From the end of the world

Chapter 64 There is no way out

Changan looked at us as if his brain was overloaded.

Zhu Shi said calmly: "Strictly speaking, I am not a person with super powers, but a demon hunter from Luoshan."

"Luo Shan? Demon hunter?" Chang'an asked blankly.

"Luoshan is the country's official organization that specializes in dealing with strange events, and demon hunters are the professionals of this organization." I explained briefly.

Changan stared at my face: "So... are you also Luo Shan's demon hunter?"

"Yes," I admitted shamelessly, "I just joined recently."

Although my becoming a heretic Wuchang has not yet been realized, even if it is realized, it does not mean that I have truly become a member of Luoshan.

But Zhu Shi did not expose me. Instead, he continued to say to Chang An: "Zhuang Cheng has already told me about what happened to you. You didn't seem to want to tell him what you knew before. But as you can see, we are all professionals. You should tell us all the clues you know."

Her attitude was very businesslike, not like she was treating her brother, but rather like she was treating an ordinary person involved in a strange incident.

The content of the speech made sense, but this impolite attitude would only stimulate Changan's rebellious psychology. Especially when being said by his own sister, it might make Changan feel embarrassed. As expected, Changan became silent. But he was not really a fool, and he should know that telling his difficulties to professionals was the most reasonable choice.

As a friend, I tried to guess Changan's current state of mind. He was probably very conflicted right now. His familiar friend and sister suddenly transformed into so-called professionals who deal with weirdness. Having said that, the impression of "professionals" probably cannot surpass the impression of "friends and sister". His emotions may still remain at the level of "can't let friends kill people" or "can't let friends and sister get involved in his own dangerous situation", and he couldn't turn around for a while.

What is needed to convince him now is not words, but time. I guess he will convince himself in a while.

Zhu Shi seemed to have figured it out, and she said, "Don't stay here for long, let's go back first."

"Where to go?" I asked.

"My home." Zhu Shi replied.
-
Unlike Chang'an who lived alone, Zhu Shi has always lived with his family.

However, one of their parents is missing and the other lives in a military hospital, so Zhu Shi only lives with his grandparents.

Generally speaking, grandfather and grandmother refer to "father's parents", but the Zhu family is different from a normal family. Because she and Chang'an's father were married into the family, the grandfather and grandmother she mentioned automatically became "mother's parents".

The Zhu family residence is located on the edge of the city. Their house is very large, with a small garden. I even couldn't help but use the word "residence". You can see the wall and iron gate at the entrance.

We used the mobile app to call a taxi and arrived here. A kind-looking old lady was already waiting at the gate. She should be the grandmother of Zhu Shi and Chang An. She saw Zhu Shi wearing a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat, but she did not show any surprise.

Changan couldn't help shrinking his neck when he saw the old woman, and the old woman called Changan to her side, looked at me again, and asked with a smile: "You are the Zhuang Cheng that Changan always mentions, right? Thank you for being friends with our Changan, come in and sit down."

Zhu Shi said beside him: "Grandma, we have other things to do later."

"Ah? You guys aren't coming in together?" Chang An was stunned, "Then I will also..."

I was also a little confused, and the old woman said in a serious voice: "Changan, you stay."

"Good... good!"

Changan agreed reflexively. It was the first time I saw him so well-behaved.

"Well, you guys go and do your work first." The old woman turned her kind voice back to us, then looked at me and said, "If you have time after you're done, remember to come and visit us."

I nodded in agreement, and the old woman took Chang'an away. Chang'an looked back every few steps, as if he couldn't wait to escape. Zhu Shi also saw it, but turned a blind eye to it. He took me away from the Zhu family mansion and put his martial arts outfit into the guitar case he carried with him.

"Why do you want to separate from Chang'an? He clearly has some clues that he hasn't revealed yet. And if we leave him alone, he might be attacked again."

I stopped by the road and asked Zhu Shi about it. At the same time, I secretly released a "firefly" and ordered it to go to the Zhu family residence.

"Don't worry about my brother. I have already told our family about his situation in advance. The Zhu family has a barrier specifically for warning and defending against foreign enemies, and my grandfather is here. Not to mention a shadow clone of that level, even if several Fallen Demon Hunters attack with their real bodies at the same time, they won't be able to gain any advantage in that position." Zhu Shi is obviously very confident about the Zhu family mansion.

Seeing this, I was relieved for the time being, and then asked, "Is your Zhu family really a family of demon hunters?"

"Yes." She nodded.

"Everyone in your family knows about this, except Changan himself?" I was curious, "Why?"

"Hmm..." She looked hesitant.

"Is it inconvenient to tell me?" I thought if she really didn't want to tell me, I could investigate it myself. "It's really inconvenient..." She shook her head, "Forget it, I'd better tell you, otherwise you might investigate it yourself."

