The Basement

After getting up the next morning, Chen Chuan carried out his routine daily training as usual. By noon, he contacted Wu Bei and decided to head over to Liuyu Street, just as Instructor Wu had mentioned, to take a look. He had already asked Wu Bei to look it up earlier. The location was situated in Yinglu District to the southeast of Center City, a gathering place for many foreigners, especially immigrants from the outer ocean island nations. Instructor Wu's publicly known residence was located in an upscale apartment building, and the house on the knoll did not appear to have been kept secret either. Only this place yielded no records, making it very likely his safehouse and secret base. Instructor Wu had ultimately canceled the message he had intended to send, so his dying words ought to be genuine. Moreover, Instructor Wu had only just died and possessed no monitoring implants. Even those connected to him should not know the news yet, so going to check right now was the ideal time. After making his preparations, he left the academy and took a tram straight in that direction. On the way, he glanced at the messaging platform. Earlier, he had merely picked a default avatar provided by the platform—a pitch-black silhouette with nothing on it and no flashy effects. After a moment's thought, he decided against changing it, feeling it was fine as it was. When the tram reached its stop, Liuyu Street lay right outside the station. It was a bustling, lively commercial district. Standing where he was and looking up, he could see that rainbow-like skybridge he had spotted outside Center City earlier. Given the great distance, looking up from here made it seem as though it spanned across the very horizon. This skybridge led straight out to sea, connecting to an offshore island. At its terminus stood the Senate Building, jointly erected by the corporations and the government. Even from where he stood, he could vaguely make out the building's outline half-hidden amid the sea mist. After a few glances, he stepped into the bustling flow of Liuyu Street. The buildings here were relatively low-slung, with reasonably wide storefronts mostly draped with rows of large decorative noren curtains. Most of the pedestrians walking the streets were foreigners from the island nations; people of Great Shun were comparatively few. Of course, there were taller structures as well. He caught sight of something that could practically count as a landmark—a massive, slowly rotating Ferris wheel. It belonged to the Ferris Wheel Company. In fact, after walking into this street, he noticed the company's emblem was everywhere. He had heard Old Feng mention before that it was a relatively young company, backed by numerous maritime island nations. After he walked for a while, Wu Bei's voice came through: "Brother Chen, no tail and no surveillance. Everything's clear." Chen Chuan said, "Understood." Wu Bei said in high spirits, "Brother Chen, I've marked the location on your map. Just follow it." Seeing the position marker displayed on his boundary credential, Chen Chuan voiced his thanks. He stopped wandering aimlessly and headed straight for the destination. There was an alleyway branching off deep between the streets, where a few drunkards lay sprawled around amid suspicious puddles and vomit. Chen Chuan glanced at them, judging from their breathing that they were merely ordinary people. He walked inward, noting two-story houses flanking both sides, spaced fairly far apart, until he reached the very last residence. The house plate read No. 47. At this point, he quickened his pace slightly. With a single tap against the wall, he vaulted smoothly over the perimeter wall and landed composedly in the courtyard. After looking around and finding nothing amiss, he walked up to the door and pushed gently. The latch split cleanly in two. Gripping the doorknob, he pushed the door open and peered inside. The furnishings were exceedingly sparse and empty, looking as though no one had visited for a long time. He stepped inside and soon toured the place. Neither the upper nor lower floor had anything of note, but he did discover a basement with its entrance door locked. Yanking off the padlock and thick chain, he pulled the door open and walked down the descending stairs. Reaching the bottom, he looked around. There was little here—apart from some exercise equipment, only a recessed safe stood embedded in the wall. Noticing a flashlight on a nearby table, he walked over and picked it up. Pressing the switch, he found it still worked. He walked up to the safe, swept the beam across it to locate the dial, and slowly dialed the combination Instructor Wu had given him. Before long, several clicks sounded. Grasping the handle, he pulled it open slowly. Sweeping the flashlight up and down several times, he found boxes of medicinal ingredients stacked neatly inside. He pulled one out and examined it, discovering it was medicine used for Third Limit cultivation, and in no small quantity. A thought crossed his mind: this wasn't necessarily for Instructor Wu's daily use, but seemed stockpiled here, as there were no signs of the safe being opened frequently. Soon, he also found a small portion of First Limit and Second Limit medicines. Instructor Wu would have had no need for these himself, so they were likely meant for the students he intended to groom. Besides these, he discovered a stack of documents and notes in