Things Were Peaceful for Xie Yu

Mr. Yize was worried. That was a bad sign.

[The tall inn was listening intently to your conversation (Affection 100):]

[Ilia, that sounds familiar... Come to think of it, no one with that surname has ever stayed in the king suite.]

[But that surname carries a lot of weight!]

[I've heard the Orens, the Perezes, and others mention them, and the frequency has risen noticeably over the past ten years. In the capital, the Ilias have worked with other nobles and taken the lead in getting many draft proposals settled. That surname seems to be the glue holding the nobles together.]

The inn's reminder brought to Xie Yu's mind a detail Fry had mentioned earlier.

Yesterday evening, when he had taken out the Flame Gold-Melting Potion from his cane, Mr. Fry had revealed something in his "confession":

The reason they had been able to offer Kaiming a public post was that a mental health supervision proposal had passed in the capital that year.

The public post Kaiming had originally set his sights on had only come into existence after the proposal passed.

On that point, Fry's words and the inn's corroborated each other.

Considering that the surname had appeared alongside Miuan Brown, if he assumed that the Ilia Family was connected to the proposal, the whole chain of benefits fell into place.

At the capital level, the Ilia Family pushed the bill through; locally, the Brown Family used the bill's momentum to seize public posts and obtain certain unknown benefits...

Seeing that both Yize and Fry looked troubled, Xie Yu offered some reassurance.

"Lord Yize, you don't really need to worry too much. You've already offended the Ilia Family."

Yize looked up and coughed violently twice, nearly choking on Xie Yu's words.

"Huh? What did you say?"

Xie Yu looked at Fry and Yize, checking the information.

"The bill establishing mental health supervisor posts at magic academies should be connected to the Ilia Family."

The two Education Bureau officials exchanged a glance. They couldn't confirm the information; even Yize, a Magister, didn't dare claim he understood the inner workings of the capital.

But judging from the Brown Family's actions and the fact that the Ilia bloodline also belonged to the mind and soul domain, what Xie Yu said was very likely true.

"That's possible..."

Yize nodded. After a moment's thought, he roughly understood what Xie Yu had meant when he said Yize had offended the Ilia Family.

Xie Yu continued, "The Brown Family borrowed the Ilia Family's power, so they'll certainly have to repay them with some kind of benefit. The mental health supervisor post Mr. Kaiming wanted might be connected to that benefit. Once the Education Bureau's internal investigation is complete, the chain by which the Browns return those benefits to the Ilias will be severed."

"From the Ilia Family's perspective, they can either double down on the Brown Family and help them deal with your entire Education Bureau, or cut their losses in time, distance themselves, and even seize other benefits from the Browns to make up for their losses..."

"I can only see those two possibilities. I can't tell which is more likely."

"Mr. Yize, Mr. Fry, what do you think?"

What worried Xie Yu most now was no longer the Brown Family's Magister or the suddenly appearing Ilia surname.

It was that Yize actually feared the Ilia Family.

Fear would tie his hands, lead to compromise, and then to failure... That was something Xie Yu absolutely didn't want to see.

He had to make Yize hold firm.

He gave Yize and Fry two answers to choose from, but in essence he was telling them there was no choice at all: the Education Bureau couldn't back down.

He was also reassuring Yize, telling him he didn't need to defeat the Ilia Family. However troublesome the Ilias were, they weren't the Education Bureau's problem. In the end, the bureau still only needed to come out on top against the Browns.

If the Education Bureau backed down, giving the Browns a chance to breathe and the Ilias a chance to help them, the first thing the other side would do was make things like the Wig Brown incident happen in every city and even every town in North Province. The Education Bureau's entire internal investigation would be blamed on the bureau itself.

This was a contest of courage, and the loser took all.

The loser, the one who backed down, would inevitably suffer all the bitter consequences.

Xie Yu didn't dare gamble on whether Yize and the Education Bureau behind him had the backbone, so he had to spell it out.

Even if it was somewhat presumptuous for an outsider like him to say it, he had to.

