Chapter 118: Assassination! Liu Chen’s Death!
“That’s perfect…” Su Chen reached out, taking Qing Suo and the scale armor from his storage space.
With his promotion to Third Order, he could also upgrade his weapon.
Arriving in the basement, he opened the material storage room, took out Qing Suo first, infused it with his mental power, and activated the Soldier Breeder’s professional ability.
Among the materials piled around, pieces of crimson gold iron ore surfaced, beginning to soften and glow as if placed in a furnace.
They transformed into droplets of scorching liquid metal, rippling on the surface. These droplets didn’t scatter but were pulled by a powerful suction, flying towards the floating azure iron whip in the center.
“Hiss—!”
The instant the liquid crimson gold iron touched the iron whip, a violent sound erupted, not of steam evaporating, but like a branding iron meeting solid ice, a furious reaction.
The originally plain and unadorned azure whip body greedily absorbed the precious liquid, rapidly consuming and merging with it.
Crystalline fibers attached themselves, followed by more and more liquid crimson gold, not simply covering it but truly fusing and reshaping.
On the azure base of the iron whip, dark golden, profound patterns began to snake, like living veins, extending, interweaving, and shining with the influx of more liquid metal.
It became visibly thicker and more solid, its surface no longer rough and matte but exhibiting a strange luster of interwoven deep azure and dark gold, with the texture of flowing liquid metal.
【 Liquid Gold Phantom Blade （ Third Order ）: Upgraded with mental power using crimson gold mixed with Spirit Essence Fiber, it can mimic various weapon types. 】
The transformation complete, Su Chen rubbed his temples, his head feeling a bit fuzzy.
His mental power consumption was too great; if not for his stronger foundation than others, he would have collapsed halfway.
“The consumption is indeed quite substantial…” Su Chen clicked his tongue, no wonder it required a main profession promotion before it could be upgraded.
Insufficient mental strength made even melting materials difficult, let alone deep fusion.
The phantom blade before him shed its iron whip form, becoming a single entity. With a slight movement of Su Chen’s mind, it gradually transformed into a metal spear like flowing liquid.
“Spirit Essence Fiber’s plasticity is very high, which brings the characteristic of multiple mimicry types…” Su Chen toyed with the cold weapon.
However, the shaping process is quite long, clearly not allowing for rapid changes in combat, but it’s still quite good.
Activating the Spiritual Realm Instrument for auxiliary mental recovery, he quickly finished upgrading the scale armor as well.
【 Purple Gold Scale Armor （ Third Order ）: Upgraded with mental power using Purple Finch scales mixed with high-purity nanoparticles. 】
The Third Order scale armor was heavier, the azure scale base now infused with purple light, its defense even stronger, and the response speed of its layered defense faster.
Rubbing his head, Su Chen returned to his bedroom for a short rest. When he opened his eyes again, he felt full of spirit, his eyes gleaming.
“Mental recovery and sleep are still different…” Su Chen stretched, feeling refreshed all over.
Glancing at the time, it was already midnight. It was about time. After a brief tidy-up, he left the house, this time without taking a hover car.
After leaving the Court of Justice, he changed multiple modes of transportation and even walked for a while, activating the 【 Shadow Concealment Boots 】, his body blurring, making him difficult to discern.
“…Liu Chen is a physical-oriented profession. His development progress should already be in the latter half of Third Order, and his previous orders and top-tier professions have accumulated considerable strength…”
Su Chen lowered his head, having long since put on the Mimic Mask, simply altering his facial features.
The Mimic Mask brought by Nan Feng was already a bit outdated, but it would suffice for now.
“Hmm, I’m here.”
He looked up; it was a high-class hotel. According to the information he had gathered recently, Liu Chen had a girlfriend he often met here.
…
“…Hiss, today… why so rough…”
In the room, a beautiful woman with big wavy hair grimaced in pain, unable to stop pushing away the man on her chest.
“…Damn it, it’s enraging me.” Liu Chen’s voice sounded furious, “That guy still hasn’t come to find me.”
“Is it still because of that Su Chen?” The woman seemed to know who and what he was referring to. “He’s also a Core Seed. Why… why must you suppress him.”
She was somewhat worried, “What if this escalates? It’ll be hard to resolve.”
“I’m afraid of him?” Liu Chen suddenly looked up and slapped the woman across the face. She cried out in pain, her eyes welling up with tears.
He continued his actions, his emotions unmasked in this environment, sneering, “If it escalates, who will say anything? He can’t afford it, can he blame me?”
