CH 1

1 – Hollow Demon

Leijiang City, Dragon Mountain Botanical Garden, a group of youngsters ended their BBQ.

“Shu Feng, tidy up the rest!”

Xu Gang, a youngster dressed in brand clothes, with a sunny expression, pointed to a pile of junk left from the BBQ and said thusly to a somewhat handsome youngster with two patches on his clothes. The somewhat handsome youngster has short hair, a medium build, and regular facial features.

The smile on Shu Feng’s face froze. He looked at a beautiful girl standing in the crowd. The beautiful girl is wearing a white dress and black leather boots and has pretty, shoulder-length hair, milky skin, an oval face, slim eyebrows, and exquisite facial features.

The beautiful girl is Zhong Jietong. Shu Feng has been secretly in love with for a long time.

Zhong Jietong tilted her head slightly, and then turned around and walked away.

Shu Feng’s eyes darkened, and he squeezed out a smile and said, “Okay!”

Xu Gang uttered with a candid smile, “Let’s go to KTV [1] next! It’s my treat!”

“Great!”

“With brother Gang’s voice, he could be a professional singer. We can’t miss it!”

“Is that true? You’re talking big!”

“…”

Along with bursts of laughter, the group of youngsters left, as if they have no companion called Shu Feng.

“She and I are people from different worlds after all. Even though we are in the same class, but our worlds can never meet. I tried hard! It’s time to give up!”

As Shu Feng looked at the beautiful girl’s back, his nose felt slightly sour, his eyes reddened, and two tears slid down his face. When he met Zhong Jietong in grade 1 of middle school, Shu Feng fell in love with this smart and beautiful girl, who is ranked in the top five in the class in terms of academics. He pursued her for two years. In the end, however, all it brought him was a heartbreak.

“Jietong, wasn’t that a little excessive?”

Zhong Jietong’s best friend, Wang Lu, a girl with a pair of slender legs and a model-like figure, who is only slightly inferior to Zhong Jietong, whispered thusly.

Zhong Jietong answered faintly, “The high school entrance examination is coming. I am destined to be admitted to Leijiang No. 1 High School. Me and him will never happen. It’s best for him that I sever all his hopes now. Moreover, I really have no feelings for him.”

Wang Lu nodded and left with Zhong Jietong.

As he was putting away a BBQ fork absentmindedly, Shu Feng accidentally stabbed himself, and drops of blood fell on a piece of charcoal.

A black gas gushed out from the charcoal and entered Shu Feng’s forehead.

“Found host. Carrying out soul binding.”

“Begin scanning!”

“Central Analyzer, intact!”

“Eternal Power Furnace, damaged!”

“…”

Numerous strange, mysterious messages entered Shu Feng’s mind, nearly leading to his brain to burst.

Outside Dragon Mountain Botanical Garden, the nose of an ordinary-looking black dog suddenly crinkled, it’s eyes glimmered with a scarlet shade, and it’s figure flashed, and it rushed towards the botanical garden.

At the entrance of the botanical garden, the ticket seller glanced lazily at the entrance.

A very strange scene took place. The black dog ran into the botanical garden right under the ticket seller’s nose.

“Hmm, what’s with that black dog? Why is there a dog here? How come it’s emitting black gas? Am I seeing things?”

Shu Feng’s headache alleviated a little. As if attracted by something, he suddenly looked in the direction of the black dog. The strange black dog has black gas gushing out from it. It is staring at him with bloodshot eyes.

“Its targeting me!”

Shu Feng was surprised. He quickly grabbed two BBQ forks with both hands respectively and looked at the black dog with vigilance. He instinctively felt that he is being targeted by the black dog.

The black dog the size of a wolfdog, eyes shot with blood, emanating a terrible pressure, walked towards Shu Feng.

“I can’t run! In an open space, I can’t outrun a wild dog. If I run, it’ll only see me as pray and attack me!”

With BBQ forks in his hands, Shu Feng trembled and broke out in a cold sweat from his back.

When the black dog was 5 meters away from him, it accelerated abruptly and rushed towards Shu Feng like a cheetah.

“Die!”

Shu Feng stabbed at the strange black dog with a BBQ fork.

“It’s really hard!”

The BBQ fork stabbed the back of the strange black dog. As if it had stabbed a steel plate, it barely pierced the skin of the black dog, and drops of black blood fell to the ground.

The strange black dog opened its maw and bit on Shu Feng’s right leg.

Crunch!

The strange black dog’s biting force was horrifying. Shu Feng screamed and fell to the ground. His right leg was directly bitten off by the strange black dog.

“What kind of monster is this? Am I going to die?”

Shu Feng’s eyes shimmered with fear. While enduring the pain, he stabbed at the strange black dog with the BBQ fork in his left hand.

A black sword ray flashed and chopped off the head of the strange black dog, and a large amount of black blood fell on the ground.

A strange aura gushed out of the black dog’s body and poured into Shun Feng’s body.

“Ding Xiaoxue?”

