The words “Vermilion Bird” made Ye Yang’s heart clench painfully.
The content beneath the headline was also brief, but every word was alarming: “Multiple Vermilion Bird anomalies have appeared, suspected to be the reemergence of the evil god Vermilion Bird.”
Ye Yang immediately thought of the news notification he had just received on his phone. He hadn’t opened it, only read the headline, which said that after recent rains in Dongzhou, phoenix-shaped clouds had appeared in multiple places, drawing crowds of citizens taking photos and checking in.
At the time, he hadn’t thought much of it. He never imagined that the so-called phoenix pattern was actually a Vermilion Bird anomaly.
The first repost below was from Lu Xun: “Didn’t the Vermilion Bird die? I saw it with my own eyes—dead as a doornail, soul scattered to the winds!”
The only other comment was from the Director of the Operations Department: “Stop standing around like fools. Everyone gather at Operations Headquarters!”
Immediately after, a call came in. It was Xing Tian.
“Come to Operations Headquarters right now.”
Not a single wasted word. Once he confirmed Ye Yang had received the message, he hung up immediately.
·
Ye Yang teleported over the moment the call ended. This was no time to worry about wasting teleportation talismans. Within seconds, Operations Headquarters was packed with YCG employees from all over Dongzhou—not just the Operations Department, but also Intelligence and every other division.
As he landed, many people were already grabbing assignments and rushing out. Lu Xun was one of them. They passed each other without even a chance to say hello.
The Operations Director spotted Ye Yang, immediately pushed through the crowd, grabbed him, and dragged him into a small barrier. Before Ye Yang could ask anything, the director was gone again.
He turned around—and there they were. Shen Ming had arrived before him. Elder Li, Yan Yungui—all the top brass and senior leaders of YCG. And also—
“…Ke Ranzhou?!” Ye Yang exclaimed in disbelief. He hadn’t expected the current lord of Luoyang City, the uncrowned king of the demon race, to be here too!
The two old classmates hadn’t spoken in a long time, but this was no moment for catching up. Ke Ranzhou gave Ye Yang a brief nod in acknowledgment, then swept her gaze across the room and said:
“Is everyone here? Then I’ll begin.”
She stepped into the crowd, formed a hand seal with one hand, and pushed it into the air, playing a video recording:
Under the cold white glow of pyroxene, several suspended rail systems were shaking violently. The compartments that usually remained fixed on the rails were rattling. Suddenly, countless deep-red crimson flames surged up from the abyss below. Except for a few compartments on the edges that reacted quickly enough to dodge, most of the others were instantly melted by the extreme heat. The demons and spirit creatures inside didn’t even have a chance to scream.
But the few compartments that dodged didn’t escape in the end. The crimson flames continued to erupt with immense energy. Even the ten-thousand-year-old skeleton of Candle Dragon couldn’t withstand it. Within seconds, all the rails melted like the compartments, and the few remaining compartments fell into the abyss along with them.
This was clearly the Underground Floating City. But why had the Underground Floating City suddenly become like this? Brother Jiqing was still there—what was happening to him? Ye Yang was horrified and filled with worry.
Ke Ranzhou said, “As you can all see, the Underground Floating City was suddenly attacked and has suffered heavy losses. Based on our investigation, we can conclude that this was the work of the Vermilion Bird.”
Elder Li furrowed his brow deeply. “We watched the Vermilion Bird’s spirit dissipate with our own eyes. After that, Fuye absorbed its power, but Fuye’s soul was also destroyed… How is this possible?” His last words weren’t a challenge to Ke Ranzhou. In fact, Elder Li was certain this was indeed the Vermilion Bird’s power—he just couldn’t figure out how.
Yan Yungui was also baffled. “I personally supervised the destruction of the secret realm and the altar, making sure every trace of Vermilion Bird’s power was completely erased. There was no oversight.”
Elder Li said, “Could Fuye have had some backup plan? That guy was the most cunning of all.”
“The Vermilion Bird was never going to die that easily,” Shen Ming said suddenly.
“The Vermilion Bird inherently possesses the power of resurrection. Her original body was destroyed in the divine war. For the resurrection ritual, a new body was created, but we destroyed it, and Fuye took her power—only he couldn’t fully absorb all of it at the time.”
Ye Yang began to think out loud. “Right. After Fuye died, where did all that power go? Even a single drop of divine blood separated from a god can cause cataclysmic changes. The residual energy of a god would only have an even greater impact.”
Shen Ming nodded. “That should be it. The Vermilion Bird is truly gone, but her power remains. What kind of destruction divine power without an owner might cause—I can’t say for sure.”
Elder Li’s eyes widened, looking like he wanted to lunge forward and grab Shen Ming by the collar. “Shen Ming! Why didn’t you mention something so important earlier?” He was so angry he even forgot to use a respectful address.
Shen Ming blinked. “I honestly didn’t think of it before.” The Vermilion Bird’s situation was unique—he had never encountered anything like it.
Yan Yungui said, “Let me sort this out. So you’re saying the Vermilion Bird hasn’t actually returned. It’s just the power she left behind causing chaos. The situation isn’t as dire as we thought.”
Elder Li turned to glare at him. “Not dire? What do you think everyone’s out there busy with? The divine power is already starting to affect Dongzhou!”
