After school let out at noon.
Yu Xian and Zhang Shou left campus and arrived next door to the Nancheng Public Security Bureau.
The two stepped into Jin Sheng's temporary office. Jin Sheng was hunched over his desk eating fast food. Seeing them arrive, he quickly wolfed down two more mouthfuls, then snapped the lid shut on his lunch box.
Wiping his mouth, he spoke up. "Have a seat. There's something I need to talk to you about."
Once both were seated, he looked at them and said, "I have to head back to the capital tonight to report in. I have a mission to hand over to the two of you."
He then laid out the details of the mission.
Lately, the nights in Silver City had never truly been peaceful.
Various Transcendent beasts were biding their time, while evil heretics fished in troubled waters, seizing chances to cause trouble.
However, thanks to Jin Sheng's ruthless suppression over the recent period, the vast majority of high-ranking Transcendent beasts and crooked practitioners had already been dealt with. Those remaining were just small fry of the Ant and Insect ranks.
These small fry weren't particularly strong, but their numbers were staggering, and they remained lethal threats to ordinary people.
Yu Xian and Zhang Shou's task was to take charge of the night patrol while Jin Sheng was away, and clean up every last one of these small fry.
In truth, this duty had previously fallen under the Public Security Bureau. The combat police assigned to night shifts would patrol the entire city. However, during the recent purge of the aberrant worms, the combat police had also suffered casualties and were currently short-staffed. Thus, Yu Xian and Zhang Shou were being brought in as reinforcements to join the operation.
"I like this assignment," Zhang Shou said excitedly. "As the undisputed prince of staying up late, I can finally pull all-nighters with official sanction!"
Yu Xian smiled without saying a word. Ever since becoming a vampire, he had only slept once. He didn't mind this mission in the slightest; after all, he had nothing better to do at night anyway.
"This mission awards merit, too," Jin Sheng said with a smile, seeing both accept the task. "Killing an unranked Transcendent beast earns one merit point, an Insect-rank beast earns five points, and an Ant-rank beast earns ten points. Pace yourselves, though. Don't go throwing your lives away just for merit."
Yu Xian and Zhang Shou nodded. Zhang Shou thumped his chest. "Don't you worry, Captain. Salty Fish and I definitely won't mess this up."
"Right. Once I return to the capital, this incident in Silver City will be considered wrapped up," Jin Sheng said. "Headquarters will certainly award merit, though it isn't impossible to exchange it for other things. If there's any reward you have in mind, tell me now, and I can push for it on your behalf when the time comes."
Zhang Shou's face lit up with surprise. "Captain, I get one too?"
"Every student who participated in the rescue operation will get one. But their rewards will likely come in the form of cash bonuses, honors, and bonus points on the college entrance exams. You and Salty Fish are our own people, so your rewards will definitely be converted to merit," Jin Sheng explained.
Zhang Shou blurted out at once, "I want a storage ring, Captain! Can it be exchanged for a storage ring?"
He had checked the prices of storage gear in the exchange shop. Even a storage pouch with a mere single cubic meter of space cost around fifty thousand merit points. He figured that no matter how generous headquarters felt, they were unlikely to grant fifty thousand merit points.
So if he could get his merit reward converted directly into storage gear, he would make a killing.
"I'll ask. It shouldn't be a problem," Jin Sheng nodded.
With that, he turned his gaze to Yu Xian.
Yu Xian fell silent for a moment before asking, "Storage gear, silver, and Pangu's Blood—can I have all three?"
"Keep dreaming," Jin Sheng shot back.
Jin Sheng had saved merit for five full years after joining Qilin, and had even borrowed a hefty amount of merit from Jin Dajun, just to finally afford Pangu's Blood. He was still paying off that 'loan' from Jin Dajun right now, and didn't even own a piece of storage gear himself.
"Captain, don't be so quick to shoot it down. It doesn't hurt to ask," Yu Xian said with a chuckle. "If it really doesn't work, I can forgo the silver. And if that's still too much, I can forgo the storage gear."
