Chapter 84: Chapter 5: Please Maintain Order at the Venue

"The target has been struck down, identity confirmed, Messenger from Yunhai Academy, Yun Lin."

Such a voice came from the bushes.

Yun Lin’s pupils were diffused, staring at the black shadow approaching from afar. She struggled several times but failed to rise from the muddy ground. Her body was smeared with mud, and her once white feathers were now tainted black. Her slit throat oozed blood, leaving her only capable of making a ’hiss’ sound.

There were two assailants, both cloaked in black robes, obscuring their faces.

Yun Lin did not see the weapon used by the attacker. She only felt a breeze, then a sharp pain in her throat before she fell to the ground like a kite with its string cut.

She had already strayed far from Yunlong District and had therefore let her guard down.

This was a premeditated attack. The assailants not only knew her identity in advance but had also ambushed her on the way back to the academy.

An unprecedented sense of foreboding surged in her heart. The only possibility Yun Lin could think of was that there was a mole in the academy, and that person held a high position.

To ensure the safety of Yunhai Academy, only the upper echelon had the authority to access each Messenger’s schedule and routes.

She must warn the headmaster—

Yun Lin’s thoughts came to an abrupt halt; her staring eyes lost their luster. She faintly heard the conversation between the two, "The target is dead, we can proceed with drawing."

She finally saw the "weapon" that had cut her throat.

It was the wind.

Invisible and intangible, yet omnipresent.

The biting wind passed through her body, easily slicing her flesh, rending her into pieces.

One of the two could turn the wind into a blade.

She wanted to relay this message to those still in the painting, but boundless darkness engulfed her.

The above scene was what Duan Mingyuan witnessed when he emerged from the painting. The offender in black sifting through scrolls was clearly taken aback by his sudden appearance and paused.

"Really lucky, eh? The jackpot’s on our side!"

The accomplice in the back ecstatically said, "He’s the teacher hired by the academy!"

The blade formed from wind whisked past Duan Mingyuan’s neck, reminding him that they were within someone’s Barrier, likely related to controlling the wind.

The nearest black-clothed figure was just a step away from him. Duan Mingyuan could see the sinister smile under the hood, the scar tissue extending from both sides of the lips, making half of the face appear stitched on.

Even though the upper part of the face was concealed by the hood, Duan Mingyuan could guess the expectations in the attacker’s eyes.

He anticipated him meeting the same fate as Yun Lin, decapitated.

"Wait a moment."

As he spoke, Duan Mingyuan bent down and placed his hand on the dismembered body.

The long night ahead, the academic conference could wait a moment longer.

This fortuitous meeting was a fate not to be taken lightly; naturally, he would allow the two scholars plenty of time to discuss. They could slowly explain why they attacked Yun Lin and why they targeted him, the teacher of the "Defense Against Evil Spirits" class.

"Huh? I..."

The body that should have been dead emitted a voice. Yun Lin took a deep breath, the severe pain in her throat vanished, and she rolled over and climbed up from the muddy ground.

Wasn’t she dead?

To make sure she was completely dead, the person in black had shredded her body.

Looking down, she saw her body intact, not even a scratch to be found, as if the horrific scene just before was nothing but an illusion.

The smile on the black-clothed person’s face disappeared. He looked astonished at the scene before him. Just now, he had witnessed Yun Lin’s body, torn to pieces, turn into points of light and reform back into whole, and Duan Mingyuan’s head, which should have been severed by the wind, remained unharmed.

Only...

The Messenger seemed a bit odd—somehow different from before.

"Which one of you will speak first?"

Duan Mingyuan looked pityingly at the two unfortunate souls drained of luck by the roasted chicken of fortune. From the earlier jubilant cries of the person in black, he deduced something.

It was not just them who had been attacked. All the Messengers returning to Yunhai Academy had encountered ambushes.

Unfortunately, the unlucky bags of the September roasted chicken wreaked havoc on the two men and brought them to the venue of the academic conference.

