The Fallen Vampire

Outside of each palace located in the valley, there were a set of heavy gates that obscured the view of the inner courtyard and the entrance.

Abbot Tang was moving so fast that he had already reached the gates and his two associates had to use movement techniques to catch up with him.

"Hm? Why are you fellows here?" He frowned.

Gu Mu-Song: "We’ve come to lay eyes on this supposed new blood you’ve invited."

Hideyoshi: "Indeed. I have questions."

Abbot Tang paused immediately.

Ordinarily, he wouldn’t have any problem with exchanging greetings among sect leaders. It was what they were all here for after all.

But the parties involved in this posed potential issues.

Taira and Aveena had a lot of secrets. Big ones in fact.

And they were certainly entitled to them, but the Abbot was fully aware that he might’ve been the only one who was actually willing to respect them.

The dwarven leader was small in stature, but he had an immense curiosity that sometimes bordered on obsession and often came off as blatant impoliteness.

But Gu Mu-Song was the real problem here.

Espionage and greed were his tools of trade and he was practically untouched within the field.

If he saw something valuable in the presence of Aveena and Taira, which he was more than likely to, Abbot Tang didn’t know that he would sit quietly without concocting some sort of scheme to take it.

He clutched his staff with enough force to crack it and stared at the two men with a glare that was absolutely un-monk-like.

"Hear me well, you dilapidated old fools. Should you even think of causing trouble while we are in the presence of these two then I will not let you go..! Do not-"

*Creak!*

Suddenly, the doors to the large onyx gate creaked open.

An outpouring of small children ran out; each of whom were chasing after a small red panda with a unique-looking collar.

"Play! Go play!"

By now, none of the three sect leaders were surprised to hear any more talking animals.

But they were surprised to see the children running after the talking animals.

"I-I... It’s impossible."

"Those glowing eyes.. They’re supposed to be dead..."

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Abbot Tang sighed; knowing they had reached the point of no return.

These two weren’t even thinking about the fact that most of these children were in the overlord realm already. They were only wondering how an extinct undead race was suddenly up and walking around.

"Wait kids, wait! You all need supervisors or.. Oh?"

The trio of old men looked up when two beautiful women tried to chase after the children.

One was human; with mid length orange hair not at all dissimilar to Dan Master Hideyoshi’s.

The other was fallen- a mermaid more specifically. Her aqua colored hair seemed to literally ebb and flow like the ocean itself.

Judging by their faces, both women seemed surprised to find the three sect leaders standing just outside of their gate.

"Hello.. Can we help you?"

*E-Ehem* "Yes please, if you don’t mind." The Abbot cleared his throat. "I’ve come to visit the Dai-Shi."

"Oh, alright then." The woman with blue hair bowed politely. "My name is Yem and I am something of the caretaker of the cult. May I ask for your names as well?"

"I am

Lord

Gu Mu-Song. Grandmaster of-"

"Tang Gyeoksan." The Abbot introduced.

For some reason, Yem’s eyes lit up when she heard the second name. "Oh! Please, come with me. Dai-Shi Aveena has been anxiously awaiting your arrival."

The Abbot roughly pushed past the winged grandmaster as if he was hoping to leave him outside.

Unfortunately for him though, Gu Mu-Song followed closely behind. As did the dwarven Dan Master.

This wasn’t any of their first time walking through this particular courtyard, so they were already aware of what they expected it to look like.

However, they were just a little in awe of the amount of individuals that they could feel inside the cult.

Their numbers were so... small.

It was actually quite sad if one were being honest.

"Pardon me, Miss Yem..."

Suddenly, another human appeared in front of the group. He wore a funny looking black hat and a sleeveless tunic with simple pants and even stranger looking boots.

"Sorry for botherin’ ya while you’re working, but have you seen Tiche anywhere..?"

Yem giggled adorably. "I’m afraid not, Raymond. You’ll have to keep looking."

"Ah... Thanks anyway, miss." The young man smiled helplessly before running off to go and look for this mystery woman who he seemed to be intent on finding.

