Stepping on the demon door, the witch becomes the strongest.

Chapter 596: Meeting Ye Jun Again
The arrival of younger sister Yan Jing brought a lot of joy to Yan Yu and the girls' small family.

But one thing that cannot be denied is that my younger sister will be entering the third year of junior high school in the second half of the year.

Jingjing's grades were not particularly outstanding, and in order to prepare for the upcoming high school entrance exam, she was destined not to be too carefree this summer vacation - Yan's mother had already found an acquaintance to give her tutoring, and classes would begin when she returned.

Yan Jing felt that her brother was so rich that he could support her even if she couldn't find a job in the future, which was not completely unreasonable. However, Yan's mother obviously disagreed with this. Therefore, in the following days, everyone could often see her sister arguing with her mother on the phone.

Another hotly discussed issue in the team monk circle is that the number of applicants for the National Monk Competition has increased from more than 30 to more than 50.

You know, nearly three-quarters of the team's monks haven't even reached the Transformation Palace stage yet! Considering that civilian monks have far fewer resources than team monks, we can conclude that the cultivation aptitude of these fifty-plus people must be far higher than the average level of the current team monks.

So everyone is confused, where did these people come from?
Soon, a guy who had captured the noble lady, was well-informed and had a big mouth, broke the news in the group and pointed out:
In fact, the monks in our team are the few lucky ones of this era.

The first batch of novice monks was completely selected through the college entrance examination last year. In other words, you had to have registered for the college entrance examination last year to have a chance to be selected.

Compulsory education in Lu State on this plane only lasts until junior high school. The high school entrance exam screens out a large number of students who are less academically inclined. Some choose to enroll in vocational high schools, technical secondary schools, or technical schools, while others simply forgo high school. Even among those enrolled in secondary vocational schools, not all graduates ultimately register for the college entrance exam.

According to official data disclosed over the years, the rate of people of college entrance examination age who took the exam last year was 44%. The remaining 56% did not take the college entrance examination physical examination, so naturally they had no way to verify whether they had spiritual roots.

If we calculate further into the future, our seniors who graduated earlier than us missed the opportunity to have their blood tested last year because they took the college entrance examination too early; if we calculate further into the future, our juniors who are a few years younger than us also have not yet reached the time to register for the college entrance examination.

This group of people are actually not much different from everyone else in terms of age, and their spiritual root possession rates are also similar. However, due to improper timing or failure to register for the college entrance examination, they are excluded from the official training system. How many Xie Ruoxi and Liu Longtao are there among them? Wasn't Xie Ruoxi of the Zhenhai team the one who graduated from high school but didn't take the college entrance examination? His cultivation aptitude is the best in the country!
At this point, the chat room quickly went off topic, with many expressing shock at how Master Xie hadn't even registered for the Gaokao. Why? Was it because his aptitude for cultivation had transcended the mundane, his mindset shifting to that of an immortal, that he no longer cared to take the mortal selection exam?

Xie Ruoxi saw that everyone in the group was discussing her. She was so scared that she didn't dare to show any expression. She quickly came to Yan Yu for help.

"It's over! The captain is finished!"

"What do you mean the captain is finished?" Yan Yu immediately gave her a slap on the head, "Even if you are finished, I will not be finished!"

"I'm done for, I'm done for!" Xie Ruoxi held her head in her hands, tears welling up in her eyes. "They all know about my shameful decision not to take the college entrance exam!"

"What's the big deal?" Yan Yu picked up his phone, glanced at it, and laughed. "That Xiao Cai, relying on his girlfriend's family background, keeps saying nonsense in the group chat! Ruoxi, don't be afraid. Look, no one is looking down on you. They're all praising you and praising you!"

Xie Ruoxi took a closer look and found that some people had indeed compared her to Bill Gates, saying that the reason he dropped out of college was because he could no longer hide his programming talent. If he had started a computer company earlier, he could have earned an extra year's worth of money. Going to college completely delayed his ability to start a business and make money... Xie Da Shen did not choose to take the college entrance examination last year, he must have been afraid of delaying his path to becoming an immortal.

