Little Xian

Boom!

A thunderous blast rolled up from deep within the passage. Dust sifted from the walls, and the iron door trembled violently.

Yu Youhan paused for half a beat.

Only half a beat.

He was still crouched beside the corpse, making muffled swallowing sounds as he wolfed down every scrap of bloody flesh before him, chewing and chewing.

The blood and meat filled his stomach, but his hunger did not fade. Instead, it dragged what little remained of his sanity even deeper into the abyss.

It wasn't that he hadn't heard the explosion.

He simply no longer remembered what an explosion meant.

Red hair was forcing its way through his skin, growing wildly and clinging tight to his body.

His fingernails split their beds, lengthening into sharp claws that scraped against the concrete floor with a grating shriek.

His nose thrust forward, its tip growing moist, each breath rougher than the last.

He was still alive.

It was absurd.

But he had already become a beast.

Yu Youhan himself felt certain that he was doomed. Yet the drug that had entered his bloodstream had not killed him. Instead, it had dragged him somewhere else entirely.

Though, at this point, there wasn't much difference between that and death.

His bestial nature had smothered his humanity.

But it had not extinguished it completely.

“Xiao Xian! Xiao Xian!” Yu Youhan cried out in a shrill voice.

He raised his head. His mouth was drenched in blood, and the red in his eyes slowly spread. His humanity had only just awakened before being forced back down beneath an even more savage instinct.

He could no longer remember who he was, why he was here, or what he had just eaten.

He remembered only one person.

“Xiao Xian! Xiao Xian!”

Yu Youhan charged down the corridor on all fours.

The guards ahead had been roused by the blast. Several of them came running around the corner, all wearing protective suits and carrying rifles.

But when they saw the mass of red fur lunging toward them, their legs went weak before they could even react.

“Open fire! Open fire!”

“What the hell is that thing?”

“Get out of the way! Damn it, where’s the bolt on this gun?”

Gunfire erupted into chaos.

They used bolt-action rifles, requiring the shooter to work the bolt after every shot.

They were more than adequate for intimidating prisoners. But against something like Yu Youhan, even their hands could not work the bolts fast enough.

Bullets tore into flesh, splattering blood.

Yu Youhan staggered from the impacts. He lowered his head and glanced at his chest, a low growl rolling up from his throat.

It hurt.

But he could still move.

That was enough.

He lunged forward and swept his palm sideways, smashing the two guards at the front into the wall.

The sound of breaking bones mingled with their screams. The men behind them stumbled backward in terror, their trembling muzzles spraying bullets everywhere, even into the walls.

Yu Youhan did not pursue them.

There was no room in his mind for these people.

“Xiao Xian! Xiao Xian!”

He ran toward the direction from which the blast had come.

The injection seemed to have taken effect far more directly than the vaporized drug. Yu Youhan’s physical strength was far greater than that of the woman before him.

The passage reeked of chemicals and scorched metal.

Another muffled explosion sounded from deeper within.

One row of overhead lights after another went dark, until only a few emergency lamps remained, bathing the corridor in red.

The underground passage was split into segments of light and shadow. The lit sections looked like pools of blood, while breaths stirred in the darkness.

Someone was crying.

Someone else was shouting for an officer.

And someone lay face-down on the floor, pretending to be dead. Even after wetting himself, he did not dare move.

Yu Youhan passed beside him. The man held his breath until his face turned purple. Only after the red-haired monster had gone farther did he finally exhale.

“May the Emperor protect us! May the Emperor protect us!”

The moment he finished, Yu Youhan turned and looked back at him.

The man rolled his eyes back and promptly fainted.

Yu Youhan paid him no attention.

His transformation continued to deepen. His spine arched, his shoulder blades rose sharply, and his breathing grew more rapid.

His thoughts narrowed further and further until only one path remained, along with one name.

“X... Xiao Xian!”

He crashed through half of a warped iron door and entered an even deeper section of the underground passage.

There was no chaos here.

Instead, the silence was unnerving.

A man knelt on the floor, leaning forward, his body covered in blood.

He clutched a lighter in one hand. Its metal casing had grown hot from his grip, and blood stained the striker wheel.

A woman stood before him.

She wore no protective suit. The hem of her clothes was spotless, and so were the soles of her shoes.

Two warriors stood beside her, swords hanging from their waists, their postures disciplined and rigid. They were clearly nothing like the panicked guards outside.

The woman looked up when she saw Yu Youhan, one eyebrow twitching.

“Another rat?”

She examined the red fur covering his body, and a flicker of interest entered her voice.

“And such a large one at that? Those fools really have developed something worthwhile.”

One of the warriors beside her asked in a low voice, “Do you want it alive?”

The woman glanced at the kneeling man on the floor and spoke lightly.

“No time. Kidomaru, dispose of it.”

The warrior called Kidomaru did not answer.

He stepped forward half a pace, his left thumb pressing against the sword guard as the long blade slid an inch from its sheath.

Yu Youhan could not see the sword.

He saw only the man kneeling on the floor.

The man’s back was to him, his head hanging low, his shoulders no longer moving. Yet Yu Youhan still recognized him.

“Xiao Xian...”

He called out once.

There was no response.

Yu Youhan crawled forward two steps. Red churned through his beastly pupils, and an even sharper cry was forced from his throat.

“Xiao Xian! Xiao Xian!”

The kneeling man’s fingers twitched.

Perhaps it was merely a final spasm.

Or perhaps he had truly heard.

The lighter slipped from his palm with a click, fell to the ground, and rolled to Yu Youhan’s feet.

Yu Youhan lowered his head and stared at it.

He no longer recognized the lighter, but he recognized the man.

“Roar!”

Yu Youhan sprang forward.

All four limbs struck the ground, his claws gouging into the concrete as he slammed toward Kidomaru with the stench of blood clinging to him.

The passage was narrow, and his body occupied most of it. An ordinary person would have had nowhere to dodge.

Kidomaru did not dodge.

His right hand closed around the sword hilt. His shoulders sank, and his footing remained steady.

“One Mind.”

The blade flashed through the dim red corridor.

A head went flying—and even in its final moment, it still uttered a sound.

“X... Xiao Xian...”

Yu Youhan’s body continued surging forward for two more steps before losing all strength. He crashed heavily to the ground.

His head rolled to the wall, red fur collecting dust as his lips parted slightly.

The corpse that had knelt on the floor could no longer hear him.

The woman watched for a moment before looking away.

“What a crude transformation. Leave the corpse for them to study. We still have to continue investigating the dragon vein here.”

Another warrior suddenly spoke.

“Even the Kiku Sect has no way to draw upon the dragon vein directly? The Great Japanese Empire is gradually losing ground in this land. Troop strength, logistics, supply lines—all of them are holding us back. We can never kill all the Chinese.”

They believed the Japanese army was invincible. Yet what held the Japanese Empire back most was its inability to sustain its troops and logistics.

Everything was like a fire blazing beneath a pot of oil—spectacular, but ultimately an act of drinking poison to quench one’s thirst.

“If we cannot extract the power of the dragon vein, then we will inject it with corrupting energy instead. Even if we lose the war, we can still drag China down with us. Perhaps one day, we may even have a chance to rise again.”

“You’ve already decided that our Great Japanese Empire will lose?”

“Heh. War is like a game of chess. Sometimes, even at the very end, you cannot tell who will emerge victorious. But at other times, halfway through the game, you already know you have lost. Even so, we must strive to extract the power of the dragon vein. If we succeed, then we will truly possess this land.”