Archfiend

Chapter 2: M-Files (1)

 Xu Yangyi was unaware of all that had occurred in the office of the Disciplinary and Investigations Unit. Nonetheless, even if he knew, he still wouldn’t care about it in the least bit.

The present him was strolling unhurriedly towards Sanshui City’s Security Department where the first-in-command Bureau Chief Zheng’s office was located. 

After he pushed open the door to the chief’s office, the air conditioning that blew on his body was a great immediate relief. Across from him, there was a middle-aged man seriously telling something to his secretary. 

The man wasn’t tall, at most around 1.73 meters. His hair was sparse and his face was square. His face was filled with great changes due to how long he had held his high station, carrying a prestige that wasn’t angry but still held power.

Upon hearing the door hadn’t been knocked on but rather pushed open, Chief Zheng’s gaze lightly swept over, yet he didn’t say a word. Instead, he gently opened a folding fan in his hand and rocked it neither slowly nor swiftly. “A country has laws and a family has rules. Without regulations, there are no boundaries. The ancestors spoke well...”

“That’s…” The assistant listened to these words that seemed to hold a second meaning. Immediately, the gifts of his mind automatically filled in the blanks, and he glanced at Xu Yangyi. Without a sudden move or indication, the secretary smiled at Chief Zheng and said, “However, the military police have transferred someone in now…”

“Everything has a system, has regulations.” Chief Zheng gently held his teacup and blew on it. “He wanted to be transferred in. It’s not like I didn’t try to reason with him. But to come straight to find me, the question is… Is it to find Lieutenant Colonel Li or is it to find me, Chief Zheng?”

“Good tea.” He pursed his lips in satisfaction. “Urgent business isn’t just business, systems aren’t just systems, and codes aren’t exactly codes… Can anyone just overstep authority to transfer someone in and make the bureau chief act directly for him?”

“For an emergency, sure. We go through procedures, so that everyone is fine. The time it takes is a bit long but no careless mistakes arise.” Chief Zheng shut his folding fan with a snap, and his gaze calmly fell on Xu Yangyi who was standing besides a bookcase. He said to his secretary in an authoritative manner, “You leave first. Tell him that whatever the matter may be, everything has rules and regulations. Aren’t the people from the Public Security Bureau nervous? Our men aren’t enough on their own to investigate the major murder case that was just transferred. Go, alright.”

The secretary left, and Chief Zheng coughed, seeing that Xu Yangyi hadn’t responded. Standing up, he wrung the door handle a few times, and his expression immediately changed into a smile. The folding fan in the palm of his hand softly flapped twice, and he grinned as he walked over. “Young Xu… come, come. Sit, what would you like to drink? This old man hasn’t embarrassed you, right? Work is still going smoothly?”

His smile was like the blooming of a Persian Chrysanthemum, completely different from moments ago. It was without the might of a superior looking upon a subordinate but rather like he had seen an old friend. A smile of matchless sincerity. 

“None. It’s going without a hitch.” Xu Yangyi took out a cigarette. “May I?”

“Of course… Really, Young Xu, how many times have I said it? My office is your office. You don’t have to be so polite with me, Uncle Zheng. Come, come, sit. Let’s sit down and chat.”

With a conversation like this, there were only two possibilities. 

One: Xu Yangyi was Chief Zheng’s long-separated younger brother.

Two: Xu Yangyi truly was a gilded paratrooper sent down. His background was so grand that Chief Zheng couldn’t afford to offend him, didn’t risk committing an offense.

“Young Xu, you see…” 

Seeing that Xu Yangyi had sat down, Chief Zheng hesitated to speak several times and smiled. But just as he opened his mouth, Xu Yangyi, who was sitting across from him and looking at the faint flickering of his cigarette butt, said calmly, “Duck.”

“???” Chief Zheng found it somewhat baffling, but in the next second the window behind him shattered explosively!

Crash! Like a gigantic fist had made its way in from the outside, not only did the window shatter, but even the aluminum frame had completely flown away!

A sliver of sparkling, translucent glass came flying past the side of Chief Zheng’s ear. Time seemed to freeze as he saw the side window that seemed to rain like flowers from the corner of his eye. Every shard reflected the side of his terrified face. Already, the blue window curtains had blown open in the wind, yet his mind hadn’t completely responded.

Boom! In his fright, he became slow, like he was in a world of silence. His body was flung back with great force, knocking into the bookcase despite his best efforts. Xu Yangyi had kicked him.

