At this very moment, Xuan Zi was completely unaware of the total failure at the armory, nor did he know of the disastrous retreat at the imperial palace.
Right now, he was caught in a state of almost morbid excitement.
He suppressed his spirit power to the absolute limit, turning into a blurred afterimage as he raced through the night streets of the Bright Capital at full speed, heading straight for Liu Yuan's Duke Mansion.
In his own perception, the Star Luo Empire's "bait" had successfully drawn away the city defense forces, while Poison Undying's Body Sect should have pinned down the imperial family's high-level combat power.
He still naively believed the plan he had devised was flawless, convinced he was about to eliminate a future threat to Shrek Academy before it could fully grow.
Unfortunately, from the moment he stepped into the urban area, every move he made was already being transmitted to the Sun Moon Empire's decision-makers through an advanced high-level spirit tool surveillance network.
And as the core target of this operation, Liu Yuan had long been waiting for him.
On the top floor of the Duke Mansion's main building, Liu Yuan stood with his hands clasped behind his back, emerald-green hair gently fluttering in the night wind.
The moment Xuan Zi's aura entered the outskirts of the mansion, the Snow Empress—hidden deep within Liu Yuan's Sea of Consciousness—precisely sensed the heavy spirit power fluctuation unique to the Taotie Divine Ox.
Her ice-blue phantom emerged faintly from the shadows as she whispered coldly,
"Master, Xuan Zi is here. Eight hundred meters away. He's attempting to slip past the mansion's defensive blind spots."
A faint smile appeared at the corner of Liu Yuan's mouth, and a trace of killing intent flashed through his eyes.
"Then let him come. Since he's in such a hurry to die, why should we stop him?"
Outside the mansion, Xuan Zi indeed acted with extreme caution.
He moved through the shadows cast by nearby buildings, even using a secret technique to suppress his breathing.
He slipped through the Duke Mansion's patrol routes—seemingly airtight yet actually riddled with gaps—and successfully infiltrated the wing of the main building.
Peering through a crack in the window, Xuan Zi saw that the entire top floor appeared to hold only Liu Yuan alone, seated in a high-backed chair in the study, eyes closed as if resting.
At the sight of this, Xuan Zi was overjoyed.
"This time, you're definitely dead!"
He roared wildly in his heart.
In his view, no matter how monstrous Liu Yuan's talent was, even if he had already condensed a Soul Core and reached Level 76 spirit power, there was absolutely no chance he could survive a full-force sneak attack from a Super Douluo.
"Damned little brat. For Shrek's ten-thousand-year foundation, you must disappear!"
Xuan Zi stopped concealing himself. Dark yellow light instantly flooded his eyes as the Taotie Divine Ox Martial Soul erupted at full power.
Without warning, a massive gravity field descended upon the entire Duke Mansion. The surrounding air compressed violently, producing a piercing sonic boom.
Xuan Zi was like a tiger leaping down from a mountain. He smashed straight through the wall, his right hand transforming into a gigantic phantom ox hoof that carried terrifying might as it slammed directly toward Liu Yuan's head.
However, at the critical moment when his palm was less than three meters from its target, a starlight even sharper than his own suddenly lit up from behind the screen behind Liu Yuan.
The light was extremely restrained, yet it carried a sharpness capable of piercing space itself.
Immediately after, a ninth-rank offensive spirit tool—crafted entirely from rare metals and engraved with complex core formations, an imitation of the "Sun Moon Divine Needle"—was instantly assembled in the Void Realm.
Boom!
A star-blue beam as thick as a bucket slammed head-on into Xuan Zi's spirit power shield.
Caught completely off guard and struck by an attack that had reached the peak of ninth-rank power, Xuan Zi was forced to halt midair. His body stiffened for an instant, and that fatal strike was abruptly interrupted.
"Who is it?!"
Xuan Zi roared in shock and fury as he retreated rapidly, landing at the far end of the study. His gaze locked onto the figure stepping out from behind Liu Yuan.
It was a thin old man clad in an exquisitely crafted Soul Engineer robe, its surface inlaid with countless tiny gemstones that shimmered like a star-filled sky.
This man was a renowned figure within the Sun Moon Empire—a ninth-rank spirit tool manufacturing grandmaster, as famous as Jing Hongchen in research and combat, and even more terrifying in pure offensive power.
The Starry Sky Douluo, Ye Yulin.
He had been personally dispatched by the Sun Moon Emperor to protect Liu Yuan and had waited here the entire night.
Ye Yulin stared coldly at Xuan Zi, the barrel of the ninth-rank soul cannon in his hand still glowing with a dangerous red light.
"Xuan Zi," he said slowly, "as an elder of Shrek Academy, you actually dared to break into the Duke Mansion at night to assassinate a high-ranking imperial official. Do you truly believe there's no one in the Bright Capital who can deal with you?"
Xuan Zi was completely stunned.
He stared at Ye Yulin, then at Liu Yuan—who remained calmly seated, posture unchanged—and his mind buzzed violently.
"How can there be a Titled Douluo here? This is impossible! Ye Yulin, you should be stationed at the imperial palace!"
Only then did Liu Yuan slowly open his eyes.
He rose unhurriedly, straightened his collar, and looked at the shaken Xuan Zi with a composed expression.
"Elder Xuan, there's no need to be so surprised. In truth, I've been waiting for you here for a long time. Including your infiltration just now—what you thought was flawless—it was all under our surveillance."
An unprecedented chill surged up Xuan Zi's spine, from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head.
Paranoid as he was, he wasn't stupid. The situation before him was painfully clear.
The other side had been fully prepared.
"Was I betrayed?" Xuan Zi asked through clenched teeth.
Hearing this, Liu Yuan let out a low, amused chuckle. His eyes brimmed with mockery as he replied,
"Sharp as ever. It seems Elder Xuan hasn't completely lost his mind. Since that's the case, I won't hide it from you—you were betrayed by the Body Sect. Did you know that?"
"What?" Xuan Zi's expression froze. He immediately snapped back,
"That's impossible! No matter how strange Poison Undying's temperament is, he wants the Bright Capital destroyed more than anyone. How could he betray me?!"
Liu Yuan spread his hands, his tone turning colder.
"That's simply the truth. After some of the Body Sect's people were captured by us earlier, they secretly struck a deal with Poison Undying."
"And Poison Undying was very sensible. In exchange for a chance for his sect's elites to survive, he handed over every detail of your plan."
"Otherwise, why do you think Senior Ye would be waiting here in advance at my Duke Mansion?"
Of course, Liu Yuan was lying.
He was deliberately exploiting the information gap to sow one final seed of discord.
And under this kind of extreme pressure, the most easily born emotion among experts already harboring doubts was mutual suspicion.
Xuan Zi's face turned deathly pale.
He recalled how smoothly everything had gone earlier tonight, and remembered that the distant explosions from the direction of the imperial palace seemed to have already faded away.
Could it be… that old poison really used me as a shield, sacrificing everything just so his disciples could live?