As she read everyone's flattery and abstract essays about her, her original social anxiety and fear soon disappeared, and she couldn't help but smile.

Lin Ning was also looking up the message records and found that among the more than 17 civilian cultivators at the Huafu level, there were only 20 people aged between 30 and 21, 30 people aged between 9 and , and the remaining people included those in their forties, fifties, and one in his seventies. It can be seen that the right age for cultivation is just a matter of probability, and in fact everyone has the opportunity to embark on cultivation.

It's normal for there to be over 12 people with more advanced cultivation aptitude than me among billion people, right? And I'm also about to enter the Huafu Stage, so I'm not far behind!
"If that's the case, why did you only do blood tests for people with high blood pressure instead of testing everyone?" she asked curiously.

Yan Yu did not answer this question, but gave a seemingly unrelated example:

"If you were a general leading an army into battle in ancient times, and you captured a city and looted a large amount of gold and silver treasures from the wealthy merchants within, would you choose to keep it all for yourself? Reward your personal soldiers? Or reward the entire army?"

Lin Ning seemed to be lost in thought, while Chen Lingyun smiled and said,

"Rewarding the entire army is impossible. If everyone were to share the spoils, how many coppers would each person get? They wouldn't be grateful to the general. The lower-level soldiers don't seek rewards from above, but rather authorization to plunder the city after conquering it."

"I see." Ning Ning finally understood. "Ultimately, it's because of insufficient resources and low productivity."

"That's all we have to say about civilian cultivators. The current situation is what it is. Existence is reasonable, so there's no need to dwell on it too much." Yan Yu waved his hand and turned to Chen Lingyun, "The second batch of students selected through this year's high school entrance exam should have already enrolled, right?"

"He started school last month." Chen Lingyun said with a smile.

"There are more and more civilian cultivators, and our team has also been replenished with cultivators." Yan Yu said, "Don't worry about others, the serious thing is to become stronger yourself... Wait a moment, I have a call."

He left the villa and came to the backyard, and saw that the call was from Ye Jun.

"Hey?"

"Lao Yan, have you eaten?" Ye Jun's hearty laughter came from the opposite side.

To be honest, Yan Yu has no prejudice against northern girls, but every time he hears this kind of laughter, he can't help but mistake the other person for a buddy.

"I ate it, what's wrong?"

"If you have time, come to Pingjing." Ye Jun said, "Isn't there a monk competition here? There are already a lot of people here, it's very lively, come quickly."

"Wait a minute." Yan Yu said with a smile, "You can't handle it anymore? Didn't you say there were only more than fifty people?"

"There are only about fifty people who have passed the registration review." Ye Jun corrected him. "There are more than that many who came to watch the fun, try their luck, or build connections. I heard that there are also people who are illegally selling pills."

"Illegally selling pills?" Yan Yu was a little surprised.

Cultivation talent is random, and while civilian cultivators are generally not far behind, the biggest advantage for official cultivators lies in their resources. Now that civilian cultivators can refine elixirs, the higher-ups must be getting anxious. No wonder they're so anxious to find me.

Under normal circumstances, if they were to capture and interrogate all of these people, they would surely be able to find the one who sold the elixir. However, with the monk competition about to begin, a large-scale roundup of civilian monks would undoubtedly cause unnecessary panic and even ruin the higher-ups' plans to recruit civilian monks...

Damn, I’m really moved!

Unfortunately, Yan Yu is not a lunatic who pursues power above all else. Compared to ascending to the supreme sky throne, he cherishes the precious life he has with the girls now.

I have absolutely no interest in becoming stronger!

