The first advancent requirent for Gale Hunter was complete.
Qi Chuan's death was grueso — sprawled on his back, both eye sockets reduced to bloody, empty cavities.
"The ntal resilience of a 2nd-tier professional is really sothing." Su Chen rubbed his brow, a dull ache pulsing behind his eyes.
Physical-type professionals didn't specifically train ntal power, but advancing in tier elevated ntal resilience alongside everything else.
A scenario where a low-level ntal class could instantly annihilate a higher-tier physical class simply didn't exist.
After confirming no trace of life remained, Su Chen shifted his gaze to the slender glass vials scattered beside the body. They'd been stored in the tal box but had spilled during the fight.
"Targeted antidotes?"
Su Chen picked them up, studying the faintly shimring lavender liquid inside. Labels were still attached. Two vials remained. He tucked both into his Storage Space.
"Hmm..." He carefully closed the door, extended his perception, and combined it with Spiritual Vision to monitor the surroundings.
tal wires coiled in every direction. Thanks to Multi-Tasking, he could now manipulate the majority of them simultaneously.
Whoosh!
Wire after wire snapped taut, threading back and forth through the walls with a rapid succession of muffled impacts — like the staccato beats of a drum.
Clang!
A crisp collision drew his attention to the left wall. "Just as I thought — there's more."
A modest application of force pried another tal lockbox from the wall. Heavy and finely crafted, its surface was a dark ochre, etched with interlocking patterns that ford...
Su Chen examined it closely, straining to make it out. "Is that... a vertical pupil?"
Click!
The tal box opened on its own. A cross-shaped seam split down the center, the halves sliding apart. Black smoke billowed from within.
"What the—"
Su Chen startled and leaped back, but the smoke was faster than he'd anticipated. It coiled around his body and began seeping inside.
"Delicious... soul..." A voice — half-real, half-phantasmal — whispered in his ear. Su Chen's eyes glazed over. Before him materialized the apparition of a withered figure in black robes, skull bare, crowned by a single vertical eye. "I shall bestow upon you my blessing. Beco my most devout believer."
"What is this thing?" Su Chen's Wind Armor swirled around him, yet it couldn't block the smoke's invasion.
The panel flashed urgently:
[External unknown force detected. Currently eroding the host's classes.]
'Eroding my classes?' Su Chen's blood ran cold.
[Void-Rending Warrior senses danger. Charges forward...]
[Mystic Artificer observes from the flank...]
[Engineering Apprentice panics helplessly...]
[Gale Hunter joins the battle...]
[Spatial Storage Adept rushes to the scene...]
[Scholar calls for help...]
A rapid cascade of notifications scrolled past. Su Chen had never seen the classes react this urgently.
[Class-wide crisis detected. Taming external force in progress.]
"You... your body... how can it be like this..."
The spectral voice turned bewildered and uncertain. Through the haze, Su Chen thought he saw the withered figure raise its head — before it gradually dissolved:
"...Your scent. I will rember it..."
Clatter!
The tal box fell to the floor and snapped shut.
[Taming successful. Acquired: Low-Tier Evil God Power — May be applied to any unoccupied class below 3rd tier, potentially inducing anomalous mutations.]
His heart hamred. Su Chen's forehead was drenched in cold sweat. He'd been nearly paralyzed throughout the entire ordeal.
Thankfully, the crisis had passed.
"So the Evil Gods can actually erode classes..." Su Chen murmured, then studied the so-called Low-Tier Evil God Power.
Since the panel had already tad it, whatever dangers it harbored were likely neutralized.
After a while to steady himself, he eyed the ochre tal box on the ground, unwilling to touch it casually.
"No wonder they're called Evil Gods. Truly sinister. So does that an the plot against Jiang He, the Saint Word Stone theft, and all these inexplicable events are essentially the Evil Gods' machinations behind the scenes?"
"This thing alone is proof that Qi Chuan was compromised. Which ans this kill doesn't need to stay hidden." Su Chen promptly retrieved his Smart Bracelet from his Storage Space, flicked it open, scrolled through the interface, and found Old Yuan's contact.