Those YCG members who had been rushing about were all scattered across Dongzhou, unable to eliminate the Vermilion Bird anomalies. All they could do was find ways to conceal them and guide humans away from danger. So far, only anomalies had appeared, but there was no guarantee that at any moment those forces wouldn’t start harming people—just like the Underground Floating City, which had just suffered a great catastrophe.
Yan Yungui said, “I know, I know. That’s why the notice went out as soon as the Vermilion Bird anomalies appeared. Don’t get so worked up. It’s not like the world is ending tomorrow. There haven’t been any casualties yet. We just need to resolve this as quickly as possible.”
Elder Li was furious. Easy for him to say. But Yan Yungui’s own world had already been destroyed, so Elder Li couldn’t really criticize him.
Ke Ranzhou’s tone was exceptionally grave. “The power of the Vermilion Bird’s crimson flames is terrifyingly abnormal. Our Luoyang City has no means to withstand it, and other demon cities are also starting to be affected. Right now, this divine power is surging toward Dongzhou. Before long, it could threaten all of China.”
Shen Ming affirmed her assessment. “Correct. Although the divine power has no master and no consciousness of its own, divine power comes from somewhere and will return there. It’s in Luoyang City now, so before long, it will certainly pass through Dongzhou. That’s the only route back to the upper realm.”
“Moreover, the upper realm is currently sealed off. The divine power cannot return there. It will likely remain stranded in the human realm.”
That would be a huge problem! Anxiety gnawed at everyone, and their gazes unconsciously converged on Shen Ming. He nodded. “I won’t let that happen.”
“But—” The tension in the room had just begun to ease when Shen Ming continued, “I can’t promise anything.”
Divine power was not ordinary spiritual power. Even Shen Ming had difficulty tracking his own divine power once it separated from him—otherwise, those two drops of divine blood wouldn’t have haunted him for so many years. The Vermilion Bird’s divine power went without saying. If no anomalies appeared and no humans were affected, no one could determine where that power was at any given moment.
Seeing the grim expressions, he added earnestly, “But I will do my best.”
·
After much discussion, everyone reached a consensus: the Vermilion Bird’s divine power had likely followed Fuye—whose soul had scattered—to the edge of the underworld, specifically the abyss where the Underground Floating City stood. Fuye’s soul had been utterly destroyed, so he did not enter the underworld. With no physical body left to restrain it, the divine power instinctively began moving toward the upper realm.
The lord of the Underground Floating City had probably sensed this strange power and tried to stop it, inadvertently triggering an eruption of divine force that destroyed the city.
But they couldn’t contact the lord now to confirm this.
“There are two possibilities. One is that the divine power moves freely to the upper realm. The other is that, at the boundary between the upper and human realms, the power will erupt again in an attempt to break through the upper realm’s seal.”
The first possibility was the best-case scenario, but as the divine power moved, it would inevitably cause many anomalies. The second scenario would be much more troublesome.
“The boundary between the upper and human realms is actually very, very close. If the divine power explodes at that boundary, the consequences are hard to predict.” The destructive force could be comparable to the great catastrophe of the divine war—only this time, the human realm would be the victim.
After half a day of discussion, the Operations Department finally issued an announcement: from then on, until headquarters actively canceled it, all of Dongzhou would be under martial law.
The company would enter a 24/7 combat readiness state. Ye Yang, Sister Wu, and General Long formed one team; Xing Tian, Chi Lian, and Brother Hui formed another. The two teams would rotate shifts.
And so, a month passed in anxious suspense. Nothing happened.
Everything was business as usual. In fact, there were even fewer anomalous incidents than before—both the human and demon realms had been intimidated by the Vermilion Bird anomalies, and those who might have caused trouble went into hiding.
The only thing was that occasionally, on the way to or from work, you’d hear a human with high spiritual sensitivity say to a companion, “I feel like the air has been really tense lately.”
Gradually, people began to relax. Though patrols and duty shifts remained strict, the tension in everyone’s hearts had eased.
Ye Yang returned home. The house felt empty. Little Crow had taken his former brothers and sisters from the park to migrate to another city and hadn’t returned yet. Little Snake was with Shen Ming, who was guarding the boundary between the two realms and hadn’t come back for over a month.
Not knowing what to do with himself, Ye Yang sat blankly on the sofa for a while. Suddenly, the house felt a little too big, a little too empty. “Maybe I’ll go see Teacher Shen… and Elder Li and the others?”
Elder Li was also busy watching over the Kunlun barrier and might not even be there. Ye Yang justified himself as he packed up the freshly baked cupcakes and cookies. He’d give them all to Teacher Shen. No one else got any—the oven was only that big anyway.
After packing the insulated bag, he started to feel better, imagining the look of surprise on Shen Ming’s face when he saw him. Humming a tune, he headed out.
He pulled out a teleportation talisman that General Long had given him and had just injected a bit of spiritual power when suddenly—an abnormal wave of heat surged up from behind him. Ye Yang spun around, his eyes reflecting a blinding red light. A towering column of flame erupted from the ground and swallowed him whole in an instant.
“Ugh… cough, cough, cough!”
The moment the flames engulfed him, Ye Yang leaped on instinct. After several bounds and rolls, he landed a hundred meters away.
The insulated bag and the teleportation talisman had both turned to ash. His normally invulnerable skin was burned in multiple places, and flames still flickered on his body—but Ye Yang had no mind to care about any of that.
He stood rooted to the spot, frozen and stunned by the sight before him—
The road and the tall buildings that had been in front of him were all gone. A fire column dozens of meters thick shot straight up into the clouds.
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