Chapter 299: 305. Chapter 305: Sudden Cold Arrows

305. Chapter 305: Sudden Cold Arrows

Hehehe……

Dean Friester burst into happy laughter.

"This little trick the kid played is kinda interesting."

Principal Leopold also sighed with feeling, a sense of envy rising.

How come Mesopotamian University doesn't have such an outstanding junior?

Regardless of motive, Lin Ke's move of feigning reality to confuse the enemy, stirring the grass to startle the snake, truly grasped the essence of 'when weak, appear strong; when strong, appear weak.'

Successfully disrupted the rhythm of the Tower of the Great Sage team and the Shadow City team, buying time until the Ravosioth Academy starship returned.

"Captain Grand."

"Lark-class" starship, bridge, Lin Ke's figure suddenly appeared.

Lan Ni. Tai Le, upon seeing Lin Ke, immediately stood up and greeted him.

"Captain, hello."

Even though some were unwilling inside, bound by the academy's rules, they still ended up saying hello.

"Mm, hello everyone."

Lin Ke nodded, starting with Lan Ni. Tai Le, he scanned each of the eleven crew members and said, "Please sit. I imagine you've been put through the wringer by me; this mission has been nothing but running around, so you must hold grudges. Speak up, one by one, openly. Say whatever you want to say."

While speaking, Lin Ke had already sat down in the captain's seat.

His eyes casually glanced at the large main screen, showing the images of the Tower of the Great Sage team and the Shadow City team.

At this moment, both teams had detected the trail of the Ravosioth Academy starship, yet they did not know Lin Ke had quietly returned aboard the ship.

The two teams remained in a standoff, remained on guard, remained waiting.

To prevent the two teams from noticing anything amiss, after returning to the starship, Lin Ke instructed Flandor to go out and continue causing trouble.

Every few minutes, a phantom disturbance was unleashed—a reverse application of 'the boy who cried wolf.'

"Hmph!"

The noble‑family disciple who had flung dirty water at Lin Ke rose to his feet, face flushed with anger.

He began with a cold snort, then loudly rebuked: "Linke Grand, as captain you're being passive and perfunctory, not thinking about properly completing the mission, just messing around with nonsense. You ought to give us, give the academy an explanation, not demand we say something!"

Lin Ke heard this and remained unmoved.

The starship's tower spirit had already been 'flashed' by him, taking on his form.

Conversations occurring in the bridge that involve Lin Ke are heavily recorded by the tower spirit.

Lin Ke had just sat in the captain's seat when he saw several conversation threads pop up on the intelligent‑brain screen.

Especially the remarks of that noble‑family disciple were directly pushed by the tower spirit as headline news.

"Anyone else holding this view? Don't hide it—come on, let's all speak up."

Ignoring the angry noble‑family disciple, Lin Ke leisurely awaited the other crew members' criticism.

Unfortunately, no one spoke up in support, leaving that noble‑family disciple feeling rather isolated.

He looked left and right, feeling thoroughly displeased.

In private, many complained about Linke Grand's endless meddling.

Yet when faced with the person himself, they all wilted.

Not a single person dared to step forward.

"Disappointing!"

"Not worth consulting!"

"Hmm……"

Lin Ke, seeing this, pondered a moment, then spoke openly: "Honestly, I don't want to get dragged into this fight over some saint's legacy. But this mission isn't mine alone—it belongs to all of us. Let's vote, minority follows majority. According to the vote, we'll decide whether to intervene."

After he finished speaking, Lin Ke took out ordinary paper and pen and asked Lan Ni. Tai Le to hand them out one by one to the other ten crew members.

"Those who prioritize the mission and wish to intervene, draw one horizontal line. Those who don't mind mission failure and prefer to avoid trouble, draw two horizontal lines. After drawing, hand them to me. You can try to keep your choice hidden from fellow crew members—anonymous voting."

After announcing the voting rules, Lin Ke was the first to put pen to paper, in full view of everyone, drawing two horizontal lines on his reserved blank sheet.

This was to show his firm stance.

Lan Ni. Tai Le followed suit, also drawing two horizontal lines on the white paper without any concealment.

Among the other ten mages, those who were as open as Lan Ni. Tai Le and trusted Lin Ke did the same.

But their numbers were few—only three people.

However, the lines they drew were all two, closely following Lin Ke's decision.

The remaining seven mages each employed various means to conceal their actions, so others couldn't see their choices.

Lin Ke had the ability to see through those cover‑ups, but he chose not to.

There was no need for that.

"6‑6, a tie."

