The night before (Friday)
The corridor of the Hall of Fantasy Beasts was deep and dark. The phantom lamps embedded in the walls emitted a faint light, illuminating Lucien's slightly tired figure.
"Lord Lucien, the Palace Master is waiting for you in the laboratory."
Lucien did not feel relieved at all when he saw his former colleague, who was shrouded in mist armor, saluting him.
Although he couldn't see the face and figure clearly, he could tell that the person in front of him was Pinkie Pie - there was no other reason, she was just too familiar.
Just like he was sure that the person was Song Baiyue the first time he saw the laboratory surveillance.
Biqi joined the Fantasy Beast Hall later than him. She used to follow him all day long. Even when she wore the Mist Armor to perform missions, she had never been so distant from him.
He nodded, feeling a faint unease. He walked through the long corridor and arrived at the laboratory door. The door slid open automatically, and the cold air and glaring light hit him in the face.
Flora's back was cold and distant. She was standing in front of the holographic projection in the center, repeatedly checking a surveillance video.
In the picture, a figure shrouded in mist armor is stealthily replacing reagent bottles, his movements quick and stealthy.
"Still no clue?" Lucien asked in a low voice.
Flora didn't turn around, still staring intently at the projection, her tone indifferent: "Tell me about your mission first."
Lucien's heart tightened slightly, and he immediately knelt in greeting. "The person who sent the communication request didn't have a terminal, and their identification documents were destroyed. I collected his genetic information and compared it with the citizen database. I found that this person was named Siren Hans in the records from ten years ago. He used to work as a meeting recorder at headquarters."
Flora finally turned around, a smile on her lips: "Go on."
"According to him, in... the Bright Moon Forest, he discovered a group of students who had contracted a Nether Horned Python."
"Student?" Flora realized something and her expression gradually turned cold. "Which student?"
Lucien's heart began to beat violently. He lowered his head and took a deep breath. Not many academies went to the Bright Moon Forest for trials during this period. If he checked the surveillance footage one by one, he would eventually find Song Baiyue. But checking them one by one was better than telling everything now. Maybe... it could buy him some time.
"My subordinates are incompetent. It's unclear at the moment. Seren Hans said he's just a forest ranger and doesn't know the specifics of the students."
"laugh."
In the cold laboratory air, Flora sneered and made Lucian shudder.
She slowly approached him, her fingertips moving from the corner of his eyes, to his cheek, and finally to his chin: "Lucian, you disappoint me."
A blood-colored thread silently emerged from Flora's fingertips and climbed up Lucien's neck. The tiny spikes pierced his skin, and blood stained the thread, adding a touch of bright color.
Lucien's face turned pale, he clenched his teeth, and closed his eyes to avoid looking at Flora.
His silence made Flora even angrier, but the angrier she got, the more ostentatious her smile became: "The puppy is disobedient and needs to be taught a lesson again."
Flora's eyes shone bloodshot as she watched the silk thread twist and tighten around Lucian's neck. The fine spikes precisely avoided the vital blood vessels. "Open your eyes," she said, clasping a thread between her fingers. "Look at how you risk your life for others."
Physiological tears blurred Lucian's eyes. In a trance, he saw the rainy night twenty years ago when Flora dragged him, seriously injured, out from among the trainees. At that time, the same scarlet strand was wrapped around her wrist.
At that time, she hadn't yet taken that lonely, high seat; his uncle still sat there. She held his hand and turned back to speak to the uncle up there, her tone almost flattering: "This kid is great. I want him to follow me in the future."
After that day, he finally escaped from the cruel trainee program and became the backup force of the Shadow Guard.
Tears rolled down her palm, and the silk thread suddenly loosened an inch.
She sighed, "The puppy has learned his lesson and can now use the same tactics as before."
Turning to leave the laboratory, the door slid open and Pinkie Pie was already waiting outside.
"Send a message to Number Nine, asking him to return to the palace to report. Just say... I have something important to discuss with him."
……………………
The cafeteria was nearly packed at this hour, leaving barely enough room to walk in the vast hall. Students gathered in groups of two or three, discussing recent competitions and gossip. Belle, with her signature Lan-san purple hair, managed to snag a window seat. She sat down, straightened her appearance, and waited patiently for Rin'in to return with her food.
"I brought two servings of rice porridge in case you can't get used to the synthetic meat."
Linyin came over with the plate and placed it on the table with great confidence. "Of course, the rice in the porridge isn't great, but at least it's not synthetic."
"Thank you." Belle took the glass and expressed her gratitude.
We came late today and the dumplings were sold out again. Linyin had no choice but to buy two pieces of fried tofu. Although they are vegetarian, they are still protein.
No one offered her a seat, so Linyin resigned herself to her fate. As she took a bite, she suddenly remembered the unfinished conversation in front of the dormitory building. "Did you just say that our school's student enrollment is poor?"
