“Wanjiao has been traveling with us the whole way. The three of us have done nothing. Windstill — you can’t make an accusation like that without evidence.” Blue Wolf did find these two attacks suspicious, but there was no way he could just accept that Wanjiao was the one behind them.

“Calm down. It may be that this is one of the enemy’s misdirection ploys.” Luoluo also stepped forward to try to defuse it.

“Show me evidence. Otherwise I absolutely will not accept this.” Wanjiao’s face twisted very slightly, forcing down anger as he defended himself.

“If Tianzhu and Long Xuan hadn’t warned me to pay special attention to one particular anomaly, I would still be in the dark. Forget this most recent attack for a moment — let’s all think back. Back at the beginning, at my own residence’s banquet in Greenvalley City, every single person in the hall was suddenly unable to move — as if we had been paralyzed by that Star Diamond Necklace which was supposedly the Revenge Domain Emperor’s. During that particular attack, the enemy’s real target was Brother Titan. It was only because Gray Wolf turned out to be a divine beast that the target got out — and the attackers had to improvise, faking a robbery of the divine blood… If the divine blood had been the original target, none of that fake-Revenge-Domain-Emperor business would have been necessary. They took the divine blood, they took Zhiguang, they tried to poison my judgment and to bend my rage toward the Revenge Domain Emperor. And who was the very first person to shout ‘Revenge Domain Emperor’ — Wanjiao. That was you.” The Windstill national ruler was staring at Wanjiao, cold as ice.

“That’s not right — the first person to shout ‘Revenge Domain Emperor’ was me.” Blue Wolf thought back, and corrected himself.

“It wasn’t you. Before you did, Wanjiao made a very small exclamation — and you, taking his cue, immediately agreed and shouted it out. So the real one who steered our attention toward the Revenge Domain Emperor was Wanjiao. You merely picked up on his suggestion and echoed it.” The moment Windstill said it, every Sky-rank in the hall thought back — and yes, that was how it had gone. Before Blue Wolf spoke, Wanjiao had let out a small, startled sound.

Once Wanjiao had shouted it, the room’s minds had gone into disarray.

Plenty of people believed it, actually.

It was only Windstill’s immediate denial that had allowed a shred of doubt to reappear.

Every eye in the hall turned to Wanjiao to see what he had to say. If he had a good answer, then Windstill’s suspicion did not, by itself, seal his guilt.

Wanjiao’s face darkened when he heard it: “Based on one unconscious yelp, you’re pinning me as a traitor? Are you out of your mind?”

Windstill fought down his fury and forced a cold smile: “I haven’t lost my mind. But if I had, that would be exactly what all of you were hoping for. What none of you seems to remember is that Windstill has survived his share of storms. Yes, your blow was hard — you took my beloved Zhiguang, you turned Fish Tide, who had lain in wait beside me for years, into a traitor, and you tried to put me in my grave. Bad luck for you — your treachery came up empty.”

Luoluo had always been closer to Wanjiao than anyone else. He now stepped forward on Wanjiao’s behalf: “Windstill, one thin thread of circumstantial evidence isn’t proof that Wanjiao is the traitor. Unless you have something new — I’m not accepting this.”

Tianzhu waved a hand: “Evidence — of course there is. Take, for example, the paralysis field the moment the fake Revenge Domain Emperor appeared.”

The Dragon Emperor picked up with a great booming laugh: “If it were purely an artifact effect, Tianzhu wouldn’t have been paralyzed at all. He has a specialized ability that shakes off artifact-based restraints in a single instant. So do I, actually — a hair slower, but I do. And yet in that moment neither of us could move a muscle. We had to stand there and watch the fake Revenge Domain Emperor lift the divine blood and walk out. Artifacts that strong do exist in this world. But that Star Diamond Necklace is not one of them, I guarantee it — it’s a support necklace, not an offensive artifact carrying a specialized suppression.”

The Underworld Emperor rarely spoke. He always kept himself low-profile.

