Herinos pushed open the door and walked into the church. Ji Ning followed behind him and asked, “Are you sure you want to go in there? Will your body be alright?”
Both crucifix and prayers would harm members of the blood race. Even though they were surrounded by illusions, Ji Ning was still a little worried Herinos would get hurt, not to mention he didn’t want Herinos to watch what happened. It really wasn’t a pleasant scene.
“It doesn’t matter.” The vampire turned and smiled at him, “This illusion is being eroded. Any powers inside of it are greatly weakened, they won’t hurt me.”
Both he and Huo Wuling had now said that the illusion was breaking down. ‘Contamination’ and ‘erosion’, Ji Ning didn’t know how they determined this matter. Slightly confused, Ji Ning followed Herinos into the church.
The phantom ‘Ji Ning’ was standing in front of the heroine Flora and his younger sister. He first hugged his sister for a while. The little girl looked very happy to see him again, her face flushed as she called out, “Gege!”
‘Ji Ning’ stroked the girl’s hair and showed a faint smile, chatting with her for a long time.
When the girl asked him where he’d been recently and why he hadn’t come back to see her for so long, his expression flickered slightly. He said simply, “I’m on a mission. Don’t worry, I’ll be back as soon as the mission is over.”
“Okay, but you have to take care of yourself Gege. I’ll be waiting for you to come back.”
The girl said reluctantly, clutching her brother’s fingers. It was late at night, and although she didn’t want to sleep, because of her young age she found it difficult to keep her eyes open, and soon fell asleep in her brother’s arms. The young maid from before carefully took her away.
“Thank you Flora. I would like to thank you and His Royal Highness for taking care of her for me.”
After watching his sister leave, ‘Ji Ning’ nodded to the girl, expressing his gratitude.
The beautiful girl who had recently become a princess, smiled and said, “You are my friend, and you’re serving on the front lines for this country. Doing these things for you is nothing.”
She picked up her handbag and took out a silver cross with her lace gloved hand, and handed it to ‘Ji Ning’.
“I was given this from the Archbishop. May the Lord bless and protect you. You must take good care of yourself on the battlefield.”
Ji Ning, who was watching the phantom scene from the side, couldn’t help the emotions that throbbed in his chest at this sight. Flora was a half blood, half human and half vampire. Even if the holy relics of the church had little effect on a half blood, it would still make her feel weak. The Archbishop hadn’t liked her much at first. In order to give Ji Ning that cross, she must have suffered a lot.
Herinos’s expression changed as well at the sight of the cross, turning a little gloomier, but he quickly covered it up.
The ‘Ji Ning’ from the illusion thanked Flora and put the cross in his pocket. They exchanged a few more words, before he said goodbye to her and left the church. When he left the church, he looked up at the stars that filled the night sky and exhaled softly.
“Did you see your sister? And, her…Flora, right?”
‘Herinis’ walked towards him with mixed emotions in his eyes.
‘Ji Ning’ avoided his gaze and paused for a long time before gently answering, “En,”
“Are they both alright?”
“Yeah.” The quiet and withdrawn vampire hunter looked back at the church and said with a low voice, “…They’re happy.”
“Do you still like her?”
Seeing the sorrow in his face, the phantom ‘Herinos’ trembled. He grabbed his wrist, pressing him to answer, “You’re still in love with her, even though she’s become someone else’s wife?”
“This has nothing to do with you.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Gbc’a ibbx ja tfg jcswbgf.” Ktf njwqlgf ugjyyfv tlr rtbeivfgr jcv rajgfv lcab tlr fsfr, ibra jcv pfjiber, jcugs yea tfiqifrr, “Qtfc atf tfii jgf sbe ublcu ab ibbx ja wf?”
“Disgusting.”
Huo Wuling, who was watching with his arms crossed, sneered. He squinted his dark eyes at the real Herinos, “A love triangle? Unrequited love? Is this your story?”
As he spoke, he raised the corners of his lips and looked at Ji Ning. The cold smile on his face obviously didn’t match his true feelings.
