CH35

Flavor and texture, while normally terms used for taste, worked fine for his spirit sense. Maybe it was because the spirit sense worked back into his mortal senses to his mind. Sharks could taste their prey long before they got a bite of it, and the spirit sense worked similarly. The monsters he didn't want to call vampires tasted had the flavor of blood and hunger with the texture of a human body. Before entering the building, he had a little taste of what was in there while he kept his aura suppressed. He liked to call it stealth mode.

Silas quietly walked along the manor wall until he felt one of the lone targets. Then, like a meth head tweaking, he punched through the wall with both hands and grabbed the vampire's head before crushing it like a grape.

That bite told him something interesting that he didn't get from their flavor alone; their texture was unusually soft. Despite their spiritual power, it felt like he had crushed a weak mortal skull.

Silas took a step hiding in the fog while the monsters rushed to the scene of the attack. Then, after taking a few steps, he leaped on the roof where he felt one.

He found a balcony on the manor, along with some nice chairs he tossed in his storage ring. His concubines would love them; their beaver upholstering was unique, to say the least.

Their eyes were on him, but he was in no hurry. The monster must have thought Silas didn't sense him. Silas stood up and took out a handkerchief before wiping the brain matter off his arms. He held up his hand and smiled.

"Silas Flex, welcome to the neighborhood. I saw what thou have done to the place and decided to come and give thou my greetings." He stepped forward and stood behind the monster, his back facing it.

"Mulatto skin, large breasts, and blonde hair. How did that happen without a recessive gene, or has Mr. Douglass or one of his bastards hooked up with their sibling? Thou art a pretty little thing if only thou were not a blood-drinking monster." He moved to the side of a clawed hand aimed to tear out his spinal cord. But, even armed with amped spiritual energy, it was too slow, too far away to hit him.

The Dao of distance was excellent for offense, mobility, and defense. An attack that should have hit him missed by inches. He stepped aside as the door blasted off its hinges and slammed into the monster mocha-skinned girl with blonde hair. It was a shame she became a monster. Silas bet she had blue eyes.

"Who art thou?" The vampire asked.

Silas could see blood seeping down the man's chin; it wasn't human blood. That was a given by the hunger Dao and blood was the obvious way the species were both transferred and what they fed upon. He was dealing with the precursor to the cool blue-tinted sunglasses of a late 1890s vampire. That was when blood transfusions and lever-action rifles were all the rage.

"I assume thou do not have a hivemind or telepathy." Silas turned around, walked towards the balcony, and kicked the door off the girl. Her eyes were black under the moonlight, not the beautiful blue he imagined. She opened her mouth, revealing rows of serrated teeth which were a mark against her. On the other hand, her big brown and pink lips were deceptively inviting, almost enough to risk such a dangerous monster in his house.

Of course, he was talking about taking a mistress in a far-off place like the Douglass farm; there was no way he was taking something so dangerous home with him. But perhaps he could use her to grasp the Grand Dao of blood and hunger and eventually devour. Collecting Dao was good; it gave him options for the future.

"What art thou?" The monster asked.

The hollow didn't have Dao, but that could have changed as it evolved. Binding it to flesh might not have been the great idea he thought it would be. It would be better to find a quincy and kill the hollow. A completed combination of the 4 prime spirit energy types would produce more spirit energy than a hollow anyway.

Silas stepped aside as the monster moved faster than the other one. He kicked out and tagged it in the chest caving in the monster's ribs.

"35% sturdier than the one before."

"Monster," The female vampire accused.

"Phillip, is Sandra ok. I'm hearing a lot of noise." Henry Douglass called as he walked up the stairs in a daze.

He was ghastly and covered in half-scabbed bite marks. Silas hadn't sensed him before because his spirit energy was on the lower side. The 50-year-old man, who had been a symbol of health in the past, stumbled up the stairs. His eyes were sunken, and he was shivering. Silas forgot it was incredibly cold for most people; with all the blood loss, Mr. Douglass must be freezing. 

"Father, get away; he will hurt thee," Sandra said.

It almost sounded like she cared, but those bite marks could be her own. How long until she took his life? Silas shook his head.

Phillip launched himself onto the man and bit into him. Mr. Douglass's legs shook as the last of his blood was drained. Silas, in the meantime, had taken out an impalement spike. The weapon was around two meters long and had a nice ivory tip. However, the formation-reinforced weapon was more a needle than a spike; it ended in an incredibly small sharp point and widened until it reached its base. The base was a heavy round log that could easily hold the needle and whoever was impaled with it.

Silas shifted out of a bullet's path as a would-be sniper shot up the stairs. More vampires rushed him while Phillip ran for it. He moved slowly and carefully into a stance and smiled before charging the vampires.

Philip wasn't getting away. Silas could clearly sense the vampires while they moved, and Phillip was moving like the devil was on his heels. He might have had better luck if he had gotten some distance and slowly escaped. But, unfortunately, Silas couldn't sense the man when he wasn't moving. Phillip obviously didn't know that.

