Chapter 296: The Principal's Request

Are you willing?

Li Luo stared blankly at Pang Pang Qianyuan. He hadn't expected that the latter truly needed him to do something. What puzzled Li Luo was, with his own strength, what could he possibly accomplish?

Pang Pang Qianyuan was a king-level powerhouse!

If he stepped out of the Dark Abyss, the entire Great Xia would be shrouded beneath his oppressive might, and no one would dare act wantonly before him — not even those marquis-level powerhouses!

And now, this king-level powerhouse was saying he needed Li Luo to help him with something...

Li Luo's first reaction was that it sounded like a fairy tale, but in the end he still pressed down the shock and suspicion in his heart and asked, "Principal, what do you want me to do?"

It had to be said, the conditions Pang Pang Qianyuan offered were very tempting to Li Luo. If he could truly draw upon the power of the Three-Tailed Heavenly Wolf to empower himself, then in the half-year battle to defend the Luo Lan Mansion, he would have the qualification to participate — and Jiang Jiang Qinge wouldn't have to bear that pressure all alone.

Facing Li Luo's question, Pang Pang Qianyuan didn't answer directly. Instead he said, "I'll tell you about that later. First I need to tell you — the power of the Three-Tailed Heavenly Wolf is certainly very attractive, but you're clever, so you should understand that in this world there's no power that comes for free without a price."

Pang Pang Qianyuan said calmly, "The Three-Tailed Heavenly Wolf's ferocity is extremely strong, and your strength is far inferior to it. Once you borrow its power to empower yourself, that ferocity will gradually corrupt your mind, and without you realizing it, make you bloodthirsty. I call this kind of infection 'Wolfification.' And once the 'Wolfification' goes too deep, you'll become a wolf slave. At that point, you'll be worse off than dead."

"So I advise you, unless it's absolutely necessary, try to use this power as little as possible."

Li Luo's gaze sharpened slightly, and his expression grew solemn. Actually, he had thought about this before — how could power obtained for free come without flaws? So he had no intention of relying too heavily on that kind of power, unless it was truly a critical moment.

He only regarded it as a desperate trump card.

"Thank you for the lesson, Principal."

Although he had no intention of relying on that power, Li Luo was still very grateful for Pang Pang Qianyuan's warning, since the latter truly did mean well.

Pang Pang Qianyuan nodded slightly and smiled. "You're a clever child. Even if I hadn't said it, you'd have been on guard. But as your principal, I still have the duty to remind you. Of course, the most important thing is..."

"I don't want to have your mother settle the score with me over this later."

Li Luo could only show an awkward smile at this. Why does it make my mother sound so fierce? Actually, sometimes his mother was quite gentle... though such occasions were rather rare.

"As for what I want you to help me with..."

Pang Pang Qianyuan pulled the topic back. A thoughtful look surfaced on his face as he said, "Actually, even if I didn't tell you, you would still do it."

Li Luo was somewhat puzzled.

"At the end of this year, the major academies of the Outer Shenzhou in the Eastern Domain will be holding the 'Holy Grail War.' It's a grand event on the Outer Shenzhou of the Eastern Domain, and the participants are all the major academies within the Outer Shenzhou of the Eastern Domain."

"The champion of the 'Holy Grail War' will obtain a holy artifact called the 'Dragon Bone Holy Grail.' This holy artifact has been passed down by the Academy Alliance and possesses tremendous power. Its greatest function is that it can suppress the Dark Abyss."

"If this year's Dragon Bone Holy Grail can fall into our Holy Profound Star Academy's hands, then the Dark Abyss won't stir up any waves for several years, the Black Tide will be suppressed, and the students within our academy will no longer need to pay so many lives to purify the corruption."

Pang Pang Qianyuan's expression grew somewhat solemn as he said, "So the 'Dragon Bone Holy Grail' is coveted and desired by every major academy in the Outer Shenzhou of the Eastern Domain. After all, with its existence, suppressing the Dark Abyss will become much easier for each major academy. And do you know how much enormous cultivation resources and student lives that would save?"

Li Luo's expression shifted slightly. His experience in the Dark Abyss this time had been the deepest, so of course he knew the dangers here. Even though their outpost had ultimately been held, there were still casualties. And these fallen students were all around the same age as them. Before entering the Dark Abyss, they were still laughing and chatting with their classmates about the future, but by the time they came out, they were already separated by life and death. Those faces would never appear again in chance encounters within the academy.

Li Luo asked himself — if among these fallen students there were people he knew, like Seeing Yu Lang, Lv Qing'er, Zhao Kuo... what would he do?

At the thought of this, his heart grew heavy.

The Dark Abyss was a bottomless pit, requiring Holy Profound Star Academy to constantly fill it with students. Over the years, who knew how many students had been buried within this dim space.

But this burden couldn't be shaken off, because it was the very foundation upon which Holy Profound Star Academy was established.

This was Holy Profound Star Academy's responsibility. If Holy Profound Star Academy didn't suppress it with all its might and let the Dark Abyss erupt, the aberrations here would eventually surge toward their world, and the catastrophe that followed would be devastating.

When that time came, countless humans throughout all of Great Xia would fall into despair.

Li Luo believed that it wasn't only Holy Profound Star Academy that was like this — the other academies on the Outer Shenzhou of the Eastern Domain should all find the Dark Abyss extremely troublesome.

Yet that so-called "Dragon Bone Holy Grail" possessed the ability to suppress the Dark Abyss. If one obtained it, one could imagine how much loss the academy that got it would reduce over the coming years.

That kind of loss wasn't only cultivation resources — it also included the enormous casualties within the academy that couldn't be ignored.

For the major academies of the Outer Shenzhou in the Eastern Domain, this was simply a fatally attractive proposition.

"Principal..."

Li Luo said with a bitter smile, "You're not planning to have me go compete for that 'Dragon Bone Holy Grail,' are you? A competition at that level — I'm just a freshman, I'm afraid I'm powerless."

Pang Pang Qianyuan smiled and said, "Of course it wouldn't come to that... The contest for the 'Holy Grail War' relies on the academy's most outstanding students. You might be one of them, but it won't really depend solely on you."

"However, what I'm asking you to do does have winning the 'Dragon Bone Holy Grail' as a prerequisite."

"What you need to do..."

Pang Pang Qianyuan looked at Li Luo and said slowly, "Is that if by some chance our Holy Profound Star Academy truly wins the Dragon Bone Holy Grail, I need you, after returning to the academy, to pour some of your essence blood into the Holy Grail at a specific location."

"Li Luo, this is my request."

"I need some of your essence blood."

Pang Pang Qianyuan's face was stern, and he didn't conceal his need.

And Li Luo's heart trembled slightly, his emotions churning. Clearly, he had never expected that what Pang Pang Qianyuan was asking for... was actually his essence blood.

What does he want to do with it?

PS: I'm collecting some academy names — does anyone have any suggestions that sound good and imposing?