Chapter 354 – People Are Scarier Than Phantom Demons

From then on, Su Ming and his party prioritized finding the entrance to the next floor. They avoided combat, steered clear of the Phantom Demon hordes, and refrained from treasure hunting unless something was truly within reach and could be effortlessly picked up. Otherwise, no one would make a move.

The one man and four women ventured through the first floor while simultaneously mapping their route and direction to avoid getting lost.

Fortunately, the highest Rank of Phantom Demons on this floor was only that of a lower-tier mutant, with no upper-tier Phantom Demons appearing. Otherwise, it would have been far from easy for Su Ming and the others to travel so carefreely.

Along the way, Su Ming’s group encountered several other Professional teams.

Some were like Su Ming’s party, searching for the entrance to the next floor. Upon meeting Su Ming’s group, they not only avoided conflict but also exchanged information and shared their recorded maps, saving each other considerable time by marking areas that had already been searched but yielded no entrance.

Others were solely focused on hunting for rare treasures, plundering every resource in sight to the fullest extent. When they saw Su Ming’s party, they briefly revealed greedy and malicious intentions.

Su Ming could roughly guess what they were thinking.

“They want to see if we’ve gathered any precious resources, and if so, they’ll try to snatch them, right?”

Su Ming narrowed his eyes.

This was not an unusual occurrence.

Among Tianfeng City’s millions of Professionals, it was inevitable that not all of them were decent people.

Some Professionals appeared righteous on the surface but secretly engaged in bullying and exploitation, rivaling even the ruthless Underground Professionals in their cruelty.

No matter the place, when there are many people, there will always be those who seek shortcuts or turn to dark deeds to satisfy their desires or needs.

If they were in Tianfeng City, explicit regulations restrained them. To avoid exile or imprisonment and becoming Underground Professionals, they wouldn’t dare act recklessly in the open.

But outside Tianfeng City, it was a case of “the mountains are high and the emperor is far away”—distant waters cannot quench a nearby fire. They could do as they pleased, and even if Tianfeng City wanted to intervene, it couldn’t, unless there was concrete evidence to report them.

Thus, in wilderness danger zones and some Realms, it was quite common for Professional teams to sabotage each other or even engage in underhanded schemes, with the unscrupulous preying on the wicked.

Even among Professional teams that disdained such dark deeds, it was normal for them to compete fiercely when encountering precious Extraordinary Items in the wild.

The Midnight Labyrinth was a Hidden Realm, teeming with treasures everywhere. It was no surprise that some ill-intentioned teams would consider outright robbery.

In such a place, even if someone were killed, as long as it wasn’t too blatant, no one would discover it. And even if it were somewhat conspicuous, without evidence, nothing could be done to the perpetrators.

Under these circumstances, malicious villains would reveal their true colors, displaying behavior even more despicable than that of Underground Professionals—a natural progression of events.

Unfortunately, the people on Su Ming’s side were no pushovers.

Under the cold gazes of Chi Qian, Mu Yan, Feng Qing’er, and the others, the ill-intentioned teams eventually recognized the origins of 『Azure Mercury』.

“Th-That seems to be Chi Qian from 『Azure Mercury』, right?””Are those two Mu Yan and Feng Qing’er?”

“A Six-Star Professional? And two Five-Star Professionals…!?”

“Let’s get out of here!”

The evil Professionals who had been about to sneer viciously immediately panicked upon recognizing Chi Qian and the others.

Especially when they saw Chi Qian, they turned and fled without a second thought.

Are you kidding? That’s a Six-Star Professional.

Professionals of that Rank can only be found in A-Rank teams, and some even require S-Rank teams.

For ordinary B-Rank teams, having a Five-Star Professional is already quite impressive—how could they possibly have a Six-Star Professional?

As for this Hidden Realm, all the S-Rank teams were guarding outside and hadn’t entered. Only A-Rank and B-Rank teams had come in.

In other words, here, Six-Star Professionals are the peak.

With a Six-Star Professional holding the fort, even A-Rank teams wouldn’t dare to offend them lightly.

Although ‘Azure Mercury’ is a C-Rank team—probably the lowest-ranked among those entering this Hidden Realm—with Chi Qian, a Six-Star Professional, guarding them, not only would ordinary B-Rank teams avoid provoking them, but even renowned A-Rank teams like ‘Summer Chasing Smoke’, ‘Brocade Dragon Jade Pavilion’, and ‘Iron Rose’ wouldn’t anger them unnecessarily.

Even without counting Chi Qian as the Six-Star Professional, both Mu Yan and Feng Qing’er are Five-Star Professionals. They had already updated and re-recorded their information at the Professional Center this month. Unless someone was completely clueless, they would recognize these two.

Two Five-Star Professionals are also existences that ordinary B-Rank teams can’t afford to provoke.

