Cursed Blood Bone Doll

Jiang Lin thought as much, and suddenly, a flash of inspiration hit him.

He controlled Shadow of Blood to walk in front of him and then press against his side.

Ultimately, after several attempts, he found that this idea didn't seem to work.

He had just wanted to see if merging Shadow of Blood with himself would allow his attributes to double in all aspects.

However, he discovered that the transformed Shadow of Blood already had a physical form and could no longer attach to him like it did when copying his skills.

But with his growth rate being so staggering, he wondered if Shadow of Blood would be able to keep up.

Generally speaking, a mount's growth rate was similar to its master's.

Even if there were differences in growth rates, they would remain at the same rank as the master through the master's repeated selection.

However, Jiang Lin was an exception.

After all, his rate of improvement was quite inhuman, and the contracted mount was not a creature that normally existed in this world.

Shadow of Blood seemed to need to devour other blood demons to improve, so Jiang Lin prepared to summon a blood demon for it to consume.

Since the holy arbiter title was active, after Jiang Lin activated the Blood Demon Summon function of the Crimson Slaughterer title, a brilliant golden glow emanated from beneath his feet.

Within the golden glow, a warmth and softness that had almost materialized was revealed.

At least on the surface.

Of course, if one were inside it, they would inexplicably smell an unmaskable scent of blood, along with an aura of violence and madness.

Then, a blood-colored figure emerged from the golden glow beneath Jiang Lin's feet.

Since the blood demon was only Jiang Lin's temporary summon, its connection with him wasn't as deep as Shadow of Blood's.

Therefore, the effects of the holy arbiter could not influence the summoned blood demon.

This allowed it to appear in its original blood-red color.

However, Jiang Lin discovered that the blood demon summoned this time was somewhat different.

It wasn't the crimson claw-wing from before, which had wings and looked like a devil.

It was a completely new species.

It hovered in the air, its body a humanoid structure pieced together from many dark red bones.

There was a small amount of writhing flesh connecting the joints, and the surface of the bones was engraved with flickering, sinister blood-colored runes.

Standing about a meter tall, it wore a tattered, bizarre black cloth over its back.

Overall, it looked like a floating small human skeleton.

At the same time, a system notification arrived.

【New blood demon species obtained—cursed blood bone doll】

【Due to rank increase, the types of blood demons that can be summoned have increased. From now on, you can choose the type of blood demon before summoning】

【If no active choice is made, the last summoned type will be automatically used】

Jiang Lin was stunned. He hadn't expected there to be other types of blood demons besides the crimson claw-wing and Shadow of Blood.

But what kind of ability did this cursed blood bone doll have?

Unlike the mad bloodlust of the crimson claw-wing, the cursed blood bone doll appeared quite restrained after being summoned.

Jiang Lin didn't even receive a prompt regarding the need to lock onto a target for attack.

He wasn't sure if it was because Shadow of Blood was standing next to him or if the doll was naturally more rational than the crimson claw-wing.

Next, he had the cursed blood bone doll and Shadow of Blood fight each other.

This was the perfect chance for him to familiarize himself with the control and operation of Shadow of Blood.

Shadow of Blood first slashed out a golden sword qi that wasn't at full strength as a probe.

However, the opponent showed no intention of defending at all.

It simply let the golden sword qi strike its body, charging toward the blood clone without a care.

The sword qi easily tore through the cursed blood bone doll's defense, like cutting through a piece of rag.

The bones making up the cursed blood bone doll shattered instantly.

However, at the same time, an obvious wound appeared on Shadow of Blood, who had launched the attack!

And shimmering golden blood sprayed out from it.

Although Shadow of Blood quickly recovered the wound by relying on its advantage as a blood demon, Jiang Lin was still somewhat surprised.

It was actually a damage-reflection type ability?!

And after the cursed blood bone doll was injured, its recovery speed was also quite astonishing.

The shattered bone fragments floated back a certain distance before rushing toward their original positions, piecing the wound back into its original shape like building blocks.

At the same time, as the sinister blood-colored runes on its bones wriggled, the cracks between the bones healed as if they had never been there.

Jiang Lin didn't control Shadow of Blood to attack again; instead, he prepared to see what kind of attack methods the cursed blood bone doll would use after getting close to Shadow of Blood.

The cursed blood bone doll closed in on Shadow of Blood, extending its bone-constructed arm and pressing it against Shadow of Blood's body.

