Aside from their dread of sunlight, vampires also feared silver.
While silver was not quite as lethal as sunlight, it suppressed a vampire's regenerative abilities. Under normal circumstances, so long as a vampire had sufficient food and their heart remained undamaged, most injuries healed rapidly. Yet if a wound was inflicted by silver, recovering from it became extraordinarily difficult.
Many vampires in the Blood Clan who lay in dormant hibernation had, in truth, been critically injured by silver weapons.
Returning home after school, Yu Xian immediately rummaged through his cabinet and retrieved the silver ring he had used previously to test the goods.
It was said that even touching silver caused a vampire's skin to burn, and prolonged contact would cause the flesh to ulcerate and rot. But as Yu Xian held the silver ring between his fingers, he felt none of that.
"Does this even count as a minor talent?"
"I doubt most vampires have major talents this outrageous."
Yu Xian crushed the silver ring into a ball, confirming that his newly acquired talent, Silver Blood, had completely granted him immunity to silver's suppressive effects against vampires.
Yet the primary function of Silver Blood was not merely granting immunity to silver. Rather, it allowed Yu Xian to consume silver and convert the blood throughout his entire body into Silver Blood.
Once all of his blood had been transformed into Silver Blood, his physical constitution would be enhanced even further. At the same time, he would be able to expend the Silver Blood within him to manifest whips or fine threads to attack enemies.
Immunity to silver's harm was practically just an incidental bonus—the trimmings of the feast.
Clearly, this talent was no mere stroke of good luck; it was a miraculous windfall.
Yu Xian opened his mouth, and his vampire fangs slowly extended. He pressed the crumpled silver ring against his fangs and instinctively gave a suck. It felt just like sipping up a mouthful of jelly.
Once the silver entered his body, it swiftly fused into his bloodstream.
"Too little."
Yu Xian could clearly perceive the Silver Blood born from the fusion of silver and his blood.
Compared to his original blood, which had already grown cold, the temperature of the Silver Blood was slightly warmer. As it circulated through his veins, it felt like a current of heat coursing within him.
It wasn't uncomfortable in the slightest; if anything, it was rather pleasant.
After taking a moment to adjust, Yu Xian's craving for silver only intensified.
However, procuring large quantities of silver was difficult right now, and his remaining money wouldn't buy much anyway.
The main issue was that the Blood Clan had been aggressively buying up silver, driving its price higher than gold. Furthermore, the Blood Clan's purchases only went in, never coming back out, and no one knew where they hid it all.
Notably, the Blood Clan had a rule: anyone who contributed over ten tons of silver to the clan could obtain the qualification to become a vampire directly, without needing to pass any trials.
Although turning through this channel barred one from reaching the core of the Blood Clan's power, immortality alone was more than enough to tempt wealthy mortals who feared death.
The Blood Clan's vast financial might was, to a large extent, thanks to the cohort of tycoons who had joined their ranks through this very path.
Yu Xian racked his brain all night, yet still had no clue how to obtain more silver.
He had considered visiting the black market shop, but that shop's methods were too wild—they had even dared to ambush the Blood Clan's little princess, Nora. He couldn't risk crossing paths with them now.
Silver was important, but safety was far more so.
He would rather save money slowly and scour the civilian market for silver goods than ever set foot in that illicit shop again.
***
Early morning.
Yu Xian basked in the sun on his balcony as usual.
For some reason, however, a foul stench kept drifting into his nostrils today. It smelled just like a dead rat rotting in a garbage heap, turning his stomach.
"Strange. Why does this awful smell keep coming up?"
Rising from his lounge chair, Yu Xian sniffed around. Suddenly the stench reappeared, only to vanish again the next second.
*Wait!*
Yu Xian realized something.
It seemed he caught the foul odor only at the exact instant the warm current of Silver Blood passed through his nose.
In other words, when the Silver Blood flowed past his nasal passages, it heightened his sense of smell, allowing him to perceive scents he normally couldn't detect.
He intentionally directed the Silver Blood toward his nose, and sure enough, that repulsive odor returned.
