Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 97 - 17: This Resentment is Endless and Eternal

Chapter 97: Chapter 17: This Resentment is Endless and Eternal

Mo Song had also occasionally reflected on whether his trust in Duan Mingyuan was excessive.

This new "Defense Against the Wicked Arts" teacher had not undergone any form of assessment, and Mo Song was nearly spilling all the academy’s secrets to him.

And now, Duan Mingyuan had once again brought up the matter of the Ghost Prison, a secret within the academy that only successive deans were privy to.

That place not only detained prisoners but also concealed the academy’s dark side since its inception.

At this moment, Mo Song felt like a drowning man, desperately reaching for a lifeline, not taking the time to wonder why someone like Duan Mingyuan would come to the academy or where his considerable skills originated from?

Under the governance of the company and the Imperial Court, the Strange Gates and Devious Techniques that were passed down should have been long extinct.

After much hesitation, he finally let out a long sigh and said, "The four founders staged a reformation in their later years, conducted a screening of all teachers and students in the academy within a week, and captured those who secretly delved into Tricky Art, incarcerating them all in Ghost Prison, including veterans who had fled to the academy together and helped to establish it."

"Tricky Art?" Jiuyue asked curiously, "How is that different from the Mysterious Techniques you speak of?"

"Originally, Strange Gates and Devious Techniques were not distinct, but to prevent those from the academy from seeking revenge on the people of the Imperial Court and the company, they excised the parts used for combat and murder and listed them as Tricky Art, forbidden for anyone to learn privately."

"Isn’t that the same as crippling themselves, scared by the Extraterrestrials?"

Spineless!

Jiuyue frowned and blurted out.

Although her current abilities were no match for Long Branch, she would never submit or surrender.

Even if Mr. Mingyuan hadn’t saved her, and she had been taken by Bai Kou to the flagship of the Life Energy Research Department, she would have found an opportunity to take revenge, determined to find a way to blow up the flagship one day.

Mo Song just smiled and did not argue.

Deep down he knew Jiuyue was right; the founders, having experienced war, were indeed scared by the Extraterrestrials. They knew all too well that even if they were given years to heal and recover, even if they could gather all their strength for another war, the outcome would remain unchanged.

In the founders’ words, since they were powerless to change the present world, they could only seek out an idyllic sanctuary within their means for people to live in seclusion.

It was indeed an escapist approach.

But not everyone supported them—many in the academy, once settled, began to plot a grand scheme of revenge against the Imperial Court and the company. They believed that even if their wish could not be realized in their generation, someone in the future would surely carry on their legacy.

The cost might well be, after another complete defeat, burying themselves along with the academy.

"Tricky Art is like a blade; when people have a blade in their hands, there will be those who act without considering the consequences."

Mo Song stated.

To seek vengeance against "heaven" even if it meant being shattered to pieces—this was the true sentiment of another faction.

Duan Mingyuan understood; it seemed if the other faction had triumphed in the academy’s transformation at that time, the birth of the Wangxu Organization would likely have come hundreds of years earlier.

He asked, "If the people incarcerated in Ghost Prison belong to that era, they should have passed away by now, shouldn’t they?"

"As long as one casts off the physical body through a certain method, continuing the spirit with life energy, it is possible to attain an almost eternal life."

Mo Song said gravely, "In order to let this hatred continue without being forgotten, those incarcerated in Ghost Prison carried out a type of blood sacrifice, paying the price with everyone’s lives, to concentrate all the life energy together, thus forming an unprecedented wicked entity. The Blood Sacrifice Barrier still exists to this day, and if one is not steadfast enough and carelessly ventures deep into Ghost Prison, they will be drained of life and become nourishment for the wicked entity."

"I see."

Duan Mingyuan understood Mo Song’s earlier assessment that if the evil spirit in the Ghost Prison were released, its first act would be to seek revenge on the people of the Imperial Court and the Extraterrestrials; however, in the process, it was highly likely that due to old resentments, the academy would also be destroyed.

He couldn’t help but think of Liu.

This member of the Wangxu Organization, who had repeatedly referred to Da Jiang as an old friend in the information sent to them, ended up misleading the company’s attention and killed Da Jiang, using all of Da Jiang’s friends without any sense of guilt, truly embodying the principle "to inflict a heavy blow on the company, all people can be sacrificed," including himself.

The risk of befriending such terrorists was second only to associating with Jiuyue as a member of the poultry.

Duan Mingyuan felt that if he were a mole bought by Yin Die, he certainly wouldn’t dare to cooperate rashly with such a terrorist. Who knows whether upon releasing the evil spirit, it might first drain the two-faced traitors to whet its appetite.

But everything has two sides.

If one were to look at this issue from another angle...

All the Tricky Art that wasn’t recorded in the library was passed down by the evil spirit in the Ghost Prison.

Duan Mingyuan was indifferent to the grudges of the founders of the academy; he was there to apply for the position of a "Defense Against Evil Spirits" teacher, and at this moment, deep within the Ghost Prison, there was a perfect teaching material.

Before meeting Mo Song, he was worried about enhancing the course levels for the advanced classes.

Constructing Barriers was the main content of this course, but to be able to teach the students in the class, he first needed to establish a goal for them at the beginning of the course, allowing them to understand what a high-level Barrier looked like.

For this reason, Duan Mingyuan needed his students to experience a real Barrier battle.

But as far as he could tell, the only one in the academy who could match him in a Barrier battle was Jiuyue in her nine-tailed fox transformation.

"Dean Mo Song, I would like to visit the Ghost Prison."

?

Mo Song was startled; he hardly could believe his ears.

He really couldn’t imagine why Duan Mingyuan would suddenly make such a request, "I should have mentioned that those who rashly enter the Ghost Prison will have their Life Energy drained by the Barrier."

"That’s the effect of the Barrier, as long as it keeps the Barrier turned off normally."

Mo Song hesitated, now beginning to wonder if Duan Mingyuan had gone mad, or if he truly was the Imperial Court’s mole planted in the academy.

"I need to know why you want to see it."

Even as Dean, he had only seen the evil spirit deep in the Ghost Prison twice. Although imprisoned by a seal, merely making eye contact could still bring him immense psychological pressure. He found it hard to imagine the magnitude of trouble it would bring once the evil spirit broke through the seal.

"I would like to invite it to be my teaching assistant. There’s probably no one more suitable on Qing Chi Peak than it."

Duan Mingyuan said frankly.

Mo Song then stared intently at the young man in front of him, and in an instant, he somehow felt that Duan Mingyuan didn’t seem like a mole anymore.

A well-trained mole, no matter how outrageous, wouldn’t propose to release the evil spirit from the Ghost Prison as an assistant.

This suggestion seemed more like the words of a completely irrational madman.

"The class I teach is ’Defense Against Evil Spirits’."

Duan Mingyuan continued, "The aim of this course is to ensure that my students can protect themselves in any harsh environment in the future, whether facing evil spirits, monsters, Extraterrestrials, aliens, or the Demon Lord."