Success Depends on Human Effort

A day has passed--

--To be precise, it's thirty hours.

Xue Ming and Liuxing exchanged reading notes and thoroughly discussed their opinions based on the portraits and photos in the books, as well as the weaknesses Gate of Death marked by the authors.

The combined edition of "The Great Rift of All Things" is a very detailed hunting guide, but due to the limitations of its time, many artifacts have become extinct, rendering some of its content useless.

In much older times, such as three hundred years ago, documents are difficult to use as reliable references because there were no cameras at that time.

Hunters rely on rumors to determine the general shape of monsters, and use favorable terrain or powerful firearms and explosives to kill them. The written words and pictures left behind are all vague subjective conjectures, and very few forensic morticians personally verify the identities of these monsters whose bodies are torn apart.

If we push the timeline back five hundred years, then the true form of the monster is shrouded in a thick fog, and we can only rely on the very simple and distorted first-person perspective of the hunting log to determine what the prey being hunted really is.

What is certain is--

--This Hunter King is definitely not the same person as the Cat Tree Lady.

Judging from the chronology of the book "The Great Rift of All Things," although the author used the method of combining volumes to try to downplay his own existence, the writing style of this Hunter King can still be clearly felt in modern history, and he is closely related to the Blood Butterfly Cult.

Starting with the 1910 chronology, the introduction to the Gate of Death, which was originally in biographical style, was suddenly changed to an encyclopedic format.

It is a biographical story that recounts the autobiographical experiences of an ancient hunter.

Among them was a cowboy hunter who fought to the death with the Wendigo.

There are also Eastern wandering knights who slay dragons and giant crocodiles.

There are also savages who ride sleds in the polar regions, wrestle with bear monsters, and fight with Yetis.

The stories of these warriors have been passed down, and the stories contain the location of the monster's Gate of Death.

Starting in 1910, the Hunter King incorporated modern medicine and biology into the collected editions, along with explanations of occult alchemy and chemical potions, compiling them into a book.

Therefore, Jiang Xueming believes --

--This probably wasn't done by the Cat Tree Lady.

This Hunter King was already active in the underworld in 1910 and may have been a witness to the last harvest season.

Let's return to the most important topic, the category of [vampires] that Jiang Xueming cares about most.

Then Xue Ming broke through her defenses.

--Because this book is just too thick.

The evolution of vampires' identity throughout history has branched out countless times in the underworld over time. It's as if these wondrous creatures can choose other evolutionary paths, bypassing natural evolution. To fully understand them would probably take more than a decade.

The author, Hunter King, has written over 400,000 words of basic popular science about the vampire race.

The term "blood race" within the broader category of Scandinavian peoples can be further subdivided into sixteen smaller ethnic groups.

These sixteen subgroups can be further divided into subspecies arising from different religious beliefs and Blood Ceremony. Tracing back to the different genes of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, many side variants can also be differentiated from Semitic and Asian peoples, including these human pets or livestock. Domesticated hunting dogs and warhorses in martial peoples can also become aids to the vampires, participating in blood-giving with their masters.

Not all vampires are bat-like monsters, but those who can suck blood must have been favored by the progenitor, with [Blessed Holy Blood] flowing through their veins.

So Xue Ming put aside his distracting thoughts and stopped paying attention to the cultural traditions, habits, and preferences of these vampires, and instead began to study this [Blessed Holy Blood].

Jiang Xueming initially mistakenly believed that the elixir of immortality Blessed Holy Blood, might be related to Wen Bucai.

But that's not actually the case, and it's wildly wrong.

Based on the information Wen Bucai left in the VIP carriage, his blood is indeed a sacred substance, like the Tang Monk's Flesh, capable of granting immortality. However, Teacher Victor is never afraid of sunlight. Similar to Wen Bucai's wife and daughter, these immortals are not like the vampires described in "The Great Rift of All Things," and will not be annihilated upon contact with strong sunlight.

According to the hunters' records, the Blessed Holy Blood of Grace is closely related to the Blood Butterfly Cult and to the original artwork of the Hand of Omnipotence.

--The larvae of the Madness Butterfly are a tried-and-true drug.

Even before the invention of alchemy, in an even older and more mysterious era, various sorcerers and shamans had long sought the secrets of immortality through mysterious underground viruses.

