-

"I told you that you will need me sooner or later." Shu Hezhen uttered as he sat in the car with Chen Shujin and Lu Hongxue.

"I didn't expect that Yinlui was going to help him like this." As he said, Chen Shujin's face darkened, his eyes glowering in anger.

"Your Majesty, the Young Master is still young and not as thorough as you are. The hunters have always been crafty and the past leader was a man who didn't stick to his words. I just don't understand why he didn't tell you anything before meeting the hunters." Upon Lu Hongxue's normal careless face, she knitted her brows as she said this.

"Hongxue is correct. Shujin, you should be the closest to Zhuhei so why would he not tell you such an important matter? There must be someone who had misled him and fooled him." Shu Hezhen shook his head.

Chen Shujin didn't say anything. He was also a bit hesitant, confused about why Wen Zhuhei decided to take this route instead of speaking with him first. Maybe he had pushed him too hard, or his act was too much for Wen Zhuhei to bear in the end and so he couldn't help but be angry at himself.

No matter what, Wen Zhuhei was still only 18, the boy would have his own mistakes and moments like this was to be expected. The boy did appear to be too mature for his own age and Chen Shujin knew well about how he was a wolf in sheep skin.

Now that Chen Shujin knew that Li Yinlui had told Wen Zhuhei and also given him help, he just hoped that nothing would happen to him. Thinking this, Chen Shujin clenched his hand as his face grew even colder.

"Your Majesty, I assure you that the Young Master will be safe. If Yinlui is there, he should be protected at all cost." Lu Hongxue was able to tell that Chen Shujin's mood was very bad so she spoke some words of comfort.

Chen Shujin didn't say anything even with Lu Hongxue's words. If Fei Shang was here, his worry would be lifted but he wasn't.

"Tell all the vampires to gather around the headquarter. I will check for myself and confront Zhuhei."

Wen Zhuhei could feel it, something was wrong. There was something wrong about the atmosphere, even as Qi Wuliao seemed very calm and serious. No, this feeling was coming from somewhere near him.

"Your Majesty?" Qi Wuliao spoke up upon noticing the expression on Wen Zhuhei's face.

"You have something you're not telling me." Wen Zhuhei coldly spat out, eyes narrowing with anger.

Qi Wuliao knitted his brows in confusion. "I assure you that my meeting with you today is simply because of this. I have nothing else I want to say."

Just then, the loud of something exploding was heard in a corridor. Qi Wuliao stood up, his eyes suddenly flaring as he noticed that someone was missing.

"Heliang..."

Wen Zhuhei felt a strong and dangerous aura near him, but before he could prepare to do anything, he felt a sharp object stabbing into him. As he pulled away hurriedly, he look at Li Yinlui.

"You!" Wen Zhuhei's face knitted in cold sweat. Silver, something fatal to half-blood vampires.

Li Yinlui held a silver knife in his hand, waving it around as he suddenly smirked. "Young Master, His Majesty did not train you well enough..."

At this time, Qi Wuliao had already been captured by the vampires in the room. As he knelt down onto the ground, his face was bleeding.

"Li Yinlui!" Wen Zhuhei screamed, frustration in his vein. Li Yinlui should've been under his control, he was sure of it. What had gone wrong? But before he could do anything, a sharp pain was felt in his waist and he could feel his power draining.

Li Yinlui walked towards Wen Zhuhei, eyes filled with mirth as he looked down at him. "His Majesty bestowed an artifact to you, yet you repeatedly used it against him. But this artifact is very powerful, even though you weren't able to use it to its full capability." Saying this, he reached down, plucking the ring off of Wen Zhuhei's finger.

"You were very easy to fool. You always thought that I was under your control, yet you never knew that I was merely fooling you. You kept trying to play the hero, even tricking the man you loved." Li Yinlui looked at the ring in his hand, throwing the knife in his hand away. Finally, he slipped the ring onto his own finger.

"Qi Wuliao and you are too easy to fool. Peace? After so many years at war, peace won't be so easily achieved." Saying this, he scoffed. "I told His Majesty so many times to simply take over the world, yet he didn't. After he entered slumber, I used that time to come and gather my own people, those who wanted to take over the world."

"I continued playing as if I was still faithful to His Majesty, fooling everyone by his side. Even you were so easily fooled by my act, you willingly poisoned him." Upon getting to this point, Li Yinlui began to chuckle. "That poison isn't fatal to half-blood, but to a pure-blood vampire like him, even if the effect doesn't show, his body will began to fail him. His body is still weak from slumber, with the dosage of poison, he won't be able to last."

Wen Zhuhei's eyes suddenly widened upon hearing this. His struggles faded as he realized what he had just done. He had sentenced the man he loved to death. He had been used as a step, a tool to get rid of the man who held power against Li Yinlui.

"Li Yinlui, you are going against the man who raised you!" Wen Zhuhei shouted in anger, even as he felt the remaining strength he had slowly slipping away.

"It is because he practically raised me that I let you deliver the poison to him instead of me. I allowed him an easy way out, rather then dying by my hand, I allowed you to do it." Li Yinlui took off his glasses, throwing it onto the ground as he ordered, "Take the two of them with us. Make sure that they won't escape, and use the silver chains on our dear Young Master."

