All according to plan!

As soon as Su Chen heard this, a smile appeared on his face.

Yes, he actually hadn’t placed all his hopes onto Zhu Xianyao and the others being able to kill Kong Cheng. The true heavy hitter was Yue Longsha in the end. In other words, the Zhu Clan had only been used as a front from the very beginning.

Qi Shenyuan would have never dreamed that there would be another group of people hidden in the shadows waiting to claim their lives while he was trying to escort Kong Cheng away safely.

It would have been strange if they could escape, having been ambushed after a long battle.

Yue Longsha and her subordinates had easily taken care of the two of them and found what they were looking for.

“As long as everything went smoothly,” Su Chen replied to Yue Longsha.

“Thanks for taking care of it.”

“No worries. We’re friends, after all.”

“Friends......”

On the other end of the line, Yue Longsha fell silent.

After a long time, she said, “Yes. Friends.”

Su Chen could sense a hint of bleakness in her voice.

As such, Su Chen also grew solemn.

After some time, he said, “Right, since this matter has been dealt with, what are you planning on doing next?”

“I’m going to leave and turn in this mission. After that, well, we’ll see if there are any new missions up for grabs. We’re the Secret Task Force, after all; our job is to investigate potential threats to our country.”

“Now that you mention it, I have some information you might be interested in.”

“What is it?”

“The Slyheart Zhu Clan is trying to infiltrate the Long Sang Country, which might be bad news for us. How about it? Does that interest you, deputy commander?”

Yue Longsha chuckled. “Yes, I discovered that too. There have been Bloodline Nobility Clans from other countries sneaking across the border to contact other races recently, and there are still some dregs from the Immortal Temple conspiring against the law that need to be dealt with. There’s even a former Bureau Head helping them out secretly, colluding with the villains. Each one will be investigated thoroughly and then reported.”

“Cough, cough!” Su Chen coughed a few times. “It’s no fun if you play like that.”

Yue Longsha giggled, “In any case, even though we now have the list of names, we’ve only uncovered the tip of the iceberg in regards to our opponents’ plans, so we will have to continue pursuing this matter with utmost diligence. The others will go back to turn in the mission, but I’ll remain here to continue keeping an eye out.”

“......Then take care of yourself,” Su Chen finally uttered after thinking for a long time.

——————————

In the following days, Su Chen continued to rest, allowing his injuries to fully heal.

After Su Chen had recovered, he was no longer suspected by Zhu Xianyao, which allowed him to roam freely throughout the castle.

As for He Xu, because he had provided information about the address, he underwent another round of interrogation. Thankfully, with Su Chen’s protection, his life was preserved yet again.

Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, twenty days had passed.

As the deadline of a month slowly inched closer, Zhu Baiyu finally returned.

Wind and dust blew everywhere.

“How did things go, Sixth Uncle?” Zhu Xianyao asked.

“I have not disappointed your expectations.” As Zhu Baiyu spoke, he began to pull out item after item — first, a sash, followed by a scroll, an Origin Formation, and three vials of medicine.

“This is the Nine-Eyed Jade Python Sash. You can embed consciousness-type crystals in it; for every one you add, it will increase your consciousness power by a hundred points. Unfortunately, finding these consciousness-type crystals was hard, and I was only able to find three up until now. The scroll is the Consciousness Surge Scroll that can increase a person’s consciousness power to around two hundred or so, but it can only be used once. The Origin Formation Disk is the Consciousness Amplification Disk and can increase a person’s consciousness power by a hundred. It can be used three times in total. As for the medicine, here are three vials of Spirit-Sobering Medicine. Thankfully, production of these has increased over the past two years, so their price has gone down. Otherwise, I might not have been able to get my hands on them so easily.”

When Su Chen heard this, he was speechless. If you want Spirit-Sobering Medicines, I’ve got more than I know what to do with over here!