"Sorry about that. Let us continue."

Yem led the trio of men towards the palace’s second floor.

Even before they had arrived at their destination, things stood out to them.

For one, the entire place was warm.

It wasn’t even 75 degrees outside, but somehow the second floor of the palace must’ve been around eighty degrees.

And then there was the noise.

The forge was on the first floor, and yet this was where they heard the sound of metal clogging against metal.

Yem led the three men down a long corridor lined with rooms.

She came to a stop at a set of double doors at the very end of the hall, and pushed them open without reservation.

Warm air flooded out from the room like an oven door; and finally the group could see the source of the heat, and the clanging.

In the middle of the room, a large, muscular woman was sitting in a lotus pose with her back facing them.

Her aura was the source of the heat they were feeling. She was heating up her qi and rapidly pushing it through her body to act as a sort of tempering method.

Why did she need this? Well, that’s where the clanging came in.

Standing above her, there was another woman with an outwardly curvaceous figure and short green hair.

She wielded a nine-ringed greatsword taller and wider than most adult men.

Without reservations, she continued to bring the edge of the sword down on top of the sitting woman’s body again and again.

The edge was sharp enough to cut and draw blood, but it didn’t appear to go very deep at all.

And once the sitting woman healed the wound, it became harder to injure her the next time.

This was perhaps one of the most extreme methods of body tempering that any of them had ever seen.

And the results were apparently more than worth the trouble.

"Pardon the interruption... I’ve brought guests who were hoping to see you." Yem informed.

*Clang!*

Aveena caught the giant blade overhead without even looking back.

Her companion helped her stand up and she pulled a robe over her shoulders to cover her sweaty body.

She turned around and once her eyes landed on the old Abbot, her domineering gaze immediately lit up.

"Abbot Tang! You made it!"

"Of course I did, lass. You were the one whom I should have been worried about since it was your first time traveling here after all."

"Well, my husband had a hand in helping us get here ahead of time and without issue. He’s resourceful like that." Aveena gushed as if she wasn’t a 6’3 demon woman with more muscles than hair follicles.

The woman standing next to her gave her a small nudge and she realized her mistake.

"I’m sorry, I should introduce you. This is my Sister-Wife Lucia."

"It is a pleasure to meet you!" Abbot Tang smiled.

He never even considered introducing the two men standing behind him. Not even once.

He was honestly still hoping that they would implode in a puff of smoke and disappear before they had a chance to open their mouths.

"My word... Remarkable."

Dan Master Hideyoshi lumbered forward with the exact luster in his eyes that Abbot Tang was afraid of.

"I had heard reports, but... I honestly thought them exaggerated. A living, breathing, dragon right before my very eyes... I honestly wondered if I would ever get to see the day."

Aveena and Lucia looked back and forth between the little man and the Abbot.

Once he realized it would be awkward not to make any further introductions, he had no choice but to start explaining.

"R-Right... This is Dan Master Hideyoshi of the Profound Pill Union... Forgive him for his idiosyncrasies."

"I-I do not have any idiosyncrasies! I am a pursuer of knowledge and adept study, nothing more!" The dwarf snapped.

Despite his antics, neither Lucia nor Aveena seemed to find him wholly un-amusing. Not yet at least.

Aveenaa finally settled her eyes on the silent bird man standing at the very back of the group.

"And you are?"

Abbot Tang almost jumped into their conversation to scream ’nobody’ at the top of his lungs.

But unfortunately, it was too late.

"I am Grandmaster Gu Mu-Song of the glorious Purple Cloud Sect. And your senior, if I might add. How do you do?" The grandmaster smiled harmlessly.

He held out his hand for a simple handshake, and Aveena started to shake it despite a less than stellar first impression.

"Do not touch him."

Aveena froze on a dime and pulled her hand away quickly.

The three men followed the sound of the sudden voice to the rafters above their heads.

There, they could see a small bat hanging upside down and staring back at them coldly.

"It doesn’t do well to touch anyone who’s reached such a level of poison mastery. You are all of an untrustworthy sort."