In order to stop the civilian monks from causing chaos and destroying the current harmonious life, he must become stronger and even ascend to the throne of the sky. Therefore, Yan Yu is also working towards suppressing the world single-handedly - but he will not destroy the existing order in order to become stronger, that would be putting the cart before the horse.

If it weren't for this concern, Yan Yu wouldn't have chosen to become an official cultivator in this life. Wouldn't it be better to just be an independent civilian cultivator, relying on his past life memories to find a few powerful secret realms and become a mountain king?

"That's right." Ye Jun said, "Someone reported it to the higher-ups, and now they're not investigating it in a big way to prevent alerting the enemy."

"The higher-ups want to give me this task?" Yan Yu asked in surprise. "I'm not a professional criminal investigator, how can I possibly understand how to investigate a case? Call an experienced criminal investigator!" "When Zhou Hongyu lost contact abroad, didn't you follow the clues and find out her whereabouts?" Ye Jun said with a smile.

For some reason, Yan Yu seemed to smell a hint of sinister odor, but it disappeared in an instant. He thought it must be his own illusion.

"Those are foreign intelligence agents. They've already got enough clues, right?" Yan Yu refused to take credit for this and defended himself, saying, "I just followed the clues to the Thousand Buddha Temple and happened to find her. It was all luck."

"Luck is also a form of strength." Ye Jun said, "I guess the higher-ups want to use your good luck to catch the criminal this time."

"How can we rely on luck to catch a criminal?"

"Alas." Ye Jun sighed and said, "If you hadn't come, the higher-ups would have thrown this job to me. I have no idea how to do it."

"Okay then." Yan Yu hesitated for a moment and agreed, "Then you owe me a favor."

"I owe you a favor for this?" Ye Jun complained. "Okay, then hurry up and get here before tomorrow!"

Yan Yu was suddenly at a loss for words. He had just been begging me, but when I mentioned that he owed me a favor, he immediately became tough.

Well, how can I get back Ye Jun’s favor in the future?
After dinner, he told the girls and his sister what had happened.

"Hey!" Yan Jing immediately felt a little reluctant, without any resentment from being bullied by her brother before. "I've only been playing here for a few days, and you're leaving!"

"I have no choice. I have military duties to attend to." Yan Yu said, "Let Lingyun arrange your subsequent training. Those of you who haven't reached the Huafu stage should hurry up."

Lin Ning was a little depressed, and only heard Chen Lingyun say:

"No, I want to go too."

"Go to hell." Yan Yu said angrily, "You have the worst talent in the team. If you dare to delay your training to have fun again, you will be expelled from the Zhenhai team."

He stood up, walked out the door without looking back, and said casually:
"I'm leaving! You all should practice well. I'll check on you when you come back."

After leaving the secret realm, Yan Yu quickly flew up on his sword and headed towards Pingjing. He once again went over the fifty-two names that had registered in his mind.

Well, there are a few acquaintances.

For example, the old man Li Zhikang, who is in his seventies, is indeed a hidden talent judging by his memories of his previous life.

Yan Yu arrived in Pingjing on his sword and called Ye Jun.

Soon, Ye Jun came to pick him up.

The girl still had her pretty short hair, and looked neat, capable and heroic. She didn't even have time to chat with Yan Yu when they met, and hurriedly pulled Yan Yu away.

"So urgent?" Yan Yu laughed in surprise, "Did something happen?"

"It's okay." Ye Jun sighed and said, "Hurry up and arrange your accommodation so I can go back to sleep."

"Then I'm really sorry to bother you by coming here so late." Yan Yu said deliberately.

"Don't worry." Ye Jun immediately interrupted him, "It would be best if you could come and help me sooner. Those grandsons are really a worry."

"How to say?"

"They hang out in groups all day long and cause trouble!" Ye Jun complained directly.

The venue of the monks' competition is set in the north of Yanjiao. The reason why it is not held in Pingjing City is naturally because they are afraid that these old men will cause trouble for no reason and disturb the normal life of the people in Pingjing.

