Chapter 323: Princess of the Night Mystics

"I apologize, Master Lin, Dojo Leader Hong. I'm half-winged. Please believe me when I say that I didn't sneak into the dojo as a spy or anything similar. I simply arrived at Earth coincidentally while avoiding my pursuers, and I was fortunate enough to enter the dojo. While training in the dojo, I never bore any intention to harm the dojo, my masters, or any of my fellow students!"

He spread his wings wide, and his irises turned gold.

Ye Xianchen likewise strode forward. Runic inscriptions crept up her arms, and a sharp, black tail emerged from her lower back. "Master Lin, Dojo Leader Zhang, I'm half-night spirit. Escaping all the way to Earth has been a harrowing journey, and we simply didn't dare to reveal ourselves for, for fear of further discrimination..."

Tears sparkled in Xianchen's eyes, and her voice fell with every word.

"Hold it, hold it right there! All I told you was to explain yourselves properly—I never said you'd be punished harshly!" Lin Xiu couldn't bear to play the bad guy any longer. He spoke to them in a far less demanding tone than before, explaining that they had little to fear.

After all, given that Zhang Lie himself had been willing to overlook the deception meant that there was surely no malicious intent behind it. It would suffice to give them a minor punishment, nothing more.

𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Really? Thank you, Master Lin, thank you, Dojo Leader Zhang!" the two apprentices murmured in relief, but with a few notes of worry in their voice. After all, they didn't know how Zhang Lie would take their deception; they didn't realize that he had already found out.

Lin Xiu and Zhang Hong naturally realized what the two of them were thinking.

"There's no need to be so worried. Did you really think you could keep this hidden from the dojo leader? Come, tell us about the powers you've kept from us," Zhang Hong suggested. The two youths relaxed tremendously after hearing her words.

Right—how could the dojo leader not have seen through their deception? Perhaps he had already done so the moment they joined the dojo. Of course, that had to be the case! Otherwise, he wouldn't have summoned Lin Xiu and Zhang Hong to talk to them.

"Yes, Dojo Leader! I belong to an offshoot of the white-winged race, the hidden-winged. As an adult, I'll have the ability to shroud myself in invisibility by refracting the light around me. My father was a member of the hidden-winged, and my mother was a human. My clan disapproved of their union, and they were ultimately both killed by the clan," Jun Jiuxiao recounted, his somber tone and sharp, piercing eyes causing Lin Xiu and Zhang Hong to feel sympathetic toward him.

No wonder he had been so excited to see Zhang Lie kill Phoenix—no wonder he had trained so fervently, so recklessly, as though his very life depended on it!

Jun Jiuxiao's story was harrowing and all too believable. After all, before Martial Sage Hong Tianqi broke through, and before Zhang Lie developed limit fragments and became the champion of the Void Cup as a result, humans were widely recognized to be one of the weakest races in the Milky Way.

Even those members of the alien races who interacted with the humans would be laughed at by their compatriots, let alone those who would dare to start a family with them.

"Don't worry. Follow your master well, and one day, I'm sure the entirety of the hidden-winged will beg you for your mercy and forgiveness," Lin Xiu reassured him.

He had escaped from tragedy and discrimination of the worst kind; was it a surprise he didn't want to reveal his identity? Perhaps most curiously, he had managed to obtain basic limit fragments by breaking through following the human approach.

In other words, once the winged figured out what happened to him and why he was able to use the humans' approach to break through, they would quickly be able to amass limit fragments for their race. Unfortunately for the winged, however, they weren't in the first batch of races slated for research.

After Jun Jiuxiao told his story, everyone turned to Ye Xianchen.

"The night mystics are an offshoot of the nightdemons," she began.

"The night mystics!" Ye Xianchen's first sentence alone startled Lin Xiu and Zhang Hong. Both the nightdemons and night spirits had research delegations in the Zenith Dojo, and the night mystics clearly seemed to be a related race.

"Yes, the night mystics," Ye Xianchen continued. "Our eyes are our racial gift, granting us night vision superior to our vision in daylight. When shrouded in darkness, our strength can even be enhanced up to threefold. My father was once a high-ranking member of the clan. His marriage with my mother hadn't been a big problem—at least, not until I was born."

Ye Xianchen's eyes turned red, as though she were recalling some unhappy childhood memories.

Zhang Hong couldn't help exclaiming in shock, "Ah, it's you! You're the princess of the night mystics, the one whom the dojo leader spent so much time searching for?"

Zhang Hong stared at her with incredulity. The name 'night mystics' had rung a bell in her mind, but she didn't make the connection until Ye Xianchen continued to speak.

"The night mystics' princess...? The person we've been looking for for a few months was right by our side all along! Just how much luckier can Zhang Lie get?" Lin Xiu murmured.

Indeed, it was incredible luck that Zhang Lie had chosen her as one of his apprentices.

He continued, "Xianchen, we can't change what happened in the past, but believe me, as Zhang Lie's apprentice, you'll definitely be able to grow stronger with him than you would ever grow with the night mystics!"