Chapter 151: Catastrophe-Grade Extermination

Huo Ye had originally assumed that telling Huo Xialan he would stop at nothing to acquire the Huo family’s martial arts secret texts would draw a look of displeasure from her. Yet, this was also a deliberate probe to test Huo Xialan’s bottom line.

To Huo Ye’s surprise, upon hearing his words, Huo Xialan merely offered a faint smile, said nothing further, and resumed teaching them the principles of inner energy.

That night, Huo Ye did not directly learn the techniques of the Entangling Dragon Silk in a Chaotic Flutter. Huo Xialan explained that the martial art required a congenital and unique physical constitution. Out of ten people with the aptitude to practice it, barely one or two would succeed, and if one also demanded exceptionally high natural talent, it essentially became a once-in-ten-thousand rarity—and Huo Ye happened to be that rare one in ten thousand.

Having always trained under Eddie and constantly feeling as though a towering mountain named "Father" stood before him, Huo Ye felt for the first time that his life had been granted a cheat code. Although it was only the first day and no tangible results were visible yet, his talent points were maxed out to the absolute brim.

What he did not know, however, was that in the eyes of others, he had always been a walking cheat. Naturally speaking—not through any artificial hack—could an ordinary human possess both Abyss Compatibility and God-Devouring capabilities? He was truly the only one of his kind across the entire world!

The next day, Huo Ye and Shangguan Yudie woke up utterly exhausted. Having spent the entire night in the hibernation pods, their bodies had rested, but their minds had not received sufficient recuperation. Moreover, the VEF hibernation pods did not merely allow their physical forms to rest; whenever the system detected that they were engaged in combat or training, the pods in reality would emit micro-currents to stimulate their muscles into miniature movements, thereby forming muscle memory.

Thus, theoretically, their bodies had been continuously exercising without a single moment of true rest.

Shangguan Yudie fared slightly better, seizing the moment after waking up to catch a brief catnap. Huo Ye, however, had to get up and prepare breakfast, especially since a younger sister who had slept like a log all night still needed to be fed.

To Huo Ye’s astonishment, when Alice emerged from her room, she too wore a look of utter fatigue, her eyes narrowed into slits as if she might fall asleep standing up at any moment.

Alice took her seat, and Huo Ye placed the breakfast before her, asking, "What’s wrong with you? Didn't you sleep last night?"

Yawning widely, Alice replied, "Haah~ Don't even ask. Blame Ryley!"

At that, a spark lit up in Huo Ye’s eyes, and his exhaustion instantly vanished. He quickly sat down and eagerly pressed Alice for details: "Wait, what's going on? Did you stay up all night chatting with him?"

How could Huo Ye not be excited? Good grief, he and Shangguan Yudie had already gotten together, yet after so much time, there had still been no progress between Alice and Ryley. As an older brother, he was quite anxious about it!

It wasn't that he was overly concerned with his sister's lifelong affairs; the key point was that Huo Ye wanted to pay back the annoying meddling Alice had subjected him to in the past. Since she had driven him crazy back then, she couldn't blame him for returning the favor!

Alice cast a glance at Huo Ye as if looking at a mental defective, then said, "What are you imagining? I spent the whole night sparring with Ryley in the VRF. For some reason, he’s been exceptionally hyper lately—much more spirited and confident than before. Still, that's a good thing, so I didn't refuse him. Haah~ I'm so sleepy."

Huo Ye wore a knowing expression and remarked, "It seems Old Ke's training has paid off. Hasn't Ryley been persisting with hypnotic training lately? By the way, how is your multitasking proficiency coming along?"

With a casual "Not bad," Alice flicked her finger. A spoon on her left slowly stirred the bowl of congee, while a steamed bun on a plate to her right gradually flew toward her mouth. Alice bit down on the bun and mumbled indistinctly, "About like this, I suppose."

"I wouldn't say there are no results, but the effect is a bit too minor!" Huo Ye said with a furrowed brow.

To this, Alice merely offered an ambiguous, mischievous giggle.

During the morning classes, Huo Ye, Alice, and Ryley attended as usual. Halfway through the session, however, Ke Zhen leaned over and quietly asked Huo Ye, "Have you checked the academy's mission board today?"

Huo Ye asked in puzzlement, "No? Did some lucrative mission pop up?"

Ke Zhen waved a hand and said, "Lucrative it isn't, but it is challenging. Ultimate-class, Calamity-rank!"

