What the Hell Did You Eat?! Eat What?!

By the time Bai Sheng saw daylight again, he was already in a dark, cramped prison cell.

Pandora, which had been in his hand, was gone too. There was no need to think about it—the old bastard must have taken it.

Bai Sheng cursed the emperor in his heart, then looked around at this all-too-familiar cell.

His mother had died here back then...

Running his hand over the rough wall, Bai Sheng sighed and cursed that prince in his heart. That man truly deserved to die! If it had not been for him, how could those Shadow Guards possibly have beaten him?

Bai Sheng slammed a fist into the wall, then thought it over. Staying here was not necessarily a bad thing. Given that old bastard's nature, he would definitely come in person to make sure Bai Sheng was killed before he could rest easy.

When that happened, Bai Sheng could use the Word Charm Technique to hypnotize the guards directly. With his strength, he could probably fool around five of them without much trouble.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

A sound came from the wall in front of Bai Sheng, startling him out of his silent frenzy.

Bai Sheng immediately activated his Spirit Puppet and probed through the wall.

The one imprisoned across from him... was a little girl?

For the first time, Bai Sheng doubted his Spirit Puppet's detection ability. That could not be right. Its scans had never been wrong before, and there was no way it could not see through a single wall. But why would a little girl be locked in a prison meant specifically for serious criminals?

"Hey! You over there! How did you get in?"

Before Bai Sheng could react, a girl's voice came from the other side.

"Who are you?"

Bai Sheng asked, not answering her question first.

"You're asking me? My name is Beleria. What about you?"

"My name is Bai Sheng. As for why I'm here, I failed to assassinate the emperor."

Hearing that, the girl on the other side was clearly excited.

"Wow, wow, wow! That's amazing! Do you know a man who always has a dark expression on his face? He's called... some kind of prince..."

At once, Bai Sheng thought of the man who had ruined his plan.

"Prince of Kasantiya?"

"Yes, yes, yes! That's him! How do you know him?"

"He's the reason my plan to assassinate the emperor failed."

"Do you hate him?"

"Obviously. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be here."

"Haha, then we're friends! I hate him too."

The girl's voice became noticeably brighter.

Now Bai Sheng was rather curious about this little girl named Beleria.

"You have a grudge against him too?"

Bai Sheng asked.

Beleria's words were clearly filled with indignation.

"Of course! He's the one who sent me in here! I haven't eaten anything in so long! Angry! (╬◣ω◢)"

"Why did he send you in here?"

Bai Sheng was confused. That prince could not possibly be some perverted pedophile, could he?

"Because I ate one of his armies! So stingy. I helped him eat so many bugs, and he never said anything, but I ate just one of his armies and he threw me in here. So stingy! (???'!)"

Beleria pouted, her fair little feet rubbing restlessly against the floor.

"I see. Isn't it just an—wait, what the hell? What did you say you ate?"

Bai Sheng asked in disbelief, stammering.

"Hehe, it was nothing much. Just an army—the kind where a whole bunch of people stand together wearing metal armor."

"Are you a Buli Ren?"

Bai Sheng asked. His Spirit Puppet could only detect rough information about the person on the other side; when it came to race, Bai Sheng could not be certain.

Besides, in Bai Sheng's impression, only the Buli Ren ate people—more precisely, they ate humans and enslaved foxfolk.

"What's a Buli Ren?"

Beleria asked. This new term was far too unfamiliar to her.

"It's a kind of humanoid intelligent creature. Check whether you have furry ears and a tail."

In the cell on the other side, Beleria touched her smooth little face, then put her hands on her ears. After that, she even pinched her little butt. Other than it being rather soft, she could not find any tail or anything like that.

"No."

Beleria shook her head, though Bai Sheng could not see it.

"Then why did you eat the army?"

"Hehe, delicious! I love it! One bite and it's nothing but meat."

Beleria's hair was white, and she was currently winding it around her hand as she played with it. A drop of drool slipped from the corner of her mouth, but she quickly sucked it back in.

"Uh..."

Bai Sheng found this absurd. Why was this little girl so strange? This was completely beyond his understanding.

Logically speaking, eating people would infect one with an unknown virus. Those infected with it would, even if they were lucky enough to survive, become idiots due to the loss of brain cells. Yet Beleria still seemed perfectly lucid.

She really was a strange and miraculous little thing.

Bai Sheng thought to himself.

Since this was the very bottom level of Kasantiya Prison, even the guards could not be bothered to come down and check on them. So, no matter how long Bai Sheng and Beleria talked, no one would hear them.

Meanwhile, in Kasantiya—

"My subjects, my son Bai Sheng, whom I had lost for many years, has finally been found. As his coming-of-age ceremony happens to be upon us, I have decided that tomorrow, before the witness of all my subjects, I shall hold a coming-of-age ceremony for my son!"

The Emperor's voice rang throughout all of Kasantiya. Every Kasantiyan eagerly anticipated the Prince's coming-of-age ceremony.

"Hey, hey, hey! Did you hear? His Majesty is holding a coming-of-age ceremony for the Third Prince!"

"Of course I heard. The Second Prince's coming-of-age ceremony caused a sensation across the universe last time. I wonder how lavish this one will be?"

"Exactly. His Highness the Third Prince is also the general of the expeditionary army. We owe our good lives to His Highness the Third Prince."

"It must be nice to be born in the imperial palace..."

At street corners and in alleyways, countless people discussed the matter. To ordinary people, this Prince's coming-of-age ceremony meant they could take a paid day off and head to the square in front of the imperial palace to watch and take part in the ceremony.

The lucky ones might even be able to seek an official position in the imperial palace. In Kasantiya, such an opportunity was something one could only hope to encounter by chance.

However, on one street, a handsome white-haired man whose hair reached his waist had also learned of the news. Yet Bai Sheng, listed among his friends on his phone, had not sent him a single message.

Real Name Online: I've arrived in Kasantiya! (Kasantiya street photo)

Real Name Online: Don't tell me you're backing out on your word, brat!

Real Name Online: Hey, hey, hey! You little punk, at least reply to me!

Real Name Online: Did something dangerous happen to you...?

Ever since arriving in Kasantiya, he had constantly been sending messages to Bai Sheng. Yet that brat had not replied with a single word.

From the looks of it, the Emperor was even planning to hold a coming-of-age ceremony for Bai Sheng. He did not seem as heinously wicked as Bai Sheng had previously claimed.

But on second thought, that only made it even stranger. Why go to such great lengths to prepare such a grand coming-of-age ceremony for an unfavored Prince?

The clever Jing Yuan understood. There had to be something suspicious going on!

After finding an inn to stay in, Jing Yuan hid among the crowd and waited for the story to unfold further...