Vol 12: Dust

The former site of Robert Tang Ning in the western suburbs of London.

The group rested and repaired their equipment here, conserving their energy and preparing for the next fierce battle.

A funeral bid farewell to the human doctor in the guise of a demon, and also to the vampire demon in human skin.

To elaborate, when the police received complaints about the fireworks disturbing the peace and were dumbfounded as they counted the corpses at the scene, Xiao Qi, posing as a concerned bystander, inquired with the officers about the social status of the bloodthirsty aristocrats—

--Among the Red Queen's followers they killed, Leon and Barbara held important positions in the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Commonwealth Affairs, and the Treasury Department, respectively. There were thirteen members of parliament who had jumped out of Downing Street alone.

--They killed 66 members of the Bloody Hand Brotherhood, six of whom were rising stars in the Britpop scene, signed long-term contracts with three record labels, and had 160,000 followers. Unfortunately, their Instagram accounts can no longer be updated. The lead singer and bassist were both drug dealers and drug users; one was a prominent opinion leader in Canada, and the other was a Breaking Bad influencer in the United States.

--They killed 149 Winter Fortress People. These vampire monsters have a secret society on the North Shore, colluding with the Red Queen to evade taxes. Using blood relatives as intermediaries, they provide the Red Queen with excellent middlemen, including corrupt lawyers, skilled assassins, sensationalist newspaper reporters, and young women who are ready to sell their bodies for their families, creating sex scandals to attack political enemies. Even their children are unusually fierce; if any member of parliament disobeys, they might be branded as pedophiles.

These cannibalistic demons deserved to die; killing them hundreds of times wouldn't be excessive.

But what happens after the killing?

What should we do?

Meteor sat on the living room sofa, having already removed her Flash Butterfly Armor costume, completely unsuspecting.

--This armor is too sharp; he doesn't want to scratch Tang Ning's furniture.

He asked Xue Ming, "Ming Ge, are we going to South Sea City next?"

Xue Ming was still maintaining the firearms. "Waiting for news."

Xiao Qi immediately asked, "Whose message are we waiting for?"

Xue Ming patiently explained, "Wait for tomorrow's newspaper, or tonight's news—these two hundred-plus people can't have died in vain, and the bullets we fired can't have been wasted."

The exhilaration of avenging his great enemy allowed Robert Tang Ning to quickly integrate into the group. He moved closer to Jiang Xueming, but then felt that it was too close and there was a sense of distance due to the traditional notion that men and women should not touch each other.

He shifted his position, moving a little further away, before he could feel the waiter '9527 gaze soften and become gentler. Finally, the waiter spoke up and asked Xue Ming.

"No waste! Mr. Xue Ming, we didn't waste a single bullet. How can you call it a waste?"

Jiang Xueming calmly and methodically laid out his entire strategy. Although he had already explained it to his teammates many times, Tang Ning was a newcomer, so he had to repeat himself again.

"I intended to kill all the vampires who came to the funeral in the cemetery."

Yes, we did it.

"Actually, my initial idea was to just clean up the fringes of Downing Street and kill the managers of the various underground gangs. That would be enough."

"And then what? What's the situation now?"

"I never expected your old butler Winston Spencer, to be able to invite so many nobles and aristocrats—do you understand what that means?"

"Not understand"

"Nobles refer to powerful figures who can mobilize one or two hundred people to work for them and risk their lives with just a word. 'Noble bloodlines' refer to young people of high bloodline who are not yet allowed to enter the core circle of the vampire clan."

"Oh"

"The vampires we killed were at least from the middle to upper levels of the vampire pyramid. Within a few hours, the news will spread throughout London and even the entire United Kingdom underworld."

"What happens?"

"This enormous power vacuum will smooth over all external conflicts." Jiang Xueming explained the natural laws of the clan system to Tang Ning very seriously, "Although these vampires seem to be immortal and have no concept of family, they still need a clan to maintain their social status and find an accurate social identity—who is the head of the family is very important to them."

Tang Ning fully understood this viewpoint.

He came from a military family; his uncle worked at the Coastal Defense Meteorological Bureau, his uncle's father had been a petty officer on the Dreadnought, and both his parents were graduates of military academies. Tang Ning himself was originally going to follow the path of military service; he had already obtained the qualifications of a carrier-based aircraft pilot and could fly planes. His life was originally a smooth road ahead. Without his family, Tang Ning would not have the skills he has today, nor the courage to fight vampires.

