You're Being Played

On the day the starry sky shattered, two unsolved mysteries of Sword Flower University were answered. One mystery was what serendipity had allowed Sonia, a country girl, to climb from scratch to a sanctuary sorcerer in just one year—well, she was already a demigod sorcerer now, though no one was surprised anymore. Even if the Sword Princess charged into the starry sky, slaughtered the Divine Lord of Stars, and seized the throne, it would hardly shock the faculty and students of Sword Flower anymore. The other unsolved mystery was the true identity of Sonia's mysterious lover. Previously, within the Paw-Stretching Club, opinions had been divided into three main factions: "Nihilism," "Realism," and "Optimism." The Nihilists believed there was no lover at all, and that Sonia was adorable not because she was dating, but simply because she was naturally this cute. The Realists believed the Sword Princess's lover was actually female. From her three roommates to Senior Leonie, and even every outstanding member of the opposite sex from other schools, everyone had fallen under suspicion. The Optimists, on the other hand, believed that the Sword Princess's lover was themselves. Plenty of members lost their minds in the Paw-Stretching Club every day, regardless of gender. Indeed, prior to this, not a single person had believed Sonia's lover was male, because every male sorcerer Sonia had ever interacted with—literally all of them—had been screened and vetted. In all fairness, Sonia wasn't breathtaking to the point of being a national sensation, and even Daedalose's various scandals had never faced such rigorous scrutiny. It was simply that many people believed the secret behind her meteoric rise was likely tied to her mysterious lover. Rather than curiosity over who her lover was, they were curious about who could possibly enable a country girl to advance so rapidly. Now, both unsolved mysteries could be answered with the exact same name. Evil God's Touch, Enemy of the Starry Sky—Yaxiu Heath! Although one could still stubbornly argue that Sonia's lover might be Daedalose or an accomplice from the Four Pillar Cult, numerous sorcerers had witnessed Yaxiu and Sonia kissing from a distance. There were even photos circulating privately online, so picturesque and romantic that they made many Sword Flower students bite their lips in envy. However, though Yaxiu's infamy resounded throughout the Starry Country, almost no one knew anything about his past. It was as if he were a trash bin dumped from another country, whose sole purpose of existence was to abduct the Sword Princess and Daedalose—and shatter the starry sky along the way. "Do you know that man?" Lois asked anxiously. "How could I? I'd never want to know such a heinous villain," Aisha replied. "However, I learned about his past through other channels." Adele waved her hand. "There's no one else here. You don't have to hide the fact that you used prophecy miracles to dig up someone's dark history." "It really wasn't that this time." Aisha shook her head. "You'll all hear about it soon enough anyway... The Starry Country is already taking over the other four countries." "What?" The others froze. Adele asked excitedly, "Are we going to exploit the other countries and become supreme elites?!" "It's really hard to believe you're an educated, civilized lady..." The corner of Aisha's mouth twitched. "Why are you trying to regress all the way back to the slave era?" "To put it in popular terms, people don't hate nobles; they just hate that they aren't nobles themselves," Adele retorted. "And it wouldn't be regressing to the slave era... As long as we in the Starry Country live better than the other countries, that's good enough." Leonie asked, "What about the Divine Lords of the other countries?" "They have fully withdrawn their influence and will no longer interfere in the mortal realm," Aisha said. "And the scenario you're hoping for won't happen, Adele. Aside from requiring the four countries to open up trade, the Starry Country only demands the swift implementation of the *Nobility *** system. In all other respects, the five countries are equal. "Anything conflicting with the *Nobility ****, such as the Blood Moon Country's *Bloodline Prohibition Law*, must be abolished. As long as it doesn't violate the *Nobility ****, the original systems of the other countries can be preserved. "Under the gaze of the stars, nobles govern the earth." Aisha's tone turned somewhat subtle. "The fact that the Divine Lord of Stars achieved ultimate victory proves that our national system is the most advanced. Therefore, we must bring the correct system to the other countries." *Our Starry Country is the greatest nation.