Volume Five: Return from the Other Shore - Chapter 404: Flower of the Blood Sea (Final)

In a warm, sticky, dark red glow, "she" finally regained consciousness, a very vague consciousness.

Like a traveler lost in the darkness hearing human voices, like a lonely soul sunk in the Deep Sea finding a rope to the surface.

At this moment, she was like a newborn baby, unable to see what the world looked like, only able to let the warm, sticky feeling envelop her. She could feel something beside her, a large mass, something that belonged to her, her experiences, her memories.

What exactly is she now?

A wandering ghost? A memory? A life? A wisp of spiritual energy? A tragic existence without a self?

Who I am?

Where did I come from? And where is this place?

I don't know, I know nothing...

But one thing is certain.

"Give me... your... body..."

How much time has passed exactly?

I have to marvel at my incredible ability to adapt.

No matter what environment I'm in, I can quickly adjust my mindset to be "most suitable".

"Mmm... uh!"

I gave a soft shout and pulled out a metal spike that had pierced my side, drawing out a large string of blood droplets. I could feel that my rough action had caused multiple internal organ ruptures, but...

Life surged forth.

The vast amount of life I devoured combined with the life force generated in my blood, repairing my internal organs. The hole that had been pierced in my stomach earlier also healed. Although I haven't reached Xiao Wu's level, this is still quite fast. More importantly, before, when my blood was just beginning to generate life force, I couldn't use it to heal myself; I could only create Blood Beast or use it to heal others. But now I can heal myself.

Is this getting stronger?

I held the metal thorn I had just pulled out in my hand, blood seeping from my palm and transforming into wispy vines that coiled around it and penetrated the thorn. Soon, many rust-like marks appeared on the surface of the metal thorn, slowly melting away from where the marks appeared, until finally dissolving completely in my blood.

Devouring the Sub Core of the Boundary Breaking Armor... it doesn't seem so impossible after all.

From the beginning until now, about three or four days have passed. I looked at the still endless sea of blood. A single life is really very weak, but little by little, they add up. By now, I have devoured tens of thousands of lives. Although it is only a fraction compared to seven hundred million, I have begun to see a glimmer of hope.

"... come over!"

With a wave of my hand, blood-red tentacles immediately ensnared dozens of blood-soaked figures, pulling them towards me. After my blood had completely seeped into them, I immediately pressed them all into a ball, continuously refining and concentrating it until only a single drop remained. The stench emanating from that single drop of blood even overpowered the Blood Sea itself. I controlled it to float before me, and extended my tongue—which, I don't know when, had turned a somewhat eerie crimson—to roll the drop of blood inside.

Then, that familiar feeling returned, like a huge bundle of TNT being stuffed into my brain, exploding countless stories, too numerous to digest. But I've grown accustomed to it, like walking on the Blood Sea reflecting countless lives, devouring only their lives, sealing everything else deep within the Blood Sea, becoming bubbles that achieve eternity in fragility.

Yes, that's right, that's good.

That's good.

"--!?"

Just as I began to relax, something unexpected happened.

The drop of blood I just drank, containing the lives of hundreds of people, didn't merge into my bloodstream like the previous drops. Instead, it flowed in a strange direction! With this anomaly, the concentrated life force that should have already merged into my body simultaneously began flowing towards the same place! That place is... roughly above the diaphragm and below the lungs... could it be—

Blood Core? That Blood Core that's been dormant for so long? When I first arrived on Spirit Star, I killed a small, seemingly boss-like Desolate Beast —now just cannon fodder—and absorbed its Blood Energy. This thing that appeared inside me is invisible, but I can sense its general shape. At first, it was a small ball resembling Demonic Beast Core. After awakening its blood crystallization, it seemed to have many small, crystal-like protrusions. After swallowing the Yan Yi Ming Hua, it was enveloped in a hellish heat. After swallowing the Serpent's Egg, it was surrounded by a rich life force. And now—

The lives I've devoured are converging on it!?

What's even stranger is that, in response to this sudden change, the Sub Core the Boundary Breaking Armor had been stubbornly resisting within me, suddenly became docile.

It seems we've encountered something extremely powerful.

"Gurgle... Ugh... What's going on!? What is this thing--"

I immediately understood what this thing truly was.

If the first heir to that so-called "remnant of the Blood King" was Blood Fiend, then what exactly did I, as Blood Fiend's heir, inherit from her?

There probably isn't anything else.

"All this time... it's unbelievable how close we've been...!!!"

So the so-called remnants of the Blood King were actually the Blood Core inside my body!!!

"Stop... stop! You—"

What do you want to do?

The residue itself shouldn't have any consciousness. It must have been the constant pressure from what I've been consuming, combined with the countless lives I've devoured here, that finally awakened it!

Huang Huo once told me that Blood Fiend had told him "what he had been devouring all along to gain his current power."

