“Thud!” The heavy stone in her heart finally hit the ground. Li Yue immediately thought of the stable she had visited with Roland and that blood soaked manor. That time, although they had killed the blood demon, it hadn't been that mutated guard.
The various signs before her made Li Yue increasingly tense. She seemed to scent the smell of fresh blood in this slightly damp environment.
Li Yue gripped her blades with both hands. After her greatest worry had come to pass, she actually felt somewhat better; the previous sense of oppression and eeriness had vanished.
My hypothesis was right from the start. This was a series of events triggered by a blood demon infection. Was the attacker just now a blood demon as well?
No, the captain said that low level blood demons possess only the simplest of thoughts. With a living person in front of them and no threat to their life, it would be impossible for them to resist their bloodthirsty desires through willpower alone.
In that case, what exactly was that attack just now? Was it that ornate serpentine cup?
A light rain began to patter down, falling onto the parched earth and instantly stirring up the fragrance of soil.
Roland held up a black umbrella as he walked along the busy East Court Cross Street, where people were constantly coming and going. People running to escape the rain brushed past him as he moved from the noise into silence, from the crowds into the shadows. He stepped into an alleyway that seemed to have been forgotten by everyone.
As evening approached, the sky darkened quickly because of the rain. Roland lit a kerosene lamp, its dim yellow light extending from under his umbrella to dispel the gloom.
He stopped before a skeleton half buried in the earth. He leaned down, and the blood that had been floating at his fingertips came to rest upon the remains. He frowned, his eyes narrowing from exhaustion, looking exceptionally sharp in that moment.
The clue was gone. However, a blood demon would not simply die on its own.
Roland put away the kerosene lamp and pulled down the brim of his black hat. His figure gradually vanished into the intensifying rain.
“Clang!”
Sharp, curved claw blades sliced through the air and raindrops, colliding with Li Yue’s short sword and producing a sharp, crisp ringing sound.
A body with rotting skin in several places but with blood gorged muscles and intact bones stood swaying in the rain. Several gashes marked its form, but crimson flesh struggled to knit back together, growing anew.
Li Yue panted slightly, her expression tense and solemn. A hideous wound marked her abdomen, and blood flowed continuously from it, soaking her once snow white shirt and staining her white stockings red.
If she had a needle and thread, stitching the wound would be a good choice. But with magic, a bottle of healing potion would also provide an excellent hemostatic effect without leaving a scar.
Li Yue retreated rapidly, gulping down half a bottle of healing potion and stuffing the rest onto the wound. A sizzling sound erupted, and the pain made the corners of her eyes twitch uncontrollably.
I actually let myself get caught once. It really hurts.
She stared at the blood red, blurred figure in the rain. Her gaze seemed to pierce through the curtain of rain, falling directly onto the hideous blood demon that hesitated to attack due to its own injuries.
With a heavy swing, she poured her magic into the blade, carving out a snow white arc of sword light that flew toward the blurred figure.
Simultaneously, she drew a flying dagger hidden on the outside of her thigh. Using the strength of her body and arm, she hurled the mithril flying dagger fiercely at the blood demon.
“AAAAHHHHHH!”
Following a brief scream, the blurred figure seemed to fall heavily. Due to the uncoordinated exertion, Li Yue’s abdominal wound tore further, and crimson plasma seeped out once more.
She clutched her abdomen in pain. The weakness from excessive blood loss left her feeling faint and fearful.
Is it over? There shouldn't be anything else, right?
She let out a heavy sigh and sank to one knee. In the distance, the blood seeping from the blood demon had already corroded the ground into a charred black. She wanted to do something, but in her current state, there was nothing she could do in the short term.
Li Yue took two bottles of healing potion from her waist pouch, pouring one onto her wound. She tried to drink the other, but after one gulp, she began to cough violently, as if she had choked.
