Superman's End Manual

"So what does this have to do with me?"

He stretched and, bathed in the warm orange glow of the cucumber lamp left over from last Christmas, began to walk downstairs. Just as he was about to go down, he heard the sound of a door opening.

Immediately after, Bai Wenna's surprised voice came from downstairs: "Hey, isn't this Xiaomo? Why are you back so early?"

Ke Mingye was taken aback and stopped at the top of the stairs.

My second brother is back? At this hour? Why so suddenly? He just told me on the phone this morning that he might not be back for another two days…

Thinking this, his pupils contracted, and a strange sense of unease welled up in his heart.

Half an hour ago, in the old Jingmai neighborhood of the city surrounding Beijing.

In a secluded, sparsely populated alley, a white-haired girl slowly raised her head from beside the neck of a corpse. Moonlight shone on her blood-stained lips and silver-white hair.

Her gaze was calm, devoid of any emotion.

Bai Ziling wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand, then looked away from the corpse.

"I'm full..." she murmured softly.

Just then, a hoarse yet authoritative voice suddenly came from the shadows deep in the alley, like the ringing of a bronze bell, yet with a touch of childishness.

Are you eating people?

The voice asked.

Bai Ziling was clearly stunned for a moment, then slowly turned her head and looked up from the strands of silver hair on her forehead.

With her vampire-like perception, this was the first time she had encountered someone who could approach her so silently. But she soon discovered... that what was hiding in the shadows was not a person.

But...

A dragon.

This dragon was about two meters long, its upright pupils shimmering with a molten lava-like luster. Its dark scales, layered like metal, created a striking visual effect. It sat on the ground, its drooping tail casting a long, eerie shadow like a broom.

You know what, they're kind of cute, they look like baby dragons.

Bai Ziling stared at it for a while, and her expression softened.

She's a vampire herself, so what's so strange about magical girls, superheroes, or even a dragon?

Thinking this, she shook her head: "No, I never eat people."

"Then what are you doing?" the young dragon asked from the shadows.

"To suck blood," Bai Ziling replied.

The young dragon tentatively moved its paw forward a little, emerging slightly from the shadows, and spoke cautiously.

"Wouldn't it be more convenient to eat him?"

Slowly, its face was exposed to the cold moonlight, the unique ferocity of dragons superimposed with a kind of naivety, sometimes like a child, sometimes like a born executioner.

After looking at it for a while, Bai Ziling asked softly, "Do you really want to eat it?"

"Hmm, can I have him?" Young Dragon said, swallowing hard.

“Anyway, he’s a death row inmate…” Bai Ziling lowered her eyes. This man was a superhuman criminal she had seen on TV, which was why she chose him.

She was silent for a moment: "But you have to eat it cleanly, otherwise you'll leave clues for me."

"Don't worry, neither you nor I want to be captured by humans..."

As the young dragon spoke, it crawled over, hoisted the corpse up with its claws, and slowly dragged it into a corner.

Bai Ziling blinked her blood-red eyes, sat on the ground with her knees drawn up to her chest, stared at it for a while, still very curious as to why there was a dragon here.

But she was afraid that her mother would check on her and find that she wasn't in her bedroom, so she had no choice but to get up and climb up the ladder hanging down the wall, stepping onto the metal plate with the air conditioner unit hanging on it.

Then, with a light leap, he landed on the roof of the residential building.

Upon reaching the rooftop, Bai Ziling turned back and glanced down at the young dragon lying in the shadows.

The dragon seemed to not want her to see it eating, so it just squatted on the ground like a cat, raised its head, and quietly waited for her to leave.

A man and a dragon stared at each other for a moment in the darkness with their two red eyes.

She spoke softly in the moonlight.

"Dragons are like vampires; everyone hates us."

The young dragon was stunned for a moment.

After speaking, Bai Ziling slowly turned around, put her hands behind her back, and walked along the edge of the roof as if stepping on a zebra crossing on a highway.

Gradually, her figure disappeared into the night.

The young dragon tilted its head back, staring blankly at the empty night sky for a long time, then pressed its claws onto the corpse and silently began to eat.

Much later, a thick pool of blood flowed out from the shadows; the body was no longer there.

It hissed deeply, flapped its short, still-growing wings, and flew into the night sky, hiding on the rooftop of an apartment building.

Leaning against a corner of the rooftop, the young dragon's body slowly changed, transforming into the shape of a human boy.

