2 A Dream?

"Haa" Dennis opened his eyes, huffing for air.

He swiftly forced himself to sit up and began to frantically touch his chest looking for his gunshot wounds.

"The wounds… they're gone?"

"Was it just a nightmare? I think I've been up for too much lately." He chuckled.

Attempting to stand up, Dennis realized something.

"I can't feel or hear anything."

Despite being able to stand up and being on what should be the ground, he couldn't feel it at all.

Not only that but everything was completely dark and silent. He couldn't feel the slightest breeze or hear the faintest noise.

"Did someone put me in a sensory deprivation chamber while I was passed out?" he mused.

"Hey, I'm awake, you can let me out now!" He tried shouting but no sound came out.

Dennis began to panic, "What's going on? Why can't I hear my voice?!"

Then out of nowhere he finally heard something.

"Kneel"

Despite sounding soft and soothing, the voice sent chills down his spine. It felt as if an invisible mountain appeared on his shoulders out of nowhere sending him barreling onto his knees.

His entire being trembled as he tried to resist but the pressure was just too powerful.

Genuine fear appeared on his face as sweat started to trickle down his face.

"W-who are you? What are you?" Once again no words left him but to his surprise, he received a response as if the voice heard him clearly.

"Who am I? You cursed my existence and then you have the gall to forget me?!" The voice echoed as the pressure on Dennis increased causing his forehead to kiss the ground.

"You called me a hypocrite and no better than those who ended your life."

Hearing this Dennis realized who the voice might belong to, but despite this, he couldn't accept it as a fact.

"You uttered blasphemous words against me despite not being any better! As a god of a world, you ignored the plight and suffering of your creations. You created a world where the strong trample on the weak, using them as a form of entertainment just for your own amusement!"

"As if it wasn't enough, you even cursed innocent beings with an awful destiny just to sate your curiosity about what would happen. You had no right to judge me and despite this, your last thoughts were to curse me and my existence?!"

The voice took a moment and calmed itself.

"For that, I will be placing divine punishment upon you. You will become exactly what you wanted to see appearing in your own creation."

The pressure on Dennis lowered, allowing him to lift his head and look up. When he did, far off in the distance he saw a pair of gigantic golden eyes.

"But don't worry, unlike you, I'm not that cruel of a god. I will send you off with a little gift. Make sure to entertain me." A laugh echoed as Dennis felt something entering his body.

In the next moment, his eyes closed once again and he fell face-first onto the ground.

-

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Experiencing what felt like déjà vu, Dennis woke up once again.

But unlike before, he could feel the ground beneath him. It was rough and he could feel as small pebbles pushed themselves into his skin.

He could feel a faint breeze coming from behind him. As he moved, the stones beneath him made a scratching sound against the rough, rocky ground.

Pushing himself up, he felt a sticky sensation on his hands. Not believing what he was seeing, he brought his hands closer to his face.

His hands were covered in a sticky and dark red substance.

"Is this… blood?" He asked himself, confused at the current situation.

The sensation felt so real that Dennis couldn't believe what was going on.

"This feels too real to be a dream…"

Looking down he spotted a pile of robes. At first glance, he thought nothing of it, but then he noticed the droplet design on it and recognized it immediately.

"What is the crimson monk's robe doing here?"

Dennis missed everything that happened within the cave, blissfully unaware of what had transpired.

Dennis chuckled. "I'm definitely dreaming. I must have spent too much time watching the sim…"

"It's strange how vivid it is, almost as if it were real…" His thoughts trailed off but quickly dismissed his thoughts 

"Meh, doesn't matter. What did that voice say earlier? That it will give me a gift?" he started stroking his chin, trying to think of what the gift could be.

Unable to think of what it could be, he pulled his hair and yelled. "AHHH! I don't know." 

"If I'm going to dream then I wish I had something to tell me what's going on, like a system or at the very least a status screen."

As those words left him a bright blue screen appeared, slightly startling him.

Despite how bright it was it did not illuminate Dennis' dark surroundings, leading him to believe only he could see it.

