Li Mo, Yun Ruoyan, the Lin sisters, and Zhuo Yifeng formed a team. Guan Ruliu, Zong Yang, and that senior whose name was Zhou Lin formed a team. Pei Ziao, Rong Yueshan, and another northern-college student formed a team.

The other students all formed teams of three or four as they set off in different directions toward the interior of the island. Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan walked in the front, and the Lin sisters and Zhuo Yifeng in the back. Lin Qingxue stayed close to Zhuo Yifeng’s side.

“Did you see the fire at the crown prince’s manor last night? It was so frightening, and the crown prince himself died there!” Lin Qingxue whispered. “Brother Zhuo, how could such a strange fire have happened in Kongming Academy?”

“I don’t know,” Zhuo Yifeng replied coolly.

Kongming Academy was located above the clouds, and it was temperate all year round. Ever since the academy’s construction, there had been almost no recorded cases of fires, but a huge fire had somehow erupted in the crown prince’s manor late last night.

The fire burned particularly violently. When the crowd discovered it and ran over to extinguish it, the crown prince’s manor had been utterly consumed. By the time an instructor rushed into the sea of flames to rescue the crown prince, his body had been charred to a crisp.

“Sister Ruoyan, what do you think?” Zhuo Yifeng had been unable to satiate Lin Qingxue’s curiosity, so she turned to Yun Ruoyan instead.

“This fire is indeed quite suspicious,” Yun Ruoyan claimed. Her cottage by the cliff was somewhat far from the crown prince’s manor, and she and Li Mo had been practicing their dual cultivation technique at night, so neither Yun Ruoyan nor Li Mo had noticed the fire during the night.

Come morning, however, the first elder had urgently sent for Li Mo, and Yun Ruoyan went to the scene of the fire with him. They examined Li Qianxiao’s body, so charred that none of his features were visible. It was impossible to confirm whether or not he had received a lethal injury before his death, but Li Mo and the first elder had both noticed an unusual aura clinging to it.

“Li Qianxiao’s the crown prince of the Li kingdom, so neither the Li emperor nor the empress will let the matter go so easily,” Lin Qingchen sighed.

“It looks like the elders will have a headache on their plates,” Lin Qingxue added.

Everyone turned to Li Mo, waiting for him to speak. Except for Yun Ruoyan, everyone else thought that Li Mo was truly a member of the Li royalty. In their eyes, Li Mo was Li Qianxiao’s uncle, but he seemed wholly unaffected by the death of his nephew. However, because Li Mo was generally cold and aloof, this sort of response wasn’t out of the ordinary.

He didn’t originally intend on expressing his own opinion on the matter, but when Yun Ruoyan also looked toward him curiously, he began coolly, “We’ll certainly investigate the cause behind his death and bring the truth to light. This is all Kongming Academy can do; after all, given that it has authority surpassing that of the four kingdoms, even the Li emperor himself can’t do much to the academy.”

As they talked, they walked deeper into the island’s forests.

“Look, there are beast trails over there!” Lin Qingxue pointed at a nearby bush, which clearly showed signs of beast activity. A commotion occurred ahead of them, and they could all hear the howling of beasts from the front.

“Based on the noise, it’s likely a pack of low-ranked beasts and a mid-rank beast,” Zhuo Yifeng stated.

“Let’s have a look,” Lin Qingchen and Lin Qingxue said simultaneously.

Li Mo’s stated goal was for them to obtain three mid-rank beast cores as well as ten low-rank beast cores. For such a simple task, neither Li Mo, Yun Ruoyan, nor Zhuo Yifeng needed to participate. Indeed, Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan had no need to participate in such a simple training exercise, but Li Mo had to be there as the instructor, and Yun Ruoyan wanted to accompany Li Mo and take the opportunity to train her two cousins.

Their group quickly encountered about a dozen low-rank demon-eyed wolves surrounding a crimsonflame tiger. In general, low-rank beasts wouldn’t dare to provoke mid-rank beasts unless they had absolute numerical superiority.

No matter how strong their bodies were, neither low- nor mid-rank magical beasts were able to use spiritual attacks. As a result, their battles were restricted to physical brawls. Quite a few of the demon-eyed wolves had been killed by the crimsonflame tiger, their bodies tossed far afield. The remaining wolves were all growling as they swarmed toward the tiger, biting him until he was bloody all over.

The Lin sisters saw the tiger lower its head and break the neck of one of the wolves with its jaws. The other wolves, seeing their comrade killed in the blink of an eye, attacked the tiger even more ferociously.

“It looks like neither of us will have to do anything to get these beast cores,” Lin Qingxue murmured, smiling. “Once they both wear each other down, we’ll swoop in and snatch everything up.”

