Chapter 79: Bizarre Bloodline and Breaking the Situation with Violence

The dull, rhythmic thud of flesh meeting flesh echoed incessantly, punctuated by curses and shouts of excitement. A cluster of Nightblade soldiers swarmed the discovered intruder, raining down kicks and blows; these seasoned veterans knew exactly how to inflict agonizing pain without breaking a single bone.

The "old man," his joints bound, rolled across the ground under the barrage. His face was deathly pale, yet he remained stubbornly silent, teeth clenched tight, emitting only muffled groans when a boot found its mark.

"Stop." Charles signaled for the soldiers to cease their assault. He stepped forward, felt the face of the immobilized man, found a tiny seam, and with a sharp tug, peeled the skin right off.

The translucent, skin-like membrane writhed for a moment as if possessed by a life of its own, before quickly shriveling and blackening into a lifeless, inert lump.

Beneath the mask lay a young face, roughly the age of Charles or Edward, staring back at Charles with a mixture of mockery and astonishment.

"Well now, Seuwentan’s craftsmanship is impressive. I’ve never seen a mask like this before. To think a kingdom known for its military might has actually made such strides in espionage. A pity—the tech is fine, but the man is a failure."

"How on earth did you figure it out!" The young man’s expression darkened further at Charles’s words.

"What kind of sewer inspector has a physique like yours? Do you really take me for a fool? Even if there were an exception, none would carry such a hoard of precious antidotes and healing powders. Just look at how much you’re lugging around." Charles tapped the various vials and jars hanging from the man’s belt.

Wang Yu had pointed this out to him earlier; with the Ripple technique, these subtle details became glaringly obvious. It was simply too suspicious. The two had reached an instant consensus: regardless of whether there was a real problem, they would capture him and beat the truth out of him.

What truly convinced Charles, however, was that after the city guards entered the sewers, this man hadn't fled, but remained waiting in the thicket.

Every local in Alastrelle knew what those city guards were like; if you crossed them, you were lucky if they didn't bleed you dry.

Moreover, coming to such a wretched place to investigate, it was impossible that they wouldn't have given the person who lured them here a sound thrashing.

This ruse had flushed him out perfectly. It wasn't that his acting or disguise were poor; rather, infiltrating a place requires knowledge of unwritten, local social rules—the hardest things to learn and the easiest to trip over.

"Right then, do you have anything you’d like to confess?" Charles clapped his hands, looking into the man’s eyes with a smile. "By the way, what’s your name?"

"Ruby. And I’m not saying a word, cough—ugh!" Ruby didn't refuse his name, but he stared at Charles with grim defiance, intending to answer nothing more. The next moment, however, a fist slammed violently into his chin.

Wang Yu, who had seemed to be walking past Charles to the other side, had suddenly pivoted and accelerated, lunging forward to deliver a crushing blow to Ruby’s jaw. "Thud!"

Blood sprayed, and several teeth flew into the air. One of them glinted with a metallic, silver luster, which Wang Yu swatted away with a casual flick of his palm.

After knocking out several of Ruby’s teeth, Wang Yu’s other hand darted out with lightning speed, forcing a small packet of powder down the man’s throat.

Charles, who had been distracting the man with conversation, delivered the final touch—a light tap—and the packet slid down Ruby’s throat with a distinct gulp.

"You—you bastards, what did you feed me?!" Ruby tried to reach up to pry his mouth open and spit it out, but bound as he was, he could only emit dry, hacking heaves, unable to expel a thing.

"It’s hopeless. This guy had two poisons. One was chronic, likely to gather more intel before death, and the other was acute—the one in the tooth I knocked out." Wang Yu looked down at the writhing, retching Ruby and shook his head.

"Uh, you really know a lot of things..." Charles scratched his head, feeling a shiver of dread as he watched Wang Yu observe the struggle with cold indifference. Wang Yu’s knowledge was often esoteric, and his calm delivery made it all the more chilling.

