Devil

The egg was one of the only things that Hei Dan had taken from the house. It was also the only treasure he had left now and Hei Dan treasured it so. It was only when he found Uncle that he carelessly dropped it from excitement, but he quickly remembered it and didn’t forget to pick it back up when he was leaving the cage.

Hei Dan wanted to give Uncle the egg. Uncle could peel the egg, and then Uncle, Grandfather and Hei Dan could eat the egg together.

In Hei Dan’s small mind, he thought this.

He had been carefully watching over the egg and had kept it safe with great difficulty. When he was locked in with the other little devils, he hadn’t even dared to “lick lick” it too often in fear that his egg would be snatched, so much so that he discovered that the egg had already spoiled.

Hei Dan didn’t know that what he had handed over was a rotten egg. In his mind, eggs were the best thing to eat in the world.

Even Uncle didn’t have a delicious egg to eat!

Hei Dan looked at the man anxiously, his small claws raised high. He was very scared and his whole body was shaking, but he persevered: there wasn’t any pee on his Uncle.

Dark eyes like stagnant water stared deeply at the little devil in front of him. At that moment, Ah Jin’s face had no expression on it.

He just looked at the little trembling devil like that.

The apathetic gaze suddenly shifted down to the horned devil underneath the little devil, before finally settling on Ji Huan’s body that had been covered by both of the devils.

There was still a smile on the corner of the teenager’s mouth. The man’s eyes paused there for a moment before he tilted his head.

“You want to give me this egg?” He started to speak and the little devil in front of him trembled again, so the man stretched his hand out towards him. When he took the egg that was being tightly gripped in the small claws of the little devil, the little guy’s shaking passed from the egg to the palm of his hand.

“I accept it.” Grabbing the rotten egg from Hei Dan’s claws, the man suddenly burst into a smile.

It was a very gentle smile, but when he saw his smile, Hei Dan just trembled even more.

At just that moment, the noise of humans came from outside the doors. Hearing the voices of the bad guys who had been chasing Uncle, Hei Dan rolled next to Grandpa and Uncle’s heads and fearfully shut his eyes.

Ah Jin stood up. The smile on his face hadn’t completely disappeared, and with his dark eyes slightly turned up, he looked towards the outer wall.

At the same time, Yang Lin1 suddenly stopped in his tracks outside the wall.

“Stop, don’t pursue it.”

Clearly, there hadn’t been any warning signs before, but just thhen, he felt an intense thumping in his heart!

They must not get closer!

They were forbidden to get closer!

Danger—

Lifting his head roughly, he gazed forward with rapt attention: before him was a low, red wall. It was very common. This kind of low wall was in courtyards everywhere. In order to capture devils, they had gone over no less than ten similar low walls. Behind each wall were courtyards of all kinds. The low wall in front of him now seemed no different than the previous ones.

However, he was shocked to have the feeling of being watched by someone! The feeling of being stared at by countless eyes at the same time… In just a short minute, Yang Lin was sweating profusely.

With great difficulty, he looked behind himself: he saw that most of them just looked confused. Only his lieutenant’s face had turned slightly pale.

Realizing that he was watching him, his lieutenant nodded almost imperceptibly.

At just that moment, the Super A-Rank devil suddenly appeared again. And following behind it was another group of big devils!

Originally, the group of devils was running away in the direction, the black devil was pursuing the other devils in front of it and Yang Lin and his people were closely chasing the black devil. It was in those circumstances that they chased them deeper and deeper into this courtyard until they had chased them near to the red wall.

But now, those devils had actually run back?

“Only that child carrying the devil went over the wall inside.” Behind Yang Lin, his lieutenant whispered to him after carefully counting the number of devils.

With his eyes locked firmly on the leading black devil, Yang Lin faintly nodded.

The black devil that had gone berserk, to the point of it considering itself unmatched in the world, now looked terrified. When it was about to rush into the team Yang Lin was leading, suddenly —

It seemed like a large, unseen mouth opened in the air.

The black devil’s mouth had just opened, but it didn’t have time to let out a final scream before half of its body suddenly disappeared in thin air. Blood sprayed from the cut’s opening and turned into black ash in the air. With its huge mouth open and both of its eyes wide, the front half of the black devil’s body fell to the ground with a loud sound.

After death, the devil still maintained a terrified expression. What could have made a Super A-Rank devil feel frightened, what did it see before it died in the end?

A high level devil!

There must have been an even higher level devil on the other side of the red wall!

But, a higher level devil than a Super A-Rank devil… Could that really exist on earth?

Yang Lin shivered, but not from the cold.

The corpse of the devil decomposed quickly in the air. In a short time, the black devil’s body had disappeared in front of their eyes, leaving only a skull behind.

At that moment, Yang Lin’s phone suddenly rang. When he saw the number that was calling, he quickly answered the phone:

“You bastard! Won’t you hurry up and bring your people back!?” On the other end of the phone was the voice of an old man and a mouthful of abuse.

“But… but, the horned devil hasn’t been captured yet. That is… the one from fifteen years ago…” Yang Lin said, hesitantly.

“What happened fifteen years ago is no matter. Listen: you already killed the ringleader that caused the earthquake. The Wang Family secretly evolved Super A-Rank devils, this matter should be thoroughly investigated and handled. You have to write a report now, hurry back!”

“But, that devil wasn’t killed by us at all. Not only that, I suspect that there are even higher level illegal devils hidden here…” Yang Lin spoke his suspicions.

“There are no high-level devils! Nothing is wrong! You’ve already completed the mission. Now, don’t keep disturbing people and quietly withdraw for me. If you haven’t left in three minutes, don’t bother coming back.” The old man’s voice was urgent and quick, not giving Yang Lin any chance to argue. After speaking, he immediately hung up.

