The call was from Ren Songfei. Chen Xiao offered Song Anran an apologetic smile, "Sorry, I have to take this call first."
"Go ahead, I'm not stopping you," Song Anran muttered, clearly displeased.
Chen Xiao paid no mind to her mood and answered the phone.
"What's up, Old Ren? Why are you calling me? Did something happen..."
There was no response from the other end, only the sound of whistling wind.
"Where's all this wind coming from? Old Ren, where are you?"
Chen Xiao couldn't help but frown. Ren Songfei should be escorting Edward right now.
"I'm on the rooftop..."
Amidst the wind, someone finally spoke. It wasn't Ren Songfei, though. The voice was clearly Edward's.
"Oh? Which rooftop are you on?" Chen Xiao asked, narrowing his eyes. He didn't bother asking what Edward had done to Ren Songfei.
"Heh, I'm on the rooftop right above you, little guy. Want to come up and play for a while?" Edward's mocking voice came through.
"Very well, wait for me. I'll be right there." Chen Xiao sneered and hung up.
"You're leaving already?" Song Anran, having overheard Chen Xiao's call, knew he was going.
"Yeah." Chen Xiao nodded, offering no explanation, and walked towards the window.
Song Anran pointed towards the door, "The door is this way!"
"It's faster to go this way!" Chen Xiao opened the window and leaped out directly. Song Anran rushed to the window in alarm.
Looking down, Chen Xiao was nowhere to be seen. Looking up, she saw him stepping on the air conditioning unit by the window. With a few agile movements, he was already nearing the rooftop.
Song Anran let out a wry smile, "What kind of monster is the man I like!"
On the rooftop, Ren Songfei knelt at Edward's feet like a fawning dog. Chen Xiao wasn't surprised that Edward had escaped. After all, he was a Duke of the Fragula clan, and the eight-lock formation might not have been enough to hold him. However, Ren Songfei's lack of backbone was unexpected.
Just as he was about to curse, Chen Xiao remembered that Ren Songfei might have been controlled by Edward.
"Little guy, I didn't expect you to be able to do this." Edward looked at Chen Xiao with amusement. "How did you know our Fragula clan is sensitive to cilantro?"
Chen Xiao said coldly, "I don't like being called 'little guy', even if you might be hundreds of years old!"
"Heh, you're mistaken. Just last month, I celebrated my 1,118th birthday." Edward laughed heartily, his entire body glowing white under the sun.
Chen Xiao said indifferently, "Coincidentally, we have an old saying in China: 'A thousand years for a turtle, ten thousand years for a tortoise'..."
"Bastard!" Edward's smile vanished. "Do you think I don't know that 'turtle' is an insult in China?"
Chen Xiao smirked, "You're mistaken again. I'm not insulting you; I'm cursing you, you old turtle, you bloodsucker!"
"You rude bastard! I thought you had some skill and wanted to convert you. Now, it seems you've truly disappointed me. I'm going to crush your head, bit by bit!"
Under the sunlight, Edward's fingernails grew long and sharp. Purple-black veins bulged on his face, and he bared his teeth, revealing eight sharp fangs.
"Eight fangs? It seems you're not much stronger than Ava or Schmidt..." Chen Xiao casually counted Edward's fangs.
"You bastard, how many more vampire secrets do you know?" Edward's eyes were filled with surprise that Chen Xiao could discern vampire ranks by the number of fangs.
Chen Xiao thought for a moment and then replied, "That's all."
"That's enough to get you killed a hundred times over. Prepare to die, bastard!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Edward's body left a blur in the air. In an instant, he was in front of Chen Xiao, reaching out to grab his neck. Edward's razor-sharp black nails were about to tear through Chen Xiao's throat.
At the last moment, Chen Xiao grabbed Edward's hands and forcefully bent them! More than half of Edward's sharp nails were snapped off by Chen Xiao's action.
"Aaaargh!" A roar echoed across the rooftop.
Edward's speed and strength were far greater than Ava's, but in front of Chen Xiao, he was still lacking. After his nails were broken, he quickly retreated, looking at Chen Xiao in disbelief. "You, you, how are you so fast? What exactly are you?"
He was shocked. Even werewolves, the natural enemies of vampires, didn't possess such speed as Chen Xiao.
"Heh, since you dare to invade China, you must have heard of cultivators, right?" Chen Xiao asked mockingly.
"Cultivators? You're a cultivator?" Edward's eyes showed shock and fear. Before he left, his family elders had warned him not to provoke cultivators in China, calling them reclusive monsters with unfathomable strength. But why would such powerful cultivators, who usually hid in the mountains and lived in seclusion, be encountered in the city?
Chen Xiao disdained to answer his question. With a flash, he appeared before Edward and threw a punch...
*Bang!*
Edward felt dizzy, seeing stars. He swore that even a speeding train didn't have the power of this punch!
"You despicable bloodsucker, daring to cause trouble in my China! If I don't beat you until a thousand trees bloom with peach blossoms, you won't know why the flowers are red!"
Chen Xiao rained down punches, quickly unlocking a new achievement: he had beaten a vampire until his head was bloody. Edward was both terrified and enraged. Since becoming a vampire, he had never been beaten until his head bled. He had even thought that vampires couldn't bleed...
"Didn't you want to play? How is it, are you having fun?" Chen Xiao became more frenzied with each punch. The feeling of flesh hitting flesh made him so exhilarated that his hair stood on end.
However, at that moment, a blue light flashed in Edward's eyes... Chen Xiao's mind went blank, and he lost consciousness.
"Damn it, I almost capsized in the gutter..." Edward finally breathed a sigh of relief. Then, he looked at Chen Xiao with rage and roared hysterically.
"You filthy Chinese person, daring to beat me, a noble Fragula Duke! I will make you pay a terrible price!" Edward spat, venting his fury! Even though he knew perfectly well that Chen Xiao couldn't hear his shouts...