In the original text of "The Great Rift of All Things," based on the Hunter King's many years of hunting experience, the summary of "[Blessed Holy Blood]" states that the Vita Imprint, like glucose or saline solution, is a universal drug solvent.

Any blood or virus from a violent beast can enter the human body through the Vita Imprint, completing the Madness Butterfly's ritual of seizing essence, and the human body will then develop the characteristics of a wild beast.

The Skull and Bones Society's Earth Dragon blood-offering ritual is far inferior to the ancient formula that has evolved over thousands of years.

Along with the [Blessed Holy Blood], rooted within the human body is the Vita Imprint, which can never be erased.

The Madness Butterfly is both a living organism and a virus.

Before the outbreak of the Vita Imprint during the patient's [ten months of pregnancy].

To survive, White Lady will continuously destroy and rebuild her physical body with the violent blood of beasts, ultimately transforming her human form into a terrifying container for fungal protein-like organisms.

As long as the [pregnancy] state can be maintained, the patient can continue to live by relying on White Lady. Even if the beast blood makes the patient unrecognizable, the patient can still find the correct sequence of the ancestral DNA of Homo sapiens in the primordial essence and maintain sanity by relying on human blood and flesh.

This is also the origin of the Madness Butterfly Sect's Blood Ritual and the tradition of cannibalism.

Dramatic changes are constantly occurring within the patient's body, and the onset cycle of the Vita Imprint will become extremely short. The normally induced pregnancy may be shortened from forty-two weeks to just one week.

White Lady was enveloped in thick mycelium inside the monster's body, transforming their simple parasitic relationship into a symbiotic one similar to lichen.

These delicate worms are hard to keep still. To provide the vampire beast body with stronger energy, they must constantly absorb human flesh and blood to provide human essence with extremely high energy density.

When vampires are thirsty and unable to obtain human blood and flesh, they will fall into a long sleep, or White Lady may gain the upper hand and burst out of their bodies, breaking the symbiotic agreement of the Blessed Holy Blood.

If vampires are starving and can't find human blood, they'll have to use the essence of other wild beasts as a substitute for food. In just a few meals, their mycelial proteins will rearrange and recombine according to the DNA of the wild beasts, turning them into patients with various beast-like diseases.

Solar energy kills viruses and fungi.

The survival rate of patients with the animalistic disease is extremely low. They will lose consciousness within just a few days and die when exposed to sunlight.

According to the chronology of "The Great Rift of All Things," the mythical legends and historical documents related to blood can be traced back to ancient Egypt and even earlier, to the ancient Atlantis.

This book is a product of forty years ago. Only today did Jiang Xueming learn from Xiao Qi that these vampires had a better formula, a new prescription using Earth Dragon and rat kidney cells. These things, when added to [Blessed Holy Blood], could produce a group of strange vampires who were conscious, could live in dim sunlight, knew how to cooperate in group shooting battles, and could drink coffee and eat bread as a meal replacement.

These monsters have many kinds of Gate of Death.

A Xing and Xue Ming were both pondering and considering it.

The Hunter King says--

--Silver-plated ammunition is a type of clean bullet, made with the antibacterial and disinfecting properties of silver ions.

The ultraviolet lamps are probably useless; the answer to killing these things lies in Xiao Qi's hairpin, in [Windowless Cottage].

These monsters were terrified of the holy water, not because there was any divine protection bestowed upon these sacred artifacts.

Rather, it was because the weak magnetic current within the marble carvings or silver nails broke through the water molecule bundles, allowing these antiseptic holy waters to be completely absorbed by the vampire's body, destroying the monster's mycelial proteins from the inside.

Therefore, holy water is a deadly poison to vampires. There are also ancient legends that powerful vampires are not afraid of holy water because the relics used to make the holy water are just the remains of saints. The powerful human essence in them will only make these monsters stronger and more ferocious.

In an era when aluminum and cobalt-iron products were prevalent, vampires would go mad when they came into contact with holy water. Heavy metal poisoning caused their bodies to turn a strange, corpse-blue color, making them even more insane.

Balason, a toxic all-purpose insecticide, can be used to enchant weapons, making it a signature product of the magical city.

Bu Liuxing scratched his head. "So these guys are a bunch of mushroom spirits? They like damp, warm places? They can't stand the light?"

