Luck in Misfortune

At dusk, a vast bank of dark clouds drifted in from beyond Sisk Harbor, blotting out the setting sun. The sky went dark in an instant.

Then, amid fierce winds and thunder, rain drenched all of South Los.

Fat raindrops battered the windows of 333 Russell Street. Before they could splash apart, they gathered into streams, quickly spilling over the frames and down the second-floor walls. They rushed over the sloping roof of the ground floor, half pouring off the eaves onto the ground, half dripping through gaps in the roof into the hall, striking that scarlet pool.

The rain diluted the blood. Before the ripples could fade, a palm slapped down into them, shattering the pooled water.

Bracing one hand against the floor, Mo Qishang shakily climbed to his feet.

Free of his hand's interference, the falling rain quickly pooled again. Mingled with blood, it became a red mirror reflecting Mo Qishang in his brown vest and white shirt.

Mo Qishang stared blankly at the still-youthful face in the scarlet reflection.

The scarlet distorted its youth.

Made it sinister.

His brow furrowed slightly, and Mo Qishang instinctively tried to move away. But the moment he moved, unbearable pain shot through the back of his head.

Hiss!

Mo Qishang sucked in a sharp breath, then his eyes focused.

He remembered what had happened before.

Was I hit by a dump truck?

I only wanted to grab some fries at the docks!

Mo Qishang murmured inwardly.

Suddenly!

His expression jolted.

Because-

I didn't... delete my phone's browsing history!

Realizing that he had dragged half his body more than ten meters without accomplishing the most important task, Mo Qishang's muscles instantly tensed. His ten toes, especially, gripped the soles of his shoes for dear life.

It was an instinctive reaction to the utter humiliation of social death.

But a moment later, Mo Qishang had no attention left to spare for that.

An even fiercer pain struck, making his eyes fly wide. Along with it, a flood of memories was forcibly crammed into his brain-

"Hiss!"

I am Arthur Credos. My parents died when I was little, and my grandfather, Old Charlie, raised me. I also have two uncles and an aunt.

Uncle Winters, the favored heir to the family business, disappeared three years ago on family business.

Uncle Drake sent a letter six months ago saying he had become a "squire" in Woodlaisburg up north.

Grandfather sent Aunt Cassandra to a girls' school in the Inner Bay a year ago.

I, Arthur Credos, should be the sole heir to the family business, but Grandfather doesn't want that. He wants me to have a better life, like Aunt Cassandra.

But that isn't what I want. I want to inherit the family business and become an outstanding "medium"!

So, while Grandfather went to Barney to complete a commission, I accepted an assignment to exorcise an evil spirit on my own...

The memories of "Arthur Credos" flashed through his mind like a black-and-white film.

Mo Qishang could not help frowning.

He did not mind living here under Arthur Credos's identity, nor did he mind that the Creados family business involved working as mediums.

He would not even mind if it was nothing but fraud.

What bothered him was the man before him: a middle-aged man with regular features and a neatly trimmed mustache, dressed in the suit jacket, vest, white shirt, and trousers that had only just come into fashion in the Inner Bay this year.

He was Arthur Credos's client for this assignment.

He was also the man who had clubbed him down the moment he entered.

There was no doubt that the man was dressed respectably. Combined with his regular features, it made him easy to like.

Arthur Credos had been deceived by his appearance and clothes, and had not been on guard at all.

And the man?

He had not held back in the slightest. He had meant to kill-with that blow, Mo Qishang had distinctly heard the back of "his" skull crack.

Arthur Credos had died from that blow.

He, Mo Qishang, had come back to life in Arthur Credos's body.

He had now become Arthur Credos.

At that moment, the man was positively delighted to see him awake-

"You really do possess a special bloodline! You haven't truly awakened it yet, but could anything be better for me?

"I thought the claims were exaggerated. I only meant to give it a try!

"But I never imagined they were true!

"The Creados bloodline really is that miraculous!

"I'm so lucky!"

Watching the beaming man before him, Arthur, who had already slipped into his predecessor's role, really wanted to explain that this miraculous bloodline was merely a story "his grandfather," Old Charlie, had invented to drum up business. The Creados family possessed no miraculous bloodline. They were ordinary people.

As for "his" repeated public declarations that he had perfectly inherited the "medium bloodline"?

That was only a teenager rebelling against being told to study hard.

But in the end, Arthur Credos said nothing.

Even if he explained, it would not change the man's decision.

He was already completely at the man's mercy.

But he really was an innocent victim, forced to pay for the vanity and competitiveness of his rebellious teenage predecessor by fighting a madman to the death!

