Chapter 45: The Vampire’s Prey (45p2)
There, Xue Zhu, on the bed, had already awakened. Xue Zhu was sitting on the edge of the bed, his pale, large hand in his hair, his strong back muscles tense, his breathing pained and heavy.
Xue Zhu’s nose twitched. Xue Zhu suddenly paused, then shot his head up. Between his slightly curly, falling hair, a pair of crimson phoenix eyes could be vaguely seen, locked on her.
Xue Zhu stood up with a blank face and, with an oppressive presence, walked towards her. His rich, beautiful, and demonic face was flushed with a magnificent red, his bare chest rising and falling, like a beast, entering a hunting state.
Of course, Yu Jiao would not be captured without a fight. Yu Jiao immediately tore off the troublesome skirt of her dress and, while moving around the empty arena to dodge, said, “Xue Zhu! Wake up!”
Old Master Xue said coldly, “I advise you not to make a useless struggle. Zhu’er’s mind is only filled with my command. He is no longer the person you know, nor will he have any useless feelings for you.”
As Old Master Xue’s words fell, a gust of wind came at Yu Jiao. A strong, powerful arm seized her.
Thump!
Yu Jiao was seized by the throat and pressed against the cold wall.
Yu Jiao’s delicate brow furrowed. Yu Jiao lifted her hazy eyes and met Xue Zhu’s familiar yet strange phoenix eyes.
—Yu Jiao suddenly remembered the first time, at the twins’ birthday banquet, Xue Zhu had also held her by the neck with such a cold expression.
“Your physical strength is no match for his. Accept reality, Miss Yu. As Zhu’er’s fiancée, this is what you should be doing.”
The disgusting, mosquito-like voice echoed.
—In your dreams!
A cold light flashed in Yu Jiao’s eyes. Yu Jiao fiercely bit her own tongue.
The shared pain was transmitted to Xue Zhu. Xue Zhu paused, as if he couldn’t understand how this weak, ant-like woman could have hurt him.
Taking advantage of his loosened grip, Yu Jiao suddenly closed the distance, hooked her arm around his neck, and kissed him. Yu Jiao’s bleeding tongue pried open his teeth and entangled with his stiff one.
Just like their first kiss.
Blood, pain, dominance and submission, an endless entanglement, a bloody kiss.
Xue Zhu couldn’t help but withdraw his attacking hand and, instead, held Yu Jiao’s waist tightly, deepening the familiar kiss.
This intimate scene was not what Old Master Xue had hoped for. Old Master Xue felt a sense of losing control. “Xue Zhu!”
A shrill cry, like a firecracker, splitting the night sky.
Xue Zhu’s face instantly went pale. Xue Zhu pressed his hand to his left breast, feeling the vibration and clamor of his heart.
Xue Zhu’s phoenix eyes once again grew dark.
Yu Jiao knew this was bad. As expected, the next moment, Yu Jiao was in a cold, hard embrace, like a sack of goods, and was thrown onto the large bed.
Then, a strong male body pressed down on her, his large hands pinning her hands above her head, a thick shadow falling over her.
“Go! Zhu’er! Break that blood contract that is holding you back!” Old Master Xue shouted, cheering him on.
Pressed beneath Xue Zhu, Yu Jiao struggled weakly. “Xue Zhu, let me go!”
Xue Zhu lowered his head, as if unmoved.
Yu Jiao closed her eyes.
—Yu Jiao quickly scrolled through the item shop. If she really had no other choice, she would have to find a chance to counterattack during the process.
A cold, aggressive presence drew closer, like a storm before a downpour.
However, the shrill wind gently brushed past.
The rough treatment Yu Jiao had expected did not come—a cold, soft kiss landed on her brow, like a melting snowflake, and then quickly pulled away.
Then, a muffled grunt.
A cold, cool liquid fell, streaking across Yu Jiao’s face.
Yu Jiao opened her eyes, stunned, and saw Xue Zhu, propped up above her, blocking the light. His demonic, handsome face was as if brushed with a soft, dark color.
Xue Zhu slowly curved his lips into a smile, his phoenix eyes curving, as composed and elegant as ever.
From the corner of his slightly curled lips, a startling amount of blood was continuously gushing out.
“Xue Zhu? What are you doing!”
Old Master Xue cried out in alarm. “Why did you break the blood contract on your own initiative?! Don’t you know that the damage to your body is irreversible!!”
Old Master Xue, who had no physical body, was almost jumping up and down. He didn’t notice the actions of the person beside him.
He only heard the light click of a lighter.
