Chapter 153 – The Invitation Has Arrived

Longyao City, Demon Hunter Academy.

On the eve of the Huaming Campaign, the Demon Hunter Academy had become completely empty.

All students were summoned, along with the academy’s leadership and instructors from various departments, to head to Huaming District and participate in the campaign. Naturally, the Demon Hunter Academy turned into a deserted institution.

Now, after about half a month, the empty Demon Hunter Academy reopened its gates, welcoming a lively scene.

All the students and instructors in the academy returned one after another, filling the campus with life once more.

As expected, after their return, the academy seamlessly transitioned into a state of busyness.

At the very least, this was the case for the academy’s leadership.

They promptly distributed scholarships and special rewards to all students, causing the students to gather at the administrative building as if celebrating a festival. They left happily, carrying their abundant gains.

They also immediately compiled a list of all the fallen, offered condolences to the families of the deceased, and collaborated with Longyao City to distribute compensation funds.

Under such circumstances, it was impossible for the academy not to be bustling.

Even the students, upon returning to the academy, entered a state of busyness.

Of course, their busyness was not due to work but to reaping rewards.

In addition to the rewards issued by the academy, all students could also use the contribution points accumulated during the campaign to exchange for treasures from Longyao City.

Longyao City had already distributed an exchange list to all students through the academy, allowing them to make corresponding exchanges based on their contribution points and the items on the list.

The exchange process was also very simple: using their academy official website accounts, students could log into Longyao City’s official website and submit their exchange requests on the relevant page.

Afterward, the requests would enter the review stage.

Once the review was passed, students could go to the city government building to collect the items they had exchanged for.

This led to all students in the academy discussing the matter in various settings during the first few days after their return.

Some consulted everywhere about which treasures would be the most cost-effective to exchange for.

Some shared information with each other, informing one another about what they had exchanged for and discussing together to make final decisions.

Some boasted about the rare items they had managed to acquire.

Some eagerly anticipated the improvements they could achieve with the items they exchanged for, imagining the benefits they would bring.

Even Su Ming and his group gathered several times after returning to the academy to discuss the matter together.

With all these activities combined, it was only natural for the students to enter a state of busyness.

The academy thoughtfully granted all students a full week of vacation, under the pretext of allowing them to rest and readjust properly.

Thus, during the first week back at the academy, no classes were held. Instead, students could be seen in various places, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of a campus festival.

After browsing through the list, Su Ming also confirmed that he couldn’t exchange for anything particularly valuable from Longyao City.

As he had anticipated, the truly good items did not appear on the exchange list at all.Su Ming had also been in contact with Xu Qianqian, and from her, he learned that the exchange lists in Longyao City varied in Rank depending on one’s social circle.

The truly precious treasures were all on the highest-Rank exchange lists, which were only available to the leaders of major Families and influential factions for their selection.

Moreover, the exchange lists accessible to Upper-Rank Professionals were on par with those held by the leaders of major Families and factions, allowing them to exchange for the highest-Rank treasures almost without restriction.

Next, the exchange lists available to ordinary Professionals in the professional circles were of a significantly lower tier. While they could still exchange for many valuable items, the truly exceptional goods were naturally reserved for the leaders and powerful Upper-Rank Professionals.

As for the students of the Demon Hunter Academy, the lists they received were undoubtedly the lowest Rank.

In short, they could only pick from what others had left behind.

Of course, for a mere student, these items could still be considered treasures and were quite rare.

But for Su Ming, who possessed the Golden Finger Shop, these felt somewhat like “tasteless food—hard to swallow yet wasteful to discard.”

Thus, Su Ming ultimately stuck to his original plan and used all his contribution points to exchange for items that could be tossed into the shop in exchange for large quantities of crystal chips.

These included Phantom Demon materials, alchemical potions, supernatural artifacts, and various other peculiar items.

Su Ming’s only criterion for selection was that they were cheap, had unique effects, and could be exchanged for a large number of crystal chips in the shop.

After picking and choosing in this manner, Su Ming spent over 500,000 contribution points entirely.

However, this was clearly worth it.

The items obtained by exchanging these 500,000+ contribution points, when thrown into the shop, directly netted Su Ming several hundred thousand crystal chips.

