Chapter 3 : I’ll Beat You to a Pulp Even If I’ve Turned into a Girl!

In the old corridor, filled with the architectural style of the last century, the incandescent light tube struggled to emit light.
Its glow flickered, casting a ghastly white pallor on the walls, creating a chilling sight.

The ajar door creaked open, a bone-chilling aura emanating from the gap.
Darkness tried to crawl out from the crevices between the wall and the door, but it was desperately driven back by the incandescent light.

Even though he had adjusted the filtration level of his bronze beast mask to level six, enough to completely filter out the demonic energy, Xu Zhi could still faintly smell the unique, carrion-like stench of it.

In reality, demonic energy was colorless and odorless, completely undetectable to ordinary people.
But for humans, exposure to high concentrations of demonic energy was fatal.
An ordinary person’s organs would begin to fail within two hours of exposure, leading to life-threatening danger.
Even members of the Demon Suppression Division could only extend this time by a little.

That was why they wore masks shaped like bronze beasts during operations.
Though called a bronze beast mask, it was actually something akin to a gas mask.
The bronze beast mask, engraved with taotie patterns, had the dual function of warding off evil and filtering demonic energy.

Every member of the Demon Suppression Division, upon joining, underwent training to distinguish demonic energy.
The specific method was to place them in a space filled with demonic energy and let them be corroded by it.
Once their bodies showed adverse reactions, they would be healed.

After repeating this multiple times, the brain would remember the danger of demonic energy and automatically label its unique chemical components as a foul smell.
This method was simple and brutal, but effective.

At the very least, it ensured that members of the Demon Suppression Division would detect demonic energy at the first possible moment.

Xu Zhi’s hand rested on the hilt of the long saber at his waist, ensuring he could draw it at any moment to slay demons.

The combat personnel beside him advanced in a standard tactical formation, holding their Spirit-Pulse Rifles.

“It’s nearby. The demonic energy fluctuation is quite intense. It seems to be trying to recover.”

Zhou Xuan’s voice came through the headset.
As an intelligence analyst, he normally wouldn’t engage in direct combat.
If he was needed, it meant the frontline combatants were no longer capable of fighting.

A cold gaze spied on them from the darkness, like a venomous snake waiting for the opportune moment to strike its prey.

Xu Zhi suddenly raised his hand and made a gesture.
In the Demon Suppression Division’s communication system, this gesture meant…

‘All units! Prepare for contact!’

The corridor suddenly stretched out infinitely.
Rows of doors opened one by one, like falling dominoes.
The dead-silent environment was suddenly filled with shrill wails.

A viscous red liquid, accompanied by shrieks like the cries of infants, surged out from the doorways.
It coalesced with strands of hair and bone fragments into a bloody tide about to engulf everything!

“All units, fire!”

Before Xu Zhi’s words had even faded, the Spirit-Pulse Rifles in the hands of all the combat personnel began to whine.
Bullets poured out, weaving a cyan net that shattered the crest of the wave!

Scattered blood washed over their boot tops, the sticky sensation feeling like thousands of tongues licking their combat boots.

“Lu Qingtian! Spirit-Breaking Talisman!”

“Roger!”
A youth named Lu Qingtian nimbly pulled a talisman from his waist pouch and stuck it on the wall.

He was the Demon Suppression Officer on Xu Zhi’s team and also the youngest member of the Lin’an Demon Suppression Division.

“Vast Emptiness, all phenomena are void. By the point of the Heavenly Dipper, the illusion collapses. Wind and thunder be my blade, sun and moon be my eyes—Break!”

“Boom!”

As Lu Qingtian finished his incantation, the Spirit-Breaking Talisman on the wall extended faint blue patterns that instantly covered the entire wall, followed by a violent explosion!

The intense spiritual energy explosion instantly disintegrated the seemingly endless corridor.
The scene before them peeled away like shattered glass, revealing its true form.

The incandescent light had fallen to the ground and shattered.
A broken electrical wire sparked from a damaged wall.
The recent spiritual explosion had almost destroyed an entire floor.
Fortunately, the civilians in this building had already been evacuated.
Otherwise, Lu Qingtian would have surely been held accountable by the Profound Gate Council, and Xu Zhi would have had to bear eighty percent of the responsibility.

