What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 589: 589

Old Xia, Tang Baona, and Xiao Pingguo were “admiring” the lightning storm from the rooftop of their own house in Chongyun Village, while the Little Fatty Girl and Yang Lao San, who were far away in Pengcheng City, had also gone up to the rooftop.

Wearing only a short-sleeve, Yang Zhen’er shrank her neck and glanced at Little Fatty Girl beside her: “The wind on the rooftop is strong and it’s a bit cold. Aren’t you cold, Xiao Lingdang?”

Little Fatty Girl, also in a short-sleeve, was intently looking at her IPAD and without raising her head, she said: “Not cold.”

“Xiao Lingdang, when did Brother Xiang tell you to come to the rooftop?”

“In the afternoon.”

“Odd, why didn’t he tell me?”

“Bald Uncle told me to bring you up.”

“That’s ludicrous, I’m the adult here, I should be the one leading you… What’re you watching, Xiao Lingdang?”

“Watching lightning boom boom.” Liu Shiling was still not looking up, concentrating on the video of a mountain lightning storm playing on the IPAD.

“I know it’s lightning boom… Uh, I mean, why are you watching this? Did Brother Xiang tell us why we are on the rooftop? Don’t tell me he’s coming over by a helicopter, ha!” Yang Zhen’er squatted down behind Little Fatty Girl, placing her head on her shoulder, looking at the tablet in her hand.

“We are also going to watch the lightning boom boom.” Liu Shiling said.

“Ha? We are also going to watch? Can’t we just watch it at home? Why do we need to go to the rooftop and face the cold wind?” Said Yang Zhen’er, rubbing her cheek against Little Fatty Girl’s chubby and bouncy cheek. It was especially fun to touch.

“We can only see it from the rooftop. Also, we can’t ruin the TV or refrigerator anymore. If we tell mom that it’s the Custard Pie’s fault again, it will be in trouble.” Little Fatty Girl said.

“Hehe, then I’ll take the blame next time. Just say I’m in my drunk mood, haha. Huh? Wait, you mean we are going to watch lightning… do we have to create it ourselves?” Yang Zhen’er exclaimed in surprise.

“Yup.” Little Fatty Girl said matter-of-factly.

Yang Zhen’er was suddenly energized, feeling that the wind on the rooftop was not strong at all, and it’s not cold anymore.

She stood up, tilting her head to look at the clear night sky, frowned, and said, “Generate a lightning storm right here? I’ve never done that before, can I pull it off? Oh, I only brought one eraser, that’s not enough.”

Little Fatty Girl also looked up at the starry sky and said, “Didn’t you hear it, Older fairy sister?”

“Hear what?”

“Boom… Boom…” Little Fatty Girl imitated the sound of thunder.

“You mean the sound from your video? You muted your video, how can I hear it.” Yang Zhen’er said.

“No, it’s from there.” Little Fatty Girl pointed her short and fat finger in the distance and said.

Yang Zhen’er squinted her eyes to look over there and shook her head: “There’s nothing.”

“Ah, the video you were watching, it looks like it was filmed at Chongyun Mountain?” Yang Zhen’er suddenly realized.

“Yes.” Little Fatty Girl nodded.

“Who sent it to you? Old Xia? Or Nana?”

“Xiao Luosi.”

“Xiao Luosi again? Isn’t she an online friend of yours? How did she get a video of a thunderstorm on Chongyun Mountain? Oh, is it an old one? Found online? From the time when a fugitive got hit?”

“No.” Little Fatty Girl said, “Older fairy sister, focus, listen to the thunder.”

“There’s no thunder… Huh?”

Just as she was speaking, Yang Zhen’er suddenly heard a boom of thunder, but she was stunned for a moment, looking down in the direction of the sound, only to find that it came from the tablet in Little Fatty Girl’s hand, but her tablet was clearly no longer playing the video.

In that booming sound, faintly, it seemed like someone was humming a song, but it was hidden within the thunder, making it impossible for people to make out clearly. But subconsciously, she thought of Nana– as she had heard such humming melody a lot during her previous stay in Chongyun Village.

While she was listening, she suddenly had an impulse and said to Little Fatty Girl who was next to her, “Xiao Lingdang, it’s windy now, and there’s thunder!”

As soon as she finished speaking, a crash of thunder echoed in the sky, and a bolt of lightning from east to west almost cut through the entire sky.

The flash of lightning lit up Liu Shiling’s face as she looked up, prompting an unconscious “wow~” from her.