Thus, these ill-intentioned individuals fled immediately without hesitation.

However…

“Whoosh!”

Just as Su Ming was watching from the sidelines, Mu Yan suddenly lashed out with her Thorned Whip, creating a whistling sound through the air.

“Thump!” “Thump!” “Thump!” “Thump!” “Thump!”…

Accompanied by a series of dull thuds, the Thorned Whip accurately struck each malicious Professional, causing them to scream in pain as they tried to flee, each being knocked to the ground.

“What?”

Su Ming was stunned, not expecting Mu Yan to suddenly attack.

What surprised him even more was that not only Chi Qian, but even Tong Xinyao watched all this as if it were completely normal, her expression unchanged.

Feng Qing’er directly took out ropes.

“Hmph! Trying to run?”

The girl snorted lightly while stepping forward, skillfully tying up each unconscious Professional with practiced ease.

Seeing how proficient she was, Su Ming was completely bewildered.

“What are you all doing?”

Su Ming looked at Chi Qian and the others with utter confusion.

Feng Qing’er immediately spoke up.

“Capturing bad guys!” Feng Qing’er said puzzledly. “Hasn’t the Commander done this before?”

Done this… like hell!

Who’s done something like this before?

Su Ming immediately looked at Chi Qian with extreme bewilderment.

Understanding his confusion, Chi Qian explained.

“It seems the Commander rarely encounters malicious Professionals in the wild,” Chi Qian said. “We’ve encountered situations like this many times, especially during our time in ‘Crimson’.”

As a new team that had only developed for two years, with all female members and no major backing, ‘Crimson’ had naturally faced many unjust situations.During their wilderness adventures, many Professionals, seeing that “Crimson” consisted entirely of women—some exceptionally beautiful—found it impossible to suppress their twisted desires.

Because of this, Chi Qian and others, including Tong Xinyao, had all been disgusted by such individuals.

Thus, they had grown accustomed to dealing with ill-intentioned Professionals approaching them and had developed a set of well-practiced countermeasures.

“In the beginning, we pretended not to notice and let them leave after discouraging their improper intentions,” Chi Qian explained.

“But these people, unable to harm us, would go on to harm others. Some even held grudges and deliberately targeted weaker squads when Crimson was out on missions, bullying them.”

“We suffered several losses because of this. When we tried to hold them accountable, we lacked evidence. Some even became Underground Professionals just to retaliate against us, then fled without a trace.”

As she spoke of this, Chi Qian’s tone turned icy. Mu Yan’s face was frosty, while even Feng Qing’er and Tong Xinyao appeared indignant, their expressions filled with disgust toward these malicious Professionals.

“After that, we stopped showing mercy to Professionals who clearly had unclean hands and impure intentions,” Chi Qian stated coldly, glancing at the bound Professional.

“If we let them go easily, others might suffer in places we don’t know about—either harmed by them or targeted out of spite.”

Thanks to these experiences, Chi Qian and the others had become accustomed to handling such matters.

How they dealt with it depended on the severity of the offense.

For minor offenses, they would tie the perpetrators up and notify Tianfeng City authorities to take them away for punishment.

For serious offenses, these women were not above taking matters into their own hands.

“Commander, when you venture out in the future, remember not to let your guard down just because someone is human or a fellow Professional,” Chi Qian warned. “Don’t think about showing mercy and easily letting these malicious people go.”

“Sometimes, human hearts are more terrifying than Phantom Demons,” she continued.

“At least Phantom Demons attack openly, wanting to drain your blood.”

“But some people, while appearing kind on the surface, are secretly thinking about how to drain you dry and ruin you completely.”

Chi Qian’s words made Su Ming view these women in a new light.

He naturally understood this principle.

After all, hadn’t he himself attacked Zhang Chen and openly taken his belongings?

Su Ming was no saint in the conventional sense, so he never easily believed others had good intentions toward him—which was why he always kept his guard up.

If Chi Qian and the others weren’t present, Su Ming wouldn’t hesitate to use harsh methods himself.

It was only because these beautiful women were with him that he hadn’t considered dealing severely with those Professionals.

Unexpectedly, Chi Qian and the others had more experience than he imagined and weren’t particularly merciful either.

This pleased Su Ming greatly.

He didn’t want his team members to be naive, soft-hearted saints who only had talent and strength but no defenses against others.

Today’s display from Chi Qian and the others not only changed Su Ming’s perception of them but also gave him quiet reassurance.”With such a mindset, they won’t suffer losses in the future.”

When dealing with those who devour people without spitting out the bones, this is exactly how one should be—ruthless and merciless, for that is the right approach.

Little did I know while thinking this, a group of even more ruthless beings had already entered the Midnight Labyrinth.

As they, cloaked in black, leaped down from above and landed at the entrance of the first layer, a blood-soaked feast, a slaughter party, thus began.

(End of Chapter)