29 - Spy

The whole room was silent after Xiao Wei's last request, and he wondered if he might have overstepped. After all, Fan Yuan was the pride and joy of this kingdom, and she was the crown princess, the firstborn child of the king and queen.

(In this world, the crown goes to the firstborn regardless of gender, and only talent can override it, but the firstborns are usually the most talented)

To have her taken away to be protected by somebody was simply slapping her face and mocking her strength and ability, but nobody her doubted the danger that faced them all.

They were faced with a dilemma, because she was the pride and joy of the kingdom, and she couldn't be taken away so easily, but the danger they faced was immense, and it truly was better to have her protected by somebody until she could fully mature.

After all, any of the high blood priests or priestesses could easily kill her, because they were all at least at the sixth stage of the spirit realm, and they could even get as strong as the eighth stage.

There was a reason, after all, that the Blood Order was capable of fighting against several kingdoms at the same time.

In fact, the leader of the Blood Order, the one at the peak of the spirit realm, was even slightly stronger and more talented than Xu Xin's master, because the latter was getting really old.

The kingdoms were already on their back foot facing the Blood Order because of this, so they needed to protect their geniuses, and now that the top genius had fallen, they needed to fully protect the second-best genius with everything they had in order to have any hope of winning this war.

After a few moments, the king solemnly called out to the servant girl who had gotten them earlier, "Bring Fan Yuan here please."

The girl then hurried out, moving almost as fast as she could under the order of the king, because she was aware that this situation was dire.

Seeing her leave, Xu Xin's eyes once again flashed with curiosity, but he still ignored it.

After all, nothing mattered to him but his revenge anymore, so he couldn't care less if his suspicions were right or not.

However, the queen had been watching him warily, and she saw the curious look flash through his eyes, even if it was for only half a moment.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with the girl?" The queen's voice was clearly directed at Xu Xin, and he was faintly surprised that she managed to catch his change in expression, but he didn't care.

"She's a spy. I'm surprised you haven't figured it out on your own yet."

Hearing his words, the queen suddenly stood up with an angry look on her face, "She is the daughter of our most trusted servant family, and they have been loyal to us for five generations. Take back your arrogance, boy!"

She got extremely angry from hearing that one of her most trusted servants was a spy, but she was more astonished that Xu Xin had no reaction whatsoever to her words.

"Do I look like I give a shit where she's from or who she is?

She's a spy, and the very fact that you're defending her is what gives me confidence that I'm right, because a servant from a trusted family is all the more reason for them to be a spy, because they could get more information much easier.

Honestly, I couldn't care less that she's a spy, and I just as easily could've done nothing and said nothing to avoid this whole argument, but you're the one that forced me to say what I thought, so don't put the blame on me for realizing the truth." His voice was steady and calm, but it was even more so confident.

Hearing his words, the queen nearly exploded, but she suddenly was tapped on the shoulder by the king, and she was instantly reminded of the oddity of this child in front of her, because he had exactly the same demeanor of an emperor that Xiao Xin had, and she realized that he was completely confident in his words.

She realized that she had almost lost herself in her emotions, but the king had stayed calm.

"We'll look into this later. There are more pressing matters at the moment, and a spy revealing this information wouldn't do much since it would be passed down the ranks shortly anyways." The king was much calmer than the queen, and he instantly argued with logic instead of emotion.

Xu Xin, however, didn't care in the slightest about what the king said since he didn't plan on saying anything in the first place, and it wasn't his job to get rid of spies in other kingdoms.

A couple minutes later, the servant girl returned, unaware of the discussion that had happened in her absence, and she had a beautiful seventeen to eighteen year old girl next to her.

The girl's beauty could only be described as perfect, and she had a face even prettier than that of the queen.

However, she had an arrogant aura around her. Being the second greatest genius on the continent, she had a lot of pride and arrogance, unlike Xiao Xin who had always treated his opponents as those on the same level as himself.

For this reason, she had a cold and distant aura around her, and she seemed even more beautiful and appealing because of it, as if she wanted to be chased after.

As she walked into the room, she had gotten a short summary from the servant girl on the way here, so she had a general idea of what was happening, but she knew that it was just a servant and that she should first hear the full situation from those present.

Soon, she was filled in, and she was angry about what had been presented. She didn't want to be under someone else's protection, because that would make it seem as if she was weak and needed protection, which would ruin her image and self-confidence.

"I understand the situation and danger, but I don't want to be protected by someone." Her stern voice rang out, and it was clear that almost nothing could sway her. Even her own parents were instantly turned down when they asked if she could do it for them.

Just as it seemed that she would never go with Xiao Wei back to Xu Xin's master, Xu Xin's cold voice once again rang out in the room.

"You should go." His voice wasn't that loud, but it seemed to have a strange power that made it sound above all of the people arguing at the moment.

Hearing his voice, Fan Yuan was instantly angry, because she was a genius who stood above a billion and only below one, yet she was being told what to do by a child? Where would her pride go if she listened to him?

