Chapter 1 - Reunion

Along the path where red maple was growing, the pale floating clouds and waterfalls

from the sky were a perfect match. As the oldest demon slayer academy in history, Maple

Bridge1 Academy was hidden in the mountains.

Early in the morning, in the 10th grade office.

As Dean Qin looked at the student standing in front of him, his face grew darker. This

was the third time this veteran had gotten caught2. On the surface, he looked as though he was

deep in remorse, but in reality, his eyes were unfocused; he had probably zoned out.

“Stand up straight! Lift up your head!” Dean Qin knocked the desk with force, “Going

down the mountain overnight with no regard for the prohibitions, even running to the damn

internet cafe to surf the web overnight! I couldn’t believe it when the night patrol team told me a

student had broken through the barrier and gone down the mountain. Your trip this time was so

sneaky3, should I somehow be praising you for improving or something?!”

“I was just wondering which oddball demon slayer student liked going to the internet cafe

to play games; I understood it all the moment I heard your name - Xu Yinian! From your

enrollment till now, how many of the thirty-five school rules have you not broken?!”

“Ten.” The male student answered without hesitation.

“Utter rubbish!” Dean Qin bellowed.

“You even remembered it this clearly?” The male student eyed him with suspicion, “Nine

then, it can’t be less.”

“Four! Only four! Still saying that it can’t be less, I’m guessing you haven’t even taken

the trouble you’ve made before to heart at all! Dean Qin inhaled deeply, barely managing to

keep it together. “Go collect your graduation assessment task yourself! Once you’ve collected it,

hurry back to the dorms, pack your things and be on standby. The other students in your team

have already gotten ready, the only one missing is you!”

Budding demon slayers entered the doors of the academy at the age of eleven. At the

age of twenty-one, they would be faced with the graduation assessment after studying for ten

years. The assessment results would determine if one could become a demon slayer that could

stand on their own feet.

1 枫桥: ‘Feng’ = maple and ‘Qiao’ = bridge.

2 三进宫的老人: A more literal translation would be ‘third time this veteran was going to jail’, but for better

flow I went with this!

3 神不知鬼不觉: A more literal translation would be: unknown to god or ghost.

Catching onto a certain keyword, Xu Yinian finally focused his attention. “Graduation

assessment? So soon?”

“It wasn’t supposed to happen this soon. Recently, some areas have not been very

peaceful, and as the situation hasn’t been settled yet, the Demon Slayer Bureau tossed the

minor demons over to the academy to handle. It just happened to function nicely as your

graduation assessment.” Dean Qin’s expression relaxed some as he recounted, “The task your

group has been assigned to isn’t considered too difficult; you’re responsible for maintaining

order at the Demon Realm auction. The leader of your team is Chen Ran. You’ll have him

leading, so make sure to complete the task smoothly.”

Hearing the name of a certain loser, Xu Yinian repeated, “Chen Ran? He’d better not

drag me down.”

Dean Qin was in disbelief, “Who’s dragging who down? Chen Ran gets straight As on

the final assessments every year, but I can’t say the same about you!”

“It’s because I let him.”

“...”

“If the exams only test on the practical skills and not theory, Chen Ran would also be

trashed by my skill level—”

“Xu! Yi! Nian!” Seeing that he held no remorse for the nonsense he was spouting, Dean

Qin bristled with rage, slamming the desk, “Have you no shame?! Ever since Maple Bridge

Academy’s establishment, the only person who has gotten a single digit for the theory exams

has been you! Yet you manage to get a perfect score on every practical assessment, are you

partial to practicals or are you just stupid?!”

“...” Xu Yinian did not respond for a while.

After some time, he bit down on his lower lip and muttered, “I’m just too lazy to learn.”

God knows that the mere sight of theory was enough to send his head spinning. What

he could easily complete in practice was impossible to understand the moment it was laid on

paper.