"You can't say that," Jiang Xueming explained. "Like the calamity beasts, their forms change with the Earth's version number, just like how our way of life changes with the times. These monsters are derived from humans."

Meteor: "But the Gate of Death hasn't changed."

Jiang Xueming: "The Gate of Death of fungal viruses is also the Gate of Death of these monsters."

As the vampires have evolved to this day, the Lady Mary that Xiao Qi saw, a noblewoman who owned a large castle in South Sea City on the border of London, modified the formula of the Blessed Holy Blood to make her physical body able to withstand the weak sunlight on rainy days.

Right now—

Robert Tang Ning remained silent, holding his e-reader, and approached Jiang Xueming and Bu Liuxing.

The man looked very gloomy, and the black jade necklace around his neck emitted a hazy, gray light, like black mist.

Jiang Xueming didn't speak, but just silently looked at this stranger.

Bu Liuxing didn't dare to greet him. He could feel a strong spiritual pressure that seemed to be sucking away all the light around the stranger.

Tang Ning walked along, head down, reading a book, completely ignoring Xue Ming and Liu Xing. He filled the passenger log with dense notes.

The shooting star, filled with curiosity, secretly glanced over and was both surprised and delighted.

--The title on the e-reader was about the vampires that the two brothers were engrossed in researching.

Thinking he had found a like-minded person to do academic work with, A Xing immediately wanted to see what the blond guy had written in his notebook.

It wouldn't have mattered if I hadn't looked, but once I did, A Xing froze and stood there stiffly, so I decided not to bother him anymore.

The densely packed notebook contained hunting techniques, a list of prepared tools, and topographical maps of the Winchester and Chichester greenlands near South Sea City.

The background lines on the bottom page were drawn in bright red ink, forming twisted and distorted [KILL!] characters that looked like they were about to tear the paper apart.

Xue Ming immediately pulled A Xing away, telling him not to meddle in other A Xing's business.

A Xing whispered in Ming's ear, covering his face as he asked, "Ming Ge, what's wrong with this guy?!"

Xue Ming frowned and glared, then cautiously replied, "He harbors a strong desire for destruction, a deep-seated hatred."

A Xing continued, "His spiritual pressure feels so bitter. If I were to make eye contact with him, I think I would cry. I just saw that he was working on the same research topic as us. Should I go and say hello to him?"

Xue Ming then replied, "No need. A person who has just been injured won't easily accept other people's kindness."

A Xing: "Why?"

Xue Ming: "It's my personal experience. When my adoptive parents talked to me about Bailu's engagement and her human flesh business, I think I must have had the same expression back then, full of aggression. If anyone had helped me or offered me a helping hand, I probably would have bitten off more than I could chew, ungrateful for their kindness."

A Xing: "But..."

Xue Ming: "You just need to remember this face and his name in the passenger log. Since he carries a deep hatred and we're going to the same place to kill the same kind of monsters, we'll have a chance to meet again sooner or later."

A Xing nodded. "Yes! Ming Ge, I understand what you mean. We don't need to say anything to him now, we just need to do it!"

Xue Ming noted down the stranger's height and build, eventually drawing a portrait and writing down his name.

"Robert Tang Ning."

The two embarked on their return journey.

Jiang Xueming didn't let go of the book "The Great Rift of All Things," but its bound volume was too thick. Xue Ming had to talk until the management staff were exhausted, and with the help of the BOSS, he finally managed to get the electronic version of the book onto his phone after signing a confidentiality agreement with the Qingjin Wolf Mother.

Compared to the natural Gate of Death of [Blessed Holy Blood].

Jiang Xueming was more concerned with the specific forms of these vampires in modern society.

The Skull and Bones Society last time was treated too kindly to be described as a bunch of ragtag thugs. It was a pyramid scheme that formed a profit chain by selling Dragon Blood. It was nothing more than a bunch of thugs that could be wiped out with a single cannon shot from Guangling Zhixi.

However, Jiang Xueming believed that the vampires entrenched near the Sky Station were probably much stronger than the Skull and Bones Society —not in terms of physical strength, but in terms of organizational and spiritual strength.

These monsters attack servants on the surface world, steal radiant stones, and dare to kill even a tiny piece of the BOSS.

