Chapter 281: Chapter 174: Public Tools for Private Use, Faceless Ghost Essence

BZZT—

What’s more, a black arc of electricity shot toward him.

Startled, Bu Siqi immediately leaped away. The arc, no thicker than a strand of hair, blasted a large pit in the training room’s specialized metal floor and sent up plumes of black smoke.

"Su Chen!"

Bu Siqi shouted, his face darkening, but Su Chen remained motionless.

’It’s not just an active counterattack, but a passive one, too?’

He took a deep breath, walked over, and removed Su Chen’s blindfold, only to see a bewildered expression on his face.

"My dear junior brother..." Bu Siqi’s expression had completely changed. He said with a chuckle, "This isn’t going to work. You said you wanted to perform a perfect dodge."

"But with your defensive abilities active, your body can’t feel the slightest hint of danger. It’s nearly impossible to find that specific feeling you’re looking for."

Su Chen mulled over his words.

’What Old Bu said seems to make sense. A moment ago, I had sealed off my external senses, unable to even perceive the flow of air.’

’In a situation like this, I can only rely on my body’s instincts. Using my defenses prevents injury, but it also makes it difficult to find that specific feeling.’

’Since this Profession was first deciphered, only three people have ever successfully qualified for it. The last one was over a decade ago, so there’s very little information available.’

"Alright, let’s try again." Su Chen lowered his defenses, put the blindfold back on, and blocked out his senses, plunging himself into a world of absolute darkness.

’This requirement is even harder than I thought.’

Su Chen thought to himself. ’With my perception of the outside world completely cut off, my body has become extremely tense, making it easy to misjudge. I still have to let...’

Suddenly, he felt a jolt in his heart. Before he could react, a sharp pain erupted in his chest. He felt himself fly through the air before crashing heavily to the ground.

Bu Siqi brought his fingers to his lips and blew away imaginary smoke, grinning as he looked down at Su Chen on the floor.

’It’s not every day I get to rough up the master’s favorite,’ he thought.

He was about to ask Su Chen if he wanted a break, but he saw the man had already scrambled back to his feet. There was only a single bloody scratch on his chest.

’Damn, is he a human tank? His physical resilience is this high even without using his defenses? Just what the hell is his Tier Four Profession?’ Bu Siqi’s eye twitched.

"Again, Senior Brother!"

Su Chen was genuinely surprised. His body’s instinctive reaction was even more intense than he had imagined.

What followed was an endless repetition of the same scene: Su Chen was knocked down, and he got back up. Knocked down, and back up again.

Bu Siqi’s expression gradually shifted from amusement to impassivity, and finally to a look of someone who had lost the will to live.

He watched as Su Chen progressed from being unable to react in time to gradually being able to move his body.

...

"Saint Envoy..." Tang Chen entered the room. Wu Chenpei, Hongxuan, and the others were all present, as was the Captain of the Guard, who was typically in charge of security.

"Yes." Wu Chenpei nodded. Seeing that everyone had arrived, he said, "I will soon be following Chong Jingtian to confront the Faceless Ghost army."

"During my absence, all of you will follow the orders of the Captain of the Guard—Lu Kai."

He glanced at a square-jawed man to his side, who was clad in heavy, pale-gold armor. The man nodded solemnly.

No one else had any objections. While Lu Kai’s current post as Captain of the Guard for the delegation sounded unimpressive, back in Yuan Capital, he was a high-ranking member of the Church Court and a Tier Six Professional.

After giving these simple instructions, Wu Chenpei dismissed the others, keeping only Hongxuan behind.

Only after enveloping the two of them in an Energy Ball did he say, "I’ve already made a secret arrangement with Yuan Capital. I will go to the ruins ahead of time to set things up."

"At that point, as long as you become the chosen one, they’ll have no choice but to hold their noses and accept it if they want to survive the Holy Banquet."

"We won’t make our move against Ying Feng directly. As long as we can withstand his initial fury, he’ll calm down and see the situation for what it is. Chong Jingtian always prioritizes the bigger picture."

Hongxuan nodded, his expression serene.

...

Back in the training grounds, time passed. Bu Siqi was miserable to the point of despair. The more excited Su Chen sounded, the more mind-numbingly bored Bu Siqi became.

He fished a blood bag from his pocket, shoved it into his mouth, and began to drink. The metallic taste that flooded his mouth finally lifted his spirits a little.

This beatdown had been going on for seven or eight days straight.

Then, at a certain moment, Bu Siqi’s glazed expression sharpened. He stared in astonishment at Su Chen, who was still standing in the same spot. "Holy shit!"

He had seen it. At the very instant his attack was about to land, Su Chen had dodged it with an incredible reaction.

’He actually did it.’

Su Chen had already taken off his blindfold. His whole body throbbed with a dull, stinging pain, but seeing the 10% progress he’d made on the second requirement for Wind Dancer on his status panel, he couldn’t help but feel excited.

"That feeling was really..." he mused, carefully savoring the memory.

That trigger was almost beyond a purely physical premonition; it was more like a moment of sudden, instinctual enlightenment.

’It took nearly ten days of getting hit just to pull it off once...’ After reliving the moment, Su Chen couldn’t help but shake his head. Even though the required number of successes had been reduced from one hundred to ten, it would still take him a huge amount of time to finish.

’If it takes this long every time, I’ll need at least three months to complete this one requirement.’

’For anyone else, that would be an incredibly short time, but for me, it’s still too long. Most importantly, I can’t work on developing my Profession at the same time.’

But Su Chen had no other option; he could only grind it out slowly.

"Let’s see if I can do it again..." Su Chen put the blindfold on once more.

Bu Siqi, however, quickly stopped him. Su Chen could take it, but he couldn’t.

"Junior Brother, let’s take a break."

Looking at Bu Siqi’s utterly despairing expression, Su Chen could only say, "Just one more time. I want to see if I can trigger that feeling again."

Bu Siqi had no choice but to go again, but this time, the result wasn’t the same.