Up on Mount Qingding, Chu An managed to capture a few more wisps of pure substance in succession, but all of them were thin and faint.
Although he gained some benefit from them, it fell far short of his high expectations.
The old man believed the issue likely lay in a lack of mental strength on Chu An's part. Failing to capture it was one thing, but failing even to catch sight of it pointed to a deficiency within oneself.
He sighed and said, "It seems you are indeed lacking a bit. Perhaps this was premature for you."
Chu An did not believe it was entirely his own fault. Frowning, he said, "Master, could someone be competing with me for it? Since you bought this information, that means we might not be the only ones who know."
"It isn't impossible," the old man replied, "but anyone capable of snatching it at that level would have pushed both their body and spirit to the absolute limit.
"People like that hold crucial posts in various governments and corporations. And what is the situation in Center City right now? Fumu has fractured, the former imperial house has deployed troops outside, and mercenaries from various foreign corporations run rampant. All the top hands are either protecting high-ranking officials and political figures or resolving crises. They don't have the spare time for this.
"Not to mention that while corporations and the government employ such individuals, they also guard against them strictly. They conduct regular field inspections to ensure no abnormalities have arisen. Under such circumstances, even if they knew pure substance had appeared, would they really dare to act?
"Even if such a person truly exists, there could be at most one or two. And after ingesting pure substance, a small amount is fine, but once too much accumulates, it must be refined and assimilated. No one can swallow it all in a single breath; some is bound to slip through."
Still somewhat unwilling to let it go, Chu An asked, "Master, can't you capture it for me? Since pure substance can be preserved, surely it can be gathered through extra methods?"
The old man shook his head. "Those that can be preserved are usually what scattered and settled, or what was harvested through specialized methods. If I were to capture it, it would simply be absorbed by me, whether I wished it or not.
"At my age, my mutated tissue has long since fallen into dormancy; taking it would be of no use. Furthermore, as I said, pure substance is like bait. Once absorbed, it makes you far easier prey for those entities. If you cannot reach a higher tier to resolve that danger, the loss outweighs the gain."
He closed his eyes again to sense the surroundings. Feeling the fissure's tremors subsiding, he added, "There is no need to fret, however. We still have plenty of time, and your mind can be tempered through the process of capturing it. The dissipation of pure substance occurs in stages. What you encountered was likely only the first stage. Once this passes and the second stage arrives, there should be more."
"About how long will that take?"
"Perhaps ten to twenty minutes, or perhaps an hour or two. It depends on the pure substance itself; it is hard to say for sure."
Puzzled, Chu An asked, "Depends on the pure substance?"
"You can think of pure substance as a kind of active mental entity," the old man said. "Though it lacks independent consciousness, it follows its own behavioral patterns. In fact, it would not be wrong if you viewed it as one of those entities."
Chu An pondered this, and as something crossed his mind, a faint chill ran through him.
The old man looked at him. "Don't let your thoughts run wild. There are things you might not understand right now—and neither do I. But when the time comes that you can understand, you will naturally comprehend it."
Aboard the airship, Chen Chuan was steadily absorbing the pure substance leaking from the world opposite him. His body was like a bottomless pool, dissolving and integrating the essence drawn from it.
As for the need for assimilation time after absorbing large amounts, as the old man had described, he felt none of it.
After aligning with his second self, his physical constitution had soared far beyond ordinary limits. The pure substance could be absorbed the moment it entered his body, almost bypassing the refinement process entirely.
Even so, he noticed that while the pure substance had appeared intermittently at first, it was now growing sparse.
Judging by what Chen Bitong had explained to him, this substance might not arrive in a continuous stream, but rather in stages. Though he did not know the exact reason, it did not matter; he simply had to wait.
As he sat in quiet meditation, however, he sensed something odd. A harsh, grating noise buzzed in his ears, and it was not coming from his boundary credential.
Turning the thought over, he realized the cause.
With the increase in his mental strength and physical constitution, his own field had grown keener in perceiving the outside world. At this moment, he seemed able to sense field information even without relying on his boundary credential.
After a moment's consideration, he unclipped the boundary credential from his ear and looked outward. At first, everything seemed slightly blurred and flickering, but as he concentrated his gaze, the patches of neon light and shadow still lingering among the high-rises below gradually sharpened into clarity.
In this instant, his senses seemed able to extend to distant places through certain mediums. Yet at the same time, countless sounds and visual impressions flooded in alongside them.
This happened because the myriad strands of information within the information field had blended together, washing over him all at once before he could accurately distinguish and sort them out.
In theory, if he could overcome this and find a method to manage it, he could free himself from the constraints of a boundary credential entirely. But there was no need for that. The boundary credential remained a very useful tool, and magnifying these inputs also allowed him to perceive things drifting beyond the norm.
