I understand Changan’s emotions right now. Suddenly, two people were burned to death right in front of him, and the murderer was his own friend. His feelings must be incredibly complex.
Even I am not completely unaffected by this. However, the part involving sorrow and sentintality should be put off until later. Right now, we need to quickly deal with the matter at hand.
"Changan, listen to , I..."
I was about to continue speaking when a new change occurred.
With the information coming from the flas, I felt the corpses beside rapidly transforming into other substances. Turning to look, I saw the two bodies instantly beco entirely charred.
Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t the blackness from being burned by flas but rather a pitch-blackness as if soaked in ink. The two n in black suits originally had light yellow skin with white shirts under their suits and dark blue ties. Now, all these "extra colors" were tainted black.
I recognized this kind of "blackness"; it was exactly like the shadowy substance released by fallen demon hunters in the past.
After completely turning black, the two bodies imdiately lost their shapes, transforming into a viscous black liquid that spread out on the ground, and then, like a gradually fading shadow, vanished into thin air.
"Gone?" Changan exclaid after a mont of stunned silence, "They... weren’t human?"
At the end of his question, he glanced at , then sighed in relief.
"...That’s what I was about to ask."
I approached the spot where the bodies had disappeared, knelt down, and touched the ground, but I could not find any residual traces of the shadowy substance.
The two individuals who had previously bound and beat Changan were definitely associated with the fallen demon hunters. The very form of their existence made think of the demons I had encountered in the past. Reflecting now, the demons I t before could likely be monsters or so sort of duplicates summoned by Agent Kong from the shadows.
But Agent Kong was already dead; where did these characters co from? Could there be others with powers similar to Agent Kong’s?
Was the fallen demon hunter issue still not resolved?
What exactly was the purpose of their kidnapping Changan? Was it rely to pull Changan out for a beating?
I turned my head to look at the rope that had bound Changan to the wooden chair. The rope burned away by itself, and Changan was liberated. He struggled to support himself, likely still dizzy from the severe beating he had received.
He looked incredulously at the burned rope, then at , as if he wanted to ask many questions but didn’t know where to start.
"How did you provoke those two guys?" I asked.
"I really don’t understand either..."
With my prompting, he tried his hardest to focus his thoughts on his current situation.
Unfortunately, he also seed completely confused, the successive shocks seemingly making his head spin.
"I was just going out to eat near the school, and suddenly I got knocked out from behind. When I woke up, I was brought here and inexplicably kept getting hit..." He looked at the spot where the two n had vanished and continued, "I thought it was soone I had offended before wanting to ’teach a lesson’. I even thought they might have gone too far this ti, but I didn’t expect..."
In fact, I wasn’t completely free from such thoughts either, and now I also understood why "Firefly" had issued the alarm so late.
"Firefly," as a fragnt of my spirit, probably held the sa "stereotype" about Changan as I did—that it was normal for him to get into trouble outside and not surprising for soone to drag him out for a beating. If it weren’t for those two guys seeming to really want to beat Changan to death, "Firefly" wouldn’t have considered it a life-threatening situation for Changan.
"Think about it again, aside from the cave on the fifteenth floor, have you encountered any other strange things recently?" I pressed.
"Strange things..."
Changan sat on the ground, his arms wrapped around his knees, his head lowered, thinking hard.
Suddenly, his expression shifted.
I knew him too well; seeing this reaction, I imdiately realized he had thought of sothing.
"It seems you have an idea, go on, I’ll help you," I said.
At this, he raised his head, looking at with a complex mixture of emotions: "Ah Cheng, if I tell you... what will you do?"
"I will help you, as I just said," I responded puzzled.
"Would you kill for ?" he asked gravely, "Just like you killed those two n just now."
"You saw that they weren’t human," I said.
"But, you didn’t know they weren’t human at the beginning," he pointed out.
"So... what do you an? Are you saying you won’t let help you because I kill people?" I had a bad feeling.
Sure enough, Changan remained stubborn. He said, "When you were in danger yourself, didn’t you also refuse my help? I’ve already got so clues about this issue. I can figure it out on my own."
"How is that the sa? As you can see, I have superpowers, I have a way to fight against the strange creatures. Do you?" I couldn’t just stand by and watch, "If you do, then show it to right here and convince . If not..."
However, no matter what I was about to say next, Changan wasn’t listening. Once he got into this state, no one could persuade him.
