Ning Xuan stared expressionlessly at the assassin before her. The man, who looked to be in his twenties, had a slender, frail build and an ashen complexion. His life force was dwindling; he looked like he was on death’s door. A hateful light gleamed in his triangular eyes.

’The truth was, the assassin was filled with deep regret. His mission was to assassinate a C-level female Spirit Controller on a D-level Star. Factoring in the possibility that her Contractor could be A-level, the organization had dispatched him—the one with the highest Comprehensive Combat Power and mission success rate among all A-level agents.’

’He had thought it would be an incredibly easy mission. But being naturally cautious and suspicious, he had made thorough preparations, even for a task that seemed to have no difficulty at all. He had traded over a decade’s worth of Contribution Points for that Star Concealing Stone. He had a meticulous plan for the entire assassination, rehearsing every step from casing the location to lying in wait. That was why, even now, he couldn’t understand how he had failed!’

The assassin’s curses sent Chen Nan into a rage. He strode forward and, with a sharp CRACK, snapped one of the man’s fingers. A wretched scream echoed through the sealed interrogation room. The sound was so piercing that Ning Xuan couldn’t help but frown.

Chen Nan had been watching Ning Xuan’s reaction. The moment he saw her frown, he tore a strip of cloth from the assassin’s clothes and gagged him.

Ning Xuan took out her Golden Needles. Her fingers were a blur as she pricked several acupoints on the assassin’s body. With a series of lifts, thrusts, and twists, she expertly manipulated the needles. After she was done, she removed them. The assassin’s ashen complexion visibly grew full and rosy. He lifted his hands and feet in astonishment; his once heavy, powerless body now surged with strength. He could feel his spiritual power and superpower slowly returning!

The assassin’s hands were bound and his mouth was gagged. He tried to speak but only managed to make muffled, incoherent sounds. When he saw Ning Xuan turn to leave, he dropped to his knees in desperation and began to kowtow repeatedly. At this, Ning Xuan had Chen Nan remove the gag. The assassin spoke in a rush, "Miss Ning, you can save me, can’t you? If you save me, I’ll tell you everything I know! I can be your servant and protect you personally. Please, I’m begging you, save me!"

The assassin looked at her, his eyes full of hope. "You have five minutes," Ning Xuan said coolly. "Tell me what you know. If it’s of any value, I’ll consider saving you."

"I’m a gold-ranked assassin from the Slaughter Pavilion’s A-level division. My mission success rate is 100%! My spiritual power is only A-level, but my Comprehensive Combat Power is S-Class. Don’t let this fool you"—he gestured toward Chen Nan—"I’m no match for him in a straight fight, but if I were to ambush him, I’d have a decent shot. I’ve even assassinated S-Class spiritual power experts before! You won’t regret taking me on!" The assassin used Chen Nan as a benchmark, trying to convince Ning Xuan of his value so she would save him.

After listening to him, Ning Xuan just shook her head in disappointment and turned to leave. "Don’t go, please...!" the assassin cried, but before he could say more, Chen Nan stuffed the gag back into his mouth and followed Ning Xuan out of the room.

"Contractor, aren’t you going to hear him out?" Chen Nan asked.

"He’s part of an organization, which means he was just carrying out an assigned mission. He won’t know who the client is." The moment Ning Xuan heard him mention the Slaughter Pavilion, she lost any hope of getting useful information from the interrogation.

"The Slaughter Pavilion is the Federation’s most mysterious assassin organization," Chen Nan explained. "Their fees are exorbitant. Once they accept a contract, they almost never fail. However, they have one rule: if a mission is a failure, they refund the client’s payment and abandon the contract."

"You seem to know a lot about them."

"I participated in an encirclement and suppression mission against them once," Chen Nan explained. He could now be certain his father wasn’t involved in this matter. ’After all,’ he thought, ’there’s no way my father could have connections to the Slaughter Pavilion!’

The rest of the interrogation yielded nothing, just as she’d expected. Even under torture, the assassin provided no new information.

To compensate for their security lapse, the regulatory investigation department gave Ning Xuan a C-level detection alarm. She took the device and headed home. Just as she arrived, she saw three Flying Cars parked in front of her house, with several teachers from her school blocking the entrance.

"Ning Xuan, you’re finally back! Dean Wang told us you refined a bottle of Bone Healing Potion. You haven’t sold it yet, have you? Can we please see it?" As soon as Ning Xuan stepped out of her Flying Car, the senior-year teachers who had been waiting at her door swarmed around her.

Only then did Ning Xuan recall that she had, in fact, sent a picture of the Bone Healing Potion to Dean Wang last night. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Of course. Teachers, please come in." After being attacked the previous night, Ning Xuan had been so busy with the investigation today that she hadn’t yet thought about selling the medicine.

The teachers from the Alchemy Department had brought equipment to test the medicine’s purity. Upon seeing the magnificent, iridescent liquid, they immediately asked to test it. Ning Xuan had no objection. An hour later, the results were in: the medicine had a purity of 95%, corresponding to a healing time of under two hours for bone injuries!

One of the teachers, a man surnamed Xia, rushed up to Ning Xuan in excitement. "Ning Xuan, how did you do it? This is incredible! A purity of 95%? I’ve never seen a Bone Healing Potion this pure!"

"That’s right, even reaching 80% purity is incredibly difficult," another teacher chimed in, pulling up his Light Computer. "Ning Xuan, Dean Wang said you bought the materials and refined this yourself, and that you plan to sell it. I’ll give you 500,000 Star Coins for it. Sell it to me! I can make the transfer right now!"

"Teacher Zhang, that’s not what the Dean instructed!" Teacher Xia rushed forward to stop him. "His intention was for the academy to purchase the medicine. Why are you trying to buy it for yourself?"

"A medicine of this quality is a once-in-a-lifetime find," Teacher Zhang said, a little embarrassed at being called out but showing no intention of putting away his Light Computer. "It’s up to Ning Xuan!"

"500,000 Star Coins. Sold." Focused solely on making money, Ning Xuan readily accepted the transfer and sold the medicine to Teacher Zhang.

"Hey—" Teacher Xia started to protest, but stopped when he saw Ning Xuan pull several stalks of black Bone Healing Wood from her Space Button. "Teachers, who else wants some Bone Healing Potion?" she asked. "I can refine more. The purity will be just as high as this last one."

"I do!" Teacher Xia exclaimed.

"Ning Xuan, let’s exchange contact information," Teacher Xia said, also activating the Light Computer on his wrist. "Just send me a message whenever it’s ready, and I’ll come pick it up!"