Chapter 259 Queen Phoenix
Blessing magic has a weakening effect on dark creatures and can kill some low-level monsters, but it cannot be truly used for exorcism - monsters like evil spirits cannot be exorcised by blessing magic alone. They can only be destroyed by destroying the summoning circle, killing the summoner, or killing the host with physical means.
High-level monsters like vampires are not very afraid of blessing magic. Even if they are touched by it, they will only be weakened for a short period of time and still need to be killed by external force - otherwise, the church would not have so many night watchmen.
Normally, if a high-ranking priest tries to identify vampires by casting blessing magic, most vampires will endure the discomfort and not reveal any clues... The blessing magic will make them as weak and tired as humans with a cold, and this is not an unbearable injury. After all, strong humans can also maintain their ability to move when infected with a cold.
But - the vampire trapped in the sacred prison obviously didn't dare to gamble.
Not only was she trapped in the confinement array of a high-ranking priest, but there were also dozens of undead spirits watching her closely.
Realizing that her identity had been exposed, the vampire who had been crying and begging for mercy a second ago suddenly changed her demeanor. She glared fiercely at the priest who had trapped her and uttered a sharp and vicious curse: "Damned evil god's lackey! Grand Duke Edwina will not let you go. You and these filthy hell maggots you rely on will eventually be torn to pieces by my compatriots!"
With a "bang", the ferocious vampire twisted its body and turned into a large ball of black mist, trying to penetrate the sacred prison - but failed.
Before his promotion, Yang Qiu didn't dare to guarantee that he could break through the confinement formation of the Black Robe Monitor, and this vampire certainly couldn't do it either.
The manic black fog was wriggling wildly in the prison. A terrifying human face condensed on the fog, screaming miserably: "I curse you despicable bastards! Die! I curse the shameful bloodline of the Leo family! You will eventually be destroyed! Your flesh and blood is a breeding ground for flies and bedbugs, and the pus flowing in your veins will corrode your stinking bodies! Go to hell, all of you!"
Lowell's expression changed slightly, and he subtly turned his head to look at Phoenix.
Phoenix seemed to have thought of something and frowned.
The vampire in the cell let out a sharp and creepy laugh. In the piercing laughter, the madly squirming black fog disintegrated bit by bit and turned into ashes. Cracks appeared on the hideous and terrifying human face, and something like smoke and black ash flew in the wind in the cracks.
In just a dozen seconds, the black fog in the cell completely turned into floating ashes... This vampire actually dissipated on its own!
"What the hell?!" The players were all dumbfounded, "The monster is gone??"
"Wait, something fell!" Tang Jia pointed sharply at the ground inside the cell, and quickly pounced forward like a hungry tiger, reaching his arms into the cell to dig around.
"Damn it, only one blood essence fell off!" Tang Jia cursed angrily as he pulled out a blood-colored bead from the ashes.
"What's going on? Don't all vampires drop a lot of essence?" Yang Ying also came over to help pick it up, "Huh? Is it really only one that dropped? What happened?"
"Could it be because the pretty boy stole the monsters? The NPC intervened, so the drops were reduced?" Miaobishenghua said in confusion.
Vampire Essence is a rare material. One piece can be exchanged for 200 to 400 points of territory reputation (depending on the quality). The internal auction price among players starts at 50 copper coins. According to the current floating rate of exchange between game coins and RMB, it is rounded off to several hundred yuan.
The last time, the Qin Guan Blood Alliance killed Hannah Connell, the vampire from Darcy's family, and lost twenty or thirty blood essences.
And now, after coming all the way here to complete the mission and finding the first monster with great effort, it only dropped one.
Blood-loss!
Even Entropy Bu Zeng, a player who played the game only for fun and not for profit, turned his head with a stern expression and looked at the monster snatcher with fiery eyes.
Rowell: “…”
——This vampire only has one blood essence, what does it have to do with me? !
Lowell took away the Holy Prison, ignored the murderous gazes of the undead with his strength, turned his head expressionlessly, and walked towards Phoenix.
These guys are obviously intelligent, but they are often unreasonable, and he is too lazy to waste time talking to them.
Behind him, some of the undead wanted to attack, while others tried to stop him: "Forget it, it's a long-term mission, it's not worth it to be cut back now..."
Rowell walked up to Phoenix with the inconspicuous veins on his forehead and whispered, "There's something wrong with this vampire."
Phoenix nodded slowly and solemnly: "Yes, monk."
Vampires replace someone mostly in order to gain an identity that makes it easier for them to function in human society.
This vampire disguised as a study maid cursed Leo's family before she died.
"Let's screen the remaining people first... I'll ask the Leo ." Phoenix said.
Lowell agreed with this and called on the undead to continue the identification.
The two girls, Miaobishenghua and Enbuteng, stared at Lowell and whispered a few words. Then, when they started to inquire, they called all the capable players to block Lowell in front of them to guard against this dishonest NPC who was stealing monsters.
