Chapter 54: Professional Advancement! Enhanced Abilities! So That's How It Works! |
Seeing Hu Xiang's puzzled look, Su Chen elaborated. "This involves certain arrangements my teacher made. I can't use Supervision Department personnel."
"Ah." Hu Xiang's eyes lit up with sudden understanding — though whatever he imagined was anyone's guess. He then added, "My rotation period has ten days left, after that I'll be starting a month-and-a-half long grand patrol."
"Understood." Su Chen nodded, gave a few more instructions, and they parted ways.
......
Potions were consumed without pause, and Su Chen's professional development progress — along with his training method mastery — climbed at a visible pace.
BOOM!
A deafening thunderclap jolted Su Chen from his immersive training.
He emerged from the Gravity Room and walked to the window. Pulling back the curtain, surprise flickered across his face.
"It's actually raining..."
Su Chen cracked the window open. A smell of decay immediately washed in. The raindrops weren't transparent — they were an ashen gray, as though laced with fog.
"Today's the day."
Su Chen shut the window. His panel materialized, and behind the words "Gale Hunter," two characters blazed with light: "ADVANCE."
Between the potions and his relentless round-the-clock training, every advancement requirement had been met.
Professional development had hit 100% two days ago.
And the Snake Shadow Body Forging Method had just reached Master rank moments ago, granting him the Snake Shadow ability — allowing him to leave afterimages during high-speed movement to disorient enemies.
Su Chen drew a deep breath and steadied his posture.
The word "ADVANCE" dissolved into shimmering motes of light across the panel. At that very instant — thunder roared.
Su Chen felt a torrent of heat erupt from an unknowable source, surging through his entire body in seconds.
First came an itch — a bone-deep, marrow-piercing itch, as though ants were gnawing on his skeleton. But the sensation was quickly drowned by pain.
Every muscle, tendon, and cell underwent metamorphosis. His face flushed crimson. Exposed skin turned a pale blue-green. Inside the sealed room, wind appeared from nowhere, curtains billowing.
[Void-Rending Warrior successfully advanced to Gale Hunter.]
[Wind Erosion enhanced — Wrath of the Gale: attacks can channel highly compressed wind-elemental force.]
[Wind Armor enhanced — Gale Bastion: gathers wind element to form tangible armor.]
[Wind Walk enhanced — Shadow of the Hidden Wind: become one with the wind, concealed within it.]
[Professional ability acquired — Frenzy Hunt: dramatically boosts speed, strength, and wind-element perception and control.]
Text cascaded across the panel as the agony intensified. Cyan currents of wind rippled beneath his skin.
A gale howled through the room, rattling furniture off its legs. Only after a long while did the tempest subside.
"Haaah..." Su Chen exhaled, and the breath carried fine threads of cyan wind that spiraled far across the room.
His body felt light enough to float. The surging fullness of power made him feel as though he could shred anything before him.
It took a long time before he adjusted to the sensation. His gaze drifted unfocused across the panel as a realization took shape. 'So that's how it works... abilities are enhanced during advancement — not discarded.'
This answered a question that had nagged at him. Based on prior intelligence, the gap between tiers was enormous. Logic suggested that the fastest route was to pick easy, low-barrier professions and climb the tiers as quickly as possible.
Top-tier professions were powerful at their current rank, but paled in comparison to the raw jump of advancing a full tier.
Only now, having advanced, did he understand: upon professional advancement, a lower-tier profession's abilities were enhanced and evolved alongside.
A top-tier profession's enhanced ability strength would naturally exceed that of a lesser one.
He rubbed his chin. 'So even among 2nd-tier upper-level professionals, someone who advanced from a 1st-tier mid-level profession would be weaker than one who advanced from a 1st-tier upper-level. That's the importance of foundations.'
'And if that advantage compounds through successive tiers, the difference would only grow more pronounced. No wonder 1st-tier top-level professions are so prized — they're the foundation of all foundations.'
Su Chen probed deeper. 'Hmm... the abilities gained from body forging methods didn't disappear either — no, they fused into the body at a deeper level, becoming part of one's underlying constitution.'
'Same profession, different people, yet a gap remains. The difference lies in these accumulated layers.'
The last traces of discomfort faded. Su Chen stood and stretched, testing his body. The slightest effort sent him rocketing to the ceiling.
He activated his new ability, Wrath of the Gale — merely cocking his fist generated a miniature inverted tornado around his arm, all the air in the room rushing toward it. Furniture toppled.
"That much power..." Su Chen hastily dispersed it and took a moment to assess. The destructive force had multiplied at least tenfold.
His curiosity piqued, he quickly tested the other abilities. Every single one showed dramatic enhancement.
Gale Bastion had evolved from a thin, body-hugging wind field into an almost tangible, spectral suit of armor.
Shadow of the Hidden Wind was even more impressive. The moment he stirred, cyan wind currents gathered at his feet, gradually enveloping him until his silhouette blurred into near-invisibility.
Its stealth capability even surpassed the Shadow Evasion Cloak.
As for Frenzy Hunt — the Gale Hunter's signature professional ability:
"It seems to be a comprehensive enhancement..." After activating it, Su Chen felt himself plunge into a peculiar state.
His heartbeat accelerated. The swelling power intensified. Every sense sharpened to its absolute peak — he could feel air currents brushing over his skin, could parse the cocktail of scents mingling around him.
Even his mental perception couldn't achieve such granular awareness.
'In this state, if an enemy attacks, I'd react almost instantly...' Su Chen savored the feeling for a moment, then deactivated it. The energy drain was considerable.
Having just advanced, his body was still depleted. After testing his abilities for a while, fatigue began creeping in.
But the leap in power left him in high spirits.
The downpour showed no sign of letting up. A gray filter seemed to have settled over the world itself.
Su Chen tried to continue training, only to discover that whether it was the Black Flame Potion or his 1st-tier forging methods, their efficiency had plummeted to laughable levels.
'I'll need 2nd-tier potions... and better forging methods as well. But acquiring those through normal channels is nearly impossible.'
Having tasted the benefits of supplemental potions, it was hard to go back to grinding through raw, painful effort alone.
Su Chen's expression darkened as he calculated. 'But first — I have a problem to deal with.'
............
"It's essentially confirmed. On the night Qi Chuan died, the 17th Patrol Squad did go out."
In the Supervision Department's Patrol Division — the Deputy Division Chief's office — Pan Yu's fingers traced absent patterns on his desk, his gaze unfocused.
"If Yuan Chenyang really had Qi Chuan in his sights, why would he use a patrol squad for the kill?"
He sensed he was closing in on the truth. His handlers had tasked him with investigating the night of Qi Chuan's death, specifically emphasizing that Su Chen might be the key.
But as the Director's student, Su Chen's status made him untouchable. Pan Yu had started by discreetly milking the 17th Patrol Squad for information.
Then he'd tried to lure Su Chen outside for an opportunity to strike — but the kid was astoundingly lazy, stubbornly refusing to leave the building.
He'd had no choice but to shift focus back to the 17th Patrol Squad. After days of probing, he'd confirmed many details, but to learn more, he'd need to act.
"Su Chen..." Pan Yu set a white chess piece on his desk and stared at it for a long time.
Then he scattered a handful of black pieces around it. "You can only blame your luck — for being assigned alongside him."
He didn't want to move against these small fry. It risked alerting Su Chen. But he was out of options.