Beneath the headquarters of the BHA, all of the core members were gathered in a meeting room.
Du Jue sat at the head seat. There was a screen behind him that was currently displaying the livestream of an operation.
No one in the room dared to even breathe too loudly, as their gazes remained fixed to the screen. But soon, disappointment appeared on their faces.
Zzzt...
“...Mr Du, the operation was a failure.” The person in the operating room reported. A dark expression on his face, Du Jue made a sound of acknowledgement in reply.“Team Leader, should we just give up on the experiments... Those people have been investigating recently...” If they were found out to be conducting these kinds of experiments, they’d definitely be disposed of in secret.
“There’s no way we can get the results we want from normal vampires, and there’s no way for us to catch Pure Bloods. Team Leader, I’m in favour of abandoning the project for now.”
“All of you, get out.” Du Jue didn’t reply, instead chasing them all out.
“Team Leader, there’s someone here asking to see you.” Someone who had just left doubled back to inform him.
“See me? Who is it?”
“Dunno, but he looks pretty young.”
Du Jue frowned. ‘If they could find their way here...’“I got it.” Du Jue stood up and walked out. He pushed open the door to the guest’s lounge and, upon seeing the man seated on the leather sofa, a queer glint flashed in his eyes.
Having heard the sound of the door opening, the man lifted his head slightly, a smile on his feminine features. “Mr Du, what do you think of my proposal?”
Du Jue pushed up his glasses. “Why did you come to me?”
He had met this man when leaving the vampiric territories, but had also known him from before.
It was Sikong Sa, a student of Rose Academy.
This man had been the one to offer him information on Mi Nai.
But Du Jue would never have expected him to be a vampire.
‘And he hid it so well I couldn’t even discern it!’
“Because Mr Du has the ability to do so.” Sikong Sa remained unflustered. “I can offer you research material, which I’m sure you badly need. Isn’t that right, Mr Du?”
Thinking of the failed operation, Du Jue couldn’t help but feel a bit tempted. If he could get a hold of a Pure Blood...
“What do you want me to do?” Du Jue decided that as long as the conditions weren’t excessive, he might as well accept the offer.
“Don’t worry, Mr Du. I just need you to help me with something trivial. Just a minor operation.”
Du Jue’s gaze swept over Sikong Sa. He hummed for a moment before speaking, “I’ll consider it.”
“Then I await the good news, Mr Du.”
......
But Sikong Sa never got Du Jue’s reply, only receiving word that the headquarters of the BHA had been bombed.
Du Jue fell into a deep coma and was in danger of losing his life at any moment.
Fortunately, there weren’t many important members present that day. But while they were clearing out the rubble, they discovered the secret laboratory that was constructed beneath the building. And to their shock and horror, the vampire hunters discovered that Du Jue had been doing experiments on humans and vampires. These experiments had been strictly prohibited.
The BHA began a serious investigation into the matter. Everyone involved was arrested.
Because there were vampires who were part of the BHA, the first thing they did upon receiving the news was to inform their own kind.
The vampires wanted the vampire hunters to give them an explanation. Because it was the humans doing the experiments, and vampires were the victims, the vampire hunters had no way to defend themselves.
But how were they supposed to explain this? The main perpetrator was still unconscious! They could only try to pacify the volatile emotions of the vampires.
But how could such a thing be smoothed over so easily? The two sides soon broke out into fighting.
And the instigator behind this whole affair, Shi Sheng, also stealthily made things harder for the vampire hunters. Before long, the BHA was no more.
Their rules were now also nullified.
After a century of peace, the curtains once again lifted for war between the vampires and vampire hunters, causing the number of deaths worldwide to spike upwards.
The government’s special ops team got involved and tried to mediate a ceasefire between the two sides. But once they had a look at the evidence the vampires tossed in front of them, they felt somewhat at a loss for words.
Having their own kind being treated like this, it’d be stranger if the vampires weren’t so mad.
This matter became much trickier.
The special ops team requested for an audience with the Vampire Queen. Unexpectedly, they were informed that even the vampires hadn’t seen their ruler in ages and, if they wanted to see her, they’d have to go look for her themselves.
In the end, the special ops team could only negotiate for the vampires to leave normal humans alone.
......
When Shi Sheng and Xi Yin returned to the territories, it felt emptier than before. Most of the vampires had probably left to battle or feed.
When the castle steward caught sight of Shi Sheng on her return, he felt so happy he could cry.
“My Queen, you’re finally back! Lord Xi Yin.” Noticing Xi Yin, who was behind Shi Sheng, the steward immediately lowered his head.
“En.” Shi Sheng walked inside. “What is it?”
“The vampires and—”
“I know about this. No need to tell me.” Shi Sheng interrupted the steward.
He blanked out for a moment before remembering that his Queen and Lord Xi Yin had returned from outside the territories, so they must’ve already known about this.
“Tell me about other news.”
“Yes.”
The steward told Shi Sheng every major thing that happened since she left the territories.
She had never taken back the authority of the various Princes, so they were able to deal with matters very well while she was gone. What was out of Shi Sheng’s expectations was that some of the Princes had actually transferred their power to someone else.
And the person they’d transferred their authority to was none other than the Holy Maiden Ai Wei.
‘Since when did Ai Wei have such brains?’
Hence when evening came, someone arrived to request that she go and see Ai Wei. Yes, they wanted to request that their Queen go see the Holy Maiden.
‘Well, aren’t you feeling all high and mighty? In the short time I’ve been gone, you’ve already usurped my position?’
“Please be punctual tonight, Your—”
The messenger hadn’t finished before Shi Sheng picked up a flower vase on the table and threw it at him. “Just because I’m not governing, you don’t know the rules anymore?”
The man received the full brunt of the blow. Although it wasn’t very painful, he was still scared into shakily getting down to his knees. “Your Majesty, please do not be angry. I was just following orders.”
“What a nice ‘just following orders’!” Shi Sheng smiled coldly. “Go tell Ai Wei that if she wants to see me, she can damn well get her ass over here! Now scram!”
“Yes...” The messenger scrambled to his feet and buggered off.
Because Shi Sheng didn’t bother about them, they trusted Ai Wei more.
Had it not been for Xi Yin, Ai Wei would have been Queen. Hence, the number of vampires who were dissatisfied wasn’t small.
These past few days, Ai Wei had gotten used to people obeying her every whim. Adding on Fei Qi’s assistance, the feeling of being superior made her forget she wasn’t the Queen.
Only when Ai Wei heard the message relayed to her did she remember—that woman was the Vampire Queen.
But seeing as how she now held most of the authority, Ai Wei didn’t fear that woman much.
Ai Wei got dressed up and went to the castle with a handsome man to see Shi Sheng.
The steward welcomed her in. Neither his attitude nor manners could be faulted, but she didn’t see any signs of Shi Sheng.
“Mi— the Queen?” Ai Wei examined the surroundings without finding the person she was looking for and couldn’t help but furrow her brow.
The steward respectfully stood to the side and responded mildly, “Please wait a moment, Holy Maiden.”
Ai Wei looked at the man beside her. He gave her a slight smile to tell her to not display impatience.
This wait lasted several hours, but the steward merely continued telling them to wait a moment every time she asked.
Ai Wei was inwardly stabbing a little voodoo doll of Shi Sheng. ‘That woman dares to play me for a fool!’
