National Guardian's Gone and We're Done

”Where are you taking me?”

Xiao Cangqing, who had been bracing himself for another round of torture, hadn’t expected to be hauled out of the underground prison by two Martial Artists who radiated a cold, sinister aura.

When the warm sunlight once again shone on his body, which reeked of rot and filth,

Xiao Cangqing felt as if a lifetime had passed. It was as though he hadn’t seen the warm sun in hundreds, or even thousands, of years.

The underground prison was located in a rather remote area.

Above it, the grass was a lush green, surrounded by numerous tall, stately trees,

making the place look like a resort park.

Xiao Cangqing took several deep, forceful breaths of the fresh air.

’Have the members of this Vampire Clan decided there’s no more value to squeeze out of me, so they’re going to execute me?’

’But if they were going to kill me, why take me out of the prison?’

’Why not just finish the job down there?’

Xiao Cangqing was thrown onto the lawn, where he could even smell the faint fragrance of the grass roots.

A Martial Artist brought over a pressure washer and sprayed it directly at Xiao Cangqing’s body,

quickly cleaning off all the grime.

During this process, the Mysterious Power also repaired Xiao Cangqing’s body, restoring him to his peak condition.

Over this period, Xiao Cangqing’s body had been used by the Vampire Clan as one of many test subjects,

injected with numerous new types of Mysterious Power, which had actually increased his strength.

However, he knew very well that the Vampire Clan would never be so kind as to help him grow stronger.

They were certainly preparing for something.

This sudden removal from the underground prison most likely meant that ”something” was about to happen.

Several Martial Artists roughly stripped off his tattered clothes and changed him into a new set of garments.

”Where are you taking me?” Xiao Cangqing grew even more confused.

”To be honest, I don’t know either.”

The blonde woman shook her head. ”I just received an order from the highest level today to take you to the holy land of our Blood Race.”

”The holy land of the Blood Race?” A strange sense of unease welled up in Xiao Cangqing’s heart.

Soon, Xiao Cangqing was shoved into a luxurious stretch limousine.

Then, the car set off for its destination.

「...」

Xiao Cangqing didn’t know how long he had been jostled around in the car.

He had been stuffed onto the floor of the limousine in an extremely uncomfortable position and hadn’t moved.

Maybe it was a week, maybe half a month, maybe a full month—

Xiao Cangqing had completely lost his sense of time.

Finally, when the car stopped, he guessed they had probably arrived.

The limousine was also infused with Mysterious Power.

Because of this, the car had been on the road for a very long time without ever needing to refuel.

This was also why Xiao Cangqing found it difficult to grasp the concept of time,

and he couldn’t tell how long they had been traveling or in which direction.

The blonde woman grabbed Xiao Cangqing by the back of his collar and dragged him out of the car.

Xiao Cangqing sucked in a sharp breath.

Before him was a huge lawn, filled with thousands upon thousands of men and women dressed in uniform, elegant formal wear.

Every single one of them was unbelievably handsome or beautiful.

There were no smiles on their faces. The moment Xiao Cangqing arrived,

all of their strange gazes fell upon him in unison,

making it impossible to guess what they were thinking.

Xiao Cangqing’s heart leaped, and a thought surfaced in his mind—

’These handsome men and beautiful women, with faces as pale as corpses, must all be members of the Vampire Clan.’

’The Vampire Clan has so many members. It’s truly terrifying.’

Over to the side, the blonde woman was talking animatedly with someone else. It seemed they were having an argument.

”For such a sacred matter, to actually choose a human as lowly as an ant.”

”You have to understand, we’ve attempted this many times, and every time it has ended in failure.

This time, the fact that our Blood Race controls Blue Star’s strongest Empire was exposed, yet we’ve been slow to react.

The fundamental reason is that ’the one’ has been unable to descend.

You know as well as I do that if ’the one’ descends, our Blood Race will stand at the apex of all Blue Star.”

”But I still don’t understand why Xiao Cangqing was chosen. The guy is just a dog kept by Chu He. If we were to choose someone, it would be better to choose Chu He.”

”A Prince of our Blood Race went after him with a Holy Artifact and was killed by Chu He’s hand.

Do you think that if we pay an unbearable price for this matter,

those restless creatures lurking in the shadows won’t seize the opportunity to attack our Blood Race?

Take the other dark forces still existing within the Lighthouse Empire, for example, like the Bright Holy See, or our mortal enemies, those Werewolves.

I have a feeling that this time, choosing a human who has merged with an Evil Spirit as the vessel for ’the one’s’ descent...

...might truly bring about a grand arrival.”

Xiao Cangqing noticed that the person talking with the blonde woman was an old man with stark white hair.

His back was stooped, and the wrinkled skin on his face was bunched together.

In the Vampire Clan, where appearance is paramount,

he was the sole exception.

This unique appearance was enough to prove that the white-haired old man held a very high status within the Vampire Clan.

Xiao Cangqing suddenly discovered that on this wide, verdant plain,

stood a massive, towering, jet-black tower that pierced the sky.

The surface of the tower was carved with what seemed to be an infinite number of characters in the language of the Lighthouse Empire.

These characters were so vivid they looked like exquisite paintings at first glance, but upon closer inspection, they were just ordinary text.

The tower was a jet-black spiral.

The Martial Artists who had escorted Xiao Cangqing all retreated. What came next was not for them to participate in; only members of the Vampire Clan could be involved.

”You’re actually quite lucky. If this succeeds, you’ll have an opportunity for a meteoric rise. The vast energy resources of the entire Blood Race will be at your disposal. But if it fails, you will be utterly annihilated from Blue Star, without a single trace left behind.”

The blonde woman seemed to have finally agreed. She walked back, pushed Xiao Cangqing’s shoulders, and headed toward the strange black tower ahead.

The tower door opened with a CREAK.

Instantly, the overwhelming stench of blood, so thick it was almost tangible, rushed out to meet them,

as if they were stepping into an abyss from another dimension.

A crimson mist filled the air, not only obscuring the light from the sky but also dyeing everything in an eerie hue.

The mist was fine yet dense; every breath felt like it was consuming one’s life force. Miraculously, however, their vision could still penetrate it, allowing them to glimpse the tower’s strange and intricate interior.

Although the light was dim, this bizarre play of light and shadow endowed every detail with a kind of supernatural clarity.

At the core of the tower stood what appeared to be an ancient heart. It had long since lost its vitality,

shriveled and withered, yet it floated impossibly in mid-air, like an altar to some evil power.

Surrounding this heart was a complex network woven from countless slender blood vessels.

They snaked and twisted, dense and tangled, like a writhing mass of serpents in the dark, or like the veins of life itself struggling in despair.

Each blood vessel emitted a faint red glow, echoing the bloody mist in the air,

creating a heart-stopping image.

Directly beneath this bizarre scene, a massive fissure had split the ground open,

revealing a vast pool filled with deep, dark blood—a massive Blood Pool.

The Blood Pool was like an inexhaustible spring, with fresh blood constantly welling up from its depths.

This blood was then slowly transported through the intricate network of vessels to the withered heart.

The blood flowed slowly through the vessels, emitting a low, dull sound like a Curse from the depths of the earth, or the unwilling wails of souls.

Yet, no matter how generously the Blood Pool gave, the heart remained in its shriveled state,

like an insatiable void, devouring all vitality but never to be filled.