CA - Chapter 222
Chapter 222
The appearance of the blood mist signified that the blood pool had entered a defensive state. The white-haired vampire walked toward the blood pool step by step, enduring the immense pressure. His eyes bulged as if they were about to pop out of their sockets. Under the intense pressure, his bone staff cracked and disintegrated into dust with a bang.
The white-haired vampire let out a roar, quickly took out a dagger, and slit his wrist. Blood emerged, floating around him as he began to chant an incantation in a low voice.
The vampire who had been checking on Sunny saw this and hurriedly rushed over. He too slit his wrist, using his own blood as a catalyst, and rapidly chanted a spell.
The predecessors of the Tzimisce clan were dark mages. Even after being transformed into vampires, they never abandoned the magical arts they had always studied. Because vampire blood contained endless energy, the spells they cast using blood as a catalyst were even more powerful.
The two most powerful blood spells barely managed to withstand the oppressive force emanating from the blood pool, finally giving the white-haired vampire a chance to approach the blood mist.
The gray-haired vampire, who had been observing from a safe distance, was somewhat astonished to see the two Tzimisce fighting so desperately. "Even if you manage to rescue that little Gangrel vampire, she won't survive," he said.
Why try so hard?
The white-haired vampire was concentrating on dealing with the blood mist and had no mind to pay attention to what the gray-haired vampire was saying. Of course, if he had heard him, he would have just rolled his eyes in secret.
They weren't fighting so desperately to save the little vampire. Whether the person inside lived or died had nothing to do with them. What they cared about was the blood of Prince Bernard that had fallen in and the blood pool that they had created with the full strength of their clan.
If either of these was lost, the Tzimisce clan could forget about continuing to expand its influence among the vampires.
Although only half a vial of Prince Bernard's blood remained, the energy it contained was extraordinary. Logically, any vampire who fell into the blood pool with it should have exploded and died within a second.
But not only had that vampire not exploded, the blood pool had even deployed its blood mist. The moment the white-haired vampire saw the mist appear, his sense of unease reached its peak.
I must break this blood mist... The white-haired vampire gritted his teeth, pressed his palm against the mist, and roared madly, "Break for me..."
As his voice faded, the blood mist exploded with a bang. The white-haired vampire failed to dodge in time and was splattered with droplets of blood, but he had no time to wipe them away. He stared intently at the blood pool, only to find it completely empty. The Gangrel vampire was long gone. The weight in his heart finally lifted.
He slowly let out a sigh of relief. A smile was just beginning to form on his lips when it froze midway. His chest felt empty, and a sudden pain twisted his expression. He slowly looked down to see a slender, pale hand pulling out of his chest, clutching his heart.
"You..." He looked up in disbelief at Lucille, who had appeared before him at some unknown moment. The shock made his expression utterly ferocious. "How is this possible... Why aren't you dead..."
The energy in Prince Bernard's blood was too immense. Lucille could absorb it, but she couldn't fully digest it in such a short time. Conspicuous red cracks had appeared on her exposed arms and neck. Her thoughts were in chaos. Annoyed by the vampire's shrill voice, Lucille's patience wore thin, and she directly crushed the heart in her hand.
The corpse fell heavily to the ground. The vampire behind him still didn't know what had happened. In the blink of an eye, a sharp pain shot through his chest. He wretchedly dodged Lucille's attack, staring at her with the same disbelief. "Second generation... This is the aura of a second generation... How is this possible..."
"Why can you break the law..."
The sudden turn of events was too abrupt. One moment, the gray-haired vampire was lamenting Lucille's misfortune; the next, the blood mist had exploded, and the white-haired vampire was dead, his heart crushed.
He watched all of this, dumbfounded. It wasn't until Lucille started fighting the other man that the gray-haired vampire snapped back to reality and quickly took out his quill.
"...This-this is a miracle." Overcome with excitement and agitation, the gray-haired vampire's hand, holding the quill, trembled uncontrollably. "A vampire has broken the law..."
He stared intently at Lucille, and a flash of inspiration struck his mind. His eyes widened, and he let out a strange cry, "A hybrid... She's a hybrid."
The gray-haired vampire lowered his head and began writing furiously in his book. In his excitement, his emotions were so heightened that he broke two quills. "A hybrid... This is the hybrid born from the union of a human and a vampire that I spoke of..." While writing, the gray-haired vampire kept his eyes on Lucille. When he saw her arm get slashed and red blood flow out, his eyes lit up. "A hybrid actually bleeds red blood like a human, yet she possesses the immense power of a vampire."
