The hidden hand behind a series of assassination attempts was Ji Xuan of the Ji Clan, a dark mastermind personally chosen by the Holy Spirit Academy's leadership and known as King Xuan.
After they had wrung the answers they wanted from him, the two exchanged a glance.
As for Wang Ze, who couldn't escape the "it smells so good" rule...
Mu Chen finished him off with a swift blow of his staff, granting him a quick death.
Mu Chen glanced at his companion questioningly. "You know Ji Xuan?"
"If you mean that extremely narcissistic guy, then I suppose I do."
The girl in the black dress gave a slight nod. She casually tucked the lock of silver hair that hung over her forehead behind her ear, her lovely face showing little change in expression.
Neither of them was ordinary, nor were they some lovesick couple who spent all day suspecting each other and getting jealous over nothing.
They were always straightforward with each other, saying exactly what they felt.
Open and honest, never coy.
Truthfully, Luo Li really liked this natural, comfortable way of getting along.
The silver-haired girl studied Mu Chen's expression, then relaxed and began to reminisce.
The Ji Clan's prodigy had grown up basking in the admiration of his peers, surrounded by glory and accustomed to getting his way. From the moment he met Luo Li, however, he suffered the greatest setback of his life.
He deliberately engineered one chance encounter after another, showing off his excellence like a peacock fanning its tail and doing everything he could to appear heroic. Yet he couldn't even win a single glance from the girl. She ignored him outright.
That crushing sense of failure, and the stark contrast between them, might have been the biggest reason Ji Xuan went to extremes and chose to target Mu Chen.
After all, Mu Chen and Ji Xuan had never even met before.
By comparison, her other admirers, like Li Xuantong, had been much more restrained.
Of course, Luo Li saw childhood companions like Li Xuantong as no more than an older brother next door—one she hadn't seen in so many years that she was nearly starting to forget what he looked like.
"I'm sorry. This all started because of me, so I should resolve it myself."
For a moment, the silver-haired girl's heart brimmed with murderous intent, divine weapon in hand.
Anyone who dared to get between her and Mu Chen could all just die!
"No. A man's business should be settled by a man."
Mu Chen's gaze was deep. He ran his hand over the ancient, unadorned battle staff in his grip and smiled brightly.
Luo Li nodded obediently. "All right. I'll do as you say."
The clever girl had known since childhood when to be gentle and when to be firm.
The art of love lay in knowing how to use every move at just the right moment.
Mu Chen and Luo Li's counterattack came swiftly and ferociously.
In just a few days, the two of them joined forces to wipe out five of Ji Xuan's strongholds, kill twenty-seven of his followers, and wound countless others.
Once, they had even nearly trapped Ji Xuan in a mountain valley and killed him there.
For a time, heads rolled and blood flowed.
Ji Xuan was furious. When had anyone ever managed to find his lair?
In a fit of rage, he summoned every subordinate under his command. He also contacted King-level figures who held grudges against Mu Chen, such as the Twin Kings of the Shi Family, and gathered allies from all sides—a force of two or three hundred men in total.
The two sides clashed on the outskirts of the central Sanctuary. They fought from north to south, then from west to east, locked in battle for over half a month. The fighting went back and forth, with both sides winning and losing.
Of course, that account was mostly Ji Xuan's side putting a flattering spin on things.
Mu Chen and Luo Li were powerful enough to rank among the top three kings on the Spirit Road. On top of that, they appeared and vanished like ghosts, leaving their opponents completely unable to predict their movements.
Since the war began, it had been the alliance that was suffering losses, with no meaningful casualties on the other side.
As the conflict grew more intense, half the Spirit Road turned its attention to the fierce battle and began deliberately converging on the surrounding areas.
The Black Demon Forest lay at the boundary between the central and eastern regions.
Its mountain range stretched for over a thousand miles, winding and rising and falling beneath a constant shroud of fog and miasma.
Poisonous insects and fierce beasts roamed within, and high-level spirit beasts capable of fighting human Divine Soul Realm martial artists were not uncommon. It was truly a terrifying forbidden zone.
Even figures of the seventh or eighth level, among the king-class powerhouses, would not venture into this perilous place lightly.
Yet in recent days, people from all sides had continued to arrive in response to the news, surging in from every direction toward the site of the final showdown between Mu Chen and Ji Xuan. The place was bustling with activity.
The noisy crowds and the constant roars of beasts shattered the mountains' silence.
"Look, Quasi-King Fang Zhong is here."
"The Three Kings are all here: King Yan, Yan Xiao; King Yan, Yan Ling; and King Zhou, Zhou Ling."
"That person is..."
Exclamations rose from time to time among the packed masses gathered in the enormous clearing.
King-class figures, rarely seen on ordinary days, appeared one after another, like horses passing before one's eyes.
Everyone selected by the Mirror of Judgment to take part in the Spirit Road Selection was a human prodigy famous in their region, a rising star and one of the best of their generation.
Yet among the hundred thousand youths on the Spirit Road, only around a hundred became kings.
Of course, the figure of a hundred thousand youths on the Spirit Road was only an approximation.
Wherever there was a Spirit Academy, the Five Great Academies could be found.
For every Spirit Road Selection, the Five Great Academies joined forces to activate the ultimate divine artifact, the Mirror of Judgment, and carefully select candidates from the countless people of the Great Thousand World. There were at least two or three hundred thousand of them.
But after two years of brutal, cauldron-like trials, only a little over ten thousand survived—not even twenty thousand. Every last one was elite.
At least seven or eight thousand people had gathered around the outer reaches of the Black Demon Forest. No wonder half the Spirit Road's attention had been drawn there. It was an unprecedented sight, one without equal before or since.
"The Wu siblings are here."
"I heard their father and uncle hold high positions in the Five Great Academies."
Two figures appeared, standing atop the canopy of an ancient tree and looking down over the area.
One of them was Wu Yingying, who had crossed paths with Mu Chen before.
The girl had a fair, pretty oval face and a petite frame.
Her long black hair had been skillfully braided into a ponytail that fell to her slender waist, swaying with every movement of her lithe body.
She wore a brightly colored red dress and carried an enormous Crescent Moon Blade that was completely out of proportion to her petite figure, creating a striking contrast.
In short, she was a young woman with a vivid and unmistakable personality.
The person beside her was a tall, broad-shouldered man with long, powerful arms.
His features bore some resemblance to the girl in red, but his bearing was more composed.
He was the eldest grandson of Heavenly King Wu, Wu Yingying's biological older brother, Wu Ling. The leadership of Wu Ling Academy unanimously recognized him as the academy's next leading figure, and his combat strength was terrifying.
"Wow, it's Mu Kui and Bing Qing! These two super-geniuses from the Primordial Clan have appeared at the same time. Could it really be a coincidence?"
A young king appeared in both the Western Heavens and the northern region, almost simultaneously.
The one in the west was a delicate-looking young woman with a tall, graceful figure.
She had extremely striking ice-blue hair, and even her bright eyes were a strange shade of icy blue. Her aura was chilling, like a ten-thousand-year-old iceberg.
When her beautiful eyes shifted, it seemed as though she could stir every trace of coldness in heaven and earth.
Bing Qing came from the Ice Spirit Clan, whose members were born with the ability to control the power of ice.
The clan's ancestors had once produced a Saint Grade powerhouse. Though its foundations had declined greatly over the years, it still had a giant at the Heavenly Sovereign level at its helm. It was not to be underestimated.
P.S. A brother left a comment asking me to create character profiles, so I could upload things like major events.
What's the point of that? I feel like nobody's interested. Should I do it?
Before you continue