Chapter 118: Return and First Encounter

Luo Fei's injuries were no longer serious, which was good news. However, it was already late, so after staying a little longer to chat, Chen Chu left the hospital.

Driving back to the base several kilometers away, he had just stepped out of the car when he encountered someone.

Just a few meters away, tall, slender, and clad in black and red battle armor, An Fuqing stepped down from the modified off-road vehicle she had just parked, without wearing a helmet.

The girl noticed him at the same time, and after a slight pause, she nodded in acknowledgment. "Chen Chu. I remember you, but I recall you went to Leisteru City."

Nantian had nearly fifty classes in the first year alone, and the two weren't in the same class. An Fuqing's impression of Chen Chu still rested on his 49th place in the freshman ranking competition.

After all, he had been the only freshman to break into the top fifty using low-level arts. She had been a bit surprised when she had heard about it from her classmates at the time.

Chen Chu smiled. "I didn't expect to run into you here. Just returned from a mission?"

"Yes, tracking down a beginning stage Fourth Heavenly Realm fanatic of the Giant Cult," An Fuqing replied. Her demeanor was somewhat subdued, but not as aloof as one might imagine.

As they spoke, the two walked side by side towards the base’s main building.

"I saw it in the trial chat this morning. Yi Rui said you rushed here from Leisteru yesterday and found and killed that Fourth Heavenly Realm Blood Emissary in the evening."

The girl turned her head slightly, curiosity flickering in her eyes. "Can you tell me how you found that person?"

After Lin Xue's team had been attacked, many people had searched the city the next day. At that time, she had also been planning to come back and see if she could find that Blood Emissary.

Not just because they all came from the same school; The fact that a Blood Emissary was worth 30 contribution points had piqued a lot of people’s interest.

But that person had proven to have a strong ability to conceal themself. After a day had passed without anyone finding any traces, everyone had thought that the Blood Emissary had already escaped from Kyria.

Chen Chu pondered for a moment. "It's related to my art. I've cultivated something called the Insightful Eye Realm, which allows me to keenly sense hostile and malicious gazes around me.

"I figured that the Blood Emissary might have been hiding around the hospital, so I deliberately circled the area and used my battle armor to catch his attention. Once he looked at me, I reverse-located his position, and then it was simple."

An Fuqing's footsteps halted abruptly as she turned to look at Chen Chu, her gaze sharp with a hint of a terrifying sword-like aura swirling within. "The Insightful Eye Realm! Is that the art called the Insightful Blade?"

"Is this art so famous?" Chen Chu was somewhat surprised by her reaction.

"Of course." The terrifying aura in An Fuqing's eyes slowly dissipated. "Even though it’s a low-level art, it gained great renown over a decade ago because of a person named Xiao Tianyi.

"Unfortunately, it's too difficult to cultivate, so it gradually fell out of favor, but I didn't expect that you would actually cultivate it to the third stage and reverse-locate the opponent's position."

Chen Chu modestly replied, "Oh, it's nothing, just lucky."

An Fuqing shook her head. "It’s not just luck. Your ability to cultivate the Insightful Eye to the third stage indicates that you can easily grasp arts involving the mind and consciousness."

"I didn't expect you to know so much about the Insightful Blade."

"Because I’d exchanged for it before. Unfortunately, I just wasn’t compatible with it."

As they spoke, the two arrived at the base building. Since An Fuqing still had to do a mission handover, Chen Chu continued walking towards the back, where the cafeteria was located.

Since his battle armor was still undergoing repairs, Chen Chu was wearing his military uniform. With the rest of the trial participants all wearing their armor, he stood out more than usual.

"Ah Chu, over here!"

After finishing his meal in the cafeteria, Chen Chu noticed Xia Youhui waving to him from afar. Liu Feng, Li Meng, and Bai Mu, who had been discharged from the hospital that morning, were sitting next to him.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

These guys had the closest relationship now, always going on missions together.

Chen Chu walked over and sat down, casually asking, "How was it? Did you guys gain anything today?"

"Don't even mention it," Liu Feng complained. "We had a simple mission to track down a cultist, but there were seven or eight other people competing for it, too. And then, when we arrived at the town, we found out the information was wrong."

Li Meng nodded. "Not only was the information wrong, but those guys were also relentless. They practically turned the whole town upside down before leaving."

"...including you guys, right?" Chen Chu suppressed a laugh.

"

Cough!

Not us." Bai Mu cleared his throat and tried to cover up, saying, "We just thought the scenery around that town was nice, so we spent half a day admiring it."

Xia Youhui suddenly said, "Oh, by the way, Ah Chu, have you checked the messages in the trial chat?"

Chen Chu shook his head. "Not yet. I haven't checked my phone all afternoon. Is there anything new?"

"Old Pang and Old Lin have both notified their respective groups that the conflict on their side has ended, and they’re gonna arrange for our return in three days," Xia Youhui said.

"Three days, huh?" Chen Chu nodded slightly; it was about time.

Liu Feng said, "We discussed it today and decided to exchange all our contribution points for resources. Some really good stuff isn’t going to be available once we go back.

"Like the Silver Ring Fruit, which can greatly enhance physique. It's not only much cheaper here, but it's not even on the school's exchange list.

"And then there’s the Seven-leaf Flower, which boosts true power activity, and the Absolute Zero Serum, which enhances true power purity. We won't be able to exchange for these once we're back."

"...I don't have anything to exchange for," Chen Chu said after a moment of thought.

After killing the Blood Emissary last night, he now had 30 contribution points in his account. However, these weren’t enough to exchange for the Life Crystals needed for the Insightful Blade’s maximum enhancement. The disparity was even greater for high-level arts. With both of those being his current priorities, other precious resources with extraordinary effects were less important to him.