"Incredible, truly incredible."
"This trip was not in vain," the gray-haired vampire said, laughing loudly as he recorded his observations.
A cold wind suddenly gusted in his face. The gray-haired vampire had just finished writing the last word when he looked up to find Lucille right in front of him. The almost suffocating pressure sobered him up a little. His book and quill fell to the ground. He raised both hands and said weakly, "Hey, we're friends. Wake up. You're not going to kill me, are you?"
All three of the third-generation Tzimisce had been killed by Lucille. The gray-haired vampire craned his neck for a look, and his heart tightened. "Don't kill me. We got along pretty well these past few days."
Lucille's right hand was covered in dark red blood, which made her extremely uncomfortable. The only thought in her mind was to kill everyone who saw her. She stared coldly at the gray-haired vampire and was about to raise her hand to finish him off when her peripheral vision caught a white figure rushing toward them from a distance. She paused and turned her body slightly.
The powerful impact sent Lucille staggering back dozens of meters before she stopped. Tang Qiu grabbed Lucille's arm, pulling her behind her, and stared warily at the gray-haired vampire.
The familiar scent slowly eased Lucille's tense nerves. The red cracks on her neck and arms were starkly clear, making her look as if she were covered in wounds from a distance.
"Are you hurt?" Tang Qiu asked with concern, slightly relieved to see that Cynthia and the others had also arrived. She turned to check on Lucille's condition.
As her tension eased, Lucille found it hard to stand. She grabbed Tang Qiu's arm, shook her head slightly, and said with a pale face, "No." She paused, looking down at her own hand, and frowned. "But the blood is gone."
Lucille had no obvious injuries, but the red cracks looked terrifying. Tang Qiu reached out and gently touched a crack on her neck, frowning as she asked, "What's going on?"
Before Lucille could answer, a voice came from behind them.
"It looks like an excess of energy that the body can't absorb, hence the cracks. It will take time to digest." Cynthia stood behind Tang Qiu, observing Lucille carefully for a moment before raising an eyebrow. "What's with your companion? A second-generation Gangrel? She looks unfamiliar."
Cynthia's words startled Tang Qiu. She grabbed Lucille's wrist to feel her power more closely and said in astonishment, "Second generation?"
Lucille rested her head on Tang Qiu's shoulder, brought Tang Qiu's wrist to her lips, and bit down to drink a few mouthfuls of blood. Feeling the turmoil inside her gradually calm, she closed her eyes wearily, pointed toward the blood pool, and said in a low voice, "Prince Bernard's blood and I fell into that pool together."
Cynthia followed her finger and looked, her eyes narrowing as she walked toward the blood pool.
The arrival of Cynthia's group had saved the gray-haired vampire's life. Seeing both Cynthia and the Elf Queen, his scalp tingled. Forgetting all about hybrids and laws, he turned and tried to sneak away.
The surviving fourth and fifth-generation Tzimisce had the same idea.
They scattered in different directions to escape, but they only made it a few hundred meters before vines erupted from the ground, ensnared them, and threw them back. Olivia turned her head to look at the gray-haired vampire's retreating back. With a slight movement of her finger, a vine shot out from the ground toward him, but it was intercepted midway by a beautiful vampire who appeared suddenly.
The beautiful vampire stood before Olivia and said nonchalantly, "I don't care if you kill the Tzimisce, but Ernest is one of the few remaining second-generation elders of the Malkavian clan. Spare his life."
Behind the beautiful vampire, the gray-haired vampire nodded frantically. "I saw nothing, I know nothing. I'm just going to go home and sleep. Let me go."
A truce had been signed, so insisting on killing a second-generation elder was indeed unjustifiable. Olivia frowned, snorted coldly, and retracted the vine.
The gray-haired vampire gave the beautiful vampire a grateful smile, then turned and quickly left this dangerous place.
Although the Tzimisce were somewhat weaker compared to the orthodox vampire clans, a third generation was still a third generation; they couldn't be killed so easily, no matter how weak. The beautiful vampire's gaze swept over the corpses on the ground, then turned to the vampire responsible for it all—an unfamiliar second-generation Gangrel.
This was truly strange. There was actually a second-generation vampire she didn't recognize.
Her interest piqued, the beautiful vampire started walking toward Lucille.