Seen through.

"First of all, you should know that my brother is the child of our father and another woman, the so-called illegitimate child." She seemed to be weighing her words. "In fact, there is a secret in this matter that even my brother himself does not know, that is, his mother is not a human, but a monster."

"——Ah?" I was stunned. "Monster? Did I hear it wrong? You seemed to be saying that Chang'an's mother was not human?"

He and I had known each other in college, and we had been together for such a long time, but he knew nothing about the weird world, and he seemed like an ordinary person’s friend no matter how you looked at him—but he was actually the child between a monster and a human?
"You heard me right. That's what I said." Zhu Shi said very seriously, "My brother is not half human. He was born with the blood and power of a monster. So from the beginning, grandfather planned to make him the heir of the Zhu family."

"Wait... I don't understand it even more when you put it that way." I sorted out my thoughts and emotions, "Changan's father was married into the family, and his mother is a monster. In other words, Changan not only does not have the blood of the Zhu family, but he is not even completely human.

"Under such circumstances, your grandfather initially intended to make Chang'an the heir instead of you... Why? Did your grandfather have an extremely extreme ideology of favoring boys over girls?"

"That's not the case." She shook her head. "Our grandfather hopes that the Zhu family can spend a long time slowly moving away from the dangerous and strange world. During this transition period, at least one demon hunter in the family is needed to resist danger. Grandfather wants my brother to take on this task.

"However, during his training, my brother's demonic side went out of control. In order to save his life, my grandfather could only seal his demonic blood and turn him into an ordinary person.

"After that, the task of being the successor fell on me."

I slowly digested these words, and then asked: "Then... why doesn't Chang'an know these things? Did he lose his memory?"

"Yes." She nodded. "Strange things attract each other. Not to mention someone like my brother who has the blood of a monster, even if you have only come into contact with strange events or know information about strange things, it is equivalent to forming a bond with strange things.

"Therefore, if we just seal the power, it will only leave my brother defenseless when he encounters monsters in the future. And my grandfather has studied many secret methods to stay away from monsters. One of them is to seal all the memories and powers related to the person involved in the monster.

"As a price, not only will the person concerned be able to sever his connection with the strange, but he will also be less likely to be connected with strange things in his future life."

I suddenly realized: "The reason why you didn't mention the information about the strange world to Chang'an is because you are worried that he will remember it?"

"That's right. I just didn't expect that he would encounter strange things outside. Once would be fine, with the seal there, he wouldn't immediately be connected with strange things. But it happened twice in a row..." She sighed, "Maybe it has something to do with the frequent strange events in the past two years, and the seal only makes it difficult for people to encounter strange events, but it doesn't mean that people will never encounter strange events."

Having said that, I still feel that I was the one who affected Chang'an.

The same thing happened this time. Perhaps it was because I placed the "firefly" next to Chang'an that he was involved in the Fallen Demon Hunter incident. Although according to Ma Zao, simply placing the "firefly" would not cause this result, Ma Zao's experience with the physique of the unlucky star was obtained in a chaotic doomsday environment and may not be completely reliable.

It was my fault.

This incident must be ended as soon as possible, and the mastermind behind the threat to Chang'an must be found and killed.

I obviously have to find Ma Zao as soon as possible. Good fortune never comes alone, but misfortune never comes alone!

"Zhu Shi, you still have a question you haven't answered for me. Why did you separate from Chang'an just now? We haven't gotten any clues from him yet." I asked.

"The reason is simple. The clues from my brother are irrelevant. We don't need to spend time convincing him. If you want clues, I have them here." Zhu Shi said as he took out several photos from his arms. "Zhuang Cheng, do you remember who the Fallen Demon Hunter is targeting?"

"They are probably rich or noble upper-class people," I replied.

"Yes. I originally thought that Agent Kong was the murderer, but in the past few days, new victims have appeared. They are still local dignitaries, and the murder scenes are exactly the same as before." She handed me the photos, "There are other fallen demon hunters wandering in the dark night of Saltwater City."

I took the photos and looked down.

Most of them are photos of the crime scene. The shocking bodies are either lying in the house or in the grass outside, as if they were ripped open by large carnivores. The means of committing the crime are extremely cruel.

There are also a few photos that seem to be screenshots of street surveillance videos, in which blurry strange shadows flash across the streets late at night and their true appearance cannot be seen clearly.

When I turned to the last photo, my hands almost shook and all the photos fell to the ground.

The last photo also appears to be a screenshot from street surveillance.

But what appears in the center of the picture is neither a corpse nor a strange shadow, but a girl of about thirteen or fourteen years old.

The girl wore a black cat whisker mask, a black printed hoodie, a short skirt, cotton tights, black short-top Martin boots, and a red GPS bracelet on her left wrist.

(End of this chapter)