Volume Five: Homecoming from the Other Shore - Homecoming (5)
A carpet made of rare monster hides lay on the finest nanmu wood flooring; a chandelier studded with diamonds and crystals hung from the ceiling; the soft, bright light of the underwater pearl illuminated the room; antique vases filled with rare plants whose names were unknown were neatly arranged on shelves against the wall; and the tapestries on the wall were woven from a mixture of gold thread and extremely rare monster hides, each square centimeter worth far more than several years' income for an average family.
Outsiders might mistake this for a banquet hall in a royal palace or an exhibition room in a top-tier museum. Either way, it's an area that ordinary people rarely set foot in, an extremely luxurious and formal place.
If you said this was just someone's dressing room, no one would believe you.
The lady was sitting in front of a large dressing mirror, carefully applying a light layer of foundation. Her technique was extremely refined and skillful; she had performed the same movements thousands upon thousands of times. But proficiency did not equate to carelessness. Even though the act of applying makeup was almost ingrained in her subconscious, she remained fully focused every time she did it.
The lady loved makeup and was skilled at it; her technique was so exquisite that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call her a master of the art.
She didn't wear makeup to hide ugliness—in fact, her natural beauty was unparalleled even in the world; only the Blood Fiend Edward Warrensding could rival her in her life. But the fact that she already possessed stunning beauty couldn't extinguish her pursuit of it. In her view, arguments that "makeup equals fraud" were utterly foolish. Genetics, upbringing, beauty regimens, and makeup were all merely individual factors that determined one's appearance. Even though her natural beauty was already remarkable, who wouldn't want to accumulate more elements and pursue an even higher level of beauty?
That's why she studies makeup. Since she's done everything she can with genetics, environment, and skincare, she might as well explore new areas. She always wears light makeup because the purpose of makeup is only to enhance one's natural charm. She refuses to allow inorganic chemical substances to overshadow or obscure her already flawless appearance.
"Hmm... very good."
She turned her head to the left and right to observe her exquisitely made-up self in the mirror, gathered up her hair with every carefully calculated angle of its curl, arranged her gorgeous dress made by dozens of top designers with the finest fabrics, and touched the jewelry adorning her neck and wrists with rare jewels, checking every detail to perfection.
She rose gracefully from the chair with its silk cushions, stretching her luxurious body. The curves beneath her elaborate attire resembled undulating mountains, her ample breasts pushing the long dress to its limit, while her legs, achieving a perfect balance between slenderness and voluptuousness, stretched out languidly. Her body, like her face, was dazzlingly beautiful; no wonder Yu He once joked that "the two peaks of beauty in this world are both in high-rise buildings."
It was unusual for the lady to have no servants around; she did all her own dressing and grooming, which shows how much she valued this trip.
"Everything is ready, so..."
The lady shifted her gaze to the void, "observing" the propagation of the sound.
The pink-haired girl's voice has already been recorded; we can simply use that as a basis for a wide-ranging search.
She didn't use her keen senses to capture sounds coming from afar, since the distance a sound of a certain decibel can travel is quite limited, and even the speed of sound would be somewhat slow at such a long distance. The lady simply "extracted" the sound from the distance and brought it to her face, regardless of the loudness or speed of the sound—as long as the sound existed, that was enough.
"Following the traces of the audio track, tracing back to its owner... Ah, I've got it, the voice she just made!"
The lady's smile deepened; the thought of soon seeing the young girl who was most likely the heir to Warrensding filled her with excitement.
"The specific location is... an abandoned village on the edge of the Falling Star Mountains in the Kasser Province? Why would it be in such a remote place?"
The lady paused for a moment, then quickly came to her answer.
"Wait, the Kasser Province... I remember it's Warrensding's birthplace. Could it be a return to his roots? If that's the case—"
Blood Fiend never discusses her origins within the organization. At most, everyone knows she was once Saintess of the Kasser Province of the West Saint Continent, and that she was most likely born in Kasser, but no one knows her exact birthplace. Everyone, including the madam, naturally assumes that such a beautiful woman as Blood Fiend must come from a powerful and influential noble family...
Could it be that the abandoned village was Warrensding's hometown? Was his destined rival born in such a small, dilapidated rural area, a country bumpkin?
Upon realizing this, the lady was immediately overjoyed.
In the lady's eyes, many factors determine a person's worth: ability, appearance, intelligence, and so on, with family background being one of them. From this perspective, she was absolutely superior to Warrensding in terms of family background. Yay!
"Hoo hoo hoo, ah, Warrensding, did you ever imagine this day would come? I certainly did! Pink-haired maiden, kneel down to welcome my arrival! Transform this body into sound, where sound is, there this body is, target—huh!?"
Another sound came from the target location.
Besides the pink-haired girl, there was also... a young man's voice?
The two appeared to be having a conversation.
That male voice... there's no mistake, the lady is certain she knows that person!
"That voice... Yu He? No, that's not right... Could it be..."