They frequent the vicinity of Sky Station and nest near London. They have at least one close family lineage to maintain this unity, keep each other's identities secret, and dedicate themselves to the Blood Bat Cult.

They control at least the area surrounding Sky Station, have stable blood banks in villages, towns, counties, cities, and prefectures, and have middlemen who do business with these monsters for profit.

Without a powerful VIP like Mr. Wen Bucai accompanying them, retrieving the Steel Heart will likely be quite difficult.

Xue Ming could feel the eerie spiritual pressure emanating from the corundum ring. On the other side of the world, a stranger wore this ring on his hand.

He could sense an almost manic joy in it, and this peculiar spiritual experience made him vaguely uneasy.

If we can't get back Xiao Qi's Steel Heart, then the Pyrostone wedding rings will never be usable again.

He couldn't accept this strange Inspiration Pressure. Perhaps sooner or later, another new owner of the ring would come knocking on his door through a soul resonance, giving him a surprise in an unexpected way.

Thinking of this, Xue Ming immediately asked Liuxing.

Do you have Jason's contact information?

Meteor: "Yes!"

Xue Ming: "You sent me his WeChat ID. He's a coy person, so I added him myself."

Meteor: "Okay!"

The train sped towards Nine Realms Station.

Xue Ming's fingers flew across the keyboard as he quickly typed in English, asking Jason for a favor.

Jason is currently training in the ground world of Sky Station. If given the opportunity, Xue Ming hopes that this Inspiration Blue Stone People can thoroughly investigate the local customs and traditions of Sky Station. Ideally, he should clearly define the factions and powers within the station's jurisdiction, regardless of whether they are from the underworld or the legitimate world.

Jason didn't reply to these requests for a very long time.

Xue Ming could only see it through the prompts in the WeChat UI.

[The other party is typing]

Then it seemed like a lot of words were typed, and then a lot of words were deleted.

Jason Megan eventually sent a voice message.

His tone was arrogant, and his emotions were intense.

"Hmph! A piece of cake!"

Meteor chuckled when it heard this voice message.

"Wow! This guy's pretty proud of himself!"

Jiang Xueming: "A Xing, this time, we'll split up."

Bu Liuxing asked, puzzled, "Why?"

In just ten seconds--

--Mr. Jason has already drawn the topographic map and sent the scanned copy to Jiang Xueming's mobile phone.

Xue Ming glanced at it and immediately understood what was going on.

"The Blood Bat Cult needs blood, so they must have agents doing this dirty work for them. I'll follow this trail all the way. If I can get into their social circle and understand their habits, things will become much easier."

"Oh! I see, Ming Ge, you're worried I'll let something slip."

"So we split up—" Jiang Xueming pointed to two topographical maps, one showing the blood bank of a hospital in the suburbs of London, and the satellite towns and more primitive development areas within the underground world's jurisdiction, "—Sky Station, as a large transportation hub, doesn't have White Lady's products for everyone, and the station's emergency room also needs blood."

Bu Liuxing asked impatiently, "Then what should I do?"

"I need you to go to the Great Cemetery." Jiang Xueming pointed to a bright red area near the outskirts of Sky Station: "Jason marked it on the map. This is where passengers from various regions return to Sky Station to assess the value of their prey and discard useless corpses. If any passengers die, they will also be buried here. The Lapis Lazuli Guards will handle the passengers' bodies. However, the Great Cemetery has a complex structure, which has led to the creation of many smaller cemeteries. Residents of nearby towns have followed suit and built their own mass graves."

Meteor got excited. "Vampires send humans to steal corpses! If I'm lucky enough, I'll run into these grave-digging minions?"

Jiang Xueming: "There will be danger, but you're not afraid of danger."

Meteor smacked his lips, looking eager for a fight. "Are these guys strong? I'm getting excited!"

Jiang Xueming patted Liuxing on the shoulder, telling him to be quiet, "It's not that impressive. If it were a high-value target, they wouldn't be doing this kind of rough and tiring work."

Bu Liuxing: "But I can catch them! I can interrogate them and find out where their employer is?"

Jiang Xueming: "That's exactly what I'm thinking. Wearing the armor I gave you, you'll be much more efficient at killing monsters than I am."

Bu Liuxing, with a smug expression, readily agreed, "Of course! This is my specialty!"

