Ling Yue finally straightened up from the wall, her voice cold.
“You came too early, Tiancan Lili. Say what you have to say, or get out.”
“Don’t be so cold, Ling Yue! Because in your last letter you said the harassment had been getting worse lately. I was afraid you couldn’t handle it alone, so I wrapped up the bounty I was working on and hurried over!”
As she spoke, Lili took off her cowboy hat and placed it on the coffee table, revealing a head of jet-black long hair underneath… It was even longer than Ling Yue’s.
Also, she wore two tiny silver cross earrings on her ears.
It was normal for a vampire hunter to wear a cross, but for a member of the vampire clan to wear cross earrings was extremely abnormal.
Feng Ling stared at those two earrings for nine seconds in silence.
‘Well… some questions don’t need to be asked—the answer would be too complicated.’
So she didn’t ask.
“I can handle it.”
Ling Yue leaned back against the wall and said flatly.
“I know you can handle it, but having an extra hand is always good! And this time it’s not just scouts from your Eternal Blood Prison, right? I also saw a few guys hanging around outside who didn’t look like vampires. I spotted them immediately—I’ve never seen that kind of magic pattern anywhere. And they’ve left a ton of detection traces around the perimeter. So has something else been showing up near your place lately?”
Lili pulled a silver dagger from her waist, spun it in her hand, then casually picked up a blood pastry from the coffee table and popped it into her mouth.
“Mm. I haven’t figured out which faction they belong to yet, so I haven’t bothered with them for now… Did you run into any of them outside?”
Ling Yue tilted her head and asked.
“Not directly, but I picked up something pretty interesting on the road recently.”
Saying this, Lili reached into the inner pocket of her trench coat, pulled out a small cloth bag, and poured its contents into her palm.
It was a small piece of dark gray metal fragment, the edges scorched.
“The magical residue they left behind is completely different from your vampire system. I studied it for ages and couldn’t figure out what material this is—even the Silver Detection Seal didn’t react to it… Here, take a look. Do you recognize it?”
“Not sure either, so keep it for now.”
Ling Yue took the fragment, examined it closely, then said softly, “Once things settle down, I’ll have it analyzed.”
Lili nodded, then put the fragment back into the small cloth bag and tucked it into her trench coat.
She smiled again and said, “Speaking of which, Ling Yue, are you planning to keep this little one locked up in the castle forever? Don’t you ever take her out for a stroll? Like go shopping together or something?”
At that moment, Feng Ling’s ears nearly perked up like a rabbit’s.
‘This question is way too perfect!’
But Ling Yue’s answer made her rabbit ears droop again.
“No.”
“Why? Look at her—her eyes are wide open, she clearly wants to go out! Hey, have you never taken her out before? Then she never gets any sun! She’ll be deficient in vitamin D!”
Lili picked up another pastry and tossed it into her mouth.
After chewing a couple of times, she launched into a completely illogical persuasion campaign to get Ling Yue to go out.
“Vampires don’t need vitamin D,” Ling Yue said calmly.
“So… so that’s a metaphor! A metaphor! What you’ve got here is a classic case of overprotective partner, locking your sweetheart in a castle and not letting her out—that won’t do… This relationship’s gonna spiral out of control! I can’t bear to see the partner you finally found just disappear like that!”
Lili spoke with great pain.
“What business is it of yours? You went against my wishes and introduced me to so many partners, forcing me to go through the trouble of dealing with each one of them one by one, and now you have the nerve to say this?”
Ling Yue’s tone remained flat.
“Uh…”
Lili scratched her hair awkwardly.
‘Wait, what?’
‘He introduced partners?’
‘He dealt with them?’
At this point, Feng Ling was completely stunned from the side.
“I’m worried about you! You’ve lived alone for so long—if you don’t find a long-term partner to be with, you’ll go crazy sooner or later! Now that I see you’ve found a dear partner, Lily here is very, very relieved~ So you have to cherish her well!”
Lili said this with some excitement.
Ling Yue just sighed in response.
“What about you? I remember you used to be constantly looking for a partner to keep you company too. Did you find one?”
