44: Chapter 44 Dad! You're actually a good person?!

A low growl came from the direction of the ruins.

Neither of them heard any sense of threat in it; instead, it sounded more like a greeting.

It was like acquaintances shouting "Hello" to each other across half a street.

The sound rolled deep in the throat for a moment, then squeezed out from between parted lips and teeth, turning into broken but clear human speech.

"You've come."

The leading Ghoul walked out from the shadows of the ruins.

Its size was a full circle larger than the rest, its shoulder blades bulging high, and its grayish-green skin covered in old scars. It didn't walk on all fours, but stepped out upright, its overly long arms hanging at its sides, the sharp claws at its fingertips gleaming with a bone-like matte finish in the grayish-white light of the Formation.

Its eye sockets were more deeply sunken than those of the other Ghouls, so deep that Qi perception could barely detect the presence of eyeballs.

It stopped about a dozen paces away from Xie Feng and then smiled.

Its lips pulled back to reveal sharp teeth, stretching all the way to the base of its ears, revealing an expression closer to that of a human.

Xie Feng's Qi swept across its face.

This voice combined with this face?

Xie Feng pieced that face together in his mind; the original owner's memories contained an almost identical face.

Xie Yuanqing.

Xie Tianxiong's concubine-born son, Xie Feng's half-brother. In the original owner's memories, this person had an extremely low presence in the Xie Family.

Born to a concubine whose birth mother died early, with mediocre Aptitude, he had been sent off to manage farmland on an estate outside Cangyun City after testing into three Meridians, returning only during festivals and New Year.

During the three years the original owner was moved to the side courtyard, Xie Yuanqing had returned once, stood at the doorway of the side courtyard watching him for a while, and left without saying a word.

It felt as if a basin of ice water had been poured over Xie Feng's head from above.

Xie Yuanqing had already completed his transformation.

"Xie Feng." That Ghoul spoke.

Its voice scraped out from deep within its throat, every word carrying a rough friction sound, but it was indeed speaking human language—Mandarin with a local Cangyun City accent.

The Ghouls on all fours behind it emitted a few short growls in response to a certain syllable in its speech.

That was the Ghoul language, squeezing out the sounds belonging to their new tribe from deep within their throats.

Xie Yuanqing mastered both types of sounds simultaneously; it could still speak human words and had also learned to use Ghouls' guttural sounds to drive those kindred who had lost their minds after transformation.

"Long time no see." Xie Feng's blind cane tapped on the flagstone path.

"Your relative?!" Tu Ziguan was dumbfounded.

The Ghoul Xie Yuanqing tilted its head, its sunken eye sockets directed at the shadows beneath Xie Feng's veil, as if trying to recognize something.

"Your eyes are gone," it said, "but your scent hasn't changed. The scent of the Xie Family."

Tu Ziguan's hand had already pressed onto the earth-shaking thunder.

Xie Yuanqing's eye sockets turned toward him, its parted mouth corners drawing in slightly, as if evaluating something.

"Don't be nervous," it said, the friction in its voice heavier than before, "I'm not here to stop you."

"Then what are you here for?" Xie Feng asked.

Xie Yuanqing's eye sockets turned back to him.

On that grayish-green face, the smile slowly faded, replaced by a hard-to-decipher expression.

Its mouth was still parted, but the arc of its corners had changed, carrying a certain distorted sorrow.

"How is Father?"

Xie Feng did not answer.

"It doesn't matter if you don't say it; I can guess."

Xie Yuanqing lowered its overly long grayish-green arms, its sharp claws scratching a few shallow marks on the rubble.

"When I left the Xie Residence, he had just read halfway through. That was three years ago. By now, it should be almost time."

"Three years ago," Xie Feng said, "so you turning out like this was caused by that book."

A low sound came from Xie Yuanqing's throat, resembling laughter.

