Someone is Targeting Xue Qinghe

When Qin Yue retreated to the side of the arena, the atmosphere in the training ground was clearly different from before.

Lu Yuan did not continue to take the stage, and Deacon Zhao no longer arranged opponents for him. After all, today's event was merely an exchange between young spirit masters, and defeating Gu Yan and Qin Yue back-to-back was already enough for the Royal Academy to reassess his strength. Continuing to fight further held little meaning.

The remaining sparring matches proceeded as usual. Lu Yuan stood beside Deacon Zhao and watched for a while, occasionally noticing someone glancing in his direction, yet no one else came forward to issue a challenge.

As noon approached, the exchange gradually drew to a close.

Xue Qinghe spoke briefly with a few academy teachers, then departed the training ground accompanied by his retinue of guards. From the moment Lu Yuan arrived until now, apart from that initial standard introduction, the two had not engaged in any further public interaction, looking no different than strangers meeting for the first time today.

Likewise, Lu Yuan did not deliberately pay attention to him until Xue Qinghe was about to walk out of the training ground, at which point familiar gray text suddenly appeared within his field of vision.

[Qian Renxue]

[Identity: Xue Qinghe]

[Fate Node: Latent]

The preceding content was no different from yesterday.

Just as Lu Yuan prepared to look away, the text at the very bottom suddenly rippled gently, and after a moment, a line of information that had never appeared before slowly surfaced.

[Fate Node has shifted]

Lu Yuan's gaze narrowed slightly, but his pace did not stop.

When he first saw Qian Renxue in Tiangou City yesterday, the "Latent" node had shown no abnormalities whatsoever. Now, merely a day later, it suddenly underwent a change, clearly indicating that something had affected her original fate. The most noteworthy event today happened to be this Royal Academy exchange.

He followed Deacon Zhao outward while recalling everyone he had seen inside the training ground today. Aside from the Royal Academy teachers, young spirit masters, and the Spirit Hall delegation, there were several accompanying outsiders on the sidelines, amongst whom a middle-aged man around forty wearing a deep gray long-robe quickly resurfaced in his mind.

That person wore no Royal Academy attire, nor did he look like an ordinary guard, participating in virtually no one else's conversation from the beginning of the exchange to the end. The reason Lu Yuan remembered him was because the other party had glanced at Xue Qinghe a few times back and forth.

The first time was when the sparring had just begun, the second time was before Qin Yue took the stage, and just now when Xue Qinghe prepared to leave, the other man's gaze had followed him once again.

The duration of each pause was brief. If it were ordinary times, these few glances alone would not prove anything. After all, Xue Qinghe was the First Prince of the Heaven Dou Imperial Family, and appearing on such an occasion naturally tended to draw the attention of others. Yet the fate node happened to shift precisely today, so Lu Yuan naturally could not completely ignore it.

When he reached the exit of the training ground, he swept a glance backward by virtue of a sideways movement dodging a few academy students. That gray-robed middle-aged man was still standing in his original spot, speaking in a low voice to a young man beside him, revealing nothing abnormal.

Lu Yuan did not continue observing. Since he did not even know the other party's identity at present, rashly concluding that this person was problematic was meaningless. If he kept staring fixedly, it might instead draw the other's attention first.

Upon exiting the Royal Academy, Deacon Zhao was clearly in a good mood, even actively bringing up the recent sparring on the return trip.

"Qin Yue can be considered quite decent among this batch of young people in the Royal Academy. I originally thought it would already be enough for you to last a few more rounds with him, but I never expected you to actually win."

"His strength is much greater than mine."

"That much was obvious." Deacon Zhao laughed. "He kept suppressing you in the fight the whole way through, yet in the end, he was pushed out of the arena by you. The Grand Pontiff hasn't spared you from harsh training over these past years, has he?"

Lu Yuan recalled those days in the North Field. "He certainly hasn't."

