A glowing tiny version of Zhang Dong was floating beside Beatrice as they walked through a long corridor. Next to them was the Principal and the Vice Principal that looked like your regular white-bearded wizard.
“So you have everything prepared?”
“Yes, honorable Leigong.”
“No one besides you two and a couple more know what this is really about?”
“That is right, everyone that we trust have already been seen by you.”
Zhang Dong nodded while looking forward. A few moments ago at the Principal’s office, there were more people present. All of them were examined by him and deemed safe to work with. Now they were on the way to a secluded location where the screening process for the demons would be taking place.
“Fine, just remember that Beatrice is not to be seen.”
He looked to the side, his summoner was walking right next to him and going towards a dangerous location. There was no way of knowing how strong the demons here were. The catgirl that he discovered was a minor one that was apprehended by the Vice-Principal. If they others would be that easy to catch remained to be seen.
The most trusted people that the Principal brought over were just part of the staff and not very strong in general. The biggest threat to the students would come from the other four Vice-Principals. They were already posing as strong people of the races, if they were more powerful in reality defeating them would be hard.
“Don’t worry, we would never let any harm come to one of our students.”
“Oh really?”
Zhang Dong thought back to the countless times he saw students bullying other students in this magical academy. Was this dark elf just oblivious to things like this or did she just not care. This also made him think about his own sect and clan.
He was the leader there and quite similar to this dark-skinned lady. Were some of the disciples getting oppressed by the more influential sect members? What could a new member from a lesser clan do against someone from the main Zhang Clan line if they chose to terrorize them? Would any word of this reach his ears? Probably not, he thought.
“Is there a problem, honorable Leigong?”
“No… it’s fine, but you should probably do something about the power dynamics in this school.”
Zhang Dong mentioned to the surprise of the Principal that he still didn’t know the name off. They had finally reached their destination and were greeted by the people he examined before.
This was quite the varied bunch of individuals. There was a bearded dwarf, a smaller gnome, and even some half orc that was almost three meters in height. All of them were trusted retainers of this Principal and also instructors in this academy.
“Is everything ready?”
“Indeed.”
The dwarf answered while leading everyone to a side room. It gave him some law and order vibes, with him and Beatrice being on the other side of the mirror. The room was dimly lit with a large glass window. Through this window, they could look into the chamber beyond it. Inside of it would be the place where the instructors would gather.
These teachers would then be examined by Zhang Dong. If deemed clean they would just continue on with their day, if not they would be apprehended and questioned for details related to demon activities.
Beatrice looked around while the Principal moved over to the glass window. It had the function of two-way glass. The person on the inside would not be able to see what was inside this room while they had a clear view inside.
“Well, this might take a while Beatrice so you might want to keep yourself busy.”
The blond girl nodded while Zhang Dong floated away. There was a chair and some books for her to keep her busy but she decided to do something else. He had taught her some breathing exercises that would push her mana capacity forward. They would also boost her body functions as if she was cultivating a lesser body refining technique.
“Interesting…”
The Vice-Principal played around with his beard while looking at this blond girl. She sat down in a lotus position and started performing a strange exercise. He could see mana entering her body through passages that he didn’t think were possible.
“Interested?”
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The old man snapped back into reality after a small Zhang Dong floated over to him. The old man was a bit sheepish around him after he had placed a mark on his soul. Thus he thought the Lightning Emperor was angry with him after he looked at his contractor performing a secret art.
“Relax, I’m not going to do anything to you. We are allies now, if you help me find what I am looking for I could even part with some secret knowledge that just a spirit of my caliber is capable of!”
There was no way of knowing how long this would take. If he promised more rewards these people might prioritize helping him find the cubes.
Finally, the wait stopped and people started entering the room. This whole thing would take quite a bit of time. The magic academy wasn’t as big as a sect from his world but there were still many people here. They were going through every instructor today and being safe by forcing them inside a closed-off room.
“Hm… she is clean…”
The person inside the room looked a bit surprised after walking in and even more, after she was told to leave after a few moments.
“What did you tell them this was?”
Zhang Dong asked while the old lady that was a teacher left the chamber through a different door that she came from.
“That it’s just a standard examination. We sometimes have instructors make a report of their yearly work.”
