From all the stories in the world, one would think that all vampires have eternal life. However, that is far from the truth. Unless you're a descendant of Dracula or a progenitor vampire with billions of followers and descendants to share blood, you will surely die of old age.
Jang Yue understood this fact all too well as a low-blooded vampire.
However, he had more pressing matters to attend to, he was being hunted by vampire hunters and was badly wounded.
The sun was setting in the west, painting the hazy sky with beautiful hues of yellow and crimson.
But even in its beauty, it was still a weakness to Jang Yue.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
"Come on, damn it… I haven't even killed anyone to drink blood in three years. Look at how skinny I am… do you think I would be this pale and frail if I had drunk blood?"
Jang Yue pleaded for his life, but the hunters were silent and swift. Before he knew it, a pain tore through his torso.
Poow!!
He fell to his knees, crawling into a dark alley right in front of him.
"I don't want to die… please, have mercy."
Suddenly, a dark figure appeared in front of him.
He wore a black-tinted jacket suit, and on his head was a black straw hat. His face was lost in shadow.
He lowered himself to Jang Yue's level.
"You know, I thought you'd be at least stronger since you're a vampire and all. I guess I was wrong. That means you truly haven't drunk blood for a long time, just as you said."
The man pointed a gun at his head and continued.
"Well, that's not my business. Do not become a vampire in your next life."
Poow!!
He pulled the trigger. Jang Yue lost consciousness, and the hunter left on his merry way.
However, Jang Yue only remained unconscious for a short while.
He slowly opened his eyes, his breathing jagged.
As a low-blooded vampire, he lacked regeneration, hence he had lost a lot of blood. He looked toward the night sky, and it was a full moon.
Perhaps that was why he had woken up at all.
Suddenly, a portal opened right in front of him.
"What is that?" he asked, trying to crawl away to avoid the wind from touching him too much.
Then, slowly, the trash on the floor began to be sucked into the portal.
"Fuck!"
Someone, or something really did want to kill him.
Before he could say another word, Jang Yue was sucked into the portal as well, and it shot closed behind him.
***
Jang Yue opened his eyes once more. He was shocked by what he saw and felt.
This was his first time aimlessly moving through a dark space that stretched infinitely in unknown depths.
"Why do bad things keep happening to me today?" he mused, his voice betraying sadness and desperation.
But there was nothing he could do now.
He had never expected to be hunted by a vampire hunter. In his seventeen years of life, he had only drunk human blood three times, and that was when circumstances forced him to.
Normally, he wouldn't want to do this, so he would not become addicted to blood.
But humans betrayed him upon discovering he was a vampire. They said things like:
"No wonder he has never walked under the sun."
"He is a killer!"
"Why should a vampire live among normal humans?"
"He should be killed and burnt for his crimes!"
What crimes had he committed?
By staying with humans and wanting a normal life, even though his life had never been normal to begin with. That was his crime and his death was inevitable.
However, he did not die. He was alive in this strange, dark space with unknown depths.
He didn't bother asking where he was or why the portal had sucked him in. He only wanted to survive.
What goals can a low-blooded vampire have, apart from walking under the sun or becoming a high-blooded progenitor like Dracula—the vampire from the legends?
But what was coming for Jang Yue was far more terrifying than he could have imagined.
Suddenly, the dark space began to gently pull him backward. He was no longer floating aimlessly but moving in a direction on its own.
It was as if a fish hook had grabbed his entire body, pulling him toward the infinite darkness at immense speed.
"Whoever you are, slow downnnn!!"
Jang Yue screamed at the top of his lungs, but his screams came back to him as a cruel mockery.
Unnoticed by him, tiny red petals, no larger than grains of rice, were slowly entering his body, healing him gently.
After a while, a tiny dot of white light appeared overhead. It was still far away, but whatever was pulling him forward did not stop in fact, it accelerated.
The tiny white light grew larger and larger until it was enough to swallow him whole.
When he opened his eyes, he was now falling from the sky.
The air smelled different, the clouds drifting beneath him unlike anything he had seen up close.
More importantly, the houses on the ground were unfamiliar.
He was falling toward a forested area, everything below appearing as small specs of dust.
Suddenly, he began to fall faster.
"Agghhh!"
His screams filled the air. Even the birds seemed amused.
"Hey, that's not how you fly," they might have thought.
Their parents would never believe that a human suddenly appeared in the sky and did not know how to fly.
Well, what could you expect from a low-blooded vampire?
Jang Yue fell with full force.
The jagged, lonesome mountains somehow felt welcoming to him.
Suddenly, he was exposed to the full gaze of the sun.
He couldn't lift a finger. A cloud covered him from direct sunlight, but it slowly drifted away.
Since he was still falling, he had no control over his body.
"Someone, anybody, please save meeeeeee!"
There was no helper.
Unknown to him, however, his plea for help had caught someone's attention.
Jang Yue was sure he would die when his body hit the ground. He closed his eyes, bracing for impact.
But after a while, he stopped falling, as if some strange energy was controlling him midair.
He slowly opened his eyes and saw a strange, translucent red energy enveloping his body.
'Telekinesis?'
High-level vampires from his old world did not lack this ability. If he had killed and absorbed human blood, perhaps he would have acquired this skill as well.
He looked around and spotted the person controlling his fall: a small, young boy dressed in simple yet refined dark robes and black trousers.
His boots matched the color of his clothes, as if it were a uniform. On his chest was a small, gentle crest Jang Yue did not recognize.
A pin tied his hair straight into a small ponytail.
He was handsome. Jang Yue was sure that if this were a TV series, the boy helping him would be the main character.
After a while, Jang Yue was gently lowered to the grassy land.
He stood up and immediately thanked the young boy.
"Thank you very much for helping me," he said with a smile. "My name is Jang Yue."
"Yue? That's a girl's name," the boy retorted softly.
Though Jang Yue had never heard this language, he understood it perfectly.
He tried to defend his name, but the boy ignored him.
After a while, the boy decided to introduce himself.
"My name is Gu Changsheng. I'm a disciple of the Infinite Demon Sect."
"Infinite Demon Sect? Like a cultivation sect?" Jang Yue asked, his face betraying emotions he couldn't explain.
"What? You don't know? We're very popular for being against Heaven and all that. There's no mortal from the Central Continent who hasn't heard of us… unless…"
Gu Changsheng placed his right hand on his chin, thinking, before concluding with a short question:
"You're not from the Central Continent, are you?"
Jang Yue nodded.
"Hmmm… well, that's not a problem. So, are you interested in becoming an immortal cultivator? My father said I have to come back with a recruit as punishment, so please help me," he said with a completely emotionless face.
How could he ask for help while showing no need for it?
One moment he was being hunted on Earth, the next he was in infinite darkness—and now he was being asked to become an immortal cultivator?
Was it all a coincidence?
Maybe he didn't have spirit roots? Maybe?
However, Jang Yue was sure of two things:
First, he was no longer on Earth but in a cultivation world, specifically the Central Continent.
Second, he was about to join a demonic sect. But what's the worst that could happen? He had been running from human society all his life. This was a chance to be part of a society.
"Alright, sign me up. How do we begin?"
Suddenly, a devious smile appeared on Gu Changsheng's face.
With that smile, Jang Yue knew something worse was about to happen to him, but what could it possibly be? Or was this the boy's way of saying thank you for accepting his proposal?