In front of a teacher, he couldn’t humble himself to admit that he was only good at

fighting. Observing the indifference in his tone, Dean Qin felt his blood pressure instantly spike.

“The foundation lies in theory! If your foundation is unstable, being any good in practice is

useless! Straighten out your attitude towards learning!! ...”

Xu Yinian was then subject to a harsh beratement by Dean Qin. When he left the office,

Dean Qin’s anger hadn’t fully dissipated; a female teacher by the side took a leisurely sip of

warm water.

“Dean, calm down.” The female teacher consoled, “For some students, it’s useless no

matter how you go about it. You’ve gone to all that trouble and effort for him, yet he doesn’t take

your teachings seriously at all.”

As she continued on, she looked towards that male student’s departing shadow, her

gaze meaningful.

“He was born like this, he can’t be taught.”

Dean Qin turned his head to look at her, his voice grave, “If you’re unable to teach your

students well, perhaps consider that the problem lies in your own teaching ability!”

“...” The female teacher clenched the mug tightly, no longer saying a word.

Xu Yinian walked down the hallway.

He was a little lethargic, his eyes slightly downcast. The hallways of Maple Bridge

Academy were adorned with hanging scrolls of demons - they were in the three colors of gold,

silver and red. He walked with an unhurried pace; his face was brighter than the Hundred

Demon painting, his distinctive appearance tinged with the aura of a demon on a rampage.

Intentionally or otherwise, all of the students were staring at him.

“Xu Yinian is skipping class again?”

“He’s incredible. When I walked past the office this morning, I heard Dean Qin showering

him with torrents of abuse.”

“How many times has it been? Isn’t he worried that he can’t graduate?”

“With his status, what would he be afraid of? If any regular person had his fate, they

would’ve long been…”

It was widely known that the Demon Slayer World had the Four Great Families. As the

Xu family’s sole heir in this generation, Xu Yinian’s reputation had already been notorious when

he was ten - he was a household name.

Based on convention, a fortune-teller would predict the fates of all the little demon

slayers just before they turned ten. When it was Xu Yinian’s turn, the fortune-teller had

immediately gone ghastly pale. In his readings, massacre and bloodshed were intertwined, the

lives of the people plunged into calamity. It was an inauspicious reading that predicted the

greatest of evils.

Such a domineering reading caused a furor throughout the entire Demon Slayer World.

Although the Xu family tried ways and means to change Xu Yinian’s fate, it remained as

immovable as a mountain, continuing to steadily intimidate others.

Xu Yinian was accustomed to being watched like a tyrannosaurus rex on display; he

walked into the classroom without haste.

Before the first class of the afternoon had begun, there were quite a number of students

who were reciting the study materials in advance. Xu Yinian walked over to his own seat. He'd

played through the night, and when he let out a few lazy yawns, it was as though the classroom

had suddenly pressed the pause button, the chanting sound of memorization fading away in a

rustle.

One person hadn't heard his yawns and continued to chant, and his deskmate reminded

him at a volume that he'd assumed was inconspicuous. “Stop memorizing already! The boss is

sleepy!”

“Fuck!” That person shut his mouth in alarm. “I'm sorry for bothering you!”

“...” Xu Yinian didn't even raise his head. “Continue, it's hypnotizing.”

The moment he finished his sentence…

The sound of loud and clear reading picked up from the four corners of the classroom,

and even students who hadn't previously been reading fished out their textbooks. This caused

the teacher-in-charge who walked into the class to be so touched that he was an utter mess.

“Students, I can see all of the hard work that everyone is putting in, so believe me when I say

that every student in this class will be able to successfully pass the graduation assessment!”

In this atmosphere that reeked of enthusiastic learning, Xu Yinian simply could not fall

asleep. He dug around for his phone and logged into the joint forum.

