"Aargh..."
Count Gregory clutched frantically at his neck as he stumbled backward, tears streaming down his contorted cheeks.
Before he could react further, the rush of wind stirred up by Xigelei surged right before him. His legs seemed to lose all sensation as Xigelei's heavy kick slammed into his knees, sending him crashing to the ground in dizzying agony.
In an instant, rushing air and sonic booms bore down upon him. Xigelei's lunge punch followed by a flanking chop struck Gregory so hard that stars danced before his eyes. His ears could no longer make out the howling blizzard; he was on the verge of fainting.
At this moment, even without the sun, he could barely open his eyes.
Strands of bizarre brilliance wove together, forming a net of light from which there was nowhere to flee.
Every snowflake across the snowfield sparkled under this light that should never have existed, transforming the entire expanse into a fantastical world paved with countless diamonds.
The clear, increasingly impassioned strains of the Moon Goddess's strings caused the once cold, desolate atmosphere to instantly turn warm and restless, as if leaping from one extreme to the other.
"Let's see how long this trick of yours can last!!"
Count Gregory roared in a voice fractured by rage.
In this Land of Evernight, unless one kept advancing toward the Demon Realm, it would take several hours before the brief daylight arrived.
This sun summoned through magic would eventually burn through the human's mana.
Once his mana was depleted, even if Gregory was heavily injured, he would run down and slaughter the two of them before they could escape the snowfield!
Count Gregory's form twisted in the sunlight reflected on the snow, his strength agonizingly slow to recover.
He trembled with fury in the blazing sun, growing increasingly frantic with rage, yet like a beast pursued and battered without respite, his blood melted deep into the silvery-white snow.
Each time he cast a weakened spell and lunged back with claw-like hands, he stirred up a gust of wind pressure in the blizzard.
Yet Xigelei's boxing seemed to grow more practiced with every blow, a torrential storm impossible to evade, constantly shattering Count Gregory's understanding of the Wolf Clan!
And in the distance.
The Poet of Great Love twirled in place with her cheerful, melodious voice while playing her violin.
Boss Cat hid in the shadow, shaking his head at the sight.
Lanqi's boxing style was probably about to become the military calisthenics of the demon race.
"Boss Cat, I've noticed that a lot of my enemies are prone to anger," Lanqi said to the shadow beneath his feet.
"Meow?"
A confused sound came from the shadow.
Lanqi wasn't idling either. From time to time, he cast [Faulty Healing] on Count Gregory to build aggro, and whenever Gregory drew close, he unleashed [Basic Etiquette] to force him to his knees.
Every beam of healing radiance that fell upon Count Gregory clouded his mind further, making him shudder with ever greater agony, as though the world were spinning endlessly.
With the [Mark of Hopelessness], his summons were slightly enhanced, and the blazing light of [Radiant Virtue] was a touch stronger than last time.
Although what Lanqi felt most confident in was his ample mana reserve, maintaining [Radiant Virtue] still drained his mana at a rapid pace.
"I merely tapped him lightly with a spell, and he got this furious," Lanqi explained to Boss Cat.
Boss Cat: "..."
*Buddy, don't you die.*
*If you die, I'll fall out of your shadow and die too.*
"Unwavering!"
Once Lanqi started kiting, he recalled the Poet of Great Love.
Aside from saving mana, if the Poet of Great Love were accidentally struck down by stray shockwaves, she would be very unhappy.
Now, even without the Poet of Great Love, his hold on aggro was rock solid.
Count Gregory was completely blood-raged by him; at this point, even picking up a pebble and tossing it at Count Gregory would stack his fury.
"Aaargh! I'm going to kill you both!!!"
Gregory felt as if his chest were being torn apart. Not only was his soul scorched by the sun and every breath like a baptism of burning fire, but under the torment of these two scoundrels, every nerve in his body endured pain like being pricked by needles!
He couldn't find his bearings, his five senses felt sealed away, and he was being played with like a toy.
Yet Count Gregory still refused to give up, counterattacking with all his might.
Because he was immortal!
His current transient pain meant nothing; it would only make his vengeance all the more manic after his victory!
Count Gregory kept his eyes tightly shut, his breathing ragged and intermittent amidst his trembling, the heart in his chest pounding frantically.
Even though his head was spinning, he knew one thing.
He could sense that across this open terrain, the power of the sun was waning.
As time slipped by, the light gradually began to dim, the golden-yellow hue across the snowfield receding and reverting to its original silvery-white tone.
The sliver of reason left told him that as long as he held out just a little longer, it would all be over soon. He would use his immortality to show these two foolish, feeble creatures what an insurmountable chasm existed between worms and higher beings!
Even though he was covered in wounds, as long as he was given a moment to breathe, he could recover swiftly.
Up until now, none of their attacks held any true meaning!
Just endure for now—just a little longer!
A Tier 5 little wolf, a whelp he once wouldn't even deign to glance at, had now become his greatest threat, while that Imperial artisan chanting agonizing spells from a distance was the one who deserved to die most!