Jiang Xueming mentioned the insurance measures. "Commander Jessica's briefcase is on its way."

Bu Liuxing: "Huh?"

Jiang Xueming: "She asked Nanami to pack it up and mail her head to the Nine Realms Station. She's with you. You two should stick together and look out for each other."

Bu Liuxing: "But... Didn't Officer Jessica have a head transplant? She's just a head now, what can she do for me? How did she get through security?"

Jiang Xueming: "She has at least twenty years of combat experience, more urban warfare experience than any of us, and a sharper sense of crisis. If she tells you to ring the bell, you must ring it. 3301 will be on standby at Sky Station in advance. If necessary, I will call her to act with you. As for how you get through security—I don't know."

Bu Liuxing: "I understand! So what about you, Ming Ge? Will you be taking your wife with you? You need someone to look after you too!"

Jiang Xueming: "I'll have Xiao Qi and Weizhi stay at the Sky Station. I won't summon them when I'm acting alone. If my identity is exposed and I encounter a powerful enemy I can't handle, my escape skills are far superior to my combat abilities. At worst, I can go back to the station, change my account, and try again."

Bu Liuxing's expression was complicated. "Um, Ming Ge, are you going to go undercover?"

"I wouldn't call myself an undercover agent. I don't know if these vampire monsters have the ability to detect lies, so I won't tell a single lie." Jiang Xueming explained in detail, "Like the head steward you met at Bork Pass last time, and the Bloodhound Lady, they can tell if we're lying by using pheromones and by licking sweat and tears with their tongues. I'm afraid vampires also have these abilities—so I won't tell lies that can't stand up to scrutiny."

Bu Liuxing became even more nervous. "Ming Ge, what are you planning to do?"

Jiang Xueming felt that explaining it would be too complicated, so he didn't intend to explain the details to Liuxing: "Just focus on your own mission, and we'll proceed on two fronts simultaneously—once you can follow the small cemetery all the way to the Blood Bat's lair, immediately contact the BOSS and inform the good brothers of Guangling Zhixi to work overtime during the New Year."

Bu Liuxing: "Hmm!"

Jiang Xueming: "If I follow the blood bank all the way to the middleman's trading place with the Blood Bats, and meet the Blood Bat Cult's council members, and find out which monster has Xiao Qi's Radiant Stone, I'll try to steal it. Or, to be more direct, I'll chop off this guy's arm, and then run away with the spoils. If I can't escape, I'll hide and wait for your support."

Bu Liuxing: "Hmm!"

"A plan is just a plan; it can change at any time depending on the actual situation," Jiang Xueming finally explained. "This is the ideal situation. We should talk less and do more; there will always be a way."

Bu Liuxing thought for a moment, but still didn't voice his concerns, nor did he say, "What should we do if we can't win or escape?"

Jiang Xueming: "What are you worried about? Let me guess?"

Bu Liuxing: "Guess, Ming Ge."

Jiang Xueming: "We are not confident that we can escape unscathed."

Bu Liuxing: "Yes."

Jiang Xueming: "If we were captured by these monsters, their vital essence would be so tempting that we would definitely be drained dry."

Bu Liuxing: "Yes"

Jiang Xueming: "The best outcome would be being transformed into a vampire, possessing a fashionable skin, a pale complexion, smoky makeup, and eye bags. Cats would see the Pain Mask, and women would weep."

Bu Liuxing: "Yes"

Jiang Xueming: "I won't think about these unnecessary things. These meaningless assumptions will make my movements sluggish when I raise my gun to aim, and the blows I swing will no longer be lethal."

Bu Liuxing also broke free from his hesitation and became calm and composed.

"Hmm! Ming Ge, I was actually thinking just now, what if either of us got poisoned by [Blessed Blood] and turned into a monster?"

Jiang Xueming: "Damn it, can't you say something auspicious?"

Bu Liuxing: "Hahahaha! I'm not saying anything more, I'm not saying anything more, I'm not saying anything more."

Jiang Xueming: "You know, I can still get a job at [JoeStar] just by changing my skin. Maybe the boss will think it's a good thing?"

Bu Liuxing reached out his hand, his expression firm and resolute.

Success depends on human effort!

Jiang Xueming gave him a high five and they shook hands tightly.

"That's right! Success depends on human effort!"