Su Chen was no longer needed for the cleanup work here. Seeing Old Xia signal for him to leave, he followed closely behind.
"Cough, cough..." He coughed aloud. A dull ache throbbed in his throat, pulling at the rest of his body and sending sharp waves of pain radiating through him.
"You're injured?" Xia Hanshi noticed and furrowed his brows slightly. "Hong Xuan didn't cause that. You used a class ability that trades self-inflicted damage for power, didn't you?"
Hong Xuan hadn't even managed an effective counterattack, so it was naturally impossible for him to have hard Su Chen.
Suddenly, he seed to realize sothing. His expression turned ugly, and a cold light flashed in his eyes. "Lifeburner?"
"Pu Zhenghong actually gave you that class? That old bastard... he's courting death!"
'What Lifeburner?'
Su Chen paused in surprise. Seeing that Xia Hanshi was about to leap away, seemingly to settle the score with Pu Zhenghong, he hurriedly stopped him. "It's not a Lifeburner. It's a class given by Yuan Du, called the Ravager."
"Yuan Du?" Xia Hanshi paused, frowning. "When did this happen? And what's the price?"
Old Xia had still been outside when Yuan Du played his dirty tricks, so he didn't know the details. Su Chen didn't hide anything and imdiately explained, "The more severe my physical injuries, the more my strength increases."
The Ravager didn't trade injuries for strength; rather, it provided buffs based on the severity of the damage taken. The two were fundantally different.
Xia Hanshi placed a withered hand on Su Chen's shoulder, still suspicious. "Your injuries aren't that severe, so how did you unleash such overwhelming power?"
Even if things were exactly as Su Chen described, it made the situation even more abnormal.
"It's thanks to another one of my class abilities," Su Chen explained. "They complent each other."
"I see..." Hearing the explanation, Xia Hanshi finally relaxed.
Su Chen took the opportunity to ask, "Teacher, what kind of class is this Lifeburner?"
"A very dangerous class that burns one's lifespan in exchange for imnse power," Xia Hanshi replied calmly, shooting him a glance. "You want it?"
The two had reached the hovercar. Xia Hanshi got in first, and Su Chen followed closely behind. After sitting down, Su Chen nodded honestly. "I am a little curious."
Burning one's life definitely sounded perilous, but it was undoubtedly formidable. Whether he actually took the class or not, he could just collect it first.
"Forget about it." Xia Hanshi shook his head decisively. "The price of this class is too steep. Once your lifespan is burned, there is no way to restore it."
"It's for life-and-death struggles," Su Chen couldn't help but point out. "If you're about to be killed, what use is a long lifespan if you lose your life right then?"
"That may be true." Xia Hanshi frowned. "But its requirents are harsh. Just advancing into the class alone requires burning ten years of your lifespan."
'Just advancing requires burning my life?'
Hearing this, Su Chen grew even more curious. Old Xia probably wouldn't give it to him, so he figured he would have to go ask Old Pu about it.
Seeing Su Chen fall silent, Xia Hanshi felt a headache coming on. The kid's silence clearly ant he wasn't listening to the advice and would likely try to find a way in secret.
If he really went to the Class Deciphering Departnt to ask for it, Pu Zhenghong would more than likely hand it over.
"Thinking of going to Pu Zhenghong?" Xia Hanshi suddenly asked. Su Chen froze for a mont before imdiately denying it. "No."
"Forget it, just listen and leave it at that," Xia Hanshi sighed, shaking his head.
"You know the requirents?" Su Chen was surprised, then realized sothing. "You took the class?"
Xia Hanshi remained silent for a mont before nodding. "Yes, I've used it a few tis."
'Used it... a few tis?'
Looking at Old Xia's gaunt, skin-and-bones face, Su Chen clicked his tongue in amazent.
'Lifeburner...'
[Special Class Discovered: Lifeburner. Can be acquired after completing the requirents.]
[Requirent 1: Remaining theoretical lifespan must be more than three tis your current age.]
[Requirent 2: Possess the resolve to seek life through death, and touch your own Life Fire on the brink of death.]
[Requirent 3: Use the twisted souls of the deceased as fuel, ignite your own Life Fire with the light of a nascent soul, and burn ten years of your lifespan.]
A notification panel popped up. Su Chen glanced over it. It wasn't as perverse as the Ravager, but it was far more brutal. The requirent to burn one's lifespan was incredibly blunt.
[As a fanatic who sees through the profound mysteries of life, the Lifeburner pays highest respects to The Exalted. Requirent 2 is weakened: You only need to touch your own Life Fire.]
'I thought guys who gambled with their lives would be fiercer, but they turned out to be even more cowardly than the Ravager. And they call themselves fanatics?'
Su Chen muttered to himself while looking at the text on the panel. He had been hoping this class wouldn't give The Exalted any face.
"Just listen and let it go. Don't actually set your mind on it." Seeing Su Chen's unfocused gaze, Xia Hanshi thought he was considering its feasibility and couldn't help but issue a warning.
Su Chen quickly promised not to, before swiftly changing the subject. "Teacher, my Ravager class feels pretty good. Do you want it?"
