Chapter 104: Demon Realm
At home.
Mother Liu Qingxia cooked a bowl of soup specifically for boosting qi and blood just for Li Ye, which had become a habit, and now Li Ye just let them do it.
Anyway, whatever effect they expected, Li Ye could just deliver that effect.
“Little Ye, the martial arts competition is coming up soon. You have to get a good result this time and not disappoint the school,” Liu Qingxia encouraged.
The school gave two million, plus the three hundred thousand Li Ye had given them before, totaling two million three hundred thousand. This huge sum made them all think Li Ye couldn’t let down the school.
“But also know your limits and don’t really go all out,” Li Haihua added.
Li Ye took a spoonful of soup and smiled, saying, “Don’t worry, the martial arts competition is just everyone sparring martial arts together. If you really can’t win, you can just concede. There’s no big risk.”
The two of them agreed with this, but out of parental habit, they reminded him once more.
Compared to the martial arts competition or experience training, they had been more worried before about Li Ye joining the Disinfection Bureau.
The Skin-Peeling Demon incident had left them somewhat scared. Out of concern for their son’s safety, they had also inquired about what the Disinfection Bureau was.
The boss of the chain supermarket where the parents worked had heard of the Disinfection Bureau. According to this boss’s understanding, it was something like the Public Security Bureau, both maintaining worldly stability.
But Li Ye’s aunt’s family had a different take. Due to concern for their son’s safety, they had asked over there too, of course, and the feedback was actually quite harsh.
The general meaning was something like ‘those stinking Disinfection Bureau folks aren’t fit to sit at the table and eat.’
The tone was full of disdain for the Disinfection Bureau. Nicely put, it’s the Disinfection Bureau; harshly put, it’s just staffed sanitation workers. More formally, they were a place that couldn’t even hang a proper official unit nameplate.
Disinfection officers were street sweepers, and information officers recorded which streets had trash and tried to suggest ways to sweep the streets.
This gave the parents a rough understanding of the Disinfection Bureau and confirmed that information officers were just a job relying on general knowledge scores to investigate demonic creatures, with not much danger.
Understanding this point was enough. As for whether the Disinfection Bureau was as unpresentable as some people said, they didn’t care much.
After all, having staffing and salary was fine. As ordinary people, they were already quite satisfied.
Two days later, Li Ye set off for school and arrived at the Martial Arts Track Class.
“Brother Ye.”
“Morning, Brother Ye.”
The thirty people saw Li Ye and greeted him one after another.
“Brother Ye!”
Deng Hao and Jia Dong approached with smiling faces. “Can we take first in the city this time!”
The experience points from the last district martial arts competition were much easier than the wild boars on Dragon Mountain, and the revenue was higher too.
This was indeed first in East City District. If it were first in Ningjiang City, the choice would be even better.
The martial arts competition was closely related to them too. Moreover, the No. 14 Middle School Martial Arts Track Class had all sworn Li Ye as Older Brother. As his initial followers, with the preparatory class as their base who followed over, they felt proud of Li Ye’s achievements and enjoyed it without any psychological burden.
Not convinced? Then go swear loyalty to a good Older Brother yourself.
“Li Ye!”
Instead, Yao Lèdān saw Li Ye, her expression complex, with some pity seemingly mixed with sympathy.
Li Ye smiled and asked, “What’s wrong with you this time?”
“This time?”
Yao Lèdān showed a puzzled look.
Why “this time”?
Recently, something had happened at her home, and it was a misunderstanding. Her father said the last batch of goods had a collective issue, so to avoid it being exposed, they cut off supply and prevented collection. It had been fixed these past few days.
“It’s not me, it’s you.”
Yao Lèdān sighed. “But don’t be too heartbroken. Some things can’t be helped. Some geniuses are just more genius. We’ll look ahead.”
Li Ye: “?”
“Li Ye.”
Before Li Ye could ask, a voice sounded from the doorway.
Li Ye turned and saw the principal and Teacher Gu coming together, their faces not looking good.