Now he stepped forward with a small cough: “Well, everyone else is talking, so I’ll say a word or two. Based on my own affinity and control, my suspicion is that the momentary paralysis in that hall was Wanjiao’s domain force, released in advance — it went out before the assassination even began. And then the paralysis-curse the captured attacker set off when he self-detonated — I would give an eighty-percent chance that Wanjiao is behind that too. Because with the sole exception of the Titan Young Lord, whom Gray Wolf had already carried out, only one person in that hall was not struck by the curse. That was you, Wanjiao.”

“What?” The Sky-rank in the room jerked with shock.

Wanjiao hadn’t been touched by the curse?

Even Blue Wolf and Luoluo were staring at Wanjiao — both of them showing the same disbelief.

The two of them knew Wanjiao best. They knew Wanjiao’s domain force was called “Restraint,” and with dark elements and certain artifacts assisting him, he genuinely could achieve brief restraints on an enemy. Which also explained the faint black aura around each of the death-warrior assassins, and the specialized detonation-curse the fully-transparent thief had carried.

Under cover of that silver light show, when everyone’s attention had shifted from the assassins onto the fake Revenge Domain Emperor, Wanjiao had plenty of opportunity to plant his hands in the works.

The Underworld Emperor pointed at the ground: “As for the second wave of attacks — same story. A single silver assassin, using absurd speed, blew past the Windstill national ruler and killed the Freedom Queen’s double. On the surface, that’s the enemy’s own strength. But allow me to point out — if that silver assassin genuinely possessed that much strength and that much speed, he wouldn’t have needed to worry about our encirclement at all. He could have raised a hand and wiped us out. He didn’t need to strike from ambush. His strength is significant, sure — but the reason he was actually fast enough was that someone was helping accelerate him… And the only people in the room capable of doing that are two: Wanjiao. And me.”

The Dragon Emperor gave a small nod at Yue Yang first, the way a proper escort defers to his lord.

Once he had a permissive gesture back from Yue Yang, he laid out another secret: “By the time of the second wave, Wanjiao had already committed to fixing the blame on the Revenge Domain Emperor… At that point we had already narrowed the suspects between Wanjiao and Luoluo — but without proof, we said nothing and simply watched. The second wave’s real target was not the Freedom Queen. It was our Titan Young Lord.”

“But why would that be?” Blue Wolf asked.

“Because attacking the Freedom Queen is essentially meaningless. She has divine power in her — she’s not the kind of target you can casually kill. Even seriously wounded, her divine power regenerates rapidly. Even we, as guests, know this. As professional assassins, they would obviously know it too.” The Dragon Emperor explained.

“That still doesn’t prove the target was the Titan Young Lord.” Luoluo still had reservations.

“The Titan Young Lord decided on the spot to return to the grimoire world to rest.” The Dragon Emperor broke into a great laugh. “Wanjiao — you were leaving signals for the assassins constantly, and you kept trying to keep the Titan Young Lord out in the open. Unfortunately for you, the Titan Young Lord got bored and went into his grimoire early. Your plan fell through. So you improvised — quietly released a dark-energy war beast, hoping to warn your assassins in time to abort… The catch is that you don’t know how sharp Gray Wolf’s nose is. It sniffed the beast out at once. That’s right, it was Gray Wolf who intercepted your messenger. And it was because of that catch that Tianzhu and I understood the attack was already inbound.”

“The messenger beast was intercepted. The attack came anyway, on schedule. In order not to blow his cover, Wanjiao — who was outwardly complaining that the plan was being poorly executed — reached again for his ability, and in the darkness accelerated the assassins one more time, while quietly warning them the plan had shifted. That is why the assassin, mind flustered, put his first strike into the Windstill national ruler’s face — and that strike was drastically weaker than it should have been…” The more the Underworld Emperor spoke, the darker Wanjiao’s face got.

“So why was there a third wave of attacks in the end?” Blue Wolf was starting to understand — but he had one last question.

