chapter 125

What would a person do to survive?

The answer was anything.

Su Chen had seen many shameless people before. Inigo was not the first, and he certainly would not be the last.

As such, Su Chen asked, “How can I trust you?”

Inigo replied, “Consciousness control.”

Su Chen shook his head. “Don’t try to play that game with me. Ninth-Ring Arcana Masters are like Thought Manifestation Realm cultivators. There’s no way I will be able to control you with a mere fragment of your consciousness. As long as you want to, there are too many ways for you to escape. Don’t forget, though, that I’m at the Ninth Ring now as well!”

Other people might be lacking in experience or have an incomplete foundation.

Su Chen, however, was different. His clones were flipping through the books, rapidly increasing his experience, while the Wind and Thunder Spirit Totems conferred upon him a powerful intuition.

With this combination of experience and perception, how was Inigo to lie to him?

It was far too difficult.

Inigo could only chuckle bitterly. “So what do you think should be done?”

“Wait a moment.” Su Chen closed his eyes.

Inigo didn’t know what he was doing and could only wait quietly.

Su Chen was actually waiting for his clones to flip through the books.

Jade Clearmist was a legendary Arcana Master, and he possessed quite a few secret techniques.

Very quickly, Su Chen discovered an Arcana Technique that relied on sending elemental energy into a person’s body and controlling them via the threat of causing that energy to explode. Essentially, Inigo’s life would be in his hands.

However, this Arcana Technique was only a Seventh-Ring Arcana Technique. Su Chen was very suspicious that Inigo would be able to easily nullify it.

If he didn’t want that to happen, Su Chen would need to think of a way to upgrade it.

Since he had already started down this path, Su Chen decided to follow through by altering this Arcana Technique.

This process of improving an Arcana Technique might have taken other people years to accomplish, but to Su Chen, who had both the consciousness crystal and a vast repository of knowledge to work with, it wasn’t very difficult.

Finally, after a furious bout of calculations, a Ninth-Ring Arcana Technique came into being.

Su Chen opened his eyes and said, “Relax your body. Don’t try to resist.”

Inigo didn’t dare disobey. Su Chen’s finger tapped onto Inigo’s forehead.

Inigo felt a mysterious, powerful strand of energy enter his body through Su Chen’s finger.

What kind of Arcana Technique was this?

How come he had never heard of it before?

Inigo was both stunned and frightened.

He could sense the energy enter his body before rapidly disappearing from his perception.

However, Inigo also was aware that the energy definitely hadn’t disappeared. It had just concealed itself so that he wouldn’t have an opportunity to nullify it.

Su Chen said, “This is an Arcana Technique I created. If you betray me, it will burst open from within your being. Of course, if you have the ability to do so, feel free to try your hand at it. If you are able to do so, then you’ll be free to do as you please.”

It was impossible for Su Chen to ask Inigo not to think of ways to break free from his control, so Su Chen had no problem with being generous. If Inigo wanted to escape, then he was free to try and do so as long as he had the ability.

Inigo obviously said that he wouldn’t dare think of doing so, but neither of them believed that.

After taking care of that matter, Su Chen began to examine his spoils.

He had won two Divine Feathers and a single red ball.

Su Chen knew about the Divine Feathers already, but he couldn’t quite figure out what the round ball was.

It was Inigo who said, “Master, I think I might know what that is.”

“Oh? Tell me.”

“I think that should be the soul essence left behind by Jade Clearmist.”

“Soul essence?” Su Chen was stunned. “Isn’t it only possible for Astrals to make those? How does he have a soul essence?”

“That’s exactly what I was going to say. Jade Clearmist was a legendary Arcana Master, and he wanted to bring glory to the Harpies. Apparently, he wanted to research a way to create an ethereal body like the astrals possessed and even went to the Wanlai Caves for inspiration. There, he obtained some knowledge belonging to the Astrals.”

“You aren’t trying to tell me that he tried to turn himself into an Astral, right?” Su Chen was amused.

“Of course not. The Astrals had been trying for tens of thousands of years to turn others into Astrals as well but had always failed. There was nothing Jade Clearmist could do about that problem. What he wanted to do was rely on the Astrals’ skills to pass on consciousness power, allowing the Harpies to possess incredibly powerful consciousnesses as well.”

“You mean…… power transmission?”

“Yes, transmission of consciousness power via soul essences,” Inigo replied. “I think he probably succeeded in the end. This is probably one of the soul essences Jade Clearmist left behind before his death. As long as you use it, you will inherit Jade Clearmist’s consciousness power and greatly increase your own strength. Perhaps you will be able produce your own isolated consciousness body at some point.”

Su Chen coldly harrumphed, “Are you trying to get me to use this thing? Inigo, don’t try and play games with me. I don’t believe for a second that this thing is that good. A soul essence that belongs to someone else…… Perhaps if I use it, I’ll be inviting another will into my soul as well!”

Inigo chuckled bitterly. It was impossible to tell if he was telling the truth or not.

But no matter what Inigo was thinking, Su Chen refused to use this item.

Patelocke had tried something like that against him at the Goldwater Ruins. After all, immortality was something that every living being dreamed of achieving. Jade Clearmist might have been ambitious, but it was only natural for him to also have some selfishness.

Su Chen felt that he hadn’t lived long enough yet to try and assimilate soul essence left behind by a legendary Arcana Master.

But just because he wasn’t planning on using it didn’t mean that it had no value whatsoever. The technology might not have been there yet, but it was still an accomplishment worth studying for Su Chen.

