zero o'clock

【Half Demon】

"What's wrong?" Hu Ling noticed something strange and asked vigilantly.

"You..." Li Huan looked at Hu Ling hesitantly, "Can't you feel it?"

Hu Ling was stunned, then realized that there was a problem here, and asked, "What did you feel?"

A very incredible thought flashed through Li Huan's mind. He ignored the explanation, turned over and jumped on the back of the fox, urging: "Let's talk later, this place is not safe enough, let's go!"

Hu Ling didn't dare to neglect, and immediately ran towards the north according to the words.

In the severe winter snow, the sky and the earth seemed to turn into a white cemetery. The fox ran away from the main road and led Li Huan into a more remote wilderness path.

"Young master, what exactly did you sense?"

Li Huan's expression was complicated, and he breathed a sigh of relief with lingering fear, and said, "It's spiritual power, right where we jumped off the car, he may... be a very special demon-subduing master."

"Impossible!" Hu Ling exclaimed in surprise, "We are at least seventy or eighty kilometers away from there. It is impossible for you to detect the aura of those people at such a long distance!"

"It's not breath, it's a feeling." Li Huan said as he pushed out the inch-long blade, cut through his palm, and covered the wound on the fox's back with his palm. Speed ​​healing.

"I can feel his presence, and it's clearer than every time the demon-subduing master approaches. Ari, do you understand what I'm worried about?"

The fox spirit didn't answer, the beast's eyes were narrowed tightly, and a ghostly green fluorescence like will-o'-the-wisp radiated in the darkness.

Li Huan looked back at the direction he had come from, stroked the fluff on the top of its head absently with his fingers, and whispered as if talking to himself: "I can sense him, which means that he may also be able to sense my presence. He is the hunter who maintains order among the same kind, but he is also the prey on the hunting list of the demon-subduing master-this kind of connection...is disturbing."

At the same time, on the wasteland next to the railway track, a gray-white juvenile demon jumped out from the rice field.

The little demon is shaped like a rabbit, with long pointed ears and a leopard face. It moves very flexibly, but its eyes are empty and dull, like a dead thing that has lost its soul. It moves its nostrils keenly and jumps to the food Next to the blood stain left by the brain monster, he lowered his head and licked the blood-stained stone.

"Ow~"

After confirming that it was correct, the big rabbit-like monster lay down and did not move, and a short tail behind him swayed obediently.

If you observe carefully, you can find that its limbs and main joints of the body are all implicated by extremely thin light blue leads. The leads made of spiritual power are tangible and intangible. It extends into the endless night.

About ten minutes later, footsteps sounded, and two figures, one tall and one short, came from the south.

"Hey, is this here?" A boy said, "There is blood! Could it be that the target is dead?"

The puppet beast was very excited when it heard the movement, but its body was controlled by the lead wire, so it could only wag its tail more vigorously.

The boy who spoke was named Du Qiu. He had just turned twelve. He looked like a girl with thin skin and tender flesh. In addition to his thin body, he looked even younger. , itself does not have the ability to independently perform tasks.

Du Qiu raised his right hand in the air, his five fingers were slightly closed, and light blue spiritual power overflowed from his fingers. He skillfully manipulated the wire to recall the puppet beast, and then hugged it into his arms like an oversized toy.

"Dabai," Du Qiu touched the puppet's long ears, and said, "Did you see the target's corpse?"

Yao Yao obediently shook her head, sticking out her tongue to lick the little master's face.

"Don't make trouble, it's all saliva!" Du Qiu said so, but he didn't hate it in his heart. He pushed the puppet beast's face away with a hahaha smile, looked up at the man beside him, and asked, "Brother Yi, The target seems to be dead, what should I do now?"

The man was very young, with no expression on his handsome face, and an inaccessible coldness in his distant eyes. His breathing and heartbeat were weak, and his sense of existence was thin. Even a familiar partner would occasionally It felt like standing behind him was a corpse, not a living person.

The man was wearing a black leather suit and tactical military boots, making him tall and muscular. It seemed that every inch of the fabric contained an indescribable terrifying force.

His name is Xing Yi, and he is a demon subduing master in charge of hunting down brain-eating monsters.

Xing Yi ignored the little ghost's question, but stared at the darkness in the distance without turning.

Just now, he clearly sensed some kind of soul fluctuation, that feeling was very fresh, and it was fleeting, he even thought that just a few seconds was an illusion produced by himself.

Is it a demon?

Or, is it a person with special spiritual power?

He couldn't be sure, his sensitive senses had been diverged to the extreme, but he still couldn't catch that breath again.

The arm hanging by his side couldn't help trembling slightly, and Xing Yi had to clenched his fingers tightly to curb this almost out-of-control physical reaction. He couldn't help but care about that strange feeling, like the attraction of a flame to a moth, all came from instinct , which is exciting.

"Brother Yi?" Seeing that there was no response from the other party, Du Qiu had no choice but to walk over with the Yaoyao puppet in his arms, and stretched out his hand to grab the corner of Xing Yi's clothes, "Brother Yi, what's wrong with you?"

Hearing this, Xing Yi came back to his senses, his gaze stayed on Du Qiu's face for a moment, then he looked at Yan in his arms, and said lightly, "Put it down."

The man's voice was deep and cold, Du Qiu trembled all over, lowered his head, and obediently put J on the ground, that J seemed to be afraid of Xing Yi, and closed his ears in fear, and walked around to Du Qiu. Qiu hid behind him.

