Blood and Qi: A Vampire Xianxia LitRPG

“Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey!”

John opened his eyes. His dantian wasn’t close to full and stood a bit under three-quarters. Lilly’s face had a wide smile, and she wore new clothings. “You changed,” said John.

“My clothes were filthy. I switched to my low-level cultivation robe since you flat-out refused to acknowledge how cute my outfit was. My extraordinary fashion is completely wasted on you. And this is better protection from the sun too. I wish I could attune items. Oh, see those?” Lilly pointed at some ritual circles she placed in the few open areas that remained. “I had some good ideas. Some rituals I didn’t consider, but I think your essence can power them.”

Lilly walked over to John and wrapped her arms around his neck, leaned over, and placed her head on his cheek. “You have no idea the fortune in material cost I’ve used up. Most of my stock of Exalted blood and some chalk that cost almost two whole light-purple crystals. Your sugar-mama’s squandering her wealth. I hope you won’t divorce me when I’m destitute.”

John laughed loudly and Lilly shooshed him. “We shouldn’t be so loud.”

John continued to softly chuckle for a few moments. That was an old joke between them. John kept Lilly away from Kayhamut after they were married. He disliked the hate her people caused in her. They spent much time in Babilim as the city was on the rise, but traveled all the civilized areas of the world, and even far outside of it while looking for magic and John’s birthplace. For centuries he avoided Kayhamut.

Lilly began to complain that John always controlled all their wealth. He agreed to let her control the wealth he carried with them but told his wife she’d have to lug it around herself then. They somehow ended up in Kayhamut soon after, and Lilly squandered all the wealth paying the emperor to enslave her own people.

John was furious Lilly did so. They had the biggest argument they had ever had. Afterwards, she bought him a stick of meat and said, “This street food is all I could afford. I hope you won’t leave me now that I’m destitute.” He thought it was a funny enough joke that he forgave her for squandering his wealth, for not understanding the correct ways of vengeance, and making a mockery of it.

“You hated your people with such fire,” John said.

“I do. You know what they did to me.”

John grunted. He didn’t want to rehash any of that. “The ritual. You said you’d explain it now.”

Squeezing John’s neck, Lilly said. “Your wish is my command, my pretty little monkey. Tell me the difference between a body formation and a body refinement.”

His mind came up mostly blank, so John said, “One forms and the other refines?”

Lilly laughed. “Such detail! But you’re not wrong.

“Formations make what’s there different, incorporate something in, or add to it. The changes become…they increase on ascending tiers. The better ones increase three or four physical and fortification [Stats] by two to four points at Bronze. It can really shore up weaknesses, especially for specialists. Getting a body at Copper isn’t usually smart, so I don’t know what you could expect.

“Refinements make what’s there better by improving on the good and removing the bad. They improve the whole vessel, making it more powerful. They scale. The better the body gets with rank ups and ascension, the more impactful the improvements from the refinement become. It increases the Minimum Energy Unit efficiencies of two to four [Stats] by about two to eight percent. That’s huge, even if it doesn’t sound like it.

“[Sunfire Body of the Slave-Empress] refines the body with the sun, but it also incorporates a few aspects of the sun into the body. It’s both a refinement and a formation. All the high-graded bodies are.”

Removing her arms from around John’s neck, Lilly looked up. “The story goes she was a low-tiered slave forced to fight in a labyrinth for a thousand years. That would explain the ridiculous requirements. Let’s see. I added them to a note earlier.” She made a strange hand gesture. “Rule for a hundred and forty-three years as…well, king or emperor in your case. I’m surprised you ruled that long. You always hated ruling, even the cities we founded together.

“Only four hundred and nine years as a slave, so that doesn’t match up with the story at all. Terran years, standard years would be about, oh, less than three hundred. Poisoned a thousand times. Stabbed ten thousand. A million dead enemies. And on and on and crazier and crazier. Why would you ever allow yourself to be lashed so many times? Or starved for so long? Or be a slave at all?”

John grunted again. “I told you I was nearly killed and was imprisoned for a long while before we met. Once, I was imprisoned for so long, I nearly wasted down to nothing. I was then forgotten about to waste away more. That really hurt the state of my mind. I never fully recovered. I was freed not too long before I met Thomas. Every time I was a prisoner, being lashed was the least of the tortures inflicted upon me.

