Chapter 5: The Transfer Student Nora
When Yu Xian arrived at the school, the students were doing morning exercise. He carefully observed them using Silver Blood, and what he saw made his heart sink.
"My god! Thirty percent of the entire school has been infected..."
Silver City's situation appeared to be even worse than Hibiscus City's, and it wouldn't be long before the parasite was discovered. Once that happened, it would only be a matter of time before he was exposed as well. The crisis was imminent; everything could go up in flames at any second. He had to do something!
Once inside the classroom, Yu Xian pulled out his phone and carefully looked through the news surrounding the Hibiscus City Tragedy. Six months ago, the parasite had been officially named the "Aberrant Parasite," but its methods of transmission remained unclear to this day.
According to researchers, once an Aberrant Parasite egg entered a living organism, it would quickly join the bloodstream and eventually take root in the heart, where dense masses of feelers would burst forth from the eggshell. These feelers would secrete an anesthetic fluid before silently infiltrating the bloodstream, slowly consuming the host's flesh from within until only the brain remained.
At this stage, the host still retained full self-awareness, but it would have lost any ability to perceive the outside world, left to endure fear and despair within endless darkness. The resulting psychological torment was immeasurable.
In the host's final moment of despair, the Aberrant Parasite would begin gradually devouring their brain. Once the process was complete, it would instinctively imitate all of the host's behaviors and mannerisms, becoming almost indistinguishable from the original person.
This mimicry allowed the parasite to conceal itself with remarkable effectiveness. Moreover, during this process of imitation, the parasite would gradually notice that it was not truly the host, but an independent entity possessing the host's intelligence.
If the host were a human, the Aberrant Parasite would acquire human intelligence and become exceptionally cunning and difficult to deal with. This was its ultimate form. Because large quantities of eggs were discovered within it in this state, this form was termed the adult stage.
Several adult-stage Aberrant Parasites had emerged during the Hibiscus City Tragedy. In the end, it had taken the sacrifice of several Ant rank officers of the Combat Police unit and a large number of special police officers to eliminate them. Even then, many people had gone missing. Authorities believed these missing individuals were highly likely to be adult-stage Aberrant Parasites, and they remained the subjects of active manhunts to this day.
After Yu Xian finished reading all the news on the Aberrant Parasites, the image of the little girl who greeted him this morning surfaced unbidden in his mind.
If she still has self-awareness...
Instinctively, his grip tightened, and fine cracks spread across his phone screen.
"Damn it!"
When he came to his senses, he realized he had squeezed his phone so hard the screen had gone black and immediately fumbled to inspect it. Since he had sold off the factory and the store, his only remaining source of income was a three-bedroom apartment he was renting out. If he didn't spend carefully, who knew when he'd ever save enough to buy more silver?
Suddenly, a commotion broke out outside the classroom. The students in the classroom followed the noise, running to the corridor and looking downstairs.
Zhang Shou rushed back into the classroom, excitement written all over his face. "Salted Fish, big news! The Blood Race's little princess is transferring to our school!"
Yu Xian frowned. "Our school is just an ordinary school. What could she possibly learn here?"
The Supernatural Academy taught knowledge of the supernatural world. It was completely different from an ordinary school. This made him wonder whether he had been exposed, and Nora had come to confront him.
Zhang Shou excitedly replied, "I've no idea, but she's here, and she's gorgeous. Definitely the most beautiful girl I've ever seen."
At that moment, Chen Ling also rushed into the classroom. "Do you know why the Blood Race's little princess transferred to our school?"
Zhang Shou looked at Chen Ling in surprise. "You know about this, too?"
Chen Ling lifted her chin proudly, pushed her chest out, and turned up her nose to form a smug smile. "Take a good look at who you're talking to. Nothing in Silver City Third High escapes my notice."
"As expected of our class's gossip queen. So, hurry up and tell us. Why did the little princess come to our school?" Zhang Shou asked curiously.
Chen Ling glanced around and lowered her voice. "It goes all the way back to the attack on the little princess. You guys probably won't believe this, but the attackers were all ordinary humans!"
Zhang Shou was confused. "What does that have to do with the little princess transferring schools?"
Chen Ling smugly replied, "Zhou Jie from the next class is my best friend. Her second cousin works at the Public Security Bureau. According to the investigation, the attackers didn't use any supernatural abilities at all. They were just a group of well-trained ordinary humans using silver weapons. That news got back to the little princess's school, and because of that, she was ostracized."
