“What’s there to fret about? If it comes down to it, I’ll go with you and stew that church cult leader in one pot. We can’t lose to a bunch of ordinary humans, can we?”
Brother Grey (Hui) had been listening nearby for a while, growing more impatient by the minute without being able to get a word in. Now he finally had his chance.
“I haven’t made a move in so long. My claws are getting itchy.”
Ye Yang: “…That’s a bit extreme.” He finally understood why Brother Grey, despite his immense combat power, was just a security guard.
With that kind of attitude, he really couldn’t be sent into the field. Before the Operations Department could finish one mission, the Crisis Management Department would probably end up with a dozen new ones.
·
The range hood hummed loudly in the kitchen. Shen Ming lifted the lid off the clay pot, waved away the steam, and scooped up a bit of the broth to taste. He nodded, added salt, and turned off the heat. Ye Yang deftly handed him a soup bowl, then went back to chopping vegetables, all while keeping up a steady stream of chatter.
“So right now, we haven’t found any better leads. We’ll just have to keep going undercover and wait for that Zhu Kai to come back so we can question him.”
Shen Ming, who had been listening the whole time, countered, “Can’t you ask others? Hypnosis or some other magical technique—if you don’t know it, Xing Tian probably does, right?”
“And Chi Lian—he seems to know some illusion arts.”
Those were the most basic investigative methods, but: “The advance team from the Intelligence Division tried. It didn’t work. That’s why this case is so bizarre—even the department that deals with bizarre things finds it bizarre.”
Ye Yang couldn’t help but complain: “The fact that Brother Xing took the initiative to follow this case says a lot.”
They continued the discussion even after sitting down to eat.
When Ye Yang described what he and Xing Tian had seen in the small church, he focused on the part they found most puzzling: the ritual between the Cult Leader and the followers.
“Golden light?” Shen Ming’s chopsticks paused mid-air. The rib he had just picked up plopped back into the soup bowl, only to be intercepted by Ye Yang.
Shen Ming didn’t mind—he had picked it up for Ye Yang anyway. His attention was completely absorbed by the so-called ritual. “Can you describe it in more detail?”
After hearing Ye Yang out, he pondered for a moment. “This golden light… could it be the power of faith?”
Ye Yang froze. “Sister Wu said something like that too.”
A suspected cult, strange rituals, rare golden spiritual energy—it was hard not to think in that direction. Aside from the power of faith, which was tied to merit and virtue, no other kind of spiritual energy emitted a golden glow. It was something impossible to fake.
Sister Wu had mentioned it in passing, but Xing Tian, Ye Yang, and even Chi Lian had taken it as a joke.
None of them had given it serious thought.
After the Upper Realm was sealed off, many minor gods and lesser immortals stranded in the human world had subsisted on the power of faith. But with the Upper Realm closed and spiritual energy dried up, these minor deities, despite having faith power, gradually lost the ability to perform miracles. Fewer and fewer people believed in them.
As human society developed to the present day—even though spiritual energy had begun to revive—faith among the Chinese people had grown very weak. Without recognition from the Upper Realm, becoming a god through faith power alone was utterly impossible.
Only those who already held divine positions—like the mountain god Ye Yang had encountered during the Teng Hua case—had the ability to utilize faith power. And even then, it was only enough to sustain their existence, nothing more.
If this was the case for demons, immortals, and spiritual beings, then the Cult Leader was just an ordinary human. Not only could he not utilize faith power—he couldn’t even inspire it in others. Relying on it to become a god was pure delusion.
This was common knowledge, basic common sense. So although cult activities easily invited such speculation, none of them had looked into it further.
But now, with Shen Ming bringing it up again, Ye Yang found himself re-examining this nearly impossible possibility.
Shen Ming made a serious suggestion: “To be sure, you’ll have to witness that ritual again.”
·
After Zhu Kai returned to the country, Chi Lian went to check on him and found that he was just an ordinary gambler. He had nearly lost all the money he had made—his incredible luck was gone.
When he realized that Chi Lian, disguised as one of his own kind, was also a gambler, he immediately began recruiting him for the mutual aid society. When he gave out the address of the small church, he never mentioned any rule about keeping it secret. In fact, he seemed to want the news about the society to spread even further.
Chi Lian pretended to agree to join, then immediately returned to report to Xing Tian.
Xing Tian didn’t waste any time. He decided to go back to the small church.
Having Ye Yang and Xing Tian show up together again would be too conspicuous. This time, Ye Yang and Chi Lian went.
There wasn’t much difference from last time—except there seemed to be a few more naked women. Soon after, the gathering ended, and Ye Yang returned to the apartment before dawn, bringing Chi Lian with him.
Shen Ming was waiting for them. His first words were: “Just as I thought.”
Ye Yang’s brows were deeply furrowed, his expression one of utter incomprehension—an expression he had worn the entire way back. “How can this be? That really was the power of faith!”
The spirit snake burrowed out of Ye Yang’s sleeve and suddenly returned to its full size. “Finally done! I was suffocating in there! Forget all that for now—do we have any midnight snacks? I worked so hard—”
No one paid him any attention. Ye Yang even reached out and pressed the snake’s big, inconvenient head down, looking at Shen Ming. “Spirit Snake really absorbed the power of faith. How is that possible?”
Shen Ming frowned as well. He had seen what Spirit Snake saw, but after searching his entire memory, he came up empty. “As I said before, it’s impossible for an ordinary human to obtain the power of faith… unless…”
Ye Yang pressed urgently, “Unless what?”
“Unless he has some other form of assistance.” A hoarse voice spoke out of nowhere.
Ye Yang was startled and whipped his head around. It was Meow Meow Teacher! The old monster had appeared behind him without him sensing a thing.
