"What do you think, disciple? Is it up to your expectations?" Keling, who was sitting in the crowd with Meixiu, asked her.

Meixiu responded, her gaze focused on Yan Hara, "I think they are still underestimating Yan Hara’s prowess."

"Really? How can you tell?"

"From experience," she spoke with a dazzling smile that instantly attracted multiple gazes from nearby.

"I know someone who is an expert, and Yan Hara is giving me similar vibes."

"An expert? You mean that one guy named Yuan?" Keling muttered with a raised eyebrow.

"How do you know? I never mentioned that he was a Demon Sealer," Meixiu remarked with slightly widened eyes.

Keling rubbed her eyes and sighed aloud, "My dear disciple, for the last several years, whenever you mention someone, it’s mostly this Yuan fellow."

Meixiu blushed at her words and fell silent.

Keling continued, her voice tinged with intrigue, "My useless brother also mentions him a lot. I cannot wait to meet him myself to see just what the hype is about. When do you think I will be able to see him?"

"Hard to say... he’s got a lot on his plate." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Hmph. I bet that’s just an excuse. If I had a boyfriend, I would visit him as much as possible." Keling spoke with her large, muscular arms crossed in front of her chest.

"You should just find a new partner, disciple—someone who will truly value you. I bet I can easily find a dozen just from this crowd alone."

Meixiu shook her head and calmly said, "He is the only one for me, even if I had to wait another lifetime for him."

"Haaaa..." Keling sighed again, heavier this time. "I’m jealous. Truly jealous. If only I could find a boyfriend who cares about me as much as you care about him."

Suddenly, Keling noticed someone speaking to Meixiu using voice transmission and intercepted it.

"Excuse me for bothering you, but I cannot help but—"

"Scram, you damn toad! My disciple is too good for you! And she’s already taken!" Keling interrupted before shooting them away.

"..."

The voice immediately stopped, but that did not stop others from trying to speak with Meixiu.

"Just ignore them," Meixiu calmly said, as if she was used to it. "I have already put up a barrier, so their voices won’t even reach me."

Meanwhile, the Demon Slaying Parade continued.

"After just two hours, the Clan Leader has finally sealed the Superior Demon! As expected of Leader Qian—only he could accomplish it so quickly! Normally, it would take a dozen Master Demon Sealers several days to seal one!" The announcer continued to glaze Qian Chu without shame.

"Meanwhile, Yan Hara has moved onto her 20th Lower Demon! Although she has more points than the Clan Leader at this moment, what will she do once she runs out of weak demons to earn points?!"

Of course, the announcer didn’t forget to subtly mock Yan Hara.

"Haha! She’s only going for the weakest demons! I wouldn’t want someone so cowardly to be the Clan Leader!"

"What a coward! It was impressive at first, but she’s clearly nowhere near the Clan Leader’s level!"

The crowd began mocking Yan Hara out loud.

"Who dares to badmouth Senior Yan?! So what if she’s going for the easier points first?! This is a legitimate strategy!"

Her supporters immediately shot back with their own rebuttals.

With the two groups clashing, it didn’t take long for fights to break out in the audience—though each scuffle was quickly quelled and ended almost as soon as it began.

"Is she really purposefully just going for the weakest demons?" Meixiu mumbled in a puzzling voice.

"What do you mean?" Keling asked with a puzzled face.

"It might just be my imagination, but she looks a bit irritated to me," Meixiu explained.

"Is that so...?" Keling focused on Yan Hara’s face.

"Looks normal to me. Isn’t that how we all look when we’re seriously focused on something?" she commented a moment later.

Meanwhile, within the Valley of Demons, Yan Hara was silently cursing.

’I knew these sons of bitches would play dirty! They actually dumped me in the area with the highest number of Lower Demons! Aside from that one Elite Demon, I haven’t seen a single demon that isn’t a Lower Demon!’

It wasn’t that Yan Hara was purposefully hunting Lower Demons. In reality, there were only Lower Demons in her vicinity.

Of course, she could have ignored them and searched for higher-ranking demons, but with plenty of time remaining—and these being easy points—she decided she might as well wipe out all the Lower Demons first.

Unbeknownst to Yan Hara, they hadn’t just thrown her into the area with the most Lower Demons, and they had actually concentrated nearly all of them there. But she would soon come to realize this.

The first day of the Demon Slaying Parade passed in a blur. Yan Hara had hunted thirty Lower Demons and eight Elite Demons, earning fifty-four points. Qian Chu, meanwhile, had hunted three Superior Demons, four Elite Demons, and four Lower Demons, for a total of forty-six points—slightly behind Yan Hara.

Although they encountered demons quite fast in the beginning, it quickly slowed down.

Meanwhile, an entire year had passed in the Demonic Realm, and Yuan had made significant progress on the seal. In just a year, he had broken another seal, leaving only two remaining before the gateway’s seal would be fully removed and the Nine Heavens and Demonic Realm reconnected.

"Heavens! Another has broken!"

"There’s no way it’ll hold until the end of the Demon Slaying Parade!"

"We can only hope it holds out until some Demon Sealers arrive at least..."

The guards, who had done nothing but stare at the seal with bated breath, felt their hearts lurch the instant another layer shattered.

A few hours later, they finally breathed a sigh of relief as Demon Sealers began arriving at the scene.

However, that relief quickly vanished when every Demon Sealer who appeared wore an expression of sheer terror at the situation.