Chapter 13: Unconditional Trust
Vampires, better known as the Blood Race, had many weaknesses. They feared the sun, silver, garlic, and crucifixes. Furthermore, their only source of sustenance was blood.
If they went without feeding on blood for an extended period, they would fall into a deep slumber, their bodies gradually mummified. They would stay that way until the day blood happened to spill upon them, which was the sole sliver of hope for their reawakening.
If becoming a vampire weren't one of the easiest ways to attain immortality, the Blood Race likely wouldn't even be considered a second-rate faction. At best, they would be a third- or fourth-rate faction.
The renown the Blood Race enjoyed among the public was actually because they were rich, extraordinarily and incomprehensibly rich. Wealthy tycoons who turned into vampires constantly hired online trolls to hype up how powerful, terrifying, and mysterious the Blood Race was. This created an illusion among the public that the Blood Race was a top-tier faction and that crossing vampires meant certain death.
In reality, any of the five major nations possessed the power to crush the Blood Race. Moreover, several supernatural factions controlled numerous smaller countries and likewise had the ability to crush the Blood Race. The reason the Blood Race had survived to this day was not that they were especially powerful, but that they knew their place.
***
Yu Xian had originally thought that joining Qilin would be incredibly difficult or would at least require passing all sorts of grueling trials. Yet the very next day, Jin Sheng placed an identification badge, a firearm, and a specialized smartphone right in front of him.
Jin Sheng looked at Yu Xian, suppressing a grin while maintaining a deadpan, serious expression. "From this moment on, you are an official member of the Wickedness Purging Squad under the banner of Qilin. Your rank is 6330th, and your codename is Salted Fish."
Staring at the identification badge on the table, Yu Xian was in disbelief. He couldn't help but pick it up, turning it over repeatedly. "Is this... for real?"
"Of course it is. As long as you present your identification badge, every Public Security Bureau in the country can verify its authenticity and offer their cooperation unconditionally."
Yu Xian put away the identification badge. "How many people are there in the Wickedness Purging Squad, and who's the captain?"
"I'm the captain of the Wickedness Purging Squad. We originally had five members. With you, that makes it six. However, squad members aren't usually deployed together. We take on missions individually and assemble as a full squad only for missions at the Sparrow rank and above."
Jin Shang briefed Yu Xian on the squad's situation. Squads operating under Qilin's banner enjoyed an incredibly high degree of autonomy, primarily because the vast majority of members capable of joining Qilin were supernatural beings with immense potential. Since every supernatural being's abilities were vastly different, forcing them to operate together could instead cause a member's strength to stagnate.
Under normal circumstances, members were free to accept Insect- and Ant-rank missions. Two or more members could cooperate to take on Bee-rank missions, whereas missions at the Sparrow rank or higher strictly required the assembly of the entire squad before they could be accepted.
Curious, Yu Xian asked, "What rank does Silver City's current situation count as?"
Jin Sheng answered, "The Aberrant Parasites incident is classified as Tiger rank. However, that's not due to the parasites' combat prowess, but rather their level of threat. The mission will be considered complete only once every single Aberrant Parasite is wiped out. But this task is bound to be extremely difficult to accomplish. After all, we aren't even certain how it spreads, let alone what its current numbers are."
Yu Xuan's mind inexplicably drifted back to Yu Wei, and with some hesitation, he said, "Actually, I have a suspect. He might be an Aberrant Parasite, but I don't have any evidence."
Jin Sheng's demeanor instantly turned serious. "Who is it?"
Yu Xian frowned. "Yu Wei. Mr. Yu. Although I observed him for most of the day yesterday and found nothing amiss, I still got that same feeling when I saw him again this morning. Something is absolutely off about him."
Without a second thought, Jin Sheng turned and walked outside. "Let's go. Since you think he's suspicious, we'll detain him and check him out."
The pair stepped out of the tent.
Jin Sheng instructed the soldiers to apprehend Yu Wei and kept him inside a designated tent guarded by several soldiers. Throughout the entire interrogation, Yu Wei offered no resistance, his face merely washing over with panic. Observing from a distance, neither Jin Sheng nor Yu Xian could spot anything out of the ordinary.
"Do you still feel like something's off about him now?" Jin Sheng asked.
Yu Xian nodded. "Yes. There’s definitely something wrong with him. It's just that with my current abilities, I can't detect what it is for the time being."
After a moment's thought, Jin Sheng chose to believe Yu Xian unconditionally. "Then we'll take a closer look. Let's go."
