Zzt—
Not only that, but a black arc of electricity shot right toward him.
Bu Siqi jumped back in a panic. The hair-thin arc of electricity blasted a large crater into the training room's specialized tal flooring, sending up plus of black smoke.
"Su Chen!"
Bu Siqi shouted, his face dark with frustration, but Su Chen remained standing in place without moving a muscle.
"If you don't actively counterattack, your body still passively counterattacks?"
He took a deep breath, walked over, and pulled off Su Chen's blindfold, only to reveal a look of complete bewildernt on the young man's face.
"Junior Apprentice Brother," Bu Siqi said, instantly changing his expression to a cheerful smile. "This isn't going to work. You said you wanted to achieve perfect evasion."
"But with your defensive buffs active, your body can't sense even the slightest hint of danger. It will be almost impossible to find that specific mont of inspiration you are looking for."
Hearing this, Su Chen fell into deep thought.
Old Bu seed to have a point. Just now, he had completely sealed off his external senses, to the point where he could not even feel the flow of the air.
Under such circumstances, he could only rely on his body's instinctual reactions. Relying on his defenses ant he would not get hurt, but it also made it incredibly difficult to grasp that elusive feeling.
Ever since this profession was decoded, only three people had successfully acquired it. The last successful employnt was over a decade ago, so there was very little relevant data available.
"Alright, let's try again." Su Chen dispelled his defenses and put the blindfold back on, blocking his senses and plunging himself into a realm of pitch-black darkness.
'This requirent is even harder than I imagined,'
Su Chen muttered inwardly. Under the condition of completely cutting off his perception of the outside world, his body beca highly tense and prone to misjudgnts. He still had to let—
Suddenly, his heart skipped a beat. Before he could even react, a sharp pain pierced his chest. He felt himself flying through the air before crashing heavily onto the ground.
Bu Siqi brought his fingers to his lips, blowing away non-existent smoke, and broke into a wide grin as he looked at Su Chen collapsed on the floor.
This was the teacher's precious darling. It was a rare treat to be able to beat him up like this on an ordinary day.
He was just about to ask if Su Chen wanted to take a break when he saw the young man already scrambling back to his feet. There was only a single bloody scratch on his chest.
"What the hell, is he a giant tortoise? Even without using defensive skills, his physical endurance is still this ridiculously high. What exactly is his 4th-Tier profession?" Bu Siqi's eye twitched.
"Senior Apprentice Brother, let's keep going!"
Su Chen was genuinely a bit amazed. His body's instinctual reactions were far more intense than he had anticipated.
What followed was an endless repetition of the sa scene. Su Chen would be knocked down, get back up, get knocked down again, and rise once more.
Bu Siqi's expression gradually shifted from keen interest to blank apathy, and finally to a look of absolute despair.
He watched helplessly as Su Chen progressed from being completely unable to react at the start to gradually being able to shift his body at the last second.
"Holy Envoy," Tang Chen said as he walked into the room. Wu Chenpei, Hong Xuan, and the others, along with the captain of the guards responsible for daily security, were all present.
"Mm." Wu Chenpei nodded. Seeing that everyone had arrived, he announced, "I will soon be following Chong Jingtian to the front lines to fight the Faceless Ghost army."
"During my absence, all of you will follow the orders of the captain of the guards, Lu Kai."
He glanced at the man standing to the side, who possessed a square face and wore heavy, pale-gold armor. The man gave a solemn nod.
Naturally, the others raised no objections. Lu Kai currently served as the delegation's captain of the guards, which sounded unremarkable, but back in Yuandu, he was a high-ranking mber of the Holy See and a Tier 6 Professional.
After issuing a few brief instructions, Wu Chenpei dismissed the rest of the group, leaving only Hong Xuan behind.
He enveloped the two of them in a sphere of energy before speaking. "I have already made secret arrangents with Yuandu. I will head to the Ruins ahead of ti to set up the preparations."
.
"When the ti cos, as long as you beco the Chosen One, they will have no choice but to swallow their pride and accept it if they want to survive the Holy Banquet."
They would not make their move in Yingfeng. As long as they could withstand the initial wave of fury, the others would naturally see the reality of the situation once they cald down. Chong Jingtian had always prioritized the big picture.
