Dracula wasn't something Qin Ming feared in a straight-up fight.
Dracula fought desperately, and Qin Ming wasn't afraid either.
But if the opponent insisted on running away, Qin Ming was helpless.
After all, once turning into blood mist to escape, as long as part of the body got away, he could survive—who could catch that? Especially when the other party could fly.
So, the moment Qin Ming saw the blood mist shoot straight into the sky, his expression instantly darkened as the duck he was about to catch was slipping away.
But besides desperately spraying flames, he had no other options.
Count Dracula rocketed up at lightning speed. Seeing that Qin Ming didn't follow him into the air, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
If the guy below could freeze blood, spit out high-temperature flames, grow wings to fly, and even fly faster than himself, then Dracula might seriously start to suspect that this human was some kind of artificially engineered monster, specifically designed to counter the vampire clan.
After all, wild creatures don't naturally have countermeasures everywhere against themselves! Evolution that targeted so specifically?
Transforming into blood mist and soaring swiftly, Dracula quickly left Qin Ming behind and rose high into the sky.
This absurd speed made Qin Ming grit his teeth. He had just taken out his flight backpack from his back, but in frustration, he slammed it hard onto the ground.
Before Dracula could successfully create distance and, as usual, stop his escape to throw out some noble trash talk, his moving body suddenly trembled.
The next moment, the countless blood droplets shooting skyward were directly intercepted.
With the blood halted mid-air, a faint, transparent arc shape began to form.
Dracula's head slammed into the barrier, and his expression changed drastically. As he reformed into humanoid shape, he hurriedly looked down.
What he saw was a circle of yellow talismans on the castle rooftop, glowing faintly, appearing seemingly out of nowhere.
Inside this ring of talismans stood a female Taoist priest, hands forming mystical seals, eyes closed and motionless.
Waves of energy continuously radiated from the formation beneath her feet.
A Taoist formation! A demon-sealing array!
Qin Ming was indeed good at fighting but not at chasing or hunting down enemies.
That didn't mean no one on site was skilled at tracking or sealing.
At some unknown point, Zhao Honghua had already set up the formation and activated the talismans, forcibly locking down the space above the castle, forming a semicircular sealed barrier!
Seeing this, Dracula's face turned deathly pale. He screamed and immediately transformed into blood mist, rushing down at high speed toward Zhao Honghua—more precisely, the formation beneath her.
If the array wasn't broken, given Qin Ming's suppression ability, Dracula was doomed to die here.
"Ah! You stinky woman!!!"
With a piercing scream, Dracula completely lost his former gentlemanly composure. Instead, he became terrifyingly ferocious and began cursing loudly on the spot.
As the blood mist descended from above, Kisanamoto Eri and Angel, who had been protecting Zhao Honghua and assisting with the formation, rushed up to intercept.
But facing Kisanamoto Eri's machine gun barrage, the blood mist neither dodged nor flinched.
He didn't need to—transformed into blood mist, he was completely immune to purely piercing physical attacks like that.
A hail of bullets blasted through the mist without leaving a trace of damage.
Angel, charging behind, threw a punch with decent force. Accompanied by an explosion, the blood mist was blasted open to reveal a circular gap.
But such purely physical attacks still couldn't harm Dracula in the slightest.
The blood mist surged and streamed directly through Angel and Kisanamoto Eri, ignoring them, rushing toward Zhao Honghua in the back.
"Die!!!"
A roar erupted again, and within the swirling blood mist, a grotesque face slowly took shape.
Count Dracula, reforming into humanoid form, charged fiercely at Zhao Honghua, his blood-red maw aiming straight for her face.
Hearing the rush of wind, Zhao Honghua remained perfectly still, hands pressed together forming mystical seals, eyes closed, showing no intention of breaking the formation.
Seeing this, Dracula, who had already condensed half his body, grew even more furious and, without hesitation, slammed himself hard into the barrier.
Then...
Shreeee!
"Ahhhhhhh!"
A piercing scream rang out as Dracula suddenly shrieked and wildly retreated, turning back into blood mist.
Ahead of him, a towering figure had somehow appeared between the two.
Qin Ming, his whole body still burning with fierce white flames, stood rigidly in front of Zhao Honghua, expression stern, not moving, not even launching an attack.
The reason Dracula screamed wasn't because Qin Ming had struck him, but because, in his blood mist form, he had collided headfirst into Qin Ming's body.
Though blood mist form is nearly immune to physical attacks, it comes with a price.
Against intense heat, this form was utterly defenseless—any contact meant damage.
As Dracula desperately retreated and reformed into humanoid shape, his body showed extensive burn marks.
His blood supply was severely depleted; no more blood remained to help heal his injuries.
Seeing Dracula appear, Qin Ming cracked a grin, twisted his neck forcefully, and strode forward.
Seeing this, Dracula panicked, stepping backward while frantically waving his hands.
"Wait! Wait, friend! We're equally strong! From the same source! Why do we have to fight to the death? Can't we live peacefully? I can even help you transform into a blood clan member! With your abilities, your bloodline level would definitely be very high!"
Realizing he truly couldn't win and couldn't escape, Dracula finally backed down.
His words caused Qin Ming to pause mid-step.
He looked down at the blood swirling around his palm, then glanced up at Dracula opposite him.
After a moment of silence, Qin Ming suddenly cracked a fierce, twisted smile.
"No need, I'll take it myself."
"What?"
Boom!
Dracula, caught off guard by Qin Ming's words, froze—but Qin Ming gave him no chance to figure it out.
Opening his mouth wide, a pillar of fire erupted, instantly engulfing Dracula.
Screaming in agony, Dracula, his body ablaze, turned to flee again.
As he fled, he reverted to blood mist, shedding layers of ignited blood droplets.
Though vampires couldn't withstand fire, they did have certain means of fighting flames.
One such method was a sort of shedding, like molting.
But the problem was this method was only for survival, protecting oneself temporarily, not a true counter to fire.
It also drastically depleted blood—a last-ditch emergency tactic.
Discarding part of his blood, Dracula shrank in size again and frantically collided with the surrounding blood pools.
When he realized he couldn't extract any blood from the now-frozen pools, he wildly charged at Angel and Kasamoto Eri.
His reflexes were quick, but his choice of targets was poor.
Seeing him rushing, Kasamoto Eri immediately pulled two grenades from her chest, running forward to confront him.
Frightened, Dracula quickly changed targets and slammed hard into Angel.
Then, the vampire count Dracula discovered in terror—this woman's flesh and blood were as hard as stone! Densely packed and incredibly tough! He couldn't suck her blood at all!!!
(End of chapter)