The recruitment drive went on for 10 days at the Heavenly Palace.
Whatever the Heavenly Palace did for that 10 days was closely observed by just about everyone.
The eyes of the entire Huaxia, even the entire world, were on the Heavenly Palace.
Many were startled at just how shockingly many talented people there were in Huaxia, where elites actually existed in hundreds of thousands all over the nation.
It was only a feat made possible given that Huaxia had a massive population numbering well over a billion.
None of the other countries dared to even consider something like that happening within their own borders.
Other than the 2000 that eventually made it past the tests and joined the Heavenly Palace, all the others were quickly taken in by all the other forces out to scout talents.
While it was true that those people were all rejects of the Heavenly Palace, they were still nonetheless all very rare talents that were hard to come by.
There were even many who were of far greater talents compared to the 2000 picked up by the Heavenly Palace. Their only inadequacies being character and will, which many forces out there could not have cared less about.
None of them set standards as high as the Heavenly Palace after all.
The place went immediately into isolation mode right after recruiting their new disciples, beginning to focus all their resources into teaching those 2000 people.
Thanks to Lu Xuan’s experiences and structure developed from having nurtured people en masse before, it was not difficult at all for them to handle even a sudden influx of people of such a number.
In the southernmost part of the Earth—the Antarctica.
Lu Xuan settled down. While the winds were indeed bone-chilling in the south pole, he remained totally unperturbed.
A faint layer of Spiritual Qi was seen on the surface of his body, which was responsible for repelling the cold.
But then again, even without that layer of Spiritual Qi, his physical resilience had nonetheless reached such a degree, that temperatures of tens of degrees Celsius below zero was far from being able to freeze him to death.
His life force had gotten so unbelievably formidable that every single level he made a breakthrough into was a complete transformation of his state of life at the most fundamental levels.
He was dressed so casually that he looked completely out of place in the south pole.
His will was spread all over the place.
“I’ll see for myself where else could you hide, Cain!”
The person that he was looking for at the moment was none other than Cain, the founding ancestor of the vampires.
Cain was the true ancestor of the vampires. All the others, including Lilith and Count Dracula, were all bloodkin that was developed from his lineage.
However, the other two elders managed to wriggle themselves free of his control during later ages, developing powers that enabled them to become his equal.
Lu Xuan had been searching for Cain’s whereabouts the whole time, deeming that he would never be able to rest easy, as long as the founding ancestor of the vampires—one of his greatest threats—remain at large.
His effort paid off eventually and he finally located Cain’s whereabouts two days prior. To put it accurately however, that was a result of him mobilizing resources of Huaxia.
Given how much he had done for his country and government throughout the whole time, the officials deemed such a request from him to be well within what he deserved.
But then again, there was nonetheless something off with that piece of news.
Someone had delivered the news of Cain hiding in the south pole to him personally.
“Who else would be behind this indeed?” Lu Xuan had no idea who was it who delivered the news to him, but he was certain of one thing—the news of Cain being in the south pole was still a reliable one, regardless of who was behind it.
Not only was he given news of Cain’s whereabouts, he was also given very comprehensive and detailed information about the news, which included photos of Cain boarding a ship in South America, as well as satellite images and some others.
It became obvious that someone had been monitoring Cain’s movements all the time, and there were few in the world having both such level of powers and motives.
In his mind, the most likely being to do so was none other than the US government, which had always been wary of Cain in the first place.
There was a top-secret scientific outpost in the south pole not far away from where Lu Xuan was at the moment.
He only realized that there were no longer any living beings left behind in the outpost for a very long time. All the staff members who manned the outpost had their blood sucked dry, becoming shriveled corpses.
“Cain really was here then.”
Lu Xuan narrowed his gaze and spread his will out yet again, enveloping his surroundings within his range of perception.
He sensed a figure closing in on him at a frightening speed eclipsing even that of a speed train, who arrived right behind Lu Xuan in a split second.
“Soul-crusher Blood Claw.”
A low-pitched growl was heard and the attack brought about a massive bloody gash in the all-white sky of the place, coming down on Lu Xuan.
However, Lu Xuan’s reactions proved to be even faster. He turned around and threw a punch right away.
Boom!
A terrifying boom that sounded as if a shell hit its target was heard. Frightening shockwaves erupted as the punch and the claw attack connected.
That figure was sent reeling back several steps before he was able to steady himself, after he was hit by Lu Xuan.
Lu Xuan was only able to make out that figure to be a young man of blonde hair and blue eyes, who looked to be in his late teens and dressed in some elaborate robe from the middle ages. That young man looked extravagant, regal and very dashing.
However, his complexion was so frighteningly pale that he did not even look human at all.
The evil aura filled with a stench of blood about him was something that no common person would have been able to sense, yet there were no fooling Lu Xuan’s senses.
That young man was without a doubt, the true sovereign of the entire Vampiric Empire, the founding ancestor of the vampires—Cain.
A very old monster who was rumored to have lived for over 2000 years.
“Cain eh? I expect as much.”
Lu Xuan stood with his hands behind his back as he looked at Cain, showing no signs of perturbance even when facing off a monster who was over 2000 years old.
Cain’s eyes were locked onto Lu Xuan, glaring at him for quite some time before saying, “You’re indeed 10 times more obstinate than I thought you to be, Lu Xuan.”
Cain kept glaring at Lu Xuan. He had no idea how the other man trained, finding it surprising that Lu Xuan was of powers more frightening than him, who had been cultivating for thousands of years and of pinnacle level of powers.
While he was nowhere near his prime due to spirit qi being diminished over the ages, all that foundation he built was still nonetheless with him.
Common Airborne Realm beings would have been rendered seriously injured by that claw attack of his, and he would have needed only two more attacks to kill said Airborne Realm being.
He truly was at the very peak of Airborne Realm.
To put it precisely, so long as he was able to find even a sliver of opening with the laws of the world, he would have quickly been able to recover to the peak of the realm right after making a breakthrough, due to all that solid foundation he had built.
Technically speaking, he was not actually cultivating; it was just him having recovered to pinnacle state of Airborne Realm.
In contrast, Lu Xuan had truly trained himself to reach the peak of Airborne Realm from ground up, and that was what puzzled Cain tremendously.
He knew that the restoration of the world’s laws in present day was happening at such a rate that opportunities became abundant, where a typical 10-year training would have been shortened to merely three to five years, and unparalleled geniuses could have even made it in just a year.
But then again, being able to reach the peak of Airborne Realm in such a short time through training from scratch alone, was a monstrous feat deemed to rival even the most fearsome of monsters like Cain.
“So, you really are here then. Never guessed that you would have thought of hiding in the Antarctica just to run away from me,” Lu Xuan said to Cain while giving him a look, never having much regard for him.
“But today, your empire of vampires shall come to end.” Lu Xuan continued, “From this day onward, there would no longer be a Vampiric Empire in this world.”
