Back once more atop Heaven Plain Mountain, at the Ancient Pavilion Terrace.

Having completed the task of finding the ancient relic, Yue Yang didn’t excitedly drag Mingzhu off to report it. Instead, he returned to the Scholar’s Residence as if nothing had happened — as though he’d never so much as heard of any ancient relic. Mingzhu, who hadn’t expected this attitude, broke into a sweat, convinced there could be no greedier person anywhere in the world than this kid.

“Get some good rest. Sleep on it, and when you wake, you’ll find that tomorrow will be better.” Yue Yang whistled a tune and headed back to his room on his own.

“Looks like the two of you had a delightful time out there…” The Principal appeared from somewhere.

“Not at all — I just had a huge argument with him!” Mingzhu hurried to deny it.

“Ha ha ha — bickering and squabbling, that’s what life is all about. Otherwise it’d be far too dull.” The Principal laughed heartily, then murmured something to himself as he vanished around the corner of the corridor.

Mingzhu had no words to argue back. He glanced at Yue Yang’s tightly shut door, stamped his foot in irritation, turned, and left.

After Mingzhu had gone, Yue Yang’s door quietly cracked open. The furtive transmigrator scanned the surroundings from within, confirmed the coast was clear, and immediately tiptoed out, easing the door shut behind him before sneaking downstairs — moving for all the world like a petty thief out to steal chickens. Seizing the moment while no one was watching, Yue Yang slipped away from the Scholar’s Residence and melted into the darkness.

When he emerged again, he’d changed into a set of black night-traveling clothes. Masked. If one didn’t look carefully, one might well have mistaken him for Qingmo — that other black-clad, masked assassin in identical garb.

Thus strangely attired, Yue Yang sped forward through the dark, and after a few dozen bounding leaps had already reached the core region of the Ancient Pavilion Terrace: the Heavenly Pride Academy.

The Academy was the place responsible for evaluating the students, not far from the Scholar’s Residence. But in the lead-up to the Assessment, students were generally forbidden to enter, to guard against any possibility of cheating. There were exceptions, of course — some students who weren’t participating in the Assessment, or who’d volunteered to serve the evaluation process, lodged inside temporarily to assist the instructors, providing various testing environments and conveniences for the proceedings. What exactly Yue Yang was doing, running to the Heavenly Pride Academy in the dead of night, no one knew.

After entering the Academy, in less than half an hour, Yue Yang slipped silently back out again. He returned to the Scholar’s Residence, shut his door, and resumed his snoring as though he’d never left. And the next day, he ate breakfast in the student dining hall as if nothing had happened. When others were discussing how “a suspicious person broke into the Heavenly Pride Academy last night,” not the faintest flicker of panic crossed his face.

“Tell me — was it you last night?” Mingzhu pressed him in a low voice.

“I slept straight through till dawn.” Yue Yang told the bald-faced lie with wide-open eyes, delivering it with complete righteousness, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

“You’d be that obedient?” Mingzhu was deeply skeptical. If there was anyone in this world with the nerve to break into the Heavenly Pride Academy by night, that person was ninety-nine percent certain to be this master of Star Diamond Castle, Baron Titan. The only reason it wasn’t a full hundred percent was that, had Yue Yang genuinely broken into the Academy, Mingzhu doubted he’d have let himself be discovered.

“Sleeping straight through till dawn isn’t quite accurate — I did get up in the middle of the night for a bath. You don’t know this, but last night the Heavenly Pride Academy wasn’t the only place a thief broke into. In my dreams, a completely bare beauty of a thief broke in too, and in a fit of temper I subdued her, interrogated her under harsh measures, worked up quite a sweat, and finally had no choice but to get up and bathe. Come to think of it, that beauty-thief really did have a marvelous figure.” As Yue Yang spoke, he sank into pleasant reminiscence, the corner of his mouth nearly trailing a line of drool.

“Fine. Forget I said anything!” Mingzhu suddenly felt that talking with this man was a form of self-torment — utterly maddening.

