Volume Three: The Academy Runs Completely Amok - The Higher-Ups

"Hey, Leader, please calm down. Young Master Yu must have his reasons."

The eerie white-haired man in white robes, Huang Huo, also stepped forward to persuade them, though the Leader didn't even glance at him.

"Leader," the middle-aged man in a suit and tie, Gustav, bowed respectfully, "I can sense the fluctuations of the Boundary Breaking Armor; we must act immediately."

"My Leader, there's no time to lose," said Anubas, a young woman dressed in a black and white checkered outfit.

"Tsk..."

The Leader, Jili, waved his hand impatiently.

"Alright, alright, let's get started! You guys, um..."

"My Leader, please give the order."

"Give an order? Haven't you guys even discussed how to allocate the work yet? You expect me to go through all this trouble? Gustav, this time I'm handing it over to you in full charge!"

"Thank you for your trust, Your Leader. Your subject will certainly—"

Stop spouting nonsense!

"I'm very sorry, well then..."

Gustav turned to face the other high-ranking officials and solemnly said:

"Let's start assigning tasks now. This time, the Central United Academy has gathered two Divine Artifacts, the Boundary Breaking Armor and the Water Heart, as well as the highly uncertain factor, Fiaz. We can't afford to be careless."

"While we say we can't be careless, Gustav, you could handle all of this by yourself, couldn't you?"

"Shut up Huang Huo! It's always better to be cautious, which is why we're having you travel together. Void Realm, you return to headquarters as usual."

"Clear..."

The mummy, wrapped in gray-black strips of cloth, responded and vanished into thin air, its whereabouts unknown.

"Yu He, such a major event has occurred at the Central United Academy. The countries surrounding the Central Sea Islands, with the Central United Academy at their center, will certainly not sit idly by. If they intervene, you will be in charge of dealing with them."

"Knew."

Suddenly, a rumbling sound rang out in the sky, and a huge airship descended from the heavens, bearing the logo of the Gray Starling Group.

"Then I'll go first." With that, Yu He jogged over to the airship, greeted by a group of people in business suits, and drove away.

Gustav watched Yu He leave and continued, "I'll deal with the Boundary Breaking Armor; you, Leader, go ahead—"

"I'm just going to wander around, don't worry about me... Hmph, a thousand years ago I just casually cleared a piece of land here, and now it's developed into such a big school, it's truly unbelievable..."

Jili walked away with one hand on her hip and a frown on her face, blowing on her nail polish as she went.

"..."

Huang Huo watched Jili away, and frowned imperceptibly.

This is getting a bit troublesome...

While Gustav and Yu He were busy with their own things, he planned to take a break and exchange karmic fire with Yin. But he never expected that the Leader had been a recluse for two hundred years, would suddenly ask to accompany him, which slightly delayed his departure and prevented him from meeting Yin on time. What's more troublesome is that the Leader now wants to "take a casual stroll," which makes even he hesitant to make any rash moves.

Meanwhile, Gustav was still assigning tasks.

"As for you—wait, Anubas, why did you come along? Your ability has nothing to do with fighting."

"I can help you a little bit," Anubas said with a slight smile, leaving Gustav somewhat helpless.

"Then... you can just wait, or go back first. As for you, Huang Huo— "

Just then--

A whooshing sound came from afar, and a black dot in the distance continued to expand, arriving in front of them in the blink of an eye.

"Oh my, indeed! They are all distinguished guests!"

Fire-breathing mechanical wings, bizarre six-piece glasses, and an unsettling, nauseating smile.

"I've always wanted to dissect you and study you!"

Fiaz wore an expression of extreme excitement, the six large parts boxes floating around him making a clattering sound, and the six glasses gleaming with a ghostly blue light.

"... Huang Huo, this is your task."

"Ah, I understand."

Gustav kicked off the ground, shattering it instantly. He used the momentum to leap high into the air and disappeared in less than a second.

Anubas tilted his head and then retreated back into the passage opened by the Void Realm.

As for the two law Enforcement Team were just passing by, they had already fled in terror.

Oh dear, isn't this going further and further away from the original plan...? While agonizing over this situation, he couldn't help but start to enjoy the Huang Huo, stretching his neck to face Fiaz.

"What... what is all this about...?"

Xiao Wu kept flipping through Ling Ye's notebook, her eyes widening in disbelief.

This clearly lists the capabilities of the senior officials and Leader.

Either one of them sounds like something you'd find in a third-rate fantasy novel.

"What kind of nonsense is this! 'Matter Collapse' Huang Huo somewhat understandable, but 'The Law of Money' Yu He... money? 'Void Axis Manufacturing' Void Realm... what the hell is a virtual axis? 'Blood Prison Master' is Ai Kasser... refers to that Blood Fiend, right? 'God-Given Sound' Madam Winsani... could it be someone who sings? 'Numerical Control' is Mengyin Neumann... seems pretty powerful, 'Absolute Contract' Anubas... completely baffling, 'No Supernatural Ability' Gustav... huh? No ability? '???' Yusuo Zai... wait, what's going on with this one?"

No, there are more important things to do than those high-ranking officials!

The saying goes, "To catch the thief, first catch the king..."

He flipped through the pages, skipping over the introductions of several high-ranking officials and jumping straight to the Leader.

