Advisor Pei had his driver drive on the flyover around Martial District Order once before sending Chen Chuan back to the Arcane Palace.

After parting ways with him, Chen Chuan returned to his room and immediately read the things Advisor Pei sent him.

Most of them were descriptions of the biosentient entities, along with the government’s management and maintenance policies for them.

Ni Qianqian had told him that multiple parties in the world were lobbying for all Central Cities to be connected so that they could share domain information and resources.

That was the Skyline Project.

It was clearly stated in the documents that the project was being pushed forward.

It was divided into three stages. The first stage was unifying all the Central Cities within each country. Then, they would link the Central Cities within the region. The final stage would involve linking all the Central Cities in the world.

At the moment, they were in the first stage, and each country was focused on linking their Central Cities together. The main reason that pushed this plan forward was the propagation issue of biosentient entities.

Whenever they split, it caused a major turbulence, and the countries involved needed to spend a lot of money to salvage the situation and perform maintenance.

If they connected all the cities together, then if one Central City was in trouble, the others could provide reinforcements and mobilize resources that would cut down the costs and improve the country’s operational efficiency.

Yet the many Central Cities in the Great Shun Republic had their own opinions, and plenty objected to this idea.

After all, this project was beneficial for centralizing power while infringing on the power and interests of the Central Cities themselves. Hence, the central government was facing a lot of opposition.

Since the Great Shun Republic—a powerful country in its region of the world and formerly an empire with centralized power—was already facing such opposition, it was inevitable that the other countries would face even greater problems. They faced all sorts of issues while pushing this project forward.

An assessment report stated that if the countries worked together and carried out the Skyline Project successfully, the defense of the World Ring would improve more than twice within three years.

However, it had been more than sixty years since the project had been proposed, and it was still stuck at the first stage. It was a monumental task to finish the project.

As the two worlds drew closer, more gaps were appearing. The number of Central Cities had also increased over the past seventy or so years. The new biosentient entities supporting them were all the propagated parts from the Fu-Mu Entity and others.

The government had also been unable to completely stop the propagated parts from being brought out of the country.

There was a law in the Great Shun Republic that the first generation propagated parts of the nine original biosentient entities were not allowed to be handed to external forces, but the second generation and third generation propagated parts could be sold to external parties after they grew to a certain point. They could be used to establish a Central City in another country.

Selling them didn’t mean the end of the transaction, though. The Great Shun Republic would then continue making adjustments, managing them, and performing long-term maintenance while also providing technical support. In other words, the Great Shun Republic’s influence would spread to that country.

However, if a first-generation propagated part ended up in someone else’s hands, then not only would their adjustment technology be leaked, but the weaknesses and flaws of the original might also be targeted.

The report stated that due to the unique nature of the propagated parts, the government needed to be on guard against hidden schemes from companies, existences from the other world, and creatures from the merged space.

That was why this wasn’t the problem of one single Central City. It concerned the safety of the entire country and even the World Ring’s defense.

Then, Chen Chuan saw a list of the main forces the government was on guard against. When he skimmed through the table, he noticed that the names were highlighted in different colors to show their threat level.

Among them were names of countries, companies, extremist groups, and even resistance groups.

From this alone, Chen Chuan had no doubt that the government was going to end up having to fight. He could only guess how much manpower the government would have to put in this time. It was highly likely that it wasn’t going to be limited to just Jibei Road’s Central City. Fights might also break out on an international scale.

The report did not state an estimated number of propagated parts, nor did it give a specific time for the propagation. It just gave a vague time frame that it was going to happen between April and June.

Chen Chuan could understand that. It was impossible for the government to give a specific time and date. Perhaps Advisor Pei himself was unaware of it. It was likely only the chief of civil affairs, speaker of the house of representatives, and people at Liang Guanghai’s level were privy to it.

Aside from that, the report also had the distribution of safe passages, temporary military outposts, emergency contact numbers, information about independent biosentient entities, encoded channels, and other things.

This was meant to ensure that the scattered military units and security guards would be able to swiftly join the operation and receive orders from their superiors should anything happen to the domain signals.

After reading through everything, Chen Chuan had already memorized it.

Martial artists had good memory, and once he began mental training, it became even easier for him. Hence, he memorized everything after reading through the document just once.

At the five-hour mark, the document deleted itself.

Chen Chuan got up from the sofa and poured himself a glass of water. When he got back, he looked at the nighttime scenery outside the window and sank into deep thought.

Xue Shou had asked him to master the Mind Shattering Hammer and Hollowed Heart Mark before April. By the looks of it, he knew something as well. Based on the hints he gave Chen Chuan, it was highly likely that he was going to teach something special.

The tricks he mentioned might not be all that simple.

If Chen Chuan didn’t hit the target, he might miss this chance.

