Cliff City, Northern Mountain District, outskirts, 6 PM
Outside a secluded single-family house, the police lines had already been drawn. A few officers took shelter in the shade of the trees, occasionally glancing secretly towards the house, unable to see anything. After sighing, they conversed in hushed tones about the rumors and gossip that had been circulating in the police station these past few days.
Restless and uneasy.
The only exception was the silhouette leaning against the doorway, utterly still from beginning to end.
Her motorcycle jacket draped over her shoulder swayed slightly in the wind, her eyes hidden behind sunglasses, their expression unclear.
Her height stood out dramatically even amongst ordinary men, but the intense aura surrounding her deterred additional scrutiny.
"Sorry, Wen Wen, for being late."
A young girl wearing a sun hat came down from a taxi, holding two cups of milk tea in her hand. She flashed her ID to the officers before confidently crossing the police line to approach the person at the door.
"The traffic was terrible. There was almost an accident, really scary. I saw the scene—such a huge truck, it almost crashed..."
Tong Hua animatedly described the situation to her superior: "That's why you shouldn't drive when tired. The driver got pinned down by a woman and punched. If the patrol police hadn't arrived quickly, his brains would have been splattered just like that idiot from the first squad you pounded on the ground..."
Unfortunately, the woman at the door had no interest in small talk, merely glancing at Tong Hua's excited demeanor before gesturing with her chin towards the house.
"Have you had enough? Let's look at the scene."
"Ah, Wen Wen, you're still so serious. I just rushed here from another scene, I haven't rested for over ten hours, and I even brought you milk tea."
Tong Hua feigned distress for a moment and then perked up again: "But, I've recently learned gait analysis, come on, let me see..."
She put on gloves, stepped through the door, and after one look at the entrance of the living room, her expression turned grave: "Someone has been here."
"Hmm?"
Wen Wen's expression immediately grew tense.
"It seems to be a woman." Tong Hua squatted on the ground, squinting at the footprints in the dust, sniffing twice: "It's rare, about 1.9 meters tall, around 25 years old, haha, caught you, even smoked here..."
"Was it White Star she smoked?" Wen Wen's lips curled into a pleasant arc.
Tong Hua turned in shock: "How can you even tell the brand?"
The response was a smack to the back of her head that nearly knocked her senseless.
"That fucking was me!"
Wen Wen was furious, pointing to the living room, "Forget that gait analysis crap. Just look at the scene properly for me."
Tong Hua felt as if her head was about to fly off, not daring to show off her newly learned gait analysis while her team leader was in a bad temper, yet she couldn't help but worry: With her being so fierce, finding a boyfriend might be difficult...
But as she worried, lifting her head to look at the crime scene, she couldn't help but sigh.
"I really didn't want to see this."
Can't someone else do it?
A moist wind blew in from outside the window, dust already covered the tabletops in layers, a bountiful dinner ignored and now swarming with flies.
And right beside the dining table, amidst the chaos, lay five shattered bodies, scattered in disarray, blood and gore violent and stark.
As if a wild beast had invaded and torn them apart instantly.
Elderly, children, men, women...
All dead in less than a minute.
Tong Hua pressed a hand to the skull remnants on the table, closed her eyes, and the infinite sorrow flooded through her memories, instantly piercing her brain, causing her to convulse.
In her mind's illusion, the blood-soaked figure burst through the window, lunging toward the dining table.
A feast.
Male, forty years old, left-hand disabled, black tattoo on his face.
Eyes crimson red.
Then came the agony of being torn apart, the horror of having organs devoured, and the despair of losing everything, one after another.
"The fourth one."
Tong Hua opened her eyes, suppressing the urge to vomit: "It's not the previous offender..."
This week, in Cliff City, this was the fourth murder committed by a patient with Blood Thirst.
Blood Thirst, a strange epidemic from Central Earth.
Legend has it that one of Central Earth's four great sacrificial rituals, White King, had incurred such a curse because of betraying the chosen path.
Its transmission route was through bodily fluids, and the symptoms were a literal... thirst for blood.
In the early stages of infection, patients would gradually feel an uncontrollable hunger and craving for blood products. By the second stage, they would progressively lose their sanity. During this time, their appetite would shift toward living creatures, as their physical condition strengthened, and their canines became more prominent. Until they lost interest in birds and livestock and turned their gaze toward their own kind, that signified the beginning of the third stage...
"There are at least four now." Wen Wen murmured softly.
But as the saying goes—if you find a cockroach in your home, you can bet there's a nest somewhere out of sight.
"We need to move faster."
Tong Hua said, "If this keeps up, by next week we might have patients reaching the fifth stage."
Symptoms of the fourth stage included organ mutation, turning increasingly non-human, and by the fifth stage, the fully developed host body would possess the ability to infect, by then capable of spreading new Blood Thirst cases.
"The backyard's about to catch fire." Tong Hua scratched her head, "What about the chief, isn't he coming back?"