Hong Xuan's expression remained calm as he nodded in agreent.
Back in the training grounds, ti continued to slip by. Bu Siqi was in absolute agony because Su Chen's voice was growing increasingly excited, while he naturally found the repetitive task increasingly dull.
Pulling a blood bag from his pocket, he roughly shoved it into his mouth. The tallic taste of blood flooding his senses finally lifted his spirits a little.
This cycle of beating had persisted for a full seven or eight days.
Until finally, at a certain mont, Bu Siqi's dull expression shattered. He stared in absolute shock at Su Chen, who was still standing in the sa spot. "Holy crap!"
He had seen it clearly. In the exact fraction of a second before his attack landed, Su Chen had dodged it with an unimaginable reaction speed.
"You actually did it."
Su Chen had already pulled off his blindfold. His entire body throbbed with a dull, aching pain, but as he stared at the System Panel showing ten percent progress on the second requirent for the Gale Dancer profession, he could not help but feel a surge of excitent.
"That feeling... it really was—" He carefully savored the mory of the sensation.
That specific mont of inspiration could hardly be considered a purely physical premonition anymore; it felt much more like a sudden, almost divine spark of intuition.
"Taking beatings for nearly ten days, just to trigger it this one ti..." After reliving the mont, Su Chen could not help but shake his head. Even though the required number of successful evasions had been reduced from a hundred to just ten, it would still take a massive amount of ti to complete.
If every subsequent success took this long, it would take him at least three months to fulfill just this single requirent.
To anyone else, that would be considered incredibly fast, but for him, it was still far too long. The most critical issue was that he could not synchronize this with his overall profession developnt.
However, Su Chen had no other choice but to slowly grind through it.
"Let's try again." Su Chen slipped the blindfold back on.
Bu Siqi hurriedly stopped him. Su Chen might be able to endure it, but he certainly could not.
"Junior Apprentice Brother, take a break."
Seeing Bu Siqi looking like he would rather be dead, Su Chen had no choice but to compromise. "Just one more ti. Let see if I can trigger that feeling again."
Bu Siqi reluctantly launched another attack, but this ti, the outco was completely different from before.
And so ca another attack, then another, and another... until Bu Siqi absolutely could not take it anymore, finally forcing Su Chen to stop.
"Junior Apprentice Brother, please, find soone else to torture," Bu Siqi begged repeatedly.
Su Chen sighed. "Senior Apprentice Brother, what can I do? You are the one I trust the most."
Bu Siqi's mouth twitched. However, since Su Chen was also feeling a bit fatigued, he decided to take a proper rest and listen to his senior brother chat about recent events.
"Feng Ze and Liang Jingcheng both went, and even Wei Yufan followed them?" Su Chen asked, unable to hide his surprise.
"Yeah," Bu Siqi sighed with emotion. "The Chief gave them the freedom to choose for themselves. Even though Feng Ze and Liang Jingcheng are always secretly competing against each other, neither hesitated this ti. Zhong Ming went along as well."
"However, that Wei Yufan went rather unwillingly." Bu Siqi sneered. "But since our teacher is staying behind to guard the Adjudication Court this ti, he was far more terrified of remaining here, so he had no choice but to follow them to the front lines."
"As for you and Ming Lin, the Chief explicitly ordered both of you to stay behind and garrison the Adjudication Court."
Facing the Faceless Ghost Cultists head-on was not a ga. It was bound to be incredibly dangerous, and as Core Seeds, they were expected to lead by example.
But Chong Jingtian clearly did not want Su Chen taking such a risk. The sa went for Ming Lin, who also showed trendous potential.
"The Chief is very thoughtful," Su Chen agreed. For Bu Siqi, receiving news from the outside world had been his only way to relieve his boredom over the past few days.
Changing the subject, Bu Siqi added, "By the way, the Wind Song Gem and the Storm Frenzy Feather you asked for are ready."
"That fast?" Su Chen was stunned. Neither of those items was easy to procure. The Wind Song Gem was a seven-holed erald stone that could only be ford by sheer chance in environnts plagued by year-round storms.
When the wind blew through it, it would produce an ethereal, lodic song. Because it was exceptionally rare, its price was exorbitantly high.
