Asai had a dream.

In the dream, he saw a swamp and a dark, damp grand canyon.

He saw monsters burning with fierce flames floating in the air, and a person standing before an altar, fashioning a terrifying monster from a piece of bone.

It was the scene of the world’s first bone demon being born.

“Ah!”

Asai awoke from the nightmare. He had fallen asleep yesterday on a pile of scrolls recording details of violent crimes.

Asai hurriedly threw on his clothes and grabbed his cane.

After tidying up a bit, he walked out the door.

He didn’t know why he had this dream, but he believed it was some kind of guidance from the beyond, or perhaps an answer from his own subconscious.

That villain, that man-eater.

He was a hideous bone demon.

He arrived at the security office, where everyone had gathered to discuss. As soon as Asai entered, he immediately blurted out impatiently.

“That person must be a man-eater. He specifically targets children by spreading rumors about the spirit-summoning game.”

“He’s cunning, evil, and cruel.”

“He’s a… completely inhuman…”

He trailed off mid-sentence, noticing that everyone had fallen silent. The previously noisy hall was now utterly quiet.

The security team members looked at him with worried or uncomprehending eyes. The captain, uncharacteristically, didn’t argue with him.

The captain stood up. “Asai, you should take a rest!”

Asai, his eyes red, said, “I don’t need to. We must catch him immediately.”

“We can’t let another person die at his hands. We must catch him before that happens.”

The captain said sternly, “Asai, you’re not a consultant anymore!”

“Don’t you know? Because of your rash actions, because of your mistake.”

“Two people have already died, two young lives.”

“They were children. Are you also a child who doesn’t understand?”

At the captain’s mention of this, Asai couldn’t utter a word.

The blood-red anger in his eyes instantly dimmed.

The captain didn’t say anything more, just waved his hand.

“Go home and rest for a while.”

“You’re not fit to work recently.”

Asai put down the honorary badge of the security team consultant and walked out of the security office building.

The large iron gate slowly closed behind him. At this moment, he was just a failure being driven away.

Asai started walking slowly, but he picked up speed.

He pushed himself forward with his cane, running with all his might until his strength gave out and he collapsed against a wall, gasping for breath.

Asai walked through the streets and alleys of the Saint An District in Anho City, searching like a madman for that figure hidden among the crowds, like looking for a needle in a haystack.

He wanted to find that man-eater using his special group mind-reading ability. He believed that as long as the person appeared before him, there was no way he could escape.

Everywhere he went, he used his group mind-reading to sense everyone.

From morning till night, he marked area after area on the map, analyzing every possible location and crowd where the suspect might be hiding.

Finally, using this power so frequently took its toll on him.

On the street, Asai suddenly collapsed.

“Hiss!”

He lay on the ground, breathing heavily.

His head felt like it was about to split open, as if something was about to burst out from inside.

Unbeknownst to him, the tumor in his brain was growing larger and larger, like a ticking time bomb ready to explode.

However, the more pain he felt, the more powerful his mind-reading ability became.

The range of his group mind-reading had gradually expanded from twenty or thirty meters to over a hundred meters.

All kinds of voices exploded simultaneously in Asai’s head, making it impossible for him to distinguish who was talking to whom.

But at this moment, he noticed a person.

A special person.

He couldn’t read this person’s mind, but more importantly, this person didn’t have the aura of a priest either.

Asai immediately looked towards that person. It was a well-dressed man who looked like a nobleman.

Asai’s eyes widened instantly.

The person wasn’t ordinary, nor was he a priest, so what could he be?

This was a monster hiding in the world of mortals.

A voice in Asai’s heart, almost like a roar, exclaimed: “It’s him!”

After searching for so many days, he had finally found his target.

Asai immediately followed closely. He watched as the man got into a rickshaw, took a tour around the street, and bought a second-hand piece of lacquerware.

He also rented a rickshaw, following closely behind.

Finally, the man returned to an old, dilapidated castle on the outskirts of Anho City.

This castle had some history. When it was built, it probably didn’t belong to Anho City but was in the suburbs outside the city.

But over the past one or two hundred years, as Anho City kept expanding, this ancient castle was gradually surrounded by various buildings.

Asai saw the name of the family that owned it in front of the castle: “Barrett!”

