My Professions Have Too Much Personality - Chapter 298 - 182: Qing Cang Arrives; Draining the Deceitful God’s Power Dry

…

Outside Red Thunder Star, the void suddenly rippled. A shuttle-shaped spaceship tore through space without warning, appearing first as a thin line before materializing into a black vessel.

The surrounding gray fog churned abruptly. The afterglow of energy from its warp jump still clung to the dark armor’s surface, flaking away.

Two pairs of crimson, compound eye-like sensors on the bow suddenly lit up. Beams of light pierced the fog, scanning the massive planet below, a world covered in white oceans.

The warp drive gradually shut down as the propulsion engines ignited, and metal wings extended from its sides.

“So this is Red Thunder Star…”

Inside the ship, a group of people stood before a holographic screen, gazing at the fog-shrouded planet.

The leader, an indifferent expression on his face, had a single scale embedded between his brows. It was Qing Cang, who had come to Red Thunder Star on his master’s orders.

“The Nether Fog concentration is already at 52%.” The young woman beside him stared at the data on the side of the screen in astonishment. “That concentration is terrifying. It would cut their lifespans by half—and the more powerful they are, the more life they lose.”

She wore a dark gray combat suit that accentuated her slender figure.

Qing Cang consulted his data. “The concentration was already 50% ten years ago. No wonder the last exploration team had issues. Their ship had an accident, their protective suits were damaged, and they were forced to face the Nether Fog directly. They didn’t stay long before making a hasty retreat.”

Another young man, this one with blue hair, couldn’t help but comment, “They were incredibly unlucky. Getting caught in the Nether Fog… The cost of cleansing themselves of it when they got back wouldn’t be low. It would be enough to bankrupt them.”

As he spoke, a flicker of desire crossed his eyes. “But that just works out for us. The Great Venerable Red Flame Thunder Resonator, a Morning Star Tier Professional… to think his Spiritual power was scattered here.”

“Lan Hao…” The girl beside him glanced over. “To hear you talk, it sounds like victory is already in hand. Should I congratulate you in advance?”

“Lin Yue…” Lan Hao replied with a light laugh. “I said ’us,’ not just me. I only have a Scarlet Talent. I can’t compare to you or Wan Chen.”

“Spiritual power is unpredictable. A good enough Talent is all you need. What’s the use in having a higher one?” The young man leaning against the wall shook his head faintly. “Besides, even the natives of this planet were able to gain its recognition. The difficulty can’t be that high.”

“One of us three is bound to be chosen.”

The three of them went back and forth, each displaying a modest deference.

Qing Cang, acting as if he hadn’t heard them, continued, “According to our prior intelligence, this planet is divided into four cities. Yingfeng City is the strongest. Let’s go talk to them first.”

“The strongest? How strong are they?” Lan Hao couldn’t help but ask upon hearing this.

“They’ve produced a Tier Eight Professional, and five Tier Seven Professionals in total,” Qing Cang said. “Though they were all single-class.”

“Oh?” All three were surprised. Lan Hao asked, “That’s already very impressive. And this is the home planet of Junior Brother Gu Wang, isn’t it? Why hasn’t the Royal Court brought it under its rule?”

“This is the border of the Dust Star Sea. A Nether Fog concentration this high is difficult to dispel,” Qing Cang shook his head. “Moreover, there are traces of more than one Deceitful God’s activity.”

“Deceitful Gods?” The trio’s expressions shifted slightly. Lin Yue couldn’t help but exclaim, “More than one? And this planet… still exists?”

“That is what makes this place unusual,” Qing Cang said as the ship gradually descended into the atmosphere.

…

The next day, Su Chen received a notification from Xia Hanshi. The meeting place, however, was not his home, but a public training room that had been placed under lockdown.

When Su Chen arrived, Teng Liang was already waiting and nodded in acknowledgment.

“Senior Brother…” Su Chen greeted him, then hesitated. “About that matter with the Faceless Divine Son…”

“Don’t worry about it.” Teng Liang glanced at him. He had been a bit speechless at the time, but he didn’t really mind.

“A Divine Son is only born once every few decades, or even centuries. The fact that I could make him feel fear means my life hasn’t been a waste.”

He added a few more words, as if to keep Su Chen from feeling burdened by the matter.

Su Chen was silent for a moment, then said, “He won’t get the chance to cause you trouble.”

Teng Liang paused, slightly taken aback, before saying, “The teacher is already waiting for you.”

