What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 569: Chapter 569: Ascending to Heaven and Descending to Earth

The gigantic iron sphere floated in mid-air, trembling at a high frequency. Electricity surged above, around, and below it, placing it right at the storm’s core. It struck a distinctly extraterrestrial note.

Should anyone have witnessed this spectacle, they would likely suppose it to be technology more advanced than any earthly civilization possessed.

The mutated big bird, enveloped by countless tungsten steel beads, naturally struggled with all its might, employing every strategy it could muster to break free.

It had encountered a similar line of attack in Chongyun Village, under the united onslaught of story’s characters––Niu, Xia, Alice, and Guo. Back at that time, they collaborated to create a field that leveraged tiny fragments of sand and gravel, mineral particles, and metal shavings from the environment to imprison the mutated big bird; super-connected tungsten steel beads played a marginal role.

Therefore, the sand and gravel did not have a particularly strong restraining power. Their main function was to disguise the few super-connected spheres that had aimed to invade the mutated big bird’s nostrils, ears, and mouth in an attempt to internally sabotage it. However, it had ultimately escaped through self-combustion.

But in the current environment, with Xiang Kun making a personal appearance and fully stimulating the super-connected object matrix, they had established an optimal “home court.” The entire entity wrapped around the mutated big bird was entirely comprised of “super-connected objects,” making escape impossible for the bird, regardless of its struggle.

Gazing at the “iron sphere” suspended in the air and encapsulated by super-connected objects, Xiang Kun suddenly took a step forward. Barefoot, he strode on the ground, and each step he took incited violent changes and jitters in the ground’s electrical arcs, similarly catalyzing the release of wild electrical energy in the air above.

Xiang Kun’s pace quickened, transitioning from a walk to a run. Behind his head, the electricity ignited, extending several meters into a wild, whip-like frenzy. Subsequently, he leapt into the air and soared amid the dancing lightning.

As he took flight, the lightning storm intensified, with numerous “electric dragons” fiercely contesting for supremacy, illuminating the entire region as if it were day.

But the lightning storm Xiang Kun had triggered was distinct from those before, since he had deliberately created a field that prevented the lightning from causing tremendous damage when it hit the ground. The energy had not transformed into thermal energy; instead, it continued to circulate.

Xiang Kun rose into the sky, directly above the massive iron sphere. Freezing in mid-air, he paused for a moment before abruptly plunging towards the sphere. Xiang Kun delivered a sudden kick to the iron sphere enclosing the mutated big bird, sending it flying into the distance.

It was not sheer strength that Xiang Kun used to strike the iron sphere. His kick functioned more like a stirrer to the store of energy. The moment his foot connected with the sphere, it shot out like a cannonball.

The sphere flew dozens of meters away, burrowing into the ground.

The moment it hit the ground, the super-connected spheres temporarily scattered. Even though the mutated big bird was disfigured and twisted when it was trapped, it took the opportunity to free itself, struggling to escape, and sparks began to erupt from its feathers.

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But as soon as its head peered from the hole, countless roots and vines stretched out from the nearby walls of the pit. Drawing the bird back into the pit, the roots and vines twisted and entwined above it, fusing at a visibly rapid pace. During its growth, the tree even displayed continuously jumping electrical arcs, a faint white glow radiating from it. Soon, right above the pit, a colossal Twisted Neck Tree took form.

Aroung the Twisted Neck Tree were substantial “children plants” that Alice had previously deployed with the help of the Ant Legion. These were the same entities that had assisted Xiang Kun and Alice in locating the mutated big bird’s exact loation.

The mutated big bird trapped underneath was naturally still struggling fiercely. Were the situation solely reliant on the “children plants” of the “Xiao Luobo,” they would undoubtedly fail to restrain it.

But now they had not only “Xiao Luobo” but also countless super-connected spheres, which filled the gaps in the root wrappings in the soil, applying tremendous pressure and limitations.

Furthermore, many tiny spikes extended from these roots, penetrating the bird’s body with the support of the super-connected spheres, continuously extending further into its blood vessels, muscle tissues, and soft tissues.

Without immediately descending to the ground, Xiang Kun soared in mid-air at high speed for more than ten seconds, summoning the violent streaks of lightning and continuous thunderous roars in the sky.

