Bloodline Nourishment

"Replenish mana?"

Hearing those two words, Jeanne's face suddenly flushed red, like a ripened forbidden fruit.

"Is that not allowed?"

His voice remained weak and listless, as if he might collapse and die from mana exhaustion at any moment.

"It... it's not that it's not allowed, it's just..." Jeanne's speech became stuttered, her expression filled with conflict. She had never heard of anyone dying from mana depletion, but seeing Aurelian in this state, she was terrified that he might stop breathing at any second and never wake up again.

Aurelian quietly opened his eyes to gauge Jeanne's expression, his heart blooming with joy.

This little girl is truly too cute.

Forget it, I shouldn't keep teasing her, or the little girl is going to cry from anxiety.

"Hahahaha!" Aurelian burst into laughter.

"You! You're hateful!"

Hearing Aurelian's sudden laughter, how could Jeanne not realize what had happened? Her flushed face was like a boiling kettle, puffing out steam.

Watching Jeanne's shifting expressions, Aurelian quickly apologized: "I'm sorry, my cute little maid, I was truly wrong."

"You!"

Jeanne was almost teased to the point of tears; as a pure young girl, how could she withstand Aurelian speaking to her like this?

"Promise me, if a situation like that happens again, don't push me aside and throw yourself in front," Aurelian said, suddenly serious.

A woman dying for him was something he could not accept. If he couldn't even protect the woman by his side, what kind of man was he? What kind of reincarnated transmigrator was he?

Jeanne raised her head to meet Aurelian's gaze. She fell silent, and no one knew what she was thinking.

But in her beautiful blue eyes, Aurelian saw determination. If the same situation occurred again, she would still rush forward.

"Why?" he asked. He didn't understand why a girl he had only known for a month would go to such lengths for him.

Was it Otto's order, or something else?

Jeanne remained silent, not answering Aurelian's question.

"Fine, I won't let such a situation happen again."

Aurelian stood up and said in a resolute tone.

Shifting his gaze, he could finally examine the translucent Ice Sculpture Tree in detail.

"What should we do? Is that egg hanging above the Child of Frost?"

"It is a creature born from mana elements, but as it stands, we have arrived a bit too early. It has not yet broken its shell. I suspect that Lower Rank Overlord also sensed its presence and guarded this place, because its existence is of great help to the evolution of magical beasts."

"Then what should we do? We can't just wait here. The magic array outside was set up hundreds of years ago, and we haven't even gained a single hair's worth of profit yet."

Aurelian frowned. He couldn't be blamed for his impatience, as this Child of Frost might be the hope for developing his territory, and Master was still fighting outside.

However, since the Overlord-level magical beast had fallen, the pack of wolf monsters outside should have scattered, and they were certainly safe. But the core problem remained unsolved.

"If we cannot wait for it to grow naturally, we can only force its maturation. This has pros and cons; it might result in congenital deformities, or it might not. Regardless, it is not good for the elemental creature inside."

Jeanne shook her head, yet she still provided the method, though her expression showed she was very reluctant.

"Jeanne, tell me how to do it. We can't wait any longer. In a few months, winter will arrive. Without food, I fear even more people will die."

Aurelian was not a man of soft-heartedness; he knew when to be decisive. Hesitation would not solve any problems.

"Use your blood to force the growth, because a legendary bloodline is inherently a massive source of mana. As long as the elemental creature inside can adapt to your mana attribute, it can use it to accelerate its growth. But if..."

Jeanne stopped halfway through her sentence, merely looking at Aurelian.

Aurelian answered for her: "If it cannot adapt, the best case is it becomes deformed due to mana chaos, and the worst case is it dies instantly."

"Exactly. It is your choice."

"If I had another choice, I wouldn't do it. Sorry, Jeanne, but I can't now. I must take this gamble."

Aurelian walked to the Ice Sculpture Tree, gazing at the egg that was quietly swaying, shrouded in ice mana elements.

He held Innocent Starlight in his left hand and sliced open his right hand, letting his blood flow out and pool into the dense tree roots beneath his feet.

The roots seemed to suddenly gain consciousness, actually beginning to squirm and draw closer to where Aurelian stood.

Jeanne looked away; she did not want to witness such a scene—a creature that had struggled for hundreds of years to hatch, only to die in the womb.

The complex root system was intertwined, frantically absorbing the new nutrients surging in—the blood flowing from Aurelian.

Then, it transported the energy through the main trunk to the elemental egg at the crown.

The crystal-clear egg began to sway violently. It seemed the creature waiting to be born inside was stimulated; it was resisting and then adapting. The process of adaptation was often arduous, as it was changing the creature from its very foundation.

It was like taking a newborn infant and feeding it solid food instead of milk.

"Hold on."

Aurelian, gazing up from below, offered encouragement. He felt terrible inside; doing this was undoubtedly stifling a new life—it was practically a crime!

On the outskirts of the Spruce Forest, Master severed the head of a lunging Dark Moon Wolf and looked toward the knights around him.

They were all in a sorry state, covered in bite wounds from the wolves and dripping with blood.

These knights were worthy of their reputation as elites; they were incredibly resilient, enduring intense pain to fight until the very end.

Finally, with a miserable whinny, the Dark Moon Wolves that had surrounded them began to scatter, vanishing into the shadows and leaving behind a field of corpses.

"Is it over? It seems the Master and Lady Jeanne succeeded in killing the Overlord-class magical beast."

Master lowered his blood-stained longsword, Moonlight, closed his eyes, and exhaled a breath of stale air, letting his mind settle.

He began to replay the scenes of the battle just now, reflecting on his shortcomings.

Ever since he was defeated by Jeanne in a single blow, he had experienced a sudden epiphany: beyond just mana, there were many other things that could make him even stronger.

To gain insight through constant combat, to eliminate redundant movements, and to push the art of slaughter to its absolute limit.

This was what Master had felt—find the opening, then strike a fatal blow!

Images of past battles with enemies surfaced in his mind one after another; unlike the hurried flashes of the past, this time it was very slow, as if time had been slowed down countless times. Suddenly, Master's perspective shifted from his old way of seeing things, and he gained a new realization.

His consciousness sank, falling into a strange space, as if a door had been opened; as long as he stepped through it, he would discover a new world.

In reality, Master remained frozen with his eyes closed, just like a living statue.

While he was caught in this motionless state, his adjutant Darwin and the other knights had already set down their weapons and begun to tend to their wounds.

The Spruce Forest returned to silence, not a single sound remaining.

But suddenly, a whistle echoed from nowhere, and a heavily wounded knight collapsed to the ground, a black arrow protruding from his chest!

The well-trained knights reacted immediately; they had been ambushed, and there were still enemies hiding in the surroundings!

"Pick up your weapons, there are still enemies!"