Chaos still gripped Athens, but on the outskirts, Adam and his team had found a new target.
Vampires could not cohabit with humans. They built their dwellings in remote areas, which made Adam's task far easier.
The house by the small pond sprawled quietly in the night. Vampires patrolled four directions: Kumu, Vine, Classical, and Yu Jia each kept watch. Adam and the Smoke family handled the attack.
Their method was straightforward—directly draining blood to cultivate secret arts and increase strength. Extremely efficient. On the first day, after eliminating eighty vampires, the newly awakened second-generation Smoke family had already surpassed pseudo-seventh generation vampires. They were strong enough to participate fully.
Adam followed protocol. He cast a silencing spell and quietly slipped in through a corner window.
The first room was a study. Empty. No vampires inside.
From intelligence provided by Kumu, a few vampires lingered upstairs and in the basement. The strongest here was a pseudo-sixth generation vampire. The rest were pseudo-seventh and pseudo-eighth.
Pseudo-sixth marked a power threshold among vampires—equivalent to true eighth generation or above, considered high-rank. Some could cultivate high-level secret arts. Pseudo-seventh to pseudo-tenth were mid-rank, capable of many lower-level arts. Beyond pseudo-tenth, abilities were minimal, essentially cannon fodder.
The Smoke family were second-generation, but young. Their main disadvantage was age—the measure of blood potency—but they had excellent senses and had already touched high-level secret arts. Overall, youth and skill gave them an edge.
Against a senior pseudo-sixth, they would still be in danger. Adam himself, ancient as he was, had no trouble facing a pseudo-sixth.
To save time, Adam split them into two teams: he alone went upstairs; the Smoke family went to the basement.
Transforming into a bat, Adam silently flew up the stairs. Midway, he clung to the wall, wings folded, avoiding the sound of flapping. He cast a stealth spell, an advanced version of silence that trapped air currents around him, muffling minor noises.
Upstairs, seven vampires lingered: two pseudo-seventh, five pseudo-eighth.
In the dark hall, a pseudo-seventh played chess against a pseudo-eighth. Another pseudo-seventh and two pseudo-eighth watched. Two more pseudo-eighth moved about, their activity… unclear. Vampires were indulgent creatures.
Maintaining bat form, Adam edged past the chess players, slipping through a gap at the bottom of a door. Inside, gasps and moans filled the room.
Adam felt a tickle of curiosity. Su Sheng had been alive for months, yet he hadn't indulged in such pleasures. Vampires were promiscuous—but as the progenitor, he maintained discipline. Odd, but now was not the time to ponder that.
He focused, using the curtains for cover, crawling up to the ceiling.
Below, two vampires lost themselves in carnal pleasure.
He hovered above, rotating, claws hooking into the ceiling. The ceiling creaked slightly, but the stealth spell contained the sound. A fine trickle of dust fell on the female vampire's face.
She was pressed beneath a partner, eyes closed, unaware… until a speck of dust landed on her face.
Humans might not notice. Vampires, with superior senses, did.
Her eyes opened. A pause. Then she widened her mouth in shock.
She wanted to scream, but Adam wouldn't allow it. He released his left claw slightly, still in bat form, and gestured with his claw toward her, then gently closed around her face.
High-level telekinesis. A high-level secret art known as psychokinesis. At this moment, Adam manipulated air, wrapping it around her face, silencing her.
The vampire above her stirred, sensing something wrong.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
Before he could react, Adam had shifted to human form and dropped down from the ceiling, nails extended…
In the hall, one vampire watching the chessboard noticed the room had gone silent.
"What's up?" another asked.
"Nothing. Strange—they finished too quickly," he said with a chuckle.
By an open window, Adam shifted back to bat form, curtains fluttering. He dropped to the floor, grinning, fangs gleaming.
The stronger the vampire, the more potent the blood. After draining these, even without the basement vampires, the Smoke family's strength would rise significantly.
Against a high-level pseudo-sixth, they still couldn't prevail. But next time, facing a manor of mid-rank vampires, they would no longer need such tedious stealth.
Having dealt with the upstairs vampires, Adam flapped down toward the basement.
There, the Smoke family struggled to subdue a pseudo-seventh vampire. Their task: restraint, not death. If killed, the blood would coagulate, defeating Adam's purpose.
Attempting a second, the trio were discovered, surrounded by four more vampires, including a pseudo-sixth.
Adam arrived just in time, slamming through the pseudo-sixth's chest and tearing out the heart.
With his help, the fight ended quickly. Adam lowered his head to drink.
A child's sobbing echoed from the basement depths.
"Any vampires left?"
"Scouted earlier. None. Let's see."
In the far room, they found corpses—humans, some already decomposing. A boy, about ten, curled in a corner, trembling.
"This must be their mess hall," Han Bing said.
Such a place was normal in a vampire household. This family hadn't raised their slaves, resorting to capturing passersby. The mangled bodies showed resistance, not mere feeding.
Yin Ling stepped over the remains, approaching the boy. His body shook violently. She glanced, then asked, "What do we do with him?"
Adam shouted, "Careful! He is—"
Before he finished, Yin Ling's body froze and collapsed, eyes wide with shock.
"Third-generation… or perhaps fifth-generation vampire? That's what you mean?" the boy said, standing slowly, sly. "You've learned Divination. Lucky you. Had you cast it earlier, I wouldn't be so easy to catch."
He licked blood from his fingernails.
"That woman shows pity… a vampire, feeling sympathy for a human child. Sending her as a second-generation? Such a waste. You really lack foresight, Adam, don't you?"