I had no choice but to temporarily switch tactics and walked to the door of the warehouse, calling Zhu Shi.
Zhu Shi had two mobile numbers, one for everyday socializing and the other for use as a demon hunter. She had given both numbers.
In university, she was the gentle and approachable student, Zhu Shi; but in Luo Mountain, she was the tough and cold demon hunter, Zhu Shi. Friends of the forr knew nothing about the latter.
I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination, but it always felt like Zhu Shi was living a dual life, akin to a masked hero.
The number I was dialing now was the "demon hunter Zhu Shi" mobile number.
After the call connected, a calm voice that matched her demon hunter identity ca through, "Is this Zhuang Cheng, what’s the matter?"
If I had dialed the "student Zhu Shi" number, I wonder if she would have called "Senior Brother Zhuang"... While this idea popped into my mind, she continued, "Good timing, I have sothing to discuss with you too, it’s about the Fallen Demon Hunters..."
She had a situation there too? As curious as I was, I still wanted to prioritize the matter here, "What I want to discuss is also related to the Fallen Demon Hunters, and it also involves Changan."
"What?" She was initially shocked, then quickly said, "You go first!"
I briefly and pointedly described what I had encountered here, and after hearing it, she imdiately said, "Send your location, I’m coming right now!"
She hurriedly hung up the phone. I opened the chat app, sent her my location info, and then returned to Changan.
Changan was still sitting on the ground resting, and it wasn’t apparent how his spirit had recovered since his face was still bruised and swollen.
He glanced at and then apologized, "I’m sorry, you ca to rescue , yet my attitude towards you was so poor..."
Annoyed, I said, "If you really feel sorry, then tell all the clues you know."
"...That said, I can’t believe you’re a supernatural power user. You truly shocked ..." He changed the subject, "When did you beco a supernatural power user? Could it be that the cave emits so strange radiation and after you encountered it, you awakened your superpowers..."
Seeing him dodge the topic, I could only sigh and answer, "It was about four and a half years ago, at the end of grade nine."
"That early..." He was stunned, "...Speaking of which, you seed to have been researching Taoist skills and magic during that ti, and suddenly you gave it up and focused on ghost stories and urban legends... So it wasn’t because you failed, but because you succeeded..."
How did he know so much about when I don’t recall ever discussing it with him?
But as he said, "lighting a candle with a glance" was my last attempt, not because I planned "if this doesn’t work, I’m never doing it again," but because I awakened my superpower.
In fact, I continued to collect and study materials on Taoist skills and magic thereafter, but only superficially, so I didn’t count those attempts. Rather than continue to "try my luck," I thought it best to study my own superpowers more.
"Zhu Shi will be here in a little while, think about how you’re going to explain your current situation to her," I said.
"Zhu Shi?" Changan was stunned, "What’s she coming here for?"
I didn’t know what Zhu Shi planned to do here either. According to her previous statents, she hid her demon hunter identity from Changan—could it be that she still planned to co as an ordinary person? What could an ordinary person do?
Fortunately, my concerns were unnecessary.
Before long, Zhu Shi appeared in mine and Changan’s view.
Perhaps to demonstrate her demon hunter identity in front of Changan, she deliberately changed into a brown-black straw raincoat and wore a sword sheath of black and red, walking into the warehouse with the deanor of an ancient swordsman, her posture stern.
For a mont, Changan hardly dared to recognize that it was his sister. When Zhu Shi ca closer, Changan eventually showed an incredibly shocked expression.
He seed to have a vague premonition as he sat on the ground and tentatively asked, "Little sister, why... why are you dressed like this?"
Zhu Shi didn’t answer imdiately. Instead, she scrutinized the bruised and swollen face of Changan. Then with a deep sigh, she took out a white talisman paper from her bosom and threw it towards Changan.
The talisman paper didn’t land directly on Changan but decomposed in mid-air, turning into countless glittering white dust particles. When this white dust touched Changan’s body, the bruises on his face incredibly began to fade away. In just a few seconds, he had returned to normal, as if he had never been hurt.
He touched his face as if in a dream, then raised his head to look at us, his gaze shifting back and forth between his friend () and his sister (Zhu Shi).
After quite a while, he said in disbelief, "So... you both are actually supernatural power users, and only I knew nothing?"
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