Not all demons were targeted by demon slayers. For the most part, demons who didn't

stir up trouble or harm other humans would instead become the esteemed guests4 of demon

slayers. In order to avoid bloodshed, humankind had always advocated for the peaceful

co-existence of both species. To gradually solve the estrangement that existed between

demonkind and demon slayers for the last thousand years as well as to enable regular humans

to better understand demons, the Demon Slayer Bureau had set up the joint forum to facilitate

communication between both species.

It was a pity that after the joint forum was set up, the demons hardly ever made posts on

their own. When there was an interesting topic, they’d occasionally comment on the post, their

responses often rather peculiar.

4 座上宾: term to be confirmed, possibly a specialized term for demon-demon slayer collaboration.

[Question: Will drinking blood from a demon species turn me into a demon?]

[A demon replied: It can treat your cerebral palsy.]

[[Vomit][Vomit] I was harassed by a Canine demon on the way home from work. Can this

monster just go and die???]

[A demon replied: What the heck? Are you sure it was a Canine demon? Give us some details.

If our species really birthed such scum, I’ll get rid of them tonight.]

...

...

Other than the public section, access to the demon section and demon slayer section

both required identity verification. To infiltrate the demon section, Xu Yinian had paid a high

price for an account belonging to a Feline demon.

Very quickly, he saw a post that was gaining traction on the first page of the demon

section.

[Have you heard? Yu Huai will be going to the Qihai auction!]

[Really?! My husband is finally willing to show his face?]

[Aaaaaa who has the invitation to the auction? Sell it to me sell it to me, we can negotiate the

price!]

[Sister, calm down! Think about the rumors about his reign of terror. Don’t fight me for the

invitation, let me be the one to bear this grave danger.]

[Is anyone selling the invitation to the Qihai auction? I don’t know who Yu Huai is and most

definitely don’t know who this number one face in the Demon Realm is. I just want to broaden

my horizons.]

[Is all this necessary? How many hundreds of years has it been since you’ve seen a man?]

[It’s true, I haven’t seen a man who is handsome, has a great pedigree, and who managed to

come out of the Burial Grounds alive, hehe.]

Xu Yinian’s finger halted its scrolling. He couldn’t help but glance at the assignment he’d

just received. Written clearly on it was the venue of his graduation assessment.

Qihai City, Demon Realm auction.

As he stared at the assessment venue, his gaze grew cold.

[Does everyone think Yu Huai is a random dog or cat on the roadside who’s willing to attend any

random shitty auction? If he really shows up, I’ll pluck my head off and let everyone kick it like a

ball.]

[I’ll be blunt. I want to play soccer. Yu Huai, don’t disappoint me.]

[You’re just fishing for responses5. Who doesn’t know that Yu Huai never attends such events?

The last time he showed his face publicly was when he fought his way out of the Burial

Grounds. Just keep fishing.]

Xu Yinian scrolled till the very end. There was a lot of buzz and the opinions of the

demons were divergent, yet in the end, they could not come to a definitive conclusion.

He wasn’t sure to rejoice or be disappointed as he closed the webpage.

-

The history of the Demon Realm auction ran long and deep. In ancient times, the items

on auction included human bodies and ancient, evil tools. In recent years, as the relationship

between the human and demon species improved, the Demon Realm auction gradually became

legal and proper. All sorts of sanguinary and bloody novelties were replaced by precious

treasures that were worthy of being presented on stage.

As its name suggested, the Qihai City6 that was hosting the auction was a financial hub

located by the sea, and along the city was a chain of islands that formed the shape of a

crescent moon. Located along the beach of one of the private islands was a villa built like an

archetypal imperial city from ancient Rome. With a giant white roof shaped in an arc, its stained

glass windows were bright and reflective, and within the air drifted the faint aroma of bay leaves

that were being used as interior decoration.

This time, the Phantom demons and the Demon Slayer Bureau of Qihai City were

collectively responsible for maintaining order at the venue, and the students that were coming

for their graduation assessment would have to support the local Demon Slayer Bureau in this.