A ghostly firelight reflected on Xie Yanchuan’s cold, pale face. The next moment, Xie Yanchuan nonchalantly threw the lighter at the huge oil painting.
The flames licked the canvas and, like a spreading mold, formed a raging fire, bit by bit consuming the realistic picture.
Old Master Xue was shaken. “What are you doing!? Didn’t we have a deal!!”
Before Xie Yanchuan could retort, a scream was cut short from a high place, and then, a lazy voice sounded.
“Who would want to cooperate with an old fool like you?”
Xie Zhenye, who should have been unconscious, was now sitting on a round table in the guest seats. Xie Zhenye gave a cold, fierce smile. With a push of his long legs, a series of pained groans came from the person beneath his feet, who was none other than Old Master Xue’s lackey—Butler Li.
The remote control that controlled all the mechanisms and locks of the arena was now in Xie Zhenye’s hands. Xie Zhenye was pressing the buttons randomly.
Clank! The iron chains rattled.
A light hiss.
“Hey! Can’t you stop pressing buttons randomly!”
Wei Changlin, who was held high, cursed. The collar on his neck was being pulled up by the iron chain, almost separating his head from his body.
“My apologies,” Xie Zhenye said, his face clearly saying ‘I’m doing this on purpose’. Xie Zhenye said slowly, “I was just trying to help you get out.”
With that, Xie Zhenye dropped the remote control and crushed it with his foot.
The iron frame and chains immediately stopped working. Wei Changlin broke free, rubbing his neck. “Thanks a lot!” Wei Changlin said, annoyed.
In the raging fire, Old Master Xue said angrily, “You… you lied to me!?”
Xie Yanchuan kicked a member of the school board who had lunged at him. Hearing this, Xie Yanchuan said coolly, “What else? You unlucky thing.”
“You!” Old Master Xue said. “Don’t forget that your blood contract is still in my hands!”
Xie Yanchuan sneered. “Let’s see who dies first.”
Old Master Xue was furious. With a command, the awakened blood-race members in the arena immediately surrounded the few of them.
At the bottom of the auditorium.
Yu Jiao was pulled up by Xue Zhu. Yu Jiao sat on the bed, stunned, watching the chaotic high platform, a strange thought in her mind—When did these four get together?
Xue Zhu said gently, “They’ll explain later.”
Yu Jiao looked up.
A strange feeling rose. Just as Yu Jiao was about to ask, she heard the old fool shout again, “Arrogant child! “Even if you have a temporary advantage, it’s useless! I am immortal. One day—”
“Hmm? Is that so?”
Old Master Xue’s crazed, harsh words were as if cut off. A sense of foreboding rose in his heart. “Zhu’er, what do you mean?”
Xue Zhu took out a silk scarf and, unhurriedly, wiped the blood from the corner of his lips. “I just think that it’s time for you, Grandfather, to die of old age.”
“…”
Ignoring Old Master Xue’s anxious curses and pleas, Xue Zhu knelt on the ground, holding Yu Jiao’s hand with one hand and pressing the other to his left breast.
It was a very ceremonial, solemn posture.
Xue Zhu looked up, and his deep phoenix eyes were like an impenetrable, thick fog.
“Yu Jiao.”
Xue Zhu called her name with a smile.
Yu Jiao’s heart pounded, and the strange, uneasy feeling grew stronger.
Yu Jiao wanted to say something to stop his next words, but when she met his smiling eyes, she couldn’t speak. Yu Jiao could only hear his distant voice:
“I am a person without a self. From the moment I was born, I have shouldered countless responsibilities. The status of the Xue family, the future of the blood race, the academy, the Secret Society…”
“My life is not my own.”
“My family, my status, my bloodline, my emotions, my past and future, none of them belong to me.”
“Even my heart is not my own.”
Xue Zhu looked at Yu Jiao deeply.
The five fingers on his left breast, with a force, slowly sank into his soft skin, blood flowing freely. They broke through layers of flesh and bone.
The sound of tearing was like a hot confession, or a bloody poem.
“…”
Yu Jiao’s eyelashes trembled.
Xue Zhu pulled his hand out, unconcerned.
In the center of his palm was a dark red piece of flesh. Warm blood flowed down his pale arm and dripped, leaving only a shocking trail of blood.
All sounds seemed to recede.
The old man’s roars, the chaotic fight, the screams and crazed laughter, the cold words and whispers.
The bottom of the auditorium, where the two of them were, was as if there were an invisible barrier, separating them into a quiet, peaceful little world.
“You see.”