Combined with the Phantom Demon materials he had collected on the battlefield during the Huaming Campaign, the number of crystal chips Su Ming now possessed had soared to an astonishing figure—”741,185.”

“A full 741 packages…”

Su Ming stared at the crystal chip count displayed in his mental interface, slipping into a state of gleeful stupor, which puzzled An Zijin and the others, who had been spending a lot of time with him lately.

“What’s going on with Senior Su Ming?”

“Could it be that he was scared out of his wits by little Zijin’s earlier behavior?”

Jiang Wanyu and Yao Beibei had privately muttered such thoughts to each other.

“Absolutely not!”

After An Zijin found out, she was upset for a long time before the two managed to cheer her up.

Lei Hao and Ye Bai even gave Su Ming a hard time over this for a while, as if they genuinely held a grudge against him, constantly finding fault with him.

However, these two had also become much busier recently.

Lei Hao couldn’t wait to use the treasures he had acquired, diving into a state of self-training to diligently improve his strength, striving to truly live up to the title of “elite student.”

Ye Bai also began to exert himself vigorously. After returning to the Academy, he often buried himself in studying a Spell Formula book, seemingly determined to master an Offensive Spirit Art no matter what.

As a result, even An Zijin, Jiang Wanyu, and Yao Beibei were influenced by Lei Hao and Ye Bai’s drive, becoming much more diligent lately as they, too, focused on honing their skills and improving their strength.As a result, Su Ming found himself with free time.

It wasn’t that he had nothing to do.

In his backpack lay several books on Advanced Spirit Art Spell Formulas, waiting for him to study.

Sixty-Second Formula—【Futian Falling Blossom】.

Eighty-First Formula—【Vast Karma Brahma Scene】.

Eighty-Eighth Formula—【Fate Heaven Earth Shift】.

Among these three Advanced Spirit Arts, only 【Fate Heaven Earth Shift】 showed signs of being mastered by Su Ming due to its excellent compatibility with him. The other two, however, he had yet to grasp.

Especially 【Vast Karma Brahma Scene】, a Spell Formula capable of altering weather phenomena—Su Ming still hadn’t made any headway in understanding it. He could only set it aside, storing it together with another Advanced Spirit Art book he had obtained long ago that didn’t seem to suit him well, temporarily shelving it.

On the other hand, 【Futian Falling Blossom】, perhaps because it ranked lower among Advanced Spirit Arts, was something Su Ming had begun to comprehend.

Although he hadn’t fully mastered it, if the timing was right and his condition was good, Su Ming could form the circular array and preliminarily release it.

To that end, after returning to the Academy, Su Ming devoted most of his energy to studying the Spell Formula of 【Futian Falling Blossom】.

But conversely, aside from this, he had nothing else to do.

His friends had all entered seclusion for cultivation and couldn’t hang out with him.

The Academy was on break, so he couldn’t even take on any tasks.

Even if Su Ming wanted to train his abilities as a Hunter like Lei Hao, Jiang Wanyu, and Yao Beibei, he couldn’t.

No, it would be more accurate to say he didn’t need to.

Because the Nightmare Species Bloodline was continuously transforming Su Ming’s body, and it hadn’t stopped yet, making him grow stronger every moment.

Su Ming also had Red Vein Stones; consuming them could enhance his Bloodline concentration, develop his Bloodline, and gradually bring him closer to the Awakening Realm—he had no need for training at all.

As for combat techniques specialized for Hunters, Su Ming had been learning them all along; what he lacked was practical experience.

Given all this, wasn’t Su Ming just left with free time?

“Maybe I should open some packages.”

Su Ming was so idle that he started opening packages.

However, perhaps due to bad luck, Su Ming opened about a hundred packages in a row without obtaining any treasures worth mentioning.

This scared him so much that he stopped on the spot.

“No, my luck has been too poor lately; I need to build up some good karma.”

Realizing this, Su Ming didn’t dare open any more packages.

Left with no other choice, Su Ming could only enter a state of seclusion for cultivation alongside his friends, holding the 【Futian Falling Blossom】 Spell Formula book to study, aiming to master this technique as soon as possible.