In a family, the most important person is the one who is in charge.

If these vampires lose their leaders or commanders, they will try every means to select new leaders through cruel and bloody rituals and fierce power struggles.

The power vacuum period that Mr. Jiang Xueming mentioned is the period when the vampires are most vulnerable and most frenzied.

The death of the more than two hundred vampires freed up at least fifty ecological niches for the various parishes.

Those who were originally subordinates or underlings would fight tooth and nail for these niches— Mary Stuart, for example, had long been preparing to inject new blood into the Red Queen Parish, slowly encroaching on this resource-rich [artificial blood pool].

Jiang Xueming's tone was icy. "I originally wanted to create chaos among these vampires, but now, this situation is very likely to escalate into a large-scale armed conflict."

Tang Ning asked doubtfully, "Isn't this good? Isn't it satisfying to watch these vampires fight like dogs?"

Jiang Xueming explained the cruelty of the adult world to the young man.

"There are many good aspects, and many bad aspects as well."

Tang Ning: "Then tell me slowly."

Meteor joined in, her expression serious. "I'd like to hear too."

The friends huddled together in a group--

Jiang Xueming opened his diary, and on the page was drawn Winston Spencer's gaunt face.

The brushstrokes are messy, sloppy, and unrestrained.

Xue Ming's female form made it difficult for her to hold a pencil properly and draw detailed portraits, but people could still recognize her face.

She bit the pen, her eyes darting around, her mind racing.

"Let me start with the bad news. I need Mr. Winston to prepare for this funeral, but now he's disappeared. Tang Ning, you've tried to contact him several times, calling and texting him, but there's been no response. He left without saying goodbye and has no intention of coming back—this is making me uneasy."

"I wouldn't believe that he was a coward, that after so many vampires died, he finally realized things were going badly and wanted to run away— Spencer must be hiding something from us. He's decided to do something, so he sneaked away."

Tang Ning immediately tensed up. "Uncle Winston won't be in danger, will he? He won't do anything stupid, will he?"

Jiang Xueming shook his head. "No, he's more shrewd and calculating than any of us. I've always wanted to learn from him, to learn the survival skills in this treacherous society, to learn how to have such a thick skin and such a ruthless heart—I think he's long been aware of this, so I trust him completely. Whatever he does, I support him."

Hearing Xue Ming say that, Tang Ning breathed a sigh of relief, then asked, "So what are you worried about?"

Jiang Xueming explained, "He seems to harbor a deep-seated resentment towards vampires, just like you, Tang Ning —I don't know where this hatred comes from. But judging from the seating list at the funeral, the fireworks, smoke bombs, flashbangs, mercury poison, and the C4 bombs in the vehicles—"

" --Winston Spencer should know this very well."

"Killing these vampires will throw London's underworld into chaos."

"This punch landed right on the vital parts of these old nobles, like a fuse that has already started to burn. When this bomb explodes, it will severely damage the vampires of London, and they may never dare to return to the human world again."

"He wanted to use us from the very beginning to accomplish this."

"We became the sharpest knife in his hand."

"I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but it's very different from my plans--"

At this point, Jiang Xueming explained to Liuxing and Xiao Qi in a low voice.

"--I just want to get my Steel Heart back. Whoever messes with me, I'll mess with them. If I encounter more trouble on this path, I'll take action to resolve it."

"Perhaps Mr. Winston has been living a miserable and suffocating life for the past twenty years, and he has too many unpleasant things on his mind, which he wants to resolve all at once through our help. I won't go into the details of the reasons behind it—but the fact that he disappears after finishing his work is really troubling me."

Tang Ning tried to defend the butler. "Perhaps he was captured by a vampire?"

Xue Ming nodded. "Possibly, then things would be even worse. We originally planned not to let any of them go alive, just to pin the blame on Mary Stuart. After all, only her Rose Sect broke their promise at Cheng Gui's funeral—now that Mr. Spencer has been captured, if he's as stubborn as the BOSS, it'll be fine; he won't implicate us all. But..."

