Infinite Hunter

It wouldn't get wet, right? As long as the rain didn't keep on soaking the horse's fur, such a large animal wouldn't die easily. Cheng Yijiu could also make a fire, and even better, a bonfire. To this end, Cheng Yijiu paid the townspeople with all the spoils he had previously obtained—all the silver coins he had obtained from the man-eating monster—in exchange for a carriage and enough food.

The carriage was filled with bread that could serve as a mace, bacon of similar hardness, good cheese, and butter, which was the most difficult to preserve and had to be eaten first. Of course, there were also beans and oats for the horses. There was also a large amount of coal stored underneath the carriage to fuel the stove. This was enough for Cheng Yijiu to travel hundreds of kilometers. While most people would likely be killed by bandits or monsters on the road, the Lion Knight was not afraid.

The horses were covered with felt to keep them warm, and Cheng Yijiu also stuffed a felt under the driver's seat so that he could wrap himself up if there was a cold wind, even though he had a lion skin... The next road was a winding mountain road, which would be relatively cold for the townspeople and it might even snow, so keeping warm was absolutely necessary.

Let's get going, then. Cheng Yijiu hopes he can find clues along the way that will allow him to contact the vampire and kill it with a single blow. That way, the mission will be successfully completed. Hopefully, the two local barons and one earl won't be an obstacle. According to the townspeople, the two barons are loyal to the Earl. Each of the barons owns four or five towns and a dozen villages, while the Earl is the master of thousands of square kilometers nearby, with a population of over 30,000, perhaps 50,000 or 60,000?

chapter eight

As for the monsters here? There are plenty. I've heard there are witches in the wild mountains, and it seems they live in a moving stone house powered by a giant chicken leg. As for all the other bizarre monsters, let alone the others. Cheng Yijiu sat in the front, driving the carriage, neither too fast nor too slow; he wasn't in a hurry. He also had to conserve the horse's power; the horse was already a bit old.

The road was lined with forest on both sides, even the roadbed was covered with reeds. There was no one in sight, and the sky was gloomy. It was not a pleasant place. Such places naturally make people feel uneasy, as if bandits or monsters might appear at any moment. Cheng Yijiu, however, slumped in his seat, wrapped in the lion skin, with a small charcoal stove at his feet, and slowly advanced along the road.

The surroundings were quiet, the only sound besides the wind and the clatter of horse hooves. Snow began to fall from the leaden sky. Cheng Yijiu tightened his lion skin around him, stopped the horse, and draped a blanket over it from behind the cart. This effectively kept the horse warm and prevented frostbite, saving on horse feed. Looking up, he could see something flying circling high in the sky.

It was flying high, looking like a tiny, moving black dot. Cheng Yijiu could only barely make out its wings. "This must be a monster. Its wingspan is at least ten meters. Maybe twenty meters. Unfortunately, my eyes aren't laser rangefinders, so I can't fully determine its altitude." A monster like that wouldn't swoop down and attack his carriage.

After wrapping himself in his blanket, Cheng Yijiu set off again. Darkness fell early in this area, so after spotting a flat area surrounded by several large rocks, Cheng Yijiu decided to stop for the night. This spot was where travelers would spend the night. In the center, one could see the telltale signs of a hearth, a pile of ashes. Cheng Yijiu did the same, chopping down a nearby tree with his sword, splitting it into pieces.

The wood wasn't easy to burn, but Cheng Yijiu managed to get it burning successfully, though the smoke was a bit thick. He also began to build a simple stable, using oilcloth and steel cables to create a simple roof and four hanging "walls." He prepared beans and hay for the old horse and fetched water from the small river flowing nearby in the forest. He returned to the carriage, where he lit the stove and heated a pot filled with water.

He also prepared oatmeal, bacon, and some dried vegetables, preparing to boil them in water for dinner. After eating and drinking, Cheng Yijiu scalded his legs and feet with hot water, put on warm clothes, and prepared to sleep. Although he was no longer afraid of the cold, staying in good condition was always the most important thing. Of course, he couldn't forget to apply ointment, and he even applied a little ointment to Lao Ma.

The silent night was occasionally broken by the snorting of horses. Cheng Yijiu lay on his cot, wrapped in the lion skin. At midnight, he opened his eyes. The hunter silently got out of bed, resting the lion skin's front paws on his chest, and grabbed the broadsword beside the bed. Cheng Yijiu stood up straight and reached out to unlock the car door. "Something's approaching..." his sixth sense warned.

