The Record of Unusual Creatures

While Hao Ren and the MDT had caught the ‘things,’ Rollie was still scratching the ground with her claws. Her hair all puffed up as she wrestled with the shadow, kicking up dust into the air as if she was going to ascend into heaven at first glance. Hao Ren came over and patted the cat maiden on the head. “All right, stop. I’ve got it,” he said.

The cat maiden almost jumped out of her skin and bounced back out for more than two meters. After realizing no one was coming after her, she looked up and around and discovered that the MDT was keeping the shadow under control with its blue light beam. She let out a meow of relief, came up to Hao Ren and rubbed her head against him while making intermittent humming in her throat. She was frightened to death just now.

“It’s fine now.” Hao Ren petted the silly cat and put her tail back into her clothes. He had to re-examine the cat demon; though noisy, mischievous, disobedient, eccentric and obstinate, her bravery at the crucial moment had surprised Hao Ren. After comforting his cat, he came to the MDT. “So what is that thing?”

The MDT still restrained the shadow with a blue beam and sounded a bit confused. “I have never seen this life form before. It looks like an energy body and is controllable by my strong magnetic field, but its nature is also like a shadow. You see, it can only move on the surface of other objects.”

The MDT kept adjusting the frequency of the magnetic field while moving the mist-like shadow around. Hao Ren had noticed that the thing always stuck to the ground no matter how. It was especially apparent when going over some small stones and like a projected image, it could not leave the surface of other objects at all.

“Speaking of which, how is the attack ability of this thing? Are you injured?” the MDT asked while still keeping the shadow moving around.

Hao Ren moved his limbs a bit and said, “I’m not hurt, just shocked. The nature of this thing is just too strange. It almost penetrated my Steel Membrane Shield and gave me an electric shock sensation. Otherwise, I’m fine.”

“Dang, you’re such an embarrassment, almost beaten by the weakling.” The MDT sounded as if it needed a good spanking. “I thought you were dying and expected to see a martyr here. It’s a shame there wasn’t even a single drop of blood.”

Hao Ren smiled shamefacedly. “I told you I was just shocked. It was the first time I encountered such a thing. It is so weird that it is invisible and almost unbeatable. I still had something up my sleeve if you didn’t come. I don’t believe that this thing could withstand my psionic gun.”

“You might be able to kill it with that pistol, but the sample would be gone for good,” the MDT murmured while continuing to switch the restraining mode of the magnetic field as it tried to rip the shadow off the ground. “Luckily I arrived on time. How do we get this thing back?”

Hao Ren squatted down and observed for a while. “Can’t you rip it off?”

“I can only control it, but there is no way to ‘tear’ it down,” the MDT said with a sullen tone of voice. “Maybe we could drag it home while restraining it using the light beam.”

Hao Ren visualized in his mind what it was like dragging a shadow on the ground back home. He shook his head quickly. “No, no, no. That’s not okay. I’d have a hard time explaining if people see it. I can’t just tell people that I’m walking my shadow, right?”

Rollie immediately interrupted. “No, no, no! You’re walking me today!”

“None of your business.” Hao Ren turned the silly cat away. From walking a cat to becoming walking a shadow, he was stumped as he looked at the spinning shadow. Suddenly something crossed his mind. He took a piece of paper out from the dimensional pocket. “Could you drive the shadow onto the paper?” he asked.

The MDT thought for a moment. “Hmmm, let’s try, but how am I supposed to keep it still on the paper? Keep beaming the light on it?”

Hao Ren looked at the MDT curiously. “What do you use to restrain it?”

“Psionic energy field,” the MDT replied. “Once the force field disappears, it will run away. This thing is just trapped but not hurt.”

Hao Ren acknowledged with an ‘Oh’ and began to think what he had in the dimension pocket he could use to restrain the ‘thing.’ He really could not think of anything now. He had captured all kinds of strange things, from humanoid to huge First Born, using various types of containers, but he had never caught shadow before.

The cat maiden moved around restlessly staring intently at the shadow restrained by the beam as if she were ready to pounce on it.

After thinking for a while, something came to Hao Ren’s mind. “Oh yes! I still have something!”

While saying, he took out the thing from his dimensional pocket. The MDT was stumped when it saw it. “You still keep this stuff?”

It was none other than the golden apple carton box, which he used to hold the vengeful spirit. This apple box was kept inside the dimensional pocket, and it was still in pristine condition.

“Of course, I do,” Hao Ren said. “This thing is a divine artifact. It is like the Jade Vase of Guanyin and the Purple Red Gourd of the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord in my eyes. This thing shouldn’t be as tough as the vengeful spirit.”

The Grand Supreme Elderly Lord must have found it embarrassed that his Purple Red Gourd looked like that.

Hao Ren did not think much about how his ‘Purple Red Gourd’ looked. He put the divine carton on the ground with the opening facing the shadow. “Would you respond if I call you? No? Then I treat it as tacit consent. MDT, shove it inside.”

The MDT could not care less of what Hao Ren said. It beamed the light at the shadow and swept it into the carton.

As expected, this divine carton had no problem containing the odd energy body. The shadow stayed quietly at the bottom of the carton like a dirty patch of stain. If it weren’t for the misty ripples inside, Hao Ren would have thought that the thing was dead.

Hao Ren had lost the interest to walk his cat after the incident. Though Rollie seemed to want to mooch for a little longer, Hao Ren insisted that she followed him home.

He called everyone out as soon as he arrived home. When everyone gathered, he found that Y’zals and his daughter were not there. He asked, “Where are Y’zaks and Y’lisabet?”

“Oh, they are helping the mini market in the street corner fix the air conditioner,” Vivian replied, looking curiously at the apple carton that Hao Ren had brought back. “You got your year-end bonus already? It seems it still too early.”

“Ahh, no!” Hao Ren put the apple carton on the coffee table. “I was attacked!”

As soon as his voice trailed off, everyone became paranoid. Some immediately form shifted, some drew their weapon, and some came up examining Hao Ren’s injury. Hao Ren quickly explained, “Don’t panic, you’ve got it under control, the assassin has been reprimanded, right inside the carton.”

“What? You should say it early. It almost scared the hell out of me!” Lily groaned while taking a peek inside the carton. “Eh? There is nothing inside. Has it escaped?”

Lily had just responded as Hao Ren expected. “It’s the shadow at the bottom of the carton.”

“Shadow?” Lily finally noticed the dark thing at the bottom of the carton. “I thought it was ink. Wow! It moves!”

Nearby, Vivian and the Nangong siblings became curious. They came up and surrounded the carton. “Let me see that! Let me see that!” “Oh, it moves!” “Look! Its shape just looked like Y’zaks’ face just now.”

They ignored hao Ren. He forced a smile. “Hey! What about me?” he asked.

Vivian looked back up at him; at least she still knew how to show her concern. “Hao Ren, where did you get this thing from?”

Hao Ren immediately sensed that there was more to Vivian’s words than meets the eye. “You know what this thing is?”