漫画啦

Traveling Buddha and Xia Fan was not done after the slaughter of the eight people who had infiltrated into the Blue Clan’s Ancient Tomb.

“There are still four outside,” Xia Fan told Traveling Buddha in a suppressed voice.

“Kill them! I want them dead!” Traveling Buddha yelled, his bloodshot eyes glaring in that direction.

Xia Fan noticed that Traveling Buddha was a completely different person when he was infuriated. The lazy and always sleepy Traveling Buddha had completely disappeared, and in his place was this Golden Battle Buddha. The thick killing intent that exuded from his body was chilling, and he did not hesitate in the least whenever he struck.

On the way to the patio, they encountered two more masked individuals. The men had heard unusual sounds coming from underground and come rushing over to investigate.

!!

Of course, the two were instantly killed by Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha, as well!

In truth, Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha made an impressive duo. Traveling Buddha was resilient as a rock, and as long as an attack was nothing too outrageous, he was more than able to withstand it. If enemies tried to slash at him, he would not be in the least bit afraid, and would instead very arrogantly retaliate with a cleave of his own.

Xia Fan was fast and nimble. While their enemies were distracted by Traveling Buddha, he would appear beside them in an instant, giving them a fright and a cut across the throat at the same time!

There was a figurative metaphor that would describe this duo: A man and his shadow!

Traveling Buddha stood in the light while Xia Fan hid in the shadows. They were already hard to guard against, so with Xia Fan’s flamboyant speed on top of it, the pair had a very easy time dealing with these enemies.

Their enemies were completely focused on the golden light coming from Traveling Buddha, so none of them expected that the one really in charge of killing was not that shining golden target, but Xia Fan!

A single acceleration, running along an oblique path, and with a precise slash of his scalpel, the enemies were eliminated on the spot!

Xia Fan also really enjoyed fighting alongside someone like Traveling Buddha, who constantly drew everyone’s aggression. With Traveling Buddha around, he barely had any trouble eliminating his targets however he desired.

Cadets and teachers had heard the ruckus and came down the stairs, but by the time they reached near the patio, all they saw was Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha finishing up the fight. The entire combat had barely lasted longer than a minute!

“Thanks a lot, bro,” Traveling Buddha held Xia Fan by his shoulder and said in a serious tone. “Without you, I might have already left to see my ancestors!

“After this experience, I now understand. It turns out I’m not as strong as I imagined myself to be.”

“Don’t say that. I wouldn’t have expected them to have a military-grade ion cannon either,” Xia Fan chuckled. “Oh right, what’s the situation with your special ability? It seems like its the Strength-type, but there’s also that mysterious golden glow to it.”

Traveling Buddha did not think it was a big deal, “My special ability is called the Battle Buddha’s Golden Light. It is a variant of special ability that is both the Strength-type and the Godly Possession type.”

Xia Fan widened his eyes. Godly Possession? Was that not a legendary grade special ability? Godly or Demonic Possession was akin to having a war god descend upon the mortal realm, not to mention how Traveling Buddha also had his Strength ability to bolster his Godly Possession special ability.

Lu Xiangyang examined the scene and asked Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha in astonishment, “Did the two of you kill these men?” The majority of people had left for the League tournament, so Lu Xiangyang held the highest position out of all the remaining officials.

He seemed to have gotten quite the fright after seeing the corpses and the blood everywhere, especially the ones who had died by Traveling Buddha’s hands. Not a single one of those corpses were intact, all having been torn into four or five pieces, making for a gruesome sight.

Traveling Buddha and Xia Fan nodded at the same time. Yu Xiangyang took a sharp breath in surprise, while the teachers and cadets who had gathered stared at them with inscrutable looks in their eyes. They were most likely shocked by the great combat strength the duo possessed.

—

The local Special Bureau and a part of the garrison quickly arrived and in a very short time, identified the dead people. All twelve individuals were people who had served the Special Bureau or militaries of the three major federations, with detailed DNA records.

Xia Fan was shocked when he learned about the background of these enemies.

No wonder they could so successfully cut off the power supply and infiltrate the Blue Boiling Point Training Camp. It turned out some of them had graduated from here!

....

That night, Traveling Buddha and Xia Fan were invited to the local Special Bureau station to give a detailed report.

