Charlot activated the Eye of Insight and locked onto Harriet, who was hiding behind a building. Just as he prepared to pull the trigger, he felt a slight pang of regret.

  The st time he used the Anti-Space Long-Range Rifle, he had blown half the body of an assassin to pieces, completely losing the chance to absorb the target’s life essence.

  “Harriet is a high-level transcendent. If I can devour his blood essence, I might directly break through to mid-rank!”

  “I still have the Evil God's threat looming over me, and three months from now, the Orc Assassin Alliance will send another killer. I have to seize every opportunity to advance.”

  Charlot hesitated for a moment and decided to take the risk.

  Machubi was his byrinth. Here, it was his home ground, and there would be no better opportunity than now.

  Lord Leo showed no restraint in his use of ammunition. He fired more than ten rounds in succession, forcing Harriet to scurry like a rat, fleeing for his life.

  Charlot, wielding Blood Rose, positioned himself in a corner and focused his mind to manipute the byrinth. Then, he gathered all his strength and stabbed forward with a single strike.

  Harriet, having barely dodged Lord Leo’s gunfire, performed a diving roll and a series of tumbles. He had just reached the corner when a rapier seemed to predict his move and pierced toward his heart’s vital spot.

  Charlot had unched his strike before maniputing the byrinth.

  Harriet broke out in a cold sweat. Despite desperately channeling his protective combat energy, the rapier still pierced through his Radiant combat energy with no resistance and plunged straight through his chest.

  For this attack, Charlot had abandoned the Swiftstep Technique and instead activated the Angel’s Thorn Rune. He poured Blood Glory into the surrounding four Blood Vortexes, boosting the power of Angel’s Thorn by forty percent. Blood Rose, being a rare transcendent weapon, coupled with these conditions, ensured his success with a single strike.

  Harriet kicked out ferociously, but Charlot had already released the rapier and leapt away.

  When Harriet reached out to grab Blood Rose and pull it from his chest, the rapier’s hilt fshed with red light and flew away into the darkness.

  It was Charlot maniputing his Bloodfire Qi to recim Blood Rose.

  While Harriet searched for Charlot to strike back, Lord Leo adjusted his aim and fired another shot.

  Although Harriet narrowly dodged it, a fragment from the bullet grazed his abdomen, and blood instantly gushed out.

  Charlot took a deep breath and hurled the Vampiric Axe.

  Despite his injuries, Harriet was still a high-level transcendent and a Fourteenth-Tier Radiant Knight. In a critical moment, he caught the speeding hand axe with one hand. But almost simultaneously, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen as a rapier stabbed up from beneath the ground and pierced through him.

  Gritting his teeth against the pain, Harriet stomped down hard, sending Radiant combat energy bsting into the earth. But beneath the soil, there was nothing left.

  Charlot had moved one of Machubi Fortress’s underground transportation tunnels into pce for the strike. The moment he pierced Harriet, he restored the tunnel, leaving Harriet striking empty dirt.

  After two successful hits, Charlot had only absorbed a small portion of life essence. Yet his Blood Glory still seethed with faint excitement. Adjusting his posture slightly, he prepared for the next ambush.

  Lord Leo leapt onto a nearby building and signaled to Charlot. After a moment of hesitation, Charlot approached.

  “Lord Leo, I completed my task and killed Grand Duke Ferdinand. I was pnning to return to the Empire, but I ran into some colleagues who said they hadn’t seen you. I suspected you might be in trouble, so I came back to search for you. I met a few blood servants I’d recently recruited, who told me you were also trapped here.”“For the past few days, I’ve been wandering nearby, searching for a way to save you. Not long ago, I met a recluse who advised me that I needed to bring a high-level transcendent into the byrinth to swap you out. I used every method at my disposal to lure this Fars Empire officer here.”

  Lord Leo’s face showed a hint of joy. He had had enough of this damned pce. However, as a high-ranking noble, he waved his hand with dignity and said, “I didn’t call you over to discuss this matter.”

  “I know you have your eye on that transcendent’s abundant life essence and blood, but I must remind you: while we vampires can indeed absorb the life essence of our enemies to advance our transcendent ranks, we cannot rely on this method completely.”

  “For high-ranking vampires, the purity of blood energy is more important. Mindless devouring of life essence risks turning you into a monster. That’s why we avoid absorbing prey whose rank is too much lower than our own, only occasionally replenishing ourselves.”

  “You’re still a low-ranking vampire, so it’s less of a problem for you. But you should know you’re at the critical point for condensing your blood core and advancing to baron rank.”

  “My personal advice: don’t waste this Fars transcendent’s life essence on rank advancement. Use it to attempt condensing your blood core instead.”

  “I’ll let you in on a secret: the sooner you condense your blood core, the longer your lifespan as a vampire will be, and the longer you can retain your youth.”

  Charlot was slightly taken aback. The Protagoras Scrolls had no such method for condensing a blood core. Though the human philosopher was long-lived, he had still aged and died like any ordinary human.

  Noticing Charlot’s expression, Lord Leo asked in surprise, “Don’t tell me you haven’t learned the Vampiric Secret Arts of the Adonis Cn?”

  Charlot took a deep breath and replied quietly, “Sorry, I am an irregur descendant.”

  As everyone knew, vampires could not reproduce naturally. New vampires were created through secret rituals or the process of Embrace.

  At the founding of the Byron Empire, vampires were considered noble beings, and unrestricted expansion of their popution was discouraged. The empire imposed strict regutions: all vampires required a license to Embrace, known as the “Embrace Permit,” which set a quota for creating new vampires.

  Whether through rituals or the Embrace, the process was highly inefficient. As a result, the vampire popution remained small. To date, the combined popution of all thirty-one cns did not exceed twenty thousand, far below even a tenth of a percent of the empire’s total popuce.

  Despite these strict regutions, some vampires still created descendants without an Embrace Permit. Such offspring were known as irregur descendants.

  Technically, these irregur descendants were not supposed to exist, nor did they have the right to learn their cn’s secret arts.

  Although most cn elders turned a blind eye to irregur descendants, they were widely discriminated against and rarely received proper training in cn techniques.

  Lord Leo gave an “oh” and said nonchantly, “No wonder you’ve always tried to hide your transcendent rank in front of me.”

  Charlot smiled awkwardly. In truth, he wasn’t hiding his rank for that reason, but he certainly wasn’t going to expin.

  With a casual flick of his hand, Lord Leo tossed Charlot a book. “You may not be able to cultivate the Arthur Cn’s Vampiric Scroll, but the blood core condensation method inside is still worth studying. Most vampiric methods for condensing blood cores are simir.”