With the letter and token Chen Li had given him, Chen Ming quietly slipped toward Mingdu.
With the entire nation on alert, checkpoints throughout the Sun Moon Empire had become extremely strict. Suspicious travelers without travel permits all had to undergo screening.
Although Chen Ming's current abilities allowed him to bypass most cities and return directly to Mingdu, he still had to pass verification at certain checkpoints along the way unless he wanted to force his way through.
Chen Ming did not want news of his return to spread widely just yet, so he used the waist token Chen Li had given him.
Thanks to the privileges of the Dragon Elephant Soul Engineer Regiment, Chen Ming returned to Mingdu without much trouble.
As the largest and most prosperous city on the continent, Mingdu seemed entirely unchanged by the tension on the front lines. Never mind the wind filling the tower before a mountain storm—even the faintest gloomy, oppressive atmosphere was absent.
Although its concealed defenses had been strengthened considerably, and many Soul Tools that had still been experimental projects at Mingde Hall when Chen Ming left had since been installed throughout the city, Mingdu remained much the same as before his departure.
Mingde Hall lay underground beneath the heart of Mingdu, but Chen Ming knew it also had a concealed underground passage outside the city, used for emergency evacuations or certain inconvenient matters.
Using his identification credentials and the methods he had learned at Mingde Hall, Chen Ming opened the underground passage and headed inside. Before he could enter Mingde Hall itself, however, Jing Hongchen appeared before him.
After a year apart, Jing Hongchen was still as round as ever, his waist nearly matching his height. His face, seemingly nourished by abundant collagen, showed no signs of aging either.
Upon