Chen Chuan turned the matter of the Secret Snake Cult over in his mind and decided it was worth a try.
He had actually come across the program while browsing the Secret Snake Cult's platform before. He hadn't chosen it back then partly because the paid service was quite expensive, but also because he harbored certain reservations. Now, with Cao Guixi personally vouching for it, he certainly wouldn't pass up such an opportunity to improve himself.
After expressing his willingness to accept, he sat for a little while longer, finished his cup of tea, and took his leave.
Uncle Ding returned after seeing him off. "Young Master, I have already handed Brother Chen this month's allocation of precious paste, along with the trial materials from Qingnang Jade Workshop."
Cao Guixi said, "Good. Thank you for your trouble, Uncle Ding."
Uncle Ding gave him a searching look.
Cao Guixi said, "Uncle Ding, if you have something to say, speak freely."
Uncle Ding said, "If Brother Chen makes good use of the trial channel at Qingnang Jade Workshop that you recommended, he will naturally remember your kindness. If it proves useless, that is one thing, but...
"Brother Chen is still young. He might not think much of it right now, but if his progress slows down later and someone whispers in his ear that it was the effect of the trial drug, he might turn around and resent you for it."
Cao Guixi shook his head. "Brother Chen possesses a steadfast will; he isn't someone easily swayed by others." He gazed ahead, his voice tinged with a faint weariness. "Sometimes, one has no choice but to seize the opportunities right before one's eyes. That way, one won't live to regret missing an even greater opportunity later."
Uncle Ding said nothing more, merely letting out a soft sigh.
After leaving Mount Motie, Chen Chuan drove back along the road. Midway through the journey, he received a notification on his boundary credential informing him that his vehicle ownership transfer applications had been approved, and both cars were now officially registered under his name.
It also notified him that his temporary transit permits were valid for another half month, requiring him to obtain his official driving credentials within that window.
At the end of last month, he had paid a fee to the Disposal Bureau and the relevant administrative departments, and the matter had finally yielded results.
The Jiade car, being an ordinary commuter vehicle, hadn't been expensive to process, so he had covered it directly out of pocket. The Silver Lightning, however, came with a much steeper fee. Since he wouldn't typically need it, he had consulted with Wu Bei and Old Qi.
Both felt that such an exceptional vehicle was worth keeping, especially since a single look showed it had barely been driven. In the end, they secured the ownership using their shared operational funds so that any of the three could use it whenever needed.
Now that the vehicles were officially his, he needed to find time to take the driver's license test.
In Center City, this was remarkably straightforward. Even if one's driving skills weren't up to par, one could pay a modest fee to connect the boundary credential to a non-active conscious entity for prompts and driver assistance. Besides, after driving for these past few days, he had grown quite familiar with handling a car, so passing the test shouldn't pose any real difficulty.
Upon returning to Xuan Palace Building, he opened the materials Uncle Ding had given him regarding Qingnang Jade Workshop.
He hadn't agreed on the spot earlier because if Qingnang Jade Workshop merely wanted him to test the medicine, that was fine; but if they required long-term observation and invasive physical examinations, that would be far too troublesome.
Looking through the documents now, perhaps because of the tier of candidates they were targeting, the terms were relatively lenient. Even so, looking closely at the prerequisites revealed a steep threshold.
The requirements stated that the applicant had to be at least approaching the third limit and that an official evaluation must show a probability of exceeding sixty-five percent for reaching the third limit.
This drug had likely been developed for some time rather than being a product of just the past two months. The reason Cao Guixi hadn't brought it up before was presumably that Chen Chuan's tested metrics had still been lower back then.
Yet this created an inherent contradiction. Anyone meeting such criteria already possessed an immense probability of reaching the third limit anyway—it was merely a matter of sooner or later.
Meanwhile, the unknowns surrounding a new drug were immense. It could damage the body or overdraft one's latent potential. In matters like this, fighters were bound to be exceedingly cautious; most would rather take their time than risk such a choice.
Furthermore, aside from fighters raised directly by corporations, very few independent practitioners would allow a corporation to examine their physiological state and obtain their personal data so easily.
Presumably for this reason, Qingnang Jade Workshop had made certain compromises. The subject was merely required to submit a monthly report according to their guidelines and answer a set of corporate questionnaires. If the user felt anything amiss, they could terminate the trial at any time. Moreover, if trial participants purchased medicine from Qingnang Jade Workshop in the future, they would enjoy a dedicated discount.
Chen Chuan pondered it. If that was all it entailed, he was inclined to accept. He used his boundary credential to contact Uncle Ding and convey his agreement, and the latter assured him that arrangements would be made.
With that settled, he headed to the training room to carry out his daily routine. He currently focused heavily on saber forms, as they were tied to this semester's assessments. A high assessment score would help raise his overall academy evaluation.
The afternoon slipped away before he realized it.
By dusk, he received a parcel sent from Yangzhi City. His spirits lifted, guessing it was Bureau Director Lei's reply.