Wen Zhuhei felt his eyes slowly closing even as he bit his tongue to keep him awake.

"Young Master, do not worry. I'm sure that you will be able to confess your feelings before you two part forever."

Li Yinlui stood up as he saw that Wen Zhuhei had finally passed out. Staring at Qi Wuliao, he then said, "And don't worry about your lover, he will definitely remain safe. I still need him to control you."

Qi Wuliao wasn't able to say anything, his hands were wrapped tightly in chains. His eyes were red with anger and worry, but his mouth was blocked by a towel, a hand pressing against his nose and mouth.

Soon, he also passed out, his body falling next to Wen Zhuhei's.

"Hurry and take them quick. We will have to leave right away, I'm sure that Hezhen is hot behind my tail."

With his words, the vampires and even some hunters began to get everything ready for their departure.

Li Yinlui turned towards the window, his handsome face was calm without a ripple. Soon, he was almost done. Just a little more and he would be able to bring him back...

"They're already gone." Shu Hezhen looked at the building now set in flames, burning to the ground. He turned to look at Chen Shujin, who's aura had gotten ten times sharper and more deadly.

"Your Majesty, I shall alert all vampires and get to the bottom of this. Please care for your safety, I will take my leave first and meet up with the Third Lord and the remaining members of Aces who have not betrayed us." Lu Hongxue hurriedly announced as she took a few vampires to begin scouting the place for any remaining people and evidence.

Chen Shujin looked at the burning building, the flames and smokes coming from it. His fist was clenched tightly and his face was extremely cold with anger. He should've kept a closer eye on Li Yinlui, the vampire was always a bit strange but now, it was too late to lament about it.

But, if Li Yinlui had captured both Wen Zhuhei and the leader of the hunters, then he must have done it for a clear reason. While Chen Shujin didn't know what it was about just yet, he could have an idea from some source.

"Hezhen, send a message to all vampires. If anyone finds Li Yinlui and the seven members of Aces, then they must capture them." Chen Shujin turned away from the building. He needed to keep calm, Li Yinlui wouldn't kill Wen Zhuhei.

"What are you going to do now? I have been by his side all these years yet I had never known about what he wanted to do. I had never thought that he would betray you when you had saved him from death." Shu Hezhen spoke this with confusion, but there was a hint of sadness in his eyes as his demeanor became small.

"I need to find them, it's as simple as that. Although I don't know why Yinlui had done what he had, his reasoning as to why he had captured Zhuhei and the leader of the hunters has to be because he wants to draw me out. He wants something that only I have." Chen Shujin began digging through the memories of the past soul because he knew that there was something he had missed.

There as a moment of silence between them before Shu Hezhen finally spoke up, telling the information that he knew.

"Shujin, actually, during your slumber, Yinlui met a human whose name was Huang Zaijin." As Shu Hezhen said this, his face suddenly grew solemn. "He... really loved him. And because he loved him so much, Yinlui was too scared to tell his real identity to that man. Yinlui kept fooling him even as their love grew deeper."

Shu Hezhen stopped, there was a strong hint of heartache in his eyes as he continued. "Zaijin found out that Yinlui was a vampire. This was a few years after your slumber, when humans still hated vampires very much and were fearful of them. Zaijin killed himself when he found out that Yinlui was a vampire. Yinlui was deeply scarred after this, and that was when I got to meet him."

"Shujin, actually, I love him." Shu Hezhen had a heartbreaking smile on his face as he whispered this. "I fixed him, I made him whole again. I had spent so much time by his side when he was going through the toughest time of his life. I thought that he had gotten over Zaijin, I thought that I had fixed the cracks within his heart. But, now I realized that I had done nothing at all."

Shu Hezhen stopped as he looked towards Chen Shujin with glossed eyes. "Yinlui is trying to find Zaijin."

Chen Shujin was a bit confused, but now he understood that things were even more murky than he had expected. In a way, Chen Shujin could somehow feel that all the people involved were hurt. Huang Zaijin, who had been lied to by his own lover. Li Yinlui, who had been the reason why his lover killed himself. Shu Hezhen, who had thought he had fixed the heart of the man he loved, who found out that he had done none of that in the end.

"Do you know where he will be?"

Shu Hezhen shook his head. "Yinlui told me about Zaijin, but he never told me anything else. I found these out after I realized that he had been keeping some things hidden from me. I had my suspicions, but i didn't want to believe that he was doing this."

Chen Shujin began thinking. Where could Li Yinlui take Wen Zhuhei, a place where he would be able to find peace at?

"Is there a place Yinlui had brought up to you?" Chen Shujin asked. Knowing Li Yinlui, the man was very calculative. He would've let out some information, if he had ever loved Shu Hezhen in turn.

Shu Hezhen laughed to himself, even as his eyes grew more and more dim. "Never, even when I went through his thoughts, he didn't let a single thing slip. He had never trusted me in the first place, I was just someone who took the pain away from him."

"You know where he lives, right?" Chen Shujin asked at last, eyes peering at Shu Hezhen.

Shu Hezhen nodded his head, with a sad look in his eyes, he then replied, "He has his own villa near here. It is secluded in the mountains, a place that he rarely lets people into."

"Then let's go, he has to have a clue hidden there."

.

.

.