Jiang Wei had been in seclusion all day and hadn’t left.
Yet Ye Zichen saw him return to the dormitory at night, then attack.
Could it be that someone else was behind this?
Although the thought occurred to Ye Zichen, he couldn’t truly confirm Dai Xiaoyan’s words. He had no way of knowing whether the one in the seclusion room was really Jiang Wei or not, or if Jiang Wei had used some other method to lead seclusion and go into the city.
Ye Zichen couldn’t confirm any of his suspicions, but at the very least, he wasn’t ready to say the one who’d attacked him was Jiang Wei.
“It really is strange though,” he murmured to himself. “If it wasn’t Jiang Wei, who was it?”
By now, Jiang Wei was already leading the Navigators’ to the arena. Quite a few other teams were there already, but since none of them were acquainted, none of them took the initiative to start conversations.
Once they found their designated seats, Jiang Wei set dawn and, as usual, held his sword and closed his eyes.
The Xu Brothers stood next to him, one on each side. They evaluated the other participants then knit their brows. “Is it really okay for us to keep this a secret?”
Jiang Wei didn’t respond, so Xue Lei furrowed his brows and continued, “Yesterday, we definitely saw someone else in the reception area, but he ran after seeing us. Why didn’t we tell them that?”
Yesterday, Jiang Wei and the Xu Brothers had made an appointment to meet up, and they left seclusion at the same time.
They’d planned to go downstairs and eat, only to run into Ye Zichen. By then, Ye Zichen’s soul had nearly scattered, and he was lying on the ground, barely breathing. Furthermore, there was a man in dark clothes squatting behind him and fishing through his pockets.
The Xu Brothers’ and Jiang Wei’s appearance had startled the man.
The man in black immediately gave up on searching Ye Zichen and went right through the wall. Jiang Wei tried to chase after him, but soon lost track of him, so he hurriedly returned to the dormitory, took out a Soul-Condensing Pill, and fed it to Ye Zichen. Next, he woke up the rest of Anti-Upheaval’s representatives and alerted Qiu Enhuai.
Once we saw Ye Zichen safely to the sick room, Jiang Wei stood on guard all night long.
“No need.” Jiang Wei didn’t so much as open his eyes.
The Xu Brothers could only let it go. They sighed and said, “Who exactly was that guy? Anti-Upheaval’s Ye Zichen is no ordinary person. For them to take him down and scatter his soul so silently, they had to have been a diviner at the very least.”
“Not necessarily!” This time, Jiang Wei opened his eyes. He shook his head. The reason Ye Zichen’s soul was damaged was because the other party had used a spiritual attack.
Ye Zichen’s cultivation was pretty high, and he was reasonably strong.
But he’d never had to worry about defending his soul before and wasn’t good at it. If you wanted to shatter Ye Zichen’s sea of consciousness, well, anyone reasonably proficient at spiritual attacks could do it.
The way Jiang Wei saw it, the odds that a diviner had attacked Ye Zichen were extremely low.
From the way the Divine Martial Academy had arranged separate living quarters for their yao and demon guests, it was clear they were on high alert. Practically all the participating students were sky supremes. Diviners were closely monitored. Beneath the diviner level, students weren’t seen as a threat.
As for rulers, they were difficult to keep tabs on, but you didn’t really need to. Their uniqueness and overwhelming power revealed itself whenever they took action within range of the divine capital. Naturally, then, diviners were the focus of the capital’s attention.
Under this level of intense scrutiny, any enemy diviner would have been caught by the soldiers of the capital long before launching an attack on Ye Zichen.
As such, Jiang Wei thought the odds of last night’s intruder being a diviner were miniscule.
He was more inclined to believe that, whoever it was, they were another participating student who happened to excel at spiritual attacks. That was why Jiang Wei was so tense. He examined each student who entered the venue. So long as the culprit showed up, Jiang Wei would recognize him at a glance.
Meanwhile, in a room hidden away somewhere, two people were talking. The room was completely sealed off, and even though it was daytime, there was no trace of sunlight inside.
A gaunt man sat there on a leather couch, another man standing before him.
“Are you sure?” the gaunt man asked in a raspy voice.
The other man bowed low and said, “I can’t be completely certain. While I was searching him, I was discovered. That said, I’m about eighty percent sure the boy isn’t the Yellow Emperor’s reincarnation.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s right. Everyone knows that the Yellow Emperor has two trademark divine artifacts: the Xuan-Yuan Sword and the Yiyuan Soul Pearl. The Xuan-Yuan Sword is responsible for defense, while the Yiyuan Soul Pearl is charged with spiritual defense. However, my spiritual attack easily penetrated the boy’s sea of consciousness. I encountered no resistance whatsoever; there was nothing resembling the soul pearl’s protection.”
“You said you were discovered in the process. They didn’t discover your identity, though, did they?”
“I’m sure they didn’t, but….” he seemed to want to say something, but he paused. Next, he lifted his clothes and revealed his back. There was a mark of silvery sword light branded there. “The man who discovered me left his mark on me. At my cultivation, there’s no way I can erase it on my own.”
The man suddenly seemed to realize something. He hurriedly explained, “Your subordinate immediately put a seal around the mark to hide its presence. I’m using all my power to maintain it. From a distance, the man who placed it on me has no hope of using it to find me. However, if I get closer to him, my seal might give way….”
“Come here and let me see it,” said the gaunt man. His subordinate hurried up to him. It was just as he said; he was using all his power to maintain the seal, and the silvery sword imprint was dark and lacking its usual brightness.
The gaunt man looked it over, then nodded despite himself. “No wonder you can’t erase it. This is a tracking imprint condensed of pure sword intent. Clearly, whoever placed it on you is an expert swordsman, and he’s at least a diviner. Throughout Skyspan Academy, only that Jiang Wei kid is capable of such a thing.”
The man in black smiled apologetically as the gaunt man continued, “No matter. I’ll just erase it for you.”
With that, he reached out his hand and placed it on his subordinate’s back. Soon, his entire hand was bright red, and his underling’s back started emitting clouds of green smoke.
Beads of sweat poured down the underling’s forehead. He gnashed his teeth in agony. By the time his boss removed his hand, the mark was gone, but his skin was burnt to a crisp. The wound was hideous and terrifying to behold.
“It’s done.” The gaunt man smiled calmly.
His subordinate forced himself to ignore the pain in his back. He lowered his shirt to cover himself, then said with respect and gratitude, “Thank you for your help, your excellency.”
“There’s no need to thank me. Consider this my way of punishing you. You failed at such a simple mission and almost ruined my entire plan. Fortunately, you’re not entirely brainless, and didn’t make this into an even larger problem.” The gaunt man snorted coldly and rubbed his hands together. “As for whether he’s really the Yellow Emperor’s reincarnation or not, we can’t fully discount the possibility yet. You! Go on and do what you’re supposed to do!”