Opening it, he indeed found a thick, bound notebook inside. Flipping through the pages, he saw dense annotations covering every detail of the text from the photographs, accompanied by additional insights and guidance. The notes were meticulously thorough, filling page after page. Some of the handwriting was elegant and graceful, clearly recorded by Senior Sister He.
Director Lei had also included a note explaining that the material Chen Chuan had provided was exceptionally valuable, as it confirmed that a currently active cult maintained close ties with a certain evil cult. He intended to report the findings to higher authorities and would request merit recognition on Chen Chuan's behalf if verified.
At the end of the note, Lei thanked him for the toys sent to Xiao Ying, mentioning that the boy loved them dearly. When Chen Chuan had purchased an assortment of toys in Center City recently, besides those meant for his younger cousins, he had also shipped a few to Director Lei's household.
After tidying up, he returned to the sofa and began studying the notebook. Cross-referencing it with Director Lei's annotations, many obscure passages from the old book immediately became crystal clear.
Beyond mere annotations, Director Lei had documented the origins of many elements and the reasoning behind them, which amounted to personal instruction. Reading through it once, Chen Chuan felt his understanding of esoteric cult lore deepen substantially.
More than that, having reviewed the materials, Director Lei seemed to have roughly deduced what Chen Chuan intended to do, and had offered several specific suggestions purely from the perspective of esoteric rituals.
Once he finished reading everything, he felt confident enough to attempt the procedure.
This time, he intended to perform a covenant ritual, slightly altering the original framework so that the civet urban legend in his possession could be turned to his own use.
He didn't plan to forge an entirely new covenant from scratch, because the initial agreement had undeniably come at an enormous price, likely involving numerous human lives.
Nor could those sacrifices have been ordinary people; they had to be cultists of the old sect who had willingly surrendered their lives.
If he were to begin anew, that step would be unavoidable, or else the urban legend would never respond.
However, extending and modifying the existing pact was far simpler, as that portion of the price had already been paid in advance, requiring no additional sacrifice on his part.
Furthermore, tracing such a ritual pattern demanded intense malice and a specific state of mind—something far beyond ordinary people. Chen Chuan knew he could not produce that mental state himself, but by utilizing the original ritual pattern, he had no need to trouble his mind with such things.
In his notes, Director Lei had also corrected several traps lingering within the old book's ritual. These pitfalls had originally been known only to the cult's internal circle, deliberately placed so that if the text were lost and exploited by outsiders, it would turn back on them and deal a lethal blow.
Yet times had changed. Much of the esoteric knowledge of the past had now been thoroughly deciphered by the Esoteric Cult Bureau. What once seemed hidden was no longer the exclusive secret of any single sect, making the traps easy to correct.
Even so, this still fell under the domain of forbidden lore, retained only in the hands of a few. Without someone of Director Lei's deep expertise, an ordinary agent of the Esoteric Cult Bureau would never have unraveled it.
However, the ritual had to be performed at a specific time to achieve the desired effect. According to the old book, the date originally designated was the middle of the month, so this attempt would likewise best be scheduled for mid-month. That meant waiting a few more days, which conveniently gave him time to make preparations.
Over the next few days, aside from his daytime training, he spent his evenings studying the ritual before resting, striving to master every detail so that nothing was overlooked.
When the fourteenth arrived, he gave Gao Ming a heads-up, gathered his ritual materials, and drove to the stretch of wasteland in front of Instructor Wu's residence. There, he used the scattered rubble, bricks, and ruined concrete walls to arrange a wide perimeter.
To ensure he wouldn't be interrupted midway or tracked, he specifically had Wu Bei mask his transit traces.
Once the preliminary setup was complete, he brought out the reference notebook and, following the diagrams within, began tracing the patterns stroke by stroke.
He needed to lay out three ritual patterns: release, binding, and finally the covenant. The first two were relatively simple; having performed the binding ritual twice before, he set them up with ease. Only the final one posed a challenge.
Because different objectives required different patterns, a practitioner used the ritual designs to converse with the urban legend. This required removing the original elements that were no longer needed and inserting the new conditions he required.
While it appeared complex, Director Lei had already mapped out the general framework for him; all that remained was following the prescribed method to lay it down.
His condition was that when the need arose, he would direct the urban legend to deal with a designated target. Prior to that, he would offer a necessary sacrifice—but never his own mutated tissue.
This approach might leave the urban legend less ferocious than before. Under the old method, the creature had been sealed within a stone carving virtually cut off from the outside world, denied the chance to consume ordinary prey. When needed, a sliver of bait was offered, and the half-starved urban legend was unleashed to tear into its quarry.
The urban legend would view attacking that target as essential to its own survival, naturally unleashing its full might. Now, by granting the sacrifice first before commanding it to act, the creature's power might not reach its absolute peak.
Yet this made it immensely controllable, and the choice of sacrifice rested entirely in Chen Chuan's hands. And in Center City, locating an utterly heinous criminal was an easy task indeed.
Chapter 299