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

In Li Cheng's mind, those fragmented memories resurfaced once again.

Imaginary space, spatial experiments, surging black tides… The reasons for the destruction and collapse of the world where Zi once lived are slowly being revealed before Li Cheng's eyes. Although he still doesn't know the whole truth, at this moment, he has already come into contact with enough information to piece together a part of it.

What exactly did those people open, and why did black mud emerge from that door? Moreover, turning a top-tier transcendent into a mindless corpse is something that black mud with corrupting abilities could not possibly do. There must be something else, something else, existing behind that door—a terrifying existence capable of destroying a transcendent.

"This is really a headache."

The gray fog space is currently inaccessible, and this chaos seems likely to last longer. After attempting to sense the gray fog world, Li Cheng quickly left the area.

What should I do next?

Having insufficient power to escape, and with no communication from Zi, and with no time yet available to re-enter the gray fog space, he was once again left with nothing to do.

Somewhat agitated, Li Cheng turned and left the gray fog area, walking alone on a quiet country road under the night sky. Perhaps because the gray fog area had attracted many monsters and fantastical creatures, Li Cheng did not encounter any monster attacks along the way.

Except for that one guy who's sneaking around.

"Wow!"

A short, blue-haired girl suddenly leaped out of the bushes beside Li Cheng with incredible speed. In her hand, she held an old-fashioned Tang Dynasty umbrella. The umbrella's construction was quite peculiar; on its open surface was a huge, scarlet pupil, and a long tongue protruded from it, dripping with sticky saliva, making it look extremely disgusting.

What is this woman trying to do?

Looking at the girl with the umbrella who rushed out of the bushes with a fierce expression, Li Cheng was full of doubt.

I can sense a considerable demonic power, which means this guy wants to attack me? But is it okay to attack someone at such a slow speed? And what's with this deliberately fierce expression? Oh well, never mind, I'll just fight back first.

Thinking this, Li Cheng paused, took a step to the side, and spun around, moving away from the monster girl's front. Without giving the girl a chance to react, Li Cheng spun around and moved behind her, kneeing her leg and causing her to lose her balance. He then grabbed her shoulder and pulled her down, causing her to cry out and fall to the ground with a thud.

Without the slightest hesitation, Li Cheng, who already regarded the girl in front of him as a class enemy, kicked her in the back. This merciless kick knocked the girl to the ground, her face making intimate contact with the yellow mud, and the Tang umbrella she was holding almost flew away.

Next, he should have instantly rushed to the other person's side and launched a relentless attack. However, Li Cheng stopped. On the one hand, he noticed that the girl hadn't retaliated at all from beginning to end. On the other hand, he suddenly remembered that the girl didn't seem to have shown him even the slightest bit of hostility.

Looking back now, it seems that the act of suddenly jumping out from the bushes was just meant to scare him, not to actually attack him.

Am I overreacting?

"Waaaaah...it hurts, it hurts so much! Is this what they call the aggressive stress response in the scary encyclopedia? Waaaaah...why does it hurt so much..."

At this moment, the girl who had been kicked hard by Li Cheng rubbed her waist and trembled as she got up. Her small face, which was now somewhat dirty, was full of pain and grievance.

"Um, I'm sorry, I overreacted a bit. Are you alright?"

Li Cheng stepped forward, somewhat embarrassed, and then he noticed that the girl, who looked to be only ten years old, actually had heterochromia. Her left eye was a deep blue pupil, while her right eye was a striking blood red, just like the eye on the Tang umbrella in her hand.

He also checked the girl's hands and then discovered that despite being kicked hard and landing face-first on the ground, the girl only had a slightly dirty face and no signs of injury.

It's no wonder it's a monster; it looks so small, but it's so tough and thick-skinned.

"Ouch, it hurts a bit, but it's nothing serious. It's just this much, nothing to worry about!"

The girl waved her hand, seemingly unconcerned that Li Cheng had kicked her. She slowly stood up from the ground, looked up at Li Cheng, and then her expression suddenly turned puzzled.

"Speaking of which, did I scare anyone or not? Hmm, I don't see any signs of being scared, but given how fiercely I fought back just now, according to the 'Scary Encyclopedia,' I should be considered scared, right? Hmm, that should be it, right?"

As she muttered to herself, the girl suddenly waved at Li Cheng and asked, "Human, human, were you scared by me just now?"

"Oh, no? I just thought you were trying to attack me, so I fought back."

Li Cheng answered naturally.

"A huge failure!"

The girl, as if all her strength had been drained, collapsed to the ground, screaming in despair, even the eyes on Tang San's face showing a look of despair.