Xue Zhu’s demonic face was so pale it was almost transparent, which only made his eyes and hair seem darker.
Xue Zhu stared at Yu Jiao without blinking, his fingers tightening. The thing Wei Changlin had called ‘decaying, rotten flesh, a precious scepter’ was crushed by Xue Zhu without hesitation.
Like an exploding firework.
Xue Zhu’s lips curved. With his other, clean hand, Xue Zhu guided Yu Jiao’s hand, through the bloody hole, into his chest cavity.
“I have my own heart now.”
The warm, heavy inner wall of his chest enveloped Yu Jiao’s hand.
Xue Zhu looked up, his voice soft and husky.
“Do you hear it? It’s beating for you.”
“…”
Yu Jiao seemed to really feel something, beating against her palm.
Xue Zhu slowly blinked.
Like a withering locust tree, a few petals fell.
Xue Zhu’s life force was rapidly draining away, like a handful of sand, scattered by the wind. Xue Zhu collapsed, strengthless, his head resting on Yu Jiao’s lap. Xue Zhu closed his eyes as if he were sleeping, a gentle smile on his lips, as always, but the crimson of his lips was gradually fading.
Yu Jiao could vaguely hear him murmuring something, “I’m sorry, I…”
“…”
【Congratulations, you have reached the ending—[Blessing is a Curse]】
“…”
***
The moment Xue Zhu crushed his heart, Old Master Xue had let out a shrill, long, and mournful scream. The charred oil painting crumbled into black fragments.
Then, a fierce wind rose in the auditorium, carrying the black fragments with it. The sound of the wind was like a harsh cry and a shrill scream, as if the countless wronged souls who had died in the evil sacrificial ritual had escaped their prison…
In this strange scene, Old Master Xue cursed painfully, “Don’t be so proud! Even if I die, the thousands of descendants of the blood race still exist. One day…”
Before his words had faded, a distant beastly roar was heard, and then, the sound of chaos from the academy could be faintly heard.
“…”
In a panicked silence, Wei Changlin played the straight man. “The thousands of descendants of the blood race are indeed a problem. Then—”
“You!! No!!!”
Old Master Xue’s shouts were powerless to stop him.
“—Let them become weak, ordinary people, and see how it feels to be the prey.”
Wei Changlin smiled and snapped his fingers.
Snap!
A strange current of air circulated, waking the stunned Yu Jiao. Yu Jiao was shocked to find a red and golden light rising from the bottom of the auditorium.
Looking at the familiar trajectory and pattern, a flash of lightning went through Yu Jiao’s mind.
Isn’t this the blood that 011 spilled during the fight? Although the blood servants had cleaned it up, there was still a lot left in the cracks of the tiles.
…It seems it was a collaboration between the six of them.
The array was activated.
All the people in the arena with blood-race blood immediately broke out in a cold sweat and collapsed, exhausted.
Yu Jiao’s white hair visibly faded to black, and her thick red eyes turned a glistening, cool grey. Yu Jiao’s body was like a broken funnel, and the energy that had been circulating within her seemed to be instantly drained away.
Old Master Xue roared with unwillingness and, with the raging ghost wind, rushed straight for Yu Jiao. “It’s all your fault, it’s all your fault!!”
Yu Jiao’s expression was cold.
Yu Jiao took out the item she had just bought, an old friend.
[Fire Bow]: Can select any one object and cause it to combust.
Yu Jiao was not afraid of the strange wind at all. Yu Jiao stood up, narrowed her grey eyes, drew the bow, and shot an arrow.
Bang!
The silent, strong wind crushed Old Master Xue’s last counterattack.
The black particles scattered and disappeared into the air.
Listening to Old Master Xue’s pained howls, Yu Jiao calmly withdrew her hand.
—It was worth it to have specially added countless [Pain Amplification] buffs to the arrow.
…It was over.
After all this, Yu Jiao’s vision blurred. Yu Jiao collapsed, exhausted. Yu Jiao didn’t notice the sharp pain in the palm of her hand where she had touched Xue Zhu, and then, a vein-like thing bulged on her pale white forearm and, like a nimble snake, wound its way up her arm.
It finally stopped at Yu Jiao’s waist, coiling like a small snake, and then merged with the long, crescent-shaped red scar on her side.
There was no more strange movement.
…
Yu Jiao seemed to be always passing out, waking up, and passing out again.
When Yu Jiao woke up again, her body was sore and weak, a long-forgotten feeling of being an ordinary person.
Wei Changlin’s array had drained the power of the blood race, and with it, Yu Jiao had lost her white hair and red eyes, her vampire image. But strangely—
Yu Jiao pressed the tip of her tongue against her upper teeth, her expression strange.
