Ni Tao told Ye Yang that a few days ago, a popular post had appeared online. It claimed that some people had mysteriously gone missing while walking in the city’s Central Park, only to reappear late at night. The park’s security cameras hadn’t captured anything, and the missing individuals had no memory of what had happened to them. Netizens had made all sorts of wild guesses—kidnapping and drugging, pyramid schemes and scams, and even aliens abducting them.
Ji Yunrou added, “But at least the authorities are reliable. They put out a statement so quickly. The important thing is that everyone is safe.”
“…Yes. That’s the important thing.”
Ye Yang forced a smile. Cangshan’s Crisis Management Department is way too careless. Getting lost in a park in broad daylight is strange enough—but wandering into the depths of a greenbelt??? What kind of excuse is that?!
He had asked them to properly handle the situation for those ordinary people who had been kidnapped to use as sacrificial offerings—and this was how they handled it?!
But looking at Ji Yunrou and Ni Tao’s expressions of total belief, Ye Yang thought: …Fine. It’s already been released.
The three of them found a café and sat down to chat for a while.
Ni Tao’s grades had been average in university. Ji Yunrou’s had been quite good, but her family still had debts, so she hadn’t pursued graduate school and had started working right after graduation.
Ye Yang knew that they had both started out as docents at the same ocean park. Right after graduation, they had stayed in touch frequently, but their work schedules were different, their days off never lined up, and gradually, their contact diminished.
Ni Tao said she had later switched jobs and become an office clerk at a company. Ji Yunrou had initially wanted to stick to a career related to her major, but the pay for docents was too low with no future prospects, and other related jobs were even harder to find. Eventually, she gave up too and, through Ni Tao’s referral, joined the same company.
Oh, and by the way, Ni Tao was now technically Ji Yunrou’s supervisor. But they still got along just like they had in university—very close.
“What about you, Ye Ye? Still at that advertising agency?”
Ye Yang nodded.
Ji Yunrou sighed. “Back then, we all thought you would go to graduate school. Your grades were so good. But I guess you were more farsighted than us—you knew how tough the job market would be. Of our classmates who did go to grad school, only three or four found jobs, aside from the ones who continued on to doctorates.”
Ni Tao added, “And their jobs aren’t much different from ours—still not related to their majors.” Plus, since they entered the workforce later, their salaries were barely two-thirds of Ji Yunrou’s, and nowhere near Ni Tao’s, who had already been promoted twice.
Ni Tao asked, “Hey Ye Ye, how’s your company doing?”
Ye Yang picked a few things he could share. But as soon as Ni Tao heard them, her eyes lit up. “Is your company hiring? Do you think you could recommend a few classmates for interviews? Don’t worry—we won’t ask you to do it for free!”
Normal pay, nine-to-five with a two-hour lunch break, weekends off, overtime pay, no clocking in or out, no attendance tracking, and lots of annual leave—what kind of dream company was this? If Ni Tao hadn’t worked so hard to reach her current mid-level management position with a very high salary, she would have been tempted herself.
Ye Yang: “…Our company is pretty small. There are no plans for external hiring in the near future.”
Afraid Ni Tao might persist, he added, “Definitely not within five years.” Scratch five years—five hundred years, probably.
“Alright then.” Ni Tao looked disappointed. It seemed she would have to tell those former classmates who had been reaching out to her to just send out more résumés.
Later, they brought up Li Chanyi. Ye Yang mentioned that Li Chanyi was now working as a doctor, and already a chief physician. Ji Yunrou sighed with emotion, “So in the end, he went into that family trade after all. And he’s doing really well at it.”
Ye Yang thought back to the bizarre process by which Li Chanyi had entered the medical field. He scratched his head, tried to come up with something he could share, but after a long moment realized that everything he could say was confidential. So he just smiled sheepishly.
—
Meeting two old friends had lifted Ye Yang’s spirits quite a bit. After a total of one full day of rest, he returned to Dongzhou at dusk, sat by Shen Ming’s hospital bed for a while, reinforced the treatment array, and then went back to the YCG in Cangshan.
He still had a lot of work to do.
—
A week later, after the combined efforts of all parties, a complete mission report on the revival of the fallen god Vermilion Bird and Fu Ye’s cultivation of forbidden arts to slay a god was finally produced.
Everything that happens in this world leaves traces.
Fu Ye’s unknown past and his motives for revenge were thoroughly studied after his death.
Apart from his revenge, Fu Ye wasn’t completely insane. Revenge was his personal mission. He still had some conscience left—he hadn’t been completely reckless.
Siyang City, which had been under Fu Ye’s control, was originally supposed to help activate the secret realm after the god was slain. At that point, the fallen god’s power would have been buried under the collapsing secret realm.
When Fu Ye gave these orders, Secretary Lin had no idea that Fu Ye intended to die together with Shen Ming.
After preparing everything, Fu Ye made everyone else leave the secret realm, then sealed it from the outside.
He had never intended to come back out.
He hadn’t entrusted the sealing task to his most loyal subordinate, Secretary Lin. Later, when the YCG captured the already-mentally-broken Secretary Lin outside, they learned more details from him.
After confirming that Fu Ye had left behind no more dangerous contingencies to harm the human world, this major case was considered closed.
The human realm was mostly stable. The situation in the demon realm, however, was a bit more complicated.
With the failure of the god-slaying attempt, internal unrest broke out in Siyang City. Yingzhao was dead, leaving Luoyang City leaderless as well. Other demon cities, long suppressed, united and uprooted those demon and spirit clans that had willingly or unwillingly participated in the chaos. The power structure of the demon realm was completely reshuffled. Multiple new kings rose in succession, each aiming to become like Yingzhao or Fu Ye before them. The entire demon realm slid into an even more chaotic state.
