What It s Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 612: Chapter 612: The Farmer and the Burly Man

After Mr. Liang had eaten the “last hamburger” and left Australia with Xiang Kun to return to East Asia, he instinctively had a different expectation of the “last station” mentioned by Xiang Kun.

Throughout the “Hunting Trip” with Xiang Kun, many of the “Blood-eating Creatures” they encountered possessed formidable fighting power. If he were to face them alone, ignoring the hardest part of locating and confirming the creatures’ whereabouts, he could probably handle it if he had the appropriate “Biological Components”. Regardless, it would still be a challenging endeavor—for instance, he could not have disposed of that water-based behemoth as easily as Xiang Kun had.

According to his current evolutionary stage, the “Blood-eating Creature” that matches his “Blood Source” shouldn’t be much lower in transformation degree than he is. It must be a very powerful entity. This time, he felt that it may not be as easy for Xiang Kun to handle, and he might have a chance to engage in a swift battle.

“The last station” might also represent “the last battle”.

When Mr. Liang and Xiang Kun took the vehicles arranged by “Divine Technology” to the mountainous area on the China-Kazakhstan border, walked for more than ten kilometers and stopped, Mr. Liang thought they had found the location of the “Blood-eating Creature”. He voluntarily asked, “What sort of characteristics does our target have? Do I need to assist? Should I prepare ‘Biological Components’ in advance?”

Xiang Kun looked over at Mr. Liang, who was invisible, and said: “No need to worry, it will be easy this time.”

Mr. Liang was surprised. They had come this far, and yet dealing with a “Blood-eating Creature” of this level was still going to be easy?

If it was a “Blood-eating Creature” that hadn’t undergone phase transformation or only had one or two phase transformations, some might be because of good luck, others might be due to targeted mutations and transformations, fully countered by Xiang Kun’s characteristics, thus not as powerful. But those reaching a phase transformation level similar to his must have killed countless highly-transformed “Blood-eating Creatures”.

According to his previous rating system for “Blood-eating Creatures”, this target, his ultimate “Blood Source”, must be a “High-level Predator” or even a “Top-level Predator”.

Could Xiang Kun still be “relaxed” in the face of such a creature?

Or for Xiang Kun, was it “easy” to stir up stormy weather, control the climate, and summon a lightning storm to sweep the earth?

Mr. Liang couldn’t help but feel a sense of wonder. At first, he wanted to truly test Xiang Kun and see if he should help him follow his own path of mutation evolution. But now, it seemed like a joke… the path Xiang Kun was following was far more extensive than his. Even many of his abilities were beyond his comprehension.

Seeing that Xiang Kun had found a rock to sit on and was looking at something on a tablet provided by the secret department of “Divine Technology”, Mr. Liang asked in confusion, “Has the location of the ‘Blood-eating Creature’ not been confirmed?”

“No, we’ll just wait here for a while,” Xiang Kun said, without elaborating further.

Mr. Liang didn’t question further. He found a spot and sat down. After a few minutes, seeing that Xiang Kun still wasn’t preparing to leave, he asked, “I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“Normally speaking, according to our research and my previous personal experiences, consuming other ‘Blood-eating Creatures’ to complete normal phase transformations should lead to a brief period of radical change and evolution. In terms of my ‘Biological Components’ evolution system, most of it would be reflected in my various ‘Biological Components’.

“This time, the interval between our phase transformations was too short. I couldn’t guide my research team to evolve by adjusting the ‘Biological Components’. But normally, I should also generate some spontaneous, uncontrollable minor mutations and have some of the main characteristics of the previously consumed ‘Blood-eating Creatures’.

“However, up to now, even though I’ve consumed so many ‘Blood-eating Creatures’, I haven’t had any visible mutations, which seems a bit abnormal,” Mr. Liang asked, revealing his confusion.

Xiang Kun put the tablet on his lap, thought for a while, and answered, “That’s because I’ve restricted the mutation process after your phase transformation. Let me explain… Suppose the ‘high-dimensional factors’ you got from consuming other ‘Blood-eating Creatures’ are like ‘workers’ added to your construction team.

