As if Wen Rouhan had guessed that Lan Zhan was going to ask him to keep an eye on Youn and Ali, he came just one day after the four of them had talked together. Two days later, Lan Zhan and Wei Ying set off for Lan Zhan's hometown. The journey with the horses took 5 days.

Once in the city, Lan Zhan did not recognize his hometown. Everything had changed. And much to his displeasure, his family home no longer existed. They settled into a traditional Chinese inn and thought about how to get more information. The innkeeper gave them the tip to try the city archives.

Lan Zhan and Wei Ying immediately set out to find the city archives. They wandered around the city for almost two hours until they found the small building. It then took another two days for the archivist to find the matching documents. After that, it took them another 19 hours to read through the unsorted documents. For this they had to go to the city archives again and again for three days.

Finally they found the right documents and went through them one by one. But the result was devastation. Because all they found was that the house and almost all the other houses in the city burned down in a major fire over 100 years ago.

But they did have one bull's eye. Just when they were ready to give up, the old archivist found the residents' register book from the year the big fire occurred. One name immediately caught Lan Zhan's eye. It was the name of his father. However, he had been dead for a long time by then. Moreover, the address matched the family's house. This was proof that his brother was still alive at the time and had returned to the city after his transformation and was living in the family home.

"The only question that remains is where did he go after the fire? Do you think he left the city?" Asked Wei Ying.

"Well, I'm afraid I don't know that either." Replied Lan Zhan thoughtfully.

"Mhhh. Rumor says that vampires who are descended from the same creator can sense each other."

"So if that rumor is true, then he's not in the city. Because I don't sense anything at all."

"Well, it's just a rumor. Maybe it's not true."

"Wei Ying, I just want to find my brother and not think about any rumors."

"I know. Sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. I'm annoyed because I have no idea where to look now."

"I..." Began Zhan, pausing as the old archivist joined them. He had another old book with him and placed it on the table in front of them.

"Inside here are the names of the people who survived the big fire back then. For most of them, it says where they moved to." Explained the archivist.

Lan Zhan immediately flipped through the book and then pointed to a name, "Here! I found him. It says he moved to the next village."

"My parents told me about the village at that time. Most of the townspeople who survived the fire moved there. However, they didn't stay there for long. Right after the fire, they started rebuilding the city and moved back here. After that, hardly anyone lived in the village. Today there are still four or five houses there. But I don't know if anyone lives there." Said the archivist.

"Is there perhaps a list of the residents who returned to the city?" Lan Zhan asked.

"There is. But since they rebuilt the whole city back then, there was no register of residents for over 10 years. I'll go see where the register is." Said the old man and left.

Lan Zhan turned to Wei Ying and pointed to something he noticed, "In the year of the Great Fire, many people died before the fire. For most of them, it is noted that the cause of death is unknown. You don't think that my brother?"

"I don't think so. He wouldn't go hunting where he lives. The risk for him to get caught would have been too high. Approximately how many dead were there?"

"Too many for just one hungry vampire. Spread over a year, about 2000 people."

"Oh that's a lot. Is there no other information?"

"Mhhh, I don't know. It says the victim had wounds that might have been from a bear attack. But the wounds were inflicted in his home."

"In the house? Then it definitely wasn't a bear. And it wasn't a vampire either."

"Then what was it? Maybe one of those werewolves?"

"Well Lan Zhan, there's that possibility. It certainly looks like it."

"Would we find any evidence of that now?"

"Maybe. We should look around the forest. There were a lot more werewolves back then. Maybe we can find the place where they lived. Because for just one werewolf, 2000 dead with unknown cause of death is way too many."

"Don't you think they would have found these back when they were looking for the supposed bear?"

"Lan Zhan, werewolves are adept at hiding."

"Yeah fine okay. When are we going into the forest?"

"Tonight. Werewolves only hunt at night. So if we want to look for tracks of a werewolf, we should do it at night. That way we can better find the paths the animal took."

"Animal? From the sound of it, they're monsters, not animals."

"Well, I guess they are both. Animals and monsters."

"I'm honestly dying to see a werewolf like that. Although you described it well to me, I still have no idea what this creature looks like. And I'm equally excited to see how strong this monster is."

"You'll find out soon enough. I'm pretty sure you will."

"Here, I found the first register of residents after the Great Fire." Said the archivist as he came back into the room. He put the thick book on the table. Lan Zhan leafed through it, but couldn't find any name that looked familiar. An hour later, the two left the archives and told the archivist that they would come back the following day and would like to look at the most recent population register.

They went back to the inn for the time being. Until nightfall it would still take a few hours and they would need their swords with the silver blades anyway. After all, no one knows what will happen that night. A little bit Lan Zhan hoped that they would meet a werewolf. He was really eager to fight with such a creature.

Lan Zhan and Wei Ying spent the evening in the inn's parlor. They ate and drank something to appear human while listening to the stories of a storyteller. The interest of the two was aroused when the storyteller told about mystical and eerie creatures that were said to live and hunt in the forest.

