A Helping Hand

At the farewell party, many among the Gangrel tribe expressed their sorrow at Ye Ming's imminent departure. They came up one after another to offer a toast to thank the person who had assisted their tribe.

Affected by the atmosphere, Ye Ming had a few more cup to drink than usual. Some of the humans also came up to him to express their most sincere gratitude for his help.

What's more, a few young women had even walked up to Ye Ming together, arm in arm, and told him they wished to spend this last night with him and thank him with their most precious first nights.

Ye Ming did not know what to do. Looking at these beautiful young Vampires with shapely bodies, he could not help swallowing hard.

Puyol laughed seeing Ye Ming. "They're doing this because they want to. You don't have to think too much about it."

Ye Ming thought about it, but eventually decided to reject their advances. He could not cheat on Alice. He declined with a wave of his hand and said, "Sorry, girls, but I have to travel tomorrow. If I exhaust myself tonight, my concentration might wane on the road. What if I encounter Werewolves? It'd be really bad. Thank you for the kind offer, I really appreciate it. You Gangrels really are some warm-spirited, passionate and grateful people. I'll always remember that."

Although a hint of disappointment crept into the eyes of all three young, beautiful Vampires, they could not help but feel happy when they heard Ye Ming compliment the Gangrel tribe.

The farewell party lasted late into the night. The next day, Ye Ming walked out of the canyon accompanied by Puyol and several others. Ye Ming said goodbye to them at the entrance, and they finally parted ways. He headed into the dense forest of the Dark Mountains.

Thanks to Puyol's map and the survival skills he learned from Puyol, Ye Ming managed to avoid several areas where the Werewolves were active in.

Today, Ye Ming was traveling as usual when a blurry silhouette suddenly flashed past in front of him. Ye Ming warily concealed himself behind a tree and peeked out.

The silhouette moved extremely fast and was chased after by a Werewolf. Seeing this, Ye Ming had a rough idea of what was happening. It was another fight between a Werewolf and a Vampire. Now that Ye Ming had become stronger, dealing with a single Werewolf was no longer a problem for him.

He did not know if the Vampire was someone from Puyol's tribe, but no matter what, he was helping for sure.

After making his decision, Ye Ming instantly jumped out from behind the tree and headed straight for the direction the two silhouettes had disappeared to.

He soon saw the two of them up ahead. He drew his Vampiric Dagger, activated {Stealth}, and approached them rapidly.

The two ran as they fought. The Vampire was obviously the one on the losing end. From time to time, he would turn back to attack a few times, then continued to run for his life. However, he was obviously running out of stamina. Seeing this, Ye Ming could not help but sigh inwardly. 'Vampires seem to be born with less stamina than Werewolves in general. It can't be helped.'

Ye Ming increased his speed even further. Brandishing his dagger, he closed the distance to the Werewolf with a single leap. The Werewolf was busy fighting with the Vampire in front of him and never expected an enemy to appear from behind. Moreover, Ye Ming had used {Stealth} and was downwind, so the Werewolf did not notice his approach. His dagger stabbed into the Werewolf's back.

The Werewolf howled and instinctively swung a fist back, which Ye Ming dodged in a hurry. However, he did not pull out the Vampiric Dagger – it remained stuck to the Werewolf.

The Werewolf roared and flailed his arms around, clawing the empty air aimlessly. He was on the verge of going berserk. However, not long afterwards, he gradually slowed down. After a while, he became lifeless. A dried corpse completely drained of blood dropped to the ground.

Ye Ming was now visible because he had launched an attack. When the Vampire saw that the newcomer was another Vampire, he lowered his guard with a sigh of relief and approached Ye Ming.

Ye Ming walked to the dried corpse of the Werewolf to remove the Vampiric Dagger. He wiped the dagger on the Werewolf's body. The Vampire that he saved came to him while he was doing that. "Thanks for coming to my aid. My name's Dembele Gangrel from the Gangrel clan. Mind telling me which clan you're from?"

"Yelina, from the Tremere clan. Just happened to pass by. It's no big deal, don't mention it."

'So he's actually a Gangrel too, but he's definitely not from Puyol's tribe, or he wouldn't have failed to recognize me.'

Ye Ming sized the Vampire up. He was dressed much the same as those in Puyol's tribe – carefree and slovenly - but the style of his clothing was slightly different. The Vampires in Puyol's tribe were accustomed to wearing clothes that were a little loose, while the Vampire currently in front of Ye Ming had on more efficient-looking clothes. The cuffs and trouser legs were tightened up with drawstrings, so the Vampire gave off a very capable feel.

"The Tremere clan? Do you know alchemy?" asked the Vampire.

"A little bit. I was actually helping Puyol's tribe brew some potions not too long ago."

When Ye Ming mentioned Puyol, the Vampire's eyes suddenly brightened. "You know Puyol? You actually know Puyol! Oh my God, what a coincidence, I'm friends with Puyol! Okay, in order to express my gratitude, I'd like to invite you to visit my tribe as a guest. Please, I insist."

"Hmm..." Ye Ming pondered upon it. 'Since I'm out here to find treasure chests, there's no harm going back with him to take a look. Maybe I'll discover a few surprises.'

Having made his decision, Ye Ming nodded and replied, "Alright then, if you insist. I'll pay your tribe a visit."

The two of them thus climbed over mountains and even crossed a not-so-shallow stream before they finally arrived at Dembele's tribe. 

The tribe was very different from Puyol's tribe. Puyol's tribe was built within a canyon and had only one exit, while Dembele's tribe was built on top of a tall mountain, which was also a very defendable terrain. There was only a single road up the mountain, and the tribe was guarded by city walls. Numerous Vampires kept watch atop the walls. It would probably take close to a thousand people to conquer this place.

Ye Ming followed Dembele through the city gate and found that the Gangrels here had abandoned tents and were living in wooden houses instead. However, every house was built in a different style, so the tribe looked very disorganized.

'Maybe this is the Gangrel style,' thought Ye Ming as he followed Dembele to a wooden house.

"This is the house of our tribal chief, Lazio Gangrel. I'll introduce him to you. He and Puyol are friends."

As soon as Ye Ming stepped into the house, he heard the system notification.

*Ding* [Congratulations, you have discovered a treasure chest!]

Almost immediately afterwards, the same notification sounded again. Two notifications in a row could only mean that there were two treasure chests in this house.

"Sorry, Lazio seems to be out. Wait here for a moment, I'll go find him."

Dembele left the wooden house. Ye Ming naturally took the opportunity to search the house. To his surprise, he found two golden treasure chests under the bed. He instantly grabbed them both and kept them safe. Now was not the time to check the content.

Sure enough, seconds after Ye Ming had put away the treasure chests, Dembele walked in together with Lazio. Ye Ming was already standing there casually as if nothing had happened.