Chapter 938: Even Strolling Around Can Encounter Opportunities (Revised)

Chapter 938: Stumbling Upon Fortune While Strolling the Streets (Revised)

Seeing the man gravely wounded and on the brink of death, Aurora reached out and pressed her palm against him; dazzling life energy spilled from her fingertips, drifting golden motes resembling a gossamer veil as they poured into his body.

In the next instant, the ghastly wounds across his body knit together at a visible pace, torn flesh sealed, shattered bones fused, and his pallid cheeks swiftly flushed with vitality; soon he was wholly restored, every injury vanished, leaving only the crusted blood to testify that he had recently been beaten to a pulp.

"Mmh." The man's brows twitched as he gradually drifted back from unconsciousness.

"Where am I..." He lingered in a daze for a moment before the memories of his collapse rushed back; his expression shifted drastically as he bolted upright, scanning his surroundings with wary eyes. "Where did those madmen go?"

Fordring cleared his throat to draw his attention. "Your attackers have fled. We saved you."

"Fled? That is disastrous! I barely managed to catch their trail, and now the thread is severed again." The man's face fell into distress before he turned to study Fordring and his companion; after a moment of scrutiny, realization dawned. "You two were the ones I saw before I blacked out, weren't you?"

"Indeed." Fordring pointed to the bloody handprint smeared across his garments. "You even told me to stop them."

The man slapped his forehead, sighing in resignation. "My apologies, friends. My injuries were too severe, and my mind was already slipping into haze. I never meant to drag you into peril; had I been in my right mind, I would have told you to run for your lives."

Only after the words left his lips did the memory of his wounds catch up to him; he hastily inspected his own condition, and the sight left him utterly startled.

"Wait, where are my wounds? Where did that gaping hole in my chest go?!"

Aurora arched a delicate brow, perfectly mimicking Han Xiao's signature expression. "I healed you. It is my ability."

The man hurriedly shifted his limbs, discovering not only that every injury had vanished, but that his body surged with renewed vigor, as though he had returned to his absolute prime; sheer astonishment washed over his face.

He had witnessed healing arts before, but never a restorative power of such staggering potency; glancing at his surroundings, he realized only a few minutes had passed at most, making the efficiency of her healing utterly terrifying.

"I have struck gold!" Overwhelmed with delight and buzzing with excitement, the man hastily stepped forward, reaching out to grasp Aurora's hand. "Would you be interested in joining us?!"

With a sigh of resignation, Fordring extended a hand to keep the overly enthusiastic fellow at bay; from their brief interaction, he had already noticed the man's reactions were somewhat sluggish, bordering on dim-witted.

"You ought to introduce yourself first, at the very least. It is basic courtesy."

"Ah, right, right, I got too carried away and forgot." The man sheepishly withdrew his hand, straightened his expression, and spoke in a grave tone. "My name is Raymond, a member of the Punishers Alliance."

"What alliance?" Fordring asked, bewildered; he had never heard of such an organization.

"Uh... you two are not from this star sector, are you?" Seeing their blank stares and clear lack of recognition, Raymond awkwardly scratched his head and explained. "The Punishers Alliance is a superhuman collective dedicated to shielding the innocent and punishing the wicked. We operate primarily within this sector."

With that explanation, Fordring and Aurora finally understood.

The Punishers Alliance was a civilian superhuman group native to this sector, roaming the stars to uphold justice, precisely what certain interstellar citizens referred to as "superheroes."

As the old saying goes, martial prowess often breeds defiance, and interstellar society was no exception; those who gained power inevitably saw their minds and desires warp. New fugitives constantly emerged from every corner of the cosmos, rooted fundamentally in the proliferation of superhuman abilities, which bred countless ambitious villains and, in turn, gave rise to their opposing superheroes.

Being a superhero was also a profession, yet unlike mercenaries, it was a grueling vocation that demanded rushing into disasters and crises with little guarantee of compensation, requiring a moral compass that stood at least five stories high.

Few were willing to dedicate their extraordinary gifts to such a cause; most preferred to trade their powers for comfort, wealth, or authority, which was why genuine powerhouses rarely donned the mantle, and superhero teams were typically forged by bands of like-minded idealists.

Yet the profession held its own rewards, chiefly a public reputation that far eclipsed that of mercenaries and their ilk.

Though superheroes were scarce, their numbers across the universe were hardly negligible, with most operating locally; thus, long ago, the three great civilizations established a Superhero Association for streamlined oversight, where registration granted "hero credentials," allowing one to "administer justice" within designated zones without being summoned for interrogation.

Beyond a modest salary, the Association would cover collateral damage incurred during the "administration of justice" at its discretion... in short, to the civilized powers, superheroes were little more than publicly recruited vigilantes.

After listening, Fordring pondered for a moment and decided against revealing his true name.

"I am Fo... ahem, Morningstar, and she is Au... Aura."

"Thank you for saving my life." With their features deliberately obscured, Raymond failed to recognize them.

"Tell us exactly what happened." Fordring gave a slight nod.