A Ghoul's throat structure was not suited for laughing, so the sound was squeezed into a very weird gurgling noise, like water bubbling in a pipe.

"Caused?" It chewed over those two words, "You think Father is a victim? You think I am a victim?"

"That book—Father sought it out actively," Xie Yuanqing said, its voice suddenly growing softer, as if memories made its throat less tense.

"Sixty years ago, that ancestor of the Xie Family returned from the Far North, bringing back two immortal books, upper and lower volumes, recording sights and sounds of the immortal realm. Later, the lower volume fell into Meng Yi's hands."

"You think this kind of transformation is a good thing?"

"Most of our cultivation was lost, but we had no choice!"

Xie Yuanqing's eye sockets turned toward Xie Feng, something faintly glowing within the deep shadows.

"The ancestor was gazed upon by a certain entity in the Dreamlands. That wasn't a blessing; it was a mark."

"The mark followed him back and was passed down to his descendants."

"In every generation of the direct Bloodline, the one with the heaviest mark would be slowly pulled over by that entity."

"By the day they completely slipped in, the person would still be here, but the inside would already be empty."

Tu Ziguan's fingers pinched so hard on the earth-shaking thunder that they turned white. He couldn't understand, but he felt like they were about to enter a boss fight.

"Father didn't want this to happen," Xie Yuanqing said, "He found that book."

"The book recorded a method: using homologous contamination to offset the mark."

"By introducing the power of the immortal book into the Xie Family Bloodline, the mark would be covered by another gaze."

"There was only one mark, but with multiple gazes, it wouldn't be able to tell where to look."

"The direct line dies, then why did all of you transform?" Xie Feng said.

Xie Yuanqing was silent for a moment.

"I am concubine-born. The mark wasn't on me to begin with; I went to find it myself."

"Why?"

"Because he couldn't hold on anymore."

Xie Yuanqing's voice suddenly became very soft, so soft that even the friction in its throat almost vanished.

"The year you were sent to the side courtyard, he had just started reading that book. The first year was fine, but in the second year, his Qi began to mutate, and by the third year, his breathing no longer sounded human."

"I asked him how much longer he could hold on, and he said holding on until you entered the Qingyun Sect would be enough."

"Once you entered the Qingyun Sect, the mark would be detected by high-level Cultivators of the Sect, and they would find a way."

"But you didn't wait for that day; someone poisoned your Meridians."

Xie Tianxiong was actually a loving father?!

Xie Feng was truly shocked. After all this fuss, was it actually a genuine display of paternal love and filial piety?

"The person who poisoned you wasn't me, but I know who it was."

In Xie Yuanqing's eye sockets, that tiny gleam suddenly became very bright.

"The night before you tested into a single meridian of Aptitude, Meng Yi came to the Xie Residence, bringing a box of tea leaves, claiming it was for Lord Tianxiong. The tea was drunk by Xie Tianxiong, but the poison was slipped into your dinner."

"What he wanted wasn't your life, but to make it so you could never cultivate immortality."

"If you couldn't cultivate immortality, you couldn't go to the Qingyun Sect, and the mark wouldn't be discovered by high-level Cultivators."

"The Xie Family would always have a direct-line son bearing the mark squatting in Cangyun City, acting as Meng Yi's tool."

Everything was explained.

The Qingyun Sect wouldn't want a good-for-nothing, but that night Xie Feng had already undergone Transmigration and killed the anomaly.

Moreover, the Qingyun Sect very likely took him in to study him.

Xie Tianxiong, treating a dead horse as a living doctor, blindly managed to send Xie Feng into the Sect anyway, and then prepared to explode with Meng Yi!

Little did he expect Xie Feng to actually come back again—that was why Xie Tianxiong had addressed him so affectionately!

A muffled vibration came from deep within the ruins; something huge turned over deep beneath the ground of the City Defense Mansion.

Xie Yuanqing's body suddenly went rigid, the muscles beneath its grayish-green skin bulging like tightly twisted ropes.

