Room 404.
Zhang Yuanqing lay with his hands behind his head, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Blood Rose and Silver Dew Princess sat elegantly on the chaise lounge by the window. Originally, the princess's spot was occupied by Red Rooster, who was missing an arm, currently slurping down a bowl of congee with moon-glow fish.
Thanks to Song Man's treatment, his wound had begun to heal, though his arm was certainly not reattachable.
However, Red Rooster was optimistic and cheerful. As the adopted son figure of Elder Jiangbao, obtaining a vial of life essence to restore his severed arm would be no problem at all.
Of course, given Red Rooster's personality, even if his arm couldn't be restored, he'd simply laugh and say, "In the jianghu, who can avoid taking a hit?"
Then, he'd happily make chicken soup.
After the battle, Sun Miaomiao was bound and handed over to the school authorities for supervision. With the efforts of Song Man and the several beast kings like Peony Fairy, everyone's injuries were treated.
The students prepared the bodies of the Dean, Tiger King, Xie Lingzhou, and Liu Yushu for burial.
After handling all the funeral arrangements, it was already dusk. Exhausted students dragged their weary bodies back to the dorms to rest.
Everyone believed the culprit had been caught, and the academy was safe.
Zhang Yuanqing appeared to be spacing out, but was actually communicating with the Dungeon Team in his dorm via earpiece.
Zhang Yuanqing: "Tianxia Guihuo, don't worry about the armor. Sun Miaomiao is an elder's child. If Headquarters asks, let Elder Sun take the blame. Anyway, no one knows it came from the Dungeon."
Tianxia Guihuo: "Is Miaomiao safe over there?"
Making Sun Miaomiao confess and accept confinement was meant to deceive the real Armor and reassure the students and teachers. A tense atmosphere could easily be manipulated by the enemy, leading to a loss of control.
At that point, facing frantic students and teachers, would they kill or not?
Zhao Chenghuang: "Teacher Song Man is watching her. I've got a spirit servant secretly monitoring. We have to find him tonight, or the consequences will be endless."
Yuan Shi's earlier refusal to cooperate with the lie detector had likely made the Armor suspicious. Sun Miaomiao's use of the Ten Thousand Slayer solidified it.
Even if the Armor didn't leak this information to Headquarters, reporting it to the Dark Night Rose after leaving the instance would put everyone in danger. The only thing they could do was to flaunt the treasure to Headquarters to clear their names.
Xiahou Aotian:
"Yuan Shi Tianzun, who were the nine people in the cafeteria?"
Zhang Yuanqing:
"Asked Red Rooster. The nine present were Zhu Mingxu, Kui Yangze, Liu Yushu, Sanyang Kaitaitai, Ren Junzi, Ling Man'er, Niulanshan Xiaoxiannv, Zhao Feiwen, and Yuan Ting."
Tianxia Guihuo habitually began analyzing:
"Xie Lingzhou and Liu Yushu are dead. Zhu Mingxu and Yuan Ting can be ruled out. Among the rest, who's the most suspicious?"
While Xiahou Aotian and Zhao Chenghuang were still pondering, Zhang Yuanqing offered his thoughts:
"I suspect Sanyang Kaitaitai."
"How so?" his teammates replied in unison through the earpiece.
Zhang Yuanqing phrased it to turn his thoughts into words:
"Miaomiao must have been influenced by the Armor, which is why she lost control and used the Ten Thousand Slayer. I 'recall' that everyone was fighting except Sanyang Kaitaitai, who left early. He had plenty of time to influence Miaomiao."
"Also, it was Sanyang Kaitaitai who suggested watching her. If he's the Armor, that fits his purpose. He'll definitely make a move on Miaomiao tonight."
Zhang Yuanqing paused, then continued "thinking," "There's another reason..."
Xiahou Aotian waited a few seconds, then urged:
"What reason?"
"During the artifact crafting class that day, didn't Sanyang Kaitaitai ask three questions? I later learned from Teacher Mo Pan that using the Mirror of Destiny comes at the cost of fate being disturbed," Zhang Yuanqing said:
"One question is dangerous, two is life-threatening, and three… feels like certain death. But Sanyang Kaitaitai survived, and Teacher Mo Pan seems to have forgotten about it, not even checking in on the student who asked three questions. Is that normal?"
Xiahou Aotian and the others understood. Sanyang Kaitaitai had a special item that neutralized the Mirror's cost.
