I adopted a child demon from the Gap, and I'm a special agent for the Bureau of Supernatural Ab

In fact, during the battle with that pale white humanoid monster, when he finally used his power to destroy it, Li Cheng felt as if he had seen something.

It was a strange experience that was neither dream nor not dream. Li Cheng could not recount what he had experienced, nor could he be sure whether what he saw was actually happening. Therefore, he did not tell Zi about those things.

Imaginary space... what exactly is it?

In that hazy and vague memory, Li Cheng did hear the term "imaginary space" many times.

[Conquer everything... Explore... Imaginary space...]

Explore...the black ocean...imaginary space...extract...

Imaginary space...collapses...reappears...

An endless black ocean, a laboratory filled with all sorts of strange equipment, and countless pairs of fanatical eyes. Fragmented pieces, devoid of any logical connection. It seemed to be just a jumbled mess of memories, from which not a single complete or clear part could be found.

However, there was a strange, unsettling feeling, a very, very unsettling feeling.

I hope I'm just overthinking it.

Nourished by demonic energy, the wounds on his body slowly healed, causing Li Cheng a slight itching sensation. However, this was actually a rather troublesome matter. Normally, with the power of demonic energy and his cultivation level, injuries of this severity should heal quickly. But because of his reckless actions while fighting the pale monster, the activity of the demonic energy within Li Cheng's body had decreased significantly, making it impossible for his wounds to heal completely in a short time.

If the previous vague memories were because they were unclear and difficult to explain, which is why I didn't tell Zi about them, then this matter is something I genuinely wanted to keep from her.

Although he didn't initially think it was anything serious, after Marisa's explanation, he roughly understood how dangerous his actions were. Given Yukari's personality, she would probably be quite angry if she knew what she had done.

For this reason, Li Chengcai chose to avoid the topic, only saying that he had overcome the monster with great difficulty, without going into details about the process.

However, given his current physical condition, it would be impossible for him to recover completely without any flaws in less than two or three days. If Zi were to find him quickly after entering that gray mist world, wouldn't he be in a very bad situation?

Li Cheng's expression became somewhat conflicted.

Oh well, we'll deal with whatever comes our way. At worst, I'll be thrown into the ocean trench or to the North or South Pole again. After a few more times, I'll get used to it. It's not a big deal.

On the other side of the meadow, beyond a small hill, Li Cheng noticed a dark, curtain-like area slowly moving. He didn't know what it was; perhaps it was some kind of monster. However, it wasn't coming towards him, just moving on its own, so he ignored it.

Although the night was quiet, a closer look revealed a lively scene. There were incompletely transformed demons walking along the main road, fairies flying through the forest, and occasionally, small demons that would appear out of nowhere and attack Li Cheng, mistaking him for an ordinary human. In short, in the few tens of minutes Li Cheng had stood at the edge of the forest, he had already chased away a full four demons.

As a rare warm-up before the real battle, Li Cheng was still very grateful to those monsters.

"Oh, so the uncle has been waiting outside the whole time?"

da★ze?

Marisa's energetic voice came from behind. Li Cheng turned around and saw her riding a broom, skimming low overhead, and appearing beside him in the blink of an eye. Li Cheng noticed that Marisa's clothes were stained with a little black ash.

"Is it almost time?"

Finally, it seems we can start dealing with that gray fog space.

"That's right, that's right. Are you a little nervous, Uncle? No problem! I'm a professional at resolving mutations. I've solved countless mutations. Uncle, as long as you're in my group, you can win even if you're just lying down."

Marisa said with great pride.

"I'm more excited than nervous. But since it's time, let's get going."

Using the gap to move, Li Cheng and Marisa arrived at the entrance to the Gray Mist World. Just as Marisa had said at the beginning, the entrance to the Gray Mist World had now stabilized and was passable. However, Li Cheng noticed that the concentration of the gray mist seemed to have decreased slightly compared to before, perhaps related to the monster he had killed that served as a spatial support pillar.

"Speaking of which, Uncle can fly in the sky too, right?"

Marisa looked at Li Cheng with some confusion.

"Why do we have to rely on that gap or something to move? Wouldn't it be better to just fly in the air?"

"Because it's more convenient for me this way."

Lee Seung-ri answered as a matter of course.