To Arthur, this man who could not stop talking about bloodlines and miracles was plainly insane.

Grumbling inwardly, Arthur discreetly reached toward his boot.

There was a dagger inside.

Facing a madman bare-handed was nowhere near as sensible as choosing a handy weapon.

But just as Arthur's fingers touched the dagger, the man abruptly raised a hand.

Whoosh!

A sturdy hemp rope shot out of the shadows, moving as nimbly as a snake. It bound Arthur's hands and feet behind him, bending him backward into an acutely humiliating arch.

Arthur was left hanging upside down from a roof beam, but he had no attention to spare for that. His eyes were filled with shock and uncertainty.

What is this?

Magic? Superpowers?

Arthur was inwardly stunned.

He had thought the man was crazy, but now... perhaps he was not!

Do these bloodlines really exist?

Arthur speculated, but he felt increasingly uneasy.

In the memories he had just seen, his predecessor, the "heir to a medium," had firmly believed that supernatural things existed in this world. But he had never seen any, even after going to great lengths to search for them.

At most, he had encountered two third-rate swindlers whose skills fell far short of the Creados family's.

Yet now, the supernatural had appeared right before him.

His predecessor had sought it in vain, while he had stumbled across it.

But this did not make the present Arthur happy. Instead, alarm bells rang in his mind.

In his experience, anything that defied the norm was hardly a good sign.

Especially since the man had already attacked his predecessor!

Indeed, the very next moment brought a sight that made Arthur's scalp crawl, one he would never forget-

Before his eyes, the ordinary-looking man suddenly raised both hands and grabbed the hair at the back of his head. Then he tore hard.

Riiip!

With a sound like ripping cloth, blood flew everywhere. As though taking off his clothes, the man stripped away his skin, along with the flesh attached to it.

He casually tossed the intact, flesh-smeared human skin at his feet. His flayed body showed no sign of pain as he dipped his fingers into his own blood and began drawing on the floor.

The sight left Arthur feeling suffocated, his body going rigid.

"This is a Magic Array! It's for exchanging your bloodline!"

"Why yours, rather than your grandfather's?

"Compared with that crafty old fox, you're much more naive!

"Look, all I did was pose as a client, and you walked right into the trap!"

The man's words were indistinct, like a snake's hiss. In Arthur's ears, his voice seemed to drift near and far, even though he stood directly before him.

An intense urge to vomit immediately rose within him.

The nausea made everything before Arthur's eyes blur. Dazed, he watched the man work with both hands, drawing the Magic Array with his left while his right placed black and white candles along the boundary lines of the ritual.

Then everything in his vision twisted.

By the time Arthur's sight gradually cleared, the supposed Magic Array was complete. It formed a figure eight, with six black and white candles arranged opposite one another in their respective loops, already lit.

As the candle flames flickered, the flesh clinging to the man's body and the human skin at his feet "flowed" into the Magic Array like water.

At last, the man revealed his true appearance-

His face was long, narrow, and deathly pale. Not a single hair grew on his head, and a black venomous snake was tattooed across his scalp.

The snake's mouth gaped, baring fangs and a scarlet tongue. The mere sight of it made the heart clench.

But the most horrifying thing was his nose!

Or rather, he had no nose at all. Where it should have been, only two black holes remained!

The man did not care in the slightest that Arthur was staring. Instead, he stepped closer.

Those two black holes of nostrils immediately came right up to Arthur's face, making him instinctively crane his neck away. Arthur wanted to escape them, and this was as far as his bonds would allow him to move.

But the man immediately grabbed his hair and dragged him back. Worse still, he leaned even closer. The warm breath from his nostrils raised goosebumps along Arthur's neck.

He seemed to be sniffing for something on Arthur.

Disgusting. Pervert.

Arthur struggled even harder.

If he could break free, Arthur swore he would not just punch the man. He would stomp on him a couple of times, too-at the very least, he would crush that nauseating face.

"Heh, heh, heh."

A low, hoarse chuckle squeezed out of the man's throat. He looked at Arthur as though admiring a priceless treasure in someone else's hands.

With greed and malice.

Arthur could clearly see a burning intensity rising in the man's murky eyes.

It was so intense that Arthur's own eyes stung.

Instinctively, Arthur tried to turn away again.

But the man immediately raised his other hand and clamped Arthur's jaw in place, leaving him unable to evade that gaze.

In mere seconds, tears streamed uncontrollably from Arthur's eyes.

After another low, hoarse chuckle, the man released him in satisfaction, leaving Arthur swinging from the roof beam.