Ke Yongzhu hugged his naked body, curled up in a corner of the rooftop. He stared blankly for a while, then murmured, "Yes, sister, we are all monsters."

This wasn't the first time he'd seen Bai Ziling suck blood, but... this was the first time he'd had the courage to transform into a dragon and say a word to her.

In the past, he would always conceal his presence, secretly following behind her and hiding quietly in a corner.

At times like this, he would think, "So I'm not the only weirdo in the family; my sister is too."

"Never mind, she's already home, I should go home too."

Ke Yongzhu sighed, picked up the clothes he had taken off before his dragon transformation from the corner of the rooftop, put them on, and then strolled across the rooftops.

Following Bai Ziling's scent, he walked towards home.

Not long after he left, the shadows on the ground in the alley gradually deepened, and then a figure emerged from the shadows.

He was a young man with delicate features, almost like a woman, who stared expressionlessly at the pool of blood on the ground.

After a long while, the young man muttered to himself.

"As expected, the descendants of the Calamity Dragon have appeared..."

He pulled a bright green bird carrying a scroll on its back, along with an ink brush, from his sleeve. He unrolled the scroll on the bird's back and wrote on it with the ink brush:

"Report to the Ninja Sect: We have confirmed that the descendant of the Calamity Dragon is in Huanjing. Judging from the remaining traces, it is currently only in its juvenile form. It is not too late to find it now. We request reinforcements."

Having done all this, the young man closed the scroll, tied it to the bird's back, and released it from his palm. It flapped its wings and quickly disappeared into the moonlight, scroll on its back.

The youth's figure once again turned into a blob of ink, disappearing into the shadows beneath his feet.

Shortly afterward, the young man emerged from the shadows again and appeared in front of a residential building, with no one else around.

He looked up at the plaque of the residential building, "Unit 1, Phase 1, Building 5, Unit 1, Laojingmai Street, Room 1201", then walked into the stairwell, entered the elevator, and selected the ninth floor.

The elevator doors slowly closed, and just before they shut, a small, delicate hand reached in and got caught between the doors...

Seeing this bizarre scene, the young man was first taken aback, then focused his attention slightly.

Cold sweat trickled down his forehead. He wondered, even from that distance, could the Dragon of Calamity have detected his presence? No, it was too early to draw conclusions.

As the hand became wedged in the middle of the elevator doors, the doors slowly opened to both sides.

Under the flickering lights at the entrance of the building, a boy wearing a black hoodie was standing at the entrance.

He withdrew his hand from the elevator door and looked expressionlessly at the nervous young man standing inside the elevator.

The two looked at each other, and one of them spoke.

"Second brother?"

Ke Yongzhu looked at his face, paused slightly, and spoke first. She thought to herself, "I just finished eating and came back, and I just happen to run into my second brother who's coming back from outside."

Ke Xiaomo was also slightly taken aback.

Then, looking at that familiar, kind face, he breathed a deep sigh of relief. He thought to himself that he had been incredibly paranoid; how could the Calamity Dragon, so focused on its meal, have possibly discovered his presence when it was so far away in the alley and had used every trick in the book to conceal itself?

How stupid...

Ke Xiaomo chuckled, as if laughing at himself.

"Brother, it's been a long time," he said.

Ke Yongzhu put her hands in her pockets, stepped into the elevator car, turned to look at him, and asked strangely, "Uh, why didn't you say you were coming back? Didn't Mingye say you were still at university and wouldn't be back for a couple of days?"

"Something came up, so I came back early," Ke Xiaomo replied.

Accompanied by indifferent words, the elevator doors closed smoothly this time. With a soft hum, the elevator slowly ascended.

Ke Xiaomo reached out and ruffled his hair, asking, "You seem to be in sixth grade now. How's school been lately? You haven't been bullying your classmates anymore, have you?"

"Hey, whether I bully my classmates or not is another matter, but bro, stop touching my head, it'll stunt my growth."

Ke Yongzhu shook his hand dismissively, saying something.

Ke Xiaomo just smiled and didn't say anything.

Soon, the elevator doors slowly opened. He glanced at the elevator sign; it was indeed the ninth floor. So, he and Ke Yongzhu stepped out of the elevator car and pressed the doorbell next to the door.

The door slowly opened, and her mother's face came into view under the lamplight. She quickly showed surprise.

Bai Wenna looked at him: "Hey, isn't this Xiaomo? Why are you back so early?"