—-

[Name: Yue Yin1 

  Age: 21

  Race: Vampire Progenitor

  Bloodline: Lunar Sovereign Bloodline

  Physique: Heaven Devouring Physique (Awakened)

  Cultivation: Mortal

  —--------------------

  Status: Bloodlust (lvl 5), Heart Demon (lvl 1)... ]

Reading the status that showed up, Dennis stated "I guess in the dream my name is Yue Yin"

"But that physique… Did I become Rain? I guess I wanted to see a vampire show up more than I originally believed"

But as those thoughts crossed his mind he felt a sudden pain in his heart, as if his entire being was rejecting that name.

Clutching his chest he once again fell to his knees.

"He he, with the number of times I've fallen onto my knees in this dream, I'm starting to wonder if my mind is trying to tell me something."

"Must be the heart demon… I guess it doesn't like the name." With that thought, his heart stopped hurting as much, signalling he was most likely correct.

"I should probably change it then. I'm sure whoever chose this name didn't have the best intentions."

Dennis started to think of what could be a good name.

"Being a vampire, my greatest weakness would obviously be the sun…"

He pondered for a moment and then he had an idea. 

"How about Xue Yang."

"Xue, meaning Blood and Yang, meaning Sun." 

"Together it would mean Blood Sun, symbolizing the vampiric nature and the future triumph over the only weakness that exists."

With that, the pain he felt in his chest stopped completely.

"I guess it's decided then."

  [Name: Xue Yang]

Looking at his status, the name had changed, completing his transformation into an entirely new being.

"What now?" Xue Yang asked himself, unsure of what to do.

He decided to glance at his surroundings.

Despite the pure darkness, he could see everything clearly.

He was currently at the end of a cave, looking behind him he could see a trail of blood and crawl marks as if the body he was in dragged itself along the ground.

"Did Rain escape into this cave?"

"He must have, but I don't remember seeing it so why am I dreaming about it?" Xue Yang still in denial about his situation, couldn't help but question what was going on.

He then decided "I guess I should leave the cave and see where I am."

But upon looking down at his cut, bloody and torn clothes, he realized, "AH, I should probably get changed into those robes."

As he was about to reach out towards the robes that belonged to the now-deceased crimson monk, a pair of faint voices caught his attention putting him on alert.

"Looks like he made it into this cave"

"That goddamn brat, I know we wanted to have our fun but how on earth did he manage to run this far?"

"Who knows, maybe the old lady Yue was innocent. You know how naturally strong direct clan descendants are"

Hearing this one of the men slapped the other across the head.

"Ow!" He yelped.

"What was that for?" the man asked with a confused gaze.

Sighing deeply the man replied, "That's not the case. How else would you explain his odd eyes?"

"Besides if you were right then what we did would result not only in our deaths but the deaths of everyone close to us."

"Then why do you think he managed to get this far?"

"It's most likely some sort of burst of strength that dying men get while desperate, I bet we will find his corpse at the end of this trail"

As the two drew closer, Xue Yang racked his brain on what to do.

"Those two are definitely those who ambushed Rain and ruined my plans…"

Then he had a sudden lightbulb moment and facepalmed himself.

"My physique has awakened, as long as I ambush them I might have a chance"

With that he proceeded to hide himself away from the end of the cave, climbing as high up onto a wall and stabbing his fingers into the cave wall with his raw physical strength.

Xue Yang couldn't help but be confused by his power.

"I remember how I designed this physique and given how it was just awakened it shouldn't exhibit such raw strength…"

A bright light started to become visible and as it drew nearer, Xue Yang was forced to close his eyes.

Due to his powerful nocturnal vision, the bright light blinded him as if he were wearing night vision goggles while staring at the sun.

"I guess I'll need to get used to seeing in the light."

With that thought, Xue Yang chose to embrace the eerily realistic pain

Moments later the two men walked into sight and passed where Xue Yang's hiding spot.

They were wearing dark navy blue robes. 

On the back of which was a giant circle, part of the circle was white while the remainder was black, giving off the feeling of a crescent moon on the backdrop of the night sky.

Seeing the design, Xue Yang's heart began to hurt deeply.

"That must be the symbol of the Yue family…" he reasoned.