“Because the first two attacks failed. The enemy sent their strongest assassin. He came in quietly, and he hid inside Wanjiao’s grimoire space. He waited until the Titan Young Lord took the Freedom Queen out of his storage ring, confirmed identity, then dropped down for a genuine, absolute killing blow. Unluckily for him, Gray Wolf’s and Taotie’s eyes cannot be fooled. They spotted him at once and immediately relayed word back to the Titan Young Lord. The Titan Young Lord in turn set up the counter-plan — waking only at midday, when Wanjiao’s own ability had the least room to obscure the truth, and coming out to greet us openly, coordinating the enemy’s kill attempt. Wanjiao — if you hadn’t been in such a rush, and had taken a more careful look, you would have realized the positions of Tianzhu, the Dragon Emperor, myself, Gray Wolf, and Taotie formed a shadow-rune formation. It was there to give the Titan Young Lord a body-substitution technique for the moment he was struck.” The Underworld Emperor closed with a small laugh: “Your dark ability is impressively played. But don’t treat all of us as fools, will you?”

“…” Wanjiao had, at that point, nothing left to say.

By this point Blue Wolf and Luoluo were sweating openly.

The observational and strategic capacity of Tianzhu, Long Xuan, and Ming Feng — it was appalling. And these three were supposedly just escorts. The powerhouses that lived in the Upper Heavenly Realm really were monsters, weren’t they. And even that airy, spendthrift young dilettante, the Titan Young Lord — he was clearly not somebody you fooled.

If Wanjiao had had to face any one of them alone, he’d have had his hands full. Facing all of them at once — losing this badly was hardly surprising.

Never mind people — even that unremarkable-looking dog, that Gray Wolf, was not to be trifled with.

What a devious dog. It had captured Wanjiao’s messenger beast and read the enemy’s plan — and then calmly gone back inside the grimoire world as though nothing had happened, and reported to its master.

What kind of intelligence is that?

What kind of emotional acuity is that?

How could there possibly be a dog this clever in the world?

For Wanjiao to have been shot down by it — he really had no grounds to complain.

Windstill didn’t need to say anything else. Blue Wolf and Luoluo exhaled long sighs and stepped away from Wanjiao’s side.

In this moment, they no longer considered Wanjiao a friend… because Wanjiao had schemed not only against Windstill and the Titan Young Lord, but against them personally as well. Every single person in that hall had caught the curse, including Blue Wolf and Luoluo. They had treated Wanjiao as brother, as friend. This “brother” had repaid them with — a heartless curse.

“I do have to admit — you have one very clever dog. Truly, from the Upper Heavenly Realm. Not easy to hoodwink.” Wanjiao gave a low sigh. “Without you people — with just Windstill, Blue Wolf, and Luoluo — for the rest of their lives they’d never have unraveled my arrangement. What a shame. I really thought I could still run the same play once more, at the central island.”

“Don’t worry. We’d be happy to see your plan through for you.” Yue Yang, who had said nothing this whole time, spoke up now with a broad grin. That grin was worse for Wanjiao than the accusation had been. In the end — the man who had genuinely doomed him was this Titan Young Lord.

But what could he possibly do about him?

The young lord was armored in treasures. He had the body-substitution technique.

Divine beast on his left. Earth divine soldier on his right. Three heavyweight escorts behind. A Sky-rank battalion at his back. Trying to kill him would be about as easy as climbing to heaven.

Wanjiao glanced at Blue Wolf and Luoluo, and offered a small, faintly apologetic smile: “Blue Wolf, Luoluo — the curse was not my personal wish, but I truly had no way to avoid it. Hundreds of years of friendship, and I’ve dragged you two down with me. Wanjiao is a little bit sorry for that. After I self-detonate, I recommend you two take your own lives quickly, because the longer the curse runs, the more agonizing it becomes. And the faction behind me is not a group you two want to cross — you’re not small fry, you’re less than small fry. If you still consider me a friend, kill yourselves quickly after I die…”

Blue Wolf’s face contorted as if he had been slapped hard: “Thank you so much. Whether I live or die is my problem. I don’t need my dear friend Wanjiao worrying about that on my behalf.”

