Chapter 185: Surprise on the Plane
"How come you're here?" Carlyle Hamilton looked at the seat beside her, utterly puzzled.
"I bought a ticket for this flight and just happened to be assigned to this seat, so here I am!" Xu Yi shook his plane ticket in hand.
Carlyle and Xu Yi had stayed in Spolaro for three days. As an ancient city with a long history in Rome, there was an abundance of sights worth seeing.
Under the pretense of "thanking her savior," the two had spent three days together wandering around Spolaro.
Xu Yi finally had a chance to rest a bit, firstly to allow his injured soul some relief, and secondly, to wait for the return of the Annabelle doll.
When they emerged from the Land of Ceris, they were forcibly separated by the chaotic spatial passage.
Fortunately, Annabelle was quick-witted and immediately put Xu Yi's Alchemy Revolver into the Treasure Box after realizing something was amiss.
Although they were both in Rome, they were several cities apart. It took three days for the Annabelle doll to find him.
"I remember this flight doesn't seem to be going to New York, right?" Carlyle wanted to take out her ticket for a look; she remembered Xu Yi saying he lived in New York.
"Did I say I was going to New York? My destination is Cambridge in Boston," Xu Yi replied truthfully.
"What are you doing in Boston?" Carlyle asked, her heart tentatively hopeful.
"I'm preparing for an admissions interview at MIT," Xu Yi answered softly.
The so-called admissions interview was merely a formality, not only because of his grades but more importantly, the Church had already arranged with MIT for him to join the "Mysterious Blood Research Group."
Last time he visited the Land of Ceris, the Church had promised that all exorcists involved could make a not too excessive request, and that was Xu Yi's request.
"The Blood Throne" required high-quality blood to complete promotion, and where else could one encounter large quantities of mysterious blood if not in various research labs?
In a world rife with anomalies, as the most exploratory and maddest of scientists, how could they not study these things?
In fact, every elite institution has some form of cooperation with the Church and organizations like the exorcists.
"So will you be staying in Boston for school?" Carlyle felt her heart flutter with joy.
She had come to Rome intending to apply to the Ballet Academy here, but chickened out at the last moment due to her nerves. Your next chapter is on empire
Now she had to settle for applying to the dance academy in Boston.
"Maybe going to school in Boston isn't so bad!" Carlyle stole a glance at Xu Yi.
Lately, she had been dreaming of the scene at the theater every night, where Xu Yi appeared like a hero descended from heaven, saving her from dire straits.
"By the way, when we parted last time, you said if we met again, you would tell me a secret. Can you tell me now?"
Xu Yi leaned in close to Carlyle, observing her innocent yet charming face intently.
"A secret? I was just talking nonsense," Carlyle quickly turned her head away to avoid Xu Yi's gaze, her face blushing all the way to her ears as her heart raced with nervous excitement.
Xu Yi didn't press further and shifted his gaze to look around.
His eyes were involuntarily drawn to a person in front of him on the right: a woman in her thirties with wavy hair and slightly dark skin, likely biracial.
The woman noticed him too, turning her head and giving Xu Yi a cold glance.
Xu Yi silently withdrew his gaze, his attention having been drawn to her because she was an exorcist, and an exceptionally powerful one at that.
Such a potent aura was hard to ignore.
"A Great Exorcist?" Xu Yi muttered to himself.
There were about two thousand Great Exorcists within the United States, which seemed numerous, but spread across the vast land of America, finding them was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
It was unexpected to encounter a Great Exorcist on a plane; he wasn't sure if his luck was good or bad.
"Dear passengers, our airline has prepared a rich selection of lunches for you to choose from,"
The flight attendant came by pushing the meal cart, stopping beside the female exorcist.
Xu Yi glanced at the flight attendant absentmindedly, an automatic reaction, but then he froze, goosebumps covering his body.
The flight attendant took a hand grenade from underneath the cart, pulled the pin, and without throwing it at the female exorcist, hurled it towards her companion instead.
He was a middle-aged man who looked to be in his thirties, wearing round-frame glasses that gave him a very refined and handsome appearance.