“It’s not like I didn’t give him a chance. If he had said a few soft words, wouldn’t the item have been given to him? Just a few Thunder Cores. He insisted on being stubborn, whose fault is that, whose fault?”
Liu Chen’s face grew more ferocious, his actions becoming more violent.
“I… I…” The woman couldn’t speak, her pupils dilating.
Silently, the room door creaked open a sliver.
Liu Chen’s movements suddenly halted. Cold sweat broke out all over his body, as if he were being struck by ten thousand knives. The terrifying sense of threat sent a shock of fear through him.
“Not good!”
This was precisely the moment his mind was faltering. By the time he sensed the opponent, a gale had already struck him head-on, and a cold light slashed diagonally. It was a dark golden great axe, its edge already upon him!
“Such speed!” Liu Chen’s eyelids twitched. A powerful azure wave of energy exploded, flinging him backward, crashing into the wall.
Immediately, his skin surface rippled, and his entire body began to show a tendency towards liquefaction. He had exerted his utmost in a short period, attempting elementalization to evade physical damage.
Although the attack was sudden, he could still feel that the opponent’s strength wasn’t particularly high.
As long as he could block it, he would be able to…
However, at this moment, Liu Chen’s pupils widened. He felt an intense pain in his head, his vision went black, and he vaguely heard an irritating low hum.
“Where is this place!?”
Terrified, Liu Chen looked around, completely losing control. The elementalization process was abruptly interrupted.
The axe edge tore through the air with a whistling sound, fiercely cleaving into Liu Chen’s skull.
Crack—
A crisp bone-cracking sound echoed, and blood spurted out.
“So hard?” Su Chen looked at the axe blade stuck in his bone. Even when out of control, his physical strength remained.
The intense pain on his head brought Liu Chen back to his senses. The attacker was up close, wearing a mask, but on his bald head, black pupils were staring straight at him.
“Heituo Follower! Mental Attack!” Liu Chen was enraged and terrified. Such an intense mental attack could even cause him to completely lose control.
This person was likely a mental professional on the verge of Fourth Order!
“Why are you attacking me!” Liu Chen roared. Faced with a life-or-death crisis, adrenaline surged, and iridescent blue scales appeared on his skin surface, rippling like water.
“I didn’t destroy the Pang Family.” He couldn’t understand why these Heituo Followers, seeking revenge, would target him.
“So hard…” Su Chen was also surprised. Purely with physical strength, even if the opponent lost control, it would be difficult to cleave through.
But as he pressed his palm down, the ferocious mental power turned into telekinesis, pouring into the great axe in his hand. Crimson lightning arcs, like spiderwebs, suddenly erupted on the axe’s surface.
The leaping electrical light climbed and coiled along the axe blade, ionizing the surrounding air, producing a scorched smell and forming swirling lightning windstorms.
The Scarlet Thunder Prison was compressed into the great axe, unleashing immense destructive power within a confined space.
Crack!
This strike forcefully shattered the scales on the surface of his skull and split him down the middle!
“Ah—” Liu Chen’s eyes widened in agony,
It was only now that the woman, who had been thrown aside, numbly got up. She hadn’t even registered what had happened and only felt pain all over her body before hearing a tearing sound.
Turning her head to follow the sound, she saw the familiar body being split from head to toe by someone. The blood blinded her eyes.
Through the gap between the two halves of the corpse, she saw a person wearing a mask, with no hair. The exposed facial skin was covered in black patterns that converged at the top of the head, forming a vertical pupil.
Her heart skipped a beat, and as if about to scream, her eyes rolled back, and she fainted dead away.
“As expected of an Inner Court Seed…” Su Chen looked at the corpse on the ground. He had attacked by surprise to gain the advantage and still had to exert some effort.
He scanned the surroundings briefly. Telekinetic power surged, penetrating all the gaps in the room, and he swept Liu Chen’s belongings into his storage space. He did not find any Thunder Cores.
“This is his hover car unlock card…” Su Chen held the black card, preparing to check the car.
As he was leaving, Su Chen glanced back at the woman lying on the ground, his mind stirring. “As the only survivor, she will definitely be interrogated.”
His mental energy rippled, and he implanted a seed in her mind.
…
Descending into the hotel garage, he indeed found a specially cast metal box in the car.
After placing it in his storage space, he circled around before returning to the Court of Justice.
“There probably aren’t any problems.” Su Chen had been pondering this all the way back.
Recently, there had been frequent deaths of judges. Liu Chen, caught in the middle, was just an unfortunate coincidence.
