Chapter 161: Aftermath
At this moment, the heavy, iron-scented air of the Grand Hall seemed to congeal around Ye Fang as Shen Haoran’s golden gaze shifted toward him, and instantly, he felt a cold sweat prickling at his hairline.
And although he tried to look calm, internally, his mind was screaming.
It true that he had high-reaching plans of eventually supplanting Haoran as the number one antagonist of this epoch, using his knowledge of the Abandoned Prince novel and his own secret system, but that goal was a distant mountain peak!
Right now, he was still standing at the base of that mountain, and he had absolutely no chance of touching a single hair on the Young Master’s head, let alone surviving an actual confrontation.
If Haoran decided to attack, he’d be in so much worse state than Xiao Chen is!
"Young Master Shen,"
Just then, Luo Mingye suddenly spoke out, her voice trembling but clear.
Haoran turned his head, his golden eyes reflecting the flickering starlight of the hall as he focused on her.
The silence that followed was so absolute that the sound of a single drop of wine hitting the floor would have sounded like a drumbeat.
"About Ye Fang..." she began, her gaze darting toward the black-haired youth who stood as still as a statue. "Actually, there is—"
She stopped abruptly.
Her mouth remained open, but no sound came out, and at that exact moment, a terrifying, invisible pressure enveloped only her.
It wasn’t the killing intent of a cultivator; it was something metaphysical, a weight that pressed down on her soul as if the heavens themselves were warning her to be silent.
Her heart skipped a beat, then another, almost stopping from sheer fright.
She had forgotten the cardinal rule of the Ye Fang’s Diary that had fallen into her hands.
According to the book, its contents were tied to the causal threads of the universe, and the rules of the diary strictly forbade its readers from revealing its existence or the secrets within to anyone else.
To speak of the future was to invite a karmic erasure.
Haoran’s brow furrowed as he watched the visible struggle on her face, the way her eyes widened in a daze and her skin turned a ghostly shade of pale.
One moment, she looked ready to expose a deep secret about Ye Fang; the next, she looked as though she were staring into the maw of an invisible beast.
Haoran turned his gaze toward Ye Fang, who looked just as confused and startled as the rest of the guests, then back to Luo Mingye.
"...Is it... something you can’t tell me?" he asked, his voice low and private despite the thousands of people watching.
Luo Mingye swallowed hard, her throat feeling like it was filled with dry sand as she looked up at him, the terrifying pressure easing just enough for her to give a small, jerky nod.
"About Ye Fang?" Haoran pressed.
Luo Mingye nodded again, her eyes pleading with him not to ask for more.
"I see."
Hearing those words, Ye Fang’s eyes widened in genuine shock.
’Something she can’t talk about? About me?’ His mind raced at a thousand miles an hour. ’Could it be... the diary?!’
Panic began to set in.
No! She must not be allowed to speak! If Shen Haoran finds out that I am a soul from another world who knows the plot of his life, he won’t just kill me, he’ll refine my soul for information!
I’ll be lucky to have a goodbye to this life!
"Y—" Ye Fang tried to speak, his mouth forming the shape of an excuse or a distraction.
But Haoran didn’t give him the chance, and with a casual, almost dismissive flick of his wrist, a gust of kinetic force slammed into Ye Fang’s chest.
The youth was blown away like a ragdoll, his body skidding across the jade floor until his head struck the base of a pillar.
His eyes immediately rolled back into his head, and his body twitched once before going limp.
"Take him to the dungeon as well," Haoran commanded, his voice devoid of emotion. "Don’t do anything to them, just make sure they can’t escape and no one helped them leave."
"Yes, Young Master!" The armored guards, moving with the efficiency of machines, grabbed Ye Fang by the heels and dragged him away, his head trailing a thin line of blood on the pristine floor.
Haoran then turned toward the high throne, his calm golden eyes met the icy gold gaze of his mother, Chu Xueyu.
They shared a silent, profound moment of communication, like a mother and son whose bond was forged in blood and mutual dominance.
They nodded at each other, a tacit agreement that the "theater" of the feast had served its purpose for the night.
"You two," Haoran said, turning back to Luo Mingye and Xia Mengyao. "Let’s talk somewhere else. There is a much better place for a conversation than here ."
Luo Mingye and Xia Mengyao shared a quick, nervous look, but yhey both nodded in unison, their curiosity and fear drawing them toward the man who had just decapitated a scholar.
