Chapter 669: The Incident

The Regent's Wang Fu.

Just as the Regent in the study was handling political affairs, his expression suddenly hardened, for he saw the shadows to one side twisting, and the man with gold-and-silver heterochromatic eyes stepped out from within them. That face, which had always worn a composed look, now rarely carried a hint of solemnity.

"What happened?" Seeing this, the Regent immediately set down the documents in his hand and asked in a low voice.

After all, even when Li Taixuan and Dantai Lan had appeared at the Luo Lan Fu Prefecture's sacrificial ceremony, this one had remained utterly nonchalant.

"Pang Pang Qianyuan has made his move. He's using the power of the Dragon Bone Holy Grail to suppress the Fish Chi King, and he's also attempting to repair the void rift. If he succeeds, the crisis of the Dark Cavern will be resolved, and he will be able to break free of his bonds." The gold-and-silver heterochromatic-eyed man spoke slowly.

The Regent's pupils contracted slightly. It was indeed Pang Pang Qianyuan. In this entire Great Xia Kingdom, only this King-level powerhouse could inspire such wariness in the Regent himself and the man before him.

And for the Regent, this was clearly not good news, because once Pang Pang Qianyuan resolved the Dark Cavern problem, he would be able to appear in Great Xia, and then at the coronation ceremony the day after tomorrow, this King-level powerhouse would surely show up as well.

Although the Holy Mystic Star Academy maintained a neutral stance, as Great Xia's sole King-level powerhouse, Pang Pang Qianyuan clearly possessed the qualification to act without restraint.

Moreover, Pang Pang Qianyuan didn't need to interfere in any way. When the time came, he would only need to stand behind this king, and all the scheming and plotting would collapse on their own.

"What do you plan to do?" The Regent looked toward the gold-and-silver heterochromatic-eyed man. He knew the latter shared his stance and would absolutely not allow Pang Pang Qianyuan to come out.

The gold-and-silver heterochromatic-eyed man smiled and said, "There's no need to panic. After all these years of scheming, how could we possibly let that Pang Pang Qianyuan escape his cage so easily? That would be underestimating our methods far too much. A mere Holy Academy—over the years, we've destroyed more than one."

As he spoke, he touched the spatial orb on his wrist and took out a palm-sized black clay statue. The statue's features were somewhat blurred, and on its body's surface, black runes wriggled about like a black fish, constantly burrowing back and forth.

The gold-and-silver heterochromatic-eyed man glanced at it, then casually crushed it in his hand.

And just as the gold-and-silver heterochromatic-eyed man crushed the black clay statue in his hand, at the Holy Mystic Star Academy—

At the crown of that majestic Xiangli Tree—

This was the very top of the Xiangli Tree, a place guarded year-round by a Purple-Glow Mentor. At this moment, on the central wooden platform where green vines intertwined, a figure wearing the robes of a Purple-Glow Mentor sat cross-legged.

Suddenly, his body trembled slightly. A look of struggle and distortion surfaced on his face, and his skin writhed, as if a fish were swimming within his flesh and blood.

The next instant, this Purple-Glow Mentor opened his eyes. His pupils had turned pitch-black, appearing eerily sinister.

He extended his palm, stripped open his upper garment, and his finger traced across his chest, actually slicing the flesh there apart to reveal his beating heart.

He directly ripped the heart out, gripping it tightly in his palm. The heart began to pound violently in his hand.

And as the heart beat more and more violently, a drop of black liquid was seen being slowly squeezed out from deep within the heart.

That single drop of black liquid emanated an extreme aura of evil, as if it were a condensation of endless malevolence. Just this one simple drop possessed a contaminating power so strong that even a Marquis-level powerhouse could not resist it.

This drop of black liquid fell straight down, landing on the green wood below, and swiftly merged into it—like a drop of ink dropped into a lake, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

After doing all this, this Purple-Glow Mentor stuffed the heart back into his chest. As the flesh writhed, the wound disappeared.

