While the Crisis Management Center conducted its safety check, Liang Guanghai was reading through the examinees’ information.

All of them had worked hard to keep things safe during the Fu-Mu Entity’s propagation. He didn’t know most of them, since he only paid attention to and understood a handful of them.

Liang Guanghai’s expression was stern. The situation was severe, because pure essence had leaked to the outside world, and even now, the gap in the World Ring hadn’t been closed up.

To the departments, this was as dangerous as the Fu-Mu Entity’s propagation.

Their biggest suspect was Chen Bitong. Some were even certain that he was behind this, because his appearance when the gap appeared in the World Ring coincided with his suspicious actions during the final moments of his life.

There were footsteps, and Liang Guanghai’s assistant came in from the other side of the hall. “Captain Chen has gone in, sir.”

Liang Guanghai set the papers down and massaged the center of his eyebrows before saying, “Let’s hope that he hasn’t crossed the line.” 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Chen Bitong had spent the final moments of his time with Chen Chuan. The two of them had even gone to the other side of the gap to kill an assistant general together, so it was highly likely that Chen Bitong had said certain things to Chen Chuan.

Some people even suspected them of having ties from before.

The municipal government had wanted to immediately isolate Chen Chuan and investigate, but the Resolution Department had been vehemently against it. While the Department of Administrative Affairs hadn’t said anything, Liang Guanghai stepped forward to suppress the matter.

There were certain political risks for doing this. It would be best if they didn’t find anything wrong with Chen Chuan, but if they did, the municipal government would attack again, and even Liang Guanghai would be greatly impacted.

“What if he crossed the line, sir? Martial artists are incredibly self-centered. Few can resist the temptation of taking something that can help them get stronger. Our only hope is the possibility that he doesn’t know about it and only made the mistake out of ignorance,” the assistant suggested.

“That possibility is very unlikely,” Liang Guanghai said with a shake of his head.

For someone to benefit from it, they needed to notice the pure essence when it first began spilling over and absorb it, because once the Gate to Heaven closed, it was practically impossible to notice the rare pure essence. This meant that a person needed to be ready to be able to capture it when it first spilled over.

“If he did cross the line, we’ll need to fight hard for him to fall into our jurisdiction. We can’t let the inspection committee decide what to do with him. I will then have him sign a safety agreement with the World Ring Defense System. That might be the best outcome for this situation,” he said gravely.

***

After entering the building, Chen Chuan’s Realm Pass pointed him where to go, and he just followed the instructions, which led him to an isolated corridor.

There wasn’t a single person around, only the empty corridor, its bright lights, and his own clear footsteps.

Once Chen Chuan passed it, he saw an elevator. Rustling came from his Realm Pass, which meant that it had been blocked. He could no longer contact the outside world.

Chen Chuan looked up and felt a swarm of things inspecting his biofield. He could sense how tightly intertwined they were, because even his second self was blurring out slightly.

But he pretended to not have noticed anything and went straight into the elevator. Once he was inside, he saw a button immediately light up. It was the pre-allocated floor. The moment the doors shut, the floor trembled, and the elevator slowly went up.

The indicator light kept flashing and only stopped at the twentieth floor. Then, the doors opened.

Chen Chuan walked out into a spacious hall. It should be the hollowed section in the building. After taking around ten steps into the hall, he could see the roof and other floors.

He could sense danger from a handful of places on the floors above. They reflected light in unique ways, so they were likely firing positions.

They could send a dense and powerful shower of bullets at the center in an instant. Since there were practically no blind spots, even Third Limit martial artists wouldn’t be able to ignore the firepower.

At the very center of the hall was a staircase leading down to an area that was about ten meters below the hall. At the bottom of that area were lines resembling those of a tree, though they were green and purple in color.

There were four platforms in the four corners with glowing, tower-like structures. That might be the equipment for inspection.

Before Chen Chuan, around ten people had arrived. Some of them stood alone, while others formed groups to chat. Chen Chuan immediately located Xu Chan and the other two squad captains waiting by the side.

Xu Chan also saw him and waved at him. “Captain Chen.”

Chen Chuan walked over and greeted Xu Chan and the other two squad captains. Before they could dive into conversation, however, they sensed something and looked up.

On the third floor in the southeast, a middle-aged man dressed in the uniform of a security commander stepped over. He cast them a cold glance, and they felt as if cold electricity cut through them.

