"A B-Blood Oath Contract!" She ground the words through clenched teeth. "I can establish a Blood Oath Contract with you. If you die, I die too."
"Bound in life and death." Su Chen heard the so-called Blood Oath Contract and paused mid-step, though methods to circumvent it had already sprung to mind.
Still somewhat unsatisfied, he pressed, "I want something that puts your life entirely in my hands."
"Nothing like that exists — at least nothing I can provide, and nothing you could control." Jiang He forced out an explanation. "This is the best option I can think of. Yes, there are ways to circumvent it, but they come at an enormous cost."
Su Chen studied her. This was probably as far as she could go. He didn't want to leave Nanfeng City either — that truly was a dead end — so he'd have to accept some risk.
"Then let's begin." Su Chen nodded.
Jiang He's taut body visibly relaxed. She exhaled in relief. "We'll need to wait a moment. The Withered Grass Potion is still in effect — my mental energy is severely depleted."
Su Chen felt a prickle of unease, but his thoughts circled back to his own resilience during Jiang He's area-of-effect attack moments ago.
'That must have been a psychic assault. I wasn't even a professional yet, but my resistance was stronger than the Binding Adept's. Probably a side effect of transmigrating.'
'Good chance to test her...'
With that thought, Su Chen said nothing more. He walked to the side, picked up his clothes, and retrieved the rope Old Gui had dropped on the floor.
Hm?
[Tier-1 Item — Azure-Veined Hemp Rope: A special cord woven from azure-veined grass soaked in black oil for three days. Can be manipulated by a Binding Adept.]
'It can identify items too.' Su Chen was surprised. He casually touched a few other objects, but only the two garments that had blurred their wearers' forms triggered a notification.
[Tier-1 Item — Shadow Evasion Cloak: A garment crafted primarily from Phantom Wolf hide.]
It seemed only items of this tier and above registered on the panel.
"Any idea who wants you dead?" He found a place to sit, looking at the two corpses on the floor.
Jiang He was kneading her brow. Her clothes had long been reduced to tatters, leaving considerable stretches of skin on display, but she didn't seem to care. At his question, a venomous look crossed her face. "I've made my share of enemies, but those who'd actually want me dead? Not many."
"You're married, aren't you?" Su Chen brought it up abruptly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jiang He's head snapped toward him, alarm flickering in her eyes.
"Nothing in particular. They say the closest bonds can breed the deepest distance — and that's marriage. When one spouse is attacked, suspecting the other is perfectly natural, isn't it?" Su Chen said offhandedly.
"That Withered Grass Potion had to be ingested. The number of people who could slip it to you is vanishingly small."
"And when Old Gui described the scenario, he said your family and the academy would want to bury the scandal quickly — but he never mentioned whether your husband would. Logically, given the kind of death he was staging, the person who should care most would be your husband."
Jiang He's expression shifted. Old Gui had indeed said those things, but in the heat of the crisis, even she'd forgotten. She hadn't expected Su Chen to have caught it.
"Could it be him... Would he dare?" Jiang He murmured, her gaze drifting to the pool of wine-red liquid on the floor.
"If it is him, there's a reason. Your reputation is already problematic, so it's probably not about jealousy. Think carefully." Su Chen pressed the point.
He wanted clarity as well — whoever was behind this had clearly factored him into the plan too. With both of them surviving tonight, there would likely be consequences.
"Could it be..." Jiang He's head shot up, a flash of realization crossing her face. "The Tier-3 profession — Mystic Weaver!"
"Hm?" Su Chen looked over. Jiang He's expression had grown animated.
"A month and a half ago, my father told me the family would be selecting three people for focused cultivation — grooming them all the way to Mystic Weaver."
"He'd been working behind the scenes on my behalf. Two weeks ago, he told me the arrangements were nearly finalized. My father has only one daughter. Once the slot was secured and the price paid, even if something happened to me, he wouldn't simply hand it over."
"But it would go to him."
"It has to be him!" Jiang He was nearly certain, though doubt crept in. "But where would he get the resources to hire two professionals? And this was a family secret — my father only told me. I never shared it with him."