As Xu Yinian and Chen Ran had the most attractive physical profiles, they were selected to

stand guard by the main entrance to receive guests. Although they were the same age and both

successors of the Four Great Families, their personalities did not mesh well. Not a single word

was said between them all morning.

5 钓鱼的没妈: Slang, something along the lines of asking purposefully dumb questions to get netizens to

respond. Read here for more information!

6 祁海市: ‘Qi’ = vast and ‘Hai’ = sea. So the city is a namesake for its location.

The auction was prestigious and renowned; other than demons, the guest list also

included a number of powerful humans who were members of the elite. A supercar painted in

dark purple flashed past and stopped in the near distance. When the door opened, a young man

with dyed red hair alighted the car accompanied by a female internet celebrity.

Red Hair removed his sunglasses, looking around at his surroundings before speaking in

a particularly pleased tone, “Look! Isn’t this even more exclusive than a cruise party or mountain

road-racing circuit? My brothers don’t even know this place exists in the world; this island

doesn’t show up on any map. If not for my family’s connections with the organizers, you

probably wouldn’t even be able to step foot on this island.”

“Yes, yes.” The little internet celebrity laughed along, fiddling with her long hair non-stop.

“It’s all because of you.”

“Let me tell you, even though the people who are coming and going look human, it’s

possible that they’re all not humans.”

The little internet celebrity revealed an expression of alarm mingled with surprise.

“President Yu, can I do a live broadcast?”

Red Hair furrowed his brow. “This place prohibits photography. You should watch

yourself; I won’t be able to protect you if anything happens.”

As Red Hair walked, he peered in all directions. When his line of sight reached Xu

Yinian, he suddenly asked, “What species are you? Let me guess, are you a fox?”

From the moment this pair had arrived Chen Ran had been frowning. He was caught off

guard upon hearing this idiot try to pick a fight with Xu Yinian, his sarcastic tone insinuating that

Xu Yinian looked like a fox vixen. He couldn’t resist a touch of Schadenfreude, the tension

between his brows easing some.

Xu Yinian ignored him.

Red Hair was displeased and stepped forward to argue. “I’m talking to you, can’t you

hear?”

Xu Yinian’s eyelid twitched. “Nope.”

“?”

At this point, Chen Huo politely yet forcefully stopped Red Hair from continuing. “Please

come in.”

As he spoke, he pushed open the door of the main entrance.

Red Hair comprehended the kind of occasion he was attending and could only glare at

Xu Yinian before entering in a huff.

Unlike Red Hair, Xu Yinian was a demon slayer and could easily differentiate between

the demons and humans on-site.

A female demon emanating a graceful air held up her dress as she walked over. If he

recalled correctly, she was a popular female celebrity in human society. Behind the female star

was a middle-aged male demon with a seemingly ordinary appearance. After thinking carefully,

he surmised that he seemed to be some financial magnate. If he looked back even further, Xu

Yinian could vaguely see the big shots of military and politics, elites of the business world...

What he found strange was that these immaculately dressed demons would practically

all halt their step when walking past him. What’s more, some would even turn back and look at

him again. On their faces was laughter and ridicule; it looked like they were watching an exciting

show play out, or even mocking him.

“Is it that one? The one on the left.”

“From the Xu family…”

“He’s certainly got guts to dare stand here. Doesn’t he know who’s coming today?”

Because of the earlier help out of his predicament, Xu Yinian had a slight change of

opinion towards Chen Ran. He casually asked, “Is it very funny for a security guard to stand

here?”

“It’s not that the security guard is funny. No one’s looking at me.” On this rare occasion,

Chen Ran decided to give him a hint. He kept his tone flat and neutral. “They’re laughing at

you.”

Xu Yinian found this baffling, inwardly wondering how or when he became a comedian.

Before he could figure it out, another luxury car stopped in front of the entrance.

The attendant bent his waist to open the door, and stepping out of the car was a tall

young man fully dressed in formal attire. The man’s face was clearly illuminated by the sunlight;

he squinted his eyes to look over, his face handsome yet arrogant7.

