27 Extraordinary Exchanges 1

If I had really answered “inconvenient” here, do you think you would have just let me go home? I had this thought, then replied, “It’s convenient.”

Although I wanted to go home first to check on Maza’s condition, this choice was different from the previous decision about whether to re-enter the cave. Communicating with Zhu Shi would not sever my connection with the “fireflies.”

On the way to this forest, I had already sent out a few “fireflies” to return home on my behalf to confirm the situation.

“You just said this monster is a fallen demon hunter?” I didn’t miss Zhu Shi’s term for the demon. “So, it’s actually… human?”

In other words, this demon might be Maza? Absolutely impossible. The current Maza is not only far from lively but can barely walk properly on flat ground without stumbling.

The suspicion that Maza is a fallen demon hunter—a serial killer—can be ruled out.

“That’s right. You didn’t know he was human before? …That’s actually a good thing. When dealing with these evil demons, you shouldn’t hold back. If you knew he was human, you might hesitate to act directly…” Zhu Shi nodded thoughtfully, then approached the demon lying on the ground. “You’ve probably heard elsewhere that a serial killer recently appeared in Saltwater City. Actually, about eight months ago… hmm?”

Suddenly, she hesitated, her gaze fixed on the demon.

The demon remained motionless.

“What’s wrong?” I was alert, sensing through the residual flames on the demon’s body.

Zhu Shi moved closer again, circling the demon twice, then bent down to touch its chest before exclaiming in surprise: “He…”

“…Is dead?” I concluded. “Did you kill him?”

At this moment, the demon had completely stopped breathing.

This wasn’t feigning death. I had sensed his earlier act of playing dead. Now, he was no longer alive—more like a chunk of lifeless, burned flesh.

“No, I didn’t,” Zhu Shi shook her head. “I just knocked him out.”

“I only damaged his skin and some muscles, without harming vital organs or other fatal spots,” I explained. “Although I blew apart his legs, I quickly cauterized the wounds with fire. He didn’t lose much blood, so death from blood loss is impossible. …Could it be burn shock? Did he die from shock?”

If it was my doing, that would mean I killed a person?

I wanted to find some guilt within myself, but not only was there no guilt, there was no real sense of it at all. This demon didn’t look human, didn’t burn like a human—it was hard for me to feel like I had killed a person.

“That’s impossible. A demon hunter with physical enhancements at his level wouldn’t die so quickly from this degree of injury as long as the brain and heart were intact…” Zhu Shi shook her head again, then stepped forward. “Anyway, let’s have the organization come and retrieve this corpse for an autopsy.”

Hearing her mention autopsy, I withdrew the residual flames from the corpse.

Before withdrawing, considering the one-in-ten-thousand chance the demon might have suddenly mastered the art of feigning death, I carefully sensed again. This demon—this fallen hunter—had no breath, no heartbeat, no normal blood flow, and no sign of life at all.

I concluded he was truly dead, with no “what if” remaining.

Zhu Shi’s approach was even more direct. She drew the sword from her back.

With a flash of steel, she chopped off the fallen demon hunter’s head on the spot; then drove the sword into the chest, crushing the heart, completing a perfect “death check”—if you kill him yourself, even if the death diagnosis is wrong, it becomes right.

Simple and brutal, yet revealing the cold efficiency of a professional. It seemed she had done this more than once. Unlike me, a novice in supernatural battles, she was already very skilled.

She then swung the sword, shaking off the blood onto the ground before sheathed it again.

—

Zhu Shi took out her phone and made a call. Soon, some people in gray uniforms arrived, loaded the demon’s corpse into a vehicle, and left.

She then led me to a quiet place. On the way, I carefully observed her attire. A straw raincoat, a bamboo hat, and a sharp sword, paired with her beautiful face—she looked like the heroine from an ancient martial arts drama.

Did this extraordinary outfit have special significance? Or was it the standard uniform for Luoshan’s combat personnel? Whatever the truth, the outfit greatly appealed to me, and I couldn’t help but steal a few more glances. It wasn’t that I was particularly fond of wuxia fashion, but on such an unreal night, her unreal attire intervening in my fight against the demon was not out of place—it rather made me more intrigued.

Recalling her cold and ruthless demeanor when she “finished off” the demon, she perfectly embodied the battlefield style I imagined a monster hunter should have.

The only flaw was that beneath the straw raincoat, I could faintly see she was wearing casual clothes and short boots—such a “flaw” would be a filming mistake in a martial arts drama. But perhaps there was beauty born from this incongruity, I told myself.