This action was not aimed to achieve any particular goal; Xiang Kun was merely indulging his desire to experience the thrill of unrestricted flight. Soaring high above in a violent thunderstorm felt vastly different from flying in an airplane.

Especially when leveraging tens of thousands of surrounding “super-connected objects” to extend his perception, Xiang Kun could clearly sense the entire range of the lightning storm, and feel that all the energy of this vast expanse was at his command. For a moment, Xiang Kun felt an overwhelming sensation of omnipotence, almost as if he had become a god capable of controlling nature’s storms, and destroying the heavens and earth.

Indeed, it was exhilarating – incredibly so.

However, Xiang Kun quickly reined in his euphoric emotions as he felt the incessant requests from a little creature even more excited than himself to exist in the world alongside him, to dance in the electricity together. This allowed him to withdraw his focus from the super sensory item system back to his own existence.

After he had exhausted much of the energy in the clouds and allowed Alice to exist in the world with him for only a few seconds as she “oh-ho!”-ed while fully charged, Xiang Kun returned to the ground.

Walking towards the enormous and grotesque Twisted Neck Tree, he released his influence over the field across the area. With his steps, the electrically charged trail behind his head dwindled swiftly and then vanished.

The frequency of the electron flashes and thunder decreased, followed promptly by a downpour.

Amid the curtain of rain, Xiang Kun stood calm before the immense Twisted Neck Tree, closed his eyes, and entered the Super Sensory State.

Should this scene be captured in a video or image and posted online, it would likely stir a flurry of discussion:

Wearing seemingly old jeans, barefooted, topless revealing a sturdy torso, bald-headed, with closed eyes and a tranquil expression, standing in the pouring rain in front of a tree that looked hundreds of years old, as grotesque as if a creature out of a H.P Lovecraft tale had invaded our world.

This image, this contrast, could incite many to imagine stories involving “Monks” or “Tree Demons.”

In reality, had Xiang Kun wished, he could have eliminated the mutated big bird in an instant right after trapping it in the big iron sphere fabricated from numerous super-connected objects by directing several branches of lightning at it.

Despite having enhanced resistance to lightning after being thunderstruck on Zi Huan Mountain and consequently mutating further, its primary survival strategy when attacked is to shed a layer of its outermost “epidermis,” establishing a vacuum insulation layer in-between, resulting in a survival tactic akin to dropping a tail. Otherwise, regardless of its high-temperature resistance, the large bird would struggle to survive direct and consecutive lightning attacks.

After being trapped by the super-connected objects, it had lost its ability to deploy such defensive mechanisms. A further attack would truly roast it to a crisp, reducing it to a pile of ash.

Xiang Kun didn’t go so far, he only trapped and captured it, not for the purpose of a better blood-drinking feast.

Xiang Kun’s own evolutionary system is fundamentally different from the traditional “mutant”. His strength lies in the continuous expansion and strengthening of the “Super Sensory Item System”. His own mutations are the cornerstone and source of his abilities, but since this cornerstone is now stable, there’s no need for rapid evolution.

Of course, the biggest reason is that after the passenger plane was attacked, he had changed his original plan, preparing to deal with the “Ultimate Predator” ahead of schedule. He had also inferred that the “Ultimate Predator” had entered a “sensitive state”, trying to target him from all sides. So, he decided to avoid drinking blood and remain wakeful before implementing his plan, in order to cope with the possible mechanisms of the “Ultimate Predator”.

Moreover, this mutated big bird was an important “tool” that he might need for his next plan.

Standing in front of the Twisted Neck Tree, Xiang Kun entered the “Super Sensory State”. Through the immense number of super-connected objects around the mutated big bird’s body, he deeply analyzed and affected its cognitive information.

Xiang Kun originally intended to search for the “Ultimate Predator’s” special cognitive information fragments on it to see if they differed from previous special cognitive information. He wanted to figure out how it manipulated the mutated big bird to launch the attack, as he was certain that the mutated big bird itself could not have “planned” that attack which had cleverly evaded his super-connected objects’ perception range.

However, through this perception, Xiang Kun discovered a peculiar thing:

Inside the body of the mutated big bird, there was yet another “mutant”!

This was indeed an intriguing discovery.

Xiang Kun quickly confirmed that the “mutant” which was almost fused with the mutated big bird was something like a toxoplasma with many tentacles attached to the inside of the mutated big bird.