Seeing that Jiang He had untangled the thread and more or less identified the suspect, Su Chen didn't help her analyze further. He simply asked, "How does one advance to Mystic Weaver?"
"That..." Jiang He shook her head. "I don't know. Mystic Weaver is the advanced form of Mystic Scholar, and I don't even know how to advance to Mystic Scholar."
"That kind of information is classified at the highest level."
'Mystic Apprentice, Mystic Scholar, Mystic Weaver — it's a single profession chain.'
Su Chen folded the hemp rope and Shadow Evasion Cloaks together — the bundle wasn't large — and asked, "In that case, you should at least know how to assume the Mystic Apprentice profession."
Jiang He hesitated briefly, then answered. "First, you need to raise your mental energy to a certain threshold. Then you pass the Trial of Whispers."
Su Chen frowned. "A certain threshold — how is that measured?"
Jiang He wavered. Su Chen made as if to stand. Her eyelid twitched — a Tier-1 profession hardly counted as a major secret.
"The Candlelight Mental Forging Method..." she said hastily. "If you can complete ten cycles of mental construction within one minute, that's sufficient."
"You have a copy, I assume?" Su Chen extended his hand.
The Mystic Apprentice was a Tier-1 upper-class profession. It would certainly be more powerful than [Strongman].
"I do..." At this point, Jiang He relented. "It's in the study. Follow me."
"The bodies..." Su Chen mused aloud.
"Don't worry about them. I'll take care of it tomorrow." Jiang He appeared to have recovered some of her composure, regaining a trace of "the Violet's" poise.
She picked up the silver bracelet from the floor and slipped it onto her wrist. A blurry gray-yellow holographic display flickered to life above it.
Su Chen's expression turned peculiar for an instant as memories flooded in. This world seemed to be quite... unusual.
He followed Jiang He out of the room — what he'd been in wasn't the living room, but a basement.
The servants had long since gone home. The house stood empty, solemn and still.
They climbed the stairs. A large wedding photograph hung in the stairwell — a man and a woman. The woman was Jiang He, smiling radiantly.
The man was handsome too, his smile warm and gentle. His most distinguishing feature was a pair of pale blue irises.
Su Chen deliberately lingered on the photo for a few extra seconds.
In the study, Jiang He retrieved a thin volume from a safe — barely a few pages thick.
"I can't let you take it out. If you want to practice, it's best to memorize the contents here." She stressed, "Every faction monitors the circulation of profession-related information extremely closely. Taking it outside would only bring you trouble."
Su Chen took the book and skimmed through it. The method resembled a form of meditation — you projected the image of a candle flame within your own mental space, then imagined being consumed by its fire.
Of course, it wasn't purely imagination. The text described several mental anchor points and tips, such as practicing first with a real candle flame for reference.
It seemed, perhaps...
Su Chen closed his eyes and gave it a tentative try, visualizing his mental energy shaping a candle flame, sketching the form bit by bit, then layering in the sensation of warmth...
Whoosh—
A surge of heat flooded his mind. His eyes snapped open, expression uncertain.
"It's perfectly normal to fail on the first attempt. An ordinary adult would need at least three to five months to complete the first construction. Even as a Tier-1 professional, you'd still need a dozen or so days of practice."
"Just memorize the general outline for now. Once you're a guest-student at Nanfeng Academy, you can come to me anytime with questions..." Seeing his reaction, Jiang He tried to console him, worried he might try to take the book by force.
Su Chen kept his silence. The technique posed absolutely no difficulty for him — a small perk of transmigration, perhaps?
The so-called ten cycles simply meant constructing the candle flame ten consecutive times. He'd just completed one cycle without feeling the slightest strain.
The only thing to watch was the time — completing all ten within one minute would be tight.
With that thought, a sudden intuition struck him. He quickly opened the skill panel.
Sure enough, alongside the Strongman profession, a new standalone skill had appeared.
[Candlelight Mental Forging Method — Novice: 50%]