The two humans grabbed the items and hurriedly ran away.
The pursuing hunter seemed quite interested in this scene. He did nothing to stop it, but simply leaned to the side and watched with a smile on his face.
After the two humans had disappeared from sight, he looked at the vampire and laughed, "Oh, you captured people just to lure me out?"
The vampire stepped out of the shadows into the moonlight. Without the two humans blocking his view, Levy realized that the vampire looked like a human teenager, or more accurately, not yet an adult.
Upon seeing the vampire's appearance, the hunter raised an eyebrow and smiled: "So it's you, little guy."
In that instant, Levy suddenly accessed the memories that flashed through the hunter's mind.
Before him was a burning fire, with a plucked pigeon stuck in it.
Standing in front of the fire was a five- or six-year-old child, and the man was speaking to the child in a very rude tone: "May I sleep in your prince's bedroom? Is that alright?"
As an observer of this memory, Levy could clearly sense that when he said those words, his attention was not on the child, but rather looking upwards.
On the top floor of that ancient castle, on the open balcony, stood a tall but utterly aloof figure.
Before Levi could see the figure clearly, the flashing memory abruptly ended.
Levi felt a complex mix of emotions swirling within him, a mixture of nostalgia, bitterness, and a faint sense of joy, but these were all suppressed by a sudden surge of irritability and displeasure.
This feeling was both fresh and strange, leaving Levy momentarily unable to distinguish whether it was his own emotion or that of the hunter.
The hunter lost all interest in the vampire before him, turned around, mounted his horse, and muttered with a smile, "So many years have passed."
But the vampire being chased reacted extremely strongly: "You're not allowed to leave!"
The vampire flashed and blocked the horse's path.
Looking directly at the half-grown vampire, Levi noticed that the vampire's gaze wasn't fixed on the hunter, but rather on his neck.
"You can leave, but leave him here!" The vampire pointed at Levi's neck. He wasn't old, but his words were hysterical, his eyes reddening. "Give him back to me! Give him back...to us..."
He said "he," not "it."
Levy was curious about what the hunter was wearing around his neck.
Soon, the hunter's fingers touched what the vampire was pointing at; the touch was cool and smooth.
"Give it back to you, or to the vampires?" Levi heard the hunter chuckle briefly, a mocking laugh in his voice. "Don't you think he's a traitor to the vampires? Why are you interested in this traitor's heart?"
The little vampire gritted his teeth and clenched his fists: "Whether he's a traitor or not, he belongs to us, he belongs to the vampire clan. Give him back to me!"
As he spoke, he opened his sharp claws and attacked the hunter.
The hunter deftly led his horse away.
The horse's hooves clattered on the ground as the hunter reined in his horse and circled the little vampire.
He raised his right hand and removed the thing from his neck, finally giving Levy a chance to see what it was.
It was a blood-red gem, the size of a pigeon's egg, ancient and round, and in the clear moonlight, it seemed as if bright red blood flowed within it. Unlike the one he found in the Royal Palace, even from such a distance, Levi could still sense the aura of another vampire on this gem.
Levy gazed at the gem under the moonlight through the hunter's eyes.
His gaze was tender, as if he were infatuated with a lover.
The hunter laughed, a laugh tinged with malice.
At that moment, Levi suddenly couldn't tell if he was speaking or the hunter was speaking. He heard him speak, each word distinct, like a vow or a curse: "He doesn't belong to humans, he doesn't belong to vampires, but... he will always belong to me."
Under the little vampire's gaze, Levi felt himself lower his head slightly, his lips lightly kissing the blood-red gem. The gem felt cool to the touch, yet it carried with it endless anger, and... a deep-seated longing.
When Levy sat up in bed, his lips still seemed to carry the coolness of his dream.
He walked to the window and looked out for a while. He saw his own strange eyes, now only black pupils, reflected in the dark windowpane, a sign of his extreme excitement.