Meteor pursed her lips, her face full of worry. "But what if he really confesses? Uncle Winston is a very brave man! He wouldn't easily betray his friends! These vampire monsters will definitely torture him severely! Defile him! I can't bear to think about it, I have to go find him right now!"

Xue Ming waved his hand, telling Liuxing to calm down.

"Back to the second bad thing--"

"--My original plan is no longer valid. Now I need to let go and make a big scene."

Xiao Qi squatted down next to Xue Ming, a curious child. "What were you originally planning to do? Infiltrate South Sea City and assassinate Mary Stuart?"

Xue Ming nodded. "That's right. The tragedy in the cemetery will make many vampires resent Our Blessed Mother. The small power vacuum won't completely dismantle these family-based vampire gangs, but we've personally sent vampire families away one by one, leaving them without heirs. Because of Mr. Winston's influence, these monsters have given us plenty of face, and most of them have brought their entire families to this desperate summer camp."

Xiao Qi frowned. "The situation is different now."

Xue Ming nodded.

"The person in charge of this funeral is Winston Spencer, the acknowledged Knight of the Doves of Downing Street; he's just a middleman. The underlings running errands and doing odd jobs in the various parishes are all busy beating up their rivals right now—they don't care about Mary at all."

"Perhaps Mary only needs to make a few contacts with newspapers around South Sea City, or go to nightclubs and bars in the bustling downtown area, like Kennington, a lowly place where vampires are exiled, to flirt with these marginalized people, spread rumors and gossip, and manipulate public opinion to guide the narrative. By doing so, she can immediately clear herself of suspicion. After all, she is the Blessed Mother —she can entirely attribute her escape from this assassination attempt to the good fortune bestowed upon her by the Madness Butterfly Holy Father."

"Perhaps the gladiators in the selection ceremony will also pledge their allegiance to Our Lady of Mary, if the high-ranking vampires at the funeral don't die—these lackeys will have to outlive Prince Charles if they want to rise to power."

"This is the second bad thing I mentioned. Our mission is to reclaim the Steel Heart and kill Mary Stuart —these are the two high-value objectives. Not to wipe out all the vampires in London or drive them back underground—that kind of work is too difficult for us. It would require long-term planning, almost on the order of years."

Tang Ning immediately said, "Is it possible that Uncle Winston did this on purpose?"

Xue Ming immediately replied, "He did it on purpose. Be confident, and eliminate the possibility."

Meteor clapped enthusiastically. "He did a great job!"

Xue Ming raised his hand and grabbed both of Liuxing's hands, his tone growing colder and colder.

"Now let's talk about the third bad thing--"

"--When gangs fight for territory and elect leaders, what do you think will happen?"

As soon as the question was asked, Meteor fell silent.

He had also heard that Hong Kong used to be known as the "Little Gotham of the East"—

--Young people who don't study hard and don't like reading probably want to go out and kill people or become gangsters in the future, and they even think it's chivalrous.

Just like the doctrines in the Madness Butterfly Bible, to join any gang, you must first pay homage to Guan Yu, drink blood wine and talk about brotherhood, and serve as the head of the Senate or the former head, working for these emperors.

Few people actually manage to kill the ringleader; usually, it's those who are successful in gambling, prostitution, and drugs who ultimately build their towers of power and wealth with human lives.

If a large-scale brawl were to break out, like in Kennington's four bar streets where there are over 800 households, the able-bodied young men in those families would be paid to take to the streets like mercenaries, working for the vampires and gathering information to kill people.

Perhaps before the attack, they were strangers, unaware of each other's identities or having never met before.

But once they receive the money, they become mercenaries in the dark world, doing the same thing mercenary groups around the world have done in Iran or Afghanistan—fighting a cold and ruthless proxy war.

It wasn't vampires that died; it was living people who died.

To say that vampires have so much money means they can buy so much fresh essence.

But where did the money come from?

Meteor thought of his family. His mother always said that the family was rich, but that was only because his ancestors were rich. It wasn't the result of hard work and labor, but rather the wealth accumulated over hundreds of years. According to his mother, by the time it came to A Xing's generation, he was already a prodigal son with no descendants.

Perhaps the vampire's parents, or their grandparents' parents, were very wealthy.

--Ah A Xing just thought about it, and simply thought about it for a long time.

Jiang Xueming asked and answered himself, explaining the third bad thing to Liuxing.

