(t/n: We’re still on flashback)
Since time immemorial, the King of the bloodrace has always been the most special existence.
Some people know when he was born, but no one knows where he came from nor what he looks like. (t/n: by “ know when he was born”, I presume they’re talking about the month and day, but not the exact year)
It seemed that ever since his birth, the Blood King had sat on the throne and watched endless generations change.
One distinctive characteristic of the blood race is eternal life, but it comes with a price. They must continuously drink others’ blood, so as to maintain their youth, strength, and to sustain life.
But their King is an exception, a unique existence.
No one had seen him drink blood– it’s like he can save infinite power and eternal life without it.
He appears to be above everything else, unlike anyother vampires. Some would even say that their King is closer to an existence to that of a God.
But one day, such a powerful Blood King embraced a human being and even let the latter him drink his blood.
No one knew the taste of the Majesty’s blood. No one has even tasted his cold and warm blood, let alone hot blood.
But such an incident happened, and the human who was given a new life by the Blood King obtained incredible strength. He was supposed to be a weak, ordinary bloodkin, but he became more powerful than a purebloods.
How did this happen?
Because he drank the blood of the King.
At first, the bloodclan envied Xie Jianwei -this lucky man- who was favored by their Majesty. At the same time, they were expectant too. Since His Majesty has given Xie Jianwei his blood, does this mean that they will also have a chance to receive it? Will they have the chance to gain such strength?
At one banquet, someone summoned his courage to asked King in a loud, trembling voice: “Honorable Majesty, can I spend this evening with you?”
He was a very beautiful and young bloodkin man. He had dazzling blond hair and fair skin, someone worthy of envy by both men and women. Even his words made countless people stunned. Brave and assertive; enthusiastic and unrestrained; who would refuse such a beauty?
However, the Blood King just said: “Sorry.”
It was only one word, but it was the most straightforward rejection.
The bloodkin youth was a little embarrassed and wanted to appeal with a few more words, but the Bloodclan Leader who was wearing the silver mask, only glanced at him lightly. The young man immediately retracted all those thoughts and saluted respectfully, not daring to make any more attempts.
After that, many of the bloodclans attempted, but the Blood King rejected all of them. Although it was kind of regrettable, they did not think too much of it.
But then, another episode happened.
Xie Jianwei participated in another banquet. Although he was not a pureblood, he was well-known. After all, his ‘birth’ was special. In particular, he was exceptionally beautiful–not only in the physical aspect– but his temperament was also quite exquisite.
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A glance at him would be enough for someone develop a strong desire to conquer him.
Want to possess him, want to get him, want to tear his deep-rooted pride.
But he was exceedingly strong. He was powerful enough that nobody dared challenge him. Of course there were some exceptions, such as their King, and then their ever-victorious general, Count Lorren.
Lorren was known for being a philanderer. He couldn’t help it when he saw a beauty, not to mention such a strong and beautiful one. He was very interested in Xie Jianwei. When he saw him the first time, he said, “My back garden is full of Roses. Are you interested in having a drink while we view it?”
Xie Jianwei smiled at him: “Drink cold blood? “
“If you want, we can drink something hotter amidst the rose bush.” Lorren said ambiguously. (t/n: lorren wtf hahaha)
Xie Jianwei said: “I see that the Count is in high spirits.”
“So …” Lorren asked, “Want to go with me? “
Xie Jian smile became more brilliant as he replied “I’m happy to do so.”
Lorren had swum through numerous flower fields, but he had never seen such a delicious beauty. (t/n: Lorren’s poetic shit way of saying he had been with loooots of different people.) He couldn’t help himself from wanting to kiss him; however, Xie Jianwei turned his head and avoided him.
Lorren blinked, and Xie Jianwei said: “It is better wait until it’s night time.”
Lorren felt his heart got tickled and immediately answered: “Okay!”
Lorren was pretty well-known, so the public pays close attention to him. Their conversation did not escape other people’s ears, and someone immediately cheered: “Congratulations to Count Lorren’s success!”
Others said to Xie Jianwei: “Your Highness, the Count’s technique is very good, but don’t let him take advantage of it.”
After all, hot blood is produced during climax, and the difference between several times and once is notable. (t/n: They are basically saying tha XIe Jianwei will climax more because of Lorren is quite a skillful partner, therefore Lorren would be able to drink more blood.)
Xie Jianwei just smiled nonchalantly.
The racket on their side reached the top platform. Lu Li was interested and asked the people around him. His attendant immediately said: “It’s Count Lorren who went down to see the flowers in the Temple.”
He said it in a round-about way, but who doesn’t know what Lorren’s “flower viewing” really means?
Lu Li paused and asked, “How did Jianwei responded?”
