Naturally, it was the procedure to check for corruption. Old Xia was still very thorough.

Su Chen had no objections. But as he was leaving, he glanced again at the Divine Statue from which the Faceless Ghost Essence had been extracted. He pointed at it and asked:

"Teacher, where did that Divine Statue come from? When I first touched it, I felt an extremely strong reaction."

"That one?" Xia Hanshi followed his gaze and saw the number two marked on the back of the Divine Statue. He fiddled with his device for a moment and pulled up a file:

"Faceless Item #2: Divine Statue. Confiscated seventeen years ago during the ’Faceless Ghost Divine Son Advent Incident.’ Acquired by the Chief..."

"Oh, so it was that incident..." Xia Hanshi said in realization. "No wonder you had such a strong reaction when you touched it. This object is also related to the Faceless Ghost Divine Son."

"Back then, we thought he had been completely annihilated. It seems he succeeded in his advent after all."

’The Essence is related to the Divine Son?’ Su Chen was surprised. He followed up with a question: "What exactly is a Divine Son?"

"Hmm..." Xia Hanshi thought for a moment before explaining, "Currently, all the various Deceitful God’s Followers we know of are ruled by a Sacrificial Chief."

"Although they can use their faith to mobilize the Deceitful God’s Power, their most powerful technique is to summon a vessel for the Deceitful God, which is equivalent to a Tier Seven Professional in strength."

"Anything stronger requires a Divine Son to execute. The disasters caused by Divine Sons have been recorded several times in history, and each was only quelled at an enormous cost."

Su Chen’s heart tightened. ’Doesn’t that mean this Divine Son who has infiltrated our ranks is a huge problem?’

"It’s not that simple." Seeing the change in Su Chen’s expression, Xia Hanshi knew what he was thinking and reassured him:

"A Divine Son is born from the flesh and blood of a Deceitful God. For some unknown reason, they must appear by being born as a human baby. Their own strength isn’t formidable; they even need to advance through Professions step-by-step to increase their power."

"They just find it easier to mobilize the Deceitful God’s Power and possess many abilities that ordinary Believers cannot use."

’Born from flesh and blood? Could it be that the Essence is, fundamentally, the flesh and blood of a Deceitful God?’

Su Chen couldn’t help but speculate. He also relaxed quite a bit. ’It seems the barrier between the Deceitful Gods and reality is even stronger than I imagined.’

After a bit more conversation, Su Chen left, lost in thought.

’I’ll leave the Divine Son to Old Xia. The search parameters are so obvious. As long as they identify the target and strike immediately, not giving him a chance to mobilize his Divine Power, it shouldn’t be a huge problem. The only worry is that he might escape.’

Su Chen muttered to himself as he returned to his residence and entered the Gravity Chamber. His eyes filled with anticipation as he opened his panel.

Besides two portions of Mid-tier Faceless Ghost Power and one portion of Faceless Ghost Essence, there were a grand total of thirty-eight portions of Low-tier Faceless Ghost Power.

’If it’s a three-to-one fusion, I should be able to create... twelve portions of Middle-tier Deceitful God Power.’ Su Chen calculated while simultaneously influencing the panel.

Sure enough, as his will influenced it, these portions of Low-tier Deceitful God Power began to rapidly condense.

In the end, however, they only turned into nine portions of Mid-tier Faceless Ghost Power, leaving two portions of Low-tier Faceless Ghost Power.

"Hm?" Su Chen’s brow furrowed slightly. ’Why are there only nine portions? It’s not a three-to-one fusion, it’s four-to-one.’

’Is there a loss when combining lower-tier power into a higher tier?’

Before this, he had never obtained more than three portions of the same tier and same type of Deceitful God’s Power at the same time.

His guess about the three-to-one ratio came from the last time, when one portion of High-tier Black Tuo’s Power broke down into three Middle-tier portions.

’It’s reasonable that upgrading to a higher level involves some loss.’ Su Chen was only slightly surprised; after all, it was just one extra portion consumed per fusion.

’By that count, I now have a total of eleven portions of Mid-tier Faceless Ghost Divine Power. The Tier Five and Tier Six dual-classes only require four portions, so I’ll have seven left over. From that, I can even synthesize one High-tier portion...’

This haul should last him a long time.

"But..." Su Chen’s gaze fell upon the [Faceless Ghost Essence] below. ’I wonder if Divine Power can be synthesized into Essence.’

