Chapter 131

“Wu Ling seems to quite fancy your Guanger. These two kids could possibly be a match,”

Upon hearing this, Cheng Zhihai wanted to refuse but found it difficult to voice his objection. Instead, he said, “Your Majesty, Guanger is already betrothed.”

Emperor Zhou of Great Zhou seemed a bit surprised.

“Since when?”

“It has been settled for many days now, and the father has seen to it.”

“Chosen by the Duke of the State?”

“Yes.”

Emperor Zhou and Cheng Zhihai made small talk, chatting off and on about family matters.

Inside the hall.

Aside from Empress Wei of Great Wei, who could remain calm, no one dared to take a deep breath.

Emperor Zhou appeared to be in a good temper for now.

But emperors are known to be fickle in their moods.

Just because he was amicable to Cheng Zhihai didn’t mean he would be to them.

If this purple light and the ban on Different Treasures were merely an accident, if the disturbance was caused by the descent of an Exotic Beast, that would be one thing, but if it were man-made…

To dare take action under the nose of the Emperor in the Great Zhou Capital—

Such fury is not something ordinary people can withstand.

It wouldn’t only anger Emperor Zhou.

Empress Wei wouldn’t swallow this affront either; she would be equally enraged.

What on earth would dare to provoke the dignity of these two great dynasties?

The officials couldn’t fathom, nor did they dare to think further.

As everyone waited,

The purple light soon thinned, and within the projected image, the situation on Crane-Crying Island became clear.

At first glance, not a single person seemed to be moving about on Crane-Crying Island.

Even the Exotic Beasts seemed to have died out.

There were no signs of life around, just deathly silence and desolation.

Wild creatures wandered near the river bank, seeking escape, but as soon as they touched the purple light curtain, they were repelled as if by an air wall.

At just a glance, many hearts skipped a beat.

They only felt that something terrible was imminent.

Emperor Zhou stopped speaking too, and the air instantly fell into a deathly quiet.

The eunuch by his side controlled the projected image, zooming in.

The Central Loft appeared before the eyes of all the officials in the hall.

A flock of seabirds circled above the loft, letting out sharp cries now and then.

A few hares jumped in the grass near the houses, their eyes filled with vigilance and unease.

But inside the Central Loft, rivers of blood flowed, and corpses lay everywhere.

Most of those lying on the ground were officials from the Martial Academy, many of whom had high levels of cultivation. Yet now, they lay dead without any dignity, hacked to pieces by sloppy knife work.

Within the projected image, officials fled in terror, only to be quickly overtaken by a few individuals in black robes.

In a flash,

Blood splattered across the entire image.

As they watched, the air in the great hall became even more oppressive.

Everyone just had to see this scene to know that this was not a natural disaster, but entirely man-made!

Who on earth would dare to interfere with the martial trial competition?

With just one look, the officials felt nearly driven mad.

Nearly all the Martial Academy’s officials had been slaughtered, and the students on the island were likely in a perilous situation as well.

All the officials had to do was think about it, and their eyelids began twitching uncontrollably, an unstoppable rage nearly bursting from their hearts like a volcanic eruption.

Those students…

They weren’t just mere students.

They were the children of many officials present,

Perhaps even the sole cherished sons, like Guanger.

The martial trial competition was supposed to be a golden opportunity for their children to make a name for themselves, and many elites competed to send their offspring.

They could never have imagined that someone would dare to disrupt the martial trial competition.

Someone actually dared…

Someone dared to slaughter the people of Great Zhou!

“Your Majesty, what should we do now?”

“Your Majesty, where did those black-robed people come from? Wasn’t it said that besides the participating students, no one else could enter Crane-Crying Island?”

“Your Majesty! If the Forbidden Artifacts are so powerful, why did the Bureau of the Lamp receive no intelligence?”

“Mr. Cheng, where did all the intelligence collected by the Bureau of the Lamp go? If it had been detected earlier by the Bureau, it wouldn’t have come to this.”

Many officials were inflamed with emotion. Their worry for their own children, combined with their dissatisfaction with the overbearing and ruthless Cheng Zhihai, made him the target of their accusations.

At this moment, Cheng Zhihai felt quite the headache.

The Bureau of the Lamp had indeed detected a hint of the anomaly ahead of time.

The Qi between heaven and earth on Crane-Crying Island had thinned, which might have been an omen of the Forbidden Artifact’s upcoming use.

However, he hadn’t anticipated that someone would have a Heavenly Grade Forbidden Artifact at their disposal.

Nor had he expected that someone would actually dare to make a move during the martial trial competition.

Even though he had made ample preparations, he had even dispatched Qian Siyuan, the Director and Eighth-Rank King Realm deputy, over there.

For Qian Siyuan, overseeing the martial trial competition was clearly an underutilization of his abilities.

But, Cheng Zhihai still hadn’t anticipated that all this would not be enough.

He could understand the feelings of the officials. After all, Guanger was also on the island.

Cheng Zhihai was more anxious than any of them.

But once the ban from the Forbidden Artifacts was in place, it couldn’t be forcibly broken from the outside. Disarming it would take at least several hours.

No one could predict what accidents might occur during those several hours.

Many officials from the Martial Academy had already died horribly on the spot.

With their Qi bound, even the mighty Sky-Men, whose cultivations touched the heavens, would be greatly weakened, let alone the lesser cultivated students and officials.