An old blood servant placed the stiff Yin Xuege onto his bed with great care. Face betraying a faint trace of worry, the servant anxiously rubbed his hands together and stared at the youth"s small pale face.

Among all of the young children of Yin, Yin Xuege had been the most genial of the bunch. Over the past several years, Yin Xuege had used what little power he"d possessed to shelter pitiful blood servants and blood slaves like himself. Every so often, the youth would come into conflict with his clansmen because he"d watch over them. To them, Yin Xuege was different from the rest of his people. So, no matter what, they would protect him like he had protected them.

The slightest movement sent mind-numbing pain arcing through Yin Xuege"s body as he lay on his bed. The broken bones rubbing against his back muscles only worked to worsen his suffering. But, he clenched his teeth against the pain and rotated his eyes until he could see the cabinet at the head of his bed.

The old blood servant trembled in understanding. Moving quickly, the old blood servant opened the doors to the cabinet and rummaged through the drawers until he found dozens of jade slip of different colors.

The jade slips symbolized the number of contributions he had made towards the clan. The different colors represented a different number of contribution or merit points. For example, light white represented one merit point, milky white two points, pink five points, and crimson ten points. On the other hand, blood-colored jade slips inlaid with a silver-veined pattern represented fifty points, while those inlaid with two silver-veined patterns represented a hundred points.

The highest value in his cabinet was pink with light white and milky white taking up the rest. Altogether, he had more than fifty points.

Yin Xuege, using all the energy he had left, nodded slowly to the old blood servant who was looking to him for further instruction. The movement, even as careful as it was, still sent a shock of pain through his body causing a trace of blood to slip from his mouth.

This situation proved that he had injured his yuan Qi, his base vitality. For an 11-year-old vampire, who had lost more than 50% of his blood supply in a single day, this was a serious injury. If he didn"t heal soon, half a year"s worth of practice achievements could be destroyed in an instant.

Seeing his earnest vision and the blood coloring his lip, the old blood servant quickly nodded, trembling as he collected 50 points" worth of jade slips from the drawer. When he was done only two milky white jade slips, or 4 merit points, were left behind.

After placing the jade slips in his sleeves, the old blood servant rushed out of the door with the speed of a younger self and hurried towards the family"s reward hall. After working decades in the Yin Clan, he knew exactly what Yin Xuege needed.

In the absence of the old blood servant, Yin Xuege took a small breath. The air he exhaled was light red due to Yin Jiwu"s shameless sneak attack that had frozen most of his bodily functions. As he was now, it would take him three to five months for him to completely recover. He was only a Fledgeling after all, yet to condense his first drop of vampire blood essence.

He also knew that except for the blood servants he"d sheltered over the years, no one else would look after him. He had no foundation, no background, and no one to depend upon in his clan. Not to mention the fact that he had, in one way or another, conflicted with Yin Xuejiao, Yin Xue"Ao, and many of the other direct descendants, meaning he had effectively offended every single clansmen of Yin.

The thought of his situation forced a heavy cough from him and more blood to escape from his lips.

When the episode was done, he, through the corner of his eye, looked out of his window to the red sky. The blood mist barrier still covered the entire city because sunlight was extremely lethal to the young children and the ordinary warriors of the clan.

Only when the curtain of night shrouded the land and the moon appeared would the blood mist dissipate, allowing light to shine on the city. He was waiting for that exact moment. If he wanted to recover, he would have to rely on the help of the moon.

Fifteen minutes pa.s.sed by the time the old blood servant returned to Yin Xuege"s small building, short of breath. Luckily, everything had gone smoothly. No one had made any trouble for him on his way back from the reward hall.

The old blood servant stepped into the house and softly shut the door behind him. Then, he walked towards Yin Xuege with an exquisite white jade bowl in hand. Like the bowl of blood essence the youth had taken earlier, this bowl contained a concoction made from the heart blood of a hundred people that had then been mixed together and strengthened with various types of medicinal plants. This bowl of blood essence had cost 50 merit points.

Careful not to spill a single drop, the old blood servant lifted the jade bowl to the youth"s lips.

A warm current surged through Yin Xuege as the liquid fell into his mouth and ran down his throat. Once it reached his stomach, the broken bones in his body made a "cluck-cluck" sound. Under the wriggling of his muscles, his bones began piecing themselves back together.

