Chapter 32
Li Han, who should have been undergoing reincarnation beneath the Terrace of Forgetfulness, was missing. This was unprecedented.
Xue Changyi wanted to search for his Second Brother immediately, but it was still during morning self-study, and he hadn’t resigned yet, still the homeroom teacher of Class Nine.
“Teacher Xue,” Ying Zheng stood up, his voice steady. “If you have urgent matters, please attend to them. I can supervise the self-study session.”
“Yes!” Cheng Jiao chimed in. “Teacher Xue, we can study by ourselves!”
“Indeed!” Xiang Yu added. “Don’t worry, Teacher, we’ll keep an eye on Lü Bu and Yang Guang.”
Lü Bu: “What does that have to do with me?!”
Yang Guang: “What does that have to do with me?!”
Xue Changyi’s heart warmed slightly. Class Nine was completely different from when he had first arrived. Back then, none of them listened to him, each one a troublesome rebel. Now, they were surprisingly considerate.
He didn’t hesitate any longer. “Please begin your self-study. I’ll be back shortly.”
Xue Changyi and Dong Lan left the classroom together.
“What exactly happened?” Xue Changyi frowned.
Dong Lan said urgently, “It really wasn’t me, this time it really wasn’t! I don’t know what happened. The blood samples were strange, I noticed something was off when I examined them. They had been switched! And Second Brother… Second Brother…”
“Xue Changyi!”
Wu Mu came running, his expression serious. “The Supervisory Department just reported that they haven’t been able to detect the Second Yama King’s presence beneath the Terrace of Forgetfulness.”
It coincided with what Dong Lan had said…
Dong Lan wrung his hands, his fingers trembling. “Where could Second Brother be? The world beneath the Terrace is vast, but not limitless. He’s just an ordinary mortal now, how can he hide his presence? Could it be…”
Xue Changyi’s voice was grim. “Second Brother is in danger.”
Dong Lan froze, tears streaming down his face. He murmured, “It’s all my fault… it’s all my fault… if it weren’t for me…”
Xue Changyi glanced at him. “It’s no use saying that now. We have to find him.”
“Right, right!” Dong Lan nodded vigorously.
“Look, it’s him…” Morning self-study was about to end, and several teachers approached, pointing and whispering.
“Did you hear?”
“Of course!”
“Such a good actor! If it weren’t for the forum… who would have guessed he was actually…”
Xue Changyi, preoccupied with his Second Brother’s safety, hadn’t paid attention to them at first, but soon, the teachers, and even some staff members, gathered around them.
“Is it him?”
“Yes, him!”
“That Dong Lan!”
So they weren’t talking about him, but Dong Lan.
“It was him? We were all fooled! Such a good actor!”
“You’re the former Director General of the Supervisory Department? You were the one who reviewed my great-grandfather’s case? That damned Supervisory Department, colluding with the Yama Courts all along, pretending to be enemies, what a show!”
Xue Changyi frowned. “What’s going on?”
He had only learned last night that Dong Lan was the former Director General, Wu Mu’s adoptive father. How did everyone seem to know already?
Wu Mu said in a low voice, “Someone just posted on the Underworld forum, exposing the former Director General’s identity.”
“What a coincidence,” Xue Changyi murmured.
His Second Brother’s disappearance, the switched blood samples, Dong Lan’s dual identity exposed, all happening at once, like a series of unfortunate events.
As if… someone was targeting Dong Lan.
“That damned Supervisory Department!!”
“So they were colluding with the Yama Courts all along!”
“Those Yama Kings, none of them are any good, playing good cop, bad cop for all these years!”
“I bet Dong Lan wants to control all Ten Courts! I remember the Supervisory Department published a paper a while back, proposing to merge the Ten Courts into one. Was that Dong Lan’s idea?”
“He’s so ambitious! Does someone like him deserve to be a Yama King? Deserve to be Director General?”
At first, the teachers had only been whispering, but the growing crowd fueled their anger, and they began openly confronting and berating Dong Lan. It almost escalated into a physical altercation.
“Everyone, calm down! Calm down!” The principal rushed over, pushing through the crowd. “Please, don’t be impulsive!”
“We’re all teachers at the academy, intellectuals! Let’s talk this over… Ow—”
The principal was elbowed in the face, but he continued to plead, “Ow… Please, calm down! Let’s… let’s talk this over!”
Dong Lan, the target of their anger, stood amidst the crowd, surrounded and attacked. He, who was always in a position of authority, whether as the Seventh Yama King or the former Director General, now felt exposed and vulnerable, stripped bare before everyone.
Panic and helplessness, feelings he had never experienced before, washed over him, his hands and feet turning cold.
Suddenly, an arm wrapped around his shoulders.
“Little Ten…?” Dong Lan looked at Xue Changyi uncertainly.
Xue Changyi pulled him close, shielding him from the angry crowd, and quickly led him away.