The Barrett family.

Asai had heard of their name, a great family of the former Samo Kingdom, with ancestors who had even held positions as high as Prime Minister.

They could be considered a branch of the royal bloodline Samo family, but now they had long since faded into obscurity with the disappearance of the Samo family.

This family only had a baron’s title left, just barely qualifying as an old noble family.

Other than that, they had nothing.

Decades ago, in an attempt to rise again, they had produced a Ghost Cult member, which had brought the judgment of the Temple’s Demon-Hunting Group.

Moreover, it was said that when the Barrett baron was young, he had been a pedophile. He could be called infamous, but due to his noble status, no one dared to investigate him.

Asai stood in front of the ancient castle, staring intently at this old, gloomy, and dark building.

A family flowing with the mad blood of the Samo lineage, a place that had produced a spirit-summoning Ghost Cult member.

Now in this castle lived a bone demon rumored to eat people, a fallen noble with pedophilic tendencies.

He didn’t say anything.

But he had already determined that this Baron Barrett was the person he was looking for.

Night fell.

Asai carried a bag of holy ashes and powders he had obtained from the temple. According to the priest, this holy ash could severely damage ordinary first-level monsters. The principle was based on the oath that the monster race had once sworn, that they would never enter human villages and cities.

These ashes and soil, bathed in God’s light from the city’s shrines and temples, could restrain them.

Even for bone demons, once this holy ash entered their bodies, it would partially suppress them.

Asai found the lowest part of the outer wall and climbed over. His lame leg gave him quite a bit of trouble; just getting over left him panting.

Fortunately, there weren’t many guards inside this old castle.

Besides Baron Barrett, the potentially monstrous old man, there were only a few servants and a butler.

Asai closed his eyes.

Every person here was within his sensing range. He could feel the servants preparing dinner, could sense what the servants’ next moves would be.

He took the opportunity to put some powder into the fish slices for dinner and the cut sugar paste.

With the gradual improvement and rise of medical techniques, in recent years, some priests had imitated bone demons to produce powders. This powder was a sleeping drug used for surgery.

The night deepened, and it grew colder outside.

Asai sat alone in a corner under the window, placing his cane across his knees, waiting quietly.

He exhaled, his breath turning into a white mist.

“Ha!”

Watching the white mist gradually dissipate, Asai felt it was about time.

The servants and butler in the castle had all fallen asleep. He easily entered, coming to the room of that bone demon.

This was a first-level bone demon, probably created by some higher-level bone demon.

He was the lowest-level servant.

Apart from being able to extend his lifespan somewhat, he didn’t have any particularly strong powers.

He was in deep sleep, completely unaware that an enraged beast, long lying in wait, had set its sights on him.

Asai approached the bed, holding a dagger smeared with holy ash.

“Who’s there?”

The sleeping drug had no effect on this inhuman bone demon, and he wasn’t in deep sleep. He woke up immediately upon hearing the movement.

But Asai instantly plunged the holy ash-coated dagger into the monster’s abdomen.

“Hiss!”

The sleeping drug had no effect, but the power of the holy ash was entirely different.

This ordinary holy ash might not work on those powerful monsters, but he was just a first-level bone demon.

Baron Barrett immediately lay on the bed like a paralyzed insect, feeling as if his entire body couldn’t move.

The substance inside the dagger spread, making him feel like he was gradually freezing.

He stared at Asai with frightened and bewildered eyes, not understanding what was happening at all.

He didn’t recognize the person before him, thinking it might be someone from the Demon-Hunting Group who had found him.

Asai seized this monster who had infiltrated the mortal world and hurled him violently onto the floor.

Asai gripped his collar tightly.

His eyes were filled with rage and madness as he leaned in close, asking in a low, hoarse voice.

“Tell me.”

“Does human flesh taste good?”

“How about it, is children’s flesh and blood especially delicious?”

The monster tried to say something, but could only make muffled sounds.

In fact, it seemed as if he was mocking Asai.

Asai’s anger flared instantly. He grabbed the monster’s head.

He repeatedly smashed it against the floor, as if trying to shatter the skull.

“What are you laughing at?”

“Are you laughing because I only caught you now? Or are you proud of your work?”