"Don't tell me you don't think so."
Belle cupped the cup with both hands and gulped down a mouthful of rice porridge. "The enrollment of Thorn Flower is getting worse with each passing year. The Fighting Department, for example, donates tons of scholarships, but the students who get in are... well, average." Belle glanced at the seats next to her and saw a few familiar faces who had just been practicing Vajra Kung in front of her. She swallowed the word "trash" that was about to come out. "Even the Mythical Beast Department is pretty average. There aren't even a few Earth-level Mythical Beasts in the entire school."
"Can students from other schools have groups of Earth-level mythical beasts?" Lin Yin asked curiously. Ever since she experienced the berserk Rust Centipede, Lin Yin did not dare to underestimate the Earth-level mythical beasts.
"That's not the case, but Thorn Flower isn't competing against just any other academy," Belle said with a touch of nostalgia. "Did you know that Thorn Flower's first principal was also a close friend of the Lan family's first patriarch? Back then, the Fantasy Beast Hall wasn't even that big of a presence, so Thorn Flower was undoubtedly the Federation's top academy."
"First Academy?" This really hit a blind spot in the knowledge of the librarian, the encyclopedia of knowledge, Linyin. "The library's school history records don't mention this part."
"Because... martial arts have declined." Belle sighed, wanting to say more. "The original Thorn Flower refused to offer a Mythical Beast Department... but later, under various pressures, it became the Mythical Beast Academy. As someone from the Lan family, it might seem a bit self-righteous to say this, but in reality, if it weren't for our close relationship with Thorn Flower, with the academy's current strength, I'm afraid we wouldn't even be exempt from the Ladder Tournament auditions."
"Can we be exempted from the auditions now?"
"Don't you know? The Fantasy Beast Academy has four major teams and eight minor teams. We are currently the minor team, plus the Fantasy Beast Hall's own team. A total of thirteen teams will directly enter the official competition."
Linyin scratched her head. She really didn't pay much attention to the details of the game.
So everything Belle said was all new knowledge to her.
"The top ten masters you mentioned before..." Since I've already asked, I might as well get to the bottom of it.
"Oh, it's understandable that you didn't know this, since it's the review by the Fighting Association. I think their evaluation is fair and objective, but fighting is in decline after all... Few people subscribe to their monthly magazine, and even fewer know about this."
Belle seems to have endless things to say about the topic of "the decline of fighting."
"Then who are they specifically?" Because of Wuji Zhenqi, Linyin still has a good impression of martial arts.
"The top ten masters are determined based on a person's physical fitness, fighting skills, the strength of their fantasy beasts, and their influence. So..." Belle gave Linyin a look that said, "You get it." "Although there are competitors at the organizational level, all previous masters of the Fantasy Beast Hall have been among the top ten masters."
Linyin quickly finished the fried tofu and began to concentrate on eating the rice porridge.
"Ahem..." Belle cleared her throat guiltily. "Well, actually, apart from my grandma and the Master of the Fantasy Beast Hall, I'm not really sure who the others are."
——Although fighting magazines like that are sent to her house every month, she rarely reads them.
"However, there's a little gossip I can tell you about the Master of the Fantasy Beast Hall." Belle lowered her voice. "The Fantasy Beast Hall was founded by the Frost family, and all previous Masters were concurrently the head of the Frost family. But this Master..."
Belle simply sat down next to Linyin and whispered in her ear, "She was the mistress of the previous palace master."
"Huh?" Linyin almost spit out three meters of rice porridge. Fortunately, Belle was not sitting opposite her.
She turned to look at Belle, who nodded affirmatively, "You heard correctly. Although the previous Palace Master was not married, in the aristocratic circle, unrecognized relationships between men and women can only be called lovers."
"So, is she a particularly good fighter?" Lin Yin didn't comment on anything else, subconsciously thinking that this was an inspirational story. "So, the previous Palace Master abdicated?"
"The official news is indeed as you said...but how is that actually possible?" Belle elegantly tucked the corner of her mouth with the cafeteria napkin. "How can someone give up the power they already hold? Not to mention giving it to a mistress who's not related by blood, even to their own child."
"So, they have no children?" If there is a legitimate heir, it should not be the "mistress's" turn to succeed to the throne.
"It's said there was. But then, the child disappeared." Belle frowned. "While this information wasn't a secret among the upper class, the guys who were all in cahoots with the Fantasy Beast Hall felt it was shameful, so they kept it secret."
"Is that so?" Lin Yin pondered. She had no favorable impression of the Fantasy Beast Palace, but this palace master, whom she had never met before, piqued her curiosity. "Then besides being a skilled fighter, she must have other extraordinary qualities."
