Right now, it was in the middle of the night. The ploy to kill the officer had begun at nightfall, and just a couple of hours had passed since then.
Shang walked over to the side gate since the main gates were closed during the night.
"Space Ring," the guard said with boredom.
Shang put his Space Ring on the table.
After that, the guard took out a crystal and moved it all over Shang's body.
This crystal was a smaller version of the bigger crystals above the gate. The big crystals had the ability to penetrate a Space Ring's defense and scan the insides, but the smaller one didn't.
However, it could see if someone wore a Space Ring or not.
This crystal was basically there to stop people from smuggling any illegal goods into the city.
The crystal didn't show any alarm, and the guard put it away.
Then, the guard looked through the Space Ring.
There was just some random stuff in there. Nothing special.
The guard handed it back to Shang and opened the side gate for him.
Shang nodded and entered the city.
Just like the first time Shang had arrived in Warrior's Paradise, it was deathly silent.
Shang immediately went to the main square and then to the academy.
In front of the academy gates, Shang saw a sleeping, middle-aged man.
'Isn't that a familiar image?' Shang thought as he looked at teacher Loran.
Shang ignored teacher Loran and went to the gate.
"Wait a second," teacher Loran said as he suddenly opened his eyes.
Shang didn't look at him.
"I don't know you," teacher Loran said. "Who are you?"
Shang deepened his voice. "My identity doesn't concern you."
Right now, basically everything regarding Shang was a secret, even in the academy.
The last time anyone had seen Shang had been about a year ago, during the Day of Chaos.
After that, Shang had completely vanished.
Shang had been underground for a month preparing for the trial.
Then, another eight months had passed in preparation for Shang's new job.
Lastly, a bit more than two months had passed while Shang had been on a mission.
In short, it had been nearly a year since anyone had seen him, and he had changed tremendously during that year.
It was no surprise that teacher Loran didn't recognize him.
When teacher Loran heard Shang's words, he snorted. "Doesn't concern me?" he asked. "I'm the guard. I'm responsible for only letting in people that are allowed to enter."
"You will tell me who you are."
At that moment, teacher Loran's eyes narrowed.
WHOOOM!
Shang felt an incredible pressure appear around him.
Right now, Shang felt like he was in front of an incredibly powerful Commander Stage beast.
The pressure teacher Loran gave off was even higher than the pressure the superior had given off.
Teacher Loran was definitely more powerful than the traitorous superior.
'He's truly powerful,' Shang thought. 'If he wanted to do something to me, I wouldn't even have the slightest ability to resist.'
At that moment, something appeared in Shang's hand, and he pointed it to teacher Loran.
It was the Duke's emblem.
Teacher Loran narrowed his eyes when he saw the emblem, and his pressure lessened.
However, it didn't completely vanish.
"We might be in Duke Whirlwind's territory, but the warrior's academy is politically neutral," teacher Loran said. "I can let you in, but I still need to look at you in case you do something we don't want you to do and escape."
This put Shang in a troublesome situation.
No one was allowed to see his identity, but he also had to enter the academy.
"Fine," Shang said as he put the emblem away.
Teacher Loran waited for Shang to take off his cloak.
However, Shang simply turned around and walked away.
"Where are you going?" teacher Loran asked with furrowed brows.
"I will return during the day. You won't let me in, but Soran will," Shang said.
Shang hadn't met his disciple brother Soran very often in the last couple of months, but as the Dean's student, he had still gotten the privilege to refer to Soran with just his first name.
Soran and Shang didn't get along very well, which was why they avoided each other most of the time.
However, Soran and Shang still knew that they had to work together at least.
Teacher Loran looked at the leaving Shang with a bitter expression.
This was suspicious!
However, he also couldn't stop him from leaving. After all, he hadn't tried to forcefully enter the academy.
"You're back."
The two stopped suddenly as a third person appeared in front of Shang.
It was the Dean.
"Yes, I'm back," Shang said.
The Dean nodded. "Let's go inside. The city can defend itself for a night without me."
Then, the Dean looked at teacher Loran. "Good work."
Teacher Loran stood up respectfully and bowed a slight bit. "Just doing my job."
Teacher Loran had handled the situation perfectly.
One had to remember that, at this moment, Shang represented Duke Whirlwind's faction.
The academy was inside Duke Whirlwind's territory, but just as teacher Loran said, the academy was politically neutral.
Letting a political figure enter the academy just like that was bad.
However, the academy also had to show respect to Duke Whirlwind's faction.
Because of that, teacher Loran had said that Shang could enter, but he would need to show his identity.
Additionally, he would have probably also been followed around during the night until one of the Vice-Deans returned in the morning.
Teacher Loran's job was only to deal with visitors during the night and only as long as no one higher ranked than him was available. After that, it would be their job.
In short, teacher Loran did his job the same way Shang did it.
It wasn't his job to judge the visitor, but it was his job to keep everything in order while the superiors weren't available.
Shang and the Dean jumped over the gate and entered the academy.
The academy was mostly empty during the night, but there were still the occasional students training during the night.
The two of them entered the main building and went into the secret basement.
After walking for a while, they entered Shang's old room.
Shang put his cloak and spear away before summoning Sword.
"I'm back," Sword said to Shang.
Shang smiled a little. "You are."
Surprisingly, this had been the very first time the two of them had been apart without being able to see each other.
Ever since Shang had entered the world, the two of them had always been in each other's presence.
"How did the job go?" Shang's teacher asked.
"I met with a group of about 30 warriors in the morning of…"
Over the next hour, Shang told the Dean everything he had done during his job.
The Dean listened and commented on a couple of things Shang could have done better.
Shang listened to everything his teacher told him. After all, the Dean had a lot of experience.
After Shang was done retelling everything, the Dean nodded. "You did well."
And then, something surprising happened.
When the Inquisitor had praised Shang, he hadn't felt anything.
But now that the Dean said it…
Shang didn't feel so bad.