He caught sight of the massive fissure high above the ceiling of the sky, something normally visible only after taking special medicine. From within it, matter resembling grains of sand seemed to be leaking out. These phenomena, usually beyond reach, began to settle upon his body as he observed them, and faint signs of insubstantial blurring appeared on his second self.
Extraordinary perception was not necessarily an unalloyed blessing. Before one's strength reached a certain level, finding ways to screen out such stimuli was essential.
Thus, he put the boundary credential back on, reined in his external field and mental focus, adjusted his breathing, and prepared to await the next wave of pure substance.
Yet this time, he had been sitting for only a few minutes when a communication alert chimed on his boundary credential. He accepted the call, and a voice spoke from the other end: "Captain Chen, this is Liang Guanghai."
"Commissioner, what is the situation?" Chen Chuan asked.
"Captain Chen, where are you right now?" Commissioner Liang asked.
"I am aboard an airship belonging to the Air Shark Airship Company, located over Shenwei District."
Commissioner Liang sounded slightly surprised. "Aboard an Air Shark airship? That makes contacting you quite convenient. Captain Chen, the Defense Department has a plan that may require your cooperation to execute."
"Please go ahead, Commissioner Liang."
"Head to the airship's information relay station first," Commissioner Liang said. "There is something I want you to see. I will have the airship grant you access permissions."
Chen Chuan agreed and ended the call. He checked his senses carefully; for now, there was still no movement from the opposite side. But even if the pure substance arrived right now, his prior experience with ingesting it meant he could easily capture it while on the move.
After heading up from below, he saw two inspectors walking toward him from the stairwell. One of them stepped forward and said, "Captain Chen, we received orders from the Defense Department to give you our full cooperation. Please follow us."
Chen Chuan gave a slight nod and followed them to the forward section of the airship's upper deck, where the field organism used for information relay was situated.
Here, he could clearly transmit and receive messages from all directions. However, what they needed to show him required substantial field information bandwidth, forcing them to suspend some of the less critical communication channels.
As the two personnel were not cleared for the upcoming contents, they saluted him once everything was set up and withdrew, leaving him standing alone.
Chen Chuan looked forward. Moments later, light projected downward, displaying a series of somewhat blurred images that revealed Xu Chan and the others confronting Wu Qi.
His eyes fixed upon Wu Qi. *An active conscious entity?*
*And this building looks like the interior of a corporation...*
A thought struck him, and he instantly realized what was happening.
Likely due to field interference and transmission issues, the scene was far from smooth. It often froze on a trembling, blurry frame before jumping abruptly to the next.
Even so, he could discern the general situation and infer the tiers of both sides from certain details.
After watching for a while, he contacted the other end again. Commissioner Liang's voice came through: "Captain Chen, did you see it?"
"I saw it, Commissioner. What do you need me to do?"
"The situation is complicated," Commissioner Liang said. "The Processing Bureau's active conscious entity, 'Andun,' detected some abnormal signals. Our three departments, along with several others, have drafted a plan, and this plan requires a fighter of qualified strength and capability to execute it.
"I originally felt you should continue resting, Captain Chen, but the other departments strongly recommended you to carry out this operation. They believe you are the only one truly suited for the task.
"So before anything else, I must ask, Captain Chen—can your stamina hold out?"
"There is no problem for now," Chen Chuan replied.
"Very well. I will have some restorative medicine sent to you. I will transmit the plan shortly. Give me a definitive answer after you have reviewed it."
"Understood," Chen Chuan said.
Once the call ended, a notification chime sounded from his boundary credential, indicating that the plan had been sent over.
He read through it, his eyes flashing, then went through it a second time. Once finished, he read it again from start to finish.
This plan was, to put it mildly, exceptionally bold and fraught with risk. It demanded meticulous, precise coordination. If pulled off, it could indeed resolve the problem once and for all.
Yet if a single link in the chain failed...
He contemplated it for a moment, then raised his head and touched his boundary credential to contact Commissioner Liang once more. "Commissioner, I have reviewed the plan. I am willing to execute it."
Commissioner Liang asked in a deep voice, "Captain Chen, have you thought it through?"
Chen Chuan's voice carried not the slightest hesitation: "I have."
"Good. Captain Chen, considering that executing this plan requires multi-department coordination, we will give you two more hours to rest and adjust.
"It is currently... nine twenty-five. Two hours from now, the plan commences. I will arrange personnel to support you. From this moment on, we will maintain continuous contact. Captain Chen, make sure you stay in top form."
Chen Chuan said steadily, "I will."
Chapter 584