It's possible that Blood Fiend's words were ambiguous from the start! She devoured those rare and precious natural treasures, adding various powerful attributes to her blood, but that wasn't her goal! She must have been aware of just how powerful the remnants within her were! Two hundred years ago, she must have awakened the remnants by consuming seven hundred million lives, but she wasn't satisfied with that, which is why she turned to devour treasures like Crystal Realm Fruit, attempting to further explore the power of the remnants!

Yusuo Zai must have known this, which is why he forced me to devour life here! Devouring life is not just to make me stronger, but also to activate it!

"Waaaaaah... waaaaaah... ahh..."

The residue trembled violently, and everything that had been placed upon it—crystallization, flames, and life force—went berserk! Everything that was usually under my control was now out of my grasp! But that wasn't the point; as the residue emitted various violent fluctuations, it began to move on its own!

"Aaaaaah!! Gaaaaaaahh..."

The Blood Core, which should have been located below my chest cavity, started moving upwards! It felt like a small, spiky ball was forcibly breaking through my blood vessels, nerves, and internal organs, relentlessly drilling upwards! My hands, convulsing from the rampaging force, frantically scratched at my skin, but I couldn't touch it at all!

Plop

"Ughh..."

The lungs! The lungs are damaged; it forcibly crushes the flesh and blood of the lungs and shreds the trachea!

Kara, guji, guji guji guji guji guji--!!!

Its advance continues, straight ahead! Its destination is all too clear—it's my heart!!!

It tore open the pericardium, punctured the valves, and slowly but forcefully invaded my heart! At the same time, an extremely strange pain surged through my heart. My heart ached, it ached terribly, but this pain was unlike anything I had ever felt before; it felt like my body was crumbling from the inside out! And the beating grew weaker and weaker, yet I didn't feel the accompanying weakness. On the contrary, I could feel every cell in my body brimming with vitality! Every metal spike was reduced to nothing by the corrosive power of my blood, and all the damage on my body was regenerating rapidly, even my hair... had grown longer?

"It's started already? This is faster than I expected."

It was still the same old apartment building, reminiscent of the 1970s or 80s, filled with extremely worn and dilapidated furniture. Yusuo Zai was sitting on the bed covered with faded bedding, flipping through a book—the once-bestselling "The Kite Runner." He only glanced up occasionally at the television, which was still displaying images despite not being plugged in, then nodded slightly and closed the book.

"Perfect, I'll just treat it as a short commercial break during the show to change my mood."

Someone's amazing crisis situation seems to be just a commercial break for him.

On the television, the pink-haired woman clutched her chest, kneeling in the Blood Sea. Some of the metal spikes that had pierced her body disappeared, while others retracted, and her skin quickly returned to its original rosy white. Her clothes were long gone, and she was now practically naked, but faced with this exceptionally perfect female body, Yusuo Zai merely showed an expression of appreciation, as if he were admiring a work of art rather than a naked beauty.

Her body also changed slightly. Her dark red eyes, which were originally very close to black, had now turned almost completely bright red. Her pink hair had grown longer, and although it had already reached below her shoulder blades, it had now extended past her waist. Moreover, the color had changed slightly, from pure pink to a slightly deeper shade, leaning towards a more vibrant peach-red.

And the area she was tightly covering—slightly to the left of her chest—though partially obscured by her full, perky breasts, was still visible. The skin there had become translucent, like crystal, revealing the heart's location and what it was doing! The heart was gradually melting away, vanishing into nothingness, while the Blood Core trembled violently, like a volcano about to erupt. Finally—

It has bloomed.

Just like a seed growing into a flower.

For a moment, the sky seemed to turn a shade of red.

It was a beautiful flower.

After being properly nourished, the fragments of the Blood King finally blossomed—this is not an exaggeration, but a real flower.

The petals curl backward, with wavy edges, and there are no leaves visible, only flowers.

"The Lycoris radiata, a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Lycoris in the family Amaryllidaceae... Well, applying taxonomy at this point seems a bit out of touch, and using Chinese folk names like 'old crow garlic' or 'garlic grass' would only ruin the mood."

The girl on the screen let out a final, sharp scream, and then the mysterious Lycoris radiata that had replaced her heart exploded in her chest, bursting out countless slender petals, each tens of meters long, like countless tentacles, frantically swirling towards the surrounding blood-soaked people. At the same time, all the blood in the Blood Sea was converging on her, as if she had become a giant sewer, swallowing up all the liquid.

"It seems you really have a knack for concepts like 'death' and 'reincarnation.' This should be the last one. Can you make it through...? Oh?"

Yusuo Zai suddenly narrowed his eyes slightly, as if he were examining something.

"... Well, it seems two adorable little friends are coming to visit. Should I call this a troublesome situation, Mr. Ye?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Blood Core has been a foreshadowing element planted in the prologue, yet... it doesn't seem unbelievable at all.