Consultation

Liu Guangyao nodded blankly, then continued talking to himself. "I just had another dream. In it, the blood god died. Someone was eating him."

"Someone was eating him?" Xia Shou frowned slightly.

In reality, he had eaten the Blood Demon-or rather, his shadow had.

And in Liu Guangyao's dream, someone had eaten the Blood Demon too.

That couldn't be a coincidence.

Come to think of it, although his shadow had helped him a great deal, Xia Shou still knew nothing about it.

It seemed to possess some immensely powerful ability that could convert anomalies into buoyancy in the root sea. But this probably wasn't an ability he had gained by crossing into this world. Like Alice, it was likely an inheritance left to him by the Death Record Notebook's previous owner.

According to the Containment Bureau's records, the personalities housed within the Death Record Notebook weren't necessarily benevolent. Its previous owner might not be helping him at all, but using him instead.

It was even possible that the shadow wasn't supplying him with buoyancy, but that he had been forced into becoming its keeper, hunting anomalies to feed it!

Could something even more terrifying and dangerous than the Blood Demon be lurking beneath that dark shadow?

"You said someone was eating the blood god. Did you get a clear look at that person? And are you sure what you saw was a person, rather than something else?" Xia Shou asked cautiously.

"I can't remember what he looked like. All I remember is... he, he was wearing really, really black clothes, and one of those hats pirates wear. Then... I, I really can't remember."

Liu Guangyao panted, his face contorted. Recalling this seemed to cause him tremendous pain. Cold sweat visibly welled up on his forehead.

"All right, all right! Let's stop thinking about that. It isn't important. Just tell me where you heard the name 'blood god,'" Xia Shou said, immediately changing his approach to ease Liu Guangyao's distress.

Liu Guangyao's mention of a blood god particularly concerned Xia Shou. The cost section of [Blood Rampage], the skill he had gained by devouring the Blood Demon, referred to a "He," stating that once Xia Shou's understanding of blood reached a certain level, He would bestow a trial.

Clearly, this "He" wasn't the Blood Demon Xia Shou had slaughtered, but an entity of a higher order. It was even highly likely that the Blood Demon's power came from this mysterious being.

If possible, he wanted to learn as much as he could about the source of this power, so that even if the trial did come, he wouldn't be completely unprepared.

And the fact that Liu Guangyao called the Blood Demon a blood god suggested that some people worshipped it and had formed something like a religious organization. Perhaps he could start his investigation there.

"Hah... hah...

"I... I heard it from the people who killed me. Sometimes, in my dreams, I go somewhere I've never been before. The space there is all jumbled up. Doors and windows connect at random, and up, down, left, and right are all reversed. That's where I saw what they called the blood god. It was that picture you just saw... that's what it looked like."

Entering the Blood Demon House through dreams?

Was that another mechanism of the Blood Demon House?

But hadn't the Containment Bureau's files said that blood demon incidents in the real world had ceased entirely after Edward entered the Blood Demon House?

"Did you encounter anything else in your dreams? People, for example, or monsters like the blood god?" Xia Shou pressed.

"I also met a lot of people I didn't know.

"I don't know why, but before, I couldn't remember what the people in my dreams looked like. Yet when I saw you today, I suddenly remembered their faces. It feels so strange... wait!"

Liu Guangyao suddenly seemed to realize something. His eyes widened as he looked up at Wang Long and Xia Shou. "I can only see those people's faces clearly in my dreams. Does that mean I'm still dreaming now? I'm still dreaming!!"

Liu Guangyao sprang out of bed with a terrified scream.

Wang Long hurriedly lunged forward and held him down, raising his voice. "No! You're awake! This is a hospital. Look, the ceiling and floor here are normal. They're different from your dreams, right?"

Liu Guangyao gulped for air, staring at Wang Long with a jittery, half-doubtful expression.

"Really?"

"Really. Besides, your arm goes back to normal in your dreams, doesn't it? But look at it now. It's still like this!" Wang Long tapped the heavily bandaged arm.

Liu Guangyao looked at his arm, which gave off a putrid smell. He calmed down a little and sat back on the bed, lowering his head to resume drawing. "You're right. How strange. I'm not dreaming, yet I can remember those people's faces so clearly. Is my brain starting to become diseased too?"

During their conversation, he had finished the first drawing. The person depicted was clearly a foreigner.

His drawing skills were average, so the portrait wasn't particularly lifelike. But compared with having no leads at all before, they at least had a direction for their investigation now.

Wang Long immediately photographed the portrait, intending to send it to his superiors. But after fiddling with his phone for quite some time, he still couldn't get it to work. "Is the connection really this bad? Didn't the hospital just upgrade its Wi-Fi?"

Meanwhile, Liu Guangyao had silently begun a second drawing. This time, he drew a full-body portrait.

The person in the picture wore a straw raincoat and a conical hat, resembling a fisherman from ancient times.

But as he gradually filled in the details, the person's distinctive features emerged: curly hair, which he labeled as yellow.

"This man is a foreigner, with blond hair and green eyes. He dresses differently from everyone else. Although the clothes I drew look like a straw raincoat, those individual strands aren't straw. They're long, narrow blue-green gemstones. They're beautiful," Liu Guangyao explained.

Su Weiyu, who had remained silent beside them, suddenly brightened at the sight of the drawing. Pointing at the portrait, she said, "Edward! That's Edward!"

"The legendary S-rank Investigator?" Xia Shou asked in surprise.

Su Weiyu nodded emphatically. "Before entering the house, I did a thorough investigation. This is exactly the equipment Edward wore when he last entered the Blood Demon House! And the blond hair and green eyes match his appearance too!"

Xia Shou remembered that after he killed the Blood Demon that day, the investigation team had entered the house and searched it, but had ultimately failed to find Edward. His Life Lamp was still burning at the Containment Bureau, yet he was nowhere to be found.

Liu Guangyao's account was, in fact, their latest lead on Edward.

Xia Shou turned back to Liu Guangyao and asked gently, "What did he do in your dreams? Did he ask you to do anything?"

Liu Guangyao stared into space, dazed for a while

, then murmured, "I think he asked me to pass on some message, but I've forgotten it now. He protected me many times in my dreams. He's an incredibly good fighter. None of those killers were a match for him. Whenever I found him, as long as I stayed by his side, I wouldn't die in my dreams."

Plop!

A piece of plaster fell onto Liu Guangyao's hospital bed. Xia Shou looked up at the ceiling and discovered that, at some point, the yellowing plaster had become riddled with cracks, as though it might fall away at any moment.

Xia Shou frowned. He remembered that when he first entered this hospital room, it hadn't looked this old and worn.