Qin Zhi and his little wolf dog had been so focused on fleeing and hiding that they had no idea a major incident had occurred on Mount Nüyang, let alone that Ye Yang was one of the parties involved.
Ye Yang perked up immediately. “A great demon?”
Qin Zhi said, “It was terrifying. Not only had I never seen anything like it, I’d never even heard of it. The entire Mount Nüyang area was shrouded in red spiritual energy—incredibly dense. If that wasn’t a great demon, what else could it be?”
“Did you see what the great demon looked like?”
Qin Zhi shook his head. “No. But I sensed the sudden disappearance of many other living beings on Mount Nüyang. At the same time, an extremely terrifying power appeared—it seemed to carry the aura of the underworld. Unfortunately, it only lasted an instant. After I finished my tribulation, I couldn’t sense anything anymore.”
Ye Yang frowned deeply. The case on Mount Nüyang was becoming more and more puzzling. The true strength of the killer might be far greater than they had originally thought.
Even Teacher Shen had been completely unaware of this. If Qin Zhi hadn’t happened to undergo his tribulation in the demon realm, and if his breakthrough in sword intent hadn’t connected him with heaven and earth, no one might have ever discovered it. The Mount Nüyang case would likely have gone unsolved.
Ye Yang had never heard of such a thing either. He could only hope that the more experienced Teacher Shen and Teacher Yu would have answers.
But not right now. Ye Yang glanced at the two on the sofa. At the very least, he had to wait until they left—otherwise, their whereabouts would be exposed.
After finishing the serious discussion, Ye Yang had a meal with Qin Zhi and Xuan Lu.
During the meal, Ye Yang witnessed firsthand how Xuan Lu—such a large, imposing young man—could use his incredibly sharp and beautiful face to make all sorts of pitiful expressions, sometimes even bursting into silent tears without a word.
Ye Yang was startled, but Qin Zhi didn’t find anything unusual about it at all.
Oh no, Ye Yang thought. The second brother is completely under his thumb.
—
The next morning, Ye Yang was woken up by Little Crow’s loud “Ga ga ga!”
Qin Zhi and Xuan Lu had spent the night on the sofa in Ye Yang’s living room, taken some supplies, and left before dawn.
They had been very careful, erasing all traces of their presence and leaving behind not a single wisp of spiritual energy. Little Crow, who had been too frightened by Xuan Lu to come inside yesterday, only dared to come complain to Ye Yang long after the wolf demon had left.
He said he hadn’t even dared to stay on the balcony last night. He had been forced to perch in a tree in the neighborhood, where he got into a fight with a local and lost a lot of feathers!
“Alright, alright, I get it. I didn’t expect it either.” Ye Yang felt guilty. He admitted he had forgotten about Little Crow yesterday—but that was only because he had been so overwhelmed!
After his routine check of Little Crow’s now nearly invisible wounds and a back-and-forth debate about whether he should kick Little Crow out to avoid the forestry bureau coming after him, Ye Yang left for work on time.
He spent the morning catching up on mission reports. After lunch, he finally had some free time—and then suddenly received a call from Yu Bei.
Ye Yang had already passed on the intelligence to Yu Bei earlier that morning after Qin Zhi left. As soon as he picked up the phone, he asked eagerly, “So, Teacher Yu, did you find anything?”
Yu Bei said, “The Mount Nüyang case is still under investigation. I’m calling you about something else.”
…
“So… what exactly am I here for?”
Ye Yang was standing at the foot of a snowy mountain, wearing summer clothes. He was freezing like an idiot, and his voice trembled as he spoke.
Beside him, Yu Bei was still in his usual shirt and trousers, completely unaffected by the bitter cold. In fact, he casually waved a hand and cast a warming array over Ye Yang.
“Sorry, sorry. I’m so used to this myself, I didn’t think it through.”
The moment the array covered him, Ye Yang could finally relax his tightly curled toes. Another minute and he would have lost all feeling in his feet!
As his body warmed up, he couldn’t help complaining: “I’m only slightly more cold-resistant than an ordinary human. I can’t compare to you great demons at all! Are you sure you’re not doing this on purpose to mess with me?”
A few days ago, over the phone, Yu Bei had spun quite a tale. He said Ye Yang was an outstanding graduate of their preschool program. Now, five years later, they had gathered a new batch of young demon cubs for training, and they simply had to have Ye Yang—the best alumnus—come back to share his experience.
Flooded with flattery and sweet-talk, Ye Yang had floated along and agreed to come.
But when he arrived, he found out that Yu Bei was short a teaching assistant for the practical class and had brought him here to work!
Not only was there no spotlight moment where he was surrounded by adoring cubs sharing his experience—as Yu Bei had implied—but he also had to trek to this snowy mountain in the demon realm in the middle of summer, protecting the safety of three little munchkins.
This time, the preschool program had only three children.
Actually, that was the norm. When Ye Yang had joined the YCG, his class had eight students—the largest cohort ever.
The three little cubs this time were triplets. Their father was unknown. Their mother was an ordinary capybara who had been smuggled in.
“Capybara” was the popular term nowadays—actually a Japanese loanword. The more universal name for this animal was the capybara, a famously gentle herbivore.
China already had established, well-practiced import procedures and regulations, but capybaras were expensive. This led some unscrupulous merchants to smuggle them. Smuggling capybaras made it hard to ensure their safety during transport, and many died.
The mother of these three little cubs had been an ordinary animal. She couldn’t withstand the hardship of the journey. After giving birth to three live cubs and two stillborn, she herself had passed away.