By the looks of it, he was going to have to push his progress forward.

Once he finished drinking, he set the empty glass on the table and headed into his training room.

***

The next morning, Chen Chuan headed to the training center, as usual. When he walked inside, he saw Yu Lie standing inside with his hands in his pockets.

It seemed like he had recovered fully, because Chen Chuan saw no signs of his previous beatdown.

But there were no signs of the National Ad Hoc Special Operations Committee members.

Upon seeing him, Yu Lie walked over and said, “I lost to you because I was careless, Captain Chen. Don’t worry. Unless I’m absolutely sure I can win, I won’t bother you again.”

Chen Chuan smiled. “Honestly, if you want to spar, I’d be happy to oblige.”

Yu Lie bared his teeth at Chen Chuan. He didn’t say anything about the offer and went aside.

A moment passed before the three students taking up the remaining three slots arrived. Among them was Gu Haiting. Upon noticing Chen Chuan, he immediately made his way over.

Chen Chuan greeted him. “Mr. Gu, are you here for the lessons too?”

“My company sponsors Instructor Chen’s training center. We also need to send martial artists to the merged space, so Instructor Chen’s experience is really important to us,” Gu Haiting answered with a smile before checking the time. “Captain Chen, if you’re free after the lesson, would you mind chatting for a bit?”

Chen Chuan already had an idea of what was going to happen. They were unlikely to have met here due to pure coincidence, and it was about time they were frank with each other about certain things. He nodded and said, “Of course.”

They waited for just a few minutes before Chen Bitong walked in. As swiftly and decisively as ever, the moment it was time for the lesson to begin, he jumped straight in without bothering to waste a single breath.

The hologram of the merged space appeared again, and the people around Chen Chuan disappeared one after another until Chen Bitong was the only one left. “Come with me, Captain Chen.”

He turned around and started walking with Chen Chuan close behind him.

Aside from the Image Imprinters, Chen Bitong hadn’t spoken about the existences from the other world. Most of the holograms Chen Chuan faced were unique creatures deep within the merged space.

It was different this time. Chen Chuan had to fight against underwater creatures.

While underwater, he had to use a different breathing technique and move differently. Chen Chuan had learned from He Xiaoxing on how to breathe underwater. Chen Bitong knew how to do that as well. Even though the techniques they used were different, the effects were the same.

Upon seeing that Chen Chuan already knew the basics, he skipped teaching him how to breathe and went straight to the next step.

The lesson was about how to avoid attacks, how to generate refined force, how to deal fatal damage within the shortest amount of time possible against mega creatures, how to swiftly identify the creatures’ species and characteristics with his mind and by having their biofields come into contact, and how to use different methods to target their weaknesses to bring them down.

During the lesson, Chen Bitong repeated a number of times that if he ran into something he couldn’t identify and whose characteristics he couldn’t determine, he was not to recklessly engage the creature. Instead, he was to avoid it and retreat. Whatever it was, he had to do his best to shake it off before deciding on how to fight it.

The most important principle in the merged space was to ensure one’s own safety first. If one was not strong enough, they should forget about solving all their problems by themselves. Instead, they should utilize the power of their units and organizations. That was the only way for them to make it far.

Chen Chuan agreed with that. Unless he was strong enough, it was better for him to work together with a well-fitted team.

After the lesson, Chen Bitong didn’t immediately announce its end. Instead, he said, “The lessons will be on hold during April. I need to wait for the higher-ups’ permission to continue the lessons. Once the training center is open again, I’ll be waiting for you.”

Chen Chuan guessed that the lessons would be on hold due to the Fu-Mu Entity’s propagation. He wondered whether they would continue afterwards. Either way, this meant that there were only ten lessons left.

“Got it.” Chen Chuan said goodbye to Chen Bitong and left with Gu Haiting.

“Captain Chen, I know a good place. Why don’t we have tea there?” Gu Haiting offered.

“Sure. I’m okay with that,” Chen Chuan answered.

Once they left the building, Chen Chuan got into his car and followed Gu Haiting to Oceanway District. When they reached the harbor, Chen Chuan followed Gu Haiting into a mid-sized cruise ship, which set out to sea.

He soon saw a familiar large ship and asked in surprise, “Is that the Rhinoceros’ Horn?”

“It’s Ivory Tusk, sister ship of the Rhinoceros’ Horn. It’s not a weaponized exploration ship and is here in Central City to work with the government on a mission,” Gu Haiting said, causing Chen Chuan to ponder over his words.

The cruise ship continued moving until they left Central City’s domain signals behind them.

Gu Haiting took out a pair of sunglasses and said, “The weather is pretty good today. The wind isn’t too strong either. Come, Captain Chen. Let’s move around on deck.”