Rather than manipulating gravity with the power of realms, it's much more convenient to rely on teleportation through gaps. Moreover, for Li Cheng, a martial artist, having both feet off the ground is always an uncomfortable experience. Unless absolutely necessary, he prefers the feeling of his feet firmly planted on the ground.

"Strange reasons, strange ideas, strange uncle da★ze," Marisa commented simply after listening to Li Cheng's thoughts. "So, uncle, are you a weird uncle?"

"I must decline such a terrible address."

There was no trace of the priestess in red and white. Perhaps she hadn't arrived yet, or perhaps she had already gone inside to explore.

However, Li Cheng did notice a young girl with short white hair, wearing a light green skirt, heading this way. She seemed to be someone he vaguely recognized. Although he had only glanced at her briefly, Li Cheng felt that she looked somewhat familiar, especially since there was a white, cotton candy-like object floating beside her.

I wonder if it could be someone who appeared in Zi's memories.

Li Cheng felt a little curious and wanted to take a closer look, but his partner Marisa was already eagerly heading into the gray fog, so he could only follow her in.

"We must be the first to eliminate the mutated da★ze!"

The passionate voice unique to young girls emanated from the sofa beside him, only to be quickly swallowed up by the thick gray fog. This fog seemed to isolate different people, or perhaps the inherent spatial chaos prevented different people from reaching the same place. In any case, when Li Cheng finally passed through the dense fog, there was no one beside him.

Before him lay a completely unfamiliar city ruin in the yellow sand, and the same deathly silence as always, devoid of any living beings.

"I feel like lately I've been fighting in all sorts of ruins. It's like the film crew is short on funds, so they're trying to put all the script locations in the same or similar scenes. Isn't that a bit too pathetic?"

I feel like I'm the kind of person who says things like that, more like the sarcastic character Marisa talks about.

Li Cheng waited for a while but didn't find any trace of Marisa, guessing that he and she had probably been separated by the turbulence and were now far apart. Realizing he would have to act alone again, Li Cheng headed straight for the city ruins ahead.

It is said that some people in the world worship ruins because they possess an indescribable beauty. Those cities, the crystallization of human wisdom and symbols of civilization, those magnificent or distinctive buildings, ultimately turn into ruins, leaving only broken walls and remnants, gradually disappearing into time, never to be found again. This beauty of decay and desolation attracts many people, leaving them in awe and captivated.

However, Li Cheng didn't like ruins.

This is not only because ruins easily become hiding places for various exiles and dirty organizations, but also because there are many ruins in his world, and the cause of the existence of these ruins, the horrific war that swept the world, still casts a shadow over the world to this day.

"It's so lifeless."

Crossing a building that had completely collapsed to the ground, and jumping off the sandy soil, Li Cheng pressed onward into the misty desert. He could sense that something might exist ahead of him.

…………

Thank you so much to reader "Terrifying Rabbit" for the generous donation!

Thank you to readers Moonlit Begonia, Terrifying Rabbit, Fluorine-Free Inverter, Wind Forever Flies with Worries, Seeking in Dreams, and Sinful Demon King EX for their recommendation votes.

Second update. I'm exhausted, going to bed now. Please give me some votes!

Chapter 14, Section 304: The Witch's Luck

In the gray, dilapidated world, in the silence, one can only hear one's own breathing and footsteps.

Li Cheng traversed this short stretch of ruins and quickly reached the edge of this land. Before the torn earth, amidst the thick gray fog, he could see scattered ruins in the distance, like isolated islands floating in the mist, appearing and disappearing, exuding a strong sense of absurdity and death.

And this is the world where Zi once lived.

"What kind of disaster could have turned this place into what it is now..."

Using his teleportation ability, Li Cheng moved forward through the gray fog, traversing one ruin after another. This time, his senses seemed somewhat limited, preventing him from clearly perceiving any anomalies in a particular direction as he had before, thus hindering his ability to locate anything resembling the ghastly white humanoid monster.

I wonder if this is a change brought about by killing that monster.

Although Zi had promised to come find him, the contract's communication capabilities hadn't been restored at all. Furthermore, after wandering through countless ruins for over half an hour, Li Cheng couldn't find a single place exactly like the one he'd imagined. This shattered world seemed far larger than he'd ever imagined.

It was at this moment that Li Cheng spotted a figure flashing by in the distance.