Shu Feng looked closely and saw a tall, beautiful girl dressed in a black martial attire, equipped with a black sword, with fluttering black hair, a cold and noble temperament, milky-white skin, exquisite facial features, and an unapproachable aura, standing in front of him.

While Zhong Jietong is the class beauty of Leijiang No. 3 Middle School, grade 3, class 53, Ding Xiaoxue is regarded as the No. 1 school beauty of Leijiang No. 3 Middle School. Furthermore, she is ranked first in her grade in terms of academics and is good at sports. Every time the school ends, even students from nearby middle schools and high schools will come to have a look at her.

While Zhong Jietong is cheerful and lively and has many friends, Ding Xiaoxue has a cold disposition. She’s like a fairy standing above the normal populace, or an aloof flower growing at a precipitous cliff. She only has two or three good female friends.

Shu Feng could never have expected that the person who saved him was Ding Xiaoxue, the beautiful ice queen of his school.

Ding Xiaoxue raised her slim eyebrows and asked curiously, “You know me? Who are you?”

Shu Feng, his face pale, body stretched taught, gazed at his bleeding right leg, gritted his teeth, and said, “I’m Shu Feng, a student of Leijiang No. 3 Middle School, grade 3, class 53. Ding Xiaoxue, please call 911. The pain is unbearable.”

“I haven’t seen you before! Since you can see hollow demons, you must be a newly awakened spirit user. Then that’s easy!”

Ding Xiaoxue took out a small bottle, tore the pant leg of Shu Feng’s right leg, and sprinkled the small bottle’s content on the wound on Shu Feng’s right leg.

“Ouch! It hurts!”

Shu Feng shrieked, feeling pain and an itch from the wound. His body convulsed. It was as if a mysterious force poured into his right leg.

After five minutes of struggling in pain, Shu Feng collapsed on the ground and gasped for air, frothing at the mouth and sweating all over.

Ding Xiaoxue whispered: “This Advanced Rapid Healing Spirit Mist seems to have major side effects! With the severe pain, spirit force consumption, and physical strength consumption, no wonder it’s so cheap. A bottle only costs 1 million. This kind of medicine can’t be used in battle, but only in a safe place.”

Shu Feng gasped and clenched his teeth, saying: “911, quickly dial 911. My leg was bitten off.  If it isn’t treated in time, I may lose my leg.”

Ding Xiaoxue pocked Shu Feng’s injured right leg with a scabbard and said, “Your leg has been healed! Stop playing dead and get up!”

“Can you still call yourself a human… ah? It doesn’t hurt!”

Shu Feng was so angry that he wanted to curse at her. Suddenly, he was surprised to find that his right leg, which had been bitten off, has healed completely, without even leaving a scar. He hesitated for a moment, then got up from the ground and gasped, as if exhausted from playing football for 90 minutes.

“How is this possible? My right leg was clearly bitten off by the black dog! How come it’s fine now? Eh, where’s the black dog’s body?”

Shu Feng looked around with doubt in his eyes.

The black dog’s body disappeared. If not for the blood Shu Feng lost, the torn pant leg, and the twisted BBQ forks, which serve as proof to what just happened, Shu Feng would have thought that everything was a hallucination.

Ding Xiaoxue uttered: “The black dog is a hollow demon that sneaked into our world. It’s a low-level hollow demon and still hasn’t formed a physical body. Once it dies, it will turn into dust. Only when a high-level hollow demon dies, will it leave a body.”

Shu Feng has a confused look on his face: “Hollow demon? What’s that? I’ve never heard of that kind of thing on the Internet or in school. Are you kidding me?”

“Hollow demons are alien monsters that come to our world from the Hollow Realm. Only spirit users can see them. In order not to cause panic, few people know about the existence of hollow demons and spirit users. If ordinary people without a special authorization learn of our existence, their memories will be sealed.”

“The Internet is under the supervision of spirit users. As such, it is basically impossible for information on hollow demons to circulate.”

“Shu Feng, since you can see the Black Dog Hollow, it proves that you have awakened as a spirit user.” Ding Xiaoxue said.

Shu Feng asked curiously, “Wait a minute. If ordinary people without a special authorization learn of our existence, what then?”

Shu Feng’s parents are alive. He wants to know how his parents will be treated where they to learn that he is a spirit user.

Ding Xiaoxue replied: “Don’t worry. We’ll have a hypnotist seal their memories. Sealing the memories of one person once costs 1 million credits.”

“1 million!”

Shu Feng blurted out in surprise.

In Leijiang City, 1 kilogram of rice costs 1.5 credits. Shu Feng’s father is a security guard of a property development company and his mother is a cashier in a convenience store. When added together, they earn a little bit more than 4,000 credits per month.

1 million is an astronomical sum for Shu Feng’s family.

Shu Feng asked, “What if you don’t have the money to pay?”

Ding Xiaoxue responded: “Then that’s a problem. If you don’t have money, you will be sent to the Erosion Realm to earn money. You won’t be able to come back until you earn enough money.”