Yize suddenly found the look in the young Xie Yu's eyes somewhat piercing. He hardly dared meet it. Xie Yu's gaze seemed to pass through his magic robe, through the clothes beneath, and stab straight into his conscience.

It was a dormant heart, an aging heart. It had been full of youthful vigor once, before the years wore its edges smooth.

But now, because someone was gazing at it, it began to pound. It had to beat; it had no choice.

He could never back down in front of Xie Yu, right after Xie Yu had finished the interview. That would be far too ugly.

"This isn't a question of which possibility is more likely. The first one will never happen," Yize said. "We'll clear out the Brown Family's tentacles that have already been identified within the province at once."

Beside him, Fry looked a little surprised at Mr. Yize's firm declaration, as though he were seeing the director in a new light.

"Now that you've said that, I'm relieved." Xie Yu smiled.

He picked up Void Magic: A Complete Guide from Apprentice to Sage and cradled the Void Twist, Dali, who had been hiding in a corner of the room. As though no one else were present, he continued practicing void-domain magic.

He hadn't let Dali appear during the interview because that first interview had nothing to do with Xie Yu's magical talent. There was no need to display all of "his own genius" at once; that would only distract from the theme of attacking the Brown Family.

Now, with nothing else to do, he could let the Brown Family matter take its course.

He could also resume feeding Dali.

While he was at it, he could learn more void-domain magic and reinforce his image as a genius.

"Are you hungry again? Besides Void Twists, is there anything else you'd like to eat?" Xie Yu reached out and played with Dali, opened the book to a new page, and casually stroked the Chapter of Teleportation.

There were twelve basic void structures in the void domain. Five were static: twists, breaks, suspended threads, ring holes, and mirror surfaces. Seven were dynamic: closed waves, spirals, fluctuations, boiling waves, vibrating strings, leaping arcs, and singularities...

"One at a time. I'll practice a little first." Xie Yu paid no mind to the way Fry and Yize looked at him and spoke gently to the two of them.

[Sealed Artifact 3-2152 (Faith slowly rose to 45) said hungrily:]

[I love eating all of these.]

[The Void Twist Dali floated nearby, looking at the book as though it were a menu. Imagining the taste of each one, Dali said happily:]

[I love eating all of these too.]

Yize, director of the Education Bureau's Inspection Department, had plenty to keep him busy today, but Miuan Brown's appearance had left him uneasy about Xie Yu's safety. He simply moved his workplace to the king suite, where he sat down and began sending letters to education bureaus and grading teams across North Province, pressing them on the progress of their investigations and compiling their findings.

Secretary-General Fry was busy with the matter too, responsible for both paperwork and errands. His "vacation time" in Black Pine City was gone, and he was even busier than he would have been back at Education Bureau headquarters.

Amid all this work, Yize had a vague feeling that he had forgotten something...

It seemed there was something he had originally needed to handle that had gradually faded from his mind and been overlooked.

No. 10 Pine Nut Avenue, in Black Pine City's eastern district: the Pine Nut Chamber of Commerce.

In the front hall, the chamber's president, Mr. Saidaiyang, pointed at Roman Brown and berated him, his voice nearly a roar as it echoed loudly enough to be heard clearly across the street.

"Did your mother push too hard when she gave birth to you, squeeze your skull flat and force your brains out?"

"You come to me talking about a Sealed Artifact, saying I took it? You've gone too fucking far!"

"Do you know how many scores I've kept track of and haven't settled with you bastards named Brown?"

Behind Cynthia's black veil, a trace of worry appeared on her face.

The chamber president's emotions didn't seem feigned to her, but it was a little late to realize that now.

Beside her, Roman Brown seemed stunned by the abuse and forgot to dodge.

Eyes wide, he stared as the middle-aged man leaped toward him and struck his cheekbone with a chopping slap.

The blow snapped his neck to the side, nearly lifting both feet off the ground.

Saidaiyang, a four-star life-domain mage, had also trained in the human-body branch, strengthening his own flesh. His fighting style was somewhat simpler and more direct than that of ordinary mages.