Author: Charlot Meburg

  Charlot casually picked up the diary, intending to spend some time pting The Labyrinth of Agamis. Suddenly, an odd sensation struck him, prompting him to flip the diary over.

  The other side of the cover was blood-red, as if steeped in crimson. As his fingers lightly brushed against it, a line of text appeared on the surface: The Vampiric Codex 〢〨 by Charlot Meburg.

  Upon opening the cover, a surge of sciousness poured forth:

  “Charlot Meburg ihe fn god of chaos Agamis, repelling a traalice from the vampire evil god Karnstein. This fragment was sealed into Charlot’s diary, transf it into a tome—The Vampiric Codex 〢〨—prisieen pages of the Adonis ’s vampiric secrets. If the author fails to master the Adonis Codex within the desigime, they will forfeit their identity as the author and have their soul cimed by the returning evil god Karnstein. tdown: 6 days, 20 hours, 23 minutes, and 57 seds.”

  “How could it be sent?” Charlot muttered.

  Uhe Labyrinth of Agamis, which offered a buffer of nearly eight and a half months, The Vampiric Codex allowed barely seven days. A pressing sense of danger surged in Charlot's heart.

  Ba uy, he had chosen to study Blood Glaining some basiowledge about vampires along the way.

  The Old ti prised thirty-three nations, among which the five most powerful empires were the Ingrima Empire, the Fars Empire, the Bayrone Empire, the Bck Phoenix Dynasty, and the Lio Empire—collectively known as the Five Great Empires.

  The Bayrone Empire was unequivocally a vampire empire, established by thirty-one vampire s. Its formation had signifit ties to the renowned human philosopher Protagoras, who created the teique known as Blood Glory.

  This great philosopher had single-handedly sughtered thousands of vampires, even annihiting six of their thirty-seven s. By the time he was done, only thirty-one s remaihe vengeful souls of vampire dukes haunted his hands, and his fame reached such heights that his name alone could silence g vampire infants at night. In respohe vampires were pelled to hold a grand cil that aplished two moal feats.

  First, the leaders and elders formed a vast editorial ittee to pile all the secret teiques of the thirty-seven s into a unified set of tomes.

  Sed, they phe formation of a nation, which, decades ter, resulted iablishment of Bayrone. Despite fag nearly a hundred wars against the allied forces of human nations on the Old ti, Bayrone solidified its foundation as a new empire.

  The Vampiric Codex 〢〨—the tweh volume of the Vampiric Codices—was also known as the Adonis Codex. It taihe secret teiques of the Adonis , one of the six royal vampire s.

  The vampire evil god Karnstein was her than the progenitor of the Adonis .

  The pition of the Vampiric Codices began several decades after Protagoras ied Blood Glory.

  By then, the great philosopher was in his twilight years. On several occasions, he attempted to seize the ongoing pition but ultimately refrained for various reasons. He passed away without ever ying eyes on the Vampiric Codices.

  He left behind only oion: “It is a pity I could not uhe full mysteries of Blood Glory. I hope future schors will plete this art.”

  Students across all four imperial uies ofteed whether Protagoras, had he obtaihe Vampiric Codices, might have asded to godhood.

  Of course, this question had no definitive answer.

  After the codices’ pletion, only the highest-ranking vampires and their most outstanding young talents were ever allowed to read them. No human had ever been recorded as having done so.

  Charlot sighed, silently musing to himself: “I really should find time to return to uy and sult the professors about some of these matters.”

  “Perhaps I should request leave tomorrow.”

  Havily moved into a new residence far superior to his previous one, Charlot found himself invenienced by small tasks—like the inability to casually summon a servant from the Savings Union apartments to deliver messages for him.

  It was te at night, and the world outside itch bck. Only the dim glow of a kerosene mp illuminated his small study.

  Charlot opehe first page of The Vampiric Codex 〢〨 and carefully examis tents. To his relief, uhe Labyrinth of Agamis, which he couldn’t uand at all, his prior exposure to vampiriowledge and his foundation in Blood Glory allowed him to prehend the text with retive ease.

  The foundation of the Adonis ’s vampiric secret teiques was something called Bloodfme Qi.

  The first page of The Vampiric Codex 〢〨 doted this very teique.

  Bloodfme Qi was also one of the thirteen legendary teiques of Blood Glory.

  Protagoras’ version of Bloodfme Qi was vastly different from the Adonis ’s secret method—mgressive and domineering, but g the polished viciousness refihrough turies of practice.

  As Charlot read, he began experimenting with the teique described in the codex, trying to el Blood Glory to his chest. To master the basics of Bloodfme Qi, one o awaken a Blood Vortex in the heart. Charlot had expected this step to be extremely difficult. To his surprise, within just half an hour, he had formed a sed Blood Vortex in his chest.

  The formation of a sed Blood Vortex sighat Charlot Meburg had officially asded to the sed tier of transdence!

  Under normal circumstances, f even a single Blood Vortex would require at least a year orous training, even for someoh excellent aptitude. Those of average talent often hree or more years to achieve the same.

  As someoh only below-average aptitude, Charlot had been uo plete this during his four years at uy and had to rely on the power of an evil god to attain transdence.

  Refleg on his predecessor’s missteps and the mess left behind, Charlot could only sigh.

  Blood Glory now flowed from the mark on his forehead to his heart, then back again, cirg betweewo Blood Vortices in a subtle loop.

  Charlot had only inteo practice Blood Glory briefly.

  He never imagined he would end up attrag the attention of not o two evil gods.

  Now that things had calmed down and he had even achieved an adva, the marvels of the world seemed to mock his expectations.

  Several hours ter, Charlot opened his eyes. He felt the Blood Vortices in his chest stabilize, while the rune-formed eye on his forehead became clearer, slightly expanding his field of perception.

  Just as he collected himself, another surge of sciousness poured out from the diary:

  “tdown to the arrival of the vampire evil god Karnstein: 26 days, 5 hours, 13 minutes, and 7 seds!”

  Charlot was both shocked and delighted, silently calg: “F a sed Blood Vortex deyed Karnstein’s arrival by eighteen days! Could tinuing to practice prevent him from ever appearing?”

  Though he knew such a thing was unlikely, he couldn’t help but hope.

  Directly fag two evil gods without dying had elevated his spiritual sensitivity, causing his progress to accelerate in the short term. Yet, he was aware that at some point, he would iably hit a bottleneck, halting his rapid growth.

  Still, this development was undeniably good news.

  As daroached, Charlot suppressed his rag thoughts and prepared to leave, pnning to visit Kilmainham Prison.

  He had only retly started his new post and had already taken leave once. Requesting a sed leave so soon would be inappropriate. Instead of sending a servant, he decided it was better to hahe matter personally.

  Charlot believed that Miss Menielman would be uanding and easy to unicate with.

  However, to his surprise, when he arrived at Kilmainham Prison in the m, he found that Miss Menielman had not e to work that day.

  After waiting for two hours, Charlot decisively left early from his shift...