Chapter 371 – The Finalized Course of Action

After hearing Xu Xiayan’s explanation, the Commanders and Vice Captains present gradually calmed down.

Figures like Qiao Zhi and Zhu Yun still wore deeply furrowed brows, appearing quite apprehensive and fearful.

Qiao Liang and Zhu Qian also seemed lost in thought—one with flickering eyes, the other staring intently at Xu Xiayan.

“Commander.”

Chi Qian approached Su Ming and softly called out by his ear.

From her tone, Su Ming could detect a hint of apprehension and hesitation.

Clearly, even after learning that the Nightmare Species Mutant inhabiting this tenth layer was in a wounded state, Chi Qian remained far from reassured.

Su Ming himself was tempted to ask Xu Xiayan:

“Did those Tianfeng City Executives have nothing better to do?” Su Ming muttered. “If they really want to exterminate the Nightmare Species Mutant, why not just send people over directly? What’s with all this confirmation?”

Many overheard this grumbling.

Though no one voiced an opinion about it, their expressions showed they shared Su Ming’s sentiment.

Since it was confirmed the Nightmare Species Mutant was here, why not just have Tianfeng City’s powerhouses come eliminate it directly? Why make a bunch of juniors like them confirm anything?

Just get it done!

“It’s not as simple as you think.” Xu Xiayan seemed to have heard Su Ming’s muttering and responded with a bitter smile. “After all, this is a mission left over from a very, very long time ago—who knows how many years have passed since then. Plus, this Nightmare Species Mutant is hiding in a Hidden Realm that could vanish from the mortal world at any time. So, regarding whether to dispatch powerhouses to take on the enormous risk of eliminating this Phantom Demon, there’s significant disagreement among Tianfeng City’s Executives.”

In the past, this Nightmare Species Mutant undoubtedly caused numerous disasters on the surface.

Regardless of how much humans despised it back then, allowing it to remain and wreak havoc on the surface was simply unacceptable.

But now, the situation has changed.

This Nightmare Species Mutant is hiding in the Midnight Labyrinth, a Hidden Realm, and no longer active on the surface. If it stays quietly here, why take such great risks to eliminate it?

After all, it’s an existence surpassing even Seven-Star Professionals. Even in a wounded state, deciding whether to confront such a notorious, malevolent Phantom Demon is a source of considerable hesitation and struggle for Tianfeng City’s Executives and top figures.

If things go wrong and one or two Seven-Star Professionals are lost, it would be a massive sacrifice for Tianfeng City’s top-tier combat strength.

How many Seven-Star Professionals does Tianfeng City even have?

Fewer than twenty.

Losing even one or two would severely weaken Tianfeng City, potentially causing one or two Super Families or superpowers to collapse entirely.

For instance, many of the Eight Great Families have only one Seven-Star Professional. If that sole top figure is sacrificed, they would immediately fall from grace, dropping from Super Family status to merely top-tier families, suffering severe impacts in influence, strength, territory, business, and more.

Who could withstand such a tremendous loss?

If the Nightmare Species Mutant were still wreaking havoc on the surface, that would be a different matter.However, if it remains hidden within the Midnight Labyrinth, concealed in the crevice between the present world and the Spirit Demon Abyss—only manifesting on the surface for about ten days during specific periods—then its threat to the present world would be infinitely close to zero.

At the very least, it is certain that as long as the Midnight Labyrinth does not appear on the surface, this Nightmare Species Mutant cannot enter the present world and pose a threat to humanity.

Under such circumstances, the Tianfeng City Executives and top authorities would naturally hesitate over whether to take the risk of eliminating it.

The result of this hesitation and internal struggle was ultimately to postpone the decision and first send someone to investigate.

Coincidentally, next year marks the sixty-year cycle for reinforcing the Seal of the Chaos Demon Cave, and Tianfeng City needs to collect a large amount of precious materials and treasures. Specifically, someone must come to the tenth floor to gather Golden Dream Sprite Threads.

Thus, both the reconnaissance mission and the collection task fell upon Summer Chasing Smoke.

Of course, this was only the surface reason.

As for the deeper reasons, it might also be due to conflicting attitudes among the various Families and major factions in Tianfeng City regarding this matter. Each engaged in a certain degree of maneuvering and opposition, or perhaps it was the result of issues related to the policies and strategies of certain Family factions.

In any case, Su Ming felt that sending a group of young people like them to face a Nightmare Species Mutant in such a place was a clear sign that the Tianfeng City Executives had something wrong with them.