My conflict with him happened… uh, outsiders probably wouldn’t even know we had a conflict, and he was Third Order, while I’m only Second Order.
Su Chen pondered, “But he is an Inner Court Seed, so this will likely cause some commotion. For safety’s sake, I should hide the matter of my promotion to Third Order for a while. I won’t retrieve the D-class Meditation Method for now, nor will I have the Gu Family prepare Third Order Auxiliary Potions.”
He couldn’t figure out why Liu Chen had targeted him, whether it was his own initiative or if he was instructed by someone.
But being interfered with in every matter was truly annoying.
“I hope it was his own initiative,” Su Chen estimated his combat tonight. “In conjunction with the Wind Boots, in terms of speed alone, Liu Chen couldn’t react. Although there was an element of surprise, it was no less than a Third Order.”
Speed is one of the more difficult aspects to improve. After certain professions advance, strength might increase tenfold or more, but speed might not increase much, or it might even decrease.
“Making the Wind Boots a controlled Mystic Tool was the right decision.” Su Chen mused. Before the attack, he had completed the process of controlling the Mystic Tool.
The Wind Boots provided not only their own amplification but also ability enhancements, which allowed him to achieve what he did.
He then began to examine his spoils from the night.
Primarily, it was the small metal box he found in Liu Chen’s car. It was extremely heavy to lift. Upon opening it, arcs of electricity immediately shot out.
Inside, there were three irregular crystals, red, blue, and green. Su Chen could faintly feel the violent energy contained within them.
“No wonder they used such a heavy box to store them…” Su Chen clicked his tongue.
If Liu Chen had carried these three things with him in the room and touched them, he might not have survived.
Su Chen reached out and picked up one crystal. He felt his body drawing power from it, which then seeped into a part of his body that couldn’t be detected.
Just like when he had encountered Mystic Energy Crystals before.
Soon, this crystal vanished without a trace, and the remaining two met the same fate shortly after.
【 Swift Wind Thunder Envoy evolves into — Azure Thunder Master 】
“Azure Thunder Master, sounds good…” Su Chen repeated the name several times and only then discovered that the second job appointment condition, “infiltrate an area with a Third Order professional,” had already been met.
“I almost forgot about that. Liu Chen was also Third Order…”
Having incidentally completed the job appointment requirement, Su Chen’s mood improved. 【 Azure Thunder Master 】 would also reach its maximum potential in a few days.
He put the box away, pondering if he had missed anything tonight.
Before dawn, Su Chen suddenly sensed increasing activity outside.
Pushing the door open, he saw crowds of people not far away, openly carrying weapons. The roads within the Court of Justice were filled with judges, several giant war chariots had been deployed, and there were even shuttle-shaped aircraft in the sky.
Silent and deadly!
“This is…” Su Chen’s heart tightened. Just as he was about to find someone to ask, a familiar face jumped out from the crowd. It was Bu Siqi, his expression grave, and he pulled Su Chen into a room.
“Senior Brother, what happened?” Su Chen asked in a low voice.
“…An Inner Court Seed died,” Bu Siqi said grimly.
“What?” Su Chen was astonished. Half of his reaction was feigned, and the other half was not.
He hadn’t expected the Court of Justice to react so quickly. Including his return time, Liu Chen had been dead for less than half a day, and they had already mobilized so many people.
Moreover, this scale of mobilization far exceeded his expectations.
“The one who died was Liu Chen, a Crimson Gold Talent, the pillar of the Liu Family’s future,” Bu Siqi sighed. “The Liu Family has been cultivating within the Court of Justice for generations; there are many mid-to-high-level judges. This incident has stirred up a hornet’s nest.”
Only then did Su Chen fully understand the weight of Gu Bing’s earlier words about “generations of cultivation” – relatives, friends, students, friends of students, etc… a complex network.
In the blink of an eye, they had assembled such a massive force.
Of course, he had no regrets; on the contrary, he felt his actions were justified, otherwise, he would have faced considerable trouble later.
“Have they found the killer?” Su Chen couldn’t help but ask.
“Not that quickly,” Bu Siqi shook his head.
“If they haven’t found the killer, why such a massive mobilization?” Su Chen asked, surprised.
“It’s all because of the Inspection Department,” Bu Siqi said indignantly. “The Inspection Department arrived first at the murder scene in the city. Upon discovering it was Liu Chen, they immediately sealed the information, and the body was taken away. The Liu Family people could never let this slide.”
“And many judges have been unhappy recently. They’re using this opportunity to make trouble for the Inspection Department.”
