Ye Yang hugged Meow Meow the cat and quietly took a few steps back.
Chi Lian’s way of saving people was even stranger than this cult’s methods, but at least he managed to rescue them.
With both puppet seeds dealt with, the little snake slithered back into his sleeve. After a series of rustling sounds, Chi Lian lifted his head and said, “That wasn’t so troublesome, after all.”
He had been stung by Meow Meow’s words a few days ago, and today he was determined to show off his proficiency in spellcraft—he hadn’t lived all these years for nothing!
The two women hadn’t woken up yet after having the puppet seeds removed from them. Ye Yang and Chi Lian handed them over to the Crisis Management Department, which had arrived to clean up the mess. The relevant humans outside had already been subdued, leaving only the finishing work.
But the person sent to handle the cleanup was quite unexpected.
“Fu Ye?”
Ye Yang was pleasantly surprised. They hadn’t seen each other since Fu Ye returned to Qishan. As a busy executive, Fu Ye was always occupied, frequently fighting criminals like Iron Man, so Ye Yang hadn’t dared to disturb him. The last time they’d contacted each other was several months ago.
“What a coincidence, Ye Ye. I didn’t expect this to be your mission.” Fu Ye pushed his sunglasses up onto his head and strolled in with one hand in his pocket, looking very cool.
He came alone. As soon as he entered, ignoring everyone else, he walked over and put an arm around Ye Yang.
Ye Yang was genuinely happy. “I didn’t expect it to be you. But I remember you’re not part of YCG?”
Fu Ye stood with a lazy slouch, arm still around him, and replied, “You remember correctly. I’m not with YCG, but I often help handle some matters—you could say it’s a partnership.”
“I happen to be coming to oversee the East Continent branch. The branch has been full of momentum lately, with many new projects in the works.”
Ye Yang nodded. That made perfect sense.
Looking down, Fu Ye noticed an enormous fat cat in Ye Yang’s arms. He raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing here?”
Meow Meow wriggled around in Ye Yang’s arms, changed positions with effort to point his rear at Fu Ye, and didn’t hold back: “None of your damn business. Leave me alone.”
They knew each other too? Just as Ye Yang was about to speak, Xing Tian suddenly said, “Since General Fu is taking over, there’s nothing to worry about. Let’s head back—there’s still a lot to do at the company.”
Huh? What things at the company? Neither Ye Yang nor Chi Lian understood, but Xing Tian was the team leader. Since he said so, Ye Yang could only say, “Talk later,” and step into the teleportation talisman area Xing Tian had opened.
Fu Ye didn’t say anything else, just waved his phone, meaning, “Keep in touch online.”
Back at the company, Xing Tian’s first words were: “Stay away from him from now on.”
Ye Yang: “Huh? Who? Fu Ye?”
“Yes. He’s not a good person.”
“Why do you say that?” Ye Yang was surprised. Everyone he knew—except for Shen Ming, who neither knew Fu Ye nor cared about YCG or the demon realm—admired or even worshipped Fu Ye.
Oh, and Li Chanyi. But Li Chanyi could never pinpoint exactly what was wrong with Fu Ye.
Xing Tian hesitated, then told the truth. “I don’t have any other proof. It’s just that he gives me a very bad feeling.” Just one encounter, and Xing Tian felt strongly that this man was dangerous—especially seeing how familiar he was with Ye Yang, which only intensified that feeling.
Ye Yang was even more surprised now.
If only one person had said this, he wouldn’t have thought much of it. But now two unrelated people had said the same thing, worded the same way—he couldn’t help but overthink it.
Xing Tian rarely spoke at length. “I don’t know him, but I know he rarely leaves Qishan. It was already strange when he suddenly opened a branch in the East Continent. Now he’s coming here in person. Sure, he has legitimate reasons and came to help, but I still feel… Anyway, stay on guard around him. If anything happens, remember to find Shen Ming.”
Ye Yang: “…Okay.”
·
Fu Ye’s arrival didn’t just set off alarm bells for Xing Tian.
Elder Li was far away at the Kunlun Barrier, but nothing in YCG escaped his notice. The moment Fu Ye applied to do cleanup work for a mission in the East Continent—something completely unrelated to him—Elder Li immediately grew alert.
Elder Li had long suspected Fu Ye of being involved in the tragic massacre of the fox clan years ago. Lacking evidence, he had quietly watched Fu Ye for years, nearly ready to drop his suspicion.
But in recent years, Fu Ye had been making frequent moves, so Elder Li put him under close scrutiny again.
Hearing that Fu Ye was heading to the East Continent once more, Elder Li thought it over and sent Shen Ming a long-distance message: “Please, God, keep an eye on Fu Ye’s movements. Many thanks.”
Even though Shen Ming never cared to get involved, and messages sent to him went unanswered ten times out of ten—wait, what?
Elder Li stared at the paper crane that materialized with a poof right in front of him. He confirmed it was the same one he’d just sent. His first thought: Shen Ming had gone from reading without replying to not reading at all and sending it straight back? But the next second, the paper crane unfolded before his eyes.
Elder Li’s eyes widened. It was just a simple “Okay,” but still! Not only had Shen Ming read his message, but he’d also replied—and agreed to his request!!!
Was this even Shen Ming anymore?
Yan Yungui had just arrived at the foot of the Kunlun Mountains barrier when he saw Elder Li standing there in a daze. He had no idea how long the elder had been standing there, but the paper crane in front of him had already half dissipated.
