Xu Chuyao still couldn’t stay at school.
Although there wasn’t an imperial edict, several urgent instructions had been sent from above, requiring her to report immediately to Junran City at the border.
Junran City was a large city. The only thing missing was a Lingli Set Academy.
Other than that, it was just like the main city.
It was near the coast, not far from the Sea Boundary, but couldn’t really be called a seaside city, because on the eastern border of Zhijingda, there was a long stretch of the Floodplain Mountains, cutting off the sea on the other side of the hills.
Xu Chuyao understood just by looking at the map—Junran City was most likely the command center for the Joint Department.
The location was close to the Sea Boundary but blocked by mountains to the east. If anything happened, the hills could at least buy some time.
She just didn’t know what she was going there for. The notice only told her to report in.
“I’ll go with you.”
After Yu Jing got the news, she immediately began packing, ready to be Xu Chuyao’s bodyguard for the trip.
Xu Chuyao readily agreed.
“Wait a sec, I need to fetch something… Or maybe you already have it?”
Hearing this, Yu Jing thought for a moment and then caught on. “You mean X Crystal?”
Xu Chuyao nodded, then shook her head.
“Aren’t you afraid of getting caught?”
“Not afraid, it doesn’t matter even if they find out. The situation’s changed now.” Xu Chuyao said confidently.
It used to belong to Monrose, who was powerful and held high office—whatever he said went. But now Monrose had been exiled from the Human World, and brought great disaster.
He might not even be considered human anymore.
Even Mi Xiaolu knew now—in this world, what you do isn’t as important as who you are.
Now that Monrose was done for, everything he’d said or done would be considered part of the traitor’s record. Right was wrong, and wrong was still wrong.
For example, his ban on Xu Chuyao’s Smart Stone experiments now proved Xu Chuyao was right all along. With such a golden reputation, no one would say anything even if she publicly took out Soulstones to experiment from now on.
“Alright, I’ll go get it now.” Yu Jing glanced outside. “By the way, where’s Shen Ning?”
Although only Xu Chuyao had been notified, with the relationship between the two girls, wherever one went, the other wouldn’t be far behind.
“Shen Ning’s at the Soulstone for now. She’ll come back later.”
“No wonder you’re bringing the stones.”
Ten minutes later, Yu Jing had changed into neat clothes, carrying a small black case in her right hand, dragging a large suitcase with her left.
Early summer was arriving and the sun was getting stronger, so she wore sunglasses, instantly looking years younger.
Xu Chuyao walked over, hefted the small case to check its weight. It was heavy, but not that big—easy to see how much was inside.
Yu Jing noticed her action and asked, “Not enough?”
“Emmm, hard to say. Mainly, we don’t know what’ll happen when we get there.”
Xu Chuyao’s answer was cautious. This kind of thing was impossible to predict—if nothing happened, they’d barely use any, but if things got messy, there’d be no upper limit.
Yu Jing agreed with her, thinking back to the journey to Biasis as the best example. But—“You’re right, but if you still have some stashed away elsewhere, you…”
As the class rep, she suddenly realized something and stared at Xu Chuyao, “You still have some hidden outside?”
Xu Chuyao didn’t answer directly. She quietly took out her phone and pulled up a photo from her Private Album.
Yu Jing came closer to look—the photo was a map of the area near their school, with many markers. Only the one at the unfinished building complex was grey; the other nine were red.
“You…”
“When Little Yu was stealing things earlier and I reported it, I filed the report as ten crates.”
Half an hour later, the two finally boarded the plane. Besides their two suitcases, they also had two large black cases and a smaller one.
Yu Jing looked at the two big cases and for a moment didn’t know what to say about Xu Chuyao’s boldness—maybe there was no injustice after all. Good thing it hadn’t been discovered at the time.
“Let’s go, we’ll arrive by the afternoon.”
“Shen Ning, we’ve arrived.”
Ten or so people didn’t exactly make a grand army, but they had some presence. They crossed the vast White Mist Plain, heading straight for their destination.
When Shen Ning saw the scene before her, she understood why Melon had called it the Hall of Regret. There wasn’t any special reason—just that the half-collapsed big building did resemble a bear’s den, and as for “Regret,” it was because there was a battered little bridge nearby, looking just like the legendary Bridge of Regret.
Regret is for crossing, the hall is for collapsing, but the girl realized something—the name’s cultural origin didn’t quite fit with Melon’s own background.
“Shen Ning, the names here are a bit odd, but I didn’t come up with them.” Melon sensed her gaze and explained, “They were named by the first people I encountered here.”
The first people he met… then that means—
“Yes, Shen Ning, they’re those people connected to you.”
“Are they here?” Shen Ning couldn’t wait to ask.
Melon looked all around before returning. “Right now, they aren’t, but they come back from time to time. We’ve set up a branch here with people waiting, so when they do arrive, we’ll be able to contact them immediately.”
That really was a reason they couldn’t give up the place.
Ten or so members of the Second Squad of the Imperial Guard quickly occupied the area, and under Melon’s arrangement, made it their new home.
“So, what’s this place for?” Shen Ning walked over to ask.
Yichen Sand let people recall things they could never forget—surely the Hall of Regret had something similar?
“I don’t know either, but your people do. They said they’ve used that…” Melon pointed at the Hall of Regret, then turned to ask Shen Ning, “Shen Ning, did they ever do anything special before?”
Shen Ning really did remember something.
“I’ll give it a try.”
The girl walked onto the Bridge of Regret, and as expected, felt something special surrounding her ears, so she closed her eyes and followed the sensation…
It was a short flight, very smooth.
Xu Chuyao had a dream—she dreamed that Shen Ning appeared by her side at some point, but since she was here, it was a good time to ask for her Transforming Wand back.
“Why do you want that kind of thing?” The girl looked very annoyed. “Isn’t it enough to have me?”
Clearly, she looked down on transformation, whether because the other wasn’t intelligent or simply lacked a sense of presence.
In her own dream, Xu Chuyao was bolder and more righteous. “You’re not always here! Like right now, you’re not.”
The girl said, “How am I not here? I’m right here now, aren’t I?”
Xu Chuyao retorted that this was probably fake, and her Wand was the real one. Things in dreams were all for vacations; what you couldn’t take with you wasn’t real, etc., etc. “Yours is useless, mine is useful.”
[Counter Villain Value 4200], [Counter Villain Value 4200], [Counter Villain Value 4200]…
“Xu Chuyao, wake up, we’re here.”
The class rep’s voice called her out of her dream. Xu Chuyao opened her eyes, looked out at the unfamiliar scenery, and thought back on her slightly silly dream.
To be honest, the dream was pretty realistic—the Counter Villain Value even popped up.
Thinking that, she stretched and lazily opened the system panel for a look—
[Current balance: 2600]
Huh?