Dead Blood and Living Blood

Had he known the Lighting Method consumed so much blood, he should have found a way to get more earlier. Now it was too late.

As the doors and windows shook ever more violently, Yang An had no choice but to grip his blade and keep backing away. Before long, he had retreated into a corner, with nowhere left to go.

The front door was the only exit from the house, and demons were clearly approaching it head-on. There was no way for him to escape. He could only steel himself and hope these demons were timid enough to be scared off before the blood in the bowl ran dry.

Otherwise, he could only try using his own blood to light the lamp.

Buzzz— The wind roared louder and louder, as if some terrifying invisible thing were endlessly battering the doors and windows.

Though Yang An had prepared himself mentally, less than two breaths later, the window gave a dull thud and was blown open.

A gale rushed into the room, carrying a faint stench of blood and rot. It instantly tossed Yang An's hair into disarray and made his clothes flap loudly, leaving him unable to open his eyes.

Yet at that moment, Yang An's heart sank heavily.

His first thought was to check the Blood Bowl lighting the lamp on the table. In such a fierce gale, it definitely could not keep burning.

And just as he had expected, the instant he forced his eyes open, the room plunged into darkness.

The lamp had gone out!

As the room fell dark, Yang An's heart dropped into an abyss. Along with a powerful sense of unease, his consciousness suddenly began to drift like duckweed with no roots.

Without even thinking, he made the most correct decision. Gritting his teeth, he held the blade in his left hand and immediately sliced open his right palm.

The blade was not especially sharp, but it easily cut a finger-length gash into his palm.

A stabbing pain shot through his hand, followed by something warm surging from the wound.

Yang An wasted no time. As he recited the incantation, his fingers immediately formed the hand seals.

He had originally been able to cast the Lighting Method in two seconds, but this time he was even faster. With danger at his doorstep, his speed improved drastically once more.

In less than a second, as the hand seals completed, a fierce crimson flame suddenly appeared before him, as large as a human head.

The fire instantly lit up the darkened room again, wiping away the strange sensation in Yang An's mind and consciousness and bringing him sharply awake.

He could clearly feel the blood in his body draining away at great speed, rapidly consumed by the crimson flame in his palm. A wave of weakness followed close behind.

Yet the intense light gave Yang An an incomparable sense of safety.

And when the entire room was illuminated once more, a single glance made Yang An's scalp tingle with terror.

At some unknown moment, four twisted figures had appeared inside the room. Though they differed in height, build, and shape, they all looked and dressed like the demon from before. Four pairs of empty eye sockets stared viciously at Yang An, and the nearest demon stood less than a meter away.

One of the demons bore obvious burn marks. Chunks of black, charcoal-like rotten flesh had peeled away from its body, hanging on by only a few strands of tissue. It was a horrifying sight.

Yang An recognized it at once. It was the demon that had fled earlier. From its condition, the Lighting Method had clearly inflicted severe damage on it.

He had not expected the demon to truly return, much less bring other demons with it.

These demons had clearly not expected that although the crimson flame in the room had been extinguished by the gale they had summoned, Yang An would directly ignite a flame in his hand—one more than ten times fiercer than the flame in the bowl.

In an instant, just as the demons were about to attack Yang An, the appearance of the flame sent them into intense agony. On those faces without mouths or noses, there appeared a faintly human-like expression of fear.

The first to bear the brunt of it was the demon closest to Yang An.

Yang An did not move at all. It was simply too close to him, and the flame in his hand suddenly flared. The demon let out a scream as its entire body immediately turned like red-hot branding iron. Its hunched form was ignited all at once, glowing a deep, translucent crimson.

The other demons behind it also began to develop patch after patch of red blotches across their bodies.

The scorching heat plunged these demons into unbearable pain. Black smoke rose from their bodies in wisps, leaving them unable to move and able only to endure the searing flames.

Seeing this, Yang An's terror-stricken heart froze for a moment. Then he quickly realized what was happening, and joy surged within him.

"They can't withstand the flames ignited by my blood!"

He immediately saw the predicament these demons were in.

Even Yang An had not expected that flames ignited with his own blood would be so powerful. They were utterly different from the flames lit by the blood in the bowl—the difference in power was like heaven and earth.

Because he had not tried using his own blood when practicing the Lighting Method before, he had been completely unaware of the difference in effect. It had nearly cost him his life.

Fortunately, it was not too late to learn it now. He could also roughly guess why the difference was so enormous.

The blood in the bowl came from the dead. It was blood that had nearly coagulated.

But the blood in his hand came from him, a living man. It was fresh and warm.

Clearly, only the blood of the living could unleash the true power of the Lighting Method!

Having witnessed the Lighting Method's restraining and damaging effect on demons, Yang An was no longer afraid. Confidence immediately filled him.

He understood that he needed to finish this quickly. Otherwise, the enormous loss of blood would place a tremendous burden on him and might even endanger his life.

With that thought, Yang An gritted his teeth and actually reached out his hand.

The head-sized flame burned like a scarlet fireball as Yang An directly pressed his palm against the demon before him.

A shrill scream immediately rang in his ears. The demon had no ability to resist. Its body, already scorched red, suddenly blazed even more fiercely.

At the same time, as the distance to the flames shortened, the red blotches on the other demons' bodies ignited as well, instantly spreading over their entire forms.

The demons had already been standing very close together. Yang An closing the distance was no different from lighting the fuse of a powder keg.

Once any one of the demons was ignited, none of the others could escape. The flames that had already been stirring restlessly could no longer be suppressed and erupted at once.

Within the small house, towering crimson flames suddenly burst forth. Even the violent gale could not blow them out. Instead, the fire borrowed the wind's momentum and grew ever fiercer.

As several screams rang out one after another, all movement ceased after only a single breath.

The flames quickly scattered, and the light rapidly receded.

Inside the room, the flame in Yang An's hand had shrunk to only the size of a fist.

The red firelight illuminated his face. It was covered in sweat, but even more striking was its sickly pallor, the weakness plainly visible to the naked eye.

At that instant, he felt as though he were about to faint. His entire body was limp, and darkness spread before his eyes as he temporarily lost his sight.

Just now, in order to completely ignite those demons, he had instinctively detonated the flame in his hand with all his strength. He had not expected it to consume such a vast amount of blood from his body that, in merely one breath, he felt as though he were about to be drained dry.

He was now exceedingly weak, and he did not dare extinguish the flame in his hand.

He feared that if he put out the fire in his hand, without the Lighting Method's mind-clearing, spirit-purifying effect constantly keeping his mind awake, he might lose consciousness on the spot.

It would be disastrous if more demons appeared.

After waiting quietly for a while, until his vision gradually returned, Yang An forced himself toward the table and lit the wick twisted from hemp rope in the bowl. Only when he saw a thumb-sized flame appear in the Blood Bowl once again did he finally breathe a sigh of relief and extinguish the fire in his hand.

Yang An slowly sat down against the table leg. He was now so weak that he did not even have the strength to close the door again.

Though his own condition was equally miserable, at least his life had been temporarily preserved, and the outcome satisfied him as well.

All four demons had perished on the spot. None had escaped.

At this moment, the demons' forms had completely vanished from the room. Only several clumps of black ash remained, slowly scattering in the wind like drifting sand.