Making trouble for the Inspection Department… Su Chen finally understood. He had thought the Liu Family was truly that powerful, but it turned out to be a timely coincidence.
“It’s likely revenge from the Cult of the Strange God and remnants of the Pang Family,” Bu Siqi’s expression turned serious. Although he didn’t know who specifically killed Liu Chen, the recent deaths of several judges pointed towards the previous destruction of the Pang Family.
“Haven’t they finished catching the remnants?” Su Chen was confused, thinking the Inspection Department was so incompetent.
“Not only Pang Family remnants, but also those causing trouble opportunistically, and refugee organizations… it’s hard to catch them all, mainly because of the Strange God Followers,” Bu Siqi’s brow was furrowed. “To call it revenge, they’ve only killed a few scattered individuals. To say it’s not revenge, yet they keep attacking, it’s truly strange.”
“Before today, the deceased were all judges involved in the destruction of the Pang Family, but Liu Chen also died, which is baffling…”
They… aren’t they looking for the lost Divine Blood? Su Chen’s mind jumped to this speculation after hearing Bu Siqi’s words.
This kind of “slow killing” didn’t seem like revenge but more like searching for clues.
Bu Siqi finally admonished, “Liu Chen was an Inner Court Seed, his whereabouts are difficult for outsiders to ascertain. Perhaps there’s an inside mole. In any case, you should stay out for the time being.”
“I understand,” Su Chen nodded solemnly.
“Right…” As Bu Siqi was already at the door, he turned back, “That Chu Xuan, do you have a plan to handle him?”
“According to news from the Profession Analysis Office, his chances of successfully advancing to a Third Order Top Tier Profession are high. I can find someone to give him a warning.”
A warning… For some reason, Su Chen suddenly thought of Liu Chen.
This guy, he must have been someone else’s warning, right?
“No need…” Su Chen shook his head.
“Sigh, don’t care too much about face,” Bu Siqi thought he was being modest and shook his head, “The Court of Justice isn’t just about fighting; it’s also about social dynamics.”
After seeing Bu Siqi off, Su Chen’s brow furrowed. The internal details of the judges’ deaths already involved friction between the Inspection Department and the Court of Justice. He had never known the specific situation until today.
He wasn’t afraid of Heituo Followers coming for him. Once his disguise was active, everyone was an insider, and things could be discussed.
But other Strange God Followers were not so easy to deal with.
Although he could disguise himself as a Heituo Follower, he first needed to acquire the professional information of other Strange God Followers.
“Information regarding the job appointment of Strange God Followers is taboo, and forcing it out of those mad cultists is even more impossible. It’s troublesome…”
Learning this information significantly soured his good mood. He simply went to the Logistics Department to report the loss of his Mechanical Puppet. He had to pay an additional 100,000 gold to be provided with a new Mechanical Puppet body.
Su Chen didn’t have the money and had to incur a debt, but thankfully, as an Inner Court Seed, he had some influence.
Bringing it back to the villa, he pried open the back of the Mechanical Puppet’s head. Following the instructions in the manual, he carefully embedded the Energy Core into the central slot, accompanied by a surge of electricity.
“Master, thank you for providing Zero with a new body.”
Zero’s familiar voice emanated from its mouth. Su Chen conversed with her briefly and found that she had retained her previous memories and his behavioral habits.
“Hmm, I wonder what the situation is over there…” After handling the miscellaneous matters, Su Chen couldn’t help but think of Liu Chen’s death.
On the surface, there shouldn’t be any issues, but professions are incredibly varied, and there might be some bizarre professions that can bypass evidence and directly point to the killer.
“Let’s try that seed…” Su Chen returned to his bedroom, closed his eyes, and, following the almost imperceptible connection, attempted to spread his mental power.
“…Are you sure…”
Faint voices drifted to his ears, gradually becoming clearer. The scene transformed before his eyes, and he found himself in a white room, facing two solemn Inspector Guards.
He tried to look around but found his vision was beyond his control.
“Is this what that woman saw?” Su Chen realized, and then he heard the woman’s voice, mixed with fear and unease, “I’ve told you everything I saw and heard many times.”
“It was a Heituo Follower! Liu Chen shouted it before he died, and I saw it clearly. I’m from the Carving Department, don’t I know what a Heituo Follower looks like?”
“The weapon was an axe, an axe! I didn’t see what it looked like exactly, only the head!”
“If you’re not going to catch the killer, why are you interrogating me? If you don’t believe me, get someone to read my memories!”
The woman’s emotions were clearly out of control, her voice growing louder and higher.
