Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 86 - 7: People of the Imperial Court

Chapter 86: Chapter 7: People of the Imperial Court

Recently, it truly has been a season fraught with incidents.

Duan Mingyuan hadn’t expected that his joyous arrival at Yunhai Book Academy to teach would lead to such a misfortune; he now seriously doubted that Jiuyue’s ability to learn from Ruihu was a good thing for the people around him, as according to the Conservation of Luck, the luckier they were, naturally, the unluckier someone else would be.

Clearly, the fortunes of Yunhai Book Academy had recently become unsalvageably poor.

Through brief conversations along the way, he had learned that this white-haired elder was named Mo Song and he was the current dean of Yunhai Book Academy.

The dean, with a stern face, led him through the academy, and Duan Mingyuan noticed that the spatial structure inside the academy was quite special; it wasn’t doors that connected different areas but a series of ink paintings. Thanks to this, the actual space within the academy was much more expansive than it seemed from the outside.

The principal’s office was also located within an ink painting, and the room was filled with a faint scent of ink, decorated in an antique style. In the center of the room there stood a dark purple sandalwood desk, on which lay several ancient scrolls and glowing jade slips. The bookshelf was filled with various books, all of which appeared to have some age, and each book’s cover was engraved with delicate carvings, giving a solemn and mysterious impression. In the corner of the bookshelf, a set of painting tools was arranged, with an exquisite brush lying quietly on the rice paper next to a bottle of ink and several sheets of rice paper.

"I’ve made a fool of myself, not expecting to get you involved in trouble as soon as you arrived,"

Mo Song bent down to pour tea for Duan Mingyuan, and at the end of the day, the academy finally received some good news, "Mr. Da Jiang and I have some connections; knowing you are searching for knowledge hidden by the Extraterrestrials, he highly recommended you to me. The recent events have made me realize the urgent need for a teacher who can teach the students how to protect themselves at Yunhai Book Academy."

Although Mo Song had a premonition that this day would come, he had not expected it to arrive so quickly.

"It’s no trouble, I quite enjoy these kinds of academic exchanges and opportunities to learn."

Duan Mingyuan waved his hand dismissively, he wasn’t angered by the assaults they encountered on the road; in fact, he felt somewhat regretful.

He had been looking forward to meeting the superiors of the two individuals they encountered in the latter half of the journey, thus through academic exchange, he could learn about the causes and consequences of "Yin Die."

Based on the information he extracted from the Life Energy of the men in black, the organization that gathered these children with the talent for Life Energy and trained them into Dead Soldiers seemed to be a terror organization similar to Wangxu.

With this in mind, he spoke up, "Dean, calling me here in the dead of night, do you know about Yin Die?"

"I know a bit,"

Mo Song sighed deeply, "But it’s a long story. I wonder if Teacher Duan Mingyuan has the patience to listen to this old man talk about the academy’s past?"

"That is exactly why I’m here."

Receiving an affirmative answer, Mo Song finally breathed a sigh of relief, he then asked, "Have you heard of the Imperial Court?"

"Of course."

The Imperial Court, true to its name, is the political and economic center of this world, the first place to undergo the technological and cultural baptism of the Extraterrestrials, and the residence of the world’s most outstanding talents. For instance, the top goal of the students from Yunlong City’s Number One Middle School is to be admitted into the higher educational institutions of the Imperial Court. Only those people who are designated by the companies are able to get the opportunity to go to the Imperial Court.

In people’s eyes, the Imperial Court is the place closest to "heaven."

But that is where all the information about the Imperial Court ends.

Only those chosen by the companies, who have obtained the qualifications, can have the chance to fully appreciate the Imperial Court. For people like them, who live in peripheral cities, the Imperial Court will always remain a mysterious and inviolable place.

"That’s good to know," stated Mo Song, nodding his head, "The Imperial Court is where every story begins."

He got up and took out a scroll from behind the bookshelf.

