"That's perfect timing..." Su Chen reached out and took the Azure Cable and scale armor out of his storage space.
Having advanced to the 3rd tier, he could also upgrade his weapons at the sa ti.
Arriving at the basent, he opened the storage room where the materials were kept. First, he took out the Azure Cable. His ntal energy thoroughly seeped into it, activating his Weapon Nurturer class ability.
Among the piled-up materials around him, pieces of adamantium iron ore floated up, beginning to soften and glow as if placed in a furnace.
They turned into drops of scorching liquid tal with ripples dancing across their surfaces. These liquid drops didn't scatter; instead, they were drawn by a powerful suction force, flying toward the azure iron whip suspended in the center.
Sizzle—!
The mont the liquid adamantium touched the iron whip, it produced a violent sound. It wasn't the sound of vaporizing steam, but rather like a branding iron eting solid ice—the reaction was incredibly fierce.
The originally plain and unadorned azure cable greedily absorbed the sweet rain, swiftly devouring and fusing with the liquid.
Crystal-clear fibers attached themselves to it. Following that, more and more liquid adamantium surged forward one after another. It was no longer a simple covering, but true fusion and reshaping.
On the azure base of the iron whip, profound dark gold patterns began to wind their way along, resembling the veins of a living creature. As more liquid tal flowed in, they continuously extended, intertwined, and shone brightly.
It also beca thicker and more solid at a visible rate. The surface no longer had a rough, frosted feel, but presented a bizarre luster—a mix of deep azure and dark gold with the flowing texture of liquid tal.
[Liquid Gold Phantom Blade (3rd-tier): Upgraded using ntal energy to fuse adamantium with spirit extract fibers. Can mimic multiple weapon types.]
Once the tamorphosis was complete, Su Chen massaged his brows, his head feeling sowhat dizzy.
The ntal energy consumption was too great. If his foundation wasn't stronger than others, he wouldn't have been able to hold out halfway through.
"The consumption really isn't small..." Su Chen clicked his tongue. No wonder weapons could only be upgraded after advancing the primary class.
With insufficient ntal fortitude, even lting the materials would be difficult, let alone performing a deep fusion.
The phantom blade before his eyes had shed the appearance of an iron cable, now looking entirely seamless. With a thought from Su Chen, it gradually transford into a tal spear, flowing like liquid.
"The spirit extract fibers have high plasticity, which brings about multiple mimicry traits..." Su Chen toyed with the cold weapon.
However, the shaping process was relatively long, so he obviously couldn't quickly swap forms in the middle of a battle, but it was still very good.
He activated the Spirit Realm Instrunt to aid his ntal recovery, swiftly finishing the scale armor's upgrade as well.
[Purple Gold Scale Armor (3rd-tier): Upgraded using ntal energy to fuse Purple Sparrow scales with high-purity nanomachines.]
The 3rd-tier scale armor was even heavier. The azure scale base was now mixed with a purple gleam. Its defense was much stronger, and its layered defense reaction speed was also faster.
Rubbing his head, Su Chen returned to his bedroom to take a short nap. When he opened his eyes again, he felt full of energy, a bright light shining in his eyes.
"Recovering ntal energy is still different from sleeping..." Su Chen stretched, his whole being feeling refreshed.
He checked the ti; it was already twelve o'clock at night. Still, it was about ti. After tidying up a bit, he left his house. He didn't take the hover car this ti.
After leaving the Adjudication Court, he changed several modes of transportation in succession. He even walked for a while, activating the [Shadow Evasion Wind Boots]. His body grew blurry, making him hard to detect.
'...Liu Chen is a physical-type professional. His developnt progress should already be in the later stages of the 3rd tier. Moreover, he held top-tier classes in his 1st and 2nd tiers, so his accumulated power isn't negligible...'
Su Chen kept his head down. He had long since put on the Mimicry Mask, simply altering his facial features.
The Mimicry Mask he brought from Nanfeng was already sowhat outdated, but it could make do for now.
"Hmm, arrived."