The white wolf, who had been circling nearby to keep an eye on her, saw her approaching Tang Qiu and shot out, blocking her path.
"Don't go over there," the white wolf warned, lowering her body and baring her teeth. "Just stand right there and don't move."
When the beautiful vampire saw the white wolf run out, the corners of her mouth curved up slightly, and her fleeting interest in Lucille vanished completely. "You won't let me pass? Fine." She stroked her chin, looked around, then reached out, grabbed the white wolf's tail, and began dragging her elsewhere. "Long time no see. Let's go over there and have a private chat."
Having her tail pulled made the fur on the white wolf's neck stand on end. She raised a paw to strike the vampire, but she dodged it nimbly. The white wolf let out a low growl, turned, and pounced. The two of them immediately started fighting in a nearby open space.
The commotion from their fight was too great. Olivia, having dealt with the other vampires, glanced over and promptly used vines to enclose them in a battlefield, preventing them from affecting anyone else.
After doing this, Olivia's gaze searched the surroundings before she walked toward Cynthia. Following her line of sight, she looked down at the blood pool and asked with interest, "So this is the Tzimisce blood pool?"
Cynthia nodded. She handed the small black bottle in her hand to Olivia and said thoughtfully, "This is the bottle that held Prince Bernard's blood."
Olivia took it for a look and frowned. "It's empty?"
"It was absorbed by that little vampire."
This... Olivia turned her head to look at Lucille, her eyes filled with inquiry.
Tang Qiu, who was wiping the bloodstains from Lucille's palm, sensed their probing gazes and took the initiative to walk over and explain, "Lucille is not quite like an ordinary vampire."
She briefly explained the concept of a hybrid, then looked down at the small black bottle in Olivia's hand. "This bottle of Prince Bernard's blood was teleported here with us."
Just like Cynthia's Staff and the Light Crystal, the Prince Bernard's blood from their own era must have temporarily vanished.
"Hybrid?" Cynthia glanced at the Tzimisce corpses, her eyes turning cold. "You're saying their clan still hasn't given up on finding a way to break the law, and is even using humans to create hybrids?"
Tang Qiu nodded. "And they've already succeeded. One Tzimisce even used a hybrid to partially break the law." She glanced at Lucille and added, "However, that Tzimisce was already dead before we were teleported here."
The blood pool had expended too much dark power to transform Prince Bernard's blood. The bloody water flowed slowly, occasionally gurgling as a string of bubbles rose to the surface.
Cynthia's gaze flickered to the blood pool, her eyes darting around. She suddenly reached out and took Cynthia's Staff from Tang Qiu's hand. She aimed the staff at the blood pool and began to chant a spell.
Pure Power of Light flooded into the blood pool. The bloody water struggled, trying to escape, but the golden light was overwhelming. Before long, the pool stopped struggling and slowly dried up.
Cynthia retracted the staff, let out a soft chuckle, and said lightly, "Without the blood pool, all their research is just a waste of effort."
Transforming Prince Bernard's blood required the blood pool. With just a moment's thought, Cynthia had guessed the original purpose of the teleportation array that Tang Qiu and the others had stumbled into.
Seeing Cynthia's action, Tang Qiu was confused at first, but then a look of understanding flashed across her face. She shook her head and gave a wry smile, feeling a bit emotional. Eden would probably go to his grave never knowing why his clan's blood pool was destroyed.
The teleportation array was prepared by Eden for himself, so that one day he could take Prince Bernard's blood back to a time before the blood pool was destroyed, using it to help him successfully break the law and become a second or even first-generation vampire.
But by a twist of fate, it ended up benefiting Lucille instead.
However... Tang Qiu could react so quickly because she had experienced it all. It was quite astonishing that Cynthia could deduce it from so little information.
Ever since she had transmigrated, Tang Qiu had acted with caution, worried about what impact she might have on the future five thousand years later. Therefore, she had revealed very little information to Cynthia.
Cynthia returned the staff to Tang Qiu. Seeing her thoughtful expression, she chuckled reassuringly. "Don't worry, the future isn't so easily affected."
Although Tang Qiu's group was quite strong, this era was not lacking in powerful individuals. Without the backing of a clan or a network of contacts spanning the continent, they couldn't influence the already established situation in just a few days.
Only the people of this era could affect the future five thousand years from now.
The decision was Cynthia's, and had nothing to do with Tang Qiu.
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