Chapter 487 – Blood Maiden

“Bang, bang, bang-“

Dong Lingxue and Irene were enveloped in a soft white light, firmly shielded. The bodyguards, noticing their escape, began shooting at them, causing ripples to form on the energy shield with each bullet impact.

Dong Lingxue was holding tightly to Irene’s hand as they sprinted frantically towards the dark path ahead.

Her mind was a tumultuous mess, nearly robbed of all decisive ability by the earlier incidents of mystery and bloodshed.

Fixing her gaze on Irene’s bouncing golden hair, she struggled to calm her wildly pounding heart and nervously asked.

“Where are we going?”

“I don’t know.”

Irene shook her head, her voice bright and pleasant, almost dispelling some of the surrounding darkness and gloom.

“But it’s better than staying there waiting to die, don’t you think? Can’t you see? We’ve been turned into sacrificial offerings for some evil ritual.”

Terrified screams echoed distantly behind them, making Dong Lingxue instinctively shrink her body.

By now, they had put some distance between themselves and the altar platform.

For some reason, the guards responsible for herding and monitoring them had not given chase.

“There’s no path ahead.”

Irene hurriedly led Dong Lingxue down a stone step.

They hid beneath the protruding part of the step, less than half a meter away from the pitch-black abyss.

This was the very edge of the platform.

“Whew-“

Finally settling down, Irene let out a small sigh of relief, then turned to Dong Lingxue and said, “We must escape and expose Milorad’s conspiracy and crimes.”

“How do we escape?”

Standing before the cliff, Dong Lingxue asked helplessly and fearfully in a low voice, “Besides, the Gem Lord is the master of Planet Lirva. Even if we do get out alive, we can’t stand against him…”

“I have a plan.”

Irene began gathering her loose golden hair into a ponytail. “Planet Lirva belongs to Milorad, but the people on Planet Lirva aren’t Milorad’s slaves. We are part of the Empire’s nobility, protected by the Empire’s laws. If his crime of conspiring against dozens of noble heirs is exposed, not even the Will Family that backs him can protect him…

Trust me, we can do this.”

Irene held Dong Lingxue’s hand, speaking with firm resolve.

Dong Lingxue stared blankly at the girl in front of her, observing the determination and bravery reflected in Irene’s blue eyes. At that moment, the light radiating from Irene made her feel a deep sense of inadequacy.

This girl was exceptional.

In every way, she exceeded her by far.

“Oh, right.”

Irene suddenly smiled brightly, extending a hand to Dong Lingxue, “Your name is Dong Lingxue, right? I’m Irene. Nice to officially meet you.”

“How… how do you know my name?”

Dong Lingxue’s eyes widened with surprise, not expecting Irene to know her name so precisely.

Irene winked playfully at her, her smile as mischievous as a sprite.

“I noticed you on the first day. The surname ‘Dong’ is quite uncommon, and I happen to be interested in the Legacy and origins of the old Duoling nobility like yours.”

“Is… is that so…”

Dong Lingxue stammered, a blend of shyness and the thrill of being noticed by an “idol” lighting up her demeanor.

“I’ve actually been paying attention to you for some time. There’s something very special about you, something that sets you apart from everyone else…”

Irene affectionately held Dong Lingxue’s hand, her smile pure and sincere. “Every day, I thought about how nice it would be to talk to you and become friends.

You probably don’t realize, but all those books you looked through on the shelf, I’ve secretly read them too…”

Irene’s warmth made Dong Lingxue feel both flattered and comforted, dispelling the damp and darkness around her like sunlight.

The two girls held hands, huddled under the rocks, whispering secrets. In that moment, the dangers of death and fear seemed distant.

“Do you remember that time when you…”

Irene was speaking to Dong Lingxue with bright eyes when suddenly, urgent footsteps sounded overhead.

In an instant, they both fell silent.

Dong Lingxue’s eyes were filled with terror as she clutched Irene’s hand tightly. Irene, in turn, gently patted her back, helping Dong Lingxue gradually calm down.

Once the footsteps faded into the distance, Dong Lingxue heard Irene’s voice relax.

“Alright, now we need to figure out a way back…”

She bent over slightly, carefully taking two steps forward, looking around for a moment before turning back to signal Dong Lingxue to follow her.

Dong Lingxue hesitated for a moment, but decided to go after her.

The platform was deserted, an intense silence surrounding them; no gunshots or screams could be heard anymore.

Irene climbed the stone steps first and then turned back to help pull Dong Lingxue up.

“Here, give me your hand.”

Just as Dong Lingxue was about to grasp Irene’s extended hand, an overwhelming sense of fear and unease enveloped her.