* Although the female sorcerers present couldn't fully comprehend the deeper implications of such actions, an inexplicable sense of pride and superiority welled up in their hearts. "Then what does any of this have to do with Yaxiu Heath?" Lois asked. "Because the five countries are now connected through the Sky Gates, Heath's experiences in the other nations have been compiled and sent to our side. All prophecy sorcerers and high-ranking mind sorcerers were mobilized to study his past and analyze his whereabouts and behavior." Aisha pointed to herself. "So, sitting right before you is one of the people who knows Yaxiu Heath's history best in this world." "Is this something you can tell us?" "I bet a book titled *Yaxiu Heath* will hit the bookstores next month detailing everything he's done. You're just getting a preview of the synopsis." "Hurry!" Adele could hardly contain herself. "What kind of person is Soni's lover?" Aisha cast a miracle, and a photographic phantom materialized in midair. "Now this is the part that cannot be disclosed to the public... This is a prophetic image of Heath from the Weaving Ceremony. You can think of it as a prophetic divine miracle cast on Yaxiu by the All-Knowing Weaver." In the image was the ruined expanse of a crumbling, burning city. A man dressed in a dark red trench coat sat on a luxurious red leather armchair. He had one leg crossed over the other, his left hand propping up his cheek, a mask covering his face, and his unkempt bangs falling haphazardly. He gazed nonchalantly at the burning world, his eyes slightly narrowed as if smiling. "What a classic villain look..." Adele murmured. "It's far more than just a look," Aisha said. "His earliest deeds originated in the Blood Moon Country. Back then, he was merely the leader of the Four Pillar Cult. A year ago, he was carelessly captured and thrown into prison, but that turned out to be the beginning of his legend. "He broke out of prison, engineered the public execution of the mayor, and became the foremost criminal in the Blood Moon Country—and he wasn't even a sorcerer when he was arrested! "After reaching the Gospel Country via a Void Realm channel, by some unknown means he bewitched the director of the Funeral Agency—now Gospel's political number two, Annan Doran. He coerced Annan into desecrating the Weaving Ceremony, and ultimately barged into the imperial palace, killed the Gospel Empress of that time, and attempted to seize the Gospel God! Had Annan and Lisidiya, who was still a princess back then, not fought back with all their might, he would have seized the national god with merely the strength of a sanctuary sorcerer! "Even more terrifying, he went to Senluo. Together with the World-Extinguishing Silver Lantern, the Spectre Prophet, and the Senluo Four Pillar Cult's leader, Mercury Trojan, he shattered the very foundation of Senluo, leaving millions of people dead without a grave to rest in! The Senluo Azure Lord even fell because of it, and Senluo, one of the six countries, remains an apocalyptic wasteland and a forbidden zone for the living to this day! "After destroying Senluo, he came to the Starry Country." Aisha looked around at everyone. "What happened afterward, you all know well. Of course, what you might not know— "—is that he almost foiled the plan of the Divine Lord of Stars. Back then, when he was still merely a legendary sorcerer, he was already capable of contending against the six Divine Lords." Their mouths fell open, their lips trembling slightly, struck utterly speechless with shock. If breaking out of prison to execute a mayor or storming the imperial palace to assassinate an empress were still conceivable, obliterating Senluo and clashing against Divine Lords completely exceeded the limits of their imagination. Destroying an entire world, millions dead... what kind of concept was that? They had originally assumed that Yaxiu shattering the starry sky was already the absolute pinnacle of crime, never expecting that it was merely one of his glorious achievements, barely even worth highlighting. "Wait," Adele spotted a loophole. "He was arrested a year ago, which means all of this happened within ten months?" "That's right." Aisha nodded. "He also became a demigod sorcerer within a single year... just like Sonia." "But Soni has been studying diligently in school this whole time," Adele muttered. "How on earth did that bastard manage to wreak havoc from one country to the next without