"Waaaaah, I studied that scary encyclopedia so hard, and I even chose the dead of night to jump out with the scariest expression to scare people, but it still didn't work at all. Waaaaah, what a failure, what a failure..."

No, the expression you made when you jumped out was actually quite terrifying (facial expression), you just chose the wrong target to scare. I sensed you approaching when you were still dozens of meters away from me, and under those circumstances, there was no way you could scare a martial artist.

Seeing the girl's sorrowful expression, Li Cheng hesitated for a long time, but in the end, he didn't stay any longer and quickly left after bypassing her.

After much deliberation, he decided to go to the Magic Forest and stay at the Kourindo Hall, where the half-demon Mori Chika Rinnosuke, who had given him the clothes, resided. After all, the other man had promised him that if he explained the uses and applications of various technological products that had drifted into the area from the outside world, he would provide Li Cheng with all sorts of assistance.

After all, I don't know anyone here, and it's more reliable to ask someone of the same sex for help than someone of the opposite sex. Besides, Mr. Morichika does seem to be a trustworthy person.

Having made up his mind, Li Cheng opened a portal and arrived directly at the outer edge of the Magic Forest. But as soon as he stepped out of the portal, Li Cheng realized something was wrong. A strong smell of burning filled the air, and smoke and dust were billowing above the Magic Forest.

"It's Mr. Li. Have you returned from that gray fog world?"

Wearing glasses, Morichika Rinnosuke emerged from the woods not far from Li Cheng's side. He looked at the slowly closing gap behind Li Cheng, his expression changing slightly. He muttered to himself, "It's actually true," before quickly hiding his conflicted expression, because Li Cheng had already walked up to him.

Although Li Cheng's hearing was so sharp that he had already clearly heard Sen Jin's changes in expression and even his mutterings to himself.

Could it be that the rumors circulating in that tattered newspaper have reached the entire Gensokyo community?

Although he really wanted to explain, considering that the pervasive smoke and dust were obviously more important, Li Cheng forced himself to shift his attention and instead asked the other party:

"Ahem, Mr. Morichika, do you know what's going on?"

Mori's expression immediately turned serious.

“It’s Marisa’s place,” Morichika said with a worried look. “Her house area is on fire, and I’m on my way there to see what happened.”

…………

Thank you to readers Yu Sheng Lin Qing, Terrifying Rabbit, Canglan Shanren, Big Rabbit, Sin Demon King EX, and Feng Yong Sui You Fei for their recommendation votes.

Chapter 20, Section 310: The Old Father and the Reckless Daughter

From the misty forest to Marisa's Misty Rain Magic Shop, in order to quickly ascertain the other party's safety, Li Cheng directly opened a gap and rushed to the location with Mori Chika.

It was at this moment that Li Cheng noticed that Mori Chika seemed to be slightly resistant to the gap, with a somewhat unhappy expression on his face. He wondered if Mori Chika had suffered a loss at the hands of that gap monster before.

However, this was not the important thing at the moment, and Li Cheng did not pay attention to such trivial matters.

After the gap opened, Li Cheng saw Marisa's house, which had been reduced to a sea of ​​fire, and many trees around it that had also caught fire, amidst the billowing smoke. The poisonous mushrooms emitted a "whimpering" sound and suddenly rose from the ground, scattering and fleeing. The fairies had long since disappeared without a trace.

"Ugh, it's gotten into this state again. What did that idiot Marisa do this time?"

Morichika Rinnosuke, who had emerged from the gap alongside Li Cheng, also saw the burning hut and couldn't help but sigh. Li Cheng was slightly taken aback; judging from Morichika's words and tone, this didn't seem to be the first time something like this had happened.

"Marisa, don't let her carefree and energetic demeanor fool you. She's actually quite diligent in her spell training and potion research. This isn't the first or second time she's done an explosion," Morichika explained calmly, seemingly noticing Li Cheng's confusion. "However, this explosion was rather large. Could she have been slightly traumatized? Sigh, she's such a worry."

With a slightly worried expression, Morichika Rinnosuke walked up to the hut, stretched out his hand, and released his demonic power with a shout, quickly extinguishing the surrounding fire. This technique seemed to have taken a toll on him, as his handsome face turned much paler in an instant.

"Marisa—cough cough cough cough!!"

Ignoring his own weakness, Mori pushed open the charred door and hurriedly stepped into the smoke-filled room, shouting loudly. He immediately inhaled a large amount of smoke and coughed.

The Realm of Flow and Stillness

Li Cheng stretched out his hand, and purple light flowed, accelerating the movement of the smoke and quickly dispersing it all. Inside the dilapidated, charred house, the two quickly found Marisa lying on the ground.

