Chapter 99: The Truth of One’s Origins

“Why?” Qian Ye was indeed perplexed. In his eyes, it was hard to imagine a more harmless creature than this dazed little girl.

“I caught a whiff of ancient vampire essence in her blood. Though faint, she does possess the ancient vampire lineage.”

“What? This is true?” Qian Ye was visibly surprised.

“No mistake,” Ye Tong affirmed solemnly.

Qian Ye’s countenance darkened, lapsing into a pensive silence.

Nan Gong Xiaonia descended from the prestigious Nan Gong Clan, being originally a direct heir. Hence, how could she potentially carry vampire blood within? Admittedly, a very diluted heritage would be negligible. However, if it was thick indeed, she would face awakening – gradually transforming into a vampire herself. When set against vampires, humans generally have meager bloodline power, which often causes defeat within such conflicts.

Qian Ye himself had been embroiled in vampire conflicts for over a decade, having acquired the powers associated with blood essence a number of years previous. He comprehended intimately the power contained within these vampiric gifts. Yet now his heart swelled with further distress. Nan Gong Xiaonia, under Empire law, should be executed by immolation upon discovery. Her condition would require termination, as dictated by the ruling edicts, to forestall the spreading darkness.

Xiaonia, however, had contributed unwaveringly to Black Flow City. Lacking her assistance, even Song Zining wouldn’t have been able to withstand countless assaults. Perhaps she even remained utterly unaware concerning this inner vampire essence. Knowing only too well these frigid rulings, how might he act according to this iron decree towards her?

Considered alongside this, was Qian Ye not himself steeped in vampiric energy – even going sofar as forming a blood nexus? His side bore silent witness to Ye Tong—the pure-bred vampiress, once a royal maiden of the Menros.

Observing Qian Ye in silence, Ye Tong seemed lost in some private musing.

With a deep breath: “Whom else is aware of this?” Qian Ye asked.

“No one,” answered Ye Tong with a shake of her head.

Qian Ye exhaled relief and confirmed: “Indeed, good. Remember – share no words about this.”

Ye Tong expressed a flicker of gladness within her deep eyes, which she quickly buried away – barely perceptible to him but a mere silent nod, “Of course.”

Qian Ye however wore a furrowed line across his brow: whether potent or merely a shadow in her being, Xiaonia was afflicted by potential disaster. Still – as she seemingly possessed nothing overwhelming, so long the blood ran weakly, they remained unburdened temporally.

Pausing for breath: “This is but one portion. Another matter concerning her blood, Qianye…” A subtle moment’s hesitation filled the silence.

“What now?”

“I discerned within her blood – traces, yes, yet undeniably so – the very essence of First Genesis.”

“Surely not!” Shock overtook Qian Ye; greater than when first unveiled Xiaonia bore vampiric inheritance. For should anyone or thing bear the tincture of the First Vampire Sires, that spelled uncounted complication unfalteringly.

Regaining his composure slightly: “Do we know of which progenitor this might derive?“ he questioned cautiously.

A deliberate nod of affirmation from Ye Tong, “Menlao’s ancestral sire indeed – High Monarch Anduya Dark-Winged.”

“Anduya! And South palace, too?” Qian Ye’s thoughts flashed vividly as lightening cutting across his awareness, remembering his encounter with Anduya, whose dying request entrusted Qian Ye to find descendants of Nan Gong Yuqing’s blood line.

Qian Ye once probed historical annals belonging to House Nan Gong searching for trace or mention of Nan Gong Yuqing to no available conclusion – nor had he ever located a single sign or whisper concerning her, even through intermediaries like Song Zining. He had assumed the connection was distant and speculative at best; House Nan Gong itself traced through centuries worth of sprawling lineage branches that numbered into hundreds of thousands today.

Abandoning pursuit of this phantom figure over years gone, awaiting fate’s hand instead, he never imagined it entailing Nan Gong Xiaonia so profoundly.

Lost momentarily to reflection deep within his mind, a decision dawned. He would confront Nan Gong regarding her ancestry directly. Communicating such to Tong, he stood promptly and sought Xiaonia’s whereabouts.

In her personal workshop immersed fully within constructing an elegant miniature mechanism, precise in nature, lay Nan Gong. Spread beside her lay a mosaic of components amounting to dozens – and yet together they constituted no more than the smallest coin-sized apparatus.

Clearing his throat lightly, he stirred Xiaonia from focused contemplation.

“Xiye… you have returned…” Nervousness reappeared instantly within Nan Gong even at the soft disturbance – her voice quavering.

Without hastening: “‘What engages your hands today?’“, he probed gently – unready to burden her too rapidly regarding revelations far too vast.

“I assemble a critical control nexus. Once connected with our systems, multi-operations can be synchronized simultaneously. That drastically minimizes our artillery’s operational charge latency,” her words steadied – re-entering familiar professional domains with natural ease.

“Brilliant,” he remarked genuinely astonished by her delicate craftsmanship even despite shallow grasp over mechanical art.

“Erm… Thank you,” flustered Xiaonia responded ungracefully.

Sitting opposite her: “Bird, there are grave matters needing your ear.”

“I understand already! You mean matters entailing Lady Yeting’s heart towards your side! No need further explain. Please, no more!” Suddenly emotional, Xiaonia’s voice trembled like breaking waves before she fell silent, eyes fixed on her trembling hands – unable to meet Qianye’s steady gaze.

Taken aback Qian Ye countered softly yet surely: “Tis something else entirely.”

“Of… me,” she questioned with rising uncertainty.

