The Church of Light worships the God of Light, with its followers championing justice and taking it upon themselves to eradicate evil and spread illumination. With the collapse of the Nesser Dynasty, the Nesser era came to an end. The continent of Aelras fell into chaos once more, and after a long period of turmoil, the current power structure emerged. The downfall of the Nesser Dynasty was linked to the gods, who took advantage of the darkness and confusion to recruit followers and spread their faith. Thus, belief surged once again, reminiscent of ancient times. Although conflicts occasionally arose between various sects, their followers came from different backgrounds and social classes, leading to religious tragedies often occurring between the so-called forces of good and evil. The primary antagonists were those labeled as evil heretics—vampires like Fars—and the silver-armored knights of light and the priests of the church. Don't expect the followers of the nature goddess, the huntress goddess, or the love goddess to join the fray; they were mostly farmers and hunters, lacking combat prowess, and sending them into battle would only be a death sentence.
Recently, Fars's life had settled into a routine: hunting and training at night, reading (books he had found in his storage ring) or meditating during the day. He had developed the habit of sleeping with the mysterious phoenix egg cradled in his arms, waking up each time to find it there. Sometimes, he would daydream about hatching a phoenix and gallivanting across Aelras, creating legendary tales. It was indeed a daydream. It had been months since he had become a vampire, and he had yet to experience waking up before dawn. Such tranquil days might make some who struggled for survival envious, and Fars even pondered whether he should thank the omnipotent God of Light propagated by the church.
Fars's homeland, the Osi Empire, was not a realm dominated by the Church of Light; it was a land of religious freedom, with a polytheistic belief system. In his previous life, Fars had no particular faith, occasionally participating in prayers or celebrating during the harvest festival. However, after becoming a legitimate mage, he embraced the proud tradition of mages, which was to disregard the gods, viewing them merely as powerful entities. Fars held no strong opinions on this; he merely thought that the mage community was a bit too arrogant, but that was fine, as it gave the idle mage Fars more leverage to show off in their small circle.
As for whether he was blessed by the so-called blood ancestor evil god mentioned in the rumors, that remained uncertain. Although he had heard of the God of Light performing miracles, he had never heard of this blood ancestor bestowing blessings upon his descendants. Tragically, vampires, once scattered across the continent and living relatively well during the Nesser era and the chaotic times, had become like rats fleeing from a flood since the rise of religious power, forced to shrink their territories and retreat to the eastern part of the continent.
The long lifespan of vampires might be their greatest safeguard. While some vampires did fall, many continued to seek ways to extend their lives, unable to face death with composure. Among them were several renowned masters in the field of magic. For these masters, becoming a vampire or a lich became a viable choice. Even the Mage Guild could not restrict this. Everyone had their own pursuits, and the guild could only mark them on their roster. For those truly masterful individuals, there were still close connections.
This led to the Church of Light's inability to completely eradicate this hated race.
Older vampires often possessed greater power, experience, and wisdom. Capturing them was quite difficult. Sometimes, even legendary strongmen would return empty-handed after pursuing them. In contrast, the lifespans of humanity's top-tier strongmen were significantly shorter than those of vampire lords, lasting only a few hundred years. Even the longest-lived legendary mages rarely lived beyond a thousand years. Vampire lords, on the other hand, could easily live for two to three thousand years if not killed or severely injured. Over time, the number of vampire lords remained stable, while humanity occasionally faced shortages of strong individuals. This disparity led vampires to be unafraid of challenging the Church of Light.
Fars found his current life quite comfortable, enjoying fresh blood daily, steadily growing stronger, and dancing under the moonlight.
As his strength further stabilized and increased, Fars gradually grasped other bloodline skills beyond the Shadow Wings. He learned several low-level spell skills, such as Vampire's Touch, Blood Shadow Arrow, and Blood Explosion. He also mastered a technique that significantly boosted his speed for a short duration, though it consumed a lot of energy. Fars had tested it around the ruins; it could only sustain him for about fifteen minutes before he became too exhausted to move quickly. This skill was suitable for escaping, but it was not to be used lightly, as it drained stamina and could harm his meridians.
Fars had anticipated these skills; they were commonly mentioned in various books about vampires. However, some special skills were only passed down within vampire families and were less known. Only a few particularly famous families, such as Nikola, Desac, Bruche, Nofel, and Mokavi, had their signature techniques shine during the holy wars, making them known to others.