catching a breath? Doesn't he ever rest? Is causing destruction that much fun? What is he, the Employee of the Year?" "You're badmouthing Sonia's lover right now," Lois reminded her. "Do you really believe a person like that genuinely loves Soni?" Adele countered. "How could Soni possibly fall for such a villain... I'm honestly starting to suspect that Soni was bewitched by him." Ingrid asked, "Still, he spent all that time in other countries. How did he contact Sonia?" "Regarding that, our prophecy sorcerers and mind sorcerers unanimously agree that he most likely found a way to contact Sonia in the Void Realm, perhaps even guiding Sonia's advancement directly," Aisha said. "That would also explain why we could never find any traces of Sonia contacting him—the Void Realm is an area beyond our surveillance. "As for whether he truly loves Sonia... let's put it this way: do you really believe a man who orchestrated multiple national-level catastrophes and ascended to demigodhood within a single year is truly just a young man in his twenties?" Leonie suddenly chimed in, "Could he be the same kind of person as the Spectre Prophet?" Thanks to the circulation of the *Spectre Handbook*, the most famous demigod across the six countries was none other than the Spectre Prophet; even ordinary mortals knew of that heinous, evil demigod who had reincarnated to hunt down prodigies. "Exactly!" Aisha nodded. "We strongly suspect he is also a reincarnated sorcerer from ancient times. Perhaps the Spectre Prophet was merely his subordinate back then... or maybe the Spectre Prophet was awakened by him in the first place! "Can you imagine an ancient villain of several thousand years genuinely loving someone? Yaxiu Heath's affection for Sonia wouldn't be much deeper than the Spectre Prophet's fondness for a Lalafell. "One is a profoundly scheming, formidable, and dangerously charismatic reincarnator, while the other is a pure, adorable, naive university girl." Aisha swirled her wine glass, letting out a sigh. "Even without a mind miracle, Sonia would fall for him like stepping straight into a trap." Though not entirely agreeing with the description "pure, adorable, and naive," the female sorcerers still accepted Aisha's conclusion. "An old monster thousands of years old using a dimensionality strike to bewitch our Soni." Adele bit viciously into an apple. "That guy is utterly despicable!" "If he weren't despicable, how could he wreak havoc across four countries in succession and still roam free?" Lois sighed. "We thought Sonia had found someone who genuinely loved her, but now it looks like..." Leonie lamented, "And our junior still knows nothing, faithfully following that man..." "We aren't very optimistic about Sonia's future," Aisha said. "Not only will she give herself to that man, but she'll also have to fight across the realm for him, and might even sacrifice her life for love at a critical moment. A bedmate, a weapon, and a shield—a man like Yaxiu Heath will surely squeeze every drop of value from her until she withers and decays—" *Crack!* The wine glass in Ingrid's hand suddenly shattered, the shards digging into her flesh and drawing bright red blood. She pulled out a tissue and wiped her hand, signaling for everyone not to worry; with her physical constitution, such a wound would stop bleeding and heal in no time. Still, none of them were in the mood to keep drinking, and the gathering broke up. Sunset Hall wasn't far from Sword Flower University, so Lois, Adele, and Ingrid chose to walk back. They remained quiet along the way, while the wind and snow gradually picked up, the biting chill seeping into their skin and making their cheeks ache. "Is it snowing where Soni is too?" Adele asked suddenly. "Though I don't know how wide the gap between a demigod and a mortal is," Ingrid said, "even without clothes, she should be warmer than you." "Yeah." Adele nodded. "Demigods are incredible." "Then she doesn't need to depend on anyone, and can live perfectly well on her own, right?" "Yes." Lois tilted the umbrella slightly toward Adele. "Actually, a legendary sorcerer could already manage that... but she loves him." No one knew how deeply Sonia loved her partner better than her roommates. Her anxiety, her joy, her petulance—even though Sonia had never openly discussed her romance, they knew her moods were entirely tugged by that man. Once upon a time, they had rejoiced when Sonia's romance made progress, and held their breath in apprehension when trouble arose. They had genuinely wished for her love to blossom and bear fruit, but now that this day had