God Blood

"Creaaak~"

The heavy door slowly opened.

Abel stepped out from behind it, rubbed his eyes, and prepared to head home for a good sleep.

Unable to help it, his work as a Night Watchman meant he could only rest during the day to stay alert at night.

At the side of the Clock Tower, Gais held his body taut, pressing himself tightly against the brick wall.

After hearing Abel's footsteps gradually fade away, he waited several more minutes. Only after confirming there was no movement did he dare emerge.

Yesterday's sudden chop to the neck had left quite a shadow on him. So when he heard the Night Watchman's footsteps, he had reflexively dashed into the shadow along the side wall.

He gently pulled open the wooden door, glanced around, and quietly slipped inside.

A faint light shone from the top of the Clock Tower, barely enough to make out a narrow cross-shaped corridor beyond the door. Following his memories, Gais headed to the room on the right.

He pressed himself against the door and listened carefully for a while. After confirming no one was inside, he pushed open the interrogation room door.

A faint scent of roses drifted through the crack in the door.

With no windows, the smoke he and Abel had exhaled the previous night had yet to fully disperse.

The kerosene lamp had gone out, leaving the room steeped in deathly darkness.

Gais could only slowly feel his way through the dark, trying to determine where the cabinet was.

His hand touched the corner of something hard. It should have been the long table in the interrogation room.

Feeling along the table's edge, he reached to either side. His left hand suddenly grasped something soft and weak, with a faint lingering warmth.

The hairs on the back of his neck instantly stood on end and spread down his back.

Could it be...

An image of a figure standing in the darkness formed in Gais's mind.

Goosebumps erupted across his skin. He exhaled and used his right hand to adjust his glasses, which had slipped from cold sweat.

"Who's there?"

Gais asked softly, but received no response.

He gritted his teeth and continued feeling upward, only to find a hard wooden surface.

It turned out to be the leather-covered wooden chair Abel had sat in yesterday. Perhaps because Abel had only recently left, it still retained a trace of warmth.

Gais wiped the sweat from his forehead and finally found the cabinet handle by feeling along behind the chair.

After opening the cabinet, he randomly took the nearest glass bottle.

Gais tucked the bottle into his coat and turned to leave.

Thud.

A soft sound came from deep within the interrogation room.

Gais froze. The fear that had just faded from his heart quietly rose again.

His reverence for the supernatural was now a hundred times greater than before. He did not dare turn around and consoled himself inwardly:

"Nothing. Maybe the wind blew in when I opened the door, and something simply fell over."

Then he began praying devoutly in his heart:

"Great Lord of the Holy Spirit, please protect Your most loyal servant and allow him to leave this Clock Tower safely!"

"Leave this place. Don't look back."

Having received the Lord's revelation, his heart sank. His steps became firm as he quickly left the room.

After Gais left, another thud sounded from the corner of the room.

Yet the room was empty, without any suspicious objects. It was as though the sound had come from another world overlapping with this one.

Even stranger, in the spot where the bottle of God Blood Gais had taken from the cabinet should have left an empty space—

along with soft sounds one after another, another identical red-black solid slowly appeared.

Everything returned to silence in the darkness, unseen by anyone.

Seeing sunlight and breathing fresh air again, Gais felt much more at ease.

Fortunately, the mental fortitude he had built up through years of swindling was strong enough. Otherwise, his legs might have gone weak the moment he stepped outside.

"Gais, you did very well."

Ivan was very satisfied with Gais's performance.

In that pitch-black darkness where he could not see his hand before his face, he had not known what had made that sound either.

He had been just as nervous as Gais, but since it had not hindered their actions, Ivan did not dwell on it.

This world had far too many unknown secrets. When they crossed his path, he would naturally investigate them.

After leaving the Clock Tower, Gais hurried away from the church while no one was paying attention.

Looking at the bustling market and the cries of the street vendors, Gais felt that what he had just experienced had been nothing more than a dream.

He strolled to the street corner from before and began praying in his heart.

"Great Lord of All Spirits, Your faithful servant Gais has obtained the God Blood for You. How should I offer it to You as a sacrifice?"

Ivan floated invisibly in the air before him, pondering the same question.

"Although I can hide myself, would taking something expose my location?"

He gave up on the idea of taking it away to study slowly and sent his voice to Gais:

"Open the bottle."

Gais looked around. Once he confirmed no one was watching, he took out the bottle.

Inside was a dark red-black solid, like a clump of coagulated blood.

There was also some pale red liquid, and dried bloodstains could be seen clinging to the glass inside.

It was Ivan's first time seeing the thing in person as well.

"So this is God Blood?"

"Why does it look more like coagulated pig's or duck's blood?"

He could not help thinking of the duck blood in his favorite hot pot. It looked exactly like a block of duck blood.

Whenever Ivan thought about his life before transmigrating, he always felt a little melancholy. He did not know whether he could ever return.

With a pop, Gais pulled out the wooden stopper, and a rotten stench dragged Ivan's thoughts back to reality.

"Ugh, how long has this been stored?"

Ivan tried to hold his breath, only to discover that the smell could still seep into him through his entire body.

"Being a Jellyfish is pretty inconvenient too. I can't even cover my nose!"

Gais was also overwhelmed by the odor and pinched his nose shut.

"Why didn't it seem this foul yesterday? Was the smell covered by the tobacco?"

Fortunately, few people passed near this corner. Otherwise, the smell would definitely have attracted attention.

With disgust, Ivan reached toward the black-red solid using a tentacle.

Unexpectedly, it felt remarkably springy, and a faint trace of Spirituality flowed into his body through the tentacle.

"Huh? I'm clearly not of the Order Aspect, yet I don't feel any rejection from this thing?"

Ivan watched Gais hold the bottle aloft, seemingly waiting for something to happen.

"No, there isn't time to study it slowly. If it doesn't reject me, why not try eating it?"

Once the thought of trying entered his mind, he could no longer cast it out.

"Fine, let's try it!"

Since Ivan could reset his body's condition, that ability made him much bolder.

Making up his mind, he wrapped a tentacle around the solid and devoured it into his body.

"This taste... this is definitely duck blood. What God Blood?"

Ivan felt that he had been duped into eating a jar of expired, spoiled duck blood.

From Gais's perspective, he only saw the black mass rise into the air before vanishing in the blink of an eye.

"A miracle..."

He became increasingly convinced that the prayer to the Lord of All Spirits he had used for swindling had truly stirred an ancient god from slumber.

After devouring the God Blood, Ivan flew to the corner of another alley, hid behind a wooden crate, and quietly waited for any changes that might occur.

The transformation he had imagined did not come. Other than the lingering rotten, bloody smell, he felt nothing.

Ivan had originally imagined that perhaps he could directly devour God Blood and gain some abilities of the Order Aspect.

"Sure enough, I have to follow a specific formula and brew it into a Magic Potion to activate the corresponding Aspect."

"Devouring it directly can't absorb this power. I still need to find some Magic Potion formulas..."

Before he could sort out his next plan, an increasingly intense burning sensation began spreading from inside his body.

The feeling spread rapidly, like kerosene splashed by sparks.

Ivan felt searing heat engulf him in an instant, as though he had been thrown into the oil fryer at the alley entrance where bread was being fried.

The sensation left him unable even to maintain flight. He dropped straight from the air like a kite with its string cut.

His invisibility also began to fail. One tentacle after another slowly appeared, looking like strings of dreamlike bubbles beneath the sunlight.

"Not good..."