Ye Yang and Qin Zhi exchanged a glance, then both perked up their ears.
But after a long while, Shen Xiujun didn’t say anything more.
Qin Zhi had little patience. He couldn’t wait any longer. “What happened? Just spit it out!”
“Hmph.” Shen Xiujun took a slow bite of his bun. “The missions of our YCG – why would I discuss them with an outsider like you?”
“Tch.” Qin Zhi was speechless. “It’s just that same old spiel with you guys. If you ask me, all that observing and ambushing is nonsense. Better to just catch the person and interrogate them slowly, like you did last time—”
“You dare bring that up?!” Not mentioning it was fine, but bringing up that old affair made Shen Xiujun’s blood boil all over again.
Seeing that the two were about to come to blows again, Ye Yang quickly pushed Qin Zhi out. “Second Brother, you have class now. If you don’t leave, you’ll be late.”
Once Qin Zhi was gone, Shen Xiujun snorted coldly and shot Ye Yang a sidelong glance. “You care about him so much, you even know his class schedule.”
“I know Big Brother’s schedule too. You’ve missed a lot of classes. Is that okay?”
“So what? It’s not important. Sigh…” Shen Xiujun sighed. “My mission isn’t over yet. I still have to keep trying to track down that escaped heretic cultivator. I only came back today to rest and recharge for a day. I’m leaving again tomorrow.” If the school weren’t conveniently close, he wouldn’t have bothered.
Shen Xiujun finished speaking and suddenly noticed Ye Yang covering his ears.
“What are you doing?”
Ye Yang lowered his hands. “Aren’t missions supposed to be confidential?”
“…You actually believed that? I was just deliberately messing with Second Brother.” Shen Xiujun felt a bit embarrassed. Ye Ye was so honest.
Ye Yang had to go to class too. Since Shen Xiujun had nothing else to do, he decided to walk him there. On the way, he continued talking about his mission.
“Anyway, we’re practically colleagues now. It’s fine to tell you about this.”
“The target this time is a heretic cultivator who practices blood demon cultivation. He’s a lot like Western vampires, but stronger. He’s very cautious. If his cultivation technique hadn’t gone out of control and killed five people at once, we wouldn’t have discovered him.”
Killed five people? That sounded somewhat familiar. Ye Yang thought back and suddenly remembered. “Is that the murderous maniac from the news reports last month??” This had been a serious, violent incident – the kind that hadn’t happened in a long time. It had sparked a wave of discussion. At the time, half the class, including students who never paid attention to social news, had been talking about it.
“Exactly. That’s him. You can’t tell anyone else about this.”
“We lurked around for months and finally found his hideout. Yesterday, a group of us went to corner him. We never expected him to have so many tricks up his sleeve. He even had talismans specifically for YCG field operations, and even talismans from our own Yushui Temple. We let our guard down for a second, and he got away.” Even now, thinking about it made Shen Xiujun grind his teeth with rage.
Ye Yang’s eyes widened. “How could that happen?”
There might be a mole, or maybe they were relics from those who died before… Shen Xiujun clenched his fist but didn’t say more. He only added, “The heretic cultivator disappeared somewhere on the outskirts of Dongzhou. We don’t know where he went. He might still be nearby. Be careful. If anything feels off, you can contact me, or go to Teacher Shen.”
“Oh, and one more thing – that heretic cultivator excels at long-distance teleportation. He could be thousands of kilometers away one second and appear right in front of you the next. His out-of-control technique requires a massive amount of spiritual energy to repair. A little demon like you would be an easy target for him. You really need to be extra cautious.”
At the end of his speech, Shen Xiujun swore viciously, “So damn annoying. Another heretic cultivator!”
Ye Yang couldn’t help thinking about the heretic cultivator he had encountered in Luoyang City. “Are there many heretic cultivators?”
Shen Xiujun shook his head. “It’s not that there are many heretic cultivators, it’s that there are too many who do evil. Remember this, youngest: Every heretic cultivator has several human or demon lives on their hands. None of them are good.”
Ye Yang nodded. Shen Xiujun patted his shoulder. “Alright, we’re here. Go to class.”
Having been delayed a bit in the morning, by the time Ye Yang arrived at the classroom, most of his classmates were already there.
The long-haired girl in the front row took a sip of the soybean milk she hadn’t finished at breakfast, pushed back her bangs, and suddenly offered a critique. “Although that senior is okay, he’s not in the same league as Teacher Shen, right?”
The short-haired girl next to her immediately nodded in agreement. “Little Ye Ye, you can’t mess this up.”
Several other classmates who weren’t usually close with them naturally joined the discussion. “Hey, you can’t say that. Adults don’t make choices. Why can’t she have both?”
“Right! I also heard there are two other handsome guys in your dorm. Oh my, not bad at all.”
“Little Ye Ye is so cute. Having a few extra boyfriends doesn’t matter, does it? Who’s with me? Who’s against?”
“Just four – that’s nothing.”
“Hiss… sis, isn’t that a bit too crude? Don’t scare the little cutie.”
Seeing how far their talk was spiraling, Li Chanyi shook his head and quickly pulled Ye Yang to an empty spot in the front of the classroom.
When the class ended, everyone gathered their things to move to a larger classroom. As Ye Yang and Li Chanyi walked side by side down the hall, Ye Yang suddenly asked, “Were they calling me ‘little cutie’?”
