25: Chapter 25 Ghoul Bloodline

Gray Fur licked his nose, squinted, and looked at Wu Xi: "How was it? Exciting, right?"

"It was just an inspirational story. Let's go, we have business to attend to."

Gray Fur grumbled as he followed, finally stopping in front of a two-story wooden building.

The plaque above the door read "Drunken Cat Inn," the paint peeling and the edges blackened.

"We're here." Gray Fur pushed the door open, causing the wind chimes to jingle wildly.

The interior was thick with smoke and the pungent smell of alcohol. Behind the counter stood a black-haired, bald Mimei Rat, currently hoisting a bottle and pouring it into his mouth. Hearing the commotion, he squinted over, the bottle pausing in mid-air.

"Yo." Old Hei let out a hiccup. "Isn't this Gray Fur? You're still alive?"

"I'll still be alive long after you're dead." Gray Fur jumped onto the counter, slapping his paw against the wood. "Wake up, you've got business. Serious business."

Old Hei put down the bottle, looked Wu Xi up and down, and then glanced at Qi Ling who had followed behind. Qi Ling's face was pale, his hands clutching the scroll tube so tightly that the veins were bulging and his knuckles were white.

"The Speaker sent a message." Old Hei dropped his playful demeanor and bowed his paws toward Wu Xi. "Human, thank you. The Mimei Rat clan will remember this favor."

Wu Xi nodded: "It was nothing. By the way, I still need you to go to the trouble of finding a doctor."

"A doctor?" Old Hei scratched his bald head and looked at Qi Ling. "What's wrong with him?"

"Ghoul transformation." Gray Fur lowered his voice. "Find someone reliable, don't bring in those Jianghu frauds."

Old Hei thought for a moment, then turned and shouted toward the back room: "Doctor Bai! Someone needs medical attention!"

"Not seeing anyone!" A sharp female voice came from the back room. "I'm off the clock."

"More money!"

"How much more?"

Old Hei looked at Gray Fur, and Gray Fur looked at Wu Xi. Gray Fur reached into his bosom and pulled out a Moon Tree Crystal—it was a deep blue, shimmering with a ghostly light under the oil lamp.

Old Hei's eyes went wide, and he shouted at the top of his lungs: "Doctor Bai! It's Moon Stone! The kind with extremely high purity!"

The back room went quiet for a moment. The curtain lifted, and a white-furred cat-kin walked out. She was female, wearing reading glasses, her eyes behind the lenses squinted into slits. She wore a gray cloth robe with her paws behind her back, her chin held high, and her tail held straight up.

"Moon Stone?" Doctor Bai walked to the counter. Instead of looking at the patient, she stared at the stone in Old Hei's hand. "Let me see."

She pinched it, held it up to the light, and huffed through her nose: "It'll do."

She tucked the stone into her sleeve and finally turned to look at Qi Ling. Qi Ling shrank back; her gaze made his skin crawl, and he scraped his heels back half a step.

"Come here." Doctor Bai turned and walked toward the clinic room, the tip of her tail flicking through the air.

The clinic was small, with a wooden bed, a medicine cabinet, and walls covered in dried herbs, the smell stinging the nose. Doctor Bai sat on the only chair and pointed to the bed: "Lie down."

Qi Ling lay down, his limbs stiff, the wooden bed creaking under his weight. Doctor Bai's paws pressed onto his wrist; her sharp claws were chilly, like blocks of ice. She closed her eyes, but her ears were pricked, twitching from time to time.

Her hand moved to Qi Ling's neck, pressing on his Adam's apple, then she pulled back his eyelids. The whites of Qi Ling's eyes were tinged with a faint yellow, looking like old newspaper under the light. Doctor Bai leaned in close, almost pressing against his face, and sniffed.

"Open your mouth."

Qi Ling opened his mouth. Doctor Bai's nose sniffed around his mouth, her brow furrowing. She took two steps back and pulled a piece of yellow paper from the medicine cabinet, covered in twisted runes. She slapped the yellow paper onto Qi Ling's chest—

Black smoke immediately rose from the paper, burning a hole through it, the edges curling and emitting the stench of scorched flesh.

