Archfiend Chapter 2

Chapter 2: M-Files (1)

As for everything happening in the office of the Disciplinary and Observation Group, Xu Yangyi didn't know of it. Even if he knew, he absolutely wouldn't take it to heart.

The present him was strolling unhurriedly, headed directly towards the Sanshui City's Security Department where the first-in-command Bureau Chief Zheng's office was. 

Pushing open the door of the chief's office, the blowing of the air conditioning upon his body was an immediate relief without equal. Directly facing him was a middle-aged man telling something to his secretary seriously. 

He wasn't tall, at most around a meter and seventy-three centimeters. His hair was sparse, and his face 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 possessed might.

Upon hearing the door hadn't been knocked on, but rather pushed open, Chief Zheng's gaze lightly swept over, not saying anything at all. On the contrary, he gently opened a folding fan in his hand and shook his head neither slowly nor swiftly: "A country has laws and a family has rules. Without rules, we have no boundaries. The ancestors spoke well……"

"Indeed……" The assistant listened to the verse that appeared to hold a double meaning. His gifts of his mind automatically filled in the blanks, immediately switching on, glancing at Xu Yangyi without movement or fanfare, smiling at Chief Zheng and saying: "However, the military police transferred a man in this time……."

"Everything has a system, has regulations." Chief Zheng gently held his teacup and blew on it: "He wants to investigate, and it's not that I didn't reason with him. However, to come searching for me straightaway, 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: "Despite the urgency of business, despite systems, and despite codes…… Who is capable of superseding authority to transfer a man? To bluntly make the bureau chief to give him post?"

"An emergency, sure, we walk through the sequence of steps, so that everyone is relieved. The time is a bit long, but it's no haphazard mistake." Chief Zheng closed shut his folding fan with a clack, lowering his gaze to look calmly at Xu Yangyi who was standing besides a bookcase. He said to his secretary in an authoritative manner: "With things like this, you leave first. I'll tell him, whatever the matter, everything has rules, has regulations. Are the people of the Public Security Bureau not tense? They're just handling a special, major case. Our men aren't able to investigate the entirety of it. Go, alright."

The secretary left, and Chief Zheng coughed, upon seeing Xu Yangyi hadn't responded. Standing up himself, and after he twisted the door handle a few times, he immediately changed back to his smiling face. The folding fan in the palm of his hand softly flapped twice, and he smiled as he walked over: "Little Xu…… Come, 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 just a moment ago.

Without the might of a superior looking upon a subordinate, but rather like he saw an old friend. A smile of matchless sincerity. 

"None, it's rather suitable. Xu Yangyi took out a cigarette: "May I?"

"Of course…… Little Xu, indeed you may. 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, come, sit. Let us sit down and chat."

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

One: Xu Yangyi was Chief Zheng's long-lost younger brother.

Two: Xu Yangyi truly was a gilded paratrooper sent down, his background so grand that Chief Zheng couldn't afford to offend him, not daring to commit an offense.

Little Xu, you see……" Seeing that Xu Yangyi had sat down, Chief Zheng hesitated to speak several times, smiling, but just as he opened his mouth, Xu Yangyi who was sitting across from him nevertheless looked at the flickering butt of his cigarette and said tranquilly: "Duck."

"???" Chief Zheng found it somewhat unfathomable, but in the next second, the window behind him suddenly shattered explosively!

 "Crash!" Like a gigantic fist had struck in from the outside. The window wasn't only glass, but also framed with aluminum alloys. The entirety of it came flying in!

A sliver of sparkling, translucent glass came flying past the side of Chief Zheng's ear. Time seemed to have froze, as he saw from the corner of his eyes, the side window seemed to shower and flutter like a rain of flowers. Every single sliver reflected the side of his terrified face. Already, the blue window curtains were flying in the wind, yet his mental state hadn't even completely responded.

"Boom!" The change in his terrified mental state was slow, as if he was within a soundless world. The side of his body came like a great attack, knocking into the bookcase, against his own will. 

