Overall, Mark was quite satisfied with the results of this three-day, three-night weapon refinement session.
The Blood God Banner was exceptionally compatible with his Dao path.
Although more than half of the dozens of Dao Soldier puppets had been destroyed, he had successfully refined the Armored Dao Soldiers and Asura Hounds to his satisfaction.
The Armored Dao Soldiers excelled in both offense and defense, boasting impressive strength.
The Asura Hounds were nimble, loyal, fast as the wind, and made excellent Scouts.
In particular, after these ten Dao Soldiers devoured the malevolent aura and blood mist, their strength had thoroughly stabilized.
For better or worse, at their core, these ten Dao Soldiers were already at the Foundation Establishment level.
As long as he continued to refine them step by step, even if they never had the opportunity to break through to Golden Core, they would still reach peak Foundation Establishment—or even the False Core level.
Take a standard Thor as a benchmark.
Even if peak Foundation Establishment fell short of a standard Thor, it wouldn’t be by much.
A False Core level could completely match a standard Thor.
And if they were lucky enough to break through to the Golden Core level, they could go toe-to-toe even with a hammer-wielding Thor.
Of course, a one-eyed Thor, fat Thor, or Storm Thor would be a different story.
Ah, poor Thor.
Dao Soldiers were better after all.
Having consumed a great deal of mental energy, Mark’s thoughts wandered slightly, feeling a sudden wave of sympathy for Thor’s plight.
Just as Mark was lost in thought, an incoming call chime sounded from the laboratory door.
Mark quickly snapped back to reality.
With a flick of his True Qi, he connected to the door’s intercom remotely.
Michelle’s voice soon echoed through the speaker.
“Mr.
Mark, Ms.
Selene and President Christine asked me to inform you that the representatives from the Marcus family will arrive tonight.
Do you need to make any preparations, Mr.
Mark?”
Hearing Michelle’s words, Mark finally noticed he had been in the lab for three whole days.
Perfect.
The vampires of the Golden Court Clan would serve as a real-combat test for his Dao Soldiers to see what level their actual battle strength had reached.
It was just past three in the afternoon.
Vampires mostly moved at night.
Which meant he still had four or five hours to prepare.
Not bad.
As a great man once said, one should despise the enemy strategically, but value them tactically.
Mark quickly activated the lab’s decontamination system and instructed through the intercom, “Got it.”
“Have someone prepare some food—authentic Chinese cuisine.”
“Set it up in the apartment.
I’ll head over in half an hour.”
“As for the Marcus family representatives, just bring them straight to the apartment when they arrive.”
…
Half an hour later.
In the apartment on B7.
Mark looked at the table spread with twelve luxurious, delicious Chinese dishes, his appetite thoroughly aroused.
It really was good to have power and wealth.
Mark was practicing immortal cultivation—ptui, demonic cultivation.
There was a massive difference between demonic cultivation and immortal cultivation.
The Immortal Dao emphasized pure hearts, low desires, casting away emotions, and paring down thoughts to continuously align with the unity of heaven and man.
The Demonic Dao, on the other hand, emphasized freedom and self-determination.
Seven emotions, six desires—as long as one could prevent demonic thoughts from corrupting the true self, anything went.
And Mark was quite clear-headed about his true self.
He liked beauty, good food, wealth, and power—a thoroughly worldly person.
However, Mark held tightly to one principle: desire without greed.
Desires were fine—satisfy them if possible, but don’t become greedy if they couldn’t be satisfied.
Applying this to his current situation:
At Blue Umbrella, Mark operated under the mindset that unused authority expires.
What was wrong with eating and drinking well?
Mark was definitely going to handle those Golden Court vampires with ease later, and Blue Umbrella would sooner or later be his anyway.
Using his own household resources was only natural.
And if he somehow failed, he would obviously run for his life.
Before running, shouldn’t he enjoy himself first?
After a hearty meal, Mark promptly notified Michelle to have someone clean up the dining area.
Once the apartment was entirely empty, Mark opened the blood bank conduit once again.
Turning the flow rate to maximum, he channeled the blood into the Blood God Banner, refining it into pure blood energy before storing it away.
Even so, the speed at which the Blood God Banner refined blood was far beyond what Mark could match himself.
As for Mark himself, he took out the remaining spiritual ink and began laying out an array around the room.
To deal with vampires, one naturally had to use the Great Blood River Array.
Well, an ultra-reduced basic version: the Myriad Transformation Blood Attraction Array.
Conveniently, the Blood God Banner combined with the steady feed from the blood bank could serve directly as the array eye.
At the same time, Mark concealed all eight Armored Dao Soldiers and the two Asura Hounds within the array formation, ready to launch ambush attacks on enemies entering the array at any moment.
This wasn’t insidious; it was caution.
Who knew whether the Golden Court Clan would directly send a vampire elder?
Inferring from Selene’s strength, Selene herself already possessed extraordinary physical traits, comparable to a standard Qi Refining Level 3 cultivator.
Equipped with heavy firearms, she could even match a standard Qi Refining Level 4 cultivator.
Higher-ranking vampire elders would have to be calculated as at least Qi Refining Level 5 or 6.
If it was a vampire progenitor on Marcus’s level, their power wouldn’t be inferior to the upper three levels of Qi Refining.
Calculating it like this, he seemed a bit overly cautious.
The Myriad Transformation Blood Attraction Array specifically countered vampires, and his ten Dao Soldiers were at the Foundation Establishment level.
Well, there was nothing wrong with being a little cautious.
Before refining a Blood God Spawn capable of taking a lethal blow on his behalf, he only had one life.
After finishing all his preparations, Mark ceased his efforts and drew upon the Innate Primordial Qi refined inside the Blood God Banner from afar, entering a state of meditative cultivation.
This was a small cultivation trick to rapidly restore essence, energy, and spirit.
Of course, the prerequisite was having the Blood God Banner to automatically refine blood and supply Innate Primordial Qi.
Otherwise, cultivation was actually quite dull and mentally exhausting.
…
While Mark was meditating and recovering, in an ancient, gloomy castle on the outskirts of Paris…
As sunset approached, heavy drapes blocked out every sliver of sunlight inside the castle.
Beneath the dim, soft illumination of indoor lights, dozens of fully armed vampires gathered quickly.
As a trusted confidant of Duke Viktor of the Golden Court Clan, Kraven was the leader of this team.
Looking at the assembled elite Death Dealer squad, an uncontrollable, sinister, and arrogant smile crossed Kraven’s face.
“Everyone, remember your mission today.”
“The ordinary humans inside Blue Umbrella can be ignored.”
“The financial syndicates across the European continent won’t oppose us; they will remain neutral.”
“Our targets are Selene and Mark Ashford, who holds the original shares of Umbrella.”
“Let me repeat: Selene has betrayed the coven.”
“Duke Viktor has awakened, and his eyes are upon this operation…”