"Hey buddy, is there trouble at home?"

Having been a driver for many years, he’d developed a sharp pair of ears. He had more or less overheard what was said on Su Xing’s call.

The driver rested one hand on the open window, glancing at the rearview mirror with his right eye. He watched as Su Xing’s expression slowly darkened, and his tone carried a note of concern as he asked the question.

Seeing Su Xing didn’t reply, he began to console him, "Hey now, no need to look so glum, buddy. It might just be a small thing. These things have a way of working out, right? It’s not the end of the world."

"I’m fine, sir." Su Xing took a deep breath and said, "I need to change my destination. Take me to Cang City First People’s Hospital."

The driver wanted to say that changing the destination would mean recalculating the fare—the hospital was much farther than the organization’s building. But after a glance at Su Xing’s face, he swallowed his words and said:

"No problem."

The driver shook his head, thinking to himself, ’The guy’s not having an easy time.’ Then he stepped on the gas and set off.

Su Xing leaned back in his seat and narrowed his eyes. The conversations he’d had with Su Yu a few days ago, juxtaposed with his sudden hospitalization, flashed through his mind. A suspicion had already formed in his heart. ’This is probably the Spiritual Sect’s doing again,’ he thought. ’And this time... it’s likely on an unprecedented scale.’

After a long while, Su Xing opened his eyes and exhaled slowly. "Whatever happened, I’ll find out once I get to the hospital," he murmured.

He sat for a moment, then suddenly noticed the driver seemed to be looking at him, wanting to say something but not knowing how to start. Su Xing paused, then realized what it might be and quickly said:

"Don’t worry, sir. You’ll get every penny I owe you."

Hearing this, the driver suddenly let out a sigh of relief.

While he felt sorry for the man in the back—anyone would be devastated if their family was in trouble—he had his own family to feed. He couldn’t afford to lose money on the fare.

Whether it was Su Xing’s imagination or not, after getting his assurance, the driver seemed to speed up considerably.

...

「Half an hour later. Cang City First People’s Hospital, a patient room.」

Su Xing arrived at the room where Su Yu was staying. He found his brother lying quietly in bed, alone.

His eyes were shut tight, his face pale, radiating an undeniable weakness. The faint scent of blood still lingered in the air, telling Su Xing that Su Yu must have been through a major battle.

Seeing that Su Yu had not yet woken up, Su Xing quietly brought over a chair, placed it gently beside Su Yu’s bed, and closed his eyes to rest.

An unknown amount of time passed—maybe two hours, maybe three. When Su Xing opened his eyes again, the sky was completely dark. Su Yu had softly called out, "Bro." His voice was extremely weak, but it was much clearer than it had been over the phone.

"Bro, this is for you."

Seeing Su Xing open his eyes, Su Yu reached his right hand into his shirt and pulled out a silvery-white glass vial. It was filled with an extremely viscous liquid—or rather... it couldn’t really be called a liquid. It was more like a special kind of energy.

"What is this?"

Su Xing reached out his right hand to take the glass vial and asked.

Then, he suddenly froze. The energy in the vial, as if it had found an outlet, began surging madly into his palm where it touched the glass. Su Xing only felt a tingling numbness in his hand before the system panel abruptly appeared.

[Energy suitable for Martial Artist absorption detected. Now absorbing and converting to Sword Dao Points.]

[Current Sword Dao Points: 11]

’This is some damn good stuff,’

Su Xing thought to himself. Ever since his three sword techniques had broken through to the third rank, every step forward had been a struggle.

To advance even one level now required a full twelve Sword Dao Points, four times what it took in the third rank. This made his daily income of three or four Sword Dao Points seem paltry in comparison.

Su Xing had originally thought breaking through to the fourth rank would take a very long time—at least a month or more.

But this item from Su Yu gave him an idea for how to accelerate his acquisition of Sword Dao Points. Su Xing nonchalantly slipped the vial into his pocket and asked: 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Yu, where did you get this?"

"Heh, I knew you’d need this, Bro."

