Chapter 313

As he spoke, he hoisted the two-hundred-jin king onto his shoulder and ran out without hesitation, giving the guardian deity no chance to seal the space.

He sprinted all the way to the staircase. Instead of going down toward the castle gate, he went straight up. After reaching the top floor, he jumped out of a window, first tossing the king up with one hand, then flipping himself up. The two of them successfully landed on the “Bed of Balance.”

Thank goodness this item wouldn’t lose its balance for any reason. Otherwise, the two of them would have been flattened into meat patties from a twenty-meter fall from the castle due to the mattress tipping over.

“You are… Su Bei, Mingbai’s friend.” When Su Bei was pulling the king earlier, he had intentionally revealed his face to gain his trust. The king had a good memory, and since this person was a friend of the son he had worked so hard to find, he naturally had some impression.

It was for this very reason that he had tried his best to remain silent as Su Bei carried him. Since the other party was his son’s friend and a powerful Ability user, his appearance at this time was likely to save him, not kill him. He wouldn’t be so foolish as to cause trouble.

“That’s me.” Su Bei nodded subconsciously, then stopped when he remembered the other person couldn’t see him.

The king pondered for a moment, or rather, caught his breath, before continuing to ask, “Thank you for saving me. May I ask why you are here?”

As the master of the castle, he was naturally aware of Su Bei’s disappearance. However, Wu Mingbai’s explanation at the time was that Su Bei had a special mission and might not be able to help with the disaster relief. He hadn’t paid much attention to it then; after all, he was just a student. Who would have thought that the missing student would suddenly appear at this moment and save his life.

Although he shouldn’t doubt his savior, some things were better clarified in a timely manner for everyone’s sake.

Su Bei replied profoundly, “I am a Destiny-type Ability user.”

This answer was concise and powerful enough. The king had also investigated his ability and knew he wasn’t lying. Just as Prophecy-type Ability users could know the future, Destiny-types possessed a similar capability. If he had known in advance that the king would be in danger and had deliberately waited here, it was perfectly reasonable.

But the king had one more question: “Since you knew yesterday that I would be in danger, why didn’t you just warn me directly?”

People who knew Su Bei would no longer ask him such a question, but unfortunately, the king did not. Thus, Su Bei still had to concoct a reason: “That would create too many variables. It’s better for me to handle it directly in one step.”

The king easily believed his explanation. After all, it was the most mysterious Destiny-type; how could an ordinary person manipulate fate? It was perfectly reasonable for such a person to want to keep everything under their own control.

“Thank you so much this time. If it weren’t for you, I might have already gone to see my Old Ancestor.” The king was filled with emotion. “If the Afei Nation can overcome this crisis, I guarantee you will become my most honored guest. As for now, I apologize that I cannot continue to express my gratitude. I need to go back and take charge of the situation.”

He didn’t know if his guards had arrived. Once they discovered his disappearance, they would inevitably panic. The king knew that if he didn’t appear in time, his disappearance would definitely not be concealed for long in such a chaotic situation.

By then, the country would surely fall into chaos.

“Do you really want to go out now?” Su Bei lowered his voice slightly, a bewitching power in his tone. “This is a great opportunity for observation.”

Observing what? Naturally, observing who had ambition and who had the ability to match it. Who would step up to take charge when the dragon has no head, and who would be the one who only makes things worse.

Just as Su Bei said, now was the most opportune moment. The guards all knew he had gone to see the guardian deity, and they were intercepted when he called for help. This was clearly a conspiracy against the king of the Afei Nation. With his subsequent disappearance, the guards would most likely assume he was dead. With their testimony, others would surely believe it. They would never imagine that he was still alive and deliberately not showing himself in order to test them.

Of course, the reason Su Bei was persuading the king not to appear immediately wasn’t because he genuinely wanted to watch the show. If the king went out now, at most he would have the reputation of having saved the king. But if the king were to emerge under his guidance when the country was in chaos and the villains were on the verge of success, the spotlight Su Bei would gain would be completely different from the former.

Given the choice of a greater benefit, he would naturally not choose the lesser one. Based on Su Bei’s understanding of the king, he probably didn’t care that much about the common people. With this opportunity, it was very likely he would be persuaded.

Things went just as Su Bei had predicted. After a long silence, the king gave an affirmative answer: “Alright then, I’ll go out after a while. Will you be staying here?”

He was a little worried that Su Bei would leave to find others after saving him. To fake his death, his guards were temporarily unusable. Su Bei had already demonstrated his strength, which was excellent in terms of both ability and physical combat. The king would only feel a sense of security if he could stay here and protect him.