She limped back to the manor and sat kneeling under the eaves of the entrance. She pulled a piece of letter paper from her bosom and tremblingly wrote the words “blood demon.” It wasn't until she noticed blood flowing from her arm to her fingertips that she realized her right shoulder had also been gashed.
She hastily folded the letter. A sense of powerlessness spread from her fingertips to her entire body. She looked back at the path she had taken; even with the rain washing it away, she could still see the faint stains of blood.
“Creak—” It sounded like a door being pushed open. This was followed by a scream. Li Yue struggled to lift her head, but the black and white scenery before her quickly blurred, and she lost consciousness in an instant.
...
There was a clear lake here, with clusters of blooming flowers. Petals were blown into the water by the wind, and flowers seemed to bloom upon the surface as well. Li Yue floated on the water, drifting with the current, swaying within the multicolored stream.
Where is this? Is it a dream, the heaven after death, or the place she yearned for?
Her gaze shifted from the azure sky to the empty, emerald green lawn surrounding her. She looked for a long time, her eyes passing over the grass, the flowers, and the sea of trees. There was nothing here. This was not the sky, nor was it the land of her dreams.
The moment she realized this, her body suddenly grew heavy, and she plunged into the pitch black abyss of water beneath her.
She struggled to open her eyes. A man wearing a blood red suit and gold rimmed glasses stood by the bed, his blond hair combed meticulously. Miller was clutching the man's hand, looking agitated, as if he had heard some shocking news.
Li Yue wanted to get up, but her head was still spinning. The pain in her body had lessened significantly, but her limbs felt unnaturally cold, and her throat was dry and hot.
“Water... water...” A raspy voice emerged from her parched throat. The man in red casually took a wine cup and poured in a packet of medicinal powder; the liquid in the cup instantly turned a deep crimson.
“Letter... send... mmgh.” She was forced to swallow the “medicine.” A burning sensation traveled from her throat throughout her body, yet her consciousness remained heavy, as if lingering on the edge of sleep and wakefulness.
The man in red stroked a greyish white hamster in his hand. It broke free from his grasp and began to scurry around.
“Is what you said true? Can an ordinary person like me really do it?” Miller’s voice trembled; he looked incredibly excited.
“Of course. Your luck is very good.” The man smiled and clinked glasses with Miller. “I will bring ‘that’ to the auction. I hope to share a drink with you then.”
“No problem. I didn't expect that I could also...”
Li Yue’s consciousness was blurry. All sound seemed to vanish, and the scenery before her was dim. Her mouth could only manage a faint “ah... ah” sound.
Am I... going to die... No... at least not now...
...
A ray of sunlight filtered through the lush leaves and into the once dark room, intertwining with the grey and white to create a somewhat pale and desolate scene.
Li Yue slowly sat up from the bed. Her waist and shoulder were wrapped in bandages, seemingly having received medical treatment. She struggled to get up and, disregarding her pajamas, pushed open the bedroom door and headed straight for Miller’s room on the second floor.
She wasn't sure if she could make it in her current physical state, but fortunately, Miller seemed to have been waiting for her in the corridor for a long time.
“Oh! Our hero has awakened.” Miller clapped and smiled as he walked toward Li Yue from under the shadow of a window where the sun did not reach.
“That monster, how was it handled?” A trace of worry appeared on Li Yue’s pale face.
“The monster? You mean that murderer? He has already been buried. He even had several of your flying daggers in him.”
“Wait, his hands... could they be touched directly?”
“It is strange now that you mention it. In such hot weather, he was actually wearing a jacket.”
“Huh? Then, what about the buried guard?”
“Him? He has been resting peacefully in the cemetery.”
“How is that possible...” Li Yue’s lips trembled slightly, and her pupils constricted. If not for the dull ache of her wounds, she would have suspected she was hallucinating.
“I have already sent the letter. The subsequent compensation will be given to you as well. In a while, I will instruct the maid who bandaged you to come and change your dressing.”
