"It's not good to drag this matter out for too long. With each day it drags on, there's another day of variables. Who knows what kind of mighty power that thing has; I must let the higher-ups know about it as quickly as possible."
While calculating in his heart, his body had already walked into the Gravity Room. Chugging two mouthfuls of potion, he assumed his stance, and gusts of wind surged around his body, shuttling through his limbs and bones.
Like a blunt knife slicing flesh, his muscles twitched, sending waves of intense pain.
Su Chen was long used to it, but today, not long after he started training, his movements abruptly stopped, and he opened his eyes.
In his mental perception, two guys with rather impressive life auras had already entered within a ten-meter radius of him.
"One on the left, one on the right, sneaking around... but they are only 2nd-tier professionals, not Zhou Xian." Su Chen retracted his stance and swiftly pulled out a vial of nutrient potion, stuffing it into his mouth.
Since arriving here, he had never trained himself to point of exhaustion. His vigilance was extremely high, and today it played a crucial role.
"Zhang Hengyu just left..." A fleeting glint of cold sharpness flashed in Su Chen's eyes. Without a sound, cyan-colored scale armor surfaced on his hands and gradually spread to his entire body.
At the same time, he also opened his wristband and sent a message to Old Sun.
"Hmm, they stopped?" Su Chen held his breath and concentrated. In his mental perception, the two people stopped in the corridor outside the room.
He looked toward the smooth and flawless wall of the Gravity Room; the other party was right outside.
"They even know the location of the Gravity Room. They came fully prepared." Standing in the corner of the room, the Azure Cable silently surfaced in his hand.
...
"Is the security this bad?"
Somewhere outside a Supervision Bureau branch, Zhou Xian was hiding in the shadows. His subordinates had already gone in for quite a while, yet there was still no commotion in the entire branch bureau.
He couldn't help but frown: "Could it be that I overestimated Zhang Hongbo? At a time like this, he still wants to get rid of Su Chen first?"
"If that really is the case, things will be easy to handle. This guy hasn't been a 【Gale Hunter】 for long. Without me even needing to make a move, two against one shouldn't be a big problem."
"However..." Zhou Xian's expression fluctuated between bright and dark. "Su Chen was actually able to retreat unscathed from the accusation. Could it be that the person who attacked me that night wasn't him?"
This guy had too many secrets on him. If he could catch him, many things could be explained.
...
"Probably here."
In the corridor, the two Evil God Cultists slowly walked around estimating the position of the wall, their bodies shrouded by Shadow Evasion Cloaks.
"Once we make our move, it will be very difficult for us to stay hidden. We must strive for a one-strike victory," one of them said in a low voice.
"En," the other chimed in. "I'll smash the wall, you execute the surprise attack."
"According to the intelligence, he should be in the middle of training. With a fatigued body and suddenly coming under attack, he definitely won't be percent able to react in time."
As the two concluded their discussion, the Evil God Cultist responsible for smashing the wall took a deep breath. The muscles all over his body bulged and took on a bizarre blood-red hue. The expanding muscle fibers twisted into dark green-black veins beneath his skin.
His fist, swollen several times over like a club, was raised high and drawn back to his waist. Following that, it was smashed out like a cannonball, erupting with a boom the instant it landed on the wall.
Boom!
The concrete surface cracked open, revealing the twisted steel rebar skeleton of the inner layer. The other person immediately charged in at extreme speed.
However, after breaking into the Gravity Room, his ruthless gaze was replaced by astonishment. In the sparse dust and smoke, the surroundings were completely empty; where was the person?
"Where is..."
Before the question could fully surface, a chill gripped his heart. A bone-piercing sharp wind came from the back of his head, accompanied by a whistling sound tearing through the air.
From the corner of his eye, he only caught a glimpse of a whip shadow resembling a cyan snake. A violent hurricane whipped up the surrounding dust.
A thunderclap resounded!
Blowing apart along with it was his head!
...
"E-Elder Xia, are we really not going in to take a look?"
In a building near the supervision branch, several precision instruments were placed here. The large screen in the center displayed an infrared view.