The other person looked somewhat familiar, but they were too far away, and the fog obscured their vision, so he couldn't see them very clearly. Considering the great danger of acting alone, Li Cheng followed and quickly caught up with the other person using his ability to create gaps. He then discovered that the other person was actually the aloof girl from the Hakurei Shrine.

However, compared to when they last met at the Hakurei Shrine, the shrine maiden now appeared to be in a state of agitation.

"Ugh, this is so annoying! What kind of place is this? We can't find the initiator of the anomaly, and there's no one here to explain what's going on. It's all so inexplicable."

The somewhat irritable Reimu Hakurei flew forward, muttering to herself.

"Miss Hakurei."

Li Cheng called out to her from afar and hurried towards her. Hearing Li Cheng's voice, Reimu Hakurei stopped, looking at the suddenly appearing man with a puzzled expression.

"Why are you here? You must be the one who caused this anomaly, right?" The girl looked at Li Cheng with suspicion. "I guess I should just exorcise you, no, I should just send you to the afterlife. Maybe that will solve all the problems."

"Please stop trying to cause trouble for me, the victim. It won't do any good for what's already happened."

Li Cheng sighed, feeling somewhat helpless at the girl's clearly escapist thoughts.

"Hakurei-san, have you found anything here? Whether it's something strangely shaped, a powerful monster or an enemy, anything unusual, have you found anything?"

"If such a thing really existed, wouldn't I investigate it? It's precisely because I can't find anything that I'm wandering around this place. Ugh, how annoying, I can't even find my way back. I already want to go home. I guess I should just ignore this kind of anomaly and go back to rest and have some tea. Anyway, it won't have any impact."

Such self-destructive and irresponsible words—is this really the priestess who protects the Great Barrier and the order between humans and demons?

However, even though the other party appeared to be giving up and seemed unwilling to continue trying, Li Cheng was still very clear about the qualities she possessed.

As the current shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu Hakurei possesses not only formidable combat abilities but also many unique qualities that she herself is unaware of. Although the knowledge Li Cheng has about the girl before him theoretically comes from another world and may not be entirely consistent with the girl before him, Li Cheng is still certain that this girl should also possess the same traits.

Extreme luck, and incredibly keen intuition.

Reimu Hakurei possesses exceptional intuition and an almost uncanny luck. Even in the most inexplicable incidents, she often manages to stumble upon the mastermind and resolve the entire problem. This peculiar power is utterly unreasonable, and it is precisely through this ability that she has been able to avoid numerous dangers.

Although she herself was unaware of it, she may have actually grasped some clues, but simply hadn't discovered or analyzed the underlying principles.

Thinking this, Li Cheng tried speaking to Reimu:

"Perhaps you've already found some clues, but you just haven't realized it. Why don't you try to recall carefully which places you've been?"

"Didn't you notice...?"

Reimu seemed troubled, but she stopped and began to think carefully. She frowned, recalling every place she had been, while Li Cheng stood in a gap to the side, waiting for her answer.

Not long after, Reimu Hakurei shook her head and spoke with great certainty:

"As expected, there was nothing unusual. I didn't find anything unusual in the places I passed. I've been wandering around this place for so long, and I haven't seen anything except ruins. I haven't even seen a rabbit."

No?

Slightly disappointed, but considering that they are from two different worlds, this priestess may not necessarily have the unreasonable luck that Zi remembered.

In that case, I should continue searching for clues and Zi in other places.

As Li Cheng was thinking this, he suddenly heard the girl beside him say hesitantly:

"However, if I had to say, the place I'm in right now seems a bit strange."

ha?

Li Cheng looked up with some confusion, following Reimu's gaze. He found that she was looking at a ruin, a floating landmass that seemed no different from other ruins. However, after looking more closely, Li Cheng quickly noticed something different.

The ruins of that city seemed to be covered by a thick layer of ice.

On the surface, it's difficult to distinguish from other ruins due to the gray fog, but the color of the ice is still different from the color of the buildings. The sudden appearance of a city ruin frozen in ice in such a place clearly indicates that something is wrong here.

He had simply happened to run into her, and had stopped her to ask for information, only to find himself next to an unusual ruin. Should he say the shrine maiden was extremely lucky, or that he himself had just had a stroke of good fortune?