Cheng Yijiu landed on the ground as lightly and silently as a giant cat. Though clad in a golden lion skin, his movements were more like those of Asia's most powerful cat, light yet powerful, and filled with a fierce murderous aura. The old horse didn't react at all; when Cheng Yijiu checked, it had fallen asleep standing up. The simple tarpaulin-built stable was quite warm; the heat from the fire outside radiated onto the tarpaulin on one side, seeping in.

The snow was still falling, and there was no snow within five meters of the fire. Cheng Yijiu, moving from the shadows, had a stronger sense than the horse and had already sensed something approaching. "About thirty meters away... there are quite a few!" Cheng Yijiu took the initiative to meet them. This was because he sensed that these things were coming from the same direction. To avoid the tragedy of Lao Ma being killed and having to go down and pull it out himself, he had to take the initiative.

Cheng Yijiu's night vision had already spotted the rapidly approaching creature. Its limbs moved weakly and shriveled. At first, Cheng Yijiu thought it was Gollum from Lord of the Rings, then he thought it was a ghoul. Finally, he determined that its pale skin made it look human. But it was definitely a mutant human. Its limbs moved like a ghoul, but its face was not as ugly as a ghoul's, more like Gollum's.

"This stench is definitely from gnawing on corpses!" Cheng Yijiu cursed, quickening his pace and lunging forward. These monsters were smaller than ordinary humans, and although they moved on all fours, their speed was not slow at all. Not only that, they could leap and fly, just like monkeys, using their hands and feet to speed up their running. Cheng Yijiu's thrusts were swift and fierce, not something that ordinary monsters could dodge.

So, his Soul-Breaking Sword pierced the monster directly. "It seems even more fragile than the average human flesh." This was the feeling of the sword entering the body. Moreover, the monster, hanging on the sword, actually slid down from the sword due to its own weight, breaking its body apart - remember, this monster definitely weighed no more than 40 kilograms. "So fragile?" Cheng Yijiu was also quite puzzled. Judging by the speed of these guys' movements and the distance they jumped, as well as the damage their claws caused to the bark, this monster's muscles could not be so soft and fragile, right?

That was the demon-breaking power of the greatsword in his hand, and of course, it was likely coupled with Cheng Yijiu's own solar light power, which was an absolute blow to the dark creatures. Perhaps these monsters' bodies were tough and strong for ordinary people, but when faced with the power of light and the demon-breaking sword, they were just a pile of rotten meat.

Cheng Yijiu moved quickly. These monsters didn't possess any exceptional combat skills, and they were unarmed. Therefore, she swung her sword with minimal movement, easily killing nearly ten of them. The remaining dozen or so monsters gurgled and quickly retreated. Only then did Cheng Yijiu have time to carefully examine the monsters she had killed. "Black, sticky blood... skinny limbs. And this one has a slightly protruding belly, like a hungry ghost. And this face... There's a white film on the eyes. Could it be that they were born with cataracts and can't see?"

The earlobes are large and thin, and the nose is slightly moist. It seems that this monster relies on hearing and smell to track prey. "And touch, the sense of vibration of the ground. Visual defects and relying on hearing, smell and touch... Almost every one of them is like this. This monster lives in a cave? There are no caves here?" Cheng Yijiu looked at the ground, "Underground passage..."

Chapter nine

It had to be an underground passage. These monsters, swarming in groups, must be using it to hide. "Are they good at exploiting the blood monsters' passages? Perhaps they have a symbiotic relationship." Apart from anything else, this group of monsters could provide early warning signals to the blood monsters. Furthermore, as a group, their threat was even greater than that of a single blood monster. If Cheng Yijiu hadn't possessed exceptional dynamic vision and reflexes, he would have been finished when those monsters attacked from all sides.

How could he easily swing his sword and precisely cleave and pierce the monsters? These monsters decayed incredibly quickly after death—their body temperatures were much higher than those of humans, allowing them to move more quickly. Of course, this also accelerated the rate at which their proteins decomposed after death. It had only been a short while, and maggots were already bursting out of his body. Those flies didn't hatch on schedule...

The stench of these creatures was so unbearable that Cheng Yijiu simply returned to the carriage. This time, he slept in his clothes. Fortunately, nothing else came, and he spent the rest of the night safely. The next morning, the sun was nowhere to be seen. The thick clouds in the sky completely obscured it, and only a dim and pale sunlight illuminated the world. There was also an icy mist between heaven and earth. If you feel it carefully, you can tell that it is ice crystals diffused in the air.

