"Second generation, that blood dragon is yours. Remember not to let it bite you. If you get bitten, you'll turn into one of those monsters too."
Sun Er Dai subconsciously wanted to hit his chest with his fists, but the armor he was wearing made it extremely inconvenient, so he stopped. Still, he let out a muffled grunt through his nose to appease Li Xi, indicating that his brain was still functioning and he definitely wouldn't eat something that wasn't a normal creature.
Li Xi, still worried, exhorted him again, "You must remember not to eat it. Although it still looks like a dragon, it's fundamentally no longer one. Its flesh is poisonous. You absolutely must control your appetite."
Sun Er Dai was a bit impatient. He wasn't an idiot. He slammed the giant staff, which could serve as a load-bearing pillar for the temple, onto the ground. It plunged more than a meter deep. He then let out a thunderous roar at the blood dragon, 'ROAR'. Annoyed, Sun Er Dai chose to declare war on the blood dragon first.
Although the blood dragon's identity had been altered, its pride and arrogance remained. Seeing this earth-bound creature dare to provoke it, its rage boiled over. It immediately bared its foot-long claws and lunged at Sun Er Dai, vowing to crush his bones.
Excluding the dragon's unique draconic magic, their melee combat prowess ranked at the very top among all magical beasts. However, today it was particularly unfortunate to encounter a mountain ape that could wear equipment and wield weapons. Magical beasts using weapons was a sight rarely seen in the beast world, even once in a millennium.
It was like two equally matched normal people dueling: one unarmed, the other armed. A fit of pique couldn't overcome the difference in weaponry.
Although Sun Er Dai had just received this staff and hadn't yet gotten used to it, the unknown memories hidden within his body allowed him to wield it with ease, as if he had wings, or was a tiger with wings, or a wolf with fangs, or just a genuine master.
Sun Er Dai, seeing the blood dragon lunging to tear him apart with fierce intent, excitedly puffed up his mountain-like muscles. His armor strained to its limit, groaning. The thick, thumb-sized connecting chains were about to snap. Sun Er Dai gathered all his strength, waited for the opportune moment, and struck the blood dragon squarely on the ear.
With a weapon weighing seven thousand pounds, combined with Sun Er Dai's brute strength, the menacing, dozen-meter-long blood dragon was sent flying like a spinning top. One of its eyeballs was knocked out with a 'bang'. More critically, the spot hit by the staff was its hammer-like head. The half-foot-long hammer head, like a wire brush, tore off half of the blood dragon's face.
A fallen angel might have a chance to return to heaven, but a blood dragon that had crashed heavily to the ground certainly didn't.
Li Xi didn't know how much force this blow contained. He only saw that the great staff, which he had commissioned at great expense, had developed a perfect arc after a single strike. Many of the dense hammer spikes were bent. There was no other option but to reforge it.
Whether the blacksmiths had cut corners or Sun Er Dai's strength was too great, Li Xi's heart bled. Just this one move represented a loss of four figures in gold coins, at the very least.
But the effect was surprisingly good. The two combatants, who should have been evenly matched, had their outcome decided in a single blow. The blood dragon lay on the ground, its claws desperately scraping, tearing the hard ground like paper. However, its body swayed erratically, like a drunkard waking from a deep slumber, unable to distinguish directions. Everything appeared to shift and double-image, and it remained unable to stand, as if suffering from epilepsy.
Its face, half-stripped of flesh, looked more terrifying than a ghost. Drops of blood fell, igniting the blood dragon's rage to its limit. A vampire's blood was its life. Now, losing so much blood in a single blow meant that for the blood dragon, such a loss would require decades of slumber to recover.
Unfortunately, Sun Er Dai gave it no chance to retaliate. Seeing how effective his weapon was, he roared to the sky in excitement, gripping the staff with both hands and smashing down relentlessly. The blood dragon's bones cracked like sugarcane snapping.
The blood dragon had intended to counter-attack, opening its maw to spew something out. However, one blow sent all its teeth flying, leaving it with only a mouthful of blood to spit out.
Sun Er Dai, caught up in the fervor, plunged the staff directly into the blood dragon's throat. Of its twenty-meter length, only three to four meters remained outside, performing a deep throat enema on the blood dragon.
Sun Er Dai lifted the staff like a spit for roasting a whole dragon, smashing down with unstoppable force, creating large pits in the ground. It was tragic, so tragic. Earlier, the blood dragon could still resist, but now with the giant staff stuck in its mouth, even its tail was straight.
Having a weapon was truly advantageous. The battle, which should have been a hard-fought struggle, was now a one-sided affair.
The blood elf ignored the blood dragon's miserable state and stared at Li Xi, the Dragonkin, and his three clones. It seemed to have thought of something. Li Xi wasted no words. Since his spirit beasts were so formidable, he couldn't fall behind. He immediately commanded his three clones to attack.
As soon as the three shadow clones moved, the remaining hundreds of vampires behind the blood elf pounced. These were not low-level vampires that could only transform into bats and fly. They were all advanced vampires, with levels ranging from three to five.
Such strength would qualify them as D, C, or B-class mercenaries in the mercenary hall.
They were all equipped with short swords and daggers. Their elegant flying posture could crush a half-baked farmer like Li Xi into a dung heap.