“That’s Yan Zhiwen. He’s a powerful martial artist hired by the municipal government. He’s no ordinary person. He was a security director of a company in the past and is now in charge of certain politicians’ safety. The municipal government trusts him greatly,” Xu Chan introduced him.

Chen Chuan nodded. His status shouldn’t be the most important thing about him. When Xu Chan said he was no ordinary person, he had to be talking about his strength, which meant that Yan Zhiwen was really strong.

Based on the security guards outside, the lineup inside, and the monitoring equipment, they were doing everything according to the highest standards. They didn’t seem to have set it all up for the sole purpose of security. It was more likely that they were getting ready to do something.

***

Two politicians from the municipal government were in a safety control room watching the hall through the screen.

Ferris Wheel’s destruction dealt a huge blow to the municipal government. The governmental departments also had enough evidence that an existence from the other world had infiltrated Ferris Wheel.

Because of this, they had no excuse to criticize the Department of Administrative Affairs. Instead, they needed to retract all their previous statements and apologize publicly. This would undoubtedly weaken their already damaged prestige.

But the spilling of pure essence gave them a way out of the situation.

Sealing away pure essence and making sure that it didn’t leak to the outside world was mutually agreed upon by all governments and companies. There was no way the Department of Administrative Affairs could escape accountability after such a major thing happened.

If they could just prove that a subordinate of theirs had taken pure essence, they could cause trouble through this.

“Are you sure we’ll find something?” one of the politicians asked.

“We’ve got the newest technology from Bolun Corporation. I heard that it will react to anyone who took pure essence, even if it’s just a little,” the other replied.

A seemingly gentle voice of a woman sounded in the hall. “Squad Captain Xu Chan, please head to the west examination platform for your safety check.”

This wasn’t the first time Xu Chan went through such an examination, so he walked down the stairs calmly.

He stopped at the tree-like lines to the west and looked at them closely. They were connected to tubes behind them. All of them shone with a faint light. It was similar to resonator nests. Clearly, this was a biosentient entity.

Without any hesitation, he went in through the entrance. Once he walked inside, multiple branches closed the entrance.

Captain Lu walked over and said, “This is the first time you’ve come for a safety check, right? They check whether a person has been corrupted by the other world or seen something they shouldn’t have.

“Don’t worry, the Crisis Management Center has always been trustworthy and doesn’t make mistakes. As long as you didn’t do anything wrong, nothing will happen to you.”

“So that’s how it is. Thank you,” Chen Chuan said with a nod.

“You’re welcome,” Captain Lu answered with a smile.

White light shone from within the tree-like lines before turning transparent, and they could see the faint outline of Xu Chan’s body.

A few minutes later, the light turned green, which meant that everything was normal. The branches moved away, and Xu Chan walked out. He nodded at the people above and went up the stairs.

“Squad Captain Chen Chuan, please head to the east examination platform for your safety check,” the woman said.

“It’s your turn, Captain Chen,” Captain Lu said.

All eyes were trained on Chen Chuan, and the security guards on the floors above became nervous.

Even the stone-faced Yan Zhiwen looked down.

The two politicians in the safety control room kept their eyes glued to the screen.

Based on his information, Chen Chuan was really strong, but that was fine. They were in the Crisis Management Center, which had the best defense system and all the powerful combatants they could mobilize. They could handle any unforeseen circumstances.

Chen Chuan went to the tree-like lines. Before coming here, he had asked around and found that they were just going to check his biofield.

A martial artist’s biofield contained a lot of information. Apparently, the most advanced biofield examination equipment in the world with active biosentient entities could even figure out what drugs a person had taken, what food and drinks they liked, and where they had gone to in the past.

Such equipment’s efficiency was limited in front of Third Limit martial artists who could control their biofields. They weren’t able to look into the information they wanted of regular Third Limit martial artists, because they were close to reaching the peak of the human body. They had not only gone through certain transformations, but they could also instinctively seal off certain information.

Hence, the governments and companies came up with biofield examination equipment specially tailored for Third Limit martial artists, and Chen Chuan was sure that these tree-like lines were one of them.

After giving them a quick glance, Chen Chuan walked in and turned around. The people above were watching him closely, but they were soon hidden by the branches squirming and slowly shutting the entrance.