After the middle-aged man left, Nie Dong drank alone at the bar until late into the night.
By now, night had fallen.
Only then did Nie Dong set down his glass and head farther into the club.
This was the club's cellar. Rows upon rows of wine racks stood inside, though many of them were empty.
Only some of the racks held seemingly expensive red wine, and those bottles had been wiped clean, without a speck of dust.
The wine cellar was quiet. Not a sound from the noisy club above could be heard down here.
Drip... drip...
In the darkness, a dripping sound could be heard, keeping a steady rhythm.
At the center of the cellar stood a round table, partially hollowed out. Two petite, slender girls were tied on top of it.
Their wrists had been slit, and the dripping sound came from the blood trickling from their wounds.
Their blood dripped onto the floor. It was easy to see that the flowing blood formed a bizarre pattern, slowly tracing out a sinister blood diagram as it followed the grooves in the floor.
The more blood dripped, the stronger the evil aura rising from the strange diagram became. That aura surged madly into the bodies of the two girls on the table.
The girls' small mouths hung slightly open, and they made muffled sounds in their throats. It was clear they were in agony, and their upper canines were slowly growing.
Tap... tap... tap...
The footsteps rang out with unusual clarity, echoing through the empty cellar.
Hearing them, the two girls on the table gradually regained a little clarity. Their faces immediately twisted with disgust.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Looks like you still won't behave." Nie Dong's voice rang out. "I think that once you've been turned into my blood servants, you'll do everything I say."
As he spoke, Nie Dong reached out and grabbed each girl by the chin.
Looking at the furious expressions on the sisters' faces, Nie Dong wore a look of pure enjoyment. "That's right. Exactly that look. It's utterly irresistible. The ritual won't take long. Afterward, you'll have power as great as mine, and you'll be able to kill anyone who rubs you the wrong way..."
"My sister and I will never become a monster like you!" one of the girls weakly snapped.
Nie Dong's lips curled slightly. He bent down and leaned close to the girl's ear. "We'll just have to wait and see, little Liu Ru."
"Something's off."
Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice broke in.
"Who's there?!" Nie Dong whipped around, his face fierce.
When he saw who stood at the entrance, Nie Dong froze. "You?"
"How did you get in here?!" Nie Dong demanded.
"I kept an eye out. Didn't expect I'd actually catch you in the act." A golden gleam shimmered in Lan Yu's hand.
Damn butterfly effect!
"You're just a puny mage. You actually think you can stand against our noble vampire clan?"
Nie Dong didn't understand how this guy had made it into the cellar. But now that he was here, he'd leave his life behind!
"Light Radiance!"
Brilliant golden light burst through the dim cellar, illuminating everything around them.
"Damn it!!" Nie Dong flew into a rage. How dare this puny mage make a move in front of the noble vampire clan?
"Extinction Claw!"
Immediately, viscous clots of blood appeared around Nie Dong's body, rapidly transforming into a huge, hideous claw.
Nie Dong swept his arm forward, and the blood claw lunged at Lan Yu.
Everything in its path—including the wine racks—was instantly pulverized.
Seeing this, Lan Yu immediately cast the Light Element Intermediate Magic, Light Protection-Holy Shield, to block Nie Dong's blood claw.
Boom—
The blood claw slammed into the shield with a deafening crash, leaving the entire cellar in ruins.
"Damn light!"
Nie Dong had wanted to summon the Night Blade Bat, but Lan Yu's Light Element magic had lit up the whole cellar. There wasn't a trace of darkness anywhere.
"Get him!"
Sensing that the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger had already dealt with the vampires outside, Lan Yu gave the order.
Whoosh! A shadow suddenly appeared behind Nie Dong. Its sharp claws flashed, and one of his arms dropped to the floor.
"Argh!!!"
Nie Dong's arm had been severed, and the light seeped in through every crack. It sizzled against the stump, sending up wisps of smoke.
The agony made Nie Dong scream.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger had also infused its claw strike with Evil God power. Nie Dong was in for a world of pain.
Watching Nie Dong crumple to the floor, Lan Yu didn't let his guard down for a second.
The numbers in Douluo were no match for those in the later three installments, but damn, the mechanics were absurd.
What was that saying? If you wanted mechanics, they had mechanics. If you wanted stats, they had mechanics.
"You're a vampire. How dare you fight a Light Element mage?" Lan Yu kept blasting him with Light Radiance, leaving Nie Dong to suffer miserably.
"Light Bind!"
At Lan Yu's command, the light gathered into visible threads. They wove together, again and again, until they formed a massive net.
Light Bind trapped Nie Dong. The light's unique burning effect nearly seared through his body.
He hadn't yet gained full control over all 343 Light Element stars, but making a few simple changes to how his Light magic was cast was well within Lan Yu's abilities.
"Bastard! Roar!!"
Nie Dong struggled like mad, but he couldn't break free from the light net.
"Pull out his fangs!"
Crack! Crack!
At Lan Yu's order, two sharp snaps rang out as the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger yanked both of Nie Dong's blood fangs out by the roots.
Judging by the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's skill, it seemed to have become a master at this.
"My fangs! Please, give them back! I'll do anything you want, please..." With his blood fangs knocked out, Nie Dong finally panicked and began begging pathetically for mercy.
"Hmph! Even if you begged, I wouldn't let you go!" Lan Yu sneered. "You can rest in peace!"
Whoosh—
A flame, red and blue, shot from Lan Yu's fingertips. In an instant, the air in the entire cellar turned strange, shifting between cold and hot until it became unbearable.
Then Lan Yu flicked a finger, sending the flame onto Nie Dong. It flared up in an instant, burning fiercely as if it had landed on gasoline.
Nie Dong writhed in agony, roaring in pain.
In the corner, the weak twin sisters saw Nie Dong defeated and smiled.
Before long, Nie Dong's body was reduced to nothing by the twin forces of ice and fire, and a dark-blood-colored soul floated up.
Lan Yu wasn't surprised. He had the Ice and Fire Dragon King Head Bone and the Ice and Fire Dragon Pupil. Seeing a soul emerge from a dead creature was nothing unusual.
Fortunately, before returning here to lie in wait, he'd borrowed a Soul Vessel from Leng Qing. It could hold the essence of a Commander-level creature.
After collecting the dark-blood-colored essence in the Soul Vessel, Lan Yu turned his gaze to the twin sisters in the corner.
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