Chapter Sixteen: Half-Demon

According to the bureau’s intelligence briefing, Blood Fox was a highly rational and cunning man, and more importantly, not a fanatical believer in the Blood Cherry Society.

For such a man to lose his reason and become vastly stronger—right at the very moment Lin Lei brought people to kill their way in—

There had to be more to this than met the eye.

With every clash and exchange against Blood Fox, the suspicion and wariness in Lin Lei’s heart only deepened.

“The current Blood Fox is probably even more monstrous than Wan Qili’s body with Iron Flesh…”

In truth, if he had not nearly lost his mind, that body alone, hard as tempered steel, would have made Lin Lei ten times harder to deal with.

“On my own, I can’t break through Blood Fox’s defenses in his present state. And from the look of him, he doesn’t seem likely to run out of strength anytime soon. If I want to defeat him, I’ll have to rely on overwhelming force…”

He licked his lips and once more drove Blood Fox back with a slash.

Then, from his waist, he produced an amplification potion and without hesitation swallowed it.

At the same time, he activated Blood Boil.

Feeling the strength surging ceaselessly from within his body, Lin Lei tilted his head slightly, tightened both hands around his long blade, and charged forward.

Clang!

One strike came down on Blood Fox’s neck as he was just rising to his feet. Though his skin had taken on a bluish sheen like refined steel, it was still split open by the terrifying force, and flesh and skin burst apart at once.

Yet Lin Lei only narrowed his eyes. Even after taking the amplification potion and driving Blood Boil to its limit, this slash had penetrated only the depth of two fingers.

“Unbelievable…”

Still, though Lin Lei could not effectively wound Blood Fox in his current state, Blood Fox himself was also unable to cope with the terrifying level of force Lin Lei was unleashing.

The man’s strength was far below his defense.

Under that slash from Lin Lei, the wound was not even especially large, yet his whole body was sent crashing helplessly to the ground.

Lin Lei tilted his head, then leapt high into the air and, using the weight of his own fall, brought down a fierce overhead cleave, still aimed at Blood Fox’s neck before he could rise!

Ssssh!

This time, a great spray of fresh blood burst out with the wound.

Lin Lei ignored the blood arrows spattering across his face, seized the long blade with both hands again, and struck down once more!

With the terrifying force he had now erupted with, far beyond anything before, whenever Blood Fox was struck by Lin Lei’s blade, his body would be slammed violently into the ground; he had no way to escape.

One strike, two strikes, three strikes…

With every blow, the wound at his neck grew deeper. The blood that sprayed out at first in violent bursts gradually began to lessen, while Blood Fox’s life force steadily weakened, and even his struggling became slower and slower.

Only when Lin Lei saw that the convulsing body had no strength left to struggle did he stop his blade, then reach out and wipe the hot blood splashed across his face.

Blood Fox lay quietly on the ground. The crimson in his eyes was fading little by little. He stared fixedly up at the dark sky, his gaze filled with unwillingness and rage, and murmured, “Shadow of Blood… Shadow of Blood…”

Before long, his pupils were completely gone.

Lin Lei crouched down and began examining the corpse.

“Inspector Lin!”

At the same time, the others who had scattered earlier finally gathered back.

The battle between Lin Lei and Blood Fox was beyond their level to intervene in, and because they feared hitting their own men, they did not dare fire rashly; even if they had fired, it likely would not have made much difference.

The female investigator stood beside Lin Lei as well, frowning at Blood Fox’s dead body.

“Blood Fox should have been turned into a half-demon by someone…”

Lin Lei frowned and looked back in surprise. “A half-demon?”

The female investigator nodded and also crouched down, taking out a knife to cut open the two protrusions at Blood Fox’s temples.

After he had been killed, the defensive strength of his body surface had fallen sharply, and only then could his skin be sliced open so easily.

As the outer skin was opened, Lin Lei could finally see the true substance beneath those two protrusions.

They were two small red horns, still wrapped in quite a bit of flesh and blood.

“He didn’t complete the transformation. Otherwise, his two horns would have pierced straight through the skin…”

Lin Lei drew a deep breath.

He also knew that the so-called demons were in essence the strange beings known as demonic species.

Comparable to the mythical species, demonic species were also one of the more powerful kinds of strange beings.

However, ordinary demonic species, like mythical species, only appeared in forbidden zones or some other special places. Neither type was native to this world.

“Judging from Blood Fox’s personality, he probably wouldn’t have willingly transformed himself into a mindless demon. It seems he was likely used as a discarded pawn by the Blood Cherry Society,” the female investigator said with a slight shake of her head.

Lin Lei could not help raising an eyebrow. “How would the Blood Cherry Society know we were onto Blood Fox?”

He himself had only confirmed the target halfway through departure and action.

At that, even the female investigator gave him a subtle look and shook her head.

Lin Lei’s gaze swept over the others around them. He raised his brows slightly, then looked again at the dead Blood Fox.

The female investigator stepped forward, cut out the two not-yet-fully-formed horns, and took out a pistol-shaped igniter.

“Demonic species are extremely dangerous, and this fellow has already reached the third realm. The chance of mutation is not low. We don’t have suitable conditions here to recover the corpse… Inspector Lin, I request that it be burned.”

“Burn it,” Lin Lei said with a nod.

The female investigator activated the igniter, and blue flames burst forth.

This kind of igniter was a special weapon designed to deal with the Blood Cherry Society’s Children of Flesh, and what it released was Ghost Flame.

Ghost Flame used source energy as fuel, and it was tremendously effective against the Children of Flesh.

As the blue fire spread, Lin Lei turned to the others and pointed toward the two-story building in the distance. “Search it!”

The others immediately moved at his command, including the female investigator.

Only Lin Lei remained where he was, watching as the others entered the two-story house.

After a short while, Lin Lei finally stepped forward and made his way toward the building. Behind him, the corpse that had just been burning with blue flame suddenly vanished.

...

“Inspector Lin!”

The moment he entered the house, a thick stench of blood spread through the air.

The entire building had already been thoroughly transformed into a field of crimson.

“Inspector Lin, look at this!”

The female investigator, her face grave, led Lin Lei to a room on the first floor.

At that moment, the door was shut tight, and several people were standing guard outside.

The female investigator looked toward the door.

Lin Lei drew a deep breath and pushed it open. At once, a nauseating fetor poured out from within.

Amid a sea of blood, the entire room was outlined with twisted runes.

In the center of the room stood a peculiar pagoda assembled from severed heads, flesh, and limbs.

At a glance, Lin Lei immediately closed the door again.

The female investigator’s expression darkened. “This is a demonic transformation ritual.”