Chapter 166: Disciplinary Resolution Regarding Li Xiaoyao (Monthly Ticket Bonus Chapter)

In front of the cremator, the staff member had just locked the furnace door when a soldier abruptly called him away.

Immediately after, a Shadowkhan soldier emerged from the ground and directly unlocked the furnace door.

Valmont crawled out from the surging flames. For a demon, this temperature felt like taking a bath and caused zero damage at all, even to the host body possessed by a soul.

"This Li Xiaoyao is truly outrageous; he strikes without a second thought and leaves no time to react," Valmont muttered as he took off his clothes and tossed them into the fire.

After all, if they were burned down to the point where not even a speck of ash remained, it would scare the cremator operator out of their wits.

Having discarded his clothes, Valmont pondered and realized the amount might not be quite enough. With that thought, he looked over at the nearby Shadowkhan soldier.

"You! Get in!" Valmont pointed at the cremator and said loudly.

The Shadowkhan soldier froze in place. Me?

Then, under Valmont's serious gaze, the aggrieved Shadowkhan soldier crawled inside. He had to do all the dirty and exhausting work, and now he even had to sacrifice his life just to produce some ashes. Why couldn't he ever encounter a decent master? He would even accept a little girl at this point!

Bang!

A few seconds later, an explosion echoed. The cremator shuddered, and the Shadowkhan soldier inside blasted into a cloud of ash, vanishing completely.

Tap, tap, tap. Hearing the abnormal sound, the staff member hurriedly ran back, put on heat-resistant gloves, and opened the furnace door. Peering through the raging flames, he thought, *Good heavens, this burned rather fast, there's only some residue left?!*

At that moment, Valmont quietly walked away from the place without making the slightest sound.

He had no desire to come into conflict with ordinary mortals; otherwise, the tacit understanding between him and Li Xiaoyao's group would be shattered.

After all, using ordinary fire to cremate the corpse of the Fire Demon—if someone said Li Xiaoyao hadn't consented to this, Valmont wouldn't believe it. Moreover, note what Li Xiaoyao had said: do not ask for the talismans right now. In other words, the matter of the talismans was put on hold for later. It was equivalent to Li Xiaoyao shelving the talismans, to be determined by Shendu's future behavior.

Meanwhile, at Uncle's Antique Shop, Uncle printed out a few explanation forms, signed his own name in big handwriting, and walked over to Jackie Chan and Tohru.

"Jackie~ Tohru~ stop what you're doing for a second and sign this!" Uncle placed the explanation forms in front of them and said.

After much deliberation, Uncle decided that this matter shouldn't be left for Li Xiaoyao to shoulder all by himself. After all, everyone had been in agreement at the time, and a person must be reasonable—one shouldn't learn bad habits from demons.

Jackie glanced at the explanation form, chuckled, and nudged the trash can under his feet deeper inward, where several discarded drafts lay crumpled. "Uncle, you wrote this really well."

"Uncle told you, Uncle is proficient in both the pen and the martial arts," Uncle said, raising a single finger. "And another thing, sign the damn thing right now; I need to send this to the higher-ups. Do you have any objections to the division of responsibility and the description of events in the explanation form?"

"No, no objections, it's great." Jackie immediately brushed down his signature with a flurry of strokes.

Tohru did not hesitate either, writing his name in both Chinese and English, and then, after a moment of thought, writing it a third time in ancient rune script. That was how straightforwardly this job was done!

On the other side, Guan Zhen, after holding a brief meeting with his superiors and top leaders, also wrote an explanation form much like Uncle's, clarifying the whole matter in official language. Some responsibilities could be evaded—do less to make fewer mistakes—but other responsibilities could not be shirked; this was their duty.

Almost simultaneously, Li Xiaoyao's own statement of circumstances and confession letter were completed and sent directly to his superiors. Zhao Ling'er pouted the entire time; no matter what Li Xiaoyao said, he refused to let her get involved in the issue of shared responsibility.