Old Xia might actually be able to et the Ravager's twisted requirents.
"What are the requirents? Tell about them." Xia Hanshi grew a bit interested and listened as Su Chen recounted the prerequisites for becoming a Ravager.
However, his expression inevitably turned a bit strange, and he kept casting peculiar glances at Su Chen.
'Finding pleasure in pain—Su Chen could actually satisfy that requirent?'
"You didn't forcefully take the class, did you?" Xia Hanshi suddenly asked. Judging by his recent display of strength, it didn't look like power achievable through a forced class advancent.
"Uh... pretty much, pretty much."
Su Chen grumbled inwardly, wondering what Old Xia secretly thought of him. After the master and disciple exchanged class information, the hovercar soared into the sky.
Down below, Bu Siqi looked up with undeniable envy. "Sigh, Teacher and Junior Brother are getting closer and closer. The two of us have been cast aside."
There was no response from beside him. Teng Liang simply watched the inquisitors on site handle the cleanup work.
"I say," Bu Siqi snapped out of his daze and poked Teng Liang, unable to hold back his words. "You've been following Teacher and busying yourself with this matter lately, haven't you? You even kept it a secret from ."
"And since when did you get so formidable? That Faceless Divine Son seems to really hold a grudge against you."
Before he could finish speaking, Bu Siqi suddenly noticed his vision darken. Teng Liang's large hand was already gripping his head, staring at him with a pair of emotionless eyes.
Before he could utter another word, the world spun around him. He was tossed spinning into the air and crashed heavily onto the ground. Bu Siqi cursed viciously, "Are you out of your damn mind? I can't even praise you?"
"You want to foresee things again?"
Inside the hovercar, Su Chen withdrew his gaze from the rapidly passing scenery below and looked at Xia Hanshi in surprise.
—
He actually wanted to find an opportunity to bring this up with Old Xia, so he could fleece all the Treacherous God power stored in the Inquisition.
Chong Jingtian and the others would probably be back soon. Once they returned, trying to accomplish this would invite a lot more trouble.
"That's right," Xia Hanshi nodded.
Before the Faceless Divine Son's identity was exposed, although he had found plenty of supporting evidence, he had only been ninety percent certain.
After all, locking onto the Divine Son fundantally originated from Su Chen's premonition.
But there had been no tangible evidence against Xu Siyuan himself. Anchoring his identity had relied more on painting the bullseye after shooting the arrow.
Having ninety percent certainty already stemd from his trendous trust in Su Chen.
Now that his precognitive abilities had been factually verified, it was only natural to find every possible way to maximize their use.
"Um..." Su Chen showed a hint of hesitation. Before he could speak, he heard Xia Hanshi say, "If there are risks, then forget it."
'Wait...' Su Chen stalled. 'Aren't you going to ask what the problem is?'
"It's not exactly a risk," he was forced to explain himself. "It's just that this kind of premonition isn't guaranteed to trigger every ti. The fact that it triggered last ti was already quite surprising to ."
"Sotis, it might consu the Treacherous God's power but reveal absolutely nothing, or only show vague, aningless images."
He didn't have any actual precognitive abilities; he was rely relying on sensory perception. But now, Yingfeng City was cleaner than ever before, and he figured he wouldn't be able to sense anything. He had to give a preemptive warning.
"No matter." Xia Hanshi didn't mind. "Those things are just sitting around collecting dust, and we have to expend effort guarding them. If you can harmlessly consu them into thin air, it's not a bad thing."
Seeing that Xia Hanshi was simply taking a shot in the dark, Su Chen finally felt relieved. He had been genuinely afraid the old man would place too much hope on his supposed foresight.
"To increase the chances of triggering it, could you let access information on other related Treacherous Gods?" Su Chen added.
"Fine," Xia Hanshi replied concisely. "This needs to be done quickly. Once Chong Jingtian returns, things will get complicated."
""
"Understood. I'll prepare as soon as I get back," Su Chen hastily replied.
Upon returning to the Inquisition, the two parted ways. Xia Hanshi headed to the forbidden vault to withdraw the stored Treacherous God items. The quantity he needed this ti was massive, so he would likely end up bickering with Old Lei again.
Su Chen first visited the logistics departnt to pick up a dose of Jade Cloud Potion, which Old Xia had specifically instructed him to retrieve.
Downing it in one gulp, Su Chen felt his injuries ease imdiately. His spiritual energy gradually seeped into his body, observing the state of his internal wounds.
He truly didn't know the exact extent of what the power of the Word Spirit had achieved.
After a brief inspection, he clicked his tongue in marvel. "It's so perfectly balanced."
The human body's internal structure was extrely precise and complex. Yet, right now, aside from vital organs like his heart, his insides were covered in a dense network of fine lacerations. He resembled a delicate porcelain piece on the verge of shattering, but barely holding together—balanced to the extre.
Nourished by the recovery potion, those wounds gradually nded. Before long, they were almost fully healed, and his body returned to its normal state. As the dull ache faded, he felt quite refreshed.
"This potion is really quite sothing," Su Chen savored the feeling. He found the logistics manager for a chat, and leaving the man with a bitter expression, he swaggered off with five more vials stuffed in his pockets.
