Chapter 437: A Gamble? Betting on Himself!

Having smoothly obtained the intel from Leng Yuexi, Xu Jingming had already achieved the biggest goal of this trip.

But after all, the other party had given him the intel, and she was also his senior.

Therefore, Xu Jingming chatted with them for nearly half an hour more before getting up to take his leave.

"It's already past ten, it really is getting late."

Leng Yuexi nodded. "Little Chan, you see Xu Jingming out."

"Got it." Leng Yuechan giggled. "Let's go, junior Xu Jingming."

Saying so, she led Xu Jingming toward the outside of the villa.

"Only at fifth-tier lower rank, yet he could instantly subdue sixth-tier Little Chan—this Xu Jingming is no simple character."

Watching Xu Jingming's tall, broad back as he left, a strange light flickered faintly in Leng Yuexi's beautiful eyes.

During the casual chat just now, she had already learned the details of the two's skirmish in the suburbs.

And her younger sister Leng Yuechan possessed an enhancement-type A-rank ability, Silver Moon Spirit Fox.

While the ability was active, her perception and reaction speed were downright freakish.

Awakeners of the same rank would have a hard time catching her, let alone Xu Jingming, who was a full major tier lower.

"It's already freakish enough that he could beat Cao Ren as an Elementalist.

Who would have thought his close-combat Warrior side was this strong too..."

Leng Yuexi marveled inwardly.

Warriors and Elementalists were two different development paths for Awakeners.

For an ordinary Awakener to achieve something in even one path was already considered quite impressive.

But who would have thought this Xu Jingming seemed to balance both at once.

"Young Lady, the analysis results for the photo you gave me are out."

Just as she was pondering to herself, a middle-aged man in a long robe and glasses appeared in the first-floor living room of the villa.

"Oh? The analysis results are already out?"

Leng Yuexi's eyes lit up; she quickly rose and headed down the stairs.

As the concentration of primal energy between heaven and earth gradually rose, many things from the ancient-civilization relic era—

Secret realms and bases hidden through special methods—were gradually being revealed.

Recently, she had discovered a secret base hidden deep within a cave in the Kanda Wilderness Zone.

But the base's gate was inscribed with special runes.

Even attacking it with her seventh-tier Master-rank fire-type ability, she couldn't force her way through.

So she could only photograph those runes and bring them back to hand off to professionals for analysis.

Only now had results finally come in.

"The runes on this base aren't defensive runes—they're runes that judge based on ability rank."

The middle-aged man said in a low voice. "The higher the ability rank, the higher the probability of opening this base's gate."

This type of civilization relic had been excavated before.

"I possess an Elemental fire-type A-rank ability, and even I can't open it—doesn't that mean it requires an S-rank ability?"

Leng Yuexi's delicate brows knit slightly.

S-rank Awakeners weren't easy to find, and getting one to act would cost no small price.

"All we can say is an S-rank could try, but it's not guaranteed to open."

The middle-aged man shook his head. "And it can't be an enhancement-type ability either. Based on the rune-type analysis,

it needs to be an Elemental type, or a Natural type—lightning, light, or dark."

"Hmm?" Leng Yuexi froze at his words.

Isn't this perfect?!

Wasn't Xu Jingming, who had just left, precisely a lightning-type SS-rank Awakener?

"Alright, I understand. You may go now."

Leng Yuexi waved her hand, dismissing the middle-aged man, yet her heart secretly rejoiced:

"Looks like this junior really did come at just the right time. I can call him in a bit and ask if he's willing to make a trip with me to the Kanda Wilderness Zone."

An untapped ancient-civilization relic could simply be called a giant treasure trove!

If they could really get inside, they would absolutely obtain extraordinary gains...

"Alright, junior Xu Jingming, I'll see you off here.

If anything comes up later, you can come straight to us for help."

Outside the Spirit Fox Guild compound, Leng Yuechan struck a big-sister pose and thumped her own chest in a sworn-guarantee manner.

Compared with Leng Yuexi's slender, mature figure, Leng Yuechan's chest was short by more than a full dimension.

Thumping her chest like that really did give off a "we're good buddies" vibe.

"See you."

Xu Jingming smiled and nodded, then turned and left.

At the same time, he took out his phone and immediately sent a message to Lin Hui and the others.

He chose to gather at a small tavern in the main city district of the Chaotic Triangle Zone.

"Captain."

When Xu Jingming arrived at the tavern's private room, Lin Hui, Xia Lan, Li Xiang, and Du Wan were all already there.

"How did it go? Find any leads?" Xu Jingming sat down in a chair and asked with a smile.

Li Xiang's heart stirred as well; his formidable spiritual power spread out, blanketing the entire private room to prevent anyone from eavesdropping.

"No gains. That group was very mysterious — on the day of the ambush, they deliberately used their abilities to conceal their faces."

Lin Hui spread his hands helplessly, and Li Xiang immediately followed up:

"Although the martial arts hall headquarters has a backup database, the volume of data is simply too massive.

I estimate that sifting through the anomalies and finding the key clues would probably take over ten days."

After all, it's a mission worth 30,000 points — having difficulties is normal.

Before coming, they had already prepared to stay here for one or two months.

"Over ten days? No, no, no — finding clues won't take anywhere near that long."

Xu Jingming smiled and shook his head, then, under the crowd's puzzled gazes, activated the smartwatch Leng Yuexi had given him.

Instantly, a holographic projection appeared in everyone's line of sight and began playing slowly.

And the expressions of the crowd shifted from puzzlement at first, to surprise, and finally to shock!

The reason was simple —

this holographic projection actually contained the complete cause of the attack on the martial arts hall branch!

It turned out the vice president of the Black Lion Guild wanted to seize a batch of rare flowers and exotic herbs worth several billion Great Xia coins, which was why he had targeted the martial arts hall branch!

And the identities of all six ability-users who had raided the martial arts hall branch — including this vice president — were recorded on it!

"Holy shit! That's insane! Captain, how did you do it? How did you find this intel so fast?"

Lin Hui couldn't help blurting out a curse.

With this intel in hand, the likelihood of them completing the mission would be greatly increased!

"Got lucky — ran into a senior from Magic University.

They happened to be investigating the Black Lion Guild too, so they shared this intel with us."

Xu Jingming briefly described to them what had happened when he met Leng Yuechan.

Many of the clubs at Magic City Ability University have guilds and legions backing them.

Magic University's Spirit Fox Club is affiliated with the Spirit Fox Guild.

This was information he had picked up while chatting with the Leng Yuexi sisters at the villa earlier.

"I see!"

Lin Hui laughed heartily and said excitedly:

"The training camp forum posts are still saying we have no chance of completing this S-rank mission.

Now that we have this intel, we'll definitely smack them in the face when the time comes!"

"Oh? People on the forums are still talking about our mission?" Xu Jingming was somewhat surprised.

An S-rank mission shouldn't have drawn discussion on such a scale.

"It must be Wang Dong and the others stirring things up behind the scenes."

Xia Lan said softly, "The Prodigy Training Camp, the Elite Training Camp, and the Regular Training Camp.

Most of the posts on these three training camp forums right now are about you.

They've even opened quite a few bets on whether we can complete this S-rank mission."

"Bets?" Xu Jingming's interest was immediately piqued. "How much money is in the pool?"

"There are too many bets — people betting include those from the Prodigy Training Camp as well as the other camps.

I don't know the exact figure, but there should be around 5 million points." Xia Lan said with some hesitation.

"5 million points?" Xu Jingming's eyes lit up.

5 million points — that's a hundred billion Great Xia coins!

If he bet on himself, then after completing the mission, wouldn't he be able to earn another sum on top?