Free Web NovelChapter 309: Chapter 77: The Chaos
Everyone looked at each other around the massive, mahogany dining table.
The ambient hum of the villa’s protective barriers seemed to amplify the weight of Xu Xiansu’s question.
Goal? What truly was their goal?
Until now, they had all been moving as a cohesive unit primarily driven by survival, the momentum of enrollment, or the overarching presence of Shen Haoran.
But the Imperial Academy was not just a simple school; it was a miniature reflection of the entire continent’s power structure. freewebnσvel.cѳm
Entering its gates without a clear, definitive blueprint for what they intended to extract from it was a fool’s errand.
Suddenly, breaking the heavy silence, Qian Yunxi spoke. Her golden hair caught the morning sunlight as she tilted her chin upward, her expression shifting into an icy, unyielding mask of geopolitical ambition.
"I want to use this entire academy as a massive, resource-rich stepping stone," she declared, her voice steady and entirely devoid of hesitation. "I want to thoroughly strip them of all their knowledge, forbidden techniques, and administrative secrets. I will use everything I plunder here to rapidly strengthen my Spirit Hall, and eventually... we will rebel against the central authority. We will completely overthrow the native rulers and form our own independent Empire."
Silence.
A profound, suffocating stillness instantly descended upon the grand dining room.
Almost everyone couldn’t help but stare at her, their eyes wide in absolute shock and disbelief.
Even within a group composed of some of the most arrogant lineages on the continent, openly declaring a treasonous plot to overthrow an empire before breakfast was an unprecedented level of audacity.
Even Xu Xiansu, with her sharp, analytical mind, couldn’t help but be completely taken aback by the sheer weight of the declaration.
She narrowed her eyes in deep, calculating thought, her fingers tapping rhythmically against her teacup.
Based entirely on the vast, fragmented memories of her other self from the alternate timeline, the Spirit Hall did indeed eventually launch a massive, bloody rebellion in the East and successfully managed to forge their own sovereign Empire.
However, in that original timeline, that monumental historical event was still supposed to occur hundreds of years into the future, after centuries of quiet accumulation.
And even then, their grand empire didn’t even manage to last a single year.
Xu Jingshan, the Third Prince of the current dynasty, had personally mobilized the imperial armies and utterly destroyed them down to their very foundations.
However... a sharp gleam flashed across Xiansu’s eyes as she analyzed the current reality.
’The current timeline is completely out of whack.’ she realized.
Currently, she can be sure that Qian Yunxi and probably the Spirit Hall has some connections with the Shen Clan, or else Shen Haoran wouldn’t bother taking her with him.
So if that ridiculously powerful Shen Clan chooses to actively back their rebellion when the time comes, the native Empire will be completely powerless to stop it.
"Hahaha! AHAHAHA!"
Just then, Shen Cai suddenly burst into a loud, booming fit of wild laughter, violently slapping his heavy thighs as he leaned back in his chair.
"You truly are one incredibly crazy, magnificent woman! A minor Eastern power actually possesses the sheer balls to openly plot a rebellion against the central court?! In all my years living, I have never seen anyone so completely bold! And the best part is, you actually dared to say it directly to our faces without a single shred of fear!"
Qian Yunxi just offered a calm, serene smile, her blue eyes remaining completely unfazed by his boisterous reaction.
In her mind, the Spirit Hall had already surrendered its soul and its destiny to Shen Haoran. With a walking calamity backing her path, what earthly force on this continent was there left for her to be afraid of?
As for why she dared say her plans, it’s only because she was sure that everyone here is absolutely loyal to Shen Haoran.
"But..." Shen Cai’s laughter suddenly died down, replaced by a hideously twisted, malicious grin that made his rugged features look intensely predatory. "I absolutely like it!"
At that moment, he felt a dark desire curling up to him, wanting to break out.
A girl from an Eastern dared to declare her own goals of overthrowing the empire, then what is he afraid of?
"Alright, you want to ask about my goal? It’s simple. I just want pure, unadulterated destruction." He grinned, clenching his fist, "Back within the ancestral borders of the clan domain, those old, boring elders always strictly forbade me from testing my destructive artifacts. Even in the outside world, I had to constantly walk on eggshells and be incredibly careful because of annoying family politics. But here... inside this isolated academy dimension where no tedious clan politics can ever reach us... I want to violently test the limits of my mass-destruction explosives directly on these so-called ’heaven-defying geniuses’! I want to completely let loose my finest, deadliest creations and watch the towers burn!"
He laughed, his eyes burning with destructive desire.
’Another absolute, unhinged crazy one,’ some of the more practical people around the table thought, a collective sweatdrop metaphorically running down their brows as they moved their plates slightly away from him.