More time pa.s.sed and the warmth in the blood essence continued to circulate through his body, lessening his pain and dispelling the piercing chill from his body.

When he finally felt strong enough, he took a deep breath, forced a smile to the old blood slave, and said: "Old Anderson, you can"t stay here for too long. Otherwise, you"ll get in trouble!"

Anderson, the old blood servant, looked uneasily at Yin Xuege"s pale smile. His lips moved slightly as if to say something. But Yin Xuege"s firm look and quiet scolding forced him towards the door.

Ever since Yin Xuege could remember, he had protected the lowly blood servants and slaves. It was no doubt that this was part of the reason why he had been pushed aside by his fellow clansmen. But this was also the reason why the blood servants and slaves had been willing to look after him whenever possible.

But Yin Xuege could not risk letting his clansmen discover the sentiment he shared with Old Anderson and the rest of the blood servants and slaves. Far more than 100,000 blood servants and slaves vanished each year. He did not want Old Anderson to become one of them.

Old Anderson let out a dejected sigh.

"Merciful Master Xuege, may almighty G.o.d protect you!" he prayed in a low voice. After reaching out and making the sign of the cross above his chest, he lowered his head and walked out of the room.

Yin Xuege helplessly smiled at Old Anderson"s movement. In the west, which had been called the European continent dozens of years ago, the present charge for believing in the heresy that was the G.o.d of Light was quite severe. If any other clansmen had seen Old Anderson"s heretical actions, the old servant would immediately have been thrown into the evolutionary blood pool, offered as a sacrificial offering without a second thought.

With Old Anderson gone, Yin Xuege turned his head once more to the scarlet sky outside his window. Though, the color of it and the tumbling blood mist barrier bored him and made him want to vomit, he thought he could see the faces of a pair of old people: Old Han and Old Han"s wife. The old couple were pitiful blood servants that had been squeezed of everything they had by the clan. Before they had pa.s.sed away, they had taken care of him when he had been much younger than he was now.

It was because of those two old people that a remnant of goodness and kindness had still existed within his heart, despite his clan"s cruelty. But just when he had begun to grow sensible and gained the strength to take care of himself, the two suddenly disappeared. Although he had been young at the time, he knew that his clansmen had played a hand in their disappearance.

There were some things the elders didn"t seem willing to let him know.

"Sooner or later, I will find out the truth!" he whispered before making an effort to wipe the bloodstain from the corners of his mouth and then grasp the silver jade cicada hanging on his chest.

The pale silver jade cicada, about an inch long, had been made from a very rare and precious metal. The technique used to carve it seemed simple. But by only using a few simple knife strokes, the carver had been able to give the jade cicada spirit and intelligence, Even now, it seemed to be swaying in the wind. Furthermore, he had always felt like he could see rosy clouds dancing around and inside the carving. But whenever he tried to focus his eyes upon them, they disappeared causing him to belief that they had only been figments of his imagination.

As he continued to fiddle with the jade cicada, a faint trace of blood suddenly fell onto it. Hand shaking, he tried hard to wipe the jade cicada clean on his clothes. But he was still very weak and didn"t possess the strength to remove all of the blood, which upset him. Old Han and his wife had given this to him after telling him that it had been a treasure his mother had left to him. Although he had never seen his mother, he"d still had a place for her in his heart. As such, he had never let anything contaminate the jade cicada, not even his own blood.

"Yin Jiwu," he muttered, teeth clenched in anger as he continued wiping the cicada on his clothes, unaware that it had begun to absorb blood.

As the cicada quickly absorbed his blood, rosy clouds, exuding a mysterious aura inside the jade cicada, began to move in accordance to his breathing and the beating of his heart.

Meanwhile outside, the blood mist barrier thinned, faintly revealing the dark azure sky. High above the clouds, a silver, waning gibbous moon climbed the eastern horizon, spreading moonlight, clear as water, across the earth.

The blood parrot, like a devil overlooking the land, cut through the moonlit radiance. The countless vampire law talismans glittering across its blue-black surface captured Yin Xuege"s attention. But no sooner had two seconds pa.s.sed when two drops of blood trickled from his nose and fell towards the jade cicada.

This accident forced him to hastily lower his eyes. He did not dare look at the blood parrot again.