Her outstretched hand froze in midair as she watched, wide-eyed, a dense, Scarlet mist descend from the darkness above like a cloud, enveloping Irene completely.

Within an instant, Irene’s expression contorted, the Scarlet mist writhing into her body like countless tiny snakes.

Red lines surfaced on her usually fair and smooth skin, as though countless insects were squirming just beneath.

Irene looked at Dong Lingxue with a pained expression, reaching out to her desperately, as if seeking help.

But Dong Lingxue could do nothing; her heart was paralyzed with fear. She stumbled backward frantically until the feeling of the cliff’s edge beneath her feet halted her retreat.

In just a few breaths, Irene swelled up like a waterlogged, bloated corpse, her entire body covered in black-red veins. Her skin cracked, and she lost all her previous beauty, becoming hideous and grotesque.

Yet she still looked at Dong Lingxue, her mouth opening and closing silently, urging repeatedly.

“Run…”

Dong Lingxue was trembling uncontrollably, overwhelmed by terror, pain, and sorrow, as if being consumed by a tidal wave. She was on the brink of madness.

She watched helplessly as Irene’s body continued to swell, inflated by the relentless infusion of the blood mist, until…

“Bang!”

She burst apart, exploding right before Dong Lingxue’s eyes.

“No!”

Dong Lingxue screamed and charged forward in desperation.

Nearby, lights flickered on as fully armed guards approached with expressionless faces.

Dong Lingxue seemed oblivious to them.

Tears streamed down her face as she blankly stared at the swirling blood mist before her, trying to find any trace of Irene.

“This is the last one, right?”

In the distance, a middle-aged man with a stern face and clad in a black combat suit coldly withdrew his gaze and spoke to his companion.

“Thirty-two, I’ve been keeping count…”

His companion nodded, responding with a relaxed demeanor, “Speaking of which, after this job is done, it should be our turn for a vacation, right? How about we all go on holiday together? I heard District 76 has developed several new tourist planets. There’s a lot to do, prices are reasonable, and if a group buys together, we can get a discount…”

The middle-aged man parted his lips, about to speak.

Just then, a piercing scream, almost hysterical, resonated from a distance, sending an inexplicable chill through his heart.

Everyone instinctively turned their heads to see Dong Lingxue slumped on the ground, her expression vacant.

In front of her, a massive blood mist was contracting and roiling, as if something was about to emerge from it.

“Not good!”

The middle-aged man’s face changed drastically, and he immediately became alert.

“Retreat! Fall back quickly!”

He shouted, leading the retreat.

The other guards also turned on their heels, retreating rapidly. Simultaneously, their bodies began to glow with white light, clearly activating their Protective measures to the fullest extent.

“Damn it, weren’t we told it wouldn’t appear until the thirty-second one?”

His companion muttered, but no one responded.

Everyone wore a serious expression, focusing solely on running.

With their excellent physical fitness and enhanced equipment, they moved swiftly.

They were about to escape the confines of the altar’s platform, allowing the guards a momentary sense of relief.

Although they didn’t know exactly what would emerge from the churning blood mist, the repeated orders before the task to retreat immediately hinted that it certainly wouldn’t be anything good.

As he stepped off the blood-red patterned altar platform, the leading middle-aged man stopped and turned to look back, wanting to assess the situation behind him. His pupils constricted sharply the moment he turned.

Just a hair’s breadth away from him floated a naked woman.

Her size was about four or five times that of a normal person.

She had the tail of a snake, bat-like wings, Scarlet skin, and long, sharp nails.

Her forehead bore blood-red, scythe-like horns, resembling a twisted crown that imparted a sense of malevolent nobility.

Yet her face was extraordinarily beautiful.

Her Scarlet eyes, seemingly carved from the finest red agate, quietly focused on the middle-aged man.

An intense aura of evil radiated from her body, engulfing the entire space like a tidal wave, freezing the air in a silent, oppressive stillness.

The middle-aged man gazed fixedly at this blood-red woman, struggling to lower his head and glance at his feet.

Seeing that his feet were firmly planted on the ground outside the altar platform, he allowed himself a faint look of relief.

However, in the next instant…

“Whoosh-“

A blood-red wind blew past, sweeping the man’s hair back.

He instinctively squinted his eyes.

Then, he witnessed his companions, both in front and behind him, their bodies torn apart by an invisible force, flesh and blood scattering into the air…

This included himself.

“Why… why? I clearly…”

The middle-aged man’s eyes widened, unable to comprehend, even in his final moment, why, despite following orders and retreating to the “safe zone,” the entity born from the blood mist wouldn’t spare him.

