Akashic Records

With the background music and Pearl's screams drowning them out, there was little chance anyone could eavesdrop on Wei Xiuming and Nick Fury's conversation. They took the opportunity to exchange information.

"I've arranged a new identity for you. You'll be a project director in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s central laboratory, responsible for upgrading and modifying large-scale equipment, as well as developing new projects. That way, you can legally access certain S.H.I.E.L.D. secrets," Nick Fury said. "I've classified your new identity as Level Ten clearance. Very few people are authorized to view it, and most of the records about you are false."

Black Eggplant wasn't being kind for no reason, of course. A secret warehouse designated 084 held a large collection of unknown objects, including living creatures and incomprehensible technological creations. The 084 inventory had been established back when S.H.I.E.L.D.'s predecessor, the Strategic Scientific Corps, was still around. Decades of worldwide collecting had amassed a vast and varied stockpile, and even Nick Fury couldn't remember exactly how many kinds of objects it contained. Officially, they had all been sent into the sun aboard a spaceship to be destroyed, but he had secretly kept them hidden.

Wei Xiuming's new position was to study the 084 objects and extract anything useful from them to expand S.H.I.E.L.D.'s technological reserves. Even research into the Space Stone and its weaponization could be entrusted to him.

It was almost laughable. The position should have gone to someone already inside S.H.I.E.L.D., but Coulson's warning from a parallel world had made Nick Fury distrustful of so-called "insiders." By contrast, Wei Xiuming, a mysterious stranger with an unknown past, seemed trustworthy.

Wei Xiuming looked at Black Eggplant suspiciously. "You're not expecting me to work for free, are you?"

"The position comes with its proper salary, paid on time. There's a dedicated fund to cover your health insurance, Social Security, and unemployment insurance. You'll also receive half the patent royalties for anything you develop."

By the time the drug's active ingredients wore off, Pearl finally had a chance to catch his breath. The pain had made him faint several times, only for him to wake again in agony. Sweat dripped from him and pooled on the ground; he had probably lost ten or fifteen pounds from dehydration.

There was no need to keep torturing him. Already on the verge of collapse, Pearl answered questions before they were even asked, spilling every bit of information he had. The dossier compiled from his answers left Nick Fury's scalp tingling.

First, he was stunned by the vampires' wealth. Daikan Fiss was merely a high-ranking member of the non-pureblood Blood Clan, yet the cash, stocks, patents, real estate, and other assets under his name, converted to U.S. dollars, were enough to dwarf the fortunes of everyone on the rich list.

Beyond Daikan Fiss, there were the pureblood Thirteen Elders, younger power players like Victor, and ancient Blood Clan factions independent of the Thirteen Elders. The wealth these groups had accumulated over centuries was no less formidable than Fiss's, whose foundations were relatively shallow.

This was a tempting, enormous pie. Even if several families joined forces to divide it, each would still get more than enough to eat, with some to take home.

Second was the contents of the Book of the Blood God. Knowing that magic-related things were rarely any good, Wei Xiuming hadn't asked Pearl to explain the specifics. Instead, he'd had him describe the general process.

Setting aside the requirement for thirteen pureblood vampires and a human-vampire hybrid, as well as the complex ritual that took a long time to prepare, the real problem wasn't the power of the Blood God gained afterward, or how formidable it might be in battle. It was the terrifying power of infection it brought with it.

Until now, vampires had infected humans in only one way: by biting them, sucking their blood, and injecting them with a toxin. The transformation was excruciating. But after gaining the power of Blood God Madola, vampires infected humans with a virus instead. They didn't even need to get close; the virus could spread through carriers acting as intermediate hosts, making it more contagious than seasonal flu.

Humans had been able to coexist with vampires partly because vampires looked so human that there was no reliable way to identify them. The rest came down to deals involving money and power, and collusion with the human elite.

Those human elites weren't fools. They had their own considerations, and they would never let their children or relatives fall prey to vampires. As for the wretched masses at the bottom, no matter how many died, they were just numbers.

All they had to do was sign a so-called peace treaty that supposedly restrained the vampires. In return, they received a huge sum of money every year without lifting a finger. What was there not to like?

They could even have the Blood Clan handle some of their dirtiest, most secret work, without getting themselves involved.

Even if the vampires wanted to grow too powerful, that would be easy enough to deal with.

Silver, ultraviolet light, and garlic all countered vampires. Even brief exposure to ultraviolet light could leave large areas of their bodies badly burned. Silver weapons were worse still: a wound that might require only a few stitches for a human could be a devastating blow to a vampire—or even kill one outright with a shot to the head.

These countermeasures were all extremely cheap. A small portion of the money vampires paid in tribute every year could arm a large number of people. Even large-scale disinfection with garlic juice wasn't out of the question.

But if the Blood Clan succeeded in carrying out the ritual, the situation would become completely uncontrollable. A widespread infection was no joke. Even if you were a country's president, you'd still catch the virus after coming into contact with an infected person.

Especially after Pearl revealed another bombshell, Nick Fury nearly scratched his bald head. After translating the Book of the Blood God, he had sent it to several high-ranking Blood Clan members, as Fiss had instructed. He didn't even know the identities those vampire leaders used in public.

Even if they killed Fiss now, other vampires would still carry out the ritual. Preparing it was complicated, but with modern productivity, it would take no more than a month.

"Do you have a way to solve this quickly?" Seeing how calm Wei Xiuming was, Nick Fury guessed he already had a plan.

Wei Xiuming said, "Remember the Earth's memory I told you about—the Akashic Records? We'll need to draw on its power this time."

Nick Fury had looked into it before. The Akashic Records were described in traditional philosophy as a nonphysical existence: a universal archive documenting every thought and action at every moment, containing everything since the universe began.

But could something so grandiose really be mastered by humans?

Wei Xiuming explained, "The Akashic Protocol is just a placeholder name. I can't reveal its real name yet. It uses big data and specific algorithms to analyze everyone's experiences and thoughts, then predict the future with precision. It can even judge criminals for actions they haven't committed yet, eliminating every destabilizing element that challenges order. Mine is a watered-down version. As long as we have the right hardware, we can use it to identify every vampire in a short time, then track them down and kill them all."