Chapter 41: Vessel

“Gathering a body?” Chi Yan muttered her previous words, somewhat unable to comprehend the meanings behind the sentence.

He had heard of finding scapegoats, seizing bodies… But he hadn't heard of “gathering” a body using this sort of method. How do you even gather a body? St.i.tching body parts together still wouldn't be able to form a person, right?

“To be exact, it is to find a vessel” Hu Xing explained, “As I have said to you just now, this kind of evil spirit generally depends on humanoid objects, such as statues, dolls, and even portraits to take form. For man is the soul of the universe1, any non-living object with human shape that had seen blood and was mixed with the surroundings' evil and resentful energy is likely to bring rise to this kind of demon. The demon will treat its vessel as its original body."

“If the evil energy was extremely tyrannical, the demon might be able to condense an ent.i.ty that does not disperse and thus, it would not need a vessel, but cases like these are so rare that it hardly exist. This demon is very strange. After I came to A City, I made contact with the victims' corpses and I could feel the evil energy left behind by that thing. Its evil energy is very dense and potent, yet it wants to create a body for itself… So I deduced that it doesn't have any physical body before and has been coagulating itself into a physical ent.i.ty, and it used its own evil energy to disguise itself into a human being to hide among the human society. However, this couldn't last long and its evil energy may have started depleting, hence it became so anxious that it took the risk of exposing itself by harming humans at such a frequent rate."

Listening to this, Chi Yan felt his back getting cold. He couldn't help s.h.i.+vering as he asked, “…Making a body… Does it has to harm so many people? And why did those victims look for me?”

“This is a sort of demon's sorcery. It's not so easy to find a suitable vessel for itself if it doesn't have a natural body. For that thing, the simplest thing is probably to put together nine people's flesh and blood to form a body. As for you…” Hu Xing turned to Chi Yan and looked at him again from top to bottom.

Chi Yan's grew worried along with her words, at this moment, he saw a hairy little black head with two pointed ears peeking out from Hu Xing's big bag, It cried out as its brownish-yellow round eyes looked at Hu Xing somewhat miserably.

Hu Xing touched it, seemingly as to appease it before she stuffed the little thing back into the bag again.

She smiled at Chi Yan and said, “This is a black fox that I am raising. It is not a demon, but it is very spiritual. It's raised at my sect and it can suppress evil. Ordinary demons and ghosts are afraid of it, and it can also help me quite a bit."

After the explanation, she continued to answer Chi Yan's questions. She looked at him, somewhat hesitant. “No offense, but I would like to confirm with you whether you know or not that the evil energy on you is very dense."

“Me? Dense evil energy?"

Hu Xing nodded. "There are dense evil energy on your body, furthermore, you have them since birth. Ordinary human with such dense evil energy would probably be unable to withstand them, they would either be in disharmony and have few karmic consequences, or experience plagues of disasters and thus be possess a short lifespan. However, you are in harmony with the evil energy, which is rarely seen. Those evil energy doesn't harm you but instead, played a role in protecting you, so that  ordinary ghosts and demons would not dare come close to you. But because of this evil energy, there's a possibility that you will be noticed by stronger demons. I speculate that this is the reason why that thing took notice of you."

The glance she directed at Chi Yan held some degree of placation. "…That's right. If I guess correctly, you should have made contact with that thing that changed itself into a human. It's just that you weren't able to recognize it. The reason why you were able to see those victims are, firstly, they are harmed by the demon and hence, they are different from your usual ghosts; secondly, it might be because… you have been chosen by that thing long ago, becoming a very important aspect in its search for a body."

Chi Yan only felt a trail of numbness in his scalp, such that he couldn't help wanting to jump up from his seat!

The figures of his friends and cla.s.smates he had made contact with slid past his vision one by one, whether they were happy or angry, annoyed or smiling, he could not tell which of them was human and which was a malicious demon wearing human skin.