Fortunately, Su Bei had no intention of leaving and actively promised, “Before you decide to go out, I will stay here to protect you.”

“Excellent. Please rest assured, after this is over, I will certainly give you the reward you deserve.” The king breathed a sigh of relief, took out a tablet from his Storage Ring, and connected to the castle’s surveillance cameras to monitor every move within.

The Invisibility Talisman naturally couldn’t make the tablet invisible as well. Seeing this, although he could have used his Mental Energy to monitor, Su Bei still leaned over to watch the tablet with the king.

An hour later, the news of the king’s incident had spread. Within ten minutes, the other five princes and princesses, excluding Wu Mingbai, entered the castle together. The heartbroken queen led them into the bedroom and told them of the king’s fate.

With her and the guards’ dual testimony, the news of the king’s demise was set in stone.

Su Bei had originally thought that these ambitious princes and princesses would first deal with the immediate crisis before anything else, or perhaps act petty and quickly seek help from the ministers they had won over, or maybe show some vision and do something tangible to win the support of the people. Unexpectedly, led by the First Prince Andrew, they actually started arguing right in front of the queen.

At first, it was only Andrew arguing with his twin younger brother. Then the youngest princess, Sophia, joined in, not wanting to miss out on the drama. In the end, the remaining two, who had been caught in the crossfire, couldn’t hold back and joined the argument as well.

Among all the possible responses, a public argument was clearly the most inept; it couldn’t even be called a response. The king’s expression was extremely ugly. He was now somewhat glad that he was in an invisible state, so no one could see his face, which was as black as the bottom of a pot.

“…My apologies. They were probably caught off guard by the sudden event and lost their composure. They should be able to adjust soon.” Knowing that Su Bei was likely watching this scene, the king said with great effort, comforting both Su Bei and himself.

Su Bei played along graciously, “The children are still young. They need training to grow.”

However, this remark made the king’s heart ache even more. Andrew and the others were still young, but Su Bei and his friends weren’t much older! The vast difference between children of the same age group made him even begin to doubt if there was something wrong with his own parenting.

Compared to these children, the queen was much clearer-headed. She suppressed the grief of losing her husband and sternly reprimanded them. After stopping the pointless argument, she sent the children back, telling them to come again tomorrow.

This was to give them some time to think and seek help.

As for herself, after they left, she ordered the news of the king’s disappearance to be sealed and continued to send out Ability users for rescue operations. Immediately after, she requested aid from other countries, especially hoping for powerful Ability users to come and solve the problem of the likely rebellious Godean Zhuo.

Watching her handle these matters in an orderly fashion, the king felt greatly relieved. At least his and his wife’s intelligence were fine. If these few children couldn’t handle the responsibility, they could always just start a new account.

While undercurrents surged within the capital, the protagonist group was not having a peaceful time either. Nightmare Beasts couldn’t infiltrate the capital, but it was easy for them to get to other places. Many common people had never seen so many Nightmare Beasts in their lives, but this time they saw their fill in a single day.

Although Jiang Tianming and the others were rescuing people almost around the clock, they still had to rest. During their breaks, they would chat in their group and check if Su Bei had replied.

The protagonist group was clever after all. By the second day of the incident, they realized the problem still lay with Godean Zhuo. The earthquakes in the Afei Nation were incessant, starting again after every short pause.

This was clearly not a natural earthquake, and the only one capable of causing an unnatural earthquake affecting an entire country was the guardian deity of the Afei Nation.

It was inconvenient for the others to return. They had also heard about the king’s death and the internal strife in the capital. Feng Lan remained in the capital of the Afei Nation, so he was naturally well-informed and made sure to tell them about it in the group chat.

Regarding the king’s death, Wu Mingbai couldn’t quite describe his feelings. To say he had any deep affection for this father he had only reconnected with after fifteen years would obviously be false. Yet, given that the other party bore him no ill will and the past events were not his fault, it was truly difficult for him not to care about this father.

Before they could even get to know each other properly, his father had passed away. While he wasn’t grief-stricken, he did feel a sense of loss.

Because they realized the problem with Godean Zhuo, and because the task of probing the guardian deity couldn’t be entrusted to the unarmed Feng Lan, Jiang Tianming and the others decided to send Wu Mingbai back.

As a prince, it was perfectly reasonable for Wu Mingbai to return at such a time. Using the pretext of vying for power, he wouldn’t arouse the suspicion of the mastermind behind the scenes.

