Create the Past!

"Speak, what were you doing just now? Are you hiding a beauty in your golden house?"

As soon as the door opened, Xie Chong immediately began looking around; he seemed to have heard the movements of someone else earlier.

But after surveying the surroundings—the peeling walls and the dilapidated furniture—he shook his head. "Forget it, given your situation, what beauty would even look at you?"

Besides, even if he really had a girlfriend, that would be Shen Qing's own business.

"And this front door of yours."

Xie Chong changed the subject, clicking his tongue as he looked at the yellow door. "If you slapped a 'Danger: High Voltage' sign on it, it could pass for a power distribution room."

Even though it's best for a Supernaturalist to stay away from crowds, it doesn't have to be this miserable, right?

"I actually thought I'd walked to the wrong place."

As Xie Chong spoke, another person walked in behind him, dressed in a grey work jacket and looking quite inconspicuous.

He was carrying a metal case of unknown purpose.

This was the logistics personnel responsible for the cleanup. Shen Qing curiously leaned in; although he had met the man before, this was his first time seeing exactly how they disposed of a demon corpse.

Hmm, first came the dismemberment and dissection to extract anything useful.

Then, the man poured a bottle of brown liquid over it, and the body of the Swallow Demon began to corrode instantly.

In just a moment, the demon corpse, which had wings spanning two meters, vanished without a trace.

"Damn, is that Bone-Melting Water?"

Shen Qing's eyes widened, and he instinctively took a step back. The smell wasn't pungent, however, so it wouldn't arouse suspicion; it felt like a derivative of some innate ability.

"By the way, is this covered by reimbursement?"

Once the demon corpse had completely disappeared, Shen Qing looked at his messy living room. If the landlord found out, he wouldn't be able to afford the damages.

Hearing this, Xie Chong smiled and nodded. "Covered, definitely covered. It's not like we're the ones paying for it anyway."

Since the trouble was brought by Night Owl, they were naturally responsible for the reimbursement.

After cleaning up the demon remains, the logistics personnel left silently, and Xie Chong went off to handle the reimbursement issue.

As for Shen Qing, he thought for a moment, turned, and went downstairs. When he returned, he was carrying a few steamed buns and a cup of soy milk.

He walked to the door of the side bedroom and whispered:

"Breakfast is on the nightstand in my bedroom. I'll order takeout for you at noon—it'll be via Suohuan."

Underground Base.

The elevator doors opened, and Shen Qing and Xie Chong stepped out one after the other.

"It's still about Night Owl and their affairs."

Xie Chong pulled out his phone while walking, opened the Hummingbird app, and pointed at the mission interface. "Take that demon from yesterday; there's quite a large number of them in total."

"So the software updated the mission list overnight."

Shen Qing leaned in, listening as he continued:

"It's not just Night Owl; we can also accept the missions on here, and the rewards are even a third higher than usual."

"So many missions?"

Looking at the list, Shen Qing frowned. There were at least twenty or thirty demon incidents listed.

Even if some were unconfirmed, when did the situation in Binhai City become this severe? Fortunately, the locations were almost all far from the city center.

"What's going on? Usually, it's—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Shen Qing's pupils suddenly constricted as his peripheral vision caught something. "Watch out!"

He leaned back and arched his body, simultaneously shoving Xie Chong to the floor.

"What the hell, what are you doing!" Xie Chong fell flat on his face, unable to speak clearly. "And since when can you do a backbend like that?"

Shen Qing said casually, "There's a lot you don't know about me."

It was an instinctive reaction; was it an increase in physical agility, including flexibility?

What would it feel like to glide on the wind without equipment? The thought flashed through his mind, but he didn't have time to dwell on it.

A grid-like electric net grazed past the two of them before slamming into the corridor wall and vanishing.

"Has the base been breached?"

Shen Qing jumped up abruptly, scanning his surroundings vigilantly.

Is the situation this dire? There are traps in the base—is there another organization of Supernaturalists? But it didn't seem to have much lethality.

He suddenly looked toward the side wall.

"Pfft, breached my foot." Xie Chong climbed up and snorted, brushing off non-existent dust. "It must be that little bastard He Ying playing a prank!"

"You loser, you still dare to insult me?"