The cost of a Ruler-grade item certainly couldn't be neutralized by a grassroots Saint, but it would make sense if it was the Armor.
"Alright, we'll move tonight and attack Sanyang Kaitaitai," Tianxia Guihuo finally made a Fire Master's decisive decision.
Zhang Yuanqing pressed his earpiece, "Sanyang Kaitaitai's room is 612. Zhao Chenghuang and I will teleport there directly, and then I'll ignite a fireball inside the room. Tianxia Guihuo, you teleport in directly. Xiahou Aotian..."
He thought for a moment, then said, "You'll be in charge of lookout, suppressing any alarmed students. Of course, with the strength of the three of us, he shouldn't be able to resist our attack."
At that moment, Red Rooster finished his congee, patting his stomach in contentment. "Sun Miaomiao, that poisonous woman, has been caught. Why do you still want me here?"
"Miaomiao isn't a poisonous woman," Zhang Yuanqing retorted, annoyed.
"Hey, are you falling for her?" Red Rooster waved his hand, seemingly carefree. "Whether she's poisonous or not doesn't matter. I'm going to get another bowl of congee from the cafeteria. Do you want some?"
"I'm actually hungry," Zhang Yuanqing nodded.
...
Late night, 11:50 PM.
Room 612 was brightly lit. Sanyang Kaitaitai sat upright at his desk, his face calm but somewhat wooden.
Suddenly, two dreamlike starlight beams appeared in the room, solidifying into two handsome youths with distinct auras, Zhang Yuanqing and Zhao Chenghuang.
After appearing, Zhang Yuanqing, wearing the Yin-Yang robe, immediately raised his palm, creating a ball of fire.
The flames expanded, bursting with a boom, and another figure materialized in the light.
It was Tianxia Guihuo, with sharp eyebrows and a well-proportioned figure.
Looking at the three suddenly appearing people, Sanyang Kaitaitai showed no surprise, but rather a bizarre smile:
"You've come?"
...
In the teachers' dorm, Song Man, having just finished showering, walked out of the bathroom in a bathrobe.
Her hair was still wet, draped over her shoulders and back. Her bangs and sideburns hung damply, and her cheeks were fair with a post-bath blush.
Although her personal life was chaotic, she was indeed a high-quality beauty.
Song Man opened the glass cabinet where she kept her wine, took out a bottle of red wine and two stemmed glasses, turned to glance at Sun Miaomiao, tied up on the chaise lounge, and asked:
"Do you drink?"
Sun Miaomiao was bound by green vines, with talismans sealing spirit servants on her chest and back, and paralyzing toxins injected into her body.
"Drink, drink!" Sun Miaomiao said happily.
She liked to drink, but the academy had limited supplies and only offered beer. Sun Miaomiao, a pampered heiress, wasn't used to the bitter swill.
Song Man poured two glasses of wine, didn't hand one over immediately, but gently swirled them, setting them aside to breathe.
She first walked to Sun Miaomiao, pinched her thighs, shoulders, and arms, confirming they were soft, then returned to the desk, sat down, and while swirling her wine glass, asked:
"Do you and Yuan Shi Tianzun have... anything going on?"
Sun Miaomiao was thankful she hadn't had a drink yet, or she would have spat it out. "You, you, what nonsense are you talking about... Yuan Shi Tianzun and I are just ordinary friends."
After all, she was a young girl who couldn't openly face such topics.
Song Man nodded in understanding. "I see, Yuan Shi Tianzun is the abstinent type. Then my previous strategy was wrong. Alas, Zhao Chenghuang isn't bad either, but he's also abstinent. What a pity."
Sun Miaomiao's eyes widened. "Are you flirting with them both?"
Song Man took a sip of wine and chuckled:
"When you see outstanding and handsome men, don't you get tempted? Yuan Shi Tianzun and Zhao Chenghuang are both top talents of the younger generation. They're probably still virgins. Sleeping with them would be quite an accomplishment. Unfortunately, both of them are abstinent."
Sun Miaomiao rolled her eyes.
She inexplicably thought of the young master of Taiyi Sect, that sect leader's son who was also a Beast King, also craving reproduction and indulging in desires.
Just like Song Man.
"Yuan Ting said you were assigned to Qinfeng Academy because of your chaotic personal life?" Sun Miaomiao took a sip of the red wine offered by the other woman and asked.
Song Man glanced at her. "Don't hang out with that Yuan Ting too much. Picking up the habit of gossiping isn't a good thing."
