Chapter 178: The Sad Kalida

Chapter 178: Troubled Karida

To be honest, these past ten days had been the most comfortable for Karida since she became the principal. The awakening of the Beastkin bloodline was undoubtedly a shot in the arm for her increasingly exhausting expansion policy!

Though it was just an isolated case, it had proven effective and silenced many critics.

But just as things were starting to ease up, two troubling issues arose.

The first was a major news item in today's Holy Sanctuary's internal bulletin. A highly extraordinary treasure had appeared in the Soul Realm, estimated to be at least a peak-grade treasure artifact, sparking intense competition among various factions. The Holy Sanctuary had intervened but failed.

Unlike previous near misses, this time a mysterious individual had taken the treasure away from all competitors with overwhelming force.

The Holy Sanctuary is now publicly auditing soul crystal accounts while secretly searching for clues. They have offered a substantial reward for any useful information regarding the incident.

The Holy Sanctuary suspects that the opponent used an ancient rune teleportation array. Rose is leading the research on ancient arrays, so Hawkland has been asked to assist in the investigation. Karida had heard about this; the Holy Sanctuary had been preparing for a long time, only to fall short at the last moment.

In addition to this, there was another matter that troubled Karida even more.

Wang Feng had gone missing.

Li Sitan was the first to notice this.

The backpack Wang Feng carried when he entered the room was heavy, but not large enough to contain sufficient food. It seemed to contain some heavy rune materials instead.

It was reasonable for Wang Feng to bring rune materials for his new rune experiments, but he had been inside for over ten days...

As the saying goes, "a man without food is like iron without steel," and after one mealless day, hunger sets in. Given the weight of Wang Feng's backpack, it could not have contained much food. Li Sitan, out of concern, tried knocking on Wang Feng's door to offer supplies, but received no response.

Concerned, Li Sitan obtained the key to the meditation room from management and went in to check.

Inside, he found shattered soul crystal fragments and faint traces of rune outlines. The walls made of extremely hard silence stones were also collapsed and broken, with debris scattered everywhere. Clearly, an extremely powerful explosion had occurred, making the rune outlines unrecognizable. However, the presence of these remnants had dampened the impact and sound, preventing anyone outside from noticing.

And Wang Feng was nowhere to be seen.

In the office at Rose Holy Sanctuary, Karida's expression was solemn.

She had already passed the initial stage of anger. When she received Li Sitan's report yesterday, she had sent Lan Tian to search Aurora City secretly, but to no avail. Reluctantly, she called in the group before her.

"The last time I saw Brother Feng was half a month ago." Fantasia's face was filled with confusion. Old Wang had mentioned a secret mission assigned by Principal Karida, but why was she asking him? "I was drinking with him in his dorm..."

"I had dinner with him at the Burj Al Arab; that was the last time I saw him." Kela's face was grave, remembering what the captain had said that day. She had felt something was off then, and now it had come true.

"Did he say anything?"

At the time, Kela sensed Wang Feng was settling affairs, indicating he was prepared. Regardless of his current situation, he was doing his own thing.

Kela pondered for a moment and shook her head. "He only talked about celebrating my awakening, nothing else."

"Specifically which day?"

"Principal, it was the third. That day, I was with Kela..." Wu Di may be clumsy, but he would never forget the delicious meal he had that day, especially since it was the first time he had eaten such a sumptuous feast.

"That's right, the third was the last day we saw Senior Brother Wang Feng." Yin Fu's face was full of worry. Though Karida hadn't said anything, she sensed something must have happened to Senior Brother Wang Feng: "That day, he accompanied me and Mo Tong to a musical performance."

Mo Tong nodded vigorously, oblivious to the gravity: "I remember, that damned king!"

Karida shook her head and looked at Winnie.

"On the second, we drank together at the Beastkin bar." Winnie had been furious those past few days. What was Wang Feng up to, disappearing for half a month and dodging responsibility? No wonder he had invited her to the Beastkin bar for drinks; it was bribery! But seeing Karida suddenly gather everyone, could Old Wang have been kidnapped? Was it the Judgment people?

Karida remained silent, her brows furrowed. The dates matched. Li Sitan's intelligence ended on the morning of the fourth, before Wang Feng entered the meditation room.

The last meetings with Wang Feng were either on the third or the fourth.

Their gatherings were understandable, given that Wang Feng's team had just defeated Judgment. Friends celebrating together—what was wrong with that?

More importantly, Wang Feng disappeared from the meditation room. According to Li Sitan's detailed investigation and analysis of the remnants:

First, the explosion in the meditation room occurred at least ten days ago, shortly after Wang Feng entered. Second, the energy level of the explosion was high, estimated to be at least an α5-level soul crystal used to create a high-explosive soul weapon!

Someone likely attacked Wang Feng, and the door to the Rose Rune Academy's meditation room is not easily breached. If they could enter, why use explosives? Too many questions... What exactly happened in that room?!

A glint flashed in Karida's eyes.

Regardless of what happened, only the Nine Gods' Wild Group could have orchestrated this.

Damn them. After the incident with Luo Lan, she thought the Nine Gods would back off, but clearly, she was mistaken.

She had underestimated them.

Assuming conventional tactics against an opponent, only to realize that the safest moment was the most dangerous. How foolish...

"I understand." Karida did not intend to reveal Wang Feng's situation to the group. She said calmly, "I sent Wang Feng on a confidential mission."

"Yes, Principal."

Karida waved her hand, signaling everyone to leave. One person, however, remained rooted to the spot.

It was Winnie. Karida frowned, knowing that as a member of the Li family, the girl might sense something: "Everyone, please leave. Winnie, stay."

"Principal, what's going on? Where's Wang Feng?"

Once the others left, Winnie asked urgently.

Hiding it from her was pointless. The Li family's intelligence network spanned the world. If Winnie suspected something, she would find out at home.

"Understood."

"Wang Feng discovered Mi and dismantled Nine Gods' operations in Puye Mi," Karida said calmly. Although Blue Sky's search didn't find Wang Feng, it did yield some other results. Of course, Wang Feng's identity wasn't mentioned separately: "It's very likely that Nine Gods made the assassination attempt."

"Damn!" Winnie couldn't help but blurt out: "With such a large Rose and so many experts, someone managed to sneak in and kill? What kind of headmaster are you?"

To be honest, in the League of Blades, there was probably only this reckless little girl who would dare to curse at Karida like this.

Karida glanced at her. Though there was anger on her face, there was more frustration, tension, and worry.

"I will use every resource to find him," Karida said without getting angry: "As for the Li family..."

"I'll go back right away!" Winnie instantly understood: "I'll get the old man to send people to look for him!"