"What is it?"
Downstairs in the reception room, Qin Cheng glanced at the man who'd suddenly lifted his head.
Yu Xuan withdrew his gaze. A flash of excitement died before it fully surfaced. He shook his head. "Nothing."
'Zhou Xian was right. Yuan Chenyang actually took an Evil God cultist as a student. Faceless Ghost... they can disguise as our Lord's followers.'
Just then, the door swung open. Three pairs of eyes locked onto Su Chen. He recognized only Qin Cheng, the Patrol Division Chief β a middle-aged man who exuded the polished ease of a veteran politician.
"Su Chen..." Qin Cheng was already on his feet, making introductions. To the right sat a gaunt, sharp-cheekboned middle-aged man. "Exploration Department. Zhou Mingguang."
Zhou Mingguang nodded.
"And this is Yu Xuan, from the City Patrol Department." The one on the left looked notably younger, his expression genial.
Su Chen offered a friendly nod. 'I'll check with Hou Xu on the way out β if they haven't switched seats, the suspect should be this Yu Xuan.'
Hou Xu, who'd been keeping the guests company, took the cue and excused himself. Qin Cheng invited Su Chen to sit and sighed. "We're here about Pan Yu."
'That's what this is about.' Su Chen felt a measure of relief. The tension in his chest eased considerably.
As long as it wasn't about the Spatial Crystal or the Artifact.
"Pan Yu hasn't been seen in a long time. The outlook isn't good." Zhou Mingguang cut straight to the point, fixing Su Chen with a stare. "We wanted to ask β before his disappearance, did you notice anything unusual about him?"
"Hmm, I wasn't close with him. We've probably exchanged fewer than ten sentences total." Su Chen shook his head. "I genuinely can't say if anything was off."
"You're quite close with Hu Xiang, aren't you?" The perpetually smiling Yu Xuan spoke up abruptly.
'They traced it to Hu Xiang?'
Su Chen's eyes narrowed a fraction. Beside him, Zhou Mingguang and Qin Cheng both frowned.
That question hadn't been part of the agreed script.
"Hmm... that matter touches on old history. I'd suggest taking it up with the City Lord." Su Chen deflected.
'The City Lord's involved again?' Zhou Mingguang's frown deepened.
"I see." Yu Xuan feigned understanding. "Got it."
Su Chen looked at the other two. After a beat of silence, he ventured, "Anything else, gentlemen?"
Aside from Yu Xuan, the other two didn't seem to have prepared any real interrogation.
Su Chen wasn't surprised. On paper, he and Pan Yu had zero connection.
"That should be all for now." Zhou Mingguang's brow remained knotted. He rose, glancing at Yu Xuan. "Just a routine check-in. We're all anxious, what with Pan Yu being gone this long."
He offered an excuse. Su Chen played along with a look of innocent comprehension, chatted idly for another moment, and then the three departed.
Su Chen watched them board the hover car before returning to his room. His expression gradually hardened. "What were those three actually after? Yu Xuan β that Believer of Black Buddha β bringing up Hu Xiang. A warning? A threat?"
Hu Xiang had shipped out on a long patrol ages ago. He wouldn't be back for at least half a month. They couldn't have gotten anything out of him.
"They've been investigating this long, and only come knocking right after I snatched the Artifact? Did that night's attack on Zhou Xian give me away?" He analyzed from every angle.
"So they sent someone to probe me? But surely they aren't naive enough to think I'm actually a Black Buddha follower?"
After a long while, Su Chen exhaled a slow breath. "Still too weak."
......
In the hover car, Qin Cheng was fuming. "Yu Xuan, what the hell was that? You swore up and down you had leads, and then you show up and ask one question about some Hu Xiang?"
"...We're asking you β what's the deal with Hu Xiang?" Zhou Mingguang was blunt. As the City Lord's direct command, the Exploration Department outranked the other two divisions.
Yu Xuan shook his head. "It's nothing. The late Qi Chuan had contacted Hu Xiang and conspired against Su Chen, but the City Lord already closed the book on that."
"Hu Xiang probably came to apologize or something."
"There's that whole mess too?" Qin Cheng scowled. "Then Su Chen was the victim. Coming here to question him was pointless β I said so from the start. His Deputy Chief position was a personal appointment by the City Lord. That 'biggest beneficiary' theory of yours has zero logic. Yu Xuan, if you keep derailing this, you're off the case."