Zhang Shou finally understood. "That does sound pretty embarrassing."
If he had supernatural powers and still got bullied by a group of ordinary humans, he would feel humiliated, too. The students of the Supernatural Academy thought highly of themselves and had never truly experienced the harshness of the world. In their view, Nora losing to ordinary humans was practically a disgrace to their entire supernatural world. So, they naturally isolated and even ostracized her.
Nora's status within the Blood Race was awkward to begin with. Moreover, the students of the Supernatural Academy did not use violence against her, but instead gave her the cold shoulder. Therefore, there was nothing the Blood Race could do to help Nora.
Although the Blood Race was powerful, they were not the only dominant force. Setting aside the official authorities, which were capable of suppressing most factions, elves, wiccans, cultivators, martial artists, and many other forces possessed the strength to contend with the Blood Race.
In the end, Nora had to transfer schools. But she did not choose to transfer to a Supernatural Academy in a different city. Instead, she transferred to Silver City Third High.
Even if she transferred to another Supernatural Academy in a different city, the students there would still likely hear about her situation and continue to quietly isolate and ostracize her. In this situation, an ordinary school would be better for her. After all, she didn't have to worry about strength; it came naturally with age for a vampire.
***
At 2 PM, the class bell rang. The homeroom teacher, Mr Chen, walked into the classroom. Behind him, under the students' gazes, a girl with long golden hair, a bandaged right arm, and a cool, detached aura slowly stepped inside.
It was as if time itself had frozen in the classroom; the ideal girl in every boy's mind had changed. Even the girls were captivated by Nora's flawless beauty. As a supernatural being, Nora was simply breathtaking, her beauty existing on an entirely different level.
Although Silver City Third High had never officially selected a campus belle, the moment Nora entered the classroom, the boys had silently reached a consensus that she was their school's undisputed beauty.
Mr Chen cleared his throat. "Ahem."
He waited for the students to snap back to their senses, then began to drone on. "From today onward, Miss Nora will be joining our class..."
Nora swept her gaze across the classroom and, at the end, cast a subtle glance at Yu Xian. The Blood Race had indeed found out about him. After all, a sum of 25 million was not pocket change. Such a large transaction was not hard to trace. Combined with the information about the buyer's age and gender, the Blood Race's proxy forces had quickly zeroed in on Yu Xian.
According to the original plan, Tang Bo was supposed to lead a team to capture Yu Xian, and then, Nora would personally kill him. However, after uncovering Yu Xian's background, Nora's father had a change of heart, prohibiting Roche, Tang Bo, and the others from making a move on the young man.
Yu Xian had just turned into a vampire, and being of a similar age to Nora, he would make the perfect whetstone for her. If she could personally hunt him down and kill him on her own, it would help her grow. At the very least, she had to become strong enough that if she ever encountered another attack, she would never stand there like a dazed goose, waiting to be slaughtered.
Within the Blood Race, a "Father's" command was absolute. [1] That was why Nora transferred to Silver City Third High. The rumors Chen Ling had picked up were a blend of truth and falsehood. Some students at the Supernatural Academy had indeed ostracized Nora because of the incident, but she paid them absolutely no mind. They belonged to completely different circles anyway, and she never felt the need to curry favor with anyone.
After Nora had introduced herself to the class, the homeroom teacher assigned her a seat in the fourth row on the right, on the same row as Yu Xian.
Nora's first ability was Daywalker. When she was ten, she had awakened her second ability, Blood Flame. She wanted nothing more than to use it to burn Yu Xian, who had made her the laughingstock of the entire Supernatural Academy, but she did not act recklessly.
She figured that since Yu Xian shared her "Daywalker" ability, he likely shared her high resistance to light and fire. She could not be certain that she could one-shot him.
If she failed, with a vampire's recovery rate, combined with the physical strength advantage that a male vampire had over a female one, there was a chance of her failing to defeat Yu Xian. Therefore, she had prepared a secret weapon, a short silver blade!
Right now, what she needed to do was first get close to the students around her and lower Yu Xian's guard. The moment he relaxed, she would strike with lightning speed and drive the short blade into his heart. A single blow would definitely be enough to kill him!
1. "Father" (父亲) here does not simply refer to a biological father. Within the Blood Race hierarchy, it is a formal title used for a high-ranking vampire who acts as a progenitor/sire and authority figure over a direct bloodline. In this context, it indicates absolute hierarchical command within Nora's lineage. ☜