Visibility was reduced to about ten meters, and the icy mist absorbed much of the sound, making the surroundings incredibly quiet. Even the sound of horse hooves was muted. "Aren't these maggots afraid of the cold?" Before setting off, Cheng Yijiu had gone to inspect the remains of the monsters and found they weren't frozen solid. The maggots were still writhing, not frozen to death. Yet, these monsters had only been there overnight, and they were already reduced to skeletons.

The carriage moved slowly. Cheng Yijiu sat in the driver's seat, lit a small stove, wrapped himself in a lion skin, and padded it with felt. Although the upper half of the front was still exposed to cold wind, the small space under the fur was still warm. Half of the blade of the greatsword was also wrapped in the lion skin. Cheng Yijiu was ready to jump out and fight at any time. He had already known that this journey would not be peaceful.

The crossbow was already strung and placed on the other side of his body. The old horse, covered in a felt blanket, slowly advanced through the icy fog. This journey seemed to take forever. At one point, a drowsy Cheng Yijiu suddenly woke up, feeling someone was warning him. The hunter immediately grabbed the crossbow—something seemed to be moving in the fog. Intuitively, Cheng Yijiu aimed somewhere in the sky and pulled the trigger.

He turned the capstan and began to string the crossbow. The previous arrow had likely struck something, because he heard a very hoarse roar. It was an eerie roar, like an old woman's wail. The fog was suddenly disturbed, and the old horse, startled, neighed and tried to run, but was firmly restrained by Cheng Yijiu. He watched as a mass fell from mid-air, slamming heavily against the front of the carriage. It seemed to move a few times, then fell still.

Cheng Yijiu dismounted from the carriage and walked over, sword in hand. He used his sword to flip the fallen creature over. "Is that a bird? Yes, it is a bird, and a particularly large owl... much larger than an eagle owl." The owl on the ground stood almost as tall as a man, with a wingspan of perhaps four or five meters. Its large claws looked terrifying—a monster like this definitely couldn't just catch mice to fill its stomach.

And that face—that face wasn't just an enlarged version of an ordinary owl; it looked more like the face of an old witch, except that the hooked nose was a sharp beak. "Don't owls have hair on their faces?" It had plenty of hair on its head, but its face was barren, like a vulture's. That's why people say this monster has the face of an old witch. The feathers on this thing also reeked of corpses; it was clearly not a good thing.

Cheng Yijiu had discovered the cause of its death. It was the crossbow bolt he had fired, which had penetrated deeply into the flank of the strange bird. It didn't die instantly, but it was bleeding profusely, internally. The creature had died from excessive bleeding. It was a terrifying creature, almost silent in flight like an owl. Its claws were as hard as steel and as sharp as knives. One strike would surely have killed Lao Ma.

And judging by this guy's wingspan, he might even be able to grab a horse and fly away. Destroying the carriage would be a piece of cake—so if this guy were to launch an aerial attack in the fog, it would definitely cause considerable trouble. Fortunately, this trouble has now been cleared. "What good luck! I didn't expect that Yoyomo's arrow would actually hit the target." Cheng Yijiu couldn't help but express his gratitude to Apollo, the god of archery.

The carriage continued its slow journey. By noon, the icy fog had finally dissipated, but the sunlight had also vanished, leaving the daylight almost as dark as night. Cheng Yijiu hung lanterns on either side of the carriage seat, and the light was reflected by the tin mirrors behind the lanterns. There were still few other people on the road. No wonder people here traveled in groups of dozens or even hundreds of large carts; it was simply too dangerous.

Something was moving in the woods. It was flocks of goats, dozens of them, black-haired, running through the forest. Following them were, of course, wolves—the wolves in this haunted place were incredibly large, some black wolves even as big as horses. I wonder how big the brown bears in this place would be...

These goats were equally large, almost as big as the buffaloes Cheng Yijiu had seen. Suddenly, the wolves turned their attention to him, apparently quite interested in the old horse. Cheng Yijiu sighed deeply, "What kind of a problem is this? Is it really that hard to walk seriously?" He jumped down with his greatsword, regulating his breathing. The lion's skin rose and fell with his breathing, like a lion standing up.

With both hands gripping the hilt, the greatsword dropped, the tip touching the ground. His breathing became very steady, his eyes as calm as a lake. The champion swordsman was online. He stopped in front of the old horse, who had already stopped, and waited for the attack of the surrounding black giant wolves.

