"This Mu Qing will be made our top-priority person of interest, on the same level as Duan Ce!"
After the students Mu Qing had beaten and gravely injured were taken away, the teachers returned to the edge of Lake Heart Island.
Lei Kai discussed the matter with the other two vice principals for a while, then said something that left everyone stunned.
"Mu Qing is still the prime suspect in the Mummified Corpse Incident. Are we really going to make him our top-priority person of interest?" one teacher asked.
Duan Ce was the Student Council president at West Lake High School and the principal's disciple. He wielded tremendous authority, and his strength had reached the Blood Qi Eighth Stage.
He was West Lake High School's trump card, capable of going toe-to-toe with disciples from the ancient lineages at the College Entrance Exam.
He hadn't taken part in this mock exam. The principal had summoned him for special, one-on-one instruction. By the time he showed up again, he might already have reached the Blood Qi Ninth Stage.
The principal had briefly visited Lake Heart Island earlier. He had checked on all the students and decided that none of them were particularly worth cultivating. As for the Mummified Corpse Incident, even he hadn't noticed anything unusual. After staying for a while, he had left.
After seeing the strength and talent Mu Qing had displayed, Lei Kai and the others contacted the principal. He sent back a single message.
"Put him on the same level as Duan Ce. When I return, I'll observe him personally for a while. If he has no connection to the Mummified Corpse Incident, I'll take him as my disciple!"
Those were the principal's exact words.
The principal was the strongest person at West Lake High School, a Top-tier Martial Venerable at the ninth rank. His strength was terrifying, and he was one of the most powerful figures in all of Huaxia.
He was busy tempering Duan Ce at the moment, so he had sent only that brief message.
The three vice principals had made their decision on the principal's orders.
"Where's Ji Xiangfeng? Why isn't he here?" Lin Yuan suddenly asked. He had seen Ji Xiangfeng leave earlier, and he hadn't come back since.
"Vice Principal Ji was worried about his daughter, so he went to check on her himself. He found her with Mu Qing, saw that she was fine, and then left," one of the teachers replied. None of them knew where Ji Xiangfeng had gone.
Lei Kai and the others didn't think much of it. Ji Xiangfeng was always off on his own, and they were used to it.
"Heh, looks like we've struck gold this time. With Mu Qing and Duan Ce at the College Entrance Exam, the schools in the nearby Giant Cities won't stand a chance against us this year!" Tai Lie laughed.
Still, he thought Jiang Yuanjie deserved special attention too. He couldn't shake the feeling that Jiang Yuanjie's powerful perception was important.
Clearly, Tai Lie was quite impressed with Jiang Yuanjie.
"Something's wrong!"
Suddenly, a teacher responsible for the top students came flying over, his face stricken with terror.
"What happened?" Lin Yuan frowned, unable to understand what could have made a Low-level Martial Venerable teacher look so alarmed.
Lei Kai's heart stirred. "Could the Mummified Corpse Incident have happened again?"
Tai Lie's expression turned grave as well.
"No." The teacher shook his head, then said, "We discovered that the small satellite can't detect Mu Qing anymore. We also used Mental Power, but couldn't sense him either. Mu Qing has... vanished from the face of the earth!"
"What!"
The three vice principals were stunned. They immediately unleashed their surging Mental Power, which covered Lake Heart Island in an instant.
But just as the teacher had said, they couldn't find Mu Qing anywhere.
Lei Kai could hardly believe it. He released his Mental Power again and again, until his face turned pale from overexertion.
Still, he couldn't find Mu Qing.
"What about the images from the equipment?" Tai Lie hurriedly asked.
"Nothing!" The teacher shook his head, looking incredulous. "The device specifically monitoring Mu Qing was suddenly hit by interference. Once it returned to normal, Mu Qing had completely disappeared from view."
Lei Kai and the others' expressions shifted.
After all, a small satellite was hovering above Lake Heart Island. West Lake High School had spent a fortune on it, and even the principal, a Top-tier Martial Venerable, couldn't completely evade its detection.
"Someone interfered with the equipment in secret. It could very well have been someone even stronger than the principal!" Lin Yuan gasped.
Tai Lie, Lei Kai, and the teacher all broke out in a sweat.
Someone beyond the principal's level—didn't that mean someone above the ninth-rank Bloodline?
The teachers at the edge of Lake Heart Island erupted into commotion, frantically recalibrating the equipment.
Lei Kai and the others contacted the principal again, only to find his communication device switched off. It seemed his efforts to temper Duan Ce had reached a critical point.
"What do we do now?" Tai Lie was at a loss.
Unable to reach the principal, the three vice principals began discussing whether they should suspend the mock exam for the time being.
Somewhere on Lake Heart Island stood a cemetery, desolate and eerie. A cold wind blew through it now and then. Though summer was near, the place felt like late autumn or winter.
