The girl in the photo was so familiar—she was the one who had been haunting my thoughts, Ma Zao!

The photo was likely taken at night, with a dark sky in the background. Ma Zao was walking alone down a quiet street, with no pedestrians around and the shops on both sides already closed. This street was familiar to me; it was a pedestrian street in a neighboring district. It was usually much busier, but the photo had a cold, deserted feel, indicating it was taken in the early hours of the morning.

Ma Zao's face was obscured by a mask, so no expression could be discerned. Her gaze seemed to be searching for something, and her posture gave off a subtle sense of alertness and tension. Strangely, she seemed unaware of the photographer.

Why would Ma Zao appear in a photo given to me by Zhu Shi? Aren’t we talking about the Fallen Demon Hunter case?

Mount Luo is looking for Ma Zao. Could Zhu Shi also have a similar task? Am I being tested?

But Agent Kong had mentioned that Zhu Shi and the faction searching for Ma Zao weren't on the same side... No, Zhu Shi is only not aligned with the faction that uses extreme methods to find Ma Zao, but there may be other factions searching for her. And since Agent Kong is dead, perhaps the task that originally belonged to him has now fallen to Zhu Shi...

It could also be that my thoughts are going off track. The Fallen Demon Hunter case and Ma Zao are not entirely unrelated. Before leaving, Ma Zao took Agent Kong's burnt charcoal finger from my house, and Agent Kong was the previous Fallen Demon Hunter...

"Zhuang Cheng, what's wrong?" Zhu Shi's voice suddenly interrupted my thoughts. "Is there something wrong with this photo?"

I jolted, still dazed from the shock, and instinctively lied, "Nothing, it's just that this photo is a bit different from the others. Who is this girl in the photo? Is she related to the Fallen Demon Hunter?"

"You asked me before about the girl Agent Kong was pretending to be a police officer to find, right? Although she's wearing a mask, based on our analysis, she should be that girl." She seemed unaware that I was acting.

"I see, she's the girl with the soul loss condition that Agent Kong mentioned to me..." This part was not a lie—Agent Kong had indeed told me about her.

"Since you know, I don’t need to explain further," Zhu Shi nodded. "This girl suddenly appeared while we were searching for new clues about the Fallen Demon Hunter. That said, none of our people have directly witnessed her."

"Not directly witnessed?" I asked, confused. "But the photo was taken, wasn't it?"

"Zhuang Cheng, doesn’t this photo you have look like a street surveillance snapshot? But actually, there are no cameras on this pedestrian street at that specific spot," she explained. "This was a photo created by someone in Mount Luo who specializes in divination and reconnaissance. They read the land's memories along the route that the Fallen Demon Hunter might have taken, then combined it with a writing ability to produce this photo.

"He originally intended to divine clues about the Fallen Demon Hunter, but unexpectedly, this girl appeared in the photo formed by the divination and writing."

No wonder Ma Zao in the photo didn’t notice the photographer—it was "historical imagery."

I asked with concern, "Does Mount Luo believe this girl is the Fallen Demon Hunter?"

"Although, for most of the time the Fallen Demon Hunter was causing trouble, she was lying in the hospital in a vegetative state... yes, the possibility you mentioned can’t be ruled out," Zhu shi said. "Because the Fallen Demon Hunter is clearly not just one person, and their source of power and motivations are unclear. This soul loss girl also has 'unknown sources of power,' and her motives for escaping the hospital and stealing firearms and ammunition are also unclear..."

As she spoke, she lowered her head, seemingly starting to seriously consider the situation.

Uh-oh, did I give her some bizarre idea?

I could understand why the divination for the Fallen Demon Hunter led to Ma Zao. Although I don’t know exactly how Mount Luo’s divination works, Ma Zao does have the charred finger of the Fallen Demon Hunter.

And right now, the most fortunate thing is undoubtedly the fact that "Ma Zao is still in Xianshui City."

These past couple of days, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find Ma Zao. My biggest worry was that she had been spatially relocated to another city. I had also considered using Mount Luo’s power to search for her, but since I’m not yet a member of Mount Luo, I couldn’t come up with a valid reason to ask. I never expected that, in the end, I would get a clue about Ma Zao through Zhu Shi.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

In my view, Ma Zao might also be looking for the Fallen Demon Hunter.

Her motive is still unclear, but in such a large city, her figure appeared along the "suspected path of the Fallen Demon Hunter," and she also carried the charred finger of the Fallen Demon Hunter. It's hard to imagine that her current goal has no connection to the Fallen Demon Hunter.

Of course, there's another possibility: her "scourge" constitution is attracting the "Fallen Demon Hunter incident."

The truth doesn't matter much right now. The most important thing is that the tasks of "finding the Fallen Demon Hunter who threatens Chang'an" and "finding Ma Zao" have merged into one.

As long as the former is found, it could lead to the latter.

It’s truly like the saying, "After the dark willows, there is another village with bright flowers.!"

