Grasping the crystal goblet, Zhang Yuanqing waited a few seconds. Item information materialized:
[ [Name: Fallen Holy Grail (Damaged)] ]
[ [Type: Vessel] ]
[ [Function: Control, Corruption] ]
[ [Description: A goblet favored by a great being. By chance, it was stained with the being's blood, absorbing the blood's laws and transforming into a Rule Item.] ]
[ [Note 1: Prostrate yourselves at my feet! Submission is your only choice, and only death can end it.] ]
[ [Note 2: Please gather the necessary materials to repair this Rule Item as soon as possible.] ]
"The description for the damaged Grail is simple, but the simpler something is, the more terrifying it can be. Being controlled by the Fallen Holy Grail means only death can break free."
With limited time, Zhang Yuanqing stored the Fallen Holy Grail in his Inventory. He then snatched the Scarecrow from the Black guard of Impermanence's corpse, stowing it away without checking its item information.
Next, he quickly cleaned up the battlefield with the Red Veil and Red Dancing Shoes before crouching beside the corpse to search it.
The Roster!
Zhang Yuanqing hadn't forgotten his ultimate goal in hunting down the Black guard of Impermanence.
The Roster was a record of the Fallen Ones, akin to the Eerie Eye Judge's private ledger. Unlike the Fallen Holy Grail, it was unlikely to be a Rule Item.
Since the Roster wasn't an Item, it couldn't be stored in the Inventory.
Therefore, the Black Guard of Impermanence must have either carried it on his person or carefully hidden it somewhere.
After a quick search, Zhang Yuanqing found a small booklet in the corpse's pants pocket. Instead of immediately pulling it out, he activated Night Roaming, concealing his presence.
Only then did he retrieve the thin booklet.
The Roster was palm-sized, with a black cover and pale yellow pages. Zhang Yuanqing quickly flipped through it, searching for Bing Ge's information.
Whirr, whirr The pages turned rapidly. The Roster was thin, containing records for only a few dozen "servants," which he quickly scanned.
Nothing!
Bing Ge's information was missing!
"That's impossible! According to the Cat King Speaker's audio recordings and Heaven's Injustice's memories, Bing Ge was undoubtedly a servant of the Eerie Eye Judge. There's no question about it. So why isn't his information recorded in the Roster?"
Zhang Yuanqing was puzzled.
Suddenly, his expression shifted slightly. He reopened the Roster, this time flipping through it more slowly.
Whirr, whirr The pages turned, stopping at a spot near the spine where jagged tear marks remained.
A page was missing.
It was obvious: the page containing Bing Ge's true information had been torn out.
"Who tore out Bing Ge's information? Black Guard of Impermanence? No, the entire roster belongs to him. He had no need or motive to do that. Based on this reasoning, the Eerie Eye Judge couldn't have done it either. Could it have been the mysterious figure from earlier?"
"But the mysterious figure had no reason to tear out a page. He could have simply taken the whole roster."
Zhang Yuanqing pondered for a few seconds, then deactivated his invisibility. His eyes swirled with inky darkness as he attempted to communicate with Black Guard of Impermanence's Spectral Entity.
He wasn't trying to devour the spirit, but rather to verify a suspicion.
Sure enough, no trace of a Spectral Entity remained within Black Guard of Impermanence's corpse.
"That mysterious figure erased Black Guard of Impermanence's spirit. Why would he do that? Wait, judging by Black Guard of Impermanence's reaction earlier, they knew each other—and the mysterious figure was someone Black Guard of Impermanence thought impossible to encounter again. That explains why he erased the spirit.
"Could the mysterious figure be a Nightwalker? Hmm, someone of that caliber, even if not a Nightwalker, would certainly have methods for eliminating spirits, like a Rule Item.
"Too bad the mysterious figure silenced Black Guard of Impermanence so quickly. If he'd said a few more words, I might have learned his identity. Oh, but then I'd be dead too. Better not to know."
Zhang Yuanqing's mind raced, analyzing and deducing.
He realized that a hidden current was clearly flowing beneath the surface of the Holy Grail Incident.
On the surface, the incident appeared to be a series of events triggered by the demon lord and the Eerie Eye Judge's mutual destruction, followed by the Black guard of Impermanence's theft of the Holy Grail and subsequent concealment.