Of the six giant wolves, three came and then quickly left—definitely because if they succeeded in their hunt, this one person and the horse wouldn't be enough to feed them. All three wolves were the size of horses, with black manes, yellow eyes, and canine teeth slightly protruding from their lips. As they looked at Cheng Yijiu, they wrinkled their noses, bared their teeth, and let out a threatening growl.

chapter Ten

Cheng Yijiu, clad in a lion skin, took the initiative to attack. The moment the lion skin shone, the giant wolves' ears suddenly flattened back. When Cheng Yijiu rushed forward, the black giant wolf facing him involuntarily took a step back. This retreat directly exposed the flanks of the two black wolves on either side. So Cheng Yijiu turned left and directly lunged at the unprepared black wolf on the left.

The lion's skin fluttered, and like a lion from the Age of Gods, it slammed heavily into the side of the giant wolf. The greatsword easily penetrated the wolf's skin and stabbed deeply into the wolf's neck. Cheng Yijiu quickly drew his sword and turned halfway, using the lion's skin to block the bleeding and injured wolf, and faced the nearest black wolf, which had taken a step back. Cheng Yijiu took a step sideways and used that wolf to block the attack route that was originally intended for the wolf on the right. The wolf behind him had already started to spurt blood, and it must have lost its fighting ability.

It was unclear whether it could survive. Cheng Yijiu's sword pierced the back of its neck, penetrating almost half a sword's length. If he had used a little more force, it would have pierced right through. The broad blade would have likely severed its trachea and blood vessels, generally speaking, it would have died. These giant wolves were originally just "ordinary" predators, only slightly stained with the aura of darkness to grow so huge.

The three wolves before him weren't the strongest among them. They'd previously been intimidated by the lion skins of the Age of Gods, barely able to display even 30% of their full potential. Therefore, the Soul-Breaking Sword of the Demon-Breaking Soul-Breaking Sword easily dispatched one of them. Both wolves howled furiously. The first lunged forward, but cunningly dove mid-stride, opening its maw to bite horizontally at Cheng Yijiu's waist and legs. If it had truly caught him, wouldn't that have crippled Cheng Yijiu's mobility and been the end of him?

Cheng Yijiu swung his body, moving his arms, and the lion skin on his back fluttered and flew, just like the giant lion was still roaring and baring its fangs and claws. Amid the lion's roar, Cheng Yijiu turned and slashed diagonally, the sword light shining like sunlight. The wolf had miscalculated. Cheng Yijiu's sword slashed down with the blade without any resistance. The wolf was like it had been delivered to his sword. The sword directly pierced the root of its nose, and the entire upper jaw bone of its cheek, the entire lower jaw bone, and half of its neck were cut off by Cheng Yijiu's sword.

Blood gushed out, but the swinging lion hide completely absorbed it. Most of the blood dripped down the fur, leaving the hide completely unstained. Of course, what Cheng Yijiu hadn't noticed was that some of the blood had been absorbed by the hide. The wolf was even more desperate. It rushed forward, scooping up some dust, and then lay motionless on the ground, dead. The shattered half of its face flew out the other side and rolled several times on the ground.

The last wolf had already run away whimpering.

Two dead wolves lay on the ground. Cheng Yijiu wasn't prepared to eat the wolf meat—they were uncastrated and wild, and the taste alone would have been unpalatable, not to mention the parasites. So, he simply peeled off the two wolf skins—one damaged and the other relatively intact. He also took eight wolf fangs as trophies. The dead wolves, left there, would soon be devoured by other animals.

Scratching the lining of the wolfskin, Cheng Yijiu rolled it up and tied it to the back of the carriage. He would deal with it later when they reached the next town, and he had a feeling the matter was probably not over yet. The old horse looked terrified. He even refused to eat. "Maybe I'll have to rest here all day. This is really crazy!" Cheng Yijiu complained. Fortunately, the wolves didn't return, and the first to feast on the wolf's carcass were the insects.

The wolves returned later. Two of them carefully dragged the body away. They did not continue to attack Cheng Yijiu, but quickly disappeared into the forest. Cheng Yijiu also saw the wolf king - a slightly smaller wolf with gray fur. The danger it brought to Cheng Yijiu was equivalent to that of the entire wolf pack except for it. The wolf just looked at Cheng Yijiu from a distance, its eyes very calm. After dragging the body away, the wolf turned and disappeared.