After hearing this, Deacon Zhao did not continue pressing, nor did Lu Yuan mention the gray-robed middle-aged man in the training ground. With nothing figured out yet, blurting the matter out would only invite unnecessary trouble. Furthermore, Qian Renxue had explicitly instructed him last night that, barring necessity, the two of them were best advised to minimize private contact.

White Stone Alley was merely the place of their first meeting. If there truly was an urgent matter later, they needed to first leave a mark according to agreement, after which Qian Renxue's side would decide whether to meet. Moreover, the route back to the Sanctuary happened to pass through West Street.

When the caravan reached the vicinity, Lu Yuan glanced out the window and said to Deacon Zhao, "I want to buy some things along the way and will return by myself later."

Knowing that he had already familiarized himself with the neighboring streets yesterday and that West Street was not far from the Sanctuary, Deacon Zhao merely instructed him not to delay too long before having the carriage driver pull over at the street corner.

After alighting, Lu Yuan did not head directly to the agreed-upon teahouse, but instead strolled normally along the street for a while. He first entered a weapon shop to take a look, then bought some daily necessities nearby. After detouring around two blocks, he finally passed through the back alley from the side of the teahouse.

A few wooden crates were piled near the wall, and a few inconspicuous small stones were scattered beneath the windowsill.

Lu Yuan did not halt his stride, merely bending down to tidy the edge of his shoe as he passed, deftly moving one of the gray-white stones to the left side of the windowsill. The previous night, the two had agreed that as long as this mark appeared here, the people arranged by Qian Renxue would know he had matters requiring contact.

Having finished this, he left from the other end of the alley, returned to the Sanctuary, and ate and cultivated as usual.

According to the contact method left last night, if Qian Renxue's side decided to meet, someone would place a message beneath the old bamboo basket outside another grocery store on West Street around nightfall; if there was nothing there, it meant it was currently inconvenient to make contact.

Toward evening, Lu Yuan left the Sanctuary once more, though instead of heading straight for the grocery store, he first ate something nearby, walked slowly in a circle around two blocks, and confirmed there were no anomalies trailing him before finally passing in front of that grocery store.

The shop had already begun packing up its stall, and a few old bamboo baskets that had previously held dried goods sat by the door.

Lu Yuan acted as though he were looking at items on a nearby stall, lingering for a brief moment before crouching down naturally. His fingertips felt a tightly folded slip of paper hidden at the bottom of the basket.

He did not open it on the spot, instead slipping the paper into his sleeve and walking into an uninhabited alley only after leaving that street.

There were only two lines of words on the paper.

Tonight at the Hour of Hai.

South City, Qingmufang Back Alley.

There was no signature, nor any superfluous instructions.

Lu Yuan memorized the time and location, stopped for a moment by a street lantern after stepping out of the alley, and used its flame to ignite the paper. Once the paper burned away completely, he used the sole of his shoe to grind the remaining ash apart, confirming not a trace of writing remained before continuing forward as if nothing had happened.

White Stone Alley was no longer used; this time, even the meeting zone had been changed to South City, clearly showing that Qian Renxue had no intention of letting any single secret contact point frequently display traces of the two of them.

There was still plenty of time before the Hour of Hai, so Lu Yuan did not head over early, instead returning to the Sanctuary to cultivate as usual for over an hour. When the sky grew completely dark, he changed into ordinary clothing and left the Sanctuary as normal.

Upon seeing Qian Renxue tonight, what he needed to tell her was precisely the fate node that had suddenly shifted, as well as that gray-robed man in the Royal Academy who had observed Xue Qinghe several times.

Meanwhile, inside another mansion in Tiangou City.

The gray-robed middle-aged man who had appeared at the Royal Academy by day stood within a study. The person behind the desk lowered their head to flip through a few newly delivered records, only setting the items aside on the desk when they finished reading the final page.

"How was it today?"

The gray-robed man slightly bowed. "Today revealed nothing abnormal about the First Prince; his interactions with the people of Spirit Hall were merely standard pleasantries."

The person behind the desk remained silent for a moment before speaking indifferently, "Keep watching."

"Yes."

"Especially anyone who has recently had contact with him. Do not let a single one slip by."