Chapter 165
Chapter 165
Time slowed in that moment. In an instant, Lu Yuanshi swept Xiao Huai into his arms and moved to the other side.
Xiao Huai’s pupils widened slightly.
Before he could speak, Lu Yuanshi asked with a shameless grin, “Did you miss me?”
Xiao Huai frowned. “Let go.”
Lu Yuanshi’s cool hands quietly encircled Xiao Huai’s waist.
At his words, Lu Yuanshi smiled faintly, lifted Xiao Huai’s shirt, and slipped a hand underneath.
The sudden touch of an icy hand against his lower abdomen made his muscles involuntarily tighten and tremble.
Xiao Huai was about to push him away when Lu Yuanshi exerted a little pressure and drew him back into his arms.
The cold touch unexpectedly eased much of the pain in Xiao Huai’s abdomen.
The two hid in the darkness. The monsters frantically searched the air for their scent, then lunged at them again.
Lu Yuanshi paid them no attention. Their speed could not begin to match his.
Even without light, Lu Yuanshi caught the confusion and suspicion in Xiao Huai’s eyes.
He leaned closer, the tip of his nose lightly brushing Xiao Huai’s bangs.
“Do you know the other way to become a vampire?” Lu Yuanshi whispered beside his ear.
His low, beguiling voice stirred ripples through Xiao Huai’s heart.
Xiao Huai raised his head to look at him. Because they were moving so quickly and standing so close, their lips almost met in the darkness.
Even Lu Yuanshi paused at that unexpected movement.
From the beginning, Follower No. 3 had never said that killing a player was the only way to become a vampire.
She had said it was *one of the ways to become a vampire*.
Lu Yuanshi slowly lowered his head, his lips very close to Xiao Huai’s collarbone.
“You only need to be bitten by a progenitor-class vampire.”
At that instant, Xiao Huai understood everything.
Lu Yuanshi had never belonged to the human faction. He was a vampire, yet he never appeared among the crowd.
Not because he did not want to, but because he could not.
Just like Edwin.
Neither of them had ever left the west wing.
Because they were both progenitor-class vampires.
“Do you want me to turn you?” Lu Yuanshi mischievously tightened his arms.
Lu Yuanshi was a vampire, and every vampire possessed an instinctive, overwhelming thirst for blood.
Xiao Huai turned his head aside, exposing the line of his neck like poison crafted to tempt him.
Though Xiao Huai had not intended it, Lu Yuanshi’s eyes still darkened.
A cool night breeze swept across the wilderness. His presence turned the blood-soaked moonlit night cold and clear.
Xiao Huai looked at Lu Yuanshi again.
His lips retained their flawless curve, just as they always had.
Everything seemed insignificant in his eyes, as if he could handle any matter perfectly.
As ever, calm and unruffled.
Xiao Huai’s lashes trembled. A seductive aura spread in countless threads from his eyes as he suddenly wrapped both arms around Lu Yuanshi’s neck.
At that moment, every sense expanded without limit and focused entirely on each other.
Xiao Huai’s hair brushed Lu Yuanshi’s cheek. They were very close.
The closeness felt warm, yet weighted with suffocating longing.
He mercilessly bit the right side of Lu Yuanshi’s neck. “An eye for an eye. I bit you first.”
Lu Yuanshi’s pupils widened, the smile on his face briefly replaced by stunned distraction.
Xiao Huai truly refused to yield even an inch.
Lu Yuanshi had intended to tease him for a while, but now found himself completely at a loss.
He knew Xiao Huai had agreed.
Lu Yuanshi lowered his head and tightened his embrace.
“It will hurt a little. Can you bear it?”
His voice sounded beside Xiao Huai’s ear.
Xiao Huai said nothing.
For one instant, Lu Yuanshi badly wanted to bite Xiao Huai’s lower lip. He merely imagined the sensation of blood from those lips flowing into his mouth.
The thought filled him with a strange… excitement.
But in the end, Lu Yuanshi lowered his head. His canine teeth brushed Xiao Huai’s collarbone before sinking into his neck.
The next second, a moan escaped Xiao Huai before he could guard against it.
But the sound was strange. It was not one of pain.
It held a trace of sweetness.
Lu Yuanshi froze for a moment. Then that sound struck like a torch, instantly igniting something inside him.
His movements grew increasingly unrestrained. He bit wantonly at the fragile skin, then, afraid of hurting Xiao Huai, gently licked the wound.
The sweetest comfort after pain was often the most devastating.
Xiao Huai’s left hand clutched tightly at Lu Yuanshi’s back.
It would have been better if Lu Yuanshi had simply let it hurt.
Xiao Huai bit down hard on his lower lip. At first, the bite sent enough pain through him to make his entire body tremble.
But later, it felt as though electricity swept over his skin, making his heart race in a strange way.
A faint haze covered Xiao Huai’s eyes, and the corners flushed red. His hand moved to Lu Yuanshi’s shoulder, tightening at some point without his noticing.
“Stop… It hurts.”
Xiao Huai’s voice called Lu Yuanshi back to himself.
Once a vampire began feeding, it was ordinarily very difficult to regain control.
But when someone as tolerant of pain as Xiao Huai said it hurt, Lu Yuanshi’s heart clenched and he stopped immediately.
His pale lips had been stained scarlet by Xiao Huai’s blood. His fathomless black eyes remained fixed on the man in his arms.
Xiao Huai’s eyes were closed, and his body trembled continuously.
He was undergoing the transformation.
The method by which a progenitor-class vampire transformed a human was the most primitive of all.
Once bitten, the human body began a process of change.
It was no less painful than having every bone shattered and replaced with a new one.
Xiao Huai had already curled into himself from the pain.
But in truth, pain was not the real reason he had asked Lu Yuanshi to stop. A strange feeling had arisen within him.
He did not want that feeling to continue for too long.
He had to leave.
Notifications began appearing on Xiao Huai’s System interface.
[Human player Xiao Huai has entered the bloodline of progenitor-class vampire Lu Yuanshi and will shortly leave the Corpse Cage.]
Through his fading consciousness, Xiao Huai saw Lu Yuanshi lift his head and look into the distance.
A terrifyingly powerful force descended in an instant.
Before Xiao Huai could see what had happened,
He dissolved into points of light and left the Corpse Cage.
* * *
Before Xiao Huai left, Edwin had intended to use his divine power to stop him directly.
But an immense pressure suddenly enveloped the entire space. Every vampire monster was instantly crushed into dust.
They vanished without spilling so much as a drop of blood.
Edwin froze, then abruptly turned and glared at Lu Yuanshi.
Outlined against the moonlight, Lu Yuanshi’s figure radiated a bone-deep chill. For one instant, Edwin’s heart raced wildly.
Edwin had always been the hunter.
But in that moment, he became an ant demoted to the very bottom of the food chain.
And the man before him was the predator at its absolute peak.
Impossible.
Edwin’s shoulders trembled, and his fingers curled faintly.
“What exactly are you…?” Edwin asked.
Lu Yuanshi walked toward him one step at a time, raising his eyes slightly with a smile.
“The same as you, naturally–”
Edwin froze.
But Lu Yuanshi added, “A progenitor-class vampire.”
Sweat inexplicably beaded on Edwin’s forehead.
That smile was even more false than his own.