He nodded and got back to work. The teachers and instructors were ordered to sit by a desk that was close to this mirror. Zhang Dong’s scanning range had been diminished by quite a bit but this was enough for him to notice any third eyes that were being hidden. Even the blue-haired handsome teacher made his appearance but he had already seen him during the lectures so he was clean.
After about an hour the first demon appeared. It took the appearance of an old man that was similar to the Vice-Principal.
“Are you going to capture him here?”
The Principal shook her head while telling this demon to move to another room. There were actually more than one exit from this room.
“Follow me honorable spirit, I’ll be counting on you to dispel the creature’s disguise!”
“Sure, wait here Beatrice.”
He was able to move away from his summoner without feeling any losses in power. For now, it was about three hundred meters but if Beatrice continued with her training then it would only increase.
In the other room, the Vice-Principal was already waiting with two other mean-looking men. The old man that was the demon looked surprised but he wasn’t blowing his cover yet.
Zhang Dong looked to the Principal that nodded at him. He performed the same technique that he previously used on the catgirl and the old man started losing hair and changing into a red-skinned goblin of a monster.
The monster performed a similar scream of anger at the people inside but before it could charge at anyone a magical circle appeared on the floor. This circle started glowing in green color and caused the red demon to drop down to its knees. It was as if gravity was pulling him down and he wasn’t able to move.
Then the two men that were standing together with the Vice-Principal moved in. They placed some kind of collar on this creature that had some strange runic patterns on it.
“Is that?”
“Yes, it’s a slave collar, with it on the demon will have to follow our instructions, the magic in the collar will compel it to act.”
Zhang Dong rubbed his chin as there were versions of this slave collar in his own world. This one seemed to force people to follow the instructions of someone with a special command item. It was mostly a ring or some necklace that the person wore.
The magic item couldn’t brainwash the person that was wearing the collar. It would send painful shocks down anyone’s spine that wore it. It even worked on non-organic beings and could cause huge amounts of pain to anyone. It was possible to resist this collar but a slow death in agony awaited anyone who did that. The collar would also activate whenever a person lied or harbored bad intentions directed at their master.
“Place it in the dungeon!”
The elven lady called out while the creature was dragged out. This made it the second demon that had infiltrated the academy which didn’t bode well for any other institution. This was one of the most prestigious places in the world. A place to train noble magic users, if demons got in here then they certainly would be able to infiltrate lesser guarded organizations.
“I used to play chess with that man…”
The Vice-Principal called out from the side with concern on his face.
“Let us continue… the sooner we get all of those demons, the better!”
“As long as you hold your side of the bargain, I’m all for it.”
Zhang Dong chimed in from the side while the three went back to the room with the two way glass. He wasn’t given much just yet but he was promised a flying ship to visit other regions that could hold the item that he was looking for. The Principal didn’t give him any other good news as she was not able to come up with any cubes.
This was something that he was expecting as regular people wouldn’t really be able to distinguish them from other artifacts. These strange items could be anywhere and they also varied in size. One could be inside some volcano, while another down at the bottom of the sea. The fastest way for him to find them would be to get himself back up to the nascent soul level. Then to just use his map around this globe but this would take some time.
So the scanning process continued. The vast majority of the instructors and teachers came out clean but like the old man before there were some shapeshifters hiding around. The monsters were probably taking over the lives of these people before using the grand teleportation magic to get here.
Their technique was quite good as they could even mimic a person’s soul and DNA to an almost perfect degree. The only reason Zhang Dong was able to see through this disguise was due to his own technique that allowed him to fool even nascent soul masters.
“Hm… you’re not going to like this, but that one is also a demon… and I think it's a lot stronger than the rest…”
What he was looking at now was one of the Vice-Principals. The demon was masking itself as someone at the lower end of core formation but in reality, it was a lot stronger. By how much he wasn’t sure as he was still limited with his senses.
“Well, if it's too hard to handle I’ll be glad to lend a hand… for a little price of course…”
“Price?”
The Principal asked.
“Yes, how about instead of lending me a flying ship… you just give me it. Also some elixirs for Beatrice there would be nice…”
He smiled while the dark elf’s eyebrows twitched in annoyance.
“I’ll think about it, great spirit…”
“Well good luck then!”
A big thumbs up was raised by this small Zhang Dong while the two magicians pulled out their magic staves and got ready for the coming battle.