He looked up. This was a high-end hotel. According to the information he gathered recently, Liu Chen had a girlfriend and frequently ca out to fool around.
...
"...Hiss, today... why are you in such a hurry..."
In the room, a woman with a pretty face and wavy hair grimaced in pain, unable to stop pushing at the man lying on her chest.
"...Motherf*cker, I'm so pissed off." Liu Chen's voice sounded very irritable. "That guy actually still hasn't co looking for ."
"Is it still because of that Su Chen?" The woman seed to know who and what he was talking about. "He's also a Core Seed. Why... why must you insist on suppressing him?"
She was sowhat worried. "If things blow up, it won't be easy to smooth over, right?"
"Do I fear him?" Liu Chen abruptly raised his head and slapped the woman fully across the face. She cried out in pain, her eyes welling with tears.
He didn't stop his movents. In this environnt, he made no attempt to conceal his emotions, laughing sinisterly, "If things blow up, who will say anything? He doesn't have the money to afford it, so can you bla ?"
"It's not like I didn't give him a chance. If he just said a few soft words, wouldn't the items be his? It's rely a few Lightning Cores, yet he insists on putting up a tough front. Who can he bla but himself?"
Liu Chen's expression grew increasingly ferocious, and his movents beca more and more violent.
"I... I..." The woman couldn't even speak, her pupils dilating.
Silently and tracelessly, the room door cracked open slightly.
Liu Chen's movents abruptly halted. Cold sweat instantly broke out all over his body, feeling as if ten thousand blades were bearing down on him. A terrifying sense of threat sent sheer horror through his heart.
"Not good!"
This was exactly when his ntal guard was down. By the ti he sensed the other party, a violent gale was already crashing into his face. A cold light hacked diagonally toward him—it was a dark gold giant axe, and its edge was already right before his eyes!
"What fast speed!" Liu Chen's eyelids twitched. A thick azure qi wave had already exploded outward, sending his entire body flying backward to slam into the wall.
Imdiately after, ripples actually appeared on the surface of his skin, and his entire body showed a tendency to liquefy. In this short period, he had exhausted all his strength trying to elentalize to evade physical damage.
Although the attack was hasty, he could still sense that the other party's strength wasn't considered particularly powerful.
As long as he could block it, he would be able to...
However, right at this mont, Liu Chen's pupils dilated. He only felt a severe pain in his brain. His vision went black, and an irritating low murmuring faintly echoed in his ears.
'What is this place!?'
Frightened and furious, Liu Chen looked around. He completely lost control of his body, and the elentalization process was abruptly interrupted.
The axe edge tore through the air with a piercing whine, viciously hacking into Liu Chen's head.
Crack—
The crisp sound of bone shattering rang out, and fresh blood spurted.
"So tough?" Su Chen looked at the axe blade lodged in his bone. Even having lost control, Liu Chen's physical resilience was still present.
anwhile, the severe pain atop his head jolted Liu Chen completely awake. The attacker was right before him, wearing a mask on his face, but on his bald head, a single black pupil was staring straight at him.
"Believer of Black Buddha! A ntal attack!" Liu Chen was shocked, enraged, and terrified. A ntal attack of this intensity could actually make him completely lose control.
This person was very likely a ntal-type professional on the verge of the 4th tier!
"Why did you attack !" Liu Chen furiously shouted. Facing a life-and-death crisis, his adrenaline surged. Glowing blue scales surfaced on his skin, rippling with water-like patterns.
"It wasn't who destroyed the Pang Family." He couldn't understand. If these Believers of Black Buddha wanted revenge, why would they set their sights on him?
"So tough..." Su Chen was also surprised. Relying purely on physical strength, even when the other party had lost control, it was very difficult to cleave him open.
But following that, he pressed down with his palm. Frenzied ntal energy transford into psychokinesis and poured into the giant axe in his hand. Furthermore, spiderweb-like scarlet lightning arcs suddenly burst forth on the axe's surface.
The dancing lightning climbed and coiled along the axe blade, ionizing the newly touched air to produce a scorched sll, forming a swirling lightning storm around it.
