CH 55

Chapter 55: The Storm is Brewing

Since Cheng Hui suddenly broke through and became a level-8 radiant warrior, the Cheng family, which had already attracted a lot of attention because of the Almighty Elixir, had been pushed to the forefront again.

The people who began to investigate Cheng Xuze after the emergence of the Almighty Elixir made more efforts now.

Cheng Xuze had a wide range of friends, but how could his friends give him the prescription of the Almighty Elixir so selflessly? There was also Cheng Hui. Although the Cheng family kept things secret, some things would still be revealed. At least, the matter of the three members of the Cheng Family often practicing at home together was no secret.

Someone must have taught the Cheng family something…

Those people finally put their suspicious target on the online person “I don’t want to starve”. Unfortunately, this person’s identity was hidden very tightly. That was all they could find. As he usually said himself, he never disclosed his own information.

Until I don’t want to starve talked about the Huofeng Company.

The 100 people who bought the chariots of Huofeng Company were either rich or prominent. Although they wanted to continue to investigate, they were also afraid of becoming a nuisance, and finally had to give up.

However, though no one outside investigated this matter, something happened to the Chengs themselves – Cheng Hong failed to break through and returned to Anhang City.

Cheng Hong used to be the vice mayor of Anhang City, and also served as the president of the radiation energy association of Anhang City. In this city, everyone flattered him. Even the mayor of Anhang City, Li Rong, was very polite to him, but when he came to Yangtze City, he was nothing.

In order further himself, and to make his sons and daughters get more resources, he applied for a transfer and stayed in Yangtze City for more than a year. In the end, there was no effect, and his radiant energy didn’t even increase…

…Just when he became more and more suspicious of the so-called ‘martial arts’ that involved jumping around like that, his eldest brother broke through!

Since Cheng Hui’s breakthrough, Cheng Hong had become more and more entangled. He even began to spend more time practicing the broadcast aerobics, eager for quick success and instant benefits. Even on the eve of the lunar new year, he did not relax.

“Dad, are you dancing?” Fourteen year old Cheng Zhenzhen came across this scene when she asked Cheng Hong to have a snack. She couldn’t help laughing. Her father had always been a very serious person. She never thought he would do such a thing one day.

“What are you talking about?” Cheng Hong angrily scolded.

“Isn’t that aerobics? Dad does it very much like radio aerobics,” Cheng Zhenzhen added.

Cheng Hong had followed Cheng Xuze and Cheng Hui to do it together, and didn’t think further on it. Now with his daughter’s reminder, the more he thought about it, the more he felt off.

It was useless to cultivate this thing. It couldn’t really be to trick him, can it? Was there any other reason why Cheng Hui would break through?

Cheng Hong became more and more suspicious, and then he thought of his son.

Cheng Hong’s son was injected with a rad-energy inducer a year ago. He used the best inducer, and drank the Almighty Elixir all the time. His final talent only reached double A-. He might be able to reach level 7, but he was almost hopeless at level 8.

Cheng Hui’s two daughters, although not born radiation users, were a little better qualified than his son!

“Dad, are you still cultivating so late to advance? Like Uncle, you can break through, too?” Cheng Zhenzhen didn’t notice her father’s expression and asks again.

“Can the breakthrough be so easy? Why don’t you go to bed so late? Go back to bed quickly!” Cheng Hong’s eyebrows were furrowed. After his daughter has left, the more he thought about it, the more unwilling he was.

However, on the first day of the new year, Li Rong, the mayor of Anhang City, contacted him again. On the one hand, he paid a new year’s greeting to him, and on the other hand, he asked him if there was any candidate he could recommend for his position: “Brother Cheng, I have kept your position for more than a year. I will wait for you to come back, but you should be planning to advance through your practice in Yangtze City, so you can’t keep these two seats empty…”

Li Rong was convinced that Cheng Hong could make a breakthrough, but Cheng Hong was more and more unhappy: “City Lord, I will go back soon.”

If he didn’t improve his strength, his career would be gone. Others thought he would make a breakthrough, but he didn’t show any sign… That night, Cheng Hong gritted his teeth and began to make a forcible breakthrough.

Such a forced breakthrough without sufficient accumulation had always been a taboo in the practice of radiant energy. Few people could succeed, and most of them would only backlash on themselves. Cheng Hong was no exception. He not only failed, but also hurt himself like Cheng Hui did before.

Cheng Xuze knew this and hurried over, but Cheng Hong had a big quarrel with him, saying he was biased.

Cheng Xuze had nothing he could do for his son, so he simply let go. Seeing this, Cheng Hong, regardless of his injuries, returned to Anhang City with his wife and children the next day.