The entourage smiled and said: “His Highness said that he was very happy.”
“Crash”, the sound of the glass falling to the ground made everyone startled.
The attendant did not know what he said wrong, but he had been with serving the King for so many years and naturally noticed that he was angry.
He immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed, “Your Majesty, please forgive this subordinate …” But before he finished his sentence, Blood king Lu Li suddenly got up, and he strode down the steps to approach to Lorren and Xie Jianwei .
A crowd saluted him.
Blood King Lu Li didn’t give an order for them to rise– he just stared at Xie Jianwei and asked, “You agreed to Lorren’s invitation?”
Xie Jianwei knelt down on the ground and bowed his head: “Yes.”
“I don’t.” Lu Li said in a beat.
Xie Jianwei looked up at him: “Why?”
He asked the question in everyone’s mind.
Why not?
It is normal to exchanged blood between bloodkins. No one has the right to interfere. Even their Majesty had never meddled with this issue before.
The King didn’t answer Xie Jianwei – he only gave him a deep look, then left.
The lively banquet gradually cooled down due to this episode. The bloodclans couldn’t help but look at Xie Jianwei, each of them making a guess.
Thinking of the Blood king’s eyes just now, Lorren began to say “That …”
“Count, see you later in the rose bushes.” Xie Jianwei cut him off.
Lorren: “…” He swallowed back his words.
This bloodkin was really tempting, and his blood should taste so good. Count Lorren gulped–he couldn’t bear the temptation.
Did Lorren and Xie Jianwei really do it that night?
Most people didn’t know the answer, but the entire blood race knew that the back garden of Count Lorren had become a legend.
A large fire burned the beautiful rose flowers into ashes. (t/n: I can’t. Such pettiness can only be from our Lu Li lmfao)
Lorren cried in the back garden and Xie Jianwei was held back to the palace by Blood King Lu Li.
Xie Jianwei was very upset at first, and felt that His Majesty was somehow acting strange. He had just seen the beauty of those roses, but before he had time to do something with Count Lorren, His Majesty ‘kidnapped’ him and took him to his quarters arbitrarily.
When the head was refreshed, Xie Jianwei didn’t care anymore and took the initiative to cater. Aftewards, Blood King Lu Li held him and whispered something in his ear.
“Huh?” Xie Jianwei wasn’t able to hear it clearly.
Lu Li paused and repeated: “Don’t look for someone else.”
Xie Jianwei was happy as he looked at him: “What do you mean by that Your Majesty?”
Lu Li scrunched his eyebrows and said: “Do not drink others’ blood.”
“Exchanging blood is customary for the blood race, isn’t it?”
“You cannot. “ Lu Li replied.
“Why is it only me who can’t?” Xie Jianwei asked said, “I am a vampire so that’s normal.”
Lu Li stared at him, and only said after a while: “You don’t need to drink other people’s blood.”
“Why?”
“Because no one is more suitable for you than me.”
Xie Jianwei smiled: “Your Majesty, your blood is indeed …” quite delicious.
“Do you still want it?” Lu Li asked him.
Xie Jianwei licked his lower lip: “I guess.”
“Then don’t think about others.”
Xie Jianwei was happy and comfortable by that arrangement, but he still said: “Your Majesty, you are threatening me.”
“Yes, I am.”
“So that means I can only do it with you in the future?”
“Hmm.”
“Then, Your Majesty …” Xie Jianwei’s voice suddenly softened, “You have to satisfy me well.”
And Lu Li did as he promised.
No one dared mention the culprit who burned Lorren’s back garden, but there were many attendants at Count’s house witnessed the King ‘snatching’ other’s supposed partner.
Count Loren, who wasn’t able to drink blood, had not only lost his rose flowers in the garden, but also the ‘rose flower’ in his arms. He was indeed quite pitiful. Of course, after that event, Count Lorren used his ‘pitiful experience’ to win over many beauties.
After that incident, Xie Jianwei became a more special existence. No one dared to make an appointment with him nor the King. Everyone became well-aware that Xie Jianwei had become their Majesty’s exclusive, the only person in the entire blood race who has tasted the blood of the King, and is the only one who has been tasted by the King.
It used to be fine in the past– no one can drink, so it was fair. But now, why was Xie Jianwei an exception?
Those who witnessed the back garden incident still remembered that the King was ‘robbing’ people, but as more and more new bloodkins joined, no one mentioned it eventually. They only noticed that Xie Jianwei, an ordinary vampire, had conquered their King and wouldn’t let others gain that strength he managed to achieved.
