Ye Ming stopped in his track. He was debating whether he should take off his hood.
When the patrol squad leader saw that Ye Ming was just standing there motionlessly, he got even more suspicious. “Take off your hood,” he demanded again.
“I’m just passing by, sir.”
“Cut the crap! I asked you to take off your hood,” warned the patrol squad leader in a stern voice. He was ready for combat. The fact that the suspicious man was hesitant to reveal himself must mean that he had something to hide. When the other patrol squad members saw their leader being on alert, they also prepared themselves.
Ye Ming slowly raised his head. Under the cover of the hood, the patrol squad leader could only see his mouth and chin. His dark eyes were completely hidden.
“Take off your hood, NOW. We don’t have time to waste. Either that, you’ll have to come with us,” the patrol squad leader demanded impatiently.
Ye Ming’s mouth curled into a weird smile. Before the guards realised it, he had accelerated past them and was running towards the city gate!
“Catch him!” the patrol squad leader shouted angrily. He did not know why the man was running, but the fact that he was running indicated that there was definitely something fishy about him.
About five or six patrol guards chased after Ye Ming, but Ye Ming had already left them in the dust. However, the patrol squad leader’s shout managed to draw the attention of the other patrol guards in the vicinity. In but a few seconds, several other patrol squads were running towards Ye Ming from different directions.
Ye Ming put more strength into his legs to increase his speed. When he turned around to look, he found more than 20 Malkavian patrol guards chasing after him, and the number was gradually increasing.
The distance between the two sides was less than 60 meters. Ye Ming was already running at full speed. The two sides maintained this distance for some time. By now, Ye Ming had already left Arthuria and was out in the wild.
He turned back again to look. The guards were refusing to give up. However, their numbers had stopped increasing. Ye Ming roughly estimated there to be over thirty of them.
‘I can’t run forever. I must find a way to eliminate them.’
Ye Ming looked back again. He realised that the pursuers varied in individual abilities. There was a distance of more than twenty meters separating the guard running in the lead and the guard at the very back. Direct confrontation was certainly not an option. There were simply too many of them. Even if they all turned out to be just Viscount-rank, Ye Ming still had no chance. No matter how powerful he had become, there was no way he could deal with more than thirty Vampires at the same time.
Therefore, Ye Ming formulated a lure-and-kill plan in his head. He deliberately slowed down. When the guard running in the lead saw that, he thought Ye Ming must be running out of energy, so he ran even harder to catch up to Ye Ming, leaving the guard in second place behind by some distance.
Ye Ming secretly smiled. This was exactly the result he was after. He continued to slow down. In the span of a few breaths, the guard in the lead had already caught up to him.
Ye Ming abruptly turned his head back and launched a mental attack on the guard. The guard wailed in pain. Ye Ming took the opportunity leap to his side and pierced the Vampiric Dagger into his chest.
After completely draining the opponent’s Vitae, Ye Ming felt his energy restored. He abandoned the corpse and continued running. When the second enemy arrived at the spot, all that was left was a dried-up corpse.
The whole sequence happened in the blink of an eye. The second enemy was furious. He accelerated and continued to chase after Ye Ming.
Ye Ming looked back again. This time, there were three enemies. The three had broken away and were more than twenty meters ahead of the large group behind them. Ye Ming slowed down. When the three guards saw that, they also thought Ye Ming was getting tired, just like the first guard who died earlier. The three Vampires exchanged glances and ran even faster to catch up to Ye Ming.
When Ye Ming deemed that the time was ripe, he launched two consecutive mental attacks on two of the pursuers, one after another. Caught by surprise, the two guards fell to the ground wailing in pain. Ye Ming rapidly ran past one of them, claiming the guard’s life as he did so. Having eliminated one, he quickly launched a mental attack on the third enemy while simultaneously slashing the second enemy.
It took Ye Ming less than three seconds to kill two enemies, and he killed the third one shortly after by throwing his dagger at him. After retrieving his dagger, he kept fleeing. By the time those at the back arrived, Ye Ming was already more than 10 meters ahead.
He turned back and taunted the opponents, “Come on! There are so many of you, and you can’t catch one single enemy?”
His action truly provoked the other side. The remaining dozen-odd Vampires were so furious that their blood was boiling. A few of the more rash ones had even accelerated to catch up to Ye Ming.
Ye Ming was pleased to see someone rush out of the group. “Good man. Would’ve been bad if you guys decide to stick together.”
He ran a bit more to let those guards pull further away from the main group. When he deemed that the timing was right, he turned around and eliminated the enemies in the same way. After killing this batch of guards, Ye Ming pulled down his hood to reveal his identity.
“I’m the wanted criminal. Catch me if you can, fools.”
This move of his was no doubt a shot in the arm for the pursuers. At first, a few of the guards were ready to give up, but when Ye Ming revealed himself, they were full of motivation again. They would get a huge bounty reward if they could catch the criminal. Anyone would feel motivated.
Seeing that he had given the pursuers enough encouragement, Ye Ming ran once again. He continued implementing the lure-and-kill strategy.
After a few more exchanges, he had eliminated eight more guards. By now, the remaining pursuers were speechless. They finally realised that they might have been tricked.
The criminal was clearly playing them like a fiddle. The reason he was doing this was so that he could divide and conquer. One among the remaining pursuers shouted, “We can’t let him do that again! We must act together or he’ll pick us off one by one!”
“That right. Contain your greed. Let’s act together.”
And so, none of the remaining pursuers broke away. They made sure that they were all two to three meters from each other as they continued chasing after Ye Ming.
Ye Ming looked back from time to time while he ran. When he saw that none of the remaining pursuers would stupidly rush ahead anymore, he realized that they must have discovered his scheme.
He counted the number of pursuers left. There were seven of them. Not long ago, outside the Dark Mountains, he had dealt with six Vampires at the same time. There was one more this time, but he should be able to handle it.
Ye Ming suddenly stopped and turned around to face the group behind him.
When the pursuers saw Ye Ming suddenly stopping, they thought he was playing some kind of trick, so they also stopped to observe him from 20 meters away.
Ye Ming panted heavily and put on a tired act. “No, no more running. I’m so tired. Come on, let’s end this right here.”
The guards exchanged looks. Perhaps because they had the overwhelming advantage in numbers, they decided that it was worth a try. They nodded at each other to encourage each other. The seven guards then rushed at Ye Ming together.
Ye Ming simultaneously activated {Embrace of Pain} and {Blood Demon Body Technique}. He turned into a trail of afterimages and clashed with the opponents.
By the time Ye Ming stopped again, he had sprinted past the group. Seven corpses fell to the ground.