Celestial Human Diagram

The man signaled for the others to stop. He walked over to the bar alone, sat down next to Chen Chuan, and glanced at the ice water in his hand. "Old Huang doesn’t know any better," he said apologetically. "Sorry about that."

He told the bartender, "Get him a hot drink." The bartender quickly and efficiently replaced the glass with a hot beverage.

The man said, "I’m the owner here. My surname is Ai. The person you’re looking for..." He asked tentatively, "Is he a friend of yours, sir?"

Chen Chuan said, "I suppose so."

Mr. Ai looked at him. "Sir, since you’ve found your way here, we have to extend you this courtesy. But I need to be clear: we had little to do with his capture. We have no grudge against your friend; someone just told us to do it. We have to answer to others to make a living. We didn’t really have a choice, did we?"

Chen Chuan looked at him. "You seem very frank, Mr. Ai."

Mr. Ai shrugged. "I have no choice. I know who you are, sir. We still have a business to run here, and we don’t want to make an enemy of you." He gestured behind him. "Bring him out."

Not far away, two of his men immediately headed deeper into the bar. A few minutes later, they returned, dragging a man by the arms and bringing him before the two. The man’s head was bowed, and he reeked of blood and other foul odors. Multiple injuries were visible all over his body.

When a nearby thug forced his head up, his face was black and blue, with dried blood at the corners of his mouth and eyes. It seemed he had been drugged; he was dazed and seemed to be instinctively flinching from the bright light.

Chen Chuan took a look. Despite the swelling, he could roughly recognize the face as the one from the photo Old Qi had sent him.

Mr. Ai said to the man, "Hao Zhuo, your friend is here."

The man called Hao Zhuo struggled to open his eyes. He glanced at the person in front of him a few times and mumbled, "Who? Who’s there? Who’s my friend?"

He didn’t recognize Chen Chuan at all, which seemed to contradict Chen Chuan’s claim that they were friends. However, Mr. Ai showed no sign of surprise. He spoke politely to Chen Chuan, "You see, sir? The man is here. Hao Zhuo has suffered a bit, but they’re all just superficial wounds. We’ll cover his medical expenses."

As he spoke, he tapped his Realm Token and transferred a sum of money to Chen Chuan.

Chen Chuan didn’t accept it. He just said, "In that case, I’ll be taking him with me. Mr. Ai, thank you for your cooperation."

He stood up, and without any aversion to the filth on Hao Zhuo, he took him from the thugs’ grasp and easily started walking toward the door with him.

"Please wait," Mr. Ai called out from behind him. "Sir, you can take the man, but... can you give us something to show for it?"

Chen Chuan looked back.

Mr. Ai quickly raised his hands. "Don’t get the wrong idea. I mean a ’report’..." He spread his hands, gesturing to the surroundings. "After all, you’re taking the man, but we need to put on a show."

Chen Chuan glanced at him, seemingly ignoring the request. However, as he passed the decorative wall in the middle of the room, he reached out and threw a punch. With a BOOM, the entire wall shattered, and the decorations on it fell to the floor in a pile of rubble and broken bricks.

Mr. Ai and his thugs’ expressions changed, and they swallowed hard.

But then they saw that inside the decorative wall, a statue of some unknown thing was revealed. It was about a meter tall even while seated, with a pair of horns on its head. Its face was ferocious, yet the corners of its mouth were pulled up to its eyes in what looked like a smile, but it was incredibly unsettling to behold.

Upon seeing this statue, Mr. Ai’s expression involuntarily changed again. He shot up from his seat. Seeing his reaction, the thugs also grew tense and tightened their grip on their weapons.

Chen Chuan paid them no mind. He simply gave the statue a light tap. The entire statue instantly exploded, with only its head remaining relatively intact. It fell off and rolled to the middle of the bar, mixing with the flashing, blood-red lights. At the same time, his Second Self showed strong signs of dematerialization.

His gaze swept over them, and he tossed out, "There’s your ’report’." With that, he continued to support Hao Zhuo and walked toward the entrance. At a signal from Mr. Ai, the gang members at the door hurriedly opened it for him.

After everyone watched him leave, a thug asked Mr. Ai, "Boss, we’re just letting him take the guy?"

Mr. Ai snapped irritably, "What else could we do? That’s an Executioner from the Processing Bureau! You might not want to live, but I’d like to stick around for a few more years."

"But if the higher-ups ask for him..."

Mr. Ai said, "What do you think I asked for a ’report’ for? But..." He took off his sunglasses and stared at the statue’s head. "When did this thing get here? Who put it inside?"

The thugs looked at each other and shook their heads.

They had been hired by the boss, and the bar was already open when they arrived. If the boss didn’t know, how could they?

Mr. Ai suddenly felt a wave of unease. Unsure if it was just his imagination, he ordered, "Get this thing out back." After a thought, he added, "And throw it far away."

Chen Chuan walked out with Hao Zhuo. The man was groggy the whole way and passed out as soon as Chen Chuan placed him in the back seat of the car.

Chen Chuan checked his Realm Token and asked, "Old Qi, can you confirm it’s him?"

