The Blood Clan Counts as Undead Too
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Pearl Academy was in an uproar today.
What had happened that morning had already spawned countless versions of the story, spreading inside and outside the school. Mo Fan, already famous beyond measure, had practically become a figure of legend.
Amid the excitement, even more people were eagerly awaiting the final standings of the Nomination Competition.
But those who knew Mo Fan — including his three teammates — already understood: he would not be appearing in any further matches. He would soon be leaving Magic City, bound for the Ancient Capital, where fear and panic still gripped countless hearts.
At this moment, people were fleeing the Ancient Capital in droves. The Undead uprising had claimed too many lives. Some predicted it was the most horrific plague in over a thousand years; others insisted it was nothing more than troublemakers embellishing the story. But the most accomplished Hunter-Mages who had returned from that place refused to breathe a word about what they had witnessed, Zhu Meng — the very man who had proposed the Hidden Danger Strategy — had personally traveled to that forsaken site, and Military Mages were being redeployed with increasing frequency. All of it made clear that this was no empty rumor.
What exactly was happening in the Ancient Capital? No one could say.
Mo Fan wasn't going there to unravel some terrifying mystery. He was going to find someone — to find the companion he had grown up with side by side, to find the friend who had crossed a thousand li to search for him at Dongting Lake, even when Mo Fan himself had become something monstrous.
The two Spirit Essences he had bought by draining every last coin of his savings — Mo Fan still hadn't been able to bring himself to use them.
Yes. The text message had carried news of a death.
But for a friend like this, Mo Fan had one principle: see him alive, or see the body.
*That single short line cannot be a death sentence for my closest friend. It cannot mean he has simply vanished from this world. We both scraped our way out of the Bo City disaster by the skin of our teeth. We both learned, through blood and sacrifice, just how precious life truly is.*
*If he is truly dead — even if there is nothing left of him — I have to confirm it with my own eyes.*
*If he is alive — out there in some unknown corner, even buried in a boundless sea of Undead — I will carve a bloody path through and bring him back breathing. That is a promise between brothers. Zhang Xiaohou kept his end once.*
*Now it's my turn…*
Looking up at the prosperous city shrouded in black mist, walking along a long and winding street, Mo Fan found himself suddenly recalling something Ai Jiangtu had once said.
Military Mages carried their lives on the edge of a blade, walking hand in hand with the death that Demon-Beasts brought. Had Mo Fan never considered that a day like this might come for Zhang Xiaohou? Of course he had.
When Zhang Xiaohou had first chosen to enlist, Mo Fan had wanted to talk him out of it — but then the image surfaced: Zhang Xiaohou clinging to He Yu and sobbing until it sounded like his heart was being torn apart. In that moment, Mo Fan, as his older brother, had understood with perfect clarity that there was nothing he could say.
Over the years, Zhang Xiaohou had grown a great deal. Calm under pressure, unshaken in the face of savage Demon-Beasts — he had become an excellent Military Mage. And yet whenever he stood in front of Mo Fan, the guy reverted entirely to his younger self: eager to show off, hanging on Mo Fan's every word.
Mo Fan understood. The guy just wanted his big brother's approval.
The amber glow of the streetlamps fell across Mo Fan, stretching his shadow long and longer still…
It was deep into the night. This stretch of the city had only a scattered few neon signs and none of the usual noise — so quiet you could hear the footsteps of passing strangers.
Beneath the streetlamps, the amber light caught many things in its reach: cars left haphazardly parked, neatly tended roadside planters, the solitary silhouettes of pedestrians drifting by. But above the lamps — in the dimness beyond the light's reach, in the shadows where no one ever thought to look — a slender silhouette, almost too slight, stood like a daughter of the night, perched motionlessly atop a lamp post, silently watching the people below without making a sound.
Abruptly, the lone figure on the street stopped. He turned slowly, his gaze fixing on the blind spot above the lamp — a place that, to anyone else, was nothing but darkness.
"Don't forget — I have shadow abilities too." Mo Fan smiled, addressing the ethereal young woman perched above.
The woman startled, wheeling around as if to flee into the dark—
"Don't go." Mo Fan called out.
She stilled atop the post, swaying slightly — yet she still did not step out of the darkness, only watching Mo Fan with those bright, moon-like eyes that were unmistakably not human.
"I need your help," Mo Fan said.
"Me?" That soft, careful voice finally drifted down to him.
Mo Fan nodded.
In the darkness, the young woman seemed to light up with quiet delight — she nearly leapt down on the spot.
"What do you need me to do?" Her voice floated down through the night, carrying a strange, otherworldly lilt.
"I'm heading to the Ancient Capital. The place is crawling with terrifying Undead Creatures. And from what I know…" Mo Fan trailed off before finishing the thought.
"Vampires count as a type of Undead," the girl supplied.
"Right. So I'd like you to come with me." Mo Fan said sincerely.
"You're my elder — you only need to give the order." The girl seemed positively enthusiastic; her eyes were already sparkling.
"Alright… alright, then." Mo Fan still found that honorific unsettling every time he heard it.
At that moment, Liu Ru drifted slowly down from above. Even before she had become a Vampire, she had been quietly lovely — no doubt the object of many a neighborhood crush — but since joining the Blood Clan, her entire bearing had shifted in ways that were impossible to miss. Her figure was no longer the frail, delicate thing it had once been; she now occupied a space somewhere between girlish and womanly, touching both innocence and allure, her quiet elegance threaded through with an understated sensuality.
A fragrance trailed after her — the kind that reaches into a man before he realizes it, rising from skin alive with youth.
None of the deathly cold one expected of the Blood Clan was present in Liu Ru. In her, that quality simply did not exist. Instead, her transformation had layered mystery and quiet nobility over a girl who had once been entirely open and easy to read.
Captivating. Mo Fan had to admit it — Liu Ru now was far more captivating than the fragile version of her he had once known.
The thought of this woman slipping silently into his room every night, settling beside him and leaning close with those vivid, intoxicating lips drawing near — a rush of heat surged through Mo Fan before he could help it.
"What's wrong?" Liu Ru leaned in and asked softly.
"Ah — nothing. By the way, has any Vampire in Magic City been giving you trouble? If so, just say the word." Mo Fan quickly changed the subject, smothering his flustered state.
"There are some, actually. But they don't quite dare come into this territory anymore."
"What, is there a powerful Blood Clan member covering this district?" Mo Fan raised an eyebrow.
Liu Ru looked at him, her eyes blinking with perfect, guileless innocence.
"Wait — you're the one covering it?" Mo Fan caught on almost immediately, plainly surprised.
Liu Ru laughed, a little embarrassed.
Generally speaking, newcomers in the Blood Clan were the ones who got pushed around — and someone like Liu Ru, the very picture of a well-bred, gentle girl, would have been prime material for the established Vampires to toy with.
At first, Liu Ru had indeed faced constant harassment. Patient by nature, she endured. But after she endured, she found that the minor fiends only grew bolder.
There was nothing else for it. She had no choice but to fight back.
And when she did, Liu Ru discovered that her strength was actually quite considerable among the Blood Clan.