Douluo Continent: On Becoming a God Through Science

Chapter 108 Temporary Ceasefire (This chapter is now combined into one)

Considering the time needed to return to Nottingham, maintaining the clone's continuous outings for two days is roughly the limit of its activity.

This is something that You Chen only calculated after his return.

When You Chen returned to Notting City and retrieved the parallel consciousness within the Starlight Avatar...

The city of Wuhun did not lift the martial law even though no new victims appeared.

But this level of vigilance was of no use to You Chen.

Just when the law enforcement department of Wuhun City thought that the murderer had quietly achieved his goal and had no further intention to commit murder, You Chen returned again and carried out another two days of serial killings before retreating.

Repeating this process for more than half a month, You Chen successfully completed six more missions.

With experience, You Chen became more and more proficient at the operation of "remote distraction", and the mental burden decreased accordingly. He could even perform it for an extra day without any problem.

However, You Chen would not become complacent or think that the previous operations were going smoothly.

He didn't intend to exhaust himself as he had initially done to test the approximate limits; reserving a third of his mental energy was, in his opinion, the appropriate amount.

As the number of operations increased, You Chen became increasingly cautious.

This is the fifth time he has returned to Wuhun City since he began performing system missions.

It was visibly that there were far fewer people on the streets, and members of the Spirit Hall dressed in their butler robes could be seen patrolling in every corner of the city. It was also impossible to rule out the possibility that there were plainclothes law enforcement officers among the pedestrians on the streets.

The deacons of the Spirit Hall would occasionally ask pedestrians to show their identification. If they couldn't, the deacons would ruthlessly detain them as suspects.

In this situation, even with the "Concealing Breath Technique" by his side, You Chen's movements were clearly restricted.

Because the Breath Concealment Technique can conceal one's aura, but it does not make one invisible; one can still be seen with the naked eye.

Aside from moving through areas where the deacons were distracted, You Chen used superhuman speed to leap directly into their blind spots before they could react.

But for You Chen, it was only a little troublesome.

The most crucial issue is...

"It seems that the powerful individuals who were on field missions have gradually returned to Martial Soul City."

You Chen's judgment was not without basis.

Although he himself might be a bit narcissistic, capturing a ruthless person like him would be nearly impossible without a certain number of skilled fighters.

According to the Spirit Hall's estimate, You Chen must be at least a Soul Saint, and You Chen's current strength can be considered roughly equivalent to that of a strong Soul Saint.

Such a powerful person's speed is extremely terrifying. If no one stops him, even if the patrol personnel discover You Chen, he can run or fly out of Wuhun City before being intercepted.

In this process, it is likely that only at those crucial hurdles will there be corresponding powerful figures who can stop him.

Don't you know that Immovable King Zhao Wuji, who once escaped death even when besieged by more than a dozen Soul Emperors of the same rank from the Spirit Hall?

The ability to hide and escape that You Chen has demonstrated so far makes him far more troublesome than Zhao Wuji.

The Spirit Hall isn't so stupid as to not understand this.

Therefore, without enough Soul Saint level experts, taking down You Chen is simply out of the question.

In fact, the real trump card prepared against You Chen might be a Soul Douluo powerhouse.

As for... a Title Douluo?

You Chen was also unsure for the time being.

No titled Douluo would make a move lightly.

You Chen looked extremely ruthless, and the entire law enforcement department mobilized for him.

But in reality, he had not yet killed his way to the level of a true high-ranking figure in the Spirit Hall, namely the Cardinal.

Moreover, since when he was a teenager, the people with whom he initially had conflicts of interest were only researchers, the first ten people he killed were all researchers.

As is well known, after Pope Bibi Dong suppressed You Chen, a leading figure in the research field, the status of researchers in the Spirit Hall was actually half a head lower than that of their peers.

You Chen didn't massacre any unrelated people; he only killed some half-step black-robed bishops... Did that require the elders to intervene? Wouldn't that make a titled Douluo look too low-class, and make the cardinals and platinum bishops look too useless?

However, if this matter has already alarmed Bibi Dong, then it's a different story.

Bibi Dong can't command the other elders, but she can easily mobilize Kiku and Kiku. Rather, she really likes to use Kiku and Kiku to solve some troublesome problems.

