Chapter 28

Istanbul, night.

On the second floor of a residential building on Marseille Road, four dark figures sat in a room, waiting quietly.

The room was pitch black, with no candlelight. The dim light seeping through the window barely revealed the appearance and attire of five people.

All five had pale faces and sunken eyes, like long-term drug addicts. Each was dressed in black, wearing a black high-collar cloak, just like the noble vampires in legends.

One of them was slightly different; his cloak was black on the outside but bright red on the inside, like blood.

He sat facing the window, his gaze fixed on the courtyard-style building across the street, his expression solemn.

Across the street was the Orlando Mansion, the target. It was late at night, and the streetlights were almost all out, but a room in the building opposite still had a light on.

According to the latest information he had, that room was the collection room, where the evil alchemist was making weapons to use against them.

"Sir, it's midnight, shall we make our move?" a subordinate's voice sounded beside him.

The vampire, referred to as "Sir," was still hesitant. The mansion across the street seemed normal, but he couldn't be sure if the alchemist was actually working on the weapons or setting a trap for them.

If it was a trap, they would be walking into a death sentence. But not going in was also not an option. The inside man in the mansion had been cut off for over four hours, and if the alchemist had already started making the weapons, he would be delaying his master's plans.

After much deliberation, the vampire realized he had no choice. He had to enter the mansion to find out, regardless of any traps.

"Prepare to move out," he decided.

To be cautious, he turned to a subordinate and said, "You stay outside as a lookout. If anything changes, leave immediately and report to the master."

"Yes, sir," the subordinate replied.

The four vampires quietly opened the window and jumped down one by one. Their movements were extremely light and quick. As they fell from the second floor, their cloaks spread out, making them look like a blur of black shadows, much like night bats.

Once they landed, the four vampires moved in different directions according to the plan.

The leader of the vampire assassins charged straight through the front gate. He ran at full speed, his body cutting a black line through the darkness. In half a second, he crossed the street and reached the iron fence of the mansion. He used the fence to boost himself, leaping over it like a cat and landing in the courtyard.

As soon as he landed, he instinctively crouched in the shadow of the wall, lowering his body and moving quickly along the wall.

After about ten meters, the vampire's body suddenly stopped, one foot hovering in mid-air.

Beneath his foot, a rune was glowing faintly with a silver light.

"Hmph, a magic rune," the vampire leader sneered, retracting his foot and carefully stepping aside to avoid the rune.

Just as he moved his foot, a faint breeze came from a shadow behind him.

"Trouble, an invisible assassin!" The vampire leader's body tensed, his strength bursting forth as he lunged forward, swinging his hand backward. His nails extended to about ten centimeters, hard as iron and gleaming with a metallic sheen.

He was confident in his claws, which could tear through metal and stone, and break a dagger with a single swipe.

His claws met a hard object halfway through the swing, likely the assassin's weapon. From the force feedback, it seemed to be a dagger.

"Break!" the vampire growled.

A sharp "ding" echoed in the darkness, a spark flickering. The vampire felt his hand go empty, followed by intense pain.

"What's happening!"

The vampire's body shot forward, dodging the follow-up attack. In the midst of the chaos, he looked at his hand and saw that his right hand was almost a stump, with all his claws broken and three fingers severed.

What kind of dagger could be so sharp!

The vampire was terrified, but then he noticed something wrong with his feet. Looking down, he saw another magic rune beneath him. Who had placed this damn rune? It was too devious!

The rune had already been triggered and was glowing, with frost energy surging through its lines, on the verge of exploding.

The vampire, a skilled fighter, used his superior strength to jump with all his might.

The moment he jumped, the rune exploded, the ground cracking with a "crack, crack" sound. Ice spikes shot up, crisscrossing like a crystal-clear ice flower.

The vampire was drenched in cold sweat, narrowly avoiding the attack. If he had been hit, his lower body would have been completely crippled.

His jump still had momentum, and he was already over two meters high, but his body was still rising. Looking up, he saw a window sill that he could use for leverage to climb to the second floor of the mansion.

But as soon as he grabbed the window sill, he saw it glowing with a silver light, another frost rune, which he had triggered.

"Damn, there's one here too!" The vampire immediately retracted his hand and kicked off the wall, flying away from it.

