Professor Lang was about to take his phone back when Ye Yang suddenly grabbed it, his expression turning strange.
Professor Lang: “?”
Ye Yang remembered!
Wasn’t this Xuan Lu as a child?
That wasn’t entirely accurate. Xuan Lu was a wolf demon. According to Qin Zhi, someone had trapped him inside a little dog’s body. Even after he transformed, Xuan Lu never solved that problem—he was probably still coexisting with that dog.
To be sure, Ye Yang carefully examined the photo several more times and confirmed that the dog Qin Zhi had found back then looked exactly like this.
After hearing Ye Yang’s explanation, Professor Lang’s calm eyes lit up with a glimmer of hope. “So he might still be alive?”
He immediately asked Ye Yang that if he ever found that little wolf, he hoped Ye Yang could return him to the Wolfman Forest.
“It’s been a long time. I only remember that the little dog looked a lot like the one in the photo, but I can’t be certain it’s him.”
“It’s him. I’m sure of it.” The unexpected turn of events brightened Professor Lang’s entire demeanor.
“Alright. If I ever meet him again, I’ll definitely take him there.”
“Goodbye. I need to return to the Wolfman Forest.” After Ye Yang agreed, Professor Lang smiled and bid him farewell. His time was running out; death could come at any moment. He had to hurry back to the Wolfman Forest to arrange matters for his successor.
Before leaving, Ye Yang asked one last question: “Now that you know a way out, why do you still live there?”
“There’s no place for us out there.” Professor Lang spoke calmly, but Ye Yang felt a pang in his heart.
·
Professor Lang left, and Lu Pingping also departed.
Not long after returning to Dongzhou, Shen Ming went on a business trip—someone had reported discovering a new marine species somewhere.
Ye Yang texted Shen Ming to update him on what happened next. Shen Ming was probably still on the plane arranged by the research institute and wouldn’t be able to reply anytime soon. Ye Yang couldn’t afford to wait; he had to leave immediately for Can Mountain.
He sighed and stepped into the teleportation array. He had talked about repaying Shen Ming, but in the end, he hadn’t had time to do anything. Instead, he had troubled Shen Ming for help again and added to his debt…
The situation at Can Mountain was dire. The nearby demon city had joined the war between Luoyang City and other cities the day before. Many teleportation arrays in the demon realm had been destroyed, so Ye Yang had to spend extra money to teleport directly to the YCG branch at Can Mountain.
As he exited the branch, he received a message from Xing Tian: they had already accepted a mission requiring outside help and were now gathering at Central Park.
Ye Yang checked the map and took the subway to Central Park.
It was a major station with over a dozen exits. Not knowing which one to take, Ye Yang randomly chose a less crowded one and headed up.
Surprisingly, while few people were underground, there were a lot above ground.
Ye Yang sent his location to Xing Tian, who told him to stay put—they’d be there soon.
Ye Yang obediently put his phone away and stood there.
Central Park was in downtown Can Mountain. It was December and quite cold, yet there were plenty of people on a weekday afternoon. It seemed the dark events unfolding in the demon and human realms hadn’t yet affected ordinary people’s lives. But if things weren’t resolved soon, that might change.
Looking closely, Ye Yang noticed that the park was filled with elderly men and women, with very few young people.
As he stood there, he occasionally overheard the loud conversations of the elderly crowd.
A woman in red, hands tucked into her sleeves, remarked, “This girl has good looks—she brings fortune to her husband.” Ye Yang was certain she was looking right at him when she said it.
Beside her, an old man holding a cardboard sign chimed in, “How can you tell it’s a girl? I’ve been watching for a while and still can’t tell if it’s a boy or a girl.”
“Look at that slim build. No way that’s a boy!”
“But the hair…”
“Did you forget the girl we saw yesterday? She had a buzz cut. This girl’s hair is pretty long by comparison. Young girls nowadays.”
“Are you interested in her? A girl this good-looking—your son isn’t good enough for her, is he?”
“What are you saying? What’s wrong with my son? I’ve prepared a big house for him!”
“You’ve got some nerve. What good is your rundown country house? Young girls these days want to live apart from their elders. And look at your son—is he even taller than this girl?”
“You!” The woman was furious. “What do you know, you old geezer? Your son is as fat as a ball, doesn’t have a proper job, and drives around in that beat-up old BMW thinking he’s something special!”
“Hmph! I’m not arguing with you. I’ll go ask and let the girl choose for herself.”
“If you go, I’m going too. She’ll definitely pick my son!”
Hearing this, and seeing the groups of elderly men and women each clutching cardboard signs and boards, with wooden racks tied with red strings in the distance covered in photos and text, even someone as slow as Ye Yang realized—this was a matchmaking corner!
He couldn’t stay any longer. Seeing the elderly crowd heading his way, he quickly turned and left, cursing inwardly. Who on earth chose this place?
Fortunately, Xing Tian, Wu Jie, and Chi Lian soon arrived.
When Wu Jie saw Ye Yang, she acted as if she’d seen a long-lost family member. “You’re finally here! Chief Long is on another mission in the demon realm. If you’d been any later, we’d really be working ourselves to death!”
Xing Tian: “Wake up. You can’t die from overwork. You’re not human.”
Ye Yang’s focus drifted a bit off course. “Chief Long is on a mission too?!”
Wu Jie patted Ye Yang’s little head. “Of course. When it’s truly necessary, every human, every demon, every spirit at YCG has to go to the front lines.”
