Chapter 53: Those who ought to come would make it in the end

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

The moment the first round of the Crisis grade assessment ended, Qiu Xiangji was once again knocking on Ye Jingshan’s office door.

“Come in!” Ye Jingshan called out gravely.

Qiu Xiangji walked into the room laughing as he patted his big belly, only to find three chairs set in front of Ye Jingshan’s desk. Ma Jian and Hou Baishan were already seated, leaving the third seat for his eventual arrival.

“Good afternoon, battalion commander Ye,” Qiu Xiangji smiled as he greeted Ye Jingshan, taking his seat on the chair prepared for him.

“Are you three still planning to enroll Xia Fei with your special enrollment?” Ye Jingshan said with a sullen face.

Qiu Xiangji beamed, “Battalion commander Ye, the first round of the assessment had just ended. As expected, Xia Fei had successfully made it through the first round. From the potential he had demonstrated, I believe he would be most suited to train with the command training division, don’t you think?”

Ma Jian heard Qiu Xiangji and immediately spoke up in his usual loud and brash manner, “Battalion commander Ye, Xia Fei is able to scare off a swarm of merciless black scorpions by just staring at them. This shows his good potential to become a beast tamer; the exotic beast division not only takes care of the beasts, but we also need to scare and shock some of the more stubborn exotic beasts sometimes. That is why I wish to get Xia Fei to join our exotic beast division, specializing in training some of the more crafty and ruthless beasts.”

Ma Jian was somewhat pleased with himself after he was finished speaking. He had spent a total of three days crafting his flowery speech, believing that Ye Jingshan would be moved from his sensible and reasoned words.

Hou Baishan pursed his lips on one side, not saying a single word. From how Ye Jingshan had placed three chairs in his office and what he knew of Ye Jingshan’s personality, Hou Baishan recognized that Ye Jingshan had already come to his own decision this time. There was no way anyone would be able to convince him otherwise, so he decided to sit quietly in his seat and wait for his final verdict.

Ye Jingshan nodded wordlessly, and just as he began to address the three men, the communicator on his desk suddenly rang. It was a call from her daughter, Ye Xiaohan. “Xiaohan, did something happen that required you to reach me during the office hours?”

Ye Jingshan had always been very strict with his daughter, and even if the two wished to exchange a few words, they had to wait till after work hours to do so. That was why Ye Xiaohan had cultivated such an emotionless personality; half of it was because she had inherited his genetics, but the other half was from being influenced by Ye Jingshan’s rules.

Ye Jingshan reached his hand out to take the communicator and replied before putting her on hold, “I’m on an official business right now, wait for a moment.”

He coughed twice and stared right at the three supervisors in front of him, “I’ve already decided that the Heaven Execution Training Camp will not be specially enrolling Xia Fei.”

Ma Jian abruptly slapped his thigh and got up from his seat. He had apparently not expected such an outcome, “Battalion commander Ye, what is the reason for this?”

Hou Baishan and Qiu Xiangji shook their head regretfully. The two were smart. Unlike Ma Jian, they had long expected this outcome.

There was no merit to have three supervisors end up at loggerheads with each other, fighting over a single candidate. As the camp battalion commander, Ye Jingshan had to do what he could to avoid such a distasteful outcome.

“Since you’ve all claimed him to be a genius, he should be able to get into the training camp on his own without depending on the special enrollment. That’s the end of this matter. you may all leave now,” Ye Jingshan explained with a grim expression.

Ma Jian sighed as he trudged out of Ye Jingshan’s office, all glum and moody. Qiu Xiangji and Hou Baishan followed right after, bidding Ye Jingshan farewell politely before departing.

Ye Jingshan heaved a sigh of relief and turned the communicator back on, as Ye Xiaohan’s image was promptly displayed on the screen.

“Father, there’s something really strange going on,” Ye Xiaohan said. “There are a total of 32 candidates missing from this assessment. I’ve checked the data from the past Crisis grade assessments, and there had never been an incident where so many candidates disappeared at the same time.”

Twelve candidates had been abducted, but these 12 candidates were all young and possessed top-grade special abilities. If they had announced such a result, it would most likely draw plenty of suspicions, since the characteristics of these missing candidates were far too similar to each other for everything to be regarded as mere coincidence.

President Robert had intentionally changed the number of candidates missing to thirty-two, adding an additional 20 dead candidates to the total as the cover-up.

Being abducted and turning up missing were two different concepts altogether. It was hardly a glorious matter for the distinguished Adjudicator Union to admit that they were helpless to an outsider entering their assessment venue and kidnapping the candidates right under their noses.

“Oh?” Ye Jingshan furrowed his brow. “Thirty-two... It is quite unexpected for there to be so many missing candidates. Have you submitted a special report to Robert? This sort of matter falls under the investigations department’s scope as well as the assessment department.”

Ye Xiaohan nodded, “President Robert had personally arrived at the assessment venue. I’ve just briefed him regarding this matter. He told me that the Union has already begun their investigation, but what’s strange is that when I tried to retrieve the video recording of these candidates, I discovered that the information had already been designated as confidential, requiring a Level 7 clearance to access them.”

“Level 7 clearance?” The wrinkles on Ye Jingshan’s forehead deepened. A Level 7 clearance meant that aside from the Union’s classified investigations team and Robert himself, no one else would have the clearance to look at these videos. Considering that this was merely a case of missing candidates, there was absolutely no need to set it on Level 7 clearance. Could there be some secret that couldn’t be divulged here?