She paused, her eyes glistening, and smiled:
"When I was younger, I messed around, thinking it was glorious to have men fighting over me. Later, they clashed and had a private brawl. One died, and the other was seriously injured."
"The seriously injured one was sentenced to death by Headquarters, and I was exiled here."
Sun Miaomiao "Oh"-ed. She saw that this enchanting and dissolute teacher, though smiling, had regret and self-blame hidden deep in her eyes.
So she didn't speak and criticize.
The two chatted, and the wine in the glasses was quickly finished. Song Man put away the stemmed glasses and smiled:
"Headquarters sends a batch of supplies in every month, all produced in the Spirit Realm. This bottle of red wine cost me half a month's salary to buy. I could only give you half a glass."
"You'll be leaving tomorrow morning. You, little girl, don't seem like a ruthless killer... Never mind, it's none of my business."
At that moment, a knock came at the door.
Song Man closed the glass cabinet, turned to look at the door, and said:
"Who is it?"
"It's me," a man's voice came from outside the door.
Song Man frowned, glanced at Sun Miaomiao, swayed her hips to the door, and clicked open the handle.
Sun Miaomiao was on the bedroom side and couldn't see the foyer, only hearing Song Man's conversation with the man:
"Why are you here? Tonight, I have to guard Sun Miaomiao. I don't have the leisure to keep you company."
"It's the last night. Don't you want to indulge one last time, Teacher?"
Teacher Song Man's lover? Which male student... Sun Miaomiao thought the voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't remember who it was. After all, she hardly interacted with male students.
Except for the Dungeon Team.
"That won't do..."
Song Man's voice stopped abruptly.
Sun Miaomiao heard a muffled groan, followed by the sound of someone falling.
Her heart jolted, and immediately, she saw a figure walk in.
"It's you?"
Sun Miaomiao saw the person's face clearly, her expression changing slightly.
...
Room 612.
Tianxia Guihuo stepped on Sanyang Kaitaitai's chest, his palm spitting red fire knives to sever his last leg.
Zhao Chenghuang silently put away his tool, while Zhang Yuanqing stood by empty-handed.
The battle ended in an instant. A wounded Mountain God, facing the three's joint attack, barely had the strength to resist and was subdued.
The ruthless Tianxia Guihuo decisively cut Sanyang Kaitaitai into a human stick.
"If you weren't the Armor, Yuan Shi Tianzun would provide life essence to restore your injuries. However, I think it's unnecessary now," Tianxia Guihuo pointed his fire knife at Sanyang Kaitaitai's throat:
"I can confirm, you are!"
Sanyang Kaitaitai's earlier words, "You've come," had confirmed the other party's identity to Tianxia Guihuo.
Scarlet Flame Fire Saber, not bad, he's already mastered the basics of that technique in just a few days. Although this guy is the shame of all Fire Masters, his talent is outrageously strong... Zhang Yuanqing shifted his gaze from the fire knife and looked at Sanyang Kaitaitai, saying:
"Do you have anything you want to say?"
Sanyang Kaitaitai lay flat on the ground, his hands and feet severed, but his face showed no pain. He chuckled:
"You've got the wrong person. Also, I'm not Sanyang Kaitaitai. I'm just a wandering ghost."
As he spoke, another cold laugh came from behind him:
"The Master's mission has been accomplished."
Tianxia Guihuo frowned, lightly flicked his toe, and flipped Sanyang Kaitaitai over, face down, and slashed the fire knife along his spine.
The Qinfeng Academy uniform tore open, revealing the flesh inside. A hideous, grotesque ghost face could be seen on his back, with vague features, slightly protruding like a flesh relief.
Surrounding the ghost face were blue-black blood vessels connecting to the spine.
The ghost face grinned, laughing coldly:
"You're all doomed. When the Master gets that armor, everyone will die."
...
Teachers' Dormitory.
Sun Miaomiao looked at the man in front of her in shock and said:
"You're the Armor, a member of the Dark Night Rose."
This person had handsome features, was stern, and had a masculine aura, like a young special forces soldier, the unique air of a Swordsman.
It was Ren Junzi.
Ren Junzi's lips turned up. "Surprised? Yes, for you, the most suspicious should be Sanyang Kaitaitai."