"The crime rate will skyrocket. I know the United Kingdom police, A Xing —they've been appeasing and yielding since World War II. Whenever they encounter armed criminals, they immediately turn into old aristocrats, saying 'Don't fight, don't fight,' but they can't wait to see the thugs fight to the death, and then claim the kills as their own achievement—immigrating to North America has taught them to kill innocent people and claim credit for it."

Then, she turned to the next page of the diary.

"The Commonwealth Police won't get involved. I could plant a bomb in front of MI6 headquarters and nobody would care. According to my investigation, their minimum salary is three thousand pounds a month, and their main income comes from corruption—that's why I asked the boss if we could just drop a nuclear bomb and level this place."

The next page of the logbook contains a topographical map of various districts in London, as well as a map showing the distribution of the vampires.

"I don't have that kind of ability. I didn't make this map. It was intelligence that Jason Megan gathered for me during his SAS training. That's the first good thing I want to tell you."

Meteor immediately took out his phone, snapped a picture, and saved it, becoming more alert.

"Ming Ge! Are we splitting up?"

Jiang Xueming held up the logbook and had everyone take a picture of this crucial intelligence.

"Given Mr. Spencer's approach, we really need to split up— 9527 and I will go to South Sea City to settle accounts with Mary."

She pointed to the shooting star and 3301.

"You two go to the city center, stake out the Christmas Cheese Pub. It's a landmark rebuilt after the Great Fire of London, perfect for dates. It's a historic and bustling street. The Red Queen Parish's underlings can earn over £40,000 a month just from collecting management fees or getting tips from the doormen parking. In the eyes of the Bloody Hand Brotherhood of the Red Queen, it's all lucrative territory. If any young people who've had too much to drink or are on drugs desperately borrow money from the vampires at exorbitant interest rates and end up in this street brawl, working for the vampires—that'll be your turn."

3301's eyes lit up. "I can do it! I can do it!"

Meteor immediately set off to change her clothes.

Jiang Xueming asked Earth Dragon little girl, "Can you shoot?"

Anna nodded vigorously. "I'm very dexterous! I can shoot!"

Jiang Xueming caught the meteor and gave the two G26s to Anna.

"It's up to you. I've spoken with a few bus drivers. You're now the school children's ambassador from Greenwich to Hafling. You can show yourself in this suit directly. I want these five drivers to take you to all the schools and around the residential buildings near the school districts. If you see people gathering in the streets after 10 a. m., discussing vandalism and looting, stop them."

Anna asked innocently, "Can I eat people?"

Jiang Xueming: "I have a book here called <Brain Injury>, and another book here called <The Complete Cooking Guide of Baiweifang> from Mimir Hot Spring. Which one do you want?"

Anna immediately fell silent, and her smile turned awkward.

"Never mind, I didn't ask."

Jiang Xueming was giving Tang Ning instructions on the simplest, most boring, yet also the most exciting and complex task.

"Robert Tang Ning, I've been talking to the brothers about tactical things, but there's one thing only you can do, and that's the only thing."

Tang Ning immediately sat up straight, completely composed.

Jiang Xueming patted Robert Tang Ning on the shoulder, handed over the combat master, and took Tang Ning's double-barreled shotgun.

"This gun is great for dealing with monsters, but it's not enough for self-defense—you're still young, and I won't ask you to kill monsters. So I'm giving you the Combat Master; it's well-designed and extremely useful in close-quarters combat."

Tang Ning gripped the dragon scale handle of the COMBAT MASTER. This weapon required almost no learning; anyone could understand how to use it. The nine-millimeter silver bullets could kill both humans and cannibalistic demons.

Jiang Xueming continued—

"--You have three days, only three days. During this time, I will arrange for people from the newspaper to contact you. They are all connected to my teacher, Victor. You must keep a close eye on the contents of these publications and find out exactly who is doing the dirty work for Mary. You must not let Mary get away with this. Keep her busy, preferably extremely busy."

Tang Ning's expression was complicated, and her heart was racing. "Anything else?"

Jiang Xueming continued, "Private investigators will be following you. You need to learn Mr. Winston's counter-investigation techniques. These people are likely Mary's informants. Kill them."

Tang Ning gritted her teeth. "I absolutely can do it! Anything else?"

Jiang Xueming brought up the last thing. "Can you get your hands on an airplane for agricultural irrigation?"