“If the one who broke into the Heavenly Pride Academy last night wasn’t me, then could it have been you?” Yue Yang suddenly turned the question around.

“Hey, I’m not that idle, all right!” Mingzhu shot him a withering look.

“Not me, not you — then who?” Yue Yang asked, the thief crying stop, thief.

“It certainly wasn’t me, but it might well be you… You haven’t fully ruled out being the culprit.” Mingzhu chose to trust Yue Yang for one second, but a baseline of suspicion remained — and who could blame him, when the more he looked at Yue Yang, the more the man resembled the little thief who’d broken into the Academy by night?

“What did the Heavenly Pride Academy lose?” Yue Yang spread his hands, indicating that he could not possibly have broken into a place so utterly devoid of beautiful women.

“Unclear. Word is nothing was lost at all.” Mingzhu found this all the more suspicious. Then again, it was precisely Yue Yang’s lecher nature that made it plausible — the Academy had no beauties, its residents being almost entirely old men, hardly worth a night raid. That barely passed as an explanation. Had there been even a single beautiful instructor in the Academy, Yue Yang would never have escaped suspicion; Mingzhu would absolutely have pegged him as the night raider.

Having narrowly dodged the inquiry, Yue Yang — afraid Mingzhu might dig deeper along this line — magnanimously offered to treat him, declaring that wherever Mingzhu wished to go for fun, he’d accompany the gentleman to the death, all the way to the very end. Mingzhu was pleased. He’d had his suspicions, but on reflection, it was also possible the kid had obtained the ancient relic and wanted to buy his silence with good food and entertainment.

So, harboring no further suspicion, he waved a hand and pronounced, “Prisoner Titan, if you conduct yourself well today, this Grand Justice will consider handing down a lighter sentence.”

Yue Yang feigned reverence and offered a deep bow. “Rest assured — you eat well and play well, and I’ll flatter you so thoroughly you’ll be perfectly comfortable. If I don’t pat that little backside of yours bright red today, it’ll be a poor showing of my talents.” Mingzhu was thoroughly infuriated — what kind of way was that to talk? But he couldn’t bring himself to curse the man; before he could even compose a stern face to scold him, he burst out laughing despite himself. It had to be said — when this kid put on a clownish act, he was genuinely quite amusing.

Just as they were setting off, the three white-clad maidens suddenly appeared ahead of them. As if waiting.

Yue Yang seemed not to see them and pulled Mingzhu around to leave.

But behind him, someone came rushing toward the three white-clad maidens, cradling a strange, glittering statue. With a deliberately dashing flick of his flowing shoulder-length hair, adopting what he considered his most elegant bearing, he offered a courteous greeting. “The three envoys’ commission — I am honored to have fulfilled it. After a full day of arduous searching, Jinji finally unearthed this treasure in the depths of the sea of trees. At first I dared not draw conclusions, and fearing to fail the envoys’ charge, I did not report the relic at once. Instead I returned to the Scholar’s Residence and sought out every instructor to appraise it together. Only after the unanimous agreement of all the instructors did Jinji learn that this object is indeed the very ‘ancient relic’ the three envoys entrusted to us. How fortunate is Jinji, that after countless heroes broke their lances and returned in vain, I should be the one to complete the three envoys’ charge…”

The one rushing forward to blow his own trumpet so grandly was none other than Jinji.

At this moment, Gold Leaf City’s Junior Lord — adopting what he considered his most graceful posture and most moving tone — narrated in vivid detail how arduously and how cleverly he’d worked his mind, until at last he managed to unearth this treasure at the center of the Eastern Peak’s sea of trees. It was as if failing to recount the entire treasure-hunting process and his every inner deliberation in full would somehow be a loss to the whole world.

He even confirmed, with a touch of smugness, that the Heavenly Pride Academy’s secret chamber likewise held an ancient relic identical to this one.