And the culprit who had created the endless corridor, the woman in red, was floating in mid-air, staring at Xu Zhi with venomous eyes.

Xu Zhi wasn’t about to foolishly lock eyes with it.
In an instant, he drew the long saber from his waist, appeared before the red-clothed ghost like a flash of lightning, and thrust!

The red-clothed ghost failed to dodge in time.
Its right arm was pierced by the long saber.
The immense force pinned it to the wall, rendering it immobile.

“Lu Qingtian!”

“Coming!”

Lu Qingtian, his face covered in blood from the recent explosion, rushed forward.
He pulled a talisman from his waist pouch and quickly stuck it on the red-clothed ghost’s forehead.

“The Heavenly Law is manifest, the Earthly Decree is resplendent. Yin and Yang be the lock, the Five Elements be the boundary. Let the demon submit, let the spirit be sealed—Suppress!”

This was the Demon Suppression Division’s Spirit-Suppressing Talisman, originally used to suppress demons, but…

“Boom!”

The talisman suddenly burst with a dazzling red light.
The moment it exploded, the smell of burnt flesh mixed with Lu Qingtian’s screams echoed in the corridor.
“Boss! I swear I used chili sauce this time!”

Fortunately, the explosion wasn’t too powerful this time.
Other than being made a bit disheveled by the dust kicked up by the blast, Xu Zhi was mostly unharmed.

As the dust settled, only an arm of the red-clothed ghost that had been pinned to the wall remained on Xu Zhi’s long saber.
The main body was nowhere to be found.

“I told you to suppress it! Not blow it up!”
Xu Zhi slapped the back of Lu Qingtian’s head in disappointment.

“Write a twenty-thousand-word self-criticism when we get back. If you mess with talismans again, I’ll break your legs!”

Lu Qingtian, his face bloody and smelling of burnt flesh, looked away in embarrassment.
This kid always liked to make all sorts of strange innovations with his talismans, like drawing them with ketchup.

“Zhou Xuan! Reacquire the red-clothed ghost’s position. It escaped!”

Xu Zhi glared at Lu Qingtian, who was trying to get away with it, and spoke into the communication channel in annoyance.

“Escaped? How did it escape? Oh, Lu Qingtian’s talisman blew up again, didn’t it?”

“What do you think?”

“Haha, one moment! Reacquiring position now!”

“Wait! That demonic energy signature just appeared again! I’m getting a lock now!”

“…The positioning result is… its energy signature’s location overlaps with the red-clothed ghost’s! It’s right above you!”

“What?!”

When Xu Zhi arrived, he only saw the red-clothed ghost suspended inexplicably in the air.

And behind the red-clothed ghost, a white figure stood silently, like cascading moonlight.

Her five fingers were clasped around the red-clothed ghost’s throat, her scales glinting with a cold light.
Xu Zhi’s long saber froze mid-air—those golden pupils, with a tear mole at the corner of the eye, overlapped with a blurry figure from his memory.

The white figure seemed to notice Xu Zhi.
A bone-chilling gaze shot towards him like a blade, but it suddenly softened as it reached his face.

The evening breeze blew into the corridor from the destroyed outer wall, carrying the flowing neon lights of the city night and lifting her hair.
Under the gentle moonlight, the scales on her cheeks shimmered brightly.

Her golden, vertical pupils looked at Xu Zhi, cold, yet with a trace of inexplicable attachment.

“Wait!” he blurted out.

But she had already released the red-clothed ghost, and a sliver of silver light coiled around its body.

The red-clothed ghost’s demonic energy instantly dissipated in the wind, leaving only a shriveled corpse.

She looked at Xu Zhi, and Xu Zhi looked back at her.
In those golden, vertical pupils filled with an inexplicable attachment, Xu Zhi’s temples throbbed.
Past memories scraped across his nerves like blades—a moon so large it nearly filled the entire sky, a quaint courtyard with vermilion lanterns, a bride in a Suzhou-embroidered wedding dress with charming red lips visible beneath her veil, and that small, crying face.

An inexplicable sense of unease and fear crept into his heart.
Xu Zhi felt as if he had truly lost something, something very important.

When he came to his senses, the white figure had long since vanished.
Only the gentle evening breeze blew in from the broken wall, carrying a faint scent of osmanthus.

‘What did I miss?’

