Chapter 284 – The Team's Minimum Requirements

Naturally, Su Ming couldn’t possibly know about the conversation taking place inside the Wanbao Auction House.

No—since he had already chosen to disclose that information, he could roughly guess what kind of discussion was unfolding there.

But he wasn’t particularly worried about exposing himself or revealing his identity.

There was no helping it—his age and the deceptive nature of being a Dual Professional made it highly unlikely for him to be exposed unless there was the most direct evidence.

Under these circumstances, selectively revealing certain things might not only avoid raising suspicion but also lead others astray from the correct answer.

So, Su Ming wasn’t the least bit concerned about whether he would be exposed. Instead, he swaggered down the street, checking the gains from this trip on his Terminal.

“Not bad at all,” he mused.

During his visit to the Wanbao Auction House, Su Ming had first sold eighteen Low Grade alchemical weapons, earning 108,500 Contribution Points.

The auction price for the Fierce Saber was 500,000 Contribution Points, bringing the total to 608,500 Contribution Points.

Then, by selling information about the Mo Family in Longyao City to the Mo siblings from Tianfeng City, he earned another 100,000 Contribution Points.

In this single trip, Su Ming had amassed a total of 708,500 Contribution Points—not far from becoming a millionaire.

Through his Terminal, Su Ming also looked up the average personal wealth in Tianfeng City.

It was said that individuals holding over a million Contribution Points were considered extremely wealthy, even among Upper-Rank Professionals.

Not to mention Four-Star or Five-Star Professionals—even Six-Star Professionals might not possess personal wealth exceeding a million Contribution Points.

In other words, in terms of personal wealth alone, Su Ming had already surpassed nearly 99% of the Professionals in Tianfeng City, including Six-Star Professionals.

Of course, this referred to individual wealth.

For large teams, major Families, or powerful organizations, their collective assets would undoubtedly exceed this amount.

Take large teams, for example—it was said their monthly operational costs alone required at least tens of thousands of Contribution Points, with some even needing hundreds of thousands.

These teams’ assets were substantial; it was unlikely for them to have less than a million Contribution Points in total wealth.

“In other words, with my current level of Contribution Points, if placed in a large team, it would probably only cover a few months of operational expenses before running out, right?”

Moreover, Su Ming hadn’t only been earning on this trip—he had spent quite a bit as well.

The Ancient Blade Art Inheritance Book.

The Body Tempering Alchemy Potion.

These two auction items cost him a total of 163,000 Contribution Points. Adding the 25,000 Contribution Points in handling fees paid to the Wanbao Auction House for auctioning the Fierce Saber, Su Ming had spent 188,000 Contribution Points on this trip.

Now, Su Ming’s Contribution Points balance was—520,500.

“Over five hundred thousand, huh?”

Su Ming murmured to himself.

“As startup funds for a team, that should be enough, right?”

If anyone else heard this, they would surely roll their eyes.

With over five hundred thousand in assets, even large teams could sustain operations for several months. Using it for a newly formed small team would be more than sufficient.The premise is that the team Su Ming intends to form is truly nothing more than an ordinary, unremarkable small team.

“If I’m going to form a team, I certainly can’t allow incompetents to fill the ranks.”

In Su Ming’s view, the members of his team must, at the very least, be Upper-Rank Professionals.

That’s right—Su Ming only wants to recruit Upper-Rank Professionals and has no intention of accepting Lower-Rank Professionals.

If the team were filled with Lower-Rank Professionals, what level of difficulty could they handle in completing tasks for him? And how much profit could they possibly bring him?

At that point, forget about profits—he’d likely end up playing the role of a babysitter, constantly worrying and fearing that they might get themselves killed on a mission one day.

Therefore, in Su Ming’s vision, his team would either recruit only Upper-Rank Professionals or, even if they were Lower-Rank Professionals, they would need to possess sufficiently unique talents.

For Hunters, it would be best if they had powerful mutated abilities. Even if they weren’t useful in combat, they would need to excel in other areas.

For Sorcerers, it would be ideal if they had mastered rare or unique Spell Formulas that could benefit the team in group battles.

Such specialized talents, even if they were Lower-Rank Professionals, could be recruited into the team.

Given this, Su Ming’s requirements for the team he was about to form were exceptionally high.

And as one might expect, the higher the requirements, the more difficult it would be to assemble such a team.