Her “wow” seemed to inject a great deal of encouragement into Yang Zhen Er. She spread her arms wide, looked up at the sky with bright eyes, and loudly proclaimed:

“Dark cloud battleships, loaded with thunder, set sail swiftly and fall into formation, listen to the command of Silver Armor Old Fairy!”

“For the purpose of purging the sins of the world… wait…”

“In celebration of your king! The Silver Armor Old Fairy… the most powerful magician under the command of Silver Armor Fairy – Liu Shiling is on holiday! A long holiday!!”

“Unleash your thunder!”

“Come on! Roar!”

As she chanted these absurd lines, the clouds in the sky merged, blotting out the stars and moon. Occasional flashes of lightning between the clouds hinted at the brewing storm.

With the fall of her final words, within the vision of her and the little fatty girl, bolts of lightning struck down from the sky, connecting heaven and earth. They struck a large tree not far away with a crackling noise.

Of course, the tree was just fine, both in reality and in the scene perceived by the two girls.

“YEAH!” Yang Zhen Er jumped up in excitement.

Liu Shiling also jumped with her.

Even knowing that it was an illusion, they were both extremely excited.

Although they had previously conducted numerous illusion experiments indoors and attempted various bizarre things, they had never tried or even considered creating such a large-scale illusion outdoors that influenced the weather like a deity.

Besides, Yang Zhen Er hadn’t prepared for this in advance, even omitting to bring along her usual “companions”.

The initial thought of Yang Zhen Er was to imagine the divine thunder punishing all evils in the world. However, she mysteriously sensed that what she had imagined was not a “Punishing Thunder,” but a “Celebration Thunder”.

One bolt of lightning after another slashed down from heaven. The center of the thunderstorm was located right in the city center, surrounding the building they were standing on. At first, the two girls were slightly fearful as the thunderbolts fell and the thunder roared. But they soon adapted, standing on the rooftop, calling for thunder and lightning happily.

“Little Bell! Did you see that? All the commanders of the Dark Cloud Battleship under my command are celebrating your holiday!” Yang Zhen Er shouted with her hands on her hips.

“Old fairy sister is super strong! Long live old fairy sister! Invincible old fairy sister!” Liu Shiling shouted a few times then suddenly remembered something and asked, “Old Fairy Sister, where is my magic wand?”

“Your magic wand is in your hand.” Yang Zhen Er blinked and said.

So Liu Shiling looked down and found that the IPAD she was holding had transformed into a magic wand. She held up the magic wand and shouted: “Chocolate! Ice cream! Lemon tea! …”

Yang Zhen Er was startled and quickly squatted down to hold her: “Little Bell, hold on …”

“Old fairy sister, don’t be afraid, Xiao Luosi is watching just fine, it’s okay.” Liu Shiling patted her back to comfort her.

“Xiao Luosi?” Yang Zhen Er was surprised. It felt just like the first time she heard Tang Baona talking to herself as “Little Elf”.

Then she suddenly saw five shining coins suspended around them. When she looked at them, they rushed into the sky and disappeared into the rolling dark clouds above her head.

“Old fairy sister, look!” Liu Shiling, holding her “magic wand,” pointed to the sky and shouted excitedly.

Yang Zhen Er looked in the direction Liu Shiling was pointing to, and she vaguely saw five round human-shaped creatures shuttling through the night sky and the clouds during the constant flashes of lightning and the booming thunder.

Were those five round humans wearing armor? They are like heavenly soldiers and generals?

Considering the fact that they can see vague shapes from here, the round individuals must be extremely large, probably much larger than ordinary passenger planes.

Was this the transformation of Xiao Bell’s five coins?

Wait; it should be an illusion.

But aren’t illusions supposed to be my own imagination?!

I have never seen anything like this!

Feeling a little confused, Yang Zhen Er rubbed her eyes.

Next to her, Liu Shiling, dressed in a black and gold magic robe, silently put on her hood and tugged at the strings on the side. The cat ears on the top of the hood twitched a little.

…

Below their feet, in the building where they lived, the lady of a certain household was sitting in the living room playing an online game on her cellphone. Suddenly, she noticed that she had been disconnected from the internet, and then she faintly heard the sound of thunder, which seemed to be coming from her own television.

She looked up at the TV screen, which was clearly broadcasting an urban romance show featuring a man and a woman chatting in a cafe under clear skies. Why would there be such intense thunder?

She couldn’t help but ask her mother, who was engrossed in watching the TV: “Mom, do you hear thunder?”

“Thunder? Is there a thunderstorm? Is it going to rain?” Her mother instinctively stretched her neck to look out towards the balcony.

“No, it’s from the TV…”

“Oh, the TV, no…Hey, it seems I really do hear thunder, and other noises too, it sounds like an opera.”