Suddenly, I felt a sense of incongruity and asked, "Zhu Shi, by showing me these photos, are you hoping that I’ll act with you from now on?"

"Yes," Zhu Shi nodded straightforwardly.

"Has my application to become an External in Mount Luo Wu Chang been approved?" I asked.

"Not yet," she shook her head.

That’s strange. Although I really want to be involved in investigating this case, given Zhu Shi’s cautious nature when it comes to strange events, she shouldn’t pull me, an outsider, into this. Because I’m a "capable person," it doesn’t mean she’d think I should "work more" — she isn’t the type to think that way.

"The reason I came to ask you to participate in this case is because it’s related to your upcoming role as an External in Mount Luo Wu Chang..." Zhu Shi seemed to be trying to find the right angle to bring up the topic. "I don’t know if Agent Kong ever mentioned to you that he was the one responsible for the area around Xianshui University. Now that he’s dead, naturally, this area needs new personnel to take over."

I picked up on her implication: "My becoming an External in Mount Luo Wu Chang has something to do with the new agent?"

"Yes, but now the one taking over our area is not an agent, but a Patrol (巡游') ," she said.

"Patrol?" I immediately made a connection, "Is it the same '巡游' as in 'Wandering God'?"

"Exactly," she nodded.

In our country’s folk beliefs, there are two deities known as the Day Wandering God and the Night Wandering God. They are subordinates of Yama and the City God, who are deities of the underworld.

They are also referred to as the Day Patrol and Night Patrol, responsible for monitoring the good and evil of the human world.

"In Mount Luo, the demon hunters responsible for handling the abnormalities are called 'Wu Chang' (the Impermanents); while those responsible for investigating the abnormalities are called 'You Xun' (Patrols)," Zhu Shi explained.

"Then what about 'Probes'?" I asked. "Aren't the agent also responsible for investigating abnormalities?"

She thought for a moment before asking me a question: "Zhuang Cheng, do you think that compared to Wu Chang and You Xun, titles like Probe and Agent sound too modern?"

"I do get that feeling," I admitted.

"In ancient times, agent were called Yin Cha (Shadow Officers) or Gui Zu (Ghost Soldiers), etc. Since they were actually just ordinary people, Mount Luo didn’t consider them part of their own group but viewed them as a private force for the Patrol," she explained. "In ancient times, there were very few Patrol, and it was difficult to monitor abnormal activities in their jurisdiction, so they had to cultivate their own forces in the civilian world. This is the origin of the Agents.

"It wasn’t until modern times that Agents were officially accepted by Mount Luo. And because the Agents were the closest part of Mount Luo to the civilian world, it would have been awkward for them to call themselves Shadow Officers or Ghost Soldiers when presenting themselves outwardly, so they adopted names more fitting for the modern era."

"I see..."

I wasn't entirely convinced by this explanation. Was it really just because it was difficult to present themselves as Shadow Officers or Ghost Soldiers that they chose the name "Probe," which has such a mechanized connotation? It felt like Mount Luo might have an invisible bias against ordinary people.

"Does this mean that the Patrol are the superior leaders to the Agents?" I suddenly made a connection.

Agent Kong had mentioned that the reason he disguised himself as a police officer to search for Ma Zao was due to orders from his superior.

Could it be...?

"Is the Patrol now overseeing our university’s area the superior of Agent Kong?" I asked.

"Yes," Zhushi confirmed. "At the same time, Patrol also have another responsibility, which is to monitor the activities of civilian demon hunters. If a civilian demon hunter shows the potential to become an External Wu Chang, the Patrol also have the authority to evaluate them."

"I originally hoped to use my family’s connections to help you bypass those procedures, but after the Patrol found out about your feat againts Agent Kong, they proposed using this Fallen Demon Hunter case as an evaluation to test your power level."

After thinking for a moment, I asked, "Is the Patrol close to Agent Kong?"

"Very close," she said. "This Patrol only became a Patrol last year. Before that, he were a highly skilled Wu Chang."

"I heard that twenty years ago, before Agent Kong joined Mount Luo, he got involved in an supernatural event and nearly starved to death in a ghostly wall of obstacles caused by evil spirits. At that time, it was the Patrol, who was still a Wu Chang, who saved him.

"I think he might have some issues with you now and may try to hinder you..."

Before she could finish speaking, I heard a voice from nearby: "It's not very nice to talk behind my back like that, Zhu Shi."

"Lu Chan?" Zhu Shi frowned.

I turned toward the voice and saw a young man walking over from across the street. He was wearing deep blue clothing that mixed modern and ancient styles.

"I saw you suddenly run off while analyzing the case, and since you didn’t come back for such a long time, I decided to come find you myself." He spoke to Zhu Shi first, then turned to me with a friendly smile. "You must be Zhuang Cheng. Nice to meet you, I’m Lu Chan, a Patrol from Mount Luo."

He extended his hand to me, and I observed him.

He was the one who had ordered Agent Kong to search for Ma Zao.