The air in the clinic froze.

Qi Ling stared at the hole in his chest, his breathing stopping. Doctor Bai stared at the hole, silent for a long time. She took off her reading glasses, wiped them, and put them back on.

Doctor Bai sat back down in the chair, her tail curling in front of her. "Your body is transforming into a Ghoul, but it's very strange—there's no rejection reaction. It's as if... you were born this way."

Qi Ling's face turned deathly pale instantly. His fingers gripped the bedsheets, knuckles white, wrinkling the fabric.

"Impossible," his voice trembled, laced with a sob. "I am human. What I paint is fantasy. I've never seen a real Ghoul..."

"The Bloodline does not lie." Doctor Bai interrupted him, tapping her claws on the chair's armrest. "You have Ghoul blood in your body. Although thin, it has always been there. Recently, being hunted by Demon Ghosts stimulated your Bloodline Awakening. Those paintings of yours are not imagination; they are memories."

Qi Ling's mouth opened, but no sound came out. He slid off the bed, his knees weak, almost collapsing to the floor.

Old Hei supported Qi Ling as they walked out. Qi Ling's steps were unsteady, as if he were walking on cotton; he didn't even feel it when his shoulder bumped against the doorframe. Gray Fur wanted to follow but was called back by Doctor Bai.

Doctor Bai took three paper packets from the medicine cabinet and threw them to Gray Fur: "Calming Powder. One dose a day will stabilize his emotions. But it's only temporary."

"How long is temporary?" Wu Xi asked.

Doctor Bai glanced at the night scene outside the window; the moon had already risen to the meridian, and the moonlight cut in at an angle. "Tonight, at the third quarter of the Zi hour, all will be revealed."

She didn't explain what "all will be revealed" meant, just waved her paw: "Take him to the guest room. Don't let him run away."

"And Gray Fur," Doctor Bai's voice lowered, carrying a hint of tension. "Don't sleep soundly tonight. Follow him. If he sleepwalks, don't wake him up. Just follow him and see where he goes."

Gray Fur's ears pricked up, his fur standing on end. "What do you mean?"

"It means the blood within him is calling out." Doctor Bai put her reading glasses back on, the lenses reflecting light and obscuring her eyes. "Tonight, we will know if he is a pureblood or a half-breed, whether he is prey... or one of their own."

The third quarter of the Zi hour.

In the guest room of the Drunken Cat Inn, Qi Ling sat straight up in bed.

His eyes were closed, his breathing steady, yet his hands and feet were moving. He threw off the quilt, stepped barefoot onto the floor without making a sound. The door wasn't locked; he pulled it open, walked out, went downstairs, and passed through the front hall.

In the front hall, Wu Xi, Gray Fur, Doctor Bai, and Old Hei, four people sitting or standing, watched him.

Qi Ling didn't seem to notice them.

His steps were very light, like a cat, but even more eerie than a cat—his heels didn't touch the ground, only his toes, moving step by step as if floating out the tavern door.

"Follow him." Doctor Bai said in a low voice.

The four of them followed from a distance. The streets of Wusa Town were devoid of cats, the moonlight illuminating the stone-paved roads with a ghastly pallor. Qi Ling walked quickly, his direction clear, as if he had walked it thousands of times. He left the town, heading northwest toward a wasteland of jagged rocks.

The wind turned cold, carrying a fishy sweetness.

Gray Fur covered his nose: "What's that smell?"

"Corpse stench," Doctor Bai said. "Fresh."

Qi Ling stopped in front of a giant rock. There was a crack in the stone, pitch black, as if it had been corroded by something. He bent over and crawled inside.

Wu Xi stepped forward, placing his hand on the edge of the crack. The stone was warm and vibrating, as if something were breathing inside.

"Go in," Wu Xi said.

The crack was narrow, but inside was a hidden world. It was an underground cavern with a high ceiling; moonlight leaked in from the gap at the top, illuminating the scene inside.

Qi Ling stood in the center of the cavern, surrounded by... Ghouls.

