Chapter 313 – A Name That Spreads

At this moment, the atmosphere between Su Ming and Chi Qian became somewhat stiff.

Yet Su Ming didn’t stop, continuing to speak to Chi Qian.

“You already had internal injuries in your body. The medicinal wine I treated you to last time wasn’t enough to completely heal them. Plus, you’re missing a hand – your strength has been affected, hasn’t it?”

Su Ming directly exposed the reason for Chi Qian’s poor performance in the recent battle.

Chi Qian desperately wanted to deny it, but with the facts laid bare before her, how could she possibly refute them?

“…There is some impact, but it’s not significant.”

Chi Qian could only utter these words in a somewhat stiff voice.

Su Ming didn’t comment on this, merely giving Chi Qian a deep look.

“Tell me, Legend Chi, Commander Chi – you’re not still thinking about bearing the guilt of your former comrades’ sacrifice alone, and that’s why you won’t heal the internal injuries and severed hand, are you?”

Su Ming had somewhat discerned that Chi Qian had such thoughts and tendencies.

This was something Chi Qian had personally admitted before.

The reason Chi Qian didn’t heal her hand and appearance wasn’t because she couldn’t.

Besides wanting to save all the Contribution Points she earned this year for Mu Yan and the others, not wasting them on herself, thus preventing her from spending heavily on high-quality alchemical potions for treatment, Chi Qian also harbored self-punishing thoughts.

Nearly all her comrades had perished, with only herself surviving – this fact alone caused Chi Qian considerable pain. If she continued to cling to life without bearing any consequences, she simply couldn’t accept it.

In other words, Chi Qian believed she must accept punishment.

To rescue Mu Yan, Feng Qing’er, and Tong Xinyao, she didn’t hesitate to sign a contract of servitude – that was her punishment.

As atonement, leaving her internal injuries, severed hand, and ruined appearance untreated – that too was her punishment.

Through these means, Chi Qian punished herself – punished the self that decided to accept the S-rank mission and led the team to destruction.

Even though Mu Yan had said that decision was made collectively by the entire team, and that they were Professionals who had long been mentally prepared for such outcomes, Chi Qian still found no relief.

Thus, in response to Su Ming’s questioning, Chi Qian chose silence.

“Fine.” Su Ming rubbed his forehead and said, “I won’t judge whether your approach is right or wrong. I’ll only tell you two things.”

Su Ming extended one finger.

“First, this will affect future team activities.” Su Ming said somewhat ruthlessly, “We completed the mission successfully this time, but if we encounter more formidable enemies in the future, and your choices prevent you from performing at full strength, causing Mu Yan, Feng Qing’er, Tong Xinyao, or even me – who fought alongside you today – to die, what will you do then?”

Chi Qian trembled from head to toe.

“Second.” Su Ming continued as if he hadn’t noticed, speaking calmly, “You might not know this, but I’ve seen it more than once.”

“I’ve seen the heartache and sorrow on Mu Yan and the others’ faces when they see the scars on your face and your missing hand.”Hearing these words, Chi Qian was rendered completely speechless.

The tense atmosphere between the two was immediately replaced by oppressive silence.

Su Ming gazed at Chi Qian and spoke slowly.

“People can’t live in the past forever; they must look toward the future. Otherwise, when similar things happen again, it might be too late for regrets.”

“What you should do isn’t wallow in your mistakes, but learn from them and reflect.”

“At the very least, if I were you, I’d strive with all my might to become stronger. So when similar situations occur in the future, I’d have enough power to protect those around me and prevent such tragedies from repeating.”

As he spoke, Su Ming retrieved an alchemical potion from his backpack.

It was the only highest-grade recovery potion in his pack—capable of healing even the most severe injuries as long as the head remained attached and the heart intact.

Including severed limbs.

After taking out the potion, Su Ming tossed it to Chi Qian.

“That’s all I’ll say. What you do next is your choice.”

With these final words, Su Ming turned and left without hesitation, heading after Mu Yan and the others.

Only Chi Qian remained standing there, holding the clearly high-quality alchemical potion, silent for a long time.

……

Outside the Chaotic Region, in the wilderness danger zone.

Heading in the direction of Tianfeng City, the off-road vehicle sped along once more, carrying Su Ming and his companions on their return journey.

Feng Qing’er held a horn cut from the Ghoul, chattering animatedly with Mu Yan and Tong Xinyao while basking in the joy of successfully completing her first mission.

Of course, the Ghoul had more than just this material. Aside from the charred, unusable parts, the rest had been collected by Su Ming and now lay in his backpack.

