CHAPTER 452: CHAPTER 343: THAT WOMAN

At Boss Mi’s house.

On the square table against the wall, a girl with black hair covering her cheeks sat sculpture-like on the table, her vacant eyes staring straight ahead.

In front of her, on the sofa, a man in a suit sat there, one hand resting on the back of the sofa, the other unconsciously clenched, as if trying to hold onto some equipment. Realizing it wasn’t by his side, he awkwardly released his fingers, took out a lighter from his pocket, and flicked it open and shut, idly passing the time.

Yin Zhi’en finally walked out of the small room, and slowly approached the sofa, calling softly, "President."

"Ready?" Carl Milak asked.

"Yes," Yin Zhi’en glanced at the system time, "should be entering soon..."

"Good," Carl Milak raised his hand, gently patted his arm, "Go in with peace of mind. Coming out safely is all that matters, don’t overthink other things."

Yin Zhi’en couldn’t wrap his head around it but finally used the last moments to ask the question weighing on his heart, "President, they have more people, more Fragments, and higher rank. If I go in like this, I’m sure I can’t win, what if they win and choose permanent binding, then... what do we do?"

Yin Zhi’en wasn’t afraid of them permanently binding the Divine Staff Sheath, he was afraid that President Carl would blame him for losing the binding rights of the Divine Staff Sheath.

Carl Milak chuckled, shook his head, "He wants to take me down in there. If I don’t show up, he certainly won’t choose permanent binding."

Once he realizes that the one entering the Divine Staff Sheath isn’t his expected opponent but Yin Zhi’en, Ye Jiu will definitely opt for temporary binding and wait 72 hours for the big fish Carl intends to catch.

Carl Milak was very sure of this.

So, Carl Milak will enter the next Divine Staff Sheath eligibility test and let that arrogant young person know who truly is the underdog.

Yin Zhi’en couldn’t understand, "Since you’re eventually going to intervene yourself, why wait until the next next time? Wouldn’t it be better to just go in this time?"

Carl Milak raised his eyes, glanced at Yin Zhi’en, and after a moment shook his head, "Now, the timing isn’t right."

Yin Zhi’en took the opportunity to ask, "What timing?"

Carl Milak stopped fiddling with the lighter, his fingers tightly gripping its metal casing, and lifted his head, squinting, with a scrutinizing expression, staring at Yin Zhi’en’s seemingly innocent round face,

"Zhi’en, are you trying to get information out of me?"

Yin Zhi’en’s heart skipped a beat, the hairs on his neck stood up, but he tried to maintain composure, putting on an innocent smile, "President, don’t joke, how dare I try to get information out of you, I’m just about to go in and feeling a bit nervous, so..."

"Zhi’en," Carl Milak interrupted him, "in the last instance, I took the risk of violating the instance system rules to have you and Wei Zhe assigned to opposing teams. Wei Zhe lost, and the Matthew Fragment fell into Ye Jiu’s hands, why did you return unscathed?"

Cold sweat soaked the back of Yin Zhi’en’s clothes, though he continued to smile, "President, haven’t I already explained to you—"

"—that’s just your excuse," Carl Milak had already decided on an answer and was no longer easily swayed by Zhi’en’s explanation,

"If you had followed my orders to try to seize the Fragment, given Ye Jiu’s caution and Jun Wuming’s skills, your identity would definitely have been exposed, and you couldn’t possibly return safely.

If you wanted to protect your identity, you’d only be able to stand by idly after Wei Zhe lost, giving up the fight for the Fragment.

If it’s the latter, you’re openly disobeying my instructions; if it’s the former, you... are likely involved in a deal with them."

At the word "deal," Carl Milak’s eyes became cruel, as if he wanted to dig out Yin Zhi’en’s heart to take a look.

Yin Zhi’en struggled to suppress the urge to flee, smiling outwardly though inwardly thinking "it’s over."

Seeing Carl Milak raise his hand as if to make a move, Yin Zhi’en froze as the world went dark, his body beginning a rapid descent.

...

...

Wen Nan landed stably in darkness.

After a moment, a giant light screen appeared above.

Around the light screen were twelve somewhat special symbols, glowing faintly in a rhythmic pattern, as if breathing.

The next moment, text appeared on the screen—

[Welcome to the Divine Staff Sheath - Sword Holder Candidate Eligibility Test - Exclusive Space]

Predictably, there were once again three people entering the testing space this time.

The difference from before was that this time, one of the candidates was standing right in front of Wen Nan.

Though it was too dark to see the features clearly, it was definitely Yu Shujun, who had just been standing with Wen Nan in the caretaker’s room.

Looking up once more, the other candidate stood in the distance, looking around curiously, obviously intrigued by the first-time experience of this space.

Soon, the screen above changed—

[This time, there are a total of 3 Sword Holder candidates. The candidate statistics are as follows—

Candidate 1: Holds 2.5 Fragments (pending confirmation);

Candidate 2: Holds 1 Fragment (pending confirmation);

Candidate 3: Holds 0.5 Fragment (pending confirmation).]

[Please all candidates, confirm whether to participate in this eligibility test.]

[Note: If you forgo the test, you will be immediately removed from the space. If you confirm participation, you cannot leave midway through the test.]