CHAPTER 401: CHAPTER 388: THE IMPERSONATOR

Principal Hua Buwu traced a line in the void with his hand, and a kind of power unfamiliar to Chen Gu sliced and isolated the space where Joe Madus was, trying to trap him inside.

Joe Madus’s own alchemy process was forcibly interrupted by the isolated space, but the principal’s face changed. "How cunning!"

With a wave of his hand, the isolated space rapidly shrank and fell into his palm. Pressing his hands together, a point of bright light exploded in his palm, leaving it pitch black. He shook his hand as if it stung a little.

Zhong Yuanbei had recovered quite a bit by now. The "minor" clash between Joe Madus and the principal, both of the Ninth Power Level, bewildered the onlookers, deviating greatly from the "earth-shattering battle" they had imagined.

But Zhong Yuanbei saw it clearly: "Joe Madus created a ’pseudo body’ to replace himself, and within that ’pseudo body,’ he hid an alchemy bomb no less potent than an Antimatter Bomb!"

From the start, the one who had appeared here wasn’t the real Joe Madus, but his ’pseudo body.’

Just an ersatz entity like this had routed over two hundred professionals into disarray!

As soon as the principal arrived, he adopted the stance of "unwilling to fight on the principal’s turf" and immediately began to alchemize himself to escape.

In truth, it was a ploy to lure the principal into trapping him there and then detonate the alchemy bomb within the ’pseudo body.’ However, the principal saw through it at the last moment, and the alchemy bomb, upon which Joe Madus pinned great hopes... only caused the principal a bit of hand pain.

Joe Madus was indeed cunning; his plan nearly succeeded, but he underestimated the principal.

Although it seemed like he had the upper hand, the real headache lay with Joe Madus, who was now hiding in some corner, because he and the entire Star State were about to face the principal’s frenzied retaliation—a strength far beyond their expectations!

The principal was indeed infuriated!

The entire school was destroyed in an instant. This wasn’t just a matter of losing face; many facilities within the school were built with precious materials. Some research facilities were irreplaceable because their core components were either remnants of super life forms or mysterious minerals from the Star Sea.

Rebuilding the school wouldn’t be difficult, but restoring its former research level would take a very long time and gradual accumulation.

One could say that with this incident, the Huai Shan Branch School had regressed overnight.

Furthermore, even if one excluded those special research facilities, simply rebuilding the school and purchasing ordinary equipment would cost tens of billions of Starshields.

Looking at Zhong Yuanbei and the others, the principal finally breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, everyone was okay. As long as the people were there, hope remained.

He looked gratefully at his old friend. "Old Zhong, we really owe you one this time."

Zhong Yuanbei said triumphantly, "Of course! It’s all thanks to the good student I took in. He saw through Joe Madus’s conspiracy in advance and informed me, which allowed me to turn the tide and gather everyone to confront Joe Madus! Let me tell you, I was quite the miracle worker just now..."

Zhong Yuanbei, in the company of an old buddy, habitually began to boast, but the principal showed a hint of surprise.

"Your good student?"

Zhong Yuanbei pointed at Chen Gu. "This kid here, though he’s a bit slow in learning, not as good-looking, eats a bit too much, and has a bit of a temper, at least he’s filial.

"And just now, thankfully, he pulled me out of helmet number three. Otherwise, this face of mine, which stands alongside yours as one of Huai Shan’s ’Twin Handsomes,’ wouldn’t have been preserved! Then I wouldn’t be able to join you in looking down on Shentu Lu’s old tangerine-peel face with contempt..."

Chen Gu was already starting to regret pulling this guy out of the helmet.

What does he mean by "a bit slow at learning, a bit lacking in looks, eats a bit too much, and has a bit of a bad temper"? At least the part about lacking in looks—that’s one thing I refuse to acknowledge.

He had always known his mentor to have a fiery temper and be notoriously fierce. Only now did he realize the old man was blind to the obvious and utterly lacked insight.

Chen Gu subconsciously wanted to retort, but when he looked up, he happened to see the principal behind Zhong Yuanbei gesture to him with a "don’t mind him" sign, then worriedly point to his head, implying that the old fellow’s mind was not right.

Chen Gu almost laughed. Are all you peerless experts this approachable?

The principal’s mood, which was originally quite bad, improved a lot after Zhong Yuanbei’s shameless ramblings and distractions.

He indeed started to see Chen Gu in a new light.

Originally, tonight had been a complete disaster for him, with the whole school torn apart. The only consolation was that the students and teachers were all safe and sound.

Initially, he thought it was the work of his old fellow Zhong Yuanbei, but now he understood that a good portion of the credit went to Chen Gu.

Of course, he remembered Chen Gu, whose Third Energy Level resonator he had arranged for in secret.

"Not bad," he acknowledged with a nod.

...

By dawn, Shentu Lu and Director Xue had rushed back, and a large number of powerful individuals hired by the Behemoth Alliance had arrived, suddenly expanding the school’s power to a frightening extent!

Not only that, but high-ranking officials from many secret departments within the Confederation also arrived on the scene. A Ninth Power Level individual from another Star State had appeared on Capital Star without a sound—a serious security incident.

What if his target was to assassinate the members of the Elders’ Council!

The principal casually dealt with these officials and then convened a high-level meeting within the school. Only four people attended: besides the principal were Shentu Lu, Director Xue, and Zhong Yuanbei.

Shentu Lu summarized the recent events: "It’s basically been cleared up now. This was a conspiracy directed specifically at our Huai Shan Branch School, intended as retaliation for the prior Blue Bay Mineral Vein incident. Joe Madus was the mastermind behind the operation, with his subordinate, the Seventh Energy Level Psychological Spy Wan Lunnuo, executing the plan."

The Blue Bay Mineral Vein is located on Bestar 5, belonging to a minor Star Nation called Xinlan.

This mining area contained a significant amount of precious minerals. Once news got out, a scramble ensued among the four major Star Nations to acquire mining rights from the Xinlan Star Nation.

In the end, the contention narrowed down to the Star State and the Confederation. At a critical moment, the Star State suffered consecutive "leaks," which led to the Confederation ultimately securing the Blue Bay Mineral Vein’s mining rights.

The reason behind the Star State’s successive leaks was precisely those students cultivated over the years at the Huai Shan Branch School.

Many of them had been sent out to other Star Nations to live under assumed identities, carrying out various secret operations.

But in reality, the Blue Bay Mineral Vein incident was most likely just a spark. Over the years, the outstanding students that Huai Shan Branch School had sent out did a lot in the shadows, angering the other three major Star Nations.

And the most furious of them all was the Star State.