"By the way, haven't Lin Xue and the others returned yet?"

"Haven't seen them. Not sure if they're back yet."

Over the next two days, Chen Chu's attention was mostly focused on the Sword Armored Beast. In the afternoons, he would visit the hospital to spend time with Luo Fei and read some scriptures.

It wasn't until the third day that Pang Long and the others returned to the base. Even though they looked weary, each of them still exuded a strong sense of oppression.

Especially Lin Xiong and the other high-level cultivators at the Seventh Heavenly Realm; the terrifying energy fluctuations emanating from their bodies formed a pressure that even when restrained, made it difficult for others to breathe comfortably around them.

Chen Chu and the others received the notice to pack their belongings and gather at the base entrance at one in the afternoon.

"We’re finally going home."

Inside Kyria's airport, Chen Chu and the others, all in their military uniforms, sat in chairs as they waited to board, with their luggage, weapons, and battle armor cases sitting in front of them.

Through the tower's glass, they could see more than ten runways outside. Some planes were landing while others were taking off, making the scene quite busy.

Unlike the smaller cities that had only hosted trial students from one or two schools each, Kyria had gathered talents and teachers from dozens of schools, requiring them to be sent off in batches.

"We're on flight 018. It's almost our turn," Xia Youhui said, looking up at the large screen displaying the changing numbers with some excitement.

A faint smile appeared on Chen Chu's face as well.

There were quite a few people from Nantian in this group. There were thirteen trial students at the Third Heavenly Realm, along with Lin Xiong and five other teachers, forming a total of eighteen people.

In addition to Xia Youhui, Lin Xue, and the others, there was also Li Hao, who had reappeared after a few days, Hong Tianyi, who ranked third among the freshmen, and An Fuqing.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please be advised that Flight 018 is about to depart. Students from Nantian Martial Arts High School, please proceed to Runway 4 for boarding."

With the announcement, Chen Chu and the others quickly got up, grabbing their belongings and queueing up to leave the tower.

Underneath the aircraft loaded with a large number of attack weapons, Pang Long and the others were already waiting for everyone. Seeing them come out, he shouted, "Put your weapons and luggage in the cabin and make sure they're securely fastened."

"Mr Pang, it's been a while."

"Miss Liu, you seem to have become more beautiful."

"Mr Lin, how many high-level cultists did you guys take down this time?"

One by one, Xia Youhui and the others greeted Pang Long and the rest with playful smiles, having shedded their initial restraint. Lin Xiong, feeling a bit annoyed, said, "Hurry up, don't you all want to go back early?"

“Yes, sir....”

With only about ten people and not much luggage, the main trouble came from the weapons, especially Li Hao's thick and elongated iron pillar. After getting extended to four meters, it was not only just long, but also incredibly heavy.

Rumble!

Accompanied by the roar of the engines, the plane glided along the runway before suddenly lifting off and soaring into the sky.

This time, Chen Chu and Luo Fei sat in the same row, with the girl leaning against the window. After the plane entered the stratosphere, she turned slightly towards Chen Chu and asked softly, "Chen Chu, do you want to read?"

Chen Chu smiled gently. "You go ahead, I'll take a nap."

The girl nodded gently. “Okay.”

Since it was no longer the first time they had flown, everyone was much more composed compared to when they had first arrived. There was no excited shouting, and after takeoff, most of them closed their eyes to rest.

Chen Chu did the same. His consciousness sank, shifting over to the Sword Armored Beast.

Approximately two hundred kilometers offshore, beneath the surface of waters exceeding a depth of a hundred meters, lurked the menacing beast, stretching about ten meters in length.

A hundred meters ahead, a fourteen-meter-long, barrel-bodied, brilliantly colored mutated sea snake was in the midst of hunting down a great white shark.

The snake’s massive body coiled around the seven-meter-long shark, its terrifying constriction crushing the shark’s organs and completely preventing it from being able to struggle.

Hiss!

Suddenly, the snake released the shark, its sinister head turning towards its left side to look at the seabed, where a black mutated beast was approaching it from about twenty meters away.

In the moment the snake noticed, the Sword Beast’s muscles swelled, and its power erupted in an instant.

Boom!

The seabed shook violently, and tons of mud, sand, and water exploded from beneath its feet as the agile beast burst forth. Its movement was so swift that a white translucent shockwave appeared ahead of its body, as it flashed past the snake in an instant.

Bang!

Before the snake could react, its massive head exploded into countless pieces of flesh and blood, the result of the Sword Beast delivering a fatal blow with its claws in a split second.

In the murky waters filled with sand, mud, and blood, the Sword Beast slowly swam back from a distance. Its cold gaze passed over the sea snake's carcass, finally resting on the crystal embedded in the wound.

A Level 3 Life Crystal.

The corners of the monstrous creature's mouth curled slightly upwards, as it extended its enormous right claw and gently dug out the pigeon-egg-sized crystal.

After spending so long in the sea, despite all of the mutated beasts that it had feasted upon, it had only harvested two crystals so far.

Unfortunately, such crystals could only be found inside mutated creatures that were at the peak of their evolution stage and about to evolve further.

This time the Sword Beast didn't consume it; instead, it used its sharp claws to scrape off scales from the serpent's body, cutting out a piece of skin and wrapping it around the crystal to fashion a crude bag.

Another long strip of skin was used as a rope to tie it securely. Afterward, it looped the bag around its neck with some struggle, intending to save it for its main body to transform into attribute points upon his return.

While Life Crystals gave the Sword Beast a huge amount of evolution points, it was still nothing that couldn’t also be gained by consuming mutated beast flesh. It was still more advantageous for Chen Chu to take them and convert them into attribute points.