Besides, they also wanted to use this chance to talk about the marriage thing. They can’t keep this a secret forever, after all.
They followed after him, their footsteps echoing softly as they left the main hall.
Just then, Chu Xueyu patted her sister’s arm which was hugging her, and Yuyan reluctantly stood up, stretching like a contented cat.
Chu Xueyu rose from her golden throne, her silhouette imposing and terrifying.
"It seems my son’s mood has been ruined by this small, unsightly incident," she announced to the room, her voice carried to every corner, making every guest stand and bow. "The feast is far from over. Please, do enjoy the delicacies and the wine. I will be leaving now to attend to clan matters. My Enshrined Elders will be arriving shortly to accompany you for the remainder of the night."
With that, she turned on her heels and walked away, her white and gold robes flowing like a river of slaughter.
Feng Yuyan and Leng Shuang silently followed after her, their presence leaving a vacuum of power that made the remaining guests feel as though they could finally breathe again.
For a long minute, the Grand Hall remained silent as the core members of the Shen Clan departed.
Then, as if a spell had been broken, the atmosphere shattered as almost everyone in the hall turned their gazes toward the remaining handful of scholars—those who were still on their knees, shaking and covered in the blood of their brothers and classmates.
The laughter began as a trickle and grew into a roar.
"Hahaha! Look at them! The ’Pillars of Morality’ are looking a bit dusty!" one sect leader laughed, hoisting a cup of spirit wine.
"Serves you right, you old windbags!" a young master from a certain Clan shouted. "You lot who can only bark about ’karma’ while hiding behind your books! You finally met a match that doesn’t care about your stories!"
"You actually dared to offend the Shen Clan’s Young Master over a commoner? A stray dog you found in the street?" another nobleman mocked. "How dumb can you be? Do you think this is the Western Federation? Do you think this is a democracy?"
"Even the Peng Clan’s Young Master, known for being the most domineering brat in the city, dared not cause a single ripple of trouble here!" a woman laughed, pointing at a red-faced youth in the crowd.
"Hey! I heard that! But you’re right, even I’m not stupid enough to lecture the young master Shen Haoran on ethics!" the Peng Clan Young Master shouted back, joining in the mockery.
"Maybe they can write a poem about how the floor tastes!" someone jeered. "Or a treatise on the ’Righteousness’ of kowtowing in blood!"
Hearing those mocking laughs, Kong Xu couldn’t help but clenched his fists so hard his nails drew blood from his palms.
He kept his head down, staring at the red-stained floor which was being cleaned by servants, his body trembling with a mixture of grief and burning humiliation.
Of course, he dared not say anything. He knew that even a single word of defiance now might lead to his head joining the others on the floor.
Besides, deep down, a part of him knew they were right.
A cold, logical part of his brain whispered that they had been fools. Why had he stood up? Why had he risked the safety of the school and dragged them into a feud with the Shen Clan?
Although he and Xiao Chen had shared a few drinks and discussed philosophy, was a "brotherhood of scholars" really worth the total destruction of their sect?
To offend the most powerful force in the empire over a boy whose only virtue was his arrogance... it was tactical madness.
However, that thought, that flicker of self-awareness, only lasted for a brief moment before it was consumed by a much stronger force: Self-Righteousness.
’No,’ he thought, his jaw tightening. ’I am not wrong! I did nothing wrong! If helping your brother means you are wrong and deserve death, then it is this ver world that is twisted, not me, nor the scholars!’
He looked at the spot where Xiao Chen had been blown through the wall, and his grief for his brother transformed into a firm, delusional determination.
’Xiao Chen is the true light! He is the one who will bring balance back to the heavens! If we must go through a sea of fire and mountains of blades to support him, then so be it! The Shen Clan was just too domineering, too evil! They killed this many scholars not because we were wrong, but because they were afraid of the truth!’
That’s right!
’It’s not me who is in the wrong... it’s the Shen Clan! They should be purged and punished by the heavens!’
Kong Xu raised his head slightly, his eyes bloodshot and filled with a fanatic’s light.
He would wait, and he would survive.
So that when his good brother Xiao Chen returned to claim his vengeance, Kong Xu would be the one to write the chronicle of the Shen Clan’s fall.
Outside, in the darkened garden, the unconscious body of Xiao Chen was being dragged toward the deepest, coldest dungeon of the Divine City.
Above him, the moon was obscured by thick, black clouds, and for the first time in his two lives, he felt that he was truly, utterly alone in the dark.