Lu Xuan looked at the various Chinese dishes on the table, a strange expression flashing across his face. Hua Ling, standing beside him, said that she had checked them all and there were no problems.
Lu Xuan then picked up his chopsticks, took a piece of braised pork, and put it in his mouth.
"Hehe, have a taste, this level of skill is almost on par with the imperial chefs in the country."
“I knew you would like this dish. I’ve always believed that good food should give people a sense of satisfaction to be considered good. And this dish is the most satisfying kind of food.”
At some point, the tense atmosphere completely vanished. Lu Xuan and the others discovered that this legendary vampire seemed to be nothing more than a goofy character who had suppressed his emotions for countless years. Throughout his long life, he had not been defeated by boredom or loneliness. However, the repressed feeling of having no one to confide in turned him into a chatterbox once he let loose.
During the conversation, he boasted that he was proficient in martial arts, Chinese calligraphy, various cuisines, painting, history, biology, medicine, and many other fields. He also showed off a large number of degree certificates and even professorships from prestigious European universities.
Overcome with excitement, he could barely contain his pride, claiming to be the first man of the modern-day Queen of England. He also stated that he had been the lover of the Queen of France, the Queen of Denmark, and a princess of Belgium…
Lu Xuan listened to Dracula's rambling with great interest. Putting everything else aside, this immortal being was truly the most realistic immortal being he had ever seen. Although this was his first time seeing one in real life, he had seen them countless times in movies and TV shows in his previous life.
However, all the films and television dramas portray these immortal beings as deeply afflicted with suffering and hatred. They're all either psychologically disturbed or driven to madness by torture. Aside from the villains, everyone else sees immortality as a curse. Lu Xuan doesn't know how many truly believe this, but he certainly doesn't.
Dracula's outpouring lasted a full three hours. Afterward, he finally realized his rudeness.
“My God… I’m so sorry. I almost forgot, we seem to have agreed to discuss some important things.”
"It's okay, I'm actually very interested in your experiences. We can talk about it sometime in the future."
“That’s wonderful. But let’s get down to business now. You see, I was once a person too. A prince of Romania, and one day…”
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Chapter 208 The Origin of Dracula
Dracula slowly began to recount his origins. Nothing particularly special; he was, in essence, a prince from a small kingdom in what is now Romania.
It was a vassal state of another powerful empire. According to custom, after inheriting the throne, he was required to send his son to the main kingdom as a hostage. However, in the end, he was unwilling to do so. This was because the current ruler of the main kingdom was extremely wicked. He had a premonition that his son would not have a good time after going there.
At the last moment of the handover, he changed his mind. He drew his sword and cut down the opposing team, saving his son. But the price was that his country would face an attack from tens of thousands of elite soldiers, while they could only mobilize a few thousand soldiers with the full strength of their nation.
To save his country and his son, he needed the strength to fight this war.
Dracula recalled an ancient legend. Alone, he came to the forbidden mountain in the country.
This is a solitary peak, a sheer cliff hundreds of meters high. Legend has it that an ancient demon dwells atop its summit. Give up your soul, and you will receive everything you desire.
Many people have tried to climb that mountain, but none have succeeded. However, Dracula, as the protagonist of destiny, did it. He reached the summit, found a cave, and inside, encountered the being that resembled a demon.
"He gave me a cup of blood in a goblet made of a skull. He made me drink it and told me that by drinking that blood I would gain the power to turn the tide of the war."
"So what is the price?" Lu Xuan vaguely felt that this story was somewhat familiar.
"There's no price to pay, or rather, there isn't one on the surface. That's what it tells me. This power can only last for three days. After three days, the power will disappear. I'll return to being a normal person. Nothing will happen. But during these three days, I must abide by one rule: I cannot drink anyone's blood."
After drinking that cup of blood, I gained power, but also developed a tremendous urge to consume blood. And this urge only grows stronger with time. On the first day, I hunted down thousands of enemy soldiers at night. Even amidst the sea of blood, I managed to maintain my composure. I impaled the corpses on crosses, hoping to intimidate the enemy and force them to retreat. But instead, I enraged them.
The next day, I struck again. But the bloodlust was uncontrollable. I summoned bats from the jungle to fight for me. But the enemy saw through my weakness. My power could only last three days. And yet, I couldn't end the war within those three days.
"You can slaughter thousands of people in one night. Why don't you charge into the enemy camp and kill all the enemy generals? Wouldn't the enemy collapse without a fight?"
Dracula fell silent. Lu Xuan instantly understood; the director wouldn't allow it...
"In my final moments, I drank my wife's blood. It prolonged my strength. In return, I will never be able to stand in the sunlight again, and I will never be able to suppress my primal craving for blood."
"But you...didn't you just say you could eat without drinking blood? And that you even traveled the world to study? And that you studied all of this at night?" Hua Ling and the others were also captivated by what they heard and couldn't help but ask.
Dracula's face showed an even more smug expression.
"That was indeed the case at first. I needed blood to survive and couldn't face the sun directly. But over the course of my long life, I tried to control my instincts and achieved some success. Of course, that's not the point; the point is the demon that gave me power."
"You killed it!" Lu Xuan suddenly said with certainty. He now remembered that story. In the movie, after Dracula drank human blood, the demon seemed to have completed some kind of pact, thus breaking through the hidden restrictions of the cave and gaining freedom. And in the post-credits scene, it found Dracula. However, there was no sequel, and Lu Xuan didn't know what happened afterward.
But here, the whole story seems to take a turn midway through.
A look of surprise flashed across Dracula's face.
"That's right. I killed it. Even though I never knew what it was. But when it found me, I had been preparing for that moment for over a hundred years."
I have collected hundreds of methods from around the world for fighting demons and black wizards. I have designed over sixty traps and gathered hundreds of weapons from religious myths used to slay demons. These include hundreds of kilograms of gunpowder.
Although it was ultimately proven that the vast majority of the weapons were fake and had no effect on the thing, I was lucky. Of all those items, one was actually real.
The story had progressed to this point, and even Lu Xuan was somewhat engrossed. No one disturbed them; only Dracula was narrating the tale alone.
"After the war ended, I did not continue to rule my country, but instead began a life of wandering alone. I started to reflect on everything I had done and tried to deduce who that guy really was, or what he was."
At first, it was just a way to pass the time. But many things, in the end, can't stand up to scrutiny. For example, if it could grant me such immense power, shouldn't it be even more powerful? Why would such a powerful creature be confined to that cave? I didn't undergo any tests; it easily bestowed that power upon me. Although there was a price to pay, the two don't match. It's like…”
"It's as if it's been waiting for someone to drink that cup of blood?" Lu Xuan suddenly asked.
"Your wisdom is truly astonishing. The magician is indeed as learned and wise as the legends say."
Have you seen any other magicians?
No.
"......"
"After I killed it, I got a general idea of what happened. If I'm not mistaken, it shouldn't have been able to leave the cave at that time. What it gave me to drink was probably its own blood. It couldn't leave the cave itself, but its blood did. This seems to have exploited a loophole in some kind of restriction, allowing it to escape."
I don't know how long it took him to finally break free. But by the time he found me, more than a hundred years had passed. And by then, I had already foreseen this moment and made preparations in advance. I am a general who has experienced more than a dozen wars, a king who briefly ruled a country, a master who has wandered the world for more than a hundred years and learned all kinds of human skills. And he was just a dark creature who had been trapped for countless years.