After that, Su Bei didn’t pay as much attention to matters outside; the excitement within the capital was enough to keep him occupied. The First Prince, along with his previous group of teammates and some guards, directly surrounded the castle, under the noble pretext of protecting the crime scene.

But in Su Bei’s opinion, this move was quite useless. The king was already dead. Besides preventing others from seeing the guardian deity, what other use was there in guarding the castle? It’s not like occupying the castle would make one the ruler of the country; surrounding the capital would make more sense.

Besides the guardian deity, the only person Andrew managed to somewhat block was the queen. But he didn’t dare to truly obstruct her. If she wanted to leave, Andrew could only let her go.

In terms of prestige, the queen was far superior to him. If she wanted to take power, she might actually be able to reign as empress for a while.

If Andrew could really make up his mind and forcefully control the queen, he could have held the emperor hostage to command the nobles, ending the rebellion at the fastest speed and becoming the new ruler of the country. Although it would be somewhat illegitimate, desperate times call for desperate measures. In this time of internal and external threats, if he could immediately take power and stabilize the country, it would actually be a praiseworthy tale.

But unfortunately, Andrew clearly lacked such resolve. He would only try to please the queen, hoping his mother would support him. Through the queen’s public endorsement, he aimed to achieve a legitimate ascension to power.

Under normal circumstances, such a choice would be fine. But again, this was a critical time when the country needed to be stabilized quickly. His bold yet indecisive actions instead made the queen lose any thought of supporting him.

Watching this series of maneuvers, the king sighed repeatedly, then stopped paying attention to him, clearly having given up all hope for this son.

The Second Princess was much smarter. She took the populist route, opening granaries to distribute food and winning the hearts of the people by providing for the disaster victims. Of course, this method treated the symptoms but not the root cause. However, as an underage princess with little power of her own, to be able to do this much was already very good.

It is worth mentioning that her relationship with Weise was discovered by the king. The king trembled with anger; one must know, the Second Princess was only fourteen years old!

In the actual comic, this couple might have been able to continue. But this was a real world, and Su Bei was certain that once their socially unacceptable romance was discovered, it would be immediately stopped.

So he wasn’t worried from the start. If the king hadn’t found out by the time they were about to leave, they would just expose it themselves, as Wu Mingbai had said. Su Bei was a good socialist youth; he would absolutely not allow such pedophilic behavior to continue.

And now that the king had discovered it on his own, that was even better. After all, the Second Princess had the potential to become the next ruler, and offending a king was not a good thing.

The Second Princess risked contacting Weise at this time to have him help monitor Andrew and provide her with assistance at a critical moment. As for what this assistance was, it didn’t seem very peaceful.

The remaining three children, the oldest of whom was only eight, were simply powerless in this situation, no matter how mature they were. According to Andrew’s spies, after consulting with their retainers, the three of them obediently stayed in their own houses with no intention of going out.

From Su Bei’s perspective, this was quite a clever move. Unless the ministers of the Afei Nation wanted to usurp the throne, under normal circumstances, it was impossible to place a young child on the throne when there were older princes and princesses.

Therefore, staying at home to watch the tigers fight from a safe distance was their best option. Not only could they conserve their strength and avoid casualties, but if the First Prince or Second Princess won, their lack of meddling during this period would also earn them some goodwill from the new monarch.

At least the three little ones didn’t cause the king any worry; he wouldn’t need to start a new account. He let out a relieved sigh and said with a smile to the invisible Su Bei beside him, “These little ones are still the sharpest.”

Su Bei naturally wouldn’t say anything to spoil the mood at this time. He gave a couple of perfunctory replies while thinking about when Wu Mingbai would return. He would definitely face obstacles upon his return, and these princes and princesses were among them.

The others had at least grown up together as family. Even with the competition for the throne, they would hold back against each other. But Wu Mingbai was different; he had no familial affection with these people. And Andrew and the others clearly didn’t lack for siblings.

Su Bei’s plan was to wait until Wu Mingbai had been troubled enough by these guys, then he would bring the king out. It would resolve Wu Mingbai’s crisis and add a highlight scene for himself—simply perfect.

Coincidentally, at this moment, the king also remembered his son who was still out in the world. The thought that not only had he been living abroad for the past fifteen years, but was now also away when danger struck, filled him with guilt.

After a moment’s hesitation, he looked at Su Bei, “Student Su Bei, you and Mingbai are friends. I wanted to ask, when he left the capital for disaster relief, did he show any signs of sadness?”