Just after the Spring Festival, Cheng Hong returned to the city of Anhang. Many people who followed the Cheng family saw the joke of the Cheng family – so what if Cheng Xuze had some ability? He didn’t even raise his son well!

Cheng Xuze was laughed at a lot. When he became more and more disappointed with his second son, Cheng Hong returned to Anhang city. As soon as he came back, he was greeted by various banquets. Naturally, many people wanted to spy on him.

Cheng Xuze appeared to be be a rough person on the surface, but in fact, he was clear on what to say and what not to say. Cheng Hui smiled all day and no one could get anything useful from him. But Cheng Hong was different. As long as someone had enough skills, they could always find out something from him. Unfortunately, Cheng Xuze hid many things from Cheng Hong, so Cheng Hong didn’t know much.

“I heard that Old Cheng met an important figure in Central City to get the Almighty Elixir. The man also gave pointers to his son. Has Brother Cheng seen him?” Carrying red wine, Li Rong looked at Cheng Hong with a smile.

Li Rong, who was born in the Li family which a long history in Central City, was not very talented. He even stopped at level 6 like Cheng Hong. However, in other aspects, he was much better than Cheng Hong. At least, many people know that City Lord Li had a wide range of friends throughout the country.

Hearing what Li Rong said, Cheng Hong became more angry: “How could I know those things?”

Although the news didn’t reveal a lot, it provoked the relationship between Cheng Hong and Cheng Xuze and Cheng Hui. Li Rong was also very satisfied with this and comforted: “Brother Cheng, don’t worry too much. We don’t have to take some things seriously. Just do our own work well. This time, the radiation energy college in Anhang City will hold a student competition, and will need more effort from the radiation energy association.”

“I will definitely take care of it well,” Cheng Hong was recognized and immediately spoke.

“How old is Brother Cheng’s son? Is he seventeen or eighteen? Will he take part in the competition? I heard that in this competition, in many aspects pharmacy can be just as comparable to actual combat,” Li Rong responded.

“My child is only seventeen. He had been able to induce radiation for less than a year and is now getting started. I’m afraid he can’t participate in such a competition.” When it came to his son, Cheng Hong’s attitude was much more relaxed.

Li Rong smiled, but he already had a plan in his heart.

Cheng Ran was a member of the Cheng family. He had known this for a long time, but gauging by the situation, the Cheng family didn’t care about Cheng Ran… At least, Cheng Hong didn’t take this son seriously at all.

Though no one on the outside knew, not only was Cheng Ran going to have an accident, it would even affect the Cheng Family somewhat.

He hadn’t planned to deal with the Chengs, but he had been in Anhang City for several years. Seeing that the new term was coming, he felt he had to do something.

As a secondary city, Anhang City had three tertiary cities: Qinghu City, Jinshui city and Spark City. Qinghu City and Jinshui City only belonged to some unimportant people, but in Spark City, he had the Yin Family under his control…

When the Yin Family begged him to tide over the difficulties, he asked the Yin Family to give him all the shady businesses, let them “clean up”, and let them “tidy up” a group of people to help him manage those businesses outside the city. Now, he and the Yin Family were firmly tied together.

He didn’t know the little moves that Yin Ming did. He knew better than most that the Yin Family wanted to restore their former glory. But he didn’t care about that, for nothing else than because it was also in line with his mind – he wanted to expand his business, and now he urgently needed to control a city.

Because Cheng Ran was in Spark City, the Cheng family became more and more closely connected with Xing Ou, the leader of Spark City. Xing Ou also completely turned to the Cheng family. Such a person, he had no way to win over, but he also had to prevent this person from supporting Cheng Hong during the transition.

Moreover, Xing Ou’s tireless efforts to find trouble with the Yin Family for more than a year also bothered him a little. He wished to pull him off his horse sooner than later, and the people he could use…

Cheng Ran, whom the Yin Family hated, wasn’t he a good breaking point? Not only that, he left it to the Yin Family to do. If they really failed, it would not affect him.

If you want to succeed, you must have the courage to take risks.

At the end of the banquet, Li Rong quickly found the people around him and gave them detailed instructions.

Before the winter holiday and the birthday of Shi Qingyang, You Liangping, the dean of Spark Academy, went to the door for nothing else but the upcoming competition in Anhang City.

Every city had a radiation energy college, which would also be the best school in the whole city. It could be said that it was a dominant school. This centralized teaching resources. It had certain advantages, but it also had certain disadvantages. For example, it was easy for these schools and students to be complacent.

