Heart of the Vampire

Vampire Konstodorf had no defense against the sudden whirlwind that caught him off guard. Blown off the ground, despite being just a dozen centimeters high, the force of the gale completely rendered his body uncontrollable.

Struggling within the whirlwind, he attempted to break free from its restraint. He felt the loosening of the gale's power, knowing that this loss of control wouldn't last long, at most a breath or two. After all, the gap in strength between Li Wei and him was substantial.

However, at this moment, there was a considerable distance between Li Wei and him—just one or two breaths of time were enough to decide life or death.

As the Gale Rending Slash unfolded into a whirlwind the moment it emanated from the knife, Li Wei took a fierce step forward. Another slash was executed. Zhang Xi, under the control of the gale, was utterly powerless to defend and unable to dodge.

As the white light flashed, and the wind gradually subsided, Zhang Xi's head and body had already separated.

After completing the beheading strike, Li Wei immediately turned around, prepared for any eventuality. Once bitten, twice shy; he was worried that the vampire might rise again.

After a moment, there was no movement from the vampire's head and headless body. However, Li Wei remained cautious.

Stepping back two more paces, he somewhat unsteadily picked up his handgun from the ground, filled with a magazine containing seven light-moment patterned bullets. He had no intention of approaching the vampire's body. First, he aimed three shots at the head and four shots at the body, then swapped the magazine with the last one containing only six bullets and fired another round.

At this point, he had expended all the light-moment patterned bullets obtained from Irene. Seeing no reaction from Zhang Xi's head and body after thirteen shots, it seemed that the guy was truly dead.

Approaching cautiously, Li Wei kicked Zhang Xi's head with his foot and gave the body a kick as well, confirming that there was no way the guy could spring back to attack him.

It seemed that replenishing ammunition was an unnecessary action. The thirteen not-so-cheap bullets were seemingly wasted. However, Li Wei didn't regret it at all. Given the chance, he would do the same again.

This was his first time fighting against a supernatural being like a vampire, and he had nearly suffered a great loss due to his lack of understanding of the opponent's characteristics. With this lesson, why repeat the same mistake? Eliminating all risks was what a mature warrior should do.

Twisting his shoulder, he felt a slight weakness in his body. Despite the numerous wounds caused by the vampire's claws, they weren't fatal under his defense. However, the vampire's unique method of attack had still caused him a lot of trouble—he noticed that the wounds on his body had stopped bleeding.

This didn't indicate healing; quite the opposite, the vampire's attacks clearly involved extracting fresh blood. In the previous battle, every drop of blood that flowed from his body turned into blood mist, absorbed by Zhang Xi. This led to a more severe blood loss situation for Li Wei than in a normal fight.

The numerous small, pale wounds on his body indicated that his current physical condition was quite bad. He clearly felt a sense of light-headedness, a sign of anemia. If there were any more enemies at this point, it might be difficult for him even to escape.

However, looking around, it seemed that this problem was not something he needed to worry about. The underlings of Zhang Xi, the Skeleton Gang members, except for the few knocked down by Li Wei, had all fled.

He also checked the six people he shot, discovering some clues—they had extremely pale skin, pupils not like ordinary people, more like vertical slits. Opening their lips, he could see that their canine teeth were significantly sharper and longer than those of regular humans.

These were characteristics of blood slaves.

Li Wei suddenly realized why, when all the henchmen were panicking after he took down Zhang Xi with seven shots, these six people could react so quickly.

It turned out they were the blood slaves developed by Zhang Xi.

In this world, gain came at the expense of loss.

If it weren't for Li Wei's generous use of the light-moment patterned bullets, which had a restraining effect on dark creatures, the bullets stored in the gun after the battle would have made the fight even more challenging. After all, if regular bullets were used, it might take more than one shot to take down a blood slave.

Returning to his senses, Li Wei was ready to collect his spoils of war.

First was the vampire's head, which he definitely needed to take. Submitting a hunting request required proof of the kill.

And on the vampire's body, there were three more attractive trophies.

One was the bat wings; the second was the fangs; and the third was the heart.

A vampire's bat wings were extraordinary materials that could be used to make some super-powered items.

The six fangs from the blood slaves and the vampire, along with the bat wings, could probably be exchanged for a D-grade optimization fluid.

But the most valuable part on its body was the heart.

Unlike humans, vampires didn't rely on the beating of the heart to maintain blood flow. They had the ability to control blood directly.

However, they still had a "heart." The heart in the chest was the essence and concentration of a vampire's power.

After putting away the fangs and bat wings, Li Wei began dissecting Zhang Xi's body. His movements were quick, aiming to avoid any trouble.

Although law and order in the lower district of Wisdom City were notoriously poor, the police station might still show up at the scene given the scale of this incident. Dissecting the vampire's body was something Li Wei didn't want to be caught doing.

The vampire's body was extremely cold—another one of their characteristics. Despite the significant differences in body structure compared to humans, the heart was relatively easy to find.

Soon, the vampire's heart was presented before Li Wei. It was a blood-red organ, resembling the appearance of a human heart. Li Wei picked it up, and the chilling touch made him shudder.

Suddenly, he felt a dampness on his palm. Lowering his head, he saw that the hand holding the vampire's heart was covered in fresh blood!

What was even more eerie was that he clearly saw the blood didn't stay on his hand for long. It seemed as though his skin acted like a piece of blotting paper, allowing the blood to permeate beneath his skin and into his body.

This situation was somewhat horrifying!

In a panic, Li Wei immediately threw the vampire's heart aside. However, even though no more fresh blood was oozing out, he didn't know what to do with the blood that had already entered his body.

"This can't be some kind of curse, right?" Li Wei was a bit frightened. He even speculated whether the vampire hadn't actually died, but instead, its soul was residing in the heart, preparing to take over his body.

However, he quickly dispelled these gloomy thoughts.

The reason was simple— he felt warmth in his chest. It was the movement of the Book of Ten Thousand Laws.

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