The lady was extremely sensitive to sound; she would never forget anyone's voice once she heard it. Yet, even so, this voice still sounded somewhat unfamiliar to her.
Converting sound into an image—imaging!
Under the influence of her supernatural power, various sounds coming from afar were directly converted into visual images and projected onto the lady's retina.
The lady was completely baffled by this unexpected person.
"... Are you kidding me? How could it be him?"
Just as I was about to investigate further, at least to find out what they were talking about, the sound suddenly disappeared.
The two did not stop talking, but the sound suddenly disappeared, even the Sound of Nature of the wind blowing through the rocks and the sand rustling through the grass were gone, as if someone had erased the concept of "sound" directly from that area.
"... Tsk!"
The lady smacked her lips impatiently.
"This meticulously planned meeting was ruined by this annoying fellow. Don't forget about me, his VIP guest!"
A few minutes ago--
The barbed wire has reached its end.
In a low-lying area in the mountains, the end of the barbed wire lay forlornly in a small ditch. At first glance, it looked like trash carelessly discarded by a bad tourist, but no one would ever visit this godforsaken place.
"All this trouble just to get me into this godforsaken place? Are you kidding me...?"
Everywhere you look, there are bare rocks, sparse vegetation, only some weeds and crooked trees growing sporadically in the crevices of the rocks, and the only creatures that move around are small lizards peeking out from between the rocks. When we were in Dunwich Village, at least we could tell that the surrounding area used to be fertile farmland, and from the outside the mountain, it just looked relatively barren. But once we got inside, it was a textbook example of a desolate and impoverished place.
There was neither the magnificent altar I had imagined, nor the blood pools, treasure chests, or little notebooks containing wondrous spells that I had envisioned—those clichéd Dragon Proud Heaven male protagonists who always seem to get cheat codes.
Could there be a hidden secret?
"Open Sesame! Hurry, hurry, as the law commands! Balala the Fairies, transform!"
Nothing happened... duh.
Could it be something like the common practice of blood oath?
With that thought in mind, I let a drop of blood fall from my fingertip to the ground.
"..."
Of course, no eggs were produced.
The blood simply seeped into the stone and disappeared without a trace, nothing special about it.
"There's nothing here! Where did the blood go!?"
Blood seeping into stone? Are you kidding me!
I bent down and examined the spot where the blood had just dripped, looking left and right, but found nothing. The bare rocks were very hard, with no cracks on the surface that could allow liquid to flow through, but the blood was definitely gone. Where had it gone?
I repeated the experiment, dripping another drop of blood, this time a much larger amount. I also attached a trace of my will to it for easy tracking.
In the blink of an eye, new blood seeped in, and in the instant it disappeared, I lost contact with it.
"Underground!"
The Blood Energy were gathered together.
My blood seeped into the ground under its attraction, even ignoring me, its master, which can only mean that there is something hidden beneath!
A thick layer of crystals covered the outside of my right arm, and the blood filling my arm burst into flames. With the powerful propulsion, I punched the ground!
"Ha!"
I smashed a huge crack in the ground, revealing its true form.
"... What the heck is this?!"
The rocks in this mountain are indeed the most common gray stone, but that's only the surface layer—those gray stones are like eggshells, hard and thin, their purpose being to protect the egg white and yolk inside.
Beneath the stone lay a crimson expanse.
From the large crack I opened, a bloody, red, semi-solid substance emitted a pungent, stench of blood. It resembled a mixture of exposed muscle after skin had been peeled away and large clumps of blood vessels stuck together, interspersed with cartilaginous vein-like structures—an indescribably eerie sight. The texture made me momentarily think I had been transported to a world of torture or death.
Moreover, the quantity is extremely large.
I broke through several more sections of the ground, and there were these things all underneath, about ten to twenty centimeters of rock. Moreover, these things were all connected underground, like flesh under armor.
"... Could it be?"
A highly concentrated ball of Blood Flame ignited in my hand, which I launched towards the rock wall beside me. With a deafening boom, earth and rocks flew everywhere, and as the dust settled—
"Really..."
In the rock wall that stands hundreds of meters high, about ten centimeters below the surface, there are these strange, scarlet substances, warm and permeated with blood, seemingly still pulsating slightly.
With a snap of my fingers, hundreds of blood crystal spears instantly appeared in mid-air, launching a carpet bombing attack on the mountain below at my command. The exposed limestone crumbled inch by inch, and hundreds of square meters of rock shell were peeled away, revealing these monstrous things beneath.
"My God... Could it be that this huge mountain actually has no rocks at all, and is completely filled with these strange things?"
This mountain is incredibly tall and enormous. If everything beneath that thin layer of rock is made up of these things... just how big is it!?
"Could it be some powerful demonic beast again? How many of those ten great demonic beast clans haven't shown up yet...?"
"The third-ranked Sea Emperor Clan resides in the Deep Sea, and the first-ranked clan is not something you need to know right now. What is hidden within this mountain is the culmination of life from the entire West Saint Continent..."
At this moment, "he" finally appeared.