The Doctor’s Game and Xiu Lan’s Fury

“Should we retreat?”

Familiar words echoed in his ears, and only then did Yao Jing confirm his return to this world.

This was the moment when he and Wu Liyun had been tricked by The Doctor into waiting out in the cold at their destination. Last time, he had chosen to wait; this time, would he leave early, or…

“Just a little longer.”

After a moment’s thought, Yao Jing opted to continue waiting, not for news from The Doctor, but for the ultimate outcome.

The black rain that had descended at the end of the previous round had left him deeply unsettled; rather than painstakingly dissecting the event to deduce its full scope, he preferred to simply observe the answer at the story’s conclusion.

Under the night sky, the two men remained silent.

“Brother Yao.”

Wu Liyun broke the silence, his face etched with a hint of unease as he rambled on:

“What do you think will become of me? You know I’m also a Bloodkin. But unlike the others, my standing among them is quite marginal, which is why they dispatched me to deliver medicine.”

“I don’t know what The Doctor’s plan truly is, but it’s bound to fail. Beyond the Supervisory Bureau, there’s the Outer Realm Alliance, and after that, the Association. His plan never stood a chance from the very beginning.”

“So, you betrayed them?”

“Haha, this isn’t betrayal; it’s called adapting to circumstances.”

Wu Liyun chuckled, “When the Supervisory Bureau throws me in prison, Brother Yao, you absolutely must remember to bail me out.”

Yao Jing offered a small smile, offering no reply, and the two continued to await the unfolding of events.

“Boom!”

The sky shattered as if on cue, and the city in the heavens plummeted earthward like a meteor shower, transforming the tranquil night once more into a living hell.

“Brother Yao!”

Seated in the driver’s seat, Wu Liyun called out to Yao Jing, who remained standing rooted to the spot, “Let’s go!”

“No, I still have something to attend to here. You go on ahead.”

Uttering words that went against his true feelings, Yao Jing despised this version of himself. Time reversal brought not only changes to the future but also a chilling disregard for life itself.

Now, living human lives were merely a string of numbers in his eyes, meant to achieve a certain objective.

‘As long as the outcome is good, that’s all that matters,’ he told himself.

“Alright then… I’ll head over and take a look. Brother Yao, come join me once you’re done with your business.”

“Remember to stay in touch.”

Wu Liyun, bewildered, departed for the disaster zone. Yao Jing’s refusal to participate in the rescue, choosing instead to stubbornly confront The Doctor here, left him utterly perplexed, completely at odds with the image he usually projected.

‘…….’

After watching Wu Liyun leave, the once quiet streets grew loud and chaotic due to the falling debris. Wailing cries erupted intermittently, while car horns blared in a ceaseless chorus, as vehicles streamed towards the disaster area.

Yao Jing strolled leisurely down the road, hands tucked into his pockets, a stark contrast to the frantic crowd. From his earpiece came Wu Liyun’s shouts, assisting in the rescue efforts.

“Brother Yao, this is utterly horrific, the entire building… uh… I… you…”

The communication abruptly cut off. Yao Jing touched his earpiece, noting that Wu Liyun had died even faster this time. Was there something about Wu Liyun that attracted that entity?

Was it because he was Bloodkin?

If it was because of the Bloodkin, then this area would also come under attack next. Was it also due to the Bloodkin?

Was The Doctor Bloodkin?

Yao Jing pondered.

Though it felt somewhat morbid, the time of Old Wu’s death could still be used to infer when that terrifying entity would arrive here.

After another period passed, the ground began to tremble violently.

‘It’s here.’

Yao Jing braced himself and ran towards the epicenter, which was likely the hiding place of the mastermind behind this incident.

“Drip-drop, drip-drop.”

‘It’s actually… so far…’

Yao Jing ran along the road, the epicenter proving to be much farther from his location than he had anticipated.

Before he realized it, black rain began to fall once more from the sky. Pedestrians struck by the droplets vanished into nothingness amidst their screams, and several floors of towering buildings were erased in mere moments.

Witnessing the surrounding tragedy, Yao Jing knew this iteration of the time reversal had concluded.

He noted the location he had reached this time.

“Until next time.”

Immediately afterward, he was swallowed by the black rainwater.

****

For the third time, he drove directly to the vicinity of his previous endpoint, ignoring Wu Liyun’s cries of [“Wrong destination, The Doctor’s agreed-upon location isn’t here”] and forcibly preventing him from participating in the disaster relief, attempting to catch a glimpse of that entity through Old Wu.

Then, before either of them even saw a single person, they were instantly killed by an unknown force. He had initially thought Wu Liyun was too weak, but it turned out the disparity with the enemy was simply too vast.

