Chapter 73

 After arriving at the palace, Ye Di seemed to finally understand why his father had suddenly slapped him. He hung his head low and obediently followed behind his sister.

The attendant had already been waiting at the entrance and led the Ye siblings toward where the Crown Prince was.

As soon as Ye Zheng saw the familiar route, she knew Sykes was in the hunting grounds again. Whenever he was in a bad mood, he would stay there to vent.

It would be strange if Sykes were in a good mood. During this period, no one had lost more face than he had. She wondered how much memory Sykes retained of being controlled in the aberrant realm.

“Ye Zheng?”

A faint voice called hesitantly. Ye Zheng turned her head. The princess, dressed in court attire, stood behind her. Seeing Ye Zheng turn, she showed an embarrassed expression and quickly waved her hand.

“Ah! Are you here because you have something to do? I just have not seen you in so long.”

The guiding attendant stepped forward, about to inform Her Highness the Princess that His Highness the Crown Prince was waiting for the two guests. Suddenly the Saintess made a gesture toward him, stopping him from speaking. Then she walked toward the nearby princess.

“Heath, long time no see. I have missed you too.”

Ye Zheng’s rare and straightforward enthusiasm made Heath even more embarrassed.

Before Ye Zheng became the Saintess, they had once been the best of friends in the academy. However, after fourteen-year-old Ye Zheng became the Saintess, the Saintess and the power she represented made it no longer suitable for the two to remain close.

Moreover, the Saintess was indeed very busy. Heath did not want to disturb her friend’s hectic work, even though, strictly speaking, her friend had been a child laborer at the time, with the church already assigning her plenty of tasks.

“Are you here to see Big Brother? His mood right now, well, his mood is always like a live volcano.”

“I have not dared to approach Big Brother lately. Only Second Brother is so carefree about it. But perhaps your arrival will improve Big Brother’s mood just a little. Sorry, I seem to have said a lot of nonsense again.”

The nearby attendants kept their heads lowered. The princess was not someone who required meticulous service. They had no interest in the two girls chatting about everyday matters.

Ye Zheng lowered her head, maintaining a patient and attentive listening expression.

“What I mean is.” Heath suddenly moved closer. Ye Zheng’s tall figure conveniently blocked her from view, concealing the sudden change in Heath’s expression. She abruptly lowered her voice. “The hunting grounds are dangerous!”

Ye Zheng lowered her eyes. The smile faded from her face. She parted her lips, her voice still sounding as casual as idle chat. “Rest assured, Your Highness the Princess. His Highness Sykes is merely troubled by his mood for the moment. I will try to console him.”

The Saintess winked at the princess. Under Heath’s gaze filled with hidden worry, she left.

Ye Di paced anxiously in place, wishing he could drag the chatting Ye Zheng over. How could they be so negligent toward the Crown Prince?

Seeing that Ye Zheng had finally finished her conversation, the finely dressed and pretty boy let out a sigh of relief. He hurriedly pushed Ye Zheng forward.

“Do not be in such a rush. Panicking like that will seem discourteous.”

Ye Zheng walked unhurriedly, letting Ye Di fret anxiously beside her. He wanted to leave her behind and go alone, but he did not dare face Sykes by himself.

Although they were all students of the Royal Academy and the Ye family counted as a mid-tier noble house in the upper district, Ye Di had only ever had the chance to watch the Crown Prince from afar. He had never even qualified to greet the Crown Prince in person.

Ye Zheng was completely unaware of Ye Di’s worry about neglecting the Crown Prince. If one were to speak of neglect, her attitude toward Sykes’s actions could probably not even be described as mere neglect. It was far worse.

Her gaze subtly swept over the luxurious palace and the coming and going attendants. Everything in sight was no different from her last visit to the palace. However, she could feel that the hidden security forces in the court had increased significantly. Probably having learned from the lesson of dismembered remains appearing in the Crown Prince’s room last time, the imperial family would never allow the culprit another opportunity.

Although she, the culprit, had swaggered in again. With the current level of security, it would indeed be very difficult for her to repeat what she had done last time.

So who could still pose a threat in the Crown Prince’s hunting grounds?

Heath had said the hunting grounds were dangerous, not that she was in danger. The princess, who knew the inside story, did not want her to go to the hunting grounds.

If the danger was not directed at her, then the person most likely to be targeted in the hunting grounds right now was Sykes?

Someone wanted to deal with Sykes in the hunting grounds?

Ye Zheng’s first thought was the lawless Sela. She quickly ruled out that option. No matter how impulsive Sela was, she wouldn't provoke again at this timing. Moreover, Heath wouldn't easily run into her.

