After escorting Teng Liang back to the Adjudication Court, Su Chen didn't go back himself. Instead, he took a hovercar and headed to Zijin Huadu. After parking the car, Su Chen looked up; the place was as resplendent as ever.
That day, Chu Xuan had hosted a banquet for everyone here, full of high spirits and vigor. Now, the grass on his grave was practically fully grown.
Pushing open the door to a high-level private room, quite a few people were already waiting inside. So faces were very unfamiliar, filled with apprehension, while others were very familiar.
"Brother Su, you're finally here." The one speaking was Du Yu, who had already been promoted to an investigation squad captain in the Supervision Departnt. He stepped forward to greet him.
"Brother Su..." Jiang Xi called out from the side. He had beco a logistics supervisor at the Crafting Departnt. He was much more mature and composed now, and his eyes held gratitude.
It was only a few months ago that he finally understood why, when he first ca to deliver the combat boots to Su Chen, the other party had made him take back a half-finished bottle of alcohol.
"Brother Su..." Zhang Hengyu was also present. He had long completely lost the thought of comparing himself to Su Chen, and was currently preparing to advance to the 3rd tier.
Su Chen lived a secluded life, mostly chatting with these few online, but he put on no airs and responded to them one by one.
As for those who looked green and immature, they were the outstanding talents who had co from Nanfeng City this year, looking at Su Chen with reverence and awe.
"Quite a lot of people ca from Nanfeng this year." Su Chen scanned the room and was pulled by Du Yu to sit in the reserved seat of honor.
"City Lord Yuan made drastic, sweeping changes and incorporated the refugees into the talent cultivation system. He actually discovered quite a few decent seedlings." Du Yu said.
"I see." Su Chen understood, and everyone took their seats.
After a few rounds of drinks, the atmosphere beca much more harmonious.
"You all knew in Nanfeng that I defeated the person from Yuandu?" Su Chen looked at the little girl in front of him in surprise.
"Mhm..." The little girl was quite shy. Seeing Su Chen direct his attention to her, her cheeks grew redder and redder, and she stamred, unable to speak.
"There is the Comrce Bureau, after all, so Yingfeng's news can still circulate back." Du Yu explained, then looked at the young man to the side. "Where's the stuff you brought?"
"Oh, oh..." The other party hurriedly took out a tal box from his side. "This is... the letter Miss White Pigeon asked to bring to you, as well as City Lord Yuan's..."
Su Chen paused and reached out to take it. It was exactly because he learned from Du Yu that these things were here that he made this trip.
Of course, even if he hadn't co, they would have been delivered to him.
"Are you the person Nanfeng recomnded to the Adjudication Court this year?" Su Chen looked over.
"Yes... my na is Qian Heng, a seedling picked out by City Lord Yuan, with Brilliant Silver talent," Du Yu said.
Brilliant Silver... Su Chen wasn't surprised. It was the norm for lower-tier cities to recomnd those with Brilliant Silver talent.
"I know." Su Chen nodded. Qian Heng's face flushed red. When he was in Nanfeng, he was still sowhat bewildered and lacked understanding regarding Su Chen's status.
Only after coming to Yingfeng did he gain a profound realization. During the Supervision Departnt's screening upon entering the city, hearing that they were from Nanfeng, the attitude of the inspectors had been very warm and mild.
After chatting a bit longer, Su Chen noticed everyone was very constrained. He also knew the reason why, so he said a few words to Du Yu and prepared to leave first.
But right before leaving, he pulled out a small box from his coat and handed it to Du Yu. "Please find soone to take this back to Nanfeng and give it to Hu Xiang."
Inside was the 【Mist Nightmare Bead】. He had held onto it for a year.
After obtaining it last year, he hadn't imdiately had soone take it back because he was afraid soone might pocket it. Later, after entering the Adjudication Court, he forgot about this matter altogether.
It wasn't until today, seeing the people from Nanfeng, that he suddenly rembered.
"No problem, leave it to ." Du Yu looked a bit dizzy from the drinks, but upon hearing Su Chen's instructions, he imdiately stood up straight and gave his guarantee.