The emotions in the dream were negative, so Levy's current mood is not good.
However... he found this intense, almost heart-bursting negative emotion quite interesting.
What to do? A week is too long; he can't wait to see that strange man in black.
-
Qin Chu encountered a minor but significant problem.
A week later, he maneuvered his new body out of the medical pod and underwent simple tests of various indicators.
He lifted his eyelids and glanced at the instrument screen, a faint displeasure appearing in his cold eyes.
Height: 165 cm
Another one with developmental delays.
The name "little dwarf" came to Qin Chu's mind, and he frowned before reaching out to take the instrument's test report.
"Your health report has been printed, please, please, please..." These old medical instruments that are not connected to the internet often malfunction, and Qin Chu has become very used to them after changing bodies several times.
He kicked it with practiced ease.
"Your health report has been printed, please check it~" The device immediately became unblocked.
Qin Chu took the report and walked out.
The vast medical facility was almost deserted, except for a receptionist who was dozing off. Qin Chu tapped his knuckles twice on the table, startling the man awake.
He hurriedly took the report from Qin Chu and glanced at it: "Oh, Mr. Lanny, congratulations on becoming the 309,481st Awakener in the entire Empire. Your gathering point will be under close monitoring, and we look forward to the birth of new Awakeners."
309,481 may seem like a lot, but scattered across several star systems of the Empire, it's just a drop in the ocean.
Qin Chu didn't answer, waiting for the receptionist to finish the formalities.
Perhaps because seeing a living person was so rare, Qin Chu's aloofness went unnoticed for the first time. The staff, while processing his paperwork, chatted warmly: "You woke up just in time, otherwise the gathering point you were at would have been closed..."
After being interrogated for a long time, Qin Chu finally managed to get out of the medical base.
Despite his frail body, barely an adult, Qin Chu discerned his direction for a while. Instead of heading directly to Roy Palace, he piloted a small aircraft to a very secluded location on the Imperial Capital Star.
Strictly speaking, this place is not on a planet, but a space station floating outside the planet, connected to the planet by a hidden walkway.
Qin Chu did not park the spacecraft at the entrance of the walkway on the planet, but instead derailed directly and flew to the space station, where it docked in a corner.
No one usually dares to leave the atmosphere of such a spacecraft within the planet, but Qin Chu had tried it before and knew that its structure was quite good, which is why he dared to do something so daring.
Before entering the space station, Qin Chu paused and glanced outside, vaguely seeing the space station docking with a starship. The starship looked somewhat familiar, but Qin Chu's angle was too far to see its exact appearance.
He was in a hurry and didn't pursue the matter further, quickly walking inside.
This place is the underground black market of the Imperial Capital Star, which Qin Chu is very familiar with.
I used to be familiar with him because he often came over to do tasks when we were in school, and now I'm familiar with him... because he has to come and visit when necessary.
This space station is quite large, divided into various sections to meet the diverse needs of people of different statuses on the capital planet. There are secret, coded virtual trading spaces, auction stages with private rooms, and of course, the largest area is occupied by the outer stalls.
Before the Imperial Crisis, the entire space station was packed with people during the black market's opening days. There were curious rich kids, special customers who were genuinely there to buy things, and of course, occasionally, the space pirate leaders would disguise themselves and wander around under the guise of delivering goods.
What Qin Chu couldn't understand the most was that there was a group of star pirate fans inside, excitedly waving colorful flags and dreaming of bumping into their idols.
In short, several types of people were crammed together, creating a lively yet chaotic scene.
But now all the areas are empty and desolate. However, in this deserted place, there is still one stall.
Qin Chu looked up and walked towards the outer area.
At the beginning of the outer street, a messy blanket was laid out, and the tablecloth didn't even cover the entire table. It was wrinkled everywhere, and it was obvious that the person setting up the stall was very perfunctory and didn't want to do it at all.
