In that split second, his thoughts raced, and an extremely risky plan formed in his mind. With no time to think it through, Ye Yang grabbed the rope around his wrists with one hand, while forcing his other hand to slip free from the tight bindings. Agonizing pain shot through his entire body like an electric current. His hands trembling, Ye Yang didn’t pause for even a second and did the same to free his ankles.
The process was incredibly grueling, even bloody. Everyone present was startled by the sudden, intense smell of blood.
Liu Chen turned to look at that foolish little demon, only to be met with a massive, bloody fist flying straight at his face. Then, he knew nothing more.
The others were stunned by the scene. Even Ye Yang himself was taken aback. He vaguely knew he was stronger than most, but he hadn’t realized just how much stronger. And wasn’t that rogue cultivator supposed to be powerful? How could he go down so easily?
The burly man next to Liu Chen reacted the fastest. Cursing under his breath, he began gathering light in his palm.
Unfortunately, Ye Yang’s fist was too quick. The ominous black-purple light hadn’t even fully formed before his punch scattered it. Then, another fist flew straight at the man’s face—Ye Yang used the same move and took him down too.
After losing two companions in quick succession, the others finally started to panic. They rushed at him all at once. But they still underestimated Ye Yang. Moments later, they all lay defeated beneath his iron fists—except for one who had dodged just in time and remained conscious, though he, too, was howling in pain.
He never could have imagined that a little demon whose power had been sealed, who wasn’t particularly bright, and who belonged to a water-dwelling species not known for fighting, could be so devastatingly powerful with nothing but his bare fists!
“Who’s not particularly bright?! I’m plenty smart!” Ye Yang was furious. He threw another punch at the man’s forehead, knocking out this foul-mouthed villain as well.
With the last of the bad guys unconscious, Ye Yang felt a shudder run through his body. Something invisible around him seemed to shatter. His demonic energy came rushing back—it was a barrier. The barrier had broken.
All of this had happened so fast that even Ye Yang, the one who caused it, was momentarily stunned. That was, until something tugged at his pants leg.
It was the little fox that had nearly had its limbs broken.
The little fox was barely breathing now, more near death than alive. Ye Yang’s heart leaped. Ignoring his own bloodied hands, he quickly scooped up the cub and channeled energy into it to stimulate its latent vitality—only stopping when the little fox’s breathing finally steadied. Only then did he finally have a chance to tend to his own injuries.
When freeing himself from the ropes, Ye Yang had used every ounce of his strength, mustering a courage most couldn’t imagine, to forcibly yank the thin, unyielding cords off his wrists. In doing so, thick layers of flesh had been scraped away from his palms, the backs of his hands, the soles of his feet, and the backs of his feet. Half of his heel had been sliced clean off.
Earlier, caught up in the heat of fighting, he hadn’t felt much. But now that he had relaxed—seeing his own hands and feet drenched in blood—Ye Yang nearly fainted right alongside the villains.
“It hurts hurts hurts hurts HURTS!”
“So painful, waaaah—”
·
The mooncake eating competition had reached its most intense moment. Little Thirteen was completely focused, watching the arena. He kept clenching his fists and shouting, “Lan Bao, go go go! Don’t let him catch up!”
Suddenly, he realized he hadn’t heard Ye Yang’s voice for quite a while. He turned his head left and right, and sure enough, he saw Ye Yang sitting quietly beside him, looking somewhat unwell.
His face full of concern, he immediately asked, “Ye Ye, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
Ye Yang’s expression was complicated. He had been gone for so long, and Little Thirteen hadn’t noticed at all.
Just a few minutes ago, Ye Yang had finally escaped that strange barrier. When he came out, he found himself in an unfamiliar place, though still presumably within Luoyang City. The Mi Gu had started working again, and within a few minutes, Ye Yang had found Little Thirteen watching the competition and took the empty seat beside him.
Huan Huan, sitting on Little Thirteen’s other side, heard the exchange and looked over. Her keen senses immediately picked up that Ye Yang was distracted and troubled. She asked, “What happened?”