“Ningning.” He said slowly, “You don’t really like that woman, do you?”
Ji Ning felt a chill run down his back as he shook his head. Huo Wuling stared into his eyes for a few seconds, then abruptly smiled, and said, “I didn’t think so.”
However, before Ji Ning could relax, Huo Wuling asked, “So why did you pretend to like her? Is it related to your mission in this world? What exactly was your mission?”
Ji Ning shook his head again. This involved his biggest secret, of course he couldn’t reveal it. If he let them know the truth, he didn’t dare to imagine what the consequences would be.
Huo Wuling raised an eyebrow, his eyes sweeping over him with an inexplicable gaze before he was suddenly interrupted by a sound behind them. He turned his head to see the phantom ‘Herinos’ holding ‘Ji Ning’ against the wall of the church, pressing kisses to his lips.
“…”
Even though they were only phantom figures, Huo Wuling’s expression darkened at the sight.
“I’m sorry.”
Herinos noticed Huo Wuling’s expression and apologised, but the corners of his mouth hooked up and his voice sounded insincere, “But I did inform you in advance that I’ve kissed Ji Ning. It was you who insisted on watching it yourself.”
Huo Wuling didn’t respond but a sudden swarm of ghosts appeared around the church, pouncing on ‘Herinos’s’ body. They tore into the phantom’s skin, until blood dripped down his body and white bone peeked out of the torn flesh.
The vampire’s handsome face was completely destroyed, torn into strips of flesh and blood that hung down from his face. Standing next to the unscathed ‘Ji Ning’, he looked even more terrifying.
“I’m terribly sorry too.” Huo Wuling smiled, sounding even more insincere than Herinos. “That was my mistake.”
“It’s okay.”
Even though the phantom version of himself was splattered with blood and being slowly torn apart by ghosts, Herinos remained calm and spoke meaningfully.
“Anyone can make mistakes, including me.” He paused, before adding, “But you’d better not scare Ji Ning.”
“You really don’t know Ningning. He’s used to things like this, how could he be afraid?” Huo Wuling laughed. He turned to Ji Ning, “Do you understand now, Ningning? Who’s the person who loves you the most here?”
Of course it was his parents…
Ji Ning wished he could say something like this, but since the current atmosphere wasn’t very good, he decided to keep silent. Pretending he couldn’t hear anything, he looked over to the side.
After ‘Herinos’ was devoured by the ghosts, the surrounding phantoms became confused, like a TV screen without a signal. They disappeared into the flickering snow, before dissolving into to a new scene.
They were now inside of a magnificent palace, where the strong scent of blood surrounded them.
The phantoms took shape again and a new ‘Herinos’ appeared inside the hall. His already pale face looked bloodless and filled with an uncharacteristic panic as he held a bloodied ‘Ji Ning’ to his chest. He kicked open one of the doors that lined the hallway and carefully placed the boy on the bed.
More blood gushed out of ‘Ji Ning’s’ body. He appeared seriously injured and had fallen unconscious, the blood continuing to soak into the sheets around him.
Ji Ning watched the scene, remembering the night vividly. Herinos had kissed him outside the church, but because he was pretending to hate Herinos, he fiercely resisted and fled into the crowd.
Herinos immediately chased after him, but was stopped when several of his subordinates arrived. They informed him there was an urgent situation that required him to personally deal with. Herinos had no choice but to leave, so he ordered his subordinates to capture Ji Ning back without hurting him.
Following Herinos’s request, his subordinates chased after Ji Ning’s scent and were stunned to find Ji Ning lying on the floor with serious injuries. This was the plot of the original novel. The blood clan, who hated humans, stationed assassins near the cathedral, waiting for an opportunity to kill the Archbishop. Ji Ning discovered the conspiracy and saved the Archbishop’s life, but was severely injured in the process.
At this point in the plot of the original novel, Ji Ning was supposed to die from his injuries, deepening the hatred between vampires and humans. However, because Herinos liked him so much, the plot changed.