"No choice. He looks normal, but the muscles in his lower body are essentially dead. His nerves are necrotizing from the bottom up. The chronic poison was hidden in his throat; he probably swallowed it the moment you started talking to him."

Wang Yu’s Ripple had exposed every detail of Ruby’s condition. The man, who could move his lower body at the start, was now unable to stir despite his desperate struggle.

It was some unknown neurotoxin. As an amateur alchemist with limited resources and no proper laboratory, Wang Yu’s assessment was that he was beyond saving.

It wasn't strictly impossible; if Avia used her secret arts, as long as he had a breath left, he could be saved. But like Avia herself, they didn't want that ability exposed.

"Hacus Truth Powder, triple-concentrated. After taking this, he’ll be a vegetable for the rest of his life. But since he’s dying anyway, we’ll use the maximum dose... Wait about ten seconds, then ask quickly. The powder will accelerate his death."

Wang Yu glanced at Ruby, whose lower body was now completely paralyzed, and said to Charles, "You have about a minute. Don't ask anything too complex; stick to yes-or-no questions or simple inquiries."

"Right." Charles nodded solemnly. He counted to ten, and once Ruby stopped struggling and his eyes glazed over into a vacant stare, he began the interrogation.

"What are those things on the corpses?"

"Vampire... blood-kin."

Charles’s eyebrow twitched. Forcing down his disbelief, he continued.

"Are there more of your people in the sewers?"

"Yes."

"How many?"

"Don't know the exact number. Only about a dozen."

"What is your objective?"

"Disrupt the order of Alastrelle and create an opening."

As Charles questioned him, Ruby’s death drew closer. His speech slowed, his facial muscles stiffened, and Charles’s time ran out.

"Did you set an ambush for us investigators?"

"...Yes."

"What means did you prepare?"

"Blessings... lesser vampires, mimics..."

"What is the highest combat strength in your team?"

"High-tier... formal knight."

"What is the ultimate goal?"

"Cough, ugh... don't... know."

With a spurt of foul, murky liquid spilling from Ruby’s mouth, the interrogation ended. Charles had learned much, but many questions remained.

He pressed his temples, feeling dizzy. "Vampires?" He couldn't reconcile these ancient beings with the rotting, twisted corpses. The true elders of these so-called Night Nobles could challenge even lesser dragons.

"If only the Professor were here," Edward said, standing nearby with a sigh. Zig had left to handle matters after Wang Yu was attacked, and a few days later had informed Wang Yu that he had warned the restless factions before departing with Fang on a mission to deal with a severe calamity involving Void gods at the border.

"Indeed. If the Professor were here, his knowledge would surely have provided us with more answers." Wang Yu agreed, yet he intended to study this "vampire blood-kin" himself. Were these the pale gray things?

"Avia, help me restrain that creature. I want to see what it really is." Wang Yu asked Avia to prepare her bindings, then approached the monster.

The creature was still alive, its exposed head twitching and struggling. It sensed Wang Yu’s approach and began to thrash and hiss wildly.

Without hesitation, Wang Yu cast a protective barrier of sorcery around himself, took a dagger from a soldier, and began to cut into the monster’s flesh.

The blade sliced through the meat as if cutting tofu—unnervingly soft, like slicing into an undercooked egg. It was simple, yet repulsive.

Ignoring the viscous, foul-smelling liquid flowing from the body, Wang Yu focused on dissecting the creature to find the gray substance he had seen on the bones. His Ripple remained active; though he couldn't probe the interior of the "living" creature, it was enough to keep him alert.

Soon, the cutting reached the bone. Wang Yu chose to dissect the exposed neck, and after a bit of digging, the white bone was revealed.

Though the neck muscles were shattered and detached, the creature could still twist its neck with force—the power source had to be the bone itself.

His gauntleted hand reached out and gripped the neck. Once the surrounding muscle was stripped away, the bone was fully exposed, and the faint, pale gray substance finally appeared.