Ye Yang took a deep breath and summarized what had just occurred.
He ended with, “After the barrier broke, a patrol team arrived soon after. They rescued the cubs and took all the bad guys away.”
“You encountered something so dangerous?! And we didn’t feel a thing!” Little Thirteen clutched his head and yelped in horror, drawing a fair bit of attention.
Huan Huan held Little Thirteen back, her gaze fixed intently on Ye Yang. Her expression was extremely serious. “Ye Ye, were you hurt?”
“Ah, not really.” Ye Yang scratched his head. “I’m fine.”
He said this without the slightest guilt—after all, all those injuries had already healed.
Little Thirteen didn’t believe him. Upon hearing this, he couldn’t help but give Ye Yang a thorough once-over. Only then did he notice that Ye Yang’s clothes were somewhat disheveled.
Ye Yang was wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and long pants today. The blood from forcing the ropes off hadn’t been copious, and once it dried, nothing was visible at all.
As for the smell—the venue for the mooncake eating competition was Luoyang City’s largest official arena. Blood was often spilled there, and the air was always thick with mingled scents. The faint trace of blood on Ye Yang blended right in, completely inconspicuous. Only now, after carefully sniffing, did Little Thirteen finally pick up a trace.
Still a bit skeptical, he asked, “Really? I smell something off about you.”
Ye Yang casually lifted the hem of his shirt. “See? I’m fine!”
Little Thirteen immediately averted his eyes. “You! Y-y-y-you, put your clothes back on properly this instant!”
Huan Huan impatiently shoved him aside and checked Ye Yang over herself, top to bottom, finally letting him go only after confirming there were indeed no wounds.
Thanks to his innate skill, Ye Yang could heal wounds quickly. On top of that, since he had rarely ever been injured before, his body had stored up quite a bit of healing energy. Even the layers of flesh scraped off his palms had completely regenerated, as good as new. Apart from the freshly grown skin being a bit too tender, there was nothing unusual.
Reassured that Ye Yang was perfectly fine, the two of them finally let go of the worry weighing on their hearts.
Huan Huan was meticulous by nature and tended to think things through carefully. After a moment of contemplation, she said, “Those people used strange and sinister methods. They must have set a trap in that place, and Ye Ye accidentally walked right into it. Once the trap was triggered, even the two of us who were with him had our senses dulled. Otherwise, even if Little Thirteen hadn’t noticed, there’s no way I wouldn’t have realized Ye Ye had suddenly disappeared.”
“Hey!” Little Thirteen protested loudly. “What do you mean, ‘even if Little Thirteen hadn’t noticed’?!”
Huan Huan ignored him and continued her analysis. “Hmm… but that doesn’t fully add up either. There were so many people around at the time. It’s impossible that no one noticed anything strange. Everyone present must have been affected. These people are formidable. Who exactly are they?”
Ye Yang thought for a moment and said, “From what I overheard the enforcers saying, those people were rogue cultivators.”
Back when the patrol team had arrived, Ye Yang had caught fragments of their conversation. One of them had said:
“How dare they! Committing crimes out in the open like this!”
Another had said, “These rogue cultivators are getting way too arrogant. If Lord Fu Ye were here, this never would have happened!”
Someone else had added, “Too bad he’s making waves in both realms. He holds a high position in the human world. He’s not going to stay cooped up in Luoyang City all the time.”
“And then?” Huan Huan pressed urgently.
Ye Yang gave a slight shake of his head. “That’s all I heard.”
The guards of Luoyang City were known for their no-nonsense, straightforward approach. Seeing that Ye Yang was fine and that he was a little demon with a valid YCG pass, they dismissed him without further questions.
Luoyang City had its own rules. Now that the rogue cultivators had been caught, there was no need to interrogate a little demon. They had their own ways of making these rogue cultivators confess everything.