Since then, Xie Jianwei has been labelled as capricious, condescending, and arrogant. Not to mention that their King really condoned Xie Jianwei actions– he even wished for him to be more wayward. Every time someone even invited Xie Jianwei to their banquet, the gifts he brought if he attended were all rare treasures that could make the pureblood aristocrats dumbfounded. Those were obviously given to him by their King, and perhaps because he was being given too much, he didn’t mind giving it away to others.
Then every latter half of the banquets when everyone was about to go home, the Blood King would definitely send someone to fetch Xie Jianwei. There was even this one time, when Xie Jianwei fell asleep under a willow tree because he drank too much in another flower viewing party held in the new back garden of Count Lorren– the person who came to pick him up did not find him so the King personally looked for him and carried him away.
With such a caring gesture, anyone would be surprised by it.
How is this action like someone from the blood race? They’re more like what they called ‘couples’ in the human race.
Their King is definitely fascinated by this ordinary bloodkin.
What’s even more exaggerated was that there is an absolute rule established in the Hall of Blood Shine: His Highness is not allowed to enter. There was even a set of guards specially set up, not to maintain law and order, but to stop Xie Jianwei.
So many such privileges were enough to prove how special Xie Jianwei is.
Fortunately, Xie Jianwei kept his promise to Blood King Lu Li– he really didn’t drink other people’s blood.
He was only with Lu Li– only hugged him, only kissed him, and only fell asleep with him.
But the good times were not long. Such a thing obviously violates the survival laws of the blood race. Theoretically, it is possible to exchange blood between the two, but the condition is that the two sides have similar strengths, and a large amount of cold blood must be drunk constantly, so as to maintain balance.
But the Blood King Lu Li and Xie Jianwei are not equal. Even though Xie Jianwei was very strong, he couldn’t compare to someone of royalty. Their strength differed too much, and over time, it wasn’t Lu Li who got hurt, but Xie Jianwei.
Lu Li’s blood contains majestic power. Proper consumption will increase Xie Jianwei’s power, but his ordinary bloodkin body has limited ability to withstand such power.
If something is beyond someone’s level, dire resulting circumstances are inevitable.
——Xie Jianwei was approaching his death at an alarming rate.
There’s a solution to this, and it was quite simple—as long as Xie Jianwei drink other’s blood, his body would soon become stable.
Unfortunately, the simplest method was also the most unacceptable way for Lu Li.
It wasn’t easy for him to make ‘him’ his, so how could he give him up?
This issue became like a dead knot: Xie Jianwei would die sooner or later if he only drinks Lu Li’s blood; Xie Jianwei would starve to death if he doesn’t ingest warm blood. It seemed that the only way out of this was to let Xie Jianwei go, but at this time, Xie Jianwei was no longer willing to leave him.
Perhaps Xie Jianwei was truly a bloodkin to his core initially— captured by his appetite and satisfied by sexual desire. But as time passed by, he started to like staying with Lu Li. The kiss he gave him every morning, the two of them just depending on each other, hugging each other to sleep— he likes doing+ all these things.
When Lu Li was finally ready to let him go, Xie Jianwei told him: “If you don’t want me anymore, then I don’t want to live any longer.”
That straightforward sentence was like a whip on Lu Li’s entire being. He heard this sentence many times, but this time, he was not a spectator, but the party involved.
This beautiful man said such affectionate words with such focused eyes and soft voice.
Lu Li hugged Xie Jianwei tightly, and pressed his lips against the latter’s delicate skin: “Relax, you will always belong to me, as long as you want so.”
Blood King Lu Li tried to solve this problem from another angle. Since Xie Jianwei’s body wasn’t capable of bearing too much of his blood, then he should strengthen his body.
Ordinary vampires’ bodies can’t withstand his blood, what about a pureblood?
Lu Li paid a great price— he sacrificed half of his life just to completely renew Xie Jianwei’s body. He transformed him from a normal bloodkin to a pureblood.
The procedure took a very long time, and it was conducted in utmost secrecy. The only person who knew of it was Lorren who was responsible for finding the related materials.
In the eyes of ordinary bloodclans, they saw Xie Jianwei’s helpless steps towards “death” until he finally disappeared completely.
After a long time, a pureblood nobleman who had been sleeping for a long time finally awakened from his slumber. He was given the title of Count by their Majesty, and became the ‘second’ person to exchange blood with the Blood King.
No one knows that he was the already ‘dead’ Royal Highness.
Although many thought that their appearance was very similar, but one was an ordinary vampire and the other is a pureblood noble, so how could they be the same person?
It’s probably just the taste of His Majesty, since they have the same face.
It would have been good if peaceful times like this had continued but unfortunately, everyone have to pay for the things they had done…..
Translator’s note(s):
I wanted to post last week’s scheduled release in one go, because I wanted to wrap up the Vampire Arc. Well, I was suppose to post all of these yesterday but I forgot. Sorry for the delay. T.T