Chapter 38: After All That Running Around, I Still Have to Pretend to Be a Girly Boy

The downpour stitched the sky and the earth into a watertight curtain.
The roar of colliding metal tore through the rain.

“Crack!”

Xu Zhi’s blade split the rain curtain, and the clash of the blade and the pale arm sent dazzling sparks flying.

The sound of metal vibrating, mixed with the roar of the thunderstorm, exploded in his eardrums.
The blood seeping from his side was diluted by the rain, spreading into a dark red stain on his soaked combat uniform.

“Who are you?!”

Xu Zhi gritted his teeth and took half a step back.
The overturned SUV behind him was burning in the rain, and the smell of gasoline mixed with the stench of burnt plastic rushed into his nasal cavity.

“Kill… all…”

The stooped figure’s hoarse voice was like rusty gears grinding.
Rainwater dripped from his matted hair, and his bloodless lips trembled slightly.

“Clang!”

Xu Zhi spun and slashed.
The second slash hit the same spot, and a rice-grain-sized chip actually broke off the blade.

The figure’s sharp claws attacked.
He spun and dodged.
The concrete wall behind him suddenly exploded with five claw marks, and the exposed steel bars sizzled with white smoke.

‘This guy has no trace of demonic energy.’

‘He’s not a demon!’

After sending Bai Ling back to the school, on his way back to the Shanhe Group staff dormitory, this figure had suddenly attacked him.

The strange thing was that he wasn’t a demon, but he didn’t seem to be human either.

A bolt of lightning suddenly struck.
Xu Zhi saw the other’s pupils.
In his pitch-black, asphalt-like eyes, eight streaks of cyan light were reflected, coming from all directions.

“You beast!”

An umbrella cut through the rain curtain.
In the distance, a man holding an umbrella was walking through the downpour.

Only then did Xu Zhi see clearly that the eight streaks of cyan light were actually eight long swords.
They circled in the air, weaving into a nine-palace eight-trigram formation.
The sword qi cut the raindrops into fine pieces and stabbed at the figure.

“Aren’t you going to surrender?”

The man with the umbrella walked through the accumulated water, the water splashing from the soles of his black cloth shoes exploding in mid-air.

‘Flying swords?’

‘The Inspection Bureau?!’

Xu Zhi wiped away the blood that was blurring his vision and looked at the afterimage dissipating in the sword net.

The moment the sword net closed, the stooped figure dissipated like smoke, leaving only half a broken fingernail deeply embedded in the asphalt road.

“Are you okay?”

The man with the umbrella walked up to Xu Zhi.
He was wearing a black Zhongshan suit and stood with his hands behind his back in the downpour.

“I’m fine.
Thanks for the rescue.”
Only then did Xu Zhi see the man’s face clearly.
“Inspector Ai?”

There were many departments with different responsibilities within the Demon Suppression Division, such as the War Preparation Bureau, which was responsible for tactical equipment, the Records Bureau, which managed intelligence, and the External Affairs Bureau, which was responsible for logistics and covering up the truth.
Xu Zhi belonged to the Ministry of War, a military department composed of front-line combat personnel.

If the military officials of the Ministry of War were responsible for dealing with demons, then the Inspection Bureau led by Inspector Ai Zun in front of him was responsible for dealing with internal affairs of the Demon Suppression Division and civilian demon slayers.

In history, there had been many demon slayers who had taken advantage of their skills to cause trouble.
The Inspection Bureau had been established for this reason.
They were responsible for supervising the behavior of the Demon Suppression Division and civilian demon slayers.

However, this Inspector Ai had been out of the country for a while due to work.
Xu Zhi hadn’t known that he had already returned.

“Your name is Xu Zhi, right?”
Ai Zun pressed his finger on the wound on Xu Zhi’s side, and his fingertip glowed with a cyan fluorescence.
“I’ve often heard my junior sister mention you.
She said you were a very promising young man.”

The junior sister he mentioned was naturally Xu Zhi’s direct superior, Commander Ye Zi.