He unleashed all the pent-up rage and madness of these past days upon this monster, his fists a blur of furious motion.

In his mind, he kept seeing the little girl from the paste shop, the image of the hanging figure in that dark room.

“Ah!”

“Speak!”

“Does it make you feel especially good to kill those weaker than you?”

“Do you feel particularly accomplished when you see those naive children fall into your traps?”

Asai furiously cracked open the monster’s skull, this enraged beast unable to control his madness.

One blow.

Followed by another.

But this monster didn’t shed a drop of blood, as if there was no such thing as blood inside their bodies.

Asai couldn’t read this monster’s mind, but he firmly believed that this was the man-eater.

He had searched the entire district and found only this one bone demon.

Who else could it be if not him?

Baron Barrett raised his trembling finger, straightened his tongue, and slowly said, “Who are you?”

Just as Asai was about to answer, Baron Barrett suddenly thrust his finger towards Asai’s eye.

The holy ash was effective, but its effect was limited.

It wasn’t as dramatic as the priest had claimed. The monster had indeed been suppressed for a while, but quickly regained partial mobility.

Asai watched the approaching finger, his eye widening in alarm as his pupil constricted to a pinpoint.

His mind focused to an extreme point in an instant.

As Asai’s mental concentration peaked, a powerful force burst forth, acting on the approaching finger.

“Snap!”

Baron Barrett’s finger immediately broke off, followed by his entire arm twisting into a rope-like shape.

Baron Barrett let out a scream of agony.

Asai’s head started to throb again, feeling like it was about to explode.

Waves of invisible force spread out from Asai’s body, affecting everything in the room.

The monster called Baron Barrett watched in horror as his bone demon body completely lost control, undergoing some kind of transformation under that force.

Bone joints kept breaking through the body, making cracking sounds.

Barrett, after all, was a baron from an ancient family. Even if he hadn’t seen certain things, he had at least heard of them.

“What on earth are you?”

“What exactly are you?”

“The power of a mental domain, are you a fourth-level God’s Grace?”

Barrett’s voice revealed utter terror. He had never imagined he would encounter such a terrifying figure.

“How is this possible? Why would a God’s Grace appear here?”

“I’m just a small fry. Would the Temple’s Demon-Hunting Group need to deploy a fourth-level God’s Grace to deal with me?”

Baron Barrett was completely terrified. What was a fourth-level God’s Grace?

To mortals, they were apostle-level figures closest to God.

In the eyes of many people, they were gods in the mortal realm.

Asai knew nothing about fourth-level God’s Grace or bone fields, and right now he only wanted to make this villain and monster die in the most painful way possible, to make him pay for those who had perished.

Asai pressed one hand against his head, his one eye fixed intently on Barrett.

Baron Barrett could be seen transforming into a grotesque monster under the power of the bone field.

Bones kept growing out of Baron Barrett’s body and then breaking, his body twisting bit by bit.

It was like a ball of dough being kneaded together.

“Ah!”

“Spare me… spare me…”

Baron Barrett pleaded desperately in his agony.

Asai’s head was also splitting with pain; the monster’s suffering mirrored his own.

Baron Barrett’s entire body was compressed into a ball, his face protruding from it, crying out helplessly to Asai.

“I’m a member of the Immortal Society…”

“Don’t kill me… I can…”

But before he could finish, his skeletal structure burst apart.

The bones kept rotating, flinging bone shards everywhere, but some core bones kept twisting and converging under the rotation, forming a small bone ball.

Asai sat on the ground, panting heavily.

Suddenly, he burst into laughter.

But it was hard to hear any real joy in that laughter.

Or rather, even Asai didn’t know whether he should be happy or not.

After spending so much time, frantically searching through the streets and alleys of the Saint An District like a madman, he had finally caught the culprit.

But should catching the culprit make him happy?

Or rather, was there really anything to be happy about?

At this moment, the door to the room suddenly opened.

A sleepy-eyed woman stood in the doorway.

She looked at the broken, scattered bones on the ground and the torn clothes, first freezing for a moment.

Then she let out a scream.

“Ah!”

A maid had woken up early.

Perhaps the drug wasn’t strong enough, or maybe she hadn’t had much appetite for dinner.

