Chapter 592 - 363: Wreck

"I’ll see you around, Haoran."

Ye Hongyan smiled and bid farewell to Haoran, as her carriage flew off.

The gilded carriage, drawn by four winged celestial beasts whose hooves left trails of shimmering red sparks across the azure sky, rose gracefully above the canopy of the spirit forest.

Her silhouette lingered by the open window of the carriage for a brief second, a soft, genuine smile touching her lips—a warmth that had long been absent from the famously cold youngest of the Ten Sages.

With a crisp snap of reins from the coachman, the carriage accelerated, piercing through the boundary clouds of the outer academy and rapidly diminishing into a tiny speck of fading vermilion light against the morning horizon.

Haoran stared at her carriage until it disappeared, his tall, immaculate figure stood unmoving on the stone pathway, the mountain breeze catching the hem of his black and gold imperial robes.

The golden dragon embroidery seemed to ripple with quiet life beneath the midday sun.

His unreadable golden eyes watched the distant sky until the very last trace of red spiritual vapor dissolved into the wind.

Only then did he turn, his boots stepping smoothly along the winding path of crushed jade stones that led up the gentle slope toward his personal residence.

But then, as his divine sense naturally washed over the compound, extending effortlessly through the protective wards and ancient pine courtyards of the Falling Blossom Villa, his brows twitched.

Normally, during this hour of the day, his retainers and inner circle would be scattered across the academy grounds or managing their individual tasks.

Shen Jian would be drilling squads in the training fields, Xu Xiansu would be balancing merchant ledgers in the lower counting houses, and Ling Luochen would be monitoring the gamer logs in the central array pavilion.

Yet right now, their distinct spiritual signatures were crowded into a single chamber.

The fiery, intense core of Huo Yue, the cold, sharp presence of the Ten Crowns, the soft melodious aura of Luo Mingye, and the delicate signature of Xu Xiansu were all gathered around the central table in the grand meeting hall.

More noticeably, the pure, radiant aura that belonged to Qian Yunxi—a presence that usually greeted him near the gatehouse whenever he returned from distant travels—was entirely absent from the villa’s perimeter.

He frowned, but decided to go there.

His pace did not quicken, yet each step folded the distance beneath his feet.

The space around his boots rippled like disturbed water, carrying him across the stone bridges, past the tranquil koi ponds, and through the double courtyards without stirring a single fallen blossom.

After awhile, he arrived at the room, and the heavy, double-leaf sandalwood doors pushed open without a sound.

The moment he crossed the threshold, the suffocating, heated clamor that had filled the hall vanished like smoke in a tempest.

The lingering smell of scorched cedar from Huo Yue’s earlier flare of temper still hung in the air, but all attention snapped to the doorway.

Shen Jian, whose fists were still trembling with suppressed fury, immediately sank his chin to his chest.

Shen Tao, Shen Ying, Shen Xinye, and the rest of the Ten Crowns—Shen Cai, Shen Bai, Shen Xun’er, Shen Ji, and Shen Fei—alongside Luo Mingye and Zhu Ziyan, stiffened before bowing their heads deeply in unison.

None of them dared to meet his golden gaze.

The collective weight of their failure hung over them like an iron slab.

They had allowed the city’s trade to be strangled, their forces to be slaughtered like cattle, and an irreplaceable member of their inner core to be torn from their midst while their young master was away.

Only Huo Yue remained seated beside the head of the table, her blazing crimson eyes meeting his with a mixture of relief and sharp vigilance, while Xu Xiansu stood with her hands clasped tightly over her parchment ledgers, her pale face tight with restrained worry.

"What happened?" He asked.

His voice was neither loud nor harsh, yet it rolled across the long cedar table like a low, rumbling thunderclap.

The casual indifference he usually carried was gone, replaced by a cold, penetrating stillness that made the air temperature in the vast chamber plunge by several degrees.

"Young master," Ling Luochen spoke, stepping forward from the side of the table, her hands trembling slightly against her silk sleeves, "It’s like this...."

With that, Ling Luochen told him about how Qian Yunxi suddenly disappeared for some unknown reason after chasing one of those attackers, however, since her name is still registered in the NPC section.

She detailed how the ambushes on the vanguard gamers had escalated into organized slaughter, how Qian Yunxi had personally taken a patrol unit into the mist woods to hunt the elusive raiders, and how she suddenly vanished without trace.

"Her beacon on the system map went completely dark," Ling Luochen continued, her voice tight, "and ordinary tracking talismans cannot catch even a wisp of her spiritual thread. However, within the system interface, her designation remains intact. Her character portrait is not greyed out, and her vital status is still marked as active. So she is definitely alive, but she is completely severed from this plane."

"I see..." Haoran furrowed his brows, "Luochen, go and have your system locate Yunxi, since she has the sub-system, it should be doable, right?"

The gamer framework governed by Ling Luochen’s system operated on conceptual coordinates that bypassed common physical geography.

As long as a sub-system was anchored to an individual’s soul, the link between the host system and the sub-system should maintain an unbroken metaphysical tether, regardless of the void currents between them.

Ling Luochen blinked, "R-Right! That’s definitely doable! System!"

Realization flashed across her features, a glimmer of desperate hope lighting her eyes as she raised her slender wrist, tapping rapidly against the empty air.

Ding!

A blue screen appeared in front of her.

The translucent azure light bathed her face in a cool, flickering glow as strings of complex geometric runes, dimensional latitude coordinates, and algorithmic search parameters began cascading down the glowing pane like a furious digital waterfall, scanning across the boundless sea of the multiverse.

Several long, agonizing seconds ticked by.

The light flickered, stuttered, and turned a dim, warning shade of amber.

