Shen Xiujun came trotting over, and upon seeing Ye Yang was fine, sighed with relief: “Thank goodness. I didn’t expect that the big shot Fu Ye would actually show up.”
It took Ye Yang a few seconds to recall the name: “Fu Ye? That was Fu Ye?”
“Yeah, let me introdu—” Shen Xiujun looked up excitedly, but his words came to an abrupt halt. Where was he??
Ye Yang scratched his face: “He’s already gone.” Right when Shen Xiujun appeared, the barrier vanished, and that sharp-dressed, handsome man had simply disappeared.
Shen Xiujun scratched his face too, a bit awkwardly: “Already left? Well, that’s the elusive Fu Ye for you…”
He wasn’t alone—a bunch of fellow disciples had followed him. After confirming that the corpse was the rogue cultivator they’d been hunting, Shen Xiujun didn’t need to handle the rest. He simply went back to the school with Ye Yang.
Though he’d only caught a distant glimpse of Fu Ye, Shen Xiujun was practically buzzing with excitement, talking nonstop the whole way.
“I can’t believe Fu Ye showed up here. You’ve heard of him, right?”
Ye Yang nodded. He’d heard the name from the law enforcers in Luoyang City, and Little Thirteen had mentioned him too. But he never imagined Fu Ye himself would look like that.
“He’s a bit different from what I pictured…”
“Fu Ye is a great demon. No one knows his true form or origins. The YCG has always worked with him. Oh, and he’s also an entrepreneur—really impressive. If you follow financial news, you’d know how successful he is.”
“But don’t let his looks fool you. He’s never gone easy on rogue cultivators. Though he only seems fierce at times like that, he’s actually pretty easygoing.”
Ye Yang’s mind started wandering: An entrepreneur, and this handsome—so basically a CEO type? But his methods are just as ruthless and terrifying as the legends say. Killing someone without a word… wasn’t he afraid of making a mistake?
“Man,” Shen Xiujun sighed, “I wish I could be as powerful as Fu Ye someday.”
Ye Yang asked: “How did he even kill that guy just now? I didn’t see it clearly.”
Shen Xiujun shrugged: “A great demon’s methods—how would I know?”
Then he slapped Ye Yang hard on the shoulder: “You’re so lucky, kid. And so am I. Without Fu Ye, this mission would’ve dragged on forever.”
“Yeah, it’s been really grueling… several months now… Hey, aren’t you backup personnel, not a full team member? How come you get so many high-level missions?”
This rogue cultivator mission was an A-rank task, way beyond what Ye Yang was qualified for.
Shen Xiujun sighed: “Blame the manpower shortage. And mission difficulty isn’t just about the rank—the type matters too. This one’s high-level, but it’s a cross-regional group mission. Not that dangerous, just a pain in the ass.”
They got back to school with time to spare. Ye Yang had missed only one class period.
As soon as he sat down, the girl in front of him came over to apologize, saying they hadn’t thought before they spoke, and that she hoped he wouldn’t take it to heart. They didn’t mean to start rumors—they just thought it was funny.
“We didn’t realize you’d be so upset. We won’t say it again!” The long-haired girl looked ready to swear on the heavens.
Ye Yang was completely lost. He listened for a while but couldn’t figure out what she was apologizing for: “What are you even talking about? I’m not upset.”
“But Li Chanyi said you were so upset you couldn’t even get through class, and you went back to your dorm and cried for ages…”
“She said you cried so much your eyes swelled shut, that’s why you weren’t coming to class… Huh? Ye Ye, you’ve recovered fast—can’t even tell!”
Ye Yang: “???” There’s no way you could tell, because I never cried at all!
By now, even an idiot could see what was going on. Ye Yang slammed his hand on the desk: “Li—Chanyi—!”
—
That night, the dorm was actually all together for once. Shen Xiujun had just returned after so many days away. But then, in the middle of the night, Ye Yang was woken up by the sound of Shen Xiujun changing clothes.
Ye Yang: “Where are you going?”
Shen Xiujun’s frustration was practically solidifying into a physical force: “That goddamn mission isn’t over! The one we killed yesterday was just a small fry—the real target is still out there!”
“And for such crappy pay, it’s wasted so much of my time.”
No time to say more. Shen Xiujun changed and rushed out.
Ye Yang yawned, shook his head, and lay back down to sleep.
The next morning, there were no classes during the first period. Zhuang Li and Qin Zhi had already left. Ye Yang slept until nine, then got up to wash up. He walked out of the dorm, then suddenly whirled around and reopened the door.
“Boss?” He even rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.
Shen Xiujun grinned. “At the meeting last night, my senior brother gave an update. In the end, they counted the mission as completed by us. The other rogue cultivator we were supposed to catch has been upgraded to an S-rank mission. Now it’s completely out of my hands. I can finally rest. My senior brother already put in the request for me. I’m going to take a good, long break for a few months.”
“Senior brother is really great,” Ye Yang said admiringly.
Then he noticed something else. “S-rank… That’s intense. That rogue cultivator must be really dangerous, right?”
“Exactly,” Shen Xiujun nodded emphatically. “This rogue cultivator is absolutely unhinged. You have no idea—he actually brazenly kidnapped and harmed fox cubs right in Luoyang City, the most heavily guarded place in the demon realm!”
