Eighteen Ghost Emperors of my ancestors, how dare you make me live in terror?

"S-class? Which S-class? Who?"

"Him!"

"Isn't he Jiang Tao?"

"He's not Jiang Tao! He's that S-class guy!"

"Who is Jiang Tao?"

"What the hell are you doing with Jiang Tao now?! Damn it!"

"A spy has infiltrated the team, my foot!"

"Who?"

"That S-rank!"

"Isn't he Jiang Tao?"

"Rinni, drag this idiot away and beat him to death!"

.........

"What are you all standing there for? He's the S-rank! Let's take him down!"

Li Ziheng was furious. The hell, an S-class hero was standing right in front of him, and he was still asking who Jiang Tao was.

There's no time to think about when this guy sneaked in. Right now, all the senior students in the entire barrier are looking for an S-rank. If you can get him, you'll get 1000 million!

"Don't move, or you'll die."

Lu Ye made a gun gesture with his hand, pointing the "muzzle" at Li Ziheng's head.

"Do you take me for a child?" Li Ziheng sneered, not stopping him from releasing his eerie aura.

The older students over there finally realized what was happening and instantly blocked all the roads.

"I was planning to come find you later, but since you've come here looking for death, don't blame us for being impolite."

This year's S-class seems to be a bit off-track on his mind.

First, he infiltrated the senior students' group, and then he revealed his identity in this desolate place. There were broken walls all around, and flying was prohibited. He walked right into the trap.

This guy was caught by all the previous senior students?

"I fired." Lu Ye moved his fingers.

Li Ziheng then sneered, poised to strike, "Go ahead and open fire if you dare."

"Sigh, why bother? Give me some face, let's part amicably, and we can still be good classmates when we meet again," Lu Ye sincerely advised.

"Don't worry, after I beat you up, you S-rank, and collect the bounty, we might still be friends. Freshmen should have the awareness of freshmen, and S-ranks are no exception."

"So, there's nothing to talk about?"

"What right do you have to talk to me in your current situation?" Li Ziheng retorted.

"Alright, then we'll all just have to die. Good luck to you all."

What does that mean?

All eyes were on Lu Ye making a gun gesture, unable to understand why such a childish action would appear here.

Even if, like in the anime, "firing" actually produces something, we're all demon hunters, so what's there to be afraid of?

"Bang!"

Lu Ye smiled and spoke, manually adding his own voiceover.

"Heh, just making things mysterious..."

Seeing that nothing had happened, Li Ziheng relaxed and removed his defenses.

But the next moment.

boom!

A loud bang suddenly came from his back.

The violent shockwave and flames blasted him into the air.

Boom boom boom boom!

While suspended in mid-air, Li Ziheng witnessed an even more breathtaking scene.

Explosions continued one after another.

An explosion occurred behind each of the senior students standing on the cliff, and they were blown into the air just like him.

Chaos erupted on the cliff. Amid the chaos, Li Ziheng clearly saw a red talisman pasted on the back of one of the older students who was searching for the source of the explosion.

Then, the talisman exploded, and the senior student was blown away.

"This is... a level three 'Explosive Talisman'..."

"When did he put it there?!"

The [Explosive Talisman] explodes at close range, which is no different from being hit by a cannonball. Moreover, the affected people will be paralyzed and stiff for a short period of time.

This thing doesn't do much damage, but it's extremely humiliating. It's a pretty useless support item, and it's ridiculously expensive.

But now, all the senior students standing on this cliff have been assigned a card?

What's even more chilling is that they had no idea when the talisman was pasted on their backs!

boom--

A larger explosion and smoke appeared.

Even if the twenty-odd [Explosive Talismans] were not very powerful, if they were detonated at the same time, they would be enough to collapse the entire cliff.

The rubble accompanied the stiff body as it plummeted downwards, below which lay a poisonous abyss hundreds of meters deep.

"It's over... I'll be lucky to escape with my life, if not dead."

