"And this Potion was one Lord Zhou Xiong helped me digest and assimilate using the Ten-Complete Hand."
"After that, Lord Zhou Xiong personally stepped in again. He passed down that Supreme Nourishing Technique—the Ten-Complete Hand—to me."
"But that Cultivation Technique was simply too profound. I couldn’t even grasp the most basic fundamentals."
"Then, when I was at my most lost and desperate, the Sun Chan Hall Master, who had long since vanished without a trace, reappeared before me as if he were a godsend.
He then spent an entire year personally guiding me, teaching me how to cultivate the Ten-Complete Hand."
"Master Sun... his strength is unfathomable. At the very least, he’s a terrifying existence at the Stellar-level or above.
Even if time isn’t that important to a supreme expert of his caliber,
it’s certainly not something to be wasted so casually on an unrelated junior."
’What secret am I hiding?
What makes these legendary figures of the Empire invest so much in me?’
’And now, there’s another inexplicable matter.’
Qin Feng slowly raised his hand and opened his mission list.
At the very top of the list, the crimson-red pursuit mission for "Shi Dang," filled with endless killing intent, was still clearly displayed.
It was as if it were silently mocking everyone else in the world but him.
’From the looks of it, it seems this "public" pursuit mission for Shi Dang is only visible on my Subspace Network.’
’Why?’
The single word, like the deepest nightmare, echoed repeatedly in Qin Feng’s empty, silent room.
One after another, deeper and more chilling questions sprouted uncontrollably from the depths of his mind, which was already in chaos from overthinking.
’If other experts, like Master Lin Yue and Wang Hao, can’t even see or accept this mission...’
’...are they just going to let that bastard Shi Dang run rampant on the Empire’s borders, slaughtering and sacrificing, bringing disaster to innocent members of the Human Race?!’
’When did this start?’
’Was it like this from the moment the mission was issued?’
’Or, at some point in time I’m unaware of, was this pursuit mission—originally "public" to all Martial Artists in the Empire—silently "privatized" by some higher authority I can’t comprehend?’
’Then what about the thirty-two bloody mission failures I saw on the mission board before... were they real? Or fake?’
If...
If those failures were fake...
In that instant, Qin Feng felt as if his brain was about to explode from the sheer volume of these complicated, tangled clues that offered no leads.
He had fallen into a vast, dark labyrinth built from countless "whys."
In truth, although Qin Feng shared a Sea of Blood-deep hatred with Shi Dang and constantly yearned to personally behead the traitor to commemorate the spirit of his dear friend Lei Meng,
he had never placed his own personal Will above his kinsmen of the Human Race.
He knew very well that the Shi Dang of today was no longer just some ordinary, fallen traitor.
He was a future Chaos Champion, rising at an unbelievable speed!
Every minute, every second he existed within the Empire’s territory, he posed a massive potential threat to the safety of the Human Race!
That was why on the Star of the Milky Way, the very instant he discovered Shi Dang’s trail, Qin Feng’s instinctive choice was to—immediately report the coordinates!
Let all the stronger Martial Artists of the Empire who could see this information rush here at top speed and, with the force of a thunderbolt, utterly annihilate this great threat!
But now...
He discovered to his horror that it seemed he was the only one who could see the mission for Shi Dang.
The only one who could receive Shi Dang’s coordinates.
This...
’Is this a mission left specifically for me and me alone?’
’Doesn’t that mean that until I kill Shi Dang, he’ll continue to run rampant in the border regions, slaughtering countless human compatriots?’
"...Why?"
Qin Feng couldn’t figure it out.
’Was Shi Dang meant to be my whetstone? Or was that bastard Tzeentch just messing with me?’
"No..."
’I can’t keep letting my mind run wild like this.’
Qin Feng shot to his feet!
Taking a deep breath, Qin Feng opened his personal terminal and quickly found a function within the complex campus system.
[Request for Instructor Guidance]
Submit.
The moment he submitted the request, a short, emotionless system reply immediately popped up.
[Request approved. Please proceed to the Bamboo Grove Tranquil Abode, B-7, in the "Martial Hero District" within ten minutes.]
Upon seeing this reply, Qin Feng’s figure instantly vanished from his silent, cold dormitory.
He sped toward the exclusive area for Canaan’s masters—the Martial Hero District!
Qin Feng was going to find Master Yu Han and ask him face-to-face!
Back then, he couldn’t bring himself to ask Master Wu Shangfeng a pointed question, so Shi Potian had asked it for him. But now, having survived countless life-and-death struggles and crawled out of innumerable wars of blood and fire, his mentality was worlds apart from his high school self.
Soon, Qin Feng’s figure appeared in the bamboo grove.
Yu Han was still sitting there quietly.
"Qin Feng? You’re here. Do you have any questions about your cultivation?"
Yu Han asked.
Qin Feng got straight to the point. "Master, I’ve discovered that I’m the only one who can see the pursuit mission for Shi Dang. It only exists in my mission system. What’s going on?"
"Hmm..."
Yu Han mused, "Because Shi Dang is special, and you are also special. As a result, you will gain a huge reward after you kill Shi Dang. Others would not get this reward for killing him. That’s why Lord Zhou Xiong reserved the mission’s authorization for you."
"What about everyone else? What about all the people Shi Dang has killed?"
Qin Feng couldn’t understand and demanded, "There are clearly plenty of powerful experts who could step in and kill the Empire’s traitor. That way, not so many of our compatriots would have to die. So why not? All because of this so-called ’huge reward’?! Did anyone ever ask me if I even wanted this huge reward? I don’t want it!"