As for the Storm Frenzy Feather, it was the bluest plu plucked from the crest of a 5th-Tier Mutant eagle. That creature spent its entire life in the sky without ever touching the ground, making it incredibly difficult to track down.
But then, another thought occurred to him. "Didn't I ask Gu Bing to buy them for ?"
Bu Siqi grinned. "Why go through all that trouble? A single word from our teacher settled the matter. He had them requisitioned directly from the Resource Depository."
This... Su Chen fell into a stunned silence.
"Didn't expect that, did you?" Bu Siqi completely understood his feelings. He patted Su Chen's shoulder and sighed deeply. "In the past, out of the thirteen months in a year, if our teacher spent even three months inside the Adjudication Court, it would be considered a lot."
"When have I ever enjoyed this kind of VIP treatnt? Now, look at us. The entire Adjudication Court answers to our teacher."
Su Chen could not help but nod in agreent. Old Xia was even bolder than he had imagined. Without a single ounce of hesitation, he had just boldly claid the resources for personal use.
anwhile, inside the office that originally belonged to Chong Jingtian, Xia Hanshi was currently sitting in the Chief's chair, seemingly savoring the feeling of holding the highest authority.
"Xia Hanshi!"
Standing opposite him, Lei Tieyan shouted sharply, his face livid with anger. "What exactly do you think you are doing? The Chief has only been gone for a few days, and you are already requisitioning sealed Evil God Power from the Forbidden Vault."
"Right now, it is only the two of us guarding this place. If sothing goes wrong, can you bear the responsibility?!"
"Of course," Xia Hanshi replied with a look of pure apathy.
"You—" Lei Tieyan scolded. "Before the Chief left, he made it explicitly clear that I am the acting decision-maker within the Adjudication Court. You are only here to offer advice."
"Then my advice to you is to screw off back to your departnt," Xia Hanshi said, completely deadpan.
Lei Tieyan's grayish-brown cheeks rapidly flushed crimson. His chest heaved, and the aura rolling off his body beca violently unstable, as if he were ready to strike at any given mont.
"Old Lei—"
Suddenly, a withered hand rested gently upon his shoulder. It felt as heavy as a mountain, pinning him firmly in place and rendering him completely unable to move.
The raging aura surging around his body instantly settled down, as if a violently erupting volcano had been forcibly capped off.
The fury in Lei Tieyan's eyes froze as his heart skipped a beat. Unbeknownst to him, Xia Hanshi, who had just been sitting in the chair, had silently drifted behind him.
"Since Chong Jingtian agreed to let stay, do you really think he doesn't know my temperant?" Xia Hanshi said softly. "Don't let that old bastard fool you."
"Putting you in charge was simply him playing the odds. If you can keep under control, great. If you can't, he washes his hands of the bla entirely."
"Besides, is there anyone in the Adjudication Court right now who would dare disobey my words? It would be awfully embarrassing if no one listened to your orders. Just go back to the Judgnt Departnt. This has nothing to do with you."
Lei Tieyan's face tightened. His anger continued to well up, yet he felt increasingly powerless to do anything about it.
He knew Xia Hanshi was absolutely right. As things currently stood, as long as the orders weren't outrageously absurd, very few people within the Adjudication Court were willing to defy him.
After all, Xia Hanshi was genuinely vindictive enough to exact brutal revenge.
And while Lei Tieyan controlled the Judgnt Departnt, which was ant to be a sharp blade aid internally within the Adjudication Court, he was paradoxically bound by far more rules and regulations.
"Don't worry, I know where to draw the line."
In the end, Xia Hanshi made sure to give him an out.
"You had better know," Lei Tieyan said, his expression shifting rapidly before he finally dropped the threat and stord off with a darkened face.
"Honest n are ant to be bullied." Xia Hanshi shook his head.
After torturing Bu Siqi for a few more days, Su Chen finally received a summons from Xia Hanshi and hurried over to his teacher's residence.
The mont he opened the door, Su Chen's breath hitched. The living room before him was absolutely packed with Evil God Artifacts. A quick sweep of his eyes revealed no fewer than twenty or thirty of them.