Later, some people held some activities in imitation of the ancient students’ participation in various competitions. Some of the students of the radiation energy college would be chosen to go to the higher cities every year and participate in one or two competitions to communicate with each other.

This time, Anhang City had organized students from three tier-3 cities to join the competitions in Anhang City. At the same time, Anhang Academy of Anhang City would also arrange people to exchange experience with these visitors and learn from each other.

As the culture course competition could be carried out through the network, this kind of competition was mainly about combat experience and pharmacy.

Although Cheng Hong told You Liangping not to pay attention to Cheng Ran when Cheng Ran was ill, Cheng Ran was still a child of the Cheng family. You Liangping still paid close attention to Cheng Ran. Now that there was such a competition, and the person in charge was Cheng Hong, he immediately thought of letting Cheng Ran and Shi Qingyang participate in it.

Even if Cheng Ran didn’t have radiant energy, his performance in pharmacy was very good. Even if Shi Qingyang’s talent was very poor, there was no doubt about his current combat effectiveness. It was appropriate for both private and public reasons to let them participate.

“Dean, can we not attend?” Shi Qingyang asked. He really wanted to take part in such a competition to hone his skills, but he didn’t want Cheng Ran to face Cheng Hong.

“Not attend? Shi Qingyang, you are first in combat in your entire student class. Even the students in grade three and grade four can’t compare with you. You won’t participate?” You Liangping was puzzled: “And Cheng Ran, the pharmaceutics teacher deliberately recommended you. I hope you will win honor for the academy. Are you really not going to participate?”

“If Qingyang doesn’t want to go, don’t go,” Cheng Ran immediately said.

“If you win this competition, you will get prizes. You just need to win against the other two third tier cities to take the prizes. There are also good medicinal herbs among them. Moreover, if you go to a second tier city, you can broaden your horizons.” You Liangping advised. The list of contestants had already almost been decided… “You can get to know a lot of people there. Some things in tier-2 cities can’t be bought in tier-3 cities. It only takes one month to come back…”

You Liangping spoke more and more. Shi Qingyang also considered it. After his rebirth, he stayed in Spark City and wanted to improve his strength and develop his influence, but in fact he did not achieve anything, and Anhang City…

He once stayed in Anhang City for several years. It was the place where he rose up. He also met many people there, including several of his comrades in arms. He even joined a team there for the first time.

Those people were different from Feng Linqiu. They shared weal and woe with him and didn’t betray him. It was just a pity that most of them had only reached level-4 in their lives. As he became stronger and stronger, even if they wanted to go out of the city again…

“Ranran, do you want to go to Anhang City?” Shi Qingyang asked.

“I’ll go where you go,” Cheng Ran said. In fact, he had always wanted to go to Anhang City. His parents worked in Anhang City, but left him in a villa in Yangtze City. At that time, Cheng Hong often said that if he became stronger, he would take him home…

But now he didn’t care.

Shi Qingyang could see that Cheng Ran didn’t care about Cheng Hong at all. After thinking about it, he agrees: “Then let’s go to Anhang City.”

“That’s good. When the time comes, the academy teachers and other senior students will go with you. Old Gu can also go with you. We’ll leave in ten days,” You Liangping immediately said.

“No problem,” Shi Qingyang agreed. For this kind of trip, they’d have to ride in a mobile town to go, and many people would follow. There would never be an accident on the way. Even if the Yin Family wanted to start something, they likely wouldn’t have the courage to do so…

Although Shi Qingyang thought he would be fine, he was used to being cautious, so he still made a lot of preparations. When they set out, he and Gu Changjin both carried big bags in their hands.

Cheng Ran always wanted to take the burden from them, but they refused, so he had to follow them. Then he looked at all this curiously – he came to Spark City by armored vehicle before, and now was his first time taking a mobile town.

A total of 15 people from Spark Academy participated in the competition. The mobile town they should be taking would be the one that traveled between Anhang City and Spark City to transport goods. However, when they really arrived at the gate of the city, they found that what was waiting for them was a small mobile fortress with very prosperous decoration.

The mobile fortress was about 1000 square meters in size. Above the thick steel plate was a residential area covered with protective barriers. Under the steel plate, there were tracks.

Mobile fortresses that traveled between cities usually went along the road countless times. If they were in the wilderness, they would crush all the mutant plants. They could even float over water.

The only thing that would block its way forward was steep mountains, but those could be bypassed – people had already blasted wide passages between many mountains in order to facilitate the progress of the mobile towns.

Beside this mobile fortress, Xing Ou, the leader of Spark City, was waiting at city gate.

Translator’s Note

Starting to take an online course on top of work, so I might upload more bare-bones editing during the 6-week workshop ^^;