“Clearly, these two relics are a pair. It was precisely because I obtained such crucial information that Jinji dares report back to the three envoys. The relic-finding task you charged me with is now a complete success. I formally deliver the completed charge — please, three envoys, bear witness!” As Jinji spoke, Yue Yang and Mingzhu exchanged a glance, suddenly understanding — so it was this fellow who’d broken into the Heavenly Pride Academy last night.

“Congratulations, Scholar Jin, on completing this momentous treasure-hunting charge!” Several of Jinji’s friends immediately surged up, sparing no effort to outdo one another in praise.

“Only Junior City Lord Jinji could manage it — anyone else would lack even the qualification to accept the task, let alone complete it.” Someone deliberately cast a glance toward Yue Yang and Mingzhu, dripping with provocation.

“To complete such a momentous charge — the three envoys must surely be delighted. A great reward is to be hoped for.” One student hinted that it was now reward time, urging everyone not to keep their expectations too low.

“I dare not, I dare not. To serve the envoys unto death is the duty of our kind. How could I dare speak of merit?” Junior City Lord Jinji carried himself more grandly than even an official serving the people.

“Looks like this round’s championship is a foregone conclusion.” Even among the onlookers who weren’t Jinji’s friends, there were sighs and lamentations — the consensus being that Jinji, having completed the three envoys’ momentous charge, was certain to take this Assessment’s championship. Never mind the gold-tier Strong Magnetic Battle Construct; this round had hardly any worthy opponents. The once-in-a-millennium geniuses — Ji Wuri, Zhonghua, Captain Cook — had given their all last round, and this round was but a crowd of mediocrities. How could any of them compare to Jinji’s Strong Magnetic Battle Construct? Especially when Jinji had completed the relic-finding task that even Ji Wuri and Zhonghua had failed.

Now, even envy and resentment were useless. Who could blame Jinji for his dumb luck — stumbling onto a relic that even Ji Wuri couldn’t find? The Eastern Peak had no sea; it wasn’t that no one had considered the sea-of-trees angle, but no one had actually acted on it and dug for the relic accordingly. And who’d have guessed Jinji’s random guess would land right on the mark?

If this wasn’t unstoppable dumb luck, what was?

Many students sighed and lamented. The reason they remained here watching was to see exactly what kind of reward the three envoys would bestow on this kid Jinji. To have completed a charge that not a single elite figure throughout all of history had ever managed — the reward was certain to be no small thing. They just didn’t know what it would be. If it were an item above Sacred-tier, or a platinum-tier construct, then everyone would surely regret it to the point of bleeding from all seven orifices. The sea of trees was so obvious — why hadn’t they been the one to dig it up? Letting this kid Jinji snatch such a bargain — it was truly… heaven has no eyes!

Though Jinji’s words were humble, claiming he dared not take credit, much less demand a reward from the envoys over such a trifling matter, the smugness in his eyes was nothing less than bare, naked showing-off.

Look! I, Jinji, am the child of destiny — all of you, come admire me, come envy me!

Mingzhu spent every ounce of his strength barely holding back his laughter, gripping Yue Yang’s arm hard just to stay upright — otherwise he’d have gone limp with mirth from the depths of his heart and collapsed to the ground.

The low-profile, guilty-conscienced Yue Yang hurried to leave. Staying here — wasn’t he afraid someone might take that thing back? It had been so hard to get hold of; forget any task, better to secure it safely first.

But Mingzhu pulled him back, refusing to let him go. Mingzhu absolutely had to stay and see what kind of great reward the three envoys would finally give Jinji — and most importantly, he wanted to witness Jinji’s spectacular expression in a moment. It hadn’t appeared yet, but it was bound to be better than a face-changing opera!

Yue Yang sighed inwardly. Curiosity killed the cat — not a word of it wrong. What was there to see? Watch any longer and he’d get dragged into it himself. People had already come knocking at the door. Not running was bad enough, but staying to watch someone else’s spectacle on top of that — what kind of mindset was this?

My friend, don’t let your curiosity get too strong, would you!

(End of Chapter)