“There is a candidate named Xia Fei who had reported to me about the disappearance. According to his account, it was an expert who was at least of Star River cultivation rank and had broken into the assessment location and kidnapped his partner. I’ve carefully taken his report and analysis into consideration and find it highly plausible,” Ye Xiaohan whispered softly.

“Xia Fei? Registration number 70563, the native Earth candidate, Xia Fei?” Ye Jingshan asked quizzically.

Ye Xiaohan was even more surprised than him, “Father, do you know this candidate?”

Ye Jinshan nodded. He did not just know this candidate, but he knew too much about him. For the sake of specially enrolling that young man, his three supervisors nearly ended up fighting with each other over him. It was as if wherever Xia Fei showed up, endless trouble would always follow.

“Robert is an experienced and responsible President. I believe he is capable of dealing with this matter appropriately. Don’t ask any more questions and let the classified investigations team handle things,” Ye Jingshan used his commanding voice to add, “This matter is of great importance, so you must not mention it to anyone. Trust the Union.”

Ye Xiaohan wanted to say something else, but she held her tongue when she saw her father’s stony expression.

Turning off the communicator, Ye Jingshan leaned back in his chair and placed both his hands behind his head, muttering to himself, “This Xia Fei is truly a lingering spirit who just refuses to leave.”

...

Far away, back on Earth. Xia Fei helplessly watched Avril quietly weep in front of him. He was not the sort that would be rendered helpless upon seeing a pretty little girl, nor was he the sort of person who would make a girl cry for fun.

After a good moment of silence, Xia Fei somewhat guiltily apologized, “I’m sorry. I’m not in a good mood right now. I was a bit rash before, but I should not have scolded you or made you cry.”

Avril wiped her tears and put on a brave front as she stubbornly blurted out, “Who cried? I had only... Only...”

“Only tearing up because you’ve gotten sand in your eye from the breeze?” Xia Fei chuckled as he asked.

“That’s right! That’s exactly what happened!” Avril pouted her lips and stubbornly insisted.

Xia Fei was speechless. He lit up a cigarette, took a few puffs before softly saying, “Okay. There is a breeze in your bedroom.”

“You’re mean!” Avril’s pouty face turned into laughter, as her sunny temperament returned. That was the thing about women with a cheerful personality. They were not the sort to bear a grudge and were much easier to cajole.

“What’s the unhappy thing that happened to you?” Avril tilted her head sideways, casually pulling out a pink handkerchief to wipe the tear streaks on her face.

“Not much, really. It’s all in the past,” Xia Fei was being evasive, not mentioning what happened to Xiao Yu.

Avril flashed a mischievous smile, “I don’t know what trouble you’re in right now, but I do know that you will soon run into a really huge problem.”

“What problem?”

“Do you know what’s the second round for the Adjudicator Union’s assessment?”

Xia Fei shook his head, “How did you know I joined the Adjudicator Union’s assessment?”

“Hmph! I could even find out your anonymous account, so of course, I know what you’re doing right now. Your name is Xia Fei, age 17. You’re currently participating in the Adjudicator Union assessment on Earth that was upgraded to the Crisis grade at the last minute. Furthermore, you’ve managed to get past the first round, right?” Avril acted like she was really smart, looking very cute as she did so.

Xia Fei was dumbfounded. He simply could not make sense just what sort of godly saint this Avril was. Just how did she find so much about him? Could she even be aware of his bank account number as well?

“The second round for the assessment will be a swiss system tournament, which means two people will get up on a ring and compete with each other. There are 723 candidates participating in this second round, and you’re ranked the last. Meanwhile, the opponent you’ll be put up against is the number one ranked candidate. The last candidate going up against the ranked one candidate, you’re going to be in trouble.”

“Ranking? What’s that about?” Xia Fei was all the more confused. He had never heard a word about the candidates being ranked.

“Didn’t you know about this? You’re really such an ignoramus. Every assessment, those betting companies would rank all the candidates and set different wagers for people to bet on. It’s been the same for all these years. Do you know what are your odds?”

“Nope.”

“1:1000! Your opponent, Chen Dong, is the most promising candidate in this entire assessment according to the betting companies. Everyone is convinced that you will lose.”

“What did you say his name was?” Xia Fei’s heart seized up. Could it be the same battle maniac that he had met back in the rain shadows, Chen Dong?

Avril adopted a sly look, “Chen Dong. He’s from the Lombard Empire, possessing the terrifying Freeze Special Ability. He is 100% insane, so you better be careful. Otherwise... Hehehe.”

“It’s really him!?” Xia Fei took a lungful of smoke and muttered to himself.

All of a sudden, Avril lowered her voice and very mysteriously said, “Oh no, it’s almost time for my music lesson, I need to hurry up and get back on my bed to pretend I’m sick. Otherwise, I’ll have to spend an entire boring afternoon with that loathsome old coot again.”

“Wait a minute!” Xia Fei hastily called her to stop. “You know everything about me, but I know nothing about you. Just how did you find me?”

Avril placed her slender finger on her lips and giggled, “That is a secret. I’ll tell you if you treat me to some ice cream.”

Just as she finished her sentence, the enigmatic video message abruptly came to an end, and the long list of candidate names reappeared in front of Xia Fei.

After Avril’s interruption, Xia Fei actually felt much better than before. The girl was like a cheerful sprite, spreading happiness wherever she went. She had a very sunny disposition as well as, which made her a very decent lady.

“Chen Dong. Who would have thought we’d meet so soon,” Xia Fei talked to himself for a bit before he calmed down and continued his search for Xiao Yu’s name in the list.