“Don’t run! Explain yourself!”
“Don’t fight! Don’t fight! We’re all intellectuals, let’s talk this over.”
“Ow—”
“The principal has fallen! Where’s the medic? Medic—”
With Xue Changyi protecting Dong Lan, Wu Mu protecting Xue Changyi, and the principal’s unintentional distraction, the three managed to escape the crowd. Just as they reached the school gate, a group of men in black suits approached.
—Supervisory Department uniforms.
They were all familiar to Wu Mu and Dong Lan, some of them even hand-picked by Dong Lan himself.
“Minister,” they nodded to Wu Mu.
Wu Mu frowned. “What are you doing here?”
The Envoys hesitated, their expressions troubled. “Minister, we’re here under orders to… apprehend the Seventh Yama King.”
“I didn’t give such an order,” Wu Mu said coldly.
The Envoys, clearly intimidated by his authority, explained, “Minister, please calm down, this… this is an order from above, an emergency order bypassing your authority. You saw the forum post, the impact is severe, everyone demands an explanation, so they decided to temporarily suspend the Seventh Yama King, pending investigation.”
Dong Lan sneered. “Suspend me? Whether it’s my position in the Seventh Court or the Supervisory Department, I have official documents, it’s all legal! What right do they have to suspend me?”
“Public opinion is a powerful force,” an Envoy said. “The situation has escalated, they have to give an explanation. Seventh Yama King, please cooperate and come with us. Don’t make things difficult for us.”
“You?” Dong Lan scoffed. “As if you could make me do anything.”
“Seventh Yama King…” the Envoy pleaded, “Boss, please don’t make this difficult for us. And they… they said…”
The Envoy glanced at Xue Changyi. “If the Seventh Yama King doesn’t cooperate, we’re to take the Tenth Yama King in for questioning as well.”
“You?!” Dong Lan seemed to have been struck where it hurt, his arrogant demeanor deflating like a punctured balloon.
He gritted his teeth. “Fine! I’ll go with you.”
As Xue Changyi was about to react, Wu Mu grabbed his hand, their fingers brushing briefly, and shook his head, signaling him to stay calm.
The forum post was suspicious. Whoever wrote it knew Dong Lan intimately. Even Wu Mu, his adopted son, and Xue Changyi, his younger brother, hadn’t known his true identity. How did that person find out? And the timing of the reveal, it was all too suspicious.
Dong Lan was already under investigation. Someone had to remain free to investigate. Xue Changyi took a deep breath, suppressing his impulse, and watched as the Envoys placed electronic shackles on Dong Lan’s wrists.
Dong Lan forced a smile. “It’s fine, Little Ten, don’t worry about me, I’m fine…”
He hesitated. “Little Ten… after all this, do you… still care about me?”
He didn’t dare look up, didn’t dare meet Xue Changyi’s eyes.
Xue Changyi sighed softly. “Are you stupid? Of course I care about you, Old Seven.”
Dong Lan’s head snapped up, his eyes wide and filled with tears. He was the former Director General of the Supervisory Department, he shouldn’t be crying in front of the Envoys, but in front of Xue Changyi, he was just an older brother who wanted his younger brother to survive the encroaching death…
Xue Changyi said solemnly, “I won’t let anything happen to you, and nothing will happen to Second Brother either.”
“Wuwuwu…” Dong Lan couldn’t hold back his tears any longer, his shoulders shaking with sobs.
“Take him away,” an Envoy said, leading Dong Lan towards a car.
Xue Changyi narrowed his eyes, watching them leave. Wu Mu said, “I’ll go back to the Supervisory Department and have someone investigate the source of that forum post.”
“Thank you,” Xue Changyi nodded.
Wu Mu said, “There’s no need for thanks between us.”
Dong Lan sat in the Supervisory Department car, a car he had often ridden in before, but as the Director General.
Now…
Ironically, he was a prisoner.
Electronic shackles bound his wrists. He looked out the window at the passing scenery, his eyes empty and lifeless.
Suddenly!
“Stop the car!!” he shouted.
“What…” The Envoy hadn’t even finished his question.
Bang—!!
Crash!!!!
A blinding white light exploded before their eyes, a tsunami of energy engulfing them. The car was thrown into the air, flipping over completely. A deafening crash followed, then silence, only the dust settling.
Dong Lan’s head swam. The shackles suppressed his spiritual power, and the impact had hit him like an ordinary mortal. The Envoy beside him was unconscious, perhaps dead. Dong Lan opened his eyes, wincing in pain, his leg trapped.
The sound of crackling flames and rustling fabric.
A black cloak appeared upside down in his field of vision. The cloaked figure bent down, looking at him through the shattered car window.
“Seventh Yama King, hello.”
“You…” Dong Lan mumbled groggily. “Who… are you?”
The cloaked figure chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’m the one who will reunite you with Li Han…”