Old Qi said, "It’s him!"

Chen Chuan said, "I’m bringing him back now. We’ll get this whole situation figured out."

After driving him back, Chen Chuan brought him to the place Old Qi had originally arranged for Hao Zhuo. Old Qi checked his injuries and said with some relief, "They beat him up pretty badly, but at least there are no broken bones. They just fed him some hallucinogens."

He brought over a syringe and injected it into Hao Zhuo’s neck. A moment later, Hao Zhuo started coughing, then croaked, "Water... give me water."

Old Qi poured him a glass of water, which he gulped down. After a moment, he started groaning in pain, so Old Qi tossed him a painkiller. Only after taking it did he finally quiet down.

After a while, he recovered a bit and looked at Old Qi. "Old Qi, did you find someone to rescue me?"

Old Qi said irritably, "You think I wanted to save you? Those guys came looking for me! What the hell did you do?"

Hao Zhuo coughed. "Old Qi, my brother, I dragged you into this. I’m sorry, but it wasn’t my fault. I told them you had nothing to do with it, but they wouldn’t believe me."

"Just what did you do? You’re going to tell me everything today."

"Well..."

Hao Zhuo hesitated, glancing at Chen Chuan, who was sitting on the sofa to the side.

Old Qi said, "He’s one of us. How else do you think you got out of there?"

Hao Zhuo said, "I can tell. He’s a big shot. I’ve gotta say, Old Qi, you’ve got some connections. When did you meet..."

"Are you going to talk or not?" Old Qi was getting impatient. "If not, I’ll leave you here to fend for yourself."

"Okay, okay, I’m talking, I’m talking, alright?..."

Hao Zhuo explained. The matter was not complicated at its root. He was a warehouse manager for a gang in the Lower City District, primarily handling Esoteric Materials. Sometimes, he’d find ways to skim some "scraps" to sell on the side for extra cash. That’s where the materials he sold to Old Qi came from.

But he never cared who he sold them to or what they were used for.

The problem was, not long ago, the gang’s supplier came around. During an inventory check, they found a lot was missing and demanded an investigation to recover the goods. He sensed things were going south and bolted to the Upper City District.

He complained, "I don’t even know why they’re making such a big deal over a small amount of stuff, chasing me all the way to the Upper City District. Plenty of people skim from the warehouses. I just took some leftovers, not even a fraction of the total. Why are they targeting just me?"

Old Qi muttered, "Something’s not right about this. Those materials aren’t worth much. Besides, do they really think they can track them down after all this time?"

"Exactly! I don’t get it either. Are the materials even worth the gas money and the cost of hiring people to come up here?"

Old Qi said, "Damn it, you don’t think they lost something else and are making you the scapegoat, do you?"

"Fuck, that’s a real possibility."

Just then, Chen Chuan spoke up: "That bar might be Plague Gang territory. Are these goods related to them?"

"Old Ai is with the Plague Gang?"

Hao Zhuo was stunned, and his expression changed. He said in a panic, "Now I can’t stay in the Lower City District. Old Qi, you have to do me a favor and find me another place to live. Don’t worry, I’ll pay you every penny."

Old Qi said with frustration, "This isn’t about the fucking money!"

Chen Chuan thought for a moment and said, "The Plague Gang has its own biotechnology. They might not be framing you. It’s very likely the batch of materials you sold was problematic to begin with, which is why they want to get it back."

Hao Zhuo mulled it over. "That does make some sense. But I’ve sold so much... Aside from a few regulars, I have no idea where the other materials went."

Chen Chuan said, "Old Qi, you two should find a new place to stay for now. The higher-ups are keeping a close watch on the Plague Gang, so this isn’t a place they can just show up whenever they want. That’s why they didn’t act themselves and hired help instead. Don’t worry about this for now. I have something to take care of soon. Just lie low, and I’ll handle it when I get back."

Wubei then said, "Leave it to me, Brother Chen. I’ll find a place for them."

Old Qi hesitated, then said, "I’ll be fine, but I’m worried about Xiaoqi’s schooling being disrupted..."

Chen Chuan said, "Qiqi is in junior high, right?"

"Yes. This is her first year, at a private middle school."

Chen Chuan considered this. The Fusion Boundary corporation also invested in various private schools, so he contacted Yan Yi.

After confirming, he said to Old Qi, "I’ll have someone transfer your daughter to a new school. The place she’s going won’t be any worse than her current one. Someone will handle it all for you, and your new location won’t be exposed."

Old Qi was overjoyed. "That would be wonderful," he said gratefully. "Thank you, Brother Chen."

Hao Zhuo watched Old Qi with envy, thinking, ’Old Qi’s friend is seriously impressive. I wonder if I can ride his coattails too.’

After making the arrangements, Chen Chuan exchanged a few more words with Old Qi. Seeing that everything was settled, he left.

He knew Hao Zhuo was probably still hiding something, but the whole affair was a messy business, and he had no intention of digging to the bottom of it. He would first let the two of them lie low. If any other problems arose, he would deal with them after his defense mission was over.

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