Chapter 60

"Ugh–!"

Shen Yuan clutched his throbbing head in his wake. It felt as if he had been asleep for 10 straight days and a menace of an existence pounded his head throughout his dream as a bad joke.

"Mreow…"

Soft paws kneaded his shoulder and drew him to open his eyes. A pair of familiar red eyes greeted him, their luster clouded with worry. Huo Yan licked the corner of his eye which he returned with a kiss to his head.

He looked around to find himself tucked in a clean bed and surrounded by a white curtain and figured he was in the infirmary. He only remembered the black cloud interfering with his 'operation' and his memory stopped there.

Sensing something, he lifted his palm and stared at it.

This was…

A hand parted the curtain, and Wang Liyan walked in with a face of relief. "You're awake. Thank god."

Shen Yuan put his thoughts away for now and strained himself up to sit and recline on the headboard. "What happened? Why am I here?"

"You were found unconscious in the chemistry lab. Although there was no physical wound, you had anemic symptoms. Adding the residue left on the broken windows, everything points out that you were attacked by a specter. Multiple, perhaps," Wang Liyan explained. "They're invisible, so it's understandable you're confused."

Shen Yuan was about to ask about the unknown black matter and timely stopped himself. First the ability to kill the damned and now this. Was it the vulture's existence inside him that gave him these aptitudes?

"Thankfully, your cat was with you and brought me there. If you're exposed to specters for too long, they will drain your life force and kill you. How are you feeling?"

"A bit dizzy and cold, but nothing else."

"I'll have the cooks prepare you a warm meal. If you still feel discomfort after that, I'll give you an aspirin and you can sleep it away."

"Thank you." Shen Yuan looked down at Huo Yan sticking closer to him than usual and wondered, "How long was I out?"

"2 days. Most likely influenced by shock." Wang Liyan helplessly smiled. "Your cat was really worried. He stayed with you all day and night, never leaving the bed and refusing to eat."

Shen Yuan rubbed Huo Yan's back in thought.

Huo Yan definitely wasn't a normal cat. He confirmed that now.

The sleeping pills didn't work on him and he probably didn't need to eat in the first place. The question was, did he have some sort of connection with those specters? What happened after he blacked out that the vulture's energy entered his body?

"Speaking of which, what happened with the crevice?"

"It's safe now. Xiao Yi and the others managed to contain it at the end of the day."

"Contain it how, exactly?"

"They directed the wave of undead to the opposite direction of this shelter and fought them until the crevice closed." Wang Liyan sighed. "Fortunately, they have a protocol on how to handle it now. Before we knew about these creatures' weakness, Xiao Yi lost a fourth of his men in total from defending against a crevice. There were more than 50 of them at first. The specters are especially difficult to handle since they're invisible."

"Do they appear often?"

"It's difficult to say. Even if it appears in this city once a month, who knows how many have appeared all over the world? I wouldn't be surprised if one appears every day." Wang Liyan turned to leave. "Don't worry about it and rest for now. I'll go inform the cooks."

Shen Yuan gave a nod and watched her leave. He focused back on Huo Yan, now curling to his stomach, and gave light scratches to the back of his ear.

"Yan-Yan."

"Mrow." Huo Yan let out a muffled cry, keeping his head buried in Shen Yuan's clothes.

"You don't want to look at me?"

"…" Huo Yan slowly raised his head.

Shen Yuan tapped his small, round nose. "So you do understand human words. Did you have fun fooling around?"

Huo Yan cocked his head more and bit Shen Yuan's finger. The seemingly sharp teeth didn't give Shen Yuan any pain as he nibbled on him, only a slight tickle.

"You want to eat me? Because I tried to eat you?" Shen Yuan laughed and played with Huo Yan for a while before he asked, "Those specters. Do you have something to do with it?"

"Meow…"

A shadow cast over them, and Huo Yan turned his head to the window. Shen Yuan thought it was only a passing cloud and followed Huo Yan's line of sight only to see a specter hovering outside.

Looking back between it and Huo Yan, Shen Yuan moved to the side of the bed and stood up. He unlocked the window and slid it open, letting the clump of black cloud flutter inside. It didn't attack.

He reached out a hand and let it descend to his palm. It was cold with a subtle sensation of being enclosed by rolling mists.

Wisps trailed out of the clump and inched towards his mouth, luring him to part his lips. The cold caressed his tongue, its taste sweet and blissful. More tangled with the air he breathed and flew his mind into the sky.

Huo Yan watched unblinkingly from the bed, reflecting the intoxicated man in his gleaming red eyes.

By the time Shen Yuan consumed everything, he only craved for more.

More specters appeared outside the window in answer, offering themselves for him to feast. He was about to take another one when the sound of the door opening snapped him out of his daze.

He closed the window and turned around to find the visitor passing through the curtain with a tray of food in their hand. It wasn't Wang Liyan.

"There is an emergency Dr. Wang needs to attend. She asked me to bring your food." Bai Feng placed the tray on the side table. "How are you feeling?"

"Not bad. Just need some fresh air." Shen Yuan sat back down on the bed.

"Was it the first time for you to encounter a specter?"

"Yeah. I didn't even know what it was until Dr. Wang told me. She said it's invisible. How do you fight it, then?"

"If you wear silver on your body, they can't attack you." Bai Feng handed Shen Yuan a necklace. "Here. It's been a while since the last crevice, so we forgot to give you one. It should be safe for now, but there's no such thing as being too careful."

Shen Yuan didn't want to wear it now that he knew what those specters were, but not accepting it would be suspicious.

He was about to take it when Huo Yan whipped his paw and slapped it off Bai Feng's hand. It fell to the ground and bounced twice with crisp clinks before stopping under the window.

"He's not in his greatest mood after what happened. I'll wear it later." Shen Yuan rubbed Huo Yan's head in appeasement.

"No need to worry." Bai Feng wasn't upset. "Back to your incident, Dr. Wang told me you were locked in the chemistry room and your cat could call for her thanks to the broken window. Thankfully, she knew where the master key was. How did that happen?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes. If there's someone harboring ill-will among us, we must make an example out of them or kick them out entirely."

"What if I say it was your boss who locked me there?" Shen Yuan quirked an eyebrow. "Are you still going to 'make an example' out of him?"

"…"

"Thought so."

Bai Feng cleared his throat and shifted on his feet. "I'll…try to clarify things with him."

"Forget it. We both know there's nothing you can do." Shen Yuan dismissed the half-hearted offer. "If there's one thing you can do, is to teach me how to shoot. He plans to do it himself, but after what happened, I rather not be around him any more than necessary."

He didn't need the lesson, but he still needed to show that he was qualified to join the team. Now that he knew what those specters were, he had a plan.

Although they were invisible, Zhou Yi would know if there was a large amount of them. And Shen Yuan planned to gather all of them.

He had to get away from him.

"I suppose I can do that." Bai Feng sighed.

"Don't report this to him or else he'll interfere."

"He'll find out sooner or later."

"Then make it as late as possible."

"…I have to say this unreasonableness is a matching trait with Boss."

A corner of Shen Yuan's eye twitched, and he cast a smiling glare at Bai Feng. "Hm? Say that again?"

"I said I understand," Bai Feng corrected himself. "I'll free up an hour after lunchtime, but my plate is full today. We can only start tomorrow."

"Fine by me."

"We'll start at 1 PM. Meet me at the field. That's where we all train."

"Got it."

Bai Feng nodded and left. Stepping out of the infirmary, he closed the door behind him and turned to look at his boss leaning by the wall.

Zhou Yi straightened up and walked away.