The group had smoothly completed this A-rank mission and were preparing to return to Tianfeng City.

Mid-conversation, Feng Qing’er suddenly seemed to remember something and sharply turned to look at Su Ming in the passenger seat.

“Speaking of which, Commander, you really deceived us badly,” Feng Qing’er accused. “You’re clearly an Upper-Rank Sorcerer, at least Five-Star, yet you’ve been pretending to be a fresh newcomer. So cunning!”

Her words made the other girls react as well.

“Th-that’s right!” Tong Xinyao seemed to grow excited, leaning forward slightly. “So the Commander is such an amazing Sorcerer, capable of using an Advanced Spirit Art ranked above eighty in the sequence. It’s truly astonishing!”

As a fellow Sorcerer who had witnessed Su Ming using [Eighty-First Style: Vast Karma Brahma Scene] firsthand, Tong Xinyao was particularly thrilled.

This was her first time seeing a Spirit Art of such high sequence.

Recalling that moment, Tong Xinyao couldn’t help but gaze at Su Ming with admiration.

Honestly, having a young girl look at him with such worshipful eyes was quite enjoyable.

Su Ming rubbed his nose and shrugged.”You’re not bad either,” Su Ming laughed. “I didn’t expect Qing’er to have a fine-grade alchemical weapon either, and Yao Yao surprised me even more – at such a young age, she can already use Spirit Arts of that level with such proficiency and dexterity. The final technique even made my eyes light up.”

To be blunt, with the enhancement from that fine-grade recurve saber, Feng Qing’er’s combat power, at least in terms of offensive capability, was the highest in Azure Mercury aside from Su Ming himself.

Even against a Hazardous Species like the Ghoul that was about to evolve, under Feng Qing’er’s recurve saber attacks, its skin was instantly torn open and flesh ripped apart, leaving it covered in wounds and utterly disheveled. If this were used against a human, cutting through bones would probably be easier than slicing vegetables.

As for Tong Xinyao, she truly made Su Ming feel astonished.

It wasn’t surprising that this little Genius could execute [Form 47: Blazing Lotus Scarlet Flame] and [Form 58: Wind Demon Pursuit].

As a Spirit Bearer who had advanced to Three-Star at fourteen, Tong Xinyao being able to use Spirit Arts of this level was still understandable in Su Ming’s view.

But what truly surprised Su Ming was when, just before finishing off the Ghoul, Tong Xinyao temporarily transformed the Spell Formula of [Wind Demon Pursuit], turning the sandstorm into a binding force that restricted the Ghoul’s movements.

“You incorporated part of the Spell Formula principles from [Form 7: Grey Binding] into the Spell Formula of [Form 58: Wind Demon Pursuit], performing Spell Restructuring, which gave the originally single-target attack spell its binding characteristics, right?”

Su Ming voiced his understanding, making Tong Xinyao nod somewhat sheepishly.

“That technique is called Spell Restructuring. I learned it from the Sorcerer Guild.”

Tong Xinyao’s words stirred something in Su Ming’s heart.

“The Sorcerer Guild?”

As an academic organization, the Sorcerer Guild gathered Sorcerers from almost all over the world, discussing and researching Spirit Arts together. It was indeed possible that many techniques and alternative usage methods related to Spirit Arts existed there.

“I should go check it out when I have time.”

Su Ming formed this thought.

There was no helping it – his Spirit Arts were almost entirely self-taught from spellbooks obtained from packages. While his techniques and skills in using Spirit Arts couldn’t be called terrible, they were completely conventional, strictly following the methods in the books. Thus, he had never learned any advanced usage techniques or skills.

The Demon Hunter Academy did teach some techniques for using Spell Formulas, but the techniques students could easily learn in class were obviously not going to be particularly advanced.

Given this, despite being a Five-Star Sorcerer, Su Ming couldn’t perform special techniques like Spell Restructuring the way Tong Xinyao did.

If such techniques existed in the Sorcerer Guild, Su Ming wouldn’t mind going to study there.

“On the Hunter side, with Ancient Blade Art, my combat skills are gradually improving.”

“In that case, my combat skills as a Sorcerer should also improve accordingly.”

“There’s still plenty of room for me to grow.”

Su Ming quietly made these plans.

Until Mu Yan suddenly spoke up.

“With skills like yours, why haven’t you shown them before?”

Mu Yan’s sudden question made everyone turn their attention to Su Ming.Su Ming also reacted.

“Don’t look at me like that. I just wanted to avoid some trouble.” Su Ming shrugged and said, “Qing’er made one mistake earlier.”

