On the second floor of the southern tower, Li Mo stood against the railing of the balcony as Old Li raised his head up. As if feeling Old Li’s gaze, Li Mo looked down before flying off on his sword. 

Old Li sighed in relief as he hid a smile. 

This troublesome fellow’s finally gone!

What the black-robed man knew of Li Mo had come not only from rumors, but also the Farsighted King’s warnings. As Li Mo’s nominal older brother, the Farsighted King understood Li Mo quite well—and the more he understood about him, the more he feared him.

Li Mo had entered the palace at the tender age of six, but he had already displayed an unusual intellect then. Li Mo was far too intelligent, and his growth as a cultivator far too rapid. This shocked Li Sheng, and he deliberately made an effort to connect with his younger brother.

However, despite Li Sheng’s best efforts, the little child remained stubbornly cool toward him, as though he could detect his intentions beneath his guise of warmth and geniality.

When Li Mo came of age, his astounding talent left Li Sheng fearful. At sixteen, he had led an army to quash the beastkin rebellion, and had quickly taken on a position of power at Kongming Academy.

This talent had slipped past Li Sheng, occasionally making him wake up in the middle of the night feeling regret and frustration. Li Mo alone would be enough to counter a thousand troops, ten thousand soldiers! And if he were to make an enemy out of him, then the opposite would be true.

One of the reasons that Li Sheng had held off his plan for so long was in order to gather enough manpower for his ambitions; another reason was his fear of Li Mo. The reason he’d had the black-robed man steal the manual of dragons’ techniques was, in large part, out of his desire to counter Li Mo. Li Sheng believed that, if he were to one day meet Li Mo on the battlefield, that he would have no chance of success without that manual of tactics.

That was the reason the black-robed man had snuck into the academy.

Because the black-robed man had known that Li Mo was about to leave, his preparations were almost complete. After a rapid discussion with Cang Song and Li Furong, the plan was put into action. Cang Song wouldn’t be part of the operation; instead, he retreated to his own cottage to await the good news. The bulk of the plan would be carried out by Li Furong and the black-robed man himself at midnight.

The poor Li Furong still hadn’t realized the danger inherent to the all-seeing mirror, and she was destined to be naught but a sacrificial pawn. Blissfully unaware of her plight, however, she eagerly waited for the signal from the black-robed man.

Both she and the black-robed man were dressed in dark clothes. In the deep of the night, they rushed toward the southern tower. Two hundred meters from their current position were two dark shadows, swiftly following behind the duo. These two were none other than Shui Yun and Yun Ruoyan.

Yun Ruoyan was responsible for tailing Li Furong. As she watched Li Furong’s back from afar, she couldn’t help feeling a sense of shock. Li Furong’s cultivation wasn’t anything special, and even Lin Qingxue could beat her with ease. She seemed to be no stronger than an early fifth-rank blademaster, but when she moved at full speed, Yun Ruoyan could barely keep up with her even using her own peak seventh-rank cultivation fully.

Even such a seemingly useless person as her had her own talents.

After the black-robed man and Li Furong reached the southern tower, they hid behind a few shrubs by the side of the tower. Cang Song had earlier shown both of them the tower’s blueprints, so they were relatively familiar with its structure and inner workings.

“You can make your move now. I’ll wait here for you,” the black-robed man murmured to Li Furong.

“Alright.” Li Furong took two steps forward before suddenly turning back, her eyes shining. “Master, don’t forget your promise to me!”

“Don’t worry. When have I ever lied to you?” the black-robed man responded sincerely. “I’ll be sure to recommend you to the Farsighted King. Once he ascends to the throne, you’ll be in a position of power!”

Li Furong’s eyes turned even brighter.

The black-robed man watched on as Li Furong began climbing up the southern tower, a little regret in his heart. After all, he had trained her all these years. At the same time, however, he chuckled coldly to himself: she had been overstepping her bounds, and it was only right that she gave up her life as punishment. 

Contrary to Yun Ruoyan and Shui Yun’s expectations, Li Furong didn’t enter the tower and ascend from within. Instead, as though she were a lizard, she began scaling the tower from the outside at such a rapid pace that neither of them could quite believe their eyes.

Yun Ruoyan had seen Li Mo display a similar technique the night they scaled the walls of the Yuelu Villa, and she knew how much spiritual energy such a technique required. However, Li Furong clearly didn’t possess that much spiritual energy, so how was she still able to use the technique so smoothly?

“There’s a backdoor behind the southern tower. Miss Yun, keep an eye on Li Furong, and I’ll stay here and watch over the black-robed man,” Shui Yun whispered. Yun Ruoyan nodded and slipped away to the back of the southern tower.