Those guards had spoken rather fiercely, and Ye Yang, worried that he might have hit someone too hard and caused actual damage, had quickly slipped away while he could.
Little Thirteen was horrified when he heard this. “You’re worried about hurting them? Is that really your concern right now? You almost didn’t make it back, you know!” He had come this close to never seeing Ye Ye again—or worse, seeing only parts of Ye Ye… Little Thirteen shuddered, thoroughly frightened by his own imagination.
Huan Huan’s face also showed signs of fear. “I’ve heard stories like this before. Stories about rogue cultivators and evil demons eating children… But I always thought my sister made them up to keep me from wandering off. I didn’t know they were real.”
But she was even more worried about something else. “They say rogue cultivators are utterly evil and unreasonable. Ye Ye rescued that litter of fox cubs and ruined their plans, and now they’ve all been arrested. What if… what if they come after Ye Ye for revenge?”
“THEY WOULDN’T DARE!” A sudden roar exploded through the air, nearly making the three little demons jump out of their skins. Turning around, they saw a giant sitting two rows behind them.
This giant, whatever species he was, sat taller than Ye Yang stood. His piercing eyes were like brass bells, and his hearing was so sharp that he had caught their entire conversation from that distance.
Before Ye Yang could even respond, another demon chimed in. “Little one, you saved fox cubs. The fox elders will come looking for you soon.” The speaker was a demon with a gloomy, heavy aura. Those who knew better understood he meant the fox clan would reward and protect Ye Yang. Those who didn’t might have thought the foxes were coming for revenge.
“Exactly, exactly!” Another voice joined in. “Even if the foxes don’t do anything, with all of us here, there’s no way we’ll let those rogue cultivators keep causing trouble in Luoyang City!”
“What are you talking about? The fox clan, of all people, won’t mess this up. They’ll take good care of our young friend here.”
“Tsk—I need to warn my kids to be more careful when they go out. These rogue cultivators practice such devious and strange techniques. It’s all too easy to fall into their traps.”
“True enough. Got to admit, at the same level, rogue cultivators really are stronger. When it comes to practical combat, one of them is worth two of us.”
“Still, nothing to fear. There are plenty of us, and only a handful of them. Look, another nest has been caught. Once the enforcers interrogate them, they’ll wipe out their hideout too!”
Ye Yang had heard that most demons were straightforward, impulsive, and genuine by nature. This trait wasn’t very noticeable among the preschool-aged cubs born in recent years who had more contact with humans, but it was extremely obvious among adult demons who had lived for who knows how many centuries.
Before he knew it, the demons sitting all around him had stopped watching the competition entirely and crowded around, chattering endlessly—some comforting Ye Yang, others cursing the rogue cultivators.
Ye Yang himself and his friends couldn’t get a single word in edgewise.
“These rogue cultivators are getting bolder and bolder. What a pity. If Lord Fu Ye were still in Luoyang City, not a single one of them would survive!”
This was the second time Ye Yang had heard the name Fu Ye. His curiosity got the better of him. “Who exactly is this Lord Fu Ye? I heard the guards speak of him with great respect too.”
Huan Huan said, “You don’t know? Oh, right, I suppose… It’s hard to explain in just a few words. He’s a very powerful great demon. And when he sees rogue cultivators, he shows no mercy—kills them on sight. His methods are extreme, but he’s just.”
Little Thirteen added, “Come to think of it, I think Lord Fu Ye has some connection to the fox clan. I’ve run into a few old fox elders who huff and puff with anger whenever his name comes up. But young foxes all admire him. I really don’t get it.”
Just then, a small-framed spectator nearby, apparently reacting to something his friend had said, suddenly burst out loudly:
“I’ve said it all along—demon territory should be sealed off! No non-demons allowed! Then those rogue cultivators would never get in!”
Before anyone could respond, the ghost cultivator sitting next to him exploded. “What’s that supposed to mean? You want to kick me out too? What, only you Luoyang City demons are high and mighty? Then why did you even invite me here?!”
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