Herinos chose to turn him into a vampire.
The phantom ‘Herinos’ was stained with blood. As a vampire, he would normally be overcome with the desire for blood, but at that moment, he didn’t respond to the smell at all, caressing ‘Ji Ning’s’ face with trembling fingers. With a pained expression on his face, he slowly knelt down in front of the bed and lowered his head, clasping ‘Ji Ning’s’ hands tightly.
A few seconds passed before he stood up again, a look of determination in his eyes. He sliced open his wrist and held it to ‘Ji Ning’s’ lips. His other hand pinched ‘Ji Ning’s’ chin to make him open his mouth and drink the vampire’s blood.
The phantom images flickered again, changing to a different scene.
The dying ‘Ji Ning’ had accepted his blood, and ‘Herinos’ had drunk from him in turn to complete the blood pact between them. When ‘Ji Ning’ woke up, he found he’d become one of the blood clan he hated so much.
“Why did you turn me into a vampire?!”
With a heavy thud, the blood prince was thrown to the ground. ‘Ji Ning’ pressed on top of him, digging his hands into the vampire’s shoulders. He breathed heavily as his red eyes flashed, and he asked in a hoarse voice, “Why did you do this to me? Why didn’t you just let me die?!”
“I can’t…”
As soon as he turned ‘Ji Ning’ into a vampire, ‘Herinos’ was prepared to be hated. He slowly closed his eyes and said, “I can’t watch you die.”
“I beg you Ji Ning. For your sister, you have to live well.”
Ultimately, for the sake of his younger sister, ‘Ji Ning’ did not commit suicide. But after becoming a vampire, he instinctively longed for blood, particularly the blood of ‘Herinos’. Every time he was fed blood, he would frantically mutilate himself, unable to accept what he’d become.
In order to stop him from hurting himself, ‘Herinos’ locked him up in chains. The two continued torturing each other, until after nearly a year, the end finally came.
‘Ji Ning’ learned that his sister had died.
It was ‘Herinos’s’ subordinates who revealed it to him and, naturally, they had malicious intentions…
Over time, the news that ‘Herinos’ was hiding the genius vampire hunter ‘Ji Ning’ had spread, and the vampire extremists used this as an excuse to attack the blood prince and demand that he be punished. Because of this, ‘Herinos’s’ reputation was in jeopardy. If his subordinates wanted to restore ‘Herinos’s’ name, the easiest thing to do was let ‘Ji Ning’ die.
However, they knew how important ‘Ji Ning’ was to ‘Herinos’ and didn’t dare to kill him directly. Therefore, they used this vicious method to ensure ‘Ji Ning’ lost the motivation to live and would end his own life.
In the end, they succeeded. After confirming the news of his sister’s death, ‘Ji Ning’ fell into despair. He had no reason left to live, so he swallowed the silver cross he’d always kept with him to commit suicide. Although vampires had strong healing abilities, this kind of damage was fatal.
Flora’s blessing had become a nightmare and a curse.
The illusion showed the scene of ‘Herinos’ clutching the body of ‘Ji Ning’, however it only appeared for a second before the image vanished. The real Herinos waved his hand to disperse the phantoms, lowering his head. His face was pale and his eyelashes fluttered, as if he could still see the image in front of him.
The experiences of that time were too tragic and Ji Ning actually didn’t want to recall them. Whether it was the desperate self mutilation or swallowing the cross at the very end, it all caused him a lot of pain. However, he knew very well that Herinos was also suffering, and it was all because of him.
“I’m sorry…”
Ji Ning felt a surge of guilt and had to step forward to hold Herinos’s hand. Herinos held it back gently, and raised his head after a moment, shaking it slightly, “It’s already over. As long as you’re still alive.”
His dark crimson eyes were gentle as he said softly, “Actually, I always believed you weren’t really dead.”
When a vampire dies, their corpse should dissolve into ashes. However, even though he guarded Ji Ning’s body for a long time, his corpse never disappeared.
