In the east, medicine fights the uncanny; in the south, engineering locks down space and time; in the west, beasts track down demons; in the north, illusions seize the mind. Four great families govern the order of the night, united under the Night Alliance and bound by Night Gold. Lin Qi is the odd one out: the direct grandson of the Medicine family, bearing the empty title of Heir to the Medicine Yama, but as useless as an empty medicine bottle.
His clinic sits in an alley behind Kabukicho. By day, he handles forensic appraisals; by night, he takes on "operations." Anyone who brings half a gold leaf can walk in, and he never asks where they got it.
Then a lone wolf, afflicted by a bizarre curse, barges in. A strange blue-gray substance that should not exist in the mortal world seeps from his wound. A line of Japanese text appears on a USB drive: Tsukiji Market, Third Cold Storage, Cargo Number "Jiao."
As a forensic medicine master's graduate who loves "physical exorcism," he has a scalpel, a sniper rifle, and a nose that can sniff out "qi." But when his ancestor's Manual of Qi Huang's Yin-Slaying Arts meets modern forensic examination, and Bo Yan's "immortality curse" becomes a pathological specimen that can be dissected, he discovers that the truths people burned away are waiting to be opened by his own hands, one corpse at a time.
"Cause of death: acute myocardial infarction accompanied by collapse of the qi meridians. Physical exorcism complete. Remember to pay the balance."
This story is entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual events or persons is purely coincidental.
