Tracking the Demoness

"Turns out combat really is the key," Mo Fan muttered to himself. "I spent all that time grinding away without pushing my Shadow Stardust anywhere near a breakthrough — then I scrap with those two monsters once, and I'm straight into Star Nebula territory."

Solitary training, however diligent, could never unlock his potential the way a brush with death could. He was starting to think he needed to fight more often.

Back at the dormitory, he found both roommates already in — which was surprisingly rare.

Normally, Zhao Manyan would always be out chasing girls. A man could only rely on his own two hands for so long before the long nights became unbearable.

And Zhang Pinggu was forever drifting around getting into trouble. He was the type who made instant friends with everyone he met — whenever their room was empty and he was bored, he'd wander off to someone else's dorm to harvest gossip.

"Mo Fan, if you'd taken one more day to show up, we were filing a missing person report," Zhang Pinggu said, exhaling a long, relieved breath.

"Report what? I was in seclusion, training."

"Well, the thing is—" Zhang Pinggu clearly had something he was dying to share.

"Give it a rest. You'll send everyone into a panic. Go cultivate." Zhao Manyan cut him off with undisguised irritation.

Zhang Pinggu gave an awkward laugh and fell silent.

Mo Fan had no idea what the two of them were on about. He was heading upstairs to rest when his phone rang.

"Fan Mo!" A bright, clear little voice came through — unmistakably cute.

"What's up, kid?"

"I took blood samples from the shed skin of the female host and ran analysis on them. Using her blood, I've built something like a tracking device." Lingling's voice was brisk.

"Wait — you can build something like *that*?" Mo Fan hadn't expected the girl to have quite so many talents.

"Tell me where you are and I'll come find you. The husband said that if we can bring his wife back — the real her — he'll pay us a one-million-yuan commission. Paid up front."

"One *million*?!"

Mo Fan was struck dumb.

The man was certainly generous... though thinking about it, that was understandable. His family's lives were on the line. At a point like that, people would give anything — because without your life, nothing else meant a thing.

"Are you at school? I'm nearby. I'll come to you," Lingling said.

"Okay."

Mo Fan and Lingling met at the base of the dormitory building. Lingling seemed to visit Pearl Academy often enough that she knew her way around without hesitation.

Mo Fan took her to the bubble tea shop next door and ordered her a strawberry milk tea.

"Actually — maybe you don't drink this kind of thing." He suddenly caught himself. Lingling's mind was that of a grown woman; it felt faintly absurd to push bubble tea at someone like her. He started to pull it back.

"Who says?!" She snatched it before he could, jammed the straw in, and started gulping it down with her cheeks puffed out — adorable in a way that she clearly hadn't intended.

Perhaps realizing that her obvious devotion to the drink was not exactly befitting her usual composure, she changed the subject. "The school feels emptier than usual today."

"Long break. People went home, people went out to play. The teachers are mostly gone too, I think."

"Right, never mind that. Look — I want to show you something." Lingling pulled out her tablet and set it on the table between them.

"What am I looking at?" Mo Fan studied the electronic display, baffled.

"An electronic map of Magic City — but not just any map. Once I feed in the blood data from the female host's shed skin, the map will immediately show her exact location, no matter where she hides. Whether she's tucked away in some back alley across the city or crawling through the sewers under Magic City — which are basically a labyrinth — it'll lock right onto her." A look of unmistakable pride spread across Lingling's face; at that moment she looked exactly like a little girl showing off a brand-new dress.

"You're incredible. I can't believe you built something this sophisticated."

"Of course I did. I'm a Hunter Master — fighting isn't my forte, but this kind of thing? Nobody does it better than me." Lingling's smile was radiant.

"Then let's start tracking. One million yuan — I've never seen that much money in my entire life!" Mo Fan could barely sit still.

Money, money, money. He was desperately short of it right now. This commission had been brutal, but for that kind of sum—

Lingling nodded and produced something that looked like a USB drive. She plugged it into the tablet.

Almost instantly, the electronic map shimmered to life, as if some dormant circuit had just been switched on.

Mo Fan fixed his eyes on the display, waiting for the crimson dot Lingling had described. Wherever that red dot appeared, that was where the woman — and whatever lived inside her — would be.

While they waited, he asked, "What exactly are these things? How can they be human one moment and a monster the next?"

"Strictly speaking, they *are* human," Lingling said. "My best theory is that they've been parasitized by some kind of specialized parasitic Demon-Beast. During the day they're completely indistinguishable from normal people. But at night, the parasite inside needs to feed — so it seizes control of the host's body, overrides their will, and drives them to attack others to extract whatever nourishment it requires."

"That explains it." Mo Fan nodded slowly. "So when I hit the male one and nearly killed him, and he shed his skin and reverted back to normal — does that mean if you destroy the demon form when it emerges, the person inside recovers?"

"Exactly. I had the Demon-Hunting Squad keep watch on the husband. He hasn't molted or gone after anyone since that night, even after dark. It looks like it worked." Lingling glanced at the tablet. "Now let's see where the one that got away is hiding."

Mo Fan leaned in to look at the map.

"What are the black dots?"

"Our position." A pause. "There's a red dot. Wait—" Her voice shifted. "What is *this*?"

Lingling stared at the screen, genuine bewilderment on her face.

Mo Fan blinked at the display, equally lost.

There wasn't one red dot. There were *many* — clustered together, not far from where they were sitting.

"Lingling, is your device broken? You said it would track the Molting Demoness, but there are dots all over the place. Don't tell me she can split herself into copies." Mo Fan kept his voice light, but something had already gone quiet inside him.

Lingling frowned at the map. For one brief moment even she wondered if her instrument had malfunctioned. What else could explain this many signals?

"Impossible. This instrument doesn't make errors."

"Then what's going on? Look at these dots — there are so many they're practically merging into one big red blotch—"

Mo Fan stopped mid-sentence.

A chill shot through him.

*What if the instrument isn't broken?*

*What if this means—*

"Lingling." All trace of humor was gone from his voice. "Tell me — is it possible for these parasitic Demon-Beasts to spread? Like a contagious disease?"