In front of everyone, Lin Ke unfolded seven folded sheets of paper and announced the vote results.

This result was somewhat surprising, yet still understandable.

That's how it is with an even‑numbered team.

Unless Lin Ke exercises his privilege and declares that, as captain, he has two votes.

Or, acting with noble integrity, he indicates that, as captain, he will abstain from the vote.

"What should we do about this?"

Faced with this result, Lin Ke chose to pass the ball to the other eleven mages, saying, "Could it be that we have to split up again? Those who don't want to get involved in the dispute just sit out; those who want to fulfill the mission go seize the saint's legacy? That's not great either."

Speaking, Lin Ke's face showed a troubled expression, as if he were truly stumped.

11 wizards, including Lan Ni, simply did not believe this at all.

Lan Ni even suspected that Lin Ke had already calculated this result, which is why he called for a vote.

As for the purpose……

Lan Ni fixed her gaze firmly on the huge main screen, watching as the Shadow City troops suddenly retreated, withdrawing back to their own warship.

At the same time as their retreat, a cargo pod also detached from the Shadow City warship and flew swiftly toward the team of the Tower of the Great Sage.

"What's going on?"

It wasn't just Lan Ni who noticed this change; several crew members did as well.

One of them exclaimed in surprise, his tone full of bewilderment.

"Fulan Duo, what happened?"

Lin Ke watched the scene, not making wild guesses, but instead shouted at Fulan Duo, who was eager to try and preparing to carry out a phantom disturbance alone, asking for clarification.

"My lord, Fulan Duo doesn't know either."

Perhaps because the carefully prepared phantom disturbance had no place to be used, Fulan Duo's voice was full of grievance.

"Go ask Christina."

Lin Ke gave the order.

"Oh."

Fulan Duo acknowledged and immediately complied.

"Hey, hey, this is Fulan Duo."

Fulan Duo, who already had spellcasting ability, approached the Shadow City troops who had not yet boarded the warship, sent a quantum encrypted communication directly linking to Christina, and asked, "My lord sent me to ask you: what exactly happened, and why did you suddenly give up?"

Christina kept a calm expression, showing no flaw, and replied via mental transmission: "I'm not sure of the specifics either; I only heard the captain say that an order from above had us surrender half of our supplies to Michel's Tower of the Great Sage."

"What about the Saint's Legacy?" Fulan Duo further inquired.

"We only gathered some supplies that we considered high-value, and we haven't found the Saint's Legacy yet. Or perhaps the Saint's Legacy is hidden among those supplies we collected."

Christina replied truthfully.

If it exists, it exists; if it doesn't, it doesn't.

Seek truth from facts.

"Like that."

Fulan Duo gave an oh, then said, "I'll go report to my lord; take care yourself. When my lord went to see Galona, I also looked—how adorable."

After a pause, Fulan Duo added, "By the way, my lord designed a special outfit for Galona that will help her grow more safely, so she no longer needs to worry about her soul being affected by the shadow magic snake."

Having said that, without waiting for Christina to ask for details, Fulan Duo cut off the quantum encrypted communication and went to find Lin Ke to report back.

"Christina, what's wrong?"

The Shadow City captain keenly noticed that Christina's expression changed when she heard Fulan Duo say, "Don't worry... about the influence."

Therefore, upon entering the warship, he immediately fixed his gaze on Christina and asked in a low voice.

"Nothing, I'm just wondering why we had to give away half our supplies. We clearly didn't lose!"

Christina wouldn't reveal the truth, merely using the genuine doubt she felt to get by.

"Really, that's the only doubt, nothing else?"

The Shadow City captain stared at Christina, who, after periodically taking the semi-finished "Reversal" potion, had only a faint snake-pupil outline in her eyes, and asked very seriously.

Upon hearing this, Christina's heart jolted.

What is the captain preparing to do?

Startled as she was, Christina did not hesitate, choosing to repeat her previous statement with a slight shake of her head: "Only that doubt, nothing else."

"Really?"

The captain asked again, his tone becoming even more solemn.

Christina sensed something amiss, readied herself for battle at any moment, and silently responded to the captain's gaze.

"Let's do it."

He issued the abrupt order, and the captain's mood turned desolate.

As his words fell, the four second-rank wizards positioned before, behind, left, and right of Christina in the circular formation simultaneously moved against her.

And as soon as they acted, they employed killing moves, showing no mercy.

The two wizards in front and behind took the lead, both using the second-ring compound witchcraft "Nether Shadow Instant Kill".

Two thumb-sized serpentine phantoms, one from her chest and one from her back, attacked Christina.