However, such a honest, dark desire seems to incredibly contagious, as almost everyone else felt a sudden urge to confess their deepest, darkest dreams.
Just then, Shen Bai suddenly slammed both of his hands flat onto the table with a resounding bang, startling the others as he stood up, his eyes burning with a manic, obsessive light behind his hair. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
"If we are talking about our goals... then my goal is absolute!" Shen Bai proclaimed, his voice trembling with an intense, academic fanaticism. "I want to completely dismantle the foundational arrays of this entire dimension, piece by piece, and study its structural core! It has always been my ultimate, life-long dream to construct a supreme formation array capable of completely covering the entire physical world. But those conservative old fogies in the clan strictly forbade me from ever conducting high-risk dimensional research on our clan’s own sovereign dimension. And every other stable pocket universe I know of is already legally owned and heavily guarded by ancient monsters. So here... in this massive, unmonitored academic playground... I am going to completely, thoroughly dissect and research this entire dimension’s framework!"
Yes. Because of the constraints of the clan, he had buried this dream deep in his heart.
However, there was no clan elders here.
This dimension doesn’t belong to them. And this place wasn’t backed by an Immortal Lineage.
It’s completely open to be destroyed and dissected.
"Hahahaha! Good! Beautifully said!" Shen Jian laughed loudly, raising his wine chalice in a mock toast. "How grand! A Crown’s personal ambitions must always be that absurdly high! As for my own simple goals? I don’t care about building worlds or blowing up mountains. I just want to thoroughly humiliate every single one of these self-righteous ’geniuses’ of the Central Region! I want to break their pride, drain their clans, and watch them beg for mercy! That is all the entertainment I require!"
Following him, Shen Ji grinned viciously, raising his heavy right fist and violently punching it straight into his open left palm with a concussive crack. "Fight! I just want to fight! I want to fight absolutely everybody residing within the borders of this dimension! Be they the most legendary, highly revered senior disciples, or the absolute trashiest, weakest freshmen of this generation! I want to drag them into the arenas and violently break every single bone in their physical bodies!"
Shen Fei stared at everyone else, and couldn’t help thunk of his own situation.
Back then, he was just nobody, just an ordinary branch descendant of the Shen Clan until he awakened his Sacred Physique and was taken as a disciple of the First Enshrined Elder.
He had always dreamed of destroying the hierarchy of the Shen Clan, to give even the lowest member of the clan an opportunity to rise up and pull down the main lineage.
Unfortunately, the Heaven’s Choice tournament made him realize...it was impossible.
The main lineage rule over the entire clan for a reason.
It is impossible for any branch line to actually shake their authority.
So he had given up that dream and just wanted power.
However....
He smiled lightly, a cold, elegant expression on his face that didn’t match the absolute anarchy of his words.
"To completely destroy the established order." He declared, "My goal is simple: I want this entire prestigious academy to violently fall into a state of permanent, structural chaos. I want to shatter their rules, execute their enforcers, and turn this rigid dimension into a lawless world where anyone can do absolutely whatever they please, and only the strong can dictate reason."
Shen Hei tapped his long, slender fingers rhythmically against the edge of the table, his eyes hooded and dark. "I just want a borderless playground to perfectly test the limits of my assassination skills, my stealth techniques, and my absolute physical speed. Yes... away from the watchful eyes of the clan elders, I just want to kill to my heart’s absolute content until my daggers are completely saturated in saintly blood."
At that moment, Shen Ying suddenly grinned, her beautiful facial features twisting into an entirely creepy, dark, and deeply uncanny expression that sent an icy shiver running straight down the spines of the younger girls.
"The taboo refinement of ancient, forbidden pills that actively utilize the physical flesh, agonizing screams, and living souls of humans as the primary alchemical ingredients..." she whispered, her voice carrying a manic, melodic hiss. "Only within the lawless, closed ecosystem of this specific academy dimension can I finally execute such high-risk experiments without the restrictions of the elders. I want to completely study the mechanics of human suffering through a cauldron."
At that horrifying declaration, almost every single person around the table couldn’t help but let out a collective, massive sweatdrop.
They stared at the golden-haired lineage heirs with a newfound sense of existential dread.
These people weren’t just a gathering of elite prodigies; they were quite literally a highly concentrated group of absolute, unhinged lunatics.
"I..." Xia Mengyao spoke up, her calm, icy voice cutting through the dark atmosphere like a pristine winter breeze as her hand rested gracefully upon her thighs. "I do not possess such a grand, destructive, or politically complex ambition as the rest of you. However, my goal is immutable: I want to completely reach the absolute, unyielding pinnacle of Swordsmanship on this continent. And to achieve that supreme height, I will ruthlessly use every single genius, elder, and master in this academy as my personal, bloody stepping stones."