Was it a mutated parasite?

In the past, Xiang Kun had seen and even eaten a mutated parasite. He had also seen and ate the mutated spider that had undergone incomplete devouring of the mutated plant in the Qinling Uninhabited Area. So he was not overly surprised by the state of the mutated big bird.

It seemed that the mutated big bird was in a coerced state, and this mutated parasite was the “courier” of the “Ultimate Predator”. Had it been sent with a mission?

But Xiang Kun soon found problems in the cognitive information of the parasite on the mutated big bird by the predator. These cognitive pieces showed that the characteristics of the mutated parasite matched too closely with those of the big bird, which was why he and Alice hadn’t noticed it at first when they were positioning through long-distance cognitive information.

However, when Xiang Kun tried to influence the cognitive information of the parasite through the super-connected objects, the cognitive information suddenly started collapsing and dissipating. Along with it also disappeared the special cognitive information representing the “Ultimate Predator”.

So Xiang Kun instantly understood that it wasn’t a “mutated parasite” controlled by the “Ultimate Predator”, rather it was the “Ultimate Predator” itself!

Or more precisely, it was a small part of the “Ultimate Predator” which, using the special super-sensory information segment inside the body of the mutated big bird and using the mutated big bird itself as nourishment and material, “edited” that parasite-like part. With it, the “Ultimate Predator” was able to beguile the mutated big bird into doing certain actions.

This discovery suddenly made Xiang Kun understand many characteristics of the “Ultimate Predator”, its style of operation, its way of impacting the biology, and parts of its thought pattern or even its partially revealed “personality”.

Xiang Kun immediately modified his original plan according to this discovery, and it bolstered his confidence in the success of his plan.

…

At around seven in the morning, Liu Zhengyi, who got up for a run along the village road, suddenly saw a bare-chested figure washing his feet by the pond of Liu Caifu’s Country House.

Liu Zhengyi initially wanted to shout and scold, but he quickly noticed that the figure was baldhead which made him hesitate, but soon he identified the man.

Liu Zhengyi sped up and ran over. He said with a smile to Xiang Kun, who had finished washing his feet and was putting on his shoes, “Mr. Xiang, you’re up so early?”

Xiang Kun glanced at him, while getting up and dressing, and nodded, “Yes, I got up early to climb the mountain for exercise, I see you’re running every day now?”

“Yes, I have got used to waking up early now,” said Liu Zhengyi, scratching his head shyly.

Now, the construction of the planned buildings at the research center was almost finished, but some time ago, Xiang Kun and Liu Caifu had negotiated with the village and the town to expand the scope of the research center once more. They also hired many more people. A lot of experimental equipment had already been transported into the first phase of the project, and people needed to watch and maintain it. So now, Liu Zhengyi and his brother Liu Gaoshang both benefited from the situation and got promotions, and they no longer needed to take turns watching the construction site every day, so they could now get up and run every morning regularly.

After Xiang Kun finished dressing and made small talk with Liu Zhengyi, he went home. He knew that Old Xia had just gotten up; Nana and Yang Lao San were still asleep, but they should be waking up soon. If he went home and cooked breakfast now, they could eat as soon as they woke up.

Watching Xiang Kun’s departing figure, Liu Zhengyi was reminded of the news he had seen the day before.

They had previously learned from Xia Libing that Xiang Kun was due to return that day. So, when the video of the plane accident began to circulate everywhere in the afternoon, they immediately wondered if Xiang Kun had been on that plane.

But before they could find out whether Xiang Kun was on that flight, they received the news that the passenger plane had landed safely.

Then, online discussions began about a little girl in a white dress who appeared outside the plane, protecting and ensuring the safe landing of the plane.

While others may not have thought anything of this narrative, but Liu Zhengyi and his brother instantly remembered the incident from a few months ago when Pig Tail and Liu Er Tong were stealing construction materials from a site in the village and were caught by a sudden appearance of a little girl in a white dress, resulting in them getting scared and phoning the police to rescue them.

At the time, everyone laughed at them for being cowardly. But upon reflecting on their descriptions and comparing it with the appearance of the little girl outside the airplane, the Liu Brothers suddenly realized that Pig Tail and Liu Er Tong may have indeed seen something.