Chapter 12: Peaceful and Calm

Everything was peaceful and calm for the next few days. Su Yu did not tell anyone about his advancement into the fourth-stage. Instead, he focused on bitterly practicing the Source Opening Codex to stabilize his cultivation.

There were some side effects from consuming blood essence. Thankfully, most of the blood had been absorbed by the book. Su Yu's body fully recovered in only two or three days and stopped hurting all the time. He did not use the final drop of blood essence in his possession. It was still too soon.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

After all, he wasn’t sure if the Source Swallowing Technique would push him into the fifth-stage the next time he used it. It would be too crazy for him to make such a big leap in cultivation in such a short period of time. It was better to wait half a month or so.

Su Yu was in no rush. The entrance examination would only start after two months. If he could advance once every two weeks, he would be able to reach the ninth-stage by the time the examination arrived.

...

"Yu, going to school today?"

"Of course."

"I'm so jealous that you don't need to go. Can't you get a leave of absence for me as well--"

Chen Hao said instinctively before stopping. He asked curiously, "You're going?"

This fellow had been skipping school for several days. Even on the rare days he went, he wouldn't stay long. Chen Hao was greatly envious of that. Why was this fellow suddenly going to school today?

While walking, Su Yu said, "There are still over two months before the entrance exam. I'm going to look for the instructor and ask if I can learn a few more languages."

"You're learning more?"

Chen Hao was astonished. What a crazy person.

He abruptly recalled something and grinned as he said, "Yu, in the past, I thought you're amazing for knowing eighteen languages. But I just learned that we have someone even more amazing in our school. Do you know Liu Yue from the first class? I heard that she's even crazier than you. She had just gotten her twentieth language certification yesterday. How incredible."

Su Yu raised his brow, "Liu Yue? Twentieth language?"

He naturally knew who Liu Yue was. That was someone he frequently encountered at the library. In fact, she was the one who had shown him the books related to the acceleration of Source Opening cultivation. Unfortunately, those books hadn't been helpful.

He was aware that Liu Yue had mastered a decent number of languages. After all, she was even more serious than him in her studies. In fact, he would see her in the library almost every time he went there. Even so, for her to know twenty languages...

Su Yu could claim that he didn't care that someone had surpassed him, but he still couldn't help feeling somewhat disgruntled hearing the news. There were others in the school who had also mastered a lot of languages, but even the best of them had only mastered around the same number of languages as him.

He had never heard about the actual number of languages Liu Yue had mastered before. It was surprising that she was able to master so many languages, especially when she wasn't even Liu Wenyan's student. One ought to know that most of the top language students in the school had been taught by Liu Wenyan. In that case, who had Liu Yue learned from?

...

Su Yu did not ask any questions about Liu Yue. The two continued walking toward the school. The public transport in the city wasn't expensive, but most of the students would rather walk unless they really lived too far away. After all, walking could be considered a form of training.

On the way, they could see some uniformed traffic controllers every now and then. Looking at the familiar uniform, Su Yu started missing his father. It had been five days. How was his father doing at the Allheaven Battlefield?

Apart from the traffic controllers in their green uniforms, they also encountered the black-uniformed patrols from the Windcatcher Department twice. The Windcatcher Department was mainly in charge of internal security within the Human Realm.

"Hao, has the Windcatcher Department been patrolling everywhere in the past few days?"

"Yeah." Chen Hao, who was busy looking around, replied, "Didn't they say that the Myriad Race Cult has entered Great Xia? That’s why the Windcatcher Department has increased the frequency of their patrols.

"Hehe. Yu, have you watched any television during the past few days? The prefect has deployed the Martial Dragon Guards to patrol the prefecture and a lot of Myriad Race Cult bastards have been captured. There are executions every single day. Hundreds of them have been executed by now."

Su Yu was naturally aware of all that. He frowned slightly and said, "Things are odd."

"What?" Chen Hao smiled, "It's not like this is the first time executions are shown on television."

"I'm not talking about that." Su Yu frowned, "Those Myriad Race Cult bastards won't make a move for no reason. They would cause chaos each time they moved. But have you seen or heard of any chaos in Great Xia this time? The only thing that has been happening is the execution of those fellows. Are they here to throw their lives away?"

He found it odd that apart from being executed, the Myriad Race Cult had not been doing anything else. Was it because the Martial Dragon Guards were too good and were able to detect the Myriad Race Cult before they could do anything?

Sure, that might be possible. Shaking his head, Su Yu cleared his mind of those thoughts. That wasn't something he should be worried about. However, he was still glad to see the Myriad Race Cult doing badly. With the defeats they had suffered, they probably wouldn't be able to spare any effort on assassinating Instructor Liu anymore. The two talked as they walked. Before long, they arrived at Nanyuan Secondary School.

...

At the same time.

Outside the Nanyuan Secondary School.

At the top floor of a tall building nearby, a middle-aged man moved his gaze away from the school.

Turning around, he looked at a middle-aged woman who was busy cooking and spoke, "In Nanyuan Secondary School, there are 3,200 students, 210 teachers and instructors, with the students being Source Opening cultivators and the teachers being Great Strength cultivators. The principal, Chen Shi, is a second-stage Infinite Strength cultivator.

"They have fifty guards, with one ninth-stage Great Strength cultivator and six cultivators at the seventh-stage Great Strength Realm and above among them. Among the teachers, twenty-eight of them were at seventh-stage Great Strength Realm and above. In total, there are thirty-five high-ranked Great Strength cultivators.

