The Second Elder had only just arrived at the faculty building, alongside the Headmaster, walking in with large strides as they entered the Headmaster's Hall. He noticed that besides the Headmaster, there stood two other people nearby in the room.

One of these people wasn't unfamiliar to the Second Elder.

The Third Elder!

"Third Elder," Second Elder looked at him and lightly nodded his head, and the Third Elder's face went gloomy in response.

"Headmaster, is this about the incident concerning the Prodigy Summit?" The Second Elder's gaze descended onto the Headmaster.

"Greetings Second Elder! Forgive me for bothering you at this difficult time, but it was I who had requested an audience," Right at this moment, the person standing next to the Third Elder stepped forward.

"Ivan Bardsley?" The Second Elder couldn't help but exclaim in a low voice. The young man that presently stood next to the Third Elder wasn't anyone else but precisely General Ivan Bardsley, the infamous leader of the Royal Army's Enforcer Squad.

"What's the meaning of this, General?" The Second Elder pursed his lips and frowned at the General, his nostrils flaring as he spoke.

"Why so serious, Second Elder? I did not come here to start a fight," General Ivan Bardsley looked at the Second Elder and the Headmaster and smiled indifferently. "I only wanted to inform you that the Golden Avarice Academy, along with the Trinity and Silver Moon Academies, will now be under strict surveillance and supervision. By my squad, of course!"

"Presumptuous! The Royal Army can't just barge in and take control over the Academy and its students! This is complete nonsense," the Second Elder spoke in a deep voice.

General Ivan's gaze grew harder, and he said indifferently, "I understand that it can be frustrating, Second Elder. But after what happened at the Prodigy Summit, we cannot just ignore the fact that an academy student was able to murder a Royal Representative with such ease. Initial reports suggest that the young man was part of a revolutionary group who were conspiring against the Monarchy, and that is a heinous crime."

"I agree that it was an unfortunate event. But to use that to force restrictions over the students and faculty and to monitor them is simply too much. The actions of one disciple does not reflect the views of everyone else," the Second Elder had a face full of anger as he finished speaking.

"Second Elder, I completely understand your anger," The General gave the Second Elder a gaze that said he understood, then slowly said, "However, the fact that such a dangerous organization had ties to a student from a prestigious academy, and the fact that they weren't able to identify such a problem from the beginning itself does raise a few questions."

"Are you implying that the Academies are involved with such cruel and violent organizations, General?" The Headmaster's face sank. "Are you accusing us of conspiring against the Monarchy?"

"Of course not, Headmaster," General Ivan looked at the Headmaster and shook his head. "The student in question wasn't even from your Academy, so why would we even make that accusation? However, I do hope you understand how much of a serious problem this is. We simply cannot risk such a situation from happening again, and the fact that an academy was able to foster such a behaviour within one of their disciples for so long without even noticing doesn't help your case. This crisis event is taken to be a threat; a disturbance in the order, and my job is to preserve the status quo."

"And besides," The General took out a scroll from his pockets and passed it over to the Headmaster and continued. "The King has handed down a Royal Decree, granting me complete control over the supervision of the Academies, so I do hope you will not interfere with my work." As the General finished speaking, he glanced at the Second Elder and the Headmaster, whose expressions were incomparably gloomy.

"No need to worry, Headmaster," General Ivan's gaze focused on the Headmaster and he indifferently said, "As you already know, your Academy isn't the only one that I have to monitor. So I've decided to hand over my responsibilities to Third Elder for the time being. I hope you don't mind."

"I won't disappoint you, General Ivan!" The Third Elder's gaze was calm, with a carefree expression on his face.

"And Second Elder, I hope you're able to cooperate." Third Elder's icy-cold gaze swept past the General and the Headmaster, then it finally descended onto the Second Elder, whose eyes flashed with a trace of viciousness.

This wasn't a good sign!

******

After returning from the Prodigy Summit, Claude Rayforth quickly devoted his efforts to practicing his martial arts techniques once again.

From what he realized while participating in the Prodigy Summit, without sufficient skills and the required cultivation realm, it was impossible for one to move forward in such tournaments.

With Claude's current level, he knew that he had no chance of advancing. He knew that he had to improve!

Claude's figure was lively and flexible as he continued training. He utilised the Invisible Sword technique with astounding grace, following up with Star Fury Palm Strike, executing the moves as easy as breathing, and the air surrounding him bellowed as though the mighty waves of the sea.

"I can feel the spiritual energy inside my body wanting to expand! Have I reached a bottleneck?" As the blood in his body flowed faster and faster, a thought flashed across Claude's mind. He had just met with a bottleneck; the spiritual energy that he had cultivated was desperately trying to expand, but he found it unable to break through despite what he did.

"I need a massive amount of energy to blow it open," Claude guessed that he would need an immense force to circulate through him in order to force his body to break through to the next realm. But no matter what cultivation technique he used, he simply couldn't build up the required amount of energy.

"Should I try out the Beau Paradis?" As he sat blankly on the spot, Claude suddenly remembered Beau Paradis sword art that the Second Elder had gifted him a while back.

As it was a problematic cultivation technique, he had chosen to focus on his other techniques, but perhaps it could help him break through to the Sky Realm!