"The purpose of the association to take you in and train you is to train you into a demon subduing master who can stand alone. You can be kind, but your kindness cannot be against demons."

Xing Yi took off the full-fingered glove on his right hand, raised Du Qiu's jaw, and forced him to look at him, "Tell me, what do you think of it?"

Du Qiu felt that his jaw was about to be crushed, and replied tremblingly: "Same..."

Before he finished speaking, the five fingers clasped on both sides of the mandible suddenly tightened, Du Qiu groaned in pain, tears welled out of the corners of his eyes.Yao Yao, who was hiding behind him, screamed anxiously, and was about to bite Xing Yi's ankle, but suddenly the lead wire was wrapped around his neck, and he lifted it up in the air.

"No!" Du Qiu screamed.

"Quiet," Xing Yi looked into Du Qiu's eyes, "answer my question."

Du Qiu's eyes were red, and he said with tears: "Puppet."

Xing Yi said: "When you were receiving basic training, how did the teachers of the association teach you how to make puppets?"

Du Qiu's voice trembled, and he replied word by word: "Beat, disperse the three souls, seal the seven souls, and leave only one walking corpse for my own use..."

"Very good," Xing Yi's icy eyes flashed a sneering smile, "Now tell me, why did the little demon that the Association gave you lose only one soul?"

It was a look at dead objects without any subjective emotion.

In those eyes, Du Qiu even had some kind of weird idea, it seems that in Xing Yi's view, he is not a person at all, but just like those puppets under him, without consciousness, without thinking, just using the seven souls to hang himself. The walking dead with a sigh of relief was a tool manipulated by the man with a lead wire.

Du Qiu gasped, not daring to look into Xing Yi's eyes anymore, and said bravely, "I think we can cooperate with the demon. I left two souls for it because I want it to retain its own consciousness. Brother Yi, why? Must kill them all?"

"Because they are demons." Xing Yi said: "It's still the same sentence, demon subduing masters can be kind, but they can't be kind to demons, but since you have been assigned to me by the association, it's best not to let that useless emotion None."

After finishing speaking, he let go of Du Qiu and retracted the lead wire at the same time.

Yao Yao screamed and fell to the ground, Du Qiu was so distressed that he shed tears, crawled over on hands and feet and hugged it into his arms.

Xing Yi glanced at them indifferently, then walked towards the pool of beast blood, without turning his head, said: "Put away your weapon, this is the only chance, if it still can't become a complete puppet next time, I will not only disperse After destroying its soul, it will also help you destroy its form, understand?"

"Hmm..." Du Qiu wiped the corners of his eyes with his cuff, quietly comforted the frightened Yan Yao, put it into his backpack, and then walked to Xing Yi, saying: "The target may be dead, but the body was not found. Do you want to report to the association first?"

"No need," Xing Yi dipped his finger in the blood of the demon, put it under his nose and smelled it, and said, "There are two kinds of blood here, which are different from the target blood samples we got from the association. According to the traces, there were at least two The demons participated in this fight, and one of the demons may be of a high level."

Du Qiu sniffed, and with his eyes swollen from crying, tried to distinguish the dark brown pool of blood on the ground, which looked indistinguishable, "You said 'there are at least two demons', what do you mean?"

Xing Yi pondered for a moment, a puzzled expression rarely appeared on his calm face, "There is one more thing, his smell is too weak, I can't be sure whether he is a human or a demon."

Du Qiu: "Then shall we continue to chase?"

"No, I will do the rest myself," Xing Yi said, "Go back and send a message to the association for me."

Du Qiu nodded, "Brother Yi, tell me."

Xing Yi said: "First of all, let the president convey the analysis just now intact, and then ask for instructions for me, just ask—'Nine Tails intervene, do you need to expand the hunt, and if necessary, please send reinforcements'. "

"Nine-tailed?" Du Qiu suddenly opened his eyes wide, "Could it be that the other monster is the nine-tailed fox?!"

Xing Yi hummed lightly, and said: "But judging from the blood breath, this is just a spirit beast transformed from his soul. The main body has not come, but if we continue to follow, we will meet sooner or later. I am very curious now, and I need Nine Tails." What is the identity of the person who came to pick him up from a separate soul?"

Du Qiu: "You mean, that thing that can't tell whether it's a human or a demon is the reason why Nine-Tails sent out its soul-dividing soul?"

"The president has always ordered the demon subduing masters to pay attention to a special kind of life form. They are human in nature, but they have become half-demons because of a demon soul mixed into the three souls." Speaking of this, Xing Yi couldn't help but frowned. He raised his head and looked in the direction where the strange aura disappeared.

"This kind of life was called a 'container' in ancient times, and that piece of demon soul would be passed down from generation to generation. The longer the inheritance time, the thinner the monster aura on the half-demon will be, and the appearance will be no different from that of a human. It's hard to be noticed by the Demon Subduing Master."

Du Qiu was puzzled, "Why does the president need these half-demons?"

"I don't know, maybe it's because I'm afraid of the body of the soul." Xing Yi speculated: "Those demon souls living in the 'container' usually come from pure blood monsters with extremely high demon ranks. After their death, the three souls will not disappear. , but preserved in a parasitic way, when the time is ripe, the three souls reunite, and the main body will surely be revived."

- To Be Continued