Not just one, but over a dozen. They emerged from the shadows, surrounding Qi Ling, making low, rumbling sounds. These Ghouls were exactly like those in Qi Ling's paintings: rubbery skin, reverse-jointed legs, slit pupils, sharp fangs. But they did not attack Qi Ling.

The largest Ghoul stepped forward, lowered its head, and rubbed its nose against Qi Ling's hand.

Qi Ling's eyes were closed, but a smile appeared on his lips. His hand lifted to stroke the top of the Ghoul's head, his movements skillful, as if he had done it countless times.

The cave walls were covered in paintings.

Charcoal drawings, just like those in Qi Ling's scroll tube. The daily life of Ghouls: hunting, mating, sacrifices, and even graffiti of cubs. This was not imagination; this was a record.

"He comes here when he sleepwalks. It seems like it's been a long time, perhaps since he was born. His Bloodline is calling to him, and he has been accepted by them, treated as... a cub."

Qi Ling turned around, facing the rock wall. He picked up a piece of charcoal from the ground and began to draw. His hand moved across the wall, drawing a portrait of the large Ghoul from just before, every stroke precise, needing no model.

He finished the drawing. He stepped back two paces to admire his work, and then—opened his eyes.

Qi Ling looked at the Ghouls before him, at the paintings on the wall, at his own hands. His pupils contracted, and a shriek that did not sound human escaped his throat.

"Ah——!!"

He collapsed to the ground, crawling backward, hitting the rock wall. The scroll tube fell to the ground, and the paintings scattered everywhere. The Ghouls were startled, hissing, looking at Qi Ling with eyes that actually held... sadness? Without attacking anyone, they left one by one through another cave exit.

"I am not... I am not..." Qi Ling clutched his head, his nails digging into his scalp. "I am human, I am a painter, I am not a monster..."

"You are a half-breed." Doctor Bai stepped forward, her voice cold and hard. "Half-human, half-Ghoul. The Demon Ghosts hunted you because they smelled the alien blood in your body. You thought you were creating art, but in reality, you were recording your other home."

Qi Ling looked up, his face covered in tears and snot: "Can it be cured?"

"It can," Doctor Bai said. "But you must find the High Priestess. The High Priestess of the Cat-kin—only she can strip the Ghoul blood from your body, or... let you fully transform, becoming a complete Ghoul, and live underground from then on."

"Where is the High Priestess?"

"The Wusa Temple." Doctor Bai paused. "But she does not see outsiders. Especially humans, or rather, half-humans."

Qi Ling collapsed on the ground, his eyes vacant. By the time they returned to the Drunken Cat Inn, day was almost breaking.

Qi Ling was helped to rest by Old Hei, given the Calming Powder, and fell into a deep sleep. Doctor Bai packed up her medical kit, preparing to leave.

"Two days," Doctor Bai said. "In two days, his Bloodline will become restless again. At that time, it will be either suppression or transformation; there is no middle path."

Gray Fur jumped onto the table, tapping his paw on the surface: "I'll go to the temple first." "You?" Doctor Bai raised an eyebrow.

"It just so happens the Speaker asked me to deliver Moon Tree Crystals to the little cubs at the temple." Gray Fur pulled a small cloth bag from his bosom. "I'll take the opportunity to sound out the High Priestess."

"The High Priestess has a peculiar temper." Doctor Bai warned. "You little mouse, be careful not to be treated as a snack."

"I am an envoy of the Mimei Rat Speaker!" Gray Fur puffed out his chest.

Doctor Bai scoffed, pushed the door open, and left, her tail flicking outside the door.

Wu Xi stood by the window, watching the sky outside. The cats of Wusa Town began to stir, shadows flashing across the rooftops.

"Two days," Wu Xi said.

"Two days," Gray Fur nodded. "You have business too?"

"I also have business. See you here in two days."

Old Hei pulled two bottles of wine from under the counter and pushed them over: "Take these. For those cats at the temple, good wine is more effective than good words."

Gray Fur grabbed one bottle, stuffed it into his pocket, and then pushed the door open to leave.