506 Misery

"Congratulations! You've obtained a special legendary-level Skill Card (Flying). Please name the skill."

"Let's call it Imperial Flight!" Lin Huang thought before christening the new skill. He smirked as he watched the name of the skill appeared on the purple card. There was a famous line that was passed around among Transcendent-level humans that went, "How can one be considered as a Transcendent-level if he can't even fly?!".

Ever since the building of the flying forcefield was completed, Lin Huang had finally become a true Transcendent-level. He tried the flying effect of Imperial Flight. Its regular flying speed could reach 1,200 kilometers which was close to Mach 1. He could even reach 2,500 kilometers per hour if he accelerated, which would be over Mach 2, but it took up to five times more Life Power compared to the normal flying speed. Double acceleration would allow him to reach 3,700 kilometers per hour which was over Mach 3 and use up at least 50 times more compared to flying at the normal speed.

Without the activation of his Seraphic Speed, Lin Huang could reach 4,000 kilometers at the maximum, which was slower than Thunder and Kylie. If he needed to get to a place which was far away in an instant, it would be better to ride on Thunder. The sigil set that Mr. Fu had given him was the top among the flying sigils. The normal sigil only had single acceleration whereby a limited number of them had double acceleration and could only reach Mach 2.5. The flying speed would not change much for a holy fire-level as the sigil was fixed. However, as one got to immortal-level, the sigil could be further explored and the speed could be 30% to 40% faster.

"Now that I've mastered Imperial Flight and extracted the monster skills, I'll spend the next two days familiarizing myself with the monster skills, then I shall head to the danger zone this weekend to finish what I have to do." Lin Huang looked at the calendar that was projected out of his Emperor's Heart Ring. It was Wednesday today and he could not leave just yet as he had class on Friday. He would usually take less than a day to complete what he wanted to but it would take more than a day if an accident happened. He did not want to risk missing his class, so he thought of taking the few days to familiarize himself with the new monster skills and only head to the danger zone after his class on Friday.

Soon, two days had passed and it was already Friday. That November week was supposed to start with a battle drill. However, since the Saints incident last month, the Union had yet to settle the issue with the underground organization, so the Martial Hunter College suspended the battle drill this time for safety purposes. All the Year 1 students would attend classes as usual. Although some of the students were unhappy with such an arrangement, they chose to conform when they recalled the terrifying incident.

It was 1.40 p.m. and Lin Huang arrived at the office. When it was past 1.50 p.m, Qin Tianxing arrived at the office but Mu Xiaolan was nowhere to be seen.

"Brother Qin, is Miss Mu on leave?" Lin Huang asked Qin Tianxing as he found her absence odd.

"She's resigned." Qin Tianxing shook his head.

"Resigned?!"

"She couldn't let go of Wang Yan and there seems to be no result in the Union fighting the Saints. She was unsatisfied with that, so she resigned last week after her class. She said she wanted to try breaking through to white flame-level and join the mission to fight the Saints. The registrar and I have been asking her to stay but she didn't listen." Qin Tianxing shared what had happened.

"Why hasn't the mission come to an end yet? It's been more than a month." Lin Huang was puzzled. He was only a gold hunter in the Hunter Association, so he could not retrieve the news meant for Transcendent-levels. However, Qin Tianxing had joined the Hunter Association's executive, so he had the access to some of the internal news.

"The Saints disappeared. When the Union arrived at their headquarters, it was completely empty and all of the branches in the other footholds had moved away. Fortunately, the Saints are everybody's enemies now. The heretics and the black markets have been providing all sorts of information. More than 80% of the Saint members who were hiding have been captured. Still, to capture all of them, that would take at least ten days to half a month," Qin Tianxing explained.

"Hopefully, Miss Mu is doing fine," Lin Huang shook his head and sighed. Besides Qin Tianxing, Mu Xiaolan was the other staff that he was close to. As they had the same class schedule, the both of them would see each other in the office every Friday. Lin Huang did not want anything bad to happen to this friendly and happy lady.

"It's almost time now. You should be in class. Looking at the army that the Union has, Miss Mu will be joining the force of many, so she should be alright. Don't worry about her." Qin Tianxing patted Lin Huang's shoulder.

…

In foothold No. 7B99 — Misery City.

Misery City was located in the extreme north in Division 7. It was a place for prisoners during the old epoch times. It was said that a monk passed through the place one day and named it Misery as bodies were strewn everywhere. Since the new epoch, the Union Government used the name when they were rebuilding the city.

Mu Xiaolan had killed a mutated Transcendent-level monster here five days ago. The moment she leveled up to white flame-level, she rushed directly to Misery City without waiting for her transformation to be completed. She heard from the black market that Misery City was one of the hiding places of the Saint members. As she was a registered gold hunter, she used the dimensional tunnel that was exclusive to hunters and arrived at the place after spending a day transferring in between a couple of footholds.

The following days, she spent most of her time in the black market to ask about the Saint. With the mission of the Union Government, there were many other hunters who were here to kill the Saints. For safety purposes, she was staying in a hotel that was occupied by hunters. On that day, a man in gold-framed glasses and a white coat walked towards her when she just got out of the black market. Mu Xiaolan, who was dressed in a black robe, had her guard up.

"Hi, Miss Mu." The man stopped walking and smiled at her when he was less than two meters away from her.

"You've got the wrong person." Mu Xiaolan remained cold while her face was concealed under the hood.

"It can't be. You're Mu Xiaolan who teaches at the Martial Hunter College. You were in love with a male teacher named Wang Yan. Unfortunately, Wang Yan was killed when the Saints attacked a month ago, so you've resigned last week and plan to take revenge by killing the Saint members." The bespectacled man looked warmly at her under the dimmed street lamps.

"Who are you?" Mu Xiaolan took off her hood and stared at the man with her bright eyes.

"Don't worry, I'm not one of the Saints. You can call me doctor." The man smiled as he introduced himself.

"You know so much about me. Even if you're not from the Saints, you must be up to no good. I'm not interested to talk to you. Go away." Mu Xiaolan was wary even if the man was not one of the Saint.

"Alright then. I shall tell you my intentions." The man pushed his glasses up his nose before proceeding.

"I heard that Lin Huang is your colleague and that you guys are pretty close. I need something about him from you."

"No comment!" Mu Xiaolan finally knew that the man was here for Lin Huang.

"Lady, this is not your decision." The man took off his glasses. A sigil sparked from his left eye and Mu Xiaolan collapsed.

Suddenly, there was a golden glow that shot out of the relic in the man's hand and covered Mu Xiaolan who was about to slump onto the ground. As the golden glow faded, Mu Xiaolan disappeared. The man summoned a dimensional relic and stepped into it. Soon, the dimensional relic closed and the black market alley was silent again like nothing had happened.