Su Yu coughed lightly twice, then continued:

"This is actually a blessing bestowed by the Spiritual Sect’s deity upon their meritorious Priests. They can use it as a cultivation resource on a normal day, or to boost their strength in times of danger."

"Our special organization has confiscated a lot of it over countless battles. It’s just that I always thought this stuff could only be used by Sequencers, so I never told you about it."

’For meritorious Priests... So does that mean the Priests I killed had no merit?’

Su Xing shook his head, feeling it was a bit of a shame. Then he latched onto the second part of what Su Yu said and asked, puzzled, "This stuff can be used by both Sequencers and Martial Artists? How did you find that out?"

He didn’t ask why Su Yu hadn’t kept it for himself. Some things didn’t need to be said; they both understood.

"It’s actually simple... The Spiritual Sect managed to cultivate a Martial Artist. His level wasn’t high, but because of the rarity of Martial Artists, his status in the Sect was quite significant. We ended up capturing him, and through... certain means of interrogation, we obtained a great deal of information."

"Anyway, this can help you get stronger, Bro. You definitely need it."

"I really do."

Su Xing patted the vial in his pocket and nodded. Then, changing the subject, he said, "Yu, what happened to your special organization? How did even you end up in the hospital?"

"Well..."

At the mention of this, Su Yu’s expression soured. He said:

"To put it simply, the Spiritual Sect actually launched a suicide attack on the organization’s headquarters. Many of our members were injured, including me and Sister Bailan. Even worse... quite a few of the weaker members were killed in action."

"But the Spiritual Sect also suffered heavy casualties. They lost a lot of members and High Priests as well. At the very least, they won’t be able to launch a second wave anytime soon."

"That’s good," Su Xing replied.

Even though he said that, Su Xing felt a sense of unease deep down.

The Spiritual Sect’s attack on the headquarters was clearly a desperate, all-or-nothing move. Would they give up after just one failure, or would they bet everything they have on a second attempt?

As this thought crossed his mind, Su Xing suddenly felt as if something was watching him. It was a prickling sensation on his back, a knot in his throat. The feeling was so intense that he trusted his instincts immediately.

In an instant, Su Xing shot to his feet, planted one foot on Su Yu’s hospital bed, and tightly gripped the Black Sword as it materialized in his right hand. He slashed out in a flash!

Almost at the same moment his sword struck, a clap of thunder suddenly roared outside the window. A bolt of lightning, packed with frenzied energy, instantly blasted through the wall of Su Yu’s room and surged toward him on the bed.

The lightning was fast,

But the sword was faster!

By a razor-thin margin, Su Xing’s sword matched the speed of the thunderbolt. Like slicing noodles, his blade, a streak of white light, cut straight through the center of the lightning, splitting it in two. In the blink of an eye, the once-mighty bolt vanished as if it had never existed, annihilated by his sword.

Su Xing’s eyes were fixed on the window, his killing intent flaring.

...

「On a distant high-rise.」

The Thunder Priestess held her right hand in the shape of a pistol, aimed at Su Yu on the bed, and made a "PEW" sound. A bolt of lightning shot out. This was the full-power strike she had been charging for a long time. What she hadn’t expected was... for her lightning to simply disappear.

"What the hell?!"

The Thunder Priestess stared intently at the hospital room. Through the window, she could faintly make out another person inside besides Su Yu. Her eyes were bloodshot as she spoke, her voice tinged with hysteria:

"Goddammit! Did the special organization actually leave someone to guard Su Yu?"

"What good will it do! No matter who it is! We must take Su Yu today! Dead or alive, he must be brought back to the Spirit Realm!"

...

「In a dark corner of the hospital.」

A masked man spoke in a somewhat cold voice:

"The Thunder Priestess’s assassination attempt has failed. I repeat, the Thunder Priestess’s assassination attempt has failed. Now... initiating Plan B, Operation Kamikaze!"

The moment the words "Operation Kamikaze" were spoken,

The expression on every Spiritual Sect member involved in the plan turned grim.