The serpent demon stared at the demon before him, who looked slender and had a harmless, cute face. He swallowed nervously. “Wh-what exactly are you? In the water, you were so small just now—how can you be this powerful?”
Ye Yang’s small face hardened. “Hmph! Answer my question first. Five days ago, was it you who attacked humans one kilometer to the west?”
The serpent demon’s exposed head shrank back slightly. He nodded. “I did it, but…”
“He killed my little snake first! We had no grudge against him, yet he—I didn’t take his life, just taught him a lesson! Is that not allowed?!” His tone suddenly filled with rage, his voice growing sharper.
Ye Yang’s head ached from the piercing noise, but he had to continue questioning. Rubbing his temples, he said, “So you’re saying those humans you hurt all deserved it?”
The serpent demon was self-righteous. “Exactly! That human male with the big belly met my little snake in the woods and stomped it to death without a word! I didn’t want to hurt the others either, but they blocked my way and killed so many of my little snakes. They had it coming!”
The big-bellied man was clearly the assistant director.
“Where did he kill the little snake?”
“Right over there!” Unable to use his hands, the serpent demon forcefully raised his chin to point at the woods not far from the shore.
Ye Yang pulled out a wooden chip again, clearly intending to set up an array for another replay.
Shen Ming couldn’t take it anymore. He waved his hand and activated the replay with a single gesture.
Ye Yang froze for a moment, then clutched the wooden chip and protested, “I can do it myself.”
“What do you mean, you can do it yourself? Can you guarantee success on the first try? Even if you could, your demonic energy is already too weak to sustain even a minute of replay.” Shen Ming laughed in exasperation. Ye Yang really knew how to get under his skin.
“…” Ye Yang’s gaze shifted guiltily. “I know… but we’ve already caught him, haven’t we? And if I run out of demonic energy, I still have solar power.”
Solar power… It took Shen Ming a few seconds to realize Ye Yang meant the special energy he absorbed from sunlight.
Though still a bit defiant, the replay had already begun, so Ye Yang couldn’t argue further.
As the serpent demon had said, the assistant director who was attacked had indeed been there a few days earlier. He walked over with his phone, talking as he went. The call lasted over ten minutes. By the end, he was arguing with someone. After hanging up, he kicked the tree in front of him viciously. A little snake resting on a branch was startled and fell right onto the assistant director’s head.
The assistant director was bold and unafraid, only momentarily startled. Then he grabbed the little snake, threw it to the ground, and stomped its body into mush.
The serpent demon watched the scene, a sob creeping into his voice. “He was the youngest of the snake group. A bit mischievous because of his age. I told him lately that humans were nearby and he shouldn’t wander off, but he still went…”
A long time passed before the other snakes in the group finally found the little snake’s body and brought it back to the bottom of the water.
Ye Yang was silent for a moment. The assistant director was certainly at fault, but “if you hadn’t attacked suddenly, the others wouldn’t have attacked your snakes either. They were acting in self-defense.”
The serpent demon’s tone was indignant. “So I didn’t really hurt them much. And my snakes aren’t venomous—what’s the big deal if they bite someone a couple of times?”
The snake group had already retreated like a tide when the serpent demon surrendered, except for a few loyal little snakes that still hadn’t let go, clinging to Ye Yang. Ye Yang grabbed one and pried its mouth open. Sure enough, these snakes, which closely resembled five-step vipers, had five full rows of fangs but absolutely no venom.
No wonder the severely injured assistant director had received the wrong antivenom and still survived—these snakes truly had no poison.
“Looks like you’re telling the truth. So why did you attack us as soon as we showed up?”
Now realizing that Ye Yang and his companion were reasonable, the serpent demon confessed honestly, “I was hiding so well, but you still found me. I was afraid you were just as bad as those other humans. For the sake of my group, I had to strike first.”
That almost made sense. Ye Yang rubbed his temples again. Forget it, never mind.
Catching the serpent demon meant the mission was mostly complete. After asking about the details, the mission report would be easy to write. As for what to do with the serpent demon, that wasn’t Ye Yang’s concern.
Shen Ming went back first. Ye Yang took the serpent demon to the Operations Department headquarters, submitted the mission report via email, and the mission was successfully concluded.
Everything was done. A notification appeared on the system indicating the mission’s end. Suddenly, a yellow head popped out from behind the counter. “Hey, what a coincidence! Here to pick up a mission?”
It was Lu Xun, who had gone on a mission with Ye Yang before.
Before Ye Yang could say anything, another voice answered for him. “No way, he just finished an S-rank mission and came to submit it.”
It was Shu Tan from the Intelligence Department. She had just received the serpent demon and spotted the mission completer’s name, so she came out specifically to greet him.
“What? You can already handle S-rank missions? Your growth rate is like ascending to immortality!” Lu Xun was astonished.
“Not at all, really. This mission wasn’t that difficult.”
Ye Yang roughly explained the whole story. Lu Xun complained, “And that’s an S-rank? At most, it’s an A-rank… YCG’s mission grading really needs a major overhaul.”
