546 Chapter 546: The Spy (2/2)

”…really?”

I tried not to roll my eyes at his complete misunderstanding of how I usually fought. The vampire sped up his attacks, almost taking me by surprise. Almost. Thankfully, I had already anticipated that because the sensors in my glasses were picking up spikes in his mana and displayed the direction they were flowing toward, so I kept my distance and blocked them one by one. The vampire continued his assault, undaunted, and responded by merely accelerating his attacks.

”Kuh…!”

At this rate, I wouldn't be able to stop them all. A slash opened up a laceration in my arm while a claw scraped a thin line of blood on my cheek. Despite my best efforts to evade and block, several of the vampire's attacks were getting through. I would have to summon Black Tortoise or Hydra to freeze this fucker…

”Gaaaah!”

Right before my surprised eyes, my opponent suddenly jerked up and shuddered, a blade piercing his chest. I blinked, still not knowing what had just happened, until the vampire fell and slid off the sword, revealing an annoyed Ling Xue Xiao.

”What's taking you so long to clean up the opponents?”

”I was trying to take that idiot alive!” I stormed at her. I was so close to freezing the guy. Just a few more seconds and I would have summoned Black Tortoise or Hydra and froze him solid. She had to poke her nose in and ruin everything. ”Aren't we supposed to capture one alive for interrogation?!”

As if to emphasize my point, the final vampire screamed while Vermillion Phoenix burned him alive. They stood no chance against my Celestial Guardian – hemmed in by the ring of fire, they were all incinerated to ashes.

”…did you leave any alive?” I asked Ling Xue Xiao pointedly. Her guilty expression told me everything I needed to know.

”Well…! It was killed or be killed! It's not like I had a choice! You too! Why didn't you leave any alive?”

”Because you killed the guy I was trying to capture alive,” I snapped. ”Why did you think I tried so hard to challenge him to single combat and draw him away from the others? I was doing my best not to burn him to ashes!”

”Why him? Couldn't you have captured some other vampire? Why did you have to burn all of them?”

”You were the one who told me to kill the rest.”

”That's…guh!”

Unable to counter my statement, Ling Xue Xiao cast her gaze downward, feeling ashamed.

”Well, in any case, we should look for Xuan Chi Senpai?”

”…ah! That's right!” Ling Xue Xiao immediately returned to life and began striding toward the open entrance of the warehouse. She flipped her smartphone out and tried calling him again, but as before, Lin Xuan Chi didn't pick up the phone. The guy probably received a hundred missed calls from Ling Xue Xiao by now. Furious at the lack of response, she kicked a few of the vampires' corpses on her way out. ”I'm sure Xuan Chi is still alive! There's no way he would have been killed by these losers!”

”No, he wouldn't,” I replied. ”After all, I'm pretty sure he's in league with these vampires.”

”Huh? Stop your nonsense!” Ling Xue Xiao hollered at me. ”There's no way he will ally with such evil monsters! I'll kill you the next time you make such accusations!”

She glared at me, growing increasingly infuriated when she saw that I hadn't moved from my spot in the warehouse.

”Hurry up! Let's look for Xuan Chi!”

”There's no need for that.”

The two of us froze when we saw Lin Xuan Chi's blue-haired, bishounen figure appear right outside the entrance of the warehouse. Ling Xue Xiao brightened up and ran toward him.

”Xuan Chi! You're all right!”

”Of course I am!”

”I almost thought you fell into a trap! These vampires, they showed up all of a sudden and attacked us! We were worried that you ran into them on your way here…”

While I listened to Ling Xue Xiao blabbering to Lin Xuan Chi, I realized that something was amiss. My suspicions were confirmed when I studied the blue-haired bishounen. The guy was totally unscathed. Not only that, he didn't seem shocked by the grisly sight of vampire corpses nor by Ling Xue Xiao's revelation. It was as if he already knew or expected an ambush.

I fucking knew it. Yeah, these stupid shoujo vampire manhua was so predictable.

”Xue Xiao Senpai! Get away from there! It's a trap! Lin Xuan Chi is the spy!”

”Huh? What nonsense are you talking about?! I told you, if you continue with that nonsense, I'll kill you!”

Ling Xue Xiao put her hands on her hips as she turned to glare at me. She took a step forward, as if she was about to smack me, only to suddenly jerk when a spear pierced her heart from behind. Staring dumbly at the tip of the spear that protruded from her chest, she gurgled incoherently as blood spilled from her lips. Slowly turning her head, she stared at Lin Xuan Chi with wide eyes.

”Xuan Chi…you…”

”~Ah~. The cat is out of the bag.”

Lin Xuan Chi sounded disappointed as he yanked his spear out of Ling Xue Xiao's chest, dropping her onto the ground. Ling Xue Xiao clutched at her ruined chest, coughing out more blood while her body went into its death throes. Lin Xuan Chi coldly kicked her aside, lowering his spear and aiming it at me. Sighing, he shook his head.

”I did expect you to figure it out eventually, though. You always seemed suspicious of me for some reason. I'm curious to know…how did you see through my acting? At this rate, you would have derailed my plans before I got close to Yue Jian.”

”Is that why you got me and Xue Xiao Senpai to meet you in such a suspicious place? So that you can silence us?”

”That was the original intention, but…as you can see, the plan failed terribly.”

Lin Xuan Chi cast a disgusted look at the vampires' corpses that lay strewn about the abandoned facility. Shaking his head, he turned back toward me before thrusting his spear forward.

”Whoa!”

I threw myself to the side, just barely managing to dodge his spear. Despite evading it with seconds to spare, the sheer amount of mana emanating from his weapon actually cut my left arm, sending a trickle of blood down my hand.

”Fucker,” I spat as I drew Hei Yue and Bai Ri. Behind me, Vermillion Phoenix and Taurus emerged, ready to back me up.

Lin Xuan Chi mercilessly took another step, not at all intimidated by my soul beasts.

”Don't worry about Yue Jian. Once I get close enough to her and gain her complete trust, I'll bring her to Fan Le Lao.”

Then he thrust his spear toward my chest.