The maid ran, and Asai didn’t chase after her.

He was only targeting the criminal, not these servants.

Before long, the security team had surrounded this dilapidated old castle.

The security team captain came to Asai’s side. Asai kept laughing, telling the captain.

“I caught the culprit.”

“I finally caught him.”

“Finally… caught him.”

Asai felt he had washed away his shame and mistakes, and had also avenged Colin and the two dead children.

Perhaps he could continue pursuing his dream of becoming a security officer.

But the security team captain sat down cross-legged and patted Asai’s shoulder.

“The culprit has been caught.”

“But…”

The captain hesitated for a moment, but finally told him: “It’s not the one in front of you.”

Asai didn’t understand: “What do you mean?”

The security team captain added: “It’s not Baron Barrett. You made a mistake.”

“Last night, we caught the culprit of the man-eating case on Redemption Street.”

“That man-eater is a doctor.”

Asai’s mouth fell open. He wanted to say it was impossible.

But he couldn’t get the words out.

The captain continued: “You were right about one thing. The culprit was indeed a villain who specifically targeted children. He spread information about the spirit-summoning game among children, particularly targeting those who had lost loved ones.”

“Based on the clues and judgments you provided, we finally caught him.”

“In his home, we’ve already found all the evidence, including his premeditated plans for the crimes.”

“Those children who had lost their parents and relatives were all his targets. Colin was once one of them.”

Asai: “It wasn’t a bone demon?”

The captain nodded: “The legend of the man-eater misled us.”

“The culprit was just an ordinary person, or rather, a madman.”

Asai pointed at the figure before him: “Then what is this?”

The captain said calmly: “Just someone unrelated to the case.”

Asai shouted: “A person?”

“He’s a bone demon, a monster hiding in the city.”

The security team captain looked at the bone fragments: “Who can prove it to you?”

Asai couldn’t prove that the mess of bones was a bone demon.

Or rather, even if he could prove it was a bone demon.

No one in this city would acknowledge it.

If they did, it would bring about a great purge by the Temple’s Demon-Hunting Group, and who knows how many people might fall from grace and lose their lives. Those big shots didn’t want to attract such a terrifying entity as the Demon-Hunting Group.

“I believe you. You might have found a bone demon.”

“But a bone demon isn’t necessarily a man-eater, and it’s irrelevant to the answers we’re looking for.”

“Barrett was an old man. He might have been bewitched into transforming into a bone demon out of fear of death, but so what?”

The captain’s voice was very calm: “We only deal with criminals, we only arrest those who have committed crimes.”

“The temple’s affairs are not our concern.”

The captain took a deep breath and exhaled: “We can’t afford to manage them either.”

Asai was taken away, charged with murder.

Just as the captain said, Asai couldn’t prove he had killed a bone demon, and the captain couldn’t confirm whether he had killed a bone demon or just an ordinary old nobleman.

Day broke.

In the early morning, colorful advertisement boards were pushed out in front of the street shops, and the streets were filled with a festive atmosphere.

From afar came the sound of drums, trumpets, and the clamor of crowds.

“What’s this?” Asai asked, looking at everything as he was being detained.

“Don’t you know? The Redemption Festival has arrived!” replied the security team member supporting him.

Asai had been so immersed in tracking down the culprit that he hadn’t noticed the arrival of Anho City’s most lively annual festival.

He was shackled and surrounded by several security team members, standing among the crowd on the street.

He watched as the effigy of Saint Stan Tito was carried through the street in the distance, smiles on everyone’s faces.

The morning light shone on the effigy, reflecting a glare so bright it was hard to keep one’s eyes open.

And Asai stood in the shadow of a street corner, watching the radiant effigy gradually recede into the distance.

The captain asked Asai: “Do you want to take a look at that man-eater?”

“After all, we couldn’t have caught him without you. It’s also to your credit that we were able to arrest this madman.”

Asai’s gaze remained fixed on the receding effigy, and he shook his head.

“Never mind.”

“No need.”

Asai found himself confined to a dim, dank cell in Anho City’s jail, sharing the cramped space with an evil sorcerer.

It was said that he had once been a member of the Temple of Truth, but had conducted forbidden experiments to gain power. After having part of his brain lobe cut off, he could no longer control the power of his Ability and was now waiting to die here.