Rowell: “…”
The veins on Rowell's forehead popped up again. I've already said that this vampire only has one essence. It's none of my business! I didn't steal your monster!
Lowell and Phoenix both breathed a sigh of relief as they failed to identify any vampires among the remaining servants. The players also looked at Lowell with even more hostility.
As usual, Lowell relied on his strength to ignore the hostility of the undead, and called over Miaobishenghua and Enbuteng, two undead ladies who could at least communicate with him, and also called over the head of the Leo family, the mistress of the house, the eldest son Coster, the chief butler, and the maid housekeeper.
These few people who knew all the secrets of the Coster family were left behind to sit on the chairs with azalea emblems tied to the armrests. The others were dismissed. When there were no more people left in the Fountain Square, Brother Lowell spoke seriously: "When the study maid Tiffany revealed her identity as a vampire, she called out the name of Grand Duke Edwina, the ancestor of vampires."
After a pause, Brother Lowell looked at the maid who had tears on her face and said, "She is not a replacement for the vampire. She chose to be transformed into a vampire herself."
The maid and the housekeeper looked numbly and looked at the black-robed inspector in astonishment.
Brother Lowell looked at the mother who had lost her daughter with pity. Although it was cruel, he had to tell her the truth: "After being transformed into a vampire, humans will forget their emotions as humans, and most of their memories as humans will also be forgotten, leaving only vague and hazy impressions... This is the reason why most humans who choose to become vampires will abandon their original identities without hesitation."
"Oh my God...how could this be--" The maid housekeeper raised her hands tremblingly and covered her mouth.
"You should have noticed something, ma'am." Brother Lowell sighed, "Your daughter's personality suddenly changed drastically in one year within five or ten years. This state should have lasted for quite a while."
The maid and the housekeeper lowered her head, her shoulders shaking.
The head and mistress of the Leo family, who were sitting on several other chairs, were stunned and then angry, and looked at the maid and housekeeper with dissatisfaction in their eyes.
"The maid Tiffany was transformed into a vampire after making all the preparations. She knew that she would lose her memory, so she must have left behind things that her transformed self must remember in letters and diaries," said Brother Lowell.
As the oldest high-level monsters, vampires are quite active in the continent of Nabarron. Before the shadow of the ancient gods' revival descended, high-level monsters like vampires were one of the most troublesome enemies for the orthodox sects everywhere.
Therefore, all Orthodox sects have a very detailed understanding of vampires.
The maid and the housekeeper suddenly looked up. Shock, fear, and terror exposed the vulnerable side of this conservative woman that she had hidden all her life. Tears streamed down her face, and she murmured in a dreamlike voice, "So that's how it is... No wonder, no wonder when she was twenty years old, she, she would... she would suddenly burn all the diaries she had been writing for several years..."
"And you never told us!" Leo's wife was so angry that she couldn't help but blurt out, "We treated you well! After you lost your husband, I took you in and took in your ungrateful daughter because we had been neighbors for many years! You didn't want your daughter to suffer in the factory, so I asked you to arrange for her to work in the study. Is this how you repay me, Mrs. Hill?"
"Please calm down, ma'am," Phoenix warned.
"I'm sorry, miss. I'm just too angry." Mrs. Leo covered her chest and said, "I really... I really didn't expect that my kindness would attract such a disgusting person who killed our nephew and cursed our family like that. I really am-"
"Mrs. Leo, do you know why the maid Tiffany cursed the Leo family?" Lowell suddenly interrupted.
"I, of course I don't know. I wish I knew!" Mrs. Leo was so angry when she was suddenly asked this question. But she couldn't get angry at the guests from Phoenix, so she just pinched the hem of her skirt and endured it.
"Mr. Leo, you don't know either?" Lowell looked at the man next to Mrs. Leo.
"I seldom care about family matters." Mr. Leo knew that Lowell was of an extraordinary status, and nodded politely in response.
Rowell nodded, his eyes swept over the butler and the maid-housekeeper: "How is Tiffany's relationship with Master Simpson?"
The maid and the housekeeper were in so much pain that they could not speak. The head housekeeper thought carefully before shaking his head and said, "Master Simpson occasionally goes to the study... but he rarely interacts with the maids. Tiffany... I know it's inappropriate to say this at this time, but she is indeed not a frivolous girl. In addition to taking care of the study, she stays in the flower room with the maids to do handicrafts..."
"Who often uses the study?" Lowell asked.
"It's Mr. Leo and..." The butler almost blurted out the answer, but when the answer was about to come out, he realized that it was wrong and was stuck for a moment.
"Speak." Phoenix urged lightly.
The butler of course knew who was the real owner sitting here, and he said timidly: "Master Koster...before getting married, he often stayed in the study."
Rowell nodded again, then turned his gaze to Master Coster.
Master Coster's complexion has been abnormal ever since he saw with his own eyes that the study maid Tiffany was actually a vampire. At this moment, sitting in a chair not far from where the vampire disappeared, his face was paler than anyone else present, and his lips were bloodless.