Hearing this question, Su Bei knew what was bothering him. The answer, of course, was no. Wu Mingbai wasn’t that sentimental. He had wanted to go for disaster relief himself; he probably hadn’t thought about all this when he left.

However, Su Bei had no intention of comforting the king. He just shrugged, “Sorry, I wasn’t there at the time.”

Knowing that the reason he wasn’t there was to save him, the king immediately felt too embarrassed to ask anything else.

On the third day of the earthquake, Wu Mingbai returned, and with him was Ai Baozhu. What they had to face next was the guardian deity, who had very likely gone rogue, making a powerful defense-type Ability user indispensable.

Although Ai Baozhu’s ability wasn’t that powerful, its strength lay in its unpredictability. Unless one resisted with Mental Energy from the very beginning, anyone who used brute force within the [Glorious Domain] would inevitably be thrown out, no matter how strong the opponent.

That brief time gap would be enough for them to seize the opportunity to escape.

Just as Su Bei had guessed, as soon as he got the news of Wu Mingbai’s return, Andrew became anxious. Judging others by his own standards, he unhesitatingly assumed Wu Mingbai had returned to become king. Coupled with his constant frustrations over the past two days, he resolved to teach Wu Mingbai a lesson and make him completely give up his daydreaming.

Seeing his son’s intentions through the surveillance, the king was about to explode with anger. Although he already had some understanding of this eldest son of his—oh wait, he should be called the second son now—seeing him act so brainlessly still caused his adrenaline to spike.

Anyone should have been able to figure out that in the current situation, Wu Mingbai had absolutely no chance of ascending the throne. If he were ‘still alive,’ then it might be possible. But in the eyes of the public, he was already dead, and the country would never accept a prince who grew up abroad to inherit the throne.

For this position, Wu Mingbai’s competitiveness was even lower than that of the youngest, Sophia. The fact that the First Prince would go after Wu Mingbai first amidst both internal and external threats was something he had not expected.

The surveillance couldn’t capture events that didn’t involve the castle, so Su Bei could only play blind and listen to the old king’s incessant nagging beside him. At first, he was still reserved, maintaining the proper decorum of a king.

But perhaps it was because of Su Bei’s invisibility, or his own, or maybe because it was just the two of them… In short, the king gradually let himself go, criticizing the First Prince’s various actions on one hand, while fantasizing about how to teach him a lesson in the future on the other.

Listening to him, Su Bei really just wanted to poison him mute. Why was a king so talkative? You’re breaking character, you know!

That night, Wu Mingbai’s appearance saved Su Bei’s ears. Despite being pursued by the First Prince, they ultimately managed to sneak into the castle and head towards the secret chamber where the guardian deity resided, intending to see what was going on with it.

Seeing this, the king finally panicked. He himself had been forced to flee by the rebellious guardian deity. What if Wu Mingbai and the others weren’t prepared and actually died in there?

“No, I have to go out.” He stood up and said solemnly, “Please take me down there. I have to stop them.”

However, Su Bei refused: “It’s not your time to appear yet.”

Wu Mingbai had to meet the guardian deity. The plot had progressed to its later stages. Compared to the already absolutely dominant [Word Spirit] and the ever-improving [Death Call], Wu Mingbai’s [Earth Element] was progressing too slowly.

And this plot point was clearly set up by the author specifically to give him a power-up. Whether for the sake of the plot or for his companion, Su Bei would not let the king ruin this scenario.

Of course, with the author around, he probably couldn’t ruin it anyway. But if he didn’t stop him, Su Bei was afraid the king might drop dead halfway there from a heart attack, wasting all his efforts.

“What do you mean?” The king stood frozen, asking in confusion.

To dissuade him, Su Bei told the truth: “This is Wu Mingbai’s fated opportunity.”

He thought that since he had already used the word ‘opportunity,’ the king should, by all logic and reason, not prevent Wu Mingbai’s advancement. But Su Bei had clearly underestimated a father’s deep love for his son. The king quickly frowned, “I’m sorry, but despite what you say, all I know is that Mingbai will be in danger. The guardian deity is extremely powerful, definitely not something he can fight. I cannot allow him to be in peril just because he might gain something from this.”

Tsk, indeed a good father. Wu Mingbai would probably be touched if he heard those words. Unfortunately, Su Bei couldn’t let him ruin his plan. He put on a moved expression, “Alright, I’ll take you down then.”

After speaking, he walked over and, while the king’s guard was down, delivered a sharp chop to the back of his neck. In the last second before the king lost consciousness, he heard Su Bei’s unapologetic apology: “Sorry, but please sleep a little longer.”