Suddenly, she recalled something from the earlier casual conversation: Heath had mentioned the Second Prince.

Heath was not someone who liked to speak nonsense. On the contrary, she always kept her sensitive thoughts hidden and disliked talking idly.

As her once closest friend, Ye Zheng knew that Heath did not like this imperial brother of hers at all, even though both of them were born to the current Empress.

The Second Prince, Raymond, had abilities far inferior to Sykes’s. His mind was barely on par with Sykes’s, but when it came to ambition, Ye Zheng could see that Raymond’s eyes were filled with greedy desire.

Although Sykes was the Crown Prince supported by both the imperial family and the church, the Crown Prince had suffered repeated setbacks recently. This probably gave the Second Prince renewed hope.

To choose this moment when security was at its tightest, to make a move against the most furious Sykes right in Sykes’s own domain, and to have it discovered by the powerless princess, only someone as foolish as Raymond would occupy such perfect timing and location yet still act so stupidly.

Having analyzed this, Ye Zheng quickened her pace. She had become curious about what arrangements the Second Prince had made.

The hunting grounds were located in the underground levels of the palace. The extremely vast space accommodated over a hundred aberrant beasts and dozens of species of aberrant plants. The dome was carved with intricate and detailed images, depicting the sacred scene of the God of Hope holding a divine sword and slaying the demonic dragon.

Beneath the dome, a group of students wearing Royal Academy uniforms were frantically dealing with ferocious aberrant beasts in the arena. Ye Zheng looked down and recognized quite a few familiar names. They were all children of minor nobles.

Sykes stood with his hands behind his back. When he heard footsteps, he turned his head. His golden eyes were exceptionally calm as he nodded slightly to the arriving guests.

Ye Zheng felt somewhat surprised. She performed a standard court curtsy before continuing to observe Sykes.

Ye Di was also secretly watching. Up close, he noticed that even in such hot weather, the Crown Prince was dressed impeccably and conservatively, exuding a maturity and dignity that did not match his age. So Ye Zheng really had not been lying to him?

The Crown Prince appeared violent and willful, yet in reality, he was someone who dressed very conservatively?

However, when he glanced down at the group of screaming and fleeing classmates in the arena below, Ye Di’s face turned deathly pale in an instant.

“Your Highness, are you training the juniors here?”

Ye Zheng asked.

Sykes withdrew his gaze from Ye Zheng and looked back toward the center of the hunting grounds.

“I heard that I am to select people from the Royal Academy to form my personal guard team. Many people recommended themselves. I really could not choose among them. This method works quite well, does it not?”

Sykes suddenly looked toward the unfamiliar face beside Ye Zheng. After a long moment, he remembered who it was and asked, “Your younger brother? Is he also here to participate in the selection?”

“As the Saintess’s brother, I can make an exception and let him enter the arena now.”

“I only want the last five who remain standing.”

Ye Zheng turned her eyes toward her brother. Seeing Ye Di’s stiff and pale expression, she knew there was no hope of him making it into any personal guard team.

“Ye Di’s experience is still too shallow. He is probably unable to take on such an important role. However, if Your Highness is still short of people around him, I venture to request a suitable position for Ye Di on his behalf.”

Sykes curved the corner of his mouth. Surprisingly, he smiled with great tolerance. “You do not need to speak in such a tone. In the aberrant realm, I did not see you being this respectful.”

Ye Zheng frowned slightly. She suspected that Sela’s ability might have some side effect that had caused Sykes’s mind to suddenly flip from negative to positive.

“I apologize. In the aberrant realm earlier, I was momentarily anxious and showed you disrespect. Please forgive me.”

“Ha. Although I didn't notice any trace of concern for respect from you at the time, I still have to say, thank you.”

For an instant, Ye Zheng could not hide her surprised and doubtful expression. Sykes saying thank you? At this level, she almost suspected he had been parasitized by some high-intelligence aberrant beast.

Moreover, Sykes looked as though he had completely recovered all his memories from the aberrant realm. Since he remembered what she had done to him, how could he still maintain such a calm attitude?

“Ye Zheng, thank you. You healed me. These past few days, I have remembered quite a lot of things.”

Sykes’s refined and exquisite features relaxed. The hostility between his brows and eyes had faded considerably. He seemed to be genuinely expressing gratitude.

Ye Zheng’s intuition told her that the “quite a lot of things” Sykes mentioned remembering were not limited to what happened when he was controlled in the aberrant realm.