Su Chen exchanged a few more greetings before turning and leaving.
"It's been a year." Boarding the hovercar, Su Chen couldn't help but feel a bit sentintal, thinking back to the scenes when he first arrived in Yingfeng. It couldn't be said that he was restricted at every turn, but he could certainly be considered exceedingly cautious.
Pulling the iron box from his coat, he opened it to find two letters folded neatly inside.
"Letters..." Looking down at them, Su Chen suddenly felt a sense of ridiculousness.
Because of the existence of the mist, there were tis when he always felt the absurdity of this world.
This wasn't a special form of communication to pursue a sense of ceremony; between cities, letters truly were a mainstream thod of communication.
The first was from Little Pigeon, in a pale pink envelope, the letter paper carrying the fragrance of wood.
"Brother Su Chen..."
The letter was very long, spanning three or four pages. Most of it was chattering, along with so miscellaneous matters, complaining about Yuan Chenyang managing her too strictly, and the like.
"Heh..." After finishing it, Su Chen chuckled lightly and then opened Yuan Chenyang's letter. It looked much more formal.
"To my disciple Su Chen, reading this letter is like seeing my face..."
Old Yuan's letter consisted mostly of praise and amazent, while also warning him to keep his edge hidden. Because he was still young, he shouldn't strive for temporary victories.
After reading them, Su Chen put them back into their envelopes and placed them into his storage space.
Turning his head to look out the window, the sky had already grown dim, and Yingfeng's neon lights reflected on his face.
"The Holy Banquet..." he murmured.
…………
"Finally, the Azure Thunder Sovereign is also full."
Another ten days passed. Su Chen looked at his panel, a glint flashing in his eyes. He put away the Spirit Realm Instrunt as usual. With everything prepared, he did not hesitate.
Calamity Patroller—Advance!
In an instant, violent lightning poured out from his body.
Su Chen's body underwent a drastic mutation at the center of the thunderstorm. Pale blue lightning patterns frantically proliferated from beneath his skin, crawling all over his entire body like living creatures.
His bones took on a crystallized state under the penetration of the lightning's glow, accompanied by violent, continuous cracking sounds. His eyes transford into two revolving thunderstorms, while two bolts of lightning intersected at the center of his brow, faintly interweaving into a blazing white lightning scar.
The transformation of his flesh was even more intense and painful. Su Chen opened his mouth and spat out two bloody teeth, able to clearly feel new, and sturdier, teeth growing in his mouth right away.
【Azure Thunder Cloud-Crumbling has transford into—Calamity of Azure Thunder: Attacks carry the power of calamity.】
【Indestructible Thunder Aura Armor has transford into—Aura Thunder Calamity Armor: Can counter-attack enemy strikes, carrying the power of calamity.】
【Thunder Walk has been enhanced!】
【Azure Thunder Sovereign has transford into—Calamity Lord: When the Calamity Lord descends, within range, the more calamity power present in a target's body, the worse their luck.】
【Gained professional ability—Calamity Strike: Detonates the accumulated calamity power within a target, capable of inflicting severe damage.】
The transformation gradually ended. The sensation of his body being nearly torn apart faded, replaced by an expansive, almost bursting vitality.
"Phew..." Su Chen took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled. It was long and drawn out, mixed with fragnts of black lightning.
He swept a glance over the various abilities.
"The power of calamity should be the core of the Calamity Patroller."
"The worse their luck? What kind of manifestation is that? Choking on cold water? Tripping while fighting?"
"Severe damage... exactly how strong is it?"
Su Chen muttered to himself, quite curious. At the tip of his finger, black lightning flashed briefly and vanished.
Unfortunately, these abilities all required a primary target to test. He adapted to his body for a mont.
Su Chen then reached out and took a large chest from his storage space.
Upon opening it, inside were placed various tal blocks of different colors, as well as dark gold scales stacked neatly one after another, and various kinds of tals.
These were all things he used to upgrade the Mystic Artifacts he controlled.
Gu Bing had delivered them a few days ago, but the Azure Thunder Sovereign was only missing its final push, so Su Chen didn't delay and waited until today.