Standing by with his arms folded, he listened to the brilliant "plot cutscene" and said "Oh", bored, "That's what it's about? Koster is 27 and has been married for three years, and the maid Tiffany is 23 and single. The year Koster got married, Tiffany turned into a vampire. It's a revenge drama about a maid who was abandoned and betrayed by her lover?"
The players certainly didn't care whether they were giving the NPCs face or not. Mrs. Leo's face turned green, and Mr. Leo, who had always behaved very steadily and like a family head, also looked unnatural.
"What do you mean by abandonment and betrayal? They are not in that kind of relationship!" Mrs. Leo didn't dare to look at the skeleton face of the undead lady, but she was unwilling to endure her son being slandered. "How can Coster and a maid be a match!"
The maid and housekeeper seemed to have burst out with anger that had been pent up for a long time. She looked up at Mrs. Leo and said with hatred: "Yes, ma'am, it is indeed not a match now, but twelve years ago, before the Leo family was valued by Miss Phoenix's father, and before my husband and Mr. Leo drove for the Earl, it was you who found me and hoped to arrange a marriage for Master Coster and my daughter Tiffany in advance."
"It's just bad luck for our family. My husband was so unlucky that he had an accident while test-driving a new car! Such an expensive gas-powered car actually had an accident!"
When nobles travel, in addition to traditional horse-drawn carriages, they will of course also use magic pneumatic vehicles.
Of course, Count Odysseus had more than one coachman.
Phoenix's face was gloomy and he looked deeply at Mr. Leo.
The head of the Leo family, who was considered to be of considerable status in Moses Port, could hardly raise his head after being looked at like that.
Phoenix shook his head secretly.
Coster's wife is the eldest daughter of a poor baron's family in Port Moses. Compared to the daughter of a deceased coachman, the eldest daughter of a noble family is certainly worthy of marriage, and Phoenix can understand that.
But being able to understand it doesn't mean Phoenix will agree with it - the Leo family's greatest confidence and reliance is Count Odysseus's white glove status. Pursuing the wife of a down-and-out noble family to raise their status is simply not knowing the difference between the important and the unimportant.
Coster, who looks like a suitable successor, is also confused. His parents have already hired his ex-fiancée as a maid at home, making it clear that there is no possibility between them, but he still has an affair with Tiffany. It was only when they got married that he learned to keep his distance and suddenly became heartless.
Many thoughts flashed through his mind, but Phoenix didn't intend to delve into it further... After all, Tiffany's hatred and anger towards Simpson, whom she had the opportunity to contact, was due to the Leo family's own failure to do things nicely.
"Mrs. Hill, I am very sympathetic about all the misfortunes that have happened to your family. Although your daughter did something wrong due to extreme bias, it has nothing to do with you and you should not be implicated." Phoenix looked at the angry and sad maid and housekeeper and made a conclusion on the matter.
Mrs. Hill's facial muscles trembled again and again, and it seemed that she was very uneasy, but she also knew that her attitude had no weight, so she reluctantly lowered her head and responded in a low voice.
"Since your husband once served my father, your life should be guaranteed by the Odysseus family. Go back and pack your things. I will arrange for someone to send you to the southern plantation tomorrow. With your ability, you should be able to do the job of deacon." Phoenix said.
Mrs. Hill was already disheartened, but since the Earl's daughter had considered her affairs so carefully, she couldn't be ungrateful. She stood up with the help of the handrail , bowed deeply to Phoenix, looked at Leo and his wife with a complicated expression, and turned around resolutely.
Mrs. Hill staggered back to pack her luggage. Phoenix turned to the Leos and said in a deep voice, "The Simpson incident is regrettable, but it's not all Tiffany's fault. When my father handed over the shipping company in Moses Port to the Leos, he should have sent a housekeeper to instruct you not to underestimate the hatred in people's hearts, even if that person seems as humble as dust to you. Now I repeat this sentence again, and I hope you can remember it firmly."
It is not wrong to climb to a higher position by stepping on the corpses of former colleagues, but it is extremely stupid to keep the families of colleagues around and continue to trample on their self-esteem out of a twisted mentality of showing off!
Mr. and Mrs. Leo didn't dare to say a word, they just lowered their heads.
Phoenix said this, and the matter was over.
There was nothing wrong with her handling of the situation, except that Brother Lowell let out a slight sigh.
No one was punished...but there aren't many things in this world that can always be blamed.
Phoenix stood up and walked towards the two undead who were listening, and said politely: "The vampire risk of Leo's family has been eliminated, but there are still vampires lurking in Moses Port. The next investigation requires the assistance and support of the Moses Port Church. Can you two go with me to the local Night Watch headquarters?"
Miao Bi Sheng Hua and Entropy Bu Zeng had no interest in this old-fashioned and not-so-bloody plot of revenge in a house. They just started talking about their own things when they overheard halfway through. Now when they heard Phoenix mention the Night's Watch headquarters, their minds were full of fat and delicious exorcist missions. They happily responded, "Yes, Your Majesty!"
Phoenix: “…”