Each of the men had a sword attached at the hip and they both were holding the torches that caused Xue Yang's eyes pain and irritated him immensely.

The pair reached the dried-up pool of blood and to their dismay found nothing but some robes.

"He definitely was here, but how and where did he disappear?"

"Maybe some beasts came before us and devoured his corpse?" one of them suggested, unable to come up with any other logical explanation.

The other warrior thought for a moment.

"It's possible. But I don't see any beast marks anywhere. Let's take a look around here just in case."

With that, the men split apart deciding to systematically look around the cave for any clues.

While one started at the end of the cave, the other chose to make his way towards the start.

That way they could meet in the middle and avoid any confusion.

Backtracking, the man neared Xue Yang whose heart was beating with anticipation.

As his grip tightened a few pebbles fell, causing the man to look up towards Xue Yang.

Like a deer in the headlights, Yue warrior's eyes widened, and as he was about to scream, Xue Yang propelled himself from the wall towards him.

Before any sound could be made, Xue Yang grabbed the man's head, pushing it back and tearing his throat out with his sharp teeth, silencing the man permanently.

The pair hit the ground causing a large sound to echo and alerting the warriors partner.

He turned towards where the sound came from but was greeted by darkness.

"Is everything alright?" He called out to his partner but received no response.

"Come on man, this isn't funny."

Being greeted by silence once again, the man drew his sword and slowly walked towards the origin of the sound.

Once he got close enough, his torch illuminated something horrifying.

He saw a body with a torn-out throat, but if that wasn't terrifying enough. The body looked as if it was drained of all its fluids as its eyes stared blankly in horror.

"What the…"

At first, he didn't recognize the body, but then he realized who this was.

"No. Impossible…" He couldn't believe it. His partner and best friend was currently dead on the ground. It looked as if years had passed since he died.

He started frantically looking around, thrusting his torch into the darkness, trying to illuminate his grim surroundings.

"Come out, whoever you are!" He shouted at the darkness.

With no warning having sensed something he spun around, slashing with his blade into the darkness.

To his shock and surprise his blade struck something but didn't move any further.

Having finally gotten his eyes on what he had hit, he sees a tall handsome man, with crimson red eyes and long silky smooth white hair.

He had pale skin that was white as snow as if it had never seen a single ray of sunshine.

Before his mind could process what was happening, the strange man grabbed his throat, lifting him in the air.

The pressure that was applied to his throat caused him to drop both his sword and his torch.

The light now illuminated the man from beneath giving him a near demonic appearance.

Despite trying to kill him earlier, the warrior failed to recognize Xue Yang.

However, this was understandable. His body had gone through an extreme transformation.

His hair changed from a deep raven black to pure white, and his once-damaged skin, weathered from days in the scorching sun, now appeared flawless.

His height increased and his muscles and facial features became significantly more defined and perfect.

It would be an understatement to call his current appearance a work of art.

If the current Xue Yang claimed to be the second most handsome, no one who had seen him would dare to claim the first spot.

Xue Yang lessened his grip, allowing the man to speak.

"Who are you? Why are you doing this, we had no quarrel with you!"

Xue Yang shook his head in disappointment and smirked.

"My, my. You were looking for me just moments ago, but you've already forgotten about me?"

The warrior could only think of a single possibility, but the two people were so different that he just couldn't believe it.

"A-are you, Yue Yin?" He asked but as the name left his lips, the grip on his throat tightened.

Glaring at him, Xue Yang snarled "Don't call me that"

Then at a moment's notice, his smile returned as he lifted the arm he used to block the sword into view.

"Oh yeah, that hurt by the way"

As the warrior's gaze made it to Xue Yang's arm. The deep cut he had inflicted started to heal and disappear right in front of his eyes.

"H-how is this possible, were you cultivating in secret?"

Hearing this Xue Yang broke out into an even bigger smile.

"Ha ha ha. No, I'm not a cultivator… At least not yet..."

Barely getting the words out the man asked "Then how..."

As if he was waiting for his cue, Xue Yang barred his sharp vampiric teeth sending chills through the warrior's entire being and replied.

"I'm something far worse."