Chapter 224 – Stay Here and Don't Move for Now

That night, the incident of exploring the ruins was clearly not meant to be known by too many people.

But another incident was different.

Because it simply couldn’t be concealed.

This incident was the great battle that simultaneously took place at the Xu Family Estate.

A great battle between the elites of Longyao City’s major families and the large force of underground Professionals from 『Sin』.

While Su Ming and the others infiltrated the ruins and fiercely fought the remaining personnel of ‘Sin’ inside, the large force of underground Professionals led by the Vice Captain of ‘Sin’, as everyone had anticipated, soon launched an attack on the Xu Family.

Their target was Xu Qianqian, or more precisely, the mysterious method capable of disrupting the ritual.

If this method was not eliminated, the ritual could be interfered with again at any moment, leading to failure.

This was an issue that 『Sin』 could not ignore.

Thus, for this assault personally led by the Vice Captain of 『Sin』, they were determined to succeed.

Unfortunately, the major families, already prepared for the counterattack, utilized the Xu Family’s geographical advantage to set up an ambush the moment 『Sin』’s large force entered the estate.

It was an ambush even more terrifying than the trap Su Ming and the others faced in the ruins.

Although Su Ming and the others were trapped in the ruins and once fell into crisis, at least the enemy had no prior knowledge of their arrival and had not prepared in advance, so the ambush was not overwhelmingly desperate.

But the situation at the Xu Family Estate was different.

Knowing full well that 『Sin』’s large force would attack, and that the enemy was powerful enough to easily annihilate the Wang Family, one of the Six Great Families, the Xu Family had gone to great lengths this time. They not only gathered the major families but also mobilized every available means at their disposal.

Obstruction barriers created using alchemical tools.

Deadly traps made with highly toxic alchemical potions.

A massive formation deployed with the elites of the major families.

And a concentrated artillery strike of large-scale destructive Spirit Arts, prepared in secret by assembling all available Sorcerers under their command.

Measures like these were all arranged by the Xu Family, giving 『Sin』 a massive surprise.

Faced with such tactics, even a powerhouse like 『Sin』, a giant in the underground world, suffered heavy losses.

At the very least, before the two sides officially engaged in battle, the numerous ambushes and traps first broke through ‘Sin’s’ formation, causing countless casualties among the vanguard Hunter units, while the Sorcerer units in the rear were ambushed by the hidden forces set up by the major families and were wiped out in one fell swoop.

After losing the Sorcerer units and their long-range firepower support, even 『Sin』’s large force immediately lost most of its threat.

Led by the Xu Family, the major families achieved a phased victory, securing a significant advantage before the war even fully began.

Unfortunately, it was only an advantage.

Although the major families had made extensive preparations, their opponent was, after all, 『Sin』—a behemoth of the underground world that even powerful super Base Cities in the heart of the continent dared not underestimate. A mere city like Longyao, even facing only a portion of 『Sin』’s forces, could not achieve victory without suffering losses.To put it simply, with the Vice Captain of 『Sin』 personally leading the team, how could he possibly stand by and watch his forces be completely annihilated?

Thus, in a dire situation, the Vice Captain erupted with overwhelming fury.

It was an outburst powerful enough to reverse 『Sin』’s losing momentum in one fell swoop.

Just imagining the eruption of a Seven-Star Hunter is enough to grasp how terrifying it must be.

This Vice Captain of 『Sin』 relied solely on his own strength to break through most of the traps and ambushes laid by the great families, and with the remaining combat power, he finally engaged in a fierce battle with the Professionals of the various major families.

That battle was so intense it reversed rivers and blotted out the sun and moon.

Especially against this powerful Seven-Star Hunter from 『Sin』, the Six-Star Professionals of the Six Great Families all joined the fray, uniting to resist the enemy. Those with potions consumed them, those with powerful weapons wielded them, and they all brought out their ultimate skills.

Under these circumstances, the peak combatants of the top families—excluding the Wang Family—clashed with a Seven-Star Hunter, nearly dominating the entire battlefield and almost leveling the Xu Family Estate to the ground.

In the end, a joint assault by five Six-Star Professionals barely managed to hold off the Vice Captain of 『Sin』.

As the battle wore on, these peak experts grew increasingly ferocious, fighting with their lives on the line, to the point where even the Vice Captain, a Seven-Star Hunter, found it hard to cope and nearly suffered several hidden losses.

Clearly, even the most elite Seven-Star Professionals among humans struggle when faced with a group of Six-Star Professionals attacking.