He asked the lady in front of him while trembling, “You(polite form), would you perhaps know who it might be?”

Hu Xing shook her head. “I've been looking for the whereabouts of that thing and looking into ways to eliminate it, but it disguises itself as a human and hides itself with the smells of the people around it. It's not that easy to find. I can only recognize it if I see it in person. Now I can only tell you that Yuan Bo is human. You can trust him.”

Speaking of this, Hu Xing suddenly thought of a method and told Chi Yan, “That's right, we can make an appointment at a public place with a large number of people while you take the people you have most contact with recently and bring them there. I will observe from the background and see if that demon is among them.”

“…Okay. ” Although Chi Yan didn't expect that he had already made contact with the demon without him knowing it, he still complied.

Seeing him like this, Hu Xing was also sympathetic. Besides, she would be able to find important clues from the young man in front of her. She patted her bag, carried the little black fox out and handed it to Chi Yan. “Let Ah Sheng follow you for these two days. Although it can't distinguish who is a demon, if there is another victim, Ah Sheng can at least protect you from those monsters they turn themselves into."

Chi Yan wasn't that good at getting along with small animals, but when he thought of how this little fox could suppress those common evil things, he repeatedly thanked her and took it over.

Hu Xing explained some matters needing attention, such as feeding, and added with a smile, “Ah Sheng is a girl, you should treat it well.”

Because of this wisecrack remark, Chi Yan felt a slightly more relaxed. Under Hu Xing's guidance, Ah Sheng was put into his backpack and a hole was left opened for it. Only then did he think of exchanging contact information with Hu Xing.

After doing all this, he thought about it and said, “Sister Hu, are you busy at night? I'd like to ask you to look at someone for me first.”

Although he did not think that there was anything wrong about Ye Yingzhi, he was the person who had been the closest to him in a prolonged period of time recently. Even if he was being superfluous, he had to confirm that Ye Yingzhi was just an ordinary person like Yuan Bo, not a demon disguised as a human.

Hu Xing said, “I have something on tonight. But if you can ask this person out now, I can go and see him directly.”

Chi Yan replied with a nod, he then sent a message asking Ye Yingzhi where he was now and soon received a reply saying that he was in the library.

Chi Yan replied him and asked Ye Yingzhi to wait there, saying that he was looking for him for something.

But it was not easy to make up excuses for why you had to rush to find him right now. After thinking about it for a while, Chi Yan bought a cake from the cake shop next to the hot pot shop and had it packed. Then he rushed to the school library with Hu Xing.

He and Hu Xing went in one after another as if they didn't know each other. Hu Xing looked young and it wasn't strange for her to pretend to be a student.

Chi Yan found Ye Yingzhi on the second floor of the library as according to his message. He sat next to him and saw Hu Xing walking between the two rows of shelves behind them pretending to look for books.

Ye Yingzhi turned over a page with his head lowered and said with a slight smile, “What's wrong? So anxious to find me?”

Chi Yan mumbled as he pa.s.sed the cake in his hands. “…It's nothing. I just pa.s.sed the cake shop after lunch with Old Yuan when I remembered that the cake was delicious, I bought a piece to let you taste it…" It was only at the last minute that he realized how lame this reason was. He was just like a young and inexperienced boy who was pursuing his beloved girl astringently.

So he added, “…And I also want to ask you where you're sleeping tonight. Will you go back to the dormitory or go home…”

Ye Yingzhi looked up at him and said with a smile, “Does it matter where I sleep?”

Chi Yan nodded. “I just want to say, take me with you wherever you go.”

After saying this, he felt his heart tightening. Although it was impossible, what if Sister Hu said that there was something wrong with Ye Yingzhi?

When he thought of it, he secretly slid his phone open. Hu Xing sent a message 30 seconds ago and said, “Rest a.s.sured, your roommate is just an ordinary person. I can't see anything wrong with him. You can get along with him at ease. I'll go first if I have something to do. See you later."