Chapter 66 — The Vampire Fiend
劍問蒼天 · Page 6 of 7
This was of course the Vampire Fiend's prized skill, the Vampire **. Seeing Zhang Qingyue held within his grasp, he could not help laughing aloud. With a great shout he raised his arm and hoisted the youth's body straight up into midair, crying, "Little wretch, give me back my disciple's life!"
Held in his grip, Zhang Qingyue's blood ran backward through his body, and the pain was unbearable. His senses grew dim; with the last of his strength he struggled in his death throes, thrusting the dark iron staff at the ghoul, but there was no force in it at all—it drifted like a falling feather.
The Vampire Fiend paid it no mind in the least. He gave a humph, thinking to himself: this youth has nothing else about him, his arts are only ordinary, but this magic treasure in his hand is most peculiar. In a while, once I have drained his blood, I shall take this dark-iron-staff thing back and study it well.
Just then, the dark iron staff came down upon the hand that gripped Zhang Qingyue's chest.
The dark blue-green bead grazed the skin that was in that moment so wildly drinking blood.
The blood beneath that skin seemed to be summoning something.
The Vampire Fiend suddenly gave a shrill cry, released Zhang Qingyue, and leaped back, staring at his hand. The skin that had grown plump from drinking blood had, almost in an instant, shriveled away—worse than it had been before.
And before him, Zhang Qingyue swayed on the verge of falling, yet the dark iron staff in his hand—above all the bead at its tip—had come eerily alight, making the threads of blood around it gleam red.
The Vampire Fiend suddenly laughed coldly: "So that is how Jiang Laosan came to die—the strangeness was in you. Heh heh, that such a rare treasure exists in this world! Little wretch, give me your life along with it!"
With that his form flew up, his ghost hand like a claw, and this time he drove it straight down at the crown of Zhang Qingyue's head. Poor Zhang Qingyue had no strength left in his whole body and could resist no more; in another moment he would die beneath the claws of the Vampire Fiend.
"Fiend!"
A furious roar, thick with rage, and a blast of scorching heat tore through the air in an instant, crashing down like a towering wave and sweeping across the whole forest. Within thirty feet of them, every tree withered in the blink of an eye. A single brilliant streak of fire fell from the horizon, ripping the blanket of dark clouds to shreds.
The Old Bloodsucker was aghast. The newcomer's cultivation was far beyond the ordinary, and he had no time left to trouble himself over wounding Zhang Qingyue. His hands flew back, and with a shrill shriek the crimson skull blazed with blood-light, raising before him a wall of radiance red as fresh gore.
"Boom..."
Like thunder crashing to earth, the firelight smashed into the blood wall, and a hissing torrent of heat roared up, in an instant becoming a scarlet immortal sword that shuddered without cease. The tremendous force drove the Old Bloodsucker straight backwards, fully dozens of feet, and still it did not slacken in the least, bearing down on him like mountains calling and seas howling.
The Old Bloodsucker's face went white. He let out a great cry, shifted his hand seals, his ten fingers moving in unbroken succession, and in a flash two beams of blood-light shot from the crimson skull's eyes, piercing the blood wall and striking the scarlet sword.
Amid a thunderous report, the scarlet immortal sword flew back, and the Old Bloodsucker's whole body was shaken violently; he staggered back several steps before he could steady himself.
"Red Flame!" A chill, sinister intent suddenly rose in the Old Bloodsucker's eyes, and his face turned frost-cold.