Chapter 105

Translator : Mukyuu Editor : Mikyuu

The coffee table slammed against the door with a clang and shut it again.

“Ow!” A pained cry came from behind the door.

Baal hurriedly pulled the door open. Wang Xiaoming was squatting behind it with his hands covering his forehead. He looked up with teary eyes.

…

“Show me your teeth.” Baal’s expression was very serious.

Wang Xiaoming slowly opened his mouth—a beautiful set of white, normal, teeth.

“Didn’t work?” Baal wasn’t sure if the emotion that welled up in his heart was happiness or sadness.

“Oh. Hold on.” Wang Xiaoming closed his mouth and then his lips moved from left to right a couple of times. When he slowly opened his mouth again, two sharp fangs were right there!

…

Baal’s gaze intensified slightly.

Wang Xiaoming stood up and put down his hands. “Actually…”

“Wait here.” By the time Baal finished giving the instruction, he had already spread his wings and was flying down the spiral staircase.

Wang Xiaoming only felt the gust sweep past his face. When he turned around again, Baal’s figure had already disappeared.

“…”

After about a minute, he heard constant sounds coming from downstairs up the stairwell—

“What did you rush in here for?” Cain’s voice wasn’t friendly.

“… What kind of idiot clothing are you wearing?!” Baal’s voice was even more unfriendly.

“Sleepwear.” Cain’s voice was serious when he answered.

“I’m beating you up because you’re wearing sleepwear!”

The sounds that followed were hard to describe. If they had to be described, they would be the sounds of pots and pans losing their minds and constantly banging against each other in a passionate symphony.

…

Wang Xiaoming silently crawled onto the sofa.

Three hours later.

Wang Xiaoming slept soundly on the sofa.

Baal finally came back in an agitated state and landed a punch on the door frame. That damned Cain, to fall asleep in the middle of the fight! And he wouldn’t wake up no matter how hard Baal shook him. He had been in so many fights, but this one was the most frustrating!

Wang Xiaoming’s body jerked from being scared by the banging on the door and he subconsciously turned into a bat and flew into the air.

So, having vented his anger—though not to his satisfaction—Baal had to watch as bat-Wang Xiaoming simply flew away.

“…”

Which bastard had come up with the idiotic idea to turn Wang Xiaoming into a Kindred?!

The anger in Baal had nowhere to go.

Very quickly, the bat returned again and sat pathetically on the sofa, slowly turning back into his human form.

“Hmph.” Baal rolled his eyes in greeting.

Wang Xiaoming scratched his scalp and explained, “I don’t know what happened. As soon as I got nervous, my body automatically turned into a bat.”

“Hmph.” Nervous? What was there to be nervous about him coming back?

Wang Xiaoming noticed his dark expression and was even more careful when he asked, “Are you alright?”

“Hmph.” Didn’t that concern come a bit too late?

Wang Xiaoming asked a bit wearily, “Why did you go and fight with Lord Cain?”

“Hmph!” He actually dared to ask why! Baal glared at him angrily. “Who allowed him to wear sleepwear!”

Wang Xiaoming ducked his head. “You want him to be naked?”

Baal had nothing to say except for another “Hmph!”

Wang Xiaoming thought about how, from now on, he would be part of the Kindred. If Baal and Cain’s relationship was too strained, he’d be put in an awkward position as the person in the middle. No matter what happened, he had to make the relationship between them better. He said, “Actually, though Lord Cain’s injection skills are a bit bad since he poked me twenty-one times in total, he treated the entire thing very seriously.”

“What injection?” Baal asked with a frown.

Wang Xiaoming lifted his sleeve and revealed a scarred arm. “To draw blood and give blood.”

“…” Baal blinked.

Wang Xiaoming said, “Lord Cain said that this is the newest way to do the Embrace. He hasn’t tried it yet so his technique isn’t really up to par, but he’ll work hard on improving it.”

“So, your Embrace… was done through a syringe?” Baal’s expression was calm but his gaze was complicated.

“Mmhmm.” Wang Xiaoming nodded.

Baal, “…”

“Is there a problem?” Wang Xiaoming noticed his thoughtful look.

Baal answered, “Not at all. He deserved a beating for wearing sleepwear.”

…

Wang Xiaoming silently reminded herself to not wear sleepwear when going to bed in the future.

“After turning into a Kindred, do you feel any different?” Aside from suddenly turning into a bat, Baal hadn’t seen any differences.

Wang Xiaoming shrugged. “Nothing. I just feel like I’m stronger than I was before and have better vision. My hearing is also more sensitive and I walk more lightly…” he said and then suddenly turned into a bat, flying a circle around Baal’s head before turning back and continuing, “… and I can turn into a bat.”

“The last one I have seen already,” Baal said. “Aside from that, any side effects?”

Wang Xiaoming tilted his head and contemplated, and the look he gave Baal became deeper. Then he revealed his fangs and said, “I really want to drink blood.”

…

Baal raised a hand and slapped Wang Xiaoming’s head. “Get your acting skills together first.”

Wang Xiaoming rubbed where he had been hit and chuckled self-consciously. “Was it that bad?”

“Not very bad.” Baal noticed the joy on Wang Xiaoming’s face and added, “Bad means there was some skill there. You haven’t reached that level yet.”

