Chapter 252: Seventh Prince
Chapter 252: Seventh Prince
"Seventh brother..."
Xiang Ling wasn’t the only one who was left stunned after hearing the words that just left the Crown Prince’s mouth. Except for Mo Li, every other being present there was unaware of the boy’s true identity.
"You are the Seventh Prince." Xiang Ling acknowledged the boy’s identity while she stared between him and the Crown Prince. Though she knew that this kid had a special identity from the very moment she met him, she wasn’t expecting him to turn out to be another heir to the throne of the Mortal Realm.
"Second Brother, Second sister-in-law, Sister Chen, it’s so nice to see you all here. You all arrived at the perfect time to help me and my friends." Seventh Prince, Wu Ding, spoke in his young cheerful voice as he looked at the familiar faces.
"You know Young Lady Chen?" Wu Tian asked as he was surprised to hear his seventh brother addressing Chen Xiang Ling as Sister Chen.
"I do." Wu Ding quickly confirmed. "Sister Chen was the person who treated me nearly an year ago when I fell ill while on my way to Jingsheng Academy."
Listening to the boy’s words, Xiang Ling wondered whether the Crown Prince knew the real story behind the Seventh Prince’s fake illness or not. Still, she kept the thoughts to herself and didn’t say anything.
"Oh! It seems like our fate with Young Lady Chen are deeply intervened. First, it turned out you and the Crown Princess are good friends, and now you also turned out to be the person who saved my brother’s life. Not only this, but you have done a lot for me as well during our journey. It seems like I’m in heavy debt now. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do in return."
Xiang Ling scanned Wu Tian’s face to read the real meaning behind his words. She wondered just much sincerity was in his show of gratitude toward her, and how much suspicion was there. One thing that she had come to realize was that the Crown Prince didn’t have full trust in her and the people around her, which barely mattered to her. What she actually wanted to find out was his reason for following her to Dongzhi City.
"What are you all doing here in the Enchanted Forest?"
Xin Cheng’s question pulled everyone’s attention toward the bigger matter at hand.
"Greetings to His Highness the Crown Prince." A young woman among the disciples stepped forward and greeted Wu Tian before greeting everyone else with polite bows. "I’m Bai Lu, one of the senior disciples of Jingsheng Academy. I led this group of disciples here because we were ordered by the Elders of the Academy to locate the Demonic Beast who had been casuing chaos at the foot of the mountains. It fled all the way to this Enchanted Forest and we all followed after it, only to get attacked by Demonic spiders that trapped us here. We have been trapped here since previous evening."
The other disciples nodded their heads to support their senior’s explanation, including Wu Ding. The Seventh Prince even added, "We then realized those demonic spiders were part of the illusion array that someone had arranged in this place. Since those cobwebs were sucking on our energy, we were left completely defenseless."
Xiang Ling turned away from the others and walked toward the cobwebs that were now lying on the ground in mushed tatters. Her eyes scanned the cobwebs for a moment before looking up at the trees and surrounding area.
"What are you looking at?" Su LiangLin asked as she too walked up to stand beside Xiang Ling and started scanning their surroundings. "Are you thinking the same as me?" She asked while turning her gaze toward Xiang Ling. Their gazes met and a look of understanding passed between them without one needing to voice out any words.
"What are you talking about?" Wu Tian asked as he overheard his wife’s words.
Su LiangLin turned her attention toward the Crown Prince and the rest of the people present there before she replied, "A demonic beast suddenly started creating chaos near Jingsheng Academy, something that no sane beast would do unless it was trying to gain Jingsheng Academy’s attention on purpose. Then it fled from there all the way to here, the Enchanted Forest that is located hundreds of kilometers away from the Jingsheng Academy. Lastly, the moment these disciples appeared here, they got trapped inside this deadly array that suddenly appeared in this place out of nowhere. Don’t you think all this is just too coincidental."
"The only coincidence in this entire situation is our unexpected appearance in this place. We ended up here because the energy force of the array disturbed our swords and caused us to f-... land here. We weren’t supposed to be here, but we somehow ended up here, ruining the perfect plan that someone designed to harm these disciples." Xin Cheng added once he was done analyzing the entire situation.
"Why would anyone want to trap us here?" Bai Lu asked, looking just as confused as most of the people present there.
This time, it was Xiang Ling who responded, but with a question. "What do you think will happen if a group of disciples of the most prominent Cultivation Academy of this realm would end up dead because of demonic presence?"
The disciples exchanged glances before Wu Ding finally answered, "Chaos... and possibility of a fight between the Cultivation World and the Demon Realm?"
"The little Cultivation world of your Mortal Realm is nothing in front of the Demon Realm. Whoever was behind this, they were using you all to instigate a bigger reaction... not from the Cultivation sects, but the Upper Realms." Zhang Xuan stated the fact.
Everyone was left stunned by the revelation. The theory, no matter how accurate, sounded terrifying as no one wanted a war between the Realms.
"But who is trying to create trouble between Realms?" Wu Tian questioned to no one in particular.
"That is exactly what we need to find out before it’s too late."