After boarding the plane, the man was engrossed in a book, so immersed that even as the hand grenade was about to blow him to smithereens, he remained absorbed in it.
The female exorcist, however, suddenly lunged forward, shielding the man with her own body, while the jewelry on her body emitted a green glow.
"Stay down! Don't move!" Xu Yi pressed one hand onto Carlyle's head, preventing him from poking his head out of curiosity.
His other hand reached for the Anna Belle on his waist, and the next second, the Alchemy Revolver appeared in his hand.
The "hand grenade" exploded in front of the female exorcist, not with an explosion but with a dense red mist. The female exorcist was caught off guard and inadvertently inhaled a breath of the fog.
Rather than a hand grenade, it was more fitting to say it was a smoke bomb. Xu Yi knew this was no ordinary smoke; he quickly unbuckled his seatbelt and, pulling Carlyle, retreated from the spreading red mist.
Under the cover of the red mist, many of the passengers fell into a deep slumber.
Not all, however, as more than a dozen people suddenly leaped up, unaffected by the red mist, and pounced toward the female exorcist.
As they were mid-air, they opened their mouths to roar, revealing two vicious fangs.
"Vampires!" Xu Yi exclaimed in shock.
Vampires were extremely rare, even exorcists rarely had the chance to encounter them. Yet now, more than a dozen had appeared at once. Could this be entering the lair of vampires?
The female exorcist's eyelids grew heavy, clearly affected by the red mist.
But as a Great Exorcist, she chanted an unknown language, and strange waves swept across the area. The vampires that lunged at her were blown away, their bodies pierced by an invisible force, and blood sprayed out.
The Great Exorcist didn't dare to pursue her advantage, holding onto a metal suitcase in one hand and protecting her unconscious companion with the other.
Drops of vampire blood splattered onto Xu Yi's hand, and his "Blood Scent" ability activated once again.
[Next-gen vampire blood, "Quality: C," "Fusion success rate: 21%," "Promotion potential: Blue Epic"]
Xu Yi swiftly glanced at the information and shielded Carlyle as they headed toward the cockpit.
He suddenly felt a chill down his spine and swiftly turned around to look.
A tall figure slowly emerged from the aisle, a very handsome man with meticulously styled pale gold hair and a face that was slightly pale.
Xu Yi hurriedly pulled Carlyle aside to clear the path.
In such a dire situation, anyone who could stay calm was clearly not an ordinary person. It was best for them to not stand in his way.
Although these vampires were frenzied, they at least retained a shred of rationality and did not truly use a hand grenade; otherwise, a plane crash would leave hardly anyone alive.
The man suddenly began to accelerate, and Xu Yi's pupils dilated suddenly at the man's shocking speed, which was like lightning.
Even with his Supra-dynamic Vision, he could only see an afterimage.
The man was undoubtedly also a vampire, charging straight for the female exorcist. The female exorcist rang the Bone Bell in her hand, and the strange waves appeared again, freezing the rushing vampire in mid-air, as if trapped in amber.
The female exorcist flicked her wrist, and the silver bracelet transformed into a snake that shot out and pierced through the man's heart.
Xu Yi watched as blood splattered onto the aisle, hesitated for a moment, then touched it.
[First-gen vampire blood, "Quality: B," "Fusion success rate: 8%," "Promotion potential: Red Common"]
The man was likely the leader of these vampires, a powerful first-gen vampire.
The quality and promotion potential of his blood skyrocketed to "Red" level, but the fusion success rate terrifyingly dropped, not even reaching one tenth.
A roar suddenly sounded as the passengers who had been in a deep sleep on their seats suddenly opened their eyes and lunged at the suitcase in the hands of the female exorcist.
The passengers began to undergo drastic changes, their strong bodies tearing through their shirts, coarse hair erupting from within, and their heads turning bestial as they became ferocious wolf heads.
Xu Yi was so astonished he was at a loss for words. Not only were there swarms of vampires on this plane but also a significant number of werewolves.
What was most shocking was that these two "natural enemies" were actually joining forces against a human!