The infirmary wasn't far away, and the two of them arrived in no time.
The school doctor was nowhere to be seen. The room was quiet, with only the vines of the pothos on the windowsill swaying gently in the breeze.
"Ahem... The school doctor's actually not here. I'll have Grandpa dock his pay later."
Xiao Hongchen made an awkward attempt at small talk.
Of course, he had no idea that his younger sister had already come by and sent the school doctor away.
Ye Guyi's gaze swept across the medicine cabinet by the wall. She spoke softly:
"Sit down."
Xiao Hongchen sat on the edge of the bed and held out his right hand.
The wound had almost stopped bleeding. After fusing with the Gold of Life, his ability to heal himself far surpassed that of ordinary people. His earlier joke about "it'll be healed if we wait any longer" hadn't been a joke at all.
Ye Guyi opened the cabinet and took out a roll of clean white bandage and a jar of ointment.
She sat down across from him, unscrewed the jar, and dabbed a little ointment onto her fingertip. She held it above the back of his hand for a moment, then gently lowered it.
The ointment was cool, and so were her fingers.
Xiao Hongchen's hand tensed slightly.
She spread the ointment evenly over the wound. The scab gradually softened as it soaked in, and then she gently pressed a corner of the bandage against it to absorb the remaining seepage of blood.
"Does it hurt?" Ye Guyi asked quietly.
"No."
Ye Guyi said nothing more. She wrapped the bandage around the back of his hand, one loop at a time. When she reached the final loop, she suddenly stopped.
A pale golden light glowed in her palm.
First Soul Skill—Holy Light Illumination.
The most primal divine power of the Angel Martial Soul seeped from her fingertips into Xiao Hongchen's wound.
The warm, pure light was like a soft feather brushing over his damaged skin. His cells grew faster in its glow, and the wound healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Xiao Hongchen felt a warm itch across the back of his hand. The sharp pain quickly faded, replaced by a pleasant tingling sensation.
Ye Guyi finished the final loop of the bandage and said softly:
"There... It shouldn't leave a scar."
Her voice was a little softer than usual.
"Is that so? Thank you... Guyi."
Ye Guyi didn't look up. She only gave a quiet "Mm."
She turned toward the medicine cabinet and put away the ointment and the remaining bandage. With her back to him, her shoulders seemed a little tense. Her fingertips lingered on the cabinet door before she gently closed it.
"Then, should I head back?"
Having finished treating Xiao Hongchen's wound, Ye Guyi was ready to escape.
"Sure. Take Meng at the door with you, too."
His Spiritual Power far surpassed that of ordinary people. He'd noticed long ago that his younger sister was hiding outside the door and peeking through the crack. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice.
"Eh? Meng's here, too?"
Ye Guyi hadn't noticed her at all. She clearly froze at his words and instinctively turned toward the door.
Outside the crack, Meng Hongchen had been caught red-handed. She let out a little "Ah!" Her silver hair fading into blue swished as she simply pushed the door open and walked in, wearing an unabashedly nosy grin.
"You caught me~"
She hurried over and hooked an arm around Ye Guyi's, her eyes sparkling as she looked from one of them to the other.
But Ye Guyi soon dragged Meng Hongchen out of the infirmary without giving her a chance to protest.
"Finally, some peace and quiet."
Xiao Hongchen lay on the bed and let out a long breath.
His battle with Ji Juechen had been far from as easy as it looked. That razor-sharp sword intent still lingered in his senses, leaving him with a great deal to reflect on.
He secretly decided to work those impressions into his Black Flash.
As for what to do next...
Feeling that his Soul Power had already reached level forty-nine, Xiao Hongchen formed a clear plan: from now on, he would devote most of his energy to cultivation and body tempering.
His fifth Soul Ring would need to come from a Soul Beast with at least thirty thousand years of cultivation. He couldn't just settle for whatever he found.
In the original story, Xiao Hongchen's fifth Soul Skill was called Attachment of Gold, an extremely powerful thirty-thousand-year Soul Skill. Back then, he'd relied on a special medicine to forcibly enhance himself before barely managing to absorb it. As a result, he'd never come close to mastering the skill well enough to use it at will.
But the current him was quite satisfied with Attachment of Gold, a Soul Skill that could liquefy his body into molten metal.
His body had been transformed by the Gold of Life, giving him confidence that he could absorb that thirty-thousand-year Soul Ring outright.
"Mm, I'll keep that Soul Beast as a fallback," Xiao Hongchen thought. "If I can't find anything more suitable, I'll absorb its Soul Ring."
Now that his Brain Martial Soul had a Soul Ring, and he was accustomed to releasing both Martial Souls at once in battle, he appeared to have "two yellow, two purple, and one black" Soul Rings—making him a Five-Ring Soul King.
Once he obtained his fifth Soul Ring, his public identity would jump straight to Soul Emperor. That wouldn't do.