Before the words had even faded, the side of the wall flickered, and a teenager of about fifteen or sixteen, wearing a hoodie, popped out.

"Nyah-nyah..."

He made a provocative face at Shen Qing and the other, even sticking out his tongue; the look on his face was exceptionally punchable, right up until someone called out to him.

"He Ying, we have a mission to attend to. Don't waste time."

"Oh."

Two people, a man and a woman, stepped out of a room in the hallway. The three of them acted as if they hadn't seen Shen Qing and Xie Chong at all, leaving without so much as an apology.

Shen Qing frowned and took a step forward, but Xie Chong shook his head to stop him.

"They're heading out on a mission. Not to mention that fighting internally is forbidden, if you interfere with their mission, be careful they don't turn around and bite you back."

He explained, "The missions are quite urgent right now; they can even be repeated. As long as you complete them, that's all that matters."

The two watched He Ying's retreating back; the brat even flipped them off before the elevator doors closed.

"Damn that little punk," Xie Chong gritted his teeth, "These optical and electronic-type abilities are just plain disgusting."

"You know him?"

"Yeah, I was in the same batch of Night Owl members as him."

As he spoke, Xie Chong began to look a bit awkward, "But I quit the Night Owl after losing a bet, and since Hummingbird needed people, I got transferred over."

"A bet, and you quit?"

Shen Qing looked at him as if he were an idiot, then asked, "Do you know where they're going?"

"Want to get some payback?"

"What are you planning?" Xie Chong's eyes lit up instantly, though he still feigned ignorance.

"Just going to join the fun and see if they need any help."

Shen Qing's lips curled upward.

He had the personal authorization of the Night Owl team leader to dampen the spirits of the Night Owl members, and incidentally, to see exactly what kind of strength an Eighth Grade possessed.

The captain was likely an exception, after all, he could communicate on equal footing with the Seventh Grade leader of the Night Owl.

"Are you sure about this?"

Xie Chong was still hesitating in his words, but he had already locked onto a mission on the app.

"Forget it, they're likely heading to an abandoned village near the suburbs. Let's go, we're taking a different ride today."

He had been holding back for a long time, especially since yesterday, when that brat He Ying had secretly tripped him in the cafeteria, nearly making him take a tumble. Just thinking about it made his blood pressure spike.

Regardless of whether he could vent his anger or not, he simply couldn't take it anymore.

Half an hour later, the outskirts of Binhai City.

An off-road vehicle sped along the national highway, the surrounding trees blurring past.

Xie Chong was driving with Shen Qing in the passenger seat. From a distance, they saw He Ying and his two companions surrounding a monster in an open field—a brown bear nearly four meters tall.

Its fur was a deep brown, its eyes glowing a fierce red, and the humans looked like mere toys in front of it.

"What do we do?!"

Xie Chong shouted, his voice laced with excitement.

Shen Qing stared at the massive figure ahead, a ruthless glint flashing in his eyes, "Charge! Just ram right into it!"

"?"

Xie Chong's brain stalled for a second.

"Holy crap."

He widened his eyes and yelled, "Are you crazy? We're definitely going to get chewed out for this when we get back!"

Despite his shouting, Xie Chong didn't slow down; he even pressed harder on the gas, the off-road vehicle already hitting eighty miles per hour on the highway.

Suddenly hearing the roar of the engine, He Ying and his companions looked over instinctively, their pupils instantly constricting.

An off-road vehicle was veering off the highway and charging toward them at high speed.

"Stop! Stop the car!!"

Someone shouted, but it was useless.

"Bang!"

With a deafening crash, the off-road vehicle slammed into the bear with the force of several dozen tons. The brown bear, caught off guard, was sent flying several meters away.

It was bleeding all over, barely clinging to life with severe injuries, and it struggled to get back up.

The car screeched to a halt, its front end crumpled, and a figure vaulted out, carried by the momentum.

"Who the hell is that!"

He Ying and his companions stared, their faces full of shock. Ramming a monster half to death with a car—who plays like that?

"Splitting Fist!"

Although he couldn't leverage his lower body while mid-air, Shen Qing used the force of gravity to deliver a fierce downward punch with his right fist.

With a "bang," the brown bear's head exploded like a watermelon.