"What Sanyang Kaitaitai? I don't know what you're talking about." Sun Miaomiao shrank back towards the window, glancing frequently at the night sky outside the window, saying:
"You want the treasures from the Dungeon, right? They're all on me. If you kill me, everything will return to the Spirit Realm, and you won't get anything. Also, what did you do to Song Man?"
"I just knocked her out. Beast Kings have the ability to revive, killing her would be too much trouble," Ren Junzi said with a smile:
"Are you waiting for your companions? Yes, you chose to surrender to lure me out. Let me guess how many companions you have. Yuan Shi Tianzun for sure. Hmm, and Xiahou Aotian, Zhao Chenghuang, Tianxia Guihuo."
Sun Miaomiao stared in disbelief, her eyes widening. "You, you know everything?"
"I only found out this afternoon," Ren Junzi pointed to his ear and snorted:
"As long as I confirmed Yuan Shi Tianzun and you, I could figure out who your other companions were. I'm a Swordsman. Details that others can't see are clear to me, like the earpiece."
Sun Miaomiao's heart sank, and as expected, Ren Junzi said:
"Your companions won't be coming. The spirit servants they arranged outside have already been recalled."
Seeing Sun Miaomiao's mix of shock, doubt, and confusion, Ren Junzi pulled out a golden compass from his pocket and said:
"Under the rules, no one can resist. You must be curious about how I influenced the Dean and you."
As he spoke, he turned the dial, facing Sun Miaomiao.
Sun Miaomiao looked intently and saw a line of words written on the dial:
[Prediction: Because of Sanyang Kaitaitai's abnormality during the day, Yuan Shi Tianzun suspects he is the Armor. He decides to attack Sanyang Kaitaitai with Xiahou Aotian, Tianxia Guihuo, and Zhao Chenghuang at 11:50 PM tonight. To ensure success, they will go all out.]
What kind of item is this? He used this item to influence the Dean and me... Sun Miaomiao looked at the text information, her heart sinking once again.
No wonder Ren Junzi said the spirit servants had been recalled, because they would go all out to deal with Sanyang Kaitaitai.
Ren Junzi, with his Insight ability, saw her panic and doubt but didn't explain. He turned to glance at the clock on the wall and said:
"It's just past midnight. Do you know why I chose this time? Because my prediction attempts for yesterday have already been used up."
He stared at the golden compass and said:
"Today's first prediction: Sun Miaomiao, to save her life, chooses to hand over everything obtained from the stone gate."
The previous prediction was erased, and new content appeared.
Ren Junzi, holding the golden compass in one hand and lifting Sun Miaomiao's chin with the other, clicked his tongue and said:
"What a pitiful beauty. After I get the armor and get the rest of the things from Yuan Shi Tianzun and the others, I'll come back and favor you."
His fingertip swiped down, and the sword qi tore the vines apart.
He wasn't worried about Sun Miaomiao turning on him. Even if the vine restraints were removed, she was still weak. At this close distance, a Swordsman killing a Star Officer was as easy as pie.
Moreover, his prediction didn't violate the five restrictions. As long as a prediction came true, no one in the Saint stage could violate it. That was the rule.
The fear in Sun Miaomiao's eyes contained trust, as if she firmly believed that as long as she handed over the armor and the soul-calling banner, Ren Junzi would definitely let her go.
She reached into the air and grabbed a black banner shrouded in Yin qi, a set of bloody full-body armor exuding baleful aura, and a floppy little red hat.
More than one set of armor? Ren Junzi's eyes flashed with surprise and greed. Without any hesitation, he reached for the three items.
Suddenly, in his state of euphoria, he saw the carpet beside him sink slightly, as if someone had stepped on it.
The greed and excitement of seeing the treasures made him slow to react.
The next second, his chest felt like it had been struck. A sharp pain assaulted him, and the whole person flew out like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily into the wall.
The compass flew out of his hand.
"Woo~"
A shrill wind howled in the room. With two bangs, invisible wind blades followed, slashing his legs and tearing the wall.
Blood instantly stained the white walls red.
Ren Junzi looked up in disbelief. A figure had appeared where he had been standing just now.
Handsome, young, with a vigorous vitality and a hint of violence between his brows.
Yuan Shi Tianzun?!
"How is that possible, you..." Ren Junzi showed horror, limply sliding down the wall.
He almost instantly lost his fighting ability.
"I'll cut off your legs. Even if you put on Night Wanderer items, don't think you can escape. Well, just to be safe, I'll cut off your hands too." Zhang Yuanqing waved his hands, which were wearing blue gloves.
