Zhu Shi 1

I was Zhu Shi, a Demon Hunter from Luoshan.

My older brother, Zhu Changan, might recently have become a target of the Fallen Demon Hunter. Although I felt the possibility was very low, we truly had no clues sufficient to track the Fallen Demon Hunter.

I never expected him to come to the hospital to visit Mom. I was happy that he had finally shown some concern, but what if the Fallen Demon Hunter really attacked and the people around him were caught up in it? I couldn't very well explain why even the military hospital wasn't safe. I wasn't good at lying, either, and for half a day I couldn't find a suitable excuse to send him away.

Besides, I felt very uncomfortable sharing a room with him. Several agents were watching him, and I had to pretend to be a cultured female college student in front of him. The agents' gazes were almost scorching. So I found an excuse to go outside and take a breather, easing my weary mind a little. It wasn't just that someone was keeping watch nearby—I had also set up my spells around him, and my perception covered the entire inpatient department. There was no need to worry about someone taking advantage of a moment of weakness.

When I left, he even asked why I had brought along a guitar case. It actually held my Spirit Suit, but I could only say I wanted to play the guitar in the courtyard. I had no intention of telling him about my work in Luoshan.

As soon as I stepped out of the inpatient department, I saw Agent Kong walking over from the opposite side. He was probably preparing to take over from the other agents.

In Luoshan, agents were officially called "Probes." Their main duties were investigating clues related to supernatural incidents and notifying Demon Hunters to deal with them. They also handled various odd jobs.

Agent Kong was one of the elite among them, and his knowledge of supernatural incidents was richer than mine. The university I currently attended was also within his patrol area, and we had worked together many times. I had heard from others that his superiors had recently forced an outrageous workload on him, leaving him no choice but to run around disguised as a police officer.

Many Demon Hunters looked down on agents, believing them to be defective products incapable of becoming Demon Hunters. That sounded as though anyone who couldn't become a Demon Hunter was automatically beneath them. Yes, that was exactly what they thought. So they looked down on ordinary people, too. Agent Kong's superiors were probably of the same mind. I really couldn't get along with people like that.

There was still half an hour before the shift change, so we went to sit and chat in the pavilion in the courtyard. Agent Kong was a man in his thirties, and we naturally had little to talk about when it came to everyday matters, so we could only discuss work. Before long, we turned to the anomaly in the Fifteenth Floor room mentioned during the phone call that morning.

"We still don't know why the cave Zhu Changan mentioned appeared. Although I was the one who first asked whether you had time to deal with it, are you really sure you'll be all right?" he asked worriedly.

"We won't know whether there's a problem until I try. Besides, I don't know whether that cave is a supernatural phenomenon capable of affecting those who come into contact with it regardless of distance. He's my brother. I have to protect him."

"But your specialty is combat, right? If it really doesn't work, you can ask another Demon Hunter who's more skilled in this area."

"I can't exactly ask another Demon Hunter to deal with a supernatural phenomenon whose background I don't even know..."

"All right. Since you've put it that way, I won't try to dissuade you any further." He sighed, then changed the subject. "However, while dealing with the cave, you could also take the opportunity to sound out Zhuang Cheng."

"Zhuang Cheng? You still think he's connected to the cave's appearance?"

"That's only a secondary reason, and the possibility is very low." He explained, "What I mainly mean is that he may have come into contact with our world long ago. Supernatural incidents have been occurring frequently over the past two years. Someone like him, who relentlessly pursues supernatural incidents, has remained safe and sound all this time. Don't you find that strange? Perhaps he's obtained some kind of protective power."

He had said something similar last time. This time, I heard another meaning in his words. "You mean we should recruit Zhuang Cheng as one of our own?"

"Even if he can't become a combatant, he'd certainly make an excellent agent. It would count as having his wish fulfilled, too." He smiled. "Unearthing talented people from among the public is originally the job of a Probe like me. But if you're the one who discovers him, you can become his guide and have him assist you from the sidelines afterward. Even without magical power, he's an outstanding talent. He'll definitely be able to help you."

"Thank you for the offer, but..."

Although I admitted that Zhuang Cheng was a talented person, some of the circumstances might not be what Agent Kong imagined.

I recalled how I had first met Zhuang Cheng.

-

It was probably when I was in my first year of high school that I heard about Zhuang Cheng from my brother.

Unlike ordinary families, the Zhu family I belonged to was a family of Demon Hunters. I had heard that one of our ancestors had even been a Great Wuchang, but the family had since fallen into decline. My brother should originally have inherited the family's Magic Tool and become a Demon Hunter. However, because of an accident, I became the heir instead, while he lost his childhood memories. The family also kept everything related to the world of Demon Hunters hidden from him.

Calling it amnesia wasn't entirely accurate. He hadn't lost everything; some fragments and vague impressions remained. That was why he had firmly believed in supernatural things since childhood, claiming to the people around him that he had once seen and come into contact with them.

