"Luan Feng."
Xu Zhengxiao turned to the Fire Phoenix Douluo, who had remained silent beside him.
"Sorry for the trouble, but take Tianyuan there. And remind Jing Hongchen that he must ensure Tianyuan's safety. If Tianyuan loses so much as a single hair, I will hold him personally accountable."
Upon receiving her orders, Luan Feng glanced at the still-trembling Xu Tianyuan, her expression icy.
She said nothing more and merely gave a slight nod.
The woman was swift and decisive. Without another word, she stepped forward and grabbed Xu Tianyuan's arm.
"Let's go."
The moment she spoke, a streak of fire shot into the sky, and the two vanished into the night.
"Yiheng, do you think I've committed too many sins in this lifetime?"
Xu Zhengxiao gazed at the scattered stars overhead, every wrinkle on his face drawn tight. His voice was so weary that he seemed to have aged twenty years in an instant.
"Is that why, in these final years before my lifespan runs out, my family keeps leaving me, one after another?"
Back when he had fought for the throne, he had not wiped everyone out as ruthlessly as Xu Tianran, but he had still personally sent plenty of people to their graves.
Brothers, uncles, princes who posed a threat-he had spared none who needed eliminating.
Now, he probably had only a few years left to live, and his long-delayed retribution had finally arrived.
Sons, nephews, grandsons, brothers-they vanished from his side one after another.
He knew perfectly well who the murderer was, yet he could do nothing.
That helplessness was worse than death.
"Perhaps."
Wang Yiheng was not the sort to flatter others. He answered matter-of-factly, "You reap what you sow. The resentment of all those people Your Majesty killed back then would be enough to form an entire army."
Xu Zhengxiao did not get angry. He stood silently for a long while.
The night wind made him narrow his eyes.
At last, he dragged his heavy feet toward his bedchamber, one step at a time.
Each step seemed weighted with lead. His back was hunched; not a trace of an emperor's imposing presence remained.
Meanwhile, at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.
A streak of fire descended from the sky, and Xu Tianyuan landed on his feet before the academy gates.
He looked up and surveyed the buildings before him.
He had to admit, the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy certainly knew how to impress.
The entire place was a complex of high-tech buildings. Its gates were cast from a special alloy, with a massive soul guidance screen embedded in them.
Footage of academy students fighting played on the screen in rotation.
It also displayed the latest Soul Tool research results.
Demonstrations of Class 4 Soul Guidance Ray Guns, test flights of new Flying Soul Tools-the dazzling array made his eyes spin.
"Your Eminence, Fire Phoenix."
The guards on duty recognized Luan Feng and hurried forward to bow. They bent so low they might as well have pressed themselves to the ground, sweat already beading on their foreheads.
"I'm going in to see Jing Hongchen."
Luan Feng nodded slightly and delivered those words coldly.
She was called the Fire Phoenix Douluo, yet she wore a stern face all day, as cold as ten-thousand-year-old ice.
Ice Phoenix Douluo would have suited her better.
Xu Tianyuan inwardly grumbled nonstop, but he kept up his useless facade, trailing behind Luan Feng with his head lowered, barely daring to breathe. He looked exactly like a schoolboy caught by his teacher.
As they walked, the academy's interior kept catching his eye.
Towering classroom buildings, all sorts of experimental Soul Tool workshops, and the glimmer of soul power from a distant training ground.
As expected of the Sun Moon Empire's highest institution for soul engineers, its facilities really were top of the line.
Before long, they reached the door to Jing Hongchen's office.
Although it was the middle of the night, the office was still brightly lit.
That old man Jing Hongchen had an extraordinary amount of energy. He was probably staying up late tinkering with some new Soul Tool again.
Knock, knock, knock.
Luan Feng raised her hand and gently knocked, using just enough force-neither too light nor too heavy.
"Come in."
A somewhat aged voice came from inside, tinged with impatience.
Fire Phoenix pushed open the door and led Xu Tianyuan into the room.
Jing Hongchen was sitting at his desk, poring over blueprints.
He looked to be in his seventies, with white hair and a white beard, and a monocle perched on his nose.
The eye behind the lens narrowed to a slit, and shrewdness radiated from him.
His desk was piled with blueprints and Soul Tool components, orderly despite the clutter. A few scorched circuit boards were scattered among them, probably remnants of failed experiments.
"Ah, the Fire Phoenix Douluo."
Jing Hongchen lifted his head slightly. Seeing Luan Feng, he narrowed his eyes and asked, "What brings you to see me at this late hour?"
Luan Feng wasted no time on pleasantries. She stepped aside and pointed to Xu Tianyuan behind her.
"His Majesty has decreed that the sixth prince will henceforth cultivate at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy. You are to take good care of him and ensure that no harm whatsoever befalls him."
At those words, Jing Hongchen shifted his gaze from Luan Feng's face to Xu Tianyuan.
When he noticed Xu Tianyuan's bare torso and blood-covered body, his brow twitched almost imperceptibly.
"I don't take in trash."
He was blunt, showing no consideration for anyone's dignity.
That was how Jing Hongchen was. Obsessed with researching Soul Tools, he cared only about strength and talent.
Xu Tianyuan's reputation in the Sun Moon Empire stank badly enough to knock a cow dead.
Even Jing Hongchen, absorbed as he was in Soul Tool research, had heard a little about him.
Listening to songs in brothels, ignorant and unskilled, bullying merchants, harassing palace maids-he was the very picture of a spoiled wastrel.
The Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy was a sacred institution.
How could he allow a rat dropping like this to spoil the whole pot of soup?
"You don't get a say in this."
Luan Feng warned him outright, "If you refuse tonight, His Majesty won't mind having a word with your teacher. Regardless, I'm leaving him here tonight. You can figure out the rest yourself."
With that, she turned and patted Xu Tianyuan on the shoulder.
She did not seem to mind the blood on his body staining her palm.
There was a barely perceptible firmness to the gesture, as though she were telling him, Show some backbone.
"Stay alive."
Luan Feng's words were as succinct as ever, just that brief instruction.
Yet they carried a note of concern.
Xu Tianyuan noticed it, but he could not make sense of it no matter how hard he tried.
He had barely ever met Luan Feng before. Why was she so concerned about him?
Could it be because I'm handsome?
Impossible. Someone on the Fire Phoenix Douluo's level wouldn't be swayed by good looks.
Unfortunately, Luan Feng gave him no chance to ask. She strode straight out, leaving Xu Tianyuan and Jing Hongchen staring at each other.
"Fuck!"
Jing Hongchen slammed his hand onto the desk, so furious that even his beard bristled.
Yet there was nothing he could do.
Kong Deming was his teacher, as well as the Sun Moon Empire's chief consecrator.
With Xu Zhengxiao issuing the order as emperor, refusal was simply not an option.
Thus, Xu Tianyuan's admission to the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy had been nailed down from the very beginning.
"Take it. The room number's on it. Go to bed yourself."
Gritting his teeth, Jing Hongchen flung a key at him.
The key traced an arc through the air before Xu Tianyuan snatched it.
It was heavy, with the three digits "007" engraved on it.
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