Two Prodigies Forced to Team Up for Demon Suppression: Curing All Arrogance and Lone Wolf Syndrome

Outside the tent.

Wang Hao stood with his hands behind his back.

Wei Zhongxian waited at his side, bowing slightly.

Above the high terrace, the lights of the Great Zhou Dynasty shone as brightly as ever.

Wang Hao spoke slowly.

"Announce the decree."

"From this day forward..."

"Xiao Chen and Ye Guyun are tied for seventh place on the Prodigy Roll."

Wei Zhongxian was taken aback.

"Your Majesty, they fought to a draw, so tying for seventh is..."

"Perfectly reasonable."

"But..."

Wang Hao smiled faintly.

"Add one more rule."

"Those who tie shall be considered a single group."

"They must execute the next round of demon suppression missions together."

Wei Zhongxian's pupils shrank.

In the next breath, he bowed and complied, though he could not help but laugh wildly in his heart.

Ah, Your Majesty, Your Majesty.

You truly refuse to waste even a single drop of their worth.

Inside the side tent.

Xiao Chen and Ye Guyun heard the decree from outside at almost the exact same time.

Both of them froze stiff on their beds.

After a long while.

Xiao Chen spoke slowly.

"Brother Ye."

"Mm."

"Tell me..."

"Have there been a lot of Children of Destiny who came to cause trouble for this dog emperor in the past?"

Ye Guyun fell silent.

After a long time.

"...I heard there were. One was named Ye Chen or something, died a miserable death. There was another named Lin Wuwang, his fate was worse than death."

Xiao Chen closed his eyes, his face showing that he had lost all will to live.

"So now..."

"Are all those Children of Destiny..."

"Being bundled up, recruited, and turned into his thugs?"

Ye Guyun remained silent for even longer.

Then, he slowly opened his eyes, staring at the top of the tent.

His gaze was extremely complex.

"...I suspect."

"That in this world..."

"There really is such a thing as the Heavenly Dao."

"And if there is..."

He paused.

"Right now..."

"It has probably gone mad with rage."

Xiao Chen didn't speak for a long time.

Finally, he let out a gloomy sigh.

"I think..."

"The Heavenly Dao isn't the only one going mad with rage."

"We're almost there ourselves."

Outside the tent.

The night wind began to rise.

Wang Hao gazed at the faint yet lingering blood-red hue in the southwestern sky, a very shallow curve forming at the corner of his lips.

He spoke in a low voice, his words scattering into the night wind.

"Heavenly Dao."

"What are you so angry about?"

"I am keeping an eye on your things for you."

"You can just rest assured..."

"And keep being angry."

The night wind swept across the capital.

The lights of the Great Zhou Dynasty stayed lit, one by one.

...

Inside the side tent.

Xiao Chen and Ye Guyun lay on the large bed for an entire night.

The royal physician had poured three bowls of Vitality Restoration Decoction down their throats, applied six True Qi Regeneration Talismans, and pierced their waists and abdomens with twelve Tianshu Silver Needles each.

By the time morning arrived, the two could finally move.

Xiao Chen rolled over, the bones all over his body cracking and popping, making him sound like an old bell that had been smashed.

Ye Guyun slowly sat up. His face was pale, but his eyes were as clear and cold as ever.

The two exchanged a glance.

Both could see a single word in the other's eyes.

Pain.

"Brother Ye," Xiao Chen spoke with a hoarse voice.

"Mm."

"Are we now... tied for seventh on the Prodigy Roll?"

Ye Guyun was silent for a breath.

"Yes."

Xiao Chen thought for a moment.

"Does that mean we can rest for a couple of days first?"

Just as his voice faded...

The tent flap was lifted.

Wei Zhongxian walked in, beaming with smiles.

Behind him followed two Imperial Guard captains, each holding a brand new set of black combat uniforms and a copper medallion.

Carved on the front of the medallion were four words:

"Demon Suppression Squad".

On the back was a line of small text:

"On an official business trip by Imperial Decree".

Xiao Chen's pupils shrank.

Ye Guyun's hand subconsciously reached for the sword by his pillow.

Wei Zhongxian's smile remained unchanged, his voice as gentle as if coaxing children.

"You two, we are all old acquaintances, there's no need to be nervous."

"His Majesty has decreed..."

"Given that Xiao Chen and Ye Guyun are tied for seventh place, displaying extraordinary mutual understanding and exquisite teamwork..."

Xiao Chen almost spat out the Vitality Restoration Decoction.