“Anyone could guess that even in Tianfeng City, Upper-Rank Professionals are talents every team wants to recruit. How easy could it possibly be to find them?”

In Tianfeng City, the number of Professionals amounts to several million, while the number of Upper-Rank Professionals is naturally much smaller.

Although it’s not as extreme as in Longyao City, where out of nearly 100,000 Professionals, only a few hundred are Upper-Rank Professionals—roughly one in two hundred—the number of Upper-Rank Professionals in Tianfeng City is still less than 100,000, with only about two or three appearing for every hundred Professionals.

Don’t assume that nearly 100,000 Upper-Rank Professionals is a large number.

Most of these Upper-Rank Professionals come from prominent Families and major factions. Even if they join a team, they typically join one formed by their own people, and very few would join a team assembled by outsiders.

As for the Upper-Rank Professionals who come from outside, many have been nurtured through recommendations and support from various Families and factions, and they already belong to those Families or factions.

Even if they don’t belong to any Family or faction, as Upper-Rank Professionals, the moment they arrive in Tianfeng City, there’s an 80% chance they’ll be courted and recruited by some Family or faction. Either they choose to join, or they’re swayed by the substantial benefits offered, entering teams formed by these groups and enjoying the best treatment.

Thus, unaffiliated Upper-Rank Professionals in Tianfeng City, if not as rare as a Phoenix, are still an extremely scarce type of talent.

No matter how large a team is, they would never refuse the addition of an Upper-Rank Professional. To recruit one, these major teams are willing to offer substantial, tangible benefits as incentives.Moreover, Upper-Rank Professionals themselves have certain requirements and won’t casually join teams that lack reputation, foundation, or substantial assets. Even if they do join, they would expect extremely high compensation. For a newly formed small team to recruit an Upper-Rank Professional from the outset is practically impossible.

Unless such teams have backing—a sponsor providing generous funding and willing to pay a high price to recruit them.

If Su Ming wanted to recruit team members from among Upper-Rank Professionals, he would inevitably have to adopt this approach.

“How many Upper-Rank Professionals could my over 500,000 Contribution Points attract?”

Su Ming truly had no confidence in this.

But it didn’t matter.

“If it really comes to that, I’ll just continue selling items.”

Su Ming’s backpack still contained many valuable items that could fetch high prices.

For instance, Red Vein Stones—treasures that accelerate the increase in Bloodline concentration, enabling Hunters to Awaken faster, grow more quickly, and more easily advance to Upper-Rank Professionals—are strategic resources coveted by many great Families.

Selling a few at auction would surely bring in a substantial sum, providing another considerable income.

Then there was Little Hai’er. This Mermaid Princess would occasionally shed scales from her tail. Su Ming had collected some and discovered they possessed remarkable hardness, contained significant water affinity, and could even release low temperatures under specific conditions. For Alchemists, these should be rare Phantom Demon materials, useful whether for forging weapons, crafting tools, or brewing potions.

After all, they were materials dropped by a Nightmare Species, so their rarity was undeniable.

Su Ming had also collected a single tear shed by Little Hai’er. To his astonishment, that tear contained extraordinary spirituality.

“A Phantom Demon’s tear actually carries spirituality? That’s absolutely incredible!”

One must understand that Spirit Power and spirituality are natural enemies of Phantom Demons.

Yet Little Hai’er’s tear contained spirituality?

Phantom Demons: There’s a traitor among us.jpg.

Little Hai’er: Gradually molded into Su Ming’s shape.jpg.

Additionally, Su Ming possessed quite a few Spell Formula books for Spirit Arts, including some Advanced Spirit Arts.

If these Spell Formula books were auctioned, they should be worth a significant number of Contribution Points, right?

At the very least, the Sorcerer Guild wouldn’t casually sell its own collections, and internal members probably couldn’t easily obtain Spell Formula books for high-sequence Spirit Arts.

Thus, Spell Formula books for high-sequence Spirit Arts should have a strong market, especially those for Advanced Spirit Arts—they must be extremely precious.

In this manner, Su Ming mentally tallied his assets while walking aimlessly forward.

As he walked, Su Ming suddenly realized a serious problem.

“Where should I go?”

Su Ming’s expression turned grave.

He discovered that he had nowhere to go.