Following the scent forward, he looked over the edge of the balcony. The stench was rising from the floor below.
Most residents in this neighborhood were upper-middle class or above. Living downstairs was a family of three: the husband seemed to be a lawyer, the wife ran a clothing boutique, and they had a daughter in the fourth grade.
"They didn't all drop dead inside their apartment, did they?" Yu Xian muttered inwardly, holding back the nausea.
Yet he had bumped into the whole family heading out just yesterday. Reasonably speaking, even if they were dead, they shouldn't have started rotting this quickly.
*Forget it.*
Yu Xian had no love for meddling in other people's business. He quickly gave up on the thought; it was about time to leave for school anyway.
Slinging his backpack over his shoulders, he stepped out the door. As he descended the stairs, he happened to cross paths with the downstairs couple's daughter, who was also heading out with her schoolbag. On an impulse, he gathered his modest amount of Silver Blood in his nose, and a thick, overpowering stench wafted from her immediately.
*So foul.*
Yu Xian hastily shifted the wisp of Silver Blood from his nose to his right eye.
The stench vanished.
Yet through his enhanced right eye, he saw what appeared to be countless red worms tangled together, squirming relentlessly beneath her skin.
*Hiss... damn it all...*
Yu Xian felt his trypophobia flare up in an instant.
Just then, the girl looked over. When she chimed, "Good morning, big brother from upstairs!" a silver glimmer flashed deep within Yu Xian's pupils. Through her open mouth, he caught sight of countless worms writhing like twitching tentacles.
"Good morning," Yu Xian forced a smile.
Then he rushed down the stairs, making a swift exit toward school.
Along the way, Yu Xian frowned deeply. From time to time, he caught that same foul stench wafting from passersby.
A year ago, a sensational incident in Rongcheng had shaken the entire nation: the Rongcheng Tragedy.
In a certain middle school in Rongcheng, every teacher and student had unknowingly had their brains hollowed out by a mysterious parasite. If not for a student who had secretly consumed a Forbidden Fruit and happened to transfer to Rongcheng No. 1 High School, subsequently discovering that the entire faculty and student body were walking corpses, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
Yu Xian recalled that following the Rongcheng Tragedy a year ago, Silver City's authorities had organized a mandatory citywide medical screening. It was during that very screening that he had been diagnosed with ALS.
Following the diagnosis, he had spent the subsequent month living in a daze, so he had no idea whether the screening had turned up anything unusual.
He never imagined that the parasites from Rongcheng would have quietly infiltrated Silver City.
Now they were in serious trouble.
*Should I report this?* Yu Xian hesitated, lost in thought.
If he reported it, the authorities certainly possessed the strength required to exterminate these parasites.
The problem was that alongside eradicating the parasites, they would undoubtedly conduct a second citywide screening. And if he were subjected to a medical examination, his identity as a wild vampire would be exposed without question!
"Salty Fish? Hey, Salty Fish, what are you thinking about? You're completely spaced out."
Zhang Shou's voice broke Yu Xian's reverie. Yu Xian glanced over at him, letting out a small sigh of relief upon seeing that Zhang Shou wasn't infected by the parasite.
"Nothing, just didn't sleep well," Yu Xian said casually.
Zhang Shou yawned and asked, "Don't tell me you stayed up all night browsing That Forum too?"
"What forum?" Yu Xian asked, bewildered.
Seeing that Yu Xian genuinely didn't know, Zhang Shou explained, "That Forum—its actual name is 'That Forum.' You should check it out when you have time, especially the Forbidden Fruit board. There are people tracking the patterns of how Forbidden Fruits appear and predicting where the next one might emerge. If it's ever predicted to appear in Silver City, I'm definitely going to fight for it."
Not everyone was willing to remain subservient to others.
Whether one joined the Blood Clan or another faction, surpassing the Primogenitor was virtually impossible.
Consequently, ambitious individuals turned their sights toward the elusive Forbidden Fruits, giving rise to platforms like That Forum dedicated to serving such people.
Yet Yu Xian had no interest in that kind of forum. Right now, he was far more troubled by the issue of the parasites.
Chapter 4