Rulu left the secret house in the cemetery woods and began wandering aimlessly through the streets of Blue Sea City. By now, the city was no longer as heavily guarded as it had been in the days prior. The number of soldiers patrolling the streets had dropped by more than half, and those who remained had grown extremely x. Rulu walked through the city for over an hour without encountering a single checkpoint.

  "What should I do now — should I really go and assassinate Prince Suwen?" Rulu pondered this question as he walked. Prince Suwen was the man who had killed his mother and his sister; he wanted nothing more than to go to the Governor's mansion and kill him immediately.

  But Rulu also worried about not coming back. If he were wounded, captured, or even killed, Nana would be left utterly alone, with no one to look after her.

  Rulu's heart was torn with indecision. Having just quarreled with C.C., he had no desire to go home for the time being, and so he continued to wander through the city without direction.

  Before he realized it, Rulu found himself in an area of Blue Sea City lined with many tall and distinctive buildings. Near an arched gateway ahead of him stood a stone stele, upon which were carved the words: "Blue Sea City Holy Emperor High Academy."

  "Right — this school is where I used to……" The sight of the stele gave Rulu a moment's pause. He thought back to the time before anything had happened to Mayor Qiao, when he had still been a student here.

  "This academy was funded and built by the Sanctuary, established specifically to cultivate talent for its benefit. Many people who came out of this school went on to join the Sanctuary and serve it. This academy is also the finest in Blue Sea City — those who study here are either wealthy, well-connected, or Ultra-capable individuals with special abilities.

  I used to study here in the hopes of one day returning to the Sanctuary and taking revenge on those who had killed my family. Since what happened to Uncle Qiao, I can no longer come back here. That path has been closed off to me."

  Rulu gazed through the gateway into the interior of the academy, lost in a daze. Perhaps due to the recent unrest in Blue Sea City, the academy was on break, and the rge iron gate beneath the archway stood wide open.

  "I have nothing to do right now anyway — I might as well go in and have a look." With that thought, Rulu passed through the open iron gate and entered the academy grounds. A scattering of young people moved about inside; Rulu recognized that most of them were students of the academy.

  Having studied here for several years, Rulu had no wish to run into anyone he used to know. He deliberately avoided the busier areas and sought out the quiet, out-of-the-way paths, and before long found himself in the woods behind the academy's hill.

  This stretch of woods was a frequent haunt of the academy's troublemaking youth, who came here to pick fights, cause trouble, and bully the weak. As a result, few people ventured here under normal circumstances. Rulu walked through the still, deserted woods, letting his mind wander.

  "You freak — what gives something like you the right to study here? Get the hell out of my sight, hahaha." Suddenly, from somewhere deeper in the woods came the sound of jeering and ughter, followed by the raucous ughter of several more people.

  "Sounds like someone's causing trouble — I wonder who's on the receiving end this time." With that thought, Rulu rode the wind up into a tall tree and began leaping from tree to tree through the woods, making his way toward the source of the noise.

  After a short while, Rulu arrived at the edge of a clearing. Looking down from the branches above, he saw roughly a dozen young men and women forming a circle, their faces wearing mocking smiles as they stared at a strange creature in their midst.

  "Hm — that thing is……" Rulu squinted at the creature below. What he saw in the center of the crowd was a juvenile lion — or at least, its body was that of a lion, with four powerful limbs and a long tail, much like an ordinary lion.

  Yet though its body was that of a lion, the creature bore a human face — the face of a boy of about fifteen or sixteen. And on its back grew a pair of tawny, eagle-like feathered wings. In short, what crouched in the clearing was a beast with the body of a lion, the face of a human, and two wings upon its back.

  "Hahaha, look at this freak — a human head, a beast's body, and feathers like a bird! What a goddamn weird thing!" A chubby white man, tall and heavyset, about twenty years old, pointed at the creature and roared with ughter.

  "Hey, you freak — how were you born, anyway? Don't tell me you're some kind of crossbreed between a human, a lion, and a bird? Hahaha." A short, scrawny boy with fair skin circled around behind the creature and kicked it hard in the hindquarters, then broke into unbridled ughter.

  "My name is Sphinx. I am not a freak," the creature said, its human face opening to speak. It y crouched on the ground in the manner of a lion, trembling all over, its eyes filled with fear as it looked around at the people surrounding it.

  "Its voice is so strange — it doesn't sound human, but it doesn't sound like an animal either. It's creeping me out," said a pin-looking young woman, eyeing the winged, lion-bodied, human-faced creature with an expression of disgust and contempt.

  "Don't be scared, sweetheart — I'm right here." The chubby white man pulled the woman into his arms, pnted a kiss on her cheek, then turned on the creature called Sphinx with a menacing gre. "You hear that? You scared my woman, you freak. Get on your knees and apologize to her — now."

  Whether from fear or some other reason, Sphinx y motionless on the ground and said nothing. The scrawny little boy sidled up to the chubby white man and said: "Hey, Laowang — this freak has four legs. If he kneels, does he kneel with the front two or the back two?"

  Laowang didn't even stop to think. "Who cares — just make all four hit the ground."

  With that, the chubby white man picked up a nearby tree trunk as thick as a bowl and two meters long. He walked up to Sphinx and snarled: "What makes a freak like you think you belong in this school? Let me tell you something — this is a school for humans, not a pce for things like you. Get out of this school right now, or I'll beat you to death. Do you hear me?!"

  Sphinx gave a shudder and raised its head, staring up at the chubby white man in terror, and said in a faltering voice: "But… I have nowhere else to go. People outside are frightened the moment they see me. The moment I step out, someone points a gun at me and soldiers drag me away. Only this academy will take me in — only here will they give me something to eat."