Although he could save it for later, an Essence that was powerful enough to affect special Professions was clearly more valuable.

The moment the thought crossed his mind, the panel changed, and a line of small text appeared—

[Consume Divine Power for Melting Essence?]

"It actually works?" Su Chen’s heart leaped. Amid his joy, he also noticed something different.

’It’s not a direct fusion like with Divine Power. This "melting and casting" process must be different...’

’Let’s try it...’ Su Chen didn’t hesitate and chose to proceed with the melting process.

Immediately, the number next to [Mid-tier Faceless Ghost Divine Power ×11] began to rapidly decrease: 10, 9, 8, 7...

In the blink of an eye, only two portions of Middle-tier Divine Power remained.

"It consumed nine portions of Mid-tier Faceless Ghost Divine Power?" Su Chen’s eyelid twitched. This amount far exceeded his expectations. Moreover, the Low-tier Divine Power hadn’t been touched at all.

’Nine portions... that’s enough to create two portions of High-tier Divine Power. No, wait. It takes three portions of High-tier Divine Power to break down into these nine,’ Su Chen speculated. ’So, Melting Essence must require the equivalent of three High-tier Divine Power portions, and it looks like Middle-tier is the minimum requirement to attempt it.’

’That cost... is a little too high.’

’Could it be because they are two completely different substances? Is that why the cost is so high?’ Su Chen couldn’t help but think that Essence and Divine Power were clearly not the same thing.

Above High-tier Divine Power should be a level of Divine Power that can affect the Morning Star Tier, not some kind of Essence.

As Su Chen thought, a pale golden flame appeared on the panel, complete with animation effects. He could even faintly "hear" a CLING CLANG sound.

"It still needs time? So it really is melting and casting?" Su Chen was amazed, becoming more and more certain that a material conversion was taking place.

’I wonder how long it will take to finish...’ Su Chen couldn’t help but rub his hands together. He still had one usable portion of Faceless Ghost Essence, and he was getting impatient.

’The effect of this thing should be similar to Divine Power, right?’ Su Chen thought, and directly applied the portion of Faceless Ghost Essence to [Wind Dancer].

’No matter what the effect is, I need a test subject. And based on my experience, it definitely won’t be a bad thing.’

[Wind Dancer comes into contact with Faceless Ghost Essence. The strange Faceless Power gradually erodes it. It dances madly, lost in ecstasy. Advancement Requirement Two has been erased.]

"Ha..." Su Chen raised an eyebrow. "The effect really is the same. It erases requirements."

Advancement Requirement Two was the perfect evasion requirement, which demanded a huge investment of time and energy.

It was erased just like that. Not bad... not bad at all.

Even though he had already completed it once, Su Chen didn’t feel it was a waste of resources. Instead, he felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his heart, and he felt much more relieved.

That feeling of waiting in the dark for an attack to come was also quite torturous.

Besides, he couldn’t work on it and his Profession development at the same time. It was for the best that it was erased now.

"In that case, only the final ritual requirement is left. That one is simple. As long as I follow the experience of those who came before, it shouldn’t be a problem."

Su Chen rubbed his hands together eagerly and couldn’t help but glance at the progress of [Tyrant]. It was already at 22%.

’This one’s requirements were integrated into a progress bar. I wonder if the Essence would be useful for it.’

However, this Profession didn’t require much mental effort or time from him, so even if he did get another Essence from the melting process, he didn’t plan on using it for this.

’Essence, Essence...’ Su Chen couldn’t help but think, ’What I saw today was just the Judicial Court’s stash of Faceless Ghost Divine Power. What about the other Deceitful Gods? I have to find a way to get my hands on those too.’

’I wonder if Black Tuo Essence can make a special Profession evolve again.’

’Some special Professions can evolve, like Believers, while others can’t. I wonder what kind of changes it would produce.’ Su Chen’s imagination ran wild, but he quickly reined it in.

’With Old Xia’s personality, there will definitely be a chance.’

Even though the Essence required a massive amount of Divine Power to convert, Su Chen was in a great mood. He sent a message to the Professional Analysis Department, telling them to prepare a storm environment. He also informed Bu Siqi that he didn’t need to wait for him to return, and that their sparring practice was suspended.

"Old Bu has been put through the wringer too." Seeing three consecutive "Okay"s pop up on the screen, Su Chen couldn’t help but chuckle. He could finally get back to developing his own Profession’s progress.