He didn't have Huo Yuhao's Simulation Soul Skill, and he had no interest in hunting Ice Silkworms. The Ice Silkworm Clan was little more than roadside trash in the Far North; hardly any of them had cultivated for more than ten thousand years, and absorbing a thousand-year Ice Silkworm would only waste one of his precious Soul Ring slots.
Looks like he'd have to search for a visual or disguise-type Soul Skill after obtaining his fifth Soul Ring.
He could ask Grandpa afterward and see which Soul Beasts he recommended.
There was something else he needed to ask Grandpa about, too.
But for now, he would focus on reaching level fifty.
With that thought, he sat up on the bed and crossed his legs.
His right hand was still injured, making it unsuitable for crafting Soul Tools. It would take a few days to heal completely. That made this the perfect time to cultivate.
Xiao Hongchen took out several pieces of rare metal suitable for absorption. As he slowly absorbed the energy within them, he entered a state of meditation.
Hongchen Mansion.
Xiao Hongchen stood before the door to Jing Hongchen's room.
As if he'd made up his mind, he finally knocked.
"Come in."
A familiar voice came from within.
Xiao Hongchen pushed the door open and locked it behind him.
"What is it, Xiao?"
Jing Hongchen noticed that something was off about him.
Xiao Hongchen had already steeled himself. He got straight to the point:
"I want to know whether Mingde Hall has some kind of arrangement with the Evil Soul Masters of the Holy Spirit Cult."
Silence fell over the room for a moment.
But Jing Hongchen's expression showed not the slightest hint of panic. He simply looked at Xiao Hongchen in silence.
At last, he spoke, his voice as steady as ever:
"Why would you think that?"
Xiao Hongchen had no goodwill toward the Holy Spirit Cult whatsoever.
No—"no goodwill" was far too mild.
More accurately, he wanted to identify them with several hundred Soul Cannons.
Xiao Hongchen wasn't from the Sun Moon Empire.
Having crossed over from another world, he had never considered himself a native of this land. He shouldn't have cared about the injustice or even the cruel treatment its people suffered.
But humans were emotional creatures, after all.
The Holy Spirit Cult had committed atrocities throughout the Sun Moon Empire: slaughtering villages, harvesting souls, refining weapons, and imprisoning the souls of the living so they could never be reborn. Their crimes were ten times more brutal than the worst things he'd ever heard about on Blue Star.
Their crimes defied enumeration. That saying must have been coined for a situation like this.
The thought that Evil Soul Masters might be lurking in Mingde Hall, a place he entered and left every day, made his scalp prickle.
But there was something else he couldn't bear to think about.
What if, one day, Ye Guyi discovered that the family she'd entered with such hope had some kind of arrangement with the very enemies who had killed her parents—
Xiao Hongchen didn't dare follow that thought any further.
"So there is an arrangement?"
Xiao Hongchen stared straight at Jing Hongchen.
He already knew the answer, of course. He hadn't come here to confirm it. He wanted to see whether Jing Hongchen would hide it from him, too.
Jing Hongchen let out a long sigh.
"There is."
At his core, he was a self-interested man—or, more precisely, a man who put his family's interests first.
As an hereditary duke, he had never cared about the lives of ordinary people. He might have sympathized with what they went through, but so what? He didn't see it, and even if he did, what could he do? He hadn't done it himself, after all.
Xiao Hongchen watched him silently, as if waiting for him to continue.
Jing Hongchen didn't rush to explain. He walked back to his chair and sat down again, resting his hand on the armrest. There was no guilt in his expression, only the candor of someone who had seen things too clearly to bother hiding them anymore.
"You want to know why?"
"I want to know a lot of things," Xiao Hongchen said. "But start with why."
Jing Hongchen was silent for a moment, then spoke in a steady voice, as if recounting something that had nothing to do with him:
"The Xishui Alliance provides Mingde Hall with a large quantity of rare metals every month. In exchange, I allow its people to study inside Mingde Hall."
He paused.
"Mingde Hall doesn't need those metals, but more is always better. Besides, that batch goes directly into my accounts, unlike what the Empire allocates to us. They're two different things."
Xiao Hongchen listened, then fell silent for two seconds.
"As for breaking with them—" Jing Hongchen continued without waiting for him to speak. "You know what's behind them, and you know what the relationship between the royal family and the Holy Spirit Cult is right now. Would this really be the time to turn against them?"
He wasn't wrong.
He wasn't wrong at all, and that only made it weigh more heavily on the heart.
"So the things you said the day Ye Guyi arrived," Xiao Hongchen said, expressionless, "were they against your true feelings?"
Jing Hongchen looked at him and shook his head.
"No."
He leaned back in his chair, his voice slowing:
"The royal family won't tolerate the Holy Spirit Cult forever. It's only a matter of time. Besides, Xu Tianran will probably be the next emperor."
Xu Tianran.
