Chapter 4: Aberrant Parasite
After school, Yu Xian returned home. He immediately rummaged through the cabinet and took out the silver ring he had previously used to verify the blood he bought.
Besides dreading sunlight, vampires were also afraid of silver.
Although it was nowhere near as lethal to vampires as sunlight, it could suppress their regenerative abilities.
Under normal circumstances, as long as a vampire had enough food and their heart was not severely damaged, they would quickly heal from most injuries.
However, wounds inflicted by weapons made of silver were exceptionally difficult to recover from. Most vampires chose to hibernate precisely because silver weapons injured them.
Yu Xian had heard that even the slightest contact with silver would cause a burning sensation on a vampire's skin and that prolonged contact could cause ulceration. Yet as he held the silver ring between his fingers, he felt absolutely nothing.
"How is this a minor ability? Most vampires probably do not even have a major ability this absurd."
Yu Xian crushed the silver ring into a lump, confirming that he was immune to the suppressive effects of silver on vampires, thanks to his newly awakened Silver Blood ability. However, that was not the main effect of Silver Blood; it was to allow him to consume silver and convert all of his blood into Silver Blood.
Once all of his blood was converted into Silver Blood, his physical attributes would be further enhanced, and he would be able to actively use the Silver Blood ability to generate long whips or thin threads to attack enemies. The immunity to silver could be considered merely a bonus. This ability was no mere top-tier draw. It was a jackpot beyond jackpots!
Yu Xian opened his mouth and slowly extended his vampiric fangs. He pressed the crushed silver ring against them and instinctively sucked it in, as though he were sucking on a lump of jelly.
Once the silver entered his body, it quickly fused with his blood, and he sensed the Silver Blood forming inside him. Compared to his original blood, which had already turned somewhat cold, the Silver Blood was slightly warmer. As it coursed through his body, he felt a stream of heat moving inside. But it wasn't uncomfortable. In fact, it felt somewhat pleasant.
"Too little."
After getting used to it, Yu Xian found himself growing even more eager for silver. However, he couldn't afford much silver right now. Even if he somehow gathered the money, buying large quantities of silver was very difficult, mainly because the Blood Race was actively acquiring silver, driving its price past gold's. Moreover, the silver they purchased never went back into circulation, and nobody knew where they were storing it.
Another notable thing was that the Blood Race had a rule that anyone who contributed more than ten tons of silver to the Blood Race could gain the qualification to become a vampire without undergoing any trials. Some wealthy individuals had opted for this.
Although anyone who turned into a vampire through this method could never become a core member of the Blood Race, immortality was enough of an attraction for the rich who feared death. Those affluent people were the main reason the Blood Race had a strong financial position in society.
Yu Xian racked his brain all night, but he still couldn't figure out ways to obtain more silver. He had considered going back to the black-market store, but their methods were so extreme that they even dared to target Nora, the little princess of the Blood Race. At this point, he no longer had the courage to have any dealings with them.
Silver was indeed very important to him, but his safety was his top priority. He would rather slowly save up money and collect silverware from regular shops than ever go back to that shady shop again.
***
Early next morning, Yu Xian sunbathed on the balcony as usual. For some unknown reason, a foul stench kept drifting into his nose from time to time. It smelled like a dead rat in a garbage heap, making him nauseous.
"Weird. Why do I keep smelling that stink?" he muttered.
Yu Xian got up from the lounge chair and sniffed around. He caught a whiff of it again, but it vanished in the next second.
Wait!
Yu Xian realized that he could smell the stench only when the warm flow of Silver Blood passed through his nose. In other words, when Silver Blood flowed through his nose, it enhanced his sense of smell, allowing him to detect odors he normally could not perceive.
He deliberately directed the Silver Blood toward his nose. The stench returned, confirming his deduction. He followed it and looked down over the balcony. It was coming from below.
Most residents in this neighborhood came from upper-middle-class families. Directly below Yu Xian lived a family of three. The husband appeared to be a lawyer, the wife ran a clothing store, and they had a daughter who was currently in fourth grade.
They can't all be dead inside their home, can they? Yu Xian muttered inwardly, forcing himself to endure the foul stench.
He had seen the family going out just yesterday. Even if they had died, there was no way their corpses would give off such a stench this quickly.
Forget it.
Yu Xian did not like to meddle in others' business; he quickly gave up thinking about it. Besides, it was time for school.
He slung his backpack over his shoulder and left his house. On his way downstairs, he happened to run into the couple's daughter, who was also leaving with her schoolbag. Something stirred in his mind, and he concentrated his Silver Blood toward his nose. Instantly, he sensed a strong, concentrated stench coming from her.
So disgusting.
Yu Xian directed the strand of Silver Blood from his nose to his right eye. The stench vanished. But then, through his enhanced right eye, he saw what looked like countless red worms tangled together, writhing incessantly beneath her skin.
Yu Xian felt his trypophobia flaring up. Ugh... I'm going to die!
The young girl happened to look over. "Good morning, Big Brother."
As she spoke, silver light flickered within Yu Xian's pupils. Deep inside the girl's mouth, he seemed to see countless worm-like tentacles writhing.
Yu Xian forced a smile. "Good morning."
He quickly went downstairs and hurried off to school. Along the way, he frowned, occasionally catching whiffs of a foul stench from passersby. The unpleasant smell vaguely reminded him of an incident a year ago, when Hibiscus City became the center of a nationwide sensation known as the "Hibiscus City Tragedy."
In that incident, a mysterious parasite had silently hollowed out the brains of everyone at a middle school in Hibiscus City. If not for a student who had secretly consumed a Forbidden Fruit and transferred to Hibiscus City Middle School No. 1 discovering that the entire school was made up of living corpses, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
Yu Xian remembered that because of the Hibiscus City Tragedy, Silver City authorities had organized a citywide medical examination. It was during that check-up that he was diagnosed with ALS. His diagnosis had left him in a dazed state for an entire month, so he had no idea whether anything unusual had been discovered during the examination. He hadn’t expected the parasites from Hibiscus City to have quietly infiltrated Silver City.
"This is going to be troublesome. Should I report this?"
Yu Xian hesitated. Once he reported it, the authorities would almost certainly eliminate those parasites. But as part of the process, they would surely conduct another citywide medical examination. If he underwent that examination, his identity as a wild vampire would inevitably be exposed!
"Salted Fish? Salted Fish, what are you thinking about? You've completely spaced out," Zhang Shou said, breaking Yu Xian's train of thought.
Yu Xian looked at him and, seeing no signs of parasite infection on him, felt relieved. He calmly replied, "Nothing, just didn't sleep well."
Zhang Shou yawned. "Don't tell me you also stayed up all night on that forum?"
Puzzled, Yu Xian asked, "What forum?"
Seeing that Yu Xian genuinely didn't know about it, Zhang Shou explained, "The forum literally called 'The Forum.' You should check it out when you're free, especially the section about Forbidden Fruits. Some people there record patterns about how Forbidden Fruits appear and predict where they might show up next. If it ever appears in Silver City, I'm definitely going to fight for it."
Not everyone was willing to remain beneath others. Whether one joined the Blood Race or any other faction, it was essentially impossible to surpass the progenitor. Therefore, some ambitious individuals turned their attention to the elusive Forbidden Fruit, which led to the creation of forums like "The Forum."
However, Yu Xian had no interest in such forums. At the moment, he was more worried about the parasites.