Zhuang Li turned around with a smile. “It was just a small favor.” But he didn’t explain exactly how he had done it.
Ye Yang didn’t ask either. He simply took out two pearls and offered them as thanks.
Shen Xiuyun held the sea pearl—clearly very valuable at first glance—scratched his head, and carefully chose his words. “Um, so… things like this are too precious. You really shouldn’t go around giving them to people casually.”
Ye Yang didn’t see anything wrong with it at all. “I’m not giving them casually. I’m giving them to you.”
Zhuang Li’s smile widened a little. “Thank you, little one. We’ll accept them then. But from now on, don’t give away such valuable things anymore.”
Shen Xiuyun wanted to say something more, but Zhuang Li stopped him with a look.
After taking the pearls, Zhuang Li reached under the table, pulled out a jar, and handed it to Ye Yang. “Actually, we have something to give you too. Open it when you get home.”
Ye Yang looked puzzled. “For me? But I haven’t done anything.”
“Friends giving each other small gifts is completely normal. By the way, do you have any close classmates? You could give them little things too—like snacks, for example.”
Ye Yang looked thoughtful and silently took notes in his mind: Human friends exchange gifts from time to time.
After Ye Yang left, Shen Xiuyun said, “This little demon has no sense of boundaries at all. Is that something you can just give away casually? Does he still remember that his cover story is being an orphan subsidized by the government?”
Zhuang Li looked completely relaxed. “It’s fine. We’re watching out for him, aren’t we? Besides, you should know by now—YCG actually found Ye Yang a mentor, and it’s that legendary figure. He’s at the university now too. With him around, what do we have to worry about?”
Shen Xiuyun’s expression grew more serious. “I never expected that legend to be real either. But if even a deity has entered the human world, the current situation might be even more dire than we realize.”
Zhuang Li said, “If the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up. Why should we small fry overthink it?”
Shen Xiuyun rolled his eyes. “You’re a half-demon. Of course you’re not worried.”
Zhuang Li wasn’t angry at all. Still smiling, he turned back and continued playing his game.
·
It was Friday. After his afternoon classes ended, Ye Yang returned to the apartment.
The first thing he did when he got home was eagerly open the jar Zhuang Li had given him.
The jar was large—about ten liters in capacity. When he removed the sealed lid, a refreshing, familiar scent instantly filled the entire room.
It was a jar of clear seawater!
Ye Yang couldn’t resist scooping up a handful. Wow! Deep-sea seawater—very clean, high-quality water. Even though he didn’t need to soak in seawater often to maintain humidity, for a marine species, being able to soak in such high-quality seawater after living on land for so long was an absolute delight.
Ye Yang immediately poured a small basin of it, transformed into his true form, and gently hopped into the basin, completely unaware that in human society, giving seawater as a gift might be considered strange.
“Mmm… so comfortable~”
He hadn’t realized it before, but now that he was soaking in familiar seawater, he found that he did miss life in the ocean a little.
After soaking for quite a while, his skin fully relaxed. Ye Yang finally reluctantly climbed out of the basin. He really wanted to just soak there and fall asleep, but he had business to attend to.
He reopened his chat history with Director Tu and confirmed his mission.
Two weeks earlier, Director Tu had sent him a message informing him of a high-reward mission. Ye Yang wasn’t yet an official member of YCG, but he could take on less important missions as an external affiliate.
This time, Director Tu happened to spot a mission that suited Ye Yang perfectly and sent it over immediately.
The mission difficulty level was C—the lowest difficulty—but the reward was high. Completing it would earn either 40,000 yuan in cash or intelligence of comparable value.
The mission itself wasn’t difficult—just capturing a spirit creature causing trouble. According to the mission briefing, the spirit was likely a plant type, not particularly dangerous. So far, it had only caused minor disturbances in a remote mountainous area of Xishan Province and hadn’t harmed anyone yet.
Before he had even finished reading the briefing, an unexpected message popped up: “*Alipay has received 5,000 yuan.”
??? Why had Professor Shen transferred him money??
Just then, Director Tu called. “Xiao Ye, don’t forget the mission I snagged for you. You’ll have to do things like this sooner or later anyway, so consider this practice. Use your magic freely—don’t worry if it makes a bit of a scene. Safety first. Oh, and you can expense your travel costs, but try to stick to economy class and second-class train seats. Do you have enough money? If not, ask your mentor for it.”
Director Tu was probably in a hurry to buy groceries again. She spoke rapidly, rattled off a bunch of things, and hung up before Ye Yang could even respond.
Ye Yang: “…” He hadn’t even said anything yet. Professor Shen must have some kind of precognition—impressive, as expected of Xuanwu.
But wait—he could use his magic freely? That was good news.
Ye Yang’s enthusiasm for the mission grew even more. Of course, he didn’t know many spells anyway, so there probably wouldn’t be much of a scene.
·
“No… can’t collapse here…” Ye Yang thought he was yelling, but his voice was barely a whisper that only he could hear.
The blood seeping from his wounds was growing cold. His slashed throat was slowly healing, but his badly damaged voice box still made it difficult to produce sound. His limbs, with sections of bone already exposed at the breaks, were nearly impossible to move. The muscles in his shoulders twitched uncontrollably.
