Volume Six: What She Lost, What I Gained, Chapter 595: A Vessel for the Heart

"But... you want me to cooperate with you, but what exactly am I supposed to do? Provide you with intelligence and report their movements to you at any time?"

There's no need for that.

"That is, to kill—"

"What are you thinking? Although you are very strong, it would still be quite difficult to actually assassinate one of them. There's a high chance you'd end up losing more than you gain, so I won't force you... Here, this."

"This is..."

"Doesn't it feel familiar? That's right, this is Blood Fiend's— "

"--Blood poison!? How do you have it?"

"I bought it from her before she passed away. At the time, I didn't think too much about it; I just felt that this thing might come in handy later, and it turned out that my hunch was right."

"That's an exaggeration..."

"Furthermore, I must correct one point. This is not blood poison, but a new Cold Blood Poison I obtained by adding cold blood extracted during the process of Blood Fiend's body to the original blood poison sample. It combines the characteristics of both. If one is infected with this, even Miss Ye will definitely—"

"Sick... Sick Spider!!!!"

I roared her name angrily, but my voice faltered halfway through; the extreme fatigue made it difficult for me to even speak loudly.

A chilling, sticky chill coursed through my body, impossible to resist. I tried to ignite my Blood Flame, but wherever the chill passed, all the Blood Flame died down. I then tried to create a blood crystal Blood Beast, only to find that even these simple tasks were now incredibly difficult! My powers were sluggish, my energy felt completely drained, and I couldn't even convert the life force within me into power!

The Sick Spider silently stepped over me as I lay on the ground and stood beside Yu He, its expression complex but its eyes resolute.

Traitor.

I started to regret it.

At first, I was indeed very wary of the Sick Spider, but as time went by, my wariness inevitably faded, especially after fighting alongside her a few times. A part of me had come to regard this former mortal enemy as someone almost like a teammate.

As the saying goes, one wrong step leads to another.

"What... did you... do... what exactly did you do?!"

"I'm just taking advantage of the difference in intelligence. Sometimes, even knowing just one small detail more than the other side is enough to decide the outcome of a battle," Yu He said.

"... A small matter?"

"How much do you really know about Blood Fiend? Her past, her experiences, and most importantly—her full strength. What do you think is the complete picture of her abilities?"

"..."

"As expected, it seems you don't truly understand Blood Fiend... That's understandable, you are her successor, inheriting the seed of her abilities, but that's all. Due to different growth processes, your abilities will increasingly differ from hers. Let me tell you for now... Besides Blood Crystals, Blood Flame, Blood Beast, and other abilities you also possess, Blood Fiend has two other abilities: 'Frosty Blood' and 'Blood Poison'."

Cold blood? Blood poison?

I was completely bewildered, because the fragments of Blood Fiend's memory in my mind actually contained very limited information. I had no idea about things like cold blood and blood poison; neither Huang Huo nor Neumann had ever told me about them before.

She probably knew about the way she looked at the Sick Spider, but she never mentioned it to me!

"Listen carefully? The so-called cold blood, as the name suggests, is 'blood at extremely low temperatures' that can cause all organic matter to die, the exact opposite of Blood Flame; and blood poison... you can imagine from the name, right? It's 'blood with potent poison,' injected into the human body, and after a certain incubation period, once it takes effect, it can strip a person of all their ability to resist, making it difficult to even use superpowers when they are completely powerless."

"Blood... poison... that's what I've been afflicted with?"

Look at your own body.

I strained to turn my eyes to look at the half-arm peeking out from the sleeve. It was covered with dark red markings that looked like thorns or spider webs, which were very eerie and seemed to be spreading at a certain speed!

"This is a specially made 'Cold Blood Poison,' possessing the properties of both. I believe you have already experienced its wonders."

"Tsk..."

I tried to ignite the Blood Flame within my body, but they were immediately suppressed by the chilling aura. He was telling the truth! Cold Blood Poison... If I had known about such a thing before, I would have been much more vigilant, but...

"This is my gamble; to fulfill my little wish, I made two big bets—"

Yu He extended one finger.

"--The first gamble is whether I can successfully make Sick Spider realize the situation, and whether she will agree to the 'Resurrecting Blood Fiend' plan. After all, as you can see, the Extra Weapon and such were just expendable pawns from the beginning, used to confuse and buy time, while Sick Spider is my real trump card."

He then extended his second finger.

"The second one is the gamble on whether Ye knows that Blood Fiend has the ability to inflict cold blood and blood poison. This is completely unknown. I don't know the extent to which you know all of Blood Fiend's abilities. It's possible that you yourself possess these two abilities, but like Blood Fiend, you rarely use them; or perhaps you don't know them, but your body has a resistance to them... If that's the case, then everything is ruined. Fortunately, fortunately."