As if time had taken flow once more, the crash of countless bullet-like glass shards riddled the entire room! The body of the mangled window frame laid at the center! He trembled from head to toe, wanting to stand up, yet he found his feet was without the slightest bit of strength. Even his hands supported on the table were trembling!

“What… What happened…?” Against his will, his voice shuddered fiercely. If he had been standing by the window side a moment ago, he would’ve now been ushered away to the hospital! He quickly reacted, however!

Impossible!

This was a bulletproof window! It couldn’t be seen from outside, but it was actually a centimeter thick! What kind of bullet could shatter the entire window? A sniper bullet would only be able to cause a spider’s web of an impact!

It was evident that some object had punched in from the outside, though! Yet this was even more of an impossibility! This was the twentieth floor! City Hall was the highest building in the entire city! You could overlook the whole city from here!

His forehead slick with sweat, Chief Zheng could hear the echo of his beating heart at the side of his ear. He wanted to fidget, but he discovered his body had become terribly soft. Gritting his teeth, he said, “Y-Young Xu…”

“Hush…” It was unknown when, but Xu Yangyi had already stood up. His expression was abnormally solemn, and he raised his finger. “There’s something here…”

These words were like a switch. Chief Zheng’s Adam’s apple jumped in his throat; he dared not speak anymore. In his field of vision, he looked around in fright to suddenly discover…

The window curtains!

The window curtains should’ve been hanging down by the window sides, yet at this moment, they were eerily suspended in midair!

At the top and bottom of the window... they were floating. Such a feeling seemed as if an invisible man had charged into the window and shattered the bulletproof glass and aluminum window frame! Afterwards, the window curtains just happened to cover his body, not falling over!

Because of the curtain, a shape had appeared!

It was broad daylight, yet such a strange event had occurred. Chief Zheng gritted his teeth rigidly, as to prevent himself from giving voice to his alarm. His cold sweat dripped desperately.

Just a moment ago… there was something he couldn’t see. From an extremely distant place, it had crashed into his office with maximum speed, shredding through City Hall’s defensive measures. Until now, there had never been such a grand entry before his eyes. 

This thing… could shatter bulletproof glass… As for the strength of its impact… He didn’t dare imagine what the result would’ve been if Xu Yangyi hadn’t pushed him away just now! Afterwards… Chief Zheng’s heart soon began to palpitate!

There weren’t any changes to Xu Yangyi’s expression, yet the direction that his eyes followed had changed. Since the beginning, It had pressed up closely against the wall, looking at the floor. But now… It slowly lifted Its neck, going from the side of the window and then arriving at the carpet, and then again…

In front of Chief Zheng!

“Chatter… Chatter…” Chief Zheng’s teeth chattered softly. With It fixed onto him like this, Its gaze was incorporeal yet tangible. Just now, his connection with It seemed to tell him: Something has come in. It’s entirely capable of using its mind to make out its environment.

There was something… right in front of him, gazing at him unblinkingly. Behind the intruder… Xu Yangyi was storing his power and waiting to strike, unknown and greatly terrifying. Just as Chief Zheng’s hand was about to slowly press the bell on the table, Xu Yangyi said in the softest of voices at the side of his ear again, “Don’t move.”

Like he was a robot, he accepted this command. He wouldn’t dare move even once, but his entire body kept on trembling.

“Slowly, slowly lie down…”

Chief Zheng’s heart was already filled with terror. He hadn’t seen It, but Xu Yangyi, who was in front of him, had his hand pressed against his own left eye. The other eye was a furious blood-red, yet the pupil was white!

Within his eye, there was another image!

The color of nightfall filled Xu Yangyi’s eye with a jet-black expanse. In front of him… was a tremendous serpent that was a meter thick in diameter. Its body was outside the window, but its head had already neared Chief Zheng’s face! The distance between the two was less than 50 centimeters!

Its jet-black scales glittered in the setting sun’s twilight. It had a bloody maw wide enough to swallow a grown man whole that dripped light-yellow-colored saliva.

Outside the window, on a distant building, there was a toad idly basking in the sun.

The toad wasn’t strange, but… it was no less than over a dozen meters tall and more than 30 meters long in its enormous stature! If it was said that the toad was a whale, then maybe someone would believe it!

The creature was lazing about like so, lying deathly still atop the building. There was a single three-meter-long horn on the top of its head and it had long feelers hanging down its face, like it was an illusory stone carving.

Beneath the center of Sanshui City’s stadium, there was a multicolored centipede, curling its body and resting on the lawn. 

