Chapter 689: Ancient King Blocks the Door

“I definitely need to stall for now,” Su Chen thought to himself. Outwardly, he smiled and said, “Please thank Qin Yun for the kind invitation, but I have a few urgent matters to handle first.”

Qin Lie wasn’t surprised by Su Chen’s response. In fact, he couldn’t figure out why his father and Su Chen had anything to catch up on in the first place. It was already good enough that Su Chen was willing to let bygones be bygones on the surface. Did his father really expect the man to completely let go of their past grievances from the bottom of his heart?

How could that be possible? But Qin Yun’s attitude had been extremely intense, insisting that Qin Lie make the trip to fetch him. Left with no choice, Qin Lie had stationed people to constantly keep an eye on the Copper Heart Department. The moment Su Chen emerged, it was reported to him, and only then did he come to extend the invitation.

Before Qin Lie could respond, Su Chen continued, “Also, please tell Qin Yun to rest assured. Since I took the embers of the Morning Fire, I will naturally fulfill what I promised him.”

“You misunderstand.” Qin Lie’s expression shifted slightly. “My father doesn’t doubt your character, it’s just…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Su Chen raised a hand to interrupt him and said gently, “No need to be nervous. Just relay my words to him exactly as I said them.”

Seeing this, Qin Lie could only helplessly watch Su Chen walk away.

Arriving at the port and boarding the Flying Device, Su Chen asked the Residual Spirit, “Do you and Qin Yun have any other agreements?”

“Other agreements?” Hearing this, the Residual Spirit asked instinctively. “Other than which ones?”

“Tell me whatever you know,” Su Chen replied, his tone completely placid.

The Residual Spirit grumbled inwardly. Su Chen’s tone made it seem like he already knew about the agreement with Qin Yun, but just wanted to confirm more details. “Does this guy actually know or not?” he wondered.

He suspected Su Chen was bluffing, but he didn’t want to rashly ruin the tiny foundation of trust they had so painstakingly built. Besides, it wasn’t a huge secret anyway. He simply said, “Originally, I promised him that after the plan succeeded, I would help him return to his peak state and then hand over the position of the Bronze Ancient King to him.”

Su Chen remained noncommittal and continued, “Other than that, did you set up any secret signals?”

“Secret signals?” The Residual Spirit denied it. “No, we didn’t. However, Qin Yun is a treacherous and cunning person. If he wants to see you right now, he probably assumes I’ve successfully taken over your body.”

The Residual Spirit was quite sharp. Hearing Su Chen ask about Qin Yun, he correctly guessed that Qin Yun had requested a meeting.

“I understand,” Su Chen said, not giving the Residual Spirit another chance to speak.

Returning to the Floating Island, he went straight to the training room and adjusted his state of mind. Never mind all the external politics; assuming the Holy Profession of the Shadow Shattering Body was the most important matter at hand.

With a mere thought, the word “Assume” on his interface dissipated. A grayish-black shadow of Energy spread from his chest, gradually enveloping him until his entire person seemed to transform into a cloud of foggy shadow.

Su Chen felt his skin tingle and itch. The process wasn’t exactly painful, but it felt as if countless ants were gnawing at him, chewing through his skin and flesh all the way to his bone marrow.

The thick tendons in his legs twitched slightly. His body began to flicker in and out of view—not completely disappearing, but drastically lowering its sense of existence.

Su Chen was highly experienced. He immediately activated the Secret Artifact within his body to increase his physical toughness, gradually easing the strange sensations of the professional advancement process. This advancement lasted an extremely long time, perhaps because out of the seven classes within this Holy Profession, he had never assumed any of them before.

An unknown amount of time passed.

Su Chen’s body trembled slightly, and text finally appeared on his interface.

[Holy Profession – Shadow Shattering Body assumed successfully. Gained Ability – Ten Thousand Shadows Return to Silence: Temporarily “diffuse” one’s existence into all possible movement trajectories within an area, allowing one to emerge from any of them.]

[Gained Ability – Stagnant Spirit Shadow: Cloak oneself with the Shadow of the Past, rendering one imperceptible to those without a Holy Profession.]

Su Chen let out a long breath and glanced at the panel. Two abilities. One specialized in speed—or perhaps, it had already transcended the concept of mere speed. As for [Stagnant Spirit Shadow], it clearly excelled at Concealment.

Standing up, Su Chen experienced the subtle changes in his physique. The Holy Profession had granted him more than just two abilities; it provided immense foundational benefits to his body that weren’t reflected in the text descriptions.

With a slight movement, grayish-black afterimages trailed from the edges of his form, flickering faintly. Su Chen’s vision blurred for a fraction of a second, and he had already materialized at the edge of the wall, stopping barely a finger’s width away from the metal plating.

The sheer speed left even him amazed. “Just this ordinary movement is several times faster than before,” he thought. Not only was it fast, but it was almost entirely silent.

As for his true Holy Profession abilities… Su Chen pondered for a moment. His eyes narrowed slightly, and in an instant, the entire room seemed to be cast in a heavy layer of shadow. Without a single visible movement from Su Chen, the edges of his body distorted, and the very next second, he materialized in the opposite corner of the room.

“This…” Su Chen felt the sensation carefully, secretly astonished. “There is no movement trajectory at all. This can no longer be called simple speed.”

This room was still too small to test it properly. He walked out of the main building and scanned his surroundings. With his eyes half-closed, the scenery instantly warped. The Floating Island was already hundreds of meters behind him.

With another flash, the Floating Island became completely invisible to the naked eye.

At this moment, he was already suspended high above the Copper Heart. Looking down at the sprawling structure below, he recalled Qing Cang’s speed. “Although Old Qing is fast, he still leaves a traceable path,” Su Chen noted inwardly. “This ability of mine… is completely formless and traceless.”

He roughly understood the mechanics. The essence of the ability was to directly manifest himself at any theoretically possible location within range, entirely skipping the physical process of traveling there.

“The consumption isn’t low either,” Su Chen noted as he returned to the Floating Island. “It mainly draws upon Spiritual Power, rather than Physical Strength.”

He could, of course, convert his Physical Strength into Spiritual Power. For normal use, he could sustain the drain. However, the ability extracted energy in one massive, instantaneous lump sum, whereas his conversion process required time to catch up.

“Even if it completely drained my current Spiritual Power, it would be difficult to reach those satellites in one go,” Su Chen thought, looking up at the orbital stations overhead. “I can only advance step by step.”