"Calamity-rank?" Huo Ye shot a suspicious look at Ke Zhen. "Why would the academy issue such a mission to students? Across the entire academy, aren't there only three of us capable of leading people against a Calamity-rank?" Naturally, he was referring to himself, Huo Xialan, and Tan Xiao.

Ke Zhen waved his hand to tell him not to rush, then continued, "Do you know which hunting guild handed this mission over to the academy?"

Huo Ye guessed, "Grim Reaper? No, if it were Grim Reaper, my old man should have given me a heads-up beforehand. Could it be... Kamikaze?"

Ke Zhen blurted out in astonishment, "Damn it, can you tell fortunes?"

Huo Ye rolled his eyes at him and explained, "It's quite simple, really. For a Calamity-rank disaster, generally only Tier 1 hunting guilds dare to undertake the subjugation, because even if a guild below Tier 2 had the capability to kill an Ultimate-class entity, the casualties would be immense. Therefore, eliminating a disaster typically requires mobilizing forces far exceeding the disaster's strength to ensure it is annihilated with minimal personnel losses."

Having trained to the point of fatigue, Huo Ye simply sat cross-legged on the ground and gestured for Ke Zhen to sit as well.

Patting his beer belly somewhat awkwardly, Ke Zhen also crossed his legs and sat down, listening as Huo Ye continued his analysis: "So here lies the question: why would a Tier 1 hunting guild hand over Calamity-rank credit to Bancroft? Even though various hunting guilds maintain cooperative relations with Bancroft and assess students' qualifications through task assignments in order to recruit them immediately upon graduation, the difficulty of a Calamity-rank is simply too absurd! It couldn't possibly be meant for sending students to their deaths."

"Therefore, the hunting guild that issued the mission is aiming directly at one of the academy's three S-class students. I assume you can see that too. Combined with the fact that you deliberately kept me in suspense and made me guess which guild posted it, I naturally had to consider which Tier 1 hunting guilds are connected to me. So far, there are only two: my old man's Grim Reaper, and Kamikaze, led by Lin Zhengfeng, who regards my old man as a rival and has always kept his eyes on me, the successor of Eddie Hollis."

Having finished speaking, Huo Ye looked at Ke Zhen with an air of proud arrogance, immensely pleased with himself.

Seeing Huo Ye's expression, Ke Zhen let out a wry, helpless sigh. "The student truly surpasses the master! Back in the day, Eddie didn't have a brain like yours! Well, are you going to take this mission or not? I’ve already snatched it up; if the Constellations don't take it, I'm going to put it back!"

"Take it, why wouldn't we take it? What is there to fear when I'm leading the pack? It's not like I've never killed a Calamity-rank before!" Huo Ye proclaimed with absolute confidence, though deep down he knew very well that surviving the encounter with Kachi last time had been entirely a matter of sheer luck.

If Kachi hadn't believed victory was securely in his grasp, smugly flaunting the superiority of a disaster while standing right there, only to be struck squarely by an unexpected Ghostly Crying and Divine Howling, he probably would have been half-dead by then.

To say he definitely would have died isn't entirely accurate, given how many eyes were watching—between the academy instructors and his old man Eddie, someone would have bailed him out at the crucial moment.

This time, however, all eight members of the Constellations would be heading out together to subjugate a Calamity-rank. Huo Ye felt it would be a great challenge; dangerous, certainly, but when has a war against disasters ever been safe?

That afternoon, the Constellations held another meeting. The agenda was simple: whether everyone was willing to set out as a full team to subjugate a Calamity-rank. Although Huo Ye had told Ke Zhen to hold onto the task, risking one's life required the consent of the entire group.

To Huo Ye's surprise, the motion passed unanimously. The three members he had fully expected to voice objections—Lu Jiajia, Jiang Feng, and Ryley—voted in favor with absolute and unhesitating resolve.

This time, Huo Ye did not ask for their reasons, but he could roughly infer them from their expressions. Jiang Feng and Ryley had made up their minds to temper themselves, while Lu Jiajia... seemed to be doing it simply because it sounded fun.

"Since it's all settled, get ready and we depart tomorrow. However, there is one thing I must impress upon everyone... Calculated strictly on paper, a Calamity-rank is at the very limit of our current strength. I do not wish to see any casualties among us. Therefore, when facing a Calamity-rank, never try to rush for quick success. Our primary objective is to locate it, pin it down, and engage it in a war of attrition. Be prepared to slowly grind the opponent down over a timeframe of ten days. Is everyone clear on that?"

Huo Ye instructed them firmly.