Chapter 33: Catfish Cycle × Shabu Shabu

Qi Peixin was born in 1907 on a night of violent storms.

As a denizen of the Kakin Empire's slums, Qi Peixin grew up amidst the filth of the masses. Gangs, beggars, violence, and corpses formed the architecture of his childhood.

When he was five, his father, a dockworker, accidentally startled a nobleman's pigeons. The "kindhearted" noble did not take his life. Instead, citing the crime of "disrespect," he had Qi Peixin's mother seized and her limbs hacked off. The slums had no doctors, only a witch; his father, desperate, begged the witch to save his only wife. She spent the entire night bleeding her out, and Qi Peixin watched, helpless, as his mother gradually turned into a cold, lifeless husk.

To this day, the dim, yellow candlelight of that night haunts the seventy-year-old Qi Peixin like a nightmare, feeling like a saltwater-soaked leather whip lashing across his face, over and over again.

The slums were not hell; in that place, surviving was the true hell. The denizens, their skin blackened by the sun, scrambled to gorge themselves on the garbage discarded by the nobles, procreated with frantic desperation, and defecated in the same tight spaces they slept in. Like catfish in the mud, they ate whatever they could find, mated until full, and then fouled the mire so thoroughly there was nowhere left to stand. But there was no other way, because beyond that mire lay the territory of "people"...

When Qi Peixin was in his thirties, or perhaps his forties, he could no longer recall, the winter had been bone-chillingly cold. Seven of his thirteen uncles froze to death, and his father eventually slipped away into the eternal dark, shivering in the frost. As his own hands and feet went numb in the freezing rain, he saw, through a hazy, dying consciousness, a clean, well-dressed child chasing a ball toward his tent...

The noble's hot, flowing blood was, indeed, warmer than a commoner's. That hard-won heat and sustenance carried him through the most grueling winter of his life, and destroyed any hope of him continuing to survive like a maggot in the mud.

What happened afterward? Qi Peixin's memory was failing. He couldn't remember the details. He only knew his left eye was gone, and his right eye had almost completely lost its sight. When he finally woke up, he discovered he possessed a miraculous power. Using it, he drifted from place to place, killing many and gathering followers, until he arrived on the Yorbian Continent and took root.

But he could never forget the Kakin nobles from his homeland who stood on high, looking down upon the masses, especially the Royal Family.

"Hm? Where was I?"

Inside the grotesque fish, Qi Peixin snapped out of his reverie. He seemed to have drifted into memory once again. When people age, they become fond of endless reminiscence, much like an old, crippled dog that never tires of licking its own broken leg.

Days ago, his old friend had told him that the 12th Prince of the Kakin Royal Family had secretly arrived in Yorknew City. He had been ecstatic. In the twilight of his life, he finally had the chance to fulfill his lifelong dream: to kill one of those monsters who drank the blood of the common people.

He had prepared everything. He even hired a lifelong friend to assassinate the Prince. But the plan failed. Everything crumbled without a sound; Karl was killed, and his livelihood was overturned by an unknown force in a matter of days. At the end of his life, Qi Peixin, who had been born with nothing, found himself with nothing once again.

But he refused to die like this. So, he brought his last remaining followers to Southernpiece for one final stand!

After infiltrating this building, he had his final old friend, Kantigara, activate his ability to seal off the entire structure. Kantigara had told him the target was a group of one man and two women, though the number of Nen users was unclear.

It didn't matter.

'My Catfish Cycle is already active. The nutrients from these people should be enough to cultivate another 21 to 30 Bizarre Fish.'

His ability allowed him to materialize the flesh-eating, reproducing Bizarre Fish; each of these creatures possessed the power to tear through a Nen user's Ten. As for him, he simply hid within one of the beasts, continuing to hunt for stragglers.

'Were those four earlier just security? Doesn't matter. They'll all become food for the Bizarre Fish anyway. Nen users make for much more nutritious prey...'

Qi Peixin didn't know the exact situation with those mercenaries, nor did he care. All he had to do now was wait for the right moment to kill that Kakin Prince.

On the first floor.

Lakshya destroyed a fish that lunged at him in a fit of rage. While he had been busy bandaging Maror, the beast had ambushed and killed another male recruit! The mercenary squad, which had come to hunt Dia, was now down by two men, with their deputy crippled.

The dense white fog didn't just obscure his vision; it helped these monsters hide their movements!

'I need to use En... No, the drain is too high. Including that man calling himself Qi Peixin, there are at least two more enemies to fight...'

Lakshya walked up the stairs to the second floor, Maror trailing behind him. He analyzed the situation. Though furious, he kept his head; the more urgent the crisis, the more he needed to maintain his composure.

"Lak... shouldn't we have turned down this job? Coming here to kill this guy named Dia..."

"I was the one who took the last job, too... and it ended with everyone dying... all we got was a piece of useless rock..."

Maror, following behind him, murmured slowly.

"Enough talk. We haven't lost yet." Lakshya didn't even turn his head. He knew Maror was falling back into his old habit: the moment he hit a setback, he would start regretting the mission without even considering the possibility of victory. Mercenaries didn't have the luxury of guaranteed success. If they were that afraid, they might as well go home and open a diner.

Maror opened his mouth, then fell silent.

'Is this fog also Qi Peixin's ability? No... the scale is too different.'

'Could it be the ability of whoever sealed this building? Possibly, but I can't be sure, and I can't find the user...'

Lakshya felt the situation becoming increasingly thorny. Their target hadn't even appeared yet, and they had already been hammered by a chain of attacks from an unknown enemy. Still, it didn't matter. Once he found the main body of the ability user, he was confident he wouldn't lose in a direct confrontation. Once this fog was cleared, Qi Peixin's ability would be nothing more than a pack of ugly magical beasts.

"Maror!"

"Yes, Captain!"

"Once we kill everyone here and collect the pay, let's go out for shabu shabu."

"...Yes! We'll eat enough for Mark and Alice's share, too!"

Maror's gaze turned resolute. Watching Lakshya's steady back, he swore to complete the mission and avenge the two newcomers.

But deep within the fog, in a blind corner where they couldn't see, a golden phantom slowly faded, revealing Dia, his expression cold and his eyes unfathomable.

'Shabu shabu, is it? Then I'll use your heads to boil the broth...'