"These creatures are huge. More than two meters tall. They have long sharp claws and teeth. Their bodies are covered in fur. They walk slightly stooped. They have no faces. Their heads are those of wolves. But even more hideous. They hunt in the night and attack those poor souls who unknowingly enter their territory in their forest." Told the storyteller.

"What are these creatures?" Wanted to know one of the guests.

"They are called wolf people. But they are more wolf than people."

"And what do they eat?" Wanted to know another guest.

"They eat the hearts of humans. And to get at their beating hearts, they literally tear their prey to pieces."

"What happens to those who survive this attack?" Wei Ying asked.

"If the wolf man bit them, they will also become a wolf man at the next full moon."

"Have you ever seen such a wolf man yourself?" Asked Lan Zhan.

"I actually have. I had been just a kid. I was maybe 7 or 8 years old. We lived close to a forest at the time. My parents had a small farmhouse. I had 4 other older siblings, all girls. Well, at that time we had been having problems with wild animals for some time. They tore one of my father's cows almost every night. In order to protect his cows and not lose any more of them, my father got help from some of his friends. They went together into the forest to hunt the wild animal. But they did not find it. Only its cave and nest they found. There were several dead animals in it. My father built a fire in the cave and hoped that the wild beast, now that it had no nest, would move on. But instead, the beast came to our house in the night! My sisters and I woke up when the front door had been broken open. We saw the creature come in. My sisters screamed in terror. My mother shrieked when she saw the creature. My father threw himself at the creature and attacked it with a knife. But the creature just grabbed him, shook him and bit his throat. Then it grabbed my mother, slammed its sharp claws into her chest, ripped out her heart and ate it. I panicked and climbed out the window. I ran to the barn and hid upstairs in the hayloft. So while I was shivering and cowering in safety, I heard the beast killing my sisters, one by one. I was so scared that I stayed in my hiding place until someone came and saved me. I told everyone what had killed my family. But no one would believe me. They took me to my grandparents and they didn't believe me either. They said I had only imagined the creature to deal with the horror I had experienced. At some point I believed it myself. At least until I started moving around the country and heard similar stories from others."

"You think what you experienced is bad? Then you haven't seen any bloodsuckers!" Chided a guest.

"Bloodsuckers?" Asked another guest.

"Yes bloodsuckers! They look just like us. You can't distinguish them from humans. They feed on the blood of humans!" Explained the ranting guest.

"Tell us more." Demanded several guests at once.

The scolding guest nodded. He sat down, finished his cup of rice wine, poured himself a refill and began to narrate. "My family consisted of mother, father, my eight siblings and me. We lived in a nice house by the harbor. My father earned a lot of money as a dock worker. My mother worked as a dressmaker. So we never went hungry. We could even go to school. We could have become anything we wanted. But I always knew I wanted to go to sea. I loved watching all the ships coming in and leaving the harbor. I knew one day I too would leave the harbor on one of those ships. Finally, when I was 14 years old, I couldn't stand it at home anymore. I packed my things, hired on a ship and left home. And even though the work was hard, I was happy. Years passed and I became a man. At the age of 24 I had traveled almost the whole world and had a girlfriend in almost every harbor. In England I had a especially beautiful girlfriend. Because of her, I even stayed in England for a few months. But then I was driven out to sea again. I signed on with a cargo ship. The Amelia. The captain was a fair good man with 30 years of experience. We had been at sea for a month when the captain ordered all engines stop. We found some shipwrecked people and brought them aboard the ship. They told us that their ship had sunk after a sudden giant wave hit their ship. The captain promised to take them to the next harbor. And as soon as they boarded the Amelia, men suddenly began to disappear or become seriously ill. The sick had strange marks on their necks that looked like two stitches. But all of a sudden they were back on their feet. But they seemed changed. They did not eat anything and were very aggressive. After two weeks half of the crew had changed. I found it better to stay away from them. And as it turned out, that was the right thing to do. A few days before we were to reach the next harbor, the bloodsuckers attacked. I was just checking on things in the cargo hold when the sound of battle could be heard. I hurried upstairs and saw the men fighting with each other. Suddenly, some of the men who had been acting so strangely had fangs and their faces looked deformed. They seemed to be immensely strong. They grabbed the men and bit their necks. Wounds inflicted on them did not lead to their death. Their wounds healed immediately. I hid behind some barrels and watched everything. When the captain came outside, I pulled him to me. The captain made a fire, pulled me behind him, threw me overboard, and then jumped into the sea himself while the fire was spreading rapidly. We swam to the lifeboat and paddled away from the ship as fast as we could. We watched the ship burn until it sank."

Lan Zhan and Wei Ying looked at each other. They knew the man was telling the truth. And from the way his eyes met them, he knew they believed him. Unlike the other guests. Lan Zhan and Wei Ying decided to talk to the man alone. They nodded to him and he seemed to understand them immediately.