Shu Tan tapped his dog-like head. “If you’re so good, you do it. The grading is perfectly fine. The scouts hadn’t seen the serpent demon, so rating it higher ensures everyone’s safety.”
She turned to Ye Yang and smiled. “But Ye Yang is really impressive too. We just measured the serpent demon’s strength—he’s at the Fourth Rank!”
“Fourth Rank, really?” Ye Yang hadn’t expected that either, since he himself was only at the Upper Seventh Rank, close to Sixth Rank, just barely qualified to take on S-rank missions.
If Shen Ming hadn’t been accompanying him this time, the Operations Department would have likely assigned two or three other senior field agents to go on the mission with him.
Lu Xun was filled with newfound respect. He immediately sat up straight and looked at Ye Yang with different eyes. “Fighting above your rank, Little Ye Ye. What other surprises do you have that I don’t know about?”
Ye Yang ignored him. He hadn’t figured it out himself yet. Was that serpent demon really Fourth Rank? Could there be a mistake? He had picked the guy up with one hand and planted him in the ground.
Soon enough, he learned more about the serpent demon.
—
After completing one mission, Ye Yang received a fifty-thousand reward. The company also got a mission subsidy. He started browsing for the next mission again.
This time, Ye Yang wanted to find a mission suitable for him and Brother Xing to tackle together. His plan was to take it step by step and get the whole company involved, especially Sister Wu, so she’d stop having nothing to do all day and messing with him.
Although everyone was kind to him, Ye Yang was sharp. He could sense that these humans and demons who had lived for thousands of years were all combative at their core—some even bloodthirsty. Making them idle around the company every day was actually very uncomfortable for them. If YCG weren’t keeping the pressure on, who knew what might happen?
Thanks to Shen Ming’s guidance, Ye Yang had come to understand that Director Tu had probably assigned him here to change the company’s atmosphere, put the talent to use, and prevent anything bad from happening.
But the Operations Department’s impression of their company wasn’t so easy to change. Ye Yang watched the mission board every day, but three days passed without him landing a suitable mission.
On the fourth day, everyone suddenly received a notification that a new colleague was joining.
Sister Wu was delighted. “What’s been going on lately? Years used to go by without a single newcomer, and now two in just a few months?”
She had already started fantasizing about another newcomer like Ye Yang—hehe, then…
Her daydream was interrupted by Ye Yang’s exclamation. “You? Why you?”
Sister Wu pushed up her diamond-studded glasses. Her gaze shifted from Ye Yang’s face to the masked figure at the door. “You know each other?”
Know each other? That was an understatement. Wasn’t this the serpent demon Ye Yang had caught just three days ago?!
The serpent demon had already learned to suppress his demonic aura, but Ye Yang would never mistake that unique mask.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Chi Lian,” the masked man said with a polite nod. “We meet again. Please take care of me from now on.”
Wow, he’d learned quite a bit in these three days. His Mandarin was even much more standard.
Ye Yang rushed to the door, looked behind the man, and asked, “You came by yourself? They just let you come on your own?”
Chi Lian replied, “Yeah.”
Sister Wu put an arm around each of them and ushered them inside. “Hey, don’t just stand at the door. Come in, come in.”
—
Back in the conference room, Chi Lian introduced himself.
His original form was a red-banded snake. He was one of those rare creatures who truly cultivated by absorbing the essence of the sun, moon, and earth deep in the mountains, just like Bai Suzhen from the legend.
The first time he entered the human world, before he had even taken human form, he was almost captured. Terrified, he didn’t dare go out again.
Later, he finally transformed and re-entered the human world during the Tang Dynasty, when illusions and demonic arts were all the rage. He ran into some children. He had only wanted to ask for directions, but they mocked him because of his strange clothes. Humiliated and furious, he commanded a few small snakes to bite the children, scaring them off.
“To be honest, it’s a little embarrassing…” Chi Lian scratched at his mask, though what exactly he was scratching was anyone’s guess.
“I spent all those centuries of cultivation on shaping my appearance. My attacking power really isn’t strong. Even though I can command small snakes, they’re just like me—completely non-venomous. Other than giving people a little scare and leaving a few small wounds, they’re not good for much else.”
The children brought adults back, and they beat him up too. He only escaped by reverting to his original form.
After that, he reflected on his mistakes and resolved to properly cultivate demonic arts, become a great demon, and never be so humiliated again.
He cultivated for another thousand years. Now, the snake groups he raised were massive and growing stronger. To make them even more powerful, Chi Lian had been committed to guiding their cultivation in a dangerous direction. Eventually, the red-banded snakes, originally red and black like him, had cultivated into the appearance of five-step snakes—also known as sharp-nosed vipers.
Unfortunately, they only looked the part.
Even though they had grown rows and rows of fangs, the snakes still had no venom. Unlike real five-step snakes, Chi Lian finally realized that venom couldn’t be cultivated.
Ye Yang, Sister Wu, Brother Xing, and Brother Grey: “…” So he was an idiot, after all.
President Long was the steady one. He sipped his tea and asked, “And then what?”
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