Chapter 20 The Dead of the Blood Hunter Clan

"Do you dare to fight me at full power?!" His shout reverberated throughout the entire world, shocking everyone. This man was speaking to the unbeatable Dracula, yet he was taunting the vampire to take him on at full power. No one present would ever forget the man's appearance. This was because, Wang Xuanming, who was bathed in gold light, had completely gone against the norm. Once, everyone thought of him as the most powerful God of War from the East, but the actions of his son, Wang Bugui, many years later changed their minds. "Fine, I'll fight you to the death, at the peak of my powers. I want to see for myself how great the disparity between humans and immortals are!" Dracula replied, agreeing to the fight. The magic circle on Dracula's hands began to emit a scarlet glow, and blood began dripping from his body. There were eyes of the same shade of red in the water, giving the blood a frightening appearance. The vampire lifted a hand to cover half of his face and formed an inverted cross with the help of his other hand, signifying the blasphemy of God. He then began chanting, "Gathering the blood of millions of souls, undying red spider-lilies burst forth. Command the souls of millions of people before us and conquer this illusory world; direct all life from the world of the living to the other world! Blood Pool-The Worlds of the Living and Dead!" By the time he finished, the blood on the ground had already become a river which spread across the entire battlefield, and there were countless bright red spider-lilies bursting out from the fluid. With its appearance, everyone realized that the earth's barrier could not be torn apart again, as they were all trapped within. "Come on, I have only 100 thousand lives left. I'll put in my utmost effort, let's see how many lives you can take!" Dracula taunted. "Let's fight then!" roared Wang Xuanming, as he dashed forward. His passing through the skies was so impactful that Heaven and Earth crumbled as he shot past them, and the skies were soon filled with terrible-looking cracks. Dracula adorned a set of armor and charged forward with a blood-red steel sword, and red spider-lilies scattered everywhere he went, each petal having enough power to split the surrounding space apart. "Boom!" Wang Xuanming's divine gold fist smashed into Dracula's sword, and the resulting impact caused all of the Infantes to be knocked backward, as the ground undulated like a wave before collapsing and sinking. By this time, none of the Infantes dared to chase after the fleeing humans or get close to Alice and Clara. There were only two combatants left on the battlefield, and no one else could achieve their level of overwhelming, majestic power. Dracula slashed with great force at his opponent, and the blow carried the power of blood vigor from the red spider-lilies. Wang Xuanming scattered the terrible sword energy with an Extreme Heaven Explosion, before striking out with his Break Heaven Fist. Dracula focused the fluid from the pool of blood to blow up the space in front of him, and small blood-red mushroom clouds appeared after the explosion. Wang Xuanming, however, was largely unharmed. He struck with one of his Meteorite Kicks, dispersing the mushroom clouds, before transforming into a flash of gold lightning as he streaked across the skies, accompanied by a huge sound. Within less than a second, he had kicked Dracula viciously, and even though the vampire had used his sword to block the attack, there was still a large cavity in his body. He sacrificed one life to instantly regenerate and engaged his opponent again. Dracula returned the favor with several slashes of his sword, each blow seemingly able to bring the heavens down. Wang Xuanming did not dodge, and a terrible wound appeared on his Undefeatable Body of the World, but he channeled the energy of a mystical skill to heal instantly and charged forward again. The skies had split apart from the titanic clash between the god-like and demonic figures, and the humans who were fleeing grew afraid as they watched from afar. They could not rip the barrier apart, as Dracula had sealed off the entire world with his Blood Pool, unless someone powerful like Wang Xuanming or Clara assisted them. Otherwise, there was nowhere they could go. "No! Sob..." Faraway, Wang Bugui was rendered immobile by Hanae Chiou, and he cried as he witnessed the deadly clash between his father and Dracula. He knew that his father had utilized a forbidden art, and no matter the outcome of the fight, there was no way he was coming back to this world. A tinge of reluctance flashed across Wang Xuanming as he saw his son before he returned to engage Dracula once more. On the other side of the battlefield, Alice had noticed that the other humans were unable to escape and was preparing to break the barrier with an arrow. "Army of lost souls from the Blood Pool, charge forth along with me!" Upon Dracula's order, an army of countless lost souls rose from the depths of the Blood Pool. Some of them were decked in armor and astride warhorses covered in the same, while some of them wore modern battle garb. Some of the humans even spotted their recently deceased companions amongst the undead soldiers. The infinitely large sea of corpses surged toward Alice, and she furrowed her brow in concentration as she unleashed a volley of dozens of arrows, each shot killing hundreds and thousands of undead. This army, however, was about 20 million strong, each soul representing one of Dracula's lives. Alice's arrows, however powerful, were inconsequential, and the sea of corpses rushed toward her. "Kick of the Universe!" Upon seeing this, Wang Xuanming roared as he unleashed his kick, killing a million of the souls instantly. He then returned to engage his opponent. At this point in time, Dracula had only 9,000 lives left, but Wang Xuanming was not doing too well either—his body was peppered with cracks, the price of using the forbidden art for a prolonged period of time. "Die!" Even so, he was fearless and charged forward again with fists raised. Within the short span of a few minutes, he had clashed with Dracula thousands of times, the resulting impact causing countless terrible looking cracks to appear in the space above the battlefield. Everyone