As soon as he was a meter away from the wall, the rune exploded, making him sweat profusely.

He couldn't afford to look at the window sill anymore. He focused on his landing spot, hoping there wouldn't be another rune. He was already exhausted.

To his dismay, he couldn't see the ground clearly because a black shadow was waiting for him.

No need to guess, this black shadow was the assassin who had ambushed him earlier.

In mid-air, he was vulnerable, and the assassin, well-rested and armed with a powerful weapon, had a significant advantage. He had no confidence in escaping this time.

At this critical moment, the vampire dared not use his claws. In the midst of the chaos, he drew a leather whip from his waist and lashed out at the assassin.

The whip, a long weapon, was the perfect counter to the short dagger. The black shadow, as he hoped, retreated.

The vampire's heart relaxed as he landed, but just as he was a meter from the ground, he noticed a small stone on his landing spot.

"Why is this here?" the vampire was puzzled.

His body continued to fall, and when he was half a meter from the ground, he finally understood. The stone wasn't the issue; it was the frost rune triggered by the stone.

Why could the assassin step on it, but he couldn't? It was so unfair! This was the vampire's complaint.

This time, he had nowhere to hide and could only watch as he landed.

The frost rune exploded simultaneously, ice spikes shooting up and piercing his lower body, creating several bloody holes and freezing him to the ground.

The intense pain was overwhelming. Even though vampires were naturally numb to pain, he couldn't help but groan, his vision going dark.

A faint breeze came from in front of him; the assassin was back.

"Finished," the vampire thought in despair.

From start to finish, every move he made was within the assassin's calculations. His skills were wasted on the magic runes, leaving him no time to deal with the assassin.

As this thought crossed his mind, he felt a sharp pain in his chest, his heart pierced. The heart was the core of a vampire, and being pierced, though not fatal, would paralyze him and leave him defenseless.

Then, a burning sensation came from his forehead, as if a piece of paper had been stuck there. The paper ignited on its own, and the flames, as if alive, spread over his body, burning his soul.

This was true agony. The vampire, though silent, trembled violently, struggling in the fire.

Ke'er, seeing the vampire stuck with an exorcism rune, looking miserable, couldn't bear to look and turned to run into the room to support Sister Xin.

As soon as she entered the mansion's living room, she saw a vampire trapped by a frost rune, groaning in pain.

Ke'er was amused. The runes Sun Ran had placed were truly devious; it was hard to avoid them.

She ran past the vampire, stabbing him in the heart with a dagger and sticking several exorcism runes on his body, turning him into a burning candle.

The sound of intense fighting came from the collection room. Ke'er went over and saw Lan Xin battling a vampire.

Lan Xin's dual swords moved with fiery light, like two colorful ribbons. A vampire lay dead on the ground, his heart pierced and burned by flames.

Vampires' hearts, though tough, could still survive a stab, but being burned by fire was too much even for a cockroach.

Fighting one-on-two, Lan Xin was clearly dominant, having already killed one. Her skills were truly formidable. If Sun Ran saw this, he would surely lament how strong his wife was.

The vampire she was fighting was covered in burn marks, looking miserable and unable to hold out much longer.

Seeing Ke'er enter, the vampire became even more panicked, his movements chaotic. Lan Xin seized the opportunity and killed him with a heart-piercing strike.

After killing the vampire, Lan Xin asked, "Where's Sun Ran?"

Ke'er shook her head, "I don't know."

"I saw him head outside," Bai Tingxuan, who had been invisible, appeared.

"Did he go alone? How reckless," Lan Xin scolded, ready to follow him out.

Sun Ran was a mage with no combat skills, and facing vampires in the dark was extremely dangerous, almost suicidal.

At that moment, Sun Ran's voice came, "Don't worry, I'm back."

A figure appeared around the corner, it was Sun Ran, dragging a vampire covered in ice, groaning.

"This guy was trying to report back, but I caught him," Sun Ran said, throwing the vampire to the ground.

The vampire assassins were completely defeated, and one was captured.

The monitor in the space station turned to Hao Qiang and reported, "The Thorn Rose defeated the first wave of attackers, with no losses on our side."

Hao Qiang nodded, satisfied.

Everything changed after the fourth member of the team appeared. This team's Thorn Rose was indeed powerful.

---

AD begins

AD ends