“Sometimes I wanted to be a slave to hide or relax and would spend a decade or so in a slave-mine or such. Who knows what counts as slavery. Is a serf a slave? How many places did we travel to where all the people under the lord or king were considered property? I was pressed into armies a thousand times. All in all, I’m sure I have far more years as a slave and ruler than you just quoted. I ruled many places for long periods before we met. I never liked it. And you know why I disliked it so much after the times we ruled together. You killed so many of our…”

The memories of what Lilly did to the people they ruled over caused an anger in John he struggled to stifle.

Lilly poked John’s nose with her index finger and said, “Boop! And that’s why I changed the ritual, my dear heart. Higher-rated rituals are a mix of formation and refinement. I used a formation blank as a base because formation runes can…uh, consider more. Cast a wider net. I want it to factor in all you’ve been through, all that’s happened to that pretty little monkey body of yours.”

Hands snaking around John’s neck again, Lilly put her forehead back on his cheek before continuing. “The formation Sunfire used could’ve had an untyped base of either formation or refinement. They change after being first created. The new ritual is to reproduce the results and usually looks nothing like the original ritual. A different person doing the same initial ritual would have a completely different result.

“Sunfire’s body ended up being considered a refinement. It could’ve gone either way, but it refined more, so the ritual the NCS made to reproduce her results is a refinement. Yours could be too. It has plenty of both components. It just uses a formation blank. We won’t know what it ends up being until you have it.

“So, we’re not limiting ourselves to the body of some cock-hungry whorebag that lived a gazillion years ago. We’re aiming for better. Much better. How the sun was incorporated in hers was brilliant, so we’re keeping that, but incorporating it differently.

“I had to learn a lot about the sun and sunlight and Terra to make the other ritual. By the time it hits us, sunlight is extremely reduced from what the sun sends our way. I’m trying to tap more of the raw sunlight. And give you more of it. Much more. Bathe all your little pussy cells in the good stuff and make men of them. It’s going to hurt. It will be worth it, and body rituals almost always heal damage that’s caused by the ritual, so don’t worry, my heart’s content.”

Lilly let go of John and her phone flashed into her hand before disappearing again. “We have about fifteen minutes until dawn breaks and sunlight. We need to time this right. You ready to start powering some rituals and get an amazing body of your own? Or are you going to draw the one the NCS told you to?”

John entered his Mind’s Eye. Lilly wouldn’t be able to tell he did because it would seem instantaneous to her. Without needing to ask, Avatar said, “I can’t comment on anything, John. Check the info function of your NCS, it won’t give you any info on the rituals.”

Avatar sighed. “I can only recommend rituals I know, ones you do or will qualify for, and I can only confirm the rituals you make yourself are the correct ones. I can’t recommend you do something of unknown result that could hurt or hinder you when there are such highly rated and extremely rare known options available to you.”

Avatar smiled and cupped her hands. “Do you want to know our body [Perk] recommendation now since [Sunfire Body of the Slave-Empress] requires the noon sun and more harmony than you currently have the capacity for?”

John said, “No, thank you, Avatar,” and exited his Mind’ Eye.

“I’m ready to…uh, do the ritual you made. And thank you for putting so much effort and wealth into this, Lilly. It’s good to have you back with me. I thought of you every day you were gone. And I swear your effort will not go to waste. I will protect you. I will not fall until you have escaped to safety.”

Lilly smiled sadly. “Well, don’t forget that you thought you killed me, so saying you thought of me so much is kind of a backhanded compliment. If you feel like killing me again, we should talk about it first. Maybe believe me when I say I’m onto something. Help me when all I wanted was to get our souls back and not have the cold-dark as our fate.”

Crossing her arms over her chest, smile gone, Lilly continued. “Eternals have told me what my soul looks like. That priest friend of yours told me too. Guess how dark yours is? I may not have the same number of white spots as you, but we both have far too much dark. Why was it always okay for you to kill a hundred soldiers whenever you felt like it, but when I killed a couple peasants and some babies it’s the end of the world and I’m the evil one!?”

Tears started to roll down Lilly’s cheeks and she tried to hide her crumpled up crying-face behind her hands. “It’s not fair. You killed in numbers I never came close to. If I’m so bad, how’re you not worse? Can’t we just love each other for who we are without all the judgment? I never once got mad at you for killing anyone. I was such a supportive wife. I still am. Go mad. Kill everyone. I won’t hold it against you. The only person I care if you kill is me, and you said you thought you did! Why? It hurts so much. Why did you kill me?”