Naturally, the family refused to acknowledge his claims, and people outside the family believed him even less. When he was in middle school, his classmates mocked and bullied him, and his teachers often called him in for talks. People were easily influenced by their environment, especially during adolescence, when their personalities were rapidly developing and changing. External denial and recognition mattered all the more then.

Moreover, after losing his memories, he truly never encountered anything supernatural again. As time passed, he might have gradually accepted that those fragmented memories and vague impressions had merely been childhood fantasies of his own. Eventually, he stopped bringing them up.

Even so, some part of him must still have held on to his resentment and anticipation, hoping for a chance to vent and release them.

I felt deep sympathy for my brother. At the same time, I also envied him greatly.

I had once thought I would never become a Demon Hunter.

One day, he suddenly mentioned someone during dinner. He said there was an eccentric at the high school he attended who was obsessed with investigating urban legends. His name was Zhuang Cheng.

That person resembled my brother in the past. He didn't proclaim the existence of supernatural things to everyone around him, but he went to even greater lengths to prove that they existed—more aggressively than my brother ever had.

I thought my brother was about to rekindle his interest in supernatural things. For reasons I couldn't explain to outsiders, my family and I didn't want him coming into contact with that world, so we criticized the subject from an ordinary person's perspective, saying it was "a waste of effort." After a moment of silence, my brother agreed with me.

Later, I investigated Zhuang Cheng. He hadn't only started looking into Ghost Stories in high school; he had shown extraordinary enthusiasm for them since at least middle school. All the students in his class remembered him clearly, but hardly anyone was close to him. One of my female upperclassmen in high school had been his classmate in middle school. Whenever she brought up Zhuang Cheng, her face filled with disgust.

"That person used to bring candles to school all the time."

"Candles?"

"Yes, candles. Whenever he felt like it, he'd take a candle out of his desk drawer and stare at it with an absolutely terrifying look, as if he were possessed. He was obsessed with ghost stories and often went exploring haunted places, too. He must have been possessed by some filthy thing..."

Besides that, I heard from other people that he had once focused on studying concepts like Feng Shui and esoteric rituals. He often carried a compass and divination tools around to conduct practical experiments. After a while, he seemed to lose interest and moved on to other subjects, all of which were related to the occult. Most people thought he was either mentally ill or childish. The gossip about him was even worse than what my brother had endured in middle school.

Yet he acted as though no one else existed. The voices around him seemed unable to reach his ears, and he did everything exactly as he pleased.

When I was in high school, a girl in my class liked paranormal romance novels and developed some strange fantasies as a result. She wanted to package herself as a "paranormal girl," claiming that she could "see things." Zhuang Cheng followed the scent straight to her and "caught her red-handed," ruthlessly exposing every bit of her acting.

On another occasion, a Feng Shui Master from overseas sought out a local tycoon and tried to swindle him. Somehow, Zhuang Cheng, still a high school student, got wind of it and tracked him down, exposing the impostor on the spot.

Over the next few years, no one knew how many fake supernatural phenomena he had encountered, yet he remained just as "mentally ill" and "childish."

This was only my own guess, but perhaps that was exactly what had attracted my brother.

So later, when I criticized Zhuang Cheng in front of him, my brother no longer agreed with me insincerely as he had in the past. Instead, he took Zhuang Cheng's side.

It was only later that I discovered my brother had secretly been following Zhuang Cheng's activities ever since the first time he mentioned him to me, collecting news about him like a fan.

Whenever he brought up Zhuang Cheng, his tone grew increasingly animated, as though he saw the other boy as another possible version of himself.

"Did you know? Near the end of his senior year, he went to another province to investigate a child disappearance case. It was supposedly connected to local folk legends, something like Japan's Kamikakushi Ghost Stories. As it turned out, it involved some astonishing evil force operating behind the scenes..."

After hearing this kind of story so many times, I had to admit that Zhuang Cheng really was a "legendary figure."

But it was dangerous. Far too dangerous.

One day, Zhuang Cheng would find himself in a hopeless situation, die with regret, and perish in pursuit of the very things he had tirelessly sought.

Around two or three years ago, organizations connected to supernatural phenomena around the world noticed that the supernatural things hidden in the dark side of the world had begun moving with unusual frequency for some unknown reason. Spatial-temporal distortions, once rarely seen, had also been increasing constantly. Their severity rose year by year, while reports of ordinary people dying because of supernatural phenomena piled up like mountains.

Someone in Luoshan had even made a heretical prophecy, saying that this was a sign that the Great Tribulation was approaching.

If all of human history up to this point was defined as "the Age of Humanity," then, counting from today, the flourishing human age would reach its end within ten years.

After that, not only all humans, but every living creature and every supernatural thing would be destroyed beneath the Great Tribulation.

In the end, all matter would be reduced to nothingness.

And the next age... there probably wouldn't be a next age.

If it had to be given a name, it would be "the Age of the Apocalypse."