“What?” Feng Qing’er became curious.

“I wasn’t pretending to be a newcomer who just debuted – I genuinely just started out, a complete rookie.” Su Ming practically wanted to paste the words “newbie” on his face as he said, “I graduated from the Academy less than a month ago, I’m really only eighteen this year, and I just got my license this month. How could that count as pretending?”

“Ah, this…” Feng Qing’er was stunned.

Mu Yan and Tong Xinyao were the same.

Only then did they remember something terrifying.

“S-so… Commander, you became an Upper-Rank Professional at eighteen, or even younger?”

Tong Xinyao tremblingly voiced this matter.

“So?” Su Ming grinned, giving a thumbs up. “Impressive, right?”

Feng Qing’er and Tong Xinyao immediately nodded like pounding garlic.

“Amazing! So amazing!”

“C-Commander is incredible!”

The two innocent girls looked at Su Ming with starry eyes, making him, who had just been casually speaking, at a loss for words.

Only Mu Yan looked deeply at Su Ming.

“So the historical record was already broken, just nobody knew.” Mu Yan said calmly, “I think I understand why the Commander wants to conceal his strength.”

If Su Ming’s true strength were exposed, Tianfeng City would definitely become lively, to say the least.

An eighteen-year-old Upper-Rank Professional, and a rare Sorcerer at that – such talent and power would be enough to make even super families like the Eight Great Families fight desperately to recruit him.

By then, Su Ming might never know peace again.

Don’t think being in the spotlight is always good.

In a place like Tianfeng City, a peerless genius like Su Ming would inevitably attract trouble whether he joined a faction or not. If he didn’t join any organization, he would provoke many disputes; if he did join one, he would still invite numerous complications.

Did people really think that joining a great family and receiving their support and protection would guarantee safety?

Who knew if that great family had deadly rivals? Would those rivals develop malicious intentions upon seeing their opponent recruit such an astonishing genius?

The relationships between the major powers in Tianfeng City were complex, far less peaceful than they appeared on the surface.

Having operated in Tianfeng City for quite some time, Mu Yan understood this clearly.

Therefore, if Mu Yan were in his position, she would also choose Su Ming’s approach.

It’s best to get rich quietly. If you show off your wealth, even an innocent person becomes guilty by possessing treasure.

“You knew about this all along?”

Mu Yan turned to Chi Qian, who was driving the off-road vehicle, and asked this question.

Hearing this, Chi Qian, who had remained silent and lost in thought, let out a bitter laugh.

“No, I only found out today that our Commander is such a powerful Sorcerer.”

This was the truth.

Chi Qian had seen Su Ming use his [Silver Arm] to repel the Poisonous Insect Queen, so she knew Su Ming was a Dual Professional who hid his capabilities.

But Chi Qian had no idea that aside from his Hunter abilities, Su Ming’s strength as a Sorcerer was also this formidable.She had thought that Su Ming was only hiding his strength as a Hunter, while his abilities as a Sorcerer were consistent with what he displayed on the surface—merely at the level of a newly debuted One-Star Sorcerer.

Who could have imagined that Su Ming would suddenly unleash a Spirit Art of nuclear-level power, summoning a calamity from the heavens and demonstrating the might to devastate the world.

As a Hunter, Su Ming possessed a mutated special ability, capable of repelling a Nightmare Species like the Poisonous Insect Queen—a being comparable to a Seven-Star Professional—with a single strike.

As a Sorcerer, Su Ming could effortlessly wield an Advanced Spirit Art, and one that ranked as high as eighty-first in the sequence at that.

Both professions were of the highest caliber, and each held the potential to threaten the very pinnacle of this world.

Such talent and brilliance…

“Could he possibly be even more terrifying than that one?”

Chi Qian couldn’t help but recall a certain figure.

Compared to herself, that one was the true legend.

A legend who reigned over the world.

“In the future, could the Commander surpass that one?”

Just the thought of it sent chills down Chi Qian’s spine.

“It seems I must make a choice as well.”

The confusion in Chi Qian’s heart gradually gave way to a firm decision.

The group chatted and laughed along the way as they returned to Tianfeng City.

By evening, Su Ming and his companions emerged from the Professional Center.

Their mission had been successfully approved, and they received their corresponding rewards.

Naturally, the news quickly spread that Su Ming’s team had taken on an A-rank mission for their very first assignment and completed it on the same day.

The name Azure Mercury was remembered by the world for the first time.

This held true for both those with intentions and those without.

(End of Chapter)