Boom——!

A deafening clap of thunder echoed, startling both mother and daughter simultaneously. They were both sure, this time the noise was not coming from the TV, it was from outside.

Their balcony sliding glass doors were tremoring with reverberations, and the flash was incredibly bright.

“Oh my, it’s really going to rain, we need to close the windows.” The mother gave her daughter a nudge, urging her on.

The lady glanced at her phone, still disconnected. She had no choice but to put her phone in her pocket and get up to close the balcony window.

When she arrived at the balcony, a bolt of lightning struck, surprisingly hitting a building a few hundred meters away. Although the strike was huge, nothing seemed to happen afterwards.

“Was it grounded? A lightning rod?” The lady scratched her head puzzlingly.

Just as she was about to close the window and check on her family’s optical modem and router, suddenly another bolt of lightning struck, followed by a continuous barrage, one strike after another. The thunder was so deafening it rattled her eardrums. She instinctively crouched down, covering her ears.

Strangely enough, she didn’t find this thunderstorm scary, but rather…somewhat festive??

At the same time, throughout the entire city, many people had similar experiences, all startled by the thunder and witnessing a never before seen “lightning storm” taking place in the city.

After an unknown length of time, the thunderstorm subsided.

However, on the rooftop, Yang Zhen’er noticed that the wind had not only not stopped, but had gotten stronger. She looked at the Little Fatty Girl next to her – her magic robe had vanished and her magic wand had turned back into an iPad. Her illusion had stopped, right?

A raindrop as big as a soybean fell down, plopped on her forehead, which made her exclaim. Then, she instinctively raised her head, only to be assaulted by a torrent of rain. A droplet even got into her eye.

“It’s raining! Elder fairy sister, run!” Liu Shiling grabbed Yang Zhen’er’s hand and started running towards the roof’s staircase.

Once they reached the staircase, Yang Zhen’er wiped off the raindrops from her face, turned back to look at the downpour outside, then looked at the sky quizzically.

What was happening?

The thunderstorm just now was a large-scale illusion created by her and Little Ding Dong, right? Wasn’t it a spectacle that only the two of them could see?

She remembered clearly, when she and Little Ding Dong first arrived on the rooftop, it was a clear night with visible moon and stars. They hadn’t been up for that long, had they? How could it suddenly start pouring rain?

Could it be that the spectacle just now was real? No, that can’t be, there were no traces of lightning strikes anywhere around.

Suddenly, she thought of something and asked the Little Fatty Girl next to her, who was also wiping her face: “Little Ding Dong, where are your coins?”

Little Fatty Girl patted the pockets of her pants. The sound of coins jingling could be heard.

“Little Ding Dong, they flew up just now! They flew up to the sky!” Yang Zhen’er exclaimed, “And… and it seemed like they turned into heavenly soldiers and generals! Plump and round ones!”

“Hehe.”

“Little Ding Dong, stop just hehe-ing, hurry up and fess up, did you sneakily use some sort of trick just now? Also, also, who is that Little Screw you keep talking about?” Yang Zhen’er pressed on.

“Elder fairy sister, let us hurry back to take a bath, otherwise we’ll catch a cold,” Liu Shiling said as she pulled Yang Zhen’er’s hand and started walking towards the hallway, “Uncle Bald said that you would understand if you think about it. If you really don’t get it, you can ask him.”

Yang Zhen’er grumbled, “Why would I ask him, he’s definitely just going to trick me again.” But she still followed Little Fatty Girl down the stairs, because if she was to catch a cold, it would be fine, but if Little Ding Dong were to catch a cold, she would feel incredibly guilty.

…

Within Chongyun Mountain.

Under a large temporary rain shelter constructed from intertwined branches and leaves of a gigantic Twisted Neck Tree.

Mr. Liang watched the “mutated big bird” that he had expended a large amount of resources to track down, appearing from the ground in front of him like an unwrapped gift. He was momentarily at a loss for words as he locked eyes with the creature.

Even though the “mutated big bird” looked completely different from when he last encountered it on Wushu Mountain, it has even shrunk significantly in size. Mr. Liang was still able to instantly recognize that it was the “Giant raptor” he had been tracking.

It had actually been captured alive by Xiang Kun?

And it had been hiding underground all this time?

Was Xiang Kun’s power even more formidable and bizarre than he had initially thought?

Especially those countless tiny spheres still floating in the air and the consciously-moving tendrils and roots on the ground. It was almost unfathomable, even for someone like him.

It seemed that Xiang Kun was like the “Ultimate Predator,” an organism of another level of complexity.