“Normally, once they’ve completed their in-processing, they would be assigned to the construction site to start working. Some follow the established construction plan, while others who aren’t immediately assigned work would find their own… For example, some ‘workers’ were especially good at building bridges, so upon seeing an open spot on your ‘construction site’, they’d run over and build a bridge. Externally, this would manifest as possessing the significant ability characteristics of the consumed creature.

“What I did during your phase transformation was to let those ‘workers’ be absorbed by you, complete their in-processing formalities, confirm their roles, but not immediately get assigned to the construction site. I also prevented them from running around on their own, temporarily putting them in a standby state. While this state couldn’t last long, it was sufficient for us. This could prevent many variables from happening and also keep your physical and psychological state more stable.”

Mr. Liang was greatly surprised, “Can you directly affect the ‘high-dimensional factors’ in my body? Can you operate on this level?”

Xiang Kun decided to reveal a little more about the underlying implementation of the “Super Sensory Item System”, “It’s not a direct operation on the ‘high-dimensional factors’, but more of an influence on your ‘Super Sensory Information’. This kind of influence can only be accomplished during the process of your phase transformation.

“As for what ‘Super Sensory Information’ is, you can think of it as the source code or data of various materials in the real world. In a certain state, I can directly touch these codes and data and have a limited influence on them.”

After saying all this, Mr. Liang beside him didn’t respond for a long time. Although Xiang Kun couldn’t see his expression, he could guess his feelings. He said with a smile, “Don’t worry, you’ll be able to access all this sooner or later. Your time in Australia probably already alerted you to the connections you now have with many things around you. For you, it’s like you’ve already touched the existence of the control panel. Next, it’ll be up to you to build a suitable operating system and then integrate it into the vast world that I’ve constructed. By that time, you’ll naturally understand what I mean by ‘Super Sensory Information’.”

“Will I live to see that day?” Mr. Liang asked.

Xiang Kun got his message and assured, “Don’t worry, I’ve said it before, at the very worst scenario, your current body will dissolve and decay, but your consciousness, your memories including your cognition, can all be preserved. Then I will create a temporary body for you and slowly reconstruct and repair it. Of course, I can’t guarantee that I will be able to recreate a body exactly like the one you have now. But I think… you should agree that the boundary between life and death lies in the survival of consciousness, not the original body, right?”

Mr. Liang was silent for a few seconds before saying, “I will cooperate fully with you.”

Xiang Kun nodded. He knew Mr. Liang trusted him – or more accurately, the capabilities he had demonstrated and the new cognitive frameworks he had built during their “Hunting Trip” – had earned, or rather forced, Mr. Liang’s trust.

Of course, a significant part of this trust was also attributable to the time and effort Xiang Kun, Alice, and Old Xia had invested in guiding Mr. Liang to discover Xiang Kun’s capabilities step by step.

Even though Mr. Liang now knows that his “journey of discovery” was intentionally orchestrated by Xiang Kun, this doesn’t mitigate the subliminal influence of the subjective cognition he’s built about Xiang Kun along the way.

If Xiang Kun had started by displaying a series of overpowering, disruptive capabilities, demonstrating his ability to know and control everything – abilities even capable of immobilizing Mr. Liang’s “Biological Components” – Mr. Liang might have rationally chosen to cooperate. But then Xiang Kun’s actual journey of transformation, his moral cognition, and his way of doing things, would have had much lesser influence.

In that scenario, considering Mr. Liang’s personality, even if he thought Xiang Kun was powerful enough to handle the “Ultimate Predator”, even if he rationally believed that cooperating with Xiang Kun was the best and only choice, he’d still be full of doubts about various operations, harbor countless hidden plans, and would certainly not hand over his life and death to Xiang Kun like now, willing to cooperate fully even when many of his questions remain unanswered.

Even identical operations can have completely different effects if they are executed in a different order.

Xiang Kun and Mr. Liang waited on the bare mountaintop for an hour and a half before they set off again.

