The Molting Demoness
Where shadows lay, Mo Fan had a path.
He touched down on the ground first, then slipped through Shadow Fade and melted into the dimly lit grove ahead.
He remembered that a little while back, a young couple had wandered into these trees for a private rendezvous. The grove was sizable, and the lighting genuinely poor — exactly the kind of place that thing would choose to strike.
"Mmm~~~ Ahh~~~"
"Ohh~~~~~ Not so loud — what if someone hears — ohh~~~~~"
A woman's breathless moans drifted through the darkness. Tucked in the shadows, Mo Fan went completely still.
*In broad—in the dead of night—in a public grove—these two were really doing this.* This wasn't a fitting room. Some people had absolutely no concept of time or place.
Under normal circumstances, he'd have lingered nearby to enjoy the show at his leisure. Right now, there was no time for that.
"Fan Mo, go ask the property office. Find out which female residents are Mages under twenty." Lingling's voice came through his earpiece.
"Got it." It was a solid lead.
Mo Fan walked into the property management office without preamble, flashed his Azure Sky Hunting Firm badge, and told them he was on official business.
The firm's badge outranked a police badge — and then some. Its authority dwarfed that of any precinct limited to chasing ordinary criminals.
"About seventy-odd households match that description," the property manager said, eyeing Mo Fan with undisguised skepticism. "Around six have registered Mages on file."
"Fan Mo, which one is closest to our surveillance point?" Lingling asked through the earpiece.
Mo Fan immediately relayed the question.
"Jinyu Tower, eighteenth floor, Room 102. Registered to three Pearl Academy girls." The manager paused. "Actually, those three are a noise nuisance — laughing and carrying on late at night, quite loudly. They've been reported at least once or twice."
"That's them. From that woman's bedroom, there's a direct sightline to the eighteenth floor of Jinyu Tower. Those three have been her hunting ground for a while." Lingling's verdict came at once.
"I'm going."
Who knew how long the demoness had been at this. Every second mattered.
Mo Fan sprinted to Jinyu Tower. There wasn't enough connected shadow to Shadow Fade straight up to the eighteenth floor, so he rode the elevator and knocked on Room 102.
The door opened quickly. The girl with the straight-cut fringe stood in the doorway — and the instant she recognized Mo Fan, her face broke into a delighted grin.
"You didn't seriously follow us all the way from the cab, did you?"
"Who is it— Oh! Xiao Tong! Xiao Tong, that cute guy came for you!" The red-lipped girl — in tiny shorts, apparently unconcerned about a bra — squealed and bolted back inside with a gleeful bounce.
Mo Fan scanned the apartment. Nothing seemed amiss. A flicker of unease crossed his face.
*Had they miscalculated? Were these girls not the target after all?*
"Sorry — wrong door, I've got somewhere urgent to be—"
"Ahhhhhhhh—!"
He was already stepping back when the scream split the air.
**CRASH—**
The red-lipped girl came flying out of one of the bedrooms as though launched from a catapult. Her body slammed into the hallway wall with enough force to crack the plaster, and she crumpled to the floor in a heap, blood seeping from the back of her skull.
"Nannan!" The fringe girl's face went blank. She lurched forward.
Mo Fan grabbed her arm. "Don't move. What's your element?"
"Li— Light Element." She was shaking badly.
"Stay behind me."
He was already moving into the apartment.
He didn't stop for Nannan. A collision like that would have killed an ordinary person outright — but this girl was a Mage. She probably had a thread of life left.
He stepped into the bedroom — and the blood drained from his face.
The short-haired girl who had chatted him up in the cab just hours ago was hanging from the ceiling. Both her wrists had been sliced open at the arteries by something sharp, and blood ran in thin ribbons down her pale arms, dripping steadily toward the floor.
Below her, a creature in the rough shape of a woman — but entirely sheathed in scales — stood with its jaw stretched impossibly wide, several times the gape of any human mouth. Its long tongue curled upward with languid relish, savoring each drop of blood as it fell from above.
The scales covered its face too, but the features beneath were still identifiable. It was the weeping wife from that morning — the woman who had stumbled into the Azure Sky Hunting Firm with tear-reddened eyes, begging for protection. Now, with her face twisted into something feral and ravenous, she bore no resemblance whatsoever to that pitiable figure. Even seeing it with his own eyes, Mo Fan could barely reconcile the two.
"What— *what is that thing*?!" The fringe girl had gone white as paper.
*Filth. Killing on my ground.* Fury ignited in Mo Fan's chest.
The demon wasn't even merciful enough to make it clean. It hadn't simply killed Xiao Tong. Hadn't drained her in one draw. Instead, it had strung her up alive — letting blood fall from height, drop by agonizing drop — and would keep her there until every last drop was gone.
He could picture exactly what Xiao Tong was enduring. Conscious through every second. Aware of the fear, aware of the pain, helpless to do anything but wait.
"Blazing Fist— damn it, *don't you run—*!"
He was mid-incantation when the Molting Demoness flung itself out the window.
The eighteenth floor.
Mo Fan ran to the window — and his gut dropped. The creature's claws were sunk directly into the sheer vertical wall. It was scaling the building face with fluid, terrifying ease, bounding back and forth between the two towers in complete, absolute silence.
*That's how it got in.*
"Get them back to the academy infirmary." Mo Fan told the fringe girl without looking back. Then he stepped onto the window ledge — and threw himself into open air.
He dropped like a hawk in a dive, arms wide, the ground rising fast below.
At the thirteenth floor, his body dissolved into the shadow band running along the building's facade. He reappeared on a stranger's balcony, eyes sharp, tracking the demoness as it scaled the tower across from him.
"Damn. Nothing but light between the buildings. Can't jump across."
Shadow Fade demanded a continuous thread of shadow to travel through. Between the two towers was only open air. Even wrapped in the dark of night, without a true contrast of light and dark there was nothing to pass through — no shadow to inhabit. He was stuck on this side.
"Fan Mo, something's wrong — get back here now!" Lingling's voice cut through the earpiece, tight with alarm.
"What happened?"
"Her husband — he's molting too!"
Ice shot through Mo Fan's chest. "What about the child?!"
"*That's why I'm telling you to come back!*"
The husband. The one who had hired them — who had specifically commissioned the firm to protect his own child — was the threat.
*What in the world is wrong with this family?*
"Save the child first. The contract comes first." Mo Fan was already moving. *But this situation — this is nowhere near as straightforward as it looks.*