Chapter 1 Prying Bar's Choice

Prying Bar looked at Fang Senyan with a venomous gaze, tightly gripping the crucifix. He ran his thumb along its edge, drawing a cut, and let the blood seep in. His mental strength poured in along with it. The crystal surface of the crucifix shattered like a spiderweb where the blood touched, and the black mist within surged, rising into the sky. It formed a human figure, descending and quickly solidifying into a man.

A European gentleman in his middle years, with blond hair, a black tailcoat, a bow tie, and a small mustache.

His face was pale, but his lips were an unusually vibrant red, giving him a sickly, fluttering air. He glanced around, then bowed slightly to Prying Bar, with the refined manners of a sixteenth-century European aristocrat.

"Though it is quite rude to say so, it is only natural for a traveler who has been starved for seven years and two months to be eager to return home. Thank you for rescuing me from that dark place. Sadly, I must bid you farewell."

The man's voice was deep and pleasant. Listening to him speak was like hearing the lilting notes of a harp, full of aristocratic charm.

"Stop!" Prying Bar gasped. His mental strength was completely depleted, but his voice held an unpredictable, chilling edge. "Mr. Edward, I'm afraid you'll have to delay your return. Otherwise, you won't just fail to get home; you'll spend another seven years and two months in another dark place!"

The vampire Edward's face darkened. He suddenly noticed the old crucifix still in Prying Bar's hand! He could only shrug and say,

"Very well, sir. State your wish."

Prying Bar pointed at Fang Senyan and snarled,

"Kill him! Now!"

The vampire Edward tilted his head, looking at Fang Senyan.

"This man... is shrouded in a fog of destiny. I cannot see through him. Therefore, I cannot guarantee that I can kill him in five minutes. If you still require my assistance after five minutes..."

Here, Edward suddenly gave a greedy, sinister smile, shattering his aristocratic facade. He opened his mouth wide, revealing his two incredibly sharp fangs and a scarlet, pointed tongue!

"Then you shall offer your flesh and blood! Each offering allows me to linger in this world for an additional five minutes. Two offerings... you need not know the answer, for you will surely be dead by then!"

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Fang Senyan was panting.

He had seventeen or eighteen wounds all over his body. He seized every opportunity to gasp for air, the sound of his breathing audible in his throat. The vampire's attacks were like a whirlwind. Fang Senyan's mere 10 points of agility were utterly inadequate; he had no room to resist. He had repeatedly tried to rush forward and capture Prying Bar, the leader, but that only exposed more weaknesses, leading to the vampire's frantic attacks!

But his eyes were deep, burning, and filled with a determination as firm as towering mountains.

The vampire's phantom flitted around him, its sharp claws and teeth as keen as honed blades!

Fortunately, vampires are not known for explosive power; their vitality and combat recovery are what they are famous for. Furthermore, there was the 40% rule to contend with, but Fang Senyan was still fighting with extreme difficulty. Even against a vampire who had been imprisoned alive for eighty-six months, even against a very weak vampire who could only fight with its bare hands!

In the distance, Prying Bar was leaning against a tree, almost collapsing, his face covered with horrifying wrinkles, as if he had aged thirty years in an instant. To maintain the vampire Edward's frantic attacks, he had unhesitatingly allowed the vampire to drink his blood once! And he must have had some recovery items, allowing him to stand weakly and watch the battle with a venomous gaze.

The vampire swept past like the wind again. The only thing Fang Senyan could do was cross his arms to protect his vital points and leap to the side. But the price was still steep: a chill ran down his back as a large piece of flesh was torn away. Although the vampire summoned by Prying Bar was indeed weakened by the 40% rule and had spent long years imprisoned in hunger, it was still a monster that should not have appeared in this world, a high-level legendary creature reaching tier two!

Each successful attack took nearly 15 points of Fang Senyan's life. This number seemed small, but when converted, the vampire's theoretical attack power was as high as 80-90 points! Because it was summoned by a contractor, it was considered to belong to the contractor's camp by default. Therefore, when attacking contractors, it first suffered a 40% reduction from the rules, then Fang Senyan's terrifying 37% damage reduction, and finally, Fang Senyan's talent, Resilience, forcibly deducted 25 points! Only then was the actual damage reduced to around 15 points.