The evil sorcerer was a garrulous fellow, his words a constant stream of boasts about his glorious past.

He regaled Asai with tales of his former pursuits, his reverence for truth and power.

Asai usually just listened quietly to him, but one day he heard the evil sorcerer mention the panacea.

He, who had always been just a listener, suddenly began to tell his own story,

“Do you believe that an ordinary person can become a hero admired by everyone through struggle and effort?”

“Someone told me that Lester was such a hero.”

Asai took a deep breath: “But…”

“It’s really so difficult!”

Upon hearing Asai’s words, the other person burst into laughter.

He laughed so hard he pounded the ground.

“Holy Hands Lester?”

“A hero?”

The evil sorcerer laughed until he was out of breath: “Lester is a hero? Are you joking?”

Most people only knew about Holy Hands Lester, but not the latter half of the story,

But this priest from the Temple of Truth happened to know part of the story about Holy Hands Lester.

Evil sorcerer: “The story that person told you wasn’t wrong, but he didn’t tell you the final part.”

Asai raised his head: “The final part? What was Lester’s ending like?”

The evil sorcerer, with an exaggerated expression, narrated a story completely different from the first half.

If the first half was about light and holiness, inspiring admiration.

Then the second half was about despair, terror, and darkness.

“Lester thought his panacea could cure everyone, could solve all diseases in this world, but in the end, it only turned all the patients into living dead, including his wife.”

“He became a despised pest, people tore down the statues erected for him, everyone abandoned him.”

“…”

“In the end, he sacrificed the entire Cross City to the God of Knowledge, using an entire city of people as offerings at the stake.”

“Because of him, Cross City disappeared from history.”

“Hero… hahahahaha…”

“Go ask the countless souls of Cross City if they recognize this hero.”

Hearing such an ending, Asai felt he should be angry, should be sad.

But in the end, he found he didn’t have much emotion.

He only said: “Ah!”

“So that’s how it is!”

Asai raised his head, looking out the window.

“You know what?”

“I always feel like there’s an invisible hand controlling me, making me a clown on a stage, enjoying my ridiculous performance.”

The evil sorcerer thought of his own past, of his former ambitions and pursuits, and also of his current miserable state and ending.

Isn’t every failure like this, pursuing success again and again, only to fall on the road of failure time after time.

Those who can enjoy the glory of success are always the minority.

As a failure himself, he empathized deeply with these words.

“In this world, who can truly control their own destiny?”

The clouds drifted away, and sunlight shone through the narrow window, falling on Asai.

But Asai actively avoided the light, sitting in the shadows.

He turned his back and lowered his head.

Then, he covered his eyes with both hands.

Just like his mother used to do, bringing him endless warmth and a sense of security.

Everything before his eyes was pitch black. He found that when he no longer used his eyes to see this world, he could see more clearly.

“Bang!”

A bone ball beside him floated up.

On the other side of the city.

The Divine Contract High Priest Xiao was now in Anho City, staying at one of the Ghost Cult’s stations.

When he arrived, all the dark forces in Anho City came to pay homage to him, as if greeting the king of the dark world.

Those bone demons, evil sorcerers, and cultists prostrated themselves at his feet, offering him everything they possessed.

But Xiao scornfully tossed them aside.

“Get out, don’t disturb me.”

He stayed in a small building not far from the prison for half a month, finally writing the last line on a scroll several meters long, then put down his pen.

With a lazy stretch, Xiao waved his hand. The long scroll obediently rolled itself up, a silk ribbon snaking around it to tie itself into a neat bow.

“The experiment is over.”

“And it was successful.”

There was no trace of relaxation on Xiao’s face, and he even showed a rare hint of gravity.

He looked towards the direction of the Sacred Mountain, a smile appearing on his face: “God, what will you do next?”

The relationship between Xiao and the Little Person in the Bottle was less like that between a god and a believer, and more like that between an employer and an employee.

Of course, in the eyes of the Little Person in the Bottle, he might not even count as a tool, just a special toy.

What happens when an employee has obtained enough capital and no longer needs the employer to pay wages?

When a capricious god finds that a tool has lost its use, that a toy is no longer interesting.

What will happen?