Cheng Yijiu once again erected a simple stable and started a fire—this time, the fire was smaller, and the flue gas channeled heat into the oilcloth, maintaining a constant temperature without overheating and potentially igniting a fire. Cheng Yijiu himself returned to the carriage, wrapped himself tightly in the lion skin, and prepared to sleep on his bunk. The small stove was already lit, and the smoked meat had been eaten for dinner. He only hoped that no monsters would disturb his sleep that night.

This simple wish still failed.

It was around eleven o'clock in the evening, and it was some kind of humanoid creature—Cheng Yijiu was the first to sense the creature's approach. He waited for it, sword in hand and lion skin draped over his head, a little annoyed. "Slow and hesitant, huh?" Cheng Yijiu scratched his hair, growing impatient as he waited—until the monster appeared before him.

The monstrous monster, resembling a cross between a shriveled bat and a rotting, shrunken hyena, stood over two meters tall and walked upright on two legs. Its two forelimbs were also extremely long, dangling to the ground. Membranes connected the creature's long, thin fingers to its waist. When extended, Cheng Yijiu felt it resembled a pterosaur. Its flight capabilities were nothing new, and its ability to glide was a real plus.

It walked upright like a human, but leaned forward, its two forelimbs supporting it. Its entire body resembled a dried corpse skeleton, and its head resembled that of a hyena, looking extremely ferocious. This monster stared at Cheng Yijiu with flaming eyes. Despite its ferocious appearance, its movements were very cowardly, taking one step forward and two or three steps back. The strange cry it made from its open mouth was just to give itself courage.

"Then why did it insist on appearing in front of me?" Cheng Yijiu was also puzzled. The look in the monster's eyes told him that its intelligence was definitely not low, and it was probably very close to that of a human. Whether it could speak was another matter. After watching for a long time, the monster didn't dare to rush over. Cheng Yijiu thought it must be cowardly. Sure enough, after struggling for half an hour, the guy let out a defeated scream as if he had been beaten. Then he actually rammed himself against the tree trunk, scratching himself a few bloody marks, and then turned around and ran away.

Even Cheng Yijiu was stunned by this operation, "So smart? If everyone is so aware of the situation, this journey would be much easier." Cheng Yijiu waited for a while, and after confirming that the other party had really run away, he returned to the car to continue resting.

Chapter 11

They were already halfway through the journey, and the next step would be a winding road through the mountains. The sky was still very dark - the weather in this place was similar to that in England, with overcast skies all day long and rarely a blue sky. At least, Cheng Yijiu hadn't seen any in the past few days. There were many dangers on the mountain road, the first of which was the poorly maintained roads.

There would be rockfalls on the mountain, and the road would collapse. It looked like a bare, rocky cliff on one side, and a steep cliff on the other. If you weren't careful, you would fall dozens of meters and become a scum... Cheng Yijiu let Lao Ma move forward slowly while observing the road that had been carved out here.

"To actually be able to run two carriages side by side is an incredible feat of engineering. Maybe some monster carved it out." Cheng Yijiu looked at the cliff face, which was concave inward, with claw marks visible on the rough surface. Just outside, crows and what looked like vultures soared in the sky. They didn't fly very fast, but they kept coming and going above, carried by the wind.

There was no one else, but there were scattered bones along the roadside near the cliffs, seemingly human. Cheng Yijiu drove silently until he turned a corner. Then he saw a giant, a very ugly giant, with arms hanging down almost to his knees.

The giant stood about five meters tall, holding a thick tree trunk as a club and blocking the road. When he saw the carriage, a ferocious grin suddenly appeared on his face—directed at the old horse. He was even more delighted when he saw Cheng Yijiu—he was probably one of those evil, man-eating giants.

"Isn't that a potato transformed into a spirit?" Cheng Yijiu was a little surprised by the twisted features on the hairy face. What to use against the giant? Of course, the crossbow. Raising the crossbow in his hand, Cheng Yijiu fired an arrow at the giant's body. The crossbow arrow he used was extremely vicious - the three-edged hollow arrowhead was like a sharp blade, capable of cutting a large wound, and the blood groove on the arrow body allowed blood to flow down the wound.

Could the giant's flesh and skin block the arrow? He was covered in a large patch of fur, and sure enough, it couldn't. At a distance of about 20 meters, the arrow sank directly into the fur.

