Crowbar stared at Fang Senyan with a look of sheer venom. He gripped the crucifix tightly, dragging his thumb across the edge of the cross until a crimson line was drawn, allowing blood to seep in directly. Spiritual energy flooded after it, and where the blood touched, the crystal surface of the cross instantly fractured like a spiderweb. The black smoke within, meeting the blood, immediately billowed up, stretching toward the sky to form a human silhouette that descended and rapidly coalesced into a single figure.

A middle-aged European man with blond hair, a black tailcoat, a bow tie, and a small mustache.

His complexion was somewhat pale, but his lips were an unusually vivid red, radiating a sickly, almost ethereal vibrancy. He surveyed his surroundings, then bowed slightly to Crowbar with the impeccable courtesy of a sixteenth-century European noble:

“Though it may be discourteous to say so, for a traveler starved for a full seven years and two months, the urgency to return home is an entirely natural instinct. I thank Your Excellency for rescuing me from that dark place. Regrettably, I must now bid you farewell.”

The man’s voice was deep and pleasing, possessing the very cadences of a harpist, utterly imbued with aristocratic charm.

“!” Crowbar gasped deeply. His spiritual energy was utterly spent, yet his voice carried an inscrutable chill: “Mr. Edward, I regret you must delay your homecoming. Otherwise, not only will you fail to reach home, but you will find yourself confined to another dark place for another seven years and two months!”

The Vampire Edward’s face instantly darkened. He suddenly noticed that Crowbar still held the ancient crucifix in his hand! He could only shrug:

“Very well, sir. Name your price.”

Crowbar pointed fiercely at Fang Senyan: “Kill him! Immediately!”

Vampire Edward cocked his head, looking at Fang Senyan: “This person… is shrouded in the mists of destiny; I cannot see through him. Therefore, I cannot guarantee his demise within five minutes. If you still require my services after five minutes…”

At this point, Edward suddenly smiled greedily and sinisterly, utterly shattering the veneer of aristocratic bearing. He threw open his mouth, revealing two razor-sharp canine teeth and a long, crimson tongue directed at Crowbar!

“Then you will have to offer up your flesh and blood! One offering grants me five extra minutes in this world. For a second offering, you won’t need to know the answer, because by then, you will assuredly be dead!”

Fang Senyan was panting.

He bore seventeen or eighteen wounds across his body, snatching every moment to draw huge gulps of air, his labored breathing clearly audible. The vampire’s attacks were like a sweeping gale. Fang Senyan’s meager 10 points in Agility were utterly insufficient; he lacked even the room to resist. His attempts to rush forward and prioritize neutralizing Crowbar only exposed numerous openings, which the vampire seized upon with savage ferocity!

Yet, his eyes were deep, blazing, and held the steadfastness of towering mountains.

The vampire’s shadow flickered around him, its sharp claws and teeth honed as keenly as sharpened blades! It was only due to the vampire not being a creature renowned for explosive bursts of power—its resilience and combat recovery being its celebrated traits—and the constraint of the 40% Rule, that Fang Senyan managed to fight on with such grim difficulty. This was true even against a vampire that had been held captive for eighty-six months, a creature too weak to utilize anything beyond brute melee force!

Far away, Crowbar was leaning against a tree, nearly collapsing, his face creased with horrifying wrinkles, as if instantly aged thirty years. To maintain the frenzied assault of Vampire Edward, he had unhesitatingly allowed the creature to drain his blood once! Furthermore, he must possess some restorative item, as Crowbar was still able to stand weakly, barely clinging to life, watching the battle with eyes full of malice.

The vampire swept by again like the wind. The only recourse for Fang Senyan was to cross his arms to protect his vital areas and leap sideways, but the cost was predictably brutal: a chilling numbness followed by searing pain as a large chunk of flesh was ripped from his back. Although the vampire summoned by Crowbar was indeed weakened by the 40% Rule, and had endured the long famine of his confinement for seven years, it remained a monster that should never have appeared in this world—a high-level Legendary creature having reached Tier Two!