Qi Chuan had hired Hu Xiang, sent an assassin after him — the man had to die. Whether or not he was Zhou Xian's agent, whether or not he had ties to the Evil Gods.
The only difference was: without the Evil God connection, Su Chen would have had to clean up the ss himself. Now, he could let soone else handle the aftermath.
"Teacher, I've found sothing. Please co as quickly as you can." He kept it vague — who knew whether Nanfeng's data relay hub could intercept these communications.
The signal was weak here. Su Chen had to lean out the window to send the ssage. Lights were already flickering on in the floors below.
Old Yuan replied swiftly: "...I can't leave right now. If it's not urgent, have Old Sun handle it first."
"It's urgent."
A pause, then: "Understood. I'll be there as fast as I can. If you need backup, call Old Sun."
Su Chen thought for a mont, then opened another chat. "Brother Sun. South city periter... bring a team, fast."
............
At that sa mont, sowhere in Nanfeng City, a figure draped in a black hooded robe jerked its head up. Its pupils were pools of absolute darkness, and its face was etched with uncontainable shock: "The Sacred Artifact... has vanished!?"
............
Su Chen went over every inch of the room until he was satisfied nothing had been missed. Only then did Old Sun and his team finally arrive.
The rotund, presumably 2nd-tier veteran inspector ca puffing through the door, drenched in sweat.
His eyes swept across the corpse on the ground, but he made a beeline for Su Chen, who stood by the window, and asked with genuine concern:
"Brother — you're not hurt, are you?"
Familiar faces filed in through the door behind him — his colleagues from the 17th Patrol Squad.
"Han Da, Lili—" Zhao Xiong pointed left and right, and the team fanned out cautiously around the body.
"Captain, this body... it looks like... Qi Chuan?" Han Da had barely glanced down before his head snapped up in shock.
"Qi Chuan?" Old Sun, who'd been eavesdropping, went pale. Urgency flooded his face. "Brother, what happened to your temper? How could you kill him?"
"Was it because of that woman who ca last night? What did she say to you? Did you record it? We need to go — now. Leave the scene to us, we'll cover it—"
Zhao Xiong and the others exchanged subtle glances. This was turning into quite the drama.
Su Chen allowed himself a resigned smile. "Where would I even go? No cover story would fool my teacher."
Old Sun's expression flickered. His fawning over Su Chen stemd entirely from Yuan Chenyang. Hiding sothing like this was out of the question.
But he leaped past the issue imdiately, as if a sudden realization had struck him. "Wait — Qi Chuan was a 2nd-tier professional, wasn't he? How did you manage to kill him?"
"Starved him at the Supervision Departnt for a few days. Slipped him so poison..." Su Chen replied as casually as if discussing the weather.
'Absolutely ruthless.'
Old Sun's cheek twitched, but he also noticed that Su Chen was unnervingly composed — more than what the situation warranted. He filed that away.
"Hey, Lili—" Su Chen suddenly spoke up. "Don't touch that."
Lili froze, looking at the object draped beneath the Shadow Evasion Cloak. She shrugged and moved on to examine sothing else.
"...These walls look like they've been strafed by gunfire. Little holes everywhere..." Han Da crouched by the wall, running a finger across the perforations.
"What happened here?" A deep, resonant voice bood from the doorway. Old Sun jumped.
'How did Inspector Yuan get here so fast? I only just sent the ssage.'
Zhao Xiong and the others snapped to attention, throats bobbing, not daring to make a sound.
"Is this Qi Chuan?" Yuan Chenyang strode in, frowning at the corpse on the floor. His gaze traveled past Old Sun and settled on Su Chen. He sighed. "Go back. I'll handle this."
Su Chen was surprised. He'd expected Old Yuan to demand an explanation.
"Teacher — over there." Su Chen pointed toward the object hidden beneath the Shadow Evasion Cloak.
Yuan Chenyang's eyes sharpened. He stepped forward and lifted one corner of the cloak. A single glance — and his pupils contracted violently.
'This is... an Evil God Artifact!'
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