Contacting the Holy Spirit Cult, Xu Tianran Inspects the Academy

The more Yan Jingchuan looked, the more certain he became that these people belonged to the Holy Spirit Cult.

The Holy Spirit Cult he had waited so long for had finally appeared, though they seemed to have come with hostile intentions.

All the black-robed figures possessed their martial souls, rings of soul rings rising around them.

White, yellow, purple, and black light gleamed in overlapping brilliance.

The strongest among them were two five-ringed Soul Kings. There were nine Soul Ancestors and Soul Elders combined, while the rest were mere cannon fodder.

Yan Jingchuan's expression was grim. He was not worried about his own safety. He could not defeat them, but with only two Soul Kings on the other side, they could not break through the defensive soul tools he carried.

Besides, from this distance, Yan Jingchuan could easily contact Kong Deming and the others at the Hall of Virtue. Of course, he would not do that.

What truly troubled Yan Jingchuan was the security of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy.

Wang Shaojie was one thing. As a collateral member of the imperial family and a student of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy himself, it would not have been too difficult for him to bring people inside.

But what was this now? These Evil Soul Masters had simply barged in openly. Jing Hongchen had claimed he would enforce strict management, yet this was the result? Was he just leaving the gates wide open for people to walk in?

Yan Jingchuan did not believe Jing Hongchen's management had grown lax merely because he had gone to the Extreme North and been away for a few days. If that were true, then Jing Hongchen had utterly failed as dean.

"Brat, die!"

The two Soul Kings took the lead in charging forward, all kinds of soul skills crashing down upon Yan Jingchuan.

His defensive soul tools activated automatically, easily blocking every attack.

"Second Soul Skill, Dark Condensing Soul Devourer."

Darkness spread across a wide area. Seeing that they had failed to take Yan Jingchuan down in a single blow, the two Evil Soul Master Soul Kings decisively pulled back.

The darkness swallowed most of the enemies. The cannon fodder was instantly corroded, some dead and others wounded.

A few Soul Elders and Soul Ancestors had their movements hindered. Within the darkness, Yan Jingchuan wielded the Darkgolden Terrorclaw in one hand and a dragon claw in the other, taking the chance to reap them.

"Damn it, we ran into a tough one!"

One of the Soul Kings used immense soul power to disperse Yan Jingchuan's soul skill. Yet the sight before them caused both men to lose control of their expressions.

Corpses lay strewn across the ground. Yan Jingchuan stood there, breathing faintly as blood dripped from his hands.

Almost all those below Soul Elder rank were dead. The Soul Elders and Soul Ancestors had suffered heavy casualties as well, leaving only four people still unscathed.

"What kind of joke is this? Didn't Wang Shaojie say he was just an ordinary Grand Soul Master?"

"No, we can't go back and report this. So what if he's a Grand Soul Master? Hurry up and attack! We have to kill him!"

Just as they prepared to continue attacking, Yan Jingchuan suddenly withdrew his Dark Sacred Dragon martial soul.

His total soul power was still too low. A little use was enough to drain it dry.

Now that he had established his might, it was time for the main act.

The Hell Demon Puppet possessed him. A faint layer of blood-red stained Yan Jingchuan's eyes as he coldly raised them toward the Evil Soul Masters charging at him.

The suppression of a superior martial soul forced them to stop in their tracks.

"Twin Martial Souls!!"

"That martial soul! You are..."

The Hell Demon Puppet martial soul, a hundred times more evil and violent than theirs, appeared. Even fools would realize something was wrong. It seemed they had attacked one of their own.

"You're from the Holy Church's Xishui Alliance?"

Having read the original story, Yan Jingchuan knew very well that the Xishui Alliance, one of the three major underground forces in Bright City of the Sun Moon Empire, was essentially the Holy Spirit Cult's public-facing power and intelligence base within the empire.

However, Yan Jingchuan could not determine whether these people were core members or whether they knew any of this.

"Holy Church? What is that?"

"Y-you... who exactly are you?"

The two Soul Kings reacted differently. Clearly, one of them knew something.

Yan Jingchuan naturally focused his attention on the latter.