Every successful strike by the vampire carried away nearly 15 points of Fang Senyan’s life. While this number seemed small, it translated to a theoretical attack power for the vampire ranging from 80 to 90 points! Because it was summoned by a Contractor, it was automatically classified under the Contractor faction, meaning its attacks against a Contractor first suffered the 40% Rule reduction, then Fang Senyan’s formidable 37% damage mitigation, and finally, an additional forced deduction of 25 points from Fang Senyan’s Toughness talent! Only then was the damage reduced to approximately 15 points. Had someone like Dass faced this vampire, he would not have lasted ten seconds under its assault!

“Ugh… fourteen more seconds until we hit the ten-minute mark.” Fang Senyan, now entirely on the defensive, had managed to cling on through the onslaught, rolling and scrambling for nearly ten minutes. His enhancement ability, Grappling Combat LV2’s evasion bonus, played a crucial role. Another significant factor was: Fang Senyan’s current life regeneration rate was 15 points/minute, further boosted by a temporary 25% increase from consuming endless potent vodka, bringing his actual regeneration to 19 points/minute. This meant he had effectively recovered an additional 190 health points over those ten minutes! Therefore, although Fang Senyan was bleeding profusely and his vision periodically blacked out, he maintained an unwavering certainty that he would win, that he could hold on until the end!

Even at this near-desperate juncture, Fang Senyan, swaying precariously, had eyes burning with fierce light. Within his resolve and determination, there seemed to dwell a ferocious, untamed beast that roared to life in moments of supreme crisis, bolstering his unyielding, immortal will and belief! It felt like an insurmountable peak, touching the heavens, an entity that could never be felled!

The tails of the vampire's tailcoat twitched slightly. The terrifying creature tilted its head, elegantly swaying its blood-stained index finger:

“Oh, child, I truly dislike that look in your eyes.”

Then, the black, elongated shadow suddenly whipped up like a gust of wind, seeming to converge from all directions. The horrifying, blade-like claws multiplied—one to two, two to ten, ten to a hundred, a hundred to a thousand—instantaneously filling Fang Senyan’s entire field of vision, before coalescing again into a single whistle of descent, poised to inflict another grievous wound as before.

This was the only ability Vampire Edward could currently employ in his weakened state—immensely powerful. The last strike had penetrated deep into Fang Senyan’s internal organs, nearly eviscerating his stomach! But at this moment, Fang Senyan closed his eyes, his right hand gripping the Bone-Scraping Axe unwavering, and suddenly brought it up toward his own throat!

With a light clang, Fang Senyan was violently thrown back five or six meters, yet he immediately rolled up and sprang to his feet. Three deep, bloody gashes marred his throat, spraying blood, giving the ghastly appearance of having been slit open! In reality, it was only superficial; his gaze, like two red-hot nails, stabbed deep into the vampire.

“I have seen through your move! This technique has no further threat against me!”

Fang Senyan, possessing a mere 10 points in Agility, delivered this resolute declaration, claiming to have seen through the vampire’s technique—a feat that was clearly impossible. After all, Vampire Edward’s Agility must surely be at the world cap of 50 points. If such mastery could be seen through so easily, then the significance of individual attribute points would become a joke. His ability to parry/block this attack was due to capturing several subtle details.

One of these details was the ground itself.

Fang Senyan and the vampire had fought initially amidst dense woods and thickets, where the ground was covered in dead leaves and debris, leaving no trace. But as the battle intensified, Fang Senyan had slowly guided Vampire Edward toward a muddy path.

Though the vampire possessed high Agility, it did not mean he could move with supernatural lightness across water or soil; in fact, the vampire could only achieve flight by transforming into a bat. Fang Senyan currently could not keep up with the vampire’s speed, but he could read the direction of the vampire’s movements by tracking the footprints left on the ground.

Coupled with the fact that Vampire Edward had been starved for a full seven years and two months, the target of its greedy, starved gaze was most likely where it intended to strike next—the logic was simple: it yearned to see the hot, surging blood spray forth!

By combining these two factors, alongside the combat techniques Fang Senyan had gleaned from fighting the vampire and Edward’s personal offensive habits, he managed, at this crucial moment, to seize an opportunity and evade the terrifying shadow of the claw. His reason for making such a bold statement was to create an illusion of certainty mixed with uncertainty, fostering an aura of unfathomable depth even for the vampire.