“No… Most of the people I set my sights on were ones I met on missions, but as soon as those guys found out their partner was a bounty hunter who spends all day chasing vampire bounties, the nicer ones would politely decline, saying it wasn’t a good fit; the worse ones would just slip away right in front of me! One even left a note saying—
‘You’re a nice person, but I don’t want to be woken up in the middle of the night by your knife!’”
After saying this, Lili pouted.
And the brow under the shadow of her hat brim twisted into a small character for “grudge.”
At this point, Feng Ling couldn’t help asking, “Did you keep that ‘nice guy’ card?”
“Of course I kept it! I posted it on the Hunter Guild’s bulletin board as a memo… See how mean this guy is! He even added parentheses, writing, ‘Your knife is way too cold!’”
Lili puffed out her cheeks in anger, her baby fat making her face round.
“Pfft—hahahahahahahahahahaha!”
Feng Ling couldn’t hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.
Ling Yue glanced at Feng Ling, then at Lili.
At that moment, her expression was a classic Ling Yue micro-expression—
Her brow didn’t move, her mouth didn’t twitch, only the corners of her eyes softened into a gentle curve.
“Anyway, let’s get back on topic. Tiancan, did you come just to say hello, or do you have other plans?”
Ling Yue turned and asked.
“Mainly to see the new member. Mm… Little Feng Ling—can I call you that?”
Lili winked at Feng Ling.
“Sure, it’s no different from my full name or short form.”
“Alright, Little Feng Ling! I came today to get to know you, and also to bring Sister Ling Yue some outside intel… Lately, it’s not just the Eternal Blood Prison making moves—several different factions are all heading in this direction. I haven’t figured out yet whether they’re targeting Ling Yue or the castle, but either way, things are going to get very, very lively for a while~”
As she spoke, Lili drew a circle in the air with her finger.
Feng Ling felt her heartbeat quicken slightly.
‘Several factions are converging here…’
‘That’s not bad news for her.’
‘It’s an opportunity!’
‘A chance to escape this birdcage and embrace freedom!’
“Lively? How lively? Like someone setting off fireworks outside in a few days to celebrate a vampire holiday?” she asked with deliberate innocence.
“Not fireworks… It’s… well… how should I put it… It’s like having dozens of cats at your doorstep, and every single one is scratching your screen door. But they don’t all scratch at once—one finishes, then another takes over, and occasionally two scratch together… You find it annoying, but you can’t chase them all away at once. That kind of feeling.”
Lili made a cat-paw gesture with her hand.
Feng Ling mentally translated “dozens of cats scratching the screen door one after another” into the real information she needed.
‘There will be multiple medium-scale harassment operations, not a single large-scale assault.’
‘Multiple operations mean Ling Yue will be lured out of the castle repeatedly.’
‘Each time she’s out might not be long, but the more times it happens, the more cumulative time I’ll have to secretly move around.’
“How do you know all this?” Feng Ling continued.
“I’m a bounty hunter, I have plenty of information sources! Our guild has a dedicated intelligence network, and I also know people inside the Eternal Blood Prison. Plus, I’ve spent months investigating outside, picking up detection tool remains left by various factions… In other words, Ling Yue’s area has become a hot coordinate among the big shots.”
As she spoke, Lili began unwrapping a second pastry.
While chewing, she pulled another knife from her waist and wiped it on the table.
“Honestly, things are pretty chaotic outside right now. The vampire side is still okay—at least they’re wary of Ling Yue and won’t dare to charge in and openly break ties… But the other few groups who don’t know Ling Yue’s background are much more troublesome. They have no idea who they’re messing with. They just smell a high concentration of magic and swarm in, like a bunch of fat pigs charging at a nice cabbage.”
Hearing this, Feng Ling swallowed.
‘She’s already got the information she needed.’
‘Outside will indeed be chaotic, and it won’t be brief.’
‘That confirms the first prerequisite of her plan.’
‘Now she needs to confirm the second half.’
‘If that day comes, when Ling Yue is outside dealing with the intruders, will Tiancan Lili be on her side?’
‘Even though Lili had been friendly and familiar as soon as they met, suggesting she was well-disposed toward Feng Ling, judging by the natural rapport between Lili and Ling Yue…’
‘Lili probably won’t help her. In fact, she might even become an enemy.’