Gold City was incredibly busy during the day, the merchants walked around like an endless stream. Countless stalls littered the streets. Earthen and Normese buildings could be seen everywhere, the luxuriousness of the city definitely living up to being named after gold. Everything was extravagant without limit, and even the statues in the middle of the city were made of violet gold. It was the biggest currency in Planet Norma; one violet gold coin could be traded for 1,000 normal gold coins.

Even though the citys security had been increased by several times, it did not really seem to affect the regular trade. It was more accurate to say that the greedy merchants had long since treated money as more important than their lives.

From the rumors related to Asabanor that Lilith heard, Xiao Lins heart was even more unsettled. He suddenly understood that even if Lilith and himself were Asabanors targets, they were definitely not the only ones. Asabanor had big ambitions.

Should we contact our academies first? Xiao Lin suggested.

I actually dont think so.

Lilith unexpectedly rejected it. She had been the one who initially suggested looking for the academy offices in Gold City. After all, she had gone missing, and Judge Academy was definitely frantically looking for her. It was also where Xiao Lin and her opinions differed.

You changed your mind? Xiao Lin asked as he smiled.

Im doing it for your own good. Lilith glanced at him, hesitating before producing a roll of paper, and sighed.

Whats this?

See for yourself.

Lilith and Ibeiyas expressions were not good. Xiao Lin unfurled the paper, and the words on top were written in Normese, Mandarin, and English. His face darkened as he read it.

To be accurate, it was an arrest warrant, and one issued by Dawn Academys officials. The contents were: Student Xiao Lin from the academy has violated the academy rules, abandoning his duties. If anyone finds this person, contact any of Dawn Academys offices. Any reliable information will be rewarded with 10,000 New Dollars.

What did Xiao Lin do wrong?

Thinking about it carefully, he had come with a few departments from Dawn Academy to investigate Asabanor with Judge Academy. Three of them were killed unexpectedly in Wildfire Town, and after that, the academy had deliberately not sent reinforcements, forcing Xiao Lin and Lilith to find a way out themselves. After a few problems, they finally safely reached Gold City.

It was not hard to see that Judge Academy and Dawn Academy had both definitely inspected Wildfire Town and did not find their corpses. To the outside world, they really were missing, but Xiao Lin did not expect that Dawn Academy would release such a notice.

What kind of joke is this?! Xiao Lin was trembling with anger. In that situation, Dawn Academy did not even help them, and he could only choose to save himself. Yet, that was seen as a violation of academy rules.

Be quiet! Do you want the entire city to know that you are here? Lilith stared at him. She then asked curiously, I thought that your academy was just targeting me, but it looks like you were caught up as well. Its strange though. Look at the seal on the bottom. Its not your deans seal.

Xiao Lin gasped. There was a Dawn Academy seal at the bottom, but he could not see anything off about it. After that, he recalled that his letter of appointment had the deans seal on it.

Taking out the letter, the seal was formed with various complicated patterns, and in the middle of it was a very clear Li. Xiao Lin only knew that the deans surname was Li from that, but comparing it to the arrest warrant, it was completely different, meaning that the arrest warrant was not issued by the dean.

It could have been issued by someone else. Xiao Lin was still unhappy, but knowing that the dean did not do it relaxed him a little.

Do you understand or not? Lilith said. This is a warrant that goes past the academys territories, so it needs the deans personal seal to be in effect. Otherwise, every other academy can just ignore it!

Lilith sighed. If Im not mistaken, this seal probably comes from your army. As for Dawn Academys governmental structure, you should know about it by now.

Xiao Lin nodded. He was no longer a complete rookie. Basically every academy had two power structures: one for the academy and one for their colonial territories. Being military organisations, they were especially sensitive to that. Every academy operated differently, and in Dawn Academy, the one who held the power for both was the dean.

Of course, because he held the most power, the dean naturally had enemies, especially within the army. He had heard from Yu Mei that, in order to preserve internal balance, the dean had divided up a large amount of his power in the army in order to achieve a temporary unity within the academy. That was why Yu Mei had established the sixth regiment.

Xiao Lin thought about the assessment at the end of the third examination. Those old folks with military backgrounds obviously charged at him to make things difficult. That was when he started to feel the internal power struggles within the academy.

Was he to be the sacrificial object in the struggles of the higher-ups again?

Xiao Lin was not certain, but it was obvious someone was out to get him. It really was not a good time to approach the academies and hand himself in. In the same way, if Lilith appeared, she would definitely be pressed for information on Xiao Lin, and he would be exposed then too.

Lilith really did treat Xiao Lin as a friend, and did not want Xiao Lin to enter an awkward position because of her. That caused him to feel incredibly grateful.

What caused Xiao Lin some relief was that there were no pictures on the arrest warrant. All they had were some descriptions of his appearance. He did not need to worry about anyone noticing him in the streets, and Lilith felt that the warrant was only sent to the various offices within the colonies, probably anticipating that Xiao Lin would definitely immediately head to an academy branch office if he did not die in Wildfire Town.

Since he guessed their intentions, Xiao Lin naturally could not fall into their trap. Even if he did not know what would happen to him if he went, he knew that it would not be anything good.

The best way is to return to the academy right away. Every Academy has their own jurisdiction, and the army cant interfere with it. They wont be able to do anything to you if you return.

Liliths suggestion was actually what Xiao Lin was thinking of. The two of them discussed for a bit before deciding on it. However, Lilith could not accompany Xiao Lin there. As a student of Judge Academy, she could not enter Dawn Academys territories as she pleased.