Chapter 742 - 691: All Dead! (3)
"Have you had enough?!"
The voice was like a booming bell, deafening. There was no need to see its owner; from this uniquely imperious sound alone, every vampire in the ancient castle knew who was speaking. Fanatical reverence immediately flooded their expressions.
"My Lord Earl!" they cried out, their voices overlapping in a wave of devotion.
In the next moment, everyone from the guards to the middle-aged man in the tailcoat and Aler—not even Leaman was an exception—trembled in awe. They all turned, dropped to one knee before the man emerging from the castle’s underground passage, and bowed their heads respectfully.
"The hair of the twelve Blood Kings. Give it to me," the handsome, middle-aged man commanded as he walked toward Leaman with rhythmic steps.
"Father!" Leaman stammered, swallowing hard in a panic as he kept his head low.
"The hair of the twelve Blood Kings. Give it to me," the man repeated calmly, his face devoid of emotion. However, the imposing aura that radiated from him without any hint of anger still exerted a suffocating pressure on the kneeling vampires.
"Yes, Father!" At Earl Geman’s reiteration, Leaman plunged a hand into his hair and yanked. Exactly twelve strands of blood-red hair now lay in his palm. With a trembling hand, he offered them forward. Although Earl Geman was his father, at that moment, Leaman felt a chilling pressure weighing down on his very spine.
Silently taking the twelve strands of hair, Earl Geman brought a finger to his lips and bit down lightly. A drop of blood, seemingly far more vibrant than a human’s, welled up. He then smeared it across the twelve hairs.
Three seconds.
Five seconds.
Ten seconds.
The entire castle hall plunged into a suffocating silence. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Every heartbeat and breath seemed amplified a thousandfold.
Unfortunately, even after more than ten seconds had passed, the twelve strands of hair showed no reaction.
With a flick of his finger, the twelve hairs scattered from Earl Geman’s hand. "They’re all dead," he stated blandly.
They’re all dead? If the words of the middle-aged man in the tailcoat weren’t enough to make Leaman face reality, then Earl Geman’s statement was more than sufficient to force him to accept the truth. The twelve Blood Kings... were gone. They were truly, completely annihilated!
"Father, I—! I—! I—!" A quivering sound escaped Leaman’s throat as he gulped convulsively. In that instant, his heart was filled with nothing but pure, unadulterated fear.
"It is not your fault. You simply made the right choice," Earl Geman said, exhaling softly. His stoic expression betrayed nothing. "Donald!" he suddenly called out in a low voice.
"My Lord Earl, this old servant is here!" the kneeling, tailcoat-clad middle-aged man replied at once, his voice trembling with fear and reverence.
"In my name, recall all core members of the vampire lineage! Tell them to return by the fastest means possible!" Earl Geman commanded.
"Yes, My Lord Earl! This old servant will see to it at once!" Donald acknowledged the order. As Earl Geman waved a dismissive hand with his back turned, Donald scrambled to his feet and sprinted away.
"Father, are we—are we going to?" Leaman’s breathing grew ragged as a realization dawned on him.
"I can create Low Level, Mid Level, and even High Level Vampires in batches. But the core members are the very bedrock of our vampire lineage. They cannot be allowed to perish at the hands of that man from Huaxia! If I’m not mistaken, he will be arriving in Sweden soon. Heh heh... The werewolves were also part of the alliance to attack him. Since they are our allies, they don’t get to just sit back comfortably and watch the tigers fight from a mountaintop!"
Earl Geman ended with a grim laugh. Before Leaman could respond, he took several quick strides forward. Pinching his fingers together, he flicked them forcefully toward the smooth wall.
WHOOSH!
A powerful blast of Qi Force shot out and slammed into the flat surface.
BANG!
As the Qi Force made contact, a three-inch-wide circular hole appeared straight through the wall. At the same time, the smooth surface began to emit a strange noise. It was no longer a wall but a screen connecting to a network.
KSHHH!
KSHHH!
After nearly half a minute of flickering static, an image finally materialized on the wall.
"Heh heh heh... Earl Geman. I never expected you to contact me. What is it? A problem?" On the screen, a scholarly-looking middle-aged man smiled. Looking at his face, who could imagine he was one of the four great dark titans of the world? Who could imagine this was the Wolf King, a being so notoriously brutal the entire world gave him a wide berth?
"Wolf King, what is the point of playing dumb?" Earl Geman countered with a dismissive smile, unfazed by the Wolf King’s taunting laugh.
"Indeed, there is no point. Earl Geman, regarding the recent plight of your vampire lineage, I must express my regrets. My deepest sympathies, truly," the Wolf King said, making a show of mourning when Earl Geman didn’t immediately state his purpose. In truth, he could barely conceal the schadenfreude he had been nursing for some time.
Although the werewolf and vampire lines had previously formed an alliance, both sides knew that a day would inevitably come when they would be at each other’s throats. After all, the cake was only so big, and it certainly wasn’t large enough to satisfy both of their appetites. Superpower Users rarely involved themselves in such resource disputes, and the mysterious, masked Shura was a phantom whose power base remained a complete enigma. Under these circumstances, it was clear that among the four dark titans, only the two of them were left to compete for resources.
Therefore, an inevitable, final battle between werewolves and vampires was always on the horizon. Now, seeing the vampire lineage’s strength so greatly diminished by Qin Fan’s purge, how could the Wolf King not revel in their misfortune?
"Wolf King, I know what you are thinking. If I were in your shoes, I would feel the same. So, I will not mince words. The man from Huaxia will find his way to Sweden soon. I need you to bring your men over," Earl Geman said, his face hardening.
"Earl Geman, are you telling me you’re afraid of him?" the Wolf King chuckled mockingly.
"This has nothing to do with whether I am afraid of him or not," Earl Geman replied, shaking his head without pretense. "I simply refuse to let you have it so easy."
"And what if I say no?" The Wolf King’s expression darkened, the corner of his eye twitching.
"Then I will lure him to Russia—straight into your werewolf heartland," Earl Geman said, the pretense of civility now tearing away. "The vampire lineage has suffered immense losses. It would be unjust for our allies to emerge completely unscathed."
Hearing this, a flash of anger crossed the Wolf King’s grim face, but it vanished as quickly as it came. From another perspective, if he were in Earl Geman’s position, he would likely do the same.
"HA HA HA!" The Wolf King’s anger was instantly replaced by a booming laugh. "Excellent! I will bring my most trusted subordinates to Sweden to rendezvous with you immediately!"