Chapter 123: Chu Xuan’s Death, An Unforeseeable Situation
Gu Bing’s hands were trembling slightly. Having the Gu Family act as an intermediary to contact other forces could naturally seize a portion of the benefit.
Moreover, handling part of the Pang Family’s assets represented a kind of trust. Gu Bing hadn’t expected that the investment in Su Chen would yield returns so quickly.
After seeing off Gu Bing, as the sky gradually darkened, Su Chen arrived at the potion storage room, which had already been completely renewed.
Gu Bing had originally come to deliver potions to him.
“Earth Fiend…” Su Chen picked up a tube of earthy yellow liquid. This was a body-side auxiliary potion, extracted from a special mineral called copper iron.
One tube had a market price of forty thousand gold. Even with the Gu Family’s bulk procurement, it still cost thirty thousand gold, and he needed to consume at least seven or eight tubes a month. And this was just the body auxiliary potion; the Gu Family was already struggling to sustain it alone.
He poured it into his mouth. It had a gritty, sandy texture, like rusted molten iron, and every part of his muscles felt like it was being pierced by needles.
“Silver Lotus Spirit Water…” was a mental-side auxiliary potion. It looked like mercury, sweet and silky upon entering the mouth, gradually activating his mental power.
Finally, he took a dose of Glazed Blood. He could clearly feel that its effect had greatly diminished.
Entering the gravity chamber, he pulled out two documents over ten pages long from his bracelet. One of them featured very peculiar postures—lying down or reclining—D-grade【Crouching Tiger Body Tempering Method】.
The other depicted some special symbols: D-grade【Brahma Sound Void Breaking Meditation Method】.
New body tempering method, new meditation method, new potions…
The D-grade training method was much more complex. Su Chen spent some time before managing to get started with each.
“I hope Chu Xuan can be wise about this. Killing a core seed would cause too much of a stir.” Su Chen couldn’t help but think.
……
A crowd had gathered in front of Chu Xuan’s villa. Losing to Su Chen was because Su Chen was too strong; it didn’t mean Chu Xuan was weak.
Although he still hadn’t avenged his previous defeat, Chu Xuan remained a promising prospect.
The gate was pulled open, and Chu Yunze walked out with a bitter smile. “He’s seeing no one.”
“What’s the situation? Is Brother Chu okay?” someone came up and asked.
“His injuries are not a big problem.” Chu Yunze replied, but seeing no change in the crowd’s expressions, he realized they weren’t asking about his injuries, but Chu Xuan’s mentality.
On the arena, Chu Xuan’s mentality had clearly collapsed. If he were to be demoralized from here on out, it was best to say so early, so everyone could part ways.
Chu Yunze said displeasedly, “If there’s nothing else, disperse.”
The crowd exchanged glances but didn’t dare say more, scattering in all directions.
Only Meng Qi remained standing in the corner. He then walked up, looking fearful. “I didn’t expect Su Chen to be so powerful.”
“Yeah…” As the core of their small group, Chu Yunze and Meng Qi had a good relationship. He nodded and said, “However, Chu Xuan this time doesn’t seem like last time.”
“What Su Chen said to him probably had quite an effect.”
“Framed by a scheme, yet with such breadth of mind, broad-minded, undisturbed by external things.” Chu Yunze couldn’t help saying, “If I had to say now, the most likely person to become Chief Judge is none other than Su Chen.”
“Indeed.” Meng Qi nodded in deep agreement, then said, “I’ll go in and chat with big brother.”
“He’s not even seeing me.” Chu Yunze shook his head.
Meng Qi said helplessly, “I’ll give it a try. We have to spark his fighting spirit somehow.”
“True.” Chu Yunze nodded in agreement. “Then you go.”
Meng Qi pushed the door open and went in. Chu Yunze couldn’t help recalling the scene on the arena earlier.
“Such magnanimity…”
Meng Qi glanced back at the tightly shut door, went upstairs, and knocked on the room door. There was a moment of silence with no response.
Meng Qi wasn’t surprised. A hard-to-describe expression appeared on his usually timid face. He said lowly, “Big brother, I have a way to deal with Su Chen.”
Moments later, a hoarse voice came from the room. “Come in.”
Meng Qi pushed the door open and saw Chu Xuan lying on the bed, bandages wrapped around various parts of his body, rubbing his head with furrowed brows.
Professionals had strong vitality. Chu Xuan’s injuries were severe, but after basic treatment, relying on his own recovery ability, he could be lively again in a few days.
Chu Xuan’s face was expressionless as he said flatly, “From now on, don’t talk about dealing with Su Chen. I have no grudge against him.”
“Stay away from Wei Yufan too. Su Chen was right; my eyes were blinded by obsession, and I forgot what was most important.”