If it were Das, he wouldn't last ten seconds under the vampire's hands!

"Hmm... fourteen seconds left, until ten minutes." Fang Senyan, who was only defending and not attacking, had been struggling under its frantic assault for almost ten minutes. His advanced basic ability, Grappling Combat Lv2, played a significant role in this.

In addition, although the vampire, already extremely weak, attacked quickly, it had been imprisoned for an extremely long seven years. It always had to pant, rest for a few seconds, or even ten-odd seconds, before it could attack again. Moreover, the damage it inflicted on Fang Senyan was too low, so it could not absorb much life force from it, greatly limiting the frequency of its attacks.

Another factor was Fang Senyan's current life recovery speed of 15 points per minute, plus the temporary 25% increase in life recovery speed from drinking endless strong vodka. His actual life recovery speed was 19 points, which meant that Fang Senyan had additionally recovered 190 points of life within ten minutes!

Therefore, although Fang Senyan was covered in blood and his vision was fading, he still firmly believed that he could win, that he could persevere to the end!

Even at this point, close to the brink of despair, Fang Senyan's eyes burned fiercely, carrying not only determination but even madness. A fierce, untamed beast seemed to reside in his soul and bloodline, appearing in times of crisis and hardship to support his indomitable will and faith! The feeling was like a towering peak, impossible to be toppled!

The vampire's tailcoat fluttered slightly. The terrifying creature tilted its head, gracefully shaking its bloodstained index finger.

"Oh, child, I truly dislike that look in your eyes."

Then, its black, elongated figure suddenly stirred like a whirlwind, seeming to surge from all directions. The pair of terrifying, razor-sharp hands multiplied, one became two, two became ten, ten became a hundred, a hundred became a thousand, instantly filling Fang Senyan's entire pupil. Then, the thousand would become a hundred, the hundred would become ten, and the ten would converge into one, whistling past like before, inflicting grievous injuries.

This was the only ability that the vampire Edward could use in his weakened state, and it was incredibly powerful. The last attack had penetrated deep into Fang Senyan's internal organs, almost tearing his stomach out! But at this moment, Fang Senyan closed his eyes. His right hand, gripping the boning ax tightly, did not tremble in the slightest. Suddenly, he parried towards his own throat!

With a soft "clang," Fang Senyan was sent flying five or six meters, but he immediately did a back roll and got up. Three deep bloody marks appeared on his throat, and blood spurted out, creating a gruesome image of a slit throat! In reality, it was just a superficial wound. His gaze, like two red-hot nails, pierced deeply into the vampire's body!

"I have seen through your move! This trick will no longer threaten me!"

Fang Senyan, with a mere 10 points of agility, actually declared decisively that he had seen through the vampire's move. This was obviously impossible. After all, the vampire Edward's agility must have been the current world limit of 50 points. If it could be seen through so easily, then the meaning of personal attribute points would become a joke. The reason he was able to block successfully was because he had caught several details.

One of these details was the ground.

Fang Senyan and the vampire had been fighting all the way, initially in the dense forest and bushes, so the ground was covered with dead branches and fallen leaves, leaving no traces. But as the battle intensified, Fang Senyan had slowly guided the vampire onto a muddy road.

Although the vampire had high agility, it did not mean that it could perform qinggong (light body technique) to walk on water without leaving a trace. In fact, even if a vampire wanted to fly, it had to transform into a bat. Fang Senyan could not keep up with the vampire's speed, but he could judge its movements from the vampire's footprints on the ground.

In addition, the vampire Edward had been starving for a full seven years and two months. The place that its greedy, thirsty gaze was fixed on was most likely where it would attack next. The reasoning was simple: it craved to see the warm, surging blood spurt out!

Combining these two major factors, plus the fact that Fang Senyan had already figured out some techniques for fighting vampires and Edward's personal attack habits, he seized the opportunity at this final moment to avoid the terrifying claw shadow. He spoke those words to create a false impression, making the vampire feel that he was unfathomable.

...............

There will be more later in the evening.... By the way, did no one guess that Prying Bar was a double agent? I seemed to have given a lot of hints. (If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)