‘Again!’

Yao Jing once more stepped into the torrent of time from the realm of [Time].

This was the fourth time.

Last time, he and Wu Liyun had been instantly killed before even meeting anyone. To conserve his remaining attempts, he decided to sacrifice Old Wu once more. From Yao Jing’s perspective, watching him drive towards the disaster area again evoked a sense of ‘the wind whistles, the Yi River is cold’ (TL Note: A classical Chinese poetic line often used to describe a somber, determined departure into a dangerous situation).

Fortunately, this time he finally achieved a portion of his objective.

The heavy black rain poured relentlessly, dissolving humans and buildings alike as if they were melting snow. Only a dilapidated bar, remarkably, remained largely intact, an anomaly amidst the destruction.

This was the epicenter of the earthquake.

Yao Jing stepped into the bar, where shattered tables and chairs lay scattered everywhere, and fragments of metal glinted on the floor.

‘Is this… a head?’

He picked up a spherical ‘object,’ and upon turning it over, discovered bloodied human features on one side.

‘How ruthless.’

He thought, setting the head down before proceeding to investigate further.

“Drip.”

By now, a drop of black rain had pierced the eaves, falling onto the ground.

‘Found it…’

In a corner of the bar, beneath an overturned table, lay a face-down desiccated corpse. Yao Jing turned the body over, revealing a person wearing a mask.

‘Is this The Doctor?’

Recalling Wu Liyun’s description of The Doctor, Yao Jing’s expression instead darkened. If The Doctor had died here, did that mean he wasn’t the mastermind?

He grabbed the mask and ripped it off forcefully, only to reveal a face devoid of skin, a bloody, mangled mess.

The mask had been practically fused to this person’s face.

Though regretful, it seemed he had lost the chance to learn The Doctor’s true identity this time.

Flinging the mask away, Yao Jing lay sprawled on the bar floor, listening to the sound of the black rain piercing the eaves, and a long-absent smile graced his lips:

“Well then, surely we’ll meet face-to-face next time, Doctor.”

****

“Who else dares?!”

Clad in a black overcoat, her foot resting on a monster’s corpse, Xiu Lan surveyed the shadowy vampires lurking within various buildings, exuding an aura of invincible dominance.

‘This idiot.’

Robin clutched her head, a throbbing headache blooming. While she had already sensed Xiu Lan’s eccentricity and unreliability, to be so utterly absurd made Robin genuinely wonder if there was something wrong with her mind.

‘I really want to peel back this person’s clothes and see what’s underneath, hoping it’s not the one I’m thinking of.’

Just moments ago, when they had been caught in the vampires’ encirclement, Xiu Lan had suddenly conceived a plan:

[Since vampires are attracted to the blood of Changelings and their own kind, couldn’t I use my own blood to gather them all and slaughter them?]

Before her two teammates could even protest, Xiu Lan had already cut herself with shadow.

It was the first time Robin had seen her hand—small and delicate.

However, this was no time for such thoughts. The moment Xiu Lan’s drop of red blood hit the ground, Robin felt the entire area fall silent for a beat. Immediately afterward, the empty buildings lit up one after another with crimson beacons.

It was the most terrifying sight she had ever witnessed: streets teeming with vampires of every conceivable form, their eyes burning with a hunger and madness that made her feel as though she would be torn limb from limb at any second.

“Uh-oh… it seems my plan worked.”

In an unsure tone, Xiu Lan scooped up Robin, then, with a casual punch, knocked out the werewolf, who had also entered a bloodthirsty state. Dragging him along, she began to charge forward like a ‘train king’ (TL Note: A term from a video game, ‘Leeroy Jenkins,’ referring to a player who rushes headlong into danger, often with disastrous but sometimes comically effective results).

But after running only a short distance, she suddenly remembered something:

“If I can beat them, why am I running?!”

With that, she halted, shielded Robin behind her, her foot firmly planted on the restless werewolf, and launched into a furious, unstoppable assault against the oncoming horde of vampires.

‘Why didn’t she do this earlier?!’ Robin roared internally.

“I thought it was just a little mouse, but it turns out a great tyrannosaur has snuck in.”

With an exaggerated metaphor, a mature female voice drifted down from the sky. Unbeknownst to them, a lavish palace had descended from the heavens to hover mid-air, and a golden-haired Bloodkin sat upon its throne, sipping elegantly from a goblet of blood-wine beneath a parasol.

“That person is…”

“Looks like the boss has arrived.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, a sword of shadow materialized before Xiu Lan’s right hand. Then, with a powerful leap, she surged upwards, cleaving towards Irina within the palace.