A cold wind blew through.

A trace of bewilderment flashed through this Purple-Glow Mentor's eyes. He looked around in confusion. Just now, it seemed he had done something, but he couldn't remember it at all.

In the end, finding nothing, he could only shake his head, dismiss it as an illusion, and continue his closed-eyed cultivation.

Deep within the Dark Cavern.

An ancient dragon-elephant slowly pushed heaven and earth, healing that void rift.

At a certain moment, Pang Pang Qianyuan suddenly raised his head, his sharp gaze looking toward the void behind him. In that instant, he keenly sensed an extremely subtle disturbance in heaven and earth—a disturbance that made his connection to this realm seem to have weakened somewhat.

Under this influence, he felt that the healing of the void rift had also been affected, becoming even slower.

"This feeling of severance... is it the Xiangli Tree?"

Pang Pang Qianyuan's brow furrowed slightly. The Xiangli Tree of the Holy Mystic Star Academy suppressed the Dark Cavern, and as its headmaster, he naturally also drew upon the Xiangli Tree's power. This was one of the reasons he had been able to keep the Fish Chi King sealed here during his previous contests with it.

But now, his connection with the Xiangli Tree had become much more blurred.

"Something happened to the Xiangli Tree?"

At this thought, Pang Pang Qianyuan's heart gave a slight jolt. At this critical juncture, something seemed to have gone wrong with the Xiangli Tree. This was clearly no coincidence. But the Xiangli Tree was under the Academy's strict protection, guarded at all times by Purple-Glow Mentors—how could something have gone wrong?

Pang Pang Qianyuan's gaze flickered, then he suddenly looked into the void rift. Within that malevolent Black River, the Fish Chi King floated quietly in the water, and those ghastly pale fish-eyes that made one's heart palpitate seemed to be watching him with a hint of mockery.

"Pang Pang Qianyuan, did you think that over these years, only you have been doing some scheming?" The Fish Chi King's cold, hollow voice drifted over slowly.

Pang Pang Qianyuan stared at the Fish Chi King with a grim gaze. Only after personally clashing with these King-level aberrations could one understand just how terrifying and tenacious they truly were. Over the years, he and the Fish Chi King had contended on every level, yet even with the utmost caution, he had nearly fallen into the other's schemes and temptations several times.

These aberrations were inherently conglomerations of malevolence, so they understood human weakness and knew exactly how to tempt people.

In contending with them, the moment one showed the slightest opening and one's heart wavered, they would cling to one like an ulcer on the bone, silently carrying out their contamination.

Now that something had happened to the Xiangli Tree, this could not possibly have come from outside—it must have originated within the Academy.

Pang Pang Qianyuan's face darkened as he said slowly, "It seems that during these years of Dark Cavern purification missions, you have unknowingly planted quite a few seeds within the Academy."

The Fish Chi King said, "Pang Pang Qianyuan, you cannot win this contest of magic against me. Give up. Do you wish to become stronger? Although you are a King-level powerhouse, if you throw yourself into the Dark World, you will gain even greater power!"

"Your temptations are growing cruder by the day."

Pang Pang Qianyuan shook his head and said, "You're already resorting to some hidden tactics to obstruct me. It seems you're afraid of what I'm doing. Since that's the case, then I must do it all the more."

"Moreover, all you're doing is buying some time—but what's the use of that?"

"What are you stalling for?"

Pang Pang Qianyuan's gaze flickered as he said, "Has something major happened in the outside world these past two days? Oh—the coronation ceremony?"

"You don't want me to go out and attend the coronation ceremony? But what does that have to do with you? If I don't appear at the coronation ceremony, the biggest beneficiary... is that ambitious little brat Gong Yuan?"

Pang Pang Qianyuan's gaze grew colder by degrees.

"Gong Yuan is involved with you as well?"

Yet in response to Pang Pang Qianyuan's questioning, the Fish Chi King let out a low, giggling laugh, then sank its massive body once more into the dark river waters.