…Why are my canine teeth still sharp? Though not as sharp and terrifying as when she was a vampire.
A creak interrupted her thoughts.
The door was pushed open. The outside was also pitch black. In this thick, deep-sea-like darkness, a person walked into the room and asked with a chuckle, “Awake?”
The person sat on the edge of the bed and placed a glass on the nightstand. The sweet smell of hot milk filled the air.
Yu Jiao wondered why he didn’t turn on the light, but she had more important things to ask. “How is 011? Is he alright? And Xie Yanchuan and Xie Zhenye? Are they still alive?”
“…”
An ominous silence spread.
A hand, as cold as raw iron, caressed Yu Jiao’s face, making her shiver.
“…Wei Changlin?”
Wei Changlin said darkly, “Why is the first thing you do when you wake up to care about them?”
Yu Jiao instinctively felt that something was wrong.
—Wei Changlin’s possessiveness was indeed very strong, but under her taming, he had already compromised a little. When Wei Changlin had seen her being intimate with Lin Qiuzhe before, his reaction had not been so extreme.
“What’s wrong with you?” Yu Jiao frowned and turned her head to avoid his hand.
But to her surprise, this act of retreat was like adding fuel to the fire. Wei Changlin seized her by the neck and pulled her closer, their breaths mingling.
“Do you hate being with me that much?”
Yu Jiao was full of questions. “Don’t be so emotional. I’m not—”
Wei Changlin suddenly kissed her, cutting off her unfinished words.
“Mmph!”
Wei Changlin’s kiss was not as gentle as before, as if he were trying to please her with his skills. This time, it was more like an outburst, a declaration of ownership.
Having lost her strength, Yu Jiao was no match for him and could only struggle weakly.
Wei Changlin pulled back slightly. “What? You hate it when I touch you? They can, but I can’t?”
Wei Changlin suddenly let out a very light laugh. “I forgot. He never touched you. Does his death make you feel particularly regretful? Hmm? Your heart is breaking, isn’t it?”
As Wei Changlin spoke, his cold fingers, through her nightgown, tapped her left breast.
“Enough. Stop talking,” Yu Jiao pushed him away, annoyed. “Calm down.”
“I am calm.”
Wei Changlin’s dark gaze seemed to be on her face. “Since you miss him so much, I’ll help you remember—”
Wei Changlin snapped his fingers.
Yu Jiao’s vision suddenly brightened. Yu Jiao had to close her eyes to ease the stimulation of the strong light.
Just then, the familiar sound of music, laughter, and clinking glasses entered her ears.
Yu Jiao opened her eyes, stunned.
“…”
This was the academy’s auditorium!
Everything was exactly as Yu Jiao remembered it. The large bed, the people looking down from above, the huge oil painting, and the school board sitting beneath it, and the blurry-faced twins.
And Yu Jiao was sitting on the bed at the bottom of the auditorium. Thinking of something, Yu Jiao immediately turned her head—
The demonic, beautiful young man was indeed standing at the other end, looking at her with a smile.
Xue Zhu’s chest was pale and strong… and intact.
Yu Jiao was a little stunned.
Suddenly, a broad chest pressed against her from behind. A hot, moist mouth and tongue enveloped her earlobe. Because of the biting and licking, Wei Changlin’s voice was a little sticky. “What? Are you happy?”
A nonchalant question, but as if he couldn’t control it, Wei Changlin bit down with a little more force.
Yu Jiao’s eyes grew cold. “This is your array.”
Wei Changlin let out a light laugh.
Wet kisses fell on the side of Yu Jiao’s neck, one after another.
“So what? Just let ‘him’ watch us like this…”
Wei Changlin’s skillful kisses made Yu Jiao’s face flush. Directly facing the ‘Xue Zhu’ not far away, Yu Jiao struggled violently. “You’re insane! Let me go!”
Wei Changlin snorted. “Be good. Otherwise—”
Wei Changlin snapped his fingers again.
Yu Jiao watched with wide eyes as ‘Xue Zhu’, like a string puppet, walked over, climbed onto the bed, and, with a large, cold, pale hand, pinned her struggling hands. ‘Xue Zhu’s’ dark phoenix eyes stared at her without blinking, quietly watching the young woman, under Wei Changlin’s torment, moan and cry.
However, at this moment, no one noticed that from the pink scar on Yu Jiao’s side, a small, snake-like shadow emerged and entered the hand of ‘Xue Zhu’, which was pressed against hers.