After all, the gap isn’t as vast as that between an Upper-Rank Professional and a lower-rank one, nor is it like the two-star difference between Su Ming and Lord Crow.

With only a one-star gap between them, as long as it isn’t a Realm difference like between Upper-Rank and lower-rank Professionals, siege tactics can be quite effective.

Historically, there have even been Heaven-Defying Six-Star Professionals who challenged and defeated Seven-Star Professionals across the star gap. Although the Six-Star Professionals in Longyao City aren’t that overpowered, with five of them joining forces, consuming potions and employing all their means, even the Vice Captain of 『Sin』 would find it hard to escape unscathed.

To make matters worse, for this operation, the Vice Captain only brought one Six-Star Professional—Lord Crow.

As mentioned earlier, even 『Sin』 has many sworn enemies and is closely watched by super Base Cities that hunt Underground Professionals, making it impossible to mobilize extensively or bring too many top-tier forces from headquarters.

For this reason, the Vice Captain didn’t even bring many Five-Star Professionals and only brought a limited number of Four-Star Professionals.

This level of combat power would be more than sufficient to take on any top family in Longyao City individually, but against a large force assembled from the elites of all the major families in the city, compounded by ambushes and traps, there was no way to turn the tide.

Moreover, the Vice Captain left a group of personnel, including Lord Crow, at the Ruins, not utilizing all the combat power he had brought.

In the end, this assault by 『Sin』 still ended in failure.Just as the lower-tier Underground Professionals were nearly all wiped out, and even several upper-tier Underground Professionals had been ganged up on and killed by the elites of the major Families, the Vice Captain of 『Sin』 was finally forced to swallow this defeat. He withdrew from the Xu Family Estate with the sparse remaining personnel.

The major Families wanted to pursue, but unfortunately, they had also suffered significant losses. Moreover, they feared that the terrifyingly powerful Seven-Star Hunter might go berserk and fight them desperately. To avoid a mutually destructive outcome, they had no choice but to let it go.

Overall, the result of this great battle was acceptable.

At the very least, facing the largest mercenary force in the underground world, their Longyao City had secured this victory. No matter how great the cost, it was enough to make those in the major Base Cities of the continent’s heartland take notice.

As for how the people of 『Sin』 would react, only they themselves knew.

In any case, what followed had little to do with Su Ming, and he couldn’t be bothered to pay it any mind.

Of course, he still accompanied Gao Xu and the others to escort Wang Yihan out of the Ruins and into the Xu Family.

Only then was Wang Yihan considered safe, under the protection of the major Families in Longyao City.

Su Ming believed that, after learning about the Wang Family’s past and its connection to Longyao City, the major Families would surely prioritize Wang Yihan’s safety and protect this naive girl.

Su Ming’s role ended here. The rest was entirely up to the major Families and had nothing to do with him.

After returning to the Xu Family, Su Ming didn’t even bother to report like the others and simply tried to leave on his own.

Unfortunately, many people grew anxious when they saw him preparing to leave.

For instance, the female Hunters of the Bai Family.

“Are you leaving already, Lord Ming Wang?”

“We haven’t properly thanked you yet!”

“Please, you must give us this opportunity!”

Led by Bai Xiaoyan, the female Hunters of the Bai Family desperately tried to persuade Su Ming to stay.

Their enthusiastic demeanor left Bai Xuefei utterly bewildered, unable to understand why the girls of her Family had suddenly become like this.

In the end, it was Bai Ruxiang who explained everything to Bai Xuefei, and only then did Bai Xuefei finally understand.

“Since you’ve done such a great favor for our Bai Family, I should indeed thank you,” said the young female powerhouse, who had maintained a certain distance from Su Ming and the others when they first met. This time, she solemnly expressed her gratitude to Su Ming.

Su Ming perfunctorily said a few words but did not agree to their request to stay. He merely said, “We’ll meet again if fate allows,” and prepared to slip away.

However, it wasn’t just the female Hunters of the Bai Family who were desperately trying to keep Su Ming from leaving.

There was another person who was also frantically tugging at Su Ming, refusing to let him go.

That person was Wang Yihan, the Young Miss of the Wang Family.

“You still owe me a Sword! Don’t think you can run away!” the girl shouted anxiously, still fixated on the matter of the Demon Emperor Sword.

How could anyone call this girl anything but naive?

To bring up the Demon Emperor Sword in such a public setting, causing everyone to fall into an eerie silence and look at Su Ming with flickering gazes.

Especially Gao Xu and Duan Xiaofei, who had somehow learned of this news—their eyes held a certain unspoken meaning as they watched Su Ming.

