Chapter 34: Constantine – Ginger is a Demon

“His soul is gone.”

Constantine’s gaze never left Jiang Shulan. His long fingers hovered gently along the side of the young man’s face, almost touching it.

A faint layer of stubble shadowed his jaw. His cheeks were hollow, dark circles hung beneath his eyes, and it looked as though he had not slept in a very long time. His eyes had lost their focus, his pupils dimmed as if veiled by ash.

“Midnite,” Constantine said, his voice trembling, “I have to sit in that chair. Right now.”

The moment he returned home and discovered that Jiang Shulan’s soul had disappeared, he knew Lucifer was responsible.

Angela had returned with him. Under his questioning, she revealed that when Isabel died, she had been clutching a strand of Jiang Shulan’s hair.

The aura of the dead could temporarily conceal the presence of a soul. Lucifer had taken advantage of that moment to drag Jiang Shulan’s soul into Hell while leaving the strand of hair behind in the human world as a substitute.

All night long, Constantine had tried every method he knew to descend into Hell, but he could not find Jiang Shulan.

Only by sitting in the electric chair and uncovering the complete truth could he learn who had taken him away.

Midnite lowered his head in silence.

He knew that the chair had claimed more than two hundred lives, preserving within it the despair and agony of every person who had died there.

Given Constantine’s current condition, sitting in it might mean never coming back.

“Are you trying to kill yourself?”

“…Without him…”

Constantine took Jiang Shulan’s hand.

The little priest’s hand was small and soft. Even when angry enough to hit him, Jiang Shulan would unconsciously hold back, never striking with full force.

Straightening, Constantine pressed a kiss to the corner of Jiang Shulan’s lips. Bloodshot veins spread through his eyes as he spoke with desperate resolve.

“If I can’t have him… I’ll gladly go to Hell.”

Midnite sighed.

“You’ve really changed, John.”

Constantine said nothing.

What irony. The rules agreed upon by angels and demons were supposedly meant to protect humanity, yet in truth they had turned the human world into nothing more than a hunting ground where mortal hearts could be toyed with.

Now he wanted only one thing: to bring Jiang Shulan back from Hell as quickly as possible.

And if he couldn’t…

Then he would remain in Hell with him.

Meanwhile, in Hell itself, monstrous creatures crawled and flew through the ruins, some like gigantic wingless reptiles, others humanoid masses made entirely of locusts.

Yet they all gathered before a single person, falling to their knees one after another.

They cried and begged Jiang Shulan for mercy, promising never again to trouble Constantine.

“As if I’m the one harming you.”

Seated comfortably on a plush sofa with a plate piled high with fresh fruit before him, Jiang Shulan listened to their pleas. Then he cracked the whip in his hand against the ground with a sharp snap.

“I’m doing this for your own good!”

His voice seemed too soft while sitting, so he stood up instead, chest puffed out like a leader inspecting the workplace.

“Look at this place! Garbage everywhere! Sand blowing all over! Buildings collapsed! Blood and rubble in every direction! It stinks! Are all your noses broken?”

“There are vultures circling overhead and none of you think anything’s wrong?”

One demon that looked suspiciously like a vulture fell into awkward silence.

But… wasn’t Hell supposed to look like this?

“I’m not targeting anyone in particular.”

Jiang Shulan pointed at the high-ranking demon Balthazar.

“I just want to ask certain individuals, no, certain demons, whether they have even the slightest bit of common sense. Do you know what renewable resources are? What discipline is? What organization means?”

“Don’t you think of this place as your own home? Would you leave your own house like this? Hell belongs to all of you. Keeping it clean is your responsibility!”

Balthazar looked utterly miserable.

Ever since Jiang Shulan had arrived, the demons had been collecting trash, planting trees, rebuilding structures… working day and night. Even newborns shouldn’t be worked this hard. Compared with them, Jiang Shulan seemed even more demonic than any demon.

Especially those who had once sworn to seize Constantine the instant he entered Hell and torture him.

Now not only did they have to do manual labor, they were also assigned to clean refuse dumps shared by Heaven, Earth, and Hell alike.

Calling the conditions “terrible” would actually have been an understatement.

Where was their dignity as demons supposed to go?

Naturally, they resented it.

But eat Jiang Shulan?

Report him to Lucifer?

Come on. Hadn’t they seen Lucifer casually sitting beside the little human peeling grapes for him from time to time?

Even the high-ranking demons had not escaped Jiang Shulan’s influence. Some who already disliked Lucifer secretly encouraged Lucifer’s son, Mammon, to seize the opportunity and stage a coup.

Yet before their eager eyes, the moment Mammon approached the young man, Jiang Shulan simply pulled him onto the sofa without hesitation and draped his own coat over the child’s shoulders.

