GA: Chapter 193: Mercenaries or Hunters? The Factions Born From the Spiritual Revival
Mid-complaint, the white fox abruptly stopped herself.
What had she just said?
A lightning strike?
Right — wasn't the Dragon Emperor's ability fire? When did it become lightning?
She searched through her memories and then nodded again in dawning realization. When the Four Emperors had first made their names, the power Dragon Emperor had displayed was lightning — it had only become fire later. The official reasoning was never disclosed, but some speculated it had something to do with the Flame Dragon Armor.
Which meant Dragon Emperor had always possessed the ability to control lightning — he'd simply defaulted to fire after growing accustomed to the Flame Dragon Armor. Transforming into the Flame Dragon Knight represented his peak — fire was his most masterful element.
And yet her split soul — at seventy percent of her full power — had been killed effortlessly by a Dragon Emperor who hadn't even transformed, hadn't even used fire?
And apparently in just one move.
The white fox's expression had taken on the quality of someone staring at a monster. She had considered herself genuinely strong. With her split souls accelerating her cultivation, her growth rate wasn't slower than anyone's. She had assumed that even among the Four Emperors, the contest would be roughly even.
Apparently the gap was just a little wider than she'd imagined.
She felt some urgency. But ask her to go cultivate right now and she absolutely was not doing that.
Oh well. Strong was strong. It wasn't like she was planning to abandon her human identity anyway.
With that settled in her mind, the white fox let out a yawn, lay lazily flat on the ground, closed her eyes, and transferred her consciousness back to her human body.
"Website — open."
"Click — Armor Hero."
"Snacks — ready."
"Drinks — prepared."
"Let's go!"
The Spiritual Energy Bureau rescue team had arrived by now. They assessed Qingmu and Gouzi-shu on the ground, along with the three ability users encased in ice. Thanks to the medicinal pills Qin Tian had administered, Qingmu and Gouzi-shu were in no critical danger — just unconscious. The other three's life signs were faint, but they were alive.
"So it's these five."
Liu Suifeng glanced over the scene and nodded.
"You know them?"
Qin Tian looked mildly surprised. Did these five have some connection to the official organizations?
"More or less."
"You've spent most of your time in training, so there's a lot you haven't kept up with."
"Besides the Spiritual Energy Bureau and the military, there's actually another faction operating in the civilian sphere — one officially recognized as well."
"Mercenary companies. Or hunters, some people call them."
"They value their freedom. Don't like being restrained. Don't like official management structures like ours."
"And since the number of mutated creatures genuinely is substantial, and we can't commit to large-scale wild zone clearing operations, there was space for this kind of faction to form."
"Mutated creature meat has become extremely popular on the market. Consuming it can accelerate cultivation speed, improve physical constitution — and in some cases, if the meat aligns with your own ability type, it can provide a small boost to your innate talent. Luck plays an enormous role in that last part though. I've eaten plenty and never noticed a difference."
"Depending on how concentrated the spiritual energy in the meat is, the price varies — but even the most ordinary cuts have reached over a hundred yuan per jin. The higher-end stuff can go into the tens of thousands. The market's there. No shortage of buyers."
"The money involved is enough to tempt a lot of people."
"And so these teams started forming — ability users who register their information with the Bureau, demonstrate some baseline hunting capability, and earn the right to venture into the wild zones for hunts."
"This particular group isn't the most impressive of the lot — but they've left a certain impression."
"Mostly because of their codenames."
Liu Suifeng's expression shifted into something faintly odd.
"Take this one called Qingmu — someone who didn't know better might assume his ability is wood element. At the very least you'd guess something healing-adjacent. In reality, his ability is gold element. The sharpest and hardest variety."
"And Gouzi-shu over here — carries a massive axe. We all figured his ability had something to do with wolves. Or at absolute minimum, we thought — given the name — he'd actually have something canine. Turns out it's cats."
"Then the girl, codename Ruoshui — Water of Weakness. You'd naturally assume water element, right? It's actually a support ability. Concealing presence."
"Silver Light — sounds fast, maybe some kind of beast-type ability? It's related to turtles. Extremely high defense. Tank."
"Yusheng, their team leader. Fire element."
Liu Suifeng clicked his tongue a couple of times. Most people chose codenames that had at least some connection to their ability — but these five had names that couldn't be called completely unrelated, but also bore no resemblance to their actual capabilities.
Anyone who formed assumptions in advance based on the names could easily get caught off guard.
Though that only applied if the opponent was human.
There was wisdom in not trusting too readily — but no reason to foster malicious intent either. Most people in this era had their sights set on mutated creatures. There was always the occasional few with genuinely bad judgment who wanted to drag others down. That much was understandable.
With 1.4 billion people, if not even a handful of them turned out to be problematic, he'd start thinking he was living in paradise.
Qin Tian listened, nodded, then turned to Liu Suifeng.
"They're in your hands. I still need to keep working on my abilities."
"Kill plenty. We'll do hot pot tonight when you're back."
Liu Suifeng grinned as he said it.
"Sure."
Qin Tian continued deeper into the wild.
As he went further in, he began encountering mercenary teams here and there.
They moved with weapons in hand — firearms and artillery among them — coordinating their attacks against mutated creatures before them. Once a kill was confirmed, they would efficiently begin breaking the body down into components: hide, bone, flesh — sorted into separate portions and stored away.
The heavier, lower-value organs were buried on the spot — though not before being sprayed with an unknown yellow powder to prevent scent from spreading.
Most teams would pack up quickly after killing a single creature and move out. Their strength wasn't particularly high — some were ordinary people who had only just awakened abilities, relying entirely on Bureau-rented firearms and artillery to make their kills.
After one kill, the tension that had gripped every muscle would naturally begin to release. Pressing on increased the risk of encountering something they couldn't handle.
Only a minority, after clearing their first target, turned and went looking for the next. These were almost exclusively people with genuine confidence in their own ability.
But whichever type — whatever their reasons — every mutated creature they hunted was a contribution to the nation and to the people.
It was precisely because of their hunts that fewer civilians would face danger from those creatures.
In choosing to become mercenaries or hunters, they must have weighed these things at some point. The money was part of it — but money alone wasn't enough to make a person look danger in the eye and step into a place like this. There was something else driving them too. A desire to do something meaningful for Huaxia.
That was what Qin Tian thought as he walked on.