“Just being curious, why are there no high level cultivators around? I feel a little bad bagging all these prizes for myself!” Rong asked as he bagged the prizes and told the counter staff to send them to the Tree Mall. His room where he was currently staying with his parents had all the things he needed but the room which Jin offered him was bare. These merchandise, especially the Playbox 5 would be a huge delight for him when he is on break.
“Did you not see? There ARE high level cultivators around.” Lian, the Demon Fox Cultivator, showed him the scoreboard where other cultivators were already queuing to redeem their prize and there were not many left.
“Eh, seriously? That guy is a grade 10?” Rong tried to see the cultivator by tinning his eyes with chi so that he could gauge his strength. For some reason it was his chi was weaker but does qualify as a grade 10 cultivator.
And as he glanced around the area, there were grade 11 and even 12s in the area. Some even gave Rong and the gang a few nods and stares which Rong unknowingly ignored but his friends acknowledged.
“Gah, okay. I think I saw an acquaintance I did not like.” Rong quickly turned his back towards the group and finally accepted the fact that they were not the only ones here. “But honestly speaking, how the hell did we even manage to get the top prizes when our grades are considered mediocre compared to all those around us?” Rong questioned.
“I am just glad they kept quiet about our identities. Do not want people to be poking around to find us for some recruitment drive.” Lian said and Su Zhen shook her head.
“You can never get away from those people. One of them is already making their move.” As they could see a rather handsome and well built gentleman in his army uniform walking towards them.
“Greetings, I am Major Wei, part of the army ground force sixth division. I will -” Before Major Wei could even say finish his sentence, Lein the Demonic Qilin Cultivator quietly showed his Demon Exorcists’ badge. The rest did the same as well to show that they were not up for grabs.
“Ah, I see! No wonder you guys are able to manage to clear this quickly!” Wei exclaimed but continued to stay instead of moving away from the group.
“There are no rules stating that people with affiliations to certain groups were not allowed to join the mini competition.” Su Zhen reassured her friends that they had done nothing wrong winning the prizes.
“No no no. What I am trying to give is just a mere statement of congratulations. I am not implying that you guys cheated or anything. In fact, we are more than happy to know that there are still capable Demon Exorcists within our midst.” Major Wei remarked and somehow everyone got ticked off immediately. Initially, they thought that upon showing their badges, they would step away, but now passing such a sarcastic remark to the Demon Exorcists especially towards this group of battle hardened members caused their blood to boil. (Obviously, the Major did not know he had a poor choice of words.)
But for once, instead of reacting against the Major’s remarks, Rong quietly broke off from the group and walked away from the conversation. The rest did the same with only Su Zhen saying an insincere apology before joining the group.
“Wait, guys. All I needed was just one minute of your time.” Major Wei had decided not to let go of them since it was not easy to find high ranking cultivators. And that goes without saying that the sponsors of the Symposium were the local Armed Forces.
And thus, Major Wei performed a flash step moving towards the sight of them wanting to have a proper word with them since he was ‘obligated’ to do so but the Demon Exorcists were getting rather annoyed by him.
“Hey, Lein!” Suddenly someone shouted Lein’s name and the group looked back for a moment. His hair was slightly messy, eye bags the same as Jin’s but his appearance was insignificant. Donning on standard office wear with a lanyard hanging over his neck, it seemed like he was some random person off the streets. Lein had no idea who this guy was but before he could speak, the Demon Exorcists noticed that his badge was from the Ministry of State Security. That was when Lein discerned that the State agent was sneakily showing him a picture of a Postman Panda from the Pandamonium App from his phone while blocking it from Major Wei.
At that moment, he also received a message through his smartwatch which Lein slyly took a look at by trying to scratch his forehead as if he was trying to remember the name of the state agent to avoid any suspicion from Major Wei. “Ah! Yu… Xuan, was it?”
“Yes! yes! I liked your performance, especially after what you did in King’s Monster’s dungeon instance! Man, that double backflip was sick.” Yu Xuan said and he started to congratulate each of them personally with each of their names. Major Wei was immediately ticked off the moment he saw the lanyard on Yu Xuan and he had no idea how the Ministry of State Security was able to find them before him.
And it also looked as if the agent had already made contact with the Demon Exorcists but he was not going to let any possible chance go until Yu Xuan stepped forward by telling the Major to give it up. To make things even worse for him, Su Zhen cleverly said that they wished to consider signing up with Yu Xuan, causing the Major to reluctantly walk off. After which, Yu Xuan told the Demon Exorcists to follow him as he provided them a cover to walk out of the Symposium safely.
“Nice catch over there.” Yu Xuan commented and the group laughed except for Rong who did not exactly comprehend the situation until Lian explained it to him in very simple terms.
“I was equally surprised as well that the State Agents would help us.” Lein thought that this recon mission was just to enjoy and experience the Symposium. They had no idea the State Agents would provide support for them.
“Like you, we have our very own mission too. While there are still the same old probable threats being thrown out on the internet, we cannot ignore them. Our boss placing one of us here is for safeguard and if the situation arises, send in a quick backup. But since everything had gone relatively smoothly, the boss felt that there wasn’t any problem for me to do a second job as a babysitter. Oh please pardon the pun, I am not exactly saying you guys are kids. I recognised how you all had survived that ‘incident’. Thank you once again for helping the nation.” Yu Xuan said but before they could get to exit, the group suddenly felt a shake in the ground.
Looks like ‘relatively smooth’ has always been a red flag.
