Chapter 111: Epilogue

Strictly speaking, this is my first time killing someone.

But whether it is because I have done many things close to killing in the past, or because the one I killed deserved far worse, I feel nothing about it.

Or perhaps Investigator Kong was right: killing is simply too easy for me; with a mere thought I can turn someone to ashes. In this process there is no visible blood, no screams, only a flash of flame, and the one killed may not even have time to feel the pain of death. So as the killer, I naturally cannot feel any sense of reality, let alone guilt.

I do not regard this as a bad thing. In the future I will likely continue to fight people, and I may again face situations where I must kill my opponent. Feeling nothing is much better than feeling resistance, or even developing an unnecessary fascination.

It is just that, on the other hand, I did indeed experience a strange sensation. It was not an inner change, but a matter of how it felt in my hands—as I truly took a life, my superpower seemed to undergo a subtle change.

What happened? Somewhat surprised, I moved my limbs, sensing the flow of my superpower. The functioning of the superpower itself had no problem, it just felt as if some unprecedented foreign matter had appeared, which I could not identify for the time being.

Seeing me take the initiative to kill first, Zhu Shi seemed to want to comment, but in the end said nothing and only let out a long sigh.

By the way, I did not burn the entire body of the Shadow-Swapping Monster to ashes; I at least left the head intact. This is an essential item for Ma Zao’s upcoming investigation into the Monster Creator’s location.

Under Goldfish’s complicated gaze, I handed the head to Ma Zao, then turned to Lu Youxun and said, “Let’s part ways here. We’ll discuss again after Ma Zao has results.”

Lu Youxun had no objections and turned to leave this place. Chang An, however, seemed to still have something to say. As it happened, I also had something to tell him.

The existence of the Hunter Family and the blood of monsters has destined Chang An to delve deeper into the world of Strange Incidents in the future, and Ma Zao’s existence has already been exposed to all kinds of factions’ attention, so I no longer needed to cling to the lies I told him when we parted in the past. I took him aside to speak alone and voluntarily confessed the true reason I had stayed away from him before.

In addition, I had originally worried that my “Firefly” might bring disaster upon him. Now that his personal danger has been lifted, and he will likely continue to enter and leave the barrier around the Zhu Family Residence, I will no longer use the “Firefly” to monitor him.

“No wonder you suddenly became so strange last time, so you encountered all these things,” Chang An said in sudden understanding.

“Yes. So from now on, you had better stay away from me,” I said.

He nodded in deep agreement. “I understand. I am not actually that stupid. I will not become a burden to a friend or make a friend worry about me for no reason.”

Was he serious about those words? Is he really that self-aware?

“But if I become stronger in the future—for example, by gaining strength strong enough to protect myself from the sealed blood of monsters, or from the Hunter Family’s inheritance and such—by then…” He trailed off.

I took over the sentence. “By then, let’s be friends again like we used to be.”

That is what I said, but to avoid drawing unnecessary danger to him, it would still be better to keep our contact to a minimum at that time.

I thought this was a fitting line to leave him with before our parting, but his reaction was strange. After hearing me say this, he paused, then looked at me with an expression I could not understand.

“Be like we used to be again…” he muttered to himself.

“What is it?” I asked, puzzled.

He shook his head first, then smiled and said, “Well then, see you next time.”

And so we went our separate ways.

–

Not long after, Lu Youxun called to briefly report on the situation at the nightclub, marking the conclusion of the Shadow-Swapping Monster incident.

Although I caused quite a commotion inside the nightclub while capturing the Shadow-Swapping Monster, the nightclub owner did not prudently distance herself from the place. Whether due to a lack of caution, a wish to share the nightclub’s fate, or simple indifference, she was smoothly arrested by the law enforcement team after they destroyed the club.

During the investigators’ interrogation, she made no attempt to deny what she had done, including the matters related to Goldfish.

The reason she allowed Goldfish to work at the club despite knowing the Shadow-Swapping Monster’s true identity was that not only did Goldfish want to use her own body to fabricate blackmail material against her father, she herself also needed this leverage to counter the Shadow-Swapping Monster who was coercing her into cooperation. She looked down on the Shadow-Swapping Monster from the bottom of her heart, yet had been forced to submit to his tyranny; this fact left her filled with resentment.

She had seen the Shadow-Swapping Monster’s obsession with crossing social classes as a normal human, and believed this leverage would be enough to destroy his prospects in society. Of course, once she obtained this leverage, the Shadow-Swapping Monster might also flip the table and use violence to settle accounts for her defiance. Anyone rational would realize this leverage was actually a bomb that could destroy oneself.