The two wizards to the left and right restricted her, both using the second-ring compound witchcraft "Magic Snake Constriction".

Two baby-arm-thick, seemingly substantive pythons, one on the left and one on the right, entwined Christina's divine form.

One started from her left heel, went up, slanted toward the upper right via her buttocks, passed over the shoulder joint, and wrapped to her right fingertip;

the other started from her right heel, went up, slanted toward the upper left via her front hips, passed over the shoulder joint, and wrapped to her left fingertip.

Binding Christina tightly.

Intentional or not, even if Christina had heightened her vigilance and prepared defenses and escape.

However, she had focused most of her attention on the captain, not expecting that her teammates stationed before, behind, left, and right had already prepared to deal with her.

"Magic Snake Constriction" bound her, "Nether Shadow Instant Kill" broke her defenses.

All of Christina's preparations came to nothing, and in an instant she suffered serious injury.

At that moment, the captain followed up, rushing to Christina's front at extreme speed.

All that could be seen was him extending his left hand, placing his palm before Christina's eyes.

He then extended his right hand, striking Christina's lower abdomen, which now had little strength left to resist.

The captain's left palm bore a vividly lifelike snake pupil.

Being stared at by the opened snake eyes, Christina instantly felt dizzy and light-headed, the operation of her mental and magical power becoming extremely sluggish.

A slap to the lower abdomen by the captain's right hand made the tough divine body, unexpectedly gained from biochemical enhancement, turn weak, her limbs going limp.

From the captain's order to act, to the four second-level wizards bursting out from all directions, to the captain completely nullifying Christina's ability to resist—it happened in the blink of an eye, less than three seconds!

How swift this is!

How ample is the coordination between the captain and the four wizards who acted!

"Why?"

Christina stared fixedly at the captain's eyes, asking weakly.

"Don't blame me."

The captain let out a faint sigh, "If there's blame to assign, blame those who want to exploit your relationship with Linke Grand."

Having said that, the captain waved his hand.

The two second-level wizards, one on each side, bound Christina and immediately placed her aboard a shuttle.

The shuttle, with its flight program already set, flew toward the Grand Sage Tower warship that was currently receiving a cargo bay.

"Lark-class" warship, cockpit.

After the Grand Sage Tower team and the Shadow City team reached some agreement at an unknown time, with unspecified content, no wizard thereafter proposed to go seize the Saint's Inheritance.

As captain and the team's strongest combatant, Linke Grand did not wish to get involved in the dispute; the six wizards who wanted to complete the mission were utterly unable to match the two teams in strength.

They all quietly watched the large main screen as the Shadow City team calmly withdrew to their warship, and the Grand Sage Tower team smoothly accepted a cargo bay.

"Captain..."

Lan Ni. Tai Le suddenly spoke, not knowing what to say, but then stopped herself.

Lin Ke was about to follow up when he suddenly noticed another shuttle breaking away from the Shadow City team's warship, speeding toward the Grand Sage Tower warship at maximum speed.

At the same time, intuition pushed to maximum 'power' gave rise to two kinds of foreknowledge:

First, a ordinary reminder indicating that the wizard in the shuttle is related to Lin Ke;

Second, a danger warning indicating killing intent and murderous aim toward Lin Ke, as well as a mortal threat to his life.

"What's going on?"

Not bothering with what Lan Ni. Tai Le wanted to say, Lin Ke furrowed his brows and fixed his gaze on that shuttle.

"Is it you, Christina? What happened?"

Lin Ke muttered to himself, guess after guess arising and fading.

Flan, at the very moment Lin Ke's intuition produced a foreknowledge, actively transformed into a wind sprite and darted toward the shuttle for close reconnaissance.

The old master is in a difficult situation; with matters at hand, Flan serves his labor.

"Hehehe..."

Principal Leopold laughed happily, "Friest, Friest, who would have thought? Shadow City and Michel's Grand Sage Tower actually reached an understanding, intending to use this opportunity to deal with you Ruvo Sith Academy's rising stars!"

Dean Friest's expression unchanged, he calmly replied, "Scheming others and being schemed by others is as normal as it gets."

"Aren't you worried?"

Principal Leopold questioned doubtfully.

"Worry about what?"

Dean Friest countered.

Principal Leopold gazed at the shuttle obviously guessed to be about to enter the Grand Sage Tower warship, wondering who was aboard, while Linke Grand remained as steady as an old dog, utterly unflustered, and remained silent.

It seemed there was indeed nothing to worry about.

The little guy's heart is pretty tough!