The giant roared in pain, then charged towards Cheng Yijiu's carriage amidst the rumbling of the earth. The lion-skinned swordsman also leaped down and attacked the giant. He was covered in sacred ointment, had no armor other than the lion skin, and only a greatsword in his hand.

Cheng Yijiu's pace was no slower than the giant's. Before the giant could raise his club, he had already rushed into the inner circle, spun around, and slashed with his sword, repairing the giant's knee. The sword slashed below the kneecap, and the sharp blade pulled with the movement of his wrist, quickly severing the giant's internal and external ligaments. As he turned his body, he drew his sword and slashed, and the tip of the sword also severed the posterior ligament. The giant's leg was already crippled.

"This is called using the thin to penetrate the thick, and maneuvering effortlessly." The giant's knee joints struggled to stay fixed, and his body tilted, sending him crashing to the ground with the force of the impact. The wooden club nearly killed the old horse, and Cheng Yijiu was horrified—if the horse died, things would be troublesome. Then, before the giant could scramble to his feet, he leaped onto his back from behind, enduring the stench as he thrust his sword through the gap between his cervical vertebrae, severing the giant's medulla oblongata.

The giant roared, "I thought you were so powerful, but you're only capable of this." Cheng Yijiu cursed, and swung the blade left and right, easily prying open the cervical vertebrae and then cutting down. With his strength, he severed the giant's head. Blood gushed out, almost rushing onto the old horse.

Cheng Yijiu casually threw the giant's head off the cliff, then used his strength to push the giant's body little by little to the cliff and pushed it down as well. Otherwise, the road would be blocked and we couldn't move forward. "Giants are stupid and their fighting ability is not very good. Of course, it is also possible that this giant is weak." If this giant is fully equipped, wouldn't it be much more difficult to fight?

Moreover, the giant's martial arts skills were mediocre. He probably relied on his physical strength to kill his prey with a stick and ate them. He rarely fought against strong opponents, so he was easily killed by Cheng Yijiu. There was no trophy worth picking up on the giant, and the animal skin was foul-smelling.

Resting on the mountain road was the same as before, but because there were many turns and concave cliffs, Cheng Yijiu was able to choose a more suitable place to shelter from the wind and rest.

Unfortunately, heating requires the use of coal. Old Horse's use of materials must be reduced, and it must rely more on its own heat... The compartment where Cheng Yijiu is located is warm and dry, without a trace of dampness. After all, he is actually a shining man.

After the giant, no more monsters appeared, and the road was smooth. Soon, they crossed the mountain and reached the end of the mountain road - the destination was not far away. It was a town, prosperous yet dilapidated, grandeur and decay merged into one. The city seemed to be always between dusk and night, decadent and absurd with lights and wine.

Sensing the human presence inside, Cheng Yijiu estimated that there were at least 50,000 people here, but there were no city walls, and most of the houses were dilapidated. A carriage slowly passed by, "Free City?" He could see homeless people living in the abandoned houses, their eyes a faint green as they stared at Cheng Yijiu's carriage.

However, no one dared to come up. Anyone who could come up the mountain road alone in a carriage was a "monster" that could not be provoked, and it was not something that homeless people like them could deal with. Continuing forward, they saw the city wall and the guards guarding the city gate. There was a huge cross inlaid on the city gate. Cheng Yijiu drove the carriage over, and they just watched Cheng Yijiu come down to pay the entrance fee. After looking around to see if he could enter the gate, they let him in.

Cheng Yijiu looked back at the cross on top of the gate and smiled. "I didn't expect it to be so powerful. It can indeed make most dark creatures reveal their true forms." As for whether it would work against vampires? Looking at the atmosphere in this city, it was probably useless.

The Lion-skin Sword Master found an inn. He parked the carriage behind it, had the old horse enter the stable, and booked a room for himself. "Change me to clean bedding," he took out a silver coin and placed it on the counter. "Then I want to hear some news."

Chapter 12

The bartender had seen many people like this before. The world was not peaceful, with all kinds of bandits, demon hunters, and "wizards" coming and going. Often, the first thing they did was to come here to get information. So he repeated some of the information he had already heard by heart. The local language was English, so Cheng Yijiu could still understand it. "Yeah, it's the same old stuff again. Don't you know that I killed the man-eating mountain giant?"

He wanted to ask about the vampire story, but the other party immediately became cryptic at the mention of it, not daring to say anything more. "The shadow of the vampire hangs over this city..." Cheng Yijiu pondered a little. It seemed that vampires were not only harmful, but also beneficial. After all, his mission was to kill a vampire. Now it seemed that killing only one would be enough, which might be easier.