Wang Yu darted his fingers out, pinching the strip of gray matter coiled around the bone. It was elastic and slick. He tightened his grip and pulled with all his might, trying to tear it free.

The gray substance was unexpectedly strong, clinging to the bone. He activated his Blood-Burning Drive, his strength surging, and with a sudden, violent yank, he tore the thing away.

As it came loose, the monster—its muscles already shredded—went completely limp. The body ceased all movement and collapsed into a heap of flesh that barely resembled a human form. Avia released her stone hands, and the creature slumped to the ground like a pile of rotting meat.

Wang Yu held the long, gray, translucent, snake-like strip in his hand, observing it closely. It was translucent, pale gray, and elongated, with various branches extending from it like roots.

This was what had been clinging to the bones, forcing the corpses to move. But Wang Yu struggled to connect this to vampires.

"What does this have to do with vampires..." Charles looked at the object, unable to grasp the connection to Ruby’s words. Edward was equally puzzled, frowning as he tried to link the thing to the legends.

"To be precise, it should be 'vampire blood-kin.' This is different from a vampire. A vampire is an independent race, while those controlled by them are called blood-kin."

"Is this thing a means of control? But aren't vampires supposed to use blood? How could it be this?"

Avia corrected Charles and Edward, but she was just as confused. How could this slime-like strip be vampire blood?

"No, it’s not impossible. Do you remember the derivatives of the Source of Life, Elfin, that we faced back then?"

Though He was pathetically weak, dispatched by the captain in a single stroke, those derivatives possess the power to forcibly animate even inanimate matter; surely, altering the method by which vampires control their progeny is not beyond reach... A thought struck Charles.

"Indeed." Wang Yu had arrived at the same conclusion. Watching the thing writhe and squirm in his grip, he pondered for a moment before reinforcing a glass bottle and stuffing the creature inside; regardless, it held undeniable research value.

"Do you not find it repulsive?" Charles asked, his expression twisted with distaste.

"But this thing is unique. Have you ever encountered a similar organism? While it may be a byproduct of Elfin, the fact that it persists independently suggests it adheres to a biological structure."

"Its peculiarity might hold the same potential as an acid-dissolving regenerative serum, serving as a semi-living reagent," Wang Yu answered earnestly. As an alchemist, his keen instincts had immediately grasped its worth—a creature unlike anything recorded in the annals of his craft.

"Very well. Are all you alchemists and apothecaries cut from the same cloth?" Charles clicked his tongue.

Wang Yu remained silent, while Avia offered only a knowing, wordless smile.

"Is this what they prepared? It hardly seems as threatening as you made it out to be." Edward assessed the combat prowess of the thrall; aside from a reckless disregard for death and immense vitality, it possessed little lethal force.

"I wouldn't be so certain. The city guard may be a pack of fools, but they wouldn't descend into the sewers without cause. Vampire progeny are divided into the base and the exalted. If the base are these twisted, obviously malformed things, what of the exalted? Could they perfectly mimic or even puppeteer a human being?" Charles’s tone was grave; he looked past the monstrous specimen before them, envisioning a far more sinister reality.

"The possibility is real." Avia, drawing upon her knowledge of vampiric hierarchy, affirmed his hypothesis, causing the countenances of the group to darken.

Such simple, monstrous entities would have a negligible impact on a formidable city, but the existence of something capable of mimicking or replacing a person would be catastrophic.

"We must go in, but they have clearly laid an ambush for us. What shall we do?" Charles pressed the issue.

Wang Yu lowered his head in thought, his mind wandering through the fragments of his past life, circling back to a singular, brutal solution: "Kick down the door."

He snapped his fingers. "Technology and ruthless efficiency!"

Wang Yu declared.

The others were left in momentary confusion, baffled by terminology only Avia could comprehend.

"Gather a massive quantity of salt, seal the nearby sewer exits, and summon every mage capable of lightning-based incantations. Damn them—chlorine gas, flood the bastards!"