Unfortunately, she truly was not a rational person. In the past, simply because her husband cheated, she came up with the idea of sending her own body into pleasure districts as revenge. This alone proves that, like Goldfish, she is at heart a crazy woman with some wires in her brain crossed.

She did not care at all whether the method she chose might in turn destroy her; as soon as she thought of something, she put it into action. From another angle, you could say she has formidable initiative, the kind that leaves people speechless and wanting to “respectfully keep their distance.”

“Women are always incomprehensible; in that place she really counts as a rare specimen.”

Before ending the call, Lu Youxun sighed over the phone. I felt that his view of women was somewhat biased. Had he suffered a great loss at the hands of a woman before?

We walked out of the small grove.

Chang An should be heading back to the Zhu Family Residence, but Zhu Shi did not go back with him and instead stayed with me and Ma Zao.

By the roadside, Ma Zao found an abandoned plastic bag and put the head inside. She seemed to still be pondering everything that had just happened, occasionally glancing at me. When I asked what she was thinking about, she thought for a moment and then told me honestly.

“That person called Lu Chan said earlier that men all have two major fantasies…” She looked at me very seriously. “Zhuang Cheng, do you also want to be hugged like a child by a girl younger than you, like a mom? You have helped me a lot and treated me very kindly. If you want, I can hug you too.”

Hearing this, Zhu Shi, walking beside us, almost stumbled.

Looking at Ma Zao’s tender beauty like a flower bud and her slender, soft body, I actually did feel just a little tempted. But the righteous gaze full of social common sense next to me forced me to rein myself in for now, and I sternly and politely refused.

Ma Zao seemed to remember that Zhu Shi was still beside us, and unnecessarily added, “If you ever need it, you can come to me alone. You can ask me to do something like this for you anytime.”

“No, no, no, this sort of thing is absolutely weird!” Zhu Shi could not help interrupting, then said, “Also, Zhuang Cheng, I have been wanting to talk to you about something…”

“You mean about killing that man?” I was mentally prepared for this criticism.

“I will talk about that too, of course, but it can wait. For now I want to ask a different question,” she said. “When the Shadow-Swapping Monster attacked you on the way to his trial, why did you not dodge? His attack was very fast, but judging from how you reacted afterward, it seemed like you never intended to dodge from the start.”

“There really was no need to dodge,” I said. “Though he manipulates shadows, at its core it is still a physical attack. You know the state of my body. That kind of attack does not work on me.”

“That is the wrong way to think, Zhuang Cheng,” she said solemnly. “Your Elementalization is indeed an amazing technique, but the soul is an extremely fragile thing. The physical body is both a sealing on the soul and its protection. Turning the body into natural elements means exposing the soul completely defenseless.

“We Hunters only need to focus our magic with the intent to harm the soul, and we can endow physical attacks with the power to damage souls. I suppose your soul is countless times stronger than that of a normal Hunter; otherwise, the flame born from your spirit could not possibly be so powerful, and destroying it would not be so simple.

“But even so, your soul is still unguarded at the moment of Elementalization. This is probably your only weakness. You should not rely on your immunity to physical attacks to take enemy blows without any defense.”

“Is soul attack really that common among Hunters?” I had not expected that the type of attack I feared most could be so easily achieved.

“That is right. The two Monsters we fought earlier probably did not know the trick of attacking the soul, and Investigator Kong, who fought you before, most likely did not have time to use soul attacks before he was killed by your overwhelming firepower. Otherwise, even you would definitely have felt some degree of soul damage.” She nodded. “I should have reminded you earlier. It is just that, since this is common sense for Hunters, I failed to think of telling you. I suppose that counts as a kind of cognitive blind spot.

“But you do not need to worry too much about this. Precisely because soul attacks are so common, items that enhance soul defense are also very common. From now on I will try to collect some powerful related items for you. As long as you equip them and pay close attention to enemy attacks, you will be fine.”

“Thank you,” I said solemnly.

Zhu Shi nodded, then looked at the plastic bag holding the Monster’s head in Ma Zao’s hand and asked, “Ma Zao, you told Lu Chan earlier that you would need a week to find out where the Monster Creator gives Monsters their physical examinations. That was a lie, wasn’t it?”

“It was a lie,” Ma Zao nodded. “I do not trust him, and he seems extremely fixated on the Monster Creator and the Human Dao Division. To be safe, I did not tell him the truth.”

“Then how much time do you actually need?” Zhu Shi asked.

With full confidence, Ma Zao said, “It is hard to specify the exact time, but as long as I actively investigate with the mindset of approaching Strange Incidents, I should be able to find it before we miss our chance.”