"Get your a*ses out of the gutter, you fools! Kick your feet higher! Faster! Good, now fifty more laps!"

We're not training for a war, you devil! ​​

Groans and whines resonated all throughout the training field, which were then rebuked by a godforsaken declaration, "One hundred laps!"

He's a d*mn spartan! A wolf in sheep's clothing! If only you weren't hot, we wouldn't even bother with you!

From the topmost bleachers, Lillie and her group sat there at a vantage point to observe the poor youngsters dragging themselves around the vast training field.

"Aiyo, that brat, Gong Hei, is at it again in torturing our poor juniors." Death clicked his tongue and shook his head in disapproval. "If he wants them to respect and look up to him, then he needs to be lenient and gentle."

"Just look at me, everyone adores me for my benevolence and amazing teaching strategy."

"What strategy? You mean leaving your students for "self-study" so you could sleep and laze around?" Han Taiyi chimed, raising her eyebrow.

"Amazing teaching strategy." Death nodded proudly.

"You're hopeless." Han Taiyi sighed, conceding. She fears for her brain cells dying out if she continues to argue with him.

While everyone was engrossed watching the Grand Disciple in the field shout at his students, Lillie and Ethan were busy with their silent conversation.

[So that's why Blood Venom couldn't find him. He was hiding in a place where there's not much communication technology.] Ethan's fingers tapped Lillie's wrist as if he's playing a piano.

It's a code that he and Lillie devised, and it was only them and Death who knows the meaning behind each tap of the finger.

[Grand Disciple Gong Hei was your former comrade at Vermillion Dragon?]

[Yes, he was Drunk Python.]

[Of all the people, your comrade just had to be Grandmaster Yang's direct disciple.]

[He tends to follow...eccentric people.]

[Like you?]

[...perhaps.]

Back on the field, Gong Hei pivoted his head towards the bleachers, his guts told him someone was dissing him.

Instantly, he saw the eye-catchy white hair of his nemesis.

"If it isn't the wild rodent." Gong Hei strode towards them with his hands clasped behind. "How rare for you to return so early. What? Tired of scavenging food from the dumpsters?"

Instead of bristling like an angry cat, Death requited the ungracious greeting with a close-eyed smile and countered, "And why, pray tell, would I, Grand Disciple Death, would scavenge food from dumpsters? Dear toothpick, I worry that your memory's faltering. My immense wealth is yet to decline."

Death crossed his arms and shook his head. "Tsk, tsk. You should've asked Grandmaster Yang first to verify my balance. After all, he made quite a generous contribution in supplementing it."

The corner of Gong Hei's eye twitched, but stubbornly refuse to display more reaction.

"Oh, indeed. My generous master pitied your empty card that's why he couldn't help but offer donation."

In the background, the students stopped running and watch the grown ups bicker like children.

The two continued to squabble back and forth, counters turning fiercer each time until they're butting their heads on one another.

[Does everyone from your former group have past feud with my Senior Brother?] Lillie tapped on Ethan's wrist.

[The Commanders and I nearly lost a bet because of him. But Drunk Python and I were the only ones who would butt our heads with him.]

Now Lillie understood why Grand Disciple Gong hated her Senior Brother's guts. It was not only because their master and his master are rivals, but also because of a past feud when he was with the Vermillion Dragon Organization.

According from what she knew about the first and real Vermillion Dragon members, Drunk Python along with Blood Venom—whom she met first and has been the one searching for the rest of his old comrades—were equivalent to White Bird's Elders regarding their ranking in the organization.

Ethan called them Commanders. They had been with him since high school and they know his real identity.

The Five Commanders; namely Blood Venom, Drunk Python, Little Freak, Frankenstein, and Gentle Ripper.

Vermillion Dragon was just a small group in the beginning, and the Five Commanders were the first members.

Well, there were five of them, formerly. It was Frankenstein who left the group and the Underworld all together to atone for his failure to protect his boss and good friend, Ethan, from a bullet.

How Lillie knew all of this? Remember Doctor Song Zhihao? Song Mokun's cousin?

Yeah, that man was Frankenstein, or Doctor Frankenstein for formality's sake.

"Shengming, is that you?" Gong Hei pushed Death's head out of the way so he could get a good look of the brunette he noticed just now. "Ah! It is you!"

In a blink of an eye, the long-haired man came right in front of Lillie. He knelt in one knee and cupped her hand.

"Years in this mundane place had been agonizing ever since you left. Have you finally come into realization that no one but I could ever be worthy of your affection?"

Ethan froze.

Lillie was not surprised.

Death was seething in the background for being swatted away like a fly, and because Gong Hei was shamelessly wooing his Junior Sister right in front of her fiancée!

Measuring his loathe between his Junior Sister's boy toy and this toothpick, Gong Hei weighted the heaviest.

Oh, he's on Ethan's side this time!

Han Taiyi and Chu Lizheng also didn't looked surprised, whereas Little Nina was confused.

Grand Disciple Gong Hei, Soaring Dragon Academy's heartthrob that had been Grand Disciple Life's number one, and most devoted pursuer.

"Grand Disciple Gong, it's truly been so long," Lillie courteously remarked with a forced smile. She retracted her hand and discreetly wiped it on her clothes.

"Forgive me for presenting myself in this disheveled condition, it has been a tiring and busy day instructing our juniors." He feigned a tired sigh.

How come you're tired?! You did nothing but stand, watch, look pretty, and bark orders!

The students wanted to shout protests, but swallowed it in feared that their spartan instructor would make their hellish training even more hellish.

"Time seem to favor you as your beauty hadn't diminished. Contrary, it only made you even more enchanting." He said with a dazzling smile that would make all the girls swoon.

But not Lillie Bai.

"Ehem!"

Everyone's attention turned to the source of the forced cough. Ethan stood up from his seat and came in between the two, blocking his now annoying former comrade's view from his wife.

"This gentleman speaks the truth, my wife's beauty is indeed ethereal." He said, emphasizing the words 'my wife'. "That being said, I hope you don't mind staying the f*ck away from her."