He was truly out of moves—couldn’t beat him, couldn’t surpass him. Was he really supposed to adjust his mentality or just commit suicide?
He was truly convinced… Meng Qi was astonished inwardly but said lowly, “You… misunderstood. I didn’t express it accurately. What I mean is there’s a way for you to surpass Su Chen, to surpass him openly and honorably.”
“Oh?” Chu Xuan couldn’t help looking over. “Even a top tier profession didn’t work. Do you have a way?”
Meng Qi nodded solemnly: “…Yes…”
Before he could say more, Chu Xuan’s face twisted ferociously, and he suddenly smashed toward his own head.
Meng Qi was startled. “Are you okay?”
Chu Xuan took a deep breath, his face gradually relaxing. “I’m fine. It might be the aftereffect of a previous mental attack. Continue.”
……
“…A method to surpass me?” Su Chen’s scattered gaze gradually focused, and he pondered deeply.
Just now, he had wanted to take the opportunity to probe Chu Xuan’s situation and see what the other was thinking now.
The good news was that Chu Xuan seemed to have truly let go and was no longer fixated on him.
But that Meng Qi was somewhat strange.
This guy had low presence; Su Chen had no specific impression of him, but now he had jumped out, which felt odd.
“Unfortunately, Chu Xuan is after all a third order top tier profession with high mental resilience. Probing too long would be discovered. Probably once he fully recovers, this mental seed will be extinguished…”
Su Chen thought for a moment and shook his head. “Forget it. As long as he doesn’t target me, it’s fine.”
He temporarily put the matter aside and continued training.
Over the next few days, Gu Zhengting acted on his behalf to contact several forces, attended quite a few banquets, and finally sorted out three families.
“The Wang Family rose by reselling potions and has strong connections in the potion department…”
“The Tie Family has branches in many lower tier cities, relying on various mineral resources…”
“These two families can integrate channels for potions and metal materials. More importantly, their family forces aren’t too strong and are easy to control…”
Gu Bing continued explaining, “As for the Zhou Family and Sun Family, they are high-level figures in the city. What they give isn’t much, but the main purpose of contacting them is to show an attitude: we don’t want to remain outside the core circle.”
“And those deeds you gave us, we roughly tallied them up. The theoretical price should be around ten million gold. To sell them off, we’d probably have to discount by forty percent…”
“No need to sell. You keep operating them.” Su Chen waved his hand to interrupt. Just the auxiliary potions alone cost him around five hundred thousand gold a month—that was only two months’ consumption.
He was determined to be a hands-off boss and leave it to the Gu Family.
“I don’t have much need for money. Oh, right, help me pay ten thousand gold to logistics on the backend.”
“Okay.” Gu Bing nodded and noted it down.
“By the way…” Her gaze drifted, somewhat hesitant. “My grandfather asked me to ask if you have time to come home for a meal…”
Before she finished speaking, she saw Su Chen’s expression change. There was a burst of wind, crackling electric arcs, and his whole body suddenly darted into the basement.
“Good, good, such fast speed…” Gu Bing even forgot what she was going to say, staring in astonishment.
Casually closing the gravity chamber door, Su Chen’s expression shifted. He sensed his mental seed was about to be extinguished.
“Discovered? How so fast? Does he know it’s one I planted?”
Su Chen needed to clarify this. His mental power spread out, attempting to connect.
The scene before his eyes blurred, and harsh shouts came to his ears: “Meng Qi, you’re courting death!”
“I’m a core seed of the Court of Justice! What do you want!”
“Where is this?” Su Chen took in his surroundings, shocked and uncertain.
This was a dim room. Chu Xuan seemed fixed to an iron frame, with several black-robed figures standing before him. Meng Qi was right in front.
But unlike his timid self during the assessment, Meng Qi’s face now showed only suppressed excitement.
“Chu Xuan, oh Chu Xuan, to find this opportunity, I waited a full half year.” Meng Qi paced back and forth. “You hardly ever leave the Court of Justice, and even when you do, there are always people around you.”
“Pretending to be a fool by your side for half a year made me sick of it.”
“You… you…” Chu Xuan was furious and shocked. “If you kill me, the Court of Justice will turn Ying Feng upside down to investigate thoroughly.”
“Of course, of course…” Meng Qi didn’t care. “Killing people like you isn’t cost-effective. It’s only necessary at certain specific moments.”
“Besides, who said I want to kill you?” A sinister smile appeared on Meng Qi’s face.
Su Chen’s heart tightened. Using Chu Xuan’s peripheral vision, he noticed someone hunched over, drawing something on his body.
Under the black robe, slender nails were dipped in a bit of transparent, whitish liquid from a bronze container.
There seemed to be only a little of that liquid, but no matter how much was dipped, it didn’t diminish.
