Atlas of Heaven and Man.

Chapter 1379 Different Paths, Same Destination
Chen Chuan returned because he realized that even at this stage, the anomaly was not truly cured.

Even now, there are still two faint traces of unusual energy hidden beneath the temple.

If he were to turn and leave right now, this thing could reappear after a period of time.

Of course, the great collision will come soon, and no one knows what changes will occur then, but it may transform into an even more powerful anomaly. Therefore, allowing this thing to exist is definitely a hidden danger.

The aura was located directly beneath the Fish King Temple. As his gaze fell upon it, the ground rippled and churned, and then two stone bead-like objects flew out.

Chen Chuan glanced at the object and realized that it was two fish eyes. Although the aura on it was weak, it seemed to have another source.

After a moment's thought, an idea suddenly struck him, and with a thought, the two fish eyes fell back into the fishbone eye holes.

As soon as it landed, it was as if some kind of ritual had been completed. The entire Fish King Temple shook violently, and the last lingering strange energy on it finally dissipated.

Then the two fish-eyes lost their support and fell to the ground with a crack, one of them even rolling to Chen Chuan's feet.

With a crack, it split open, revealing a corner of something yellow inside.

Upon seeing it, Chen Chuan conjured it out of thin air and discovered it was a strip of silk with the following written on it:

“Peeping at Red Hill, observing the dynasty's fortunes, searching for the divine energy and treasure-gathering mechanism, once you have broken my scheme, you may take it yourself. See the recluse three times.”

"Sanren" is another name for a Taoist who does not join the orthodox sect of Taoism.

Turning the silk strip over, one finds the date and time on it. Calculating it, it turns out it was buried during the Feng Dynasty, which is about seven or eight hundred years ago, precisely the period when Zen Buddhism was expelled and Xuan Buddhism was revived.

He pondered for a moment. Although there were not many words on it, when placed in the context of Xuanjiao's classic texts, the meaning it expressed was very rich.

Based on this content, it is very likely that this Sanjian Sanren came here to set up a scheme during a time of great chaos in order to cultivate something.

If the deduction is correct, this person must have managed to open a rift and draw power from it, which is likely related to the immortal rift in the direction of Chiqiu. This anomaly is merely a byproduct of maintaining this situation.

Judging from the occurrence of the anomalies, each one occurs at the intersection of the period of change and the period of stagnation, and the anomalies are used to maintain their existence, just like turning stagnant water into flowing water, preventing the ritual from falling into silence.

Now, in this long period of change, these anomalies should no longer be occurring, because the fissures are active and there is enough energy to sustain the ritual.

However, this person never expected that a World Ring would appear in the world today, and the rift would be absorbed by the World Ring almost as soon as it appeared.

Therefore, even during periods of change, there is not enough power to sustain it, which creates a de facto period of stagnation. During this time, anomalies should have occurred, but due to human-caused damage to the mountain, they could not appear.

However, later, someone came here to build entertainment facilities, which unexpectedly connected with and triggered the ritual. It can be said that many coincidences have led to all of this today.

Those two fish eyes should be the key to the ritual. As long as they are pressed down, it means the ritual continues, and putting them back into the fish bones means the ritual ends.

Chen Chuan was unaware of this at first, but after seeing it, based on his past experience, he felt that this was the right thing to do, and now it seems that it was indeed the right thing to do.

And with that, the anomaly was truly resolved, and it will never occur again.

He then reached into his pocket and took out the spine. Originally, it was about the thickness of a ring finger and three inches long, but now it had shrunk to the size of a finger joint, smooth and white, and contained a power within.

A strange glint appeared in his eyes. Was it something he had lost?

It's a rare Tier 1 lost item, and its quality might even be higher than that of a typical Tier 1 lost item...

Judging from this, the ritual seems to have existed solely to nurture this lost artifact. The hundreds of years spent on it may have been to absorb some kind of energy from the Immortal Rift, thereby causing the lost artifact to undergo a transformation.

But perhaps because it was retrieved too early, or due to various unforeseen circumstances, the lost item was unable to reach a higher level.

From the latter half of the silk strip, "Since you have broken my game, then you may take it yourself," Chen Chuan seemed to have encountered a highly competitive opponent across time and space. At this moment, he admitted defeat and gave his things to him.

He recalled that he had never seen this person's name in the Xuanjiao classics he had read before, and did not know who this person was.

But in any case, it was an unexpected bonus.

He happened to be lacking such a thing, so there was no need to be polite. He grasped the item and put it back into his pocket. This time, he didn't linger there and walked straight down the mountain.

Zhan Jiyue was still waiting for him by the car. When he appeared, she came up to him and asked, "Counselor Chen, how is it?"

Chen Chuan nodded to him, "The matter is resolved, and there will be no more abnormalities here in the future."

A slight smile appeared on Zhan Jiyue's face. "Then can we leave?"

Chen Chuan nodded and said, "Let's go back."

"it is good!"

The two got back into the car, started the engine, and drove off along the mountain road, leaving Maoshan far behind.