More than a hundred years ago, his clan had sacrificed a million blood slaves in order to tow that surveying secret treasure, which had been forged by some not well-known existence in the Upper Realm and transmitted to them using a cross-realm immortal technique. Each law talisman carved on the blood parrot contained the grand dao of Heaven and Earth, and infinite prestige. The law talismans were not something a young child like him had the qualifications to comprehend, even a look could result in serious injury.

As the jade cicada swallowed the two drops of blood that had fallen from his nose, causing the rosy clouds inside to grow faster and more nimble, Yin Xuege sat cross-legged on his bed and allowed the moonlight to cover his delicate body.

Once he was wrapped in silver radiance, various places in his small building began to sparkle with a light scarlet-veined pattern, a Monster Race seal, that isolated him from the outside world.

After being a.s.sured that he would be remain undisturbed, he waited for his heart to beat nine times, according to Fledgeling Palace"s secret skill inheritance, before deeply inhaling the moonlight into his mouth.

As he took in a deep breath, a barely visible wisp of silver mist separated from the rays of moonlight and flooded into his body. Because there were still some medicinal power left over from the bowl of blood essence, he was able to absorb more than 30% of the moonlight essence into his heart, making it grow stronger and more tenacious.

At the same time, the blood in his body attacked the scarlet palmprint on his back ceaselessly. Like ocean waves crashing into a reef, the impact of blood energy could not shake the scar. Just as he had expected, it would take months for him to heal from this kind of injury.

Unable to remove that scarlet palmprint, the blood essence and moonlight essence in his belly began to alleviate his pain and remove the yin evil Qi from his injury, making him feel more comfortable.

As time continued to pa.s.s, light azure moonlight grew to cover his body. Underneath its asylum, he immersed in an elusive realm, free of all distracting thoughts and of all bodily feelings.

While in this state of pure emptiness, the silver jade cicada moved quietly. As if sensing the pain and damage the scarlet palmprint brought to him, an inch long rosy cloud wrapped in a silver light burst forth from the cicada and gently brushed against his back. Immediately, the scarlet palmprint sent out a wail before suddenly vanishing into thin air. Then, the silver rosy cloud circled the air around him, healing his injuries, restoring him to peak condition.

Yin Xuege, still in a state of emptiness, thought he could hear the bright cry of a cicada, which shook his soul. Before he could awaken, however, a mighty current, enormous and powerful, rushed in from the top of his head and spread to all of his blood vessels.

A "pā pā" sound could be heard as the current removed the silt clogging his meridians and acupoints, binding him in a thick layer of black and red dirt that was being removed through his pores.

Soon, a clear and incorrigible voice quietly sounded in his mind.

"Cicadas are n.o.ble and pure. They float beyond the Heavens, free of mortal dust. After being dormant for three years, their cries startle the entire world."

With this sound, all of the dirt on his body vanished in a haze of silver light, revealing delicate jade-like skin. Different from his clansmen"s innately pale skin, his now carried a faint trace of color. Furthermore, countless tiny silver immortal seal scripts had begun snaking around his flesh until they gradually centralized in his internal organs. Forming a silver brook, the immortal seal scripts washed the yin Qi and blood evil Qi from his body. The vitality of life, hiding deep beneath his vampiric essence, was gradually being uncovered like a treasure being chiseled from stone.

Between his chest and abdomen, the countless immortal seal scripts condensed into an infinitely wondrous magic formula — autumn cicada concealment technique!

The technique did not require him to practice. Functioning independent of his control him, the seal scripts thoroughly covered up the unusual changes of his body like a cicada in autumn hiding thousands of feet beneath the earth. No matter what effort anyone might later use, no one would be able to ascertain a slight hint of his transformation.

Yin Xuege, knowing nothing of the changes to his body, continued to absorb moonlight essence, except his efficiency was now thousands of times stronger. What was more astounding was that the core of his essence had changed from his heart to the dantian in his lower abdomen, which was now absorbing huge amounts of moonlight essence.

30% of the moonlight essence that remained, after being purified and made more concise, flowed into his heart. Until gradually, a thumb size drop of vampire blood essence took shape.

With a “tick-tock” sound faintly lingering on, 36 more drops of azure blood essence formed one after another. These azure blood essences caused all of his bones, meridians, blood vessels, muscles, and internal organs to rub against each other, repeatedly tempering one another, enhancing his physical strength by leaps and bounds.

At this moment, underneath the light of the moon, no one knew that an earth-shaking transformation was quietly taking place.

Translator Suyi->