Him—a dignified Dual Professional, Four-Star Hunter, Five-Star Sorcerer, owner of the Divine Artifact Demon Emperor Sword, the strongest extra capable of challenging even Six-Star Professionals—actually didn’t even have a place to stay…?

Su Ming quickly pulled out his Terminal and searched for nearby hotels.

But before he could find any hotel locations, he noticed an unread message.

“Xu Xiayan?”Su Ming glanced at the sender and blinked.

“When did I get her contact information? And how did she get mine?”

He didn’t dwell on this question for long and directly opened the unread message.

The next second, Xu Xiayan’s message appeared before Su Ming’s eyes.

“I preloaded this contact information into the Terminal, so don’t be surprised.”

“If you ever run into something you can’t handle, just contact me. For the sake of my dear niece, I’ll help you as much as I can.”

“Of course, this isn’t a long-term solution. In a place like Tianfeng City, if you want to truly make a name for yourself and grow stronger, relying on my help all the time won’t work.”

“So, I hope you try to handle things on your own as much as possible.”

“Unless, of course, you’re willing to accept the Wang Family’s offer.”

The message carried goodwill and kindness, mixed with Xu Xiayan’s personal motives and obvious encouragement, which made Su Ming chuckle.

Su Ming continued reading.

“By the way, remember back in Longyao City when I said that if you passed the spiritual aptitude test, I’d give you some local specialties from Tianfeng City?”

“I’ve left everything in a certain place. It’s a residence I used to live in. Though it’s a bit simple and small, it should be just enough for a newly debuted apprentice Sorcerer like you.”

“If you’re interested, go ahead and move in. I’ll lend you the place so you won’t have to worry about finding somewhere to stay.”

“Since you’re new here and your family background is quite ordinary, you probably don’t have many Contribution Points, let alone much money. Save where you can, and don’t feel embarrassed—we’ve all been there when we first came to Tianfeng City to make our way.”

“Alright, I’ve said what I needed to say. I wish you great success in the future.”

“P.S.: (You’re always welcome to change your mind and join the Wang Family. My team happens to be short a Sorcerer, and it’s mostly made up of cute girls, you know? (^_?)☆)”

After reading the message, Su Ming’s first reaction was to complain.

“Someone her age still uses emoticons?”

Trying to act young, huh?

Then, Su Ming couldn’t help but laugh.

“This Xu Xiayan really doesn’t put on any airs of a powerful figure.”

To be so familiar and caring toward a newly debuted apprentice Sorcerer, without a hint of disdain or condescension—such a quality was truly rare.

“In that case, I’ll accept your kindness.”

Su Ming checked the address Xu Xiayan had sent and confirmed where his future residence would be.

This was indeed a timely help.

“A place to stay is settled. Awesome.”

Su Ming put away the Terminal and walked out in high spirits.

…

Following the address Xu Xiayan had sent, Su Ming searched for about half an hour before finally finding the place.

When Su Ming arrived at his destination, he fell silent.

Before him stood a large villa.

The villa’s exterior walls looked old, as if it had been around for some time, but it covered a vast area, complete with a backyard, a front courtyard, and a non-functioning fountain.

Su Ming roughly estimated its size and realized it was slightly larger than Xu Qianqian’s villa in the Mirror Lake District of Longyao City.Su Ming stood silently before the main gate for a very long time before finally taking out his Terminal and reopening the message Xu Xiayan had sent him, confirming the description of the residence.

“A bit shabby?”

“A bit small?”

“Barely enough for a newly debuted apprentice Sorcerer like me?”

…Do you perhaps have some misunderstanding about the words “shabby,” “small,” and “barely enough”?

And this place is given to me for free?

“Alright, from now on I won’t tease you about your age anymore. You’re my sister.”

Su Ming made this decision.

Immediately afterward, his mind began to stir with ideas.

“Such a large villa—if it’s only used for living, wouldn’t that be too wasteful?”

“Decided!”

“From now on, this will be my team’s headquarters!”

With an even more cheerful mood, Su Ming stepped forward, reached out his hand, and pushed open the gate before him.

The gate slowly swung open and then… collapsed.

“Boom!”

Amid the dull sound, dust billowed everywhere.

“…”

Su Ming remained frozen in his door-opening posture, the smile on his face completely stiffened.

“It seems this place needs some tidying up first.”

(End of Chapter)