"Something else?" Bai Fengxi came downstairs and ran straight into Su Chen, who had returned. She looked puzzled.
"Lend me some money..." Su Chen was somewhat embarrassed.
Bai Fengxi frowned slightly. "You're so capable. Didn't Jiang He give you any money?"
That "capable" sounded rather ambiguous. Su Chen answered simply and bluntly, "Not enough."
"Uh, I don't have much either." Feeling the pain in her shoulder, Bai Fengxi's trust in Su Chen rose considerably.
She fumbled out a small blue-white cloth pouch. "I only have twenty or thirty on me..."
"Give it all to me." Su Chen held out his hand.
Bai Fengxi looked up at him. Back when she had dealt with Su Chen before, he had not been this shameless, had he?
"I'll pay you back." Su Chen took it naturally and turned to leave.
"Together with what the victim gave me last time, that should make seventy or eighty..." Su Chen lowered his head and contacted Wei Zhigao, sending a message.
"I want to buy a Blood-Activating Potion."
Wei Zhigao replied quickly—"500 gold."
"I only have 70..."
"...500 is already the discounted price."
Su Chen came up with a compromise. "How about this? I won't take my nutrient solution this week or next week. Can you give me another discount?"
Under normal circumstances, the Molten Stone Training Method's proficiency increased slowly. If he wanted to quickly make up the requirements for advancement, he could only rely on external aids.
After a long while, Wei Zhigao finally replied. "...Just this once. I'll have someone deliver it to you."
"Old Wei really has the bearing of a teacher," Su Chen remarked.
Not long after he returned to the dormitory, the person Wei Zhigao sent arrived in a hurry. He was a member of the academy's Internal Affairs Department, spoke little, and handled things strictly by the book: money in one hand, goods in the other.
The man counted the gold coins, then left with a speechless expression.
Su Chen drank the Blood-Activating Potion in one gulp. His body swelled with heat as he began pushing himself through brutal training.
The progress of the Molten Stone Training Method steadily rose. Stimulated by the Blood-Activating Potion and aided by the Scholar, it improved at a visible rate.
Early the next morning.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Su Chen's eyes snapped open. A note had been slipped beneath the door.
When he opened the door, he saw only a fleeting silhouette vanish around the stairwell corner.
"A note?" Su Chen looked down at it. After closing the door, he wrapped his hand in the Shadow-Hiding Garment, held his breath, and carefully opened it. A line of small writing was on it—
"If you don't want Bai Fengxi's secret exposed, come find me behind Brightlight Building."
??
Su Chen froze. Bai Fengxi's secret? Why threaten me instead of threatening her?
"Little Brother Zhou, it has to be you, right?" Su Chen burned the note and continued training.
Since he had already resorted to threats, he was clearly the anxious one. Su Chen was not in any hurry.
Besides, Old Bai did not seem to care much about it either.
Two hours later, someone knocked again. It was another note, this time with different wording—
"We can talk. It wasn't easy for you to get where you are. It's not worth throwing yourself away for someone else."
"What a lunatic..." Su Chen could not be bothered to respond.
By late afternoon, Su Chen's body trembled. His heartbeat suddenly accelerated, and strands of molten-gold patterns gradually spread across his crimson skin. His sweat evaporated into white mist, and the temperature throughout the room rose.
[Molten Stone Training Method—Proficient: 1%]
"Whew, finally..." Su Chen let out a long breath. The increase in proficiency brought an obvious change. His training intensity had sharply risen, which also meant his profession development efficiency had improved.
[Sky-Rending Warrior: 28%]
Su Chen clenched his fists, in an excellent mood.
The advancement requirements had been met, and the Sky-Rending Warrior's second ability emerged.
[Windstride (Passive): Move with the wind. The faster the wind, the greater the movement speed.]
"Move with the wind?" Su Chen mulled over those words. He walked to the window and opened it. The instant a breeze brushed over him, that near-flying sensation intensified.
"I really want to shoot out there..." Su Chen stared outside, his legs itching to move.
The artificial light gradually turned earthy yellow and dimmed. Due to the recent unusual circumstances, few students wandered around the academy after six in the evening.