The Saintess, lost in thought, suddenly widened her eyes. Back then, in order to probe Sykes’s secrets, her water flows had circulated throughout his body. Could her Stream ability, which carried its own healing effects, have unconsciously treated some chronic illness of Sykes’s?

No, that was not right. His body was extremely healthy. The Dragon Bone framework inside him was unusually solid. From a physical level, there was nothing she could have repaired.

Just as Ye Zheng fell into a storm of thoughts, a burst of explosive sounds nearly pierced her eardrums. The noisy hunting grounds below suddenly erupted with wave after wave of screams!

Ye Zheng gripped the railing and looked down. In the center of the hunting grounds, raging flames roared to life. Whether students in uniforms or aberrant beasts, everything was scattering in panic. Several especially massive and ferocious aberrant beasts attacked everything around them in a frenzy.

All of this clearly exceeded the scope of a mere test.

Ye Zheng watched helplessly as a panicked student who ran without direction accidentally collided with the foot of an aberrant beast. The frenzied monster immediately stomped him into a puddle of flesh and blood.

“Th-that was Green…”

Ye Di covered his mouth in horror. His eyes nearly bulged out. His trembling finger pointed toward his classmate, who had now become nothing more than a bloodstain under an aberrant beast’s foot.

The girl turned her head with a solemn expression and stared at Sykes. “Stop your test! You are the Crown Prince of the empire, not a butcher in a slaughterhouse.”

Sykes raised his head slightly. His cold, emotionless eyes looked down at the people shouting and pleading in the hunting grounds. In this moment, the familiar Sykes had returned, yet there was now something more in him, something unspeakable.

The Crown Prince let out a meaningless snort of laughter. He turned and leaned close to Ye Zheng’s ear. “This time, the butcher is not me. It's Raymond.”

Ye Zheng’s hand gripped the railing even tighter. She restrained her expression and showed Sykes an appropriately puzzled look, as though she had no idea why he suddenly mentioned the Second Prince Raymond.

The dome carved with the image of the God of Hope trembled. Dust fell in fine particles. Sykes seemed very satisfied with the Saintess’s reaction. In the atmosphere thick with scorching despair, he added one more sentence in a good mood. “You have done me a favor. If you have any requests, mention them directly to Yu Tianming. The empire will satisfy you.”

“Recently, I have no time to personally entertain you, Saintess.”

The moment she met Sykes’s calm golden eyes, Ye Zheng already realized that Sykes not only knew about Raymond’s plan long ago but very likely intended to turn Raymond’s plan against him.

No matter whether Raymond wanted to assassinate Sykes in the hunting grounds or frame him, this Crown Prince whose intelligence had suddenly come online had definitely obtained evidence of Raymond’s interference in the hunting grounds in advance.

The heavier the casualties in the hunting grounds at this moment, the heavier the sin Raymond would bear. The Second Prince would completely lose any qualification to compete for the throne.

What puzzled Ye Zheng the most was that if this had been Yu Tianming’s idea, he would certainly have accompanied Sykes to carry it out. Yet right now, Yu Tianming was not by his side. In fact, there was not a single person around Sykes.

This scheme was not particularly clever. But if it was Sykes’s own idea, it became somewhat chillingly thought-provoking.

Ye Zheng rubbed her faintly aching temples. Really now. She had finally gotten everything moving along the track she wanted, and now an unexpected variable had appeared with Sykes.

She quickly calmed herself. Her hand still gripped the railing as fine streams of water quietly flowed down along it toward the hellish scene below.

Ye Zheng’s black eyes fixed intently on Sykes. “No matter what your purpose is, such an incident occurring in your hunting grounds will inevitably damage your reputation. Please have the attendants go”

“Hurry! Big Brother and the Saintess are still trapped inside!”

A panicked female voice rang out from beyond the tightly closed main door. Immediately after came the sound of violent forced entry. The guarding knights rushed in.

Sykes’s expression finally changed. It returned to the gloomy and dissatisfied look Ye Zheng was familiar with. His golden eyes darkened, yet he did not stop these royal knights from entering to rescue people.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince! Are you alright!”

“Damn it! How could something like this happen in the hunting grounds?”

“Thank the heavens! Your Highness being safe is the greatest fortune!”

A crowd surrounded Sykes, anxiously and respectfully inquiring after him. Sykes kept a grim face and said nothing. Meanwhile, Ye Zheng looked through the chaotic crowd toward the young figure at the doorway dressed in an elaborate court gown.

Heath, panting heavily, looked quite disheveled at the moment. Her intricately woven hairstyle had come partially undone. The moment her eyes met Ye Zheng’s, they sparkled brightly, as if silently saying, “I’m glad you’re alright."