“Are you saying…” Mr. Liang looked at Xiang Kun who was not far away: “that I should use it as a ‘Blood source’ for a phase transformation?”

Xiang Kun nodded: “Yes, it is very suitable. And as you know, it has caused a lot of destruction, it needs to be dealt with anyway.”

Mr. Liang, however, shook his head: “At my stage, phase transformation requires a very high-quality ‘Blood source,’ it may not be appropriate.”

“Don’t worry, I am very certain that it is suitable.”

As soon as Xiang Kun had finished speaking, the “mutated big bird”, which had its wings strangely folded up, suddenly flapped them violently, attempting to fly into the sky.

Evidently, as soon as it regained some mobility, it tried to escape as quickly as possible.

Both Xiang Kun and Mr. Liang were like the Grim Reaper to it.

Mr. Liang subconsciously commanded his numerous reconnected mini-drones to approach it, but to his surprise, the countless spheres that had been floating nearby quickly converged to envelop the “mutated big bird” into a large iron ball. It fell back to the ground without even being able to make a sound.

Looking at the spheres spreading out again, revealing the once again incapacitated “mutated big bird”, Mr. Liang asked: “By consuming it, could I bring out the ‘Ultimate Predator’ and invoke its concentrated, intense consciousness response?”

“No, not even close. But don’t worry, I will lead you to hunt enough ‘Blood sources’; I know where they are,” Xiang Kun assured confidently, “You don’t need to worry here. I am in control of everything. The ‘Ultimate Predator’ can’t threaten you either. I’ve severed its link with relevant specific factors. But there is one situation I must warn you about. After you undergo a sufficient number of phase transformations to meet the ‘Ultimate Predator’s’ blood-drinking requirements, you yourself will face body disintegration. In theory, I can help you reconstruct your body, but since I haven’t tried it before, I cannot guarantee 100% success. However, I can assure you that your consciousness, your subjective cognition, and your memory will not be lost. Even if I can’t restore your original body, I can make sure your consciousness continues to exist, in another form.”

A smile stretched from Mr. Liang’s mouth to his ears, giving off an indiscernible expression. He controlled his drones to close in on the “mutated big bird” and spoke in his deep, gravelly, metallic voice: “Don’t need to comfort me. Now I only have one choice, don’t I? Xiang Kun, I will do what I have to do. If anything unexpected happens to me, remember to take the tiny, rice-shaped piece of metal from beneath my left brain and go find my driver, Old Xie. He will take you to Old He… He will help you unlock our secret archives where you can find many long-buried secrets, as well as research papers and information we have accumulated over the years. Especially my last recorded video, you must watch it carefully… then, do what needs to be done.”

Xiang Kun slowly nodded and only said three words: “Rest assured.”

Then, the countless super-connected spheres dispersed again. Even without Xiang Kun’s assistance, against a “mutated big bird” that could no longer fly, it would be a matter of seconds for Mr. Liang to kill it.

The method Mr. Liang used to deal with the ‘mutated big bird’ was the same as what he used against Guo Tianxiang. The mini-drones connected with each other and formed a laser grid by sacrificing themselves, dissolving the ‘mutated big bird’ into a fog of blood. He strolled forward, walking into the blood fog.

Xiang Kun could sense that upon hearing his words, Mr. Liang felt a moment of hesitation, nervousness, conflict, and fear. But after he made his promise, Mr. Liang suppressed his emotions and made a decision.

Mr. Liang was also afraid of death, but there were things he feared more than death.

Xiang Kun did not stay to watch Mr. Liang “drink blood”. Even if he was not around, he knew every detail. Instead, he climbed atop the “temporary rain shelter” using Xiao Luobo’s stem, stood in the rain, gazing into the distance.

In the distance was the direction of Chongyun Village.

Further beyond, thousands of kilometers away, was the location of Pengcheng City.

Over this period, Xiang Kun had further refined his plan. However, he knew that to have a greater guarantee of success, he needed help.

Not only did he need Mr. Liang’s help, but he also needed assistance from Alice, Old Xia, Little Fatty Girl, Xiao Pingguo, Nana, and Old Three.

He needed to better and more comprehensively utilize the “Super sensory Item System” to ensure success.

He felt a weight on his shoulder, a pair of small shoes on his left shoulder. Without looking, he knew it was Alice.

Alice, who had phased into existence, held up a surreal “umbrella” made of dozens of tightly connected roasted chicken wings and Crispy Pig’s Elbows over Xiang Kun’s head. Looking in the same direction as him, she said firmly:

“Boss, we are invincible.”