This made it clear to Su Ming that if he stayed any longer, there was an eighty percent chance that greedy individuals from the various Families would come knocking.”It seems it’s time to shed the identity of Ming Wang.”

Su Ming thought this to himself.

With this in mind, Su Ming ignored the Young Miss Wang’s pestering. Using the superior wrist strength of an Upper-Rank Hunter, he lifted the young girl and tossed her to Bai Ruxiang and Xu Yanyan while saying:

“We’ll talk about this later. Stay here and don’t move—I’m going to buy some oranges.”After leaving behind this utterly ridiculous line, Su Ming immediately made his escape before anyone could react.”

Watching Su Ming’s rapidly departing figure, the crowd reacted with varied emotions—some regretful, some reluctant to see him go, some deep in thought, and others with inscrutable expressions. Overall, the atmosphere was quite complex.

Only Duan Xiaofei followed without any hesitation.

Seeing this, everyone was taken aback.

Only a limited few like Gao Xu, Bai Xuefei, and Xu Yanyan seemed to know some inside story, exchanging meaningful glances.

But none of them spoke.

Xu Yanyan alone watched Su Ming with envious eyes, remaining silent for a long time.

……

Meanwhile, having left the group and looking for an opportunity to shed his disguise, Su Ming came to a stop in a remote corner.

He raised an eyebrow, turned around, and slowly lifted his right hand, causing an eerie blue light to flare up like burning flames.

“Wait wait wait wait wait!”

Sensing the dangerous aura, the approaching figure hastily raised his hands in surrender.

“Don’t attack! I mean no harm!”

Duan Xiaofei quickly approached Su Ming, hands raised in a non-resistant posture.

Seeing this, Su Ming smiled with a hint of mockery.

“Is that so? I thought you came to steal the Demon Emperor Sword!”

As he spoke, Su Ming kept his right hand raised, clearly indicating that unless Duan Xiaofei provided a satisfactory explanation, he’d be receiving a punch.

“Don’t be like this, could you please lower your fist?” Duan Xiaofei said with a bitter laugh. “You’re really intimidating like this.”

And how could he not be intimidated?

Duan Xiaofei had personally witnessed Su Ming use that cheat-like right hand to instantly defeat two Upper-Rank Professionals who had surrounded him.

Against either of those two, Duan Xiaofei would have needed to go all out just to fight evenly, yet Su Ming had taken care of both in the blink of an eye—truly terrifying.

Duan Xiaofei estimated that if he were to face Su Ming, he’d undoubtedly be knocked out with one punch.

No, being knocked out would be the better outcome—what he really feared was ending up like that unfortunate Gloomy, without even a complete corpse left behind.

Duan Xiaofei had also heard that before this incident, Su Ming had used that same right hand to tear a powerfully built Brute into pieces?

Thinking of this, Duan Xiaofei couldn’t help but feel a chill of fear when looking at Su Ming’s right hand.

Su Ming naturally noticed Duan Xiaofei’s fear and let out a light humph.

“So what do you want with me?”

Instead of answering directly, Duan Xiaofei responded to Su Ming’s question with a meaningful glance.

Specifically, he glanced at Su Ming’s right hand and gave an awkward smile—the implication was obvious.

Su Ming rolled his eyes but finally lowered his right hand, allowing the eerie blue light to fade away.

Only then did Duan Xiaofei breathe a heavy sigh of relief.

Clearly, having Su Ming’s right hand pointed at him had genuinely been stressful for Duan Xiaofei.

To be fair, anyone who had seen Su Ming wield that right hand with such Divine Might would feel pressured when facing it.If it weren’t for genuinely important matters to discuss with Su Ming, Duan Xiaofei truly wouldn’t have sought him out at such a sensitive time, fearing Su Ming might actually believe he came to seize the Demon Emperor Sword.

But he truly wasn’t.

Although Duan Xiaofei wasn’t immune to coveting the legendary Divine Artifact, he knew his limits and didn’t believe he could successfully snatch the Demon Emperor Sword from Su Ming’s grasp.

Moreover, he didn’t want to die so soon.

Thus, this visit was genuinely motivated by matters Duan Xiaofei wished to discuss with Su Ming.

“Speak, what is it exactly?”

Su Ming inquired bluntly.

Duan Xiaofei didn’t hesitate.

“Do you know of Tianfeng City?”

At these words, Su Ming’s brow beneath his mask lifted once more.

Simply because, this name—he truly did know.

(End of Chapter)