"The dark snake bloodline I plundered is already quite good. But compared with the Creados bloodline, which legends say can practically bring the dead back to life, it's nothing!"

Certain of his victory, the man concealed nothing. The strange heat in his eyes as he stared at Arthur gradually seemed almost tangible.

Arthur froze.

He said exchange!

And he already has a plundered bloodline: the dark snake bloodline.

Now he wants to exchange it for a bloodline I don't even have.

What would happen, then?

I'd get the dark snake bloodline, and he'd get nothing.

At the thought of that outcome, Arthur gave the man a rather strange look.

If not for his current position, and his uncertainty over whether this exchange would endanger him, he would genuinely have thanked the man.

But that strange look clearly gave the man the wrong impression.

"You've noticed something different?

"You haven't truly awakened yet, but you already have intuition beyond that of ordinary people. That means your bloodline has not only powerful regenerative abilities, but considerable [Spirituality] as well!

"I'm growing more and more eager to discover exactly what your bloodline is!"

As he spoke, the man walked around the Magic Array. His steps were steady, carrying a particular rhythm that looked to Arthur like some kind of dance.

And he moved faster and faster.

When he reached a certain peak, the hemp rope binding Arthur and suspending him suddenly shook, jolting him down from the beam. Before Arthur could struggle, it changed its arrangement, forcing his hands straight forward, palms down.

Then the man raised a finger, and its long, narrow nail swept across Arthur's palms.

Blood immediately welled up.

Seizing Arthur's hands, the man pressed them against one side of the Magic Array, the side with the white candles.

A sucking sensation rose in his palms.

Whoosh!

The flames, which had been flickering no larger than soybeans, instantly shot more than a foot high.

Arthur could clearly feel his blood draining away without cease. He struggled with all his strength, but it was useless.

The rope was far stronger than he had imagined.

And the Magic Array drank his blood far faster than he had imagined.

Within mere seconds, Arthur began to feel dizzy.

Then came...

A shudder beneath a bone-deep chill!

The same shudder he had felt before the dump truck hit him!

It was the breath of death!

Instinctively, Arthur began struggling again.

Watching Arthur struggle, the man was not annoyed. Instead, he nodded in apparent approval.

"Such tenacious willpower and vitality!

Nothing could be better!

The longer you hold out, the better the exchange will work!"

Watching Arthur struggle ever more violently, the other person laughed again, then raised a hand and set a conical flask filled with pale silver liquid where Arthur could see it, but outside the Magic Array.

They had prepared it with meticulous care. It was the very heart of this plan!

Pointing at the flask, they said with a smug expression-

"This is the key to my plan!

Something I went to extraordinary lengths to acquire!

The [Herc White Silver Potion]!

The legendary [Herc White Silver Potion]!

Anyone who drinks it can perfectly awaken their innate talent, but its effects on those who are already Gifted are uncertain. It might enhance their existing talent, or it might awaken a new one.

That's why you, with a talent that has yet to awaken, are absolutely perfect for me!

Once the bloodline exchange is complete, your bloodline will be mine!"

As they spoke, they uncorked the [Herc White Silver Potion] and held it an inch from Arthur's face.

A rich fragrance immediately filled Arthur's nostrils.

What was that scent?

It smelled like meat, yet also like the fragrance of earth after rain, with a hint of the sweetness unique to tea leaves.

Arthur could not describe exactly what it was.

He only knew that it smelled wonderful, and he wanted a taste.

Even bound and half-conscious, Arthur could not help opening his mouth and sticking out his tongue, but the other person immediately pulled the [Herc White Silver Potion] away.

They laughed cruelly as they replaced the stopper.

"It's mine!"

They proclaimed it loudly. The effort of producing that sound even twisted their entire pale face in a peculiar way: their forehead and chin trembled rapidly in opposite directions, so fast that Arthur saw afterimages.

After saying this, they spoke no more. Instead, they sliced open their left palm with a finger of their right hand and pressed it hard against the other side of the Magic Array.

Whoosh!

The flames on the three black candles on that side surged upward in unison.

As all six black and white candles began spewing flames, the entire Magic Array lit up. A faint glow circulated ceaselessly through the figure-eight Magic Array, moving faster and faster.

A breath later, faint, unusual colors began to appear in the circulating light.

Arthur could clearly feel the flesh and blood being drawn from his body even faster, while greater quantities of powerful, icy-cold flesh and blood poured into him.

And the shivering brought on by that bone-deep chill vanished!

Death gradually receded!

In its place came...

Comfort!