Unlike her usual carefree and elegant demeanor, the girl's hat had been blown off, her long blonde hair was disheveled, half of it was dyed black, and her black and white clothes were tattered, looking like the ragged attire of a homeless person. The girl's eyes were tightly closed, and her small face was blackened by soot, making her look like a little African.

"Is he alright? He's really tough."

Morichika helped Marisa up. After confirming that she was not injured and had only fainted, he felt relieved. He took out a handkerchief he always carried and carefully wiped the unconscious Marisa's face. He also tidied her messy long hair, and his expression gradually relaxed.

"Mr. Morichika, you look just like an old father worried about his daughter."

Seeing the obvious change in the other person's expression, and recalling Mori's initial undisguised worry, Li Cheng couldn't help but tease him.

"Who, who is the old father? I'm not! I'm not worried about her at all! On the contrary, this guy freeloads at my house every day and steals things, he's just like a robber! Yes, that's right, I don't want her to die, but I need her to live to pay off my debts! It's that simple!"

Mori almost roared at Li Cheng, his face, which had been pale from expending too much energy, even regained its color.

That's such a genuine reaction. Could this guy actually be a very easy person to understand?

"Hmm... Morichika?"

Seemingly because of Morichika's overly strong reaction, Marisa, who was disturbed, rubbed her eyes in a daze and tried to sit up. However, she immediately twisted her expression, cried out in pain, and fell to the ground again. Morichika, who was quick-witted and agile, quickly and carefully supported her.

"It hurts, it hurts so much, ouch, my body feels like it's falling apart."

Marisa said with a mournful face.

"Don't move around," Morichika said softly, patting Marisa's head. "You're still very weak. Come to my place tonight, and I'll brew some herbal medicine to help you recover."

"Hehe, did the potion preparation fail? Looks like I was a little distracted."

"You idiot, how dare you say that?"

The explosion caused more damage than expected. Although Marisa withstood the blast thanks to her protective array and her own exceptional physical abilities, the rest of the house wasn't so lucky. Morichika, carrying Marisa on his back, tried to tidy up Marisa's room with Li Cheng, only to find that almost everything inside was burned. And, likely due to the extraordinary power of the potion explosion, even Marisa's broom was reduced to ashes.

"Hmm, it's completely burned up. It seems this formula is quite potent. Maybe next time we can try making this kind of potion on the spot when we can't win a fight?"

Marisa, looking extremely weak and unable to even walk, lay on Morichika's back and said thoughtfully.

"Let's talk about this after you recover, you homeless witch," Mori said irritably, walking through a collapsed wooden wall and glancing at the mess inside. "It's really burned to the ground. I guess the Bagua Furnace I made for you burned down too. It's not easy to make a second one of those."

“No way,” Marisa retorted righteously, reaching into her skirt and pulling out a palm-sized octagonal furnace in no time. “I always carry this with me, you know, because Morichika made it for me. I wouldn’t break it so easily.”

"Hmph, good to know. You should know that I put a lot of effort into making this for you."

Mori snorted coldly, his expression still showing impatience, but Li Cheng, who was standing beside him, could clearly see that a soft light was being projected into the other's golden pupils.

I feel like he's becoming more and more like an old father.

After managing to salvage some undamaged items from the burned ruins, Morichika carried the weakened Marisa back to Kourindo through a gap in Li Cheng's clothing. With practiced ease, Morichika opened a side room, used a cleansing talisman to remove the grime from Marisa's body, then laid out a mat for her to lie on before preparing herbs to heal her injuries and restore her energy.

"Mr. Morichika seems to have done this many times before; he seems quite skilled at it."

Seeing Sen Jin's actions, Li Cheng couldn't help but speak up.

"Because this idiot keeps blowing himself up and blowing up his own house, I've taken him in and treated him several times."

Mori sighed, his face full of trouble. He brewed a herbal soup and returned to Marisa's room, helping her up from the bed to drink the medicine.

"Hmm, is it that bitter medicine again, like last time?"

Marisa's expression showed some resistance.

"If you want to recover sooner, just take your medicine. If you hadn't been so careless, this wouldn't have happened."

Mori sighed and held the medicine bowl to Marisa's lips. Marisa, with a bitter face, reluctantly drank all the dark green medicine. She then made a face as if she was about to vomit, and after a long while, she swallowed the medicine with a mournful expression.

"so bitter……"

"Here's some candy, suck on it," Morichika placed a small piece of sugar in Marisa's hand, then walked outside. "Get some rest and recover quickly. I'll go mend your torn clothes."

"Hehe, thanks!"

"If you want to thank me, then watch out, don't keep causing me trouble."