It wasn't that Li Ban was overly confident or that he simply enjoyed playing the bait.
He had just been certain, long before the crown prince's investiture ceremony, that someone was targeting him.
Whether it was Li Yan wanting to leave with him, or the Nine Heavens Thunder Meteor that had been thrust into his hands, both felt far too abrupt.
Given the circumstances, he was naturally the only choice to act as bait.
Besides, the white-robed priests overseeing the Wizard World were not to be trifled with.
Right when Li Ban had first vaguely sensed something amiss, they had already noticed Xiao Suo acting strangely.
His behavior in the Hundred Flowers Pavilion and Zhongbei City had been a little too blatant.
It was as if he were screaming at the white-robed priests, "Here I am, come catch me!"
He was trying to lure the tiger from the mountain.
Thus, after conferring, Priest Zhu Yao and Priest Chu Zhan had departed under the guise of hunting Xiao Suo, but in truth, they had never stepped foot outside Capital City.
Later, upon discovering someone had gifted Li Ban the Nine Heavens Thunder Meteor—an item capable of disrupting tracking—she had secretly slipped her own Self-Seeking Mirror to Li Ban before the ceremony, letting him store it in his Cubic Space.
Meanwhile, she had called in several priests for backup, lying in ambush near Capital City. That way, once Li Ban left the city, whether trouble erupted within the Imperial Dynasty or with Li Ban himself, they could rapidly pinpoint his location through her Self-Seeking Mirror.
However, the execution of this plan had hit a slight snag.
None of them had anticipated that the Realm Emperor, a man already sitting at the pinnacle of power in the Wizard World, would actually choose to cooperate with a black-robed priest.
On the surface, Priest Chu Zhan appeared unbothered, but inside, the blow had hit him hard.
It felt as if a child he had painstakingly raised to adulthood had suddenly turned around, invited a wolf into the house, and helped a thief rob their own family.
So, when the Realm Emperor and the crown prince entered Zichen Hall, the priests had merely kept a distracted eye on the place to prevent outside intrusion. They never imagined that after Li Ban was snatched away by the suddenly appearing Xiao Suo, he would be brought right to Zichen Hall.
Granted, if the Realm Emperor hadn't emerged after another two days, they would have gone inside to investigate, but by then, it likely would have been too late for Li Ban.
Fortunately, despite being subdued by Xiao Suo, Li Ban still found a chance to pull out Priest Zhu Yao's Self-Seeking Mirror and broadcast an SOS from inside Zichen Hall, allowing the ambushing priests to arrive just in time.
Under the siege of several priests, the black-robed Xiao Suo was finally subdued.
As Priest Zhu Yao spoke with Li Ban, she kept her eyes glued to Xiao Suo. "This man is far too cunning. We cornered him several times before, but he slipped away every time."
Zhu Yao was clearly thrilled to have captured Xiao Suo, the corners of her lips curling up slightly. "He fancied himself clever, hiding in here, but he never thought we'd use Zichen Hall's lockdown against him and trap him inside to die."
"He who plays with fire will inevitably burn," Priest Chu Zhan said, walking over.
He carried the unconscious Realm Emperor in one hand and told Li Ban, "The Realm Emperor bears 9th-tier dragon qi; he cannot die yet. But rest assured, once we report this to the Wizard Lord, his days are numbered."
At that moment, the remaining three priests successfully sealed Xiao Suo—who was now reduced to just a head and a torso—inside a transparent tetrahedron.
He looked like an insect trapped in amber.
Seeing Xiao Suo like this brought Li Ban immense satisfaction, though he didn't show it on his face.
Chu Zhan dropped the now-harmless Realm Emperor and walked up to the imprisoned Xiao Suo.
"Report to the Wizard Lord, extract the fragment, summon the lightning tribulation, and obliterate his soul."
Xiao Suo's face could still move. Hearing this, he narrowed his eyes, his muffled voice leaking out from the seal.
"Looks like I pushed my luck too far today."
Zhu Yao turned her head to Li Ban. "Li Ban, you come with me too. In this report to the Wizard Lord, you claim the greatest merit."
Li Ban's eyes lit up. Was he actually going to see the legendary Wizard Lord today?
Although the Self-Seeking Mirror he'd found housed a strange Faceless One, Li Ban still had no idea what that entity's true identity or abilities were.
Because the Faceless One seemed connected to the people of the Ring World, Li Ban remained highly skeptical of every piece of information he offered.
He followed Zhu Yao and stood behind Priest Chu Zhan.
Aside from Priest Hunyou, everyone else stood guard around Xiao Suo to prevent any sudden mishaps.
Standing at the very front, Priest Chu Zhan took out his own Self-Seeking Mirror and pointed its surface at the sky.
"Reporting to the Wizard Lord! The black-robed Xiao Suo has stolen another's wizard embryo and bewitched the Realm Emperor! I beseech you to send down divine lightning, strip him of his aptitude, and destroy his soul!"
A thundercloud abruptly materialized above their heads.
Thunder rolled, and a brilliant flash of lightning illuminated the entire hall as if it were broad daylight.
As the electric glare faded, a trident forged of pure lightning descended from the cloud.
The trident wasn't large; it measured no more than a meter in length.
But when Priest Chu Zhan reached out and grasped it, a towering, ephemeral figure seemed to superimpose itself over his body.
Li Ban vaguely felt that figure's gaze sweep over him, followed by a sharp prick of pain between his eyebrows.
He frowned but didn't make a sound.
He wondered if the other priests had felt the same thing.
Priest Chu Zhan raised the trident high and drove it into the regular tetrahedron.
It was like stabbing through thin air; he met zero resistance.
The tip of the trident pierced straight into Xiao Suo's brow!
Chu Zhan then gave a vicious yank, ripping the trident back out.