a partition, which he took out and leafed through. They were Instructor Wu's past cultivation logs and teaching notes. None touched upon Void Training techniques; instead, they contained proper teaching reflections and insights, focusing on how to improve students, encourage them, and guide their self-confidence. He checked the dates; they were from roughly ten years ago. It was evident that at that stage, Instructor Wu had truly poured his heart into teaching his students. Only later, perhaps due to certain circumstances, had he warped into the state Chen Chuan had witnessed. These materials were of great reference value. After all, they were left behind by a Third Limit fighter, containing his personal cultivation records in addition to guidance for students. He skimmed through each one, deciding to take them along later for study. Reaching the bottom, he discovered another notebook that had clearly seen heavy use. Flipping through it, he found many blank pages, the handwriting rather hurried and heavily crossed out, yet the entries caught his attention. "...The Third Limit might be my limit. Perhaps I will never reach the Fourth Limit. The indolent phase my teacher spoke of has arrived. My talent may have reached its end. Ordinary medicines can no longer sustain my cultivation, unless..." "Actually, compared to those students, I am already exceptionally lucky. I still have a path; their road had run out long ago." "...Perhaps it could work... This path could help more students improve... If successful, could I bypass the limits as well? I'm not certain, but it's worth trying... Lacking funds and equipment. I thought of someone—perhaps I could approach him?" "He agreed. I am overjoyed. If this Void Training method can be popularized, even if it cannot help me, it should be able to help those ordinary students..." At this point, many pages had been torn out. "I can't bring myself to do it, but he said that for the greater welfare of more people, these are necessary sacrifices. But if I do this, did I create this Void Training to save lives or to take them?" "He said that the day is drawing closer and closer, that the changes keep intensifying, and that we must seize the time to do something. We can't afford to care about too much right now... I think he might have a point." "The experiment is progressing, seemingly smoothly, yet it remains stuck on that one step. Where exactly is the problem?" "...Failed again. I fear I need to find a new approach. I cannot sacrifice any more students. Perhaps I can try it on myself? I am a Third Limit fighter; it should be fine." "There seems to be progress..." "I don't understand—why can't I get past this hurdle?! I refuse to believe it. I must succeed!" "Lately my thoughts have grown increasingly chaotic. He gave me some medicine. It's very effective; I can calm down and think again..." Here, the records ended. Beyond this point were only scattered, incoherent jottings—chaotic, broken scribbles that were illegible. Judging by the jerky, disjointed strokes, the notebook's owner had already fallen into an unstable mental state. Chen Chuan pondered for a moment, roughly piecing together the full picture. Instructor Wu had very likely run into a bottleneck in his martial cultivation and, unable to find a way forward, attempted to bypass the limitations and carve out an alternative path. He could understand cultivation bottlenecks. Cheng Zitong had told him before that a fighter's mutated tissue had a growth limit. For talented individuals, the mutated tissue could continue growing for a long time, and they could utilize medicines and proper cultivation methods to stave off this plateau for as long as possible. Those without talent, however, might grind to a halt at a certain stage. The "indolent phase" mentioned in the notebook was a theoretical concept. Roughly speaking, if a fighter's mutated tissue was in a state where it constantly threatened to usurp normal bodily functions, that indicated a phase of rapid growth. Cultivating during this window yielded twice the results with half the effort, which typically occurred right after a fighter initiated their training and began martial cultivation. If the mutated tissue gradually receded from this state, it entered a dormant phase. It might awaken again later, driving another burst of rapid growth. But if it never re-entered that state, it meant the fighter's mutated tissue had reached the indolent phase. If things continued this way without finding a way to stimulate it, the mutated tissue would become increasingly indolent until it fell completely silent. What followed after that was the declining phase. He couldn't help but reflect on himself. He was not someone born with mutated tissue; he had made it this far relying on several times the normal amount of medicine and the stimulation of numerous urban legends. Yet aside from that initial period, his mutated tissue had not experienced a second awakening phase up to now. Still, he had only been cultivating for two years at most; it hadn't been long. Even so, he couldn't help giving it some thought. Based on the information Instructor Wu had revealed, there didn't seem to be a complete absence of solutions. Regardless, the priority was finding a way to reach the Third Limit first. He looked over the items here and planned to take them all, though he couldn't keep them at the academy; he would need to find a safe place for them for now.