The bizarre runes on its surface wriggled, and some of them actually traveled along its arm onto Shadow of Blood's body.

Soon after, bursts of black mist emanated from Shadow of Blood, seemingly corroding its body.

However, Shadow of Blood didn't seem to care.

Because those bizarre runes only remained on Shadow of Blood's body for a moment before they were swallowed into its internal body under Jiang Lin's shocked gaze.

Under Jiang Lin's inspection, these runes entering its body was like a drop of water falling into the ocean; they all vanished without a trace.

It seemed they had been directly digested and absorbed.

It appeared that Shadow of Blood was quite a hard counter to these blood demons?

Could this be its devouring ability for blood demons?

No wonder the crimson claw-wings around it didn't dare to approach when it was sitting on that throne.

At the same time, Jiang Lin felt a state of fear from the cursed blood bone doll.

It seemed to very much not want to fight his Shadow of Blood.

Jiang Lin didn't force it any further and controlled the two to separate.

Once away from Shadow of Blood, the cursed blood bone doll's mental state calmed down significantly.

Jiang Lin wanted to try having Shadow of Blood devour this cursed blood bone doll.

But certainly not now; he hadn't fully figured out the cursed blood bone doll's abilities yet.

Moreover, he wasn't sure about the population of cursed blood bone dolls among the blood demons.

After all, he knew the crimson claw-wings were extremely numerous—so many they couldn't be counted.

It wouldn't matter how many were devoured by Shadow of Blood.

But what if there weren't many of the cursed blood bone doll's kin within the Blood Realm?

If he let Shadow of Blood devour it to level up, what would he summon in the future?

When the summon ended, he could share the other party's vision and catch a brief glimpse of the scene inside the Blood Realm.

He would know the size of its population then.

Afterward, Jiang Lin began his research into its abilities.

First was this damage-reflection ability.

Jiang Lin ordered the cursed blood bone doll to stop all outward attacks and just stand still.

Then, he condensed a holy light longsword in his hand.

He gently pricked the cursed blood bone doll.

A slight stinging pain came from his skin.

Jiang Lin noticed a small hole had appeared on his arm.

However, because the wound was very shallow, it healed before Jiang Lin even had a chance to take a good look.

But this wound had appeared very suddenly, as if out of thin air; Jiang Lin hadn't even felt a curse descending.

So he tried again.

Once again, he successfully created a small hole in himself, but this time the wound had moved to his other arm.

This damage-reflection effect seemed to appear randomly, and its range was limited to the surface of his body.

Through these days of study, Jiang Lin knew that this kind of curse couldn't possibly cause him damage out of thin air. No matter what magic system the opponent used, there had to be a duration and a path through which it acted on his body.

It was just that the duration might be very short and sudden, so he hadn't observed it.

So this time, Jiang Lin gritted his teeth and twisted the holy light longsword inside the cursed blood bone doll.

However, during Jiang Lin's attack, the reflection effect didn't reach his body. It wasn't until he stopped his attack that the damage from his previous strike with similar force acted upon him.

The location of the injury was still random, but this time, under Jiang Lin's full concentration, he finally caught a hint of a clue.

After he attacked the opponent, a bizarre curse would appear on his body's surface and cause him similar damage.

It was just that this curse stayed for an extremely short time; it could be said it appeared and disappeared almost in an instant.

Therefore, it was quite difficult to judge.

And this was while he was in a state of calm study. In a battle, it would be hard for an opponent to focus so much attention on themselves.

Next, Jiang Lin activated a shield and stabbed the cursed blood bone doll again.

However, the raised shield didn't serve any purpose; the curse passed directly through the shield and acted on his body.

Jiang Lin was surprised.

It could even ignore defense?!

The effect of this curse was truly powerful!

Afterward, Jiang Lin continued his experiments, testing the other abilities of the cursed blood bone doll.

Besides the damage reflection, the cursed blood bone doll had the two abilities it released when it touched Shadow of Blood earlier.

Both were achieved through the runes branded on it.

Jiang Lin named them the “Armor-Corroding Rune” and the “Blood-Staining Rune.”.

The function of the armor-corroding rune was to weaken the target's defensive capabilities and cause a certain amount of corrosive damage, while the blood-staining rune could lead the opponent's blood to boil until it ignited upon contact.