A mechanical, disembodied chime echoed within the sea of her mind, projecting its cold text onto the hovering pane.

[Host, I have been searching for Qian Yunxi since she disappeared. But it is hard. She must’ve been transported to a far away realm]

Ling Luochen’s expression sank and he told Haoran about it.

"Young Master..." Ling Luochen’s lips parted, her voice dropping into a desperate, hollow rasp as she relayed the system’s response. "The system says... It has been searching for awhile, but still couldn’t find a trace of her and might’ve been transported to a far away realm."

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Haoran took a single, slow step toward Ling Luochen.

He didn’t draw a weapon. Yet, the moment his boots came to a halt two paces before the glowing blue interface, the ancient, pitch-black shadow of Azathoth coiled beneath his skin seemed to bleed into reality.

The light inside the room flickered, the edges of the cedar table turning dull and monochrome, the ancient authority of a primordial devourer pressing directly against the digital light.

Haoran’s expression grew cold, "Find her. Or I will erase you."

The threat was not empty rhetoric. It was spoken with the chilling certainty of a man who had already dragged one Celestial System out of Ye Fan’s dying throat and sealed it like a squirming worm into the obsidian steel of his sword.

The foreign laws that governed transmigrators and cheat tools meant nothing to the supreme authority burning within his immortal bloodline.

If this entity dared to stall or fail, he would tear it out from Ling Luochen’s soul sea and grind its rules into dust.

The blue screen shuddered violently.

The lines of text scrambled into frantic, flashing red error codes, the artificial consciousness sensing the lethal, soul-crushing terror radiating from Shen Haoran.

BZZZZZT!

[Understood!]

The text flashed in bold, panicked crimson before vanishing entirely, the system redirecting every single scrap of its computational energy into piercing the cosmic void, burning through its internal reserves without daring to offer another excuse.

Haoran turned away from the trembling interface, his cold gaze shifting across the table to land on the waiting figure of Xu Xiansu.

"Those attackers..." Haoran’s voice was flat, sharp, and laden with dark promise, "Have you found out who is beyond them?"

Xu Xiansu nodded, "Yes, it’s the Sky Reaching City."

"Sky Reaching City..." Haoran frowned.

The name rolled off his tongue, tasting of dry dust and petty ambitions.

The one Hongyan said to be related to that Heavenly Dao Pavilion?

Memories of the conversation he had with Ye Hongyan and the information given to him by his mother surfaced in his mind.

The mysterious faction that held ancient, secretive ties to the dog house residing in the highest firmament, claiming to act as the earthly enforcers of heaven’s will.

’Very well, I originally wanted to leave you be for awhile, but now it seems like I’d have to confront you much earlier than planned.’

He had intended to let them play their small games in the shadows while he consolidated his control over the academy, all the while not interfering with their seclusion.

But now...they are actively reaching out their hands to slap them.

Haoran stepped to the head of the long table, resting his palm flat against the back of his carved white jade seat.

His golden eyes swept over the room, commanding the life and death of everyone present.

"Hear my orders," Haoran declared, his tone cold, crisp, and cutting through the hall with sovereign finality.

"Shen Tao, take command of the main city garrison. Open the ancestral armories and distribute the heavy dragon-forged armor to the first and second legions. Seal the four gates of Boundless Sky City. Anyone who attempts to flee, spread panic, or manipulate the resources prices during our absence shall have their heads mounted on the battlements before the sun reaches its peak."

"Understood!" Shen Tao bowed with ironclad resolve, his voice booming like a war drum.

"Xu Xiansu, take five hundred thousand medium-grade spirit stones from my private vault. Release an emergency global announcement to all gamers that any gamer who was killed during the ambushes shall receive triple compensation in resurrection pills, high-grade iron armaments, and exclusive dungeon access tokens. Announce an open bounty: every set of ears brought back belonging to Sky Reaching City’s spatial assassins will be rewarded with ten thousand gold coins and a rare-tier skill scroll. Re-establish our supply lines with the Heavy Armor Corps acting as armed escorts. Stabilize the city, keep the markets open, and let no one think our foundation has shaken."

"Very well, leave it to me," Xu Xiansu answered, her fingers moving swiftly to stamp her jade seals onto the executive decrees.

"Shen Jian, Shen Ying, Shen Xinye, and the Ten Crowns," Haoran continued, his gaze locking onto the battle-hungry warriors. "Mobilize the vanguard battalions. Gather twenty thousand elite gamers at the southern landing plaza. Organize them into tight strike formations. When the signal flare rises, march southward and lock down every trade highway and spatial intersection connecting Sky Reaching City to the outer continent. Let not a single merchant, scout, or messenger slip past your perimeter."

"We obey!" The Ten Crowns roared in unison, their weapons clattering against their chest armor as they stood at attention, their previous frustration completely washed away by the glorious promise of slaughter.

"Ling Luochen," Haoran looked at the girl whose eyes were still fixed on her system interface. "Stay in the central command pavilion. Keep your system burning day and night until the exact dimensional coordinates of Yunxi’s location are locked into."

"Yes, Young Master! I will not rest until she is found!" Ling Luochen replied with fierce determination.

With every order delivered, Haoran turned his head slightly, his golden pupils fixing onto the silent, fiery-haired woman seated beside his throne.

A faint, chilling smirk curved the corner of his lips, dangerous and sharp as a newly drawn blade.

"Huo Yue."

Huo Yue stood up from her chair, her crimson robes fluttering as flames danced along the edges of her sleeves.

A feral, predatory smile spread across her breathtaking face, her eyes burning with pure, unadulterated anticipation.

"Let’s go," Haoran murmured, turning toward the double doors as his black and gold cloak billowed in a sudden, violent gust of spiritual wind.

"Follow me. We are going to wreck that place apart."