A Good-for-Nothing

148. Luo Yan (2)

Translator: Dragon Rider

He answered it and Lin Zhuo said urgently on the other end, “This is bad, He Zheng! Kang Ba and Tianyi got into a fight!”

What the hell was wrong with them?

Perplexed, He Zheng told him he’d be there soon, forgot about the noises he’d just heard and swiveled around heading for the scene to mediate.

Luo Yan didn’t walk out of the dark immediately. Watching He Zheng’s receding back, he exhaled deeply. The black cat had returned to the shadow-demon’s side, sitting on the ground and licking its claws. Luo Yan squinted his eyes. The moment his demonic Qi had triggered the protection enchantment cast by Li Zong, he’d come to know that he was exposed.

Meanwhile, Li Zong in the conference room having a meeting abruptly broke off in the middle of a sentence.

“What’s the matter?” asked Zhen Daoyuan, looking at him with all others.

Li Zong’s expression was bland. “A demon tried to get through my protection enchantment.”

“Demon? A demon dared infiltrate into our bureau?”

“A not very powerful one. He probably slunk in here in a human vessel.”

“I’ll handle it.” Li Zong, tracking the demonic Qi with his eyes closed, quickly left the conference room.

“What an ignorantly cocky creature,” jibed Zhao Yidi coldly.

SMB had never feared any demons. Even if the Demon King himself showed up at the front gates, staff members of SMB wouldn’t flinch from fighting him.

Others in the conference room immediately reacted. Tan Lubai and Zhen Daoyuan were the only two directors of the Counter-demon Committee present, who shared out the work and cooperated with one another. Tan Lubai instructed in a steely tone, “Have all participants of this special training session assemble in ten minutes, including those that have been washed out.”

“No exceptions.” Tan Lubai’s eyes raked members of the two action groups.

All members of the two action groups were quite competent. Also, they had kept trainees under temporary surveillance, so after ten minutes, all of them were gathered in a classroom again.

Everybody had a puzzled face, particularly those whose memories of the test had been wiped from their minds. They seemed to be wondering who and where they were, and what was happening.

He Zheng was also bewildered. He had just left the living quarters when Zu Zhichong had turned up out of nowhere and brought him to a classroom.

“What’s going on? Are they assigning us tasks?”

“I’ll explain later.” Zu Zhichong was racing time doing his job. There were still some whose memories had been erased that he had to bring back to SMB.

He Zheng didn’t persist with his questioning. He glanced around the classroom and saw Tianyi sitting in a corner. Kang Ba was also present. Lin Zhuo was standing beside them, a very grave look on his face.

After a few moments’ trance, He Zheng walked up to them. He could sense the tension between Tianyi and Kang Ba.

“What’s going on between the two of them?”

Lin Zhuo pulled a wry face. “Tianyi didn’t know Kang Ba or Tao Wujiu. A moment ago when we met each other, Tianyi was still suffering from the after-effects of the training and mistook them for the two Rubbermen, and they started fighting. To make things worse, Kang Ba summoned another flock of hawks…”

The light dawned on He Zheng.

Not knowing whether he should laugh or give some other reaction, He Zheng informed Tianyi, “Kang Ba and Tao Wujiu are our teammates, not Rubbermen.”

Then he said to Kang Ba, “In the morning when we were in the test, our opponents were demonized versions of you and Tao Wujiu, which was why Tianyi overreacted.”

In fact, as soon as their fight had been stopped, Kang Ba had come to realize there was probably some kind of misunderstanding.

He Zheng was giving each of them an out. Neither of them were the kind of people who would haggle over every ounce. Tianyi apologized somewhat embarrassedly, “Sorry, Kang Ba. I shouldn’t have blindly attacked you.”

“I’m sorry, bro. I was being a little too sensitive, and I hadn’t got over the fear… And I shouldn’t have rashly summoned those hawks here,” said Kang Ba. He Zheng had, in a quiet voice, informed Kang Ba of Tianyi’s primary form. Normally, when a Yōkai encountered their natural enemies, they would stop at nothing to kill them or die trying. Tianyi had shown some restraint.

“I believe it takes only a handshake to make you two bosom friends again.”

Everybody dissolved into laugh.

Tao Wujiu was sitting in a chair. Seeing Kang Ba and Tianyi had made peace with each other, though unwilling to recall the fight during the special training session, he still couldn’t help but commented, “That flying zombie we were faced with was so terrifying.”

Someone standing on the side said, “The Earth Dragon we encountered was quite revolting! Jesus Christ, I almost vomited up my bile.”

On this occasion, Jin Qianlai had no oily smile on his face, which was fairly rare. Instead, he looked disgusted.

Except for those who had been subjected to Memory Charms and couldn’t remember anything about the training, all others in the classroom started pouring out their grievances to each other as if something loosened their tongues.

While they were talking, there were people entering constantly.

At this moment, a man walked into the classroom. It was Luo Yan.

A disciple of the Tigers and Dragons Mountain greeted Luo Yan, who ignored him heading straight in He Zheng’s direction.

Luo Yan’s strange conduct also arrested Chen Qianlin’s attention.

Another disciple of the Tigers and Dragons Mountain asked, “What are you doing, Luo Yan?”

Luo Yan didn’t seem even to have heard him, a vacant expression on his face.

Lin Zhuo stopped talking, instinctively feeling that there was something peculiar with Luo Yan. “He Zheng, watch out for that guy behind you. He looks very weird.”

He Zheng sensed a perilous air which made his scalp prickle, and subconsciously gave a backward sword strike. Meanwhile, Luo Yan had also made his move. Chen Qianlin, his pupils abruptly contracting, swung his sword forward without thinking.

Things took a drastic turn in an instant!

He Zheng felt a sharp pain spreading from his waist. Luo Yan, curling the corners of his mouth at him, took his hands off He Zheng’s waist. There was blood on his hands already. Luo Yan eerily put his fingers stained with He Zheng’s blood into his mouth. The next moment, two swords went squarely into him with two muffled puffs.

Chen Qianlin and He Zheng exchanged glances, the latter enduring stabbing pain. All this had happened in three seconds. It was after these three seconds that everybody else reacted, poised to attack.

However, Luo Yan whose head had been pierced by Chen Qianlin’s sword, his heart by He Zheng’s, couldn’t be more dead, and rigidly fell to the ground, black gas gushing out of his corpse. Everybody on the scene was thunderstruck — a demon!

How had a demon come to infiltrate into SMB?! And how had he managed to possess Luo Yan?!