What did he mean by "exquisite teamwork"?

The two of them had clearly been hacking at each other for their lives just yesterday!

Wei Zhongxian continued to read.

"...The two are specially ordered to form a Demon Suppression Vanguard Squad and head to the anomaly point at Green Crow Ridge on the outskirts of the capital region to execute a joint extermination mission."

"Departure time..."

He paused, his smile incredibly gentle.

"...In half an hour."

Xiao Chen: "???"

Ye Guyun looked at Wei Zhongxian expressionlessly.

"We just finished fighting yesterday. Our injuries have not healed, and our vitality has yet to recover..."

"Didn't you drink the Vitality Restoration Decoction?" Wei Zhongxian smiled with utmost sincerity. "The royal physician said you have recovered sixty percent. That is more than enough."

Ye Guyun's lips twitched slightly.

Finally, he squeezed out two words through gritted teeth.

"...Enough?"

Wei Zhongxian bent over and pulled a thin contract from his sleeve.

"This is the 765th-ranked Cursed Artifact, the Human Skin Scroll: Indenture Contract. You two are familiar with it, as this is your second time signing a contract on it."

"Article 17 states it very clearly..."

"Members of the Prodigy Gang must obey the imperial court's dispatches. They may not shirk their duties using excuses such as illness, injury, cultivation, or being in a bad mood."

Xiao Chen was stunned.

"...Being in a bad mood is written in there too?"

"His Majesty is very thorough in his considerations," Wei Zhongxian said, his smile undiminished.

Xiao Chen and Ye Guyun exchanged a glance.

A single thought flashed through both their eyes simultaneously:

Dog Emperor.

Half an hour later.

Outside the west gate of the capital.

Xiao Chen and Ye Guyun, wearing identical black combat uniforms, stood beside a military carriage.

Neither of their expressions could be considered pleasant.

But what made their faces look even worse was...

There weren't just the two of them.

Beside the carriage stood four other people.

The first was Wanyan Gu.

The Eldest Prince of the Northern Barbarians, ranked twelfth on the Prodigy Roll. He exuded a wild, savage murderous aura. Standing nine feet tall, his arms were as thick as two old tree stumps. His wolf mount had been dragged off to the South City Zoo for exhibition, and his two hundred barbarian guards were mining coal in the Western Mountains. He himself was four million taels in debt to the dog emperor and had been forced to sign a contract to pay it off, yet his arrogant pride had not yet completely drained away.

He crossed his arms and coldly swept a glance over Xiao Chen and Ye Guyun, his tone as if he were looking at two annoying flies.

"Just you two?"

The second was Lu Chenzhou.

Ranked fifteenth on the Prodigy Roll, he cultivated a miraculous water-attribute art and was famously effeminate yet ruthless.

He toyed with an aqua-blue crystal stone in his hand and smiled faintly, though the depths of his eyes were cold and completely devoid of warmth.

"Brother Xiao, Brother Ye. I've heard much about you."

The smile was polite.

But the underlying meaning in his words was clear: "Are you even worthy of being on the same team as me?"

The third was Rong Xiaotian.

An old acquaintance, one of the Great Xia's Top Ten Temporary Workers.

"Who arranged this? Can't you let a man rest? I quit!"

The fourth...

Lin Tiechuan.

The youth from the borderlands wearing a coarse hemp martial outfit.

He stood at the very end, quiet and peaceful.

He seemed to be the only person present who had no complaints.

But his eyes were sizing up the prodigies in front of him, one by one.

His gaze held no reverence.

It was an evaluation.

Six people, six different tempers.

None of them found the others pleasing to the eye.

Wei Zhongxian saw them off with a beaming smile. Right before leaving, he bent over and whispered to Xiao Chen.

"Guard Xiao."

"An oral decree from His Majesty..."

"For this trip, you are the temporary captain."

Xiao Chen's whole body stiffened.

"...What?"

"The captain," Wei Zhongxian repeated unhurriedly. "The kind that manages people."

Xiao Chen subconsciously looked back.

Wanyan Gu was sharpening his blade.

Lu Chenzhou was sneering coldly.

Rong Xiaotian was cursing up a storm.

Ye Guyun was resting with his eyes closed, ignoring everyone.

Lin Tiechuan was silently gnawing on a steamed bun.

Xiao Chen took a deep breath.

"His Majesty—"

"Wants me dead, doesn't he?"

Wei Zhongxian smiled without a word, climbed onto another carriage, and left without looking back.

