Chapter 24

Vivian was a bit skeptical and squeezed out another drop of fresh blood onto Hao Ren's hand. The two of them stared intently to see what would happen this time, and even Lily, who was standing nearby, curiously leaned in.

The drop of blood, which glowed with a golden-red aura, visibly trembled and spread on Hao Ren's skin for a few seconds before it quickly contracted and disappeared before their eyes, like a drop of water touching a hot iron.

"It seems to have been absorbed," Hao Ren scratched his hand curiously. To be honest, seeing the drop of blood move like a living thing on his skin was quite shocking. If he didn't know that Vivian meant him no harm, he might have instinctively shaken it off. He hadn't paid much attention the first time, but now he could see how creepy it was. "I don't feel anything, just a bit itchy and cool at the beginning."

"Vampires have a slightly lower body temperature than humans, so that's normal," Vivian said hesitantly, looking at her finger. The small wound she had bitten had almost healed, and she bit her lip, as if making a great decision, and squeezed out the last drop of blood. "This... one last try. I can't give any more, I'm feeling a bit heartbroken."

Lily immediately found an opportunity to tease her: "Look at you being so stingy, it's just a drop of blood."

"A drop of blood is still blood!" Vivian slammed her hand on the table. "Back when I wasn't used to human food, I relied on blood to survive. I was almost always being hunted by demon hunters, and I couldn't afford to keep blood servants. In my poorest times, I didn't even let myself have my period. You don't know the value of things until you've been through hard times. One day, when you've been through tough times, you'll understand..."

Hao Ren couldn't listen anymore and quickly stood up to mediate before the topic got out of hand: "Alright, alright, let's not talk about the past. Vivian, be careful. We're trying to keep this family-friendly—plus, don't go into such detail about your tragic life, I can't handle it..."

Lily immediately perked up: "Then, landlord, can you waive my rent for a month?"

"…What does this have to do with you and Vivian talking!" Hao Ren exclaimed.

After the three of them finished their commotion, Vivian finally remembered the main issue. She tried again, and this time, while applying the blood, she murmured some ancient incantations in a strange tone. Hao Ren felt the cold, bloody atmosphere around him again, but the blood on his skin still moved a few times and then quickly lost its power, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

"The connection with the blood has been severed," Vivian frowned. "This has never happened before. Vampires have a fixed connection with their own blood, which can only be broken if they actively 'discard' a part of it."

"What do we do now?" Hao Ren scratched his face. "I was counting on your blood to ward off evil."

"Maybe we should try Lily's blood?" Vivian turned to the werewolf girl. "Her blood should also be able to ward off evil."

"Really? Werewolves can do that too?" Lily was even more surprised. "I'm so powerful!"

Vivian chuckled: "Not really, I heard from an old Chinese person that the blood of a black dog can ward off evil..."

The two superwomen started bickering again in the living room. Hao Ren couldn't stop them and didn't have the heart to, so he just sat on the sofa, dazed, watching a vampire and a werewolf jump around in front of him. When he couldn't stand it anymore, he shouted: "Hey, be careful, if you break anything, you'll have to pay—Lily, remember you still owe me a coffee table, and Vivian, think about your wallet..."

This had a significant effect, and the two superwomen instantly quieted down, starting to play rock-paper-scissors to decide the winner...

Hao Ren looked down at his ordinary hands, puzzled as to why they could absorb vampire blood. He had learned from various movies and novels that vampire blood was extremely powerful to ordinary people, sometimes even capable of dissolving bones and flesh. But in his case, it didn't even have any special effects—let alone being more powerful than ordinary blood. It was just absorbed directly. Although Hao Ren now knew that most of the descriptions of vampires in movies and novels were unreliable, the point that "vampire blood has special powers" couldn't be wrong. At the very least, human blood wouldn't tremble or move on its own...

"It seems the blood mark won't work," Vivian, after a few minutes of bickering, finally remembered the main issue. She looked Hao Ren up and down but didn't give up. "If you trust me, I'll try a vampire spell. I'm a high-level vampire and can cast spells without a blood medium—without a medium, it shouldn't be absorbed, right?"

Hao Ren chuckled: "What's there not to trust? Go ahead and try."

"Most people wouldn't trust us," Vivian shrugged. "You're actually one of the few who are so easy to talk to. Normally, unless someone is really naive, they wouldn't be so happy to let us cast spells on them. Back in Europe, over 300 years ago, people would rather die than let me use my blood magic. I don't know why they were so stubborn."

Hao Ren thought to himself: This vampire girl must have been around humans for too long and forgotten how vampires usually use their magic on humans.

Vivian told Hao Ren to sit still and then began drawing strange, twisted characters in the air with her finger. Hao Ren watched with wide eyes, as this was the first time in his life he was seeing what "magic" really looked like. He was naturally curious and excited, and it was quite eye-opening to see someone draw glowing, blood-colored lines in the air. But after a while, he found it quite boring: Vivian was just continuously drawing lines of text, erasing what she had written, and starting over. Essentially, it was a high-class recitation, and apart from the special effects of drawing the blood-colored text, he didn't feel any special power or grand phenomena.

Vivian's brow was already furrowed. She wrote faster and more frequently erased what she had written, almost writing and erasing line by line. Hao Ren thought this must be the critical stage of the spell, so he didn't dare to speak at first. But after waiting for a long time and seeing no new developments, he couldn't help but ask quietly: "Is it... not done yet?"

"Wait, I might have made a mistake, I'm correcting it..."

Hao Ren: "..."

So, she was just correcting her mistakes! Is there anything reliable about this vampire girl?

"Something's not right," Vivian, not noticing Hao Ren's subtle expression, finally stopped after several corrections. She shook her head in confusion. "This shouldn't be wrong. I've tried three different effective phrases, but there's no reaction at all... Landlord, do you feel particularly sleepy? Or unusually calm? Or relaxed?"

"No," Hao Ren moved his arms. "I feel pretty calm, but it's probably not because of your writing."

"Big dog over there," Vivian turned to Lily. "Stay still."

As she spoke, Vivian waved her hand, scattering the blood-colored text into a trembling mist. The mist drifted past Lily, who immediately collapsed onto the table, snoring evenly.

"...That's a bit too strong. How low is her resistance?" Vivian frowned, then looked at Hao Ren. "I don't know what's going on, but my blood magic doesn't seem to work on you."

Hao Ren perked up at this. He looked at his hands in disbelief: "Could I actually be really powerful? Maybe I have some hidden ability like innate magic resistance?"

Vivian spoke frankly: "It's also possible that you're just too dull. For example, fools are immune to all mind-affecting spells..."

Hao Ren: "Cough, be careful, you owe me money."

Vivian stuck out her tongue awkwardly: "Alright, no jokes. But innate magic resistance is probably impossible. I'm very sensitive to living beings, and you're just an ordinary person. And you're not immune to the cold I create, either—ask Raven 12345 about it later. I have a feeling that the agreement you made with a god isn't that simple, and maybe something changed after you came back from her. For now... you can use my amulet."

In the end, everything about spiritual blood and magic turned out to be nonsense. Hao Ren, with a mix of amusement and frustration, received a vampire's amulet: a bagua disk supposedly obtained from Wutai Mountain, said to ward off evil and clear the mind...

When Vivian handed the bagua disk to Hao Ren, she gave him detailed instructions, clearly worried that her treasure would be damaged. This showed that the quirky vampire girl was quite attached to her collection of amulets, which moved Hao Ren deeply.

But would it really work?