Ye Yang froze, a bad feeling rising in his chest. “Is this rogue cultivator you’re talking about named Liu Chen?”
Shen Xiujun was taken aback. “How do you know that?”
At the time, the incident had caused a huge uproar, but no one knew such details except for those directly handling the case.
Ye Yang pressed a hand to his forehead. He never thought he’d hear that name again. “I was there when he and his accomplice were caught.”
Back then, Liu Chen had tricked him into an illusion. After Ye Yang saved the fox cubs, Liu Chen and his partner were arrested. Later, Liu Chen escaped from prison, and Brother Ji Qing had even come by specifically to warn him. But after that, Ye Yang had heard nothing more about Liu Chen. He’d almost forgotten the whole thing.
Shen Xiujun had just reviewed the case files on the Luoyang kidnapping case yesterday, and it immediately clicked. “So you’re that little demon who stepped up and foiled that rogue cultivator’s scheme without leaving a name?!”
“…That’s probably me.”
“What a crazy coincidence. No, wait!” Shen Xiujun’s expression turned serious. “No, no—what if he showed up in Dongzhou just to get revenge on you?”
He stroked his chin, thinking. “Liu Chen disappeared without a trace after escaping. The YCG, Luoyang City, and the fox clans—none of them could find any sign of him for years. And now he suddenly appears at this exact time? It feels deliberate. He might be trying to lure you out.”
The more Shen Xiujun thought about it, the more convinced he became. “He swore back then that he wouldn’t let you off. Before, you were at YCG headquarters, so he couldn’t make a move. Now that you’re out here, you are an easier target.”
But “easier” was only from Liu Chen’s perspective. In reality, Ye Yang was now under the protection of three senior students and his mentor, Shen Ming. For Liu Chen to try anything, the difficulty was still immense.
“I think there might be another reason,” Ye Yang said, also thinking it over. But he felt like he was just a minor demon—not worth all this trouble and the sacrifice of a subordinate.
“Think about it: the human realm is actually the worst place to strike. Humans might seem weak, but the human realm is under multi-party supervision—it’s actually the most tightly guarded place. Liu Chen has to know that. If he really wanted to kill me, the best opportunities would have been during all those years I traveled around the demon realm.”
Shen Xiujun offered a guess: “When Liu Chen escaped, he got hit by a purple lightning strike. What if his injuries were so severe that he’s been recovering all these years, and only recently got strong enough to come after you?”
Ye Yang countered, “But by now, it’s no secret that Teacher Shen is my mentor. Even if Liu Chen isn’t afraid of me, there’s no way he’s not afraid of Teacher Shen.”
“Eh, don’t worry about it. Point is, you’re safe, little bro. He wouldn’t dare touch you. Stop overthinking. I’m finally back—let’s get hotpot tonight, the four of us!”
—
After the last class ended, Ye Yang rushed to the hotpot restaurant only to find Zhuang Li sitting there alone.
Zhuang Li looked just as helpless. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you yet. Just now, our second brother messed up again, and the eldest went to go bail him out.” He’d just gotten off the phone with Shen Xiujun and hadn’t even finished texting Ye Yang.
Ye Yang asked quickly, “What kind of trouble?”
Zhuang Li’s helpless expression deepened.
The day before yesterday, Qin Zhi had broken through in his cultivation and could finally fly on his sword. Young, reckless, and full of himself, he refused to walk even a single step if he could help it.
So after school, he had the sudden idea to fly home and grab some radishes he’d just grown to put in the hotpot. But he had no real understanding of his own limits. On the flight back from the mountains, he ran out of spiritual energy mid-air and fell right out of the sky.
Ever since spiritual energy dried up and the age of the dying dharma began, there have been fewer and fewer cultivators and demons who could fly. Over the past century, spiritual energy had started recovering, but slowly. So it was rare for anyone—human or otherwise—to be zipping around in the sky.
As long as they followed the rules between the two realms—flying above the clouds, staying clear of passenger planes—it didn’t matter if they ran into something or got caught on satellite imagery. There were people who handled that kind of thing, and it was easy enough to deal with.
But Qin Zhi had really done it this time.
He had so little experience flying on a sword and had never flown such a long distance before. Halfway there, he sensed he didn’t have enough spiritual energy left. He wanted to land somewhere nearby, but just then, a gust of wind hit, and he had to steady himself and wait it out.
That delay cost him. His spiritual energy ran completely dry. He lost control and fell—sword and all—right through the clouds. He struggled to steer, but still landed smack in the middle of a busy street, in full view of everyone.
The only good news was that he landed not far from the hotpot restaurant. Shen Xiujun rushed over, managed to smooth things over with the bystanders, and quickly got Qin Zhi out of there.
Zhuang Li gave a rough summary of what happened and then laughed in spite of himself. “The eldest didn’t dare bring him to the restaurant either. He took him straight to the nearest Field Operations Department.”
So that’s what happened. But thinking about it, it was exactly the kind of thing Qin Zhi would do.
Ye Yang had no idea what expression to make anymore. “…No one caught it on camera, right?”
Zhuang Li was equally speechless at Qin Zhi. Internally, he was rolling his eyes so hard he didn’t want to talk. He just covered his face and held up his phone screen directly.
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