Consciousness…… Actually, that was a barrier that he would need to face in the future.

Even though Su Chen was able to ascend, he wasn’t in any hurry to do so. He wanted to improve the odds of success so that people without a bloodline would have even more potential.

In any case, he was already a Ninth-Ring Arcana Master, making him roughly as strong as a Thought Manifestation Realm cultivator. He was in no hurry to ascend.

He could absolutely take his time to study it.

Su Chen didn’t stand on courtesy and put it away, along with the Divine Feathers.

Su Chen already knew why Night God Sun didn’t want to bring the Divine Feather out. Once it was revealed, its power would constantly drain away. Thankfully, the crystal the palace had was designed to seal the Divine Feather. Su Chen sealed away the feather inside for future analysis.

However, because the Divine Feather’s constant drain, it was obvious that it would cost a lot to research.

As such, Inigo’s suggestion wasn’t wrong. If possible, he might as well take the Mother Goddess Sect’s other two feathers with him as well.

Right, there was also the Fate’s Hands’ headquarters and the Spiritual Light Institute to search.

Su Chen put away the treasures and said, “So we should prepare to head for the Spiritual Light Institute next.”

Inigo carefully reminded, “There are still some Harpies outside of the palace……”

He was referring to the Wind-Gathering Clan and the other scattered Harpies who had shown up to try out their luck.

After a moment’s thought, Su Chen said, “The responsibility for the deaths of all these Harpies needs to belong to someone. Inigo, I’m afraid that Fate’s Hands will have to bear the burden this time.”

Inigo understood what he meant. “Got it. We’ll give those Harpies outside a good show, but unfortunately your subordinates will need to play their part as well.”

Li Chongshan chuckled. “That’s easy. We’ll let them think that we just wanted to claim some benefits for ourselves but were sent packing by a Ninth-Ring Arcana Master. That’s better than the Harpies finding out that some humans got their hands on those treasures. Otherwise, they would probably come after us relentlessly.”

“That’s right.” Zhu Chenhuan nodded. “It’s about time for us to leave now. Su Chen, take care of yourself on this trip. This Inigo is incredibly slippery. Be careful about trusting him so easily.”

Su Chen smiled slightly. “He had a helper who tried to do something similar. You know what happened to her.”

He was talking about Flaming Femme.

These Fate’s Hands people were all from the same organization, so the way they did things was very similar. They would immediately surrender upon realizing that something was wrong, then look for an opportunity to counterattack later on.

Unfortunately, they had run into a tough opponent in Su Chen.

With the Origin Bone Scepter, Su Chen didn’t need to worry about anything they tried as long as he was willing to pay the price.

Upon hearing Su Chen’s words, everyone understood.

Shi Kaihuang patted Su Chen on the shoulder. “Make sure to be careful and don’t stir up any unnecessary trouble. The earlier you can get back, the better. A long night leads to bad dreams.”

Su Chen smiled slightly. “I know. I’ll be careful.”

Shi Kaihuang stared at him. “You always say that.”

Chu Yingwan was the one who walked over and whispered in Su Chen’s ear, “Come back soon so that we can drink some celebratory wine together.”

Su Chen stared at Chu Yingwan, who blushed fiercely before leaving as if nothing had happened.

Su Chen was delighted. He said to Shi Kaihuang, “Congratulations, Instructor.”

Shi Kaihuang cleared his throat with some embarrassment and left without saying anything else. The people following behind him all chuckled quietly, obviously aware of this.

At that moment, Youthful Abundance was still standing outside watching.

The doors to the palace swung open. Even though everyone wanted to go inside, they all recognized that the only people inside were powerful experts, and that they could be courting death.

But they also weren’t willing to just leave like that.

Youthful Abundance couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to Sir Azure Mark.

While she believed that Sir Azure Mark would be fine, she was also worried about his safety and couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

After an unknown period of time, a loud rumbling could suddenly be heard coming from the temple.

A large group of humans charged out from the temple.

Everyone had seen these humans before. They were the last ones to enter the secret realm, but because there was so many of them, no one dared to get in their way. Unexpectedly, they were the first ones to reappear.

This group of people had stormed in full of confidence, but now they were all panicking and yelling, “Hurry! Run!”

Inigo charged out with immense momentum, Ninth-Ring Arcana Techniques flying all over the place as he sent the humans running.

Inigo was the only one standing in the air, holding a feather. It was the Divine Feather.

Inigo said arrogantly, “All of the treasures here belong to me! If you don’t want to die, get the hell out of here!”

The humans scattered.

Inigo turned around to survey his surroundings before also leaving.

What next?

They were gone?

They had all left, just like that?

The scattered Harpies all glanced at each other, unsure of what to do.

Finally, some of the more courageous Harpies dared to venture inside, but they ran out in fright after a single glance. “Anyone who didn’t come out is dead!”

What?

All of the Harpies were stunned.

Could it be that Night God Sun also……

Youthful Abundance’s heart trembled. She ran inside, only to find the ground littered with corpses. No other survivors were in sight.

“Sir Azure Mark! Sir Azure Mark!” Youthful Abundance yelled loudly.

No one responded.

Had Sir Azure Mark really died?

Youthful Abundance stood there, a single tear falling from her eye.

“Are you looking for me?”

A voice suddenly spoke from behind her.

Youthful Abundance was badly startled. She turned around, only to find Su Chen smiling back at her.

When she saw Su Chen’s smile, she froze for a moment before wiping her tears away and smiling in response.