So from that moment, he’d always believed that Ji Ning hadn’t really died, his soul had just moved to another realm, and he began to search for it non-stop.
Finally, on that precious day, the blood pact appeared again and he suddenly felt the heartbeat in his soul that belonged to Ji Ning.
Thud, thud.
It was just a simple rhythm, but it caused tears to fall from his eyes.
As long as Ji Ning was alive, nothing else mattered to him.
Of course, it was undeniable that deep down in his heart, he still yearned for Ji Ning to truly fall in love with him.
“The boring comforting should be over now, right?”
Huo Wuling stepped forward and pulled Herinos and Ji Ning’s hands apart. He fiddled with Ji Ning’s soft fingers, rubbing the pads of each digit. He played with every inch of skin, as if trying to remove any traces left by Herinos.
His fingers were very nimble, and they quickly became dishonest. In the blink of an eye, he was already stroking the sensitive skin of Ji Ning’s wrist. Ji Ning quickly retracted his hand and hid it behind his back, preventing him from continuing.
Huo Wuling wasn’t angered, continuing to smile with curved eyes as he said, “His story is over. It’s my turn now.”
As he spoke, the phantoms around them twisted into a new scene.
“You can’t just comfort him, Ningning.” Huo Wulign smiled at Ji Ning and said softly, “You have to comfort me too. You can’t have forgotten-”
His voice dropped a bit.
“How you ripped out half my heart.”
Poor Herinos, what a tragic story!! I can’t decide who was treated worse, Herinos or Zhou Rin (╥﹏╥)
This is also a reminder that no restrictions were placed on Ningning – all he was asked to do was capture the protagonist’s hearts!! He’s honestly the antagonist of the story, what a scum shou!!
(edit: ignore the stupid translator who forgot Ji Ning was forced to play a role, I have been face slapped by my own poor memory!)
JN had to follow the novel’s og storyline for the first few worlds since he was still a newb at that time right? ToT like he had to follow the love/hate storyline with Herinos and rip out Huo Wuling’s heart since that’s how the book went?
I’d definitely say Zhou Rin was treated the worst 😭 since he had to go through both romance troubles and a moral conflict with his brother :’D
It’s okay that Xiao Ning is a scum shou, I like those types anyway 😭😭 thank you for the chapter! 😀
I agree, it couldn’t be helped with Huo and Herinos because of the rules. But by the time Zhou Rin rolled around he had more freedom and had more choice.
Tftc
oops, takes black pot off Ji Ning’s head yes you’re right, I’ve forgotten some of the earlier chapters its been so long!!
It’s funny – Zhou Rin isn’t my favourite protagonist at all, but he’s the one I’ve felt the most sorry for!!
Good taste!! After reading ‘Strategy to Capture that Scum Gong’ I think our protagonist is extremly well behaved, even if he has some bad habits!!
The best scum shou award goes to NingNing
Ningning: I would like to thank my parents and my boyfriend, and my boyfriend, and my boyfriend, and my boyfriend, and my boyfriend, and my boyfriend, and my boyfriend, and my boyfriend, and my boyfriend, and my boyfriend, and my boyfriend
Y’all I am So Biased towards Huo Wuling I am Ecstatic to finally see some of his backstory??!!! Let’s Goooooooio
I loved reading it – it’s short but tragic~
I already know the Hou Wuling backstory will make me sad because he’s one of my faves. I guess its time to emotionally prepare myself for the coming chapters.
…(^^ゞ) yeah this is going to hurt
Ning Ning, can’t you not making everything more tragic than it already is!!?
Poor protagonist who have to meet Super Antagonist Ning Ning…
He’s a theatre kid, he can’t help it!!
It must be difficult falling in love with the super villain Ningning~
The zhounrin story made me cry the most.. he is the most pitiful among these protagonists.
And if u recall, he was such a straigh guy during his 1st mission right?! Then he was able to roleplay such melodramatic and angsty stories afterwards. 😆