Green Crow Ridge.

The third anomaly zone on the outskirts of the capital.

It wasn't the most dangerous area, but the concentration of eldritch entities had already reached an upper-medium level.

The specific manifestations were as follows: the fog in the woods never dissipated year-round, and low, echoing howls could be heard at night.

Three nearby villages had already been evacuated, but lone farmers still went missing from time to time.

The last Imperial Guard scout squad that entered the woods was crippled, losing half its men.

In the past, an anomaly of this level would require at least an Astral Qi Realm expert leading twenty elites before anyone dared to make a move.

But Wang Hao—

Only sent six prodigies.

Six distracted prodigies.

Six prodigies whose wounds hadn't fully healed and whose qi hadn't fully recovered.

In the first quarter-hour after entering the woods.

Rong Xiaotian was the first to lose his patience.

"Why are we dawdling! Let's just charge in and kill them all!"

With that, he clenched his fists and took the lead, charging into the thick fog.

Xiao Chen shouted, "Wait a—"

It was too late.

Rong Xiaotian's figure was instantly swallowed by the dense fog.

In the next breath—

A miserable shriek.

"Argh—!"

In the breath after that—

Rong Xiaotian was flung out of the fog by a dark shadow, crashing heavily into a large tree as his gauntlets flew from his hands.

On his left arm, an eerie black mark was spreading.

"It's—it's an eldritch parasite!" Lu Chenzhou's expression changed.

Xiao Chen's pupils shrank.

He finally understood why Wang Hao hadn't sent any experts.

Because these Rank Six eldritch parasites posed absolutely no challenge to experts.

But for the prodigies—

It hit that exact sweet spot between "die if you're careless" and "win if you fight for your life."

This wasn't an extermination mission.

This was—

Training.

No.

This was an elimination tournament.

"Everyone, fall back!" Xiao Chen roared.

No one listened.

Wanyan Gu snorted coldly, raising his fists to charge into the fog.

"I don't need your orders—"

"Shut up!" Ye Guyun suddenly drew his sword.

He wasn't aiming at Wanyan Gu.

He was aiming into the fog.

A streak of sword qi swept across, slicing a dark shadow that was sneaking up behind Wanyan Gu into two halves.

Wanyan Gu froze.

Ye Guyun glanced at him expressionlessly.

"You need to grow eyes on the back of your head."

Wanyan Gu's face flushed red, as if he had been slapped.

He opened his mouth, but ultimately swallowed back the words, "Mind your own business."

Because—

That dark shadow just now had indeed been only an inch away from his back.

The first wave of the eldritch tide surged forward without any warning.

From within the thick fog, black humanoid figures seeped out one after another, writhing on the ground like sludge.

They were not conventional demonic beasts.

They were semi-corporeal eldritch parasites.

They specialized in parasitizing living human bodies; once touched, they would invade the spirit platform through the meridians.

Ordinary rogue cultivators who encountered these things would meet only one end—

Being consumed and turned into walking corpses.

The six prodigies were forced to fight independently within this sludge-like eldritch tide.

Xiao Chen tanked at the very front.

Ye Guyun slashed from the flanks.

Wanyan Gu smashed from the rear.

Lu Chenzhou attacked from a distance with water bullets.

Rong Xiaotian was still holding on despite his injured left arm.

Lin Tiechuan—

Lin Tiechuan was the only one who charged into the deepest part.

His fighting style was different from everyone else's.

It wasn't flashy, it wasn't refined, and it relied on zero technique.

He just smashed, punch after punch.

With every punch that landed, a crater cracked open in the ground.

When the eldritch parasites met his fists, they were shattered instantly.

But he was also constantly suffering from the backlash.

The black marks spread from his arms all the way to his shoulders, and then up to his neck.

Yet he—

Did not retreat.

Xiao Chen saw this and shouted—

"Lin Tiechuan! Fall back!"

Lin Tiechuan didn't even turn his head.

"Vice-Captain."

"Those villagers... those missing people—"

"They might still be alive."

He blasted a parasite away with a punch, his voice deep.

"When I was a kid—"

"Our village was attacked by demonic beasts too."

"No one came to save us."

"Half the people died."

"The village chief said, a poor man's life—is worthless."

He paused for a breath.

Then he continued to charge forward.

"But His Majesty said—"

"The lives of the poor—are lives too."

Xiao Chen stood frozen in place, his fists unknowingly clenching so tightly that they creaked.