The supported Li Yue looked at the floor in disbelief, enduring a severe headache as she tried to think back to the moment before she fainted. In a daze, she felt her lips touch something hard. A pill slowly dissolved in water, and she subconsciously swallowed the medicinal liquid in the cup.
“What... is... this?”
“This is medicine for your fever, miss. Sleep for a while.” A gentle voice sounded in her ear, and a red figure flashed before her eyes.
“Doctor! You've come...”
Li Yue’s body went limp again, and darkness shrouded her vision once more. With half opened, lifeless pupils, she stared at the floor. The blond man lifted her chin, studying her pale face with a faint, mocking smile.
...
A dark gold coin fell from the sky, landing in a sea of blood that had erupted into flames. A giant serpent raised its head from beneath the surface, and a young girl holding a kerosene lamp stood upon its head. Her figure was so small, yet her light was so fierce and bright, like a sun upon the earth.
Fanatical cheers and praises rang out incessantly. Desperate pleas, lustful gazes, and extreme obsessions stretched from the past into the present.
Human desires were inexhaustible, and the wine within the Blood Cup submerged the world.
Li Yue slowly opened her eyes. The outside of the room was a cacophony of noise; it seemed all the servants were busy preparing for something. She tore off her bandages; the original wounds had completely healed, leaving only faint pink marks that would likely disappear entirely before long.
She walked out of her room. There was no solemnity as she had imagined, no deathly silence, and no melancholic blue melodies. Instead, there was revelry and strangeness. People were laughing, and a dark knight on a warhorse moved through the crowd. Behind him burned a sea of deathly fire. He bowed to Li Yue from the boundary of secrecy and reality.
Could anyone escape his warhorse? No one. No one could, not even the gods—unless they went through it all again from start to finish, rewriting history and fate.
Li Yue snapped awake. Barefoot, she walked frantically through the busy crowd. That sense of powerlessness crept into her heart once more. She saw champagne being poured into small cups, stacked cup by cup into a small mountain before the statue of the stag with its head held high.
She looked around in terror, her heart feeling as though it were being gripped tightly. She felt that each subsequent breath was more difficult than the last.
People were carrying items excavated from the earth toward the back. Li Yue stood there watching: a sword hilt in a glass case, the dark gold serpentine Blood Cup...
I've gone mad. No, I am sane. The world has gone mad. Is that it?
People seemed to have forgotten pain and fear. Li Yue understood now; this was the auction Miller had been dreaming of—a final performance before he left this manor. After this, he would move away, but before that, a grand festival would be held here. The servants were ecstatic over the high bonuses, but what about Miller? What was he after? Wealth?
Impossible.
Li Yue seemed to calm down a bit. She remembered that rainy night, the doctor with the gold rimmed glasses.
Was the explanation from that morning a lie, or was there a forged scene?
No, Miller lied, but not entirely. An ordinary person could not easily dispose of a blood demon’s corpse.
A mage? What was he after, to ignore such strict laws just for an ordinary person’s auction? There wasn't even a single magical item here.
The serpentine cup? Assuming it was a magical item, then knowing there was a blood demon, why hire a member of a Demon Hunter Team like her?
Did the transformation happen in just these few days? If so, what was it that made an old man prepared to live out his days alone change his mind and want to disappear?
He’s almost dead anyway, so what does he want?
He’s almost dead, he’s almost dead... Life, life, death... That’s it, infinite longevity... that blond man.
A transparent vessel containing a dark red liquid was pushed past her. She turned her head, but felt a sharp pain in her chest.
She looked despairingly at the blade in her chest, falling weakly into a cold embrace. She looked at the red velvet that resembled life itself and opened her mouth feebly.
“What have I done? I resurrected a mouse that was crushed to pieces... no, two. Is that not enough to drive one mad?” The man’s cold voice grew more distant. “Oh, and also, I killed you, my lovely demon hunter.”
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