Xu Xiayan clearly lacked confidence as well, which was why she was willing to pay a high price to hire so many teams to face this challenge together.

Thinking of this, Su Ming’s gaze toward Xu Xiayan carried a hint of sympathy.

“If this mission had fallen on me, I would’ve refused without a second thought.”

Unfortunately, Xu Xiayan definitely couldn’t do that.

She was an external member of the Wang Family, a Professional affiliated with them. Even if she wanted to oppose a decision made by the Tianfeng City Executives, she couldn’t do so unless the Wang Family opposed it as well.

This was less of an assignment and more of a mandatory mission.

“This is exactly why I don’t want to attract too much attention when my strength is still lacking.”

This was the downside.

Unless one gave up being a Professional, there was no refusing the decisions and assigned missions of the Base City Executives.

Refusing could lead to minor consequences like having one’s Professional license revoked, but the real problem was having one’s entire family relocated out of the Base City’s key protected zones, forcing them to live in constant fear of Phantom Demon attacks.

Honestly, Su Ming found it all rather distasteful.

Naturally, Xu Xiayan had no idea what Su Ming was thinking, or she would’ve felt quite conflicted.

She simply looked at the gradually calming and silent crowd and spoke.

“This is my plan.”

Xu Xiayan explained her strategy to everyone.

“Next, we’ll split into two groups. One will search for Golden Dream Sprite Threads on the tenth floor, while the other will seize the opportunity to investigate the Nightmare Species Mutant.”

“The group searching for Golden Dream Sprite Threads needs as many people as possible. Since there are no Phantom Demons on the tenth floor aside from the Nightmare Species Mutant, this treasure-hunting team doesn’t require high combat strength—just numbers. The more people we have, the higher the chances of finding the Golden Dream Sprite Threads.””The reconnaissance team needs to concentrate the top combat power from various major squads. We don’t need too many people to avoid causing too much commotion, but their strength cannot be weak either, lest when real confrontation becomes necessary, they don’t even have the ability to escape.”

Xu Xiayan swept her gaze over everyone present.

“The reason our 『Summer Chasing Smoke』 has hired all of you as assistants is precisely as a precaution. If we’re lucky and the situation develops smoothly, we might not even need to fight at all and can withdraw completely unscathed.”

It must be said that Xu Xiayan was indeed very cautious and took this matter seriously.

Even though it was possible that everything would proceed smoothly without any fighting, she still considered the worst-case scenario and didn’t hesitate to pay a high price to hire so many powerful squads.

As the saying goes, better safe than sorry.

If something really went wrong, having so many experts banded together would prevent too great a threat to 『Summer Chasing Smoke』.

If nothing happened, that would naturally be for the best.

Once this mission is completed, 『Summer Chasing Smoke』 will be able to advance to an S-class squad. Compared to that, the hiring costs paid would be nothing.

“Captain Xu…”

Understanding Xu Xiayan’s thinking, Chi Qian wore a complicated expression.

If back then she had been like Xu Xiayan – no matter what, first considering the worst situation and making full preparations just in case – would 『Crimson』 have remained safe and sound?

If that were the case, wouldn’t 『Crimson』 have already advanced to an A-class squad by now, becoming the fastest squad to reach A-class in Tianfeng City?

And those sisters in 『Crimson』 wouldn’t have needed to sacrifice themselves.

“Sigh…”

Chi Qian let out a deep sigh, her heart filled with mixed emotions.

It was only at this moment that Chi Qian truly came to admire Xu Xiayan.

Perhaps in terms of combat strength, she was confident she wasn’t inferior to Xu Xiayan, who had advanced a year ago.

But when it came to mentality and qualities as a commander, Chi Qian felt she fell short of Xu Xiayan.

Someone like Xu Xiayan was capable of leading their squad through dangers unscathed, ultimately reaching the Peak.

All of 『Summer Chasing Smoke』’s current achievements were well-deserved by this Captain Xu.

“Smack!”

Just as Chi Qian was sinking deeper into complicated thoughts, a hand patted her shoulder.

Chi Qian turned to look and immediately saw Su Ming’s face.

“Don’t overthink it.” Su Ming said, as if seeing through Chi Qian’s thoughts, “That’s all in the past now.”

“I understand.” Chi Qian took a deep breath, nodded, and stopped dwelling on it.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the various squads were quietly discussing among themselves.

Clearly, they were all weighing the gains and losses.

Xu Xiayan also said:

“If anyone wants to withdraw, you can bring it up now. We won’t stop you.”