Yang Lin was stunned.

“Retreat.” After one last look at the red wall, he finally gave the retreat order.

Even if he wanted to investigate it thoroughly, there was no point. He was given power by his uniform, and he was also bound by the restrictions of that power.

There was nothing else. It was over.

“Shuzu, the outside, the outside’s been taken care of…” The voice of the middle-aged man came from outside the wooden sliding doors. Walking in from outside the door, trembling with fear, he stood respectfully at a distance of about two meters from the inner bedroom.

It was a little further away than his usual one and a half meters.

Even though heavy incense was still burning in the room, a trace of a foul smell still leaked through the crack of the door.

It was a putrid smell, like meat that had been left out for a long time and started to rot.

“Mmn, since it’s been taken care of, you may leave.” A soft voice came from inside the doors.

“That… about your choice of a gaiguanren2…” The middle-aged man asked hesitantly.

“I’ve selected the boy who comes by and helps clean the corridors every day.”

After that, the middle-aged man seemed to let out a sigh of relief: “The child you chose is naturally a good child. Since that’s the case, I shall retire.”

“Mmn, all of you, go. Take everyone away, don’t leave a single person,” the person inside the doors said those words and after that, no more sounds came out.

The middle-aged man stood in the doorway for a moment, waiting to see if the other person meant to speak again. Then, he bowed and left in quiet steps.

As he walked stiffly through the corridor, stepped on grass and crossed a small bridge, his pace grew faster and faster. When he left the small, red walled courtyard, his face instantly relaxed some, but it was still somewhat nervous. Not until he had informed everyone to gather together to leave and left Bade Mountain in a fleet of cars did his expression finally relax completely.

“Feng Shan.” His expression was completely the respectful one from when he was in the courtyard. The middle-aged man’s bearing instantly changed into a superior’s awe-inspiring manner.

“Yes,” the secretary sitting in the front seat immediately answered quietly.

“After we get back, focus on the matter of handling the Wang Family. Leaving that devil was really the right choice, they just happened to grow that devil’s body.” With one hand leaning on the side of his face, the middle-aged man’s mood suddenly became better.

“That… Shuzu?” After a moment of hesitation, the secretary finally opened his mouth to ask.

“Shuzu?” The middle-aged man was startled and his expression turned very strange. Finally, he actually smiled: “There is no Shuzu. In just a few more days, there won’t be a Shuzu in this world. In the future, don’t mention that word.”

The smile on the middle-aged man’s face grew bigger:

“From then on, there won’t be Shuzu in this world anymore and no more devils. In the end, this world is still the world of us ordinary people. Heh heh, it should’ve always been this way!”

“Haha!”

Sitting in the car, the middle-aged man finally erupted into laughter.

Startled by the reflection of the middle-aged man’s face in the rear-view mirror, the secretary lowered his head and didn’t dare to ask more.

The fleet of black cars, made up of completely high-end vehicles, was the last group to leave. A few days ago, geologists had predicted that there would be an abundance of aftershocks in succession and the possibility of a major earthquake wasn’t ruled out. So, as little as two days ago, all of the residents in town were evacuated by related personnel to the nearest town. They would stay there for several days temporarily and would later settle in a larger city to live in. They were already prepared for any housing issues and some people would be given priority for working opportunities. Students who were about to take their college entrance exam didn’t have to worry either: they even had a special bonus point policy. Except for the requirement that they move away from the hometown where they had lived for many generations, it was really a good outcome for the victims.

“… Excuse me, was there really no one called Ji Huan in the last group of evacuees?” Wang Xiaochuan was still inquiring at the registration department. Recently, he had been coming to inquire almost every day and the entire rotating registration department staff already knew him.

“No, there really isn’t. You’ve checked several times, isn’t it time to give up?” Being disturbed by Wang Xiaochuan had made him impatient and the staff member just held out the whole list for Wang Xiaochuan to read. However, when he saw the expression on the teenager’s face like his parents had died, he suddenly became a little less cold: “My condolences.”

There were no casualties in his family, the missing individual was only his good friend. Among victims, this teenager was considered to be lucky.

Unlike family, there would always be friends. When he made some new friends, surely, he would quickly come out of the state he was in today.

Lightly patting Wang Xiaochuan’s shoulder, the staff member pulled the registration book from his hands.

After the cars carrying the middle-aged man took the initiative to leave, the fleet of cars carrying Wang Xiaochuan and other emigrants from Bade Town also slowly started to move.

Bade Town, which hadn’t been bustling yet was lively, was now an empty town. There wasn’t a trace of any human sounds, and the huge village was momentarily left with the calls of birds and insects. And a day later, even the sounds of birds and insects suddenly disappeared from town.

Large flocks of birds flew out from Bade Town. Burrowing ants and snakes fled into the ground one by one. As if they were forewarning that an unexpected event was coming.

hello everyone! a lot of foreshadowing in this one. (=ↀωↀ=)✧ the next two chapters are going to explain a lot, so hold tight!

TL Notes

1 杨霖: in chapter 44, the man named yang was called yang qi (杨奇), but he’s called yang lin (杨霖) throughout this chapter. in the very, very slim chance that they’re two different characters, i’m going to leave 44 as-is, but just letting you guys know!

2 盖棺人: the literal meaning is something like coffin coverer/person who covers a coffin. i couldn’t find any info online so i decided to keep it as pinyin because it’s going to be explained later in the novel. if anyone is familiar with this word, let me know!

Author Comments

” Ji Xiao Hua is about to rush Grandpa and Hei Dan out of the countryside, out of the earth, out of the universe—
Rush towards another countryside
=-=
Fasten your seatbelts”