Chapter 10: Chapter Nine: Scavenging and Speculation, Origins of the Night and Ideas

Su Qing took the key and opened a room imprisoning laborers, then placed the keys to the other rooms and all the firearms outside, leaving quietly without waiting for anyone to come out.

As for how the laborers would fare after escaping, Su Qing didn't consider it.

After all, he himself was hard-pressed to stay safe, and he had no notion of "seeing a good deed through to the end, sending the Buddha all the way to the West"; helping them unlock the cage was merely out of fellow feeling as citizens of the East State.

Although the world is no longer what it once was, the same yellow skin and the same language and script make it hard for Su Qing to remain indifferent.

On the way back, Su Qing happened to search the guards' rooms, and the scattered amounts totaled only five hundred pounds and eighteen shillings.

【Note: One pound equals twenty shillings, one shilling equals twelve pence.】

"They usually look pretty imposing, but I didn't expect them to be a bunch of paupers."

Su Qing felt some disdain; he remembered that in 1900, skilled workers in Dayingguo could earn a weekly wage of ten pounds.

It's now 1911, and this bunch of cowboys, twenty‑four of them together, have only a little over five hundred pounds.

Truly poorer than expected!

But even a small mosquito is meat; Su Qing found a money bag, packed all the cash inside, and slipped it into his pocket.

Having secured the money, Su Qing sped up and soon returned to the original spot.

He saw the two werewolves had reverted to human form: one was the bald fellow from daytime, the other, as expected, was Yuehan.

At that moment, they were trussed up like rice dumplings with rope, eyes tightly shut, obviously knocked out.

Selinna stood to the side, staring blankly at the bright moon, lost in thought about who knows what.

Su Qing walked over, ignored her, and ran toward the two‑story building where Yuehan lived across the way.

Had he not seen the person, Su Qing would almost have forgotten that Yuehan's residence still needed to be looted.

As the overseer of a mine, Yuehan was surely richer than those penniless cowboys.

With that in mind, Su Qing jogged all the way, entered, searched, went upstairs, searched, went downstairs, and finished.

This time he turned up five thousand pounds, striking it rich on the spot.

Damn, that's a lot of money.

Nor is it surprising that the heroes in martial‑arts novels love to shout "draw the sword on seeing injustice"; it's not that they go looking for trouble, but that among ten villains nine are rich and one is super‑rich, and this windfall that lands in their lap—who could resist acting?

It seems that when short of cash in the future, one must learn from the heroes and perform more deeds of "drawing the blade to help".

Su Qing smiled to himself, clutching the huge sum as he reunited with Selinna.

Afterwards the two rode out on horseback, carrying two rice dumplings, leaving the mine and disappearing into the night's end.

…………

The next day, just as the sun set, the deeply asleep Su Qing was shoved awake.

Su Qing blinked open his eyes blearily; in the flickering light, Selinna's hazy outline stirred him, and with iron will he turned his gaze away, hurriedly getting up, dressing, and washing.

Last night they rode on horseback until dawn was near, only then putting up in a small town called Nuoxi'er.

Because it's not far from Lundun, the town is quite prosperous; even in the early hours they easily found an inn to stay at.

Of course, they each had their own room.

Selinna appeared in Su Qing's room simply because he slept like a log; after knocking for a while with no answer, she broke in to wake him.

"By the way, what do you plan to do with those two?"

Su Qing glanced at Selinna while eating dinner.

At that moment she was repeatedly wiping her Dog Leg Knife with an oilcloth.

"Question them, then kill them," Selinna said without looking up, speaking lightly.

Hearing her, Su Qing had no objection; to him, vampires killing werewolves was normal procedure—the two clans had been feuding for centuries, a mortal enmity, so not killing them would be unthinkable.

Only, this little werewolf pup Yuehan must be killed by him.

During their days at the mine, though it was merely going through the motions, Su Qing had in fact seriously taught Yuehan the East State's script.

But this wolf‑hearted, dog‑gutted fellow merely happened to overhear a few remarks that night and promptly handed himself over as a "reward" to Zhang Lei.

This grudge—Su Qing being narrow‑minded—was something he could never swallow.

Moreover.

Now that we're in a supernatural world, we'll inevitably see blood; better to pick the day than wait for an auspicious one—so it'll be Yuehan.

Besides, this guy isn't any good either; daring to betray him makes him a perfect test subject for trying out a blade.

Su Qing bluntly put forward his idea: "That youngster—can I take a swing at him?"

"Sure," Selinna replied without a moment's thought.

After that there was nothing more to say; after finishing their meal, Su Qing followed Selinna to her room and witnessed a bloody interrogation.

Then Su Qing learned Yuehan's motive for killing him—and it truly was just overhearing his conversation with the bald one.

Here, as the plot demands, there would normally be a clichéd backstory explaining why Yuehan did this.

Unfortunately, Su Qing had neither interest nor mood to listen.

And, with Selinna's affirmation, he stepped forward and with one stroke ended Yuehan's life.

As for Su Qing's reaction after the killing, I won't go into detail.

In short, just two words: "I'm freaking out," and he vomited.

Skipping those irrelevant details, he turned again to the bald werewolf.