However, Zhuo Yifeng had just aimed and shot at the crimsonflame tiger’s head with an arrow. The snowy-white arrowhead sparked as it came in contact with the eye, shooting directly into the tiger’s forehead. The tiger only had time to howl, its amber eyes staring despairingly in Zhuo Yifeng’s direction, before its massive frame fell to the ground.

The wolves all stilled, then turned toward Yun Ruoyan’s group. The strength of the aura that they released immediately caused the wolves to tremble; they began dashing toward the other end of the forest, clearly wanting to avoid any confrontation.

Zhuo Yifeng shot out one more arrow, thudding into the ground right where the wolf pack was headed. With another two arrows, he blocked off their movement to the left and to the right, cutting off any hope the wolves had for escaping.

Having finished his preparations, he then turned toward Lin Qingxue. Although he hadn’t spoken, his gestures and eyes were both telling Lin Qingxue that she wouldn’t be able to sit back and do nothing.

“Qingchen, Qingxue,” Yun Ruoyan called out. “The whole point of the training is to increase our combat experience. These wolves are relatively strong for low-rank beasts, so they’ll be the perfect targets for you.”

The Lin sisters both took out their weapons and began walking toward the dozen wolves.

“I want to act on my own, so I’ll leave Qingchen and Qingxue for you to handle,” Zhuo Yifeng said to Yun Ruoyan. The spiritual energy within this realm was denser than it was outside, and Zhuo Yifeng intended on finding a quiet, secluded spot to begin working with the spiritual shield and whip that he had just received from the first elder.

Yun Ruoyan nodded at him, and Zhuo Yifeng turned to leave.

Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo stood by the side as they watched Lin Qingxue and Lin Qingchen handle the dozen-odd wolves. As seventh-rank blademasters, fighting a dozen such low-ranked beasts at the same time was still a relatively challenging exercise, and Yun Ruoyan had to be careful not to let either of them get injured.

“Yan’er, there’s no need to be so worried.” Li Mo patted her on the back. “If you’re too protective of them, you’ll stunt their growth.”

Yun Ruoyan sighed. “I know, but I can’t help becoming anxious. They’re both family to me, and I don’t want either of them to get hurt at all.”

“Sister, be careful!” Right then, a demon-eyed wolf pounced on Lin Qingchen from the back. Lin Qingxue reacted quickly enough to toss the sword in her hands at it. Because of how close the wolf was to her sister, and because Lin Qingxue had used the entirety of her strength, that sword easily slid into its eye.

Lin Qingchen also reacted relatively quickly; the moment Lin Qingxue tossed her sword at the wolf, she turned around, grabbed the sword that had flown into its eye, and tugged it out. The demon-eyed wolf fell to the ground with a howl, spasming a few times before turning lifeless.

Before one of the other wolves that had been closing in on them could pounce on her, Lin Qingchen rushed toward it with her sword in hand. Infusing her spiritual energy into the sword, her charge was imposing enough to cause the wolf to immediately slump to the ground, begging for mercy.

“Hahaha!” Lin Qingxue couldn’t help laugh at the comical sight. “For a demon-eyed wolf to be begging like a dog, haha!”

While Lin Qingxue laughed, Lin Qingchen’s sword unerringly thrust into the wolf’s head. She turned to her sister, and her eyes widened. “Qingxue, be careful!” 

A demon-eyed wolf had stealthily crept up behind Lin Qingxue, and it leapt toward her back. Lin Qingxue couldn’t react quickly enough to dodge the blow, and Lin Qingchen wouldn’t be able to reach her sister in time. 

Yun Ruoyan soared into the air, a red aura flashing by her feet, and rushed to Lin Qingxue’s side. A white beam of spiritual energy traced an arc in mid-air and severed the wolf’s head from its body.

“Sister Ruoyan!” Lin Qingxue called out in shock. “My goodness!”

“While in battle, you can’t be distracted,” Yun Ruoyan lectured seriously. “The moment you lose focus could be the moment you lose your life. Don’t let this happen again.”

Lin Qingchen frowned at her sister, and Lin Qingxue stuck out her tongue in response.

Yun Ruoyan flew back to Li Mo’s side as she kept guard over her cousins.

“Yan’er, your swordflight’s vastly improved,” Li Mo commented.

Only then did Yun Ruoyan process what she had done. In her rush to get to Lin Qingxue in time, she had summoned her Scarlet Eye and soared on it in a single fluid gesture, without any of the stiff and ungainly motions that she had displayed in the past.

“To think this was all it took…” Yun Ruoyan was equally excited by her accomplishment: from now on, she would be able to wander where she pleased, a dream that she had long held but only now achieved.

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