Chapter 194 – The Bai Family's Female Hunter

As it turned out, Xu Yanyan had been overly optimistic.

Even with the help of alchemical tools that seemed to have wandered in from the neighboring One Piece universe, finding Gao Xu remained far from easy.

After all, the Vivre Card only pointed in a direction—it offered no additional functionality.

If simply knowing the direction were enough to locate someone, we wouldn’t need vehicles or similar means of transport.

Even if you know the direction, how can you tell how far away the other person is?

Even if you know the location, how do you navigate the obstacles in between?

In this dim, lightless Underground, rubble and debris were everywhere, with gray walls and earthen barriers blocking the way. Even if you brought in an excavator, bulldozing straight through to the Yellow Dragon would be no small feat.

Su Ming possessed propulsion power more formidable than an excavator, but this was the Underground. They had fallen in with the collapsing terrain, and if Su Ming acted recklessly here, triggering a secondary collapse, the chance of being buried alive would be one hundred percent.

Unless…

“You could be like a certain anonymous, kind-hearted Mr. Li and turn into a Marmot that can burrow through the ground.”

Su Ming tossed out this remark, leaving Xu Yanyan speechless.

She had no desire to emulate that anonymous, kind-hearted Mr. Li and become a Marmot.

She’d rather die than do that.

So, Su Ming and Xu Yanyan had no choice but to painstakingly follow the direction indicated by the Vivre Card. Along the way, if they encountered obstacles, they cleared them if possible or detoured around them if not, proceeding in this manner.

Su Ming also continuously used 【Lifting Restraint Flow】 in secret to detect life reactions around them, occasionally digging out one or two survivors from the ground. Those who could be saved were revived; those beyond saving were buried on the spot, leaving Xu Yanyan, who watched the entire process, silent.

Of course, bringing these severely injured survivors along was clearly impractical.

Su Ming could only move them to a temporary Shelter he had cleared, instructing them to stick together and warning them about Sin’s members hunting survivors in the area, urging them to be cautious.

Otherwise, if these wounded were discovered, they would be completely wiped out.

Thus, Su Ming and Xu Yanyan pressed on with difficulty.

……

“Boom!”

An explosive, muffled sound echoed strikingly in the darkness, reverberating like a lingering echo.

An Underground Professional from Sin was sent flying backward, crashing into a pile of rubble. As dust and debris billowed up, they were buried beneath the stones and wreckage.

Su Ming retracted his right fist, his left hand gripping a limp Attacker, having sent these Assailants to their demise for what felt like the umpteenth time.

Not far away, Xu Yanyan was locked in a strenuous struggle with another Attacker. It wasn’t until Su Ming had dealt with all the other Assailants that she found an opening, plunging her small knife into the opponent’s heart and giving it a vicious twist, ending the Attacker’s life.

Su Ming didn’t glance at Xu Yanyan, merely frowning with clear impatience.

“How many waves is this now?”

Su Ming had lost count of how many attacks they had endured.

“This is the twelfth wave.”

Xu Yanyan, panting heavily, provided the exact answer.

“And it’s still endless.”

But Su Ming felt no relief—only growing irritation.

There was no helping it; he didn’t want to waste too much time in a place like this.As the saying goes, delays breed complications. Now that the enemies were aware of intruders, giving them too much time to prepare countermeasures would only make the situation increasingly dangerous.

Moreover, the main force of 『Sin』 was still attacking the Xu Family Estate. If they failed, it would be one thing, but if they succeeded or managed to retreat unscathed and return to the ruins, Su Ming and the others might have to face an even more powerful group of enemies.

They simply couldn’t afford to waste time.

Thinking this, Su Ming repeatedly rummaged through his backpack, hoping to find some useful items.

Although Su Ming possessed many items, his backpack wasn’t like a certain blue robotic cat’s four-dimensional pocket, filled with all sorts of futuristic gadgets. For the moment, he couldn’t find anything suitable for the current situation.

After all, Su Ming had only been opening packages for about a year. Before his dealings with Xu Qianqian, he had slowly accumulated chips by skimming small rewards from the Academy’s daily tasks, painstakingly saving up to open packages. Even though he had obtained many useful items, there were also plenty of things whose purpose remained unclear.