As they were all under the same roof, the investigators of the local station were very polite to both Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha. The one receiving them was the Chief, Terry, a capable middle-aged man in his forties. He was robustly built, but his hair was sparse, and the onset of baldness was definitely visible.

After the investigator in charge of the case was done questioning them about the matter, they left the office so that only Xia Fan, Traveling Buddha, and Terry were left in the room.

Xia Fan was still very curious about this matter with ex-investigators breaking into Blue Boiling Point Training Camp, so he asked, “Chief Terry, just what’s the story behind those people?”

Terry’s expression was at first stern, but then sighed, “I won’t lie to either of you. They are members of Murder Shrine.”

Xia Fan indicated his cluelessness about the name. After he had arrived in the Starcloud Union, he had read plenty of books, but he had not come across a name like Murder Shrine.

Traveling Buddha answered, “To put it simply, Murder Shrine was established by some defectors from the Special Bureau and the military. They are not only in the Starcloud Union, but the two other major federations are also hard-hit. The investigators or covert squads of the military have also had plenty of defectors over the years, and most of them join Murder Shrine.

“Even more troublesome is that many of the members of Murder Shrine are elites. They were people who once held important posts in the Special Bureau, which is why their methods of falsifying personal information are first-rate, and they are capable of traversing through the three federations without much difficulties after changing their identities. Unless we do a deep DNA analysis on them, there really is no way for us to track them.”

Terry furrowed his brow and added, “That’s right. It is impossible to do such tests on every individual that comes through customs, since each check takes at least twenty minutes. The customs checkpoints would be paralyzed if they needed to check everyone.

“Fortunately, Murder Shrine had yet to engage in any outrageous terrorist activities, and have only been targeting the various tombs belonging to distinguished clans. Their acts of robbery make no sense either; in addition to any valuables, they even abscond with the remains of famed individuals who have already passed.”

Traveling Buddha chuckled coldly, “That’s already a big problem. The various clans are now all preoccupied with guarding their own ancestral tombs, afraid that grave robbers will get away with their ancestors’ remains. How could this not be considered problematic?

“My father rarely leaves home precisely because of this, patrolling our ancestral cemetery every day. As for today’s matter, Old Blue just barely set foot away from the camp and these people struck almost immediately. How could anyone lead a life if they have to stand guard against such interlopers every day?”

Xia Fan agreed with what Traveling Buddha had said. An assault which no one could figure out was the scariest kind, and no one understood what Murder Shrine was scheming that made them so obsessed about stealing the remains of the important figures of the past.

Terry shrugged, “Forget it. Murder Shrine is something that those big figures in the headquarters have to worry about. It won’t be our turn to be bothered by all this.”

“These twelve individuals from Murder Shrine were all fugitives from the Union, and there’s a bounty on each of their heads. According to what we determined at the scene, four of them were killed by Little Old Buddha, while eight were slain by the hands of Cadet Xia Fan. When I make my report to Headquarters later, I’ll be sure that the reward money will be transferred into the personal accounts you have with the Special Bureau, respectively.”

“According to our calculations, Little Old Buddha has earned 476 thousand points, while Cadet Xia Fan’s total comes up to 1.25 million.”

After listening to Terry’s explanation, Xia Fan finally understood that the points he had referred to were also called Union Contribution Points, and were a currency used by all the Union’s Civil Divisions.

Those points were quite valuable. Using warships as an example, a small frigate was worth five to ten million Union dollars, but all anyone could purchase would be the lesser versions of the ship, their combat functions intentionally weakened.

The reason for doing so was very simple. Warships that were not in the service to the Union were considered private ships, and what use would private ships have for such great firepower? Who would they need to attack?

However, if it was someone on official Union business, then that was completely different. All they needed was five hundred thousand to a million points, and they could exchange for a small frigate with its full functions intact! Not only would their firepower not be weakened in any sense, they could even purchase customized versions of ships that were not available in the market, or even military-issued versions.

Thus, contribution points were far more valuable as a currency in the Starcloud Union than actual dollars. Blue Boiling Point Training Camp had the distinct requirement of their cadets graduating only after obtaining a hundred thousand points: those points would act as the start-up capital for a Special Bureau investigator!