Simply put, it's meant to be used as a convenient cleaning tool.

Wuhun City is essentially the rear base for Bibi Dong's war of unification. If she knew that something was wrong in her rear base and that it had not been resolved for a long time, there was a good chance that she would directly order the two Douluo, Ju and Gui, to solve it.

You Chen wasn't sure if the two had returned from their carefree days. If they had, he might actually be able to reveal something about them.

"Facing a Title Douluo right now would be too troublesome."

With this in mind, You Chen decisively chose to abandon the mission.

Less than three minutes after entering the city, without even contacting his informant, You Chen chose to retreat immediately.

This move can be described as decisive.

However, as fate would have it, You Chen's earlier guess about whether there would be plainclothes officers lying in ambush turned out to be correct.

You Chen was not without his oversights in his previous actions.

Because it was decided before the operation that he would only stay for two days, You Chen deliberately chose to carry out the first two assassinations in public, thus creating a deterrent effect and forcing the Spirit Hall to spend energy dealing with the matter or suppress the news directly.

After they had spent a great deal of time and energy worrying and trying to calm the emotions of the people in the city, You Chen returned and carried out another assassination.

This would keep them busy, allowing You Chen to contact his informants more safely and carry out the next assassination.

Some might argue that You Chen's actions were tantamount to deliberately provoking the Spirit Hall, prompting them to intensify their search efforts.

Actually, that's not the case, because no matter what, the Spirit Hall's enforcement department will intensify its investigation. So it's better to create an atmosphere of widespread panic, thereby exhausting the enforcement personnel's energy.

The reality is that this made You Chen's first eight missions extremely smooth and efficient.

But it also inadvertently revealed an important piece of information.

Law enforcement officers extracted a crucial piece of information from the testimonies of numerous eyewitnesses: "Many people were almost completely unaware beforehand, as if they suddenly saw the perpetrator appear."

Thus, they learned that You Chen's ability to conceal his movements and aura as an assassin was far more terrifying than they had anticipated.

Furthermore, You Chen did not use his soul power at all when he committed the crime; he only used his physical strength.

This has led law enforcement officers to focus more on observing suspicious individuals directly with the naked eye, rather than following past practices of paying attention to fluctuations in soul power or the traces left by movement.

This is undoubtedly an inefficient and torturous old-fashioned method, but it is also the only effective one.

This led to an undercover officer taking notice of You Chen by chance.

He had been paying attention to You Chen and felt that something was off about the man. He was hesitating whether to give the patrolmen a signal to question and check him when he saw You Chen inexplicably back away...

The plainclothes officer's pupils instantly contracted, realizing: He'd run into the person in question!

There was no time to notify his colleagues. You Chen was now in the outer area of ​​Wuhun City. If he retreated for a minute, he would be able to escape Wuhun City smoothly.

"True Spirit Body!"

Without hesitation, the Soul Saint Enforcer used his ultimate move, transforming into a giant spirit snake and lunging at You Chen.

You Chen raised an eyebrow, sighing inwardly, "Bad luck."

This can only be described as extremely bad luck.

However, You Chen's thoughts did not stop at blaming luck.

He knew very well that the concept of luck truly existed in this world.

Especially after several failed attempts to reverse the trend, You Chen, who was originally indifferent to metaphysics, had to start believing in it to some extent.

There's no guarantee this won't be a harbinger of something...

This strengthened his resolve to get away as soon as possible.

In the blink of an eye, the spirit serpent, which was over ten meters long, soared into the air with a thunderous roar, almost instantly closing in on You Chen.

At the same time, the violent power of thunder formed dozens of thick thunder spears that shot towards You Chen.

In an instant, the terrifying celestial changes caused the residents of Wuhun City to scream and flee in all directions. The patrolling law enforcement officers changed color the moment they saw the true form of the Spirit Serpent Martial Soul appear. Realizing the current situation, they either tried to contact people, evacuate the crowd, or some of the stronger officers directly surrounded the area.

boom!

The lightning spear fell like a pillar of divine punishment, and even the slightest spillage of lightning arcs caused the surrounding buildings to explode.

The Serpent Soul Saint, however, was not at all pleased with the power of his attack; instead, his face was gloomy.