“Thank you…”

Xu Zhi felt a thick spiritual energy flowing through his blood vessels, and the blood flowing from the wound was scabbing over at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The roar of a helicopter’s propellers came from the distance, and a searchlight pierced through the rain curtain.

“The logistics team will be here soon.
I’ll keep an eye on things here.”

“That guy was…”

“He didn’t look like a demon.
We still need to investigate.”
Ai Zun patted his shoulder.
“I just stopped the bleeding for you.
You’d better get treatment as soon as possible.”

The airflow from the helicopter sent the burning sparks flying.
Xu Zhi looked up and only saw the silhouette of Inspector Ai against the light.

The logistics team members who had arrived were putting out the fire with fire extinguishers.
The downpour condensed into an endless crisp sound.

The morning light, cut into fine squares by the quaint carved wooden windows, fell on the blue brick floor.

Bai Ling looked at Guan Qing with teary eyes.

She of course didn’t know that Xu Zhi had been attacked on his way back last night.
She only knew that if she didn’t find a way soon, she might really lose her online identity.

“So, please help me think of a way!”

The girl clasped her hands and raised them above her head, wishing she could kowtow to Guan Qing.

“It’s just a meeting with an online friend.
Why is it like entering the gates of hell?”

Guan Qing fiddled with the abacus beads.
The crisp sound of the beads colliding made Bai Ling’s temples throb.

“No, you don’t understand…”
Bai Ling pressed her forehead against the cool pearwood desk.
“This is very important to me.
Please!”

“Why don’t you just tell the truth?”
Guan Qing looked up, her gaze sweeping over the girl’s flushed cheeks.
“Being a girl is not something to be ashamed of.”

“I thought about it, but if I tell the truth…”

Bai Ling mimicked the seductive posture of the snake demon in the game.
The more she imitated, the more she felt that she might be a fool.

Why had she agreed?

The thought of those fans in the group finding out that she, the famous hentai artist in the circle, the Qing Lin who had drawn so many doujinshi, was actually a girl…

“Those otakus will eat me alive!”

The thought of that scene made Bai Ling shiver uncontrollably.

And she had always been active on the internet as a male.
If her identity was exposed to Ye Yuan, it was very likely that those fanatical fans would find out from the clues of the past that she was a monster who had turned from a boy into a girl.

Wouldn’t that be terrible?

Taking a step back, even if she didn’t care what those fans thought, didn’t care what Ye Yuan thought, if this matter was exposed online, Xu Zhi would very likely find out too.

At that time…

“You’re actually a transvestite?! Don’t ever say you know me again!”

Imagining Xu Zhi’s contemptuous gaze, it was like a knife stabbing into Bai Ling’s heart.

“So help me think of a way!”

Bai Ling slammed the table, and the tea in the teacup rippled.

“You can’t learn the art of transformation in two days.”
Guan Qing’s pipe hooked her chin.
“Raise the corners of your eyes by a third, purse your lips.
Yes, that’s it, that pitiful look.
It doesn’t look like you’re acting.”

Her action startled Bai Ling.
She couldn’t help but lean back and jump under the curio cabinet.
The movement was like a ferret being grabbed by the tail.

“Anyway, it’s a comic convention.
Why don’t you just go as a female character?”
Guan Qing continued to fiddle with the abacus beads.
“Just say your cosplay skills are amazing, and then we’ll see.”

“I’ll teach you how to do your makeup.”

After a few crisp sounds, she finished her calculations.
In fact, Bai Ling didn’t even know what she was calculating, since her beauty salon never had any customers.

But her words gave Bai Ling a rather stupid solution.

“That’s right…”

A wise light flashed in the girl’s innocent eyes, although she always felt that she had fallen into someone’s trap.

But as long as she said she was cosplaying, she could get away with it.
It was a comic convention after all.

She could buy some time to learn the art of transformation from Guan Qing.

Eh?

Wait a minute!

Wouldn’t that confirm that I’m a girly boy?