"I've got it! The organization's Leader Jili... What a strange name. His special ability is—"

Boom!!!

Just then, a destructive shockwave erupted from several kilometers away, causing even the atmosphere to tremble violently!

"What--"

Xiao Wu immediately turned her head and saw a jagged, strange shadow suddenly emerge from the sea in the League of Scholars, resembling a monster haphazardly piled up from countless metal objects. The mere presence of that thing caused the spiritual energy scattered throughout the world to become extremely turbid, as if it had been corroded!

"Could that be... the Boundary Breaking Armor!?"

The Boundary Breaking Armor stopped growing taller when it reached about 100 meters above the horizon, and instead began to grow horizontally. Countless metallic spikes Copper-corroded Flower spread out in all directions like tentacles! The ear-piercing rustling sound grew closer and closer, and a large thorny forest-like metallic aggregate was rushing towards Xiao Wu's direction at an astonishing speed. Wherever it passed, the air, the earth, and the spiritual energy were all eroded and occupied!

"Hey... eh? Huh? Wait..."

The arrival of this Divine Item from heaven and earth was too sudden. Xiao Wu was overwhelmed by the malevolent aura that was eroding everything and was at a loss.

"Damn it—you're kidding me!!!"

The battle with Stone Strike had drained her strength, and her once formidable regenerative abilities were now severely weakened, making it extremely difficult for her to heal her injuries. In a perfect state, she could certainly escape, but right now, she could barely move!

The metallic wave was close at hand; she closed her eyes tightly, waiting for that moment to arrive.

However, nothing happened.

A vast aura filled with the smell of rust brushed past her, but did not hit Xiao Wu. She opened her eyes in surprise and found that the Boundary Breaking Armor had split apart on its own when it reached her and continued to advance, just missing her.

An uninformed person seeing this would probably think that Xiao Wu used a powerful attack to split the giant metal wave in two.

But Xiao Wu knew in her heart that she was now completely helpless against the Boundary Breaking Armor.

"What the hell are you doing...?"

Xiao Wu had no idea how she had managed to escape with her life.

The statement that "the Boundary Breaking Armor can corrode all things in the world" is actually not accurate.

It's not a question of "whether" or "can" do it, but rather a question of "whether" or "willing."

The Boundary Breaking Armor is actually quite picky about what it infests; it has requirements for what it infests and will absolutely not infest anything it dislikes.

In short, the Ghost Clan is a difficult race to deal with for the Boundary Breaking Armor; it doesn't suit its taste at all.

Xiao Wu, who possesses half-demon blood, was naturally bypassed by it.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Huge metal spikes emerged from the ground, easily piercing through countless buildings. Thousands upon thousands of tiny metal spikes, like ivy, eroded the buildings and streets, intertwining and blending with the surrounding architecture! In the blink of an eye, half the city was covered and eroded by the Boundary Breaking Armor! Needless to say, the innocent citizens, whether alive or dead, were all crushed and swallowed up by countless sharp, thorny metal spikes, leaving no trace of their remains!

This is only the situation on the surface. Hundreds of meters below the surface, the earth is filled with metal deposits. Countless metal spikes pierce and loop through the strata, and if this continues, even this entire stratum will be drilled through!

Faced with this situation, there is only one thing I can do.

Blood Flame erupted violently from beneath my shoulder blades, forming a pair of fiery wings hundreds of meters long. The powerful propulsion propelled me at an ever-increasing speed, but I still couldn't shake off the menacing Broken Boundary Breaking Armor behind me!

"Tsk!!!"

I gritted my teeth. The injuries I sustained in the battle with the Sick Spider were truly severe; just activating the Flame Wings made my wounds, both inside and out, feel like they were about to explode! I clutched a small piece of parchment tightly in my hand—the forced contract Blood Fiend had given me to subdue the Boundary Breaking Armor. This was probably the last resort, but I dared not use it. Since the Boundary Breaking Armor had grown into such a terrifying behemoth, simply sticking the contract to any random metal spike would definitely not work; I had to find its core!

Givinia had already explained the characteristics of the Boundary Breaking Armor to me in detail. It is a peculiar metallic life form, or rather, a hybrid of biological and metallic, somewhat similar to the World Crystal Tree. The Boundary Breaking Armor's metallic spikes corrode and devour everything they come into contact with, converting it into nutrients for its own growth. If left unchecked, it could theoretically cover an entire planet, making it an extremely dangerous and powerful being!

If there's a weakness, it's its "core." The Boundary Breaking Armor has a largest core, called the "Main Core," which is its true form; if the Main Core is destroyed, it will inevitably perish. Next are the "Sub Core." When the Boundary Breaking Armor grows to a certain size, its single Main Core becomes insufficient to control it, so it will develop Sub Core. There can be many Sub Core, distributed throughout various parts, each controlling Sub Core portion of the Boundary Breaking Armor's movements. While their status is far inferior to the Main Core, destroying even one Sub Core can paralyze the part it controls for a short period.

"The primary task is to save lives, and the best way is... to remove this part of the Sub Core!"

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Hey Transparent-chan, is the character your little sister wants named Nemume or Yume? Nemume is the same name as a girl in Bleach... so let's call her Yume.