After all, the Investigation Division would need various equipment, which would not be distributed for free, but needed to be bought with the points people had saved up when they graduated.

Because they had taken down wanted criminals, Xia Fan had earned 1.25 million points in one go! That was enough to graduate twelve times over! This was far quicker than earning points by participating in the League Tournament!

Terry glanced at Xia Fan and laughed, “Regarding the details on the points, generally speaking, I think you should consider getting yourself some proper battle attire when the points are sent to your account.”

Because Xia Fan was getting faster and faster, it created a great pressure on what kind of battle armor he would be wearing. The battle armor that the camp had issued to Advanced Cadets was already in tatters after that one fight, which Terry kindly reminded Xia Fan about.

“Yes, I’ll think about it,” Xia Fan replied with a smile.

...

Blue Shield was in no mood to remain in the League Tournament after he was informed of the attempt to steal his ancestors’ remains. He rushed back to Blue Boiling Point immediately.

At the same time, there were plenty of members from the Blue Clan who Xia Fan did not recognize returning to the Camp from all over the place. Each of them looked distressed, given that they were a distinguished clan in Ashen Moon. If they failed to protect their ancestral tomb and were robbed, there was really no way they could live it down!

“I reckon our ancestors’ remains will be moved as soon as possible,” Blue Shield said to Xia Fan worryingly. “But this matter is far bigger. I cannot make that decision myself, and I will need to sit down and discuss this with everyone. Those detestable people of Murder Shrine, of all things to steal, why did they target our ancestors?”

“Oh right, your points have already surpassed the graduation requirements, so your ID and badge will be very quickly issued by Headquarters. As for which department you’ll end up in, that would also be up to Headquarters. Until that day comes, you can stay here in the camp without any worries.”

—

Sure enough, on the third day after Blue Shield spoke to Xia Fan about the matter, Xia Fan received a parcel sent from Headquarters. Opening it, he saw his own badge inside, as well as an identification card.

Xia Fan gave the matter some thought and decided that since he still had some time, he should get his equipment settled first. For now, he did not have a need for weapons, but a set of high-quality combat suits specially made with Speed-type special ability users in mind would be necessary.

Thus he turned on the computer in his room. After confirming his identity, he logged into the Bureau’s trade site and browsed their equipment section.

The range of choices available to Xia Fan was not very large. After all, the needs that a speedster like him had from their battle attire were very specific. He needed it to be light, thin, and flexible, while also providing him with the necessary defensive properties he would expect from body armor.

At present, there were only three firms who sold Speed-type battlesuits in the Starcloud Union. Maple Leaf Valley and Skysword were the two top manufacturers in the Union. There were close to a million varieties in their combined inventory, covering practically every product line across a range of low to high-grade products.

There was also a small company called Phantom Workshop. The founder of that factory was a speedster himself, and based upon the many years of experience he had before his retirement, he had established a factory that specialized in the production of equipment that Speed-type special ability users like himself would use.

After all, only a speedster would best understand what people who shared the same ability would truly need. The battle armor that Phantom Workshop made was far more comfortable and nicer-looking than the other companies manufactured. Comfort was very important for a battlesuit that Xia Fan would need to be wearing for long periods of time.

Xia Fan chose the Phantom Mark Seven Battlesuit in a more traditional black color. The materials used were rated at the Advanced Star Domain grade.

That was to say that this battlesuit’s performance would satisfy the requirements an Advanced Star Domain ranked speedster would have. It was the most expensive product in the entire workshop, requiring two hundred and eighty-eight thousand points to purchase.

As the saying went, ‘Star Domain becomes the limit for Speed Bloodlines!’

Advanced Star Domain rank was basically the insurmountable peak for speedsters. Such industrially-made suits would not satisfy the needs of anyone who had successfully cultivated beyond that rank. Instead, they would need to hire masters who had inherited ancient techniques to custom-make suits that would take staggeringly expensive materials to make.

Xia Fan added up the points he had earned at the Camp as well as the reward he received from killing all those wanted criminals, and found his account totaled up to 1.375 million points. After buying that black Phantom Mark Seven suit, he was left with 1.089 million points!

‘I still have that priceless mechanical core with me, so should I perhaps take a look at the warships?’ Xia Fan wondered to himself as he glanced at his balance.