Raymond had initially intended to keep outsiders out of it, but Aurora's abilities had swayed his resolve, prompting him to lay out the entire sequence of events:

"The group that ambushed me belongs to a fanatical cult worshipping some malevolent deity; they call themselves the Blood Hammer Church. They conduct rituals through blood sacrifices and have already committed numerous atrocities across this sector, making them longstanding adversaries of our Punishers Alliance."

At these words, Fordring's brow furrowed; he harbored a deep distaste for such barbaric practices that preyed upon ordinary lives.

The territories of the three universal civilizations maintained robust security, yet they could not eradicate every crime, allowing occasional fugitives to slip through the net for a time.

Unless a fugitive possessed exceptional combat prowess or the case was particularly egregious, universal-level civilizations rarely intervened directly; ordinary criminals were first left to local vassal states or mercenaries to conserve security resources, with cosmic powers stepping in only when the vassals proved inadequate.

The Blood Hammer Church sacrificed only a handful of commoners per ritual, many of their operations were thwarted by the Punishers Alliance, and they were not foolish enough to abduct victims from the Empire's direct colonial worlds; thus, their destructiveness had not yet warranted imperial intervention, allowing them to evade capture.

"I accidentally caught their trail at the Enia Hub and feared they intended to conduct a blood sacrifice here, so I shadowed them quietly to locate their stronghold. Unfortunately, I was spotted midway, and you know the rest. Had it not been for you, I would be dead." Raymond offered a bitter smile.

"I see..." Fordring murmured in contemplation. "What is your plan now?"

"Rest assured, I have already alerted my comrades, and they are en route to the Enia Hub. Until they arrive, I must continue tracking the Blood Hammer Church; I cannot let them slaughter innocents here." Saying this, Raymond grimaced. "But on my own, I am no match for them..."

"You could seek out the Enia garrison and law enforcement divisions." Aurora remained unmoved.

"I will file a report, but I am merely an ordinary superhero; they will not permit me to join their operations, and I cannot simply sit idle, so I must take action myself." Raymond spoke with earnest sincerity. "I hope you two might lend me your aid, and I formally invite you both to join the Punishers Alliance."

Fordring offered neither agreement nor refusal; many superheroes shared this common flaw of preferring to operate as lone wolves, and the man had clearly set his sights on Aurora's abilities.

"How about this: allow us some time to consider it."

After a moment of quiet deliberation, Fordring left the door open, resolving to report the situation upward and seek Han Xiao's counsel.

It was not that they felt compelled to meddle, but since they were within imperial territory and stood as allies to the Empire, turning a blind eye to a band of fugitives plotting trouble would reflect poorly; given their standing, preventing the crisis was preferable if possible, and for the Black Star Army, it would be but a trivial matter.

...

"The Punishers Alliance? The Blood Hammer Church?"

Within the combat training chamber, Han Xiao opened his eyes, gazing at the remote holographic projections of Fordring and Aurora before him, his expression turning somewhat peculiar.

He had been tempering his energy when the transmission from Fordring and Aurora arrived, bringing him up to speed on the situation.

Han Xiao sifted through the archives of his past life within his mind, realizing he actually retained some impression of these two factions.

In his previous life, the Punishers Alliance held modest renown as a secondary faction; joining it did not conflict with other affiliations, and some players had enlisted simply to indulge their superhero fantasies. By that era, however, the Blood Hammer Church had long been eradicated, with players encountering its storyline solely through instance crystals dropped by the faction.

While leveling alternate characters in his past life, Han Xiao had run the Blood Hammer Church instances numerous times; the cult's priests wielded heretical blood sacrifice arts as healing methods, swinging warhammers with fierce momentum, capable of dealing damage, tanking hits, and restoring allies, leaving a profound mark on his memory.

Before the Blood Hammer Church, priests who merely healed were mere novices; the true aesthetic of a priest ought to be that if the gods refuse to save me, I shall save myself, shattering the mortal coil with a single warhammer!

Meanwhile, the Punishers Alliance featured a side questline in his past life where they vanquished numerous villains and seized abundant spoils; among the unidentified trophies lay a relic of a mighty superhuman, within which a formidable sub-dimensional entity was sealed.

Years later, that creature would break its seals and emerge, inflicting devastating casualties upon the Punishers Alliance.

Han Xiao remembered it vividly because the unique boss quest for slaying that sealed entity rewarded two specializations: one significantly bolstered mental resistance, while the other substantially enhanced magical resistance.

The relic itself held immense value as well, capable of dramatically amplifying a psionicist's capabilities.

Observing Fordring's complete ignorance of the matter, Han Xiao's gaze grew deeply complicated.

You... do you literally stumble upon treasure every time you step outside?

——

(Caught a flight today, left early in the morning and only arrived in the afternoon; the passenger next to me brought a child, making sleep impossible with the noise, and I even got carsick during the transfer. After being tossed around on the road for most of the day, I am utterly exhausted. Originally, this chapter should have continued with another scene to advance the plot, but brothers, my eyes are so blurry I can barely keep them open, and I am simply too drowsy to write anymore. I had to cut the word count short today, please forgive me, brothers (〒﹏〒;))

ps: I actually did not place last in the mass update event; heard I ranked fourth, which shocked me. The veteran convoy truly carries the vibe of old timers after all ((*゜Д゜)ゞ”