"Yun Zhe, you bastard!" These were Nuremt's first words upon returning victorious.

Yun Zhe naturally knew what was wrong with Nyrent. First, he didn't want to have a conflict with the other party on his territory. Second, he didn't want to use the tactics Yun Zhe had arranged to fight. Although he won, he was very unhappy with the victory.

"Oh dear, our casualty ratio is actually quite good, isn't it? If we don't come up with some strategies, how can we possibly defeat an opponent who outnumbers us twice as much?"

Newrent was still unhappy because even if they won the war, it would be Yun Zhe's achievement, and everyone would think Yun Zhe was amazing, instead of thinking about what contribution Newrent had made.

"Of course, the most important thing is the on-site command. Command is actually very important. If it were someone else, they wouldn't be able to handle it smoothly and bring out the power of my formation." Yun Zhe quickly comforted Newton.

Newton's mood improved somewhat, but he frowned and asked with genuine concern, "This time we used veterans. If we had used greenhorns or farmers, would we have been able to achieve the same results?"

Upon learning that Nyrent was genuinely worried about whether his method would yield different results with different soldiers, Yun Zhe smiled wryly and said, "Don't worry, the current soldiers aren't up to par yet, but the soldiers three months from now certainly will. Of course, it would be best if they first experienced some battle training, which would give both them and me more confidence."

Nuremt shrugged, making it sound easy that he'd had some experience in battle, but where would he find such a suitable opportunity for his soldiers to adapt?

“You think it’s impossible? Actually, there’s such an opportunity right now,” Yun Zhe said with a smile. “These soldiers are no good, but it’s a good time to train those mercenaries.”

When the mercenaries were mentioned, Newrent perked up. He had also inquired about their backgrounds. The leader was Jelock, who was very close to Yun Zhe, which made Newrent suspect that Yun Zhe had very cleverly built his own private army.

"What opportunity?"

"Bandits and thugs, with years of war, there are indeed quite a few of them on our land. It'll be good for them to practice. But I'll also leave some behind so that the new recruits three months from now can also get a taste of it," Yun Zhe said with a wicked smile.

Hearing about bandits and robbers, Nyrent smiled helplessly. He had actually been dealing with this kind of problem recently. Because his fiefdom had been less affected by the war, the people there were relatively wealthy, which inevitably attracted bandits and robbers from the surrounding area. Just a few days before the Winter Solstice, he had personally led a group of bandits to wipe out a band of robbers entrenched in the southern part of his fiefdom.

"We're not really going to send them to the battlefield, are we?" Nuremt really meant to ask if there wouldn't be a major war between them and the Duke of Field.

"It was hard to say before, but after two consecutive failures, I think they'll be more cautious. Now it's time for Blake to have his headache-inducing negotiations. Let him worry about it; we just need to handle our own affairs." Yun Zhe remained optimistic about the future.

“Sind is gone. I wonder who will come to talk to us this time…” Although Newton didn’t like Yun Zhe’s optimistic attitude just now, he could accept it if things really developed as Yun Zhe said. He just felt a strange sour feeling in his heart.

Yun Zhe didn't respond this time. Sind's departure was a result of Yun Zhe using his bloodline advantage to control Sind. However, it was clear that this control would continue indefinitely, which was Yun Zhe's greatest worry. As a vampire himself, Yun Zhe understood all too well what vampires were capable of.

"What a pity, we shouldn't have let him go. We need to find a way to get rid of this vampire, Sind." Yun Zhe looked at the militia and troops assembling in the distance and fell into deep thought.

Meanwhile, Sinde, now fully conscious, was also pondering the same question: how could he kill Yun Zhe? Besides figuring out this, what puzzled Sinde even more was why Yun Zhe hadn't killed him immediately. Because, putting himself in Yun Zhe's shoes, he certainly wouldn't have let Yun Zhe leave Donic alive.

"There must be some kind of conspiracy involved!" Sind thought fiercely, but he couldn't figure out what the conspiracy was.

However, he still had a backup plan. He also converted two vampires, who were probably causing trouble in Donic City right now. In this way, at least the matter of the Vampire Guild finally saw hope again.

That very night, Yun Zhe led his team back to Donic City, only to discover a pervasive sense of panic lurking in the streets and alleys. Within a single day, three adults and a child had been drained of their blood and died. This utterly terrified the citizens, who hadn't seen vampires in years.

Yun Zhe found Luke, who was in charge of the city's defenses, and he was discussing the day's events with Todd, who was in charge of guarding Serena. They truly had no experience dealing with vampires. And at this moment, there were no vampire hunters in the city, which made them extremely anxious.

So when they saw Yun Zhe coming to find them, the two of them looked at him with pleading eyes almost simultaneously, like children who had encountered a math problem looking at their teacher.

Yun Zhe inwardly groaned, wishing Jelock were here right now. Looks like he wouldn't be getting any rest tonight. But he still needed to get the basic information.

The bodies were discovered at noon and in the evening. First, a blacksmith's apprentice found the bodies of two men in a coal pile behind the blacksmith's shop. The scene was horribly disturbed; the men were not only dead but also almost torn to pieces. Then, in the evening, a returning woodcutter found the bodies of a woman and her child in the woods outside the city. Although their bodies were intact, they were drained of their contents more thoroughly…

Yun Zhe frowned. His businesslike, emotionless demeanor impressed Luke and Todd greatly. Yun Zhe ignored their thoughts. The scene was beyond repair, but based on their accounts, Yun Zhe deduced it was the work of two vampires. And since they committed the crimes during the day, they must have been wearing rings. Therefore, they were unlikely to be ordinary vampires.

Yun Zhe couldn't help but suspect that this act of violence, committed in broad daylight, was a form of defiance. And the target of this defiance was clearly himself.

Yun Zhe didn't offer any suggestions to please the two. However, he did agree to help Luke with his night patrol. This gesture left Luke speechless. In his view, there was only so much Yun Zhe could do against vampires. And the greatest support Yun Zhe could offer was this most unavoidable solution: joining them on night patrol.