'Myriad Manifestations, Lifeburner...'
After leaving the logistics departnt, Su Chen headed to the archives containing information related to Treacherous Gods. His eyes were slightly glazed over as he browsed his system panel.
Neither of these two classes could be easily acquired at the mont. Myriad Manifestations required at least one class fusion, but he had no idea how to trigger that.
As for the Lifeburner, he had no desire to burn his lifespan. Not even a single year.
'I do still have a portion of the Faceless Essence on hand, but there's no guarantee it will accurately erase that specific requirent. I'd better wait.'
'As for the Life Fire...'
He actually knew what this was. It was the physical manifestation of one's theoretical lifespan. However, only a select few could perceive it, and it was influenced by many factors. A severe illness could instantly extinguish an otherwise vigorously burning Life Fire.
Su Chen pondered, his thoughts inevitably wandering. He was already a Rank Four professional, yet his theoretical lifespan was only around a hundred and fifty years, with not much room for fluctuation.
'My current physical fitness is leagues ahead of my previous life, yet my lifespan has only increased by forty or fifty years...'
He was still young and hadn't yet developed any anxiety about his lifespan, but he still found it sowhat baffling.
Even Rank Seven professionals like Chong Jingtian and Shi Yunzhou, who possessed near earth-shattering power, would struggle to live past two hundred.
"No wonder those Treacherous God cultists expand so rapidly. Tempting people with extra lifespan at every turn... that's hard to resist," Su Chen couldn't help but sigh, looking up at the boundless, thick fog.
'Can a Morning Star rank live to five hundred? Based on current estimations, it's probably unlikely. But surely they live longer than just three hundred years? It just feels incongruous with their imnse power.'
Calculating it this way, if you subtracted the developntal phase and the period of decline at the end of life, their true peak period really wasn't that long.
Running these calculations in his head along the way, Su Chen arrived at his destination. Xia Hanshi had already granted him clearance. He walked straight in and quickly pulled up all the information on Treacherous Gods stored in Yingfeng.
Aside from the Faceless Ghost and the Black Buddha, Yingfeng also had detailed records on three other Treacherous Gods. First was Crimson: a god who reveled in riots and chaos, with the most brutal and violent followers. They had been the instigators of the previous internal unrest in Yingfeng.
Next was Dark Plague: a deity fond of spreading disease. Every one of its followers was plagued by malignant illnesses.
Finally, the Sly Fox: a being that favored deceit above all else. Its followers were incredibly cunning and treacherous.
Of course, the Treacherous Gods that had appeared in the history of Crimson Thunder Planet were not limited to these five. A conservative estimate put the number at no less than a thousand.
So had vanished without a trace under the joint encirclent and suppression campaigns of the major cities. Others had perished during infighting among the Treacherous God cults. In the end, only these five remained with the most detailed records.
After reading through and gaining a basic understanding of them, Su Chen pulled up the class advancent requirents for their believers and fed all the information to his Priest class.
"I wonder what kind of role these Treacherous Gods actually play."
By the ti he left the archives, the sky had already grown dark, and Su Chen couldn't help but mutter to himself.
He had originally thought the fog was conjured by the Treacherous Gods, but after fully reviewing Yingfeng's records on them, he discovered that wasn't the case.
The fog also drastically weakened the connection between the Treacherous Gods and the mortal realm.
"The calamities caused by the Treacherous Gods are decreasing, and it's not just because the various cities are growing stronger." According to Yingfeng's records, it was also because the density of the fog seed to be increasing.
The cost for believers to communicate with their Treacherous Gods grew ever steeper. Even Treacherous God cultists from different cities found it difficult to contact one another.
"This thing kills indiscriminately. Where the hell did it even co from?" Su Chen waved a hand through the air. It seed like there was no fog inside Yingfeng, but in reality, it was just exceptionally thin; they weren't entirely insulated from it.
Upon returning to his quarters, Su Chen went down to the gravity room. His body lded into the spatial folds as he began cycling through the states of the various Treacherous God Priests. However, he couldn't detect anything within his sensory range.
"It's genuinely squeaky clean. Quite so ti has passed since they last allied together, yet they haven't sent anyone else." Su Chen felt a bit speechless. There wasn't even a trace of the Black Buddha's people, as if they had completely given up on making a move against him.
"If that's the case, I'll just have to fleece the power forcefully and spin a few harmless lies to bluff Old Xia," Su Chen sighed, materializing from the spatial rift.
Gathering his thoughts, he shifted his attention to another matter. "Let's see what exactly this buff from The Exalted does."
He tentatively circulated his body-tempering and ditation techniques, imdiately sensing a difference. A warm current surged from an unknown origin within his body, naturally nourishing every inch of his flesh and blood like gentle spring rain.
The efficiency of his elental body tempering abruptly doubled. His muscles and bones humd cheerfully in the warm currents, while the elental particles surging through his flesh tempered his physique with exceptionally high vitality.
His spiritual energy also circulated along unprecedentedly bright trajectories, flowing as crystal clear and unimpeded as a babbling brook.
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