Unexpectedly, these three little capybara cubs were very fortunate. Upon coming into contact with the spiritual energy of the Chinese mainland, they quickly awakened their intelligence. Their uncontained demonic aura soon drew the attention of the YCG, who rescued them.
Today’s practical class was the same one Ye Yang had taken back in the day. Its main purpose was to use the frigid environment of the snowy mountain to force spiritual energy to circulate through the meridians, accelerating the process of taking human form. The only difference was that back then, they hadn’t been here.
“Why did you choose this place? It’s way too cold!”
Ye Yang couldn’t help complaining again. Watching the three tiny capybara cubs shivering and huddled together in the snow and ice, his heart ached for them.
This snowy mountain had no name. Beneath the snow cover were bare rocks with no vegetation whatsoever. Because of the extremely low temperatures, it was perpetually snow-covered, and storms were frequent. Even demons who loved snowy, freezing conditions wouldn’t choose to live here. The entire mountain was as good as dead. The only living creatures were the few great and small demons here who had come to torment themselves.
Yu Bei said, “What do you know? I’ve been researching this recently, and I’ve found that the reason this method of reversing spiritual energy flow hasn’t worked well in the past is precisely because the temperature wasn’t low enough.”
Seeing that Ye Yang’s eyes were still full of concern, he added, “Don’t worry. That’s why I specifically brought you and Wu Rong along. You have a unique ability, and Wu Rong is highly skilled in medicine. If any real danger arises, we’ll be in time to help.”
Wu Rong had come on her own. The moment she landed, she shivered violently, then dug herself a hole in the snow and tucked herself in clutching a Mystical Fire Stone. Ye Yang hadn’t even had a chance to say hello.
“Besides, you’ve still got me. Don’t you trust me?”
“Teacher Yu is certainly capable enough, but…” Ye Yang scratched his head, not sure how to phrase it. He had a strange, ominous feeling about this mountain. There were no living creatures, but there weren’t any dead ones either. How could a snowy mountain that had existed for so many years have not a trace of spiritual presence? That was highly unusual. Weren’t places far from demon settlements supposed to be favorite haunts for spirits and object souls?
The troubled expression on Ye Yang’s face was quite adorable. Yu Bei admired it for a moment, then finally stopped teasing him. “Alright, I know what you’re worried about. This area has been surveyed multiple times. We confirmed it was safe before coming. This place is far from other demon clans and cities—it’s actually better than the old site.”
Ye Yang said, “…Why didn’t you say that earlier!” Such important information, and he was only hearing it now? He had been worrying for nothing all this time!
The three little cubs were making extremely slow progress. Ye Yang was a bit tired from standing around all this time. As he relaxed, he plopped down in a huff—only to spring right back up with a yelp from the cold.
“Teacher Yu, doesn’t your array block the snow and ice?”
Yu Bei turned away from him. “Saving spiritual energy.”
Ye Yang: “…Right.”
—
This practical class lasted from before dawn until high noon, and then all the way until sunset. Still, they never achieved the expected results.
Ye Yang was still thinking about how Shen Ming had said he was going to fry big chicken legs and chicken sternums today. By now, his stomach was growling with hunger. Finally, he spoke up: “How about we call it a day, Teacher Yu? Don’t push too hard. Haven’t you always said that different species vary greatly? Maybe they’re just not naturally suited for this.”
Yu Bei rubbed his forehead, long having lost the easy composure he had in the morning. “Yes, I said that. But this is ridiculous. It’s been a whole day. The spiritual energy inside their bodies is still a chaotic mess—no different from when they first started classes.”
Was this just “not achieving expected results”? There had been zero progress whatsoever.
Yu Bei’s many years of teaching experience were being severely challenged. “This doesn’t make sense. They’re clearly very talented. Why is this happening?”
By this point, Wu Rong could no longer sit still either. In the evening, she crawled out of her hole, holding five or six Mystical Fire Stones, and observed from the side. Ye Yang leaned against her and managed to leech a bit of warmth.
The three little capybaras in question were the calmest of all. Despite the freezing environment, they showed little emotion, simply trying their best to huddle together for warmth. In response to Yu Bei’s occasional verbal prodding, they acted as if they hadn’t heard a thing. The smallest one was nearly falling asleep.
“Oh no, the little one is about to pass out!” Wu Rong, who had been quiet all along, suddenly shot forward and stuffed a pill into the smallest capybara cub’s mouth.
Oh, so it wasn’t nearly falling asleep—it was nearly freezing to death…
Ye Yang let out a breath and turned to say, “Teacher Yu, we really need to go back. This isn’t working.”
Yu Bei sighed as well.
There was nothing more to do. He would have to think of another method next time.
The moment “class dismissed” was announced, the three little capybaras finally showed a reaction. One by one—even the little one who had just recovered a bit, jumping out of Wu Rong’s arms—the small ones followed the larger ones, trotting in their waddling way over to Yu Bei. Six little beady eyes stared up at him, waiting for him to teleport everyone back.
“They sure move fast when they want to.” Yu Bei chuckled helplessly. He raised his hand and took out a teleportation talisman.
Multi-person teleportation was easier with a specialized talisman. That’s how they had arrived, too.
The talisman flew into the air. Blue spiritual energy ignited the paper. Suddenly, a flash of red light flickered across the talisman—and the teleportation was interrupted!
Ye Yang, Wu Rong, and Yu Bei—none of them had expected this kind of accident. For a moment, they were all stunned.
Ye Yang blinked, then sensed something wrong. “Where are the three little cubs?”
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