Chapter 31: Wang Feng’s Coercion

Why did he possess such a massive amount of potential demon power? Ye Yang racked his brains, and finally, a small lightbulb went off in his head.

Unlike the others, whose evolutionary cells were implanted later in life to trigger their demon power and abilities, Ye Yang had been injected with these cells by his father while he was still frozen. After twenty-plus years of accumulation, his demon power value was destined to be astronomical whether he liked it or not!

Ye Yang beamed with joy. That had to be it, right?

Was it? Had he guessed correctly? No! In truth, he was completely off the mark... Alas, poor Ye Yang.

Wang Feng was unaware of Ye Yang’s wild imagination, and even if he knew, he wouldn't bother explaining. His only goal was to extract as much of Ye Yang’s potential demon power as possible within seven days—the more, the better.

Seven days. Only seven days. He was pushing Ye Yang to the limit, and in doing so, pushing himself as well. As he had told Lin Tian, time was truly short.

It wasn't just a mental push; the so-called training was equally brutal. From 5:00 AM until 8:00 AM, Ye Yang had been doing only one thing: running.

With a heavy thud, Ye Yang collapsed onto the ground, unable to move. He felt as if his legs no longer belonged to him. Three hours of continuous running! And it wasn't just a casual jog; Wang Feng had forced him to sprint at high speed until his stamina was completely depleted, then continued to force him to run for three full hours without a single minute of rest.

Ye Yang’s physique was actually quite good—sturdy, even—but this kind of extreme duress would be too much for even Sylvester Stallone to handle.

"Boss... let me... rest. Just a breather." Ye Yang couldn't even stand up.

"A breather? You can take that when you're dead. If you keep being this lazy, you won't need to breathe at all in seven days," Wang Feng said coldly. A bolt of azure lightning crackled and struck right beside Ye Yang.

"Damn it! Big Brother, let’s talk this out, no need to resort to violence!" Ye Yang, twitching from the electric shock, gritted his teeth and scrambled up to resume his frantic running. He finally understood the origin of the guy’s nickname, "Great Thunder King," and discovered the limits of his own lack of discipline.

Although Wang Feng was thirty, he was born after 2000, while Ye Yang, who looked twenty, was born in 1988. The fact that he had the nerve to call him "Big Brother" made him a rare specimen of shamelessness.

Another three hours passed. It wasn't until 11:00 AM that Wang Feng finally let Ye Yang stop.

"We're... not running anymore?" Ye Yang nearly cried with relief.

"Not running? Dream on! You didn't eat this morning, so eat up and then keep going." Wang Feng’s lips curled slightly as he turned and walked toward the dining hall. Ye Yang collapsed to the ground, unable to even twitch. Keep going? Was the whole day just going to be running?

"Is running like this even useful?" Ye Yang couldn't help but ask. Even if one were training for long-distance running, this wasn't how it was done. People usually combined various scientific methods; nobody just drove a person to the brink of death.

"Naturally, it’s useful." Wang Feng waved his hand without looking back. "Once your strength is completely exhausted, if I force you to keep going, what will you use to run? Just think about it, and you'll understand!"

"..." Ye Yang rolled his eyes in frustration. Run when his strength was completely exhausted? If he were truly completely exhausted, he’d be dead, wouldn't he?

"Just be content. Because there are seven days, he chose this method. If there were only three, he would have switched to another," Lin Tian whispered over the phone. Ye Yang had been unable to resist calling him to complain.

"Oh? There are other methods? What are they?" Ye Yang became immediately interested. Anything had to be better than running, right?

"Continually beating you to a pulp—beating you until you’re half-dead, but not quite dead. By keeping you in that struggle between life and death, letting you die over and over again, your potential will slowly be beaten out of you."

"..." Ye Yang didn't know what to say. Was this how Hunters trained? He started to wish he’d gone back with Qi Fang to be a Wanderer. Was this what they meant by boarding a pirate ship?

What Ye Yang didn't know was that normal Hunter training wasn't actually this exaggerated. Even pure physical training was rare; there were many ways to stimulate potential, such as using experimental instruments for guidance. It was just that Wang Feng preferred this direct and bizarre method.

If he had a different teacher, they certainly wouldn't have done this. But unfortunately, he had been scouted by Wang Feng.

Moreover, he was different from the others. A normal Hunter’s potential demon power was acquired as evolutionary cells gradually assimilated into their bodies, but Ye Yang had skipped that process entirely. Perhaps his potential really did need to be "killed" out of him through various forms of agony.

