I'll Perform Hypnosis

In Norton Hall's spacious kitchen, Xia Mi rolled up her sleeves, revealing a slender, pale wrist.

Bright light fell on her fingertips, showing delicate knuckles and round, clean nails. They did not look like hands meant to wield a knife; they seemed better suited to picking flowers or turning pages.

The moment she gripped the cleaver, its blade flashed over the cutting board, and the atmosphere in the entire kitchen changed at once.

The girl swept her left hand through the vegetable basket, sending two onions rolling onto the cutting board. Her knife rose and fell like lightning. Amid a rapid series of soft thuds, the blade flashed again, and a layer of diced onion floated across the pan of hot oil.

Even then, she did not forget to steal a glance at the recipe on her phone.

Before long, Xia Mi, wearing an apron, carried over a steaming plate of twice-cooked pork and sat across from Li Lin.

"I specifically borrowed some doubanjiang from Su Qian. This is a flavor you can't get in the cafeteria."

Li Lin looked at the rice bowl by his hand, then at the table full of homestyle dishes, before turning to his childhood friend across from him with a slightly puzzled expression... It had been nearly half a year since he had last seen Xia Mi enter a kitchen.

When something was out of the ordinary, there had to be something fishy going on. This girl had suddenly cooked an entire table of dishes herself—she was definitely plotting something.

"So... what's this supposed to be?"

"I'm celebrating for you! Congratulations, Hero Li, on successfully comprehending Kassel's secret sect technique!"

Xia Mi pressed her palms together, her expression as solemn as though she were worshipping the Three Pure Ones in a temple.

"I just figured out the trick to Blood Rage. Is that really worth getting so excited over?"

Li Lin did not even have the strength to complain.

Xia Mi's thrilled, excited expression looked exactly like when they had sat together in front of the television watching The Adventures of Little Carp, witnessing the finale where the carp leaped over the Dragon Gate.

The two of them had spent nearly another week holed up in the Lionheart Society archives.

During that time, Xia Mi had seemed possessed. Every day, she dragged Li Lin along to skip class and pore over those ancient documents. She had even come to help him write his papers and assignments, brought him breakfast and drinks, all because she was afraid he would give up halfway through.

Now, Li Lin had finally gotten started with Blood Rage.

Although Xia Mi's learning progress this time had been somewhat disappointing, forcing Li Lin to rely on himself.

After a week of studying it, however, he had roughly figured out the connection between "spirit" and "Dragon Blood" in this technique.

Put simply, it was what people called "deep self-hypnosis."

Ancient texts recorded that when hybrid humans completely transformed into Dead Servants, they would hear, through their own Bloodline Origin, a summons from the corresponding sovereign that transcended history. It might be a Word Spirit, or it might be some meaningless idle remark.

At that moment, the "Pseudo-Dead Servant" would feel an intense sense of reverence and belonging.

The foundation of Blood Rage lay in making its user repeatedly enter a state of mind as similar to that as possible.

Then, with intense emotions and identification with draconic identity as aids, they continuously weakened the human will, using instincts excavated from Dragon Blood to replace reason and thought layer by layer.

During this process, Dragon Blood rapidly used the element of "spirit" to ignite the human components within the body, even those useless draconic bloodlines. Through that ancient, primitive, and most mysterious "Alchemy," it pushed the user to a higher realm.

As the Blood Rage stages gradually rose, the process of increasing Dragon Blood purity became increasingly difficult, while the chance of having one's humanity completely stolen by Dragon Blood surged as well.

It was said that after Third-Stage Blood Rage and Fourth-Stage Blood Rage, hybrid humans could truly hear the First-Generation Species above their Bloodline Origin speaking to them, just like Dead Servants.

Li Lin's Bloodline Origin came from the "King of Earth and Mountains."

Although he was indeed curious about what messages the "King of Earth and Mountains" had left behind in that inexplicably appearing Dragon Blood, for now he could only achieve First-Stage Blood Rage.

The Lionheart Society called the key to entering First-Stage Blood Rage "Release the Lion King's Heart." The conviction of certain victory, extreme fury, the resolve to face death without fear, bone-deep hatred... all of these were kindling for the fire of the spirit. With long-term specialized training, some hybrid humans with exceptionally fine bloodlines could even enter a state as still as water while controlling Blood Rage at this stage.

In response to Li Lin's words at the dining table, Xia Mi merely propped her chin up in both hands, her smiling, bashful eyes staring at him without blinking.

"Of course it's worth being happy about~"

Even her voice was so gentle that it made him feel as if he were dreaming.

"What's there to be happy about?" Li Lin felt extremely uncomfortable under Xia Mi's attitude. "More importantly... I heard the Japan Branch is a mess. Instead of celebrating for me, shouldn't you think about asking the headmaster to extend our stay by a few days so we can keep researching Blood Rage?"

"It's fine. I've already learned it."

"What a coincidence?" Li Lin nearly thought Xia Mi had a Binding System too.

"I just watched you succeed once, and I more or less figured out the trick."

"Man, there's no talking to a genius like you."

"Hero Li is the true peerless genius."

From the very beginning, Xia Mi had been using her chopsticks to put food into Li Lin's bowl.

Looking at the slices of meat piling higher and higher in his rice bowl, Li Lin could no longer stand Xia Mi's excessively abnormal behavior. "Heroine Xia, aren't you being a little too deliberate... Remember that boy we met in eighth grade who secretly wrote you a love letter on the blackboard after school? You look exactly like he did when he came to school the next day."

"D-Do I?" Xia Mi actually lowered her head in extreme guilt.

"Could it be... you secretly wrote me a love letter?"

With just one sentence, Li Lin made Xia Mi leap up like a cat with its fur standing on end, stomping her feet in embarrassed irritation.

"There's no such thing!"

"With your personality, if you wrote a love letter, you'd definitely carry it on you or put it somewhere within my reach. Tell me, where did you hide it?" Li Lin looked as if he had genuinely become interested.

Xia Mi's bashful expression vanished instantly, and she actually began to counterattack.

"What if I did write one? What would you do now?"

With just one sentence, the little girl made Li Lin's brain crash.

Xia Mi stuck out her tongue at him, grinning carelessly.

"Hmph, hmph, you really are full of yourself! Don't worry, I didn't write you a love letter!"

Li Lin came back to his senses. He vaguely felt a little disappointed, but even more than that, he felt relieved.

"Your reaction is suspicious. Tell me honestly, what did you do?"

The fickle girl's gaze wandered for a while before she softly said, "I only recorded a message. If I suddenly get lost someday, and you can't find me no matter what you do, you should be able to hear it then."

Only Xia Mi herself knew just how happy and joyful she had been at the moment she felt the resonance in their bloodlines from Li Lin.

What she truly wanted to say was, "You'll be able to hear it as long as you enter Fourth-Stage Blood Rage"... but there were some words she ultimately did not dare say aloud.

The girl who did not belong to the world of hybrid humans quietly handed Li Lin a "ticket" that could only be redeemed in the future.

Xia Mi was not sure whether Li Lin would be willing, when that time came, to take the hand she extended and board her little boat, but she still did it.

Just as some boats kept rowing forward even when they knew they would never reach shore.