"All right, you may go."
"The school will arrange a new job for you soon."
"Yes, Principal."
"Duan Ming, come in."
Although he hadn't seen Duan Ming, Li Zhengming seemed to have known all along that he was standing at the door.
When Duan Ming came in, Du Qinggang showed no intention of leaving. He sat on the leather sofa to one side, a cigarette between his fingers.
He wanted to light it, but didn't dare.
"Principal."
"Sit down and relax. I just called you here for a chat."
"Okay."
Duan Ming sat primly in the chair opposite Li Zhengming.
"Before we get down to business, I'd like to see your Power of God."
"Okay." Duan Ming held out his hand, and a cluster of visible electric currents gathered in his palm.
"Electricity?" Li Zhengming murmured, electric light flickering in his eyes.
Du Qinggang, sitting on the sofa, also straightened up, an envious look on his face. "A rare Power of God."
"What else? What's the story with that blade?"
Li Zhengming had originally wanted to watch the surveillance footage from the night the Church of the Dark Night invaded.
But because of the power outage, the cameras hadn't been running at the time.
"That blade is called Demon Cutter. Its restrictions are troublesome. Once I use it, I have to take a life."
"So you have two Powers of God?" Li Zhengming smacked his lips. "Normally, a person can awaken only one Power of God at most. But since you have Dual Divine Marks, having two Powers of God is only to be expected."
Honestly, he was envious.
Du Qinggang was envious too.
"I looked it up. People with a single Divine Mark can also have two Powers of God."
Li Zhengming nodded. "That's right, they can, but it requires certain special methods, and the price is usually enormous."
"Keep your Dual Divine Marks hidden for as long as you can." As he spoke, Li Zhengming took a check out of his drawer. "But the fact that you have two Powers of God probably can't be kept secret."
"What's this?"
Duan Ming looked at the check on the desk.
"It's your reward for killing the Four-Eyed Ghost. The City Protection Bureau asked me to pass it on to you."
"It's my duty to serve the people!"
Duan Ming tucked the check into his pocket.
He glanced at the amount on it.
A hundred thousand. Not bad!
"I think the City Protection Bureau probably has another reason for doing this, but as long as it's nothing bad, that's fine."
Hearing Li Zhengming say that, Duan Ming suddenly felt as though the check in his pocket was burning his hand.
But now that it was in his pocket, how could he possibly give it back?
"I had a few more things I wanted to tell you, but I have to go to the airport now. We'll talk when I get back. It's still early, so go back to class."
"Okay."
Watching Duan Ming leave, Li Zhengming murmured, "That kid doesn't talk much. The City Protection Bureau probably wants to recruit him, but they probably won't be able to keep him."
"I think you're considering sending him to the Divine Mark Association."
"I think the Demon Suppression Army would suit him better."
"That's what you say, but it's not what you're thinking. You definitely want him to go to the Divine Mark Association."
"Why are you being such a contrarian?"
A full moon hung high in the pitch-black night sky, its clear light pouring down and coating the campus in a thin veil of silver.
"Hey, kid."
Du Qinggang's voice suddenly rang out, breaking the peace on the sports field.
"Teacher Du."
Duan Ming turned to look.
"Not bad. I heard you killed that Four-Eyed Ghost, the one most likely born to a Ghost King, in less than thirty seconds."
Du Qinggang walked toward Duan Ming.
"I just stole the kill. The Four-Eyed Ghost was already badly wounded."
"Modesty is a good thing."
"Why did the principal go to the airport so late? Is someone important coming to Jiang City?"
"Hahaha, you really underestimate your principal. As far as this world is concerned, no matter what big shot came to Jiang City, he wouldn't go to the airport to welcome them in person."
"If he's not picking someone up, what's he going for?"
"Actually, he is picking people up. Dead people!"
"Dead people?"
"That's right. Soldiers who fell in the Demon Suppression Army. He's bringing their heroic souls home. For the principal, it's probably more a matter of bringing his students home."
"Does the Demon Suppression Army fight every day?"
"More or less. Things aren't so bad at the regular positions, but the front lines are miserable. Sometimes you have to pull up your pants and go fight off a demon tide before you've even wiped your ass."
"Have you been through that?"
"No, a friend of mine has."
Even now, Du Qinggang still remembered that night when he'd had the runs.
It was that very night that he'd sworn never to drink the turtle soup that damned fatty made again.
"I reckon there'll be quite a few grown men hiding under their covers and crying in the teachers' dormitory tonight."
"What happened?"
Duan Ming understood a little.
If he had guessed right, it probably had something to do with the heroic souls of the humans being brought back tonight.
"Last year-oh no, three months ago, a total of 171 students from the previous graduating class joined the Demon Suppression Army. Tonight, 163 of them are being brought back."
Buzz!
Duan Ming's pupils suddenly contracted.
In three months, 163 of the 171 had fallen!
The survival rate was less than five percent!
"In three months, only eight of the 171 are left. I don't know whether the fighting at the front was too fierce or their luck was just too bad."
Du Qinggang let out a long sigh, full of inexpressible sorrow and regret.
"Four years, and in just three months, only eight are left."
Duan Ming frowned and murmured to himself.
There was no need to join the Demon Suppression Army. The number alone told him just how dangerous the front lines were.
"You don't have to be so afraid. In fact, the overall survival rate for recruits is ten percent over six months. Compared with the survival rates of recruits in other countries, ours is already very high."
"I'm not afraid."
Ten percent?
In six months, only one out of ten people could survive. Was that really high?
But that was something no one could change.
Unless those demons were willing to lay down their butcher's knives.
But in fact, from the demons' point of view, they were also fighting to survive.
In this bloody war, perhaps neither side was right or wrong.
This was a struggle between races!
In the pitch-black night sky, a passenger plane flew beneath the moon.
At the same time, countless people stopped to watch in every corner of Jiang City.
At that moment, many stars appeared in the night sky that had been dark before.
They knew the heroic souls of those people had returned!
The heroes of humanity had come home!
At the security office, Huang Shanya, known as the Human Weapon, stood in the doorway, looking at the passenger plane overhead as he murmured:
"Those little brats. Did they think the food in the Demon Suppression Army was too bad?"
A gust of wind blew past.
It seemed some sand had gotten into his eyes.
At the airport.
Li Zhengming, over ninety years old, stood before hundreds of people, his arms hanging at his sides.
Looking at the passenger plane taxiing along the runway, his eyes reddened slightly.
"Not one human is a coward!"