Beneath the surface, however, lay the mysteries of the mysterious figure's appearance, the destruction of Bing Ge's information, and the erasure of the Black guard of Impermanence's Spectral Entity.
Zhang Yuanqing, a skilled analyst, found himself unable to untangle these complex threads. He resorted to his grandfather's method: tracing the problem back to its source.
Every event has a cause and effect. What he saw before him was the effect; the cause was the hunt targeting the Eerie Eye Judge.
This led to a crucial question: Why would the demon lord hunt the Eerie Eye Judge?
"Bing Ge was one of the 'culprits' involved in the hunt," Zhang Yuanqing reasoned. "If we can find him, we might unravel the mystery."
At that moment, his ear twitched, catching the sound of hurried footsteps approaching from a distance.
He turned to look down the long street and saw a group of figures sprinting toward him through the night.
Leading the charge was Chief Teng Yuan, the middle-aged man who typically displayed utter apathy toward life and work. Yet when it came to rescuing his comrades, he was the first to charge into battle.
Flanking Chief Teng Yuan were Jiang Jingwei and Guan Ya. Jiang Jingwei's speed allowed her to effortlessly keep pace with the Level 4 Plague God.
Guan Ya, however, was a different story. The Veteran Driver's long legs were straining to their limit as she sprinted, two pistols clutched in her hands, her face etched with anxiety.
The second wave consisted of White Dragon, Green Vine, and Tang Guoqiang.
The third wave consisted of Elite Members whom Zhang Yuanqing had seen before but couldn't name.
A group of over a dozen surged toward them with overwhelming momentum.
From afar, they spotted a figure standing by the street and another lying on the ground. The Official Walkers, lacking night vision, felt their hearts sink.
Primordial Heavenly Venerable faced Black guard of Impermanence. Who else could be lying there? The answer was so obvious even a child could figure it out.
Guan Ya's beautiful face froze with icy fury, her eyes blazing with murderous intent as she raised her gun toward the distant figure.
A few seconds later, as they drew closer, Guan Ya's cold expression faltered. Then, joy flickered in her eyes, and the "frost" on her face melted away.
Teng Yuan, White Dragon, Green Vine, and the others froze, their faces a mix of confusion, astonishment, and relief.
The standing figure is Primordial Heavenly Venerable. Then... who's lying down?
A daring thought sparked in their minds, but none dared believe it.
Impossible.
At that moment, the young man standing proudly by the street, hands clasped behind his back, glanced at his belated teammates and said calmly:
"You're late. Black guard of Impermanence is already a corpse beneath my blade."
The running group abruptly halted, their eyes widening in disbelief as they stared at the corpse on the ground.
The long-faced, narrow-eyed man was strikingly ugly, making him instantly recognizable.
Chief Teng Yuan glanced at the corpse, then at Zhang Yuanqing, adjusted his glasses, and slowly asked, "You... killed a Peak Saint Stage Witchcraft Master?"
As he spoke, he seemed to scrutinize Zhang Yuanqing, as if trying to reassess his subordinate.
No, I didn't kill him, but let me bask in the glory for a moment, Zhang Yuanqing thought, nodding slightly.
Green Vine's large, captivating eyes widened. "You've grown this strong?"
White Dragon stood speechless, his jaw slack with astonishment.
Jiang Jingwei planted her hands on her hips, threw back her head, and laughed heartily. "As expected of someone I'm watching over! Impressive, but you finished him too quickly! Couldn't you have waited for me to join the beatdown?"
Guan Ya holstered her two silver pistols in the thigh holsters, walked over to Zhang Yuanqing, and examined him with a frown. "You've been poisoned? How do you feel? Any discomfort?"
Zhang Yuanqing chuckled softly. "Worried about me?"
He wouldn't dare say such a flirtatious thing to an ordinary girl.
Guan Ya glanced at him sideways, a playful smile on her face.
"I heard that Witchcraft Masters' poisons attack the reproductive system, causing blood vessels to shrink and such. You're already lacking in assets at such a young age. If you lose a few more centimeters, tsk tsk, even dogs would turn their noses up at you."