Instantly, these vampires and the three shadow clones clashed fiercely. There were too many vampires, and they swarmed, engulfing the shadow clones. Li Xi could barely see his clones, only seeing three dark masses of vampires trapping them in the center. Although a few vampires fell from the sky at first, the three clones were soon pierced like a peacock fanning its tail and disappeared into the sky.
Seeing the menacing horde of vampires, Li Xi asked the blood elf, "After becoming a vampire, do you still dare to reveal your name?"
As soon as he said this, the numerous vampires were about to rush down and turn Li Xi into a hedgehog.
But the blood elf waved his hand slightly, stopping them. "It's just a name. It's nothing to tell you. I am Naser, Duke of the Blood Clan."
"Oh."
Li Xi reacted indifferently. It wasn't his fault; he had truly never heard the name Naser. Not only had he not heard of it, but even Ais and the others wouldn't have.
Naser was a genius mage of the Elf race two thousand years ago. He was most skilled in wind and wood magic. By the age of three hundred, he had reached the level of Archmage. The elven royal family had placed great hopes on him and planned to marry their princess to him. Unexpectedly, during an operation to suppress underground dark elves, Naser pursued the enemy deep into their territory and then vanished. His whereabouts have been unknown since.
Two thousand years ago, even human history had countless eras buried in the vast expanse of time, let alone the closed-off history of the elves. Therefore, it was normal for no one to react to this name. Perhaps only a scholar could find even a fragment of this name in ancient texts.
Thus, the name Naser was less impactful to Li Xi than "Duke of the Blood Clan." When his shadow clone was captured by Libiya earlier, he had mentioned letting a Duke "convert" Li Xi. This was a powerhouse second only to Dracula and the Blood Clan's monarchs, with a total number not exceeding twenty, each a powerful figure wielding great authority. Unexpectedly, he encountered the true body sooner than the clone.
Conversion was not a simple matter; it involved complex energy transformations, resulting in two completely different beings.
Magic cast before conversion would, after becoming a vampire, transform into the vampire's unique blood magic. Of course, their magical cultivation remained, but the magic cast would be of the blood element. Their physical structure would be altered, but their strength would remain. To cast their previous magic, they would have to start practicing anew.
It was like a person suddenly turning into a pig. To speak and communicate like a human, they would have to start practicing from scratch, and the difficulty would increase exponentially. Therefore, 99.99% of vampires after conversion would not practice their previous magic but would practice simple blood magic.
Another special point was that after conversion, regardless of whether they were a spellcaster before, vampires gained spellcasting ability. Thus, vampires could be said to be masters of both magic and martial arts.
In just half a minute, Sun Er Dai was already riding on the blood dragon, smashing it with his fist, as large as a person. Each blow was as powerful as a compactor pounding the earth, causing the small stones on the ground to bounce like fleas on a drum with every punch.
The blood dragon had lost all ability to resist, allowing Sun Er Dai to attack it like a dead dog.
By this time, many small bats had already begun to fly back to the volcano with full stomachs and dived in. They weren't going in to relieve themselves, but to regurgitate the fresh blood they had just swallowed.
The sounds of fighting could be heard throughout Kado City. No one would surrender willingly at such a time. Although the chaotic era had brought unspeakable suffering to every race, it had also forged resilient nerves. When facing difficulties, crying and begging were useless. Grasping the weapon at hand and fighting back was the only way.
Li Xi didn't know what the scene would be like when their plan was put into action. He imagined it wouldn't be any better than Lilith's. By interrupting them in advance, Li Xi had bought the residents of Kado City time to resist. As for those who died, Li Xi could do nothing. All the vampires had surrounded Li Xi, and Naser lightly raised a finger and waved it towards the Dragonkin Li Xi. He then retreated back into the volcano; it seemed the matters inside were more important than Li Xi's.
The hundreds of vampires, ranging from level three to five, received the order and surrounded Li Xi from all directions. They knew how powerful the Dragonkin Li Xi's physical combat skills were; none of them were a match. Therefore, they began to attack from dozens of meters away. A dozen or so vampires in the rear chanted incomprehensible tongue-twisting magic spells, while the others brandished their short swords from a distance, sending streams of half-meter-long blood blades spinning towards Li Xi.
Their blood blades were very similar to a mage's wind blades; both were cutting-type spells. Of course, their attributes were different, and the details were certainly different. Li Xi didn't know the difference but didn't want to test it himself.
So…
"Bang!"
Dozens of blood blades sliced a piece of wood into powder, and the Dragonkin Li Xi disappeared.
Just as the vampires were searching for Li Xi, behind the spellcasting vampires at the very rear, a two-meter-long greatsword unceremoniously cut five vampires in half.
Spellcasters were always the first targets on the battlefield, never the second. Li Xi was certain he couldn't withstand the combined attack of a dozen mages, so they had to die.
Vampires were not to be trifled with. With a pair of powerful bat wings, their speed was not slow at all, and their technique was far superior to Li Xi's. Therefore, as soon as Li Xi appeared and unleashed one move, dozens of blood blades shot towards him from all directions at a 360-degree angle.
"Bang!"
A piece of wood was cut into powder and scattered into the air. Li Xi disappeared again using the Substitution Jutsu.
As the vampires backed to back, searching for Li Xi's figure, they found him nowhere nearby. When the vampires looked into the distance, they saw that at some point, Li Xi had already appeared at the volcano. The vampires were greatly alarmed. If Li Xi disrupted the ritual below, they would die a hundred deaths and still not atone for their sins.