Crimson Thunder Prison was compressed into the giant axe, unleashing even more trendous lethal power within a square inch.
Crack!
This ti, it forcefully shattered the scales on the surface of his head and cleaved straight down through the center!
"Ah—" Liu Chen's eyes bulged in fury.
Only at this mont did the woman who had been sent flying blankly stand up. She hadn't even reacted to what happened, only feeling severe pain all over her body. Then, she heard a 'rip' sound.
Turning her head toward the sound, she saw the body she was incredibly familiar with actually being cleaved in half from top to bottom by soone. The sight of blood blurred her vision.
In the gap between the two halves of the corpse, she saw a person wearing a mask, with no hair, and on the exposed skin of his face, black veins completely covered it, converging at the top of his head to form a vertical pupil.
Her heart gave a violent lurch, as if wanting to scream out loud, but as a result, her eyes rolled back, and she just fainted standing straight up.
"Worthy of an Inner Court Seed..." Su Chen looked at the corpse on the ground. Despite his sneak attack giving him the absolute advantage, it still took so effort.
He roughly swept his gaze around. His psychokinesis surged, penetrating into every crevice of the room and sweeping the items Liu Chen had brought with him into the storage space. However, he didn't find the Lightning Cores.
"This is his hover car's unlocking card..." Su Chen pinched the black card, preparing to go check the car.
Just as he was about to leave, Su Chen looked back at the woman lying on the ground. His heart stirred. 'As the only survivor, she will definitely be questioned.'
His ntal energy rippled, and he implanted a seed into her brain.
...
Going down to the hotel's garage, he predictably found a specially forged tal box inside the car.
After putting it into his storage space, he took a detour for a full circle before returning to the Adjudication Court.
'There shouldn't be any problems.' Su Chen had been pondering internally the whole way back.
Recently, incidents of inquisitors dying had occurred frequently. Liu Chen being mixed in among them could be considered convenient timing.
His conflict with occurred... uh, outsiders probably don't even know we had a conflict. Moreover, he was a 3rd-tier, while I'm only a 2nd-tier.
Su Chen deliberated, 'But he's an Inner Court Seed after all, so this will probably stir up quite a bit of turbulence. Just to be safe, I should hide the matter of advancing to the 3rd tier for a period of ti. I won't request a D-Rank ditation thod for now, nor do I need to ask the Gu Family to prepare 3rd-tier auxiliary potions.'
Why Liu Chen targeted him—whether it was on his own initiative or orchestrated by soone else—he couldn't figure out.
But if every single thing he did was interfered with by others, it was indeed very disgusting.
'I hope he acted on his own initiative.' Su Chen evaluated the battle tonight. 'Coordinating with the wind boots, rely in terms of speed, Liu Chen couldn't even react. Although the sneak-attack elent was present, it's not inferior to a 3rd-tier.'
Speed was an aspect that was relatively difficult to improve. After so classes advanced, strength might explosively multiply by over ten tis, but speed wouldn't necessarily increase by much, and might even decline sowhat.
'Incorporating the wind boots as a controllable artifact was definitely the right decision.' Su Chen pondered. He had completed the artifact-controlling process before the sneak attack.
The wind boots didn't just provide their own inherent enhancent; they also added class ability buffs, which allowed him to achieve that level of performance.
Following that, he flipped through his harvest from tonight.
It was primarily the small tal box found in Liu Chen's car. It was extrely heavy to lift. Upon opening it, crackling electric arcs imdiately shot out.
Inside, three irregularly shaped crystals—red, blue, and green—were placed. Su Chen could faintly sense the violent energy contained within them.
"No wonder it was stored in such a thick and heavy box..." Su Chen clicked his tongue.
If Liu Chen carried these three things around personally, he might not have even known if he could survive touching them inside his room.
Su Chen reached out and pinched one of the crystals. He then felt his body extracting the power from within it, which subsequently vanished into an untraceable location within his body.
Just like last ti when he touched the Mystic Energy Crystal.