After returning to the Security Affairs Department, Chen Chuan submitted a report stating that the anomaly had been resolved and the traffic blockade could be lifted. Of course, the department still needed to verify this, but he didn't need to worry about the rest.

After resolving this matter, he had nothing else to do for the time being, and regardless of the ongoing debates outside, he devoted himself to cultivation.

November 20th arrived quickly. On that day, he received a message from Qi Weizhao, inviting him to meet at Yuhai Jinchi.

Chen Chuan guessed that something was wrong, so he arrived at the location at the agreed time, only to find that Qi Weizhao was not the only one who came; there were two other people with him, one of whom was a middle-aged man with a sturdy build, thick eyebrows, and a reliable appearance.

The other one was an acquaintance; he had his hands in his pockets and a slightly lazy smile on his face.

Chen Chuan was slightly surprised, "Teacher Xue?"

Xue Shou smiled and said, "Chen Xueyuan, you should be called Chen Siwu now. I expected you to come to Zhongjing, but I didn't expect it to be so soon."

Chen Chuan smiled slightly, shook hands with Qi Weizhao who came up, and they greeted each other. The latter then introduced Qi Weizhao to the people around him, "This is Secretary Sun Yangde, a senior secretary of the National Defense Headquarters."

Secretary Sun came up and shook hands with Chen Chuan with a smile: "Officer Chen, I've heard so much about you."

Chen Chuanyi thought for a moment that those who could be called senior secretaries in the Ministry of Defense were mostly serving the minister or deputy minister. In the outside world, they often represented the person behind him.

It seems that the matter I asked him to discuss today is far from simple.

At Qi Weizhao's invitation, Chen Chuan boarded a pleasure boat with them and sailed into the depths of the Jade Sea and Golden Pool.

The scenery here goes without saying. Since ancient times, it has been a private lake for imperial families. Now, the weather is just right, the temperature is just right, the flowers and trees on the shore are lush, the lake water is clear and green, and the lake breeze carries a faint fragrance of flowers.

The four men admired the scenery for a while, then an attendant came up to pour them tea before leaving and closing the cabin door.

Qi Weizhao smiled and said, "Secretary Chen, I've invited you here today because there are some things I want to discuss with you. First, I have some good news for you: the central city of Hedong Road will announce its inclusion in the Skyline Project in two hours, at 11:00 a.m.

"Oh?"

Chen Chuan's eyes lit up.

Sun Yangde smiled and said, "The smooth progress of things is inseparable from the efforts of Manager Chen. The fact that Hedong Road was able to join the Skyline so smoothly this time is thanks to the great help of Mr. Gui Zihan. According to him, he is following the path that Manager Chen once walked."

"Gui Zihan..."

Chen Chuan seemed to be deep in thought. When Gui Zihan said goodbye to him, he had told him that he would vigorously promote the Skyline Project, and now he had indeed kept his promise.

At this moment, Qi Weizhao pointed to the lower realm, and a light screen descended into the cabin, displaying a map of the Great Shun territory.

Sun Yangde looked at it and said, "Da Shun is one capital and nineteen circuits, including five major prefecture circuits: Jibei Circuit, Jiangnan Circuit, Chuanxi Circuit, Hedong Circuit, and Lingnan Circuit."

Now that Hadong Province has been incorporated into the skyline, we have enough confidence to fight against the rest. We have also been trying to win over Chuanxi Province for a long time, and it seems that there is a high possibility that it will join us.

If successful, leveraging the advantages of the skyline, once resource integration is complete, we will, for the first time, possess power over the conservatives at the local level.

Chen Chuan nodded slightly.

Qi Weizhao said, "We've left the matters concerning the Western Sichuan Circuit to other colleagues. We're currently facing a critical issue."

He zoomed in on the map of the territory, showing only Zhongjing and the surrounding area.

“Zhongjing is located in the middle of Shannan Road, Hedong Road, Longyou Road and Anbei Road. Originally, Shannan Road and Longyou Road already occupied half of it. With the addition of Hedong Road, it now occupies three out of four.”

As he spoke the name of each prefecture and county, the area on the map lit up.

As you can see, the lit-up area has already surrounded most of Zhongjing.

"The key next step is Anbei Province. If Anbei Province is also included in the skyline, then it will be connected with Zhongjing. Manager Chen, you should be able to imagine what this means."

Looking at the map, Chen Chuan realized that if Zhongjing were surrounded by cities that had been incorporated into the skyline, the impact would be enormous, greatly increasing the likelihood of it being incorporated into the skyline. This was probably the scenario that the progressives would most like to see.

Sun Yangde said, "So once Hadong Province is added to the skyline, the focus of the conflict will inevitably shift to Anbei Province. The conservatives absolutely do not want to see this situation, and they will definitely try every means to obstruct it."

Xue Shou then spoke up, smiling as he said, "We don't want to waste our energy on political wrangling with them."

Therefore, we decided to fight a battle at that border area, just like in North Jebu Province, and resolve this matter militarily.

……

……

(End of this chapter)