Wang Xiaoming answered in distress, “I had originally planned on earning a bite by playing an extra on movie sets.”

Baal remembered some of the TV shows he had seen while in Wang Xiaoming’s home and encouraged the man, “You won’t have a problem just being an extra.”

Wang Xiaoming’s mood suddenly crashed. “From now on, I’m not considered human anymore, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then would it be hard for me to find a job?” Wang Xiaoming suddenly realized something serious. “What if my personal ID expires?” The average human changed their looks in an obvious way once they got to around forty or fifty. Even if he said that he’d gone under the knife, it would only last till he was about sixty. When the date of birth on his personal ID was eighty or ninety years in the past, how could he walk around with the face of a twenty year old?

Baal fell silent and remarked, “You want to continue staying in the Mortal Realm?”

Wang Xiaoming hesitated and then forced a smile. “Actually, it’s not a requirement. By then my parents and older brother will have passed…” The moment he made the decision to become a Kindred, he had already started planning for the future—he’d stay in a different city and send them a stipend every month. Ever since he had caused fear and panic by going home the first year of undergrad, he realized that he shouldn’t appear during “happy” days and “bring misfortune” because he was an unlucky person. So the phone became the only connection between himself and his family.

And now, he might have to be grateful for that method because then he could keep his Kindred identity a secret forever.

“It’s not impossible,” Baal said slowly. “There are so many Kindreds in the Mortal Realm. They must have their own methods.”

Wang Xiaoming’s eyes lit up.

Two minutes later, they reappeared in the meeting room.

Since Wang Xiaoming had already become a Kindred, Baal’s attitude became even more fearless. That could be heard from the eardrum shattering way he opened the door.

Leslie’s body was sprawled in the chair and he wasn’t shocked or surprised at all by their appearance.

In contrast, the other Kindred Elders seemed very surprised, especially when they smelled the scent coming from Wang Xiaoming.

“Second generation?”

“Second generation!”

Singh was very calm. He had already gotten the hint from Leslie’s words earlier. Since Cain had let them leave the Forest of Shattered Illusions ahead of time and stopped their secret plans, turning Wang Xiaoming into a second generation Kindred became a reasonable conclusion. Though he didn’t know what the reason was, he could tell that this Edward wasn’t a simple being.

“Leslie,” the Tzimisce clan Elder spoke up in a threatening voice, “are you really going to let the second generation reign again?”

Leslie said calmly, “If you want to go against Lord Cain’s decisions, then please be brave and go right on ahead.”

…

The Tzimisce clan Elder’s posturing collapsed.

No matter how much power the third generation Elders held, or how long they’d held the reins of power, one thing they would never be able to get rid of was that the only spiritual leader of the Kindred would forever be Cain!

Wang Xiaoming noticed them giving him obvious examining looks and couldn’t help but shrink back cautiously.

But Baal pushed him up to the front and declared, “From now on, these are all your juniors.”

The Elders, “…”

“You can command them to do anything you want them to do.” Baal patted his shoulder, hinting that he’d support Wang Xiaoming.

Wang Xiaoming gathered up his courage and took one step forward.

Singh suddenly said, “Since he’s a second generation, then he can establish his own clan, right?” As long as he established his own clan, he would naturally lose the right to command other clans.

Leslie gave Singh a disinterested look and didn’t expose him. He glanced at Wang Xiaoming and asked, “What do you want?”

“What I want is simple,” Wang Xiaoming said. “Could you get me a permanently effective personal ID?”

The Elders, “…”

The discussion quickly reached a conclusion.

Not only did Wang Xiaoming get to enjoy a set of permanently effective personal IDs—a set made up of twelve cards, perfect for rotating throughout the twelve months of the year, from a variety of countries—but he could also enjoy in perpetuity three mansions—repairs guaranteed—and earn a monthly salary of two hundred thousand USD. At the end of the year he would also get a bonus of 7.8% of the profit from the Kindred businesses—this was the added beneficial condition since Wang Xiaoming refused property inside the Thirteen Co-City and Gloom City.

Of course, to enjoy the privilege he had to do his duty.

First, Wang Xiaoming could only return to the Kindred Realm once per year. The politically-correct reason was that his identity was too honorable and if he appeared too frequently, it would cause a ruckus and a traffic jam—the real reason didn’t need to be discussed. It had been the third generation who controlled the Kindred, and the second generation with its few members didn’t care about running the clans. Now there was another second generation and that could easily cause the transfer of power.

When it came to that, neither Wang Xiaoming nor Baal had any objections.

For Wang Xiaoming, he might have become a Kindred, but he had neither feelings nor interest in the Kindred. Once a year was plenty. For Baal, something like a contract had the same power as a blank sheet of paper.

Aside from that, Wang Xiaoming could not interfere in the thirteen clans. That was something all the clan Elders were worried about.

Wang Xiaoming had no objections to that either. Actually, he was more curious about human affairs than interfering in Kindred business.

The conditions agreed upon, the Kindred Elders finally looked more pleased than they had before.

Leslie stood up and started clapping first. “Welcome to the Kindred.”

The other Elders looked at each other and then clapped along.