The soot-stained chimney of the herbalist shop acted as a gruesome amplifier for Eunuch Wei's voice, turning his cultured tones into a rasping echo that seemed to vibrate through the very floorboards. Lin Xiyao stood frozen, a handful of dried Aconite spilling from her fingers like dead leaves. Above her, the rhythmic pounding on the roof shingles grew more deliberate, as if a great weight were testing the structural integrity of the old wooden building.
"Physician Lin, your father was a man of great vision, but he lacked the stomach for the final sacrifice," Eunuch Wei's voice drifted down, cold and mocking. "He hid the true formula in a cipher of blood and pulse, thinking no one but his precious daughter could ever unlock it. But he forgot that a daughter's blood is just as sweet when spilled as when it flows through her veins."
"You will stay in the shadows if you value your life, Wei," Lu Yan growled. He stood by the boarded-up window, his hand gripping the hilt of his black spring saber so tightly that the leather wrap groaned. His amber eyes were no longer human; they were glowing lanterns of predatory intent, their light reflecting off the rows of glass jars in the apothecary.
"Lu Yan, don't," Xiyao whispered, her "Heavenly Forensic" System flaring with a violent purple alert.
[Heavenly Forensic System: Stability Alert] Target: Lu Yan. Current Stability: 38%. Condition: The 'Berserk' threshold is approaching. High-frequency lunar resonance from the rooftop is accelerating the collapse. Warning: Engagement with high-tier martial artists will trigger immediate transformation.
"He is baiting you," Xiyao continued, her voice trembling but her mind sharp. "He has brought the Shadow-Hounds. If you leave this shop, he will send them through the roof to finish the patients and take the scrolls."
"Then I will kill them all before they reach the eaves," Lu Yan replied, his voice shifting into that terrifying, dual-toned vibration.
"Commander, look at the patients," Xiyao urged, pointing toward the back room where a dozen "Stage 0.5" victims lay huddled on mats, their bodies twitching in the dim light of the braziers. "If I cannot finish the 'True Stability' tonic now, they will all turn. And once they turn, this district is lost."
Lu Yan looked at the frightened commoners, then back at Xiyao. The "complexity of human nature" flickered in his gaze—the conflict between his instinct to hunt and his vow to protect. With a ragged exhale, he stepped back from the window. "I will hold the doors and the stairs. You find that formula, Xiyao. If you fail, I won't be able to hold the beast back much longer."
Xiyao turned to her father's research scrolls, spreading them across the herbalist's heavy oak desk. Her "Golden Finger" hummed, the interface scanning the ink patterns and the microscopic texture of the paper.
"System, initiate 'Architect's Cipher' decryption. Use my current heart-pulse as the resonance key," she commanded inwardly.
[Heavenly Forensic System: Decryption Initialized] Process: Analyzing TCM pulse-patterns hidden in the calligraphy. Data Found: The 'True Stability' recipe requires a catalyst of 'Living Spirit'—a drop of blood from a carrier who has successfully resisted the full moon. Note: Subject Lu Yan is the only viable donor.
Xiyao's heart hammered against her ribs. Her father hadn't just hidden a recipe; he had hidden a blood-bond. The cure required the very thing Eunuch Wei was hunting.
A deafening crash erupted from above as the central skylight shattered. Shards of glass rained down, followed by four figures dressed in the charcoal-grey silks of the Shadow-Hounds. They didn't land like men; they landed on all fours, their spines curved and their fingers tipped with steel-reinforced claws.
"Protect the girl!" Lu Yan roared, lunging toward the attackers.
Xiyao dove under the desk, clutching a silver lancet. She didn't look at the carnage unfolding in the center of the shop. She focused on the mortar and pestle in front of her. She needed Lu Yan's blood, but he was currently a whirlwind of silver and shadow, fighting off four elite assassins who moved with a hive-mind coordination.
"Lu Yan! I need a drop!" she screamed over the sound of clashing steel and the wet thud of meat hitting wood.
One of the Shadow-Hounds broke away from the fray, its eyes fixed on Xiyao. It lunged over the desk, its claws whistling through the air. Xiyao didn't retreat. She used her "System: Tactical Extraction" to predict the creature's path. She rolled to the side, the claws splintering the oak where her head had been, and drove her silver lancet into the creature's exposed thigh.
The creature howled, but Xiyao was already moving. She scavenged a smear of black, viscous blood from the lancet and dropped it into her mortar.
[System Update: Catalyst Added] Reaction Status: 90%... 95%... Result: 'True Stability' Essence achieved. Warning: The scent of the completed essence is a beacon to every 'Feral' within a three-mile radius.
"Wei knows," Xiyao gasped, looking up.
The chimney didn't just echo anymore. It began to crumble. A massive, bloated hand, covered in grey, necrotic scales, reached through the masonry. Eunuch Wei wasn't just watching; he had been undergoing his own transformation, fueled by the stolen research of a dozen years.
"Give it to me, Lin Xiyao," the monstrous voice boomed from the darkening sky. "And I will make you the mother of a new world."