The young man in the wheelchair had met with Jing Hongchen several times before.
There was something in those eyes that no cripple should have possessed.
He had tried to win Jing Hongchen over, and his words had already revealed the first corner of the future game board.
If he took the throne, there would be a war.
In wartime, the value of Mingde Hall would increase several times over. Weapons, talent, logistics—the Hongchen Family would cease to be just a hereditary name and become a truly irreplaceable force.
"Once the Empire's unification of the continent is settled, that will be the day the royal family makes its move," Jing Hongchen continued, his voice steady, as though he'd planned this more than once. "Then you, Meng, and Ye Guyi can strike the Holy Spirit Cult a crushing blow. Even if rumors start flying afterward, the three of you can claim you knew nothing. Understand?"
He paused.
"Even if my collusion with the Evil Soul Masters is exposed, I'll bear the brunt of it. You'll be heroes who saved the people from the depths of misery, brave souls in their eyes. The Hongchen Family's standing will only grow stronger after that, never fall."
Though Jing Hongchen said this, he knew full well that even at that point, he wouldn't be punished severely. At most, he'd be stripped of his dukedom.
The room fell quiet.
Xiao Hongchen stood there, staring motionlessly at Jing Hongchen.
"You've thought it through very carefully, but I won't accept it."
Jing Hongchen's brows twitched slightly.
"This isn't a matter of whether you accept it or not—"
Xiao Hongchen cut him off.
He stepped closer, narrowing the distance between them for the first time in their conversation.
"I won't accept that ending."
"And I certainly don't want you paving the way for us like this."
"This is what I can do for the Hongchen Family—"
"I don't want it."
Those three words fell like a rock, silencing whatever Jing Hongchen had been about to say.
Jing Hongchen looked at him without speaking.
Xiao Hongchen didn't give him a chance to respond. He continued:
"Also, Grandpa, don't you think you're underestimating yourself?"
He slowly paced across the room, as if organizing his thoughts.
"You know better than I do what Mingde Hall is. It's the Sun Moon Empire's sacred ground for research and its largest weapons factory. You've spent years building influence at court. Do you really not know how much weight you carry?"
He stopped and turned to look at Jing Hongchen.
"Drive them all out. Whether they came in openly under their own names or hid in some corner without showing their faces, send every last one of them packing. Leave no trace of them behind."
Xiao Hongchen spoke calmly, as though this were only right and proper.
"Do you really think the Holy Spirit Cult can afford to turn against you?"
Xiao Hongchen didn't think a minor matter like this would reach the Long and Ye families. Even Zhongli Wu might not want to offend the Master of Mingde Hall over it.
Jing Hongchen didn't answer at once.
"No matter how brazen the Holy Spirit Cult is, it still can't openly demand justice for itself at court."
Xiao Hongchen continued:
"If they want to come after you, they'll have to expose themselves in public, and that's exactly what they fear most."
He paused.
"What's more, on the surface, expelling the Evil Soul Masters from the academy is a good thing. Even the emperor would have to reward you in public and grit his teeth as he gave you credit. Afterward, Mingde Hall's reputation among the people will only rise, never fall."
"You've traded their metals for years of convenience. Now you can wash all of it clean with a graceful ending. It's a good deal."
Jing Hongchen sat in his chair, looking at the young man standing before him.
Xiao, you really have grown up.
"You make it sound so easy." He finally spoke, his voice several shades deeper than before. "Sending them back is simple enough, but what about what comes after? The Holy Spirit Cult won't swallow this insult. They'll have to vent their anger somewhere. I'm not afraid for myself, but you all..."
Jing Hongchen was afraid of having to bury another child before his time.
"Then let them come." Xiao Hongchen wore a confident smile. "If one comes, I'll take him on. If two come, I'll take them both."
"And besides, are you underestimating me? Or have you forgotten about Electrolux?"
Before Electrolux fell into slumber, he had entrusted the Undead Semi-Plane to Xiao Hongchen.
Unless a Titled Douluo came after him, even if he couldn't win, surely he could still run.
"As for Meng, why not give her Red Dust Protection?"
Jing Hongchen fell silent, watching him for a long time.
This child he had watched grow up had, at some point, planned for every contingency and accounted for everyone's safety. Yet here he stood, looking utterly unruffled.
"You child..."
There was something rare in Jing Hongchen's voice, though it was hard to say whether it was helplessness or something else. "You still have a way of saying things that leaves people unable to argue."
He paused, as though he had finally made a decision. Once he let out that breath, his whole demeanor grew steadier.
"By the end of this semester at the latest, I'll investigate every Evil Soul Master hiding in the academy and Mingde Hall."
Xiao Hongchen smiled.
"It's about time."
He paused, and something in his eyes lit up, as though something long suppressed had finally found a way out.
"I'll drive every Evil Soul Master out of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy! Not a single one will remain!"
Before you continue