"I suggest you don't admire her too much. She's not the same as us." Belle disapproved. "The Lan family and the Fantasy Beast Palace can't be said to be completely at odds, but they are clearly distinct. Now that you've accepted my book, you're one of us."
Linyin raised an eyebrow, took out the book from her arms, and pretended to return it to her.
"Okay, okay, okay, I'm wrong. I shouldn't have said that." Belle surrendered in an instant. "Putting that aside, weren't you wondering just now why Thorn Flower declined...? Actually, there's nothing to hide. It's because Thorn Flower was once a martial arts academy! The history of martial arts can be traced back... thousands of years ago. How long have mythical beasts been studied?"
Belle's tone was filled with pride. "The first dean was just as stubborn as Aunt Wanran. He persisted for a long time. Even when all the fighting academies succumbed to the pressure and transformed themselves into fantasy beast academies, he refused to even establish a fantasy beast department."
“So you were suppressed?”
"Of course."
Communicating with someone of normal intelligence was a joy. Belle became increasingly serious as she spoke, "You possess infinite Qi, so your understanding should be even deeper than mine. No matter how powerful an external force like a fantasy beast is, it's difficult to surpass an internal ability like Qi. The Fantasy Beast Palace has worked hard for hundreds of years, but they haven't developed anything that can rival Qi."
"But the threshold for true Qi is very high, right?" Lin Yin pointed out incisively that even a prominent martial arts family like Belle had lost its inheritance of true Qi.
Belle curled her lips. "That's right. Without true qi, two people with the same talent, the one who practices martial arts, usually has a hard time defeating the one who raises fantasy beasts, so the mass support for martial arts gradually disappeared. Plus, the fantasy beast industry chain is so profitable that almost all families, big and small, have joined the chain to make a living. The upper echelons gradually rebelled... and then it slowly became like this."
Lin Yin pondered, "It can only be said that... every era has its own popular products."
She had been in an orphanage since she was conscious. She moved from one orphanage to another before finally growing up peacefully in an orphanage with caregivers, teachers, enough food, and hot showers.
Unfortunately, the dean was just an ordinary wealthy businessman. When she was eighteen years old, the factory was forcibly closed by the Hall of Fantasy Beasts on ridiculous charges such as "excessive production noise and suspected abuse of fantasy beasts". Lin Yin was displaced overnight, and because her mental stability index was too low, there was no job to accept her, and she almost fell into despair.
She, and the people around her, have all been harmed by the Fantasy Beast Palace to varying degrees, either directly or indirectly.
But she understood that this wasn't just the fault of the Fantasy Beast Hall, nor was it the fault of the Fantasy Beast Era. In the past, when fighting was prevalent, perhaps the Lan family was doing what the Fantasy Beast Hall was doing now, and the situation of the common people was probably not much better.
She did subconsciously want to break free from the shackles of life, but Lan held not only the key, but also another shackle. Perhaps it was lighter, and perhaps she would have the opportunity to pass it on to someone else, but she was destined not to make such a choice.
She can learn Wuji Zhenqi, but if someone wants to use Wuji Zhenqi to tie her to the chariot of a certain force, forget it.
"Well... putting all that aside, we also look down on their style of doing things." Belle discovered that Linyin didn't seem to hate the Fantasy Beast Palace as much as she had imagined, so she changed her target.
But, it's so strange - she is a well-known certified mental patient, and her extremely low mental stability index has prevented her from finding a proper job and almost prevented her from going to school. How could she not hate the Fantasy Beast Palace?
……etc.
Linyin didn't know that all this was related to the Fantasy Beast Hall.
Belle slapped her head in frustration.
But, but, this involves the interests of the entire aristocracy, should I tell her...
No, given Linyin's personality, she would definitely tell the truth to everyone she could reach. Then, she, Lei Annabelle, would be forced to stand against all the nobles. The Lan family no longer had the strength to do that...
"For example?" Linyin wiped her mouth with a napkin. She was not interested and just changed the topic politely.
"For example... among their guards there's a 'Shadow Guard' who hide and do sneaky things all day long." Belle fanned herself to hide her distraction. "Even though our academy is small and remote, as a long-established and troubled academy, the Shadow Guard won't let us go. Maybe there's one among us..."
In the middle of her words, Belle suddenly opened her eyes wide and looked towards the aisle beside Rinyin. Rinyin followed her gaze and saw Song Baiyue holding a bamboo basket and standing beside their table without knowing when.
He was wearing a uniform of the same color as Rin's, his silver hair slightly covering his eyes. In the extremely noisy background, he was as quiet as a tree or a piece of moonlight.
A fragrant aroma wafted out of the bamboo basket. He gently lifted the lid and said, "It tastes better than the one in the cafeteria. Try it."
Through the dense steam, he seemed somewhat unreal, as if he would disappear into the air at any time.
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