At the same time, none of the dozens of lightning spears fired actually hit their mark; they were all dodged by the opponent!

Swish!

The enormous snake tail lashed out like a long whip. Although the lightning spear was dodged, at such close range, the Spirit Serpent Soul Saint did not believe that You Chen could also avoid it!

As the giant snake tail lashed out at him with a sonic boom, You Chen neither dodged nor evaded, but instead suddenly curled up his body and leaped into the air.

Snapped!

Through You Chen's excellent force analysis, he used the snake's tail as a baseball bat and himself as a baseball, and was thus sent flying.

Throughout this process, You Chen did not even use his Martial Soul Possession, nor did he release a single fluctuation of soul power; he relied entirely on his physical body to endure it.

"What!?"

Watching You Chen fly backward at an extremely fast speed, the Spirit Serpent Soul Saint looked on in disbelief. He couldn't believe that he had clearly made a downward slamming motion, so how could this guy be able to use the force to fly backward so smoothly!

If he were to let the villain he had finally caught escape, even if his colleagues could forgive him, the Spirit Serpent Saint himself would never be able to forgive himself!

"roar!"

He immediately roared, completely disregarding the burden on his body and soul power, and maximized the potential of his Martial Soul True Body, chasing after it as if he had transformed into a bolt of lightning.

Having successfully flown out of Spirit City after being struck by the Serpent Soul Saint, You Chen frowned slightly upon seeing the relentlessly pursuing Serpent Soul Saint.

Is it really necessary to work so hard for such a low monthly salary?

Even You Chen wouldn't be able to easily escape such speed without using the Starbone Dragon Martial Soul.

Not long after the Spirit Serpent Soul Saint revealed his true form, You Chen sensed several strong soul power fluctuations within Martial Soul City. It was obvious that once he was entangled by the Spirit Serpent Soul Saint, he would inevitably have to face multiple Soul Saints or even directly confront a Soul Douluo!

With that thought in mind, You Chen no longer hesitated, his deep eyes gazing at the Spirit Serpent Soul Saint from afar.

Soul-Sealing Technique!

Time seemed to stand still at that moment. In the eyes of the Spirit Serpent Soul Saint, he saw a pair of pitch-black eyes that filled the sky, like two blazing black suns.

Under the immense pressure and fear, the Spirit Serpent Soul Saint's consciousness went blank, and his soul power stagnated for a moment.

The extreme speed was only unleashed by forcibly stimulating its potential, and after losing its master's control, it immediately went berserk.

The pain of the soul power backlash finally restored the Spirit Serpent Soul Saint's consciousness, stopping his fall from mid-air.

However, once he had recovered somewhat, You Chen was nowhere to be seen.

Having already entered the Starry Sky Forest, You Chen quickly blended into the environment.

Unlike urban areas, in this complex, dense, and well-covered forest environment, it was incredibly easy for You Chen, who possessed the Concealing Breath Technique, to hide his whereabouts.

After traveling through the Star Dou Great Forest for half a day, You Chen finally managed to find his way back to the territory of the Barak Kingdom and confirmed that the Spirit Hall had completely lost track of him.

"In short, just to be on the safe side, the hunting missions will have to be suspended for the time being."

You Chen quickly came to a conclusion.

Compared to infiltrating Wuhun City under martial law, it is obviously more convenient and easier to act under normal circumstances.

The number of Soul Masters, or extraordinary individuals, in this world is not as large as in most fantasy novels, which means... there is a shortage of manpower.

The Spirit Hall has nearly half of the Soul Masters, but most of them are scattered throughout various parts of the Douluo Continent. Spirit City is the central hub of the Spirit Hall, with the highest concentration of Soul Masters. However, the number of Soul Masters in the city is usually around 20,000, which is roughly the maximum number at its peak.

The vast majority of these were only low-level Soul Masters; the number of Soul Saints and above probably only amounted to one or two hundred.

Under normal circumstances, low-level Soul Masters can only restrict and hinder You Chen's actions as much as possible through patrols and the like. Only Soul Emperor level experts can truly capture You Chen's actions directly with the naked eye and intercept him.

However, the price that a Soul Emperor has to pay when facing You Chen is not the same as that of a Soul Saint when facing You Chen, so in reality only a Soul Saint can play a decisive role.