"Additionally, the Windcatcher Department has a team of thirty providing secret protection to the school. The team leader is an Infinite Strength cultivator. The rest of them are high-ranked Great Strength cultivators. In total, they have sixty-four high-ranked Great Strength cultivators and two Infinite Strength cultivators.

"The mayor's manor is seven-thousand meters away from the school. With Mayor Wu Wenhai's strength as a second-stage Skysoar cultivator, he requires two minutes to reach the school from the manor."

The middle-aged man finished his report. In the kitchen, the woman continued cooking as she spoke, "Nanyuan Secondary School, the best secondary school in Nanyuan, also a source of talent for the various academies..."

"This time, we won't be acting alone. Our people will be moving concurrently in six cities, all aiming for the local secondary schools. Xia Longwu? Heh."

The woman's face turned cold. "Xia Longwu is too arrogant. After destroying a few of our regular hideouts, he concluded that we're completely worthless. This time, we'll let him suffer. Great Xia? Nothing special after all."

The middle-aged man did not say anything about her rambling. Instead, he continued his report, "There is also a squad of Martial Dragon Guards in Nanyuan. There are ten soldiers in the team. Nine of them have a cultivation level between fourth-stage to ninth-stage Infinite Strength Realm. The squad leader, Xia Bing, is a second-stage Skysoar Realm cultivator. We still don't know where they're stationed but we need to take precautions against them as well."

"Martial Dragon Guards!" This time, the woman was no longer sneering. Her face turned solemn as she said, "Investigate. Find them."

"There are too few of them. It's very hard to investigate them..."

"Create some chaos. Lure them out." The woman ordered coldly, "Have some people go outside the city and slaughter a few hamlets. That will be enough lives to force the Martial Dragon Guards to make a move."

At that, the middle-aged man hesitated, "A lot of us have died recently. The people under us are already wavering. If we continue sending them to their deaths..."

"It's not like they know they'll be facing the Martial Dragon Guards. Have the people from the Blood Fire Sect go. Those people have always been crazy. They enjoy killing the most. Let them test the water. The moment the Martial Dragon Guards are lured away, we move. Have our people on standby. We'll destroy Nanyuan Secondary School in one go before retreating immediately. This time...we'll kill all of them!"

The woman had a cold expression. "Kill all the students and teachers in all six secondary schools. Even Xia Longwu would be hurt from the loss of six secondary schools. They think we're only here to create a little bit of trouble? Little did they know that our goal is more than a few instructors."

Protecting Liu Wenyan? He wasn’t even their target! What was the point of killing a single Liu Wenyan? Even with the robust strength of Great Xia, it would still suffer from losing six secondary schools and everyone in it. The result would not be immediate, but in a few years, they would start feeling the effects of losing almost an entire generation of students from six cities.

The middle-aged man heaved a long breath and said worriedly, "We're both Skysoar cultivators. It won't be a problem for us to handle Mayor Wu Wenhai. But if Xia Bing shows up, we won't be his match."

The Martial Dragon Guards was the most elite army of Great Xia. Even a mere squad leader of that army would be extremely powerful. Even with the same cultivation level, it was unlikely that they would be his match.

"Don’t worry." The woman sneered. "If the Martial Dragon Guards really show up, there will be someone else handling them."

"Have the higher ups sent someone here?"

"Don't ask something you shouldn't." berated the woman before shifting her focus back to her cooking. She had been staying here undercover for six years. After this mission, it would be time for her to leave. She wondered if she would be promoted after her return to the headquarters.

Suddenly, a little girl walked into the room and asked, "Mom, that smells good. What are we having for breakfast?"

"Dear, be patient. Breakfast will be ready soon."

The woman spoke with a gentle smile on her face. However, the look in her eyes was cold with no emotion whatsoever. As far as she was concerned, this daughter of hers was merely a tool to cover her identity here. The man also smiled warmly as he talked to the young girl. However, his eyes were as cold as the woman's. The girl did not suspect anything and happily went into the bathroom. The moment she left, the kitchen sank into silence.

After a short while, the man asked, "What about her?"

"Kill." The woman did not hesitate. "But we can't do it now. We'll do it before leaving and erase even her blood. We can't have those experts tracing us through her blood. After all, our blood still flows in her."

Yes, that was their biological daughter. They had given birth to the daughter to cover their identities. Now that they were leaving, they no longer needed this burden with them. Over the past six years, the two had disguised themselves well. Nobody in Nanyuan suspected them. Nobody would have guessed that the hardworking couple with a daughter would actually be Skysoar experts of the Myriad Race Cult.

"Contact the others tonight. Get ready for the operation. Remember, slaughter everyone and pull out in three minutes."

"Ok." The middle-aged man answered before looking outside the window. A smile formed on his face as his gaze landed on Nanyuan Secondary School. That school would stop existing in a few days.

What a pity. Those youths are quite a vigorous bunch. Some of them might even have the potential to grow into incredible individuals in the future. Alas, they would no longer have the chance to do so. Xia Longwu...not even you would have seen this coming. After all, Great Xia has enjoyed many years of peace.

The more he thought about it, the more excited the middle-aged man became. He had been here for so many years. It was finally time for him to complete his mission. Xia Longwu had thought that this would only be a minor conflict. Little did he know that the main force of the cult had already entered Great Xia.