He first took out the Purple Gold Scale Armor. The dark gold scales placed to the side rose into the air, along with a few blocks of tal as black as ink. It was called 【Ink Steel】, and its price was not cheap either.
The Purple Gold Scale Armor trembled continuously. Ripple-like patterns ford on its surface, and the dark gold scales precisely embedded themselves into the original armor's gaps like living creatures.
The two materials began to experience a miraculous fusion. The flowing luster of the Purple Gold Scale Armor was rapidly swallowed by the inky blackness. Dazzling light burst from the seams, and every scale plate restructured itself at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The smooth armor surface grew the three-dinsional ridges unique to dragon scales, its edges naturally forming jagged, razor-sharp curves.
The Dark Dragon Scale Armor presented the deep background color of a starry sky, with molten gold-like patterns flowing through it.
The scale armor suddenly contracted autonomously to fit snugly. Faint black mist seeped out from between the scales. This mist condensed into miniature dragon phantoms on the surface of the armor, wandering erratically along the armor's patterns.
【Dark Dragon Scale Armor—4th Tier: Forged from Earth Dragon Dark Scales supplented with Ink Steel. Possesses extrely strong resistance to elental powers, and its defense is astonishing.】
Not bad... Su Chen looked at the ink-colored scale armor before him, reaching out to flick it, producing a crisp clashing sound.
The ntal energy consumption was not small, but with the Glutton, he rapidly converted stamina and continued upgrading the rest.
【Formless True Blade—4th Tier: Forged from Dragon Bone Cold Iron supplented with a Nano Core. Can transform its weapon morphology in an extrely short ti.】
【Heaven's Leap Battle Boots—4th Tier: Wrapped in Phantom Mirage Skin. Activating it easily creates ten overlapping afterimages.】
The remaining two controlled Mystic Artifacts were also elevated to 4th-tier items, and the aspects they respectively excelled in also leapt forward substantially.
"Mhm, only now can I be considered to have thoroughly advanced..." Su Chen was completely satisfied. He tidied up briefly and left the door.
"Two days ago, news ca from the Class Decoding Departnt that the Essence of Spirituality from Yuandu had already arrived and they were waiting for to go pick it up." As Su Chen walked, he couldn't help but grin. "The feeling of having things delivered right to my mouth is truly wonderful."
Heading straight to the Class Decoding Departnt, Sang Hanhai had already received his ssage and was waiting for him.
"You certainly are patient. The items arrived two days ago, and you're only coming today," Sang Hanhai said upon seeing him approaching leisurely.
"I was occupied with urgent matters these past few days. I've troubled you, Elder." Having just advanced to the 4th tier, Su Chen was in a good mood and laughed slyly.
"You, you..." Sang Hanhai shook his head, leading Su Chen deep into the Class Decoding Departnt.
The items were kept with Pu Zhenghong. Su Chen watched him explicitly open a long black box lined with dark velvet. Two pale gold tassels lay quietly within.
Every strand and thread was distinctly visible, each glowing faintly. Tiny crystal pendants adorned the ends, undulating slightly as if they possessed life.
Seemingly sensing the opening of the box lid, they actually appeared to want to escape as well. But this box was not simple; it wove a net of black chains that locked them inside.
Su Chen faintly heard two sharp cries.
"This is the Essence of Spirituality." Su Chen stared at it, finding it quite miraculous.
"Who knows what thod Yuandu has mastered to actually be able to find so many," Pu Zhenghong couldn't help but say as well. "With two portions of Essence of Spirituality, if your luck is good, you might perhaps be able to possess half of the class abilities."
The employnt requirent for the Spirit Adept required three portions of Essence of Spirituality. Obtaining two portions didn't an exchanging it for two-thirds of the abilities.
Class requirents were extrely difficult to asure with data. There were many influencing factors; missing one portion ant the difference was worlds apart.
"Alright, stop looking. Get ready to take on the class," Sang Hanhai urged.
"Now?" Su Chen lifted his head, sowhat dumbfounded.
