After the waiter led them into a private room, he went out to prepare the drinks.
"I didn't expect you to be so good at picking places." Lan Yu smiled, his words carrying a hidden meaning.
Ai Tutu hadn't caught on. She grinned and said, "Of course, of course. This young lady's taste is second to none."
"Order whatever you want to drink. It's my treat tonight."
"Tutu, do you have enough pocket money?" Mu Nujiao asked a painfully pointed question.
"If I run short, I can always go ask my big brother to cough up some gold." Ai Tutu looked completely unconcerned.
Mu Nujiao shook her head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "If your brother heard you say that, he'd probably give you a piece of his mind."
"No worries, no worries. I'm in Magic City, and he's in the north. There's nothing he can do to me."
Before long, the waiter pushed in a little cart laden with the drinks Ai Tutu had ordered.
"Let's all relax and have a good time tonight."
"Cheers!"
"It's so late, and you're still working? We're all about to get off."
At the Police Department, a sweet-looking young woman spoke to a young forensic examiner.
The forensic examiner gave her a helpless look and said, "The test results aren't out yet. I'll leave once they are."
"Then... want to grab some late-night food together after work?" the woman asked cautiously.
The forensic examiner nodded, a smile appearing on his face. "I'm hungry too, as it happens."
Hearing that, the woman relaxed. "Then I'll go buy you something to eat first."
"No need. Just stay here." The forensic examiner's smile turned sinister.
As soon as he finished speaking, he spun around and pinned the woman against the desk.
"You..." The woman's face flushed with embarrassment. Before she could say anything else, she felt a chill at her neck.
Truthfully, she'd had a crush on the handsome young forensic examiner and wanted to take things further that night.
But she hadn't expected him to be so forward. It was only a meal—why the rush?
"Oh, this isn't the place... Ngh!"
The moment the woman spoke, she felt a sharp sting in her neck. Her body stiffened, her face contorting in pain.
The forensic examiner's Adam's apple bobbed again and again, as if some liquid were flowing down his throat and into his stomach.
"P-please... let me..."
The woman's body went limp. Her head spun, and her vision blurred.
One look at her face would have revealed how deathly pale she'd become from blood loss.
Nie Dong ignored her pleas, greedily sucking at her blood.
He hadn't been a vampire for long, and he simply couldn't control the murderous nature in his bones or his endless greed.
Whenever he savored a "delicious meal," he never paid attention to the prey's condition. Sometimes, he sucked them dry and killed them.
The elders of his clan said it was a bad habit, one that could easily arouse the hunters' suspicions if he wasn't careful.
But in Nie Dong's eyes, how could they fear those foolish hunters when they possessed such great power?
With a vampire's abilities, there were plenty of ways to toy with those hunters. Why should they be afraid of them?
The blood clan should have been a race above humanity. Humans were nothing but playthings and blood fodder for them.
Yet in the mouths of those weak, cowardly elders, the blood clan sounded more like a band of thieves hiding in dark corners, never seeing daylight!
How ridiculous!
So what if he drained someone dry? There were so many people in this city. Even if they killed one person a day, the police and hunters would only classify the deaths as demon beast attacks.
Then, to appease the public, they'd kill a few random demon beasts and call it a day.
The woman's life was slipping away fast. No matter how she looked at it, she'd never imagined that after finally working up the courage to ask her dream man out for a late-night meal, he'd make a late-night meal out of her!
Before long, the woman's life force had completely faded. Nie Dong had drained every last drop of blood from her body, leaving her flesh shriveled.
Only then did Nie Dong pull Blood Fang away from her neck. He licked his lips, his eyes full of mockery.
"Bad luck, huh? I have a ritual to complete tonight that needs a lot of blood. I was going to pick some lucky person at random, but you came along." Nie Dong gave a sinister chuckle, and his pair of fangs slowly retracted.
There were plenty of cameras nearby, but tampering with them was easy for Nie Dong. No one would ever know.
"Heh heh, a bunch of spineless cowards. Once I turn those two sisters into my blood servants, let's see who dares boss me around!" Nie Dong sneered, then turned into a swarm of blood-red bats and left the Police Department with the woman's corpse.
Outside the Northland Club.
It was already late. Lan Yu and the others had had their fill of fun and planned to take a car back to their apartment.
As they waited for their rideshare, they chatted idly to pass the time.
Just then, Lan Yu caught sight of a man with a high collar walking straight toward them from the corner of his eye.
The man passed right by them.
Lan Yu's nostrils flared slightly. He smelled blood on the man.
"Eh? Why can't I see his face clearly? Did I drink too much?" Ai Tutu shook her head.
"Probably. I can't see it clearly either." Mu Nujiao sounded uncertain.
"That man... is strange," Ding Yumian said. She watched Nie Dong's retreating back, her brows knitting together.
She hadn't liked the way that guy looked at them just now. It was as though he saw them as his own possessions.
"I think so too," Lan Yu said. "But I can see his face clearly."
"Well? Is he handsome?" Ai Tutu hurriedly asked.
"He's all right, but he definitely can't compete with me."
"Pah! Shameless!"
"..."
After entering the club, Nie Dong sat down at the bar, ordered a glass of Marina, and said, "Those girls at the entrance are all virgins, and they're quite pretty."
The bartender's hand paused as he polished the glass. Then he said, "I'd advise you to forget that idea. They're all mages."
"Hmph!" Nie Dong snorted. "So what if they're mages? Can they compare to a noble race like ours?"
"Nie Dong!" A sharp rebuke came from behind him.
The man stood behind Nie Dong, his eyes icy. "Do you know that if anything happens to them, none of us will get out alive?"
"You're this hard on me, but when that woman gets herself into trouble, you never say a word to her. You've put all of us under house arrest, so why not put her under house arrest too?" Nie Dong said, clearly displeased.
The middle-aged man snorted and continued, "You never act as cautiously as she does. She's at a huge academy, surrounded by powerful mages, and not once has anything gone wrong. Why should she be confined?"
At that, Nie Dong fell silent, though his face still showed his displeasure.
"Enough, Nie Dong. Take my advice and don't get too brazen these days. If you draw out a Hunter King, no one will be able to save you!"
Before you continue