John pulled Lilly to him and held his wife as she sobbed. “I’m sorry I killed you. Killing soldiers in battle is not the same as murdering peaceful people and babes that did nothing to warrant it. There are good reasons to kill. Battle, safety, insults, slander, property – everyone has always agreed those are good, acceptable, and necessary reasons to kill for. I can’t allow you to kill innocent people wantonly. Please don’t go back to your old ways. Please. For me. You know I love you.”

Lilly dried her eyes with the sleeve of the new robe she wore. She half smiled and said, “I told you I wouldn’t. That I’d improve. For you. Just don’t be so quick with jumping straight to murdering me if I make a few mistakes this time. And peasants were never allowed to kill for most of the reasons you stated, only important people.”

The look on Lilly’s face became serious. “Oh, and the plan isn’t for me to escape. It’s for both of us to live through this. That’s our goal. If you can kill them, fine. If you can escape, you will. Period. No arguments. You run. I won’t ask you to promise because I’m not asking. I’m telling you. If you die when you could’ve escaped, I think I’d go mad with grief. If I do, I fear for all the terrible things that would happen to your friends. Truly terrible and horrific things. And I don’t think this world you love so much would survive my madness and grief either.”

Smiling, Lilly wrapped her arms tightly around John. “Now give your wife a nice big squeeze to show me how much you love me before we get started. Let me adjust this heal-bug. That’s staying on. It will help heal the damage the ritual causes. All your armor and clothes you don’t want destroyed must be removed though, including that ring and bracer.”

John looked over at Lilly in her protective bubble of whitish purple. She nodded. The sky had just begun to lighten with the first signs of daylight, and it was officially a new day. He couldn’t see the sun, but its early light shone through the window weakly.

In the far distance, through the window, John saw someone run along a roof. The person was being chased by a hooded-woman and chose to jump off the roof over being caught. He wished he could’ve helped.

John began to imbue essence into the connected rituals. Lilly had said body rituals go quickly, and she had never seen one take longer than a couple minutes, so the process should be over soon.

The first and second of the connected rituals activated at nearly the same time. The first destroyed the wall facing east and part of the ceiling. The second enclosed the room in a whitish-purple protective bubble.

The wall being gone would severely weaken the ritual that made John and Lilly harder to sense, and the large protective bubble would make sensing where they were much easier. Lilly said to assume the shadows, and whatever else was out there, would start heading towards them as soon as the wall was gone. She thought, or hoped, the ritual would be over by the time they arrived.

The third of the connected rituals activated. That ritual somehow collected the power of the sun and would soon direct that power at John. It would take some time to build up, and he was told to prepare for some pain when it was released at him.

The fourth of the connecting rituals was the body formation ritual. It lit up slowly and hummed with a strange power. John’s body began to tingle, and a thrumming started in his head. He lost his ability to sense outwards, and all he could hear was the thrumming. It felt as if everything under his skin, all of what was inside of him, was all replaced with ants crawling around, trying to claw their way out.

The orb-eye was fixed in location and refused to be moved. John was thankful it faced backwards and behind him, as he was unable to sense what was around him any longer.

Fright entered John. He became too nervous and anxious. Everything felt wrong, and he greatly wanted to exit the circle. He had to. He clamped down on his emotions and forced himself to stay. Lilly told him all he had to do was stay in the circle until it ended, and he’d know when it ended, and not to leave the circle early, no matter what happened.

John tried meditating, but the thrumming in his head and all the danger he felt made doing so impossible. He cleared his head and tried to focus on his breathing and cycling technique. The thrumming in his head began to thrum faster. Hearing the loud ‘whomp, whomp, whomp,’ noise over and over and increasing in speed was doing a number on his ability to maintain his calm and focus.

With his knees nearly buckling from dizziness, John began to scratch himself madly all over. He wanted to exit the circle. He wanted to scream. He did neither. He itched himself and squirmed around and prayed it would end soon.

John wasn’t in much pain. He had felt much greater agony, pain unimaginable, and he would much prefer the worst of all he’d felt over whatever strangeness was happening to him. He had never felt such weird and disquieting discomfort. He had never felt a greater sense of wrongness. And it could all end if he stepped out of the circle.

Just as John decided to scream to see if he could hear something other than the maddening thrumming, two dark shadows crested the floor but were blocked from entering the room by the protection bubble. The two dark shadows split into four less-dark shadows and began to beat on the bubble.

Great gods below, thought John through the maddening thrumming in his head.