Without hesitation, Tang Ning replied, "Okay!"

Jiang Xueming: "Can we apply for an airway from air traffic control?"

Tang Ning hesitated for a moment, then said, "I can!"

Jiang Xueming: "Tell me the truth, whether you can or can't. If you can't do it, don't force yourself."

Tang Ning shook her head and pressed for more information.

What do you need a plane for?

In his logbook, Jiang Xueming used a pencil to draw an inverted pentagram on a map of London—the inverted pentagram emblem on the tickets issued by the Abyssal Railway, which could cover the entire city of London.

"Fly along this route, landing at each node to refuel and replenish silver iodide, then fly up into the clouds to let the silver iodide catalyst work as an artificial rainmaking agent."

Tang Ning asked, puzzled, "The rain is getting heavier. Is it to make it easier for you to move around?"

"Not only that, the rain washes away the smell of blood from us, the sound of the rain can mask the noise of our movements, a downpour can lock ordinary people in their homes, dull knives, and the cold brittleness of metal can make murder weapons vulnerable—and occasionally even cause bullet primers to malfunction." Jiang Xueming turned his head and looked at the thick clouds in the dark night sky outside the window. "Without a downpour, cumulonimbus clouds cannot dissipate, and such a sky will never clear up— Winston Spencer probably thought so too, if these vampires aren't allowed to bask in the sun, they won't know pain."

Tang Ning became more and more excited as she listened, and more and more disappointed as she listened.

"I can't apply for a flight path, especially not such a simple and crude private one. There are too many planes over London! It's an international Dadu! There are passenger planes circling and waiting to land all the time. Even if my family and I begged them to plead with air traffic control, it's impossible to do this—Mr. Jiang Xueming, I'm sorry."

Jiang Xueming pondered for a moment, then said, "It's alright, if we can't do it, we'll think of other ways. I just had this idea on a whim, and since you can fly planes, I immediately asked you to use weather weapons to deal with the upcoming troubles—it was asking too much of you."

Tang Ning plopped down on the living room floor and began to grit her teeth in deep thought.

In just a few dozen seconds, he immediately came up with a new idea.

"I've got an idea! Mr. Jiang Xueming! I've got an idea!"

Jiang Xueming immediately stood up, hugged each of her friends, and prepared to change into her Flash Butterfly Armor costume.

"No need to tell me--"

She pulled Tang Ning and hugged him tightly.

"--Just do it."

For a moment, Tang Ning's eyes glazed over, her lips pursed, looking utterly aggrieved.

He wasn't sure if the naive ideas in his head could actually come true.

But this stranger, whom he had only known for less than 72 hours, had already entrusted his life to his own hands.

To make this sky rain, to make it clear, is such a difficult task for him alone.

Jiang Xueming patted Tang Ning on the shoulder.

"I believe you, just as I believe Mr. Winston. In the few dozen hours I've spent with you, you've said very little, but done so much. Your pyroxene is black, very similar to my Steel Jade —I won't waste any more words, I await your thunder."

Tang Ning nodded vigorously, tears welling in her eyes.

Jiang Xueming: "In my homeland, Mr. Lu Xun once said, 'When I become dust, you will see my smile.' -- If you ask me, Masha is still alive. She went to the sea, but hasn't had time to turn into rain yet. Because of this damned late spring cold snap, she hasn't had time to return to your side. You can't keep waiting for her, you can't keep waiting for her. You have to take the initiative, you must take the initiative to find this Cinderella. Silver iodide is her glass slipper!"

Tang Ning simply nodded, unable to speak.

Jiang Xueming gritted his teeth, his eyes burning with an almost aggressive intensity. "These vampires can snap flower buds and blades of grass, but they can never kill spring."

Tang Ning gripped Jiang Xueming's shoulders tightly, clutching the long robe on his shoulder.

Jiang Xueming snapped his fingers, his words concise and to the point. "Let's go."

Meteor immediately followed, its two warm hands supporting Tang Ning's chin.

"They're gone! Weathering With You!"

Anna, who was standing nearby, almost couldn't hold back her laughter when she heard this overly anime-inspired nickname.

3301 poked Xiao Qi's armpit. "Your employer is at it again? Again and again?"

Xiao Qi was used to it. "She never stopped."