From time to time, Su Ming would also use his privileges as an elite student to enter the Academy’s Archive, searching for more advanced combat techniques to refine his Hunter combat methods.

Especially Blade Art—Su Ming felt he needed to study it seriously.

Flame Fang was an extremely powerful alchemical weapon, even surpassing Gao Xu’s Qilin Blade in quality, yet Su Ming’s Blade Art was far from proficient. This was undoubtedly a terrible waste.

Now, with the Nightmare Species Bloodline continuously transforming his body, Su Ming’s hardware conditions as a Hunter were progressing more and more smoothly.Therefore, Su Ming needed to keep up with his skills as well.

“It’s just a pity there’s no one to spar with.”

Su Ming was well aware that he lacked practical combat experience.

If he could improve his practical combat experience, his strength as a Hunter would surely catch up to his Sorcerer abilities, which had already Awakened the Vision Mark.

In any case, Su Ming had significant room for growth—this was obvious.

To become invincible in the world as soon as possible, putting in a little extra effort was necessary.

However, around the fourth day after Su Ming returned to the Academy, something he had forgotten caught up with him.

……

It happened when Su Ming was leaving the Academy’s Archive and preparing to return to his Dormitory.

At the time, Su Ming was still mulling over an intricate Blade Art technique he had just read about in a book.

In such a state, a man dressed as a butler suddenly approached him.

“Hello,” the butler said politely. “Might you be Young Master Su Ming?”

Hearing this, Su Ming snapped out of his thoughts and raised an eyebrow.

“And you are…?”

Su Ming gave the other person a once-over.

The butler noticed but didn’t mind, continuing to speak courteously.

“I am Young Master Xu Yongfeng’s butler.”

As he introduced himself, he took a letter from his pocket.

It was an invitation.

“Young Master Yongfeng sent me to deliver this invitation to you, Young Master Su, requesting your presence at the family banquet to be held at the Xu Family in two days.”

The butler spoke respectfully as he handed the invitation to Su Ming.

Only then did Su Ming remember that he had been invited by Su Yongfeng, who had promised to host him as a gesture of gratitude.

“A family banquet?” Su Ming accepted the invitation, his expression turning peculiar. “He’s actually inviting me to a family banquet?”

The concept of a family banquet was somewhat delicate.

After all, it wasn’t a public event or a typical party—it was a private gathering held at home.

As the name implied, the attendees would only be the inviter’s family members.

This prompted Su Ming to ask a question.

“At this so-called family banquet, will the attendees be limited to your young master’s immediate family, or will it include the entire Xu Family?”

The difference between the two was significant.

If it were the former, then Su Ming’s invitation was likely purely personal, and he would only meet Xu Yongfeng’s immediate family.

But if it were the latter, the scale would be much larger.

In that case, Xu Yanyan’s family might attend, along with other branches of the Xu Family, and even the Xu Family Head—reportedly a Six-Star Professional, Xu Yongfeng’s father, and the grandfather of Xu Qianqian and Xu Yanyan—might be present.

For Su Ming to barge into such a grand occasion would be quite conspicuous.

If that were the case, this so-called family banquet might not be just about having a meal.

Thinking of this, Su Ming couldn’t help but inquire.

Unfortunately, the butler couldn’t provide a satisfactory answer.

“I’m not entirely sure of the specifics,” the butler apologized. “Young Master Yongfeng only instructed me to deliver the invitations to you, Young Master Su, and Miss Yun. I haven’t had the chance to ask about the other details.”

“I see,” Su Ming said, toying with the invitation in his hand before suddenly asking, “Have you already delivered the other invitation?””Yes.” The butler replied honestly, “Miss Yun has accepted the invitation and indicated that if Young Master Su attends, she would also grace the occasion with her presence.”

It seemed that enchantress was planning to stir up trouble.

Su Ming formed this thought almost immediately.

“Very well.”

After some consideration, Su Ming ultimately accepted the invitation.

He had originally intended to make this trip anyway.

Not for Xu Yongfeng’s gratitude, but because he had already made arrangements with Xu Qianqian to pick up Little Hai’er from her on the day of the invitation.

“I hope everything goes smoothly.”

Su Ming muttered under his breath.

Yet whether things would proceed as desired depended entirely on fate.

(End of Chapter)