There were a few things scattered on the tablecloth: dried tree bark that gave off a peculiar smell, a potted plant with a dancing figure inside its flower buds, and other strange and unusual trinkets.
Qin Chu could tell at a glance that most of them were counterfeit products designed to fool idiots.
He walked up to the stall, kicked the table leg, and a bald head popped up from behind the stall.
"Damn, there's someone here? Am I dreaming?" The bald man rubbed his eyes and then stretched. He had long arms and a considerable height, and it was obvious that he had some humanoid bloodline mixed in with him. He was not someone to be trifled with.
Qin Chu remained aloof and indifferent. He tapped the table with his finger: "Another robe that can conceal spiritual ripples."
Upon hearing this, the stall owner, who had been yawning, abruptly stopped. He looked Qin Chu up and down, his gaze initially filled with suspicion, but then became certain: "Brother, it's you?"
They addressed each other warmly, but they weren't actually very close.
However, the stall owner remembered that a month ago, a teenager had also come by and asked for a black robe that was completely useless.
There was practically no one in the black market now. Although the boy from before and the one now looked different, that wasn't unusual in interstellar space, so the stall owner naturally assumed they were the same person.
Qin Chu didn't refute, but simply raised his chin, signaling him to hurry up and get the things.
The bald stall owner didn't waste any time, but like the hospital receptionist, he instinctively wanted to chat with anyone he saw: "What do you need this for? I have plenty of good stuff here, why don't you pick a couple? Don't worry, I'll definitely give you a discount right now."
Qin Chu had spent a lot of time in the black market since he was a child, and had been cheated and ripped off, so he knew these unscrupulous merchants very well. He didn't believe the stall owner at all, but instead gave a faint sneer and asked, "Are you sure you're not just trying to squeeze out more shipping fees?"
"How could that be..." The stall owner chuckled sheepishly, touching his bald head, but inwardly he thought the kid was pretty shrewd.
He stayed here because the starship didn't have enough energy; otherwise, given the current state of the place, where you can't see a single living person for dozens of days, who would be crazy enough to set up a stall here?
Although he refuted the stall owner's words, Qin Chu still glanced at the stall twice.
He saw a reagent bottle with a label indicating that it was produced by a very secretive laboratory in the Empire. The reagent was said to enhance memory, and the label was used to persuade every family with a student taking the exam to prepare a bottle!
Qin Chu stared at the reagent bottle for two seconds, then couldn't resist reaching out to take a look.
The stall owner, who was rummaging through the box for the black robe, saw it and immediately yelled at the top of his lungs, "That's a good thing! It can repair any memory loss, and if you're not sick, it can even prevent Alzheimer's!"
Qin Chu: "..."
Forget it, my brain isn't normal to begin with, I don't want to drink this and completely go crazy.
Seeing him put down the reagent bottle, the stall owner, eager to make a sale, sighed: "Really don't want it? I'll give you a 20% discount if you buy both."
Qin Chu remained unmoved. The stall owner tried to persuade him for a while before handing him the black robe: "Same as last time, one thousand."
The "Li" is the unit of currency in the Empire. It cannot be transferred now; it is all paid in cash.
Qin Chu habitually reached for his pocket, but as soon as his hand was inside, he suddenly remembered a heartbreaking truth…
The body he used this time belonged to an orphan who had no savings whatsoever.
The atmosphere suddenly became awkward.
As a seasoned stall owner, the bald man was extremely sensitive to this awkward atmosphere. He quickly withdrew the black robe he was about to hand out, narrowed his eyes at Qin Chu, and said, "Kid, I don't do credit here."
Qin Chu clicked his tongue, feeling a bit annoyed.
He checked the time. It had already taken him more than an hour to get from the hospital to the black market, and with the return trip taking another three hours, he only had a little over two hours left to move around.
If it weren't for a certain troublemaking Crown Prince who had attached a tracking device to his black robe, Qin Chu wouldn't have needed to come to the black market again and encounter such a ridiculous situation.