Anomalous Creatures

The tall, skinny man chuckled, a hint of embarrassment on his face. "You might think it's absurd, but I'm actually a demon hunter. I travel the world driving away ghosts..."

A demon hunter!

Hardly had the man finished speaking when Kevin heard a loud slurp beside him. He turned his head and saw Weilili lifting her head out of the dining tray. The vampire girl wiped the sauce off her face and asked tremulously, "What do you mean by what you do?"

"I knew you'd react like this," the tall, skinny man said with more helplessness than surprise, as if he was quite accustomed to such reactions from his audience. "I've told others before, and their reactions were even more extreme than yours. But I'm really a demon hunter. You've seen movies, right? Like Van Helsing. My job is similar to his, but our methods of driving away ghosts are different from what's shown in the movies."

The tall, skinny man spoke earnestly and confidently. Kevin instinctively moved his buttocks backward to keep a little distance from him, his mind bombarding him with questions. Is this really a demon hunter? For real? A genuine superhero or just a delusional con artist?

If an ordinary person were present, they might have taken the tall, skinny man's words as a joke, either dismissing it as a story or seeing him as a charlatan pretending to be supernatural. But Kevin definitely thought deeper than that: he knew that demon hunters were a real group!

Of course, he didn't immediately believe the man's words and take him for a demon hunter. It was more likely that the man was just joking. Real demon hunters probably wouldn't be so brazen as to tell everyone about their identity, right?

"You don't believe me?" The tall, skinny man helplessly spread his hands. "Alright, most people don't. Besides, look, I'm Chinese. If I claimed to be a lay disciple from Mount Wutai, it might be more convincing. But I'm genuinely a demon hunter. Those three words sound pretty fancy, but in fact, we exist in every country around the world. Our history is long, dating back to the origins of the four ancient civilizations..."

Kevin instinctively glanced at Weilili. This sounded like there was some truth to it: in the common perception, "demon hunter" is a Western term. Few people know that they have been traveling the world since the beginning. In China, demon hunters were called immortals or fangshi by the ancients, while in other countries, they were called wizards or priests. But demon hunters themselves wouldn't use these foreign terms. What this man was saying obviously aligned with the facts. Facts that ordinary people wouldn't know.

"Uh... Mr. Demon Hunter, right?" At this point, Lily finally lost her appetite. The werewolf girl had never seen a demon hunter before, but she had heard many horror stories about them from Weilili. She was a little nervous at this moment. "Do demon hunters really exist in the real world?"

Fortunately, Lily wasn't completely naive. At this moment, she knew how to probe indirectly.

"Most people treat it as an urban legend or a horror story," the tall, skinny man chuckled. "But I'm the real deal. And to be honest, there are still quite a few people who believe in ghost stories. In places you don't know, things like driving away ghosts and demons happen all the time. My main job is to expel ghosts, and I came here to investigate the hauntings at Old Yorkfold Castle after hearing about it."

"Oh, so your job must be pretty confidential, right? Why are you talking about it casually like this?" Weilili's expression calmed down, and she asked nonchalantly on the outside, but on the inside, she was thinking: Why is this "demon hunter" suddenly coming out and revealing his identity?

Regardless of whether he's genuine or not, this high-profile attitude is somewhat unusual. This profession has always been one that operates in the shadows. Most of them lead secluded lives and even when living among ordinary people, they strive to conceal their identities. Weilili had never heard of a demon hunter promoting themselves to strangers like the one in front of her. She thought about the demon hunters she had encountered in her long life and a question lingered in her mind: Could it be that these guys are finally cursed like me, unable to find work in modern times and forced to openly seek employment?

Kevin's thoughts were similar to Weilili's, but his direction of thinking was different: When did the profession of "demon hunter", which sounds like it should be someone wearing a black robe hiding in a dark corner, become so high-profile? Shouldn't these heroes who save the world conceal their identities until the end? Look at Kevin himself; he didn't go around announcing that he was a neighborhood policeman sent down by heaven... Of course, the main reason he didn't say anything was because of organizational rules.

"What's there to keep secret?" The tall, skinny man looked dismissive. "It's not some shameful work. Look, even people who read palm lines, fortune-telling, and naming have their own websites now. Why can't we demon hunters talk about our work with others?"

Kevin and Weilili quickly exchanged glances, thinking about how they should act like two "ordinary people" in this situation. Soon, they reached a mutual understanding and put on expressions of interest mixed with disbelief, clearly just listening as bystanders. Weilili wore a polite yet slightly distant smile and asked, "So are you going to eliminate the spirits haunting the castle this time?"

The tall, skinny man's enthusiasm immediately halved when he saw Weilili's expression, but he still smiled and said, "We'll have to wait and see the situation tomorrow. I know you probably don't believe me, and I didn't expect you to. But we can travel together. When are you leaving? If it's tomorrow, we can go the same way. I'm very familiar with the route. There's a train that departs in the morning and arrives in the evening."

Kevin was just about to say that he had just arrived in England today and needed a day to adjust to the jet lag when he heard Weilili speaking up on her own accord beside him: "Sure, it's fate that we've met. We don't know the way, so we'll trouble you to lead the way. May I ask what your surname is?"

"My surname is Nangong, a compound surname," the tall, skinny man stood up. "My specific name... Well, due to work reasons, it's inconvenient to disclose. Just call me Nangong. How about this: I'll meet you at this restaurant at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow. We can go together. But I'll only wait for fifteen minutes; if you're late, you'll miss the train."

Kevin was just about to say that the girl on his side, who was struggling with jet lag, might not be able to get up tomorrow morning when Weilili nodded and agreed on her own accord again: "Okay, Mr. Nangong, see you at 6:30 tomorrow morning. Oh, I'm sorry, I was so engrossed in conversation that I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Weilili, and this is..."

Kevin stared blankly at Weilili, who was chatting with a "demon hunter" as if nothing was wrong, and only had a chance to speak after Mr. Nangong left: "Uh, aren't you afraid he's really a demon hunter?"

"No, he doesn't seem like one," Weilili sat back down on the chair after Nangong disappeared from the restaurant doorway and sighed slightly. "And honestly, we do need someone to show us the way. Our destination is the same as Nangong's, so there's a good chance we'll bump into him again after arriving in Yorkfold. Rather than being caught off guard when we suddenly meet, it's better to travel together on the way, roughly figure out his plans, and then take the opportunity to split up. That way, we'll have the initiative in our hands. Of course, that's assuming he's really a demon hunter. If he's just an ordinary ghost-expelling swindler... then it's easy; ordinary people aren't a threat, so we can just let him lead the way."

Weilili's analysis was well-reasoned, and Kevin had to admit that this vampire girl thought deeper than he did. However, he still had one question he really wanted to confirm: "Weilili, do you have any way to determine if someone is a demon hunter? They're different from ordinary people; they should have some identifiable characteristics, right? Just now, with that Nangong, besides his words and actions, can you confirm his identity in any other way?"

Weilili furrowed her brows and stared absentmindedly in a certain direction: "It's really hard to determine. The most dangerous thing about demon hunters is that they can hide among ordinary people before activating their abilities. My clan often faced annihilation because demon hunters infiltrated the blood slaves we kept. As a high-level vampire, I could analyze his identity through blood, but that requires blood, and it's not easy, very not easy."

After another silence, perhaps feeling embarrassed that she couldn't be of use, Weilili said uncertainly: "But if I have to say something, I really do sense something different about him. Years ago, I fought with a demon hunter and injured my right hand. After that, I gained a strange ability: when a demon hunter is nearby, my right hand gets hot. I feel like..."

"Stop feeling, your hand is in the soup."

"Wow!"