Blood Collection

When Ye Ming returned to the trading house, he was scolded by the boss because he took too long on the delivery. The boss thought Ye Ming must have gone somewhere else for his personal entertainment.

Ye Ming could only make up a random excuse. He told the boss that the reason he took so long was because the Vampire customer treated him like free labor and ordered him to do some other work. The boss did not fully believe him, but it was not like he could go ask the customer directly. All he could do was say a few more words of reprimand before letting Ye Ming go back to his delivery work. He warned Ye Ming that there were a lot of other goods waiting to be delivered, so don't dilly-dally outside.

The scolding left Ye Ming in a bad mood, but the work would not do itself. He still had to rely on his current identity to achieve his secret goal. This time, Ye Ming completed his task pretty quickly – because he made use of the {Blood Demon Body Technique}. With his speed doubled, of course he was quick.

The boss was very satisfied with his performance this time and asked him to do a few more delivery jobs. The work kept Ye Ming busy until the middle of the night. When Ye Ming could finally return to his room, he started refining the Blood Essenses he had obtained today. After spending half a night doing that, Ye Ming's power increased further.

Having successfully used {Stealth} to sneak around Countess Sophie's castle, Ye Ming had now gotten an even bolder idea -- he did not actually have to wait for the right opportunity to sneak into a castle because he could just use {Stealth}.

And so, during daytime on the next day, Ye Ming took the opportunity to go to Count Kagal's castle during one of his delivery duties for a human customer. There, he slipped into a quiet alley, looked around to make sure no one saw him, then activated {Stealth}. By the time he came out of the alley, no one could detect him anymore, so he used his flying skill to fly over the wall into Count Kagal's castle.

Most of the Vampires here should be asleep during the day. Only a small portion of them would be huddling inside the castle on sentry duty.

And most of the Vampires on duty were not strong enough to threaten Ye Ming. And thus, the place became Ye Ming's personal backyard. He could run around as he pleased without being bothered by anyone.

In Count Kagal's castle, Ye Ming found a total of one silver treasure chest and two golden treasure chests, from which he obtained another vial of Viscount Blood Essense. With these spoils in his possession, Ye Ming left the Count's castle without anyone the wiser.

Outside, he went back to the alley from before. His figure came into view once more, and he swaggered out of the alley back to the trading house.

That night, Ye Ming refined his newly-obtained Viscount Blood Essense, strengthening his body a little more.

The next day, Ye Ming used the same method to infiltrate the castle of Count Angelo in the northern district. Count Angelo's castle was slightly smaller than the castles of the other Count. Ye Ming assumed Count Angelo must be the weakest among all the Counts in this city. Why else would his castle be the smallest otherwise?

At the Count's bedchamber on the third floor, Ye Ming saw a Blood Coffin. Based on the size and quality of the Blood Coffin, Ye Ming deduced that the one sleeping inside must be Count Angelo himself. He dared not alert the Count, so he only searched around the Blood Coffin. Ye Ming found a golden treasure chest in front of the fireplace, which also contained a Viscount Blood Essence.

After putting it away, he quietly left the Count's bedchamber and continued his search in other parts of the castle. Unfortunately, even after going through the whole place, he could not find any other treasure chests.

"Broke a$$ Count. Just one single chest," grumbled Ye Ming while he left the castle.

When he got back to the trading house, the boss, who was inside doing the accounts, looked up from his work and reprimanded Ye Ming. "There you are. What were you doing out there? In the last two days, why was there always a certain stretch of time when you'd take extra long to make deliveries?"

Seeing that the boss had noticed the anomaly, Ye Ming could only smile and explain, "It's not my fault, boss. You're the one who told me that we must always treat our customers with enthusiasm. Some of the customers will occasionally ask me to help them do something outside the delivery itself. How can I refuse? Yes, it'll take up some of my time, but helping them will also enhance the reputation of our trading house. I can save time by refusing, of course, but it'll cause dissatisfaction among the customers. If a customer is disappointed in our trading house, they might not come here any more. What should I have done?"

"Can't you just refuse politely? If what they ask you to do is simple, then of course you should help, but if the task looks like it'll take a long time, you should just firmly but politely refuse. Don't be so foolish and let people take advantage of you."

Ye Ming put on a dumb act and shook his head. "But if I don't do it first, how do I know if a task will take a long time?"

The boss pointed right at Ye Ming's nose and scolded, "You, you're so stupid. Do you actually need me to teach you this? Fine, whatever, hurry up and deliver these. This is the address." The boss handed the two items sitting on the counter to Ye Ming and gave him a small slip of paper containing the address of the recipient.

Ye Ming took the note and saw that the address written on it was not that far. He quickly left with the merchandise.

He had not gone far from the trading house when he overheard a casual conversation.

"Today's blood collection day, Chris. Are you prepared?"

"There's nothing to prepare. I just have to roll up my sleeve and let them draw my blood. It only happens once a month anyway, so I just treat it as having a period."

"I'd like to see you having a period."

"F*ck off. Go home and look at your own wife's period."

The two bystanders were just joking around, but their words alarmed Ye Ming greatly. 'What should I do when the Vampires come and collect blood? My body is still a Vampire's body. When they draw my blood, I'll be exposed for sure. But if I don't let them draw, I'll arouse suspicion as well. Ugh, there's no good solution to this. Looks like even my stay in Benguela is coming to an end."

Ye Ming hastened his steps. He had to make sure he left the city before those responsible for drawing blood find him.

After delivering the merchandise to the designated address, Ye Ming hurried back to the trading house. He had some things there that he had to pick up.

Back at the trading house, Ye Ming gave a random excuse to go to the back garden where his room was. He had just finished organizing his things and was about to head out when the boss grabbed him and said, "Don't go out now. It's time to queue up for the blood collection."

"B...Blood collection?"

"Yeah. It won't take long." The boss led Ye Ming to the street outside. The sky was already dark by now. The entire street was filled with humans waiting in line to have their blood drawn.

The boss made Ye Ming stand behind him. One by one, the people there rolled up their sleeves in preparation to offer up their blood.

"Next," shouted the Vampire in charge of collecting blood at the front of the line.

The line marched forward little by little. Before long, Ye Ming saw that there were only four or five people ahead of him now. 'It's now or never. I have to find a chance to leave.'

He quickly said to the boss, "Boss, my stomach hurts. Reserve the spot for me, please. I have to go use the toilet."

Seeing the look of agony on Ye Ming's face, the boss fell for his act. "Okay, but hurry up. Don't let the Vampire lords wait too long."

"I know, I know."

Ye Ming immediately rushed into an alley holding his stomach. He activated {Stealth} and disappeared into the night.

But instead of going towards the city gate, Ye Ming actually went straight to the center of the city. He wanted to do something big before leaving Benguela – he wanted to visit Marquis Ollier's castle.