An hour and a half slipped quietly by.
Night had fallen over the Demon King's Bestowed Restaurant. Its lights glimmered dreamily in the dark, radiating an aristocratic, otherworldly charm.
To the delicate melody of the restaurant's instruments, Lanqi and Hyperion concluded their dinner.
Reluctantly, the two left the establishment, as though waking from a dream and returning to reality.
Even Hyperion had unwittingly lost herself in the Demon Realm's atmosphere toward the end. But the moment she stepped through the glass doors, she realized with a start that this foreshadowing of her bloodline awakening made her feel one step further from being human.
Along the empty corridor, Lanqi strolled in front as if out on a pleasant walk.
Hyperion trailed behind, dragging the coffin-like gift box.
Magnificent skylights flanked both sides of the walkway, offering a crystal-clear view of every star in the Demon Realm's night sky. Falling starlight turned the slightly inclined corridor into a crystal skybridge linking the stars to the earth.
As breathtaking as the scene was, the two figures within it looked utterly brazen.
Inside the coffin-like gift box, the silver-haired demon lay quietly. His presence was like a cold jewel, granted a dignified final resting place.
Bathed in lantern light and starlight, the corridor mirrored a serene glow. It extended all the way to the teaching area, which was their next destination. Although they had to wait a while before the corridor reconnected with the classrooms, the wait itself was a rare treat. Here, one could leisurely admire the Demon Realm's starry sky—a view impossible to find in the mortal realm.
Lanqi and Hyperion had no intention of exploring the corridors to other functional areas for now. If they wandered off, their demon guide, Bachel, might not be able to find them by the next recess.
Hyperion set down the silver-haired demon's coffin at the end of the corridor. Compared to the rest of the walkway, this spot was exceptionally quiet, bathed only in the gentle, cool glow of the Demon Realm's stars.
Sitting side by side, they began counting their spoils.
A casual rummage yielded a hefty handful of credit coins.
"A bumper harvest! Truly, good deeds never go unrewarded!" Lanqi said with delight.
It seemed they could treat themselves to another grand time in the functional area before returning to the mortal realm.
"Right, right..." Hyperion's lips curled up in helpless amusement as she gave a soft, placating reply. Accompanying Lanqi often gave her the exasperated feeling of babysitting a child.
Once they finished thoroughly looting the silver-haired demon's estate, both of their expressions turned to surprise.
"Wait, isn't this guy a little too rich...?"
It was only after examining the looted coins closely that they realized the silver-haired demon's credit coins were all in denominations of ten!
The black-gold coins, stamped with special emblems, shimmered beneath the starlight. Each one could be exchanged for ten standard credit coins, or spent directly as ten. In other words, the silver-haired demon's wealth was ten times greater than what Lanqi had initially thought.
Lanqi turned his attention to another item retrieved from the silver-haired demon's inner pocket: a black seal carved with intricate patterns, its casing like jet-black jade, smooth and cold to the touch.
"..."
Lanqi tried to determine if it was a magic item, but even he couldn't discern its true purpose.
Finally, he looked at the credentials taken from the silver-haired demon's body, his gaze growing increasingly puzzled.
"Why doesn't he have a student ID, but instead... credentials from the Demon King's Castle?"
Lanqi's murmured words echoed through the empty corridor, sending ripples across the still air.
...
Meanwhile, on the other side of the academy.
In the conference room on the top floor of Purgatory Corridor Academy, the walls were an abyss of deep violet, their dense, ancient carvings casting a heavy mythic aura. The vaulted ceiling cast faint starlight, scattering moon shadows and stardust into every corner of the room.
A colossal round table sat at the center, ringed by several senior professors whose faces were etched with worry and gravity. Their silhouettes flickered beneath the dim starlight. Heavy with oppressive tension, the air in the chamber felt almost frozen, where even the faintest noise might cause a jarring tremor.
Seated at the head of the table, the Vice Headmaster knitted his brows in silence. He surveyed each professor in the room before speaking in a low voice: "Professors, the special commissioner dispatched from the Demon King's Castle should be arriving at our school in the next few days. However, according to the Headmaster, this commissioner is adept at disguise and infiltration. There is a possibility they may pose as a student or faculty member to enter the academy early for observation and investigation. In the Headmaster's absence, we must strictly adhere to all regulations. Under no circumstances may we accidentally offend Lord Demon King's commissioner."
As soon as the Vice Headmaster finished, the other professors nodded, maintaining their somber silence.
They knew that what truly had the Vice Headmaster on pins and needles was not this commissioner from the Demon King's Castle, but another, far more troublesome figure soon to arrive at the academy—an envoy of the Blood Clan.
The Vice Headmaster rubbed his forehead, looking thoroughly exhausted. The breath he exhaled misted like winter fog before dissolving into the air. He raised his head, gazing forward, his voice drained of energy as though speaking to himself or searching for answers from the faculty:
"The pressure from the Demon Realm Education Department is immense. The Blood Clan's envoy will soon reach Purgatory City. If they discover that humans have truly infiltrated our school, violating the North-South Treaty, we will all be in dire trouble."
The North-South Treaty was formally known as the Blood Clan and Demon Race Non-Interference Treaty.
In these turbulent times, the Blood Clan of the south held absolute dominion, and monarchs of numerous human realms were reduced to their thralls. By contrast, the northern demon race was the weaker power, isolated behind the glacial barriers of the far north. Regarding all affairs between the Blood Clan and humanity, the demon race was required to maintain strict neutrality; this was the fundamental condition that kept the Blood Clan from waging war against them.
Yet now, the Blood Clan had begun to suspect that the demons were covertly trying to upset this balance.
It all started with an absurd rumor that had circulated through the Demon Realm some time ago—supposedly, the Blood Clan had discovered humans suspected of disguising themselves as demons, attempting to sneak into the Demon Realm to secretly study demonic knowledge.
At first, the demon race dismissed it. Usually, it was demons who attempted to disguise themselves as humans; never had humans dared to turn around and masquerade as demons.
Until later, when a Blood Clan Grand Duke brutally interrogated the family of a researcher from an imperial testing ground and extracted crucial intelligence: a few surviving remnants of an imperial covert unit were highly likely to have infiltrated this very academy, Purgatory Corridor Academy—and had been lurking here for a long time!
Chapter 65