Chapter 345: Target on His Back

Chapter 345: Chapter 345: Target on His Back

Chapter 345: Target on His Back

After concluding his profound lecture that shattered the decades-old bottlenecks of the Academy’s highest echelons, Rhain leisurely walked out of the grand hall.

He was making his way down the tranquil stone pathways, looking forward to returning to his courtyard for some quiet rest, but before he could even cross the central plaza—

"RHAIN VOSS!"

A sharp, highly irritated female voice pierced the quiet atmosphere around Rhain.

Rhain paused, turning his head.

Stomping furiously down the pathway toward him was Neve.

Her auburn hair was an uncharacteristically messy bird’s nest, and her sharp eyes were glaring at him with a look of immense relief and blazing indignation.

"You arrogant, inconsiderate bastard!" Neve shouted, marching right up to him and jabbing a finger aggressively at his chest. "You just pack up and vanish to Valdris City without even saying a proper goodbye while I was in seclusion? Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

Rhain looked at the fiercely pouting girl.

Despite her loud, dramatic outrage, he could clearly see the genuine concern in her eyes.

"I apologize, Neve," Rhain said sincerely, "Things moved incredibly fast. I didn’t have the time to say a proper goodbye to anyone."

In the face of his remarkably calm and earnest apology, Neve’s face warped in unhappiness, but her blazing anger deflated almost instantly.

She let out a long, dramatic sigh.

"Humph, Fine! I will forgive you this once," Neve grumbled, crossing her arms beneath her chest. "But you really missed out, Rhain. The entire city has gone completely mad over the Celestial Elixir Pavilion since Grandmaster Korryn defeated the Alchemy Emperor!"

A deeply frustrated pout appeared on her face.

"And do you know what the worst part is?" Neve whined, stomping her foot against the stone tiles. "I have been desperately trying to join the Pavilion as a resident alchemist! I submitted my application three times! I am the youngest Master Rank Alchemist in the entire Stormveil City, and yet they keep rejecting me!"

She threw her hands up in the air in utter exasperation.

"They said their standards are ’too strict’ and my elemental control ’lacks purity’! Can you believe that? Who do they think they are?"

Rhain listened to her frantic venting.

Beneath his calm exterior, a highly amused smile brushed past his lips.

Of course they rejected her.

Vulcan had been strictly ordered to only accept the best of the best experts.

A newly ascended Master Alchemist whose cauldron exploded every other week simply didn’t meet the Pavilion’s impossibly high standards.

But looking at the utterly defeated, pitiful expression on Neve’s face, Rhain couldn’t help but shake his head.

With his hands casually resting behind his back, Rhain secretly channeled a thread of dark essence into the transmission talisman.

’Luka,’ Rhain transmitted a silent, instantaneous mental command to the Pavilion. ’Send an official acceptance letter to Neve of the Stormveil Academy.’

"I mean, I know their pills are flawless, but still!" Neve continued to rant, completely oblivious to what Rhain had just done. "If I could just get a chance to study under Grandmaster Korryn, I swear I could—"

Buzz! Buzz!

The sharp vibration of a communication jade interrupted her tirade.

Neve paused, blinking in confusion. She reached into her robes and pulled out her glowing jade token.

The moment her eyes scanned the official message projected on the surface, her entire body went completely rigid.

Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.

She stared at the message, then rubbed her eyes, and stared at it again.

"N-No way..." Neve gasped in disbelief, wondering if she was in a dream.

"What is it?" Rhain asked innocently.

"I... I GOT IN!" Neve shrieked so loudly that several passing disciples nearly tripped over their own feet. "THEY ACCEPTED ME! THE CELESTIAL ELIXIR PAVILION OFFICIALLY HIRED ME!"

Driven entirely by her ecstatic madness, Neve could not even think clearly.

She threw herself forward, wrapping her arms tightly around Rhain’s neck and pulling him into a fierce hug.

"Ahhhh! You are my lucky star, Rhain! The moment you came back, my luck instantly turned!" Neve squealed joyfully.

Because she was hugging him so tightly, the soft, ample curves of her breasts pressed firmly against his chest.

Rhain’s dark grey eyes widened a fraction.

He hurriedly raised his hands, trying to awkwardly detach the overly enthusiastic girl from his body.

"Neve, please calm down," Rhain coughed dryly, genuinely embarrassed.

But Neve was already pulling away, her face flushed with euphoric triumph.

"I have to go tell my Master! He is going to be so jealous!" Neve yelled, already sprinting away down the pathway. "Thanks, Rhain! See you later!"

Rhain watched her retreating figure, letting out a quiet, helpless sigh.

’This stupid girl needs to learn some self-control,’ Rhain murmured inwardly, shaking his head before continuing his walk toward his secluded pavilion.

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CRASH—!!!

A priceless, hundred-year-old jade vase shattered into a million pieces against the marble wall.

"THREE MONTHS BANISHMENT???"

Lucius roared, his voice echoing like a maddened beast.

BANG!

With a savage sweep of his arm, he completely obliterated a massive golden table, sending splinters and rare spiritual fruits flying across the room.

"That arrogant, insignificant little bug slaughters my clone, openly humiliates the Royal Court, and his punishment is a mere three-month vacation in a wasteland?" Lucius screamed, pacing the ruined chamber like a caged tiger. "It is an insult to my face!"

Rhain had slipped through the imperial guillotine, and the woman he lusted after was still frustratingly out of his reach.

As long as Rhain was alive, he could never touch her.

But as Lucius paced, his manic breathing slowly began to steady.

His bloodthirsty mind suddenly latched onto a specific detail.

Sunless Umbral Basin.

Lucius stopped in the center of the ruined chamber, his amber eyes narrowing dangerously.

The Basin was a notorious graveyard zone.

It was completely isolated, blanketed by toxic miasma that blocked out the spritual sense and also severed the long-distance communication arrays.

It was a lawless wasteland where rogue cultivators vanished daily without a single trace.

Most importantly... it was a place entirely beyond the watchful eyes of the Valdris Monarchs and the Academy Preceptors.

A chillingly sinister smile began to spread across Lucius’s face.

"He thinks he has escaped the executioner’s blade," Lucius whispered into the empty room, a dark laugh bubbling up from his chest. "But in his sheer arrogance, he has willingly walked into the perfect, untraceable grave."

If Rhain died in the capital, the suspicion and blame will be upon the royal family, and it could spark a civil war.

But if he died in the Sunless Umbral Basin?

Everyone would simply assume he had succumbed to the basin.

No one could blame the Royal Court for an ’unfortunate accident’ in a known death zone.

Lucius raised his hand, channeling a surge of his essence.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Within seconds, four figures materialized, dropping silently to one knee.

They radiated no sound, and no presence, but the auras violently suppressed within their bodies were at the late-stages of the Domain Master Realm.

"Infiltrate the Sunless Umbral Basin," Lucius ordered coldly. "Hunt down Rhain Voss. I do not care what it takes or how long you have to search that wasteland. Find him."

Lucius’s amber eyes gleamed with a cold light.

"Tear him limb from limb. And when you are finished, make sure his corpse was devoured by the beasts. The world would simply believe that he succumbed to the hazards of his banishment."

"Yes, Your Highness!" the four assassins replied in unison.