Chapter 29: Is that a Farm?

Touching the inner wall of the cave, he found out that the marks were giving off very faint blood-qi signatures. It was so low in fact, he didn’t perceive it before touching the walls. This, combined with the fact that he couldn’t sense anything, suggested that it had something to do with vampires.

It was also possible that some natural phenomena had occurred, but the presence of blood-qi suggested otherwise. It was most likely done by unnatural means. Looking at the complicated runes carved into the walls, he had a guess that it was related to that discipline.

‘I know nothing about blood ritualists, so I can’t draw any conclusions yet. I need to investigate properly and gather more information.’ Keith thought to himself.

“Are we going to enter the cave?” The leader asked.

“Yes. Gather five of your strongest men and let the others guard the entrance.” Keith said.

Five vampires gathered along with the leader, standing behind Keith. He was inspecting the cave before diving in. When everyone gathered, Keith picked up a heavy stone and dropped it inside the cave. After a split second, a loud bang was heard.

“It’s not too deep. I will count to three, everyone will jump at the same time, understood?” Keith said.

Everyone nodded their heads.

“Three.. two… one… Jump” Keith moved one foot forward and plunged into the darkness. Everyone else followed his lead.

*BAM*

A small crater formed as Keith landed on the cave floor. Looking around, he couldn’t see anything. He could only sense his body because of the flowing blood-qi. Several loud bangs resounded as the other six dropped to the ground.

“Where is this place?”

“Why can’t I see anything?”

Two of them looked around warily. Keith could see others just fine, but everything else was shrouded in darkness.

“Listen to me carefully. This cave is probably related to a blood ritual. I think that is the reason, the darkness is prevalent here. I can’t use my blood-qi to see outside the 5-meter range. Just follow me and don’t look anywhere else.” Keith said as he walked forward.

The seven silhouettes moved in the pitch-black darkness and entered deeper into the cave. There was no sign of any movement and life signatures. There was not even an echo of their voices that really sent a chill down their spine. The absolute silence creeped them out to no end.

As they ventured deep inside the cave, lith finally sensed a faint blood-qi fluctuation. He hastened his pace and arrived at a large space. It was over a hundred meters wide and the ceiling was forty meters high. As he scanned the space, he found some disturbing things.

“What are those?” The leader asked as he pointed his fingers towards hundreds of faintly glowing red balls on the walls.

Everyone looked at the walls and spotted the weird-looking red balls. There was something inside the balls that could be seen through the transparent membrane.

“I think those are ghouls.” Keith declared his findings as he clenched his fists.

“Ghouls! How can they be reproduced like this? Doesn’t it require a lot of..” One of the vampires spoke.

“Yes… I think we found our missing humans.” Keith said in a grave voice.

“We should inform the count about this immediately. This is a serious threat to our vampire settlement.” The leader spoke out, gnashing his teeth.

“Oh, we will, definitely. But for now, we have to see what else is in store for us.”

Keith moved towards the red glowing balls that looked like cocoons. Upon arriving before them, he noticed a complicated symbol was carved into the membrane. It was also connected to the wall and each of these connected lines joined together in the center of the ceiling.

A large mesh of runes was carved into the ceiling that was more condensed than the surrounding walls. Keith looked at the intricately designed runes that could be seen with the dim lights coming off from the red cocoons. He looked down and saw that someone was touching the red cocoons with his hand.

“Keep your hands away! The whole cave is covered with ritual signs.” Keith pushed him back.

But something was already happening to the blood cocoon as it pulsed loudly. He stood in front of it and monitored the red ball. While inspecting the cocoon with his blood-qi, he noticed the ritual signs were getting brighter, and the blood-qi within them was increasing.

‘What is happening?’ Keith pondered.

The runes lit up and so did the lines connecting all the cocoons. The lit-up runes traversed the whole cave and crawled up to the ceiling. An ominous feeling came over him as he looked at the center rune on the ceiling.

*Whoosh*

When the illuminated runes connected at the center of the ceiling, a red mist spread around the cave. The red cocoons were not moving much except for the one that was touched.

[ Corrupted blood-qi detected. ]

‘Fuck! Not now when I am almost full.’ Keith cursed as he saw the notification.

Looking at the others, who were visibly pale, by the corrupted blood-qi. The leader was the only one who was holding his ground and didn’t look that worn out. As for the others, they were losing their minds as the corrupt blood-qi entered their body.

Keith focused his mind on the purple mark to contain the blood-qi purification and absorption as blood essence. This was a great place for leveling up, but right now it was the worst time. He was filled to the brim with blood essence, and getting anymore will cause a blood-qi eruption.

He dug a hole below him and tossed the bulky man inside it. Then he jumped inside and closed the opening. The blood-qi concentration surrounding them was not gone, but it lessened quite a bit.

“What was that?” The leader asked with a bloodshot face looking at Keith.

“Beats me. I am as clueless as you are. But one thing is for sure, someone intentionally put the trap here to lure us in. My guess is their intention was to turn all the vampires into ghouls by exposing them to the corrupted blood-qi.”

He also knew that it was easy for high-ranking vampires to deflect the corrupted blood-qi. Only low-level vampires will fall for it as they don’t have the means to protect against foreign blood-qi. Especially those that are below baron level. As for Keith, he didn’t learn any blood-qi techniques and the absorption was mainly because of the system.