To remove the "blood-stained" effect, one either had to break direct contact with the cursed blood bone doll or use some purification-type skills.

So, its combat method should be to rush in front of the opponent and use the armor-corroding rune and blood-staining rune on them.

From this perspective, the cursed blood bone doll's abilities were quite disgusting.

Because attacking it would cause a corresponding reflective curse to be generated on oneself, and the effect was very rapid.

Without preparation, it was very easy to fall for it.

And the opponent would quickly fall into a vicious cycle: if they attacked, they would get hurt; if they didn't, the cursed blood bone doll would immediately close in for melee.

The only countermeasure Jiang Lin could think of now was to use some control skills that weren't very aggressive to lock it in place.

However, through Jiang Lin's attempts, at least physical control was quite ineffective against it.

For example, he tried to bind it with the Chains of Holy Judgment.

But the opponent actually fell apart on its own, breaking its body into pieces of bone to escape the restraint.

After escaping, it performed a super assembly, putting itself back into its original shape.

This way, although the cursed blood bone doll wasn't as aggressive as the crimson claw-wing, its abilities were much more bizarre and disgusting.

Soon, the five-minute summon duration ended, and the passage emitting bursts of golden light appeared beneath Jiang Lin's feet again.

The cursed blood bone doll was pulled back inside.

Through the summoning link with the opponent, Jiang Lin saw the scene inside the Blood Realm at the very last moment before the link broke.

This time, it was no longer a sky full of crimson claw-wings, but a vast area of cursed blood bone dolls floating in the air.

They were like prisoners locked in a jail, drifting aimlessly in this space composed of blood-red colors.

A dense, black mass of them filled the air with a suffocating sense of bizarreness.

It seemed the number of cursed blood bone dolls was also quite sufficient.

In that case, he didn't have to worry that letting Shadow of Blood swallow one would affect future summons.

Since Jiang Lin hadn't yet tried Shadow of Blood's devouring ability, he didn't know for the time being whether its growth from devouring blood demons would be like its devouring of other creatures, allowing it to obtain a new form.

Logically, the two should be separate.

Shadow of Blood should need separate devouring to perform copying.

But there was no rush now; the answer would naturally be revealed in a few days.

This way, he could completely use the heaven-defying and disgusting abilities of the cursed blood bone doll in his daily battles.

Jiang Lin was already thinking of ways to use it: after having Shadow of Blood turn into a cursed blood bone doll, he could have it cling to his forearm and use Shadow of Blood as a shield or a gauntlet.

If the opponent attacked him, he would use Shadow of Blood as a shield to block, causing the same damage to the opponent.

And if he attacked the opponent, swinging his Shadow of Blood gauntlet, the opponent would receive double damage due to the reaction force.

But the most conventional use should still be tossing Shadow of Blood out like a projectile for an initial strike.

Having finished his research on these, Jiang Lin retracted Shadow of Blood and continued his dull and tedious daily cultivation.

But calling it dull and tedious now might be a bit inaccurate.

After all, there were now two girls in his dormitory.

It did stir a small ripple in his originally peaceful life.

After buying breakfast and returning to the dormitory.

Jiang Lin was like a lion that had just returned from a hunt, patrolling his territory.

Then he began feeding the two people and one cat in the room.

"Thanks."

Anya accepted the breakfast and thanked him.

"Hee hee, you're such a nice person."

Aili pretended to unintentionally touch Jiang Lin's hand as she took the breakfast.

"Meow meow meow."

Little Black immediately started munching away.

Jiang Lin felt a bit of regret.

It was a pity these two were girls.

If they were his male roommates, in a situation where he brought breakfast, they would usually start using another form of address.

But he looked at the two people present again.

Anya definitely wouldn't say it, as for this girl Aili...

Jiang Lin felt it was hard to say for sure.

Speaking of which, could this girl have fallen in love with him?

Combining his observations from these past few days, Jiang Lin felt she was truly acting a bit abnormally.

After all, back in Boulder City, this girl didn't treat him like she did now.

But Jiang Lin thought about it and felt that while he was handsome, elegant, and suave, as well as powerful, talented, and morally upright, but...

Um...

But nothing came to mind...

Well, it seemed he was just too excellent; falling in love with him was only natural.

As for titles like the "rising suns of the morning" or the "evening intent of that sun," they were purely a case of a tall tree attracting the wind—he was too excellent and thus envied by others!