Chapter 3 Mutation
In the moonless deep night of the mountains, the soft chirping of insects rose and fell, accompanied by the rustling sounds of bodies moving through the underbrush.
Carrying the unconscious Gu Yao on his back, Xia Yan didn’t even know why he could always muster a few strands of strength from within when he felt he couldn’t go on.
Struggling to reach the top of a hill, Xia Yan finally collapsed onto the grass, and Gu Yao also slumped to the side.
Looking southward, in the distant valley, the abandoned factory area where a fierce battle had occurred a few hours ago was brightly lit, and the sound of helicopters patrolling overhead could still be faintly heard.
Early on, when he crawled out of the underground factory, Xia Yan discarded most of the personal items on both himself and Gu Yao, including communications devices, leaving only a bag containing emergency medicine, a water bottle, and a few high-energy snack bars. Besides that, there was the handgun and the dagger he carried.
“Brother…”
Gu Yao emitted a low moan, seemingly regaining some awareness but remaining in a muddled state.
Xia Yan reached out to touch Gu Yao’s forehead and exposed arms, finding them ice cold.
He checked himself, feeling the same coldness, with only his eyelids radiating a feverish heat. For a moment, he couldn’t tell if his high fever was worsening or if it was the hypothermia from blood loss that created this sensation.
A gentle summer breeze rustled through the mountains, causing Xia Yan to shiver uncontrollably. Seeing Gu Yao trembling on the ground, he gritted his teeth and carried him on his back again, continuing toward the dark ridge on the other side of the hill.
A small cave, obscured by weeds and bushes, appeared in the beam of the tactical flashlight. Overjoyed, Xia Yan cut away the obstructing branches with his dagger, squeezed into the cave while cradling Gu Yao, and used the cut vines and branches to block the entrance once again.
After doing all this, Xia Yan felt soaked in sweat, and the sense of exhaustion in his body intensified. Almost every muscle twitched as he could no longer coordinate his body’s balance and leaned heavily against the cave wall, the intense sleepiness making his eyelids feel as heavy as lead.
“No… I can’t sleep… can’t sleep…”
In the dark, Xia Yan weakly tried to reach out and find Gu Yao’s body, but after lightly brushing against the fabric of his clothes, he lost all sensation.
His body felt suspended in the air, alternating between hot and cold, as if riding a roller coaster with sensations of sinking and rising. In his muddled consciousness, he could hear unsettling sounds akin to something being torn apart, followed by an intense pain spreading throughout his body from the depths of his marrow, as if every cell were being torn asunder by an overwhelming internal force.
Xia Yan completely lost consciousness, sinking into darkness.
……
……
A few strands of morning light filtered through the gaps in the weeds and vines, illuminating a pale and dirty face, stirring the sleeping person’s eyelids.
“Hmm…” Xia Yan squinted open his eyes, realizing it was already dawn outside the cave.
Sitting up slowly, remnants of soreness and numbness lingered in his body. Though his consciousness was still somewhat fuzzy, the high fever and soreness he felt before collapsing had disappeared, replaced by a burning hunger in his stomach and a dryness in his throat.
As he shifted his body, he noticed his black combat suit was sticky and faintly emitted a nondescript foul odor, as if during the few hours of unconsciousness, he had sweated out all the filth.
“Brother… thirsty…”
Beside him came a weak murmur, soft and fragile.
Xia Yan instinctively moved closer, groggily reaching out to touch the other’s forehead.
He felt fine enough… Xia Yan weakly unfastened the water bottle attached to his bag, opened the lid, aimed it at Gu Yao’s small mouth, gently stroking the smooth forehead and his soft white hair.
Suddenly, a strange thought flashed through Xia Yan’s muddled mind, causing him to widen his eyes and turn Gu Yao, who leaned against him, fully around.
The once well-fitting black combat suit now encased a much smaller and softer body, looking baggy, emanating a stale, rancid odor of long-dried sweat from every seam.
Long white hair partially obscured a delicate and dirty little face; the slightly dehydrated cherry lips, though dull, were still charming. The arms were soft and powerless, with a pair of dainty white hands peeking out from the sleeves.
“Who are you? Am I delirious…?”
Xia Yan questioned if he was still in a fever-induced haze, for the figure before him was no longer Gu Yao but a young girl in her prime.
“Brother… I’m in pain… so cold…”
The girl in his arms murmured softly, her voice gentle enough to melt anything away.
Staring blankly at the girl, an unfamiliar voice echoed in his ears. Xia Yan tightened his grip, pulling the trembling body closer to him.
At that moment, Xia Yan’s own body also shivered slightly, several strands of long black hair escaping from his ears.
In shock, Xia Yan freed one hand, grasped the hair, and slowly moved it upwards, feeling its silky texture.
His gaze then moved downwards to the girl resting against his chest, a strange pressure emanated from the skin beneath her.
“It’s okay, just sleep a bit longer. Everything will be fine…”
Xia Yan closed his eyes, whispering softly, as if speaking to the unfamiliar girl in his arms, or perhaps reminding himself. A few seconds later, he slipped back into a muddled state.