But with those crazed individuals gone, and with the YCG putting in efforts to mediate, the overall atmosphere had relaxed considerably. At the very least, low-level demons no longer had to live in constant fear.
Little Thirteen led his entire clan back to their original ancestral land. Their old neighbors had also returned. With no one left to sow discord, and having gone through such an ordeal together—including the experience of uniting, helping each other, and entrusting one another with their lives in the secret realm—any old grudges had dissolved. In a way, they had found fortune in misfortune.
Brother Ji Qing, on the other hand, was quite troubled. His commanding performance in the secret realm had already earned him some reputation in the demon realm. Now, even more demons wanted to follow him. A minor city lord even offered to gift him his entire city.
That simply wouldn’t do. Ji Qing loved freedom and feared constraints above all else. The moment he heard the news, he fled overnight, hiding all the way out to the edge of the Kunlun barrier.
That was where Senior Yan Yungui pressed him into service. By the time Ye Yang found out, Ji Qing had already been patching up the barrier for half a month.
The remaining individuals connected to the case were either captured or turned themselves in. A few stragglers were hiding so deep that the YCG couldn’t be bothered to go after them.
Finally, after most of a month, Ye Yang was done shuttling back and forth between Cangshan and Dongzhou.
“Now I can finally get some good rest.” Returning to his humble little workstation after so long away, Ye Yang slumped into his chair with a nostalgic sigh, chatting intermittently with the others.
Sister Wu ruffled his hair. “I didn’t expect you’d only be done now, even though we’ve been back for several days. You’ve really worked hard.”
Chilian chewed on his beef jerky and nodded vigorously. “Mmm, mmm, mmm!”
Ye Yang said, “It’s all over now. It wasn’t that hard, really. I wonder when Shen Laoshi will wake up. I’ll leave a little early today to go see him.”
Everyone else was also quite free. There wasn’t much work lately. Brother Hui had been so bored that he’d nearly gnawed all the flower beds and green belts bald. Xing Tian had replaced every piece of equipment in the training room—out of his own pocket, no less. The mission had paid out too generously, and he’d already had more money than he knew what to do with.
Only Chief Long hadn’t returned yet.
“Yeah, what’s Chief Long doing? I’ve been back for two or three days and haven’t seen him.” Ye Yang stuffed the piece of beef jerky Chilian had handed him into his mouth and asked, his words muffled.
Sister Wu and Chilian paused for a moment, then shook their heads in unison. “No idea.”
Ye Yang: “?” You two are acting weird.”
“We’re not~” Sister Wu put an arm around Ye Yang’s shoulders, spun him half a turn toward his desk, and said, “You have two missed calls. Better check them.”
They were from Wu Rong.
Wu Rong was now in charge of Shen Ming’s condition. Could it be that Shen Laoshi had woken up? Before Ye Yang could even kick himself for forgetting to turn off Do Not Disturb, he immediately called back in excitement.
“Lord Xuanwu’s condition is a bit complicated. Please come as quickly as you can.”
—
Dongzhou Field Hospital, Special Ward Room 001.
The entire floor consisted of just this one room. In fact, this floor hadn’t even existed until Shen Ming was admitted.
By the time Ye Yang arrived, Old Li and Yan Yungui were standing by the hospital bed with grave expressions. Across from them were Wu Rong, the hospital director, and Li Chanyi, whose faces were equally grim. Even Yu Bei, still pale and weak from his severe injuries, was sitting off to the side.
Ye Yang’s heart sank. He asked directly, “What’s wrong?”
Li Chanyi came over, gently pressed one of his shoulders, and guided him to a sofa against the wall. “Sit down first.” This was what you did whenever you had to deliver bad news to a patient’s family.
Ye Yang didn’t resist. He let Li Chanyi guide him down and sat. “It’s okay. Go ahead.”
Old Li stroked his chin, his face wrinkled with worry, and began, “There are no previous cases like this. Our initial assessment was wrong.”
In a sense, Fu Ye’s god-slaying attempt had succeeded. At that moment, Shen Ming had truly and completely died. The Spirit Snake had brought a glimmer of hope, but that had only slowed down the process of Shen Ming’s true death.
Over the past few days, they had discovered that the reason Shen Ming couldn’t wake up was because his life force was continuously draining away.
If they couldn’t find a way to stop it, soon that last wisp of Shen Ming’s spirit would no longer be able to remain in this physical body.
Ye Yang grew agitated. “Then find a way to stop it!”
“We’ve tried.” Wu Rong looked at Ye Yang with a hint of pity. She knew how close Ye Yang and Xuanwu were. But, “We’ve tried every method we could think of. There’s truly nothing more we can do.”
Right now, Shen Ming was in human form, but that didn’t change his essential nature as Xuanwu. His true body was a colossal tortoise that could blot out the sky. The life force he was slowly losing was like a surging tide to everyone else. Even if they all pooled their strength together, they couldn’t replenish it.
As for Ye Yang’s abilities—needless to say, in the secret realm, he had benefited from perfect timing and collective support. There was no chance for him to have another such breakthrough now.
The strength drained from Ye Yang’s body, and he fell back against the sofa, his mind in complete disarray. Just a short while ago, he had been imagining that when Shen Ming woke up, he would make fun of him mercilessly—the great Lord Xuanwu, needing a little sea hare to save him. How embarrassing!
But now…
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