Chapter 234 — What a Sin

At the edge of the Undead Battlefield.

Inside the Beast-Taming Corps.

Faced with Shi Jin and the others appearing out of nowhere, Master Xu Kai's brain struggled to catch up.

"Ha... ha... ha..."

His gaze swept once over Shi Jin, the Gem Cat, Eleven, and the rest.

"Shi Jin, what are you even saying?"

"Your Uncle Xu isn't so easily scared, and we in Donghuang don't celebrate April Fool's either."

The Gem Cat lost patience. "Who's scaring you? It's real. That son of a—no, the Undead Nether Phoenix has awakened."

"The seal hasn't been broken, but the power surge is likely real. There may be a massive undead riot afterward, maybe even a siege on the city, and who knows if a new deathlord will be born. Anyway, get prepared, fast—and call in the legends. I'll hold the line here as well."

Xu Kai's expression gradually froze.

Hearing even the Gem Cat say it, he understood at once that Shi Jin was not lying.

Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.

So what the hell was this? What on earth had you people gone to the Undead Battlefield to do?!

What a sin!

Who let you in? Ten days and ten nights of standing at attention!

"Shi Jin, put me on the phone!!!"

At that moment, a shout came from the landline handset lying face-down on the table.

Shi Jin listened—that was Feng Jin, wasn't it.

A few days without seeing him, and his temper had gotten worse.

"Get back here right now, back to the school!!"

Shi Jin walked over and picked up the phone, and Feng Jin's roar came through at once.

Feng Jin's tone was frantic, bellowing so loudly that Shi Jin shut his eyes, and even the Gem Cat beside him felt a little guilty.

"Feng Jin's right. Get back to the school right now—leave this to us. Report the details to Feng Jin."

By now Master Xu Kai could think of nothing else. He ran off to sound the highest alarm.

...

Ancient Capital University.

Shi Jin was caught by Feng Jin halfway there and dragged back.

Once Feng Jin had hauled Shi Jin into his own dorm room, his eyebrows were dancing.

"Talk. What happened?"

Shi Jin sat obediently on the sofa, Eleven and Ginseng Baby beside him, while Buggy and Little Crimson Pupil in bird-spirit form perched on the back of the sofa.

Shi Jin put on a bitter face. "You really can't blame me for this."

"Teacher Ying and I only went to the Undead Battlefield to grind Crimson Pupil's spirit-unsealing level a bit, then to check in at the Undead Pool for sightseeing. That's all."

Feng Jin looked at Crimson Pupil, saw that it was already in bird-spirit form and had broken through to commander level, and nodded.

Beyond that, there really was no other reason they would need to go to the Undead Battlefield.

"So what exactly happened with the Undead Nether Phoenix?"

"Did it awaken on its own, or was it because of you?" Feng Jin's expression was grave as he asked the most crucial question.

If it was an accident, then Shi Jin and the others, who had discovered it, could be counted as having done a service.

If Shi Jin and the others had stirred up some mess and woken the Undead Nether Phoenix, then they could go write their self-criticisms nice and obediently!

The Undead Nether Phoenix's sealed site was one of Donghuang's eight forbidden zones; even members of Bureau Eleven could not casually approach it.

"All of it was an accident." Shi Jin's expression lit up. "But it's a huge discovery. A huge archaeological discovery."

"We successfully held a conversation with the Undead Nether Phoenix."

Wham!

Feng Jin jumped to his feet in fright, eyes wide. Huh?

"It attached its consciousness to a phoenix flame. Its true body has not broken the seal."

"It said it awakened because it sensed the phoenix bloodline roused after Crimson Pupil's spirit-unsealing."

Feng Jin: "...So it really was your lot's doing?!"

"No..."

"It says it is Crimson Pupil's mother—and the empress's. General Mu Huiyin's bloodline and the empress's both stem from it."

"It also claims it was sealed into the Undead Battlefield of its own accord after some mishap—that it is a good phoenix, and that once we have gathered enough strength, we should go free it, purify it, and 'cleave the seal to save the mother.'"

"It even gave us the location of a secret realm holding a collector's legend—a god-tier resource. And the moment it finished speaking, it went berserk. Can you make sense of that?"

Feng Jin: @.@

Hell. Hell no. To hell with that cat's-paw nonsense.

Wait—his head was spinning.

"If this turn of events is real, it's an archaeological discovery for the ages."

"And if it's fake... fake... either way, we're the victims here." Shi Jin reasoned. "We can't be the ones to carry this pot."

Eleven and the others nodded. Crimson Pupil was innocent too—out of nowhere it had gained a mother, and it did not even feel anything about it. What in the world was this?

Feng Jin: "What kind of muddled nonsense is this? From the beginning—from the moment you entered the Undead Battlefield—go through it carefully, word for word, every detail, and tell me everything."

The old headmaster's wrinkles twitched; his heart was anything but calm...

"All right." Shi Jin then recounted the details once more. As for Mu Huiyin's heroic spirit and her identity, Feng Jin had already known of them before, so Shi Jin did not need to explain. He simply retold his and the Gem Cat's experiences in full detail, and Feng Jin quickly grasped it all.

Though he understood Shi Ying's words, the experiences of Shi Jin and the others still gave the old man a stomachache and a headache.

Holy shit.

The empress was Mu Huiyin's younger sister, and their mother was the Undead Nether Phoenix?

This was something the young Feng Jin would never have dared imagine when he had explored the mysteries of the Phoenix Clan.

"You are a man of wide experience and rich life experience, Elder. So tell me... is this the truth or a lie?"

Feng Jin's expression went blank.

Who the hell could judge that?

The Phoenix Clan's internal strife during the empress's dynasty was another historical rupture—one of the Ten Great Unsolved Mysteries of the Eastern Radiance. Now that it came from the Undead Nether Phoenix's own mouth, it was nothing but one side's word. True or false, there was no evidence to settle it.

"Truth mixed with lies, and lies mixed with truth, most likely. Even if it were all true, we cannot confirm it now—so we can only treat it as false and keep a certain vigilance."

Shi Jin: "Hearing your words..."

"...is like having my eyes opened."

"Enough flattery." Feng Jin had a bit of a headache, though something stirred in his heart as well.

True or false, the Undead Nether Phoenix had awakened—and that alone gave this unsolved mystery a certain breach.

Feng Jin was a member of Bureau Eleven as well. Hearing such explosive news, dragging out the empress's mother as it did, he too was far from calm.

"Leave the Undead Battlefield to Ying, the Legends of the Ancient Capital, and Bureau Eleven. As for you, stay honestly at school, prepare for your exams, and do not go anywhere. Hear me?"

"As for the Undead Nether Phoenix, it has little to do with you as you are now—whether it be the secret realm it spoke of or cleaving the seal to save the mother, do not entertain any unrealistic notions."

Feng Jin still thought highly of Shi Ying—and Shi Jin was an orphan, so he treated Shi Jin like his own junior, and he did not want Shi Jin rushing off to throw his life away.

"Understood. Until I have sufficient strength, I absolutely will not go meddling recklessly."

Feng Jin: ???

So you are still fixated on it, are you??

...

After obtaining the intelligence from Shi Tan, Feng Jin hurried off to the Undead Battlefield as well.

The bigwigs of the beast-taming corps over there had likewise gotten some intelligence out of the Gem Cat's mouth.

With Feng Jin gone, only Shi Jin, Eleven, Buggy, Ginseng Baby, Crimson Pupil, and the others remained in the room.

"Hmm..."