“Grandma Yuan!” Su Zhen waved at the older woman before bowing for a moment out of respect. She even rearranged her clothes a little before walking forth to her instructor.
“Teacher Yuan, I did not know you would be here in the frontlines as well.” Rong, who came together with the rest, greeted her as the Demon Exorcists had been gathered in a building affiliated with JODE.
“Just as insurance. Although the Chancellor has already sent me messages telling me to go back to Shenzhen. There are enough people here, he says.” Grandma Yuan shook her head as the amount of people gathered before her was barely a handful.
“They are taking the threat a bit too lightly?” Lein questioned as he saw that most of the Demon Exorcists who had gathered were like them. The attendance list somehow confirmed his suspicion as it listed the point in time when they got their badges. Only when he saw it with his eyes, did the reality set in rather harshly how JODE think that they are really just the reserves.
With a sweeping glance, the group could recognise that a few of them only had more than a couple months worth of experience under their belt, the rest were recently promoted exorcists or provisional ones.
“Perhaps JODE assumed that our report has been over-exaggerated because we are new?” Lian tried to reason why there were so little people around. “But if Milk was not around that day, we could have died on the spot!”
“Unfortunately, I had to edit the details of the report.” Su Zhen whispered to them. “In order to have some credibility for our secret trip, I told them that Jin followed us instead. By right, we should have turned away when the Border Guards stopped us.”
“Aw man, alright. What’s done is done. I am just having a bad feeling churning in my stomach, and I cannot shake it off.” Lian replied.
“It shouldn’t be the case. I did stress the credibility of your report to Chancellor Ma Ge too, but it is ultimately his decision to send the number and quality of exorcists here.” Grandma Yuan said after having overheard them. “I, however, believe that the Royal Horse Battalion report might have overwritten the urgency of this particular sortie.”
“I happened to have an acquaintance in the Royal Horse Battalion and asked him to keep an eye for me. He privately messaged me about five minutes ago that they are already doing a sortie for the sweep.” Lein added, and suddenly they heard a loud explosion from the direction of the border.
All of the Demon Exorcists quickly went to the window to get a better look, and since they were on the top few floors, they managed to catch a glimpse of the aftermath of the explosion.
Instead of smoke and flames, they saw trees, dirt and gravel flying from afar. And then another explosion was heard, this one closer. Some thought that it was some Royal Horse soldier brandishing his techniques against the Monster Horde. However, this time, those Exorcists with keen eyes noticed that the bodies flying up in the air weren’t monsters but rather humans.
Not live human cultivators trying to escape from the blast, but corpses with their body parts blown away along with the trees and soil.
“Hmph.” Grandma Yuan’s face turned serious, and the scene did not bode well for present Demon Exorcists. Most of these newly graduated Demon Exorcists were roughly Grade 5 or so, which paled in comparison to Yuan’s ex-students.
This was because the training Yuan gave was extraordinary, and the so-called career progression for Su Zhen and the others would be fast-tracked after four to five years of field experience. Maybe less if they did amicably well in their initial two years.
In the Royal Horse Battalion, most rank and file soldiers didn’t go above grade 5 to 6 unless they were ranked 2nd Sergeant and above. That was why when Su Zhen wrote the battle report, she hoped that would lead the defenders to prepare better. If Demon Exorcists with Grade 10 cultivation were having problems with the issue, they should handle the situation with quality instead of quantity.
“Mdm! Instructor Yuan! We have orders to sortie. The bus is waiting for us downstairs as we speak.” One of the Demon Exorcists’ senior admin shouted through the hall.
“But isn’t it way too early for us? Some of the Exorcists on the list have yet to arrive!” Su Zhen argued and to add oil into the flames, Rong pointed out that only half of the list had reported for duty since it was expected for the Demon Exorcists to sortie later in the evening.
“System, any idea what is going on?” Yuan, who had the ring on her, contacted the System. While she was not reinstated as a Sub System User, the System remained content to keep her under surveillance with a way to communicate it.
As the circumstances got more apparent, Yuan clearly knew that this would be suicide for even experienced Demon Exorcists, not to mention those who had just graduated. Even with full attendance, there was still no way they would be able to make a dent.
“Mdm?” The senior admin asked once more and everyone now looked at the renowned veteran with worried eyes. Yet, she stood at her current position and continued to stare at the forest.
To the Demon Exorcists, it was as she was pondering at something before they heard her letting out a heavy sigh.
“Contact the local officials. Let them know we will prepare to evacuate this city and the ones along the borders of Dongguan. Also, contact the surrounding senior Demon Exorcists and tell them to be on standby. This current situation has turned to Danger Level 4, with it dangerously creeping to Level 5. As usual, use my name.” Grandma Yuan ordered, and everyone was flabbergasted.
JODE had their own system to judge the threat level of any given situation, and Danger Level 4 already suggested the entire province was in danger. And yet, according to Grandma Yuan, it might turn to 5, which meant the entire country could be in danger.
“Are you serious? I understand you can invoke a Danger Level 4 scenario given your status, Instructor Yuan, but we’ve only seen an explosion or two. Does that really warrant a Level 4 alarm? Perhaps a Level 3 alarm should suffice? After all, only the Chancellor has the rights to declare Level 5…” Even the admin had a hard time taking just Grandma Yuan’s words to sound such a heavy alarm after the fight had just broken out.
Suddenly, the entire room was filled with a menacing aura. A silhouette of a gleaming Gold Griffin could be seen emanating out of Grandma Yuan. It was so bad that almost everyone in the room except for her own students dropped the floor, dying to get a grasp of breath.
“Do I look like I am joking to you?” Grandma Yuan spoke each word slowly, and that aura alone was enough to show that she was dead serious. The senior admin understood and quickly ran back to tell his team to act under the protocol of setting the Danger Level 4 Alarm.
“Whew, it’s been a while since I saw Teacher Yuan portray her cultivation out,” Lein remembered the days when their instructor had constantly sent out her aura to suppress and discipline the initially unruly kids to do her bidding.
“That’s not something I really want to remember,” Lian whispered as she suddenly saw Grandma Yuan’s eyes looking at her.
“Lian, Lein, Su Zhen and Rong. Go towards the frontlines and help people evacuate. By the time you reach there, the sirens should have blared. Do not overstretch yourselves and defend the citizens at all cost.” Grandma Yuan ordered, and she subsequently looked at the rest.
“You, grab me a map of the city, right now. I will be dispatching all of you to various locations to assist with the evacuation, and all of you will work in teams of two.” Grandma Yuan announced. As to prove how bad the situation was, just as she finished speaking, they heard yet another explosion.
This time in triple succession. The threat was approaching them, and all the Demon Exorcists’ hearts were already pumping hard. Yet, for some reason, the choking aura had cleared their mind, and while nervous, they were still able to listen intently to Grandma Yuan’s instructions.
And this was sadly just the start…