"Of course..." Sang Hanhai said as if it were to be expected. "Senior Brother and I have assisted in the acquisition of many classes. With us keeping an eye out for you, if any accidents happen during the process, we can also remind you."
"Uh..." Su Chen hesitated. He only needed one portion of the Essence of Spirituality for his advancent. Having these two watch would an he’d have to waste more breath explaining it, and who knew what kind of problems might arise.
"You're unwilling?" Sensing Su Chen's hesitation, Sang Hanhai asked, displeased, "You don't trust us?"
"It's not that I don't trust you," Su Chen said helplessly. "This is my first ti taking a class under the observation of others. Being anxious in my heart might actually cause problems."
"This..." Sang Hanhai frowned. It wasn't that he didn't believe Su Chen's words. On the contrary, it was exactly because he had seen cases like this before, where an individual couldn't complete it while being assisted by multiple Class Decoders, but succeeded upon trying it secretly on their own.
However, this matter was of no small significance.
"Then let him prepare on his own," Pu Zhenghong spoke up, shaking his head. "So things cannot be forced, anyway."
Seeing Pu Zhenghong also say this, Sang Hanhai stopped trying to persuade him.
Old Pu still had to research the Divine Language. Sang Hanhai led Su Chen away from the place, bringing sothing up along the way:
"When trading for the Saint [class] a few days ago, I noticed that although Tang Chen and Wu Chenpei had sullen faces, they did not have expressions of despair."
"It's possible that Hong Xuan really can complete it. He might genuinely never have killed anyone before. If that's the case, then Heaven is truly helping Yuandu." Sang Hanhai sighed.
Su Chen's heart skipped a beat. It wasn't impossible to cheat class requirents. He had seen Zhang Hengyu use it, and the Adjudication Court also had many unorthodox thods.
The Saint [class] couldn't be called difficult, nor could it be called easy. The main point lay in not killing. It was genuinely possible that Yuandu had so unorthodox thods.
Hearing Sang Hanhai ntion this, Su Chen also thought of sothing: "By the way, have the classes Yuandu compensated us with arrived yet?"
Sang Hanhai was currently worrying about the possibility of Hong Xuan successfully taking on the Saint class. Hearing Su Chen's inquiry, he couldn't help glaring at him. "You're still thinking about that."
Su Chen felt baffled. Wasn't this what they had agreed upon back then?
Sang Hanhai felt that Su Chen wasn't anxious at all, but on second thought, the fact that he and the others had suddenly dumped the pressure of 'saving the world' onto Su Chen was in itself a form of irresponsibility.
"Don't mind it," he sighed again.
Su Chen felt even more speechless. What was wrong with Old Sang today?
"It's nothing." Naturally, Su Chen indicated it was fine. Sang Hanhai gathered his emotions and said, "Yuandu brought out a total of two classes, counting the Spirit Adept, to be used as compensation for scamming us with the Sage."
"One of them is an upper-tier class for a certain 6th-tier class that we specifically requested," Sang Hanhai snorted coldly. "The other is a special class."
"Those bastards from Yuandu!"
Sang Hanhai cursed again.
"What's wrong?" Su Chen asked. "Is the class too trashy?"
"If the class were too simple, we wouldn't have wanted it either," Sang Hanhai shook his head, his voice cold. "That class is actually pretty good, but the problem lies in the fact that its requirents are too much of a hassle."
"Yuandu definitely banked on the high probability that after we received it, we would just file it away and ignore it."
The requirents are too difficult?
Su Chen's eyes lit up. I like difficult requirents. It would be even better if the bones were a bit harder to chew on. The Great Exalted loves hard bones.
"Let see it," Su Chen leaned closer and said.
"I knew it." Sang Hanhai wore an expression of 'unsurprisingly'. He said helplessly, "Why are you so interested in unknown classes? Haven't you taken on the Armored Bone Adept yet? And you've probably tossed the Origin Reverser to the back of your mind as well."
"These classes all require ti to slowly grind out."
Su Chen, however, replied, "Just because I don't have ti now doesn't an I won't have ti in the future."
