Strictly speaking, this was my first ti committing murder.
However, perhaps because I had done many things akin to murder in the past, or because the person I killed was truly deserving of death, I felt absolutely nothing about it.
Or maybe, as Agent Kong had indeed said, killing was just too easy for —a re flicker of thought could reduce soone to ashes. There was no bloodshed to see, no screams to hear, just a flash of fire, and the person I killed might not have even had the ti to feel the agony of death. Therefore, as the killer, I couldn’t feel any sense of reality, let alone guilt.
I didn’t consider it a bad thing. I might very well continue fighting with others in the future, and it was likely I would encounter situations where I must kill again. It was much better to remain unfazed than to develop a resistance or an unnecessary fascination.
Yet, on the other hand, I indeed experienced a strange sensation. It wasn’t a change of heart but sothing tactile—as I truly took a life, my superpower seed to have subtly changed.
What happened? I was a bit surprised as I moved my limbs, feeling the workings of my superpower. There was nothing wrong with the function of the superpower itself, but it seed to have gained sothing unfamiliar, which I couldn’t identify at the mont.
Seeing that I had taken the initiative to kill, Zhu Shi seed to want to object, but in the end, he said nothing, sighing deeply instead.
By the way, I hadn’t reduced the Shadow Swapping Monster entirely to ashes; I left at least part of its head intact. It was an item Mazao would need for her subsequent investigation into the Weirdo Maker.
Under Jinyu’s complex gaze, I handed Mazao the head and then turned to say to Lu Youxun, "Let’s part ways here, and we can discuss further once Mazao has so results."
Lu Youxun had no objections and left the place. Changan seed to have sothing to say. Conveniently, I also had sothing to say to him.
The demon hunter families and the existence of Demon Blood were sure to draw Changan deeper into the abnormal world, and Mazao’s presence had already been exposed to various parties, so it was unnecessary for to stick to the lies I told him when we last parted. I took him aside to talk privately and candidly disclosed the real reason why I had distanced myself from him in the past.
Additionally, I had been worrying whether my "Firefly" might bring calamities to him. Since his personal danger had now been eliminated, and he would likely continue to enter the Barrier of Zhu’s mansion, I wouldn’t monitor him with "Firefly" anymore.
"No wonder you acted so strangely last ti; it turns out you encountered these things," Changan said, suddenly enlightened.
"Yes. So, it’s better for you to stay away from from now on," I said.
He nodded earnestly, "I understand. I’m not really foolish enough to be a burden to a friend and cause them unnecessary worry."
Was he serious with those words? Was he truly aware?
"But, if I beco stronger in the future, say, by acquiring the power to protect myself either through the sealed Demon Blood or the demon hunter family’s legacy, then..." He hesitated.
I proactively took up the thread, "Then, let’s be friends again, just like before."
That said, to avoid bringing him unnecessary danger, it’d still be better to minimize our contact in the future.
I thought this was an appropriate parting remark, but his reaction was quite strange. After hearing out, he paused and then looked at with an expression I couldn’t comprehend.
"Be friends, just like before..." he murmured to himself.
"What’s wrong?" I asked, puzzled.
He first shook his head, then smiled and said, "Well, see you later."
And, with that, we went our separate ways.
-
It wasn’t long before Lu Youxun called to brief on the situation with the nightclub, bringing the Shadow Swapping Monster case to its epilogue.
Even though my pursuit of the Shadow Swapping Monster had caused quite a stir inside the nightclub, the owner hadn’t been alert enough to steer clear of the place. Whether out of a lack of vigilance, a desire to share the club’s fate, or sheer indifference, the enforcent team successfully arrested her after ransacking the nightclub.
During the interrogation by the agents, she confessed unreservedly to her deeds, which also included matters related to Jinyu.
"Why did she allow Jinyu to work in the store even though she fully knew the true identity of the Shadow Swapping Monster?" It was because, not only did Jinyu want to use his own body to create incriminating material against his father, she also needed that leverage to counteract the Shadow Swapping Monster forcing her to cooperate. She utterly despised the Shadow Swapping Monster deep down, yet had no choice but to submit to his lewd power in the past, a fact which filled her with resentnt.
She saw through the Shadow Swapping Monster’s obsession with crossing societal classes under the guise of a normal human identity and believed this leverage was enough to destroy his social future. Of course, upon obtaining this leverage, the Shadow Swapping Monster could possibly flip the table and resolve the situation with violence. Anyone with rational thought would realize that this leverage was essentially a bomb that could destroy oneself.