I don’t know if the guy from before can be counted, but I let him get away with it. Now I think it seems like I suffered a bit of a loss.

He also asked the bartender if there was a more suitable house - he had quite a lot of stuff, and the inn might not be able to accommodate him. The bartender said that if he could protect himself, any empty house outside could be used. This made Cheng Yijiu a little silent. In the end, he still borrowed a room in the inn, but the carriage was locked up in the backyard of the inn. The windows of the houses here are very narrow and small, and there are rarely large ones. The windows are also decorated with iron branches with stained glass inlays.

"It's not just the climate, it's probably blocking something from coming in through the window," Cheng Yijiu thought. "But it's probably useless." He thought about the vampire's abilities. This place undoubtedly had supernatural powers, so normal biological vampires like the drobocabra were out of the question. They were definitely not large vampire bats. A genuine vampire, if nothing else, could at least transform into fog, bats, and wolves.

Of course, this is a pretty powerful vampire, at least on the level of Castlevania. The vampires in this world must regard him as Dracula - although we haven't met him yet, but at least we can regard him as the Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

In the middle of the night, Cheng Yijiu heard giggling outside the window. He got up from the bed, grabbed his sword, grabbed the lion skin with his left hand, and walked to the window to look. He saw a beautiful woman standing outside the window, standing on the steep roof, smiling at him and even raised a finger to hook him a few times. "Aha, it's definitely a vampire! This must be the vampire bride, right?"

Cheng Yijiu grabbed the crossbow without hesitation and fired a single shot. The window was already open, and the arrow accurately struck the woman's chest, piercing through the body and revealing the arrowhead from behind. But the woman simply pretended to be in pain and slapped the arrow out of the wound with her hand—the entire arrow had completely penetrated the body.

Cheng Yijiu watched as the black, viscous blood, like tar, slowly trickled down from the wound. Then, he watched the wound rapidly heal. But after a few breaths, the skin was still pale, and even the blood had been sucked back into the air, leaving no trace. "Damn it, I knew it!" This was at least on the same level as the vampires in Van Helsing, or at least on par with the vampires in Dracula.

His crossbow bolt was definitely useless, and there was no telling if hitting the heart or brain would have helped. The bolt wasn't made of silver, and it didn't seem to have been stained with holy water. If it were Bram Stoker's Dracula, Cheng Yijiu would have thought the cross and holy water were probably useless. He could only rely on his greatsword, the demon-slaying greatsword, and the ointment he carried. Cheng Yijiu quickly reached for his waist, opened the lid, and scooped out a handful of the ointment.

He quickly smeared the ointment on his neck and chest, and quickly wiped a handful on his arms and thighs. He smeared the last bit of oil on the sword. There was no time to apply it carefully, and there was still a lot of ointment left, so he didn't dig it out yet. He couldn't jump out. The window was too high and narrow, and it was really not something a man of Cheng Yijiu's size could jump out of. He would have to smash the wall to jump out.

The woman slowly approached. Cheng Yijiu grabbed the lion skin that he had thrown aside when applying the ointment with his left hand, shook it, and draped it over himself. The lion skin sword master had completed his equipment - his upper body revealed the fat muscles of his chest and abdomen, a pair of shorts around his waist, and his thighs and calves were clearly defined muscles. With the lion skin draped over his body, he looked like a lion standing upright.

The window was narrow, and the woman in front of him shouldn't have been able to get in, or should have been stooping sideways, which would have been a bit awkward. But unexpectedly, she just walked in head-on. Cheng Yijiu could see that she had suddenly become as invisible as smoke, and only solidified after entering. Could the woman be speaking the local dialect? Cheng Yijiu didn't really understand.

The next second, the woman's face suddenly changed, transforming into a hideous monster—a hybrid of human and bat. She bared her long fangs and lunged at Cheng Yijiu. "This stupid female vampire seems incapable of sensing the power of my sun and the magic of my lion skin?" Cheng Yijiu was quite surprised, but his hand remained firm. With a single thrust, he pierced the vampire's arm.

The monster's reaction speed was indeed extremely fast. Seeing the sword about to penetrate its body, it was originally not paying attention, but at the last moment, it seemed to suddenly sense something and twisted its arm with all its strength to block the sword. Then, the next second, it let out an extremely sharp and painful roar, and with its other hand, it chopped off the arm at the shoulder at an extremely fast speed. This knife-hand skill made Cheng Yijiu feel quite impressive.