Zhang Yuanqing racked his brains for a better comeback, but nothing came to mind. He reluctantly conceded for now, vowing to retaliate with a witty retort tomorrow when inspiration struck.
Chief Teng Yuan approached and examined Black guard of Impermanence's corpse.
"What's he doing here?"
Zhang Yuanqing shook his head. "I just happened to run into him."
That's the truth!
"How did you run into him?" Chief Teng Yuan pressed.
I haven't thought of a good reason yet! Zhang Yuanqing said gravely, "I think we should contact the Centurion immediately. Black guard of Impermanence's presence here must mean something's up."
Teng Yuan nodded. "Makes sense."
He immediately pulled out his phone and dialed Fu Qingyang's number.
Meanwhile, at Songhai Third Primary School, the powerhouses engaged in a chaotic brawl suddenly saw Black guard of Impermanence grunt and collapse stiffly to the ground. His Spirit rapidly dissipated, and his life force vanished.
Dead?
The sudden turn of events caught everyone off guard. They paused their fighting to observe Black guard of Impermanence's avatar.
To conserve his strength, the Black Guard of Impermanence had severed his connection with his avatar early, likely retreating to a safe location. The Black Robe Grand Protector frowned.
With the Black Guard gone, he lost all interest in continuing the fight. The Fire Master was struggling desperately against Fu Qingyang, the self-proclaimed "Saint Stage Minor Invincible" proving no match for the Fu Family Young Master.
As for himself, surrounded by the Gu King, the Palace Master of Ceasing Slaughter, and Elder Miao, his defeat was only a matter of time.
Since his goal of stalling for time had already been achieved, he had neither succeeded in the trade nor suffered any losses.
The Grand Protector immediately opened his Inventory, retrieving an Item from the Void: a longsword forged from obsidian, its surface gleaming with an oily sheen, black and lustrous.
The sword radiated an aura of Yin energy. Even a glance at it sent chills down one's spine, as if the soul were about to detach from the body.
"Leader, lend me your aid!"
The Grand Protector gripped the sword's hilt with both hands and thrust it into the ground before him.
Instantly, dark clouds swirled across the sky above the school, coalescing into countless silhouettes of malevolent ghosts and vengeful spirits.
The lush, dense "forest" withered rapidly, while the animal phantoms collapsed to the ground, trembling in terror.
The churning dark clouds finally coalesced into a massive, indistinct face. A colossal hand emerged from the clouds, pressed against the shimmering green barrier, and gently pushed.
Flowers, plants, trees, and animal phantoms shattered into pure green light.
"Go!"
The Grand Protector's figure vanished, reappearing beside the battered Fire Master. Together, they vanished into the Night Roaming.
The Palace Master of Ceasing Slaughter roared in fury. Crimson threads erupted from her back, lashing out wildly, but failed to ensnare the fleeing figures.
The Gu King snorted coldly, his flesh and blood dissolving into the earth as he swiftly retreated.
The Elder of the Hundred Flowers Association made no move to stop them, silently crouching atop the teaching building, gazing into the distance.
After venting her rage, the Palace Master of Ceasing Slaughter slammed her crimson threads against the ground. Using the recoil, she soared skyward, her robes and Black Silk fluttering like Chang'e ascending to the moon, riding the wind.
Fu Qingyang retrieved the flag from his back, surveying the ravaged school with a frown.
"Elder, we've failed."
The Elder of the Hundred Flowers Association nodded. "The deal between the Black Guard of Impermanence and Night Rose is unstoppable. I'll report this to Headquarters and take full responsibility."
Fu Qingyang exhaled softly, releasing the pent-up frustration.
After more than half a month of relentless pursuit, their efforts had come to nothing.
As for joining the Elders' Council, that dream would have to wait. He'd have to earn more Merit Points later.
He sheathed the Eight Directions Sword, pulled out his phone, switched it from Flight Mode to normal, and was about to order his subordinates to withdraw when the phone rang.
The caller was Teng Yuan.
Fu Qingyang answered expressionlessly. "The capture operation failed. Order your teams to retreat."
A moment of silence hung in the air before Teng Yuan's weak voice replied:
"Perhaps... it wasn't a complete failure, Centurion. The Primordial Heavenly Venerable killed the Black Guard of Impermanence nearby."