Luoluo was closer to Wanjiao than Blue Wolf was. He sighed softly: “Wanjiao — do we really have to reach mutual destruction over this? Lift the curse. I’ll plead with Windstill and the Titan Young Lord. All three of us together will bear the guilt. When we go back afterward, we’re still brothers.”

Wanjiao shook his head: “In truth, when I came to the Tianhua Domain, friendship was never in the plan. All of you were pieces on my board. My loyalty has always been to that other place…”

Just as Windstill, Tianzhu, and the others were taking up attack postures, Wanjiao suddenly threw his head back and burst into wild laughter.

He howled at the sky: “You can see through my plans. You can outplay me. You can beat me. But you absolutely cannot capture me. I, who hold the dark restraint domain — I, who hold the dark curse ability — even under this blazing sun, I am unstoppable. After I die, your curses will worsen tenfold. Every day thereafter, the pain will grow. Farewell, my enemies and my friends. Clever as you all are — you are, in the end, only ants scrabbling for a foothold!”

Wanjiao’s body was already expanding.

Bulging like a balloon.

Within seconds it had ballooned dozens of times its original size.

The dark energy inside him had reached horrifying, insane concentration. The faintest brush against him would trigger an earth-shaking explosion.

Just as Wanjiao — with mocking eyes sweeping the crowd — was on the verge of self-detonating and going down together with all of them, Ming Rihao, the freeloader who had been watching the show, finally could not help himself. He acted. But not to stop Wanjiao. He shoved the arms-folded, spectating Yue Yang forward into the middle of the room.

You bastard, don’t step in yourself, fine — but shoving this young lord out to get gawked at?

Yue Yang was privately furious.

Still — in front of everyone — he couldn’t openly fall out with Ming Rihao over it.

“Cough, cough.” Yue Yang, now standing in the middle of the stage under every eye in the room, had to say something: “So, Classmate Wanjiao — failing a test does not mean you should self-detonate. You know they still hold re-tests?”

“…” The room collectively hit the floor.

At the exact instant Wanjiao — with a savage snarl — was about to self-detonate, a tiny shadow flew out from Yue Yang’s body.

It was a heart-meltingly cute little snake-demon loli. The moment she appeared, she opened her eyes and stared at Wanjiao — and Wanjiao, on the verge of blowing himself up, discovered that everything had come to a stop. Including the wild dark energy inside his own body. This little snake-demon girl not only stopped self-detonating Wanjiao with a single look; she stretched out one tender little white-blossom hand and gave him a gentle pat. Wanjiao’s over-inflated body promptly bounced like a rubber ball.

With the little hand tapping downward in the empty air —

Wanjiao’s huge spherical body —

Bounced up and down with it.

Yue Yang noticed that his little darling was starting to enjoy this a bit too much, and quickly told her: “Sweetie, tap him for a bit and then stop, don’t play too long — what if you make him cry?”

Xiao Wenli was, as always, a very obedient child. She stopped very quickly.

Gray Wolf and Taotie, however, had caught the fun.

The two of them piled in and continued the patting.

Everyone else watching —

Once more collectively hit the floor.

Well, we were worried about the Titan Young Lord? What a waste of concern. He has a divine beast even scarier than the earth divine soldier who can casually toy with a national ruler on the palm of her hand. And Wanjiao thought he could plot to assassinate this young lord with a small setup. That is — the most exquisite joke… An heir of a great Upper Heavenly Realm noble family. Are they truly the kind of person a lower-realm ruler can just assassinate?

Wanjiao would have wept, if he had had any tears left. All right — there was no game left here to play. Beyond becoming a prisoner, he had no options remaining!

(End of Chapter 955)