The scroll looked ancient, but there was not a speck of dust on it, as if someone often dusted it off.

Mo Song opened the scroll in front of Duan Mingyuan, and the next moment, one lifelike scene after another entered his view.

Hundreds of years ago, a massive flying object suddenly arrived in this world, bringing the Extraterrestrials and their knowledge and technology, as well as people’s worshipful veneration of the deities.

All of this was recorded in historical textbooks.

But from the content of the scroll, it seemed the textbooks had revised history to some extent, for instance, they never mentioned the war that broke out after the arrival of the Extraterrestrials.

The constantly intertwining images in the scroll made Duan Mingyuan feel as though he were on the battlefield, amidst deafening cries of war, as people wielding Strange Gates and Devious Techniques rushed fearlessly toward the enemy descending from the sky.

The faces of those people were indistinct, their entire bodies obscured by armor; they were like reapers on the battlefield, their feet stained red with blood, limbs and broken innards making it look almost like a purgatory on earth.

Duan Mingyuan quickly identified these "reapers."

They were members of the Long Branch, and Western Wind was among them.

In total, the company had dispatched 11 members of the Long Branch to the war, and together with the flagship that blotted out the sky above the heads of the people, they easily crushed the army formed by the rebels.

"The war ended in defeat, the rebel army suffered heavy casualties, and having no way out, the survivors were forced to sign a ceasefire agreement with the Extraterrestrials,"

Mo Song said solemnly, "One of the demands made by the Extraterrestrials was the consolidation of all known Strange Gates and Devious Techniques within the Imperial Court for their centralized control. Half a year after the cessation of hostilities, the court issued an edict prohibiting the study of Strange Gates and Devious Techniques in any form among the populace, with violators subject to execution. The founders of Yunlong City Library were opponents of this decree; they gathered all the banned opposition, constantly evading pursuit and execution. Eventually, at Qing Chi Peak, they gathered everyone’s strength, set up a Barrier, and established the library.

"Another group, disheartened, returned to their homelands to live in seclusion and withdrew from worldly affairs. Many years later, some of them came together for some reason and founded the Royal Hunting Court, dedicated to addressing the frequent incidents of evil spirits harming people outside the court’s jurisdiction.

"However, the majority who survived the war stayed within the Imperial Court, accepting the conditions posed by the Extraterrestrials. With their help, they established a new order. To my knowledge, the Extraterrestrials did not extinguish all Strange Gates and Devious Techniques; after the political situation stabilized, they allowed the court to gather the talented and strange into one place to establish a military force for ’internal affairs,’ imprinting all the summons with a symbol of loyalty... The founders of the library, in their days of being hunted, found the same black butterfly mark on their pursuers."

At this point, Duan Mingyuan realized, "Yin Die is an assassination organization established by the Imperial Court."

In a sense, those hiding in Yunlong City Library were the rebels left over from that era.

Mo Song smiled bitterly, "The founding members of the library recorded in the library all the Strange Gates and Devious Techniques they knew, but they uniquely left out the method for creating the Barrier. It seemed they did not wish for future generations to continue the cycle of hate, to turn the library into a terror organization lying in wait for an opportunity to exact revenge on the Imperial Court and the Extraterrestrials."

The founders realized their original wish, and the Yunlong City Library welcomed a long period of peace.

"But why did they suddenly come knocking?"

Duan Mingyuan asked.

Could all this really be caused by the box of Lucky Brined Chickens that Jiuyue brought?

"The ruler propped up by the Extraterrestrials, who calls himself the ’Prime Monarch,’ has ruled over the court for hundreds of years to this day, with the aid of Extraterrestrial technology,"

He was from the same era as the founders of the library, bearing witness to the world’s development and changes.

Mo Song said, "A few years ago, I caught wind of something from the Royal Hunting Court; rumors suggested that the technology of the Extraterrestrials could no longer sustain the life of the Prime Monarch. He... is about to fall."