Very soon, this crystal vanished without a trace, and the remaining two quickly t the sa fate.
[Gale and Swift Thunder Adept mutated to -> Azure Thunder Sovereign]
"Azure Thunder Sovereign, sounds not bad..." Su Chen muttered it a few tis in his mind, only then noticing that the second class-change requirent, "Infiltrate an area guarded by a 3rd-tier professional," had been completed.
'I almost forgot about this. Liu Chen is also a 3rd-tier...'
Having coincidentally completed the class requirent in passing, Su Chen's mood couldn't be better. Within a few days, he could max out the [Azure Thunder Sovereign] as well.
He put the box away, right as he was considering whether he had left behind any flaws or omissions tonight.
Before dawn had even broke, Su Chen suddenly noticed the commotion outside gradually growing louder.
Pushing the door open to look, he saw heads bobbing and torches shining brightly not far away. The roads within the Adjudication Court were full of inquisitors everywhere. Several massive war chariots had already been wheeled out, and shuttle-shaped aircraft hovered in the sky.
Silent and steeped in murderous intent!
'This is...' Su Chen's heart jolted. Just as he wanted to find soone to ask, a familiar face leaped out from the procession. It was exactly Bu Siqi, looking grave, who pulled him aside into his room.
"Senior Brother, what happened?" Su Chen quickly asked softly.
"...An Inner Court Seed is dead," Bu Siqi said in a heavy voice.
"What?" Su Chen was astonished. Half of his reaction was faked, while the other half was completely genuine.
He didn't expect the Adjudication Court's response to actually be this fast. Including the ti it took him to return, Liu Chen had only been dead for less than half a day, yet they had mobilized this many people?
Furthermore, this grand display far exceeded his expectations.
"The one who died is Liu Chen, Red Gold talent, the future pillar of the Liu Family." Bu Siqi sighed. "The Liu Family has cultivated their roots in the Adjudication Court for generations. They have many middle- and upper-level inquisitors. This incident truly kicked a hornet's nest."
Only now did Su Chen truly understand how much weight Gu Bing's previous words, 'cultivated their roots for generations,' actually carried. Relatives, friends, students, students' friends, and so on... a complexly intertwined web.
In the blink of an eye, they could pull together such a massive procession.
Of course, he didn't regret it. Instead, he felt that striking him down was absolutely right, otherwise, they would be quite difficult to deal with in the future.
"Have they found the murderer?" Su Chen couldn't help but ask.
"How could it be so fast." Bu Siqi shook his head.
"They haven't found the murderer, yet they're putting on such a huge display?" Su Chen asked in surprise.
"It's all because of the Supervision Departnt." Bu Siqi raged, "The Supervision Departnt arrived first at the murder scene inside the city. After discovering it was Liu Chen, they imdiately locked down the news, and the corpse was taken away. We can't access anything at all. How could the people from the Liu Family let this simply slide?"
"Moreover, quite a few inquisitors have also been very dissatisfied during this period, so they're rightly seizing the opportunity to go cause a scene at the Supervision Departnt."
'Going to cause a scene at the Supervision Departnt...' Su Chen now suddenly realized. And here he thought the Liu Family was truly that aweso; it turned out it was also convenient timing.
"It's estimated that it's still revenge from the Evil God Cults and the remnants of the Pang Family." Bu Siqi looked grave. Although it was unclear exactly who attacked Liu Chen, the deaths of the last few inquisitors basically pointed back to the prior destruction of the Pang Family.
"Haven't the remnants been fully caught yet?" Su Chen didn't understand how the Supervision Departnt could be so useless.
"It's not just the remnants of the Pang Family, but also people taking the opportunity to stir up trouble, as well as refugee organizations... It's very hard to catch them all, but the primary issue lies with the Evil God Cultists." Bu Siqi furrowed his brows deeply. "If we call it revenge, they've only killed a few people scattered here and there. But if we say it isn't revenge, they keep continually striking. It's truly strange."