With so many high-level experts, it's impossible for You Chen to just stay here and do nothing else.

Especially after You Chen disappears for a period of time, they will naturally return to their previous state, and the situation in Wuhun City will gradually return to normal.

However, if You Chen were to resume his assassinations within Spirit City, it would be tantamount to openly slapping the Spirit Hall in the face, a direct act of provocation...

They would never repeat such an action.

Because You Chen's return may seem the same as the assassinations he carried out every few days before, in the eyes of the higher-ups, it is a completely different concept.

After You Chen remained silent for a long time, the Spirit Hall had to announce that the problem had been largely resolved, otherwise Spirit City would remain in a state of constant anxiety.

In the eyes of the Spirit Hall, this was a tacit understanding between the two sides. If you stop causing trouble, we'll take it as a choice to reconcile, turn a blind eye, and let everyone go back to their lives.

And now you're showing up again? We have to go into lockdown all over the city again, and then wait for you to get tired of us and leave, and then repeat the whole process again?

What will the residents of Wuhun City think? What will people from other factions think?

After just two or three times like this, morale completely collapsed!

Instead of doing that, it would be better to maintain martial law indefinitely, clearly telling everyone that we haven't caught the murderer yet and that we're still working on it! It's not like we had to interrupt things halfway and then restart them!

Even if it's just to save face and let other forces know that Wuhun City is not a place where you can come and go as you please, they will take down Youchen with absolute force!

Therefore, if You Chen were to make a comeback, the danger he would face would be far greater than it had been in the past two weeks.

You Chen had already made up his mind. He looked at the rewards he had earned from the eight missions and felt a surge of excitement in his heart.

"These cultivation resources are enough to halve the time it takes me to reach the final three levels of the level 60 bottleneck."

After properly digesting the rewards from the eight missions, and then cultivating in seclusion for a while, you'll be able to obtain your sixth spirit ring!

Once he improves his strength further, it will be a completely different world!

In the following months, things unfolded exactly as You Chen had predicted. Although the Spirit Hall still had a warrant for his arrest, it took no direct action. Spirit City returned to its previous state as if the series of murders had never happened.

In Notting City.

"Tang San, didn't you say you wanted to spar with me? Why did you bring me to a place like this? It's not spacious here, and I can't really unleash my full power."

After Tang San took Xiao Wu to the small woods behind the academy, she couldn't help but ask this question.

"Xiao Wu, have you forgotten?"

Tang San gave a gentle smile, his gaze as if he were looking at his only family member, and said, "Today is your birthday, how could I possibly challenge you to a sparring match on this day?"

"Birthday... Oh, right, today is my birthday!"

Xiao Wu was stunned for a moment, then forced out an awkward smile.

She did mention her "birthday," but that was something she made up half a year ago after Tang San subtly probed her! How could she have known that this guy would remember it so clearly, and even now! She herself had completely forgotten about it!

"This is a birthday present I made for you myself."

Tang San handed over an exquisite little wooden box and placed it into Xiao Wu's hands with deep affection.

When Xiao Wu heard "made by hand", she was not moved at all, but felt so embarrassed that she wanted to dig her toes into the floor!

A "handmade" gift, if the relationship is close enough, and the occasion and time create a sense of ritual, can indeed move a girl deeply, and she might even fall in love with the gift without realizing it.

But... a boy I only considered a regular classmate suddenly gave me a gift of this magnitude?

Just imagine for a moment: in reality, there are quite a few beautiful girls who were confessed to by a stranger in college, surrounded by roses, and then had to be encouraged by onlookers to "say yes"... That feeling has absolutely nothing to do with romance or being moved!

In this situation, girls will only feel a heavy burden! Or even disgust!

Although the situation seems completely different at first glance, the actual meaning is similar.

A handmade gift from a stranger of the opposite sex, given to you secretly on your birthday without your knowledge, is about as disgusting as that.

Seeing Xiao Wu stunned and speechless for a long time by the "great surprise," Tang San couldn't help but urge her, "Open it and see?"

Xiao Wu, meeting Tang San's eager gaze, felt somewhat dazed: she had only come to spar with Tang San, so why had things turned out this way?

My thoughts drifted back to six months ago.

(End of this chapter)