Yu Xuan looked displeased. "I was just being thorough. Asking a couple of questions to rattle him couldn't hurt."
Qin Cheng grumbled under his breath. "I told you before we came β there's no way he's connected to Pan Yu's disappearance."
Yu Xuan turned to stare out the window, saying nothing. Inside, he was elated. 'Confirmed: Su Chen is an Evil God cultist. Everything from here gets much simpler.'
......
Yu Xuan's bizarre visit sharpened Su Chen's sense of urgency.
But over the following days, an eerie calm prevailed. No follow-up came.
Zhang Hengyu, meanwhile, noticed that after their last conversation, Su Chen hadn't relaxed one bit. If anything, he'd doubled down. There'd been the occasional shared meal before β now six days had passed without a sighting.
He had no choice but to grit his teeth and keep pace.
"Finally..." Su Chen straightened from his training stance, exhaled a long breath, and walked out of the training room. His eyes were unfocused.
[Ethereal Meditation Method: Master rank.]
[Ability acquired β Ethereal State: mental activity increased.]
The surging mental energy gradually settled. Through Spiritual Vision, his perception range had expanded to a twenty-meter radius.
The Mystic Artificer's development progress had hit 100% two days ago. The bottleneck had been waiting for the meditation method to reach Master rank.
Everything was in place. All that remained was the Trial of Whispers.
"Are all mental-type advancements this disturbing? I'd rather fight a few 2nd-tier professionals." Su Chen recalled his first Trial of Whispers and shuddered.
But if he wanted to advance, there was no alternative.
At least this time he could hang a "Do Not Disturb" sign on his door.
He sealed the bedroom door's every gap, drew the curtains tight, then sat cross-legged on his bed and expertly traced the inverted cross on his chest.
Hummmm...
The sensation was similar to the first Trial, but far more violent. The world around him filled with cacophonous noise. This time, however, his strengthened mental faculties lent an entirely different clarity to the experience.
He could faintly sense himself breaching a boundary of consciousness β stepping into what felt like another dimension. Vague scenery materialized at the edges of perception.
The indecipherable sounds in his ears grew ever sharper, their source seeming to press right up against him.
"...ji... ji..."
He could almost make out a single syllable.
And then, without warning, crimson flames erupted before his eyes.
This time he saw no black triangle. Instead β a colossus of impossible scale, its back crowned with crimson wings. He couldn't gauge the distance to it, couldn't fathom its true size.
It bore four heads, each facing a cardinal direction. Scarlet lightning coiled around its form. With each beat of its wings, crimson fire flooded the horizon.
What kind of creature was this? Su Chen's consciousness began to blur.
Then β blinding light. Every vision shattered.
The curtains snapped and fluttered. Su Chen had unconsciously raised a finger, and a pillar of cyan wind had punched clean through the window.
"That was absolutely deranged."
His back was drenched in cold sweat. The imagery replayed unbidden in his mind β and for reasons he couldn't pinpoint, it overlapped with the vision from when he'd first touched the Evil God Artifact. There were similarities.
"Could that thing also be a type of Evil God...?" Su Chen mused darkly. He reined in his emotions and opened the panel. All advancement requirements β complete.
ADVANCE!
[Mystic Artificer successfully advances to Mystic Scholar!]
[Mystic Artifact Control and Enhancement merge β Mystic Artifact Lord: may simultaneously control two mystic artifacts and imbue them with professional abilities.]
[Mental Piercing Spike evolves β Mental Interference: greatly enhances the ability to mentally affect external targets.]
[Professional ability acquired β Crimson Thunder Strike: a power stolen from Crimson's corruption.]
Su Chen felt his brain go cold. Mental energy began to boil, expanding at a terrifying pace. His perception range ballooned. Every detail of his surroundings sharpened to crystalline resolution.
Mental Shielding, Morning Resonance, and Ethereal State rapidly integrated into his psyche, becoming foundational layers of his accumulated power.
Invisible force rippled outward. Tables and chairs rattled. Environmental details, ambient noises β everything rushed toward him in an overwhelming flood. His skull felt ready to burst.
It took a long while before Su Chen regained control of the surging mental energy. He scrolled through his panel, digesting the cascade of new information.