Chapter 1 Liu Sheng, Zhao Xi

Liu Sheng and Zhao Xi were among the earliest demon hunters Hao Ren had met. The grudges they'd borne from their initial meeting had long since vanished, and Hao Ren now considered them acquaintances: not quite friends, but more than strangers.

During the turmoil in Corpus a little over a month ago, Liu Sheng and Zhao Xi, like other demon hunters, were urgently recalled to the Arctic to participate in the counterattack against the Elder Council. Since then, news of them had ceased. They might have been superhuman to ordinary people, but in the grand battle of Corpus, demon hunters like them were just countless soldiers fighting on the front lines. Without special luck, their lives were no more secure than anyone else's.

Hao Ren had been overwhelmed during the Corpus War, and afterward, he was busy sorting out a bunch of prehistoric data and the disputes of the Heteromorphs. It wasn't until now that he suddenly remembered Liu Sheng and Zhao Xi. The civil war had ended for more than half a month, and the new council and the demon hunters originally stationed in the Arctic were busy rebuilding Corpus. The field demon hunters who had been summoned from all over the world had returned to their original residences one after another: The demon hunters' millennial foundation could not be abandoned, they had to rebuild their power network in the mortal world as much as possible, and even if they couldn't rebuild it, they had to ensure that they could understand the movements around the world at any time.

So if Liu Sheng and Zhao Xi were still alive, they would most likely have returned to this city.

Hao Ren, carrying the data terminal, arrived at the middle floor of the mall. With the help of good memory... in fact, it was the navigation of the data terminal, he found the small mobile phone store where Zhao Xi used to work. A short, chubby girl was standing in front of the counter, and another freckled girl, who Hao Ren vaguely remembered, was busy in the store. Hao Ren stepped forward to ask about Zhao Xi's situation.

"Zhao Xi? She hasn't come to work for two months," the freckled girl looked at Hao Ren strangely, frowned and thought for a few seconds before suddenly reacting, "Oh, right, you came here once before, no wonder you look familiar... who exactly are you to Zhao Xi? Could you be her boyfriend?"

The chubby girl next to her said bluntly, "No way, Zhao Xi is so cold, how could she have a boyfriend..."

"Uh, I'm not," Hao Ren waved his hands awkwardly, and then said with some worry, "Zhao Xi hasn't come back yet? Don't you have any news?"

The chubby girl shook her head vigorously: "No, she's so mysterious. We don't even know where she lives. When I called her last month, I found out that her mobile phone was turned off."

Hao Ren frowned, wondering if he should specifically ask Hasse or Bai Huo to confirm the list of surviving demon hunters later. At the same time, he casually asked about the whereabouts of another person, "What about Liu Sheng? Has he come to work?"

The freckled girl nodded when she heard Liu Sheng's name, but before she could speak, Hao Ren heard a vaguely familiar voice behind him: "Eh? Why are you here?"

Hao Ren turned his head and saw that it was Liu Sheng who was standing behind him. This veteran demon hunter was still dressed as usual, in a half-new, half-old suit, a pair of decorative plain glasses, and a pair of inexpensive leather shoes that weren't very shiny. He looked like a small factory director from a rural-urban fringe paper mill. Walking in the bustling mall, he would disappear into the crowd in an instant. He looked at Hao Ren from three meters away with a slightly surprised expression, and then suddenly laughed: "It's been more than half a month."

Hao Ren hurried over and muttered in a low voice, "I haven't seen you for two months."

"That's normal. The last time we met, you were leading 100,000 demons to attack the temple, but I was lying on a stretcher watching you fight. I could see you, but you couldn't see me," Liu Sheng smiled, rolled up his sleeves to reveal his wrist, and there was a dark red ring-shaped wound on his wrist. "And I left a little souvenir—this hand was just grown out ten days ago. Fortunately, it was just cut off by a knife at the time. If it had been injured by a curse, I'm afraid it would never have grown back in this lifetime, and I wouldn't have been able to go to work."

Hao Ren looked at this former "enemy", and all kinds of emotions in his heart couldn't be summarized into a sentence. In the end, he just smiled: "It's good to be alive. What about Zhao Xi?"

"Zhao Xi? She..." Liu Sheng paused suddenly when he said this, and then continued, "She's still alive too."

"Can I go see her?"

