Chapter 1463: Safe Return

Chapter 1463: Chapter 1463: Safe Return

"Do you have the ability to stop them from leaving?" Audess glanced at the Knight Commander and asked back.

"Uh...!" The Knight Commander was stumped by this question, cursing inwardly that a Bright Bishop had just died out of nowhere—what was he supposed to use to stop anyone? But he still replied, very unwillingly, "But Audess Witch, this is Council City!"

"Sigh." Audess let out a breath and didn’t bother explaining further. She left behind a group of guards with bewildered faces and turned to walk back into the city. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know the Knight Commander had a point, but the crux of the problem was that the Supreme was not in Council City right now. Without the Supreme, was Council City, on its own strength, truly unable to wipe out this Investigation Hall squad? It could. After all, the Magic Plane had once been one of the four great planes that could stand shoulder to shoulder with the Daoist Plane; if they really put their minds to it, destroying Pei Yan and the others was not impossible. The problem was, no one wanted to do it.

Even the Mage Tower Flamel belonged to was unwilling, because none of the three councils wanted to single-handedly bear the cost of killing Pei Yan. They all believed they had the ability to eliminate him, but likewise they had no doubt at all that Pei Yan’s team—these young people representing the highest combat standard of the Investigation Plane—had the power, in their dying moments, to drag their killers down with them.

That led straight into a deadlock. If the Supreme were here, he could coordinate and deploy the three factions, suppress the enemy’s strength, and thus annihilate this hidden danger with minimal damage. That was what all three councils wanted to see: each side paying an acceptable price to settle the matter. But with the Supreme absent, with no power on hand capable of absolutely suppressing Pei Yan, all three sides started harboring their own ulterior motives.

The Witch Association clearly didn’t want to get too deeply involved. They had no real grudge with Pei Yan—Moira alone was a Blood Race infiltrator, and cutting her out wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. By rights, the Mage Tower should have been the most proactive, yet they were just as unenthusiastic. To the Mage Tower, this was mostly a personal feud between Flamel and Pei Yan. And ever since Flamel became a Supreme Disciple, his arrogant, disdainful personality meant he hadn’t left a good reputation or many friends among the tower’s mages. They might be willing to pull some strings and play a few tricks behind the scenes for Flamel, in order to uphold the Mage Tower’s dignity, but to make massive sacrifices over this? The tower’s upper echelon remained rational enough to say no.

The most aggressive side against Pei Yan, in fact, was the Bright Church. Every single clash with the Investigation Hall had been sparked either by Flamel or Moira, but the one who took the greatest losses in the end was always the Bright Church. How could they not be furious? Yet one hand cannot clap; with the other two great factions’ attitudes unclear, they could only rage helplessly and ultimately choose to compromise.

The three councils each had their own little calculations, and the departing Pei Yan had his own plans as well. Based on his old temper, once he learned of this matter he might really have "flown into a rage for a beauty," stormed into Council City, and made a scene to forcibly execute Flamel. If he had actually done that, there’d have been no need for any internal conflict among the three councils—they would surely have joined forces with everything they had to kill Pei Yan.

But things were different now. Mei Simiao had been right: there were too many lives resting on his shoulders. As friends, Wang Wenze and the others were willing to risk their lives for his private revenge, but he couldn’t actually treat their lives as expendable. Even for vengeance, he at least had to prepare thoroughly and only strike when he had absolute confidence.

When he set that fifteen-day deadline, he already had a preliminary plan in mind.

The shock of this incident pressed on the hearts of the victorious returnees like a mountain. Everyone remained silent along the way. It was both tension over the coming battle and constant vigilance against the possibility that the three councils might send pursuers. Only when they left the spatial suppression range of Council City and immediately cast Space Jump, successive leaps carrying them to the Plane Barrier where plane crossing was possible, then opened a passage and returned to the Investigation Hall’s temporary transfer center—only then did that tension start to ease. Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief. ℯℯ𝑙.

Waiting on the other side of space was Gu Shenghui, who had been about to set out. After receiving Mei Simiao’s message that things were delayed and they were to wait for the outcome, he had stayed at the Space Passage exit, waiting for further news. Once he saw every member return safely, he hurried forward to ask, "What exactly happened?"

On comms, Mei Simiao had only been able to give a brief summary to convey how serious the situation was; there was no time for details. So all Gu Shenghui knew was that after Sifuer’s political marriage, Pei Yan had "died," and he knew nothing at all about the specifics.

"Hah... I’ll go through it in detail when we get to the meeting in a bit. By the way, has anyone come to deliver anything to our Investigation Hall? Or anyone come looking for us?" Pei Yan knew this wasn’t something that could be explained clearly in a hurry. They would be convening a meeting anyway, so he might as well lay it all out then. After that thought, he remembered what Bai Ze had said about sending evidence, and asked Gu Shenghui about it.

"No one’s sent anything..." Gu Shenghui had just started to answer when he suddenly paused. He pressed a hand to the communicator at his ear, and after a moment he corrected himself, "Now someone has. Just moments ago a man claiming to be from the Shadow Race arrived at the base perimeter, asking to see you. If he can’t see you, he’s fine with any of our higher-ups receiving him. He says he has something to pass on to you. Do you want to see him?"

Pei Yan already knew what he was here to deliver. There was no need to see him, so he shook his head and refused, "No. Detain this man and whatever he brought, and tighten both his guarding and protection. Remember he’s Shadow Race—while I don’t think he’ll try to escape, we should still take precautions. Then send someone to ask his purpose and tell him I already know about the matter; that’ll be enough. Can we hold a meeting to discuss this now? Time is extremely tight for me."

"Alright. Everyone in the Hall’s been waiting for you." Gu Shenghui didn’t argue. He headed up the corridor, leading the group straight to the meeting room.

By the time they arrived, the meeting room was already packed. In order to respond to this sudden incident involving Pei Yan, these people had stayed put ever since they first received the information. With Pei Yan’s squad entering, the room became even more cramped. Aside from Pei Yan, the other team members had no choice but to bring in extra chairs from outside and sit against the walls.

Once inside, Pei Yan first exchanged brief greetings with the various superiors, then went straight into recounting the experience of this mission. After he gave a concise account of how the Vlad Clan had been wiped out, he directly took out the box containing the Crystal Balls and played out their contents one by one, following the markings.

After all the recordings had been viewed, the meeting room—which had been dead silent during the playback—immediately erupted in a buzz of discussion. A variety of opinions were raised at once. Seeing this, Gu Shenghui glanced at Yu Zhongmin; after all, Yu Zhongmin was the Hall Master now, and it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to overstep.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem!"