Chapter 22 (1/2)

“Old man, are you fooling around with me?” Zhou Bai looked at the elder before him with discontent and then pointed at the shiba inu next to his feet and said, “This is Elsa?”

Seeing Zhou Bai point at her, the shiba inu stood up happily, wagging her tail. Her mouth widened into something resembling a smile.

The elder explained awkwardly, “She was infected by polluted Spark and showed signs of demonification. We’ve tried our best to suppress its level, and we were finally able to make her non-hazardous.”

“Huh?!” Zhou Bai shouted, “I gave you guys a human, and you return a dog to me? And you say you tried your best?!”

The elder coughed. “She won’t be a dog forever. If her will is strong enough, she might be able to turn back into a human.”

At that moment, they saw the shiba inu stand up. She looked like she wanted to jump on Zhou Bai. After seeing him look at her with surprise, she opened her mouth and spoke in a raspy voice.

“Zhou~~ Bai~~”

Zhou Bai looked at her in shock, responding, “It’s me.”

“I’m~~ hungry~~”

Zhou Bai went blank for a second and then crouched to rub Elsa’s head. He said in a deep voice, “Don’t be scared, Elsa. I’ll take you to get food in a bit.” He looked up at the elder and said, “You come along, too. Tell me about this demonification deal.”

…

Half an hour later, as Zhou Bai walked back with Elsa, he was still going over what the elder had told him.

“Demonification is a special phenomenon that occurs after being infected by polluted Spark. Both the body and mind go through a mutation, and the person becomes a goblin without reason.

“Goblins like this almost never recover. Only one or two out of 10,000 will recover a certain degree of reason, but their personalities and cognition of the world have been completely distorted and they cannot be treated as humans.

“Of course, if they are saved in time, there’s a 1 in 10,000 chance that the demonified human will continue living in a half-demonified condition, but if that’s not successful, then they might become a full animal like Elsa.

“There are examples of those who are half-demonified who restored their human bodies after raising their level of practice.

“But for those who turn fully into animals like Elsa, even though they could theoretically restore their human bodies after they raise their level of practice, in reality, their intelligence is too low after turning into animals. So far, there have been no examples of creatures like these who have restored their human bodies.”

Taking Elsa back to his room, Zhou Bai sat on the ground with furrowed brows. Elsa walked around him a few times and then laid herself on Zhou Bai’s chest. She licked at his cheek while making a whining noise.

“Zhou Bai, maybe it’s not as bad as you think,” said Christina. “Do you remember when Professor Zhuang fought against that Mara? His body also had signs of demonification.”

Zhou Bai’s vision focused as he realized fully what Christina had said. “I watched Elsa’s body get penetrated by the Mara. An ordinary child couldn’t have survived in that situation.”

“Exactly,” Christina replied. “And besides, normal children don’t have that big of an appetite. Remember Professor Zhuang’s research goal? To practice without being affected by polluted Spark. Perhaps he’s already succeeded?”

Zhou Bai looked at Elsa. “She looks smarter than ordinary dogs, but I don’t see human wisdom in her at all.”

Christina then reminded him, “Don’t forget, it’s the people from the Paradise Rescue Team who saved her. Perhaps their rescue interrupted Elsa’s demonification, and that caused her to not be able to control the power of demonification like Professor Zhuang did.”

“Then what do I do?” asked Zhou Bai. “Should I let Elsa come in contact with polluted Spark? Increase her degree of demonification? And if that doesn’t work, she’s been given the vaccine, so normal contact won’t work. She has to stay outside for a couple weeks…”

“Don’t be rash,” said Christina. “We don’t know much about demonification.”