For instance, during the Huaming Campaign, he had opened a large number of bizarre items like decorative clothing, which were almost entirely useless.

Lately, his accumulation of chips had sped up significantly, allowing him to open one or two hundred packages at a time—an exhilarating experience. During these sessions, he had uncovered many valuable items, but these weren’t always applicable on the spot.

Even among the usable items, their effectiveness in this environment and situation was limited. Some were better left unused, others could trigger significant chain reactions, and some even had direct side effects. Using them in this confined underground space would undoubtedly lead to “beautiful” consequences.

Most importantly, with the sheer volume of items he had opened, his backpack was now piled high like a small mountain. Even if there were genuinely useful items inside, if Su Ming hadn’t memorized them, retrieving them from the backpack would be no small feat.

Su Ming had tried organizing his backpack before, but he wasn’t a futuristic, high-tech blue cat capable of remembering every single one of his items clearly.

Some things, he couldn’t even recall whether he still had them or had already handed them over to Xu Qianqian for disposal.

This was utterly frustrating.

“If only there were a search function,” Su Ming grumbled inwardly about his Golden Finger.

It was a Golden Finger capable of yielding countless Extraordinary Items, yet it lacked automatic organization and item retrieval features—a definite downside, a huge downside.

If things were already like this, what would happen when he opened even more packages in the future?

Each package could randomly yield 3-5 items, ten packages would yield 30-50 items, and a hundred packages would yield 300-500 items.

What would he do when he eventually opened a thousand, ten thousand, or even a hundred million packages?

The thought of having to organize all that accumulated stuff by himself was enough to make his scalp crawl.

Fortunately, some items could be used immediately upon opening, such as Spirit Power.Otherwise, Su Ming felt his backpack might have become even more chaotic.

“Sigh…”

The more Su Ming thought about it, the more agitated he became.

Just then, Su Ming suddenly detected some unusual movements.

It was a faint yet discernible mix of chaotic noises and shouts, even some whooshing sounds and the clashing of weapons.

“Are there more attackers?”

Xu Yanyan keenly noticed the change in Su Ming and instinctively tightened her grip on her small saber.

“No.” Su Ming’s furrowed brow gradually relaxed as he said, “It should be someone fighting.”

“Someone’s fighting?” Xu Yanyan was momentarily stunned, then her eyes lit up.

She understood perfectly well what it meant when someone was fighting.

It meant that nearby, there were other people like them who hadn’t lost their combat ability, survivors who hadn’t fallen prey to having their lives harvested by Sin, and were currently battling the attackers.

Xu Yanyan’s first thought was naturally of Gao Xu.

It wasn’t that she was being overly optimistic, but under these circumstances, those who could maintain their combat ability and fight against the underground Professionals of Sin were most likely Upper-Rank Professionals.

The lower-rank Professionals had been caught in the terrain collapse and then targeted by concentrated fire from Sin’s Sorcerer troops – with their capabilities, how could they possibly remain unscathed?

Even Xu Yanyan, who had Gao Xu’s protection, had nearly suffered serious injuries and been buried alive, let alone the other lower-rank Professionals.

Therefore, in the current situation, those capable of protecting themselves from serious injury and thus losing combat ability were most likely only Upper-Rank Professionals.

And there were only a few Upper-Rank Professionals on this mission, so Xu Yanyan naturally hoped she was now encountering Gao Xu.

Unfortunately, Su Ming with his superior Spirit Sense had already detected who the combatants were.

“It’s not your Gao Xu, don’t get your hopes up.”

Su Ming glanced at Xu Yanyan and cruelly dashed her hopes.

“It’s not Mr. Gao?”

Xu Yanyan didn’t doubt him, just felt somewhat disappointed.

But encountering other Upper-Rank Professionals now was still a good thing.

At the very least, with them present, she could rely on the intricate relationships between prominent families to get them to protect her.

Being alone with Su Ming put considerable survival pressure on Xu Yanyan.

She was still worried that Su Ming might suddenly decide to eliminate her.

Even if he didn’t do that, if he continued to coldly stand by while she was attacked and had to deal with attackers alone, she would be quite overwhelmed.

Given this, although somewhat disappointed, Xu Yanyan couldn’t wait to ask.

“Which direction is it?”

