Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal? Chapter 789: Vampire Clan
Previously on Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal?...
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Chen Niu acted with haste, dashing right away to the East Sea in order to probe the conditions there.
Without probing, he remained unaware. But the instant he did, he detected a spot right in the heart of the East Sea where a deep trench was drawing in the vital forces of heaven and earth. Such a phenomenon marked the emergence of a precious rarity on the verge of appearing. He suspected that True One Hua Jin had discerned the heavenly mysteries and pinpointed the outburst of the Celestial Jade Marrow by seizing hold of this strand of ambient energy.
It sounded straightforward, yet executing it proved immensely challenging.
The whole Earth Star stretched out enormously. Even its primary form couldn't blanket it entirely with Divine Sense. Covering a single nation pushed it to the brink. In this state of maximally stretching Divine Sense, grasping the currents of heaven and earth energy with perfect precision stayed out of reach.
On top of that, the disturbance in the East Sea's core hid itself so cleverly.
Should he hunt down the Celestial Jade Marrow's burst site on his own, a thorough sweep might uncover it, though it would surely squander heaps of time.
"I wonder if the main body's Divine Ability, merged with the Mountain-Moving Seal, could shift the Celestial Jade Marrow's eruption spot."
Chen Niu positioned himself at the area thick with heaven and earth energy.
This minor trench appeared completely mundane, merely luring in swarms of fish thanks to the tug of that ambient energy.
Right when Chen Niu prepared to test out his Divine Ability alongside the Mountain-Moving Seal, the rumble of engines echoed from the waters overhead.
— Vessels were approaching.
And a good number of them at that.
"Ships not from the Hua region? Aren't these the territorial waters of the Hua region?" Chen Niu squinted his eyes. Upon those vessels, he spotted banners from the European region and picked up an odd presence aboard them. That presence resembled the vibe of monsters, while also bearing a trace of Demon Cultivator essence.
With a sweep of his Divine Sense, Chen Niu's lip corner jerked: "Vampires?!"
"European scum actually dare to show up and eye the Celestial Jade Marrow?"
What shocked him further was how these vampires had zeroed in on the Celestial Jade Marrow's location too.
Yet the foes appeared oblivious to him hiding underneath?
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Meanwhile, aboard the ship.
Helberg III fixed his gaze sharply on the ocean's face.
As a Vampire Count, he had been dispatched by the Prince's directive to the East Sea in pursuit of a certain treasure. Per the map's guidance, the spot lay exactly here.
"Activate the military radar and commence the scan!" He pivoted to bark the order at his underling.
These days, the European region's armed forces lay in ruins, freeing them to wield every bit of the military's heat-based armaments.
At present, scarcely any ordinary humans remained in the European region, with just two sides left—the Human Church and the loosely knit monster alliance.
Within the monster alliance, the Blood Clan ranked as a formidable player. Alongside them prowled the chaotic demon hordes and the werewolf packs of comparable might.
"Count, we've got a signal!"
At his subordinate's thrilled cry, Helberg spun around and hurried back inside the cabin to inspect the radar.
The military radar display revealed a colossal energy mass buried deep in the trench. Its nature stayed mysterious, but it tied directly to the treasure the Prince sought.
Success in fulfilling the Prince's task loomed so close now.
Helberg could nearly taste the chance for elevating his bloodline. A surge of manic delight lit up his features.
"We've located it! It's precisely here! Hurry, launch the submersible! Wait, no—send the blood thralls straight into the depths!
Haul up whatever lurks below right away for me!"
Yet before his command wrapped up—
*Whoosh!*
A mithril arrow wrapped in holy light streaked across like a bolt from a neighboring warship.
Helberg's instincts screamed peril, prompting him to evade the projectile bursting through the window ahead of time.
But a fellow vampire suffered ill fortune. The arrow struck true, embedding in his torso.
"Urgh—!"
That vampire barely uttered half a wail before his form, akin to parched parchment ignited, burst into a puff of drifting ash, carried off by the ocean gusts.
"Who goes there?!" Helberg III's eyes shrank to pinpricks as he jerked his head to scan.
On the adjacent warship's deck—which ought to fall under his minion's oversight—it stood emptied somehow. The prior vampire sentries sprawled across the planks, reduced to heaps of ash.
Three silhouettes draped in gray cloaks, hoods veiling their visages, occupied the space. One clutched a crossbow radiating a subtle silver sheen.
Demon Hunters?
The Church's toadies.
How had they infiltrated his vessel?!
Helberg racked his mind for any oversights and swiftly pieced it together.
Uncertain of their sea voyage's length and to stave off hunger, they had stowed plenty of "blood meals" captive in the hold beforehand.
These three Demon Hunters had surely blended among the blood meals and slipped aboard back then.
These pest-like Demon Hunters, too slippery to wipe out, embodied such sly and repulsive traits.
"You vile blood-draining pests, slink back to your shadowy tombs!" The foremost Demon Hunter cast off his hood, baring a firm, battle-hardened countenance. He clasped a silver longsword etched with runes. "The East Sea's treasure isn't for you wretched beings to lay hands on!"
Helberg III seethed with rage, his fangs bared, eyes gleaming crimson: "Heh! You believe a mere trio can thwart the Prince's scheme? Take them down!"
Following his shout, Blood Clan warriors from the surrounding warships lunged forward.
Precisely then—
*BOOM!!!*
The full expanse of the East Sea churned as if gripped by some unseen colossal palm.
From the trench's core, waters across scores of miles swirled ferociously out of nowhere, birthing an enormous, unfathomable vortex.
The heavens abruptly dimmed. Sinister rifts in space unfurled like a web, exuding vibes of ruin and breakdown from their depths.
A dread force emanated from the ocean floor, right under the fleet.
Helberg, mere moments ago brimming with haughty bravado, stiffened on the spot, his blood turning to ice.
The trio of Demon Hunters, set to clash with the Blood Clan's charge, blanched, hands pressing to their hearts as breath came in gasps.
Beneath this awful pressure stemming from superior existence and unchallenged might, not a flicker of defiance could spark.
Darkness swallowed their sight, like a blow from an unseen sledge. They blacked out at once, slumping boneless to the deck.
In their final instant of awareness.
Under the roiling, ink-dark waves, a monstrous outline, vast as a coiling dragon, irritably lashed its elongated tail...
...
Time blurred into uncertainty.
Helberg III clawed his way to wakefulness amid pounding skull and swirling vertigo.
He shook his throbbing head, on the verge of bursting, and forced himself upright.
Still, the sight greeting him made his eyes bulge wide.
The ocean had vanished...
He now perched on a mountainside of some grand peak. The ironclad warships in his convoy jutted out at odd tilts amid fissured ground and strewn boulders, like playthings tossed aside by a giant child, a few even snapped apart.
What truly sent shivers racing up his spine was—
Encircling this strange zone rose four immense, heaven-scraping ebony pagodas.
These colossal pagodas bore an archaic design, utterly unlike European builds.
Etched across their exteriors were baffling runes, projecting a presence that set souls quaking.
"This... what sort of place is this?! What occurred?!"
Helberg surveyed the surroundings, a cold dread surging from his feet to his scalp.
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