Even as the external affairs team arrived and began to clean up the scene, Xu Zhi sat on the curb, still trying to figure out what he had overlooked that was causing this sense of unease.

Aside from the sudden appearance of what seemed to be a snake demon, the operation to suppress the red-clothed ghost had been surprisingly smooth.

Xu Zhi habitually took out his phone, intending to record his doubts, but he saw an unread message from a contact nicknamed ‘A-Lin’.

[Blind Xu, do you think demons exist in this world?]
The message was sent at 3:02 AM.

‘School is about to start, why is he staying up late again?’

“There are no demons in the world. Don’t overthink it!”

Xu Zhi stared at the send button, his fingertip hovering for a moment.
The screen reflected his jaw, stained with demon blood.
The words “no demons” stung his eyes.

He felt like a liar, like that Daoist priest who said there was no such thing as levitation in the world, only to turn around and fly down the mountain.

“Hey! What are you thinking about?!”
Gu Xiyan bounced in front of Xu Zhi and, looking at his face which was more solemn than a bronze beast mask, asked her own question.

Xu Zhi glanced around.
The red-clothed ghost had been confirmed dead.
The containment staff were moving its remains to the transport vehicle.
The team members who had completed the mission were gathered together, chatting and joking about trivial topics like what would be for supper at the canteen.
The only unlucky casualty, Lu Qingtian, was being treated and scolded by the team’s medic—he had been injured by his own modified talisman.

That unlucky kid was still muttering silly-sounding things like “I knew I shouldn’t have used chili sauce to draw the talisman.”

And the medic scolding him was his older sister, Lu Qingyu, who currently wore an expression of utter disappointment.

“I’m thinking if we missed anything.”

Xu Zhi unconsciously caressed the fang-like patterns on his bronze beast mask.
A trace of a cold sensation lingered there, giving him a slight sense of comfort.

He felt as if he had lost something, but at the same time, gained something similar yet completely different.

“I thought you were thinking about whether to play games when you get back.”

Gu Xiyan sat down beside him, swinging her feet.
She was the Demon Spy on Xu Zhi’s team, mainly responsible for infiltration.
Although she also participated in combat, a mission of this level didn’t require her to fight.

“I don’t play games.”

Actually, he did.
Xu Zhi only lied about not playing games to maintain his authority in front of his team members.
In reality, he was quite interested in the recent new game, “Xuanhuang Ji”, and had even gotten a closed beta key some time ago.

“What a shame. I was hoping to drag you, the great Demon Suppression Envoy Xu, to play with me.”

Gu Xiyan took off her shoes and stretched her toes.

“I just roped a friend into playing a game with me, but we’re still missing a tank.”

“Zhou Xuan! Come here for a second!”

Xu Zhi didn’t respond to her.
Instead, he waved over the team’s intelligence analyst.
People in this position usually knew a bit of divination, especially this Zhou Xuan on his team.
He was from the Heavenly Master sect of Dragon Tiger Mountain.
For him, divination was as easy as eating and drinking.

It was said that he even cast a divination before taking a shower.

“What’s up, boss? I just did a calculation. We’re having braised pork for supper tonight!”

Zhou Xuan trotted over to Xu Zhi in a flash, hugging his tablet equipped with the Luoshu System.

“Do a reading and see if we missed anything. I keep feeling uneasy.”

“You got it, boss!”

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xuan pretended to pinch his fingers and calculate for a moment, then tapped his tablet a few times.

In truth, Xu Zhi knew the finger-pinching was just for show.
The Luoshu System on the tablet had long since digitized divination, making finger-pinching unnecessary.

“Hiss…”

Zhou Xuan’s face suddenly turned grave.

“What is it? Did we miss something? I knew my feeling was right!”

Seeing this, Xu Zhi also turned serious.

“No, it’s not that we missed anything, but…”

“…Boss, it seems you have some luck in love coming your way recently…”

Hearing this, Xu Zhi just wanted to slap him twice.

“But it could also be a calamitous love. The conflicting demonic energies of those two messed up the magnetic field here, so I can’t get a specific reading. But looking at this hexagram, I’m afraid it could be fatal…”

Xu Zhi casually picked up a pebble and threw it at him, making him yelp.

“What calamitous love? You look like a calamitous love! Scram!”

“On it!”

Zhou Xuan scurried away.
But Xu Zhi still felt uneasy, as if he had lost something.