The Prison Temple was indeed getting busy.
Qu Weichen wandered around the hall, noticing that the guards she used to recognize were nowhere to be seen.
As for the prison army… she had no idea where the troops were stationed, so she couldn’t tell if they’d been mobilized.
A deep abyssal rift had appeared in Beastcall Mountain? Qu Weichen thought back to her time at the mountain’s outskirts—Constanze had only taken her to the outer areas for training, and with her abilities, that was as far as she could go.
She’d never been to the mountain’s depths, but there must be plenty of high-level magical beasts there.
The Prison Temple was heading over to suppress the situation… would it really go smoothly? With a rift opening in Beastcall Mountain, would the royal family get involved? Uvino was right at the center, and with the old grudge between that place and Chen Qingjue, Qu Weichen couldn’t shake the feeling that this was more complicated than it seemed.
Even though Qu Weichen figured the temple master didn’t need her worrying, that person’s identity was still a mystery, and the rumors about her never stopped.
What did the other races think of her? Abyssal rifts… they were dangerous, but for the Floating Continent, they were also a vital resource.
If Chen Qingjue managed to control it, wouldn’t that mean the Prison Temple could stand on equal footing with the royal family, the elves, the dragons, and the beastkin? Qu Weichen didn’t know about the other three races, but the imperial family… there was no way they’d allow that to happen.
[Even if a fight breaks out, it’s not something you could get involved in anyway.] Number Nine said, [Relax.]
Qu Weichen said, “Read what you just said again—are you sure that’s supposed to be comforting?”
[Just being honest.
We’ve known each other long enough, why bother with fake pleasantries?] Number Nine didn’t care.
[But since you’re out, you should go buy a couple new sets of everyday clothes, get some loose training gear, maybe something casual too.
And your shoes could use replacing.]
Qu Weichen sighed.
She already had a mental checklist of what she needed to buy.
She never liked shopping, so she went straight to the stores she needed, bought all the clothes and other things, then picked up some daily necessities.
After a simple meal at a restaurant, she headed back to the temple.
The Beastcall Mountain incident was affecting Uvino as well.
Qu Weichen noticed that the shopkeepers and clerks all looked worried.
After all, Uvino was the biggest city closest to Beastcall Mountain.
There had been two undead attacks in the past two years, and now a rift had opened right here… If the Prison Temple couldn’t handle it, who knew what would happen to all the people living in Uvino.
“Undead…” Qu Weichen clenched her fist.
“No matter what the other races or factions think about fighting the Prison Temple, when it comes to the abyssal rift, even if they’re competing, they’ll at least guard the rift before fighting over it, right?” After two years of study, Qu Weichen knew Uvino had a population of over a million.
The city was surprisingly big, and all sorts of races lived there.
[Of course.
The undead are everyone’s common enemy.] After a break, Qu Weichen returned to the academy to continue her training.
Now that news of the abyssal rift had spread, as soon as Qu Weichen entered the classroom, Tu Weierxi turned around and whispered, “Did you hear about the rift in Beastcall Mountain? I heard the rift is stabilizing, and maybe in the next few months, once the space settles, won’t the undead from the abyss invade again?”
“I don’t know either.” Qu Weichen looked at Tu Weierxi and asked, “What do you think?”
“Some elders in my clan sent word suggesting we go back home for a while and return to school next year.” Tu Weierxi sighed.
“But some elders think that’s too much trouble and want to send people to help suppress the rift at Beastcall Mountain.
Once the rift opens, there’s bound to be a strong attack from the abyss, but if we can hold out for a while, things will get better.”
“Your temple master seems to want to take the rift alone.
The Prison Temple is powerful in Uvino, but the other races aren’t weak either.
I heard… a lot of people want to get involved and guard the rift together with the Prison Temple.” Tu Weierxi looked at Qu Weichen, hesitating.
“Chaos is inevitable.”
“Are you going back?” Qu Weichen pressed her lips together.
It made sense—each race sent their best young people to study in Uvino, but now that things might get chaotic, of course they’d want to bring their juniors home.
“…It’ll probably take some time to discuss, anyway, it’s not up to me.” Tu Weierxi slumped over Qu Weichen’s desk, looking a bit down.
But after saying so much, Qu Weichen only cared about whether she was leaving? Tu Weierxi couldn’t help but laugh, and her worries faded a bit.
“Honestly, I’ve never seen real undead before, but from the pictures, they look pretty scary.”
“It’s better if you haven’t seen them.” Qu Weichen replied.
She could already imagine that the number of students at the academy would keep dropping for a while.
Anyone in Uvino who could leave would probably do so, and the city… would likely be flooded with people from all sorts of factions.
The center of chaos? Qu Weichen snorted.
The rift wasn’t even stable yet, the undead hadn’t even shown up, and things were already getting restless here.
Classes still had to go on.
Qu Weichen quietly doubled her training intensity, pushing herself even harder in practical lessons.
Couldn’t channel qi outside her body, couldn’t form a qi blade? Stuck at a bottleneck? No problem—she’d just burn through her qi to strengthen her body, temper every inch of bone, make her blood boil and burn, and keep building her foundation.