“This is the thing that nearly extinguished my mental seed.” Su Chen realized. The closer the drawing got to completion, the more intensely his mental seed trembled.
Amid Chu Xuan’s roars, the drawing was finally finished.
The surrounding scene became extremely blurry. His mental seed was nearly extinguished, so Su Chen couldn’t see exactly what had been drawn.
But he could see the black-robed figure slowly standing up, its face without features.
“Faceless Person, indeed a Strange God follower!” Su Chen’s heart jolted. Only Strange God followers could create such a bizarre scene.
“It can begin.” The Faceless Ghost follower stepped aside and said lowly.
“The follower is very deferential; this guy’s status must be high. How did he infiltrate the Court of Justice?” Su Chen wondered inwardly.
Meng Qi took a deep breath and began chanting aloud. Su Chen couldn’t understand the lyrics.
But as the chanting grew louder, grayish-white chains gradually emerged on Meng Qi and Chu Xuan, as if rooted in their bodies, with some substance faintly flowing between them.
Meng Qi’s body began to twist, numerous symbols appearing on his skin surface, his entire body seeming composed of piled symbols. Chu Xuan let out pained howls.
“This damn…”
Under Su Chen’s horrified gaze, the melted features on Meng Qi’s face were reshaped, gradually becoming Chu Xuan’s appearance—height, hair color, skin tone all converging.
“Is this the Faceless Ghost’s ability?” Su Chen’s back chilled. This change was clearly not simple disguise.
“Hoo…”
The transformation finally ended, the grayish-white chains between them disappearing. “Chu Xuan” exhaled, stretched his limbs, and let out a comfortable groan. “Worthy of the Ink Jade talent, third order top tier…”
“Strange God… you actually…” Chu Xuan spoke, his voice extremely weak. “You actually colluded with a Strange God.”
Following Chu Xuan’s gaze downward, Su Chen saw that his body had become gaunt and shriveled, as if drained dry.
“…Worthy of a top tier profession…” Meng Qi praised, his body gradually transforming, wrapped in blood flames.
“Even a profession can be replaced?” Su Chen grew increasingly alarmed.
Chu Xuan’s expression froze; he was clearly shocked too. Such a method was simply unheard of.
He shouted fiercely, “Who exactly are you? A Faceless Ghost follower couldn’t achieve this level!”
“Unfortunately, spirit body can’t be disguised yet…” Meng Qi shook his head, reverting to his original appearance.
He mused, “Hmm, who next? Su Chen… he seems very powerful, and coveted by Heituo. I’m also very curious about what secrets he has.”
“Unfortunately, he’s another homebody. Can’t even predict when he’ll go out. Quite troublesome.”
“This guy has targeted me…” Su Chen’s heart turned icy cold.
“You want to deal with Su Chen?” Chu Xuan sneered repeatedly. Having foreseen his own end, though desolate in his heart, he still gritted his teeth.
“Wishful thinking. His schemes run deeper than mine. You’ll die without a burial place!”
It was as if only by relying on Su Chen could he alleviate his current unwillingness and fear of death.
“How deep are my schemes…” Su Chen muttered. Chu Xuan seemed ready to face death generously, without begging for mercy.
Meng Qi wasn’t disturbed by these words. He turned to ask the follower beside him, “Has the Heituo Divine Blood been found?”
The Faceless Ghost follower shook his head. “No. Because of Liu Chen’s death, we didn’t let them act. The Heituo followers are nearly going mad with anxiety lately.”
Meng Qi nodded. “After returning, I’ll challenge a core seed too, to raise my status. Should be easier to move than the Heituo followers.”
His vision was almost completely dark now. Su Chen struggled to maintain the mental connection, only hearing Meng Qi’s last words.
“I’ll find the Heituo Divine Blood as soon as possible, and from those Heituo followers, the method to control the divine blood. Otherwise… it’ll be hard to take that stone slab out.”
“Yes…” The Faceless Ghost follower nodded, then looked at the weakened Chu Xuan. “What about him?”
“A core seed—killing him would probably cause a big stir…”
……
The mental seed had completely extinguished, and he didn’t know what would happen to Chu Xuan.
Su Chen came back to his senses and was silent for a long time.
“Though this group cooperates, they each have their own calculations. That thing—whatever it is—aims for the stone slab? What stone slab?”
“Not sure if reporting works. Forget it, better report first and think later.”
“No.” Su Chen shook his head again. “Targeting just him might let him sense something’s off… Might as well report them all…”
“And that Heituo Divine Blood, the method to control the divine blood…”
He held the Heituo Divine Blood in his hands. Though not exactly a hot potato, if there was a control method, it would be a useful tool.
A sharp glint flashed in his eyes. “Find the Heituo followers—no one can be faster than me.”