This was Shen Ming’s home—where had he even come from?!
“Meow Meow Teacher? How did you get here?”
Meow Meow Teacher ignored Ye Yang. Instead, he nimbly leaped, his hefty body flying mid-air, using the spirit snake’s head as a stepping stone before landing steadily on the dining table.
The poor spirit snake got kicked to the floor and lay there dizzy for a long time.
Shen Ming nodded at Meow Meow Teacher. “You’re here.”
Ye Yang was startled again. Even Elder Li didn’t get this kind of treatment from Shen Ming, did he?
Meow Meow Teacher said, “The first time I saw this little rabbit, I noticed he carried your scent. I had some free time today, so I followed him out for a bit, and then followed him here. What, is he your emergency food supply?”
Ye Yang: “…” There were so many things wrong with that sentence that he didn’t know whether to first freak out that Meow Meow Teacher had followed him all the way without him noticing—and might have even gone to the small church—or to get angry at the “emergency food supply” joke.
Chi Lian, who had been pretending not to exist by hugging the wall since entering, silently widened his eyes in shock. He had been followed the whole time? He hadn’t noticed a thing! Argh! If he’d known, he wouldn’t have come. These were all big shots—he barely dared to breathe.
He looked at Ye Yang with growing admiration. No wonder he had lost to him. To face Xuanwu every day and still act so natural—he himself could barely stand straight…
Shen Ming’s brief joy at seeing an old friend quickly faded, and his tone turned quite cold. “Show some respect to my friend. What are you here for?”
Meow Meow Teacher, used to his manner, slowly swished his tail. “We haven’t seen each other in so long. Don’t you miss me at all?”
Shen Ming glanced at him sideways. “Fine, fine.” Not wanting the atmosphere to completely freeze, Meow Meow Teacher quickly explained his purpose.
He had overheard Ye Yang and the others talking about their mission at the company and had taken an interest. His own mission hadn’t progressed lately, and there was no rushing it, so he decided to satisfy his curiosity and tag along with Ye Yang.
Regarding the so-called power of faith, Meow Meow Teacher turned out to be an expert. Ye Yang listened for a while and only gathered that the cat knew a lot, but he couldn’t understand the conversation between him and Shen Ming. He ended up crouching in the corner with Chi Lian.
Finally, they touched on a topic he could follow—and it was about him.
When Meow Meow Teacher learned that Ye Yang and Shen Ming had once been advisor and student, he was astonished. “This little rabbit’s use of demonic power is way too crude. How did you teach him?”
Ye Yang couldn’t stand hearing that. He jumped up. “Crude how?” Criticizing him was one thing, but what did that imply about Professor Shen?
Meow Meow Teacher said, “Your racial power—I’ve never seen you use it.”
Shen Ming explained on Ye Yang’s behalf: “His innate power is support-oriented. It’s normal that you haven’t seen him use it.”
“Then what about other techniques? Aside from the most basic ones, he hasn’t learned much else.”
Ye Yang quietly defended himself: “Actually, my formations are pretty decent…”
Meow Meow Teacher looked him up and down and clicked his tongue. “Let’s set all that aside. You’re already seventh rank, yet your attack method is just wrapping your fist in demonic power and relying on brute force to subdue people.”
“The demonic power around your fist only protects it from injury. It provides no enhancement whatsoever… Honestly, do you even know how to use demonic power?”
Ye Yang: “I—” He opened his mouth, blinked, and couldn’t come up with a retort.
Chi Lian, who was fourth rank but couldn’t do anything except summon snake swarms: …
Shen Ming, who was vastly powerful but also not good at spellcraft and preferred raw force: …
Shen Ming immediately began reflecting. He had only thought to teach Ye Yang scale protection and hadn’t considered teaching him more offensive skills. It seemed he still hadn’t fully acknowledged Ye Yang’s abilities.
It wasn’t until both Chi Lian and Meow Meow Teacher had left that Shen Ming was still pondering this.
Shen Ming was a god. He could accomplish many things, but he did so through divine power, not spells. Even if he wanted to teach Ye Yang, he didn’t know how.
Demonic spellcraft ultimately depended on bloodline. Each race had its own methods, its own way of channeling and utilizing demonic power. This was why, even with a renowned teacher like Yu Bei, Ye Yang still hadn’t learned many spells.
Even if Yu Bei wanted to teach, Ye Yang couldn’t learn. Their different races meant their demonic power flowed differently. Only the most basic spells were universal.
All naturally born demons and spiritual beings had their own destinies. Ye Yang was highly talented and had shown exceptional strength early on, so Yu Bei hadn’t been worried.
In truth, Ye Yang’s inherited memories contained many powerful spells—some even capable of turning the world upside down. But first, his rank was too low, and second, his memories were fragmented. He knew what the spells did but had no idea how to actually perform them.
The spirit snake, who had been suppressed ever since they got home, burst out. He didn’t really want to teach Ye Yang—he just wanted to stretch.
Spirit Snake: “Want to learn Shen Ming’s signature move? Follow me. Do it like this, then this, then…”
His tail twisted through the air. Then—BAM!—a surge of waves, carrying immense power, rushed forward, passed through the entire apartment building, and faded into the distance. Ye Yang was knocked over, but aside from himself, nothing else was affected.
It was an attack suspended between the real and the unreal—exquisite in its subtlety.
Ye Yang, confused but obedient, let his demonic power flow and mimicked the spirit snake’s tail movements with his hands. “Like this, then this, then…”
Shen Ming had been watching their antics casually, but as Ye Yang moved, he noticed a familiar fluctuation in the air. He sat up a little straighter. Did it work?
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