“Is it time?”
In the script, Yan Zhen had locked himself away inside the shuttle airship the moment he boarded, retreating into the Fire Refining Starry Sky to refine his Gold-Silver Fire Sword Embryo under the guidance of his beautiful female master. He paid no attention to the world outside.
By the time he emerged from seclusion, he heard the news that Xiao Mie and Yu Yue had been beaten up.
The culprits weren’t from the Garo Kingdom, nor from the Sunward Kingdom or the Shadow Moon Kingdom. They were from the “Empire.”
The Black Horn Empire was the only empire in the eastern part of the Jialan Continent. Its territory was even larger than that of the three major kingdoms combined, and it boasted several Mystic Ancestor experts on the Grandmaster List. It dominated the east, separated from the three major kingdoms by several smaller nations, so interactions between them were infrequent.
The Black Horn Empire was also affiliated with the Jialan Holy Land, so its prodigies—beyond joining the Three National Guardian Sects—often chose to study at the Holy Land Academy.
The ones who had beaten Xiao Mie and the others were the Third Prince of the Black Horn Empire—or more precisely, his two lackeys: the General’s Youngest Son and the Prime Minister’s Grandson.
These three were the leading figures from the Black Horn City Mystic Academy. After boarding the shuttle airship, they put on the airs of nobility and summoned representatives from the other nations’ Mystic Academies for a “talk.” Their message was simple: everyone on board should follow their lead.
Whether it was the Mystic Academy or the Holy Land Academy, there was an unspoken rule of senior students bullying newcomers. To avoid getting picked on by the old-timers, the Third Prince planned to unite all the new students from the eastern academies to stand against them.
His intentions were sound enough, but the representatives from the various Mystic Academies were all prodigies in their own right. None of them were about to bend the knee and join the Third Prince’s camp so easily.
So the Third Prince and his crew decided to make an example out of someone to show off their strength.
And the unlucky “examples” turned out to be Xiao Mie and Yu Yue.
Normally, Yan Zhen would have been the one to represent the Garo Kingdom, but he was in seclusion. The Mingkong Heir had no interest in playing substitute, Ye Si was a girl and thus unsuitable, so Xiao Mie and Yu Yue stepped up in his place—and paid the price.
Yan Zhen’s emergence from seclusion just in time to avenge them would also mark the moment when Xiao Mie and Yu Yue became his little brothers.
This pivotal plot point was easy to play through. The Third Prince was merely a One-Star Mystic Master, and his two lackeys were just Nine-Star Mystic Scholars. Yan Zhen could crush their skulls with one hand.
…
Yan Zhen relaxed his mindset and stepped out of his room. He tried to recall where Xiao Mie’s room was but drew a blank after racking his brain. Instead, he simply extended his spiritual power.
At the Manifest Realm, his spiritual perception could stretch over a hundred zhang, enough to barely encompass the entire airship.
But just as Yan Zhen’s spiritual power spread outward, he sensed that Mentor Yu Xuan’s neighboring room was packed. Besides several girls, Xiao Mie, Yu Yue, the Mingkong Heir, Ye Si, and others were all there.
What caught his eye was Xiao Mie, wrapped head to toe in bandages, slumped dejectedly against the door with a lost expression. His cousin Xiao Xinyan lay on the bed, her aura feeble—she had clearly suffered severe internal injuries.
The atmosphere in the room hung heavy with tension.
Yan Zhen’s face darkened as a bad premonition flashed through his mind. He strode over and knocked on the door.
Xiao Mie, leaning against it, showed no reaction. Instead, Mentor Yu Xuan opened it for him.
“Yan Zhen?” she said, delight lighting up her face. “You’ve finally come out.”
Everyone in the room seemed to snap back to reality. Their gazes locked onto Yan Zhen almost instantly—even the dazed Xiao Mie lifted his head.
Yan Zhen brushed past Mentor Yu Xuan and entered, moving to the bedside to check on Xiao Xinyan.