Of course, being worked to death counted as a form of dying, too.

By evening, Wang Feng finally let Ye Yang off the hook. Perhaps even he felt it was getting a bit cruel. However, he left Ye Yang with an even crueler remark.

"It seems your limit is higher than I imagined. Come find me at four o'clock tomorrow."

Hearing this, Ye Yang felt like vomiting blood. But what he didn't see was the faint smile on Wang Feng’s lips as he watched his retreating back.

"This kid... he grows so fast under pressure. By this afternoon, he was already using his demon power to regulate his body, though... I suspect he hasn't even noticed it himself yet."

On the way back to his dormitory, Ye Yang ran into someone he both wanted and didn't want to see: Chen Yun.

When they met at the stairwell, Chen Yun’s face turned bright red in an instant. She gave a slight nod and fled, as if Ye Yang were a Level 5 super demon about to devour her.

Watching her flushed face, Ye Yang couldn't help but laugh. He was growing fond of the girl’s adorable expressions. A single blush or a smile was enough to send his imagination running wild—though, naturally, it was easier to imagine her when she was running... ahem.

He flipped through some documents, but he couldn't bring himself to read them properly. He just skimmed the introductions—how demons used humans as food, the evolutionary history of predators, and vulnerability analysis.

"Ugh, I can't focus on this." Ye Yang closed his eyes in pain. Every time he closed his eyes, he couldn't help but see the intimate gestures Chen Yun had made toward him last night.

"I really am... losing my mind," Ye Yang muttered bitterly. He was exhausted, so he decided to be lazy again, pulling his blanket over his head to sleep. Besides, the documents... it didn't matter if he didn't read them.

The more one wants to do something, the less smoothly it goes. Just like Ye Yang, who was dying of fatigue but couldn't sleep because... Qi Fang had arrived.

A foot kicked his backside with a bang, and he rolled off the bed.

"What? What is it?" Ye Yang asked, climbing up with a dazed look. What kind of madness was this girl having? Why was she running into his dorm in the middle of the night? And more importantly, where did she get a key?

"Uncle Lin gave it to me... Bodyguard Number One, play with me. I’m so bored!!" Qi Fang sat on the edge of the bed, looking sullen. "Uncle Lin isn't home, the little darling has to go to kindergarten, and Auntie Zhou is busy with this and that all day and won't keep me company."

Veins throbbed on Ye Yang’s forehead; he gritted his teeth. Play? She came to find him to play in the middle of the night? Bored? Was she the only person in the world who felt bored? Was she the only one with nothing to do?

Indeed, Qi Fang had just transitioned from the thrilling life of a Wanderer to this quiet, peaceful existence, and she wasn't used to it. But Ye Yang had no energy left to keep her company. He had to meet the Great Thunder King at 4:00 AM to continue running.

"Here... a PS5, the latest game console. Play by yourself, and don't turn the volume up." Ye Yang turned on the TV, connected the console, and collapsed back into bed. Lin Tian had given him this PS5, but he’d had no time to play it. It was perfect for keeping this girl occupied.

Sony, having been baptized by the apocalypse and moved all the way from the islands of Sakura to Shanghai, had finally lived up to expectations and created this PS5 generation that drove players worldwide wild. However, in Qi Fang’s hands, the console was declared obsolete after just thirty minutes.

"Bodyguard Number One, get up! It’s not fun anymore. Play something else with me, or let's play two-player..."

Ye Yang was on the verge of tears. Did this girl think everyone was as idle as she was? Two-player? Couldn't she see how exhausted he was?

Plop. Qi Fang sat down on Ye Yang’s lap and shook him by his clothes, rattling him until he was dizzy. The most fatal part wasn't the shaking, but the way her little bottom kept rubbing against him...

"Little girl." Ye Yang’s tone turned cold. "I’m warning you, don't play with fire. Your Uncle is feeling quite 'fiery' these days. Be careful, or I might just take you right here and now."

Even if Qi Fang hadn't been to school and didn't understand the idioms, she clearly understood the simple word "desire."

"Oh? I’m playing with fire, what are you going to do about it? Hmph! I’m your master! Are you trying to rebel?" Qi Fang said nonchalantly, bouncing on him a few more times.

"You forced my hand!" Ye Yang was desperate. Without a second thought, he pulled the girl off his lap and flipped her over,