More than a hundred tombstones stood in the cemetery, overgrown with weeds. None bore names; every last one was nameless.
A closer look would reveal faint strands of light slowly shining from the tombstones and spreading outward, forming a barrier that covered the entire cemetery.
It was this barrier that kept the cemetery hidden from all forms of detection. Neither Lei Kai and the others, who were Intermediate Martial Venerables, nor the small satellite could detect it.
The barrier seemed to contain mysterious energy that distorted the surrounding space.
The cemetery appeared at times beside the river, and at others at the very edge of Lake Heart Island. It kept changing locations, yet no one ever noticed it.
No one knew how much time had passed.
Mu Qing woke from his unconscious state and immediately felt a stabbing pain throughout his body.
The pain in his head, caused by his exhausted Mental Power, had eased considerably.
"Where am I?" Mu Qing struggled to his feet.
He looked around. There was nothing but a cemetery and desolation: withered trees, weeds growing wild, and nameless tombstones glowing faintly as they formed a barrier.
Mu Qing realized the barrier covered the entire cemetery. He couldn't see what lay beyond it.
Dragging his gravely injured body, he made his way to the cemetery's edge and reached out, hoping to pass through the barrier and see what was outside.
The barrier was gray-black, with an unknown, twisting force constantly flowing across its surface. Mysterious symbols flickered with light.
But the moment Mu Qing's palm touched the gray-black barrier, a terrifying force that made his heart seize suddenly erupted.
Visible streams of silver energy poured out, rippling through space.
Mu Qing had only touched a trace of that power, yet it shook him until he spat blood. His body felt as though it were about to come apart.
The wounds that had begun to heal split open again. Already gravely injured, Mu Qing took another devastating blow and became a Blood Man in the blink of an eye.
Even Mu Qing couldn't stop himself from crying out in agony. The guttural sound that came from his throat was like a beast's growl.
He had already suffered terrible injuries fighting Liu Tianyu, Wang Haixuan, and the many North Campus students. He had only been holding on by sheer will. Now his injuries had flared up, and the pain was unbearable.
Mu Qing gritted his teeth and tried to channel his Origin Force to stop the bleeding. If he left his wounds untreated, he might bleed to death.
Suddenly, a phantom floated out of his dantian. He looked at it and saw that it was his first Blood Spirit.
The Little Black Fish was only half the size of his palm. It swished its tail, sending out ripples as it swam back and forth in the air.
Mu Qing watched it. The Little Black Fish seemed highly intelligent. It didn't look like a Blood Spirit so much as a pet. It rubbed against Mu Qing's palm, then bit down.
Though its body was small, when the Little Black Fish opened its mouth, Mu Qing could see a row of tiny, sharp teeth. They sank into the base of his thumb.
Mu Qing felt a sharp pain there and realized the Little Black Fish was sucking his blood.
The Little Black Fish sent him a message: it needed water.
Consumed by an overwhelming thirst, the Little Black Fish drank Mu Qing's blood. Only when it had had enough did it stop. It sent him a satisfied thought, then vanished.
Mu Qing's face was pale. The fish had taken a great deal of his blood, and in his already gravely injured state, that was adding frost to snow.
His lips trembled slightly. Then a surge of rich Origin Force suddenly flowed out of his dantian, carrying a ripple of water attribute energy as it spread through his limbs and body.
Mu Qing realized that the wounds on his body were slowly healing, and the bleeding had just barely stopped.
Mu Qing let out a long breath. To his surprise, the Origin Force that had suddenly appeared in his dantian was what the Little Black Fish had given back after refining his blood.
Of course, trading so much blood for a little Origin Force was a terrible deal.
"It needs water?" Mu Qing murmured, rubbing his chin.
"Your Blood Spirit needs energy with a water attribute," an old voice suddenly said.
Mu Qing's body jolted. He turned around. The nameless tombstones were still glowing, and the cold wind howled, stirring the withered leaves. But there wasn't a soul in sight.
In such a desolate place, the sudden sound of an old voice made his skin crawl.
"Hehehe."
A laugh, twitchy and unhinged, rang out.
This time Mu Qing heard it clearly. The sound came from underground.
Crack.
One of the nameless tombstones suddenly shattered, and the light shining from it gradually dimmed.
Each nameless tombstone emitted radiance, seemingly the source of the energy that formed the barrier around the cemetery.
After that tombstone broke, it no longer gave off any light.
The gray-black barrier covering the entire cemetery dimmed a little too.
"Hahahaha."
The old man's laughter came from underground. Then a hunched old man crawled out from beneath the broken tombstone, grinning. His yellow teeth were fully on display before Mu Qing.
Mu Qing was taken aback and looked the old man over.
He wore ragged clothes, black with grime. His face was covered in wrinkles, and his pale hair was a tangled mess. Dust coated his body, making him look utterly filthy.
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