The principal forced a smile, walked forward, grasped Li Ye’s hand, shook it heavily, then pursed his lips, looking like he wanted to speak but stopped, stopped but wanted to speak.
After a good long while, he finally said:
“Li Ye, no pressure this time. The school advanced you a year’s reward, but this is the school’s investment in you. Investments, well, they all have force majeure.”
“With your talent, you have a future ahead. No need to get impulsive over a momentary competition. Concede when you should. First place isn’t everything; second place is fine too, and you can still enter the provincial martial arts competition.”
As he spoke, he patted Li Ye’s shoulder again, showed an encouraging smile, then went on stage with Teacher Gu to give the pre-martial arts competition speech.
“Wh-what’s going on?”
Deng Hao and Jia Dong were a bit stunned. “The competition hasn’t even started, why is he suddenly saying stuff like a declaration of defeat?”
Li Ye frowned and looked at Yang Jie who had followed behind. The latter shook his head, also looking baffled.
He had been overwhelmed by the martial arts school lately because he mentioned joining the Disinfection Bureau, too busy to pay attention to other things, and these past two days after resolving it, he had been busy with martial arts training and hadn’t paid much attention to school matters.
“Give me an explanation,” Li Ye said to Yao Lèdān.
“I thought you knew.”
Yao Lèdān was stunned for a moment, then quickly said, “Anyway, don’t fight Wuyu Middle School in this city martial arts competition. They invited two big geniuses to take first in the city martial arts competition this time. Both are Breaking Through Realm martial artists!”
“What?!”
Before Li Ye could react, Deng Hao exclaimed first.
Breaking Through Realm! Not to mention seeing one, they had rarely even heard of it.
In their No. 14 Middle School, the closest to Breaking Through Realm was that elusive Fu Chuxue at Eight Dragon Gate realm.
And that was because Fu Chuxue was special. In a normal ordinary school, Five or Six Dragon Gate would be enough to be the focus.
Breaking Through Realm was like dimensional suppression.
“Oh.”
Li Ye’s reaction was quite flat.
There being Breaking Through Realm students among them wasn’t surprising to him. Three Passes are hard to break, but is one Pass easy to break?
Moreover, times were different. In his master’s era, both technology and methods for dealing with demonic creatures were quite outdated, unlike now with technological progress, more scientific in handling demonic creatures, and high-quality ingredients more standardized.
Back then, passing Three Passes to reach Nine Dragon Gate was the pride of heaven. Now, though still the same, the value wasn’t as high.
There were quite a few more geniuses.
Seeing Li Ye with no reaction, Deng Hao and Jia Dong exchanged a glance. The former comforted, “Brother Ye, thirty years east of the river, thirty years west. We’re not in a rush for this moment.”
Jia Dong also said:
“Yeah, victory and defeat are common in military affairs. Losing isn’t shameful. Having time to cultivate is what matters. Brother Ye, last time you beat that Hua Zihang from Wuyu Middle School too badly. This time let’s yield, and we’ll definitely get revenge later.”
Li Ye smiled and said, “I don’t have time to go back and forth across the river. Alright, the principal’s done speaking. Let’s go.”
One city martial arts competition, just treat it as leisure.
After it was over, he still had to go back to continue catching demons and slaying fiends, practicing martial arts, to soon break his Six Passes to the limit.
……
Jinze City, Tongguan Mountain Mining Area.
Bang! Bang bang bang!
Deep in a mine cave in the mining area, several people held guns in their left hands and weapons in their right, shooting while retreating.
In the pitch-black mine cave, only the muzzle flashes from firearms brought a bit of light, and in that light, what seemed like a terrifying face flashed by.
“Ah!”
With one person screaming, his whole body was dragged in the darkness and pulled into the dark.
And from the darkness came a tremor, making the remaining people retreating toward the cave entrance horrified to discover that the light at the cave mouth seemed much farther from them, growing ever more distant.
Distance increasing
Demonic creatures increasing
One of them thought of something and roared in despair: “Demon Realm!”