Li Ziheng watched helplessly as his body plummeted downwards, unable to move at all. Only now did he realize why that S-rank had wanted to "have a chat" with him before.

It's because once all these talismans explode, none of the people on the cliff will be able to escape; they will all fall off.

"Heh, so what? You're going to fall down too."

Li Ziheng suddenly smiled. The paralysis effect has a limited duration. Once he recovers from the initial shock, he can continue fighting, and the opponent still won't be able to escape.

The next moment, a foot stepped on his face.

"Excuse me, I don't intend to fall."

"Waaah........"

Lu Ye stomped hard on Li Ziheng's face with his foot, causing the other person to accelerate due to gravity, while he himself was pushed upwards by the reverse force.

Then they found another student who had fallen, and with the same push, they rose dozens of meters higher.

In Li Ziheng's last glimpse, Lu stepped on the faces of the other senior students and hopped up the cliff.

"You just wait!"

"Wait—"

"Wearing—"

An angry echo resounded from the colorful mist.

Lu also jumped off the cliff, becoming the only person to climb back up after the explosion.

"Oh no, there's one more."

He moved his fingers.

The red thread that had been held in their hand pulled someone up from the bottom of the cliff.

Then more red lines snaked up the other person's body, lifting and pulling them into the air, because the person was already unconscious.

Eight spider legs extended from behind, and Lu Ye and Ling Xin'er disappeared in a few leaps. Such a commotion would surely attract the attention of other senior students from the Mountain Ghost Academy.

Sure enough, not long after Lu left, several figures darted out of the woods in quick succession.

"It's the aura of 'Explosive Talisman Paper,' a lot of it..."

"So many 'explosive talismans' detonated at once, are there really any rich guys among the freshmen?"

"The news has been confirmed. It was Li Ziheng and his group who were chasing an A-level freshman. They should have all fallen behind."

"Tsk tsk, they're getting more and more outrageous, interesting."

The senior students looked at the mess in front of them, but their eyes were filled with excitement.

They were clearly different from the other senior students of the Mountain Ghost Academy. Although they also wore the standard school uniform, they all had a special badge hanging on their chests.

It was a pattern shaped like a spider lily, with four characters imprinted at the top.

【Azure Nether Team】

"I don't think this is the kind of commotion an A-level freshman would cause. Something's fishy. Let's look around."

"Don't worry about the freshmen below A-level; the team's goal this time is S-level."

.........

More than an hour later.

Lu Ye appeared by a stream, placed Ling Xin'er on the grass, and inserted one end of a red thread into the stream and the other end into Ling Xin'er's chapped mouth.

A moment later, the pair of dark red eyes slowly opened, and then the red color faded.

"Using that ultimate move of yours would have serious consequences. It's not like we're really going to fight to the death. There's no need to be so obsessed with winning or losing. It won't kill you to back down a little."

"Alright, good luck, I'm off."

Lu Ye patted his behind and gracefully withdrew from the scene.

He just happened to come and help out his fellow villager and alumnus, and also to deal with a few senior students. He didn't necessarily want to team up with them.

Although Ling Xin'er looks seriously injured, teaming up with him would probably be worse than running away on your own.

After Lu Ye left, Ling Xin'er slowly sat up, looked around at the gloomy, dark forest, curled up her legs, hugged her knees, lowered her head, and let her long, waterfall-like hair fall down.

Her slightly lowered eyes remained calm, but there was some confusion and fear in them.

Rustling.

Footsteps echoed once more across the silent, deserted meadow.

Hearing the noise, Ling Xin'er cautiously looked up at Lu Ye, who had returned.

Lu Ye squatted down, tilted his head, and stared intently into Ling Xin'er's eyes. Finally, he clicked his tongue helplessly and asked:

How old are you now?

Those eyes looked back at him, hesitant, uncertain, and finally blinked.

Fourteen years old.

really.

Lu Ye lay back on the grass, a blade of grass dangling from his mouth, and muttered something under his breath.

"This is going to spoil the meal..."