My Professions Have Too Much Personality
Chapter 283 - 175: Melting Essence: First Trial
Xia Hanshi didn’t rush to ask questions. In a flash, he was supporting the swaying Su Chen, his hoarse voice laced with worry. "How are you feeling?"
"I’m fine..." Su Chen rubbed his temples, his voice weak as he shook his head. "Every time I trigger an illusion, I feel something like this. It’s just exhaustion, though. Nothing more."
Su Chen sat on a nearby chair. After resting for a moment, Xia Hanshi asked, "What exactly did you see?"
"I..." Su Chen seemed to be recalling something, his gaze drifting to the Deceitful Artifacts arranged on the floor. Only three or four were not yet empty.
’If the illusion had triggered just as I finished absorbing all of them, it would’ve been too contrived. That’s why I intentionally left a few.’
"I vaguely saw a group of people entering Ying Feng. One of them gave me a very similar feeling to Meng Qi," Su Chen said.
"Similar to Meng Qi..." Xia Hanshi mused. "That thing is bizarre. Its ability to disguise itself is terrifying. If another one like it gets in..."
"But..." Su Chen frowned, as if trying to recall carefully. "The feeling I got... it was as if it *was* Meng Qi, not a new person. It’s hard to describe."
Xia Hanshi’s brow furrowed. He paced back and forth, his mind racing with thoughts, speculating based on the little information Su Chen had provided.
’Ordinary Believers definitely don’t have the ability to split their consciousness. It would have to be a High Priest, at least. But a High Priest sneaking in would just be cannon fodder. It’s not worth the Faceless Ghost Followers paying such a high price to lure us out. Could it be the Sacrificial Chief?’
’No, we received intelligence that the Sacrificial Chief is currently leading the main army of the Faceless Ghost Followers...’
’Could it be...’ Suddenly, Xia Hanshi’s expression changed. ’The descended Divine Son?’
’Yes...’ Su Chen nodded to himself. ’I finally managed to lead Old Xia in this direction.’
"The Divine Son... the Faceless Ghost Divine Son..." The more Xia Hanshi thought about it, the more he felt his guess was right. He continued his deduction, "That shell named Meng Qi was probably created by the Faceless Ghost Divine Son, who then split off a part of its consciousness to control it. No wonder we’ve never seen such a method before."
"But it was seen through. So this time, it used the Believers’ army to draw out our high-level forces while it snuck in again. Its purpose... its purpose is..."
"To find the person who destroyed the shell? No... Meng Qi’s objective for infiltrating..." Xia Hanshi’s eyes glinted as he uttered two words: "Stone Slab."
Everything clicked into place.
But a new question arose. Xia Hanshi was puzzled. "Why would the Divine Son ignore preparations for the Holy Banquet and come straight for the Stone Slab? In their eyes, is this Stone Slab more important than the entire Red Thunder Star?"
"What do they want the Stone Slab for?"
Su Chen was just as curious about that question, so of course he had no answer.
Xia Hanshi quickly pushed aside the unanswerable question. He looked at Su Chen again, a sense of amazement unavoidable. "This ability of yours is really something."
This one vision had solved a lot of problems.
Su Chen still looked weak, but he managed to force a smile. "I’m just glad I could help."
"It’s just the consumption..." Xia Hanshi glanced at the Deceitful Artifacts and the stone statue in the room, a headache already starting to form. They had been almost completely drained.
’I have no idea how I’m going to explain this when I return them.’
’That Lei Tieyan will surely fly into a rage.’
’If it’s hard to explain, then I just won’t.’ Xia Hanshi reined in his thoughts. He waited until Su Chen’s complexion had improved a bit before continuing, "Were there any other clues in the scene you saw?"
"For example, the clothes and appearances of that group of people?"
Just knowing a Divine Son had infiltrated was far from enough. Ying Feng was too large to search easily.
"Hmm..." Su Chen acted as if he were thinking hard. After a long pause, he said hesitantly, "The scene was too blurry. I couldn’t make out their faces. It’s just that their clothes... they didn’t look like people from Ying Feng."
’Of course, this information didn’t come from some Illusion Realm; he’d had someone investigate it secretly.’
Although he had only sensed it for an instant that night, the location wasn’t too vague. Su Chen had secretly tasked Gu Bing with carefully investigating the area.
However, there were a lot of people moving through that area at that time.
The problem was, someone from the Judicial Court just so happened to be eating there at the time—and it was someone Su Chen knew well: He Kang.
Su Chen didn’t believe it was a coincidence. He had Gu Bing follow that lead and discovered that the people eating with He Kang were a group from his home city.
Furthermore, according to records, that group had arrived ten days later than scheduled.
With that, Su Chen was almost certain: the Divine Son was hiding among this group from Ancient River City.
’He even wanted to know what they talked about during dinner that night, but doing so would inevitably require questioning the people at the table, which would be hard to keep under wraps.’
’Not only might it tip off the enemy, but if he later told Old Xia the information and Old Xia discovered during his own investigation that I had already looked into it, it would just create unnecessary complications.’
"Not like people from Ying Feng?" Xia Hanshi’s eyes flickered. He immediately had a theory. "People from a Subordinate City?"
"This is the time when various organizations are assessing people from the Subordinate Cities. A lot of people are mixing in, so it’s indeed an excellent window of opportunity for infiltration."
Even though the number of people was still large, at least they now had a target group.
After a few more questions, Su Chen finally recalled a key detail with great difficulty.
"Among them, I think there was a man with a missing arm," Su Chen said with some uncertainty.
"That’s enough." A sharp glint flashed in Xia Hanshi’s eyes. A feature like that was enough to narrow the search down significantly again.
"You’ve worked hard today. Go back and rest for now. If you feel anything unusual with your body, tell me immediately." Xia Hanshi looked at Su Chen, then added, "Once you’re more or less rested, make a trip to the Judgment Department and go through the procedures."