Chapter 654 - 355: Captivating Spirit of Sun

"Let’s go." Seeing Su Chen’s silence, Chu Ran couldn’t help but tease, "You can’t hide this time. The Ancient Kings from the other Sects and the Hanhai Emperor have arrived. We definitely have to go welcome them."

Su Chen snapped back to reality and shook his head. "Wait a moment. I need to pack up."

Chu Ran naturally didn’t mind. Su Chen turned toward the Nether Tower, glanced at Chu Ran who was wandering around aimlessly, and disappeared inside with a flash.

Inside the narrow space, the Fire-igniting Ash hovered, shimmering with a faint light. Ever since he returned, he had left it in the Nether Tower to recharge.

Now that he had to leave temporarily, he absolutely had to take it with him. The slight delay in recharging was nothing compared to the risk of accidentally losing it.

Pocketing the Fire-igniting Ash, he walked out of the Nether Tower and met up with Chu Ran. "Let’s go."

Seeing this, Chu Ran was puzzled. He wondered why Su Chen had to go all the way into the Nether Tower just to pack things.

However, this doubt only flashed through his mind briefly. Without pressing the matter, he boarded the Flying Device with Su Chen and brought up another subject. "By the way, did you know that Shen Yi’an has already gained the recognition of the Ancient King Stele?"

"Oh?" Su Chen was a bit surprised. The phenomenon of being recognized by the Ancient King Stele was quite spectacular; it must have happened right when he was exploring the Flame Space.

"You didn’t know?" Chu Ran was speechless at his reaction. "I swear, you’ve practically turned into an isolated island. You’re nowhere to be seen all day. You sure know how to lock yourself away."

Su Chen’s habit of living in seclusion was already well-known within the Sect. Chu Ran merely sighed in amazement before continuing. "But he really did stick to his word from that day. He hasn’t been pulling any stunts in the dark."

Chu Lingyuan was currently considered the Bronze Sect’s only Morning Star Tier expert. As for the Chairman, who had lived outside the Sect for a long time, no movement within the core could be hidden from this Venerable.

"It’s quite amusing when you picture that stoic face of Shen Yi’an secretly putting all his effort into this," Chu Ran muttered. Seeing Su Chen’s expression remain indifferent, he couldn’t help but sigh inwardly and add, "No wonder Old Wei always tells me to learn from you. I really can’t emulate your mindset. If someone were competing with me for the position of Ancient King, I’d probably die of anxiety."

"Haha," Su Chen chuckled. "Being anxious won’t help."

"You don’t look anxious at all." Chu Ran shook his head, his tone laced with envy. "The prestige of this Peak Star Conference is quite high. Besides you, there are no other Tier Six Professionals, and you’re an exception anyway."

The prestige of the Peak Star Conference was judged by whether there were any Tier Six Professionals among those who made it to the knockout stage. The more Tier Six Professionals there were, the lower the overall prestige. With none present, the prestige was naturally extremely high.

"People like me..." Chu Ran choked on his words. He originally wanted to say ’young people like me’, but he suddenly remembered that Su Chen was a few years younger than him. Looking slightly embarrassed, he vaguely corrected himself. "...will probably have to wait until the next Conference to take the stage."

"I believe you’ll shine brightly when the time comes," Su Chen complimented.

Chu Ran grinned foolishly. "I know exactly what I’m made of. In the future, I’ll still have to rely on Old Wei and you to look out for me."

Su Chen couldn’t help but laugh. After transforming via the Profound Celestial Instrument, Chu Ran possessed a Single-Star Amber Talent, placing him among the absolute best in the entire Dust Star Sea. However, the core of the Sect was simply overflowing with exceptional geniuses.

Chu Ran wasn’t too concerned about his own situation. Instead, he said, "Old Su, you’re not like those previous Tier Six participants. They all barely squeezed in, only to get eliminated in the first round. But you’re different. You can use a Melting Holy Profession at Tier Six, which is just freakish."

Enthusiastically running the numbers, he continued, "Even though you’re a bit of a one-second wonder, unless they are Tier Seven experts with a Melting Holy Profession, it would be very difficult for them to withstand those few seconds of your maximum burst damage."

Su Chen had sat at the number one spot on the preliminary selection leaderboard for over half a year. The details of his strength had long been thoroughly analyzed by everyone.

"According to the Prophet Council’s estimates, there might be a total of twenty Tier Seven experts with a Melting Holy Profession this time. You have a great chance to squeeze into the top twenty." Chu Ran clicked his tongue at the thought. "It’s truly unbelievable for a Tier Six to squeeze into the top twenty of the Peak Star Conference."

"I’ll just do my best." Seeing his excitement, Su Chen decided not to mention that he had already advanced to Tier Seven.

His Life Level had completely stabilized, making it incredibly difficult for outsiders to notice anything amiss. The only reason Qing Cang had noticed the last time they met was because Su Chen had only recently advanced, and the various Professional powers in his body were still unstable.

Seeing Su Chen’s apparent nonchalance, Chu Ran quickly warned, "Don’t take this lightly. The stronger you are, the stronger the Sect looks. Besides, the tournament format is a bit different this time. Even though some of these guys don’t have a Melting Holy Profession, they are very close, and their Professional development is incredibly high. Be careful not to trip up unexpectedly..."

"Uh... I suppose you can’t really trip up that badly." He paused mid-thought. Su Chen was only a Tier Six. Against the monsters at the Peak Star Conference, his final result would be seen as either impressive or incredibly impressive.

While he was left speechless by his own logic, his Wristband vibrated slightly. He glanced at it and said in surprise, "Huh? We don’t need to welcome them anymore. We’re heading straight to the Dragon Abyss. The Ancient Kings will go directly there in a bit."

Su Chen marveled inwardly; they didn’t even want to waste that tiny amount of time.

As expected, these lofty Ancient Kings still possessed human emotions and desires. It was just incredibly rare to encounter something capable of stirring those emotions. When they finally did encounter such a thing, their obsessions were far deeper than those of ordinary people.

"We don’t even need to welcome them?" Chu Ran muttered. "They’re in such a rush."

Pinching the virtual screen hovering above his hand to close it, he looked around and lowered his voice. "There’s definitely something major going on here. Do you know what it is?"

"You don’t know?" Su Chen was a bit surprised. Aside from Jiang Mufeng, Chu Ran was basically their resident informant.