The Killing Intent of Xue Ye

Meng Shenji did not answer him.

He merely picked up the dossier from the desk again, set his reading glasses back on the bridge of his nose,

and lowered his eyes with an air that said, "I've finished speaking. You may leave now."

Qin Ming was silent for a long time. In the end, he gave Meng Shenji a deep bow, turned, and walked out of the office.

His footsteps gradually faded down the corridor.

Compared to the urgency with which he had entered,

every step Qin Ming took as he left felt as though he were walking on cotton.

His footsteps in the corridor were heavy yet unsteady, forming a silent contrast with the urgency of his arrival.

Meng Shenji's words still echoed in his ears.

Even the chief of the Education Committee was not qualified to be Fang Fan's teacher.

What did he, a sixty-first-level Soul Emperor, amount to?

He knew that he had completely lost his qualifications.

Any teacher would covet such a genius, like a miser seeing a mountain of gold—clearly within reach, yet impossible to touch.

But he truly could not handle a genius like that.

Meng Shenji's stance was a heavy hammer that shattered Qin Ming's final lingering hope and made him give up completely.

He pushed open the door to the treatment room, and the smell of disinfectant rushed over him.

On the bed by the window, Dugu Yan was lowering her head as she wrapped a bandage around the wound on her hand. Her dark green ponytail hung over one shoulder, and her movements were practiced and focused.

The other bed was empty, its white sheets smooth and pristine.

"Where's Yu Tianheng?"

Qin Ming looked around, his tone carrying both disappointment and surprise.

"Yu Tianheng went home."

Without raising her head, Dugu Yan bit through the bandage and neatly tied a knot.

Then she raised her emerald snake-like eyes toward Qin Ming, a meaningful curve on her lips.

"Teacher, where did you get the nerve to take Fang Fan as your student?"

Qin Ming's mouth twitched.

Why did that sound so piercing?

Meng Shenji had just poured a bucket of cold water over him, chilling him to the bone.

He had finally made it to the treatment room to check on his students' injuries,

only for Dugu Yan to drive another knife into his heart.

He sighed, then sat down in the empty chair beside her with a bitter smile.

"As for Fang Fan, I admit that he truly is a monster.

"But didn't you challenge Fang Fan to vent your grandfather's anger?"

"What?

"My grandfather is a legendary Titled Douluo. Does he need me to vent his anger for him?"

Dugu Yan looked utterly bewildered, her emerald snake-like eyes filled with confusion.

She had spent all of yesterday conducting combat simulations at the training grounds. By evening, she had returned to her dormitory and collapsed into bed.

This morning, she had gotten up and gone straight to the training grounds. She had not even set foot inside her home in between.

Her grandfather was a Titled Douluo, an invincible existence in her eyes. Why would he need her to stand up for him?

"You don't know what happened yesterday?"

The instant the words left Qin Ming's mouth, he regretted them. He instinctively lowered his voice and glanced at the tightly shut doors and windows of the treatment room.

A gag order had been issued from above.

Every teacher and student who had witnessed yesterday's incident

had been individually summoned by the Education Committee and strictly ordered not to spread the news. Violators would be expelled from the academy.

Even Prince Xue Beng's death had been suppressed. The dignified fourth prince of the Heaven Dou Empire

received no state funeral, no obituary, and no mourning from the civil and military officials.

Only a perfunctory mourning hall was set up in a side hall of Heaven Dou Palace, and he was buried overnight in the most remote corner of the imperial mausoleum.

"What happened?" Dugu Yan's brows drew tightly together, her confusion deepening.

"Oh, it was nothing."

Qin Ming waved his hand and swallowed every word that had reached his lips.

He knew how sensitive that information was. If it got out, it would not merely cost him his job; it might even bring unwarranted disaster upon Dugu Yan and her grandfather, who had already been stripped of his position.

He had learned about it from one of the teachers who had been present yesterday.

Their dormitories were separated by only a thin wall. That teacher had tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep.

He had knocked on Qin Ming's door and, in a low voice, told him every detail of what had happened during the day.

Afterward, the teacher repeatedly warned Qin Ming not to spread it around, saying that it would bring disaster upon him if it got out.

After all, what happened yesterday had been too terrifying. It had also occurred in the commoner assessment area, several kilometers away from the noble assessment area, with an artificial lake and two rows of plane trees between them.

None of the noble examinees had seen or heard anything from beginning to end.

By the third round, only Fang Fan, Zhu Zhuqing, and Ning Rongrong remained among the commoner examinees, so there were likewise no commoner students who knew of the matter.

The guards had sealed their lips tighter than city gates.

The matter had practically become a royal taboo.

No one wished to touch the reverse scale that Xue Ye had just lost.

Xue Beng was buried in haste.

No princes carried his coffin, and no officials saw him off.

Only several palace attendants carried a coffin out through the palace gates in silence beneath the cover of night.

Xue Xing left Heaven Dou City by carriage overnight. When that princely carriage, once adorned with gold ornaments, passed through the city gates in the darkness,

not even a single guiding lantern was lit.

Xue Ye neither publicly announced that Xue Xing had been demoted

nor sent anyone after him. He merely allowed everything to end soundlessly in the darkness.

Dugu Yan had stayed in the academy dormitories these past few days. She had neither gone home nor received any news, so she truly could not have known what happened yesterday.

Qin Ming looked into her bewildered emerald snake-like eyes, and complicated emotions rose within him.

In the end, he merely gently patted her uninjured shoulder and said nothing further.

By the time Xue Qinghe arrived at Heaven Dou Royal Academy yesterday, the battle had long since ended.

He rode his white horse through the academy gates and found empty corridors, shattered stone slabs, and bloodstains that had yet to be cleaned.

Fang Fan and the others had already completed their enrollment procedures and moved into luxurious suites. Xue Beng's body had already been carried away, while Dugu Bo and Xue Xing had each departed.

He had arrived too late. He stood silently in the empty corridor for a long time before receiving the news of Xue Beng's death.

He did not linger. He hurried back to the palace and presided over that rushed, desolate funeral.

When he saw Xue Beng's pale face lying in the coffin, he was indeed somewhat surprised.

He had infiltrated the Heaven Dou Empire for so many years and seen countless people,

yet he had never seen anyone dare to kill a prince outright within Heaven Dou Royal Academy, before a Titled Douluo and a prince.

After the funeral, Xue Ye summoned him alone to his bedchamber.

Only father and son were present in the bedchamber, where candlelight flickered,

stretching and shrinking their shadows across the walls.

Xue Ye sat on the edge of the bed. His face, covered in white beard and hair, looked especially aged beneath the candlelight.

When he spoke Fang Fan's name, undisguised killing intent surged in his eyes.

His voice was low, like a dull blade grinding out from the depths of his throat.

This was the greatest humiliation of his life.

His son had been killed, the murderer stood before him, yet he did not dare make a move.

Since ascending the throne, he had stood above all others. No one had ever dared contradict his words.

Even Ning Fengzhi of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and Yu Yuanzhen of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had always been courteous upon meeting him.

Yet that youth in white and that old man in green robes had been so cruel, so audacious, so utterly unconcerned with any rules.

He did not dare show anger, because if he did, he would meet the same fate as Xue Beng.

After hearing him out, Xue Qinghe remained silent for a long time.