Great, I'm surrounded by villains.

Chapter 96 Who killed the Peng bird?
The academy was in the midst of a turbulent period, and its turmoil did not stop with Duan Mingyuan's arrival.

Half an hour after Duan Mingyuan returned to the dormitory, Jiu Yue came back with a serious face and brought bad news.

She did not communicate smoothly with the monsters of Qingchi Peak.

As the teacher of the "Magical Monsters" course, she originally planned to build a good relationship with the monsters on the mountain first, and then take the students to get close to the monsters in the back mountain during class. In order to achieve friendly cooperation between the two sides, she spared no expense and brought three lucky braised chickens as diplomatic hard currency.

However, the attitude of the monsters in Qingchi Peak towards the academy had reached the point of hostility. When they heard that she came on behalf of the academy, they did not look at her well at all. Some of them even accused her of colluding with humans and being a traitor among the monsters.

Not to mention leading the students to get close to the monsters, the group of monsters warned her not to let the students of the academy break into their territory, otherwise they would attack and hurt people.

"Didn't Yunlin say that the monsters on the mountain get along well with the academy?"

Duan Mingyuan glanced at the aggrieved Jiu Yue and asked in confusion. He never expected that with Jiu Yue's excellent social skills, she would fail in communicating with the monster.

The diplomatic hard currency Lucky Braised Chicken was brought back to the dormitory, which shows that the monsters on the mountain don't buy her account at all.

"I asked Lihua to help sneak in and inquire about it. He said that a monster disappeared in the mountain."

"What monster?"

"A roc."

After hearing these three words, the dormitory fell into a brief silence.

Duan Mingyuan frowned, "Isn't the meat of the Dapeng bird tough?"

"It's not woody, as long as it's been carefully stewed... No! It's not for me to eat."

September protested, "I promised not to eat the monsters on the mountain, and I will definitely keep my promise. Even if the Roc is really eaten by someone, it's not me!"

Not only Mr. Mingyuan, but even Miss Lihua and Miss Yunlin suspected that she did it.

The timing of the Peng bird's disappearance was too coincidental. It disappeared on the first night they moved into the academy. Some monsters saw humans breaking into their territory in the middle of the night. After the Peng bird went to persuade the intruder not to violate the academy's rules, it disappeared without a trace.

The Peng bird is very righteous, and all the monsters on Qingchi Peak respect him very much.

Today the monsters searched the mountain for a whole morning, but saw no trace of the Peng bird.

As a result, September became the prime suspect.

"But Mr. Mingyuan, you can prove my innocence."

Jiu Yue argued, "You slept with my arms around you yesterday. I stayed in bed the whole night, so it was impossible for me to kill and eat the roc."

This is very powerful testimony. If the crime occurred in the second half of the night, Duan Mingyuan could provide sufficient alibi for Jiu Yue.

"The academy has a rule that after sunset, no teacher or student in the academy is allowed to trespass into the monster's territory."

Duan Mingyuan closed the half-finished textbook and seemed to be thinking about something.

Even during the most friendly period between humans and monsters on Qingchi Peak, this rule was an iron rule that could not be violated. Violators would be put in solitary confinement for a month at the very least, or be sentenced to a felony at the worst.

The reason for this iron rule is to prohibit anyone from going to the restricted area east of Qingchi Peak without reporting.

He had checked the map of Qingchi Peak. Yunhai Academy only occupied a small area. The area where the monsters lived was blocked between the academy and the restricted area. If he continued to move forward along the east side, he would most likely encounter some monsters known for their brutality. These aggressive monsters were divided into the restricted area in order to guard the Hell at the foot of the east mountain. The map showed that "Azkaban" was also within the scope of Qingchi Peak.

Due to the special nature of the quadruple barrier, it is impossible for the deans of all generations to exile those who have committed unforgivable crimes. Therefore, all those who are convicted by the academy will be imprisoned in the dark prison.

In fact, apart from the deans of the four academies, almost no one else has actually crossed the restricted area and seen the scenes in the Nether Prison. However, there have always been many legends about the Nether Prison circulating within the academy.

For example, the most vicious criminals since the founding of the academy were imprisoned there. Most of them turned into evil spirits after their death and were imprisoned in dark prisons.

"The missing Peng bird must have had bad luck and encountered a traitor in the academy who was heading to Hell."

This was the most reasonable explanation Duan Mingyuan could think of, and it also fits in with the second possibility he mentioned—the traitor is trying every possible way to destroy the academy's quadruple barrier from the inside. Now it seems that the traitor seems to have placed his hopes on the prisoners imprisoned in the Nether Prison.

He touched September's head, stroked her drooping ears, and said, "This is an important discovery. I will report this to the dean."

The prisoner inside must be powerful enough, so the traitor believes that as long as he can release it from the cell, he can destroy the academy's quadruple barrier from the inside.

Dean Mosong must know what is imprisoned in the prison.

"I want to go too. How dare you let me take the blame!"

After receiving the praise, September suddenly felt relieved and full of fighting spirit.

Not being able to eat the big chickens in the mountains was already bad enough for her, and now a traitor in the academy even made her take the blame for the disappearance of the big roc.

How could she, the king of evil, endure such humiliation?
When the door of the dean's office was knocked, Mo Song was leaning back in a chair with his eyes closed. It was not difficult to see that the series of recent events had brought great pressure to this century-old man. On the table in front of him was a painting with sloppy strokes and spots of paint splashed on the table.

This is obviously not the normal level of a master painter.

Duan Mingyuan could only barely recognize that it was a landscape painting of a college.

"Teacher Mingyuan, Teacher Jiuyue, what's going on?"

Mo Song tried to cheer himself up, his eyes full of fatigue.

He hasn't had a good night's sleep for some time since the news of the first student's murder reached the academy.

"The roc disappeared in the second half of the night and is likely to have been killed now."

September said.

"Big Peng bird?" Mo Song calmed down, and bad news came again, "What's going on?"

"Mr. Mingyuan and I agree that a spy from the academy tried to sneak into the prison in the second half of the night, and the Peng bird unfortunately encountered the spy and was killed."

The reason why there were no traces of a fight was most likely because the Peng Bird recognized the identity of the traitor, a person trusted by the monsters, and was therefore able to kill him with one blow when the Peng Bird was completely unprepared.

"I see."

Mo Song sat up straight, his face becoming more solemn. "I have informed the guards that no one except me is allowed to approach the Nether Prison during this period. It should be safe there for the time being, not to mention..."

He hesitated for a moment, and finally made up his mind, saying, "Although it has been convicted of a serious crime by the academy, it will never go along with the people in the court or even the people from outer space."

(End of this chapter)