"So they were supposed to prioritize protecting a group of students with good martial arts talent?"
"You know about that..."
Chu Yuan thought, I know more than that. I almost went myself.
"Does it have something to do with this?"
"Yeah. Some people... didn't follow orders;
they abandoned those 'seeds' and chose to protect their own families." Jiang Fei's expression flickered as he let out a long breath.
Chu Yuan fell silent. He remembered what Yan Xuan had said earlier. He hadn't expected him to be right...
But he felt that if he were in their shoes, he would choose to protect his own family too.
And yet somehow, that didn't seem right...
After all, even the Martial Suppression Bureau warriors' chances of survival had been bought for them by their comrades.
They had a "mission" and a "duty," but in the end, they chose to defy orders...
Fortunately, the Blood Sacrifice Array hadn't taken effect, so there hadn't been any serious consequences.
But... disobeying orders was still disobeying orders.
"What will happen to them?"
"They'll be sent to the Outer-Heaven front line."
Chu Yuan was confused again. From what Qi Da had said, he seemed eager to go to the Outer-Heaven Battlefield;
but here, in the Martial Suppression Bureau, being sent to the Outer-Heaven Battlefield had become a punishment?
Jiang Fei didn't seem to want to discuss the subject any further. He smiled. "Speaking of which, there's something else that concerns you."
"What? I've never had anything to do with your Martial Suppression Bureau, have I?"
"It's not the Martial Suppression Bureau... A reporter wants to interview you. She saw us fighting that weird creature."
"An interview? Do I get paid?"
Jiang Fei paused. "Probably not..."
"Then forget it."
Jiang Fei nodded in agreement. "I think we should forget it too... She's pretty annoying."
"Want to come over for dinner? My mom really wants to thank you."
Jiang Fei smiled. "Doesn't your aunt know you saved Xiao Yun and me?"
"One thing has nothing to do with the other."
"Then do I need to treat you to a meal too, to thank you?"
"Sure."
Jiang Fei and Chu Yuan weren't close enough yet for him to stay long. After a simple meal at home, he took his leave;
Chu Yuan saw him downstairs.
"By the way, how much do you know about Yan Xuan?"
Jiang Fei smiled. "Definitely more than you do. Why?"
"Tell me about him."
"Isn't he dead already?"
"I'm curious," Chu Yuan said. Although Yan Xuan had sent people to impersonate him and commit murder, he had seemed sincere about recruiting him;
at the very least, before the Blood Sacrifice Array had taken shape, Yan Xuan had agreed to several of the conditions he'd proposed.
Chu Yuan wasn't about to feel grateful to Yan Xuan or develop any goodwill toward him over that... But he couldn't help being curious about his past;
a former genius had fallen, endured nearly ten years at a small high school, and still become a Supernatural Realm warrior?
That kind of experience would be remarkable for anyone!
Unfortunately, he'd run into Chu Yuan. Crushed by the Blood Sea Soul-Locking Array's overwhelming dimensional advantage, even his extraordinary talent had been impossible to bring to bear...
Jiang Fei gathered his thoughts.
"Come to think of it, he was originally from Chenyang No. 1 High School too..."
"I know that. I also know he later obtained a legacy, but powerful warriors coveted it and made their move in secret.
I don't know the details, though."
Jiang Fei nodded. "That's right. Ten years ago, Yan Xuan got into the Divine Capital Martial Academy with the highest score in Chenyang City;
even there, he showed dazzling talent!
In his first month, he advanced to the Internal Breath Realm!"
"By the second semester of his sophomore year, he'd broken through to the Air-Traversing Realm! That drew attention, and he was specially approved to join the juniors in attempting to enter the Outer-Heaven Battlefield!"
"They were assigned to a scout squad, patrolling near the front lines;
during that time, Yan Xuan's personal record was: twenty-six third-realm Alien Race members killed, and three fourth-realm Alien Race members killed!
The Fifth Legion in that area took a keen interest in him and tried to recruit him with many generous offers."
"At the time, he wasn't among Great Qin's very top geniuses, but everyone who knew him believed he would achieve great things."
"But..."
Chu Yuan knew the turning point had come. He perked up and listened carefully.
"During a pursuit of the Alien Race, Yan Xuan's squad came upon a space rift that had just opened!
Beyond the rift was a Secret Realm, where an eighth-tier member of the Alien Race had been buried...
No one knows what he went through inside the Secret Realm. By the time experts from the Fifth Legion arrived, the Secret Realm had been fully unlocked;
Yan Xuan's teammates and the group of Alien Race members they'd been pursuing had all died inside. Only Yan Xuan survived;
and... he obtained the legacy!"
"Eighth tier? Wasn't it seventh?"
Jiang Fei shook his head. "They only said seventh tier publicly...
The legacy was precious, and it quickly attracted countless eyes in the shadows;
Yan Xuan was already being watched, so to prevent experts from the Alien Race from assassinating him... he was ordered to return to Great Qin!
But while the teleportation array was operating, someone tampered with it. The array malfunctioned, and its coordinates shifted!
The authorities found Yan Xuan in a sea. By then, he was unconscious, his martial arts foundation had been destroyed, and his mind had suffered severe trauma!"
Chu Yuan's mouth twitched. "That's ridiculous...
If teleportation arrays are so easy to tamper with, why is the Alien Race even fighting Great Qin? They could just keep sabotaging the arrays..."
Jiang Fei nodded in agreement and smiled bitterly. "Exactly. Whoever did it must have been from inside Great Qin!
And they must have been a powerful figure with a high position..."
"One more question. If the other person was so powerful, why didn't they just kill Yan Xuan?"
"He had a tracking mark placed on him by a powerful expert. Whoever killed him would be marked... That was probably why."
"Didn't the Martial Suppression Bureau have any suspects?"
"Anyone capable of doing something like this isn't someone you can casually accuse;
if there's enough evidence, then there's nothing more to say;
but if they take action based on suspicion alone... Do you think the Alien Race might use that tactic to make the higher-ups rapidly turn against one another?" Jiang Fei's expression was helpless too.
"Tsk, that's nothing like the version I heard;
the story going around our school is that someone kidnapped his family and forced him to hand over the legacy, then crippled him..."
"That never happened. The higher-ups couldn't exactly tell the public that someone had secretly tampered with a teleportation array, could they?
If they did, everyone would be terrified about traveling to and from the Outer-Heaven Battlefield...
In the end, they only executed a few negligent warriors responsible for guarding the teleportation array."
"And that was the end of it?"
Jiang Fei hesitated, then lowered his voice. "Actually, the Martial Suppression Bureau has been keeping an eye on certain people. If that Alien Race legacy is ever used..."
Before you continue