The bullet would have nearly got Silas if the vampire hadn't moved before he fired.

"Father, why," Sandra asked.

Silas had already clamped her in irons but let her grieve.

"What happened to thy mother?" Silas asked.

Eugene, his posse of bounts, and a few of Silas's servants circled the property. If there were any vampires Silas didn't know about, they would get them.

"Thou won't get away with this," Sandra said.

Silas clamped a collar around her neck and stripped her to her underwear. If not for the clawed fingertips, mouth like a shark, and who knew what other issues she might make a good concubine. Instead, Silas was more interested in refining her into a treasure to possibly give to one of his children in the future. Of course, she wouldn't be useful to him after he figured out her hunger and blood Dao. But since she was in a talkative mood, he let her give him more information.

"What won't I get away with?" Silas asked.

He could barely believe he was humoring her; a man didn't humor a math problem; why should he humor a cultivation ingredient. Silas could hear his men collecting everything of value and tossing it in storage rings. They would hit the food supplies, if there were any left, and leave the place barren.

"Phillip will get away, and when he does, he'll tell the others, and they will come for thou. I am a third hand, Phillip is a second hand, but Phillip's boss is a first. They art so strong that we can't compare." Sandra said.

"Oh, art, they strong. Compared to Phillip, how strong art they?" Silas asked.

"Could thou not seek thy death," Eugene said as he walked into the room.

"I was worried when about thou. How strong were the vampires?" Eugene asked.

Silas thought about it for a moment. "She was like one of the servants, and Phillip was like me when I first entered the Natal realm. So, by their own hierarchy, each is a realm more powerful. Phillip was still nothing to worry about, and I could probably beat his boss too." Silas said.

"How much stronger did going up a stage make thee?" Eugene asked.

He thought about it for a moment; he was around 50 to 60 times stronger than a normal human male when he first reached the Natal realm, and at the second stage, he felt around 115 to 125 times stronger. Then after gaining two Dao insights, he gained around 20% to 35% for each putting him around 161 to 175 times stronger. Of course, he could be wrong, and Phillip could be near a first, as Sandra called them. His distance Dao was getting more ingrained with his cultivation, and soon enough, it would reach the next stage giving him another 20% to 35% boost to his cultivation. Then if he did somebody tempering or made a good magic treasure that could multiply his power, the gap between himself and the vampire firsts would close quickly.

"Give me a few months, and they won't be a problem. But, really, they were too weak to be a challenge." Silas said.

"Methinks that is a problem we should enjoy having. Our next objective is to take this land for our own and fence it in to expand our territory." Eugene said.

He would have to build a much larger fence; on the bright side, there were plenty of forests, an iron mine nearby, and plenty of demon beasts to hunt. So, while he waited for the shoe to drop, he would build up his power base and cultivate rigorously.

"Regardless, we need to hunt down and kill the vampire that got away. I don't like mind control; he could go to town and lead them against us if we aren't careful." Silas said.

Silas wasn't worried too much; his power base was mostly set, and he had plans to turn back modern armies. It wouldn't be hard to use formations to make a few high-powered gauss rifles. Then he could arm his flesh puppets and have them wipe out any invading armies.

"Thou would have to kill them all if that happened. Whatever would thou do without plays to watch. Romeo where for art thou Romeo." Eugene said, and then he smirked. "We have a full cast nearly with the captured vampires. Why not give them a job for spirit stones to buy blood to put on plays for thou full time?" Eugene said.

Silas knew that Eugene was messing with him. The bount was basically a vampire himself, except he didn't need to feed anymore, thanks to the sheer amount of spirit energy on Silas's farm. If not for Soifon, the guy would have killed Silas, stolen all his secrets, and made off with them. He didn't know Eugene's true feelings or loyalty.

On the other hand, the idea had some merit. Through this act, the beginnings of the spirit stone economy could be born, and pig blood was already a commodity he extracted. Having them close to his concubines and future children wasn't exactly safe. He couldn't chain them up.

Silas looked at the blonde mulatto girl and altered that. Silas couldn't chain all of them up. Sandra was a lab rat who he originally planned to feed the other vampires. While at first, the spirit stones would go from them back to himself, it was still circulation which was what he wanted.

"I agree; we will see what use we can get from these vampires. If they can be civilized without causing disasters through mass hypnosis, then I won't drive them to extinction." Silas said.

Thou art a monster." Sandra said again.

He understood that he had killed some of her kin and planned to experiment on their blood to see what he could do with it. In his former life, he had done little with his alchemy knowledge, and in this one combining it with his formation knowledge has worked out well for him. After he neutralized whatever agent changed the body into that of a vampire, he could use it to make an insight pill to increase his chances of gaining the hunger and blood insights. Thanks to the current plans, while he squeezes entertainment from the vampires, he can also squeeze them of blood for his experiments. He can let them sell their blood for spirit stones. All he had to do was list the value, and they would naturally sell their own blood when times were rough. It was so simple.