The most valuable item that Zhu Baiyu had brought was probably the Nine-Eyed Jade Python Sash. Even though it didn’t have any power on its own, the ability to inlay a consciousness-type crystal made it extremely uncommon. Embedding one or two consciousness-type crystals wasn’t difficult, but embedding many and stopping them from interfering with one another was very difficult. The mediation ability of this Nine-Eyed Jade Python Sash was really quite impressive. Su Chen had been looking for items that had sockets for Origin Crystals like this. Unexpectedly, Zhu Baiyu had managed to find one.

If Zhu Baiyu had said that he had bought all of these things, Su Chen wouldn’t have believed him for a second. Even though he still carried himself with the same elegance and no bloodstains were visible on his body, Su Chen could sense the thick, bloody scent that still emanated off of Zhu Baiyu’s body.

He had probably killed quite a few people on this trip of his.

“Since the treasures belong to us now, tell everyone to prepare to search for the secret stashes shortly,” Zhu Xianyao said excitedly.

“Wait just a moment,” Su Chen said.

“What is it?”

Su Chen asked, “Yaoyao, who are you planning on using these items on?”

“Of course myself,” Zhu Xianyao said with a strange look. “Is there anyone here who has a consciousness power stronger than myself?”

“This......” Su Chen scratched his head. “Actually, there’s one thing I never told you.”

“What is it?”

“My consciousness power has reached the point where I can influence physical objects,” Su Chen said after thinking for a moment.

“What did you say?” Zhu Xianyao stared at Su Chen in disbelief.

Su Chen didn’t waste time speaking and activated his consciousness energy. As it began to spread, everyone felt a gentle gust of wind blow past them and whistle through the room. A few of the lighter objects, such as paper, began to fly into the air.

This was one of the effects when someone’s consciousness power reached a certain level — they could influence physical objects.

Actually, a person’s consciousness power could always influence physical objects. However, unlike other systems of energy, consciousness power’s initial levels of influence started at the microscopic level. For instance, in the early stages, Su Chen had used his consciousness tendrils to connect to the birthing substance the Spirit Race had invented because his consciousness power was only strong enough to affect things on a microscopic level.

But as his consciousness power continued to increase, his ability to influence the macroscopic world would increase as well.

The Spirit Race, after forming their spirit bodies, had consciousness power of roughly around a thousand. They would be able to use their consciousness power to influence reality and control Origin Energy, among other abilities.

Su Chen’s consciousness energy was only around four hundred, but he could already influence reality. If he wanted to, he could even use it to move a piece of small wood around. Of course, Su Chen kept that part of his strength hidden; right now, he was showing off consciousness power only equivalent to around three hundred units or so, which was why he was ‘only’ able to blow around a piece of paper.

Even so, this was enough to shock everyone else present.

“You’ve reached the point where your consciousness can affect the outside world? How did you do this?” Zhu Xianyao stared at Su Chen in shock.

“Actually, I have always been cultivating a technique that increases my consciousness power. You also know that before the Pig Dragon Bloodline awakens, we are extremely weak. To hasten that awakening, I must eat and sleep a lot and cannot cultivate a lot. However, one thing that’s not included in that restriction is my consciousness power,” Su Chen replied.

Su Chen hadn’t lied about that. The Pig Dragon clan did have a few consciousness-type cultivation methods so that their weak phase wouldn’t be a waste of cultivation. However, their consciousness power cultivation techniques were not nearly as powerful as Su Chen’s True Spirit Scripture; after all, the Arcana Race were the real consciousness power cultivation experts. Su Chen’s extravagant spending style also allowed him to use Spirit-Sobering Medicines to cultivate. Not even Demonic Emperor Clans could afford that luxury.

Even though You Tianyang’s consciousness power was a bit stronger than your average person, he was far from reaching the level that Su Chen was displaying now. However, now that Su Chen was You Tianyang, whatever he said would have to go.

Actually, even though he was able to come up with such an excuse, Su Chen’s actions were still quite risky.

However, Su Chen was forced to do so.

Because only in this way could he have complete control of the secret stashes and take initiative.