“…You’re just now realizing that?” Li Chanyi broke out in a cold sweat. No wonder he hadn’t reacted at all. He had no idea they were talking about him!
Ye Yang was a bit miffed. Although he was shorter than the other boys, he was still taller than the girls. How was he a little cutie?
What made it worse was that his good friend couldn’t empathize with him and just laughed in his face. “What else would they call you? Big cutie? Hahahahaha—”
Li Chanyi was laughing so hard he was doubling over, looking utterly insufferable. Ye Yang couldn’t take it anymore. He closed the distance in three strides and chased after him, ready to land a hit.
The two of them tussled and roughhoused all the way out of the teaching building. Just as they were approaching the large lecture hall, Ye Yang suddenly sensed a gaze filled with malice fixed on him.
He immediately turned his head to look around, but the gaze had vanished. He focused his senses more carefully, but still found nothing. Yet there was a faint hint of blood in the air, almost imperceptible.
Even though he thought it unlikely to be such a coincidence, Ye Yang immediately recalled Shen Xiujun’s warning.
Without hesitation, he grabbed Li Chanyi, whom he hadn’t been able to catch a moment ago, and said to him, “Go to class yourself. I’m skipping this one.”
Better to be safe than sorry. If that escaped heretic cultivator really was here, his target would definitely be Ye Yang – the only demon in the entire university with the densest aura of spiritual energy. He had to get away from the crowd as quickly as possible.
“Huh?! Right now?” Li Chanyi was shocked. It was so sudden – they were already at the entrance of the large lecture hall.
Ye Yang handed him his backpack as well. “I don’t know when I’ll be back. If I haven’t returned by after class, could you please take it back to the dorm for me?”
Li Chanyi nodded, slung the backpack over his own shoulder, and said, “Alright. That professor doesn’t take attendance anyway. Go on.”
Ye Yang had good grades and was attentive in class, but he never got the top tier of scholarship awards because he was often absent. Li Chanyi was used to it.
Since his friend didn’t want to talk about it, he wouldn’t pry. Still, he couldn’t help muttering to himself, “What on earth does he do every day…?”
—
To draw the danger away from Dongzhou University, Ye Yang controlled his pace – neither too fast nor too slow – as he walked briskly out of the university’s west gate.
The west gate was the most remote entrance, almost never used. Across the road from the gate was a barren mountain. Because stone had been quarried there centuries ago, the mountain itself had been significantly excavated, making it impossible to plant trees. The other side of the mountain faced a highway, and there were no residents either. So the place had remained abandoned.
After passing through the west gate, Ye Yang walked straight across the road. The moment he entered the mountain, he felt that gaze again.
Now that he was in an isolated place, the gaze no longer concealed itself in the slightest. It stuck to Ye Yang openly, greedy and vicious.
Ye Yang remained unfazed and continued walking deeper into the mountain.
Whether it was because the cultivator’s out-of-control technique had robbed him of all reason so he couldn’t see such an obvious trap, or because he was so confident in his power that he didn’t consider a little demon like Ye Yang a threat, the malicious gaze grew increasingly intense.
Finally, with a “thud –,” a humanoid figure dropped from the sky and landed directly on the ground, blocking Ye Yang’s path about ten meters ahead.
As the dust settled, a man cloaked entirely in black spoke in a hoarse voice. “Heaven never seals off all paths. To think there is such pure spiritual energy here…” The greasiness in his tone made Ye Yang’s skin crawl.
The man wore black shoes, black pants, and a black hoodie. Beneath the wide hood, only an extremely pale chin was visible.
The man reeked of blood. Ye Yang couldn’t help twitching his nose. Behind his back, his fingers had already formed the hand seal for a barrier spell.
But he was a step too slow.
An extremely powerful aura rushed toward him. Before either Ye Yang or the man could react, an even more advanced barrier suddenly descended over them.
Ye Yang looked up. Everything from the outside world was completely blocked out. In the pitch-black darkness, all that remained was an eerie white light coming from nowhere.
“AAAAHHHHHH——”
Ye Yang’s head snapped up. The man who had been so confident just moments ago was suddenly convulsing. His wretched screams nearly pierced Ye Yang’s eardrums.
Startled, Ye Yang took a step back. But the man gradually lost his voice, his convulsing limbs twisting into strange shapes. Within three seconds, the man’s body crashed to the ground, devoid of all life.
Only then did Ye Yang realize that there was actually someone standing behind the man!
His pupils constricted in shock. When did this person get here?! How did I not notice at all? Friend or foe???
The person across from him walked over.
The dust kicked up by the man’s struggles finally settled, and Ye Yang could finally see the newcomer’s face clearly. He froze for a moment, not just because the face was objectively handsome from every angle, but also because at first glance, it bore a striking resemblance to Shen Ming.
But upon closer inspection, he found that their facial features and bone structures were completely different.
The man in the suit flexed his wrists, dispelled the barrier, and took a long stride, stepping directly over the corpse as he walked toward Ye Yang. “New arrival? Haven’t seen you before.”
Ye Yang tilted his head uncertainly. “…Are you asking me?” He won’t even give me a glance. Such an ill-mannered person.
Fu Ye finally looked at Ye Yang. “Is there anyone else here?”
The killing intent was still fresh in his eyes. Ye Yang instinctively lowered his head to avoid the sharp edge.
Suddenly, a shout came from afar, growing closer. “Hey, hey, hey! Youngest! Are you okay?!”
It was the eldest brother’s voice!
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