Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
"What is it?" asked Mo Fan.
It was Mo Fan's first time seeing the Little Loli wearing an expression like that. He could not help but feel worried.
Lingling did not hear him. She was simply staring at Nie Dong's dark red soul, which was nothing like the usual green or blue souls Mo Fan had seen before. The eerie red seemed to have placed Lingling under a curse, she was wearing a twisted grin on her face!
Mo Fan could not understand why a ten-year-old girl would suddenly wear such an expression.
Perhaps he did not really understand the Little Loli to begin with; he never knew why she insisted on being a Hunter at the Clearsky Hunter Agency instead of going to school like everyone did at her age. He did not understand how she earned the title 'Hunter Master', when so many Magicians found it extremely difficult to earn the same title, nor did he know why she was so mature and intelligent behind her cute, adorable appearance...
Lingling remained silent. She did not budge when Mo Fan stored Nie Dong's soul inside his Little Loach Pendant. She was deep in thought with her head lowered, and her expression kept on changing rapidly.
"What's going on? Is there something you can't tell me?" Mo Fan placed his hand on Lingling's shoulder after he finished stashing away Nie Dong's soul.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtLingling seemed to be recalling something. When she raised her young, yet mature face, Mo Fan captured a glimpse of hatred from her eyes.
"I've been looking for souls with a different color like this one," Lingling said to Mo Fan grimly.
"Is there anything special about the soul?" asked Mo Fan.
"My last partner disappeared because of a dark red soul like this one," said Lingling.
"Your last partner?" Mo Fan could vaguely recall something, but he could not remember who mentioned it.
Lingling fell silent again, so Mo Fan continued to ask, "Should I show you the soul again?"
"It's fine. I already knew the guy is still hiding somewhere, and I now know the person I should look for to get more information," said Lingling.
Mo Fan was confused. Since Lingling was not willing to share, he did not pursue further. His only choice was to ask Old Bao about it later.
Mo Fan had decided to investigate further. Lingling was his companion, and the little girl had helped him with many things. Most importantly, she was never interested in the rewards, thus he basically got most of the commission from the quests.
Lingling was very keen on doing Hunter's work. Initially, Mo Fan thought Lingling was doing it because of her interest in helping out with the family business, but it seemed like there were more reasons for it based on her strange reaction today.
After settling the matter on hand, he would have to pay Old Bao a visit to learn the details.
---
Mo Fan turned around and walked toward Zhao Manyan and Liu Ru.
To Mo Fan's surprise, Liu Ru, who was previously covered in wounds and bruises, had already recovered on her own. Not a trace of scars was left on her body.
Looking at her, Mo Fan intentionally wore a calm smile and said, "A vampire can still be considered a human, so you shouldn't think too much about it."
Liu Ru raised her head and glanced at Mo Fan. She could barely withdraw her fangs now. It was difficult to tell if she had accepted the truth that she had turned into a vampire, or she had totally lost hope to begin with. She wore a pitiful smile and said, "Being able to avenge my sister is enough, I don't really care what's going to happen to me."
"Even though I feel like telling you that your sister would prefer you to live a strong and peaceful life, you have made your own choice, and what's done can't be undone. You're no longer the same old you, so I hope you can continue to move forward." Mo Fan tried very hard to find some comforting words.
As a matter of fact, any chicken soup for the soul kind of advice was utterly meaningless. He would never understand what she was going through, since he was not the one involved in the incident.
The smile on Liu Ru's face blossomed, not because Mo Fan's words were resonating with the thoughts she had in mind, but as he had mentioned, she already knew the life she was going to live moving forward, a human life when she could no longer be called one.
She rose to her feet and slowly walked toward the darkness into the distance, heading for the boundaries of the city.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmMo Fan watched her go in silence. He did not ask her to stay, nor did he act like a saint and made a righteous declaration to warn her that he would still exterminate her when she lost her control.
Liu Ru's figure slowly turned blurry as she ventured deep into the darkness. The dark yet endless road would give her enough time to figure out her new way of living. Mo Fan could not provide any assistance to her.
"Are you seriously letting her go, just like that?" Zhao Manyan said with great pity.
"What else do you want me to do? Recruit her as a bed-warmer? I'm more than happy to do it..." said Mo Fan.
"True that, she was already reluctant to disturb your life when she was still a human, let alone now… Forget it, let her be. I only hope that she won't lose her inherent qualities to the greed for blood. Even if she cannot control the urge, she should just come to us instead. How could we ignore our call of destiny?" said Zhao Manyan, which clearly implied that he knew the rumors stating that the Blood Tribe would always be doing something else when they were drinking their prey's blood!
Mo Fan nodded, as he did agree with Zhao Manyan's statement.
Either way, the incident had come to an end. As for the vampire family that Nie Dong had come from, it was beyond Mo Fan's control.
The Hunter Union had already been alerted. They would surely conduct a thorough search in the city, and treat all the people who had died a strange death as possible prey of the vampires in the past. Therefore, the vampire family would most likely keep a low profile for a period of time.
Mo Fan had gotten the fangs he needed, and helped Liu Ru take her revenge. It was basically the best ending he could hope for, and now it was time to hand over the fangs to Huo Tuo.
Initially, Mo Fan was planning to challenge higher-ranked students after getting his equipment. He had already missed the second challenge week, thus he could only climb the rankings in the following month.
He could sell the Warrior-level Soul Essence to earn a huge sum of money, and combined with the money he had received from the previous Commander-level corpse, he should have enough money to get himself a Contracted Beast.
Getting a Contracted Beast was the best way to improve his strength significantly for the time being. With the Contracted Beast, he would be able to climb to a higher rank, and earn more time to cultivate in the Three Step Tower, which would then allow his Lightning and Shadow Nebulas to improve further!
The process of improving strength was like rolling a snowball. Once the snowball started rolling with a push, it would grow bigger the more distance it covered. What Mo Fan needed the most now was a Contracted Beast to give his cultivation that had come to a halt for a while a little push from the back!