"The unrest in Spring City Cave is getting worse and worse, and a disaster might spill out. The entire Hai Province, all the top brass, are watching over there, and they won't have time to take care of this place for a while."
Speaking heartlessly, compared to the terrifying consequences of the Cave overflowing and one-third of Hai Province being flooded, a few rabid dogs bred by Blood Thirst are truly inconsequential, barely even significant as speckles of mold, and should be put aside for later.
"That lot in Squad One strut around like they're all that normally, but when it actually matters, you can't rely on them at all," Tong Hua sighed, "Is there any support from the other squads?"
"Out of the seven units in Squad Two, five are just waiting for this greenhorn who doesn't know when to advance or retreat to screw up so they can divide up the spoils of the Northern Mountain Squad... At this point, hoping that they don't kick us while we're down would be considered lucky."
Wen Wen bent down to light up a White Star, then suddenly asked, "Do you want me to go to Lu Shenzhou and get you transferred to a different unit, so you don't have to go down with this sinking ship with me?"
"Cut the crap, betraying big brother, or rather, big sister deserves a severe beating!"
Tong Hua was so anxious that she started hopping up and down, swearing by heaven and earth, "I'm with you, you have to believe in me!"
The response she received was still a slap on the back of her head.
"You are an officer of the Security Bureau, not some little gangster's moll, what's this 'with you' nonsense?"
Although she spoke in such a manner, a faint curve finally formed on that beautiful stern face, barely perceptible through the wisps of smoke, "Did you find any leads?"
Tong Hua smiled, "The guy's a rookie, he didn't cover his tracks at all, as obvious as streaking naked in broad daylight."
"Good, make a call, bring Old Zhang, Xiao An," Wen Wen didn't waste any more time, waved her hand and said, "You guys start by following this lead. If something goes wrong, listen to Old Zhang."
"And what about you?" Tong Hua was momentarily lost.
"I'm going to have a chat with some 'old friends.'"
Wen Wen finally showed a smile, hearty and candid, unable to conceal the fierce aggression and hostility that slowly rose from her brows, "Maybe I'll come across something new."
Northern Federation, among the Seven States, one of the nineteen major cities, Cliff City.
The most chaotic and disorderly Northern Mountain District under its jurisdiction with a permanent population of four million one hundred thousand and over one million illegal immigrants and stateless residents.
A mixed bag within the gray industries, illegitimate societies vying for power, and the rat-like underlings are innumerable.
From west to east, Shenghe, East Earth Association, White Slip Gang, Yiqi Group...
Amongst all this trash, there must be a few who needs to answer for this, right?
Gas throttle twisted.
The motorcycle's engine roared, belching thick smoke, whistling away through the sea breeze.
To hell with rules and loyalty—
For every one found, one killed, for every group found, wipe them out!
Ji Jue felt at peace as he walked.
For a moment, he truly thought he had died, but the world after death seemed not much different from before, just much colder, so light.
In the midst of his grogginess and confusion, he forgot where he was.
It was as if his soul was rising.
Detached from the mortal world, the clamor fell away, toward the sky, free of Dust.
Like soaring.
Looking down upon the earth, gazing up at the vault of heaven.
Yet after breaking free from the shell of the body, what he saw was not Heaven, but rather unmistakably... Hell!
The ground was no longer stable, fire and smoke surged, crevices like rift valleys spreading. The firmament was no longer whole but disintegrating, collapsing, falling.
Like rainwater and meteors.
Scattered stars burned in the darkness, casting off fierce glows.
And so, the sky was consumed by fire, and the darkness spread in all directions. When the oppressive clouds like dust were brushed away, what remained was endless brightness.
Behind that radiance, it seemed something was gradually taking shape.
Those vague contours overlapped with one another, yet distinctly separate, like pillars of heaven, supporting the world between earth and sky, yet seemingly omnipresent, encompassing all things.
One was like the sun weeping blood; one was vast as the mountains and oceans; one was entangled with white bones and blood, forming a throne; one varied frantically like fire and lightning; one ascended beyond the reach of the mundane; one was square, towering solemnly like a fortified castle; one radiated from the center, as free as the absence of all things...
Ji Jue gasped, looking up.
They, no, It—
—was looking at him!
In that moment, Ji Jue felt his head splitting, and his soul and consciousness seemed to burn away in that overwhelming scrutiny, unsustainable, and the last thing he saw was the oncoming white light.
Consuming everything.
"Holy shit, origin..."
Ji Jue sat up near death from his sickbed.
From his bedroom, he gasped violently, in the silence, the morning rain pattered against the window, the room filled only with echoes of the ticking from ancient clocks.
Waves of slight chill spread through the room, carrying a persistent musty smell.
After guzzling down the cold water from the day before, Ji Jue finally awoke from that inexplicable long dream, returning to the living world, remembering where he was.
This was his home.