"Who ordered you to kill me? Wang Shaojie, or that Third Prince?"

The Soul King fell silent at once. It was not that he did not want to answer, but that he truly could not judge Yan Jingchuan's identity or how much he should reveal.

Looking at Yan Jingchuan's martial soul, he felt that Yan Jingchuan's status within the Holy Church had to be high. Yet he had never heard of him before, leaving him deeply confused.

The atmosphere fell into a brief dead silence. Yan Jingchuan narrowed his eyes. How could he not understand what the man was hesitating over? His identity simply could not withstand scrutiny yet.

"Forget it. It doesn't matter!"

Yan Jingchuan did not want to waste time on Wang Shaojie and that so-called Third Prince. He had finally made contact with the Holy Spirit Cult, and such an opportunity was rare. Once he became the Holy Spirit Cult's Holy Son, he could deal with them then. They were not important figures anyway.

"You, go back and tell Elder Nangong Wan to come see me."

When Yan Jingchuan casually named Nangong Wan, the true controller of the Xishui Alliance, the Evil Soul Master Soul King's expression shifted. He suddenly regretted not confessing immediately.

He could directly identify the Xishui Alliance's leader, Nangong Wan, as an elder of the cult, and he even dared to speak as though Nangong Wan should come see him. This person was most likely a high-ranking figure in the cult, perhaps even the Holy Son the Holy Church had been searching for.

His regret instantly deepened. If he had just told the truth, perhaps he could have earned the Holy Son's favor, and this offense might have been forgiven. What had he been hesitating for?

"Get lost!"

Not wanting to watch the man's face turn green and then white as he put on a shifting-expression performance, Yan Jingchuan quickly drove them away.

Not long after the Evil Soul Masters left, Yan Jingchuan heard people approaching. He switched his martial soul back to the Dark Sacred Dragon and pretended to be heavily depleted of soul power.

When the teachers who had sensed the soul power fluctuations arrived, they saw only a scene of utter devastation.

News quickly reached Jing Hongchen. Jing Hongchen felt awful. Under his management, the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy had been infiltrated repeatedly, and students had been harmed.

Both incidents had targeted Yan Jingchuan. He had previously sworn that nothing similar would happen again, yet it had happened all over again. Was this not a slap in his face?

Kong Deming was also furious when he learned of it. Yan Jingchuan was his disciple and had already been recognized as an indispensable genius on the path of advancing soul tool technology.

Such an important genius had been attacked within his own academy. Especially after learning this was the second time, Kong Deming privately sought out Jing Hongchen and gave him a harsh scolding.

After being reprimanded, Jing Hongchen was thoroughly enraged. He was too ashamed to face Yan Jingchuan, humiliated and furious yet unable to say anything in his own defense.

"This is too much! Too much! These madmen truly do not take our Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy seriously!"

Jing Hongchen immediately ordered a major purge of the academy. In just two days, many well-connected insiders and problematic personnel were expelled.

What happened at the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy caused an enormous uproar, even setting off a storm in the Sun Moon Empire's imperial court.

After only a few peaceful days, Yan Jingchuan suddenly learned from Xiao Hongchen that Xu Tianran was coming.

Xu Tianran would represent the emperor in inspecting the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy while assisting Jing Hongchen in dealing with the academy's recent disorder.

The name Xu Tianran filled Yan Jingchuan with disgust.

The things Xu Tianran had done in the original story made him an extremist with no bottom line, willing to use any means necessary to become emperor and unify the continent.

Now that he was coming to the academy in person, Yan Jingchuan could not shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen.

However, he cared more about the Xishui Alliance's situation. Three days had passed, yet Nangong Wan had not come looking for him. He had no idea what the man was doing.

After some thought, Yan Jingchuan decided to return to his dormitory and pretend to be ill for two days. It would let him avoid Xu Tianran while quietly waiting for the Holy Spirit Cult's next move.

After asking Xuan Ziwen for leave, he walked out of the classroom and ran into three people.

The young man in front sat in a wheelchair, pushed by a woman, with a middle-aged man following beside them.

Upon seeing Yan Jingchuan, the young man's face broke into a warm smile.

"You must be student Yan Jingchuan, correct?"