A centipede wasn’t odd as well, however, it was also over twenty meters in length! A centipede that was over half a meter tall! Such that each and every section of it was armored on both sides with a golden ornamental pattern that was similar to a pair of human eyes!

Furthermore, at the far reaches of the river bank, there was a tremendous salamander. Under the water, its enormous silhouette approached no less than twenty-five meters in length. On the surface of the water, it cast a black shadow. Yet within that shadow, there was a freighter that just happened to be sailing by at lightning speed. It appeared to be completely unaware that there was some sort of monstrosity lying beneath the water. 

It was by the red expanse of Xu Yangyi’s eye that all which stopped beyond the line of human sight was revealed. Every scene was reflected upon his retina. As if it existed in another dimension, there was simply no one capable of breaking through this barrier.

A city of demons!

Red in color and isolated from men, as if it was an ephemeral scene that could cause fear upon contact. 

Sizzle… At this time, Chief Zheng fearfully looked… at the carpet in front of him, which beyond all sense or reason, had a hole corroded through it. His pupils began to shrink back!

It had come...

Those things had come…

It truly was them! They were right in front of him!

The more he was left to only look at Xu Yangyi, the more terrified and frightened he was! He didn’t know what was in front of him! It was as if someone had opened an elevator in the middle of the night, and the person inside said, “Sorry, it’s too crowded!”

A nameless terror frantically spread through his entire chest!

But at this moment, Xu Yangyi moved.

Chief Zheng didn’t see how Xu Yangyi moved. He seemed only to have seen an afterimage. In the next second, a loud crash rang out! A kind of noise like a fist impacting upon armor suddenly echoed throughout the entire room! Moreover, the sound was almost within his reach!

“Hissssss…” Extremely gentle, a strange roar echoed throughout the room. Followingly, the unnaturally floating window curtains finally fell down! The room became deathly silent.

Xu Yangyi retracted his fist. In that fleeting moment, he had felt as if he had struck armor. He hadn’t exerted his entire strength. His strike was nothing more than a warning, but the serpent’s hardness exceeded his imagination.

“Is it… Is it gone?” Chief Zheng finally shivered with all of his might. Moments ago, fear had pressed down upon his heart. Now, he could finally vent his feelings like a surging oil well. There was no need for words but rather actions.

“It left.” Xu Yangyi sat down in Chief Zheng’s seat. His eyes had already recovered to their normal state. Chief Zheng trembled as he supported himself on the table top. His fingers trembling chaotically on the table, he silently and slowly stood up.

Sliding on his foot, he propped himself on the table in a panic. He didn’t dare stand too far away, staying at Xu Yangyi’s side. Presently, Xu Yangyi was sitting in his chair, but he simply didn’t care to sit down.

Xu Yangyi popped the collar of his shirt, and Chief Zheng discovered there was a transceiver underneath. “Mao Ba’er, I reckon that thing just now hasn’t left. Why would a demon want to attack me? Aren’t they afraid of dying?” 

“Late-stage Qi Condensation, but it’s really weird. The qi fluctuations are pretty irregular. The highest value doesn’t surpass the peak of the initial stage. For the most part, the target maintained a normal level of the initial stage. It was no lower or greater than yours.” A male voice could be heard from the transceiver. “To speculate the root cause, this demon’s mind must be extremely messed up due to some unknown situation. We, as demon hunters, have to lose a normal way of thinking and depend on the subconscious mind to take action. It’s quite likely that it’s taken you as its target. Have you heard of the Lighthouse Theory? The two of you are like two lighthouses. You can see it, and it can smell you. As for why, that’s beyond my ability to speculate. However, there are already two sure facts. You wanna hear?”

Xu Yangyi nodded. As if the other side had seen the same, Mao Ba’er subsequently said, “One: from an examination of the victims’ wounds and the degree of the target’s strength a moment ago, the demon form confirms it as the true culprit of Sanshui City’s serial killer case.”

“Two: in the event that it is the objective of the graduation exam, you’ll have more than ten more points added on.”

Chief Zheng hadn’t heard the conversation. Instead, an expression of tired relief stretched across his face as he looked at Xu Yangyi. He constrained himself for a while but ultimately said, “Young… Captain Xu, this business… you… sir…”

“Relax.” Xu Yangyi hung up the transceiver, looking at Chief Zheng who had terror stretching over his entire face. He raised his brows. “I said so. I’m a ‘professional’.”

“Otherwise, how could you invite me to come from so far away, while criticizing me with your heads down to lead this unit?”