He was younger than most of the demons present, yet all of the demons were staring at

him.

“Holy shit…!” Upon realizing who this god was, Chen Ran inhaled deeply.

7 桀骜: I’m holding myself back from using ‘guarded’ here!!!

Xu Yinian’s entire body was frozen in place, his breathing nearly ceasing.

He looked in disbelief at that figure within the crowd. The post from the joint forum

abruptly emerged in his mind.

...

[I suddenly thought of something - the Xu family is at the very least considered a noble family of

demon slayers. This is such a grand auction, Xu Yinian might also attend. If he does, the scene

is definitely going to be very exciting hahahaha.]

[Can you not bring this idiot up? It’s bad luck.]

[I’m already used to it. As long as Yu Huai is mentioned, you-know-who’s name will definitely

show up in less than ten minutes.]

[Are you crazy? There are still people who ship this?! Based on Yu Huai’s temper, if Xu Yinian

shows up in front of him now he’s just courting death. Back then, his marriage to Yu Huai was a

total social climb for him - did Yu Huai say anything? Was he not good to him? The moment

things went awry, he was the fastest to turn against him; not even a marriage contract was

enough to stop him from cutting ties. That surnamed Xu definitely has a problem with his

morals.]

[Then again, we can’t entirely blame Xu Yinian. Back then, how many people could have

predicted that Yu Huai could walk out of the Burial Grounds alive? After all, something like this

has never happened before.]

[I’m curious how long young master Xu stayed up till the night that Yu Huai came out of the

Burial Grounds.]

[He probably didn’t sleep all night, scared for his life. For things to end up like this is

well-deserved; he asked for it.]

...

...

After Yu Huai got off the car, the female companion that was accompanying him

extended a hand to hold onto his arm.

The female demon’s long platinum hair trailed down her back in curls, her complexion

pale like fresh snow. Both her and Yu Huai’s appearances were exceedingly outstanding, and

when they stood together they were particularly eye-catching.

Xu Yinian unconsciously pursed his lips.

“Hey!” Chen Ran had initially planned on just minding his own business, but upon seeing

Xu Yinian staring fixed in that direction, he had no choice but to lower his voice and remind him.

“Hurry up and hide! Or at the very least bury your face!”

Xu Yinian’s mind was in a tangle, and he instinctively listened to Chen Ran. The moment

he lowered his head, he thought this gesture was truly just overdoing it on his part.

Those idiots on the joint forum constantly fantasized that Yu Huai hated him to the core,

messing with his head till he’d even started believing it.

From alighting the car till now, Yu Huai hadn’t spared him a single glance.

It had been five whole years since they’d broken up. Judging by Yu Huai’s current status

and standing, the amount of love and admiration he received was naturally too much to count.

Yu Huai had likely forgotten all about him.

Xu Yinian shut his eyes, working to suppress the ripples in his heart.

Yu Huai no longer cared… Wasn’t that good enough? Wasn’t this what he’d wished for

himself?

The very first person to step forward to chat with Yu Huai was that middle-aged man. He

spoke politely, “Mr Yu, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

A female demon asked cautiously, “Why did you come to the auction? In the past, you

didn’t seem very interested in attending similar events.”

Rather than behaving in an unbridled and unrestrained manner, Yu Huai actually hardly

ever showed up in public. Demons that were familiar with his personality were few and far

between, and the understanding that the rest of the world had about him came from a mixed

bag of true and false rumors.

Although they admired the powerful by nature, any demons that approached or got close

to him would inevitably be on guard.

“I heard there’s a large variety of objects being auctioned this time, so I wanted to take a

look.” Yu Huai’s gaze swept across the two demon slayers standing by the main entrance,

pausing for a moment on Xu Yinian who had his head lowered like an ostrich.

He let out a laugh, then continued meaningfully. “I must have good luck, I’ve stumbled

upon something I want.”