The two entered the tent where Yu Wei was being held. Seeing them walk in, Yu Wei scrambled to speak, "Officer, and Yu Xian... did you guys need me for something?"
Neither Jin Sheng nor Yu Xian said a word. They surrounded Yu Wei. Jin Sheng's eyes suddenly flared a brilliant gold, while a silver light flickered deep within Yu Xian's pupils.
Visibly frightened, Yu Wei instinctively leaned back. "What are you guys doing? I... what did I do?"
The golden light in Jin Sheng's eyes gradually faded. He shook his head at Yu Xian, evidently having failed to spot any issues. The silver light deep within Yu Xian's pupils also faded, and his eyes receded to their usual appearance. He hadn't discovered anything either.
"Are you sure?" Jin Sheng asked cryptically.
Yu Xian knew exactly what he was getting at. He nodded. "Absolutely. Especially now. He's giving me a powerful sense of incongruity."
He wasn't making things up. Right now, the distance between him and Yu Wei was barely twenty centimeters. Looking at the man gave him an indescribable sense of discomfort. No matter how he scrutinized the man, Yu Wei just gave off an eerie, unnatural feeling.
Jin Sheng fell silent for a brief moment before ultimately deciding to stand firmly by Yu Xian's side. "Then go ahead and do whatever you need to do. Even if you're wrong, I'll take full responsibility!"
Yu Xian was now a member of his squad, and backing up their subordinates was one of a captain's core responsibilities. The Qilin's archives had records of cases where a squad member had detected an issue but the captain ignored it; in one case, this had resulted in a disaster where only two individuals from the entire squad survived. Ever since then, every captain of a Qilin squad made it an absolute rule to back their teammates unconditionally.
Sensing impending danger, Yu Wei cried out in horror, "What are you trying to do? Help! Help! They're trying to murder me!"
Jin Sheng glared at Yu Wei. "Shut your mouth. Quiet!"
The next instant, a streak of golden light sealed Yu Wei's mouth, reducing his cries to muffled, frantic whimpers.
Jin Sheng coldly said to Yu Xian, "You may begin. Do whatever you see fit. You can dissect him or chop him into pieces for all I care."
Yu Xian nodded. He cast a slightly sympathetic glance at Yu Wei. "Bear with it, Mr. Yu. I'll do my best not to hurt you."
He condensed a razor-thin silver thread at his fingertip. Under his precise control, the silver thread slowly pierced into Yu Wei's neck, weaving its way inch by inch through the man's body. Through his battle from two days ago, Yu Xian's mastery over Silver Blood had reached a higher tier. To avoid harming Yu Wei, he controlled the silver thread very carefully.
He examined with painstaking detail, scanning every blood vessel, organ, bone, and nerve fiber. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed. His silver thread had brushed against a distinctly anomalous texture. However, before he had time to react, something unexpected happened.
In an instant, Yu Wei's head rotated ninety degrees, his face twisting into a wrinkled, convulsing mass. Zhou Tai’s voice came from within his head. "Ah, I got found out again. As expected, Little Brother, you're really the Aberrant Parasites' greatest enemy!"
Immediately after, a large number of nerve fibers burst out from his eye sockets, nostrils, and ears, rapidly lashing toward Yu Xian. However, Jin Sheng erupted in golden light. He easily blocked Zhou Tai's attack with his hand and firmly grasped the Aberrant Parasite disguised as Yu Wei's nerve fibers.
Staring at the Aberrant Parasite trapped in his grip, he muttered to himself, "So that's how it is. No wonder I couldn't detect anything amiss."
Yu Xian also realized the problem at this point and frowned. "This level of infiltration is too terrifying."
The Aberrant Parasite hadn't completely taken over Yu Wei. It had camouflaged itself as a single strand of Yu Wei's nerve fibers. Because Yu Wei was still alive, Yu Xian couldn't smell any foul stench. And because the parasite mimicked nerve fibers perfectly, detecting it was virtually impossible unless one sliced the person open and dissected them.
Yu Xian deduced that the only reason he felt something was off about Yu Wei was likely because Zhou Tai was actively using Yu Wei's eyes to spy on him, causing his own instincts to flag the hostile gaze. Had it not been for that, Yu Xian probably wouldn't have been able to tell something was wrong with Yu Wei either.
If left unchecked, the parasites could infiltrate the entire nation without a single soul ever discovering their presence. Their discovery right now was, without a doubt, a monumental breakthrough.