"He's awake," it said.

"Meng Yi?"

"Meng Yi died years ago."

Xie Yuanqing turned around, facing the direction of the City Defense Mansion ruins.

"The thing inside is wearing his skin and using his name, but it is not Meng Yi."

"Father heavily injured it just now; what it will do after being damaged, I don't know."

"Meng Yi is dead?!" Tu Ziguan looked at Xie Yuanqing and pulled out his phone directly.

Xie Yuanqing looked back at him.

On that grayish-green canine face, the corners of its mouth parted again—this time smiling for real, a parting of the lips closer to a beast's resolute snarl.

"We came precisely to kill Meng Yi, but unfortunately we failed," it said.

"Everyone on the periphery is from the Xie Family. Branches, farmhands—after being contaminated by the scraps of that book, some of them lost their minds after transforming."

It paused, a low growl rolling through its throat—the language of Ghouls.

Upon hearing this sound, the grayish-green figures crouching on the rubble pricked up their ears in unison.

It lifted its head, letting out a low, prolonged growl from its throat.

The Ghouls on all fours at the edge of the ruins simultaneously stopped their movements, their grayish-green heads turning toward it in unison.

It emitted another shorter growl, as if issuing some command.

The Ghouls dispersed silently, clearing a path on the periphery of the ruins leading to the main entrance of the City Defense Mansion.

Xie Yuanqing took the lead and stepped into that path, its sharp claws crunching with faint cracking sounds on the broken bricks and rubble.

Tu Ziguan followed beside Xie Feng, the earth-shaking thunder still clasped in his hand, knuckles white.

He glanced at the Ghouls that had retreated to both sides.

They crouched atop broken walls and piles of rubble, their grayish-green skin shimmering with a damp, cold gloss in the Formation's light, their sunken eye sockets tracking their movement, yet not a single one pounced.

Xie Feng's blind cane tapped across the broken bricks.

Xie Yuanqing walked ahead of him, its grayish-green spine slightly arched, the outline of its shoulder blades rolling beneath its skin.

Its back still retained some human traces, such as walking habits; unfortunately, these traces had been stretched and distorted beneath the grayish-green skin, yet they hadn't completely vanished.

The main gate of the City Defense Mansion was still standing.

One of the vermilion lacquered double doors had been blown open by a blast wave, while the other hung crookedly on the door frame, half of the bronze nails on the door knocker shaken off.

Inside the door was pitch black—not the black of night, but a thicker, almost tangible blackness, like a compressed mass of black ink blocking the doorway.

A cold, fishy stench surged out from that darkness, more than ten times heavier than outside.

Xie Yuanqing stopped at the entrance.

"I can only take you this far," it said, "Inside is his Domain. If I go in, he will control me."

"Reasonable, he definitely knows Ghoul Binding Art." Xie Feng nodded slightly.

"A Ghoul? Yeah, the way I am now, a human is no better than a Ghoul."

"...That's not what I meant."

"Xie Feng." Xie Yuanqing called out again.

Xie Feng stopped.

"If Father could speak, he would say sorry to you."

Xie Yuanqing did not turn back, presenting its grayish-green back to him.

"But he probably can't speak anymore. In the final stage of transformation, if sanity is lost, the throat is the first thing to completely change."

Having finished, it retreated to the side of the door, letting out a very faint growl from its throat, resembling a sigh.

The Ghouls crouching on the rubble responded with a few low guttural sounds, their grayish-green figures slowly retreating deep into the shadows within the grayish-white light of the Formation.

Xie Yuanqing was the last to disappear.

Standing by the broken wall near the door, its grayish-green skin almost blended with the Formation's light, only those sunken eye sockets still gleaming slightly in the darkness like two dying embers.

Facing the darkness blocking the doorway, Xie Feng poked his blind cane forward and stepped with Tu Ziguan through the door of the City Defense Mansion.