Besides daggers, Qu Weichen started trying other weapons.
She forged a longsword, then a greatsword.
The longsword was swift and sharp, the greatsword was heavy and forceful—both completely different from daggers, and at first, Qu Weichen struggled to get used to them.
But as long as she put in the time to practice, using them basically wasn’t a problem.
Qu Weichen started training with the greatsword on her back.
As time passed, fewer and fewer students were left in the academy’s training hall.
Where once you had to wait ages for equipment, now there were hardly any students left.
At the end of the month, during a three-day break, Qu Weichen noticed a lot of unfamiliar faces in Uvino as she walked from the academy back to the Prison Temple.
Giants? Dwarves? Tall beastkin she’d never seen before, and some humans who looked like trouble.
Qu Weichen even saw a dragon woman with two horns and dragon scales glinting on her neck in Uvino.
The dragons lived far away on Dragon Island, almost cut off from the world, and even they had come.
…
“Seriously, everyone wants a piece of the action.
Don’t they worry about getting in over their heads?” Chen Qingjue sat on the railing at the top of a tall building in Uvino, looking down at the crowds below.
She tilted her head, half-closing her light brown eyes.
The breeze blew her hair loose, and even her soft laugh drifted away on the wind.
“All I want is a little peace.
Why is it… so hard?”
…
The elves finally decided to pull all their people out of Uvino and back to the Elven Forest within a month.
Not just the underage elves—even the adults.
“The elven rift keeps getting attacked, so we have to call everyone back to help suppress it.”
Whether that was true or not, who could say.
Clearly, as all the other races poured into Uvino, even with the Beastcall Mountain rift about to stabilize, the elves decided not to get involved.
After all, a lot of dragons had shown up and were already guarding Beastcall Mountain.
The other races were the same.
Right now, Beastcall Mountain was packed, and the magical beasts in the depths were all hiding.
The prison army was stationed near the rift, and the empire had sent the Demon-Suppressing General with fifty thousand troops to rush to Beastcall Mountain, with Uvino’s General Pingyuan meeting up with him.
The empire was clearly getting involved.
At this point, Uvino actually became calmer.
More and more merchant caravans were coming and going, with at least five groups coming in and out every day, selling everything from daily necessities to forging materials, medicine, and food.
Everything sold out fast, and the merchants were all grinning, racing against time to make as many deals as possible.
Gexifei and Olorna’s families lived in Uvino, so they went home as soon as they heard the news.
An Xiaonan went with her father too.
After the three little elves left, Qu Weichen looked at Tu Weierxi, who was still coming to class, and couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you leaving?”
“I don’t want to leave.” Tu Weierxi sighed, looking at Qu Weichen, hesitating, then finally asked, “Do you want to… come with me?”
“My mother is an elder in the clan, she can talk to the Prison Temple master.
The Elven Forest is huge and beautiful, we have a big mine that produces all kinds of magical gems. We have the Tree of Life, it blesses everyone.
All the elements are most active in the Elven Forest—if you come with me, you’ll definitely learn magic!” The elf girl got more and more excited as she spoke, her eyes shining.
“Everyone’s really friendly, and you’re so nice, they’ll definitely like you too.
I want you to try the fruit wine I made before coming to the academy, and there’s the Ancient Tree Museum in the forest, with lots of old books and magic tomes—I know you’d love it.
You can train there too, and when you’re strong enough, we can guard the abyssal rift together—”
Tu Weierxi’s voice gradually faded.
She looked at Qu Weichen’s unchanged expression, and the light in her eyes, sparked by excitement and love, dimmed.
In the end, she fell silent.
“Thank you.” Qu Weichen said sincerely.
Number Nine in her mind got excited at the places Tu Weierxi mentioned, shouting, [Those places are hard to get to, you’d definitely unlock achievements!], but Qu Weichen clearly wasn’t listening.
“But if you stay here, what can you do?” Tu Weierxi said in frustration.
“After the rift is suppressed, do you think those factions will just let it go? If the Prison Temple doesn’t back down, won’t there be war? No matter how strong your temple master is, it’s only been a few years—how can she compare to those ancient races? The royal family is watching, and when the time comes, if the temple master is overwhelmed, how can she protect you?”
“As for you, General Pingyuan is still around, and now the Demon-Suppressing General is here.
Who knows if he’ll kill you to vent his anger later.
And that He Muman—she won’t let you go.”
Qu Weichen just smiled.
She waited for Tu Weierxi to finish before speaking softly, “When are you leaving? Can I see you off?”
Tu Weierxi bit her lip, her eyes already red, tears glimmering but held back.
She stared at Qu Weichen for a long time before looking away, her tone stiff.
“This weekend.
My mother’s coming to get me, and she’s bringing the guards, and taking the other clan members who can’t stay.”
“Up to you if you want to see me off or not.
Qu Weichen, you know the atmosphere in Uvino is off! Go look at the streets—everyone who can leave has left, there are tons of empty houses now! The undead are an external threat, but the factions already here are…”
“Even if I can’t help, I won’t run away at the last minute.” Qu Weichen said.
“I’ll be there.”