The severed arm was still pierced by Cheng Yijiu's sword. From the pierced area, a charred, burning golden thread expanded, and the expanded area fell directly to the ground in ash. Such was the power of sunlight, even the bones turned black before crumbling into dust. The female vampire suddenly realized the power of the attack. She quickly retreated, regaining her beauty.

He also showed a pitiful look...

Chapter XIII

How could Cheng Yijiu be so merciful? However, the narrow window did prevent him from pursuing. The hunter gripped the hilt of his sword with his left hand and made a decapitation gesture with his right hand on his neck. "The next time I see you, I'll kill you!" There was no need for a next time. Cheng Yijiu was ready to pursue him as soon as daybreak came.

There was one problem: when he'd been gathering intelligence, he'd found no information about where vampires lived. Now, it seemed highly likely that vampires were hiding among humans—after all, they had the ability to assume normal human appearances. Cheng Yijiu had seen plenty of vampire movies, and the vampires' true lair was likely hidden in another dimension.

It's like a hidden castle...

Now it seems that although the clothes on this woman look a little faded, they are definitely made of high-quality material, and her makeup is definitely not like that of an ordinary person, so she is very likely living in the vampire castle - the vampire bride is not a secret.

Cheng Yijiu watched the female vampire quickly dissolve into smoke and blend into the night mist. Finally, he put down his sword. He dug out the ointment and smeared it on himself carefully, then leaned back on the bed and prepared to sleep. After suffering such a serious injury, it seemed impossible for the vampire to come back. Cheng Yijiu also confirmed one thing: the God of Light was the natural nemesis of these dark creatures.

As the chosen warrior of Apollo, the god of light, killing these dark creatures should be as easy as chopping melons and vegetables. So, let's wait until daybreak.

After a good night's sleep, Cheng Yijiu awoke, cleaned himself up, and had a delicious meal. Instead of donning the lion skin, he wrapped it in a large piece of cloth, strapped it to his back, and headed out, sword in hand. He didn't need to leap onto the rooftop; he simply followed the direction the woman had disappeared in—his uncanny sixth sense would tell him what to do.

Hunters are supposed to observe, track and hunt, but this is a supernatural world. As the chosen one of Apollo, Cheng Yijiu naturally has special abilities, which are super senses formed by the combination of vision, hearing, smell and intuition - this is the power of Apollo's twin sister, the moon goddess Artemis.

That was the hunting power of the goddess of hunting. As for why Apollo could borrow such power, Cheng Yijiu wisely didn't intend to overthink it, and just used his intuition. In his supersensory perception, he seemed to see the woman leaping and moving in the mist, and his sight fell on the spot where the vampire had once landed.

His sense of smell also told him that the strange smell of the female vampire's perfume and rotting corpse coexisted - very, very faint, but not impossible for Cheng Yijiu to trace.

Cheng Yijiu strolled leisurely through the city, precisely repeating the ghost's escape route. The vampire was surprisingly cunning. Instead of escaping in a straight line, she made a complex circle, even committing a murder along the way. Even though the poor woman had hidden in a room, she was still drained of her blood and had her arm taken away...

The neighbors and the police who handled the incident were not surprised at all. They simply took the body away and left it at that—all under Cheng Yijiu's watch. Cheng Yijiu wasn't sure if the body would resurrect as a vampire, but he thought it unlikely. Otherwise, wouldn't the world be full of vampires?

Those materials also said that vampires were created with real blood, not just from someone dying after their blood was sucked. They all required real blood, or some other very difficult black magic ritual and an extremely powerful curse.

However, there is a high chance that the dead who have been drained of blood will become a ghoul - a ghoul with a rotting body, growing fangs and claws, and living by feeding on corpses. These things are easy to deal with, just chop off the head or burn it.

After recalling the information, Cheng Yijiu watched the cart being pushed away. It now seemed that it should have been pushed somewhere and burned.

After walking for nearly an hour, Cheng Yijiu discovered something else: this place had a complete sewer system. Unlike medieval cities in history, the streets were not piles of shit, at least not completely. Finally, the female vampire left the city and moved in a straight line.

Because she came full circle and returned to the city.

As expected, she was a very cunning vampire. The last place she disappeared to was a ruined place that might be a church. "Is this their lair?" Cheng Yijiu was very unsure.