"Grrr!"

Hao Xuan lowered his head and buried his face in between his hands to keep the physical changes from being discovered by the others. He could feel razor-sharp teeth ejecting from his gums akin to a completely new layer of teeth.

Even his nails started turning white and elongating by the second.

'NO! Not here! Baracus, help me!'

Hao Xuan felt like there was some kind of a creature inside his stomach trying to claw its way out. He started shaking visibly and with Baracus's help managed to suppress the bloodline back into a state of temporary narcosis.

It was many times stronger than anything Hao Xuan had experienced before mainly because it was not one-sided. Not only was the bloodline trying to come out from the inside, but something was calling it from the outside as well.

Some distance away amongst the band of musicians that were providing the main source of entertainment for this event was one person that had suddenly zoned in on Hao Xuan.

It was the flute player. The moment the lycan bloodline showed itself he suddenly became attentive and once Hao Xuan suppressed it successfully he started smiling, playing even more energetically than before.

Stasa and the newcomer sat down on either side of Dai Zhi. The newcomer didn't give Hao Xuan another look nor spoke to anyone else. Only Dai Zhi received a slight nod as a form of greeting.

Hao Xuan brushed his face and hair with both hands before leaning back again with a deep breath.

Stasa's gaze was fixated on Hao Xuan throughout and after he sat down he glanced around.

"Did you come alone?"

"If you're looking for Henrik then I'll have to disappoint you. He had better things to do," Hao Xuan informed him.

Stasa sniggered, "Ha, no matter. I didn't expect that coward to show his face again anyway. I'll find him soon enough."

Just then Dai Zhi looked towards Hao Xuan, gesturing towards the newcomer.

"Oh I forgot, you two haven't met before. This is Lord Feng Huang, the third protector of the Academy and the one who will be taking the Elf girl."

Then he looked towards Feng Huang and pointed towards Hao Xuan with another wine glass, "Lord Feng, this boy is the second protector. He is the one who found the girl for you."

"The girl?"

Hao Xuan and Feng Huang turned towards one another at the same time. And just that one glance was enough to measure each other's potential.

Hao Xuan felt another wave of extreme heat coming towards him but it dissipated upon getting close. He saw the pair of beastly eyes behind Feng Huang once again, much clearer and larger than before.

'He's not human.'

Feng Huang appeared to be as gentlemanly and refined as he was handsome but Hao Xuan knew at a single glance that it was not his true form. This was a powerful spiritual beast pretending to be a human.

Hao Xuan picked up his wine glass and toasted, "Feng Huang, huh? Quite a grand name you have there. Any relation to the real ones?"

In the beast world's language Feng Huang was a direct translation of the word "Phoenix". And judging by his aura and the beastly silhouette that Hao Xuan kept seeing behind him, it was most probably a fake name he was using while still being as arrogantly obvious as possible.

Feng Huang stared at Hao Xuan for a few seconds unblinkingly before closing his eyes for good. He was completely expressionless from start to finish, leaving Hao Xuan awkwardly hanging.

Stasa picked up a bottle and started drinking from it directly while talking to Dai Zhi about something. Their voices were garbled and didn't make any sense at all thanks to the palace's magic so even though Hao Xuan could hear what they were saying, he couldn't make any sense of it unless Dai Zhi wanted him to understand.

Hao Xuan placed the wine glass back down and leaned back. The picture was starting to come together.

Dai Zhi had probably offered each of these people something in return for their support. He knew about his and Tian Zheng's deal already but it was relatively easy to see what the others wanted.

Stasa probably wanted to fight and kill Henrik and probably Hao Xuan himself. Feng Huang was after Ma Jiang.

Xue Meng...well he was quite unpredictable and could probably count as a double-edged sword.

Only Dima and the girl next to him were a mystery, or at least what they wanted. But since they were here it was a good guess as any to assume that they had gotten what they wanted and in return, Dai Zhi had their full support.

'Wait, the prison! The temple has been the only hell-bent on going to the depths of the prison. Is that what Dai Zhi offered them? Complete freedom to do whatever they wanted down there?'

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