“AHH, WHAT IS THAT THING?!”
“SO TERRIFYING!”
President Long shook his head. Just as expected.
The snake demon Chi Lian was, in a sense, quite formidable. After all, even the calming incense didn’t work—Little Ye had been scared out of his wits.
Ye Yang’s soul nearly flew out of his body.
He hadn’t rested well, his energy was low, and he had been in a daze, ready to fall asleep at any moment. He sat down at his workspace, and suddenly a bizarre, oversized face appeared right in front of him. Anyone would have been startled.
Two startled cries escaped his mouth, jolting him fully awake. Only then did he see that it wasn’t a face at all, but a mask.
The mask was very distinctive. Clearly Chi Lian’s work. There were no cutouts for facial features. Its base color was a stark, ghostly white. The patterns were hard to make out, and the colors had a strange, dull sheen.
At first glance, it was terrifying. On closer inspection, it was ugly.
Ye Yang was still in shock when he was nudged twice. He looked up and saw Sister Wu frantically signaling him with her eyes.
He glanced across at Chi Lian, who looked utterly dejected, as if all the color had drained from him. Then he looked back down at the mask on the table. Finally, he understood—this was a gift from Chi Lian!
This was entirely Chi Lian’s aesthetic.
“Uh…”
Before he could figure out what to say, Chi Lian stood up with a loud “BANG,” stomped over, and snatched up the mask. “If you think it’s ugly, give it back!”
His tone was agitated but lacked any real force—instead, it was tinged with tears.
The onlookers had somehow vanished. Ye Yang and Sister Wu stared at each other for a long moment. Finally, he said, “What do I do? I think I made him cry…”
Sister Wu: “…You’re asking me? He’s your mentee. I’m not getting involved.” With that, she hurried off, rubbing her arms as she ran. How bizarre—watching a snake man run away sobbing, twisting and turning as he went… She’d have to send Brother Grey to check on him later. Hopefully, he wouldn’t scare the ordinary people downstairs.
—
Despite Chi Lian’s usual harmless appearance, any demon capable of cultivating alone for a thousand years, completely resisting all sorts of crooked temptations and absorbing only the pure essence of heaven and earth, must have an extremely resilient nature. On the flip side, that also meant he was very stubborn.
In common parlance: a mule.
For the rest of the day, right up until the mission, Ye Yang tried again and again to talk to Chi Lian, but Chi Lian refused to listen at all. He wore the phrase “WE’RE DONE” all over his face.
He really was hurt.
Ye Yang felt guilty. He deeply regretted hurting Chi Lian’s feelings. But every time he glanced at that mask still sitting on Chi Lian’s desk—that bizarre, grotesque aesthetic—most of his guilt evaporated.
Finally, 1:00 PM arrived. Ye Yang, Chi Lian, and Xing Tian left together.
The mission Sister Wu had picked for them was a C-rank mission—low difficulty, specifically chosen for Chi Lian as a newcomer. Ye Yang was required to accompany him, and Brother Xing had nothing better to do, so he tagged along.
The mission location was close by, not urgent, and even in a place Ye Yang knew very well—Professor Xipeng Cui’s research institute.
Public transportation ran directly there from the company. The three of them simply took the subway.
This was the first time Ye Yang had seen Chi Lian outside the company.
At the office, he was used to each colleague having their own quirks. But suddenly placing them among ordinary humans—that sense of dissonance hit immediately.
Walking through the subway station, no one even noticed Chi Lian’s snake mouth, because everyone was drawn in by his strange manner of walking.
When he moved, it was impossible to tell whether the power came from his waist or his hips. Passersby just sensed that he was supple and slender, with an unusual gait, a strangely mesmerizing quality that made people unable to look away.
Fortunately, it wasn’t rush hour, so there wasn’t much of a crowd.
Brother Xing wore his fake head for going out, but because his real eyes were positioned very low, the fake head just stared blankly straight ahead, making him look like a dimwitted giant.
And so Ye Yang walked along with a wiggly, twisty monster on his left and a goofball on his right, in silence all the way to the research institute.
A plainclothes officer was already waiting at the entrance. Brother Xing and Ye Yang showed their credentials. Chi Lian, on his first mission, followed suit. After confirming their identities, the officer told them, “I’ve already communicated with the insiders at the institute. We’ll need to go in under the guise of a tour.”
With that, he handed each of them a visitor’s badge.
The officer was one of the few in human officialdom who knew some of the inside story. But all he knew was that there was a mysterious organization capable of handling supernatural cases. He had no idea about the specifics, nor did he want to pry.
After so many years on the job, he understood very well that professional matters should be left to professionals. Some things were best not known.
His job was done once he escorted them inside the institute.
The so-called “insider” at the institute turned out to be exactly who Ye Yang expected: Shen Ming.
“Teacher Shen!” Ye Yang hurried over happily, his face bright with joy. They saw each other every single day, but meeting during work felt different.
Shen Ming gave him a small smile. Toward the other two, he was much cooler, merely nodding and saying, “Follow me.”
Brother Xing and Chi Lian exchanged a glance and followed, full of confusion. Who exactly was this person? They couldn’t sense any demonic aura at all, nor could they see anything particularly special about him. Yet he carried an undeniable presence that made people hesitant to approach. And he clearly knew Little Ye?