Su Qing learned his name was Landeli; he had come to the mine genuinely intending to ally with Yuehan against Selinna, but Yuehan was obstinate and would not be persuaded no matter how much he was urged.

In the end there was no choice but to think of forcing him to join Mount Liang.

Lure Selinna to Yuehan's presence; then, even if unwilling, Yuehan would have no choice but to act.

Frankly, Landeli's idea wasn't bad.

Unfortunately, he misjudged the timing, thinking Selinna would need another day or two to catch up.

So, after Yuehan refused, he opted to …… rest a night before acting.

Thus, he was caught off guard by Selinna, who came to his door in the middle of the night, leaving him overwhelmed and indirectly implicating John as well.

"What a talent!"

Su Qing heard this, shook his head vigorously, then curiously asked Selinna beside him: "Did you get the information you wanted?"

"No." Selinna said, her voice tinged with anger.

After all, she had chased Landry from Hungary all the way to Dayingguo, spending a great deal of time, yet in the end she hadn't managed to interrogate him about anything.

If it weren't for her good self‑control, she would be swearing right now.

"Oh, I see." Su Qing nodded, said nothing more, but he had roughly guessed Landry's purpose.

Speaking of this, we cannot avoid talking about the origin of the legend of the night.

In the distant early 5th century, the Black Death broke out in Europe; a Hungarian duke, Alexander Kovelnas, unfortunately contracted the disease, but miraculously did not die, instead overcoming the virus's invasion, and at the same time the latent immortal gene in his body was awakened by the illness, thus becoming the first and most powerful of the Undead Clan, possessing an unmutated, pure immortal gene.

Between the mid‑5th century and the end of the 5th century, Alexander Kovelnas and his wife had three children.

Among them, the twins Marcus and William suffered gene mutations after being bitten by a bat and a vicious wolf respectively, becoming the progenitors of vampires and werewolves.

The third child, whose immortal gene remained inactive, lived as an ordinary human, experiencing birth, aging, sickness, and death, and left behind a direct line of Alexander's bloodline; some members carry the inactive, unmutated immortal gene—namely Michael, the protagonist of Underworld.

After becoming a werewolf, William could not control his inner anger, hurting people everywhere; more and more people turned into werewolves (the first werewolves, unable to revert to human form and devoid of reason), becoming a scourge.

Initially, after becoming a vampire, Marcus did not harm or eat people, feeding only on horses and other livestock; at first, the only vampire was Marcus himself.

Their father Alexander, aware of his sons' transformations, thought it should not be so (he had always believed the Undead Clan were merely anomalies, the world belonged to humans, and the Undead Clan ought not to exist); however, constrained by father‑son affection, Alexander was unwilling to kill William and the werewolves, so he withdrew from the world, merely observing and occasionally cleaning up after his two sons.

This "cleaning up" lasted over a thousand years, fully expressing the old father's love and care for his sons.

If there were a ranking of the most moving people on Earth, without Alexander, Su Qing would definitely not watch.

Continuing from the previous text.

Because William had lost his reason and could no longer maintain human form, turning into a beast that hurt people and kept producing werewolves, Marcus, in order to find and stop his brother, realized he could not oppose such a multitude of werewolves.

Thus, he found the two local lords, Amelia and Victor, made an agreement with them, turned them into vampires, and created a vampire army.

Afterward, the three joined forces and successfully captured the werewolf progenitor William, imprisoning him.

Finally, under their leadership, the Blood Clan and the emerging werewolves began a conflict that lasted several centuries.

During this process, the werewolf clan's scientists discovered Alexander's pure blood (the immortal gene), which could fuse the bloodlines of the Blood Clan and the Wolf Clan, giving birth to a powerful hybrid that combines the strengths of werewolves and vampires.

And this hybrid is the catalyst for the events of Underworld.

When I used to watch the movies, I had heard others analyze that the Wolf Clan must have started searching for the bloodline of Alexander's third child very early on.

But for hundreds of years they found no sufficiently pure bloodline, until 2003 when they discovered that the protagonist Michael possessed a bloodline pure enough.

Now, looking at Landry's bewildering actions on his journey from Hungary to Dayingguo, ninety‑nine percent likely he is a scout sent by the Wolf Clan to seek the pure blood.

Stroking his chin, Su Qing secretly pondered Alexander's bloodline.

Without doubt, it is the most precious and valuable asset in the Underworld world.

After all, he is the origin of everything, the father of the two progenitors; even the progenitors themselves cannot describe him, so one should add the prefix 'Tai' before 'progenitor', making him the 'Tai progenitor'.

With such an awesome bloodline, once cancer is cured we must find a way to download it.

Then, after gathering Marcus's and William's bloodlines, the combination of these three purest bloodlines will produce a hybrid that absolutely surpasses imagination.

The two progenitors' bloodlines + the Tai progenitor's bloodline = awesome class!!!

"Get ready, we're heading to London."

At that moment, the gloomy Selinna tossed off a remark, then turned and returned to her room to pack her things.

"Okay."

Su Qing gathered his thoughts and nodded.

He had nothing to pack; he simply shoved his money pouch into his lap and was done.

Ten minutes later.

The two met downstairs, mounted their horses, and galloped together toward London, the city known as the Foggy Capital.