mutated tissue in the saber with his own mutated tissue, he could activate the saber’s mutated tissue as well when using refined force. He no longer had to transfer the energy he generated into the saber.

This had to be the true way to use the saber.

This was something the saber wielder had to figure out on their own. Those who were able to do this didn’t need any tips, while those who couldn’t do it wouldn’t be able to figure it out even when they were given guidance.

He hadn’t been able to realize this because there was a process required before this communication between him and the saber could happen. It was the same principle as to why people needed to warm up before they started exercising. Otherwise, their bodies wouldn’t work properly. The same went for the saber. It needed a lot of time to “warm-up,” as evident from the amount of time Chen Chuan used just now.

Yet when Chen Chuan fought against other people in the past, he did not spend half a day doing so. Even when he fought against Tan Wang, he ended the fight in around an hour.

But this could be changed. He could increase the compatibility between him and the saber, then the time required for the saber to warm up would become shorter. This, though, would take a lot of time and be his long-term plan. For now, he could just get his saber warmed up before the fight and communicate with it to get rid of the lag. Then, his saber would be in a state where it could be used at its full potential at any moment.

There was also another way: Killing some weaker enemies before going to his main enemies. It had been proven time and again that the more intense a fight was and the more people Chen Chuan killed, the more active mutated tissue in the Frost King Saber would become.

But this depended on how things unfolded during the operation. Plans were just plans. When the fighting really began, things seldom happened exactly how one wanted. So, Chen Chuan should get ready before the operation, because he was on the offensive side this time, and they were going to be the ones launching the first strike.

So, over the next couple days, Chen Chuan would need to get his saber warmed up so that he could fight at any moment.

***

At that moment, the five board directors were listening to Luo Qi’s report in the underground meeting room. Luo Qi was telling them about establishing defensive positions around the perimeter of the company building, but he also pointed out that the batch of calorie and nutrient dense nutritional injections they had bought had been intercepted. The employees they sent were all killed.

“I was always against getting the goods ourselves, but you insisted that they were our assets, so it was only right that we tried to retrieve them. That’s why the Operations Department sent some of our elites. Among them were two Second Limit martial artists, but none of them returned...”

At this point, displeasure bled into his voice. “They were all killed on the way to the wilderness. They even exposed the emergency exit. This loss was entirely avoidable.”

One of the board directors snapped, “Mr. Luo, I believe that we need to remind you of one fact: You can make your suggestions and doubt our decisions, but the company is the one who decides whether to take up your suggestions or how to carry out an operation. The two employees were our assets, not your private army.”

“Decision-making requires trade-offs. Before making any decisions, the company will go through careful analysis and predictions. If anything goes wrong, it’s because we didn’t consider certain unfavorable factors. We will question the Intelligence Department and hold them accountable. This is, however, none of your business, Mr. Luo.

“All you need to do is obey.”

Luo Qi stayed silent for a while before he said, “Understood.”

“If you have nothing else to contribute to the conversation, please leave. We have other operations to carry out. The External Operations Department is to be ready at all times for our orders.”

Luo Qi said nothing else and left.

Once the pneumatic door of the meeting room closed, the neon screen behind the five board directors lit up, and they turned to it.

The neon screen showed a map of Yangzhi City, including its river system, mountain ranges, main roads, towns, and villages around it. A shining light was slowly heading south along the eastern coast.

A board director said sternly, “We received a telegram just now that two military warships and a troopship carrying a considerable number of soldiers have arrived at Farsight Harbor from the north. They should have come from Frozen Valley City.

“It’s clear that the Great Shun Republic intends to mobilize the army from Frozen Valley City to wipe us out.”

Another board director pondered over this before saying, “Farsight Harbor is just four hundred kilometers away from Yangzhi City. A public road connects the harbor to the city. Once the army disembarks, the vanguard can reach the city in a day.”

The atmosphere in the meeting room turned grim. The board directors all understood that this was just the first batch of soldiers. The government might bring reinforcements later. After that, they would be trapped in the company building and die in it.

A minute passed before another board director asked, “Is the information trustworthy?”

The first board director said, “The sentries we posted there gave us the information, so I believe that it’s trustworthy. After all, based on the power of the governmental organizations in Yangzhi City, it’s difficult for them to break through our defenses with minimal sacrifices. It’s much more cost-effective to use the army to force us to surrender.”

The five board directors fell silent. The most crucial thing about this affair was that they didn’t dare to take any risks. If this was real and they were a step too late, they would be left with no choice but to surrender.

From this moment on, they had to get ready to retreat.

The first board director said, “I suggest initiating Emergency Protocol Three now.”

The other four board directors all agreed to it.

In just two hours, a motorcade suddenly left the underground parking lot of Black Orchid Co., even though the company hadn’t made any moves since the trial ended. The motorcade headed to the public road in the east of the city.

Before leaving, they had sent a telegram to Big Guo, the Blood Scars Gang leader who was hiding outside the city, and told him to meet up with them. Since Big Guo had never joined any fights in the city, he managed to avoid all the losses the gang went through. No one bothered to come and kill him due to the fact that he was outside the city.

***

Mr. Cao received word the moment the motorcade left. Realizing that Black Orchid Co. had made their move, he acted decisively and summoned the members from the other departments to the war room.

This time, Central City’s Resolution Department, the Cult Investigation Department, the Constabulary, and the other governmental departments in Yangzhi City participated in the meeting. Martial Valor University also sent a few representatives over.

Once the presenter gave them a general run-down of the situation, an official from Yangzhi City’s Department of Administrative Affairs asked, “Since Black Orchid has made their move, should we order a chase?”

Mr. Cao looked at all of them. “We have to get rid of the motorcade, but they should just be a red herring. The public road east of the city leads to the harbor and their headquarters in Central City. They’ll face an even more aggressive attack there, so they won’t go back.

“I believe that their main members and armed forces will choose to escape in another direction.”

“Where will they go, then?” the government official asked.

Mr. Cao’s eyes landed on the sand table in the middle of the war room. He pointed at a certain place and said, “I believe that they will go here.”