Her mystic power was in chaos, and her organs had shifted out of place. It was a serious injury. Strands of medicinal energy permeated her body, so she had clearly taken some pills already.
Yan Zhen scanned the room and asked flatly, “What happened?”
Before Mentor Yu Xuan could respond, Xiao Mie spoke up on his own. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have brought Xinyan with me…”
Xiao Mie recounted the whole story.
It matched the script almost perfectly. The Third Prince had summoned the representatives from the various Mystic Academies for a meeting. Xiao Mie had gone looking for Yan Zhen and run into Xiao Xinyan along the way. Upon hearing about it, she insisted on accompanying her cousin.
At the meeting, Xiao Mie stuck his neck out and opposed joining the Third Prince’s group. The prince ordered him roughed up as punishment. When Xiao Xinyan couldn’t stand seeing her cousin bullied, she jumped in to help.
They noticed how pretty she was and decided to toy with her. But she nearly turned the tables and killed one of them, so in a fit of rage, they went all out and left her in this state.
Only then did Yan Zhen glance at Xiao Mie and realize how badly he was hurt too. Fractures riddled his arms and legs—it would take at least ten days or half a month to heal under normal circumstances.
“Eat this,” Yan Zhen said. He pulled out a freshly refined bottle of Tier 3 Healing Pills and tossed it to Xiao Mie before turning to leave. His burgeoning spiritual power surged outward like a tidal wave, swiftly blanketing the entire airship.
Such an act was a grave taboo, akin to peering through binoculars into the windows of the building across the street. To female cultivators, it was downright perverted.
Everyone on board—including the two Mystic General Realm mentors leading the group—clearly sensed the scan and furrowed their brows in displeasure.
Yan Zhen ignored them. His spiritual power swept the ship until it pinpointed the Third Prince and his group.
His eyes narrowed, pupils shifting unconsciously into slits that gleamed with a faint, eerie light. Dark starlight flickered around him, and with a whoosh, he shot off.
“Wait, Yan Zhen!”
Xiao Mie struggled to his feet and called after him, but it was too late. He gritted his teeth, set the pills aside, ignored the agony in his limbs, and followed.
“That kid Yan Zhen isn’t going after the Black Horn Empire folks, is he?” the Mingkong Heir said with a frown. “The Third Prince is a One-Star Mystic Master, and the others are high-star Mystic Scholars. No way he can take them alone.”
Yu Yue thought for a moment. “We should go too. We can’t let him shoulder it by himself.”
Ye Si nodded.
The three of them hurried after him.
That left only the girls in the room.
“Mentor…”
“You all go ahead. I’ll stay and look after Xinyan.”
Yan Meng’er, Yan Ruyu, and Mi Xue’er immediately filed out, catching up to the trio ahead.
The airship had five decks, split by the main deck into three above and two below.
Yan Zhen and the others were on the third floor, while the Black Horn Empire group occupied the first. The Third Prince had the room at the end of the first-floor corridor.
The Third Prince lounged in an ornate chair, legs crossed, deep in thought. “Sunward Kingdom, Shadow Moon Kingdom, Star Kingdom… Almost every nation’s students have fallen in line. Only the Garo Kingdom is holding out.”
The General’s Youngest Son chimed in. “Looks like we need to get a little rougher before those spineless types will listen.”
The Prime Minister’s Grandson nodded. “I heard that Xiao Mie guy isn’t even the Garo Kingdom’s strongest student. There’s some monster named Yan—Yan-something, Yan Zhen! That’s why they’re so mouthy.”
“Then we’ll wait for him to come out of seclusion and deal with him,” the Third Prince said coolly. “No need to let one bad apple spoil the bunch.”
As he spoke, all three sensed the spiritual scan at the same time. Their faces twisted in anger.
“Who dares to be so rude?”
Before he could say more, the room’s door exploded inward with a bang. The entire door panel hurtled toward the Third Prince in his chair.