Hearing this, Su Ming curled his lip without answering and simply walked ahead on his own.

Xu Yanyan immediately followed.

The two crossed numerous piles of rubble and debris, traveling in the dark for quite some distance before finally reaching the scene of the battle.

To Xu Yanyan’s surprise, the people fighting against Sin’s attackers weren’t the Upper-Rank Professionals she had imagined.

They were a considerable number of… women who, though collectively looking somewhat disheveled, were shouting fiercely as they battled the incoming enemies.

Yes.

Women.

All the people fighting against Sin’s attackers were female.

“It’s the Bai Family!”

Xu Yanyan immediately recognized their identity.

They were quite easy to identify.Among the Six Great Families, only the Bai Family is matriarchal, with women holding authority and even supremacy. The male bloodline shows no exceptional traits, while only the female bloodline possesses extraordinary potential, resulting in nearly all Bai Family Hunters being women.

The Bai Family Hunters Bai Xuefei brought for this secret mission were an all-female force.

Now, a considerable number of these female Bai Family Hunters were collectively resisting the assault, their sharp cries echoing continuously.

However, their situation was clearly dire.

Though not as severely wounded as hunters from other families, the Bai Family’s female hunters, like Xu Yanyan earlier, were covered in injuries, their condition deteriorating significantly.

Compounded by the dark environment and confined battlefield, the female Bai Family Hunters were visibly struggling against the onslaught of Underground Professionals.

“Ah!”

One Bai Family huntress finally buckled under pressure. Her hastily raised weapon was struck by an Attacker’s saber, and the tremendous force sent her flying backward before she collapsed to the ground.

The Attacker showed no mercy, silently advancing and raising their blade high above the fallen woman.

No one doubted that in the next second, the blade would fall, extinguishing another life on the battlefield.

“Xiao Yan!”

Someone screamed in panic.

“Stop!”

Another shouted fiercely.

Yet the Attacker hesitated not at all, decisively swinging down the lethal blade.

The Bai Family huntress could only stare blankly at the descending strike, completely paralyzed.

Until…

“Thud!”

A dull impact echoed through the air.

The Attacker with the raised blade was sent flying like a kite with its string cut, violently kicked away by a boot.

The merciless slaughter was finally interrupted.

“What?!”

Everyone—friend and foe alike—snapped their attention to this sudden development.

The Bai Family huntress, who had been sitting paralyzed on the ground, only now realized a figure had appeared before her at some unknown moment.

After saving her, the figure didn’t linger. It transformed into a blur, cutting through the air as it charged toward the surrounding Attackers.

“Thud!” “Thud!” “Thud!” “Thud!” “Thud!”…

Soon, a series of heavy impact sounds erupted and reverberated throughout the area.

Facing this sudden rescuer, the Attackers couldn’t mount even the slightest resistance. They were defeated one after another—some collapsing on the spot, others sent flying backward.

Though the rescuer’s speed wasn’t extraordinarily fast, merely quicker than many present, he always reacted a step ahead. Before enemies could attack or shift their stance, he would strike first, knocking them down with a single punch.

Moreover, his strength was astonishingly formidable. Each punch could instantly incapacitate or send flying an Underground Professional of considerable skill, completely neutralizing their combat ability.

The onlookers were stunned by this whirlwind display of power.

“Gush!”

An Underground Professional fell, a small dagger piercing through his back, blood spraying as he collapsed.

Xu Yanyan appeared behind him, shouting to the Bai Family Hunters present.

“Now’s our chance!”

Xu Yanyan’s cry finally snapped the Bai Family Hunters out of their daze.

“Attack!”

A huntress who clearly held higher authority took the lead, charging forward without hesitation.The female Hunters around them quickly followed suit, turning the tide and launching a counterattack.

This time, the ones gaining the upper hand would no longer be the enemy.

“Retreat!”

“An Upper-Rank Professional has appeared!”

“Quick, go back and report!”

The group of Underground Professionals, sensing the danger, immediately began organizing their withdrawal.

Facing an Upper-Rank Professional, even with their numbers, there was no possibility of victory.

Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be able to retreat.

Su Ming’s exceptional Spirit Sense had already locked onto the positions of every one of them.

Not a single one would escape.

(End of Chapter)