Su Chen nodded and walked into the public training room. The moment he pushed the door open, he froze. The vast training room was now densely packed with all sorts of Deceitful Artifacts and Divine Statues.

There were cross-legged, head-bowed Divine Statues of the Black Tuo God; a three-faced, winged Crimson Divine Statue; a grotesquely bloated Dark Plague Divine Statue covered in pustules; and a three-tailed fox with a human face, all sorted by category.

’Whoa…’ Su Chen swallowed. There were as many as five Divine Statues of the Black Tuo God, and even the least numerous, the Plague Divine Statues, numbered two.

The Deceitful Artifacts of Black Tuo were the most numerous—no fewer than fifty at a glance. This was partly because he was the most active in the Ying Feng area, and partly due to the Black Tuo God’s modus operandi: he would retreat if a situation was untenable and rarely threw everything into chaos.

“Is this going to be a problem?” Xia Hanshi had appeared by Su Chen’s side at some point. It was one thing to have the idea, but to actually gather all these things and put them on display… even he felt a chill.

“Shouldn’t be.” Su Chen shook his head, unable to hold back any longer.

“Be careful. Tell me immediately if anything feels off,” Xia Hanshi instructed.

He had observed Su Chen for a while after his last prediction. Su Chen had even gone for his regular corruption checks at the Judgment Department, and nothing unusual had been found.

But this collection of items right here was truly frightening.

“Okay.” Su Chen took a deep breath, then walked forward and started with the Divine Statues of the Black Tuo God.

However, the first Divine Statue had nothing. It was too clean—probably the one he had absorbed from last time.

The second Divine Statue had two portions of Mid-tier Black Tuo Power remaining, and from the third, he absorbed a portion of Black Tuo Essence directly—that was probably the Divine Statue from Cliff Mountain.

The fourth yielded a portion of High-tier Black Tuo Power, which wasn’t bad.

After finishing with the Divine Statues, Su Chen moved on to the Deceitful Artifacts, absorbing from them one by one. This time, he left none behind, draining a total of fifty-two portions.

After he finished absorbing, he stood motionless for a long time, his brow tightly furrowed.

“How do you feel?” Xia Hanshi asked.

“I’m fine…” Su Chen shook his head. “I saw some faint scenes. A large group of Black Tuo Followers were gathered together, but I don’t know what they were doing.”

He added regretfully, “There were no other landmarks, so I can’t determine the location.”

Xia Hanshi wasn’t surprised. It was clear from the last prediction that Su Chen’s ability had considerable limitations.

If it hadn’t been for the distinct feature of a one-armed middle-aged man in that vision, it probably would have taken much longer to find that group in Ancient River City.

“Continue…” he said, as if to himself as much as to Xia Hanshi.

“You don’t want to rest for a bit?” Xia Hanshi asked, not entirely reassured.

“Don’t worry, I know my limits,” Su Chen replied. At that, Xia Hanshi said no more, simply watching as Su Chen moved past statue after statue, artifact after artifact.

By the time he had absorbed from every last Divine Statue and Deceitful Artifact, Su Chen was swaying on his feet. He sighed in resignation:

“Teacher, all I saw were ambiguous scenes. I wasn’t able to help.”

“It’s fine.” Xia Hanshi didn’t see it that way. On the contrary, he said, “At the very least, this indirectly proves that Ying Feng should be much safer.”

“And while these visions seem ambiguous now, perhaps one day they’ll connect with some other piece of information.”

Hearing this, Su Chen couldn’t help but feel emotional. ’Old Xia… don’t you worry. Once I’m strong enough, I’ll definitely clean this entire planet and not leave a single speck of filth behind.’

Xia Hanshi told him to stay for a while longer for observation, and Su Chen had no objection. When Teng Liang brought his men in to clear the area, he couldn’t help but feel secretly astonished as he looked at the now-empty Deceitful Artifacts.

’He really hit the jackpot this time.’

Su Chen sat to one side, looking at his panel and suppressing his expression to avoid making Old Xia think he’d been corrupted.

On it, he saw he had one portion of essence from every type of Deceitful God except for Dark Plague. There had been too few items related to that god—only a single Divine Statue.

As for Low-tier Divine Power, he had an average of over forty portions of each type. The Mid-tier Divine Power was more scattered, but he had absorbed a decent amount of that as well.

Su Chen rubbed his fingers together. ’First, I’ll test what all this Divine Power can do.’