The man placed his hand behind his head and laid on the bed even more relaxed after presenting his views.

"Yeah. Soon I'll see him again," Qian Yu muttered.

It was only now that she noticed the absence of Pei Zen. She asked, "Where's Pei Zen?" 

"How should I know. It's not like any of you tell me anything. He took off just like you. Anyway, he isn't a kid either. I'm sure he'll be back soon enough before the trials begin," the man answered casually.

"I wonder what the first trial would be?" He wondered.

" It should be to judge the battle strength of people, I guess," Qian Yu answered.

Even she didn't know what exactly it was. She could still guess the general theme.

"Maybe, but I have doubts. If they test battle strength now, what would they do in the second and final stage? I have a feeling that they won't have us fight directly. It might be something else entirely," the dark-haired man said softly. 

"We can only wait. Only the hosts know what it will be. We will get to know soon enough, though. In any case, we can only try to get the top rank, nothing less," Qian Yu acknowledged. 

*****

Long Chen walked through the long corridors to take Pei Zen to a secluded part of the palace. 

Throughout his time as the Royal Guard here, he had already walked through most of the Palace except for the part where the Emperor stayed. Thus, he knew a lot of the things here. He knew where guards were and where they weren't.

He also knew the places that weren't guarded in the least and the rooms which were empty. He has a certain idea where to take Pei Zen.

Long Chen walked to the southernmost part of the city. Even Pei Zen was confused as to how far the place was actually. He wanted to walk closer to Long Chen and beat the heck out of him. Didn't he say that it was near? Why did they have to walk for so long? Just how big was this place exactly.

Long Chen could see all the expressions on the man's face. His Divine Sense was spread around him through which he was keeping an eye on the man to make sure that he was being followed.

After a few more minutes, he finally reached his destination. They were in a corridor where not a single guard could be seen. Long Chen stopped in front of a black door. He pushed the door open and stepped inside after taking a short glance at Pei Zen.

"Finally, we are there. I felt like this journey was never going to end," Pei Zen said as he finally saw Long Chen stop. 

He ran towards the room without caring for anything. Pushing the door open, he also stepped inside. 

"Hmm? What?"

As he barged inside the room, his face twisted in anger.

What kind of joke was it? This room was empty? 

He looked around to find Long Chen to get the answers, but Long Chen was nowhere to be found. 

"What is this smell?" 

While Pei Zen was searching for Long Chen, he smelled something. It was a vague smell that was barely noticeable, but he managed to motive it. Albeit he was a little bit too late in noticing this smell. 

His head started spinning as his vision went blank. He turned back to leave and get out of here. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to. His body lost all its strength as he went limp. He wasn't able to see anything. He wasn't able to move his body either. He only had his senses, smell, and hearing. He could also feel pain in his body. 

Click.

He soon heard the sound of the door closing.

"You bastard, what did you do to me?" he asked weakly. 

"Oh, are you talking about the door I closed? Or the paralyzing poison that I filled this room with?" Long Chen Chen's mocking voice fell in his ears.

"Poison... You bastard, do you know what you're doing? If something happened to me, you have no idea what would happen to you," Pei Zen asked as a chilling fear gripped his heart. 

He knew that something was really wrong here. He couldn't move his body. If he could even move his hand, he could have eaten a healing pill to recover, but he couldn't even do that. Right now, he was at the mercy of Long Chen.

"Don't worry. I know full well about your identity. In-fact I know more than you think I know," Long Chen said vaguely.

He further clarified, " Ji Pei Zen, the son of Ji Hanjian. Tell me one thing."

A grin formed on his face as he continued, "Did anyone find out about the fact that Lu Wang didn't actually run away with his lover, but in fact, he fell into your trap? Or that he is dead because of you? Or was Lu Mingyu the last person who knew this truth?" 

Pei Zen's heart skipped a few beats as he heard Long Chen's words. 

'H-how did he know about it? Who is he exactly?' His face was already pale because of the poison.

"Who are you? How do you know all this?" He asked.

" As expected, you are wondering who I am. It doesn't matter if you know me or not. What matters is you know the next person who you'll hear," Long Chen said before he went silent.

*****

In an empty room, a man was lying on the ground, limp.

Long Chen was standing before the man proudly. 

Closing his eyes briefly, he brought Mingyu out of the Fake World.

Mingyu appeared before him. Coincidentally, the first thing he saw was the face of the man who was lying on her feet.

Her face went blank along with her mind as she took some time to process what was happening. She looked to her left and saw Long Chen there.

"Here you go, as I promised," Long Chen said with an innocent smile on his face. "A gift for my lady."

Mingyu was happy, but she couldn't smile. Only her thoughts of her brother were filling her head now and the vision of her brother lying on Pei Zen's feet like he was lying in her feet now.

She had waited for this moment for a long time. She had dreamt of his moment when he would be on her feet. Now that the moment was here, she was extremely overwhelmed. So much so that she didn't even move for quite some time. 

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