Chapter 11: The Wuyou House Office

“Hey! Big Sis! Didn’t you say you wouldn’t let me die? Cough… But I feel like I’m about to kick the bucket.”

“But you look quite comfortable lying there,” Ye Ying teased me from beside my feet.

“I’m bleeding myself dry,” I said weakly from the ground.

“Got it. Save your breath. Don’t talk for now.” She glanced at the three Judges around us. “You can leave. I can’t be bothered to kill you. If I do, more Judges will come, and I might attract the attention of the Edgewalkers.”

“Ah!?” The high school girl let out a surprised sound.

“Are you serious?” The suit man wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“Get lost!”

“You two go first,” Lang Laosan said to the high school girl and the suit man.

“Oh-oh!” they responded, then scrambled out the stairwell.

After watching them leave, Lang Laosan walked over to Ye Ying and me.

“What’s up, old man? Not satisfied? Want to fight?” Ye Ying said arrogantly.

‘Ugh, that sounds just like a street punk,’ I thought, sarcastically using my last shred of life.

Lang Laosan just glanced at us without a word. He hoisted the non-mainstream youth’s corpse onto his shoulder and turned to leave.

“Impostors… you win this round.” Then he jumped off the sixth-floor railing with the body, looking quite dashing.

‘Was it necessary to commit suicide like that?’ I continued my death-defying sarcasm.

“Enough. This is your place, right? Let’s go inside so I can take the bullets out. Someone might come back soon,” Ye Ying said to me.

“What about the bloodstains?”

“Heh, if they have the ability to clear out the entire neighborhood, don’t you think they can clean up a few bloodstains?” Ye Ying said. She had already reverted to her normal appearance, the blue veins on her body gone.

“Who exactly are the Judges?”

“I’ll tell you everything later.” She came over, grabbed my one good arm, and prepared to drag me back to my room 603.

“Cough! Big Sis, I’m half-dead, but not completely dead yet. Are you really going to drag me like this?” I protested, spitting blood.

But Ye Ying ignored my protests. She dragged me to the door and said, “Keys.”

“…Right pocket.”

She opened the door, dragged me inside, and dropped me in the middle of the room. She found a chair, sat down, crossed her legs, and looked around. “You really have nothing here.”

I was too weak to retort. I was really about to die! I could only glare at her.

Ye Ying took a glass bottle from her pocket, pulled out a black pill, and shoved it into my mouth. “Eat this. Then I’ll remove the bullets.”

I chewed and swallowed the pill. Immediately, a warmth spread through my body, especially in my wounds—they burned. I could clearly see them healing at a visible rate.

“What is that?” I asked, feeling much more energetic.

“A healing accelerator,” Ye Ying answered.

“So miraculous. What’s it made of?”

“Hehe, you’re better off not knowing.” Ye Ying smiled. “Hmm? The healing speed is decent. We need to get the bullets out quickly.”

“How will you remove them?” I asked.

Before I finished speaking, Ye Ying suddenly jabbed two fingers into the gunshot wound on my shoulder.

“Damn! That hurts!” A piercing pain. The next moment, her hand came out, blood splattering, with a silver bullet pinched between her fingers.

“Next.” She set down the bullet, wiped it with a tissue, and prepared for the next wound.

“Wait, let me catch my breath first!” I yelled.

Immediately, Ye Ying jabbed her fingers into my abdominal wound.

“f*ck!” It hurt, and the sensation of being poked in the gut was disgusting.

Again, in an instant, she pulled out her fingers, another silver bullet between them.

“Next,” she said. Was she… enjoying this?

“Phew…” This time I wasn’t so stupid. This woman didn’t listen at all. I took a deep breath and braced for the pain.

Before I could exhale, her fingers stabbed into the gunshot wound on my thigh and immediately pulled out the bullet. Her technique was getting smoother.

“Alright, lie down and let the wounds heal.” She wiped the blood off her fingers, sat back down, and said, “Ask whatever you want.”

“Is it okay that the non-mainstream youth died?” Even though so much had happened and I had guessed some of it, killing someone was still illegal in normal society.

“If he were an ordinary person, it might be a problem. But his identity is special. No matter how many we kill, it’s fine.” Ye Ying laughed, an evil smile.

“Won’t the police get involved?”

“How many police do you think it would take to kill me?” she laughed. I thought about it—she could shatter high-frequency vibrating knives with one punch, and a large-caliber pistol shot to the head didn’t even faze her.

“Who are those Judges? What are Impostors you mentioned? What’s happening to my body?” These were the questions I most wanted answered.

“Impostors refer to us. Simply put, monsters. Officially, they are known or unknown species that have human appearance and hide in human society.

Judges are the general term for humans who make a living hunting us. They have other names too: demon hunters, exorcists, hunters, etc. As for you, it’s simple: you were transformed into an Impostor by that woman Wu Xiaowu,” Ye Ying explained.

“… …” That was a lot of information. Let me process.

“And Impostors are roughly divided into three categories: Primal, Newborn, and Inferior. Primal refers to the most ancient legendary monster descendants, native Impostors with the strongest bloodline.

Newborn refers to servants of Primals, originally humans who were transformed into monsters by receiving Primal blood. As for Inferiors… do you know about the Haidu Mental Hospital in Dongchuanguang from five years ago?”

“Haidu Mental Hospital? The one that caught fire on the edge of the West District? The fire that burned half a hillside? I know, it was big news; it was on TV where I lived,” I said after thinking.

“That accident wasn’t a forest fire. It was because of Impostors. The fire was just the government’s excuse,” Ye Ying said, crossing her legs and resting her chin on her hand, smiling at me.

“Because of Impostors?”

“The Haidu Mental Hospital was a hospital on the surface. At least, the top four floors housed regular mental patients. But underground, thirty floors were dedicated to Impostor research centers,” Ye Ying said softly, as if talking about something unrelated to her.

“Thirty floors! An Impostor research center? Who built it?” I exclaimed. What was this, a movie?

“The Edgewalkers,” she answered.

“Again! What’s that now!”

“Edgewalkers are the underground police of the city. Their official name is the Special Species Strategy Response and Prevention Bureau. They deal with the underground struggle between Impostors and Judges, keeping it hidden from ordinary people. They usually don’t interfere in our fights with Judges, but if we go too far, they’ll target us.”

“What does ‘go too far’ mean?”

“If ordinary people discover our existence, or if we kill indiscriminately, we’re easily noticed and then eliminated,” Ye Ying said.

“Are they powerful?”

“Compared to the Judges, it’s the difference between civilian and official organizations. They have few members, but they’re the elite among elites. They have many informants in the city. Heh, although they claim not to directly intervene, many tasks are secretly handed over to the Judges by the Edgewalkers. The two organizations are essentially colluding in secret.”

“Colluding?”

“Today’s events were likely a joint effort. Only Edgewalkers have the power to clear out so many people. Your location was probably discovered by their informants.”

“I haven’t done anything wrong! What’s the point of killing me?”

“If you see a cockroach in your house, do you step on it or let it go?” Ye Ying asked with a smile.

“That makes sense. I have no comeback,” I retorted.

“That’s not all. The underground world has bounties and missions for hunting Impostors. Impostor corpses have high research value and can sell for a good price.

Hehe, so what do you think?” Ye Ying smiled. She placed a note on the table. “When your wounds heal, if you don’t want to be cornered again, come find me at this address. I’ll tell you about Inferiors then.” With that, she left my room.

My wounds had mostly stopped bleeding. I struggled to sit up and picked up the note to look at it.

“Wuyou House Office?”

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