I examined my Ninth Stage Candy. Chen Wei’s reaction had been a bit weird. Just a thought, but maybe I shouldn’t give it to Jing yet.

Hui Ming and Hou Tian came in after Chen Wei left. I waved at them.

“Jin!” Hou Tian called. “Long time no see. I’m glad you aren’t dead.”

“Me too,” I took out my medicine box and grinned, “I’ve got pills for arthritis, sore throats, even back pain. I have everything! Do you have anything you want me to solve? ”

“No?” he said.

“Oh. Well, if you want to talk, let’s get lunch.”

“Um, are you sure?” he asked.

“What, is there something going on outside?” I asked.

“Not really, but kinda.” It wasn’t the clearest of answers, but I saw what he meant when we arrived at the cafeteria.

The students acted normally. They bought lunch at the restaurants on the cafeteria floor. They and sat with their circle of friends. And as Er Yi had said, nobody fought after the tournament ended. But it only looked normal on the surface.

It didn’t take long before I spotted some parts that seemed off. The triangle ranked students sat with point ranked students. The chatter was loud but also distinctly gloomy. Curious as to what was happening, I eavesdropped on a conversation.

“The Family should hand the stone man over. Then all of this will stop,” said one student, poking at his food.

His friend slammed his fist against their table, making the first student jump. “No! The Family shouldn’t. Thank the heavens they aren’t connected to the school. That way they won’t be pressured to hand him over.” Other students nodded in agreement. “The attackers are our enemies!”

They and other students noticed us went quiet. They all seemed to want to say something. Finally, one of them stood, facing Hou Tian. “Please tell us… do you know more about what happened yesterday?”

Hou Tian shook his head, “I’m sorry. I know as much as you do.”

“So even the square class doesn’t know anything,” somebody whispered.

We got some food and sat. Not to my surprise, the mood affected Hou Tian. He picked at his food with his fork and sulked.

“Hey,” I said, “what’s going on?” I wanted to know what they thought had happened.

“I suppose you wouldn’t know. I’ll summarize. The Black Library was attacked by an unidentified group. A Dao Journey Stage monster that could control stone was on their side. The Family intervened and saved the Library, capturing the elemental. Do you know about The Family?”

I fingered the pendant Jing gave me. “Yep.”

“After all that, the group attacked the school’s ancestral tree. They burned a message onto it: ‘We will destroy a tower every day until our comrade is returned.’”

“Why’d they attack the library in the first place?” I asked.

“We don’t know. All of our information is from the Black Library’s Tower Master.” So they knew pretty much everything I did.

“What’s the school going to do now?” said Hui Ming.

Hou Tian’s head drooped lower, “No idea. Nothing, I guess. They couldn’t fight back if they wanted to. There’s nowhere to target. We don’t know where to attack.”

“So what do we do now?” I asked.

“Wait, and see if they really meant their threat,” he said.

The mood started to seep into me as well. I looked to Hui Ming, but she was also looking downcast.

A low rumble filled the room. It sounded like the finale of a fireworks show outside, but the sun was still out, and there was no fireworks show. My ears, now better than a police dog’s, heard the heart rate of everybody in the room go up at the same time. We rushed to the windows closest to the source of the noise. Rank and respect were tossed aside. Square and point class students mixed together, but nobody flared their auras or pushed their way to the front.

We all stared in unison. Far out in the distance, thirty or so tiny dots flew around an enormous arch like fruit flies. Each of the dots shot a different type of bolt at the arch. The rumbling continued. One leg of the arch collapsed. It took a moment for the crunching sound to reach us. The ground shook. Somebody screamed.

The other leg of the arch collapsed seconds later, bringing the rest of the building with it. A far louder boom reached us and the floor shook again. The students stared at the fallen arch a while longer.

They returned to their seats one by one. Light sobs came from the corners of the cafeteria. Othered stared forward blankly. “So do I get to skip class today then?” a student chuckled nervously. Hou Tian looked at me with red and puffy eyes. Hui Ming also stared at me.

“What?” I said.

“Master, is there anything you can do about this?” Hui Ming asked.

I could only answer simply, “No.”