Chapter 138
138 TWO EMPERORS, ONE LORD
One wore a white robe, one wore a black robe, and the other wore a blue one.
Bai Chen and Wu Jinhai could recognize the three of them as they didn’t even frown upon seeing the three of them. Perhaps their appearance was too sudden, and it seemed like they had just appeared out of thin air, but neither of them was confused by them.
Perhaps their appearance in the forest was unannounced, but both Bai Chen and Wu Jinhai had predicted that they would come to the forest sooner or later, and that was why they remained relaxed even after recognizing the three men.
“Their entrance to the scene is so cool! Did they use something like a teleportation spell to come here? There was a strong wind, and suddenly, they appeared out of thin air. Those three people are very strong, right?” Bai Chen still had time to fanboy the three of them while whispering to Wu Jinhai who was still standing next to him.
Wu Jinhai’s face twisted when he heard Bai Chen’s question. The auras of the three people were so strong, but the naive Prince still asked if they were strong or not.
“Stay silent when they question us later. Leave everything to me, and don’t say anything even if they question you,” Wu Jinhai returned the whisper as he glanced at the young man next to him.
“Hah?” Bai Chen looked confused as he looked at the taller man. “Why can’t I answer their question when they ask me? That’s rude, right? What if they get angry if I don’t answer their question?”
“...” Wu Jinhai chose to ignore Bai Chen’s question as he carefully walked toward the three people who seemed to be waiting for them.
Bai Chen groaned as his questions were ignored, but he still followed the man in red to approach the three people. Wu Jiang was still in his hand but was no longer moving as if it was too tired after ‘playing’ with its old master earlier.
.....
The two youngsters stopped walking in front of the three people, but the three people were still busy observing the situation around them.
“So, the barrier was completely destroyed?” The white-robed man who had long white hair suddenly broke the silence.
That man was very familiar in Bai Chen’s eyes because that man was Emperor Bai Guowei. He could see how the Emperor’s blue eyes were also glistening in the darkness as he took them to survey the surroundings. Bai Chen was sure that the Emperor was just like him who could see everything in the dark.
“I just arrived here, Your Majesty,” Wu Jinhai answered the question. “When I arrived here, the barrier had been destroyed, and since I don’t have the ability to repair the barrier, I can’t do anything about it.”
Bai Chen suddenly turned his head towards Wu Jinhai after hearing the man’s statement. ‘Why did he say that he just arrived here? He even fought three men who had broken the barrier, so why did he hide that fact from Bai Guowei?’ He wondered.
Bai Chen was confused, but then he could feel Wu Jinhai’s gaze through the holes in the golden mask. Even if the man didn’t say anything, Bai Chen was sure the man gave him a warning.
For some reason, Wu Jinhai didn’t let him open his mouth to answer the question, and the red-robed man even dared to lie in front of the Emperor.
“Did you see anyone suspicious when you just got here, Wu Jinhai?” A person wearing a blue robe suddenly chimed in from the side, and Bai Chen turned his gaze toward that person.
Bai Chen was also able to recognize the man. He was Wu Shun of the Wu Li Empire, and he was Wu Jinhai’s father. Now Bai Chen was curious as to what kind of answer Wu Jinhai would give his father.
“I didn’t see anyone when I just got here, Your Majesty,” replied the masked man. “I came here after I saw some high-level beasts in this outer area of ??the forest, but my position was quite far from the core, and that’s why I didn’t see anyone in this area when I finally reached this place. Even all the dangerous beasts were no longer here when I arrived, and I assumed that I came here a bit late. Maybe the person who had broken the barrier had fled before I got here.”
Wu Jinhai gave the three men such lengthy explanations, but Bai Chen knew that all the words that came out of Wu Jinhai’s lips were lies even though the two of them were indeed quite far from the core during the incident caused by the Three-Headed Snake.
‘I don’t know how Wu Jinhai managed to get to this core in such a short time because I was unconscious earlier, but it was not true that Wu Jinhai was late to reach this area. He even fought three men who had broken the barrier around the core, but he didn’t tell his father the truth,’ Bai Chen thought to himself.
Wu Jinhai even lied to his father, and Bai Chen tried hard not to frown when he heard the lie. He still didn’t understand why the masked man had chosen to lie about matters related to the barrier, but he just obediently obeyed the man’s orders to remain silent.
“But, why did you come here, Prince Wu Jinhai?” Another man in a black robe joined the interrogation session. “Are you also planning to capture the person who has broken the barrier and let all the beasts out?”
Bai Chen also recognized the man. He was Shao Yaoting who was none other than the head of the Black Werewolf Clan.
Bai Chen wasn’t surprised when he saw the two Emperors appear in the Forbidden Forest after the chaos ensued, but he was quite surprised when he saw the head of the Black Werewolf Clan. However, when he thought about it again, he seemed to understand the reason behind that man’s appearance in the forest.
‘The Black Werewolf Clan is also powerful in Dong Lang, and the daughter of that clan is also participating in this event. I shouldn’t be surprised to see that man in this forest,’ he thought calmly, but then his body stiffened at the memory of something. ‘But Shao Yaoting just arrived in this forest, so he probably doesn’t know that his daughter has been killed by the Three-Headed Snake right?’
Bai Chen suddenly couldn’t imagine what would happen if the three strong people in front of him found out that Shao Meihui was killed in the battle against the Three-Headed Snake.
“That’s right,” the answer from Wu Jinhai suddenly came. “I accidentally saw some high-level beasts while we were resting, and I assumed that something was wrong with the barrier that the beasts managed to escape. That’s why I immediately went to this core area to check on the condition. When I arrived here, the barrier has been destroyed, and I can’t even find the culprit.”
It was another lie from Wu Jinhai, and Bai Chen was no longer surprised by it. After all, he could sense that the masked man was indeed planning to hide the truth from the three men for whatever reason.
‘Maybe I can ask him about his plans later,’ Bai Chen thought to himself as he glanced at the taller man.
“The guards who were monitoring the forest also discovered anomalies from within the forest, and when we carefully checked the conditions from outside the forest, we saw that the barrier had been destroyed,” Emperor Bai Guowei spoke again. “However, we can’t directly enter the forest because such activity can damage the outer barrier, and beasts might come out of the forest if that happens. That’s why we’ve only arrived here now.”
Bai Guowei’s explanation was the same as Wu Jinhai’s earlier prediction. The people outside the forest knew that something was happening in the forest, but they couldn’t carelessly enter the forest without thinking about the outer barrier.
“We need to conduct further investigation into this matter,” Emperor Wu Shun chimed in again. “A few strong cultivators have entered the forest as well, and they will be dealing with high-level beasts escaping from the core. Maybe they won’t be able to defeat all the beasts, but they can try to lure the beasts into the forest core before we can build another barrier to trap them in the core.”
The three people did find a solution, and Bai Chen breathed a sigh of relief because the help he had been waiting for had finally arrived in the forest. However, his breath suddenly caught in the air as his eyes came into contact with Shao Yaoting’s pair of dark eyes.
“Prince Bai Chen, I remember that you walked with my daughter when you were about to enter the forest earlier today. Where is my daughter now? Why did you end up with Prince Wu Jinhai and not my daughter? Did you leave my daughter?”