Blood Magic Failure

Vivian was persistent. She squeezed out another drop of flesh blood and applied it onto the back of Hao Ren’s hand. Lily joined them curiously as they fixed their eyes on the drop of blood expectantly.

The blood emanated a golden red halo as it wriggled on the surface of the skin for a few seconds before collapsing quickly on its own and disappearing before their eyes.

"It looks like its being absorbed." Hao Ren flinched and scratched the back of his hand. He was shocked as the blood on his hand had come to life. He managed not to shake it off, knowing that Vivian, the vampire would not harm him. "I felt nothing—just a little itchy and cool sensation in the beginning."

"That’s normal because the body temperature of one from the Blood Clan is a few degrees lower than a human’s." Vivian looked at her finger. The tiny bite wound had already healed itself. She was hesitant for a moment after which, she took another bite and squeezed out another drop of blood. "Let’s try this once last time then, I’ll need to conserve my precious life fluid."

"C’mon, it’s just a teeny-tiny drop of blood," Lily, as mischievous as ever, seized the opportunity to mock her.

"A drop of blood is still blood!" Vivian hit back. "Back in the days when I was not yet adapted to human food, I fed on fresh blood. I was always being watched by monster hunters while I was out for blood. I was so broke and couldn’t even afford to keep a blood slave—I even had to save my vital fluid during that time of the month just to make ends meet. You have no idea how the seamy side of life is unless you’ve lived it..."

Hao Ren could not take it anymore. He butt in before things got out of hand. "Alright, alright, we can picture it in our brains. Stop wailing about your miserable past so openly. You might expose my weaknesses..."

"Landlord, how about waiving a month’s rental for me?" Lily jested.

"...I was talking to Vivian, mind you."

Amid the brouhaha, Vivian tested her blood on Hao Ren again, murmuring some ancient incantations. Hao Ren felt the chill and stink of blood again. The blood wriggled for a moment on his skin before disappearing just like before.

"The connection’s lost." Vivian frowned. "This has never happened before. The Blood Clan have have a live link with their blood, sort of like a communication link. The link stays connected as long as the blood isn’t actively cast away."

"Then what?" Hao Ren scratched his face. "Can I still count on you?" he asked.

"Maybe we should try Lily’s blood?" Vivian’s eyebrows waggled as she turned her eyes on Lily. "Her blood may work."

"A werewolf’s blood?" Lily was surprised by the suggestion. "I didn’t know that my blood could be of use."

"No, I mean haven’t you heard the Chinese saying, ‘A black dog’s blood can break the power of evil spells’?"

The two super girls were at it again, fighting like cats and dogs. Meanwhile, Hao Ren looked on with no intention to break up the fight. He only said, "You break it, you pay for it." He was referring to the things in the house and his old table.

Those six words did wonders; the ruckus stopped.

Hao Ren looked at his hands—they were no different from any other hands. He was curious as to how the vampire’s blood could be absorbed by his skin. The outcome was unlike any magical power depicted in the vampire movies. It seemed like it could not even be compared to human blood. Of course, movies were not the right places to dig if one wanted the truth but, as far as the Blood Clan was concerned, the magical power was as real as it got. At the very least, human blood would normally never come to life and wriggle on its own.

"The Blood Clan’s mark is not working in this case." Vivian looked at Hao Ren as if she had more tricks up her sleeve. "You’ve got to trust me this time. Be ready for the magic of Blood Clan— without blood as a medium!"

"Show me what you’ve got." Hao Ren giggled.

"You’re quite a nice guy," Vivian flipped her hand open as she rattled on. "Most humans were not as compliant as you are unless they were simpletons. When I was in Europe 300 years ago, people over there would rather die than give in to my blood magic. They were such pig-heads!"

Hao Ren muttered as he wondered whether Vivian had forgotten how vampires terrorized humans with their magic.

Vivian signaled Hao Ren to sit still while she drew something in the air with her finger. Hao Ren gaped because for the first time ever, he was about to witness true magic. He was amazed at the sight of her finger moving swiftly and forming a bloody-red trail of light. She wrote row after row of strange, illegible words; she would wipe off what she had written before continuing on to the next row. As she was doing that, Hao Ren suddenly became skeptical. He found that her so-called magic of the Blood Clan was nothing more than a text memorizing gimmick. He did not feel any magical power apart from the eye-catching special effects.

Her finger moved faster as she wrote. She kept wiping off the sentence before starting the next one, again and again, it went on. Hao Ren was cheesed off and could not hold back. "Are you done yet?"

"Wait a minute, that one isn’t right. I have to rewrite it..."

Hao Ren was speechless.

Only then, it began to sink in. The reason behind her repetitive writing and wiping was simply because she was making mistakes!

"That’s not right either," Vivian had not noticed that Hao Ren was already annoyed. She kept on writing for a while before shaking her head. Then she said, "It couldn’t possibly be a mistake. I have revised the sentence three times in three different structures... Landlord, do you feel drowsy, peaceful or relaxed?"

"There is a peaceful feeling in my heart but, I guess your magic has got nothing to do with it."

"You, the big dog over there…" Vivian turned to Lily. "Freeze."

Vivian waved her hand and the bloody-red trails of words were transformed into a cloud of fog. Lily fell, snoring on the table as the fog engulfed her.

"...That was intense. Her defense is rather weak," Vivian frowned again as she spoke to Hao Ren. "I have no idea why my blood magic doesn’t work on you."

Hao Ren was wide-eyed. He stared at his own hands in disbelief. "Am I something I don’t know? Am I immune against magic by default?"

"Yeah, I guess so because your nerves are damaged and you’re a slowpoke."

"Hey, mind you, you still owe me some money."

"Jokes aside, immunity against magic isn’t possible as far as I know. I’m sensitive to all living things and I can sense that you’re definitely just a normal human being. You weren’t even immune against the chill I created! You may get your answer from Raven 12345 when you see her. Anyway, as far as your agreement with her goes, I sense that there is something fishy going on. There could be changes by the time you return. Until then, you shall use my amulet."

After all the commotion, things were back to square one as blood magic was nothing more than a juggling act. All he had was a piece of amulet—the Eight Trigrams, which was a mystic tablet Vivian claimed to have originated from Mount Wutai...

Vivian gave the Eight Trigrams to Hao Ren; it was one of the amulets in her vast collection of mystic items. Her concern for him had touched his heart.

However, did the Eight Trigrams work?