The Exorcist 01

A twisted figure was rapidly approaching the person sitting on the hospital bed.

With a sinister grin plastered across its face, it leaned in close: "Human, surrender your body to me... hmm?"

The man slowly turned his head to look at it.

The demon actually felt a sudden palpitation from that single glance. What intense resentment! It had never seen a human with such heavy resentment!

It felt a momentary unease. It seemed like it hadn't chosen its target very well this time. Maybe it should pick another one?

"Stop being angry. You've been mad for ages now," Little Hei advised.

"Not angry? I worked my ass off my entire life, and when I could finally cash out at the very end, I got screwed over by fate before I could enjoy a single bit of it?" Fang Zhiyi's resentment at this moment was heavier than a ghost's.

"It's not bad already. You altered the fates of too many people this time. The Heavenly Dao of that world was quite reasonable."

"Bullshit!!!"

The demon, still hesitating whether to leave, looked at Fang Zhiyi uncertainly again. The sight it saw this time instantly froze its blood. Behind that human was a vague, massive shadow. Countless tentacles extended from the shadow and retracted. Just seeing this phantom made it start trembling instinctively.

Maybe it really should leave? Changing to another host wouldn't be a bad idea...

Just as it cautiously turned around, the human spoke: "Stop right there!"

The demon slowly turned its head back, and the phantom that terrified it was gone.

Could it have seen wrong?

"Who the hell are you?"

The demon looked at this human, wanting to demand some respect, but it couldn't help feeling a bit guilty: "I am Uresk, a demon from the abyss..."

Fang Zhiyi waved his hand in irritation, the iron chains on his wrists rattling loudly: "That name is too much of a mouthful. From now on, you're called Skinny Dog!"

Uresk froze: "Human, you..." Right in that moment of anger, it once again saw a massive, overwhelmingly oppressive dark shadow erupt from behind the man—an existence even more terrifying than a high-ranking demon!

The demon cautiously took a step back: "I, I'll be leaving now."

"Wait!"

The demon offered an apologetic smile: "Is there anything else, my Lord?"

It didn't understand. Was the intel wrong? It had clearly come to the human realm after receiving a summons, yet this human obviously harbored a much more terrifying entity. However, it didn't dare disobey Fang Zhiyi; it could distinctly feel that incredibly terrifying existence staring right at it.

Little Hei looked at the demon with great interest: "Oh, you can actually sense me?"

Fang Zhiyi cursed in annoyance, then urged it to provide the plot.

In the twenty-seventh year of the Qiyuan era, this world was invaded by demons. Supernatural events occurred constantly, and the old saying that science could explain everything had become somewhat unbelievable.

Those entities descended upon humans with some unknown power, attempting to arrive in the mortal world in bizarre ways.

Fang Zhiyi, who was already frail and sickly, was one of the people targeted by these demons. He was constantly pulled into a terrifying space with blue-gray walls, where he was chained by his wrists to an old iron-framed bed. The flimsy door kept echoing with banging sounds, as if something horrifying was about to burst in from the outside.

Fortunately, his parents woke him up time and time again. Whenever he woke, his head would be covered in sweat.

He had an older brother named Fang Linjie, who was physically strong. In contrast to Fang Zhiyi's weak constitution, Fang Linjie was always dismissive of it, constantly calling him a sickling and a piece of trash.

Fang Zhiyi never minded, because he had seen Fang Linjie corner the classmates who bullied him in an alley and beat them up severely, before dropping harsh threats warning them to stay away from his younger brother.

He just had a sharp tongue, that was all.

However, his dreams became increasingly terrifying. The door had been smashed open, and then a pitch-black, twisted figure approached his bed, seeming as though it wanted to say something to him.

Due to the large-scale outbreak of supernatural events, many people began to panic, and some claimed to be exorcists. To solve Fang Zhiyi's problem, his parents spent money to hire an exorcist. But after an investigation, the exorcist just shook his head: "There is no problem. Don't waste my time."

Fang Linjie spat viciously at the exorcist's retreating back.

Not long after that day, Fang Linjie had a fierce argument with their father. Fang Zhiyi vaguely heard his own name, followed by the sound of his brother slamming the door and leaving. After that, he never saw his older brother again.

Fang Zhiyi asked his father, but his father kept his mouth shut about it.

In such an environment, a group calling itself the Salvation Order emerged out of nowhere. They proclaimed that only by believing in God could one avoid the demonic invasions. At first, no one believed them, but soon after, the exorcists dispatched by the Order actually resolved several demonic possession cases, which prompted the public to start joining the ranks of their believers.

Even Fang Zhiyi's parents joined, but in response to their pleas, the Order merely told them to wait patiently.

His father and mother had no choice but to regularly visit the Order to donate money and pray.

However, Fang Zhiyi always felt that something was not quite right, though he couldn't put his finger on it.

Whether the prayers worked or not, Fang Zhiyi stopped dreaming of that cold hospital room and the bizarre figure. His sleep improved a lot, his health began to recover, and his family was overjoyed.

Only Fang Zhiyi still thought about his brother. He asked a few times, but his father refused to mention his brother's whereabouts.

That was until the outside world began to descend into chaos. After the Order published numerous horrifying records, the public's hatred and panic toward demons reached its peak. Some even resorted to lynching, determined to eliminate anyone targeted by demons in order to stop the demons from appearing.

Fang Zhiyi's house was also surrounded. Even though his parents repeatedly explained that he had recovered, those people twisted it into believing that Fang Zhiyi had been cured by demonic powers, making them even more agitated.

In the conflict that night, Fang Zhiyi's parents died in a sea of fire. He was struck and injured by a stone thrown by a neighbor, lying on the ground at death's door, waiting for the end to come. But soon, someone approached him and took him away.

It was an exorcist squad led by Lin Ye. Lin Ye said they could not stand the Order's methods and wanted to gather strength to defeat the demons once and for all. Fang Zhiyi was somewhat doubtful: could demons even be killed?

Regardless, he survived, and the people in the squad treated him very well.

He never wondered how he, as an ordinary person, managed to earn the favor of these people.

It wasn't until the girl in the squad who treated him best suddenly drove a thick iron nail through his palm, pinning him to a tree, that Fang Zhiyi finally woke up to the truth.

They had been deceiving him all along, just to bring him to this place and use him as bait to lure out Fang Linjie—his own brother, who had already sold his soul to a demon.