……
“Who are you!?”
In his dazed state, Xia Yan felt a sharp, burning pain pressed against his neck, and instinctively, a sense of danger erupted in his mind.
His awareness awakened his memories, prompting Xia Yan to suddenly grab in one direction, twist, and before he knew it, he had caught hold of a soft arm with his other hand, turning and pinning the body beneath him.
At that moment, the sound of a knife clattering to the ground echoed in his ears.
“Don’t move!”
Xia Yan regained full clarity, tightly restraining the girl beneath him, his eyes a mix of relief and confusion.
“Who exactly are you… Where is my brother…”
The white-haired girl gritted her teeth, her voice thick with a weak, trembling undertone.
“Xiao Yao?”
An icy, chilling thought exploded in Xia Yan’s mind. He swiftly flipped the girl’s body, locking eyes with her long-lashed, beautiful eyes, before slowly releasing his grip.
“Brother? Is that you?”
The white-haired girl, rubbing her wrist as she sat up, looked incredulously at the black-haired girl dressed in a mismatched black uniform, her small mouth slowly forming an ‘O.’
“We… turned into ghosts… turned into vampires?!”
Gu Yao extended her hands, examining them for several seconds before touching her face and her long white hair, her expression a mix of terror and confusion.
“Maybe… perhaps something scarier…”
Xia Yan smiled bitterly as he looked down at himself, helplessly shaking his head.
The two siblings who grew up together in an orphanage both possessed a rare blood type, a coincidence that brought them together in the shadowy Arrow Unit after entering society, only to end up as female vampires after a bizarre blood invasion.
“It’s almost noon; we have to leave this mountainous area quickly!”
As Xia Yan brushed aside the weeds blocking the cave entrance, he peered outside while clutching the bag.
“Brother, wait! Why aren’t we afraid of sunlight? Isn’t it said that most blood-infected victims turn into the lowest-grade blood thralls? Blood thralls turn into skin discoloration upon exposure to sunlight.”
Cautiously reaching out into the beam of pure white sunlight streaming through the cave entrance, apart from some barely detectable stinging, there were no significant changes.
“No one knows what the outcome of this blood invasion by that monster will be.” Xia Yan wasn’t sure either and simply shook his head.
After all, vampires had been a mutated species engaged in a dark war with humans for over two thousand years; some new terrors would always surface, leaving people bewildered.
At least, in the materials Xia Yan could access, he had never heard of such an existence.
“Brother, are we just going to stay like this?”
Gu Yao stared blankly at the cave entrance, her mind a mess.
Three days ago, she had enthusiastically applied to join the Western Inspection District’s Xuanyan Team, based on excellent recommendations from her training center, only to have her newly acquired identity fall apart during her first mission.
Looking at her dirty, loose black combat uniform, Gu Yao sighed weakly.
“First, we need to survive; we’ll figure everything else out later. Move, the Arrow Unit may have begun a thorough search…”
With that, Xia Yan adjusted the bag, steadied the still-recovering Gu Yao, and slowly crawled out of the small cave.
A beautiful purple butterfly fluttered gracefully and gently landed on Xia Yan’s shoulder.
His pupils contracted as he dodged to the side, his hand swiftly drawing the sharp silver dagger, slicing the purple butterfly into pieces.
“Run!”
Xia Yan abruptly grabbed Gu Yao’s arm, disregarding whether she could handle his tug, and desperately sprinted deeper into the jungle.
Minutes later, a group of men and women in full black combat gear arrived at the small cave, shining their flashlights into it for a moment. The leading man crouched down to carefully inspect the surrounding grass and soil.
“Embroidered Clothes Team Combat Group 3 reporting, signs of the target’s appearance were found, but their evasion skills are also commendable. I suggest centering our search within a five-kilometer radius of coordinate XXXX!”
Having said that, they raised their weapons and stepped into the nearby thicket.
……
……
By dusk, two girls dressed in loose and dirty black uniforms appeared at the foot of a hill, hand in hand, on the outskirts of a small town that spanned a national highway.
Gazing at the continuously flowing national road in the distance and the hotels, car repair shops, diners, and farmyards lining it, the burning sensation in their stomachs had become unbearable—a physical anxiety that was akin to hunger but distinctly different.
Their attention shifted to the nearby countryside farmland, where a few leisurely walking farmers and scattered poultry entered their line of sight. Both the black-haired girl and the white-haired girl exhibited an uncontrollable fierce glimmer in their eyes.
“Brother… I want to…”
Gu Yao touched her burning face and stomach, trembling as she gazed hungrily at the back of a returning female farmer.
“Yeah, I want to too…”
Xia Yan nodded, then tightly closed her eyes, various thoughts clashing and entangling in her mind…
Without warning, Xia Yan’s right hand turned into a blade and suddenly struck Gu Yao’s neck. The latter’s body softened and collapsed onto the ground.
“I’m sorry… Xiao Yao, hold on a little longer.”
The black-haired girl wore a guilt-ridden expression as she forcefully tore her gaze away from the distant female farmer’s back and hoisted the white-haired girl onto her back, slowly retreating back into the woods.