Another notable family was the Reimer family, originally a group of human mages who fervently sought eternal life to perfect their spellcasting skills. Their efforts bore fruit, and after sacrificing an ancient vampire and its descendants, they finally attained immortality—at least, that was their belief. In reality, they had become vampires. Some bloodlines argued that the Reimer family were not true vampires but rather a group of human mages cursed to be immortal in their quest for eternal life. This family's history could be traced back to the early Nesser era and was closely tied to the Mage Guild, effectively serving as a branch of the guild. It housed many powerful and obsessive vampires who often acted recklessly without drawing the church's large-scale purges, thanks to the influence of the Mage Guild.
In addition to these common skills, Fars had also grasped two special secret arts. One was the Eye of Enchantment, allowing Fars to induce hypnotic suggestions in other beings through his powerful mental strength, testing the target's willpower. In recent days, Fars had tried this on several magical beasts, but the results seemed lackluster. After numerous experiments, he found this skill to be rather ineffective; it consumed mental energy without yielding significant results. Could it be true, as some lowbrow novels suggested, that it only worked on the opposite sex, while the uncivilized magical beasts were simply uninterested? Fars could only think this way for now. The inheritance through blood was not unique to vampires; many talents continued to be passed down through bloodlines. However, this inheritance was often vague, usually providing only snippets of information to help one grasp the usage. Without guidance from elders, one could only rely on trial and error. Blood was a peculiar medium, and many mages sought to unravel its secrets, with vampires being the race most closely tied to blood, often becoming unfortunate subjects of mages' experiments.
The other secret art was somewhat terrifying; it could be seen as a kind of innate ability. Fars could control the blood of others. Imagine a warrior swinging his longsword with all his might, only to have the blood supply to his wrist interrupted or even reversed. If the warrior didn't withdraw in time, he could easily dislocate his wrist. Or consider a knight charging forward, only to have the blood in his horse's forelegs forcibly reversed, causing it to collapse and taking the knight down with it. Moreover, Fars could cast Blood Explosion in conjunction with this ability; the blood to be exploded would not be his own but that of others. Fars had tested his limits; if he exerted himself fully, he could instantly explode the blood of a mid-level magical beast, but doing so would nearly deplete his mental energy. For low-level magical beasts, exploding all the blood within them would consume about the same amount of energy as casting a mid-level spell. The effectiveness of the spell also depended on the distance from the target and the size and strength of the opponent.
This innate ability was quite formidable, and its power was linked to his mental strength, meaning it could potentially strengthen as he advanced, possibly even serving as a high-level spell in the future.
While he could kill his prey instantly, Fars had no desire to use it while hunting. The reason was simple: the blood of the prey was only useful if it was consumed. Instantly killing a magical beast might be flashy, but if its body was blown to bits and blood splattered everywhere, how could he enjoy it?
The books in his ring also pleased Fars, as several contained the commonly used spells he currently lacked. Fars had dabbled in various schools of magic before, but one's energy was limited, and he couldn't learn everything extensively. His singularly weak attack methods had been exposed when he first hunted the blue wolf. With the awakening of his talents and the supplementation of spells related to the shadow and mental schools, Fars could now handle three or four blue wolves.
As for why he always woke up holding the mysterious phoenix egg, Fars found it puzzling. He speculated that his control over his body during meditation was weak, and his actions were largely instinctual and habitual. Perhaps this vampire body was simply enamored with the egg? What did it matter? Aside from both being considered undead, phoenixes and vampires had no commonalities. Moreover, the egg showed no signs of life yet still strangely influenced him.
To verify whether the egg had any effect on him, Fars decided to sleep in another room this time, placing the egg on his large bed. This way, without the egg nearby, even if it had an influence, he wouldn't instinctively return to hold it as if in a sleepwalking state.
However, this meditation session didn't last long, as Fars finally realized what effect the egg had on him. The magical array in his sea of consciousness was operating at a slower speed!
Compared to the joy of comprehending innate skills, this revelation was less thrilling than successfully constructing the array. It seemed that this mysteriously appearing array was indeed related to the egg. This was somewhat eerie; a nearly fossilized egg could help him effortlessly break through high-level barriers. If this got out, the egg would surely attract competition.
This needed further confirmation. Fars returned to his large bed, cradled the mysterious egg, and adjusted his state to enter meditation once more. This time, the operation of the array was noticeably smoother, indicating that the sudden formation of the array was indeed due to the egg. Fars divided a portion of his mental energy to observe any changes in the egg during his meditation. Previously, he had thought he was merely holding the egg out of affection or loneliness. Now, it was clear that the egg had been the one tempting him.
As expected, faint blue light flowed over the patterns on the egg, and upon closer inspection, he found that the blue light cycled perfectly in sync with the operation of the array in his sea of consciousness.
This discovery compelled Fars to take the egg seriously, and he resolved to study the legendary parchment he had come across as soon as he woke up.