"You always have a 'good reason'," Sang Hanhai shook his head. Words aside, this was what they had promised Su Chen originally, so he simply took him towards the laboratory.
By all ans he knew the class information, but he certainly couldn't just talk about it out in the open on the main road.
……
【Discovered special class—Ravager. Fulfill the class requirents to advance.】
【Class Requirent One: For half a year, endure at least one type of fatal, high-intensity pain (such as high-temperature burning, low-temperature frostbite, strong acid corrosion, electric shocks, etc.) continuously every day. The type of pain cannot be repeated within a five-day span.】
【Class Requirent Two: Must be able to feel pleasure within pain.】
【Class Requirent Three: Pierce your heart with the Blood-Weeping Iron Branch for three days to undergo the coronation of agony.】
In the laboratory, looking at the pop-up panel after hearing this, Su Chen's face was completely covered in dark lines. Out of all three requirents, none of them were normal.
'Feel pleasure within pain'—no wonder Old Sang had a constipated look on his face.
"Now you know."
Seeing Su Chen's face full of dark lines, Sang Hanhai seed rather amused. Picking up his teacup, he leisurely took a sip.
"What are the abilities of this class?" Su Chen asked. This class seed troubleso, but it really didn't belong to the category of being impossible to complete—it was just exceedingly picky about who could take it.
"According to Tang Chen's explanation, upon successfully advancing, the professional can transform the physical damage and pain their body sustains into violent kinetic energy. The more severe the injury, the stronger the self-enhancent, and it is a comprehensive enhancent."
Speaking to this point, Sang Hanhai paused and then shook his head. "It is indeed very powerful, but erupting with formidable strength after suffering severe injuries isn't necessarily a good thing. The body itself might be the first to not be able to bear it."
This was like a paradox. The more mangled the body, the stronger the eruption, but by that ti, the body would already be as fragile as paper. Before finishing off the enemy, the person themselves might collapse first.
Any class couldn't just have its abilities evaluated simply; one also had to determine its practicality in real-world combat environnts.
Saying this, he looked at Su Chen, only to see that this kid's gaze was unfocused, not knowing what he was thinking about.
After hearing these requirents, he probably also lost interest. Sang Hanhai wasn't surprised by this.
"This guy is indeed unusual," Su Chen thought to himself, completely speechless. Looking at the text on the panel, this ti there was actually quite a few lines.
【Pain is not a price, but fuel; trauma is not an end, but a beginning. The Ravager thoroughly adheres to the creed of agony. Upon setting eyes upon the Supre One's majestic and dignified form, he could not help but tremble, weeping tears of agony, begging the Great Exalted to bestow upon him the most agonizing torture to represent his most supre reverence.】
Upon seeing this, even Su Chen was montarily dumbfounded. This was his first ti seeing soone actively begging to be beaten up.
But right after, he began to feel expectant. If the Great Exalted gave him a concussion, it would be even better.
【The Great Exalted ignored him. Disappointnt filled the Ravager's heart.】
Sigh... didn't manage to see the desired result. Su Chen couldn't help sighing.
Unlike the Law Envoy, the Ravager was not disrespectful towards the Great Exalted. On the contrary, he was extrely reverent; it was just that his way of expressing it was different from other classes.
And beneath that, there was still another line of characters—
【Turning around, the Ravager looked at the other classes in the corner and shook his head in disgust, not knowing how this garbage could share the sa space as the Crimson Fla Responding Thunder Great Exalted.
The varying classes stared blankly, then flew into a violent rage and sward him.
While being beaten up, the Ravager let out comfortable moans.】
"Quite smart. Provoking the ordinary classes, but didn't dare provoke the Great Exalted," Su Chen watched, unable to suppress a smile. This guy only wanted to suffer agonizing torture and didn't want to be directly beaten into a concussion.
And what amazed him the most was the final line.
【Ravager class advancent requirents consolidated. Current completion progress: 1%】
Three types of class requirents consolidated into a progress bar?
Su Chen raised an eyebrow. "Does this an that as long as I beat him until he feels good, I can directly advance?"
(End of this chapter)
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