Xu Yangyi had kicked him.

As if time had taken flow once more, "Crash!", countless glass shards like bullets riddled the entire room! Transforming the shape of the window frame unexpectedly like a corpse in the center of the room! He trembled from head to toe, wanting to stand up, yet he found foot lacked the slightest bit of strength. Even his hand that was supported on the table was trembling!

"What……. What happened……" His voice was involuntarily shuddering fiercely. If he had been standing at the side of the window a moment ago, he would've absolutely been carried off to the hospital by now!

However, closely following, he immediately reacted!

Impossible!

This was a bulletproof glass window! You wouldn't be able to see it from the 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!

This was clearly some object that could punch in from the outside!

Yet this was even more of an impossibility! This was the twentieth floor! City Hall was the entire city's highest structure! You could overlook the entire city from here!

The sound of his heart beat began to echo from the side of Chief Zheng's ear, whose forehead was slick with sweat. He wanted to fidget, but he discovered his body had become terribly soft. Gritting his teeth he said: "Little, Little Xu……"

"Hush……" It was already unknown when Xu Yangyi had began to stand up, his expression abnormally solemn. Pointing his finger at his head: "There's something here……"

These words were like a switch. Chief Zheng's adam's apple jumped in his throat; he dared not speak further. 

In his field of view, he looked around in fright, to suddenly discover…...

The window curtains!

The window curtains should've been hanging by the sides of the window, but at this moment, they were eerily suspended in midair!

Even at the top of window, as well as the bottom….. they were gracefully hovering. Such a feeling was as if a invisible man had charged into the the window, shattering the bulletproof glass and aluminum window frame! Afterwards, the window curtains just happened to cover the thing's body, not falling down!

Because of the cover, a shape appeared!

It was broad daylight, yet such a strange phenomenon had occurred. Chief Zheng grit his teeth unwaveringly, as to go so far as to prevent himself from giving voice to his alarm.

The cold sweat that dripped down would be the death of him.

Just a moment ago…… There was something he couldn't see. From an extremely distant place, it had used an extremely high speed to crash into his office, fragmenting the City Hall's defensive measures. Until now, there had never been such a grandiose entry in before his eyes. 

This thing…… could shatter bulletproof glass…… 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 a moment ago!

Following afterwards…… Chief Zheng's heart soon began to palpitate!

There weren't any changes on Xu Yangyi's expression, yet his eyes changed as they followed the path in attention.

Since the beginning, the other's back had been pressed closely against the wall, looking at the floor. But now……. It slowly lifted its neck, going from the side of the window to arriving at the carpet, and then again to…….

In front of Chief Zheng!

"Chatter…… Chatter……" Chief Zheng's teeth lightly chattered. With the other fixed onto him like this, its gaze was incorporeal yet tangible. Just as it was about to make contact, the other party said: "Something has come in. It's completely capable of using its mind to form a scene."

There was something…… right in front of him, looking at him unblinkingly.

Behind the thing…… was a Xu Yangyi who was storing his power, waiting to strike. 

Unknown, yet greatly terrifying. Just as his 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 once more: "Don't move."

He accepted the command as if he was robot. He wouldn't dare to move even once, but his entire person trembled incessantly.

"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 shockingly blood red! Yet nevertheless, his pupil white!

Within his eye, there was another image!

The color of night fall filled his eye in an expanse of jet-black…… In front of him was…… a tremendous serpent that was meter thick in diameter. It's body was outside the window, but it's head had already neared Chief Zheng's face! The distance between the two was less than fifty centimeters!

It's jet-black scales glittered in the twilight of the setting sun. It had a bloody maw wide enough to swallow a grown man whole, dripping light yellow-colored saliva.

Outside of the window, in 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 high and more than thirty meters long in it's enormous stature! If it was said that it was whale, then maybe someone would believe it!

It 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, like it was an illusory stone carving.