He chose clarity: “You hold a tenuous bond to vampiric birthright. Have you been cognizant all along of this inheritance?”

Her physical response mirrored an internal fracture – every bone stilled rigid, breath held momentarily before a gradual rise of her features – to lock within those penetrating inquiries that had sought truths so long evanescent.

“You have come knowing this then?” came her eerily even tone.

“This neither alters nor binds affection I hold towards people,” Qian Ye replied.

“I was aware.”

“So you have carried this burden of knowledge,” his affirmation met by a nod in confirmation.

“Truth be known,” she laughed bitterly. “…in my house the inheritance no longer carries secrets. Without such lineage, how else would tragedy find us?”

She swallowed audibly before offering final resignation: “Since knowledge has already been unveiled upon your heart – shall you now destroy or forsake the vessel I remain?”

“Certainly not either,” Qian Ye negated firmly then questioned next: “Could this ancestral tie stem from a woman named, Nan Gong Yuqing?”

Gasping aloud she could only manage fragmented reply: “But… how can you?”

Recognizing truth confirmed through her shock, realization deepened regarding the obscured history surrounding Yuqing—given that Xiaonia descended of Nan Gong main house, it baffled him how absolutely every scrap concerning Nan Gong Yuqin could be expunged.

Eventually steadiness replaced tumult: “Very well—answer truly what shall be required now. No evasions further exist,” the two now sharing unbroken trust within the moment’s depth.

Yuqing, having been a legendary prodigy of her generation during Nan Gong house infancy in mid-grade Clan rank amidst Empire’s aristocracy — was sought eagerly in marriage by Imperial heirs under Grand Sire Nan Gong Canghai’s grand visions to expand familial power toward dominium proportions.

A youthful beauty whose martial talents blossomed precociously—her life took an abrupt and grievous course change during an adolescent martial pilgrimage expedition wherein she vanished entirely, guarded then gone alongside a number of family guardians. Years turned. House Nan Gong, undeterred by exhaustive search, met dead ends without exception.

Until Yuqing emerged from the wilderness unknown, bearing dual offspring within her arms—returning shattered yet unbroken.

Her arrival precipitated unspeakable disgrace across the family name. Through threats, through cajoling – Canghai extracted not a single word from her resolute spirit regarding children’s origins or paternal identities. Anger surged, execution imminent—Yet destiny intervened.

Upon examination of offspring – their latent potential and potent vampirish infusion stunned the House. Rather than obliterate as initially decreed, captivity over killing arose from ambition. Confined and dissected. And Yuqing, erased from existence. A decree forbidding speaking her very name followed suit; her being expurgated comprehensively across generations.

Generations rolled on. Yuqing’s legacy faded irretrievably. Her offspring grew within captivity’s darkness bearing their own generations—yet blood dilution hastened unexpectedly across lineage tracings—by the fifth generation nearly extinct.

Approaching final decades – Canghai’s mortal term neared. In his final hours a directive surfaced to free descendants, integrating them into thin-veined distant Nan Gong family branches—hiding truth so deeply buried across ages until arriving upon Xiaonia’s own existence.

“My own ancestor was elder son among those fated two youths… Though across the centuries, sole remaining line falls to me.”

Qian Ye pieced these fragments now – understanding erased historical trails surrounding Yuqing entirely expunged – memories scrubbed by decree and time. Survivors too were gone, all paths extinguished long since, never to be followed.

Yet another piece of this dark narrative stirred suspicion: “Precisely… to investigate… what?” pressed Qian Ye urgently.

Nail biting tightly shut as Xiaonia whispered: “To forge the synthesis between human and vampirish lineages!”

Qian Ye was stunned beyond words into stilled silence at such declaration echoing dread throughout the annals of bloodline history.

Intimacy between human and vampire yielded commonly known results – blood thralls as servitors, or rarely true transformation known as “Embracing.” Ultimately vampiric forces asserted inevitable dominion—devouring humanity from within; even within his own path Anduuya had once spoken those fateful words: when ancient sire lines reawaken, the human blood will one day be swallowed entirely — rationality collapsing into feral beast hunger.

Qian Ye recognized this all too intimately through inner experiences and trials of his own.

“Their minds were forfeit. Such was price paid by the pure-blood,” he murmured in stunned realisation.

“No – not warriors. Not destruction,” came Xiaonia’s voice thick with fury: “But longevity — immortality – their true obsession.”

Qian Ye flinched in his own mind: “Seeking… eternal existence…”

Even Dukes among vampire clans were not true immortals; centuries of dormancies dominated vampirlic lives. Subtracting hibernations, their awakened years barely exceeded others in longevity: only by a factor a few over lifetimes compared to spider-maids or wolfkin. Still, that far exceeds mere man’s brief years on soil.

Many sought through various vampiric fusion experiments to extend life through genetic intermixing — Nan Gong Canghai among countless others who pursued this path. Yet history had demonstrated conclusively how the odds failed cruelly upon such gambling.

Yuqing gave birth to two vampire-fied blooded infants whose wills however stayed fully intact — a dreamlike equilibrium many lords coveted through countless futile attempts.

Yet the reality proved cruel; lifespan extension was non-existent. As generations passed, the vampires’ legacy thinned alarmingly — all indicators leaning towards their vampiric patriarch possessing inferior powers – likely belonging to lesser blooded aristocrat ranks.

And still an uneasiness coiled within Qianyé’s mind— if even descendants belonging to Dark-Wings’ progenitor Anduya bore weaker strains, then whose blood indeed would bear dominance sufficient for victory in these ancestral wars? What other ancient line possessed superior supremacy against his own awakening lineage?