Every single one was tightly bound, their surfaces wrapped in nearly tangible Energy Chains, completely sealing off their power.
Among the pile were three statues with humanoid appearances. Their upper and lower halves seed symtrically split, their arms pressed flush against their sides, and their heads were entirely devoid of facial features, giving them an incredibly eerie look.
"Faceless Ghost Statues—" Su Chen's eyelids twitched. The scene before him was quite terrifying.
"You're here." Xia Hanshi was currently standing right in the middle of the pile. Paired with his rather sinister appearance, it made Su Chen hesitate for a mont whether he should even step inside.
"Teacher." Su Chen nodded. He closed the door behind him and took a closer look, realizing that these were all Evil God Artifacts belonging to the Faceless Ghost.
'Old Xia probably figured that since my premonition targets Faceless Ghost Cultists, he should bring items specifically related to the Faceless Ghost,' he speculated inwardly.
'I don't know where he hid these things before. I never sensed them around here.'
"Give it a try." Xia Hanshi extended a hand, gesturing for him to begin.
'So blunt,' Su Chen muttered inwardly. He cast a sideways glance at Old Xia, correctly guessing there was no chance of convincing his teacher to leave the room.
Thinking about this, he asked aloud, "Can you undo all these energy seals?"
Xia Hanshi simply raised his hand, and the Energy Chains coiling tightly around the statues and Evil God Artifacts instantly dissolved away.
Su Chen walked up, putting on an act. He reached out and touched the first statue. Instantly, he felt sothing being violently extracted from it.
[Dostication successful. Obtained Mid-Tier Faceless Ghost Divine Power.]
There had been a portion of Mid-Tier Faceless Ghost Divine Power still lingering inside. Su Chen's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
These items had undoubtedly been seized directly from the hands of Faceless Ghost Cultists. Those cultists must have fought to the death, just like the Black Buddha believers in Nanfeng, exhausting every single trick in their arsenal.
"How is it?" Xia Hanshi asked, furrowing his brow.
"I think I feel sothing..." Su Chen closed his eyes, pretending to deeply process the sensation. He then stepped toward the second statue. This one was entirely empty; its energy had long been completely depleted.
Following that was the final statue.
[Dostication successful. Obtained Mid-Tier Faceless Ghost Divine Power.]
It was another portion of Mid-Tier Divine Power.
But it wasn't over yet. He could clearly perceive a certain freezing, shadowy substance being forcefully ripped from within.
[Dostication successful. Obtained Faceless Ghost Essence.]
'Faceless Ghost Essence?'
Su Chen's expression shifted slightly, and he hurriedly checked the System Panel.
[Faceless Ghost Essence: Can produce a stimulating effect on Special Professions.]
'This thing can actually affect Special Professions?'
This— Waves of shock rippled through his mind. He had always wanted sothing like this, but his exposure to items related to Evil Gods had simply been too limited.
It wasn't until today, when Old Xia took control of the Adjudication Court and laid out years of hoarded inventory, that he finally managed to get his hands on it.
'Essence? It's a peculiar na, and it doesn't seem to classify as Divine Power. I wonder what exactly it is.'
"Are you reacting to it?" Xia Hanshi imdiately asked, noticing the shift in Su Chen's expression.
"Yes—" Su Chen suppressed his inner questions and seamlessly played his part, making his way toward the Evil God Artifacts.
"It seems..." Su Chen reached out and brushed his hand over one. The Evil God Artifact was instantly drained completely dry.
"...almost like..." He touched another artifact.
"...perhaps..."
"...perhaps..."
Every single Evil God Artifact Su Chen laid his hands on imdiately turned into a hollow shell.
Xia Hanshi watched with his brows furrowed tightly. He looked as though he wanted to say sothing but stopped himself. A spark of fiery light flickered in the depths of his eyes as he marveled inwardly—he actually could not figure out how those artifacts were being emptied.
Suddenly, Su Chen stopped in his tracks, his eyes glazing over as if in a trance. "I saw it... I saw a guy entering Yingfeng. He was disguised perfectly. He didn't look like an ordinary cultist—he was very much like ng Qi!"
'He actually discovered sothing?' Xia Hanshi's gaze instantly sharpened.
>
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