Ye Yang suddenly noticed someone was missing. “By the way, where’s Brother Hui?”
Chi Lian: “He’s been staking out several rogue cultivators who are currently active. He can’t get away.”
Xing Tian clapped his hands. “Alright, enough chatter. You’ve read the mission briefing, right?”
Ye Yang nodded.
While waiting earlier, he’d read the email Chi Lian sent. This mission sounded simple on paper—just catch rogue cultivators.
But in practice, it was difficult, exhausting, and dangerous.
The recent cases involved an unprecedented number of rogue cultivators and horrifically vile methods. Before Ye Yang arrived, Wu Jie, Chi Lian, and the others had already caught several rogue cultivators, but none of them were easy to deal with.
They weren’t very powerful, but they were utterly insane. They had taken malevolent spirits—collected from who knows where—and unleashed them in Can Mountain’s busiest shopping mall and on the inner expressway, causing a terrifying wave of suicides and a 19-vehicle pileup.
In that single attack, those four rogue cultivators killed twenty-five people.
Wu Jie and Chi Lian had shifted into their true forms and secretly tracked them back to their hideout, but the capture process went very poorly. Even though these were just low-spiritual-power rogue cultivators, their reckless, death-defying ferocity managed to injure Chi Lian.
They splashed him with some strange potion, causing several of his scales to fall off and corroding his serpent skin.
After they were caught, two of the rogue cultivators committed suicide on the spot. Wu Jie stopped the other two, who were locked up at the YCG Can Mountain branch. When they refused to talk, the branch tried to extract their memories directly. But something had been planted inside their brains—the moment an external force touched it, it exploded, killing an interrogating cultivator.
And this wasn’t an isolated incident. So far, they hadn’t been able to find out the purpose behind the rampant killings and destruction, nor who was pulling the strings. They didn’t have a single lead.
Beyond the ones already caught, many more rogue cultivators and demonic beings remained at large. They had grown increasingly brazen, their methods more vicious, and the number of victims had risen exponentially. Not counting the other two cities, just in Can Mountain alone, the number of unnatural deaths in just half a month had reached an extremely terrifying figure.
In the most heinous attack of all, a rogue cultivator drugged an entire welfare institution, then set it on fire. The sinister flames were nearly impossible to extinguish. Firefighters fought for a full day and night before finally putting out the blaze, but dozens of staff members and several hundred children perished with no survivors.
The situation had become so dire that even if the Can Mountain city government and authorities had been complete fools, they couldn’t have failed to notice something was wrong. They had long since contacted YCG. But there was very little they could do—they could only try to control public opinion and steer explanations toward reasonable causes.
By now, if the higher-ups hadn’t been suppressing the news, deleting posts and removing trending topics from social media, panic would have already spread across all of Huaxia.
Unable to extract information directly, the Can Mountain YCG quickly adjusted their strategy. Now, when rogue cultivators were spotted, they would follow and eavesdrop to gather intelligence before making an arrest.
That way, even if they couldn’t immediately find the mastermind behind it all, they could at least learn some of the rogue cultivators’ plans in advance.
Ye Yang’s assigned task was to team up with Xing Tian, Wu Jie, and Chi Lian to stop a planned bombing.
The situation was dire. All mission procedures had been streamlined—approval processes, complex mission reports, everything was simplified. Everyone was racing against the clock.
After getting a full picture of the situation, they set out immediately for the northern suburban industrial district of Can Mountain City.
According to the rogue cultivators’ plan, their target this time was a chemical plant.
After several years of relocation and restructuring, only one chemical plant remained in Can Mountain. Wu Jie quickly pinpointed the location. By exactly 6:00 PM, the four-person strike team was in position.
Wu Jie stood watch atop the water tower of a neighboring factory, directing operations from above. Chi Lian and Ye Yang had already infiltrated the plant, searching for any suspicious people or items.
Xing Tian, disguised as a city government inspector, was talking to the plant manager, who was sweating profusely.
These rogue cultivators had an odd way of operating. If you said they had no plan—well, they set a precise time and location and never deviated. If you said they had a plan—their methods were brutally simple and crude.
They never did any advance reconnaissance or setup. When the time came, they’d use sleeping drugs, hypnosis, or something even nastier like gu insects to take everyone down first. Then they’d bomb, kill, or burn as planned.
There were still about ten minutes until the attack time. The night shift workers had just clocked in. The machines in the plant roared nonstop, and outside on the concrete roads, trucks lined up to load and unload goods. It looked just like any other day.
“Looks like those idiots are doing the same thing again—no advance preparations at all,” Wu Jie said, transformed into a crow and blending into the night as she stared down at the scene below.
Xing Tian had been chatting with the plant manager for a while, subtly extracting information. Seeing the man was visibly tense, Xing Tian casually remarked, “Your plant looks pretty good. Better than the previous few.”
To his surprise, the manager froze, then gave an awkward chuckle. “You’re too kind, sir. We know our level. Tiancheng and Yuhe just upgraded their equipment—they’re definitely a lot better than us.”
Xing Tian: “How did you know I was talking about those two?” He glanced at the time. Three minutes left. A couple more lines of small talk and he’d pull out.
Unexpectedly, the manager furrowed his brow. “There are only three plants in the whole city. Who else could it be?”
Xing Tian: “!” Oh no!
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