could already witness what was behind these openings—it turned out that the battlefield was connected to the galaxy, and they could see countless stars and various galaxies far away. By this time, Alice was already about to be buried in a sea of corpses; she had a free space of only 10-meter radius left. She decided to leap up into the air to continue attacking and jumped hundreds of meters high. She then drew her silver Demon Hunting Bow, her fully stretched weapon reminiscent of the moon that had already been destroyed by the titanic struggle between Wang Xuanming and Dracula. She continued to infuse her blood into the arrow and absorbed the destructive energy from the epicenter of the battlefield as well. She finally released the arrow as she fell to nearly 100 meters above ground level, and a huge silver arrow half stained with blood shot out. "Boom!" Tens of thousands of undead were killed outright by the power of her arrow, and the blast caused by the explosion as it landed on the ground continued expanding, sucking countless of souls in as it grew. "Gasp!" Alice coughed out a huge mouthful of blood as she landed. She looked extremely pale, as she had lost nearly half of her blood, and could no longer see clearly. Her vision was blurred and her pupils looked unfocused. She turned to look in the direction of the fleeing Wang Bugui, wanting to see Wang Xuanming's son for the last time, but all she could see was the blurry vision of a blood-stained world. "Ahhhh!!!" Wang Bugui's eyes were bloodshot, and he threw all caution to the wind by triggering the Blood Ignition Technique to break free of his bonds. He screamed for his mother as he ran toward her, and as the Blood Pool could drain the strength of a weak person such as himself, he tripped many times as he tried to make his way over. Each time he fell, however, he would struggle to get up, and Hanae Chiou tried to chase after him but found that she could not catch up with his speed. Wang Xuanming could not help but give off a long howl as he saw his family. He transformed into a flash of blinding light as he flew over to Alice and helped her up. He shook his head as he saw Wang Bugui rushing over toward them, and sent him back to whence he came with a ray of gold light. "No! Don't do this, Father! I don't want to lose both of you!" Wang Bugui screamed his lungs out, but still, it could not prevent him from being sent back. His father then threw an object at him. The object gave off a bright blue hue as it arched across the air into Wang Bugui's hand, and after looking at it closely, the young man realized that it was a blue crystal pendant. "Bugui, this is your birthday gift. I'm sorry... I can't join your birthday party tomorrow," Wang Xuanming told his son via the psychic transmission. Wang Bugui lifted his head and looked in fear at the battlefield where his parents were. "Dad, what are both of you planning to do? Ah... No! I don't want any birthday present, I just want both of you to not leave me!" "Bugui, don't cry. I... I and your father have to... This is our responsibility. My son, I'm proud to have raised a child like you... You have to take care of yourself, we'll pray for you at the other world. Sob..." Alice got Wang Xuanming to help her transmit her message as well, and she was trying very hard to control her emotions but still cried in the end. "Bugui, remember—you'll be bearing our hopes and dreams. In future, this world will be yours to protect. Dad'll carve out an escape route for you today!" "Dad! Mum! Don't do this!" Wang Bugui screamed in agony, but his parents did not pay him any heed and turned around resolutely to face Dracula. "Ready!" Clara said to them at this moment, and the couple nodded as they walked toward their enemy. Alice strung her bow with her last ounce of strength, as she turned to look at Wang Xuanming. She smiled, and it was a smile full of self-confidence and a sense of security. As long as this man was by her side, she felt that there was nothing in the world that could scare her. This was because he had promised to shield her from any danger, and that no harm would come to her as long as he lived. She believed him, as he had kept to his side of the promise all his life, and there was no other man that she would rather spend the rest of her life with. "Essence of the Destruction of the Mountains and Rivers of 10,000 Realms! Mark of the Universal God of War!" Wang Xuanming shouted, as a brilliant golden light burst forth from his body and shot into the skies. He then charged at Dracula with the Mark of the God of War in his palm, and it looked extremely lifelike. Surrounding them were thousands of undead and scenes of demons feasting on blood, but the God of War himself stood above the chaos and gazed down upon the living beings on Earth. The God of War flew forward and blocked Dracula's attack before smashing his fist down, his blow cracking the earth apart. After Wang Xuanming unleashed the attack, his body began cracking apart, eventually turning into ashes. As for Alice, she infused all of her remaining blood into her last arrow and let it fly. The force of the projectile nearly split the bow, and the arrow blew out a passageway to the outer world. She began to smile slightly as her body crumbled into dust along with Wang Xuanming's. Hanae Chiou seized the opportunity to lead Wang Bugui and the others toward the opening, as the rest of the Blood Hunter Clan sacrificed themselves to form Clara's huge sealing formation. In the end, Clara gave up her own life to increase the potency of her magic. "Farewell, Bugui!" "Bugui, we believe you will be able to embody the will of our clan and destroy Dracula in future!" "Work hard, Bugui!" "Bugui, let us walk on this path of no return on your behalf!" "Remember us when you return!" "Blood Curse-Blood Demon Seal of a Thousand Lives!" ... Wang Bugui heard the words of his clansmen just as he was about to leave the battlefield and saw them shrieking as they forced their own bodies to explode. Their blood turned into scarlet runes, forming a huge seal that crushed down on Dracula. He also witnessed his parents turn into ashes after his father forced Dracula to remain stationary with the Mark of the God of War and his mother's tragically beautiful death as she released her last arrow.