Count Gregory, beaten down to one knee once more, already felt his consciousness slipping. Straining with all his might to keep thinking through pure hatred, he suddenly felt a chill of impending death approaching from right in front of him.
Before he could guess what attack was coming this time, Xigelei had already locked her fingers together into a double fist and slammed it down brutally onto Gregory's crown.
"Brain reboot!"
With that hammer blow from Xigelei, Count Gregory's gaze instantly cleared up.
She had literally knocked him awake.
In the distance.
"Not bad at all."
Lanqi halted his steps, watching the new fist technique Xigelei had comprehended.
The student need not be inferior to the teacher, nor the teacher superior to the student; one could often gain insight from students as well.
Momentarily knocked senseless, Count Gregory's bones gradually deformed under Xigelei's savage beating. His weakened Tier 7 body was ultimately no match for Xigelei's iron fists. Blood roiled from all his orifices like boiling water, dyeing the snow red, his sanity on the verge of collapse with nowhere to vent his rage!
Xigelei's fists were like steel rebar, constantly caving in Count Gregory's frame, accompanied by ferocious shrieks amidst the sound of fracturing bones.
Lanqi finally stopped keeping his distance and walked over to the thoroughly suppressed Count Gregory.
The heavily wounded Blood Clan Count lay pinned against the scarlet-stained snow, battered and wretched.
Count Gregory barely regained some consciousness, veins throbbing relentlessly across his forehead—testament to his extreme fury and his anticipation of vengeance.
Attacks like this could only weaken him and leave him temporarily incapacitated; they didn't count as real damage at all!
This was the Land of Evernight.
The moment that sun vanished... it would be his turn.
Being pummeled by a mere Tier 5 wolf had etched every ounce of pain and humiliation deep into his heart.
Count Gregory's lips twisted into a manic grin, his utterly unhinged laughter sounding remarkably eerie in the tranquil snowy night.
He was waiting to regain his strength, after which he would capture them in the most cruel manner possible and take them away to torture day and night!
Under his racial superiority, the fate of these feeble wolves and humans was already sealed!
"All right, save your strength."
Lanqi's gentle voice sounded from behind Xigelei.
He was about ready to put the sun away too.
Beating him like this wouldn't kill a Blood Clan member.
Once the sun was gone, it wouldn't take long for the Blood Clan Count to gradually recover from his crippling injuries.
Immediately, Xigelei paused her assault, merely pinning Count Gregory down with an unyielding grip while awaiting Lanqi's instructions.
She understood that aside from venting her anger and hatred, her attacks posed no real threat to the Blood Clan Count.
Though she didn't know what Lanqi intended to do next, aside from having a variety of peculiar contracted summons, he didn't seem to know many spells.
His own mana fluctuations were even weaker than hers.
"My academic report can finally be resumed."
As an ecologist, Lanqi's project *On Ecological Balance and Blood Clan Governance*, which had originally been slated for completion only after reaching the Creti Empire, had already yielded preliminary valuable data and practical results during the last Shadow World.
Now, in this Shadow World, it could be further supplemented.
His faculty advisor Loren had been facing far too much doubt lately.
Lanqi had no choice now but to throw himself frantically into academia to prove Loren's capabilities.
"It's enough just to beat the count until he can't move. My team and I have professional methods for calming down the Blood Clan."
And so.
Amidst Xigelei's bewildered gaze and Count Gregory's frenzied shrieks.
Lanqi produced a medical tool—
A giant medical syringe appeared in his hand.
This was the Blood Pressure Resuscitator he had used back during the Banquet of Sanctuary Villains.
Xigelei froze.
She had no idea why Luoqi, an artisan, carried a whole bunch of strange items on him.
With this syringe, provided one used brute force to work a miracle, one could probably extract two liters of blood from a victim.
It was supposed to be something used by an angel in white.
Yet once this thing was this massive, it ceased to be a medical instrument and became an instrument of torture.
Count Gregory was still laughing. Unable to open his eyes, he couldn't see what Lanqi was holding, nor did he know what he was about to suffer.
"Here, Xigelei."
Lanqi walked up to Count Gregory. Confirming that the count was in high spirits, he handed the syringe to Xigelei.
Teacher Lanqi's handicraft interest class was about to begin.
Since the dear count was so cheerful, his mental state would surely be fine when he evolved shortly.
To prevent Count Gregory from becoming overly excitable once the sun was retracted, the professional treatment from Lanqi's team was to first lower the count's blood pressure.
Through practice in the last Shadow World, his ecological research had successfully proven that a large part of the Blood Clan's power derived from the blood in their bodies.
Although even draining a vampire dry wouldn't kill them, it would certainly leave them incapacitated, requiring a long time to recover.
"My apologies, Count. I originally planned to study sealing arts properly, but later I realized this thing is far more effective than sealing arts," Lanqi said somewhat sheepishly as he looked down at the cheerful Count Gregory on the ground.
He now realized that researching sealing arts to combat the Blood Clan was probably taking the long way around.
Magical sealing was truly nowhere near as efficient as physical remodeling.
Chapter 558