After trekking through the mountains for over an hour, they finally arrived at their destination.

When the massive vegetations rolled up in unison, as though commanded, and “worked together” in pulling the ground apart, unpeeling and swirling the layers of soil, revealing the round object buried underground, Mr. Liang finally understood why Xiang Kun had told him “this would be easy”.

Xiang Kun hopped into the large pit dug out with the help of “Xiao Luobo”, slapped the object that was the size of an adult and looked like an egg, and said with a smile, “When we were coming over just now, this critter was in the middle of blood-drinking Transformation. In order not to scare it, we rested on the mountaintop for an hour. Before it completes its transformation, it wouldn’t be a suitable ‘Blood Source’ for you; after it does, it will be. Hehe, the timing is just right now; it’s in a state of having completed its transformation but not yet awakened.”

Mr. Liang, who had expected a “final battle” and “a good fight” was left amused. Nevertheless, he didn’t ask Xiang Kun to wait for this “Blood-eating Creature” to fully complete its transformation and wake up before making a move. There was no need to introduce unnecessary variables.

Still, he had a question, “You said it would be just right for my ‘Blood Source’ only once it completes this transformation. How did you determine that beforehand? Its transformation was pretty advanced prior to this too, right? To find an appropriate target for this kind of ‘Blood-eating Creature’ for its ‘phased transformation’ must not have been easy. How did you know it would find a suitable target and undergo transformation at this very moment?”

Xiang Kun replied with a grin, “Of course, because I arranged for its ‘Blood Source’.” Saying so, he gave a hard thump on the “eggshell” of the large egg, punching a hole in it. He then grabbed the “edge of the hole” and forcefully tore apart the eggshell chunk by chunk, revealing a horrifying limb creature coiled inside.

Xiang Kun continued, “Had this thing not attacked humans a few months ago and had stayed hidden in the mountains instead, I might not even have known about its existence. It should have mutated from a centipede, although it doesn’t resemble one much now.”

“Did you… send other suitable ‘Blood-eating Creatures’ over for it?” Mr. Liang was still somewhat puzzled.

“No, I brought a ‘suitable’ ‘Blood-eating Creature’ to the vicinity, and then also lured this critter to come closer. They naturally found each other. Of course, the ‘Ultimate Predator’ has also played a role in this, helping to orchestrate from the shadows.”

“Why would the ‘Ultimate Predator’ do that?”

“Because it knows I’m arranging a suitable ‘Blood Source’ for you, helping you accelerate your phased transformation. It also wants to see this outcome,” Xiang Kun clarified, “Although it doesn’t know how we’re going to deal with it, it can’t resist suitable ‘Blood Sources’. Hence, it’s only testing us, not impeding us. In fact, it’s subtly lending us a helping hand, because we’re doing what it has been spending a lot of time and effort doing, only much faster and more efficiently.

“Think about it, if you were a farmer who’d painstakingly cultivated a field where crops have barely grown a tenth, and suddenly a hulking man barges in, works his magic and within a short duration, makes the crops grow to nine-tenths, what would you do?”

“I would prepare to prevent that brute from harvesting the crops,” Mr. Liang said, and despite himself, burst into laughter. The laughter sounded like the grating of steel plates, “I am the crop.”

“Exactly, all its preparations right now should be geared towards preventing me from swallowing you once you complete your final transformation, or from hindering it from doing so. But it has no conflict with us on the matter of whether you should transform,” Xiang Kun chuckled, “But it can’t understand my intentions, because it can’t figure out why I am not yet at the stage of transformation where I could swallow you. It doesn’t understand my aim, let alone, how I’m going to handle it.”

Mr. Liang nodded and said, “Let’s get started.”

He was willing to trust Xiang Kun and follow his plan, even though he still had many questions and there were things he didn’t understand about the steps and details of the plan’s execution Xiang Kun had discussed with him.

As Mr. Liang commenced handling the “Blood-eating Creature” in the eggshell, Xiang Kun picked up a tablet off to the side and contacted Old Xia.