Brother Xing was fine—he had lived for so many years that he’d grown detached. But Chi Lian had only recently been guided into modern society. Although he always said he was past his curious youth, how could he possibly not be curious? He was curious about almost everything.
But he had just lost his temper at Ye Yang… He looked up at Ye Yang’s back, and his inner conflict returned.
Truth be told, he had regretted the “friendship breakup” within minutes. But he simply didn’t know how to mend things. Ye Yang really disliked his mask… Just thinking about it made him feel awful again.
Ye Yang had no idea what was going through the minds of the two behind him. His focus was entirely on the mission.
With visitor badges and Shen Ming as their guide, the group moved through the institute without any issues. Occasionally someone would pass by and glance at them curiously before continuing with their own work. Ye Yang deliberately avoided eye contact with others to prevent the trouble of being recognized.
“Teacher Shen, I read the mission briefing. Does this institute actually study plants? I never saw any when I was here before.” The mission briefing had been a bit vague, so Ye Yang wanted to clarify.
Shen Ming’s expression was somewhat strange. “Mm… not the institute’s plants. It’s the decorative greenery in my office.”
As they spoke, they had already arrived at Shen Ming’s office.
Shen Ming closed the door and brought over a large flowerpot from his windowsill.
Unable to contain himself, Chi Lian stepped forward—only to see a pot of dirt. “Isn’t this empty? Are you messing with us?”
The more he looked at this man, the more he disliked him. From their very first meeting, he hadn’t introduced himself or shown any interest in getting to know the two of them—his eyes were only for Ye Yang.
Xing Tian tugged at Chi Lian. He had a feeling this person was not ordinary. Shen Ming, however, didn’t mind. He simply said, “It’s inside here. He’s a bit shy.”
Then he smiled at Ye Yang. “I didn’t expect it to be you. But that’s better, actually. This is actually a harmless spiritual being. I just wasn’t sure what to do with him.”
It turned out that the institute purchased a batch of decorative greenery every few months to adorn areas with less strict hygiene requirements. But in this batch, some strange phenomena had appeared.
Several colleagues had reported seeing odd glows on a pot of pothos in the cafeteria, but when they looked closely, it was gone.
Shen Ming hadn’t thought much of it at first—he didn’t usually go to the cafeteria anyway. But just yesterday, when he returned to his office, he suddenly sensed an unfamiliar spiritual energy.
“This is it. It should be a spiritual herb. But I’m not very familiar with medicinal spiritual plants, so I don’t know exactly what it is.”
As he spoke, the shy spiritual herb had already been forcibly lifted out of the pot by Shen Ming and was trembling in his hand.
This spiritual herb was indeed extraordinary. Its well-developed roots supported three leaves. The leaves shimmered with iridescent colors and emitted their own glow—clearly something magical.
Ye Yang recalled their mission objective: to identify the source of the strange phenomenon at the institute.
He was a bit confused. “Isn’t that already clear? Why issue a mission for it?”
Shen Ming explained, “I thought about sending it directly to YCG. But although this spiritual herb cannot speak, it has already developed spiritual intelligence. The question is whether it counts as a spiritual plant or a spiritual being.”
Ye Yang began to understand. Whether by accident or not, this little thing had made its way to Shen Ming’s office, which showed it had its own consciousness. But aside from that, it was no different from an ordinary spiritual plant and didn’t meet the standards of a spiritual being. If it went to YCG, its only fate would be to be made into medicine.
In the past, Shen Ming wouldn’t have thought twice about it. Whether it was because he had met Ye Yang, he now paid more attention to these creatures he usually ignored. He had even started worrying about a mere spiritual herb.
Chi Lian was even more confused. “So aren’t we still supposed to take him back to the YCG?”
Xing Tian, however, had guessed Shen Ming’s intention. “Every mission requires a detailed report of the process and all non-human factors encountered. Both the Operations Department and the Intelligence Department will review it repeatedly. We’ll report the fact that this spiritual herb has developed intelligence truthfully.”
In Shen Ming’s eyes, YCG was still trustworthy. He was especially reassured by frontline departments like Operations. And of course, since it was Ye Yang coming, he felt even more at ease. Even if this spiritual herb had special properties, with Ye Yang there, he didn’t have to worry about anyone trying to take it for themselves.
Ye Yang suddenly sensed something was off. He narrowed his eyes. “Brother Xing, it turns out you know exactly what needs to go into a mission report. So then why were your previous mission reports such a mess?!”
Xing Tian: “…Let’s focus on what to do with this spiritual herb first.”
Just then, Chi Lian suddenly spoke up. “No! You can’t take him to the Administration Bureau!”
Ye Yang asked, “Why not?”
Chi Lian, forgetting that he was still giving Ye Yang the cold shoulder, grew extremely anxious. “Absolutely not! I recognize this. Once he goes to the Administration Bureau, he’ll definitely die!” As he spoke, he even tried to snatch the spiritual herb away.
Shen Ming furrowed his brow, dodged, and looked at Ye Yang.
Ye Yang grabbed Chi Lian. “Don’t panic. Tell us slowly.”
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