In the small woods behind Brightlight Building.
"Brother Zhou, that kid just won't come out. We've already delivered three notes." Several men standing before Zhou Zong wore bitter smiles. "He must have guessed that nothing good awaited him here."
Zhou Zong's expression shifted as he said coldly, "That idiot Bai Fengxi. Su Chen doesn't care about her at all."
Thinking of that, he could not help touching the item in his clothes. He had gone to great trouble to obtain it, intending to use it to get closer to Bai Fengxi, only to receive two blunt "get lost" responses that morning.
"That kid really has some skills. First, he latched onto Jiang He and got into Southwind Academy, then he hooked up with Bai Fengxi." The young men sighed repeatedly. "He's handsome too. He really does have..."
Before they could finish, they felt Zhou Zong's gaze, as though he wanted to devour someone alive, and immediately shut their mouths.
"Maybe our words were too subtle." Someone changed the subject. "Brother Zhou, should we add a little more pressure?"
Zhou Zong frowned and waved them off coldly. "Leave."
The men exchanged glances and departed one by one. He could not be bothered to say more to them.
"A refugee. That identity could become quite a liability in the future. As long as I get a hold of it, Bai Fengxi will have a weakness." Zhou Zong murmured in a low voice, his eyes gleaming. His father was also one of the academy's vice principals, and he knew Bai Fengxi's background seemed far from ordinary.
His expression gradually turned vicious. "Su Chen, I refuse to believe..."
Before he could finish, a familiar sharp pain struck the back of his head. His vision went black, and he lost consciousness.
"Who?" A pair of eyes in the distance instantly narrowed, staring fixedly at the figure lying on the ground.
This had been a target he carefully selected. The target's status was not ordinary, and he had already hidden the item on him. He had originally intended to slip away today.
But in the middle of the afternoon, this man had quietly come to this remote place. Several Inspection Guards had come to question him, but he had driven them away.
He had no idea what the man intended to do. To avoid any accidents, he could only follow from afar.
Yet he had just watched someone knock the man unconscious. Within the shadows, a blurred outline gradually emerged.
"Are his injuries that severe? He didn't even notice when someone approached." His expression darkened as he touched his chest, where a faint pain lingered.
"Little brother..." Su Chen rode the wind over, staring at Zhou Zong on the ground. "Don't disappoint me."
He had not planned to come, but then he remembered the gains from his last looting spree. With the mindset that it did not hurt to take a swing, he had come here.
The Sky-Rending Warrior was indeed extraordinary. His speed had increased two or threefold, and paired with the Shadow-Hiding Garment, he came and went without a trace.
Su Chen moved quickly nonetheless, plundering with practiced ease.
"Hm?" He looked in surprise at the four potion vials in his hand, two red and two blue.
He was familiar with the red ones. They were scarlet like blood—Blood-Activating Potions.
"Revitalizing Potions? How did he get these?" Su Chen remembered. They stimulated mental activity and were even more expensive than Blood-Activating Potions, costing seven hundred gold per bottle even after a discount.
"I'll pocket them first..." Su Chen stuffed them into his clothes.
Then, with familiar ease, he stripped off Zhou Zong's clothes. But as he bundled them up, he suddenly felt that something was off.
"Why does this clothing feel..." Su Chen rubbed the clothes in his hands. When he had folded them just now, he had clearly felt something unusual.
He quickly found the source. In the inner layer of the clothing, around the right side of the abdomen, something seemed to be hidden.
"Hidden this deeply, it must be something good." Su Chen grew interested and carefully took it apart. Inside was a palm-sized, cicada-wing-thin... metal sheet?
It felt warm and smooth to the touch. Rows of intricate symbols were engraved upon it, constantly flickering and changing. Su Chen felt dizzy after only one glance.
But the panel reacted—
[Special profession discovered—Space Storage User. Can be taken after completing the employment requirements.] [Employment Requirement One: One Spatially Precipitated Crystal] [Employment Requirement Two: Pass through a spatial rift] [Employment Requirement Three: Must be at least a top-tier second-rank mental-type profession user]
Before you continue