This was pretty much standard practice; Pingjing had always kept the good stuff for themselves, and the unwanted trash was thrown to Jibei. Yanjiao was under the jurisdiction of Langfang Prefecture, but the government was clearly incapable of managing it, so they invited monks from the Dingbei Army to take charge.

The media only said that "about fifty people have confirmed that they have successfully registered", but did not mention that there are almost two thousand people who have tried to register. The vast majority of them are civilian cultivators at the Qi Refining and Marrow Cleansing stages. Although their cultivation is not high enough to qualify for the competition, they are staying in Yanjiao to wait for opportunities - just like the ancient students who, even if they failed the imperial examinations, would still want to hang out in Chang'an, hoping to be noticed by some dignitary!

With over two thousand civilian cultivators stationed in Yanjiao, the Dingbei Army's leadership was on edge, their nerves tense. It wasn't that they were afraid of them—they were all low-ranking cultivators, and Master Jing could easily kill them all. The main concern was that if they accidentally caused trouble and endangered the local civilians, it would become a major disaster.

Having said that, what would a large number of folk monks do when they get together?

Of course they communicated with each other.

Cultivation techniques, secret manuals, flying swords, treasures... anything they didn't need, they would trade with other cultivators. Barter was usually for goods, but some were willing to accept cash. It was rumored that even the most powerful in the capital were involved, hoping to acquire some extraordinary items to bring back for their descendants to cultivate. With such a mixed bag, the Dingbei Army simply couldn't manage it, so they simply allowed them to trade what they had.

As more people started doing business, some strange organizations began to emerge, such as those teaching, exchanging intelligence, and holding auctions... The Dingbei Army did not care about them at all, with only one condition:
No trouble allowed!

With more people and more transactions, conflict naturally abounds. Even if a mortal were shortchanged on pork at the market, they'd still end up arguing with the vendor! Unfortunately, the local constables could manage to smooth things over with mortals, handing each of them fifty lashes to appease the situation. But they wouldn't dare do that with ordinary cultivators. Their lives were at stake, so they could only mindlessly summon the Dingbei Army cultivators to their rescue.

The Dingbei Army monks came to help the constables, but the premise was that they had to be strong enough to suppress the civilian monks on both sides. If they encountered a difficult one and were afraid they couldn't suppress it, they could only continue to report to Ye Jun. The reason was also very reasonable: they were afraid of accidents.

So Ye Jun did nothing else and was busy running around all day, helping with various trivial matters. Now he found out that there was even a place selling pills. How could he have the time to take care of it? He could only quickly ask Yan Yu to help.

Yan Yu was speechless after hearing this. Clearly, the current "Yanjiao Town" wasn't the "largest cultivator market in the country" it had been in his previous life. Neither the higher-ups nor the lower-ups had any experience dealing with large numbers of civilian cultivators. Furthermore, with ordinary warriors still to emerge, manpower was stretched thin. The fact that there hadn't been any chaos was a testament to the good nature of the people of Lu. Why don't you try abroad?
"You definitely can't do that," he suggested to Ye Jun, "Our team's monks are there to deter criminals and act as a stabilizing force. How can we run around all day dealing with civil disputes?"

"Then what can I do?" Ye Jun spread his hands and complained, "If I don't go, they will start fighting. There aren't many strong monks in the army. If they encounter someone they can't defeat, don't they have to come to me?"

"Let them fight," Yan Yu said. "It's best to let them fight fiercely. Then we'll kill them all. We'll pile the heads of these troublemakers into a Jingguan (a kind of memorial temple), put them on a pickup truck, and drive around the Yanjiao a few times. I guarantee these folk cultivators will be more obedient than Pekingese dogs."

"Come on." Ye Jun said, "Why don't you kill one for me and try?"

"Just look at me later!" Yan Yu said with a smile.

　Next chapter: Go shopping with Ye Jun, the train of thought is very smooth
　　
　
(End of this chapter)