Jin Sheng shook his head helplessly. "Fine, I'll ask. But my guess is Pangu's Blood shouldn't be much of an issue, while the other two are a long shot."
He then sent a file to their phones containing a long list of student names.
Looking at the pair, he added, "By the way, all of these are students from Superpower Academy. Keep an eye on them from time to time while at school, but don't let them notice."
"Is something wrong with them?" Yu Xian asked, glancing over the list.
Jin Sheng looked down at the roster on his phone and replied, "There might not be anything wrong with them personally, but their parents are all Transcendents, many of whom walk the gray path. I'm worried they might take advantage of the chaos to make a move."
Simply put, the parents of these students were Transcendents who operated in the gray zone.
Back when Silver City maintained strict order, they might not have had the guts. But now, with everything waiting to be rebuilt from the ruins, it was hard to say.
After finishing the file in the office, Yu Xian and Zhang Shou got up and headed back to school.
"Salty Fish, do you think we should ride along with a cruiser for the patrol, or operate on our own?" Zhang Shou asked excitedly on the way back.
Yu Xian glanced at him. "Don't you have a driver's license? My dad's car hasn't been sold yet anyway, so let's strike out on our own!"
Yu Xian had spent these past few years caring for his father, who suffered from ALS, so he had never had time to get a license. Zhang Shou, on the other hand, had gone and obtained his license right after turning sixteen and receiving his national ID.
Many laws nowadays differed from the old days, and the legal driving age was one of them.
When the two returned to school, there was still half an hour before class started.
They decided to stand out in the corridor, watching the students in the courtyard below. The uniforms of Superpower Academy were different from those of ordinary schools, making it easy to tell which students belonged to the academy.
Blue uniforms on one side, black uniforms on the other—the divide was stark and unmistakable, an unbridgeable chasm.
"That student with the horns down there—do you think he belongs to the dragon clan or has deer demon blood?" Zhang Shou asked Yu Xian in a hushed tone, watching a student walking past below.
"Most of the dragon clan live along the coast," Yu Xian said flatly. "What do you think?"
He looked down at the students distinctly divided into two camps, seeing in them a miniature portrait of society itself.
In reality, Transcendents and ordinary humans had always maintained a live-and-let-live separation.
Most Transcendents lived in the east of the city, while most ordinary people lived in the south. Because their paths rarely crossed, the aberrant worms had been able to infiltrate Silver City without making a sound, going completely undetected until Yu Xian uncovered them.
Of course, the aberrant worms had also learned from their previous failure in Rongcheng.
This time, they had been exceptionally cautious.
Their operations had avoided areas where Transcendents were active, and they had even deliberately steered clear of the homes of ordinary nannies who worked for Transcendents.
That was why Superpower Academy had remained completely untouched by this aberrant worm invasion.
"Look, Yu Meiren," Zhang Shou whispered just then.
Yu Meiren was a superpower user. As a child, she had dreamed of the divine beast Bai Ze, awakening the ability 'Beast Command by Name'. Many of the Transcendent beasts on campus were actually her familiars.
As the two watched Yu Meiren, she looked up toward them, offering a gentle smile and a polite nod before heading into the classroom building.
"Rumor has it President Yu keeps an eye on the entire school. Looks like that might not be baseless gossip after all," Chen Ling murmured faintly, appearing behind them.
Startled, Zhang Shou leaped half a step aside and cried out, "Chen Ling, are you a human or a ghost?! Do you have to walk without making a single sound?!"
At that moment, Yu Xian caught sight of a girl with a gloomy expression. Even in the sweltering heat, she wore a scarf wrapped around her neck, covering more than half her face and leaving only a pair of lifeless eyes visible.
Yu Xian's gaze fell upon the book in her hands.
That book was radiating a bloody scent.
The stench of human blood.
Chapter 22