Beneath the center of Sanshui City's stadium, there was a multi-color tinted centipede, curling its body, resting on a lawn. 

A centipede wasn't curious, as well, however, in the same manner, it was over twenty meters in length! A centipede of over half a meter in height! 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, in the far reaches at the river bank, there was a tremendous salamander. Beneath 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 of that there was some sort of monstrosity lying beneath the water. 

Everything was met by the expanse of red that was his eye, outside that which obstructed the line of sight of all men.

Every scene was reflected upon his retina. As if it existed in another dimension, there was simply no one that was capable of breaking through this barrier.

A city of demons!

Red in color, isolated from men, as if it was an ephemeral scene that could cause fear if one came into contact with it. 

"Tsss……" At this time, Chief Zheng looked at in fear…… His carpet in front of him that had a hole unfathomably corroded into it. His pupils began to shrink!

It was coming…...

Those things were coming…...

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

The more he was but left to look at Xu Yangyi, the more he was terrified, the more he was frightened! He didn't know what was in front of him! It was as if a person 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 the other moved. He appeared only to have seen a savage shadow. In the next second, a loud clash echoed out! A kind of nose like a fist striking armor, suddenly echoing through the entire room! Moreover, the sound was almost within his reach!

"Hissssss……" a fit of strange roaring rang out, echoing extremely gently within the room. Immediately, the unnatural floating of the window curtains finally descended at a fleeting speed! 

Within the room, there was a death-like silence.

Xu Yangyi retracted his fist. In a split second a moment ago, he had felt as if he had struck armor. He hadn't exerted the entirety of his strength; it was nothing more than a warning. However, the other's hardness exceeded his imagination.

"Is it…… Is it gone?" Chief Zheng finally shivered in all of his might. Just a moment ago, fear had pressed down upon his heart. Now, he could finally vent his feelings like a blowout.

He didn't use words, but actions.

"It left." Xu Yangyi sat down in Chief Zheng's seat. His eyes had already resumed to their normal look. Chief Zheng trembled as he supported himself with the top of the table. His fingers trembling in disarray on the table, he silently and slowly stood up.

It was slippery beneath his feet, so he propped himself on the table in panic. He didn't dare stand too far away, standing at Xu Yangyi's side. Presently, Xu Yangyi was sitting in his seat, but he simply didn't dare to sit.

Xu Yangyi popped the collar of his shirt, and Chief Zheng discovered there was a microphone underneath: "Mao Ba'er, I reckon the thing from just a moment ago didn't come out. In addition, why would a demon want to attack me? Are they not scared of death?" 

"Late-stage Qi Condensation, but it's extremely odd. The spirit essence fluctuations are rather abnormal. The highest peak value didn't surpass the peak of the initial stage. For the most part, it maintained a normal level of the initial stage. It's about your equal." A man's voice could be heard from the microphone: "Speculating the root of the cause, this demon's mind must be extremely muddled due to some unknown situation. We, as demon hunters, have to lose a normal train of thought and depend on the subconscious mind to take action. It's quite likely 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 things are like this, that's beyond my ability to speculate. However, we definitely already have two matters of business. You want to listen?"

Xu Yangyi nodded, as if he had seen the same over yonder, subsequently saying: "First, examine the victim's wounds and the degree of its strength a moment ago. The demon's shape confirms it as the true culprit of Sanshui City's serial killer case."

"Second, in the event that it is the graduation exam, you'll have more than ten more points added on."

Chief Zheng hadn't heard the conversation, but the expression of a new lease on life covered his face. Looking at Xu Yangyi, he finally said: "Little…… Captain Xu, this business…… you…… your honor……"

"Relax." Xu Yangyi hung up the microphone, looking at Chief Zheng who had terror stretching over his entire face and raised his brows: "I said so. I'm a 'professional'."

"If not for that, how could you guys make a request of me to come from distant parts, criticizing with lowered heads, making me lead this Disciplinary and Reconnaissance Group?

Chapter end