"How dare a little child tell me what to do! You have no right to speak here! What makes you think that you have any right to speak to me!" Fan Yuan yelled at him, nearly screaming now.

She then almost instantly crossed over the table to be in front of him, and her hair was blowing backwards from the expansion of her inner breath, which was of the wind element.

But in front of her intimidating display of power, Xu Xin stood calmly and didn't even flinch.

He knew that the king and queen wouldn't let her kill anyone within the castle, especially if they were someone found by a captain of the army like Xia Yue, who was one of their most trusted captains.

After a second of simply looking at her with no fear, and after she had managed to slightly calm down, he spoke once again.

"Xiao Xin is dead." His voice was perfectly calm, but it contained a power that made it go straight into one's soul.

His voice brought utter silence to the hall, and it echoed a few times before finally fading away, and every single person within the hall was utterly shocked by his words, because not a single one of them here dared to believe that he was truly dead, yet this boy declared him dead with absolute certainty.

A few seconds passed, and Fan Yuan finally realized what he meant by saying this, and she calmed down even further, retracting her inner breath and backing away from him a bit.

"You are now the number one genius of the continent...

The Blood Order tried countless times to kill Xiao Xin, but his senses for danger and his unpredictability kept him safe from them. But you *don't* have the same abilities. They *will* come for you, and they *will* succeed when they do.

Don't let your own pride let you get killed just because you want to be the best.

The future of the continent could rest in your hands, so it doesn't matter what you think about this or how hard you try to deny it, because denying it will only make your death come faster.

You only have one choice. Go to Xiao Xin's master or die. It is simple, so make your choice now or regret it forever."

Xu Xin's voice was bone-chillingly cold, and it seemed to cut straight into Fan Yuan's very soul.

She realized what his trick was by saying this, but it still worked nonetheless.

He had built her up, stabilizing her mood, then tore her down saying that she wasn't good enough, then he minimalized her personality by saying that she didn't have a choice in this matter.

He then finished it off with an ultimatum, which made her feel as if this really was the only choice, and even if she realized he was manipulating her, which she did, she couldn't avoid the effects of it.

She wasn't the only one to realize this, and once everyone else did, they were just as shocked as she was, because with a few simple sentences, this boy had not only calmed her down, but he actually made her consider the offer without hurting her ego or self-confidence.

His manipulative abilities could only be described as terrifying to be able to accomplish this so quickly, and the king and queen, as well as Xia Yue, were all even more certain that this boy was somehow Xiao Xin even though he said that Xiao Xin was dead.

It was only now that Fan Yuan looked at this boy seriously, and when she did, she realized that he was not in any way simple, from his demeanor to his character, and even his eyes, hair, and nails were aquamarine colored, adding to his oddity.

But suddenly, Xu Xin's eyes turned away from her and towards the servant girl who he had marked earlier as a spy.

He was now sure that nobody doubted his abilities in terms of the mind, so he decided to just root out this rat since he had the momentum to do so right now.

"You know, I really don't like traitors. I wonder why there happens to be one here, in the royal household, completely unnoticed?"

As he said this, he slowly walked around the table in the middle of the room and headed towards the girl, walking slowly and leisurely, but the girl instantly got visibly nervous, because, unknown to everyone else, Xu Xin's eyes had completely locked onto hers and seemed to be peering into her soul.

His words were also spoken with a magical allure in them that seemed to instinctively cause someone to trust him and tell them all their secrets.

"I wonder, why have you betrayed them, even though they supported you through your entire life? Treated almost like family, yet you felt the need to break their trust and sell them out to someone else?

I wonder who it is that could make you do such a thing? Is it another kingdom? The invaders? The internal strife? Or is it the Blood Order?"

Xu Xin's voice was exceedingly cold, but it still had that calm tone and magical feeling behind it. It seemed to not even come from this world as he calmly continued to walk over towards the girl.

Hearing his voice and seeing his eyes staring into her soul, the girl started to shake as sweat beads appeared on her face. Her breathing visibly sped up when he mentioned the blood order.

Suddenly, his tone got violent and scary, like a voice that came from the pits of hell, and his body gave off a cold and icy air that the girl couldn't withstand, "I *hate* traitors."

Just being near him, her body started to shiver in fear and cold.

She was only at the second stage of the martial arts path, and he was not only at the third, but he had the ability to challenge those at the fifth rank. There was simply no way for her to resist him even if it was just the remaining aura coming off his body.

He then put his hand on her shoulder, and killing intent started to spread from his body, which enveloped the entire room in an instant.

Instantly, she let out a scream of pain as she fell to the ground on her knees, gasping for breath as adrenaline coursed through her body. He had squeezed her shoulder so hard that it had almost broken, and it was getting stronger by the moment.

Finally, she could no longer deal with it, and she yelled out from fear, "It was the Blood Order! They took my sister! I had no choice!"