Liu Sheng thought for a while and nodded: "Come with me, it just so happens that I can get off work early today."

Liu Sheng and Zhao Xi didn't live far away, and unlike what Hao Ren had guessed, the place where these two demon hunters chose as their stronghold was not some mysterious and森 corner, nor was it surrounded by much strange atmosphere. They lived in a residential area not far from the mall. Both of them were on the top floor, neighbors across the hall.

The greatest hiding is in plain sight. The place where they lived in seclusion made it impossible to see that it was the residence of demon hunters.

"Living on the top floor is quieter," Liu Sheng led Hao Ren to the place he rented. He threw his things into his room first, and then took out another bunch of keys from his pocket to open Zhao Xi's door. "It's just that the elevator here is always broken. Although climbing the stairs isn't tiring, it's annoying."

"You two even bought a house in the city?" Hao Ren suddenly said.

"How could we? The house prices are so expensive now," Liu Sheng replied casually. "This house is rented."

Hao Ren was stunned: "Are demon hunters short of money?"

Liu Sheng looked at him strangely: "Do demon hunters have to be rich?"

"Uh... I mean, you are at least long-lived species. After hundreds or thousands of years in this lifetime, even selling sweet potatoes should lead you to the peak of your life," Hao Ren felt incredible. He felt that demon hunters, as the big winners after the mythical era, shouldn't be so miserable. Although there was no reason, he just thought so, "At least it shouldn't be a problem for someone like you to buy a set of real estate."

Liu Sheng chuckled: "Then why are you renting a house full of people?"

Hao Ren thought for a while and felt speechless...

But he still felt that it was incredible that a regional manager-level demon hunter like Liu Sheng needed to rent a house. After careful consideration, he felt that this might be "attributed" to Vivian: the poor goddess countess suppressed the country. Although she had abdicated from the position of the fourteen saints six thousand years ago, the power of decay that she left behind still spread to the entire demon hunter organization. At least from Liu Sheng's situation, the grass-roots cadres in the demon hunters were not doing well...

At this time, Liu Sheng had already found the key to open the door. He greeted inside: "Zhao Xi, there's a guest."

Then he didn't hear anyone in the house respond. Liu Sheng directly let Hao Ren into the living room: "Come in, she can't entertain you."

Hao Ren walked into the house with curiosity. This was a very simple home, a small one-bedroom apartment. All that could be seen in the living room were a few of the most basic and simple furniture, and Zhao Xi was sitting on that somewhat faded sofa. She didn't react at all to someone entering the house.

Hao Ren immediately realized that something was wrong with the other party. He walked forward and found that Zhao Xi was just staring blankly at the wall opposite the living room, her eyes half-open and half-closed, occasionally blinking, but her pupils were out of focus. He waved his hand in front of Zhao Xi's eyes, and the latter seemed to respond slightly: she tilted her head slightly, but there was no more action.

"This is... Soul Separation Syndrome?" Hao Ren remembered the symptoms that many demon hunters had after the end of the Corpus War. Those demon hunters who had been trapped in the Spirit Realm Clock Tower and the surviving Elder Council warriors had this condition, but Zhao Xi's situation was obviously more serious: such a long time had passed, but she was still almost a vegetable!

"She was once caught in the Spirit Realm Clock Tower. Although it wasn't long, she became like this after she came out," Liu Sheng sighed. "Alas, she's too weak. I don't know when she'll recover."

The degree of influence of Soul Separation Syndrome depends directly on the mental strength of the victim. A powerful demon hunter like Hasse only needs about a week to recover normal mobility from the Soul Separation Syndrome state, while the weaker the demon hunter, the more serious the impact of Soul Separation Syndrome. Zhao Xi was undoubtedly a rather weak demon hunter—she wasn't even a veteran, just an ordinary formal hunter.

So Liu Sheng believed that Zhao Xi's current state was the result of malignant Soul Separation Syndrome.

Hao Ren actually thought so at first, but just as he was about to leave Zhao Xi, the data terminal suddenly popped out of his pocket: "Wait! She doesn't seem to have Soul Separation Syndrome!"

Hao Ren was stunned, and then realized one thing: his busybody physique seemed to be working again?

At this time, the data terminal had been flying around Zhao Xi's head for several laps, and after scanning back and forth, it flew back in a "咻" sound: "There's something in her soul, a very powerful thing!"