"Before today, the ones who died were all inquisitors who participated in the destruction of the Pang Family, but now Liu Chen is also dead, which leaves people utterly confused..."
'Could they... could they be looking for the lost Divine Blood?' Upon hearing what Bu Siqi said, a guess sprang to life in Su Chen's heart.
This kind of 'slow killing' didn't look like revenge; rather, it looked like they were searching for so kind of clue.
Bu Siqi gave a final piece of advice, "Liu Chen is an Inner Court Seed; his tracks are hard for the outside world to figure out. Perhaps there's a mole on the inside too. No matter what, you shouldn't go out recently."
"I understand." Su Chen nodded solemnly.
"By the way..." Seeing that Bu Siqi had walked to the door, he then turned back. "That Chu Xuan, are you confident you can handle him?"
"According to the news from the Class Analysis Departnt, he has a very high success rate of advancing to a 3rd-tier top class. I can find soone to give him a show of force."
'A show of force...' For so reason, Su Chen suddenly thought of Liu Chen.
That guy was probably soone giving him a show of force, right?
"No need..." Su Chen shook his head.
Sighing, Bu Siqi assud he was just feeling embarrassed, shaking his head gently. "There's not just fighting and killing in the Adjudication Court, but also understanding the ways of the world."
After sending Bu Siqi off, Su Chen frowned slightly. The inside story behind the inquisitors' deaths had always involved the friction between the Supervision Departnt and the Adjudication Court. He had never known the specific situation until today.
He actually wasn't afraid of Believers of Black Buddha coming to find his door. The mont he activated his disguise, they would all be on the sa side, and everything would be easy to talk out.
But other Evil God Cultists wouldn't be as easy to talk to.
Although he wasn't limited to just disguising himself as a believer of Black Buddha, he still had to first obtain the class information of the other Evil God Cultists.
'Job class information regarding Evil God Cultists falls under taboos. And trying to extort it from the mouths of those mad fanatics is even more impossible. Troubleso...'
After learning this information, his originally good mood worsened significantly. He simply made a trip to the Logistics Departnt and reported the loss of his chanical golem. He even had to pay an extra one hundred thousand gold before they provided him with a new chanical golem body.
Su Chen didn't have any money on him, so he had no choice but to owe it first. Fortunately, the identity of a Core Seed still carried this bit of face.
Taking it back to the villa, he pried open the back of the chanical golem's head. Guided by the manual, he carefully embedded the psionic core into the mount in the center, accompanied by a surge of electrical current.
"Master, thank you for providing a new body for Zero."
Zero's mouth emitted a familiar voice. Su Chen exchanged a few words with her and discovered that she still retained her previous mory data and his behavioral habits.
'Hmm, I wonder what the situation is on that side...' After handling his miscellaneous affairs, Su Chen couldn't help but think of Liu Chen's death again.
On the surface, there shouldn't be any problems, but classes were endlessly bizarre. Perhaps there was so bizarre class out there that could bypass evidence and point directly to the murderer.
'Let's try that seed...' Su Chen returned to his bedroom, closed his eyes, and followed that almost imperceptible trace connection to try and extend his ntal energy.
"...Are you sure..."
A voice echoed faintly beside his ears before gradually becoming clear. The scene before his eyes shifted, and he arrived in a white room. Before him were two supervision guards with solemn expressions.
He tried to look around, only to find that his field of vision wasn't under his own control.
'Is this what that woman is seeing?' Upon realizing this, Su Chen then heard a female voice laced with terror and unease, "I've told you guys everything I saw and heard many tis."
"It's a Believer of Black Buddha! Liu Chen shouted it right before he died, and I saw it clearly too. I'm also from the Carving Departnt; wouldn't I know what a Believer of Black Buddha looks like?"
"The weapon was an axe, an axe! I didn't see exactly what it looked like; I only saw his head!"
"Instead of catching the murderer, what are you doing interrogating here? If you don't believe it, find soone to read my mories!"
The woman's emotions were clearly out of control, her voice growing higher and higher pitched.
(End of this chapter)
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