The lightning fire he had thrown just seconds ago had rolled into the weeds, briefly igniting the dry grass before quickly extinguishing itself.
Ye Yang closed his eyes, trying hard to suppress the itch in his throat and the fear in his heart. But there was nothing he could do. He was forced to face the despair head-on.
…
Half a day earlier, after taking a plane, then a bus, then walking a stretch, and finally hitching a ride on an old man’s tricycle, Ye Yang had arrived at the village near his mission site. But the exact location, he still needed to investigate on his own.
The village was small, with few outsiders ever visiting—and even fewer young people like Ye Yang.
Ye Yang had a likable face. Without even asking around much, the aunties at the village entrance started gossiping freely.
Apparently, there was a female ghost here. Over the past few days, she had terrified many people.
Once the topic came up, everyone got excited.
Even the tricycle grandpa who had given Ye Yang a ride chimed in. He said that a neighbor of his, who had never feared ghosts or spirits, had gotten drunk a few nights ago and taken a wrong turn on his way home. Passing through a rarely visited area, he was so scared by the female ghost that he fell into a field and was chased all the way home before barely making it back.
“He twisted his ankle falling into the field. Couldn’t even walk for two days. The poor man looked like his soul had been scared right out of him. What a tragedy.”
“When did this female ghost start appearing?”
The old man looked up at the sky, thought for a moment, and said, “I can’t quite remember. Probably around the time old Teng’s daughter had her accident. But old Teng’s daughter didn’t have long hair, though.”
Before Ye Yang could ask further, the aunties started chattering away about the Teng family. Piecing together their words, Ye Yang got a rough picture.
Over half a month ago, old Teng’s daughter, Teng Hua, who was studying in graduate school far away, suddenly came home.
That was unusual. The daughter’s university was very far from here. A round-trip plane ticket cost several thousand yuan. The train was cheaper but took a whole day and night to get there. School had just started not long ago—why would she suddenly come back?
Then, on the very night Teng Hua returned home, she fell into the well in her family’s backyard and drowned!
Many people heard the sound of arguing coming from the Teng house that night. And what’s more, the very next day, the body was taken straight to the funeral parlor for cremation. It was just too strange.
“You tell me—who cremates a body that fast? I don’t believe old Teng’s conscience is clear. How his youngest daughter really died… it’s hard to say.”
Ye Yang did the math. The timing matched roughly when the spirit creature mentioned in his mission briefing had appeared.
The old man sighed. “Anyway, after that, a lot of people said they saw a female ghost. I still think it’s connected to old Teng’s daughter somehow.”
One of the aunties disagreed. “That girl’s hair was shorter than this young man’s.”
Ye Yang asked what the female ghost looked like. The old man shook his head. “They say when you encounter a ghost, you can’t look back. And it was pitch black—who could see clearly? Old Wang was drunk too. He vaguely remembers… long hair, feet not touching the ground. Yeah, that’s it.”
The auntie nodded along. “That’s right, that’s what I heard too.”
Feet not touching the ground? No wonder people thought it was a ghost. But Ye Yang knew it wasn’t necessarily a ghost. Spirit creatures came in all forms, and any kind of appearance was possible.
The aunties enthusiastically offered to let Ye Yang stay at their homes. Ye Yang politely declined, saying he had already booked a room in town and was just looking around.
“That haunted place you mentioned—could I go take a look? I’m really curious after hearing you all talk about it.”
The old man and aunties understood. People were naturally curious, after all. But they themselves weren’t willing to go. In the end, the tricycle grandpa drove Ye Yang a few hundred meters and pointed out a direction from a distance.
“Alright, young man. The place you want to go is up ahead. It’s getting dark. I suggest you don’t let curiosity get the better of you. Just take a look from afar and head back if everything seems fine.”
Ye Yang thanked him profusely.
Watching the old man ride away on his tricycle, Ye Yang continued toward the location. He walked another ten-plus minutes before reaching the place the old man had described.
The site where the female ghost had supposedly appeared was a patch of wasteland.
The original owner of this land had long since left the village. It was far from the village, right next to a steep, treeless barren mountain. Plus, the soil quality here was terrible—nothing could grow. None of the villagers wanted anything to do with it, so it had remained abandoned.
Aside from being desolate and overgrown with weeds, there was nothing obviously wrong—no demonic energy, no presence of spirit creatures. Everything seemed perfectly normal.
Ye Yang circled the area several times. By the time darkness had fully fallen, he finally noticed something unusual about a few hovenia dulcis (oriental raisin trees) growing by the edge of a field ridge.
These trees were unusually short, looking malnourished—yet the fruit clusters they bore were surprisingly large and plump.
Ye Yang was cautious. He thought it over, then tentatively reached out to pick one of the fruits. Just as his fingers were about to touch the fruit cluster, a sinister wind suddenly struck from behind. Having anticipated this, Ye Yang rolled out of the way. He looked up—but saw nothing.
He acted decisively, forming a hand seal to set up a barrier. Whatever it was, he would trap it first and ask questions later!
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