Time flew by, and dusk arrived.
Ke Ke finished her classes for the day, slung on her bag, and ran toward the villa district.
She had barely absorbed anything in class today. The scenes from that morning kept playing through her mind.
Ju Zi's face, Xu Tianyuan's frank gaze, and those words: "Once it's done, remember to come find me."
The more she thought about it, the more wrong it seemed, and the more worried she became.
As a proper best friend, Ke Ke believed she had a duty to pull Ju Zi back onto the right path.
No matter how fun their games were, she couldn't gamble with her life.
If she got beaten until her face swelled like a pig's head every time, sooner or later Ju Zi would lose her little life at the academy.
Ke Ke decided to visit Villa 009 and give her a good talking-to.
At the very least, she had to teach Ju Zi to cherish herself.
She absolutely couldn't lose herself in the pleasure of those games. That was wrong, terribly wrong.
With a bellyful of earnest advice, Ke Ke jogged all the way to the door of Villa 009.
She visited often and had a key, so she pushed the door open and went in without knocking.
The moment she stepped into the living room.
Ke Ke saw Ju Zi sitting alone by the window, lost in thought.
The swelling in her face had gone down considerably, but the traces of her suffering that morning were still visible, with bruises lingering over her cheekbones.
"Ju Zi."
Ke Ke walked over, hugged her from behind, and spoke with heartfelt concern.
"Are you still thinking about that violent maniac, Xu Tianyuan?"
She sighed. "I won't ask why you're with him. But you have to be careful from now on. Don't foolishly sit there and let him slap you."
"Yes, he's a prince. If you stay with him, you'll have endless wealth and glory to enjoy."
"But trading your health for it just isn't worth it."
Like a mother who had worried herself sick, Ke Ke kept offering advice, one sentence after another. She almost wished she could pull out a pen and paper right there and list eighty precautions for Ju Zi.
"That's enough."
Ju Zi rolled her eyes. She didn't explain, nor did she have the energy to.
She kept looking out the window.
The villas were arranged in rows, and Villa 009 stood diagonally ahead and to the right of Villa 007.
Looking out at an angle from here, she could just make out Villa 007's courtyard.
Ju Zi had been sitting there ever since she returned that morning.
What she had seen had left her puzzling over it all day, unable to make sense of it.
From morning until now, Xu Tianyuan had been lying on a lounge chair in the courtyard.
Apart from getting up for a meal, he hadn't moved at all.
An entire day.
Just basking in the sun.
Ju Zi's brows drew tighter and tighter.
According to the rumors, Xu Tianyuan was a useless prince who had neither learning nor skills, idled his days away, and cared for nothing but listening to songs in pleasure houses.
But everything that had happened that morning had made her seriously doubt that description.
The gun-shaped Soul Tool in her hand was a genuine Level 3 Soul Tool, capable of severely wounding a Soul Elder at close range.
When it hit Xu Tianyuan, nothing happened.
Could a rank twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster really do that?
Who was he trying to fool?
What concerned her even more was Xu Tianyuan's expression and bearing at the time.
When he sat on the sofa, his laziness was certainly real, but what lay beneath that laziness was anything but useless.
That composure of "I can't be bothered to hold this against you, so you'd better know what's good for you" was something Ju Zi had only ever seen in one person.
Xu Tianran.
In fact, in a certain sense, the pressure Xu Tianyuan exerted on her was even greater than Xu Tianran's.
Ju Zi ventured a bold guess.
Xu Tianyuan might have been hiding his strength all along.
His actual cultivation was definitely not low.
But no sooner had that guess emerged than a second question followed.
Fine, hide your strength if you want. But after hiding it for sixteen years, why suddenly come to the academy and spend the entire day lying in the courtyard, basking in the sun?
Could basking in the sun make you stronger?
Could basking in the sun kill Xu Tianran?
Ju Zi found him increasingly impossible to read.
Once curiosity reared its head, there was no pressing it back down.
She very much wanted to get to know this mysterious sixth prince better and figure out what exactly was going through his mind.
Beep, beep, beep!
Just as Ju Zi became absorbed in her thoughts, a ringing suddenly came from inside her clothes.
She frowned and pulled out a Communication Soul Tool.
A line of text floated on its screen: Come see me tonight. The usual place.
This was her private line of communication with Xu Tianran. There was no need to guess who had sent the message.
But it wasn't time for their monthly meeting yet.
Why had he suddenly summoned her tonight?
Ju Zi had a vague premonition that this might have something to do with Xu Tianyuan.
She dared not dwell on it.
As a subordinate, she had no right to refuse.
"Ke Ke, I'm going out for a bit. Entertain yourself."
Ju Zi put away the Communication Soul Tool, casually informed Ke Ke, then got up and left.
Ju Zi left the Royal Soul Engineer Academy and walked to a restaurant three streets away.
This was where she and Xu Tianran met every month.
Ordinarily, when Xu Tianran summoned her, he only asked about a few things.
The academy's latest Soul Tool research results, and the movements of certain key students.
The siblings Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen, along with Ji Juechen, Jing Ziyan, and Ma Rulong-these names were brought up over and over every month.
What was he going to ask her about today?
Strangely enough, she had originally felt there was an eighty-percent chance that tonight's summons involved Xu Tianyuan. Now she was almost completely certain.
"Whew."
Ju Zi took a deep breath, stepped into the restaurant, and made her way up to the third floor with practiced ease. Finding Heaven Room One, she raised her hand and knocked lightly on the door.
Xu Tianran's voice came from inside.
"Come in."
Ju Zi pushed the door open and entered.
The private room held a table full of costly delicacies, their fragrance filling the air, but the man at the table hadn't touched a bite.
Xu Tianran sat in his wheelchair, holding a wine cup.
Behind him stood a middle-aged man with a crew cut and a dense, close-cropped beard. For some reason, the smile on his face looked very confident.
The instant Ju Zi entered, Xu Tianran's gaze landed on her face.
A face whose swelling had yet to fade completely.
Xu Tianran's brows immediately knitted together, and the air around him plunged to the freezing point.
"What happened to your face?"
Ju Zi dared not conceal the truth.
"I was beaten."
Bang!
Xu Tianran slammed his palm onto the table. The wine cup jumped, spilling wine across the tabletop.
"Who did it?"
His eyes were so cold that a layer of frost could have been scraped off them.
That anger wasn't directed at Ju Zi.
It was purely the instinctive reaction of someone whose possession had been damaged.
Killing intent seeped from him, making even the air in the private room grow heavier.
Ju Zi swallowed.
"Xu Tianyuan."
"He beat me up today."
Xu Tianran's first thought was that he had misheard.
After all, in his mind, his sixth brother was a soft persimmon, ripe for squeezing. Whenever he saw Xu Tianran, he could only smile ingratiatingly, not even daring to raise his voice. His strength was barely a match for an ant's.
Rank twenty-nine.
He had checked more than once. Rank twenty-nine, nailed down beyond question.
"How could Xu Tianyuan possibly beat you?"
Xu Tianran's expression remained icy. "You may be a Food-type Soul Master, but you have a whole pile of offensive Soul Tools. Shouldn't dealing with him be as easy as reaching out and grabbing him?"
Ju Zi remained honest.
"I don't know either... but a Level 3 Soul Tool couldn't hurt him."
Xu Tianran fell silent.
His gaze changed three times within a few short breaths.
Confusion.
Cold severity.
Anger.
Could that brat have been hiding his strength since childhood?
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