The howling of the wind sounded again, and then Ren Junzi saw both hands leave his wrists. He felt darkness before his eyes from the pain.
"How can you be here… You can't violate the prediction, that's the rule!" Ren Junzi raised his head, and beads of cold sweat dripped from his pale face.
You have rules, I have karma! Zhang Yuanqing smiled sarcastically:
"Since I knew you could influence people, I definitely had to take precautions. As for why I'm here, of course it's because I guessed you were the Armor."
As he said, since he knew the Armor could "influence" targets, he naturally had to prepare in advance.
Zhang Yuanqing's method of preparation was to use the Yata Mirror to create a clone and then put on perfect human skin. This way, the karma of the main body would be transferred to the clone.
He wouldn't be affected.
"You guessed it was me?" Ren Junzi's face changed slightly. "Impossible, you couldn't have guessed it. You clearly learned the cost of using the Mirror of Destiny from Mo Pan, and Sanyang didn't die. That's the biggest flaw."
"Oh, you know about this too. So that's how it is…" Zhang Yuanqing suddenly understood.
"Then that's right. So Mo Pan actually looked for Sanyang Kaitaitai, but he was influenced by you, right?
"You decided to kill Sanyang Kaitaitai after learning about the cost of the Mirror, right. Alas, the Mirror was right. This guy doesn't even have 'sex', he's unlucky."
"You did this to leave yourself a way out. If you were exposed, you'd shift the blame to him and push him out to attract attention. Not bad."
"But you still left a flaw."
"What flaw?" Losing too much blood, Ren Junzi was already showing symptoms of dizziness, but there was a surge of resentment in his heart, asking unwillingly.
"Xia Chaoxue is your biggest flaw," Zhang Yuanqing said:
"Although we also made two wrong steps, wrongly blaming the Dean and Little Rabbit, we at least verified one thing: neither Zhu Mingxu nor Xia Chaoxue revealed the relationship.
"So how did the Armor know about this? I've been thinking about this question all day, until Red Rooster told me the list of people at the cafeteria that night, and I realized it was you.
"Zhu Mingxu raped Xia Chaoxue. She passively accepted this relationship, and there must be hatred in her heart, more or less revealed usually.
"Others can't see the relationship between Zhu Mingxu and Xia Chaoxue, but you might be able to, because you're a Scout. Scouts are best at observing. You came here with the organization's mission, and from the beginning, you paid special attention to the students' movements.
"And Sanyang Kaitaitai is an Earth Monster. He couldn't see the relationship between Zhu Mingxu and Xia Chaoxue. But I thought, that's not right, Sanyang Kaitaitai is clearly more suspicious.
"Then I thought of the Mirror of Destiny's prediction. This guy doesn't even have 'sex', actually implying that this guy will die young, so I understood, he's already dead. How can a dead person be the Armor?
"That night, you saw Zhu Mingxu return early and saw that Xia Chaoxue wasn't in the dorm. In the second half of the night, you found someone entering the stone gate. You immediately suspected Xia Chaoxue. Unfortunately, you killed the wrong person.
"So you could only play along, creating the illusion of rape to mislead us. Hmm, the crime scene wasn't the dorm, was it?"
Ren Junzi was silent for a moment, then smiled miserably:
"Kill me."
"No, I won't kill you," Zhang Yuanqing said coldly. "You have items on you that erase spirits, right? If I kill you, how will I ask for your spirit? Ren Junzi, you are my first target to possess."
Ren Junzi's face changed drastically, but with his hands and feet broken, he couldn't even commit suicide.
Zhang Yuanqing used Spiritual Sojourn, his spirit leaving his body and crashing into Ren Junzi's brow.
...
ps: I'll fix the typos after updating.
I've read the readers' feedback, saying that my definition of prediction is wrong. I checked, and the following is the definition of prediction: Prediction is a forecast of future events, a forecast or assertion of things that will happen in the future.
Simply put, it is knowing in advance what will happen in the future.
Normal prediction belongs to prophets, the development of events has nothing to do with the predictor, he just knows in advance.
The function of the shards of the Compass of Light is to realize the content of the prediction.
So it looks like it's like "words become law."
The correct function of the Compass of Light should be to predict what will happen in the surroundings within a certain period. This is more reasonable. Strictly speaking, that reader's complaint is right, I wrote it wrong, but since I've written it, I can't change it, so it can only be like this, but I did write it wrong.