It wasn’t just me scrutinizing Zhu Shi repeatedly; she was doing the same with me.

Though she maintained a calm demeanor, her initial expression of disbelief was probably her true feeling. Even now, she seemed unable to accept it, her gaze searching me for any flaw to prove I wasn’t the Zhuang Cheng she remembered.

I didn’t feel as unsettled as she did, but I could understand her emotions. That my friend’s sister was actually a hunter working in a supernatural organization was a magical and coincidental reality, something that only stories could usually offer. This night indeed felt like a dream.

“You said I’m also considered a demon hunter. What does that mean?” I started the conversation.

Zhu Shi first composed herself, then answered, “It’s literal. Anyone who possesses powers related to the supernatural is called a demon hunter.”

“Can I understand it like this…” I pondered aloud. “Suppose there’s a superpowered individual who only has powers but has never hunted demons, has no intention to, and whose abilities aren’t suitable for combat… would they still be classified as a ‘demon hunter’?”

“Yes,” she confirmed.

“Isn’t that a bit strange? Why not just call them superpowered or a sorcerer, or, like in online novels, an ‘extraordinary’ person?” I was puzzled.

“I don’t know either. That’s just what everyone calls them,” she replied casually.

After a moment’s thought, some vague ideas formed in my mind.

She clearly didn’t want to dwell on such trivial terminology and instead asked directly, “Zhuang Cheng, when did you become a superpowered person?”

Don’t you usually call me “Senior Brother Zhuang”? Why suddenly use my given name now… I swallowed the words.

When she called me that before, I felt somewhat uplifted by her, which made me uncomfortable, and I had suggested she call me by my name instead. Now that she did, I felt uneasy in a different way. I’m truly a troublesome person.

But these were minor details. I answered her normally, “I awakened my powers over four years ago.”

“Over four years ago… so just as you entered high school? Or a bit earlier, near the end of middle school… I see, no wonder you’ve been…”

Gradually, she seemed to understand something on her own.

After a moment’s silence, she asked, “Judging from the injuries inflicted by the fallen demon hunter, your powers should be related to fire?”

“My power allows me to summon and control flames,” I answered without hesitation.

“You actually defeated that fallen demon hunter with such an ordinary ability?”

She seemed very surprised, but was such surprise really necessary?

Fire powers are among the simplest in superpowered battle stories, but compared to transforming into a muscle-bound monster, I felt mine was at least more stylish. In many stories I’ve seen, a large, physically strong fallen demon hunter would only be an early-stage villain, and even the stylish big bads who transform into monsters usually signal their impending defeat, often ending up completely destroyed.

But I knew nothing about the supernatural world and had no idea how Luoshan evaluated demon hunter powers. Using half-baked story knowledge as a reference was useless. Perhaps other fire users were surprisingly weak, making fire powers seem flashy but useless.

“Can you tell me everything that happened?” Zhu Shi pressed.

“Sure.”

I recounted everything from when I encountered the fallen demon hunter to the moment Zhu Shi intervened, including all the skills I used in battle.

Zhu Shi took out her phone from inside her raincoat again, using it as a temporary recorder.

Actually, for someone like me, it’s best to keep one’s combat methods secret to stay safe. But I hoped to leave a good impression on Luoshan through Zhu Shi. In the future, through this official supernatural organization, I might gain more reliable leads on strange incidents and encounter richer, more diverse supernatural events.

In my mind, contact with Luoshan was even more important than Maza.

Furthermore, if I could join Luoshan, become one of them, Maza would no longer be necessary.

Luoshan was a huge organization. As the saying goes, you can run from the monk but not from the temple. Now that I knew of Luoshan’s existence, I had plenty of ways to make contact.

But what about Maza? Aside from her strong desire to leave, she even claimed to have spatial transfer powers. If true, once recovered, she could teleport to places unknown to me. Though it wouldn’t be impossible to track and retrieve her with my powers, it seemed I now had better options.

Of course, I actually had an even better option.

That was to have it all.

My fight with the fallen demon hunter wasn’t much to elaborate on—it was mostly me overwhelming him. Soon, I finished recounting the entire process to Zhu Shi.

As I described my powers, Zhu Shi quietly put away her phone, her face gradually revealing shock she could no longer hide.

“You can ignite targets with your gaze, even those outside your line of sight… flames that cannot be extinguished and will burn no matter where the opponent runs?” After a stunned pause, she couldn’t help but exclaim, “What kind of ‘ordinary fire manipulation’ is that of yours!”