Chapter 67: Parents
When Ji Minghuan heard the word "Demonkin," the first image that popped into his head was Majin Buu from Dragon Ball Z.
As a kid, he really loved that anime. It was one of the few sources of entertainment in the orphanage—whenever the children behaved well, the nurses would reward them with an episode of Dragon Ball Z.
Everyone would crowd around the TV, arguing over which Super Saiyan form of Goku was the coolest.
Unfortunately, anime was just anime. If Demonkin existed in real life, they probably wouldn't look like a chubby, squinty-eyed villain that was so cute you’d want to pinch his cheeks. They’d likely be ugly, monstrous things.
"Sounds wild... how do a human and a demon even mate?"
The boy in the Coded Inmate Uniform clicked his tongue, asking a question that sounded a bit NSFW.
The Instructor took a sip of water to moisten his throat, then explained, “Some high-level demons possess intelligence. They can even take human form and disguise themselves as ordinary people living among humans. In their human form, it’s entirely possible for them to mate with humans. Filio is a child born that way.”
“So you're saying... there are a lot of Demonkin?” Ji Minghuan asked.
“No,” the Instructor shook his head. “Filio is the only Demonkin we've discovered so far. His father must’ve been an exceptionally powerful demon—otherwise, we can't explain how Filio had such terrifying power at such a young age.”
Hearing that, Ji Minghuan quietly thought: So if Filio’s father is still roaming human cities, I might get a chance to meet this demon someday? What parent doesn’t love their child? Maybe I can lead it to the Salvation Society’s base and get it to break him out.
According to the Instructor, even though Filio’s father is a demon, it still has human intelligence. So communicating with it shouldn’t be an issue.
If the demon’s leading a demon army too, even better.
Oh mighty demon lord, I’m counting on you to break me out of this hellhole! Demon lord! I’m putting all my hope in you—please, help me out, mighty lord!
Ji Minghuan looked up and asked with a blank face, “So what does this little Demonkin look like?”
“As the name implies, half demon, half human—he has both demonic and human features.”
“No wonder he’s locked up in here…” Ji Minghuan muttered, then asked, “What about his parents?”
The Instructor went silent for a while. “By the time we traced the leads back, his mother had already been eaten. All that was left in the house were some body parts. As for the demon father who fathered the child—still missing to this day.”
Ji Minghuan raised an eyebrow. “You’re not saying the one who ate his mom… was his demon dad, right?”
“That was our initial assumption too.”
“And then?”
“Then we realized we were wrong. The one who ate his mother…” The Instructor paused, lowering his voice:
“Was Filio himself.”
Ji Minghuan froze.
He stared at the Instructor, silent for a moment, and repeated, “You’re saying… Filio ate his own mom?”
“That’s right. When we found him, there were undigested human body parts in his stomach.”
The Instructor lowered his gaze and spoke slowly: “Young demons are like pure beasts. Even his demon father only developed a stable consciousness after maturing. So one day, when the demon father was out hunting, Filio… ate his own mother.”
He paused again. “When we found him, he was still crying out, ‘Mom, where are you?’ None of us expected that he had eaten her himself—of course, to him, it was more of an unconscious, instinct-driven act imprinted in his genes.”
Ji Minghuan went quiet.
Naturally, he hadn’t expected to meet some kind, red-scarf-wearing model student in a place like this.
But starting off with a heavy-hitter who had eaten his own mother alive—yeah, that shook his worldview a bit.
After a moment’s hesitation, he said quietly, “My mom taught me to choose my friends wisely… maybe I’ll skip making friends with this one.”
“Not making friends is boring... You seem like someone who really wants someone to talk to,” the Instructor raised an eyebrow.
Ji Minghuan leaned back in his chair and sighed, “I just care whether this ‘Filio’ kid might suddenly open his mouth and eat me mid-convo.”
“Impossible.” The Instructor smiled and cut in. “Don’t worry. We found Filio when he was very young and brought him to the lab. He’s been well-educated. His ‘human’ side is much more dominant than his ‘demon’ side. In his mind, he sees himself as a human—so he’d never commit something like cannibalism again.”
“So he… knows he ate his mom?”
“We originally planned to hide it from him. But as he grew older, he remembered on his own.”
“What was his reaction?”
“He choked himself, lying on the ground vomiting for a long time. He cried, dug at his throat, and with a face full of despair asked me: ‘Why was I even born?’”
Ji Minghuan was quiet for a while. “Yeah... I’d probably mentally collapse too, if that happened to me. Makes sense.”
“It’s normal to fear Filio. But think about it—if even you are afraid of him, how do you think the rest of the world sees him? He’s such a lonely kid. If we can’t accept him, no one else in this world will. If you’re willing to be his friend, that would be ideal.”
The Instructor said this quietly, his voice tinged with a faint sorrow.
Ji Minghuan tilted his head slightly, staring at him in silence.
He couldn’t tell whether this guy was putting on a show or being genuine.
“So tomorrow, it’ll be the three of us meeting in this room?” he asked.
“Yes. Kong Youling will be there too,” the Instructor smiled. “I know you’re eager to see her.”
Ji Minghuan paused, then met the Instructor’s gaze. “You know the only reason I’m even sitting here talking to you is because you haven’t actually harmed her. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have said a single word to you—and I sure as hl wouldn’t be helping you find some ‘nuclear switch.’”
He paused. “If we do find it… I’ll be the first to press it.”
The unspoken meaning was: if that Demonkin hurts Kong Youling in a moment of lost control, then f* it—everyone goes crazy. Let’s see who the real monster in this prison is.
“We’re not villains. Why would we use someone a child cares about as leverage?” the Instructor chuckled. “You really do misunderstand us too deeply.”
Ji Minghuan looked away.
But he understood in his heart: what the Salvation Society really feared was that if Kong Youling were ever injured or killed, his powers would spiral out of control in an instant.
That’s why they had always treated her as his “emotional stabilizer.”
Ji Minghuan stayed silent for a while.
He was starting to get confused about what these people really wanted.
If the Salvation Society was a benevolent organization, then why did the Exorcist known as Traffic Light suddenly go berserk one night, losing all reason and butchering innocent Exorcists—leaving behind a deliberate mark from the Salvation Society at the crime scene?
That didn’t seem like something a good guy would do.
Could it be… there were two factions within the Salvation Society?
And the one that drove Traffic Light mad was the darker half, while the Instructor was on the side of the good?
Ji Minghuan’s mind was a storm of tangled thoughts.
There were still too many unanswered questions about the Salvation Society that he had to figure out. But one thing he was certain of:
No matter whether their intentions were good or evil, whether they wanted to use him or protect him—he would definitely take Kong Youling out of this godforsaken place.
So what if the world ends? Better that than being caged forever in this sunless cell.
People like them, with no place to belong, could only keep running.
Even if the whole world had no space for them, they had to keep running forward.
It’s just that… what they once wanted to escape was that orphanage;
And now, it was this research facility in front of them.
After a long silence, he said quietly, “I’m tired. I want to rest.”
“Alright, we’ll stop here for today.” The Instructor stood from the table and turned toward the exit.
Just before leaving, he suddenly paused and turned back, hesitating for a moment before asking: “By the way… aren’t you curious?”
“Curious about what?”
Ji Minghuan picked at a scab on his index finger, not even lifting his head.
“Your parents—the ones who abandoned you. Wonder what they’re up to now?” the Instructor said.
The detention room fell into complete silence. A dead quiet that lasted ten full seconds.
After a pause, Ji Minghuan looked away from his scab, slowly raised his head, locked eyes with the Instructor, and said almost word for word:
“Those two sons of b**ches... they’re still alive?”