Yun Ruoyan had been told of the backdoor well in advance, so she found it quite easily. After entering the tower, she ran up to its top floor. At the same time, Li Furong vaulted over the high railing and jumped down onto the top floor of the tower. Yun Ruoyan retracted her aura and hid behind a door as she watched Li Furong head toward the all-seeing mirror.

The all-seeing mirror sat on a stone podium, and Yun Ruoyan had only ever seen it once during the day. Then, it looked as though it had been surrounded by a patch of white fog. Once the first elder chanted an incantation, the white fog began to dissipate, revealing a single eye. As the eye opened, it would display the image that one wanted to see.

However, it was currently the middle of the night, and this was the first time Yun Ruoyan had seen how the all-seeing mirror looked at night. Its surface was pitch black, as though it were an endlessly deep swamp, giving her a sense of mystery and coldness.

At the same time, it made her back away instinctively.

However, Li Furong didn’t seem to have the same sense of unease. Her eyes were almost glowing as she strode toward the mirror, muttering to herself, “So this is the all-seeing mirror? It’s black all over, and it doesn’t look like anything special…”

The moment she touched it, however, a mysterious phenomenon occurred. On the pitch-black surface of the mirror appeared a blood-red eye, which stared at Li Furong with such intensity that she instinctively backed away in fright.

At the same time, a beam of red light shot out from the eye and hit Li Furong’s body.

“A demonic eye, a demonic eye!” Qiuqiu suddenly shouted from within Yun Ruoyan’s mind, its voice trembling in fright. During this period of time, Qiuqiu had been working hard on its own cultivation, and this was the first thing it had said to Yun Ruoyan in days. 

Even the usually calm Yun Ruoyan became anxious. Not responding to Qiuqiu’s comment, she focused all her attention on Li Furong, on whom the beam shone. As if the beam were extremely painful to bear, Li Furong’s expression morphed into a grimace. She tried to scream, her mouth wide open, but no sound came out.

Or perhaps there was sound, but it was blocked by the red beam…

Black scales began to emerge from Li Furong’s exposed skin. Li Furong’s tender, snow-white skin was slowly being eaten away by these black scales, and the frightening contrast between black and white, illuminated in an eerie red, caused Yun Ruoyan’s back to turn cold.

“Mistress, it looks like this Li Furong’s just a black-armored lizard who managed to obtain a human form!” Qiuqiu exclaimed.

Yun Ruoyan stared at Li Furong’s transformation in shock. Her hands and feet were slowly turning into claws, and her face took on an exceedingly strange lizardlike form. Finally, under the illumination of the red beam, her true appearance was finally revealed to one and all.

She was a massive black-armored lizard!

However, the red beam still continued to eat away at Li Furong’s skin. Even her black armor seemed to be corroding under the force of the beam, and Yun Ruoyan could see wisps of white smoke where the beam hit her armor.

The black-armored lizard writhed in pain, but the red beam from the demonic eye seemed to have frozen her in place. Not only did it stop her from making any sound, it also prevented her from moving away from the beam.

When the black-armored lizard had been completely consumed by the beam, there was only a gleaming black beast core left behind.

“That’s a black-armored lizard’s beast core—Mistress, it’s an excellent ingredient for poison!” Qiuqiu reminded Yun Ruoyan.

Yun Ruoyan nodded as she walked toward the red beam. Just as she was considering how to best retrieve the beast core, her gaze landed on the all-seeing mirror’s demonic eye. Instantly, Yun Ruoyan felt as though she had been struck with lightning, and a flash of white light blinded her mind’s eye. Amidst that white light was the shadow of a black dragon that slowly rose up, dispersing the light.

“Mistress, you have to hurry! The elders are all coming!”

As the white light in her mind vanished fully, Yun Ruoyan regained her sight. She looked toward the all-seeing mirror again and found that the demonic eye had vanished, and the mirror’s surface was pitch black once more.

The black-armored lizard’s beast core fell to the ground. Yun Ruoyan picked it up, dumped it in her silver bracelet’s pocket dimension, and hurriedly left the scene of the encounter.

The black-robed man continued hiding behind his shrub, waiting for some sort of commotion to occur at the roof of the tower. The lack of any noise or motion left him particularly anxious, and he was concerned that something had gone wrong when five elders began converging on the rooftop. The black-robed man nodded in satisfaction, then began retracting his aura even more fully.

The five elders had each noticed the irregularity in the all-seeing mirror during their cultivation and had rushed over immediately. As soon as the black-robed man saw them landing on the tower’s rooftop, he unlocked the southern tower’s front door with a key and slipped in.

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