Xia Hanshi looked up at it. The red glow emitted by one of the figures was almost bursting through the screen.
However, the burly man responsible for security was acting like a quail right now, cold sweat beading on his forehead as he asked cautiously.
He was the person responsible for Su Chen's safety, as well as the protector of the bait operation—Lu Sheng, the deputy minister of the Exploration Department.
As early as a few minutes ago, their equipment had captured two anomalous signals sneaking into the branch bureau. Based on deduction, they should have used Shadow Evasion Cloaks to conceal their bodies.
Just as they were preparing to provide backup, they were held down by the suddenly arriving Xia Hanshi.
"This kind of equipment captures targets via thermal signals, but as long as they conceal their own heat sources, they can evade it. Is this the only kind of thing Nanfeng has?" Xia Hanshi swept a glance over it.
Lu Sheng explained cautiously, "It seems that way, but after being modified by the Research Department, it can also capture slight mental energy signals. This is classified information. With the two combined, it's very difficult for anyone to sneak in silently."
"They can even perform self-mental concealment?" Xia Hanshi murmured in a low voice. "Then did you not notice Su Chen disappearing?"
"The material of the Gravity Room is special, making it impossible for the equipment to penetrate..." he explained. "Su Chen basically soaks in there all day long."
"...A heat source vanished; only one remains!" The subordinate responsible for monitoring cried out in alarm. Lu Sheng's expression changed slightly.
"Truly fast... even though it hasn't been long since he became a 2nd-tier professional," Xia Hanshi spoke faintly.
...
"Liu Cheng... it's time for the shift change. You go back and sleep first."
In the branch bureau lobby, a Supervision Guard coming for the rotation held a cup of coffee. He let out a yawn and spoke to the short-haired woman who already had sleepy, blurry eyes.
"Brother Zhang, thanks for your hard work." Liu Cheng was long exhausted. Upon hearing this, she regained a bit of energy.
Before her buttocks even left the seat, a booming sound came from above her head!
Like an explosive thunderclap, it instantly frightened the Supervision Guards in the lobby into jumping up.
"W-what's going on!?"
"It seems to be coming from upstairs!"
"..."
The crowd panicked for a moment but quickly snapped back to their senses. Some swiftly found cover, while others had already turned on their communication terminals.
Boom!
There was another muffled bang, followed closely by a crashing sound. Before everyone's dumbfounded eyes, cracks in the ceiling spread out like a spiderweb. The muffled thuds of falling concrete slabs mixed with the twisted wailing of steel rebar.
The wiring buried within burst with crackling electric sparks.
A figure fell down amidst billowing dust and smoke.
Everyone was startled, their throats rolling. Liu Cheng carefully raised her head. Through the damaged ceiling, she could see a figure standing at the edge, their upper body covered in cyan scale armor.
The scales refracted a cold interplay of light. From the gaps between each scale, faint blue electric arcs of energy seeped out, wandering along the muscle lines like living creatures.
Holding a long whip wreathed in cyan lightning arcs in his hand, he was currently looking down below, his eyes similarly flashing with cyan lightning arcs.
"Section... Section Chief Su?" Liu Cheng hesitated, and then cried out in surprise.
"My apologies for startling you all." Su Chen retracted his baleful aura, a mild smile appearing on his face. "Someone suddenly launched a sneak attack, so I failed to control my strength for a moment."
"It's fine, it's fine..." Liu Cheng said hurriedly. This second-generation princeling was like a divine dragon whose head could be seen but not its tail. They only occasionally bumped into him once or twice in the cafeteria, and he was always quite genial.
She didn't expect him to also have the side he just displayed.
"You guys just handle it according to protocol." Su Chen nodded and then turned around to leave. "Someone should be here to take over shortly."
Only after Su Chen disappeared did everyone realize what had happened. They gathered around to look at the corpse on the ground. Lying face down on the floor, there was a massive gash on his back that split the spine open. The edges were already charred black, and no fresh blood oozed out.
"My goodness, so vicious..." someone beside her swallowed dryly.
"Holy crap, something major is going to happen. This is the department head's student; who dares to assassinate him?"