"And I want to spread the ultimate majesty of music!" Luo Mingye spoke proudly, her eyes flashing with a wild, artistic passion as she gestured dramatically. "I want every single person residing within this massive dimension to fall so hopelessly, deeply, and unconditionally in love with my melodies that they will all submissively fall under my absolute command! I want to pursue a level of divine music so potent that anyone who dares to hear a single chord will either instantly fall into a state of profound heavenly enlightenment... or violently go completely insane!"
Just then, seeing that everyone got more and more heated, Huo Yue finally couldn’t resist.
"I want to hunt down and devour every single legendary Heavenly Flame existing in this mortal world!" Huo Yue suddenly bounced back into the conversation, her eyes burning with a deep, avaricious glint as she grinned widely, licking her lips. "I have heard rumors that the academy actually secretly house three distinct, ancient Heavenly Flames. I want them all. My cultivation path will accept nothing less than total flame dominance!"
Zhu Ziyan, swept up by the intense, roaring atmosphere of absolute ambition and madness currently filling the dining hall, slowly raised her head.
She looked at her intertwined fingers, her purple eyes locking onto Haoran’s face before she spoke, her voice carrying a deep, emotional weight.
"Strength," she whispered firmly, her feline ears twitching with absolute resolve. "I just want to acquire absolute, undeniable strength. A level of martial power so profound that I will no longer ever have to feel the freezing hand of fear or the dread of death. Strength... to ensure that no matter how fast the world moves, I will never, ever be left behind in the shadows again."
Xu Xiansu stared intently at the vibrant faces of the group, letting the silence settle for a brief moment before she finally spoke, her voice dropping to a flat, chillingly clinical tone that carried the resonance of a thousand graves.
"For absolute revenge."
That was all she said.
She didn’t offer a single detail, and she didn’t name her targets, but the sheer density of the hatred laced within those four words was enough to freeze the water in their glasses.
Shen Haoran sat quietly at the head of the table, listening to their declarations with a calm, deeply amused expression.
He slowly turned his piercing golden eyes toward the final three occupants of the room who hadn’t spoken yet. "How about the three of you? Shen Tao, Shen Xun’er, and Shen Xinye? What say you?"
"I..." Shen Tao stood up instantly, bowing his head in a flawless display of absolute, ancient loyalty toward the youth. "I possess no independent desire for personal glory or destruction within these walls, Young Master. My sole, ultimate goal in this academy is simply to stand as your unyielding shield, witnessing the glorious day when you will officially ascend to the absolute, untouchable pinnacle of the cosmos."
"I just want to stay right by your side," said Shen Xun’er, casually shrugging her shoulders as she offered a bright, highly relaxed grin, completely unbothered by the heavy atmosphere. "I’m entirely certain that by following your footsteps, I’ll get to witness infinitely more fun, chaotic things, and get the golden opportunity to violently fight a lot more people than if I walked alone."
"I..." Shen Xinye paused, her long fingers tightening slightly around her linen napkin.
A look of soft, genuine hesitation crossed her beautiful features before she slowly shook her head, looking up at him with an apologetic expression.
"Honestly... I still do not know what my true purpose or goal in this vast academy is supposed to be yet, Young Master. I feel somewhat aimless compared to the fierce passions of the others."
Haoran looked at her gentle countenance and smiled warmly, his tone carrying an comforting, regal reassurance. "Do not worry yourself over it, Xinye. Simply continuing forward on your path to explore the world and actively find out what your true goal is... that process in itself is a magnificent goal."
Shen Xinye’s eyes widened slightly at his profound words, a wave of intense relief washing over her heart as a soft, gentle smile illuminated her face. "...I see. Thank you for your guidance, Young Master."
Shen Haoran offered a final, definitive nod toward the entire table before he slowly stood up from his chair.
His majestic black and gold robes billowed slightly as his aura effortlessly expanded, anchoring the chaotic energies of the room under his absolute dominance.
He looked across the faces of his lunatics, his eyes gleaming with a brilliant, predatory light.
"Alright, then. It seems all of you possess vastly different, highly destructive, and entirely chaotic personal goals for this journey..." Haoran murmured smoothly, his lips curving into a sharp, magnificent smile that promised absolute ruin for the institution. "However... despite the diversity of your madness, we all can comfortably, firmly agree on one single, ultimate baseline goal, can we not?"
Every single person around the table—the serial killers, the revolutionaries, the mad scientists, the power-hungry beauties, and the loyal guardians—simultaneously stood up from their chairs, their eyes burning with a synchronous, terrifying light as they firmly nodded their heads in absolute submission to his will.
"We are going to completely turn this prestigious academy upside down."
