Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 108 - 28: Confronting the Evil Demon

Chapter 108: Chapter 28: Confronting the Evil Demon

When the Enforcement Team surrounded Duan Mingyuan and Chen Chou as if facing a formidable enemy, the topic the two were discussing had already made new progress.

Chen Chou’s experiences and knowledge had inspired him greatly.

According to Chen Chou, his Barrier was innate, and the moment the Blood Sacrifice Ritual was complete, the ability to bring death was already branded onto his Life Energy. All he did was to use this Ability at will.

This piqued Duan Mingyuan’s interest in the Blood Sacrifice Ritual.

He had a pair of eyes adept at peering through appearances to see the essence.

According to his understanding, the primary purpose of the Blood Sacrifice Ritual, which sacrificed life, was to gather the sacrificers’ Life Energy through some ceremony and concentrate it on the newly born entity; Chen Chou’s Life Energy was thus built up from the offerings of the sacrificers.

Born powerful and inheriting the knowledge and hatred of the martyrs made them firmly believe that Chen Chou could carry on their will and seek vengeance upon the Extraterrestrials.

However, through conversation, Duan Mingyuan discovered that the people who conducted the Blood Sacrifice Ritual actually did not know what kind of creation the ritual would bring forth.

Everything was based on imagination.

This made Duan Mingyuan understand the despair of those who had been locked in the Ghost Prison by trusted friends, where even a glimmer of hope was enough to make them abandon life and dive into the Blood Sacrifice Ritual like moths to the flame.

A cup of osmanthus wine was emptied, and perhaps due to not holding his liquor well, Chen Chou revealed some deeply personal thoughts.

Although he had always bad-mouthed the successive deans of the Cloud Sea Academy, he had wavered on the issue of seeking revenge on the Academy after escaping from the Ghost Prison.

On one hand, there was anger from the betrayal of friends, but on the other hand, he could understand the reasons behind his friends’ prohibition of the research into Tricky Art.

Especially after crossing hands with Duan Mingyuan, it became clearer to Chen Chou that even the combined knowledge and Strength of everyone was not enough to truly shake "the heavens".

Reason led Chen Chou to realize that if it had not been for their imprisonment in the Ghost Prison, the Cloud Sea Academy would probably have been flattened by the Imperial Court centuries ago, and would not have waited until the day Duan Mingyuan arrived.

What Duan Mingyuan valued was the connection of Life Energy brought about by the Blood Sacrifice Ritual.

Most of the students in the Academy were in the stage of intern hunters, with Life Energy so weak it could almost be ignored. In such circumstances, even he would find it difficult to make the students progress significantly in a short period of time.

But if there was some way to pool the students’ Life Energy together, it could create a collective capable of rivaling Chen Chou.

This could potentially become the key to the Academy’s last stand in the upcoming invasion.

Duan Mingyuan had applied for his team to focus on support and healing; he was more eager to see his students overcome the crisis through their own efforts.

But the Enforcement Team couldn’t have arrived at a worse time.

At the moment, Duan Mingyuan and Chen Chou’s conversation had just turned to the possibility of "expanding the Blood Sacrifice Ritual to the entire Academy", and he had not yet managed to say "find a way to eliminate the side effects of the Blood Sacrifice Ritual" when they were suddenly surrounded by the terrified Enforcement Team.

The new evil defense instructor had finally revealed his true intentions!

He wanted to blood sacrifice the entire Academy!

No wonder he had gone to great lengths to release the evil spirits from the Ghost Prison; after all, Chen Chou was probably the only one who understood the Blood Sacrifice Ritual!

All of this was connected.

The members of the Enforcement Team saw through Duan Mingyuan’s real motive.

This man was not an inside agent sent by the Imperial Court, but a devil who wanted to blood sacrifice everyone before the Imperial Court could act!

"I’ll hold off this demon; you all go report to the dean quickly!"

The leader of the Enforcement Team bellowed in anger and hugged Duan Mingyuan tightly as if he was ready to die with valor.

"You’re misunderstanding, I was just discussing academic issues about gathering Life Energy with the teaching assistant."

Duan Mingyuan explained, "If you don’t believe me, you can ask Old Mr. Chen Chou. He has lived for hundreds of years. He wouldn’t lie to you young folks."

"Hmph."

Chen Chou snorted coldly, disdainfully saying, "What a bunch of idiots. If he had wanted to harm you, you all would have been dead before you even approached."

He couldn’t be bothered with the Enforcement Team, nor did he want to waste time on ants. The academic discussion just now had sparked his interest for the first time in a long while. After many years, Chen Chou finally found someone who could discuss issues on the same level as him and even in the use of Barriers and Life Energy, Duan Mingyuan was a step ahead of him.

He also thought that Duan Mingyuan’s deconstruction of the Blood Sacrifice Ritual was a brilliant idea, "The Blood Sacrifice Ritual is to fuse Life Energy, so it’s essential that each sacrifice is willing to give up their life."

Upon hearing this, the Enforcer Captain suddenly understood.

Even why Duan Mingyuan had sneaked into the academy under the guise of a teacher and seemed to save the academy had become clear!

If he wanted the teachers and students of the academy to willingly give up their lives and participate in the Blood Sacrifice Ritual, he first had to win everyone’s trust.

"You—!"

Duan Mingyuan’s eyelids twitched violently.

Taken individually, Chen Chou’s words had no problem, but put together, they could lead to a great misunderstanding.

If he hadn’t known Chen Chou’s character, he would have thought the other party was doing it intentionally, but he could see Chen Chou was genuinely immersed in the possibility of deconstructing the Blood Sacrifice Ritual and didn’t want the Enforcement Team to interrupt their discussion.

"You go back first, I’ll come find you later."

Duan Mingyuan took a deep breath and said.

Chen Chou stood up with annoyance, gave the Enforcement Team members a fierce glare, and then turned into a wisp of black smoke and flew toward Ghost Prison.

After the black smoke disappeared, Duan Mingyuan said, "Could you please stop hugging me now?"

The Enforcement Team Leader was a burly man, perhaps due to the recent pressure, he had neglected his personal hygiene, and a wave of sweat odor rushed up.

From this angle, Duan Mingyuan could clearly see the dirt on the other’s uniform, and his blood pressure instantly shot up by 20 points.

"No!"

The Enforcement Team Leader said sternly, not only did he show no intention of letting go, but he even hugged tighter and even put his full weight upon Duan Mingyuan.

This made Duan Mingyuan frown even more deeply.

The reason the Enforcement Team Leader could hold him was that Duan Mingyuan had shown no malice, and his Passive Ability did not regard this behavior as an attack.

The Enforcement Team Leader lifted his head and said in the most steadfast tone, "My legs are weak, I can’t stand firmly."

Allowing his teammates to flee and facing alone the demon intent on blood sacrificing the entire academy had exhausted all his courage, and he simply couldn’t muster the will to draw his sword against the demon again, only using his body to carve out a path to survival for his subordinates.

"This is your final warning, let go of me now, and I’ll come with you to see the headmaster."

Duan Mingyuan’s gaze was stern, "Otherwise, don’t blame me for throwing all of you into the bathhouse."