At that moment, only one thought occupied his mind: maybe, just maybe, could he use earth escape to escape this sealed-off area?
He was already at a dead end. Even if a method seemed hopeless, he had to try it.
This was the perfect opportunity.
First, the terrifying attack had sunk Ye Yang’s entire body several dozen centimeters deeper into the ground. The earth around him had loosened to varying degrees. While this didn’t help much with earth escape, it was better than nothing.
Second, the force that had been absorbing his demonic energy and vitality had vanished. After that last strike, Liu Chen seemed to believe that even if Ye Yang wasn’t dead, he was seriously injured. He didn’t press the attack, instead focusing on figuring out why Ye Yang was still alive.
Most crucially, there was no way Liu Chen could know that Ye Yang excelled at earth escape.
Ye Yang was water-attuned and most vulnerable to earth-attuned abilities. Normally, a demon like him wouldn’t know earth escape at all.
But Ye Yang wasn’t an ordinary water-attuned demon. He actually had a trick up his sleeve.
Ye Yang’s classmate Lan Bao was a good-for-nothing black bear spirit. Although he kept failing grades and had terrible marks, his strength was nothing to scoff at. His natural talent was such that he didn’t even need to study—he could instantly sink dozens of meters into the earth.
Out of curiosity, Ye Yang had asked Lan Bao for guidance. Back then, Ye Yang didn’t even know about elemental affinities like water and earth. He tried the earth escape technique on a whim—and succeeded!
Though he couldn’t match Lan Bao’s effortless grace, the fact that a water-dweller could perform earth escape shocked Lan Bao to the core.
Lan Bao didn’t overthink it. He was simply proud, believing he was a great teacher, and racked his brain to teach Ye Yang more tricks.
His plan was to keep it a secret, train Ye Yang until he was just as skilled as himself, and then shock everyone—especially Little Thirteen.
But Lan Bao was fickle. Since Ye Yang’s progress stalled, never breaking past a dozen meters, Lan Bao gradually lost interest and soon forgot all about it.
Ye Yang was never talkative anyway, and back then he didn’t realize how remarkable his earth escape ability was. So apart from Ye Yang himself and Lan Bao, no one else knew he could do it—not even Teacher Yu.
This was his gamble—betting on a slim possibility: that Liu Chen knew Ye Yang well enough to know he was water-attuned and thus wouldn’t guard against earth escape.
Given Liu Chen’s cunning and despicable nature, Ye Yang thought this was highly likely. The fact that Liu Chen had set a trap specifically for him meant he couldn’t be completely ignorant about Ye Yang. Moreover, Liu Chen had suffered losses at Ye Yang’s hands and had vowed to kill him for revenge—surely he would have studied Ye Yang’s abilities before making a move.
Liu Chen had extended his barrier more than ten meters underground and the shielding layer dozens of meters deeper. That was actually very cautious. But unfortunately, he was up against Ye Yang.
“Sigh… alright, I can’t lie around anymore. The others are probably heading toward Liu Chen by now. I need to get back too.”
Ye Yang shifted his aching limbs and just sat up when a familiar voice came from behind him: “Where are you going?”
Ye Yang: “!” No way?!
His mind went blank instantly. He instinctively retracted every stray leaf and antenna, his neck stiff as rust as he turned around jerkily, his smile more pained than joyful: “Li Chanyi, what are you doing here?”
Li Chanyi crouched on the ground, eyes fixed unblinkingly on Ye Yang’s antennae and leaves, waving his medicine basket: “I came to collect herbs. What about you?”
Major miscalculation! He had thought this was a barren mountain with no hiking trail, so no one would come. Who could have guessed that after class, Li Chanyi wouldn’t go to the library, wouldn’t go out to have fun, wouldn’t even go back to the dorm—but instead came all the way out here? This place wasn’t even close to school!! How could this be such a coincidence?
Ye Yang’s brain was seizing up, but seeing Li Chanyi’s calm expression, he clung to a shred of hope: “I… I was just handling something—”
Before he could finish, Li Chanyi cut him off: “Don’t pretend. I saw everything. Are you a demon?”
Li Chanyi’s tone was steady. Ye Yang was so frightened he nearly jumped out of his skin: “Y-Y-You—”
Li Chanyi continued: “I’ve been watching for a while, but I still can’t tell what exactly you are. Can you tell me?”
There was no trace of fear, disgust, or any other negative emotion in his voice—just pure curiosity upon encountering something unfamiliar.
Strangely, his attitude soothed Ye Yang’s terror.
After all, the Crisis Management Department would come to erase memories. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to say a few things now?
Just a few simple sentences. No harm done.
Ye Yang convinced himself and cautiously spoke: “I… I really am a demon, but I would never hurt anyone!”
“I know,” Li Chanyi said without hesitation. “If you hurt people, we’ve been so close for so long—I’d have been eaten by now.”
Ye Yang felt a bit moved and found himself talking more: “Well… I’m actually a sea hare, from the South China Sea. Saying I’m an orphan wasn’t a lie…”
Li Chanyi tilted his head: “Let me guess—you’re a leaf sheep sea slug.”
Ye Yang’s back stiffened, and he couldn’t help feeling nervous: “You actually guessed it.”
Li Chanyi smiled smugly: “Too easy. We just studied them recently. Your name is Ye Yang—such an obvious hint—plus your beautiful leaves. Ah, they’re really lovely.”
“Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask,” Li Chanyi suddenly pointed at the cub in Ye Yang’s arms, “is that your prey? Can we eat it together?”
Ye Yang was horrified: “No, no, you can’t eat this!” As he spoke, he hugged the little cub even tighter, squeezing it so hard it let out a tiny “squeak,” yet it still didn’t wake up.
“I’m joking, just teasing you. Of course I know it’s not for eating. Now, those roommates of yours…” Li Chanyi stroked his chin, looking thoughtful.
Ye Yang was confused: “Why bring them up all of a sudden?”
What Li Chanyi said next caught Ye Yang completely off guard.
“Shen Xiuyun and Qin Zhi—are they some kind of cultivators? Since demons exist, there must be cultivators too, right? And that Zhuang Li, I think he’s also a demon, am I correct?”
Ye Yang never expected that not only did Li Chanyi immediately accept the fact that he was a demon, but he also drew analogies, broadened his thinking, and guessed the identities of all three roommates with remarkable accuracy.
Ye Yang was genuinely panicking: “Wh-Why would you think that?”
“Looks like I was right. I’ve long felt that all four of you are stranger than the next. And you just happened to be assigned to the same dorm as those guys.” Li Chanyi slapped his thigh and launched into a torrent of words: “When you first started school, you didn’t eat anything and never filled your water bottle. I didn’t think much of it at first, but then I went to your dorm and saw you had nothing—no laundry detergent, no shampoo, not even a bar of soap!”
“And those three roommates of yours—Shen Xiuyun’s major alone is suspicious. Plus, he always carries around a bunch of old bronze coins, but he’s too young to be an antique collector. Qin Zhi is even more obvious. In the whole martial arts department, with so many people practicing swordsmanship, he’s the only one who never lets his sword leave his side, and the sword he uses is different from everyone else’s. I heard his bench press is 400 pounds, but his arms and legs are so thin—how could a normal person do that? But if he’s a cultivator, that makes perfect sense.”
“As for Zhuang Li, there have long been many analysis posts saying he couldn’t maintain such a high competitive level without training, and that those god-level plays of his were definitely not coincidences. His reaction speed far exceeds that of a normal human—it’s almost feline. Hey, is he a cat demon?”
Ye Yang: “…” He was already numb. Although some of Li Chanyi’s guesses were off, they weren’t far from the truth.
God, what was up with this guy? He knew Li Chanyi was smart, but not this smart. This was terrifying… No, he had to contact the Crisis Management Department immediately!
Ye Yang quietly reached for his phone in his pocket when suddenly, a round of applause rang out: “Well said. Impressive, impressive.”
He turned around and saw Shen Xiuyun and Director Tu.
Ye Yang’s body went stiff: “When did you two get here?” This was bad. Although the Crisis Management Department could fix things, if he got caught voluntarily leaking information, he might even be fined!
Director Tu just smiled amiably without saying a word. Shen Xiuyun looked utterly innocent: “We rushed over as soon as we got your signal. We’ve been here for a while… probably since you got outed.”
Ye Yang was mortified. Seriously, the senior student had been outed too, so how could he be so calm?
Before they could chat any further, Director Tu’s expression suddenly turned grim: “Oh no!”
Ye Yang and Shen Xiuyun both looked sharply in the same direction. Channeling spiritual energy into their eyes, with their keen vision, they could clearly see a burst of firelight in the distance—exactly the direction Ye Yang had come from.
Director Tu scooped up the still-unconscious little cub and immediately gave orders: “Xiao Shen, Xiao Ye, leave things here to me. I’ll take the cub too. You two go help.”
The main force was all over there, yet such a huge commotion had broken out—something must have gone wrong.
Li Chanyi, the only ordinary human, hadn’t seen or heard a thing. He looked from one to the other and wisely said nothing.
With Director Tu around, Ye Yang didn’t have to worry anymore. He said a quick goodbye to Li Chanyi and pulled out another teleportation talisman.
As he activated it, he winced inwardly. This was the seventh one he had used today. What a huge loss.
·
Back at the place he had escaped from not long ago, the surface looked perfectly calm, as if nothing had happened. Not far away, a few police officers and civilians stood around looking bewildered, clearly drawn here by the explosion’s sound and flames.
Shen Xiuyun said, “The others must have set up a barrier in time. Let’s go, hurry inside.”
Once through the barrier, Ye Yang immediately spotted that wall of confinement. Something else must have happened, because the barrier had shrunk significantly and turned semi-transparent again. He could see crowds of people moving inside, but nothing clearly.
Outside the barrier, many people had gathered, systematically attacking it.
Ye Yang saw several unfamiliar agents emerge from the ground, shaking their heads at the director who was commanding the scene. The loophole he had exploited had already been sealed. Breaking back in with something as simple as earth escape was no longer possible.
No wonder the barrier had contracted so much.
Shen Xiuyun found a senior who was providing remote support and asked, “What’s the situation now?”
The senior said, “We’re trying to break this barrier to rescue the people trapped inside.”
A female agent nearby explained: “According to the intel we received earlier, our entire team assembled and rushed over. About seven or eight agents, enhanced by the director’s earth-attuned spiritual power, managed to break through. But the rogue cultivator inside was treacherously clever and trapped them all in there! Now we have no idea what’s happening inside.”
That intel was the message Ye Yang had sent after escaping. He never thought it would backfire.
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