So the human had realized the danger and was trying to curry favor with Mammon?

Too late!

The demons ground their teeth, waiting only for Mammon’s command to overthrow this absurd world.

“Have you eaten yet?”

Jiang Shulan gently rubbed Mammon’s smooth little head.

“What’s going on? Why is there such a tiny child in Hell?”

“I’m Mammon, son of Satan!”

“What?!”

Jiang Shulan looked horrified.

“So Lucifer’s such a scumbag that he treats his own child like this?”

“Huh?”

The ruler of Hell was abusing his own son, letting him become so skinny?

Knowing Lucifer could hear every thought in his mind, Jiang Shulan didn’t bother holding back.

Right in front of every demon, he openly criticized him.

“What kind of father acts like that? Doesn’t he have even a shred of parental love? Honestly unbelievable!”

And just like that, before the eyes of all the demons, Mammon was effortlessly won over and ended up helping Jiang Shulan torment everyone else.

Mammon was ambitious, but he wasn’t stupid.

Jiang Shulan’s complete lack of fear made it obvious that Lucifer’s attitude toward him was unusual.

Could it be that he was about to gain another little brother, or sister?

…Though human men probably couldn’t have children.

Allowing himself to be led by the hand, Mammon followed obediently behind Jiang Shulan.

So human souls were really this warm?

Even the System sounded puzzled.

[Why are you suddenly so fearless?]

[Because I have you. Why should I be afraid of them?]

[As long as I refuse to allow it, no one can touch a single hair on your head.]

Jiang Shulan immediately looked pleased with himself.

“How does power feel?”

Lucifer appeared behind him.

“Do you want to possess it forever?”

Jiang Shulan spun around at once.

“Can I?”

“Stay in Hell with me.”

“So… you’re asking me to die?” Jiang Shulan shook his head. “Then forget it. If gaining power requires paying that price, I’m not interested.”

Mammon couldn’t help asking,

“Do you actually expect to gain everything without lifting a finger?”

“Of course!”

Jiang Shulan proudly raised his chin.

“Getting something for nothing has always been my dream.”

His smug expression wasn’t irritating in the slightest.

Instead, he resembled a cat that had secretly stolen a fish, unable to hide the little flick of satisfaction in its tail.

His brows arched lightly, his eyes curved into crescents, and his blue irises sparkled.

For just an instant, something softened within Lucifer’s gray-blue eyes.

His lips moved faintly before returning to their familiar dangerous, charming smile.

“Constantine will come for you soon.”

“He’ll stay in Hell.”

“He won’t!”

Jiang Shulan slapped his chest confidently.

“He’s going to Heaven!”

“Pride. Envy. Wrath. Sloth. Greed. Gluttony. Lust.”

Lucifer’s voice flowed evenly.

“The Seven Deadly Sins. Before he met you, perhaps Constantine only carried pride and sloth. But now he craves you greedily. His desire is focused entirely on you. He grows jealous whenever you speak to others and becomes angry because of it. Spiritually, he indulges without restraint…”

One by one, Lucifer recited Constantine’s sins.

“I can smell his presence on your soul.”

Leaning closer, he lowered his face toward Jiang Shulan’s neck.

“You’ve been bound together very closely.”

So closely that traces of one another lingered even upon the soul itself.

“But he’s saved countless people and never harmed anyone. He saved them for his own sake. That, in itself, is born of pride and sloth. He still saved people. He still didn’t hurt anyone.”

Lucifer ground his teeth.

“You love him that much?”

“You hate him that much?”

Jiang Shulan deliberately tried to provoke him.

“Could it be that your hatred comes from love?”

“Jiang. Shu. Lan.”

“I’m right here.”

Then, deliberately enunciating each letter, he answered,

“L. U. C. I. F. E. R.”

Human and demon stared each other down.

In that instant, the dust storms that had settled over Hell rose again, carrying broken ruins into the air.

Something invisible hovered on the edge of eruption.

Mammon had already prepared to flee.

Jiang Shulan had genuinely managed to anger Lucifer.

To make himself seem more imposing, Jiang Shulan even rose onto his tiptoes, though the effect was rather limited.

“Well.”

Lucifer’s terrifying gaze descended upon him, but the moment it met those bright, utterly transparent blue eyes, the menace vanished without a trace.

He found himself helpless against Jiang Shulan.

So instead he turned on Mammon.

“Get lost.”

Mammon wasted no time escaping and quietly resolved to keep a safer distance from humans in the future.

How could a being who cared nothing for his own son, regarded human lives as worthless, and wielded absolute authority over Hell become utterly powerless before a single mortal?

Just how frightening was this human… when even Mammon himself had nearly fallen under that strange influence?

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