As one of the heads of YCG, Yan Yungui traveled constantly throughout the year, but every so often he would return to the Kunlun Barrier to help reinforce it.
He walked over to Elder Li. “What’s wrong? Frozen stupid?”
“You’re the one who’s frozen stupid… Come here and take a look for me. This is Shen Ming, right? He couldn’t have been impersonated, could he?” Then Elder Li couldn’t help bringing up the incident from a while ago when he’d been stood up at the library.
Yan Yungui chuckled. “You old bachelor just don’t get it. Let me tell you, he’s definitely in love. My junior brother was the same—after falling in love, he started acting like a real person.”
So that’s why he’d felt something was off—it was because Shen Ming was acting like a real person… But in love?
Elder Li ignored Yan Yungui’s jab at his own tree-like form and was simply stunned by the word “love.”
But then he quickly came to his senses: “Impossible. Absolutely impossible.”
Sure, Shen Ming had been doing a lot of strange things lately, but there was no way he was in love. That guy had no emotions whatsoever!
Yan Yungui didn’t have time to argue about that and turned to business: “What’s the current situation in Luoyang City?”
Elder Li’s expression grew serious as he stroked his beard. “Ying Zhao thinks his movements are very discreet, but I planted an informant in Luoyang City’s lord manor long ago. I just received word that he’s been acting strangely lately—he might really be connected to the evil god. But he’s cautious enough that only he knows the most critical matters, not even his closest confidants.”
Ying Zhao had indeed made contact with the master behind the heretic cultivator Liu Chen and had even begun cooperating. Looking at Luoyang City’s recent actions, their ambitions were clearly very large.
Meanwhile, YCG had never stopped investigating the master behind Liu Chen. By now, they were almost certain that master was an evil god.
Unlike the cult leader in Ye Yang’s mission, this evil god might very well have once been a true deity who, for some unknown reason, had turned into an evil god.
A god’s power… If left unchecked, it might even bring about the Great Calamity ahead of time.
Yan Yungui’s expression also turned serious. “We still don’t have much control over the demon realm. I’ve been to several places where the evil god might have appeared recently, but unfortunately, I haven’t found anything yet.”
Elder Li grew even more grave. “We still haven’t figured out the origin of this evil god. His power may be more terrifying than we imagine, and his forces are likely enormous. We’ll have to face him head-on sooner or later. You must hurry—every second delayed, another victim is made.”
Based solely on the victims they already knew of, the evil god had already claimed no fewer than ten thousand. Among them were demons, humans, spirits, and even souls in the underworld. To avoid causing panic and interfering with the investigation, only YCG’s upper echelons knew of the evil god’s emergence.
Yan Yungui nodded. “I know.” He was even more anxious than Elder Li—his own former master had also fallen into evil, causing great harm, and had forever barred him from returning to his homeland, forcing him to remain in this realm.
But being anxious was useless.
After a brief exchange, Elder Li, Yan Yungui, and several other powerful figures who had been waiting nearby simultaneously exerted their strength to reinforce the Kunlun Barrier once more, ensuring the stable incubation of the source of heaven and earth’s spiritual energy.
With the barrier secured, Yan Yungui rushed off without pause to the next suspicious location.
·
Two days after the Mutual Aid Society leader’s death—
“Phew, finally done!” After one final review of the mission report to confirm there were no omissions or errors, Ye Yang clicked send. This cult mission was now successfully completed.
Chi Lian let out a huge sigh of relief as well. Even though he didn’t have to write the report, he still had to learn by following Ye Yang. This mission had spanned a long time, with extremely complex data and intelligence, and the report was long and complicated. Just watching Ye Yang write it and helping attach the files had exhausted him.
“Congratulations! You must’ve made a good amount from this mission, right? Doesn’t that mean you owe us a nice meal?” Sister Wu appeared out of nowhere.
Brother Hui was even more elusive, popping up suddenly and pressing down on Ye Yang, who had tried to stand. “Count me in too—I want to eat.”
Ye Yang was speechless. “Brother Hui, how come you’re learning bad habits from Sister Wu now?”
Even Xing Tian joined in. “Don’t forget me.”
Burdened by debt, having spent a fair amount on buying food and ingredients, and needing to save up for future rent, Ye Yang was being a bit stingy these days.
But just one meal…
As he was mentally calculating the cost, Chi Lian said, “How much would it cost to treat that many people to a meal? Don’t bully him.”
“Chi Lian…” Ye Yang was so moved he almost teared up.
But Chi Lian’s next sentence was: “To avoid putting too much pressure on you, how about this—we’ll come to your place, you cook, and we’ll do the dishes. How’s that?”
Wow, so this was his angle all along!
What “you cook, we do the dishes”—who among these people didn’t know a cleaning spell anyway?!
Sister Wu snickered. “That’s a great idea.” Then she immediately began ordering. “I want meat-stuffed gluten, made with Pili meat!”
Brother Hui, quick to follow, added, “I want pumpkin tips—the kind you brought last time.”
Xing Tian: “Fish-flavored swan eggs.”
Chi Lian: “I love swan eggs too!”
Scanning the eager eyes fixed on him, Ye Yang narrowed his eyes and had a sudden realization. “So all along, you just wanted to eat Shen Ming’s spiritual plants and spiritual beasts! Going around in circles like that—why didn’t you just say so?”
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