"You bastard... don't think you can..."

"By the way, I only created this much Cold Blood Poison, not enough to kill everyone, so I only gave it to the two most dangerous beings—you and Neumann. And to ensure it could take you down, I specifically instructed the Sick Spider to put most of it into your food."

"Neumann!? You... you took her too..."

"It's really unfair to Blood Fiend to involve her, but don't forget... the reason I befriended Neumann was to get closer to Blood Fiend, and now that Blood Fiend hasn't been resurrected... the priorities definitely need to change."

"Bastard! Scammer! Heartless scoundrel!"

"Insult me all you want, you still have the energy to curse... Sick Spider, hang her up, suspend her over the coffin."

"Don't order me around. I'm just cooperating with you. If it doesn't succeed..."

Despite saying that, the Sick Spider still bound me tightly with silver threads, lifted me off the ground, and suspended me above the coffin—face to face with the Blood Fiend inside.

I stared at the Sick Spider; she only met my gaze for a moment before looking away, her lips tightly pressed together.

"You damned Yu He, what exactly do you want from me—cough cough cough!"

I was so excited that I started coughing violently. The chills in my body were getting worse and worse. My hands and feet felt like they didn't exist at all. Something inside my body was constantly breaking down. Only my consciousness was very clear, allowing me to feel the whole process of my body dying.

This is a huge problem.

But more importantly, what exactly does Yu He want to do with me?

Looking back now, I realize that the contracts we signed before, which included requests like "taking me for himself," were probably for the same purpose.

If the Extra Weapon wins, that would be great. But even if it loses, there's still the Sick Spider. Either way, I'm his.

But why is he so fixated on me? Does he need me to resurrect the Blood Fiend? But I am me, and she is her. Although we are successors, we are ultimately two different people.

"You must be very curious, Miss Ye, what role will you play in the ritual to resurrect the Blood Fiend?"

"..."

"As you can see, Blood Fiend is currently just a physical body, a vegetable, an empty shell inside... I must fill her up, and I must fill her up with 'her original consciousness'."

"You mean... the soul?"

"Spirit, consciousness, soul, call it whatever you want."

"But... but Blood Fiend is completely dead! Perhaps the physical body can be restored, but the soul is absolutely impossible!"

"Impossible? Hahaha... Miss Ye, didn't you ever think about that?"

Yu He's smile grew increasingly sinister.

"I heard from the Sick Spider that you mentioned to your companions that before coming to this world, you were just an ordinary student... right? You haven't experienced any big scenes, you've never faced a life-or-death situation, and you might even have been a goody-two-shoes who has never fought."

"What are you trying to say...?"

"But you, after coming into this world, became a valiant warrior after only a very short adaptation period? You haven't experienced much training, yet you can engage in life-or-death battles with various powerful figures? You haven't suffered much hardship, yet you possess monstrous willpower? Strength may be easily obtained, but to cultivate the 'mindset of a strongman' requires years of tempering; it is absolutely impossible to achieve overnight!"

"..."

"So... do you understand what I mean, Miss Ye? Do you really still think you're the same person you were before?"

"..."

I understand what he's trying to say.

I noticed this problem a long time ago.

I just don't want to think about it deeply, and I'm even less willing to think about it deeply.

Anyway, I am who I am now, so getting hung up on this kind of ontology is completely meaningless.

However, Yu He astutely grasped the key point—

"I can confirm that Blood Fiend's consciousness did not completely perish; only remnants and fragments remained. These remaining remnants merged with 'your original consciousness,' which is how 'you' came to be! You are now a product of your original consciousness, fused with the remnants of Blood Fiend's consciousness!"

"So, you need to..."

"That's right, what I'm going to do is quite simple... awaken the Blood Fiend part of your consciousness, completely overwrite your consciousness, and then transfer it into this body!"

"... You're insane!!!"

"Perhaps I've gone mad... But didn't Miss Haoyue say before she left that her way of 'judging whether she's fallen in love with someone' is by seeing if she 'would abandon her reason and do something foolish for that person'? However, what I did wasn't all foolish. If I make the most of my abilities, it's not... no, it's quite possible that I'll succeed."

Click!

The Sick Spider's silver threads forcibly turned my head upright, bringing me almost face to face with the Blood Fiend. Looking at its stunningly beautiful face, so similar to mine, I felt only disgust and loathing.

Touching

Yu He gently stroked the back of my head, his movements incredibly tender, but with each touch, I felt... a part of myself suddenly stir uncontrollably. It was as if I had been split in two; one half was trapped in a cage, helplessly watching the other half go mad.

What followed was pain, excruciating pain, so intense it felt like my brain was being split in two. And this pain was rapidly spreading throughout my body, as if someone was turning me inside out and forcibly pulling something out of my body!

~~~~~~~~~

Major crisis!