arrived, their hearts felt heavy and suffocated with sorrow. "What was Soni's hometown called again?" Adele asked. Lois thought for a moment and shook her head. "I don't know. Did she ever mention it? Just some remote agricultural town, I think?" "Aisha definitely knows," Ingrid said. "Then I'll ask Aisha later," Adele said. "If you're free this weekend, why don't we take a train ride there?" Lois was taken aback for a second before grasping Adele's intentions. She smiled and said, "I don't think you need to worry. The local officials are bound to be far more careful than us... If anything happened to her mother, that town probably wouldn't even need to exist anymore. "She must have thought it through, which was why she unleashed her true power back in Yudunling. She wanted to let the Starry sorcerers know that she alone could take on an entire sorcerer legion. Still, I don't have much going on this weekend anyway." Ingrid said, "I'm free." "Great, then it's settled!" Adele threw two punches into the empty air, as if trying to pummel someone flat. "I actually really want to ask Auntie how she managed to raise such an incredible daughter. When I have kids in the future, I'll take notes on her parenting." "Someone who can barely pass her final exams is already planning for children..." "It's not like I'll be raising them anyway! The maids will do that. I'll just tease them whenever I feel like it—easy peasy!" By then, they had reached the main gate of Sword Flower University. Lois noticed Adele peering toward the side and asked, "What is it?" "I want to buy some hot milk tea over there, but the shop's kind of far... Lois, how about you go buy it while I head back to the dorm? The usual: large pudding milk tea with extra coconut jelly." Lois had thought Adele would suggest they go together, never imagining her lack of shame could sink so low. She snapped, "Go buy it yourself!" "Ugh..." Adele's shoulders trembled from the cold, and she shook her head. "Never mind then." As they approached the main gate, they noticed someone arguing with the security guard. Adele took two glances and said with utter conviction, "That might be a handsome guy, but he definitely has no idea he's good-looking." Lois said, "He's wearing a mask, so I won't even ask how you can tell if he's handsome, but how do you know he doesn't realize it?" "Because good-looking people instinctively coordinate their outfits even without makeup. But his fashion sense is an absolute disaster; you can tell he never dresses up." As they drew closer, they overheard the man arguing with the guard: "Could you please make an exception..." "If you say you know her, call her out here." "But I really don't have..." Curious, Adele leaned over and asked, "What happened, classmate?" The man turned toward them. He wore a jet-black face mask, but his eyes were bright and spirited, his pupils exquisite like gemstones, with gentle grace lingering at the tips of his brows. Even more peculiar was his scent; as Adele drew near, she caught a refreshing fragrance like fresh grass, evoking a sudden urge to roll around in a meadow. "It's like this: my girlfriend mentioned that she likes the milk tea outside campus, so I came out to buy some." He lifted the two insulated bags in his hands. "But I'm not a student here, and Sword Flower University doesn't allow outsiders in, so I can't enter." Adele sniffed the insulated bags, her eyes lighting up. "The smell of pudding milk tea! But there are two bags here—does your girlfriend drink that much?" "There's also a portion for her roommates," he said with a wry smile. "She mentioned how difficult her roommates can be to get along with." "You have a bright future." Adele gave him a thumbs-up. "If you can't get in, why don't you just have your girlfriend come out to meet you?" Lois asked. "I don't have her contact details." He looked somewhat helpless. "I didn't tell her I was going to buy milk tea either; I told her to head back to the dorm first, hoping to give her a little surprise. So now I'm stuck here." "You don't even have her contact details?" Adele found it incredible. "How did you two even date? Have you never been to Sword Flower before?" "This is my first time..." Ingrid asked, "Long-distance relationship?" "Yeah, long-distance. We only met recently." He blinked, a trace of tenderness surfacing in his eyes. "It's been almost a year." Dating for a year, without even contact details? And a long-distance relationship? Adele exchanged a glance with her roommates, then turned to him and said with utter seriousness: "Classmate, you're being played."