When she said this, Xu Xiayan was surprisingly calm.

Undoubtedly, she had already considered the possibility of people withdrawing and had mentally prepared for it in advance, completely able to accept it.

Su Ming seriously suspected that this girl had hired so many squads at once precisely because she had considered this point.

This way, even if some squads really did withdraw, they wouldn’t find themselves in the predicament of lacking sufficient external combat power.

“Truly worthy of having prepared for half a year.”Xu Xiayan had considered all possible scenarios and spent the past six months eliminating as many uncertainties as possible.

Such meticulous planning made Su Ming suddenly feel that if the Xu Family of Longyao City truly fell into Xu Xiayan’s hands, it might reach even greater heights—levels unattainable by Xu Wen and those two brothers who were constantly engaged in internal strife and vicious competition.

This aunt of the Xu Family was indeed well-suited to become the Family Head.

Yet, she herself looked down upon the position and held deep disappointment toward the Xu Family.

In Xu Xiayan’s heart, the Xu Family was probably no different from unworkable mud—utterly hopeless.

If Su Ming were to choose, he would also prefer to remain a Commander rather than take on that troublesome role of Family Head.

Thus, within the tent, waves of discussion continuously rose and spilled outward.

Finally, to Su Ming’s surprise, not a single one of the eleven teams withdrew.

After repeatedly confirming that this was merely a reconnaissance mission with no combat required, these teams were willing to take a slight risk and continue accepting the employment.

“Thank you.”

Xu Xiayan bowed deeply before beginning discussions with the leaders of each major team about the specific action plan.

This discussion lasted until deep into the night.

Much later, after establishing the basic action plan, the leaders of the various teams departed one after another, returning to their respective resting areas.

Only Xu Xiayan and Wang Di remained in the entire tent.

“Haa…”

Xu Xiayan let out a soft sigh.

“You’ve worked hard.”

Wang Di looked at the slightly weary Xu Xiayan, his eyes faintly filled with pity and heartache.

Xu Xiayan glanced at Wang Di, whether she noticed the pity and heartache in his eyes remained unknown, as she maintained a calm expression: “It’s fine. Ultimately, no teams withdrew, and the worst-case scenario I envisioned didn’t occur.”

“After all, it’s just reconnaissance—combat isn’t necessarily required.” Wang Di responded this way: “Even if problems really arise, while they may lack confidence in facing Nightmare Species Mutants, they certainly have ample confidence in their ability to escape.”

“These are all leaders of major teams after all. People like Qiao Liang and Zhu Qian are more proud and arrogant than we imagine—they definitely don’t believe they lack even the ability to escape.” Xu Xiayan said indifferently: “Right now, they’ve surely returned to make arrangements and prepare escape routes for their teams.”

If it truly came down to needing to flee, preparing the teams in advance would undoubtedly be necessary.

They couldn’t just abandon their teams and escape alone, could they?

If it became truly necessary, those teams would certainly no longer care about employment contracts or payment.

For now, that necessity simply didn’t exist, and Xu Xiayan didn’t expect them to advance and retreat together with 『Summer Chasing Smoke』 like comrades.

“I just hope everything goes smoothly and doesn’t waste our six months of preparations.”

Xu Xiayan murmured this.

“It definitely will.” Wang Di looked gently at Xu Xiayan: “This is the plan you’ve put so much effort into preparing—even those S-rank teams might not achieve this level. I believe your hard work won’t be in vain.”

“I hope so.” Xu Xiayan rubbed her temples: “Right now, what worries me more is no longer the mission itself.””It’s not about the mission?” Wang Di was momentarily taken aback, then seemed to recall something. “Are you referring to our inability to contact the outside world?”

“Exactly.” Xu Xiayan nodded. “Ever since we entered the Midnight Labyrinth, our connection with the outside world has been completely severed. This is highly unusual.”

One must understand that for this mission, Xu Xiayan had made thorough preparations, including considerations for contacting external rescue teams and transmitting intelligence promptly.

To that end, she had prepared special alchemical tools designed to maintain constant communication with the outside world.

Other teams entering the Midnight Labyrinth would typically assume the loss of external communication was due to the unique nature of this Hidden Realm, rendering their Terminals unusable.

Such occurrences are common even in ordinary realms, so no one would normally question this phenomenon.

But Xu Xiayan had specifically prepared countermeasures for this situation, only to discover she still couldn’t maintain contact with the outside world.

“I hope nothing has gone wrong.”

This was Xu Xiayan’s fervent wish.

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(End of Chapter)