Unfortunately, she was far from being rational. In the past, she had concocted a revenge plan to send her own body to pleasure houses simply because her husband had cheated, which clearly showed she was, like Jinyu, a woman with a screw loose in her head.
She did not care whether her chosen thods would end up destroying her; she would simply employ any idea that ca to mind. From another perspective, it could be said that she was action-oriented, compelling others to "respect her from a distance" despite their speechlessness.
"Won are always irrational, and she is truly an extraordinary case," Lu Youxun sighed over the phone just before we ended the call. I felt his view on won was unfairly biased. Had he suffered a grave loss at the hands of a woman in the past?
We exited the grove of trees.
Changan should have been heading back to Zhu’s mansion, but Zhu Shi didn’t follow him. Instead, she stayed with Mazao and .
By the roadside, Mazao found an abandoned plastic bag and loaded the severed head into it. She seed to still be pondering our previous experience, occasionally glancing my way. When I asked what she was thinking about, she pondered for a mont then confided in .
"That man nad Lu Chan said earlier that all n have two great fantasies," she said seriously as she looked at , "Zhuang Cheng, do you also wish to be held like a mother by a younger girl? You’ve helped a lot and treated kindly. If you want, I can also give you a hug."
At her words, Zhu Shi, who was walking beside us, nearly tripped and fell.
I looked at Mazao’s delicate beauty and slender, soft body, and I was indeed slightly moved. However, the gaze beside , filled with social awareness and righteousness, forced to temporarily reign in my thoughts and to refuse her offer with propriety and seriousness.
Mazao seed to recall Zhu Shi was also present and added unnecessarily, "If you need it later, you can co find alone. You can ask to do things like this anyti."
"No, no, no, that’s just weird!" Zhu Shi couldn’t help but interject, then said, "Also, Zhuang Cheng, it’s been sothing I’ve been aning to discuss with you..."
"Are you talking about the murder?" I was ntally prepared for this question.
"I definitely need to talk about that, but it can wait till later. The question I have now is different," she said, "Why didn’t you dodge when the Shadow Swapping Monster attacked you during the trial? Though his attack was fast, from your reaction afterward, it seed like you never intended to dodge from the start."
"There was really no need to dodge, I guess," I said, "Even though he manipulated shadows, the nature of his attack was still a Physical Attack. You know what my body is like; that kind of attack doesn’t work on ."
"That’s a wrong concept, Zhuang Cheng," she said earnestly, "Your Elentalization is indeed a remarkable skill, but the soul is extrely vulnerable. The body is both a seal for the soul and its protection. Transforming your body into natural elents ans exposing your soul without any defense."
"If we demon hunters concentrate our Mana with the intent to harm the soul, even a Physical Attack can have the power of a soul attack. I think your soul must be many tis stronger than that of a normal demon hunter, otherwise the flas you produce with your spirit wouldn’t be so powerful, and breaking it wouldn’t be simple."
"But even so, your soul is defenseless during Elentalization. That could very well be your only weakness. You shouldn’t just bear enemy damage without defense, relying on your ability to ignore Physical Attacks."
"Soul attacks are so common among demon hunters?" I hadn’t expected the type of attack I feared the most to be so easily achieved.
"Indeed. The two demons we fought earlier probably didn’t know the trick to attacking the soul, while agent Kong, who fought you in the past, must have not had the chance to use a soul attack and was killed by your powerful firepower. Otherwise, even you would have probably felt so damage to your soul," she nodded, "Actually, I should have reminded you earlier. For demon hunters, it’s common knowledge, so I didn’t think to tell you. It’s a kind of knowledge blindness, I suppose."
"You don’t need to be overly concerned about this. Since soul attacks are common, so too are amulets that add defense to the soul. I’ll try to collect so powerful related amulets for you in the future. All you need to do is wear them and pay attention to enemy attacks."
"Thank you," I said solemnly.
Zhu Shi nodded, then turned to the plastic bag in Mazao’s hand with the demon’s head and asked, "Mazao, you previously told Lu Chan it would take you a week to investigate the place where the Weirdo Maker does dical examinations on demons. That was a lie, wasn’t it?"
"It was a lie," Mazao nodded, "I don’t trust him, and he seems quite fixated on the matters related to the Weirdo Maker and the Human Bureau. To be safe, I didn’t tell him the truth."
"So, how long will it actually take?" Zhu Shi enquired.
Mazao said with confidence, "The exact ti is hard to gauge, but as long as I actively pursue the investigation with a mindset to approach abnormal events, I should be able to uncover it before we miss our chance."
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