“Pop…”

The sound of dozens of bubbles bursting simultaneously filled the air as hundreds of fully armed guards were silently reduced to a bloody pulp, swept up by an invisible force and consumed by the blood-red woman.

She closed her mouth with a gentle, satisfied smack, exuding an elegant grandeur befitting a true lady of high society.

With a quiet turn, she took a single step, arriving before the limp, dazed Dong Lingxue seated on the ground.

From above, the woman gazed at Dong Lingxue with the kind of curiosity one might show a toy.

Her long snake tail extended from behind, gently lifting Dong Lingxue’s chin.

Just as she was about to say something, she appeared to sense something.

The woman quietly looked up, her eyes flashing with waves of red light.

“Wait for me, darling…”

She spoke in a soft voice, smiled wickedly, and with a flap of her wings, vanished instantly into thin air.

Dong Lingxue remained dazed, sitting limp on the ground.

Half a minute later, the dim, silent platform was abruptly pierced by her scream of despair and collapse…

…

“Boiling Point. Blood Cry!”

With the sound of a deep, cold voice, Sea Wolf’s black Mecha stood upright, emitting an intense red light as an indescribably powerful mental power surged forth.

The supercharged energy field distorted the surrounding air immensely.

Under this explosive energy, the black Mecha on Sea Wolf’s body shattered inch by inch.

The bulky, broken shell quickly shed away, revealing a sleek, slender new form, sharp as a blade.

“You’re the first opponent to push me to this point…”

Sea Wolf slowly rose, alloy arms springing forth with bladeless edges forged from Blood-patterned Steel.

He looked at Helier, red flames seemingly flickering in his pupils, a barely contained madness bubbling beneath his calm exterior.

If before Sea Wolf seemed like a tyrant or a fierce outlaw, now he was like a beast driven entirely mad.

The roaring of the engine was like the low growl of a wild animal, as Sea Wolf exploded forward, becoming a streak of blood light rushing towards Helier.

Helier, however, remained indifferent, proud and dismissive like a knight who had never dismounted.

He casually raised his ornate greatsword, blocking Sea Wolf’s attack and, with a backhand swing, sent Sea Wolf flying.

Even with the Mecha’s second form activated and the seventh outburst of the Resonance Technique [Blood Cry], power approaching the ninth level, there remained a vast, nearly impassable chasm between them.

The difference from before was perhaps only that…

In this state of extreme exertion, Sea Wolf was no longer just a brittle paper before Helier, easily pierced.

“Boom!”

Before Sea Wolf could fully recover from being knocked back, he charged again.

Helier continued to block each attack with casual, horizontal strikes from his greatsword.

After several exchanges, Helier seemed to grow weary of this easy and dull game.

His overwhelming mental power surged from within his amber-colored Mecha, radiating like the blazing sun at noon, endless in its light and heat.

“Resonance Technique-Amber Seal!”

Helier’s cold and indifferent voice echoed from inside his Mecha. He raised his free hand, palm open, fingers spread, aiming directly at Sea Wolf.

In an instant, an endless stream of amber light shot from his palm.

The intertwined beams of light formed a massive golden sphere, encapsulating Sea Wolf completely.

“Roar!”

Trapped inside the semi-transparent golden sphere, Sea Wolf howled in madness, like a wild beast, frantically attacking the sphere’s inner walls.

But apart from producing a few sparks and light spots, his attacks couldn’t shake the sphere in the slightest.

“The end that I declare… is the true end.”

Helier’s pride remained intact, his voice aloof as he spoke.

Maintaining the gesture that sustained the golden sphere, he looked downwards towards Gem Lord.

The ground was littered with Mecha wreckage, and Gem Lord’s bizarre expression contrasted sharply with the evil shadow writhing and twisting behind him on the cave wall, causing Helier to frown slightly.

“It seems… you’ve kept quite a few things from me. Milorad. Will.”

Helier spoke, his face expressionless as he regarded Gem Lord.

It was the first time he used his full name.

Under Helier’s piercing gaze, Gem Lord merely smiled brightly.

“Everyone has secrets. My willingness to lay mine bare before you only signifies how much I trust you…”

Gem Lord spread his hands in a gesture of openness, smiling, “Helier, my dearest friend.”

Translator’s Note:
With this chapter we’ve reached the end of the novel unfortunately. The Author has since dropped the novel back on May 26, 2024 in favor of writing a new novel (巫师血脉 is the name of the novel if you are curious). I still kept pushing forward to translate this novel despite that since I wanted to see how the story turned out for them to drop the novel at this point and while it has had it’s ups and downs, I still found the novel mostly enjoyable despite the fact the author dropped it.