Now, a diamond-shaped black-and-white crystal sat skewered on the tip.
Li Ban stared, his eyes widening in shock.
"That must be Xiao Suo's Wizard Embryo Fragment! As expected of the Wizard Lord's handiwork, the efficiency is way higher than Xiao Suo's!"
Back when Xiao Suo had tried to dig out Li Ban's Wizard Embryo Fragment, he'd rummaged around for ages without success.
He'd only stopped when Shi Ming appeared and saved his life.
Stripped of the Wizard Embryo Fragment, Xiao Suo's face rapidly paled before turning a deathly, ashen gray.
Though he didn't age as rapidly as the Realm Emperor had, he was visibly looking less and less like a living human.
Just as Xiao Suo had explained to Li Ban before, a priest who lost their Wizard Embryo Fragment would gradually bleed their vitality until they perished.
But everyone else present, save for Xiao Suo, broke into joyful smiles.
That even included the usually aloof Priest Zhu Yao.
"Finally killed him."
Li Ban heard her mutter under her breath.
Suddenly, Priest Hunyou, who was treating Li Zhai, let out a loud shout. "Not good!"
The previously relaxed crowd instantly whipped their heads toward the corner of the hall.
They saw Priest Hunyou snatch up the unconscious but seemingly unharmed Li Zhai and blink right next to Priest Zhu Yao.
"Nihilization! The element I extracted from Li Zhai just directly nihilized!"
The word "nihilization" caused every priest's face to change instantly.
Including Li Ban.
He had witnessed the people of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda directly counterattack grand prince Li Yuan because of the Mutated Element.
The Mutated Element was the very culprit that had reduced an entire state to nihility.
The element Xiao Suo had prepared was actually a Mutated Element?
Did the man not care for his own life either?
Li Ban turned back to Xiao Suo. The man's face was ashen, yet the corners of his mouth were stubbornly curled upward.
"Looks like there's still a slight flaw in the experiment; the Blood Demon actually nihilized. Sure enough, whenever I run into that guy, my luck goes sour."
He looked at Li Ban and the others, his eyes cloudy and dim.
"But this time, the ones with worse luck are you."
With that, he slowly closed his eyes. His entire body began to rot and decompose at high speed, like a corpse placed on fast-forward.
Within the transparent tetrahedron, all that soon remained was a limbless white skeleton.
Shortly after, the bones pulverized, scattering into a small pile of ash.
"He got off easy!" Li Ban heard one of the unfamiliar priests spit. "We should have subjected him to Tendon Puller and Skinning, giving him a death by a thousand cuts!"
"Enough," Priest Chu Zhan said. His face was a bit pale, his previous composure nowhere to be seen. "What is the use of saying that now? Let's solve the problem!"
The spot where Li Zhai had originally lain was now a tangle of vines thrashing inside a cloud of black and white mist.
But anyone could see the vines shaking, trying to tear free from the mist's restraints like a struggling human. Yet, they couldn't escape at all. They could only be devoured by the black and white mist bit by bit, converting into even more of the mist.
Priest Hunyou deposited Li Zhai in the corner of the hall before rapidly rushing back.
"Capital City absolutely cannot become a second Nihility State. Otherwise, we might as well apologize with our deaths," Priest Hunyou said, his face just as grim.
Li Ban still wasn't entirely clear on the dangers of nihilization, but seeing that none of the priests looked relaxed, he knew things had gotten deadly serious.
He could only turn to Priest Zhu Yao. "Is there no way for the priests to handle it? Could we report it to the Wizard Lord?"
Priest Zhu Yao knit her brow tightly. "Our reporting to the Wizard Lord isn't true communication. The Wizard Lord's energy is entirely devoted to maintaining the Divine Kingdom. He only casts his gaze upon the Wizard World once every so often, and that interval is measured in years at a minimum. Once the Mutated Element before us undergoes complete nihilization, it will only take a few days to swallow the entirety of Capital City."
Li Ban drew a sharp breath. He looked at the Blood Demon Vine before them; barely a fraction remained free of the black and white mist.
"Do the priests not have an emergency method to contact the Wizard Lord?"
Zhu Yao slowly shook her head, but she grabbed Li Ban and pulled him two steps back. "Li Ban, you still don't understand. To the Wizard Lord, the priests... aren't actually important. Even if the Wizard World suffers, as long as it doesn't completely collapse, it can still be salvaged. But the nihilization of Capital City will definitely anger the Wizard Lord. When that happens, none of us will meet a good end."
"There is still a way!" Priest Chu Zhan suddenly declared. "I will use my Cubic Heaven and Earth to absorb this incompletely transformed Blood Demon Vine, and then transport it to the Nihility State. That way, Capital City will be safe."
The hall fell silent for a moment.
Even Li Ban knew that doing so might dispose of the nihilizing Blood Demon Vine, but the damage to Priest Chu Zhan would be catastrophic.
A Cubic Heaven and Earth was an internal space carved out by a Wizard Embryo Fragment.
And Li Ban had seen with his own eyes inside the Leader's mind-space how the Virus element devoured dead Wizard Embryo Fragments.
This proved beyond a doubt that a Wizard Embryo Fragment could be harmed, or even completely destroyed.
If Priest Chu Zhan directly pulled the semi-nihilized Blood Demon Vine into his own Cubic Space, his fragment would certainly suffer a degree of contamination.
It just wasn't clear exactly how severe the consequences would be.
But very quickly, Priest Hunyou's words answered the question in Li Ban's heart.
"No! Chu Zhan, out of all the Dark Moon Priests, you hold the highest hope of advancing to a Sun Priest. If your Cubic Heaven and Earth is contaminated by a Mutated Element, you will completely lose any chance of promotion!"