"All right, Ling'er, we must look at the bigger picture. If I get penalized and taken down, won't you still be able to preside over the work? That way, we won't need to send someone else over to act as the headmaster," Li Xiaoyao comforted her.

"Besides, nothing major should come of it, and it won't cause any casualties. At worst, it will be the same consequence as Blaze the Mage from the Clock Tower—just a fine and confinement."

"You're just trying to brush me off!" Zhao Ling'er stared at Li Xiaoyao. "With so many people capable of taking over the work, why did you choose me? I won't listen, I won't listen, unless you let me add my name, or else I won't pay attention to you for five minutes!"

Just as Li Xiaoyao was about to continue speaking, the reply from above arrived. This penalty decision came down rather quickly—so fast it was as if the verdict had already been written, just waiting for him to admit his fault.

Skipping past a long paragraph of polite phrasing and the repetitive description of the incident, Li Xiaoyao looked directly at the final few lines.

"Following discussion by the organization, and under the instructions of the Heavenly Emperor, we impose strict punishment upon the Legendary Sword Immortal—Shushan—Li Xiaoyao. The specific penalties are as follows: relieved of his post as Headmaster of the Huaxia Vocational and Technical School, relieved of his post as Leader of the Shushan Sect, and prohibited from leaving the borders of Huaxia without summons for ten years. Furthermore, regarding the labor penalties resulting from the consequences of this incident:

"Appoint the Legendary Sword Immortal—Shushan—Li Xiaoyao as the acting Headmaster of the Huaxia Vocational and Technical School, with a salary of zero until the penalty is lifted. Appoint Li Xiaoyao as the acting Leader of the Shushan Sect, with a salary of zero until the penalty is lifted. In addition, an energy penalty of 10,000 units is assessed.

"Finally, Sword Immortal Li Xiaoyao is required to handle the aftermath of this incident to prevent any casualties. This is the final penalty decision—Heavenly Emperor."

Li Xiaoyao let out a sigh of relief as he read it. It was quite good—taking from his left hand and putting it into his right hand, even better than the outcome he had anticipated of Zhao Ling'er replacing him as headmaster. "Look, the higher-ups are still very reasonable."

Zhao Ling'er took the penalty decision and breathed a sigh of relief, though her brow furrowed again when she saw the end. "But what about this penalty of 10,000 units of energy? If not, I can borrow some from my mother and maternal grandmother."

"No, no, don't." Li Xiaoyao quickly stopped Zhao Ling'er. He discovered that Ling'er was truly pampered at home, which led her to always want to look for her parents first whenever she encountered trouble. There was no way he could involve his mother-in-law and the others in this matter; it wouldn't be appropriate.

"Just look at the description of the sealed space recovery. The estimated energy gained from reclaiming the sealed space, minus the 10,000-unit penalty, happens to equal my salary for these past ten years—maybe slightly less, but receiving it all at once, a slight discount is only normal."

"That's great then. Big Brother Xiaoyao, you're safe now." Zhao Ling'er jumped onto Li Xiaoyao and laughed. She had feared the penalty decision would be far more stern and severe.

And her guess wasn't wrong; if the matter had been handed over to the Disciplinary Department, it truly would have been quite severe, and Li Xiaoyao might well have faced direct accountability. However, the Heavenly Emperor had preemptively issued the penalty decision halfway through, leaving the Disciplinary Department no choice but to hastily edit and modify a few irrelevant sentences before sending it down.

"Alright, alright, there is still work to be done. Keep a close eye on Shendu; if he pulls any other stunts, we must stop him immediately. If any further problems arise in the aftermath, the disciplinary ruling won't be this simple," Li Xiaoyao said, patting Zhao Ling'er's hand.

"Mm. Before that, I'll send this over to Professor Chan and Secretary Guan first. Since everything is explained above, they've also submitted their written reports for clarification," Zhao Ling'er said with a smile. Her kind deed hadn't gone unrewarded.

"Oh, and write an employment notice for Bruce Banner, let him study while he works. That way he can also popularize some knowledge of the mortal world for us, and we can all share what we know," Li Xiaoyao said, recalling that big green brute.