The man in black did not seem prepared to attend an academic discussion.

"Barrier—!"

The cry beside him stopped abruptly, the hoarse voice blending into the wind, the body that turned into specks of light condensed into a stone and rolled onto the ground, sinking into the mud and blending in with the surroundings.

"If you don’t wish to speak, go rest, but don’t disrupt the order of the conference."

Unfortunately, the fellow scholar in the distance did not like to abide by the conference discipline either. As Duan Mingyuan approached him, this companion let out a heart-wrenching roar, turning the wind into blade edges and pouring them recklessly towards the slowly advancing Duan Mingyuan.

"Please cherish your speaking time."

Duan Mingyuan took out his phone to check the time, "We are pressed for time, I can only give you five minutes, then we must rush to the Yunhai Academy."

"What kind of monster are you?!"

The man in black desperately pulled out a sharp knife, abandoning his Ability, and once again launched a physical attack.

Then, he finally understood why his Ability was ineffective.

The blade thrust towards Duan Mingyuan’s heart stopped ten centimeters away from him, as if there was an invisible wall blocking him on the outside.

However, Duan Mingyuan’s hand broke through that invisible barrier and grabbed his wrist.

"So that’s how it is, you plan to kill the teacher of ’Defense Against Evil Spirits’ beforehand, then disguise as him to infiltrate the Yunhai Academy. Only the headmaster makes the decision to hire a teacher, besides him, no one knows which Messenger would take me to the academy."

The man in black stared at Duan Mingyuan in utter horror.

He did not divulge a word, yet it was as if the other person had barged into his brain and forcibly read the memories within.

After speaking, Duan Mingyuan also turned to Yun Lin and asked, "Yun Lin, have you heard of an organization called ’Yin Die’?"

Yun Lin shook her head sheepishly, as if she was still in a dream.

Somehow, compared to the two attackers, she found Duan Mingyuan far more terrifying.

She subconsciously looked at the small stone that had rolled onto the ground just moments ago—less than a minute before, it had been a living human being.

For a moment, she harbored the same question as the man in black.

The headmaster...

What kind of monster had he invited?

"That’s all there is."

Duan Mingyuan was not satisfied with this conference discussion; the man in black’s memories did not contain much valuable information. They had been raised by an organization called "Yin Die" from a young age, injected with large amounts of drugs that boosted their Life Energy, and this was their first mission.

Ambush the Defense Against Evil Spirits teacher and disguise themselves to blend into the academy.

Once inside the academy, a contact within would get in touch with them.

"I don’t need to interrogate you to know your affairs, everything about your life is written in the Life Energy."

Out of respect, Duan Mingyuan explained this to the man in black as he watched the sparkles dissipate before him, another small stone falling to the ground, "If you must blame someone, blame ’Lucky Roast Chicken’."

Since the two guests had no intention of participating in the discussion, he naturally would not compel them.

After personally sending away the two guests, Duan Mingyuan returned to Yun Lin’s side and asked, "Miss Yun Lin, can you check if there’s anything else abnormal on you?"

"Oh, all right."

Yun Lin nodded tremblingly and began to examine herself as Duan Mingyuan had instructed.

But the next moment, she was shockingly startled, her voice suddenly filled with urgency as her wings reached for her head, her voice tinged with a sob, "Where’s my red feather? Why is it gone?"

"Huh?"

"The red crest is missing! Wuu wuu wuu, I am bald!"

At this time, Jiuyue also peeked out from the scroll, asking with concern, "Mr. Mingyuan, Miss Yun Lin... Huh? Who are you?

She came to a halt, staring blankly at Yun Lin, who was covering her head and whining.

Duan Mingyuan explained, "This is Miss Yun Lin."

"Mr. Mingyuan, don’t tell lies with your eyes open. How is this Miss Yun Lin?"

Jiuyue, who had an extensive study of chickens, expressed her authoritative opinion, "This is a pelican!"

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read